Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled

by Major Richardson

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  Defeated at every point and with great loss, the British columns hadretired into the bed of the ravine, where, shielded from the fire of theAmericans, they lay several hours shivering with cold and ankle deep inmud and water; yet consoling themselves with the hope that the renewalof the assault under cover of the coming darkness, would be attendedwith a happier issue. But the gallant General, who appeared in theoutset to have intended they should make picks of their bayonets andscaling-ladders of each other's bodies, now that a mound sufficient forthe latter purpose could be raised of the slain, had altered his mind,and alarmed, and mayhap conscience stricken at the profuse andunnecessary sacrifice of human life which had resulted from the firstwanton attack, adopted the resolution of withdrawing his troops. Thiswas at length finally effected, and without further loss.

  Fully impressed with the belief that the assailants would not bepermitted to forego the advantages they still possessed in their nearcontiguity to the works, without another attempt at escalade, theAmericans had continued calmly at their posts; with what confidence inthe nature of their defences and what positive freedom from danger, maybe inferred from the fact of their having lost but one man throughoutthe whole affair, and that one killed immediately through the loop-holeby the shot that avenged the death of poor Middlemore. When at a latehour they found that the columns were again in movement, they couldscarcely persuade themselves they were not changing their points ofattack. A very few minutes, however, sufficed to show their error; for,in the indistinct light of a new moon, the British troops were to beseen ascending the opposite face of the ravine and in full retreat. Toowell satisfied with the successful nature of their defence, theAmericans made no attempt to follow, but contented themselves withpouring in a parting volley, which however the obscurity renderedineffectual. Soon afterwards the sally-port was again opened, and suchof the unfortunates as yet lingered alive in the trenches were broughtin, and every attention the place could afford paid to theirnecessities.

  An advanced hour of the night brought most of the American officerstogether in their rude mess-room, where the occurrences of the day werediscussed with an enthusiasm of satisfaction natural to the occasion.Each congratulated each on the unexpected success, but commendation wasmore than usually loud in favor of their leader, to whose coolness andjudgment, in reserving his fire until the approach of the enemy withinpistol shot, was to be attributed the severe loss and consequent checkthey had sustained.

  Next became the topic of eulogium the gallantry of those who had beenworsted in all but their honor, and all spoke with admiration of thedevotedness of the two unfortunate officers who had perished in thetrenches--a subject which, in turn, led to a recollection of the bravesoldier who had survived the sweeping discharge from the bastion, andwho had been so opportunely saved from destruction by the Commandanthimself.

  "Captain Jackson," said that officer, addressing one of the few who worethe regular uniform of the United States army, "I should like much toconverse with this man, in whom I confess, as in some degree thepreserver of his life, I feel an interest. Moreover, as the onlyuninjured among our prisoners, he is the one most calculated to give usinformation in regard to the actual force of those whom we have this dayhad the good fortune to defeat, as well as of the ultimate destinationof the British General. Notes of both these important particulars, if Ican possibly obtain them, I wish to make in a despatch of which I intendyou to be the bearer."

  The Aid-de-camp, for in that capacity was he attached to the person ofColonel Forrester, immediately quitted the room, and presentlyafterwards returned ushering in the prisoner.

  Although Gerald was dressed, as we have said, in the uniform of theprivate grenadier, there was that about him which, in defiance of aperson covered from head to foot with the slimy mud of the trenches, anda mouth black as ink with powder from the cartridges he had bitten, atonce betrayed him for something more than he appeared.

  There was a pause for some moments after he entered. At length ColonelForrester inquired, in a voice strongly marked by surprise:

  "May I ask, sir, what rank you hold in the British army?"

  "But that I have unfortunately suffered more from your mud than yourfire," replied Gerald, coolly, and with undisguised bitterness ofmanner, "the question would at once be answered by a reference to myuniform."

  "I understand you, sir; you would have me to infer you are what yourdress, and your dress alone, denotes--a private soldier?"

  Gerald made no answer.

  "Your name, soldier?"

  "My name!"

  "Yes; your name. One possessed of the gallantry we witnessed this daycannot be altogether without a name."

