You remember, when you left me, I promised, if anything should make me
quit the spot, to strew some pieces of paper or fragments of my
handkerchief upon the ground as I went, to give you some indication of
the way I had taken. For about a quarter of an hour--it could not be
more (though it seemed to me more at the time)--all was quiet and
still; and I and Jenny and the girl Minerva sat and talked, listening
every now and then for your return. At length one of the other mulatto
women came from the place where they had lighted a fire, to say that
their cooking was ready; and, seeing me and Jenny, asked us to come
and partake. We declined, however; and Minerva went away and left us.
But a minute or two had passed, when we heard a distant noise of
horses' feet; and then the sound of people talking loud not far off. I
started up and prepared to fly, but Jenny's sharp ears had
distinguished the voices better than I had, and she said,--
"Those are white men's tongues!"
I listened, and convinced myself she was right; and after a good deal
of conversation had gone on, apparently between the new comers and the
mulatto women, we saw seven or eight while men coming up, guided by
the girl Minerva. They were headed by a person whom I knew, though I
cannot say I ever much liked him, and would rather perhaps have had
any other escort. On this occasion, however, he behaved quietly and
like a gentleman, telling me that his party would convey me to a place
of safety: that they had several spare horses with them and women's
saddles; but that, as it was growing late, it would be necessary for
me to come with him directly.
I informed him, in return, that you had gone to see if the way were
clear to Jerusalem, and that I did not think I ought to go, till you
came back. He said he could not wait that time, as he had several
other young ladies to take up at different houses on the road; but
that he must insist upon my not remaining there exposed to danger from
any of the lawless ruffians who were roaming about; at the same time,
to satisfy me that you would have information of my departure and
safety, he said he would leave one or two of his men on the spot. I
heard him give the order myself, and I do believe he was at this time
acting in good faith, though he did not behave rightly afterwards.
If I acted wrongly, dear Richard, forgive me; though I have hardly
forgiven myself since, knowing and feeling what you must have
suffered. Is not that a vain speech, Richard? But you see how I count
upon your love, and I don't mind your seeing it.
Well, I was satisfied that you would soon know, and your mind be put
at ease; and I and Jenny went with Colonel Halliday and his party to
the path on the right, where we found all the horses and half a dozen
more men. Once there, we were mounted immediately; but the men
continued on foot talking together for some minutes, arguing, it
seemed to me, upon some arrangements. At length they jumped on their
horses; and Halliday, and five of the men, rode off in one direction
while the rest pushed to the right, taking me and Jenny with them.
We had not gone a quarter of a mile, when who should ride up to my
side from behind, but old William Thornton, Robert's father. "Well,
cousin Bessy," he said, "we will take good care of you. We will put
you in a place of safety. What a lucky thing, you escaped out of
Beavors! Why they have murdered all the rest."
"I understood Colonel Halliday, he was going to take me to Jerusalem;"
I replied; "and this is quite a contrary direction, Mr. Thornton."
"Oh, you mistook him," replied the old man; "you can't get to
Jerusalem nor he either. The road is in possession of the niggers.
There's full four hundred of 'em."
At first, Richard, I was frightened, and thought of you, and how you
would get through. But the next moment, something in my own breast,
told me the statement was all false. I knew the man. I knew what a
knave he was, and what efforts he had made to get me into his hands
when I was a child; then a selfish fear, a fear for myself took
possession of me. I was now in his power. I doubted not the people who
were with him were all his own creatures; and, after a minute or two
of wild consideration, confused and inconsequent enough, I thought it
would be best to let him take me where he would, believing that in
this country of law, he dare not use any violence or do me any injury.
At all events, I had got the pistol you had given me, and at that
moment, I looked upon it as a treasure indeed.
Well, he carried me to his own house, and took me there to a nice room
enough, where he said he would send me up some supper. He was
exceedingly polite and civil all the time, and excused himself for not
taking me into the parlour, because his son Robert was there, who was
not quite recovered.
Presently a negro girl brought me some lights; for by this time it was
quite dark. Then came some supper, and some wine, of which I partook
heartily, confess; for I was weak and faint, and I felt the necessity
of some adventitious courage. My supper was hardly over when William
Thornton and his son both came in. The old man carried some papers in
his hand; and the son, after speaking a few civil words, sat himself
down right between me and the door.
"Well, Cousin Bessy," said the father, "I dare say, after all your
fatigue and fright, you will sleep well to-night. You are quite safe
here; for we have got three white men in the house, Irishmen, who will
shoot down any one I order them to destroy; so you need not be in the
least alarmed."
