Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled

by Major Richardson

  CHAPTER V.

  The dinner party at Colonel D'Egville's was composed in a manner toinspire an exclusive with irrepressible horror. At the suggestion ofGeneral Brock, Tecumseh had been invited, and, with him, three othercelebrated Indian chiefs, whom we beg to introduce to our readers undertheir familiar names--Split-log--Round-head--and Walk-in-the-water--allof the formidable nation of the Hurons. In his capacity ofsuperintendent of Indian affairs, Colonel D'Egville had been much in thehabit of entertaining the superior chiefs, who, with a tact peculiar tomen of their sedate and serious character, if they displayed few of thegraces of European polish, at least gave no manifestation of an innatevulgarity. As it may not be uninteresting to the reader to have a slightsketch of the warriors, we will attempt the portraiture.

  The chief Split-log, who indeed should rather have been named Split-ear,as we shall presently show, was afflicted with an aldermanic rotundityof person, by no means common among his race, and was one, who from hislove of ease and naturally indolent disposition, seemed more fitted totake his seat in the council than to lead his warriors to battle. Yetwas he not, in reality, the inactive character he appeared, and morethan once subsequently he was engaged in expeditions of a predatorynature, carrying off the customary spoils. We cannot impart a betteridea of the head of the warrior than by stating, that we never recallthat of the gigantic Memnon, in the British Museum, without beingforcibly reminded of Split-log's. The Indian, however, was notorious fora peculiarity which the Egyptian had not. So enormous a head, seeming torequire a corresponding portion of the several organs, nature had, inher great bounty, provided him with a nose, which, if it equalled notthat of Smellfungus in length, might, in height and breadth, havelaughed it utterly to scorn. Neither was it a single, but a doublenose--two excrescences, equalling in bulk a moderate sized lemon, and ofthe spongy nature of a mushroom, bulging out, and lending an expressionof owlish wisdom to his otherwise heavy features. As on that of theMemnon, not a vestige of a hair was to be seen on the head of Split-log.His lips were, moreover, of the same unsightly thickness, while theelephantine ear had been slit in such a manner, that the pliantcartilage, yielding to the weight of several ounces of lead which hadfor years adorned it, now lay stretched, and coquetting with the brawnyshoulder on which it reposed. Such was the Huron, or Wyandot Chief,whose cognomen of Split-log had, in all probability, been derived fromhis facility in "suiting the action to the word;" for, in addition tohis gigantic nose, he possessed a fist, which in size and strength mighthave disputed the palm with Maximilian himself; although his practicehad chiefly been confined to knocking down his drunken wives, instead ofoxen.

  The second Chief, Round-head, who, by the way, was the principal inreputation after Tecumseh, we find the more difficulty in describingfrom the fact of his having had few or none of those peculiarities whichwe have, happily for our powers of description, been enabled to seizehold of in Split-log. His name we believe to have been derived from thatindispensable portion of his frame. His eye was quick, even penetrating,and his stern brow denoted intelligence and decision of character. Hisstraight, coal-black hair, cut square over the forehead, fell long andthickly over his face and shoulders. This, surmounted by a roundslouched hat, ornamented with an eagle's feather, which he ordinarilywore and had not even now dispensed with, added to a blue capote orhunting frock, produced a _tout ensemble_, which cannot be more happilyrendered than by a comparison with one of his puritanical sly-eyednamesakes of the English Revolution.

  Whether our third hero, Walk-in-the-water, derived his name from anyaquatic achievement which could possibly give a claim for its adoption,we have no means of ascertaining; but certain it is, that in hisfeatures he bore a striking resemblance to the portraits of OliverCromwell. The same small, keen, searching eye, the same ironinflexibility of feature, together with the long black hair escapingfrom beneath the slouched hat, (for Walk-in-the-water, as well asRound-head, was characterised by an unconscious imitation of theRounheads of the Revolution)--all contributed to render the resemblanceas perfect as perfection of resemblance can be obtained, where thephysical, and not the moral, man, forms the ground of contrast.

