The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XIV

  Whose party do the townsmen yet admit? --King John.

  In order to preserve an even pace between the incidents of the tale, itbecomes necessary to revert to such events as occurred during the wardof Ellen Wade.

  For the few first hours, the cares of the honest and warm-hearted girlwere confined to the simple offices of satisfying the often-repeateddemands which her younger associates made on her time and patience,under the pretences of hunger, thirst, and all the other ceaseless wantsof captious and inconsiderate childhood. She had seized a moment fromtheir importunities to steal into the tent, where she was administeringto the comforts of one far more deserving of her tenderness, when anoutcry among the children recalled her to the duties she had momentarilyforgotten.

  "See, Nelly, see!" exclaimed half a dozen eager voices; "yonder ar' men;and Phoebe says that they ar' Sioux-Indians!"

  Ellen turned her eyes in the direction in which so many arms werealready extended, and, to her consternation, beheld several men,advancing manifestly and swiftly in a straight line towards the rock.She counted four, but was unable to make out any thing concerning theircharacters, except that they were not any of those who of right wereentitled to admission into the fortress. It was a fearful moment forEllen. Looking around, at the juvenile and frightened flock that pressedupon the skirts of her garments, she endeavoured to recall to herconfused faculties some one of the many tales of female heroism, withwhich the history of the western frontier abounded. In one, a stockadehad been successfully defended by a single man, supported by three orfour women, for days, against the assaults of a hundred enemies. Inanother, the women alone had been able to protect the children, andthe less valuable effects of their absent husbands; and a third was notwanting, in which a solitary female had destroyed her sleeping captorsand given liberty not only to herself, but to a brood of helpless young.This was the case most nearly assimilated to the situation in whichEllen now found herself; and, with flushing cheeks and kindling eyes,the girl began to consider, and to prepare her slender means of defence.

  She posted the larger girls at the little levers that were to cast therocks on the assailants, the smaller were to be used more for show thanany positive service they could perform, while, like any other leader,she reserved her own person, as a superintendent and encourager of thewhole. When these dispositions were made, she endeavoured to await theissue, with an air of composure, that she intended should inspire herassistants with the confidence necessary to ensure success.

  Although Ellen was vastly their superior in that spirit which emanatesfrom moral qualities, she was by no means the equal of the two eldestdaughters of Esther, in the important military property of insensibilityto danger. Reared in the hardihood of a migrating life, on the skirts ofsociety, where they had become familiarised to the sights and dangersof the wilderness, these girls promised fairly to become, at some futureday, no less distinguished than their mother for daring, and for thatsingular mixture of good and evil, which, in a wider sphere of action,would probably have enabled the wife of the squatter to enrol her nameamong the remarkable females of her time. Esther had already, on oneoccasion, made good the log tenement of Ishmael against an inroad ofsavages; and on another, she had been left for dead by her enemies,after a defence that, with a more civilised foe, would have entitled herto the honours of a liberal capitulation. These facts, and sundryothers of a similar nature, had often been recapitulated with suitableexultation in the presence of her daughters, and the bosoms of the youngAmazons were now strangely fluctuating between natural terror and theambitious wish to do something that might render them worthy of beingthe children of such a mother. It appeared that the opportunity fordistinction, of this wild character, was no longer to be denied them.

  The party of strangers was already within a hundred rods of the rock.Either consulting their usual wary method of advancing, or admonishedby the threatening attitudes of two figures, who had thrust forth thebarrels of as many old muskets from behind the stone entrenchment, thenew comers halted, under favour of an inequality in the ground, wherea growth of grass thicker than common offered the advantage ofconcealment. From this spot they reconnoitred the fortress for severalanxious, and to Ellen, interminable minutes. Then one advanced singly,and apparently more in the character of a herald than of an assailant.

  "Phoebe, do you fire," and "no, Hetty, you," were beginning to be heardbetween the half-frightened and yet eager daughters of the squatter,when Ellen probably saved the advancing stranger from some imminentalarm, if from no greater danger, by exclaiming--

  "Lay down the muskets; it is Dr. Battius!"

