“Still on? Have not the forest gloom,
The taunt of foes, the threatened doom,
Shaken thy courage yet?”
The indefatigable Bart, after seeing the object of his greatest
solicitude in safety for the night, that of his next, his loved
Lightfoot, well stabled and fed, and, lastly, his own wants supplied,
determined, with his usual caution and forethought, on making a little
tour of observation to Fort Edward, now some miles in the rear, for the
purpose of gathering what new intelligence could be gained respecting
the movements of the enemy, which might both enhance the value of his
budget of news to carry home, and enable him to shape his course more
understandingly and safely on the morrow. Accordingly, in the new
disguise of a barefooted, bareheaded, coatless farmer's boy, with a
basket of green corn to sell for roasting slung on his arm, he proceeded
on foot to the recently-established rendezvous of the enemy at the place
above named, and boldly entered their encampment. Here he soon made
discoveries that filled him with uneasiness, and, finally, those which
thoroughly alarmed him for his own and the safety of his charge. The
whole camp was in a state of bustle and commotion. Colonel Baum, in
anticipation of the time fixed for his march, had just arrived with his
appointed force, and was intending, after allowing his troops a short
respite, to press immediately forward that night on the contemplated
expedition. Bands of painted Indians, who had also arrived from the main
army since dark, were feasting and drinking in grim revelry, or enacting
the frightful war-dance, on the outskirts of the encampment. Parties of
tories were constantly coming in from the surrounding towns, receiving
arms, and departing to their different allotted stations, to act as
pickets to the force about to advance, or as scouts to scour the country
along the road to the south. And at last, to crown all, Peters and
Haviland, with a small number of attendants, all bearing, on their
bespattered persons, evidence of hard and rapid travelling, rode
hurriedly into camp, and announced that a dangerous spy had, that
afternoon, been at the head-quarters of the main army audaciously
abducted a young lady, and with her escaped in this direction, for the
arrest of which a handsome reward should be paid.
“It is time you and I was jogging, Bart,” muttered the unsuspected
personage within hearing, who deemed himself not the least interested in
this unexpected announcement, as he gradually edged himself out of the
camp, and made his way, with unusual haste, back to his quarters for the
night.
Scarcely had the first faint suffusions of morning light begun to be
distinguishable in the chambers of the east, before the well-recruited
Lightfoot stood pawing at the door, as if impatient to receive and bear
off her precious burden from the scene of danger. In a few minutes, the
fair fugitive, in answer to the summons of her vigilant attendant,
came forth, evidently refreshed by her repose, and, in a good measure,
recovered from the shock occasioned by the sad and fearful spectacles
of yesterday. Without any allusions to the startling discoveries he had
made since they parted for the night, other than the quiet remark that
he had ascertained that it might not be wholly safe for them to proceed
any longer in the main road, Bart assisted the lady to mount, and led
the way on their now doubly difficult and hazardous flight. Striking off
obliquely to the left, into a partially cleared pine plain, and then,
after thus proceeding a while, again turning to the right, they directed
their course forward in a line parallel to the great thoroughfare to the
south, but at a sufficient distance from it to insure them against the
observation of all who might be passing therein, or scouting along its
borders. And on, on, now through open fields, and now through dense
forests, now through splashy pools, or rapid rivers, and now over sharp
pitches or deep ravines, now in cross-roads or cow-paths, and now
in trackless thickets, now over fenny moors, and now along the rocky
declivities of mountains,--on, on, did they pursue their toilsome and
weary way through the seemingly interminable hours of all the first half
of that eventful day.
At length, however, believing themselves many miles beyond the
rendezvous of Peters's corps, who were understood to have been selected
as the pioneers of the expedition, they emerged from the woods, and fell
into the main road leading up the winding Walloomscoik to the village
of Bennington. Greatly rejoiced that, at last, she could be permitted to
travel in a smooth road with some assurance of safety, and encouraged
by the prospect of soon reaching the friends and acquaintance of her
old neighborhood, from whom she was confident of a cordial welcome, our
heroine now rode on with lightened feelings and renewed spirits. But
she soon perceived, by the manner of her guide, as he examined the
appearances of the road, as he went on, and occasionally cast uneasy
glances before and behind him, that he did not consider it yet time to
rejoice. And soon he stopped short, and observed,--
“There are too many tracks in this road for my liking, and not of the
right kind to read well, either.”