"I am not alarmed at all," I answered; though I am afraid, Richard, it
was a great fib. "Don't you know, Mr. Thornton, it takes a great deal
to alarm me?"
The old man looked a little confounded at my reply; but he said,--
"Well, well, we will soon leave you to go to sleep; only there are
some old accounts and things between you and me, Cousin Bessy, in
regard to matters that occurred when I had the management of your
property, which I think we had better settle now. I only just want you
to sign these receipts and acquittances. They are all right, as you
can see. Give me down the ink; here's a pen."
Robert Thornton brought the ink from the mantel-piece, and his father
put the papers before me. I did not pay much attention to them; but I
just caught in one part, some words which I think were, "For, and in
consideration, of the sum of thirty thousand dollars, the receipt of
which is hereby acknowledged."
I pushed them away at once to the other side of the table, saying,--
"Mr. Thornton, I will sign no papers whatever except in the presence
of Mr. Hubbard, and Mr. Henry Thornton; and if these papers are fair
and right, I cannot understand your pressing them upon me at such a
moment, and in such circumstances."
"The reason of their being pressed upon you, Miss Davenport," said
Robert Thornton, with one of his cold sneers, "and the reason why I
shall insist upon their being signed at once, lies in the very
circumstances to which you do not choose to allude; namely, that you
are about to be married to a man whose father deprived you of your
father, and who himself nearly deprived me of life. Unless these are
signed before your marriage, difficulties must and will arise which I
am determined----"
"Stay, stay, Bessy!" I cried, interrupting her narrative; "let me hear
that again."
"Not now, Richard, not now," she said, eagerly. "He alluded to your
father, Sir Richard Conway; but the very allusion drove me half wild;
and I am afraid that I showed myself such a dragon that you would
never wish to marry me, if you had seen me then."
I took up the papers, and tore them into a thousand pieces, and then
said, with as big a look as I could put on--I can hardly think of it
without smiling--"Leave the room, sirs! and do not venture to come
back again!"
The old man got up and drew back; but the younger kept his chair,
saying coldly,--
"The papers are soon re-written; and, though sorry to prevent you from
sleeping, we shall bring them back in about a quarter of an hour."
"Then mark me, Mr. Robert Thornton," I answered, taking out the
pistol; "the first man who attempts to intrude into this room again, I
will shoot before his foot crosses the threshold, and these fragments
will show the reason why. Leave the room, sirs, instantly."
They _did_ leave the room--the elder gentleman with a considerable
degree of trepidation. But, my dear Richard, I was a mere bully all
the time; and although, I am sure, I looked twice as tall as I really
am, and talked twice as loud as I ever did in my life before, I was
frightened out of my wits all the time. The next unpleasant thing was
to hear them lock the door; but, thank Heaven, there was a great bolt
in the inside; and if they kept _me_ in, I was determined to keep
_them_ out, or I believed that help must come soon, as too many people
knew that I was there for concealment to be long kept up.
I need not tell you all the little incidents of that night. I would
let nobody into the room but the servant-girl, and made quite sure
that only one step had come up the stairs, before I would open the
door to her.
But the discomforts of that evening were nothing to the horrors of the
next morning. What the hour was, I do not know; for my watch was left
behind at poor Mr. Stringer's; but I suppose it must have been about
nine or ten o'clock; when, seated behind the blind at the open window,
I saw five or six negro-men coming up towards the house. When they
came near, I recognized several of them at once as poor Aunt Bab's
servants, and I saw a great tall man, whom I knew very well, come
forward and knock at the door, after which he retreated five or six
steps from the house; and I heard old William Thornton's voice
speaking to him out of a window on the same floor as the room in which
I was.
"Go away, go away this instant," cried the old man; "go away, or I'll
shoot you. Not one of you ruffians shall get into my house. Here, Pat
Macrea, bring me my gun, and get your own. Bob, Bob," he continued,
calling across the passage; "here are a whole heap of the Beavors
niggers come to rescue her."
"Fire into them--fire into them!" cried my worthy Cousin Robert, with
an oath. "You can say you thought they came to attack the house. I'll
be with you in a minute."
You may judge how terrified I was, Richard; but, putting my head out,
I saw old Mr. Thornton and one of his Irishmen leaning forth from two
of the windows with guns in their hands. Just at the same moment, poor
Hercules exclaimed,--
"For Heaven's sake, don't shoot us, Mas'r Thornton! We only want to
speak with Miss Bessy."
