Bessy and I had time enough to talk over many things; yet no word of
love was spoken between us--no reference made to the subjects which
had so completely engrossed us not eighteen hours before. She was
completely in my power. I might have said what I pleased, exacted what
promises I pleased; but I would not take so cruel an advantage of her
position. There was something so trusting, too, so confiding, so
utterly and entirely reliant in her own conduct, that I should never
have forgiven myself in after years if I had shown the least want of
generosity in deed, or word, or thought towards her in such a
situation. Nor, indeed, was it at all necessary to say anything. Her
head rested on my bosom; her beautiful eyes looked up confidingly in
my face; her hand lay clasped in mine. What need of words to speak all
that was in our hearts? As old Sterne truly says, "Talking of love is
not making love;" and it was sufficient for us to feel that we did
truly love each other.
Two or three hours passed by, and they did not seem long. Everything
was still and quiet around us. There was no further sound of musketry,
no galloping of horse. Once or twice I left her for a few minutes to
approach as near as was prudent to the one path or the other, which
were here separated by a belt of wood not more than three hundred
yards wide. But nothing could I discover. No sound met my ear; no
moving object was to be seen as far as the trees would let my eye
penetrate. I believe--I even then believed--that we might go on in
safety.
But, ever self-deceiving, human nature would not let me act upon the
belief which was really in my heart. Those hours there with Bessy were
so very, very sweet, that surely I may be forgiven for conjuring up
imaginary dangers, and forcing myself to believe them real; and
summoning prudence and discretion to second the voice of inclination.
Dear Bessy, did you not give in to the self-delusion too?
It was very warm in our little sheltered bower; for though the trees
kept off the sunshine--the fierce Virginian sunshine--they deprived us
of the breeze which we only knew to be blowing by the waving of the
tops, and the whispering of the higher leaves as they jostled each
other amid the bending boughs.
Traces of fatigue were on Bessy's face; and I coaxed her to go to
sleep, persuading her it would give her strength for our onward walk.
It was very pleasant to watch her while she lay with closed eyes; and
when I had been gazing upon her in the early morning, I could not make
out what was the especial charm. There must be something, I think, in
the aspect of peace and calm--not without life, but living, animated,
perfect tranquillity, so harmonious to the latent hopes and
expectations of immortality, when all shall be absorbed in the serene
and deep sense of God's great goodness, that the contemplation of even
a faint and inadequate image of such a state fills the bosom with
strange and bewildered admiration.
Bessy needed no great persuasion indeed, for her eyes were very heavy;
and besides the omnipotent and ever watchful Eye, there was another
loving wakefulness to watch over her. She leaned upon my shoulder, and
her eyes closed. Then, suddenly, she opened them with a start--some
memory of danger or of grief crossed the still waking fancy--and then
the sweet eyes closed again, and she slept profoundly. I could have
slumbered too in such dear proximity; for I also was somewhat weary,
and felt less strong than was my wont. But I would not suffer an eye
to close while there was danger near my treasure.
An hour, perhaps an hour and a half, passed. I could not tell how the
day had gone by, for I had forgotten to wind up my watch, and it had
stopped; but I judged by the aspect of the sky that it must be near
four o'clock. Sometimes I had gazed on Bessy as she lay, and thought
to myself, how false a forger must nature be if the writing on that
lovely face did not speak a noble, sweet, frank spirit below. Then I
remembered an old picture in my father's house, of the Children in the
Wood, nearly in the same attitude as we lay there, and as innocent of
evil thoughts as we were. I smiled at the quaint comparison that wove
itself in my mind between those babes and ourselves.
At other times my eye roved round our little shady resting-place, and
my ear was turned to catch any sound that might announce the approach
of danger. Two pistols and the gun lay beside me, and the other two
pistols in my pocket were in reach of my hand. To say sooth, I had
some confidence both in my courage and my dexterity, and I doubted not
that I could give a good account even of a numerous body of
assailants.
Yet all was so peaceful that there seemed to me no danger, and I
fondly thought we should reach the county town that night and find
security there. Peril, by custom, loses its fearfulness; and I could
willingly have passed many a day with Bessy in those wild scenes, even
with all their anxieties, had it not been for her sake. But I felt
that she could not bear such excitement long; therefore I was anxious
that it should all come to an end, even though the tediousness, and
the dulness, and the oppressiveness of formal society were forced upon
us, instead of the wild, genial freedom of the woods.
About four, however, as my eye rested upon the ground before us
towards the junction of the two paths, something seemed to arise
through the low bushes at the foot of the trees, which rather puzzled
me. At first, I thought it proceeded from the early mists of evening.