“I hope you will indulge in no unnecessary alarms, Bart,” said the
other, reluctant to leave the road, as she supposed he was about to
advise. “You, who yesterday manifested little uneasiness, to-day, when
we are farther removed from danger, have appeared extremely cautious and
apprehensive, I have thought. Why such a change, while the reverse would
seem so much more rational?”
“Well, miss, the question is not so onnatural as it might be, I reckon,”
replied the former; “and I have been expecting you'd wonder some why I
led you on such a jaunt as we've had. But the fact was, your chance
of getting off has been a little scaly, to-day, to say nothing of the
shadow of a rope that's been round my own neck in the mean time.”
“I cannot comprehend you, Bart,” said the maiden, with a look of
surprise and concern.
“Spose so; for I have held in, cause I thought I wouldn't worry your
mind till needful, which it may be now; so I'll tell you the whole
kink,” replied Bart, proceeding to relate his last night's discoveries,
and then adding,--
“Now a party of the enemy--for I saw a moccason track just now, and none
on our side would be in such company as that means--a party of 'em have
gone on before us; and my notion is, that we strike off through this
bushy pasture to the left.”
“Let us do so, then, if such is our situation, and that without a
moment's delay,” cried Sabrey, in alarm at the unexpected disclosure.
“Well, perhaps it an't best to fret about it, jest at this minute,”
responded the imperturbable guide--“I kinder want to make an observation
or two, before we start,” he added, ascending an elevation near
by, which commanded a view of the road both ways for a considerable
distance.
After glancing along the road in front, a moment, he turned and bent
his searching gaze in the other direction, where he soon appeared to
discover something that both interested and disturbed him.
“It is, by Herod! it is the whole main body, Germans and all, at their
rations, within a mile of us, and their pickets on the move in this
direction!” he at length exclaimed, hastily quitting his post of
observation.
Hurrying down to the side of the startled maiden, he sprang to the
nearest length of the fence, here enclosing the road, and grappling,
with main strength, the topmost of the heavy poles of which it was
composed, soon effected a breach sufficiently low to allow the horse to
leap over without endangering the seat of the rider.
“Here, go it, Lightfoot! gently! there you are! Now off with ye, as if
the divil was at your heels!” cried Bart, as the horse, with her fair
burden, dashed lightly through the breach, and cantered off in the
direction indicated by the finger of her master.
Pausing to replace the fence, lest the opening should attract the
notice of those coming on behind, Bart rapidly followed, and, in another
minute, the fugitives were safely screened from observation by the thick
foliage of the different clumps of bushes, which they managed to keep
between them and the road they had just quitted.
“There is a house,” said Bart, musingly, after they had proceeded a
while in silence--“there is a house about half a mile ahead, and nearly
the same distance from the great road, with woods between, which is
a place I called at when I came down, and which I had been all along
calculating to turn off to, for a short stop, as we might shape our
course to do now, if not somewhat risky.”
“A little rest and refreshment would certainly be very acceptable,” said
the other, “if it could be safely obtained. Who lives there?”
“Well, some folks.”
“Loyalists?”
“Tories, d'ye mean? No, not by a jug full.”
“Who are they, then, sir?”
“The man,” said Bart, glancing up to his wondering companion, with an
odd air of shyness, as he provokingly persisted in his evasions--“the
man is one of Warner's sergeants, and a sort of relation to somebody
that I thought likely would be visiting at his house by this time.
And--and I guess we'll venture there, considering,” he added, suddenly
dashing some distance ahead, under pretence of pointing out the way
After winding their course a while among the variously grouped little
thickets that studded the old pasture, they at length entered a tall
forest of maple, which the incisions in the trees, together with the
marks of an old boiling-place, that they soon reached, proclaimed to be
the sugar orchard, belonging, probably, to the establishment they were
seeking. And, now falling into a beaten path, they soon perceived, by
the glimpses of an opening which they occasionally caught through the
trees, that they were drawing near to the object of their search. The
serpentine course of the path, however, and the undergrowth, so thick as
to be nearly impervious to the sight, prevented any direct view of
the opening; and they passed on without any very exact notions of
propinquity till a sudden turn of the path brought them unexpectedly to
the edge of the wood, and in full view of the house, not a hundred yards
distant; when, to their astonishment and dismay, they beheld the place
in possession of a large party of the enemy. Bart instantly caught the
bridle, and was turning the horse for the purpose of fleeing back into
the forest, when five or six armed men sprang out from the bushes behind
and around them, cutting off their retreat in every direction. And the
next moment they were prisoners to the minions of the vindictive Peters.