  The pale cheek of Gerald was slightly tinged. With all his grief, hestill was a man. The indirect praise lingered a moment at his heart,then passed off with the slight blush that as momentarily dyed hischeek.

  "My name, sir, is a humble one, and little worthy to be classed withthose who have this day written theirs in the page of honor with theirheart's blood. I am called Gerald Grantham."

  "Gerald Grantham!" repeated the Commandant, musingly, as thoughendeavoring to bring back the recollection of such a name.

  The prisoner looked at him steadfastly in return, yet without speaking.

  "Is there another of your name in the British squadron?" continuedColonel Forrester, fixing his eye full upon his prisoner.

  "There are many in the British squadron whose names are unknown to me,"replied Gerald, evasively, and faintly coloring.

  "Nay," said Colonel Forrester, "that subterfuge more than anythingbetrays you. Though not answered, I am satisfied. How we are to accountfor seeing a gallant sailor attacking us in our trenches, in the humblegarb of a private soldier, and so out of his own element, I cannotunderstand; but the name of Gerald Grantham, coupled with your mannerand appearance, assures us we are making personal acquaintance with oneto whose deeds we are not strangers. Gentlemen," addressing hisofficers, "this is the Lieutenant Grantham, whose vessel was capturedlast autumn at Buffalo, and of whose gallant defence my cousin, CaptainEdwin Forrester, has spoken so highly. Lieutenant Grantham," he pursued,advancing and offering his hand, "when I had the happiness to save yourlife this day, by dashing aside the fuze that would have been the agentin your destruction, I saw in you but the brave and humble soldier, whomit were disgrace not to have spared for so much noble daring. Judge howgreat must be my satisfaction to know that I have been the means ofpreserving, to his family and country, one whose name stands so higheven in the consideration of his enemies."

  Poor Gerald! how bitter and conflicting must have been his feelings atthat moment. On the one side, touched by the highest evidences of esteema brave and generous enemy could proffer--on the other, annoyed beyondexpression at the recollection of an interposition which had thwartedhim in his fondest, dearest hope--that of losing, at the cannon's mouth,the life he loathed. What had been done in mercy and noble forbearance,was to him the direst punishment that could be inflicted; yet how was itpossible to deny gratitude for the motive which had impelled hispreservation, or fail in acknowledgment of the appreciation in which hethus found himself personally held.

  "It would be idle, Colonel Forrester," he said, taking the profferedhand, "after the manner in which you have expressed yourself, to denythat I am the officer to whom you allude. I feel deeply these marks ofyour regard, although I cannot but consider any little merit that mayattach to me very much overrated by them. My appearance in this dress,perhaps requires some explanation. Prevented by the shallowness of theriver from co-operating with the array in my gun-boat, and tired ofdoing nothing, I had solicited and obtained permission to become one ofthe storming party in the quality of volunteer, which of necessityinduced the garb in which you now behold me. You know the rest."

  "And yet, Colonel," said a surly-looking backwoodsman, who sat with onehand thrust into the bosom of a hunting frock, and the other playingwith the richly ornamented hilt of a dagger, while a round hat,s
urmounted by a huge cockade, was perched knowingly over his left ear,covering, or rather shadowing, little more than one fourth of hishead--"I reckon as how this here sort of thing comes within the spy act.Here's a commissioned officer of King George, taken not only in ourlines, but in our very trenches in the disguise of a private soger. Whatsay you, Captain Buckhorn?" turning to one somewhat younger and lessuncouth, who sat next him habited in a similar manner. "Don't you thinkit comes within the spy act?"

  Captain Buckhorn, however, not choosing to hazard an opinion on thesubject, merely shrugged his shoulders, puffed his cigar, and looked atthe Colonel as if he expected him to decide the question.

  "As I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, Major Killdeer," said theAid-de-camp Jackson, "I can't see how that can lie. To come within thespy act, a man must be in plain clothes, or in the uniform of his enemy.Now, Liftenant Grantham, I take it, comes in the British uniform, andwhat signifies a whistle if he wears gold lace or cotton tape, providedit be stuck upon a scarlet coat, and that in the broad face of day, witharms in his hand,--aye, and a devil of a desperation to make good use ofthem too"--he added, with a good naturedly malicious leer of the eyetowards the subject of his defence.