  Far above these in nobleness of person, as well as in brilliancy ofintellect, was the graceful Tecumseh. Unlike his companions, whose dresswas exceedingly plain, he wore his jerkin or hunting coat of the mostbeautifully soft and pliant deer-skin, on which were visible a varietyof tasteful devices, exquisitely embroidered with the stained quills ofthe porcupine. A shirt of dazzling whiteness was carefully drawn overhis expansive chest, and in his equally white shawl-turban was placed anostrich feather, the prized gift of the lady of the mansion. On alloccasions of festivity, and latterly in the field, he was wont thus todecorate himself; and never did the noble warrior appear to greateradvantage than when habited in this costume. The contrast it offered tohis swarthy cheek and mobile features, animated as they were by thefrequent flashing of his eagle eye, seldom failed to excite admirationin the bosoms of all who saw him.

  The half hour that elapsed between the arrival of the several guests andthe announcement of dinner, was passed under the influence of feelingsalmost as various in kind as the party itself. Messieurs Split-rock,Round-head, and Walk-in-the-water, fascinated by the eagles on thebuttons of Major Montgomerie's uniform, appeared to regard that officeras if they saw no just cause or impediment why certain weapons danglingat their sides should not be made to perform, and that without delay, anincision into the cranium of their proprietor. True, there was adifficulty. The veteran major was partially bald, and wanted the topknot or scalping tuft, which to a true warrior was indispensable; notthat we mean to insinuate, that either of these chiefs would so far haveforgotten the position in which that gentleman stood, as to have beentempted into any practical demonstration of hostility: but there was arestlessness about the eye of each, that--much like the instinct of thecat, which regards with natural avidity the bird that is suffered to goat large within his reach, without daring openly to attack it--betrayedthe internal effort it cost them to lose sight of the enemy in theprisoner and friend of the superintendent. The major, on the other hand,although satisfied he was under the roof of hospitality, did not atfirst appear altogether at his ease, but, while he conversed with theEnglish officers, turned ever and anon an eye of distrust on themovements of his swarthy fellow guests. On the arrival of Tecumseh, who,detained until a late hour by the arrangements he had been making forthe encampment and supplies of his new force, was the last to make hisappearance, the major's doubts passed entirely away. It was impossibleto be in the presence of this chieftain, and fail, even without anyother index to his soul than what the candor of his expression afforded,to entertain all the security that man may repose on man. He had in him,it is true, too much of the sincerity of nature, to make anything like afriendly advance to one of a people on whom he charged all themisfortunes of his race, and for whom he had avowed an inextinguishablehostility of heart and purpose; but, unless when this might with strictpropriety be exercised, the spirit of his vengeance extended not; andnot only would he have scorned to harm a fallen foe, but his arm wouldhave been the first uplifted in his defence.

  Notwithstanding the glance of intelligence which Captain Granville hadremarked, and which we have previously stated to have been directed byMiss Montgomerie to her captor a few hours before, there was nothing inher manner during dinner to convey the semblance of a prepossession.True, that in the tumultuous glow of gratified vanity and dawning love,Gerald Grantham had executed a toilet, into which, with a view to theimprovement of the advantage he imagined himself to have gained, all thejustifiable coquetry of personal embellishment had been thrown; butneither the handsome blue uniform with its glittering epaulette, nor thebeautiful hair on which more than usual pains had been bestowed, nor thesparkling of his dark eye, nor the expression of a cheek, rendereddoubly animated by excitement, nor the interestingly displayed arm _enecharpe_--none of these attractions, we repeat, seemed to claim even apartial notice from her they we
re intended to captivate. Cold,colorless, passionless, Miss Montgomerie met him with the calmness of anabsolute stranger; and when, with the recollection of the indescribablelook she had bestowed upon him glowing at his heart, Gerald again soughtin her eyes some trace of the expression that had stirred every veininto transport, he found there indifference the most complete. How greathis mortification was, we will not venture to describe, but the arch andoccasional raillery of his lively cousin, Julia D'Egville, seemed todenote most plainly that the conqueror and the conquered had exchangedpositions.

