Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency

by John Pendleton Kennedy

  CHAPTER XXX.

  All distant and faint were the sounds of the battle; With the breezes they rise, with the breezes they fail, Till the shout and the groan and the conflict's dread rattle, And the chase's wild clamor come loading the gale.

  THE MAID OF TORO.

  In the confusion that ensued upon the defeat of Innis, James Currysucceeded in conducting Butler from the field. His orders were toretreat with the prisoner to Blackstock's; and he had accordingly setout with about a dozen troopers, by a private path that led towards aquarter secure from the molestation of the enemy, when the attackcommenced. Butler was mounted behind one of the men, and in this uneasycondition was borne along the circuitous by-way that had been chosen,without a moment's respite from the severe motion of the horse, nearlyat high speed, until, having accomplished three miles of the retreat,the party arrived at the main road that extended between Innis's campand Blackstock's. Here Curry, conceiving himself to be out of danger ofpursuit, halted his men, with a purpose to remain until he could learnsomething of the combat. Butler was in a state of the most excitingbewilderment as to the cause of this sudden change in his affairs. Noexplanation was given to him by his conductors; and although, from thefirst, he was aware that an extraordinary emergency had arisen from someassault upon Innis's position, no one dropped a word in his hearing togive him the slightest clue to the nature of the attack. The troopersabout him preserved a morose and ill-natured silence, and evenmanifested towards him a harsh and resentful demeanor. He heard thefiring, but what troops were engaged, by whom led, or with what chancesof success, were subjects of the most painfully interesting doubt. Hecould only conjecture that this was a surprise accomplished by theWhigs, and that the assailants must have come in sufficient force tojustify the boldness of the enterprise. That Horse Shoe was connectedwith this irruption he felt fully assured; and from this circumstance hegathered the consolatory and cheerful prognostic of a better issue outof his afflictions than, in his late condition, seemed even remotelypossible. This hope grew brighter as the din of battle brought thetidings of the day to his ear. The first few scattered shots thattold of the confusion in which the combat was begun, were, after aninterval, succeeded by regular volleys of musketry that indicated anorderly and marshalled resistance. Platoon after platoon fired insuccession--signifying, to the practised hearing of the soldier, thatinfantry was receiving the attacks of cavalry, and that as yet the firsthad not faltered. Then the firing grew more slack, and random shots weredischarged from various quarters--but amidst these were heard noembodied volleys. It was the casual and nearly overpowered resistance offlying men.

  At this juncture there was a dark frown on the brow of Curry, as helooked at his comrades, and said, in a low and muttered tone, "Thathelter-skelter shot grates cursedly on the ear. There's ill-luck in thesound of it."

  Presently a few stragglers appeared at a turn of the road, some quarterof a mile in the direction of the battle, urging their horses forward atthe top of their speed. These were followed by groups both of infantryand cavalry, pressing onwards in the utmost disorder--those on horsebackthrusting their way through the throng of foot-soldiers, seeminglyregardless of life or limb; the wounded with their wounds bleedingafresh, or hastily bandaged with such appliances as were at hand. Allhurried along amidst the oaths, remonstrances, and unheeded orders ofthe officers, who were endeavoring to resume their commands. It was theflight of men beset by a panic, and fearful of pursuit; and the cloudsof dust raised by the press and hurry of this career almost obscured thesetting sun.

  During the first moments of uncertainty, Curry, no less anxiously thanButler, remained stationary by the road-side, reading the distant signsof the progress of the fight; but now, when the disastrous issue was nolonger doubtful, he commanded his cavalcade to move forward, and fromthat moment prosecuted his journey with unabated speed until he arrivedat Blackstock's.

  Butler was unceremoniously marched to his former place of confinementin the barn, where a rigorous guard was set over his person. In theconfusion and insubordination that prevailed amongst the crowd, that,during the night, was continually increasing in the little hamlet, thecommon rites of humanity towards the prisoner were forgotten, and he wasleft to pass the weary hours till morning, on a shock of hay, withoutfood or other refreshment than a simple draught of water. From theunreserved murmurs of those who frequented the place, and the querulousupbraidings of the soldiery against each other, Butler was enabled toglean the principal incidents of the day. The supposed death of Innisreached him through this channel, and, what was scarcely a subject ofless personal interest to him, the certain end of Hugh Habershaw. It waswith a silent satisfaction at the moral or _poetical_ justice--as it hasbeen called--of the event, that he heard the comrades of the lateself-conceited captain describe his death in terms of coarse andunpitying ribaldry--a retribution due to the memory of a cruel andcowardly braggart.

  When the morning was fully abroad, the disarranged and broken remnantsof the Tory camp began gradually to be reduced to a state of discipline.The day was spent in this occupation. Orders were every moment arrivingfrom the higher officers of the late camp, or from the nearest Britishposts. Videttes bore the tidings of the different military operationsfrom the neighborhood of the enemy. The fragments of companies weremarshalled into squads and subdivisions; and, successively, one partyafter another was seen to leave the hamlet, and take a direction ofmarch that led towards the main British army, or to the garrisons of thelower districts.