Bart's quick eye had told him, at a glance, that there was no chance
for him to escape; and, before his natural looks could be noted, he
had become transformed into a lout of so stolid and inoffensive an
appearance, that his captors seemed greatly disappointed, and evidently
entertained doubts whether he could be the one they supposed they
were about to secure. And it was not till his pale and trembling
fellow-prisoner had been conducted off on her horse some rods, that they
could make him seem to comprehend that he was a prisoner, and must
go with them. He then burst out into a piteous fit of weeping, and,
passively receiving the kicks and cuffs of his keepers to get him in
motion, went bawling along, like a whipped schoolboy, towards the house.
“I thought 'twould be jes so!” he exclaimed, between his sobs and
outcries. “I most knowed when that man hired father to have me go to
show the woman the way--I most knowed she was running away, and would
get me into some scrape. Then the man, like enough, had done something,
so he darsent go any furder with her. And now they'll lay it at to
me--boo-hoo! oo-oo-oo!”
“Conduct the lady into the house!” said the officer in command, as the
prisoners were led into the yard--“conduct her into the house, and set a
guard round it, till orders can be got from the colonel. And as to this
bawling devil,” he continued, turning with a scrutinizing, but somewhat
staggered look, to the blubbering Bart, “take him to the barn, where
I just noticed some good cords, bind him hand and foot, and guard him
closely, he will make less noise within an hour from now, I fancy.”
“But, your honor,” began one of the scouts who had brought in the
prisoners--
“Yes, yes,” interrupted the other, “I have just been informed of his
pretences; but there's an even chance that he is shamming, and the
fellow we want, after all. Do as I have ordered.”
Bart was now led into the open barn, which stood facing the yard, and
projecting in the rear over a steep bank, making from the floor, on the
back side, that was also open, a perpendicular fall of nearly a dozen
feet. He was then ordered to sit down in the middle of the floor, when
two of the half dozen keepers who had him in charge, with many a half
taunting, half pitying joke at his doleful whimpering, carelessly
proceeded to prepare the cords for binding him, while the rest laid
aside their guns, and went searching about the barn for eggs, all,
notwithstanding the caution of their commander, being evidently so
much impressed with the idea of his innocence as to disarm them of the
vigilance usually exercised on such occasions. At this juncture, just as
the two men, one standing before and the other behind him, were in the
act of stooping to take his legs and arms, Bart started to his feet with
the suddenness of thought, and giving the one in his rear a paralyzing
kick in the pit of his stomach, grappled round the legs of the other,
and, bearing him, in spite of all his struggles, across the floor,
leaped with him from the verge to the earth below. Managing to keep
uppermost in the descent, Bart, as the man struck heavily on the ground,
leaped unhurt from the senseless body, and, with the speed of a wild
deer, made his way to the nearest point of woods, which he fortunately
reached just in time to avoid the volley of bullets that was sent after
him by the rallying guard from whom he had so strangely escaped. While
the balked tories, in the general commotion that now ensued, were giving
vent to their rage and mortification, in cursing one another and the
more particular object of their wrath, whom they concluded it was
useless to pursue, a long, shrill whistle was heard issuing from another
point of the forest, to which it was thought the escaped prisoner could
not have had time to pass round. Scarcely had the sound died away, when
a movement, accompanied by a low snorting, was heard in the high-fenced
cow-yard, into which Lightfoot had been turned for safe keeping. The
whistle was soon repeated, and the next moment the sagacious animal
was seen rearing herself nearly upright in the air, and then, with a
prodigious leap, throwing herself over the fence into the field beyond.
Although the tories, for a while, as little comprehended this movement
of the pony, as they did, at first, that of her master, yet they raised
the alarm that the horse had broken away; and a dozen men threw down
their guns, and ran out into the field to head her, but, dashing at and
through them, like a mad Fury, she bounded off at full speed, and soon
disappeared in the woods in the direction in which the whistling had
been heard, leaving the baffled pursuers and their associates now fully
to perceive how completely they had all been outwitted and outdone by
both horse and master.