  Her subordinates so far complied, as to withdraw their hands from thelocks, though the threatening barrels still maintained the portentouslevels. The naturalist, who had advanced with sufficient deliberationto note the smallest hostile demonstration of the garrison, now raiseda white handkerchief on the end of his fusee, and came within speakingdistance of the fortress. Then, assuming what he intended should be animposing and dignified semblance of authority, he blustered forth, in avoice that might have been heard at a much greater distance--

  "What, ho! I summon ye all, in the name of the Confederacy of the UnitedSovereign States of North America, to submit yourselves to the laws."

  "Doctor or no Doctor; he is an enemy, Nelly; hear him! hear him! hetalks of the law."

  "Stop! stay till I hear his answer!" said the nearly breathless Ellen,pushing aside the dangerous weapons which were again pointed in thedirection of the shrinking person of the herald.

  "I admonish and forewarn ye all," continued the startled Doctor, "that Iam a peaceful citizen of the before named Confederacy, or to speak withgreater accuracy, Union, a supporter of the Social Compact, and a loverof good order and amity;" then, perceiving that the danger was, atleast, temporarily removed, he once more raised his voice to the hostilepitch,--"I charge ye all, therefore, to submit to the laws."

  "I thought you were a friend," Ellen replied; "and that you travelledwith my uncle, in virtue of an agreement--"

  "It is void! I have been deceived in the very premises, and, I herebypronounce, a certain compactum, entered into and concluded betweenIshmael Bush, squatter, and Obed Battius, M.D., to be incontinentlynull and of non-effect. Nay, children, to be null is merely a negativeproperty, and is fraught with no evil to your worthy parent; so layaside the fire-arms, and listen to the admonitions of reason. I declareit vicious--null--abrogated. As for thee, Nelly, my feelings towardsthee are not at all given to hostility; therefore listen to that whichI have to utter, nor turn away thine ears in the wantonness of security.Thou knowest the character of the man with whom thou dwellest, youngwoman, and thou also knowest the danger of being found in evil company.Abandon, then, the trifling advantages of thy situation, and yield therock peaceably to the will of those who accompany me--a legion, youngwoman--I do assure you an invincible and powerful legion! Render,therefore, the effects of this lawless and wicked squatter,--nay,children, such disregard of human life, is frightful in those whohave so recently received the gift, in their own persons! Point thosedangerous weapons aside, I entreat of you; more for your own sakes, thanfor mine. Hetty, hast thou forgotten who appeased thine anguish whenthy auricular nerves were tortured by the colds and damps of the nakedearth! and thou, Phoebe, ungrateful and forgetful Phoebe! but for thisvery arm, which you would prostrate with an endless paralysis, thyincisores would still be giving thee pain and sorrow! Lay, then, asidethy weapons, and hearken to the advice of one who has always beenthy friend. And now, young woman," still keeping a jealous eye on themuskets which the girl had suffered to be diverted a little from theiraim,--"and now, young woman, for the last, and therefore the most solemnasking: I demand of thee the surrender of this rock, without delay orresistance, in the joint names of power, of justice, and of the--" lawhe would have added; but recollecting that this ominous word wouldagain provoke the hostility of the squatt
er's children, he succeeded inswallowing it in good season, and concluded with the less dangerous andmore convertible term of "reason."

  This extraordinary summons failed, however, of producing the desiredeffect. It proved utterly unintelligible to his younger listeners,with the exception of the few offensive terms, already sufficientlydistinguished, and though Ellen better comprehended the meaning of theherald, she appeared as little moved by his rhetoric as her companions.At those passages which he intended should be tender and affecting,the intelligent girl, though tortured by painful feelings, had evenmanifested a disposition to laugh, while to the threats she turned anutterly insensible ear.

  "I know not the meaning of all you wish to say, Dr. Battius," shequietly replied, when he had ended; "but I am sure if it would teachme to betray my trust, it is what I ought not to hear. I caution you toattempt no violence, for let my wishes be what they may, you see I amsurrounded by a force that can easily put me down, and you know, orought to know, too well the temper of this family, to trifle in sucha matter with any of its members, let them be of what sex or age theymay."

  "I am not entirely ignorant of human character," returned thenaturalist, prudently receding a little from the position, which he had,until now, stoutly maintained at the very base of the hill. "But herecomes one who may know its secret windings still better than I."