  "At all events, in my conceit, it's an attempt to undervally himself,"pursued the tenacious Kentuckian Major. "Suppose his name warn't knownas it is, he'd have passed for a private soger, and would have beenexchanged for one, without our being any the wiser; whereby the UnitedStates, service, I calculate, would have lost an officer in the balanceof account."

  "Although there cannot be the slightest difficulty," observed ColonelForrester, "in determining on the doubt first started by you, MajorKilldeer I confess, that what you have now suggested involves a questionof some delicacy. In the spirit, although not altogether in the letter,of your suggestion, I agree; so much so, Mr. Grantham," he added,turning to Gerald, "that in violence to the inclination I shouldotherwise have felt to send you back to your lines, on parole of honor,I shall be compelled to detain you until the pleasure of my governmentbe known as to the actual rank in which you are to be looked upon. Ishould say that, taken in arms as a combatant without rank, we have noright to know you as anything else; but as I may be in error, I am sureyou will see how utterly impossible it is for me to take any suchresponsibility upon myself, especially after the difficulty you havejust heard started."

  Gerald, who had listened to this discussion with some astonishment, wasnot sorry to find the manner of its termination. In the outset he hadnot been without alarm that the hero of one hour might be looked uponand hanged as the spy of the next; and tired as he was of life, much ashe longed to lay it down, his neck had too invincible a repugnance toanything like contact with a cord to render him ambitious of closing hisexistence in that way. He was not at all sorry, therefore, when he foundthe surly-looking Major Killdeer wholly unsupported in his sweepingestimate of what he called the "spy act." The gentlemanly manner ofColonel Forrester, forming as it did so decided a contrast with theunpolished--even rude frankness of his second in command was not withoutsoothing influence upon his mind, and to his last observation hereplied, as he really felt, that any change in his views as to hisdisposal could in no way affect him, since it was a matter of totalindifference whether he returned to Amherstburg, or was detained wherehe was. In neither case could he actively rejoin the service until dulyexchanged, and this was the only object embraced in any desire he mightentertain of the kind.

  "Still," added the Colonel, "although I may not suffer you to return yetinto Canada, I can see no objection to according you the privilege ofparole of honor, without at all involving the after question of whetheryou are to be considered as the soldier or the officer. From this momenttherefore, Mr. Grantham, you will consider yourself a prisoner at largewithin the fort--or, should you prefer journeying into the interior, tosharing the privations and the dullness inseparable from our isolatedposition, you are at liberty to accompany Captain Jackson, myAid-de-camp, who will leave this within twelve hours, charged withdispatches for the Governor of Kentucky."

  Gerald had already acknowledged to himself that, if anything could addto his wretchedness, it would be a compulsory residence in a place notonly destitute itself of all excitement, but calling up, at every hour,the images of his brave companions in danger--men whom he had known whenthe sun of his young hopes shone unclouded, and whom he had survived butto be made sensible of the curse of exemption from a similar fate;still, with that instinctive delicacy of a mind whose natural refinementnot even a heavy weight of grief could wholly deaden, he felt somehesitation in giving expression to a wish, the compliance with whichwould, necessarily, separate him from one who had so courteously treatedhim, and whom he feared to wound by an appearance of indifference.

  "I think, Mr. Grantham," pursued Colonel Forrester, remarking hishesitation, "I can understand what is passing in your mind. However Ibeg you will suffer no mere considerations of courtesy to interfere withyour inclination. I can promise you will find this place most dismallydull, especially to one who has no positive duty to perform in it. If Imay venture to recommend, therefore, you will accompany Captain Jackson.The ride will afford you more subject for diversion than anything we canfurnish here."

  Thus happily assisted in his decision Gerald said, "Since, Sir, youleave it optional with me, I think I shall avail myself of your kindoffer and accompany Captain Jackson. It is not a very cheering sight,"he pursued, anxious to assign a satisfactory reason for his choice, "tohave constantly before one's eyes the scene of so signal a discomfitureas that which our arms have experienced this day."