Much of our happiness is the result of contrast. A slight alleviation,
unexpectedly springing out of a disheartening misfortune, not
unfrequently affords a comparative pleasure more keenly appreciated than
unalloyed blessings arising out of the ordinary circumstances of life.
The pleasure of Miss Haviland was equalled only by her surprise,
when, on entering the house, she found her former fellow-prisoner, the
sprightly and fearless Vine Howard, a transient but favored inmate,
whose presence here now fully explained the enigmatical language of
Bart, on the way, while it soon raised a shrewd suspicion of the cause
of the awkward shyness he had exhibited in making his partial and
roundabout revelations. Their mutual salutations, inquiries, and
explanations, had scarcely been exchanged, before they were called to
the window by an outcry and commotion among the tories without; when
they had the unspeakable satisfaction of witnessing the escape of Bart,
for whose situation and fate they had both, from different causes, felt
the deepest commiseration and the most gloomy apprehensions.
“Now,” said the animated Vine, as she turned exultingly away from the
gratifying scene that had opened by the escape of Bart, and closed by
that of his pony--“now, Sabrey, if they will let you remain here till
dark, I will see what _I_ can do towards effecting _your_ escape, which,
to be candid about it, I mainly came here to favor. But whether you
escape, remain, or are dragged back to the British camp, I will not this
time be separated from you.”
The proffered assistance of the spirited girl, however, at least so
far as related to the contemplated attempt to escape by night, was not
destined to be called in requisition. In a short time, a messenger
was seen to arrive; upon which the whole party of tories commenced
preparations for an immediate departure. Presently a closely covered
vehicle, drawn by one horse, appeared coming from the main road, and
approaching the door. The next moment, the officer, whom we have already
noted, entered the house, and told Miss Haviland she was required to
depart.
“This young lady attends me, if I am compelled to go, sir,” said Sabrey,
firmly, pointing to Vine, who instantly advanced and locked her arm
within that of the former, by way of confirming the assertion.
“Such are not my orders,” responded the officer, with an air of slight
perplexity.
“Then I go not with you alive, sir,” said Miss Haviland, with calm
determination.
“Nor will I be separated from _her_, by you, while I am living,” added
Vine, with no less spirit.
“Well, well, ladies, you must have your own way, I suppose. But be
prompt; the carriage waits for you,” replied the officer, stepping back
to the door.
In a few minutes more, the ladies presented themselves at the door, and,
without accepting the offered assistance of their summoner, entered
the unoccupied vehicle, which was now immediately put in motion, and
conducted on in the rear of the main column of the tories, who had
already commenced their march towards the great road. As they emerged
from the short piece of forest through which their way now led, the
exciting spectacle of a large body of troops, moving in military array
along the road, accompanied by the hum of mingling voices, the steady
tramp of men and horses, the rattling of tumbrels, and the heavy
rumbling of artillery, unexpectedly burst upon the senses of the
startled maidens. Baum's select and finely-equipped regiment of Germans
and British occupied the front, and Peter's motley corps of tories
and Indians the rear of the long-extended column. As the head of the
detachment in possession of the fair prisoners reached the road,
they came to a halt, when, after waiting till the corps to which they
belonged had mostly passed by, they, to the agreeable disappointment
of the girls, turned in, and moved on with the rest towards that little
anticipated scene of defeat and death from which so few of them were
destined to return.
“By this time,” observed Vine to her thoughtful companion after they
had concluded the remarks which the novelty of their situation naturally
elicited--“by this time, Bart, at the rate he will be likely to ride,
has nearly reached Bennington, now less than ten miles distant; and in
another hour after, if the news he carries has the effect on our army
there that I anticipate from what I learned when I came down, these
fellows will be met on the way by a force which they cannot be expecting
to see. Can they, do you suppose?”
“I think not,” replied Sabrey, “or we should have been sent back at
once, to the British camp, as we expected; but, believing he shall meet
with no serious opposition, and probably fearing I should find some
means to escape, if sent back, my magnanimous persecutor concludes
to drag me round with him and his minions, that I may be watched more
closely, till, having completed his anticipated triumphs, he is ready to
return.”
“But where _is_ Peters?” asked the other; “where _is_ that remarkable
gentleman _now_, that he don't present himself here, to pay his respects
or make his apologies, or assure you of your safety, or frame some story
by the way of accounting for his conduct, or at least, of smoothing the
matter? One would suppose the fellow would want to say _something_ on
the occasion.”