  Towards the close of the day one detachment only was left; and Butlerwas given to understand that this was intrusted with his especialkeeping. It was composed of a few regular soldiers of the garrison ofNinety-Six, and a small number of the country militia,--making, in all,about twenty men, commanded by Lieutenant Macdonald, of the regulararmy.

  Butler remained in his present state of seclusion four or five days,during which he experienced much mitigation of the rigors of hiscaptivity. Macdonald was a careful and considerate soldier, and demeanedhimself towards his prisoner with such kindness as the nature of histrust allowed. He removed him into a comfortable apartment in thedwelling-house, and supplied him with the conveniences his situationrequired; he even made him occasional visits, which were attended withmore than the mere observances of courtesy and respect, and expressed asympathy in his sufferings.

  These unexpected tones of comfort, from a quarter in which Butler hadhitherto heard nothing but fierce hatred and harsh rebuke, fellgratefully upon his ear, and gave a brighter color to his hopes for thefuture. But he could not help observing, that no hint was dropped byMacdonald which might furnish him the slightest ground of surmise as tothe vicissitudes that yet awaited him. The reported fall of Innis seemedto afford a natural foundation for the belief, that the malice of hisenemies might hereafter be less active,--as he attributed much of thepersecution he had suffered to the secret machinations of thatindividual. He no longer saw around his person those agents who firstpursued him with such bitter hostility. He seemed to have fallen intoentirely new combinations, and had reason to augur, from all he saw,that their purposes against him were less wicked. And first, above allother topics of consolation and comfort, was the conviction that a braveand efficient party of friends were in the field, intent upon hisliberation. Still, his situation was one in which it required all hismanhood to sustain himself. A young soldier of an ardent temper, andzealously bent upon active and perilous service, can ill brook thetedious, dull delays of captivity, even in its mildest form: but if thisthraldom befal in a period of universal agitation, when "great eventsare on the gale," of which the captive is only a witness to thepervading interest they excite, without being permitted to know theirimport; if moreover, as in the case of Butler, an impenetrable veil ofmystery hang over the purpose of his captivity, behind which the fewshort glimpses afforded him, open upon his view nothing but death in itsmost frightful forms; and if to these are added, by far the bitterest ofits qualities, the anxieties, cares, and pains of
a devoted, plightedlover, separated from the heart that loves him, we may well conjecturethat the most gallant spirit may find in it, even amidst occasionalgleams of sunshine, that sinking of hope which the philosophic king ofIsrael has described as making "the heart sick,"--that chafing of thesoul that, like the encaged eaglet, wearies and tears its wing againstthe bars of its prison. Even so fared it with Arthur Butler, who nowfound himself growing more and more into the shadow of a melancholytemper.

  It was soon ascertained that Williams had abandoned the field he hadwon, and had retreated beyond the reach of immediate pursuit. And as thepost at Musgrove's mill afforded many advantages, in reference to themeans of communicating with the garrisons of the middle section of theprovince, and was more secure against the hazard of molestation fromsuch parties of Whigs as might still be out-lying, an order was sent toMacdonald to remove with his prisoner to the habitation of the miller,and there to detain him until some final step should be taken in hiscase.

  In pursuance of this requisition, Butler was conducted, after theinterval of the few days we have mentioned, to Allen Musgrove's. The oldman received his guest with that submission to the domination of themilitary masters of the province, which he had prescribed to himselfthroughout the contest,--secretly rejoicing that the selection made ofhis house for this purpose, might put it in his power to alleviate thesufferings of a soldier, towards whose cause he felt a decided thoughunavowed attachment. This selection furnished evidence to the miller,that nothing had transpired to arouse the distrust of the Britishauthorities in the loyalty of any part of his family,--and to Butler, itinferred the consolatory fact, that the zealous devotion of MaryMusgrove to his service had as yet passed without notice; whilst to themaiden herself, it was proof that her agency in the delivery of theletter, which she had so adroitly put within the reach of the officersof the court, had not even excited a suspicion against her.

  The best room in the house was allotted to the prisoner; and the mostsedulous attention on the part of the family, so far as it could beadministered without inducing mistrust, was employed in supplying himwith whatever was needful to his condition. On the part of thecommanding officer, the usual precautions known to military experiencefor the safe keeping of a prisoner were adopted. The privates of theguard occupied the barn, whilst Macdonald and one or two subordinateofficers took up their quarters in the dwelling-house: sentinels wereposted at the several avenues leading to the habitation, and a sergeanthad the especial care of the prisoner, who, under this supervision, wasoccasionally allowed the range of the garden. The usual forms of a camppolice were observed with scrupulous exactness;--and the morning and thenightly drum, the parade, the changing of sentries, the ringing oframrods in the empty barrels of the muskets, and the glitter of weapons,were strangely and curiously associated with the rural and unwarlikefeatures of the scenery around.