It was like the blue hazy vapour which ascends from the ground at the
close of a warm day; and it lingered and spread out among the shrubs
and bushes without using above a foot or two from the ground. It
speedily increased, however; and, from one particular spot, went up a
bluish-white cloud, rolling in graceful sweeps up to the tree-tops,
and spreading itself in ever-varying circles as it went.
It was evident, at length, that some one had lighted a fire in the
wood at no great distance. Now, indeed, there seemed cause for
anxiety.
The wind blew from us towards the spot whence the smoke arose, so that
I could catch no sound of voices, even if any were speaking there.
Still, that some persons were very near us was certain; and that they
were a party of the revolted negroes was more than probable.
Various considerations engaged my mind for several moments; but, on
the whole, I thought it would be better to wake Bessy, and remove as
quietly as possible to some more distant spot. What she had been
dreaming of I know not, but it was evidently something alarming; for
when I spoke to her and gently raised her head, she uttered a quick
cry of fear. It was very low, but it was sufficient, as the wind then
lay, to reach other ears than mine.
I was explaining to her what I had seen and what I thought best to do,
and pointing in the direction of the smoke, when I saw the bushes
move, perhaps thirty paces in advance.
"Lie down!" I whispered, withdrawing my arm from around her body; "lie
down, and keep quite still, whatever happens. There is somebody coming
through the wood. I have the lives of six here beside me, and then I
have the sword. I do not think they can be many; and if not, I am
their master."
Bessy obeyed without a word; but put her hand over her eyes, as if to
shut out more completely the sights which she thought were to follow.
I quietly raised the gun, which I had reloaded with buckshot, and,
placing it to my shoulder, levelled it at the spot where I had seen
the bushes move, resolved not to fire until I could fire effectually.
A moment after, a branch was agitated somewhat nearer and more to the
right; and my aim was instantly directed there. Again the same
indication showed the person approaching nearer still, and I followed
the waving boughs with the gun. At length, a dark face appeared,
peeping through the leaves, not more than twelve yards distant; but,
luckily, at the same moment, I perceived the gaudy colours of a
printed handkerchief, such as is very commonly worn on the head by the
negro women in that district.
A minute after, a voice exclaimed,--
"Master, master, put down your gun. I not come to do you any harm. We
run away like you."
I dropped the point of the gun, but still kept it in my hand, watching
eagerly the ground in advance, lest the woman should be followed by
any of the murderous bands that were roving through the country. The
bushes seemed all still, however; and, quietly and timidly, she came
on, as if still fearful of the weapon in my hands. She was a girl of
about eighteen or twenty years of age, and a dark mulatto; but well
formed, and of a frank, good-humoured countenance.
"Ah, Miss Bessy," she cried, when she came within six or seven feet of
us, "is that you? You must have had a hard time of it, I reckon. Oh
dear! oh dear! that this should ever come to pass! Why, how did you
ever come to get away? Those nigger-devils have killed every one at
Mr. Stringer's, minister and all--him who preached to them so fine. I
dare say he wish now he had not told 'em to kill their masters. He
little thought he have his own head split with a hatchet."
Bessy had risen, and gazed for a moment on the speaker, as if she did
not recollect her, and the girl continued:--
"Why, don't you remember Minerva, who lived with Mr. Travis? Ah, they
killed my poor master and missus, and even the poor little baby, Eddy;
and never say one word to the women, but go about murdering in de
night; and so we all go frightened and run away into de woods, for we
did not know that our turn might not come next, for dey are all so
furious; and Nat Turner say he is sent by de Lord to kill and to slay
and to 'terminate all on whom he finds de mark. Now, who can tell
whether she has got de mark or not? So five of us come away here, and
all the rest have gone away, I do not know where, and taken de
children wid dem."
While she had been speaking, I had still kept my eyes upon the
brushwood before me, and had satisfied myself that no one followed
her; and Bessy, who had been somewhat bewildered at first, both by the
news of the danger and by being suddenly woke from her sleep, now
recognized the girl, and said,--
"I remember you now, Minerva. You were the child's nurse, were you
not? I do not think you would betray us or injure us."
"I would not for my life, Miss Bessy," replied the girl. "I would die
to help you, but would do nothing to hurt you."
We Englishmen are not very fond of warm professions, for we rarely
make them ourselves, and have no allowance for different customs,
blood, and temper. Yet the girl's face looked frank and open; and I
invited her to sit down beside us, wishing to extract any information
she might possess.
It was not much that she could give; for, as I think I have elsewhere
remarked, there is not a perfect sympathy between the mulatto and the
black race. The former are inclined to be somewhat conceited upon
their approximation to their masters; the latter view the mulattoes
with a certain degree of contempt and dislike as inheriting a portion
of the blood of the slave-holder, without his power or intellect. They
often intermarry, it is true; still this latent sort of aversion
prevails; and you will always hear the negroes speak of the yellow man
or the yellow woman with a cold and slighting tone.