“Yes,” replied the former; “but he wishes to see me as little as I do
him, I presume. Should he find it impossible to avoid me, however, he
would probably come up boldly, and say my detention was a mistake of his
subaltern; or that he only directed it to afford me a safe escort to my
friends in the Grants.”
“There would be a deal of love in such doings.”
“He entertains none; not one particle now, if he ever did, for me,
Vine.”
“What the deuse, then, does he want with you?”
“Indeed, I hardly know myself.”
“Marry you?”
“If he does still aim at that, it is with no honorable motives, I have
had some strange suspicions lately, and I feel but too thankful at this
prospect of a battle, for I shall cheerfully meet all dangers I may
encounter from the flying bullets of our people for my chance of a
release.”
“Chance, Sabrey? Why, I know our side will get the victory, when we
shall be made prisoners to--well, to about the right sort of fellows,
probably,” added the girl, with a merry laugh.
The conversation was here interrupted by the scattering reports of
musketry somewhere in front, which instantly threw the whole line into
commotion. An immediate halt was commanded, and the troops hastily
formed in order of battle, as well as the ground would permit. Glancing
over the line in front, from the small elevation on which they chanced
to have stopped, the girls perceived that the head of the column had
reached the banks of the stream that here crossed the road, and were
rapidly deploying into the fields, to the right and left, to be prepared
to receive their yet invisible foe. The bridge over the stream had
just been torn up, and its scattered wrecks were seen floating down
the stream below. While Baum was hurrying forward his artillery to the
front, a body of about two hundred Americans emerged from their coverts
in the bushes, some distance from the opposite bank and, with an ominous
shout of defiance, discharged their guns and disappeared over the hill
beyond, before the slow Germans who alone were yet near enough to do
any execution with muskets, were ready to return a single shot. A
strong guard of pickets, consisting of tories and Indians, were now
sent forward to ford the stream, and keep watch of their retreating
assailants while the few wounded and dying wretches who had
experienced the effects of American marksmanship were carried back
in hastily-constructed litters to a house in the rear, affording the
shocked maidens, as they were borne by groaning and writhing in their
agony a sad and sickening foretaste of the fearful scene of blood and
carnage they were destined soon to witness. As soon as the bridge
was repaired by the engineers, who were occupied nearly two hours in
rendering it passable, the column was put in motion, and again moved
forward, but much slower and more cautiously than before; for there was
something in the manner of this attack, as unimportant as it was, and
even in the shouts of their assailants, that had disturbed the minds,
and cast a visible shade of thoughtfulness over the countenances,
of these hitherto self-confident and boastful invaders of the Green
Mountains. For the next three or four miles, however, they moved on
unmolested; when, coming to a hamlet of log-houses scattered along the
highway on both sides of the stream, that, here again crossing the road,
wound through a smooth meadow of considerable extent, the word _Halt!
halt!_ rang loudly, and from company to company, through the line, with
an emphasis and significance that instantly apprised all that trouble
was at hand. The next moment all were in commotion, hurry, and alarm.
Amidst the furious beating of the rallying drums, and the mingling
clamor of dictating voices, the cannon were detached from the horses,
run forward, and unlimbered; the fences on each side of the road were
levelled to the ground, and the whole force rapidly thrown into battle
array, the tories taking position in the meadow on the right, and the
regulars on the more elevated grounds to the left of the road, there to
await the foe, understood to be approaching in unexpected strength just
beyond the thick copse which terminated the opening on the east. While
this was transpiring, the officer who had before taken charge of Miss
Haviland and her friend came forward, and, summoning them from their
carriage, hurried them to a large, strongly-built log-house, around
which a company of tories had been posted, when, bidding them enter and
take care of themselves, he hastened back to his post, to take part in
repelling the menaced onset. Neither that day nor the next, however, was
destined to be the one which was to cover the untrained freemen of New
England with the deathless laurels of Bennington. Stark, after marching
out into the open field, offering battle, and vainly manoeuvring to
draw the enemy from their advantageous ground, retired about a mile, and
encamped for the night, leaving Baum to intrench himself in his chosen
position, and despatch expresses to Burgoyne to apprise him of his
unexpectedly perilous situation, and ask for reenforcement.