"Go along!" cried the old man. "She's not here, I tell you."
"Why I see her there now," cried the negro.
At the same moment, Robert Thornton came to the window, crying,--
"March off, you scoundrels!" Then, adding something in a low voice to
his father, he put a gun to his shoulder.
"For shame, Mr. Thornton--for shame!" I cried, as loud as I could
speak.
But it had no effect. All the guns went off almost together, and three
of the poor negroes fell. Two started up again immediately; but poor
Hercules remained upon the ground till the rest carried him off. I
thought I should have fainted; and the dreadful deed they had done
seemed to have awed and terrified the other people in the house. I
heard them talking loudly and eagerly; and, from fragments of their
conversation which I caught, I easily comprehended that what terrified
them most was the fact of my having witnessed their proceedings.
"Oh, the old devil can do no harm," said Robert Thornton. "She's a
nigger and a slave, and can't testify. As to this girl, you must send
her across the line, and keep her there till the matter is settled.
The court sits next Thursday week."
"But how shall we get her to go?" asked old Mr. Thornton.
"I will make her go, or serve her the same," said Robert Thornton,
bitterly. "Here, Pat," continued he, "you and Dan won't be afraid to
follow me into the girl's room, though she has got a pistol. I will go
in first, and she can but shoot one of us."
"Afraid! not a bit," answered the man. "We'll soon master her,
whatever devil there may be in her. But you won't hurt her, Master
Thornton; I can't see a woman hurt."
All this conversation was carried on very close to my door; and I will
own, Richard, I was completely cowed.
"Mr. Thornton," I cried; "Mr. Thornton--speak to me through the door.
I know what you are afraid of, and what you want; and I am willing to
go peaceably where you wish me; for I do not want to have a cousin's
blood upon my head."
"Well, undraw the bolt, then," said Robert Thornton, "and let us come
in."
"No, no," I answered, "I will make my conditions. Nobody shall come
in, and nobody shall touch me. Bring the horses round before the
house, and I will come down the stairs quietly and mount, if you will
promise that nobody shall come within two yards of me. Do you all
promise?"
"Yes," answered Robert Thornton, "nobody wants to come near you, Miss
Bessy, or to do you any harm."
"Very well," I answered; "I will trust to your promise. But mind, if
any one comes near, I will shoot him as sure as my name is Davenport;
and the consequences be upon your own heads. Now bring round the
horses and keep away from the door."
Three horses were brought round almost immediately, and some one came
and unlocked the door. I heard him go down stairs again, and then,
opening the door, I went down with the pistol in my hand. I tried not
to shake, Richard; and I don't think any of them saw how terrified I
was; for I heard the old man say when I got out before the house,--
"What a devil she is!" He little knew how my heart was sinking at that
moment.
As I approached the side of the horse on which the woman's saddle had
been put, Robert Thornton offered to help me; but I was still afraid
he would get the pistol from me, and I told him to stand off.
Without farther parley, we set out as soon as I had mounted, one negro
man going on horseback before, and another following closely. None of
the white men accompanied us; but I heard old Mr. Thornton giving as
strict directions to the man who followed, as if I were to be
imprisoned for some criminal offence. He ended by saying,--
"Now, mind, if she gets away, I will cut you to pieces; so see to it."
In this manner I was brought over to the house where you found me, and
there locked in that miserable room by the old man Samuel, and another
younger negro whom I have not seen since.
----------
"And now, dear Richard," said Bessy, having finished her story, "don't
you think me a terrible termagant? When I think of all I said and did,
I feel almost ashamed of myself, and I dare say, hereafter, I shall
blush whenever I think of it."
"Why, dearest Bessy," I answered, drawing her closer to me, "what
could you do? The gentlest hearts are not always those most devoid of
spirit."
"But have you not sometimes thought mine a cold heart, Richard?" asked
Bessy; "so cold as to give you pain without cause. Oh, you know not
when I have given you pain what agony I have inflicted on myself!"
Closer and closer I drew her to my bosom; kiss after kiss I pressed
upon her lips, till she became almost frightened, and exclaimed,--
"O Richard, remember, nothing is changed!"
"Yes, dearest," I answered, "everything is changed. One little word
you have spoken insures that you shall never have need, or fancy you
have need, to inflict pain upon me or yourself again."
I was going on, but such an awful clap of thunder burst over our
heads, that she started from my arms like a guilty thing, and event
after event came fast to stay further explanation.