On the present occasion, it would seem, many of the mulattoes
entertained some apprehension that the vengeance of the negroes would
be extended to them on account of the white blood in their veins. This
was especially the case amongst the mulatto women; and Minerva told
us, she had only ventured to hold communication with some of the
people of her own colour. From them she had learned that from thirty
to forty white persons had been slaughtered during the preceding
night; that being attacked totally unprepared, no resistance had been
offered, and that the negroes in the morning, in considerable numbers
(swelled doubtlessly by her imagination), and armed and mounted, had
marched upon Jerusalem, intending to sack and burn the town. They had
been met upon the road, however, at the distance of about a mile from
where we then were, by a body of armed white men, who had fired upon
and dispersed them.
But she added, what was very important in our eyes, that they had
since reassembled in greater force than ever, and had murdered a party
of four white people whom they had met upon the road.
She could not give us any of the particulars, for she had only heard
them from a mulatto man, who had heard them from somebody else. We
must all have had cause to know--sometimes to our cost--how dangerous
it is to rely upon current rumours in times of peril and excitement.
It seemed to me, too, that the girl was inclined to shirk some of my
questions. I asked Bessy, therefore, in Italian, which she spoke very
well, if the woman was to be relied upon.
"Oh, yes," she answered; "I have always heard her spoken of as a very
good, honest girl, although, doubtless, she, like all the negroes, is
inclined to magnify whatever she hears."
"Were the white men who you say were killed upon the road armed?" I
asked, turning to the girl.
"Yes, that they were," she said; "for the gentleman told me there was
a terrible fight. But all the white men were killed, nevertheless; de
niggers were too many for them."
"Can you tell which way the black men went after that?" I inquired.
"No," she answered; "I know nottin' about dat; only dey did not come
down here, or we should have heard de horses' feet.
"Three men passed by on horseback," I observed, "and the rest may have
been on foot."
"Oh, no," she cried, "dey all got horses; dey take de horses, and de
guns, and de gunpowder, wherever dey go. Dey took all ole master's
horses after dey murdered dem all. Oh, I wish I knew who it were dat
murder de baby, I would tear his heart out."
And a look of fury came into her eyes, that could not well be feigned.
"Dat Nat Turner is de head of it all," she continued. "He tinks
himself a prophet; but I tink him a devil; for who but a devil would
murder poor innocent babes and young children?"
Here our conversation paused for a moment or two; and then Bessy
inquired the names of the other four women who were with her brown
companion. She repeated them severally, and at the mention of one of
them, I could see that Bessy's countenance fell.
"Why, how came you with _her_, Minerva?" she inquired. "I have heard
she is a very bad woman."
"Ah, well, dat's true," answered the girl; "she _is_ a bad woman, Miss
Bessy, and beat her own children, and get drunk, and all dat; but then
she was master's slave, and she is so nearly white dat all de niggers
hate her, and Nat Turner once said he would kill her if she didn't
mind. Dat was when she break her husband's head wid de stone
bottle--so we could not refuse to take her wid us, for dey would kill
her, certain sure."
This seemed a very reasonable account of the matter; but we had no
time to consider much farther, for while she was speaking, another
mulatto woman, considerably older, whose approach I had not remarked,
suddenly appeared in the brake before us, and Bessy started up with a
look of pleasure, exclaiming--
"Ah, Jenny, is that you? I am very glad to see you."
"Ah, Miss Bessy, Miss Bessy!" cried the woman, taking her in her great
fat arms, and giving her a kiss, while the tears ran over her cheeks.
"Thank God you have, escaped! I thought that noble gentleman would
take care of you. And when I went over the house--that terrible
house--and all the corpusses lying about, and the poor boys with their
brains dashed out, and that McGrubber at the top flight of the stairs,
all hacked and hewed with the axes, and found your room empty, though
the door was all broken to pieces, I did hope you had got away. Yet my
heart failed me to think what would become of the dear child."
"This is the cook at Beavors, Richard," said Bessy; "she was dear aunt
Bab's cook too."
"Oh, I remember I have seen her," I replied, "the day we went over and
took possession of the house in Mr. Stringer's absence. Jenny, I am
very glad to see you here. But did anything happen to make you quit
the house after you had stayed so long?"
"Dear, yes, sir," answered the good woman. "I heard they were killing
all the yellow people as well as the white, and I thought it better to
get out of the way; though, afterwards, as I walked along, I called
myself a great fool for my pains, and I don't believe the story now; I
think it's all a lie. But as I passed by here, I saw smoke in the
woods, and heard women's tongues, and that made me come up. But you
must not think, Sir Richard, that all the black people are as bad as
Nat Turner and his gang. Only two of all the men at Mr. Stringer's
would join them, and I will take my oath that none of my dear old
missus's servants would lift a hand against a white man after all you
did, and got them out of the hands of the dealer, and had to fight and
be wounded to prevent them being taken to Orl[ee]ns."