  "And yet," said Colonel Forrester, "despite of that discomfiture, therewas nothing in the conduct of those engaged that should call a blushinto the cheek of the most fastidious stickler for national glory. Thereis not an officer here present," he continued, "who is not prepared toattest with myself, that your column in particular behaved like heroes.By the way, I could wish to know, but you will use your own discretionin answering or declining the question, what was the actual strength ofyour attacking force?"

  "I can really see no objection to a candid answer to your question,Colonel," returned Gerald, after a moment's consideration. "Eachdivision was, I believe, for I cannot state with certainty, little morethan two hundred strong, making in all, perhaps, from six hundred to sixhundred and fifty men. In return, may I ask the number of those who soeffectually repulsed us?"

  "Why I guess only one hundred and fifty, and most all my volunteers,"somewhat exultingly exclaimed Major Killdeer.

  "Only one hundred and fifty men!" repeated Gerald, unable to disguisehis vexation and astonishment.

  "That ere's a poser for him," said the Major, turning and addressingCaptain Buckhorn in an under tone, who replied to him with a wink fromhis nearest eye.

  "Even so, Mr. Grantham," replied the Colonel. "One hundred and fifty menof all arms, save artillery, composed my force at the moment when yourcolumns crossed the plain. To-night we muster one hundred andforty-nine."

  "Good Heaven!" exclaimed Gerald warming into excitement, with vexationand pique, "what a disgraceful affair."

  "Disgraceful, yes--but only in as far as regards those who planned, andprovided (or rather ought to have provided) the means of attack. I canassure you, Mr. Grantham, that although prepared to defend my post tothe last, when I saw your columns first emerge from the wood, I did notexpect, with my small force, to have been enabled to hold the place onehour; for who could have supposed that even a school boy, had such beenplaced at the head of an army, would have sent forward a storming party,without either fascines to fill a trench, or ladders to ascend from itwhen filled. Had these been provided, there can be no doubt of theissue, for, to repulse the attempt at escalade in one quarter, I musthave concentrated the whole of my little force--and thereby afforded anunopposed entrance to the other columns--or even granting my garrison tohave been sufficient to keep two of your divisions in check, there stillremained a third to turn the scale of success against us."


  "I can understand the satisfaction with which you discovered thiswretched bungling on the part of our leaders," remarked Gerald, withvexation.

  "No sooner had I detected the deficiency," pursued Colonel Forrester,"than I knew the day would be my own, since the obstacles opposed toyour attempt would admit of my spreading my men over the whole lineembraced within the attack. The result, you see, has justified myexpectation. But enough of this. After the fatigues of the day, you mustrequire both food and rest. Captain Jackson, I leave it to you to do thehonors of hospitality towards Mr. Grantham, who will so shortly becomeyour fellow-traveller; and if, when he has performed the ablutions heseems so much to require, my wardrobe can furnish anything your owncannot supply to transform him into a backwoodsman (in which garb Iwould strongly advise him to travel). I beg it may be put undercontribution without ceremony."

  So saying, Colonel Forrester departed to the rude log-hut that servedhim for his head-quarters, first enjoining his uncouth second to keep asufficient number of men on the alert, and take such other precautionsas were necessary to guard against surprise--an event, however, of whichlittle apprehension was entertained, now that the British troopsappeared to have been wholly withdrawn.

  Sick, wearied, and unhappy, Gerald was but too willing to escape to thesolitude of retirement, to refuse the offer which Captain Jackson madeof his own bed, it being his intention to sit up all night in themess-room, ready to communicate instantly with the Colonel in the eventof any alarm.

  Declining the pressing invitation of the officers to join in the repastthey were about to make for the first time since the morning, and moreparticularly that of Captain Buckhorn, who strongly urged him to "bringhimself to an anchor and try a little of the Wabash," he took a politebut hasty leave of them all, and was soon installed for the night in theAid-de-camp's dormitory.