  "Ellen! Ellen Wade," cried Paul Hover, who had advanced to his elbow,without betraying any of that sensitiveness which had so manifestlydiscomposed the Doctor; "I didn't expect to find an enemy in you!"

  "Nor shall you, when you ask that, which I can grant without treachery.You know that my uncle has trusted his family to my care, and shall Iso far betray the trust as to let in his bitterest enemies to murder hischildren, perhaps, and to rob him of the little which the Indians haveleft?"

  "Am I a murderer--is this old man--this officer of the States," pointingto the trapper and his newly discovered friend, both of whom by thistime stood at his side, "is either of these likely to do the things youname?"

  "What is it then you ask of me?" said Ellen, wringing her hands, inexcessive doubt.

  "The beast! nothing more nor less than the squatter's hidden, ravenous,dangerous beast!"

  "Excellent young woman," commenced the young stranger, who had solately joined himself to the party on the prairie--but his mouthwas immediately stopped by a significant sign from the trapper, whowhispered in his ear--

  "Let the lad be our spokesman. Natur' will work in the bosom of thechild, and we shall gain our object, in good time."

  "The whole truth is out, Ellen," Paul continued, "and we have linedthe squatter into his most secret misdoings. We have come to right thewronged and to free the imprisoned; now, if you are the girl of a trueheart, as I have always believed, so far from throwing straws in ourway, you will join in the general swarming, and leave old Ishmael andhis hive to the bees of his own breed."

  "I have sworn a solemn oath--"

  "A compactum which is entered into through ignorance, or in duresse, isnull in the sight of all good moralists," cried the Doctor.

  "Hush, hush," again the trapper whispered; "leave it all to natur' andthe lad!"

  "I have sworn in the sight and by the name of Him who is the founderand ruler of all that is good, whether it be in morals or in religion,"Ellen continued, "neither to reveal the contents of that tent, nor tohelp its prisoner to escape. We are both solemnly, terribly, sworn; ourlives perhaps have been the gift we received for the promises. It istrue you are masters of the secret, but not through any means of ours;nor do I know that I can justify myself, for even being neutral, whileyou attempt to invade the dwelling of my uncle in this hostile manner."

  "I can prove beyond the power of refutation," the naturalist eagerlyexclaimed, "by Paley, Berkeley, ay, even by the immortal Binkerschoek,that a compactum, concluded while one of the parties, be it a state orbe it an individual, is in durance--"

  "You will ruffle the temper of the child, with your abusive language,"said the cautious trapper, "while the lad, if left to human feelings,will bring her down to the meekness of a fawn. Ah! you are like myself,little knowing in the natur' of hidden kindnesses!"

  "Is this the only vow you have taken, Ellen?" Paul continued in a tonewhich, for the gay, light-hearted bee-hunter, sounded dolorous andreproachful. "Have you sworn only to this? are the words which thesquatter says, to be as honey in your mouth, and all other promises likeso much useless comb?"

  The paleness, which had taken possession of the usually cheerfulcountenance of Ellen, was hid in a bright glow, that was plainly visibleeven at the distance at which she stood. She hesitated a moment, asif struggling to repress something very like resentment, before sheanswered with all her native spirit--

  "I know not what right any one has to question me about oaths andpromises, which can only concern her who has made them, if, indeed,any of the sort you mention have ever been made at all. I shall holdno further discourse with one who thinks so much of himself, and takesadvice merely of his own feelings."

  "Now, old trapper, do you hear that!" said the unsophisticatedbee-hunter, turning abruptly to his aged friend. "The meanest insectthat skims the heavens, when it has got its load, flies straight andhonestly to its nest or hive, according to its kind; but the ways of awoman's mind are as knotty as a gnarled oak, and more crooked than thewindings of the Mississippi!"

  "Nay, nay, child," said the trapper, good-naturedly interfering inbehalf of the offending Paul, "you are to consider that youth is hasty,and not overgiven to thought. But then a promise is a promise, andnot to be thrown aside and forgotten, like the hoofs and horns of abuffaloe."