I could not help smiling at the curious version she had got of my
quarrel with Mr. Robert Thornton; but I found afterwards that the
general notion of the poor people was, that their remaining in
Virginia had entirely depended upon the result of my duel with that
worthy gentleman. If he had killed me, they thought they would have
all been sent away at once to a place of which they seemed to have a
particular dread. But other considerations pressed strongly for
attention; and, after musing for a moment, I said,--
"I fear that smoke may betray us to some of the wandering parties
which may be about. What have they lighted a fire for, Minerva? They
cannot want a fire on this hot day."
"Oh, but dey want something to eat," replied the girl; "and old Lou is
roasting a rabbit she snared."
"Oh, there is no fear, Sir Richard," said Jenny. "They have all gone
the other way; besides, they tell me a number of them ran away with
buck-shot in their skins, and they'll be a long time before they come
back again, I reckon. Why, the road all the way to Jerusalem 's quite
clear now."
"I wish I could believe it so, Jenny," I answered; "for I want to take
Miss Davenport there as soon as possible. But I understand there are
some thirty or forty in the band; and though I would defend her to the
last, I should soon be overpowered by such a number."
"Ay," answered Jenny, "there were sixty of them this morning--I
counted them myself; but there are not so many now. They have begun to
melt away, and there will soon not be twenty of them left together,
unless there are others coming up that I don't know about. But you can
soon satisfy yourself, Sir Richard; for if you just walk along,
keeping in the inside of the woods, with the sun a little bit to your
right, at the end of about half an hour you will come upon the high
road; and if you see no trace of them between this and that, you may
be sure that it's all clear. They won't venture on the high road in a
hurry again; for the gentlemen are all assembling at the town, and are
too many for them. I'll go with you, if you like, and show you the
way. I'm not afraid. Indeed I should have gone to Jerusalem myself,
only it's not pleasant for us poor creatures. The gentlemen take us up
because we are black, and the niggers kill us, because they say we are
yellow; so what are we to do?"
"Let us go on, Richard," said Bessy. "I do not think there will be
much danger."
A moment's thought, however, made me resolve, before I took her with
me, to reconnoitre the country in front by myself. It was evident that
Jenny's information, like that of the mulatto girl, Minerva, was
merely upon hearsay; and I did not choose to risk the life of one very
dear to me upon the strength of vague rumours. Besides, Bessy had now
with her one on whom she could depend, and who, in some respects,
might be more serviceable to her than even I could be. Jenny, in all
probability, knew all the paths and by-roads in a country in which she
had been born and brought up. She knew the customs and ways of the
people, and could judge of their movements and their purposes much
better than I could do. She was, moreover, a very stout, powerful
woman, and did not seem to lack courage or decision; all very
serviceable qualities of body and mind in the circumstances wherein we
were placed.
"I will go on, dear Bessy," I said, "and see what I can discover for a
mile or so in advance. I will return as soon as I have satisfied
myself that the way is clear. In the meantime, you stay here with
Jenny till I come back, unless you find some cause for apprehension.
In case you are obliged to leave the place, tear up a handkerchief, or
this paper, in which the biscuits were wrapped, and drop the pieces on
the way. You had better keep these two pistols with you. The sound
will reach me a long way, and would, I suspect, frighten these
scoundrels more than the shot."
"Oh, give me one of them, Sir Richard," said Jenny; "I'll shoot 'em if
they come here, and then break their skulls with the hammer like a
cleaver."
"Here is a bigger one, Jenny," I said, giving one of the larger
pistols I had found at Mr. Travis's. "You will protect your young
mistress, I know, Jenny. Dearest Bessy, you are not afraid to stay
till I come back?"
"No," she answered, faintly; and then added, "I would rather go with
you, Richard; but I will not embarrass you, and perhaps you judge
best; only do not be long, dear Richard; for I shall be fearful for
you till you return."
I took a step or two forward; but then my heart smote me for a piece
of selfish forgetfulness; and, returning, I inquired of Jenny whether
she had seen anything of my poor servant Zed.
"No, I have not, sir," replied the woman. "Poor old man, I don't think
they would hurt him: he was as black as any of them. Oh, he must
certainly be safe; for I should have found him somewhere lying about
if they had killed him. Besides, what should they kill him for?"
I explained to her how he had devoted himself to give Bessy and myself
time to escape. But she still retained the same opinion; asserting
that he must have got away before the door into Bessy's room from the
corridor had been broken down. Thus she forced me to be satisfied.
I walked away again towards the south-west.