  It would be idle to say that Gerald never closed his eyes thatnight--still more idle would it be to attempt a description of all thatpassed through a mind whose extent of wretchedness may be inferred fromhis several desperate although unsuccessful, efforts at the utterannihilation of all thought. When he met Colonel Forrester and hisofficers in the mess-room at breakfast, he was dressed, as had beenrecommended, in the hunting frock and belt of a backwoodsman; and inthis his gentlemanly figure looked to such advantage as to excitegeneral attention--so much so, indeed, that Major Killdeer was more thanonce detected in eyeing his own heavy person, as if to ascertain if thepoints of excellence were peculiar to the dress or to the man. Sick anddispirited as he was, Gerald felt the necessity of an attempt to rally,and however the moralist may condemn the principle, there is no doubtthat he was considerably aided in his effort by one or two glasses ofbitters which Captain Buckhorn strongly recommended as being of hiswife's making, and well calculated to put some color into a man'sface--an advantage in which, he truly remarked, Grantham was singularlydeficient.

  Accurate intelligence having been obtained from a party of scouts, whohad been dispatched early in the morning to track their course, that theBritish General with his troops and Indians had finally departed,preparations were made about midday for the interment of the fallen. Twolarge graves were accordingly dug on the outer brow of the ravine, andin these the bodies of the fallen soldiers were deposited, with all thehonors of war. A smaller grave, within the fort, and near the spot wherethey so nobly fell, was considerately allotted to Cranstoun andMiddlemore. There was a composedness on the brow of the former thatlikened him, even in death, to the living man; while, about thegood-humored mouth of poor Middlemore, played the same sort ofself-satisfied smile that had always been observable there when about todeliver himself of a sally. Gerald, who had imposed upon himself thepainful duty of attending to their last committal to earth, could nothelp fancying that Middlemore must have breathed his last with aninaudible pun upon his lips--an idea that inexpressibly affected him.Weighed down with sorrow as was his own soul, he had yet a tear for theoccasion--not that his brave comrades were dead, but that they had diedwith so much to attach them to life--while he whose hope was in deathalone, had been chained, as by a curse to an existence compared withwhich death was the first of human blessings.

  On the following morning, after an early breakfast, he and CaptainJackson quitted the fort, Colonel Forrester--who had not failed toremark that the brusque manner of his aide-de-camp was not altogetherunderstood by his charge--taking occasion at parting, to assure thelatter that, with all his eccentricity, he was a kind-hearted man, whomhe had selected to be near him more for his personal courage, zeal, andgeneral liberality of feeling, than for any qualifications of intellecthe possessed.

  The means provided for their transport into the interior were wellassimilated to the dreariness of the country through which they passed.Two common pack-horses, lean, galled by the saddle, and callous fromlong acquaintance with the admonitory influence both of whip and spur,had been selected by Captain Jackson as the best within the fort.Neither were the trappings out of keeping with the steeds they decked.Moth-eaten saddles, almost black with age, beneath which were spreadpieces of dirty blanket to prevent further excoriation of the alreadybared and reeking back--bridles, the original thickness of which hadbeen doubled by the incrustation of mould and dirt that pertinaciouslyadhered to them--stirrups and bits, with their accompanying buckles--theabsence of curb chains being supplied by pieces of rope--all affordedevidence of the wretchedness of resource peculiar to a back settlementpopulation. Over the hard saddles, however, had been strapped theblankets which, when the travellers were fortunate enough to meet with ahut at the close of their day's ride, or, as was more frequently thecase, when compelled to bivouac in the forest before the fire kindled bythe industry of the hardy aide-de-camp, served them as their only couchof rest, while the small leather valise tied to the pummel of thesaddle, and containing their scanty wardrobe, was made to do the duty ofthe absent pillow. The blanket Gerald found to be the greatest advantageof his grotesque equipment--so much so, indeed, that when compelled, bythe heavy rains which took place shortly after their departure, to makeit serve, after the fashion of a backwoodsman, as a covering for hisloins and shoulders, he was obliged to own that his miseries, great asthey were, were yet susceptible of increase.