  Nor was this surprising; Miss Montgomerie's travelling habit had beendiscarded for the more decorative ornaments of a dinner toilet, inwhich, however, the most marked simplicity was observed. A plain whitemuslin dress gave full development to a person which was of a perfectionthat no dress could have disguised. It was the bust of a Venus, unitedto a form, to create which would have taxed the imaginative powers of aPraxiteles--a form so faultlessly moulded, that every movement presentedsome new and unpremeditated grace. What added to the surpassing richnessof her beauty was her hair, which, black, glossy, and of easternluxuriance, and seemingly disdaining the girlishness of curls, reposedin broad Grecian bands across a brow, the intellectual expression ofwhich they contributed to form. Yet never did woman exhibit in herperson and face more opposite extremes of beauty. If the one wasstrikingly characteristic of warmth, the other was no less indicative ofcoldness. Fair, even to paleness, were her cheek and forehead, whichwore an appearance of almost marble immobility, save when, in moments ofoft recurring abstraction, a slight but marked contraction of the browbetrayed the existence of a feeling, indefinable indeed to the observer,but certainly unallied to softness. Still she was beautiful--coldly,classically, beautiful--eminently calculated to inspire passion, butseemingly incapable of feeling it.

  The coldness of Miss Montgomerie's manner was no less remarkable. Herwhole demeanor was one of abstraction. It seemed as if heedless, notonly of ceremony, but of courtesy, her thoughts and feelings were farfrom the board of whose hospitality she was partaking. Indeed, the veryfew remarks she made during dinner referred to the period of departureof the boat, in which she was to be conveyed to Detroit, and on thissubject she displayed an earnestness, which, even Grantham thought,might have been suppressed in the presence of his uncle's family.Perhaps he felt piqued at her readiness to leave him.

  Under these circumstances, the dinner was not, as might be expected,particularly gay. There was an embarrassment among all, which even thecirculating wine did not wholly remove. Major Montgomerie was nearly assilent as his niece. Mrs. D'Egville, although evincing all the kindnessof her really benevolent nature--a task in which she was assisted by heramiable daughters--still felt that the reserve of her guest insensiblyproduced a corresponding effect upon herself; while Colonel D'Egville,gay, polished, and attentive, as he usually was, could not whollyovercome an apprehension that the introduction of the Indian chiefs hadgiven offence to both uncle and niece. Still, it was impossible to haveacted otherwise. Independently of his strong personal attachment toTecumseh, considerations involving the safety of the province,threatened as it was, strongly demanded that the leading chiefs shouldbe treated with the respect due to their station; and moreover, whileGeneral Brock and Commodore Barclay were present, there could be noground for an impression that slight was intended. Both these officerssaw the difficulty under which their host labored, and sought by everygentlemanly attention, to remove whatever unpleasantness might lurk inthe feelings of his American guests.

  The dessert brought with it but little addition to the animation of theparty, and it was a relief to all, when, after a toast proposed by thegeneral to the "Ladies of America," Mrs. D'Egville made the usual signalfor withdrawing.

  As soon as they had departed, followed a moment or two afterwards byTecumseh and Gerald Grantham, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, andWalk-in-the-water, deliberately taking their pipe-bowl tomahawks fromtheir belts, proceeded to fill them with kinni-kinnick, a mixture ofVirginia tobacco and odoriferous herbs, than which no perfume can bemore fragrant. Amid the clouds of smoke puffed from these at the lowerend of the table, where had been placed a supply of whiskey, theirfavorite liquor--did Colonel D'Egville and his more civilized guestsquaff their claret; more gratified than annoyed by the savouryatmosphere wreathing around them, while, taking advantage of the earlydeparture of the abstemious Tecumseh, they discussed the merits of thatchief, and the policy of employing the Indians as allies, as will beseen in the following chapter.