  "I thank you for reminding me of my oath," said the still resentfulEllen, biting her pretty nether lip with vexation; "I might else haveproved forgetful!"

  "Ah! female natur' is awakened in her," said the old man, shaking hishead in a manner to show how much he was disappointed in the result;"but it manifests itself against the true spirit!"

  "Ellen!" cried the young stranger, who until now had been an attentivelistener to the parley, "since Ellen is the name by which you areknown--"

  "They often add to it another. I am sometimes called by the name of myfather."

  "Call her Nelly Wade at once," muttered Paul; "it is her rightful name,and I care not if she keeps it for ever!"

  "Wade, I should have added," continued the youth. "You will acknowledgethat, though bound by no oath myself, I at least have known how torespect those of others. You are a witness yourself that I have forborneto utter a single call, while I am certain it could reach those earsit would gladden so much. Permit me then to ascend the rock, singly;I promise a perfect indemnity to your kinsman, against any injury hiseffects may sustain."

  Ellen seemed to hesitate, but catching a glimpse of Paul, who stoodleaning proudly on his rifle, whistling, with an appearance of theutmost indifference, the air of a boating song, she recovered herrecollection in time to answer,--

  "I have been left the captain of the rock, while my uncle and his sonshunt, and captain will I remain till he returns to receive back thecharge."

  "This is wasting moments that will not soon return, and neglectingan opportunity that may never occur again," the young soldier gravelyremarked. "The sun is beginning to fall already, and many minutes cannotelapse before the squatter and his savage brood will be returning totheir huts."

  Doctor Battius cast a glance behind him, and took up the discourse, bysaying--

  "Perfection is always found in maturity, whether it be in the animalor in the intellectual world. Reflection is the mother of wisdom, andwisdom the parent of success. I propose that we retire to a discreetdistance from this impregnable position, and there hold a convocation,or council, to deliberate on what manner we may sit down regularlybefore the place; or, perhaps, by postponing the siege to anotherseason, gain the aid of auxiliaries from the inhabited countries, andthus secure the dignity of the laws from any danger of a repulse."

  "A storm would be bette
r," the soldier smilingly answered, measuring theheight and scanning all its difficulties with a deliberate eye; "'twouldbe but a broken arm or a bruised head at the worst."

  "Then have at it!" shouted the impetuous bee-hunter, making a springthat at once put him out of danger from shot, by carrying him beneaththe projecting ledge on which the garrison was posted; "now do yourworst, young devils of a wicked breed; you have but a moment to workyour mischief!"

  "Paul! rash Paul!" shrieked Ellen; "another step and the rocks willcrush you! they hang by but a thread, and these girls are ready andwilling to let them fall!"

  "Then drive the accursed swarm from the hive; for scale the rock I will,though I find it covered with hornets."

  "Let her if she dare!" tauntingly cried the eldest of the girls,brandishing a musket with a mien and resolution that would have donecredit to her Amazonian dam. "I know you, Nelly Wade; you are with thelawyers in your heart, and if you come a foot nigher, you shall havefrontier punishment. Put in another pry, girls; in with it! I shouldlike to see the man, of them all, that dare come up into the camp ofIshmael Bush, without asking leave of his children!"

  "Stir not, Paul; for your life keep beneath the rock!"

  Ellen was interrupted by the same bright vision, which on the precedingday had stayed another scarcely less portentous tumult, by exhibitingitself on the same giddy height, where it was now seen.

  "In the name of Him, who commandeth all, I implore you to pause--bothyou, who so madly incur the risk, and you, who so rashly offer to takethat which you never can return!" said a voice, in a slightly foreignaccent, that instantly drew all eyes upward.

  "Inez!" cried the officer, "do I again see you! mine shall you nowbe, though a million devils were posted on this rock. Push up, bravewoodsman, and give room for another!"

  The sudden appearance of the figure from the tent had created amomentary stupor among the defendants of the rock, which might, withsuitable forbearance, have been happily improved; but startled by thevoice of Middleton, the surprised Phoebe discharged her musket at thefemale, scarcely knowing whether she aimed at the life of a mortal orat some being which belonged to another world. Ellen uttered a cry ofhorror, and then sprang after her alarmed or wounded friend, she knewnot which, into the tent.