  Notwithstanding Captain Jackson had taken what he considered to be thebest of the two Rosinantes for himself. Gerald had no reason to deny thecharacter for kind-heartedness given of him by Colonel Forrester.Frequently when winding through some dense forest, or moving over someextensive plain where nothing beyond themselves told of the existence ofman, his companion would endeavor to divert him from the abstraction andmelancholy in which he was usually plunged, and, ascribing hismelancholy to an unreal cause, seek to arouse him by the consolatoryassurance that he was not the first man who had been takenprisoner--adding that there was no use in snivelling, as "what was donecouldn't be undone, and no great harm neither, as there was some aspretty gals in Kaintuck as could be picked out in a day's ride; and thatto a good-looking young fellow like himself, with nothing to do but makelove to them, _that_ ought to be no mean consideration, enabling him, asit would, to while away the tedium of captivity." At other times hewould launch forth into some wild rhapsody, the invention of the moment,or seek to entertain his companion with startling anecdotes connectedwith his encounters with the Indians on the Wabash, (where he hadformerly served) in the course of which much of the marvellous, to callit by the most indulgent term, was necessarily mixed up--not perhapsthat he was quite sensible of this himself, but because he possessed aconstitutional proneness to exaggeration that rendered him even morecredulous of the good things he uttered than those to whom he detailedthem.

  But Gerald heard without being amused, and, although he felt thankfulfor the intention, was distressed that his abstraction should be thesubject of notice, and his despondency the object of care. To avoid thishe frequently suffered Jackson to take the lead, and, following somedistance in the rear with his arms folded and the reins loose upon thehorse's neck, often
ran the risk of having his own neck broken by thefrequent stumbling of the unsure-footed beast. But the Captain as oftenreturned to the charge, for, in addition to a sincere desire to rallyhis companion, he began at length to find it exceedingly irksome totravel with one who neither spoke himself, nor appeared to enjoy speechin another; and when he had amused himself with whistling, singing,hallooing, and cutting a thousand antics with his arms, until he washeartily tired of each of these several diversions, he would rein in hishorse to suffer Gerald to come up, and, after a conciliating offer ofhis rum flask, accompanied by a slice of hung beef that lined the walletdepending from his shoulder, enter upon some new and strange exploit, ofwhich he was as usual the hero. Enforced in a degree to make some returnfor the bribe offered to his patience, Gerald would lend--all hecould--his ear to the tale; but long before the completion he would givesuch evidence of his distraction, as utterly to disconcert the narrator,and cause him finally to have recourse to one of the interludes abovedescribed.

  In this manner they had journeyed some days, when the rains suddenlycommenced with a violence and continued with a pertinacity, that mighthave worn out the cheerfulness of much less impatient spirits than thoseof our travellers, who without any other protection than what wasafforded by the blanket tightly girt around the loins, and fastened overthe shoulders in front of the chest, presented an appearance quite aswild as the waste they traversed. It was in vain that, in order topromote a more rapid circulation, they essayed to urge their jadedbeasts out of the jog-trot in which they had set out. Accustomed to thisfrom the time when they first emerged from colthood into horsehood, theaged steeds, like many aged senators of their day, were determinedenemies to anything like innovation on the long established customs oftheir caste; and, although, unlike the said senators, they were made tobear all the burdens of the state, still did they not suffer themselvesto be driven out of the sluggish habits in which sluggish animals ofevery description seem to feel themselves privileged to indulge. Whipand spur, therefore, were alike applied in vain, as to any acceleratedmotion in themselves; but with this advantage at least to their riders,that while the latter toiled vigorously for an increase of vital warmththrough the instrumentality of their non-complying hacks they found itwhere they least seemed to look for it--in the mingled anger andactivity which kept them at the fruitless task.

  It was at the close of one of those long days of wearying travelthroughout a vast and unsheltered plain--where only here and there rosean occasional cluster of trees, like oases in the desert--that, drenchedto the skin with the steady rain, which commencing at the dawn hadcontinued without a moment's intermission, they arrived at a small loghut, situate on the skirt of a forest forming one of the boundaries ofthe vast savannah they had traversed. Such was the unpromisingappearance of this apology for a human dwelling, that, under any othercircumstances, even the "not very d----d particular" Jackson, as theaide-de-camp often termed himself, would have passed it by withoutstopping; but after a long day's ride, and suffering from the greatestevils to which a traveller can well be subjected--cold, wet andhunger--even so wretched a resting-place as this was not to be despised;and accordingly a determination was formed to stop there for the night.On riding up to the door, it was opened to their knock, when a tallman--apparently its only occupant--came forth, and after viewing thetravellers a moment with a suspicious eye, inquired "what the strangerswanted?"

  "Why I guess," said Jackson, "it doesn't need much conjuration to tellthat. Food and lodging for ourselves, to be sure, and a wisp of hay andtether for our horses. Hospitality, in short; and that's what no trueTennessee man, bred and born, never refused yet--no, not even to anenemy, such a night as this."

  "Then you must go further in search of it," replied the woodsman,surlily. "I don't keep no tavern, and han't got no accommodation; andwhat's more, I reckon I'm no Tennessee man."

  "But any accommodation will do friend. If you havn't got beds, we'llsit up all night, and warm our toes at the fire, and spin long yarns,as they tell in the Eastern sea-ports. Anything but turn a fellow outsuch a night as this."

  "But I say, stranger," returned the man fiercely and determinedly, "Ian't got no room any how, and you shan't bide here."

  "Oh, ho, my old cock! that's the ticket, is it? But you'll see whetheran old stager like me is to be turned out of any man's house such anight as this. I havn't served two campaigns against the Ingins and theBritish for nothing; and here I rest for the night."

  So saying, the determined Jackson coolly dismounted from his horse, andunbuckling the girth, proceeded to deposit the saddle, with the valiseattached to it, within the hut, the door of which still stood open.

  The woodman, perceiving his object, made a movement, as if to bar thepassage; but Jackson with great activity seized him by the wrist of theleft hand, and, all-powerful as the ruffian was, sent him dancing somefew yards in front of the threshold before he was aware of hisintention, or could resist the peculiar _knack_ with which it wasaccomplished. The aide-de-camp, meanwhile, had deposited his saddle in acorner near the fire, and on his return to the door, met theinhospitable woodsman advancing as if to court a personal encounter.

  "Now, I'll tell you what it is, friend," he said calmly, throwing backat the same time the blanket that concealed his uniform and--what wasmore imposing--a brace of large pistols stuck in his belt. "You'd betterhave no nonsense with me, I promise you, or--" and he tapped with thefore finger of his right hand upon the butt of one of them, with anexpression that could not be misunderstood.

  The woodsman seemed little awed by this demonstration. He was evidentlyone on whom it might have been dangerous for one man, however wellarmed, to have forced his presence, so far from every other humanhabitation; and it is probable that his forbearance then arose from thefact of there being two opposed to him, for he glanced rapidly from oneto the other, nor was it until he seemed to have mentally decided thatthe odds of two to one were somewhat unequal, that he at length withdrewhimself out of the doorway, as if in passive assent to the stay he couldnot well prevent.

  "Just so, my old cock," continued Jackson, finding that he had gainedhis point, "and when you speak of this again, don't forget to say it wasa true Tennessee man, bred and born, that gave you a lesson in what noAmerican ever wanted--hospitality to a stranger. Suppose you begin andmake your self useful, by tethering and foddering old spare bones."

  "I reckon as how you've hands as well as me," rejoined the surlywoodsman, "and every man knows the ways of his own beast best. As forfodder, they'll find it on the skirt of the wood, and where natur'planted it."

  Gerald meanwhile, finding victory declare itself in favor of hiscompanion, had followed his example and entered the hut with his saddle.As he again quitted it, a sudden flash of light from the fire, whichJackson was then in the act of stirring, fell upon the countenance ofthe woodsman who stood without, his arms folded and his brow scowling,as if planning some revenge for the humiliation to which he had beensubjected. In the indistinct dusk of the evening Grantham had not beenable to remark more than the outline of the figure; but the voice struckhim as one not unknown to him, although somewhat harsher in its tonesthan that which his faint recollection of the past supplied. The glancehe had now obtained, momentary as it was, put every doubt to rest. Whathis feelings were in recognising in the woodsman the traitor settler ofthe Canadas, Jeremiah Desborough, we leave to our readers to infer.