  During this moment of dangerous by-play, the sounds of a serious attackwere very distinctly audible beneath. Paul had profited by the commotionover his head to change his place so far, as to make room for Middleton.The latter was followed by the naturalist, who, in a state of mentalaberration, produced by the report of the musket, had instinctivelyrushed towards the rocks for cover. The trapper remained where he waslast seen, an unmoved but close observer of the several proceedings.Though averse to enter into actual hostilities, the old man was,however, far from being useless. Favoured by his position, he wasenabled to apprise his friends of the movements of those who plottedtheir destruction above, and to advise and control their advanceaccordingly.

  In the mean time, the children of Esther were true to the spirit theyhad inherited from their redoubtable mother. The instant they foundthemselves delivered from the presence of Ellen and her unknowncompanion, they bestowed an undivided attention on their more masculineand certainly more dangerous assailants, who by this time had made acomplete lodgment among the crags of the citadel. The repeated summonsto surrender, which Paul uttered in a voice that he intended shouldstrike terror in their young bosoms, were as little heeded as were thecalls of the trapper to abandon a resistance, which might prove fatal tosome among them, without offering the smallest probability of eventualsuccess. Encouraging each other to persevere, they poised the fragmentsof rocks, prepared the lighter missiles for immediate service, andthrust forward the barrels of the muskets with a business-like air, anda coolness, that would have done credit to men practised in warfare.

  "Keep under the ledge," said the trapper, pointing out to Paul themanner in which he should proceed; "keep in your foot more, lad--ah! yousee the warning was not amiss! had the stone struck it, the bees wouldhave had the prairies to themselves. Now, namesake of my friend; Uncas,in name and spirit! now, if you have the activity of Le Cerf Agile, youmay make a far leap to the right, and gain twenty feet, without danger.Beware the bush--beware the bush! 'twill prove a treacherous hold! Ah!he has done it; safely and bravely has he done it! Your turn comes next,friend; that follows the fruits of natur'. Push you to the left, anddivide the attention of the children. Nay, girls, fire,--my old earsare used to the whistling of lead; and little reason have I to prove adoe-heart, with fourscore years on my back." He shook his head witha melancholy smile, but without flinching in a muscle, as the bullet,which the exasperated Hetty fired, passed innocently at no greatdistance from the spot where he stood. "It is safer keeping in yourtrack than dodging when a weak finger pulls the trigger," he continued"but it is a solemn sight to witness how much human natur' is inclinedto evil, in one so young! Well done, my man of beasts and plants!Another such leap, and you may laugh at all the squatter's bars andwalls. The Doctor has got his temper up! I see it in his eye, andsomething good will come of him! Keep closer, man--keep closer."

  The trapper, though he was not deceived as to the state of Dr. Battius'mind, was, however, greatly in error as to the exciting cause. Whileimitating the movements of his companions, and toiling his way upwardwith the utmost caution, and not without great inward tribulation, theeye of the naturalist had caught a glimpse of an unknown plant, a fewyards above his head, and in a situation more than commonly exposed tothe missiles which the girls were unceasingly hurling in the directionof the assailants. Forgetting, in an instant, every thing but the gloryof being the first to give this jewel to the catalogues of science, hesprang upward at the prize with the avidity with which the sparrow dartsupon the butterfly. The rocks, which instantly came thundering down,announced that he was seen; and for a moment, while his form wasconcealed in the cloud of dust and fragments which followed the furiousdescent, the trapper gave him up for lost; but the next instant he wasseen safely seated in a cavity formed by some of the projecting stoneswhich had yielded to the shock, holding triumphantly in his hand thecaptured stem, which he was already devouring with delighted, andcertainly not unskilful, eyes. Paul profited by the opportunity. Turninghis course, with the quickness of thought, he sprang to the post whichObed thus securely occupied, and unceremoniously making a footstoolof his shoulder, as the latter stooped over his treasure, he boundedthrough the breach left by the fallen rock, and gained the level. Hewas followed by Middleton, who joined him in seizing and disarming thegirls. In this manner a bloodless and complete victory was obtainedover that citadel which Ishmael had vainly flattered himself might proveimpregnable.