CHAPTER XLI.
Our fortress is the good green wood, Our tent the cypress tree, We know the forest round us As seamen know the sea.
We know its walls of thorny vines, Its glades of reedy grass, Its safe and silent islands Within the dark morass.--BRYANT.
The faithful Horse Shoe being thus left to himself, replenished hispipe, and, taking his rifle in his hand, paced to and fro upon theborder of the road, holding communion with his own thoughts, carefullyweighing the probabilities connected with his present singularexpedition, and revolving, after his own fashion, the fortunes of ArthurButler and Mildred Lindsay.
It was within an hour of midnight, when the sergeant's meditations wereinterrupted by the tramp of a horse approaching the hut at a gallop. Buta few moments elapsed before a traveller, who, in the starlight, HorseShoe could discern to be armed, drew up his rein immediately at the doorof the dwelling, against which he struck several blows with his weapon,calling out loudly at the same time--
"Mistress Wingate--for God's sake, open your door quickly! I have newsto tell you, good woman."
"In the name of mercy! who are you?" exclaimed the voice of the damewithin, whilst a note of alarm was also heard from her fellow-lodger.
"What do you mean by this racket and clatter?" demanded Horse Shoe, inthe midst of the uproar, at the same time laying his hand upon thestranger's bridle rein. "What brings you here, sir?--stand back; thewomen in that house are under my charge, and I won't have themdisturbed."
"If you are a friend to Mistress Wingate," said the horseman, sternly,"speak the word; if an enemy, I will shiver your skull with the butt ofmy musket."
"Don't be rash, good fellow," replied Horse Shoe; "I take it you and meare on the same side. What's afoot that you stir in such a hurry?"
"The Tories are afoot--the devil's afoot! Open, Mistress Wingate--opento Dick Peyton!"
"The Lord preserve us!" ejaculated the mistress of the hovel, as sheopened the door; "Bloody Spur, is it you? What ill luck brings you hereto-night?"
"A gang of Tories, Mistress Wingate, from the Black River, under thatcut-throat Fanning, crossed Pedee this morning at Lowder's Lake. Theyhave been thieving and burning as far as Waggamaw, and are now on theroad home by the upper ferry. They will be along here in less than halfan hour. Your husband, Bob Wingate, and myself, were sent out by GeneralMarion this morning, to reconnoitre the roads. We fell in with theruffians, after sunset, below Lumberton, and have tracked them up here.Bob has got a pistol-shot through his arm. He was lucky enough, however,to escape their clutches; but believing they had a spite against him,and would ride past his house to-night, he told me to call and give youwarning, and to help you to drive the cattle back into the swamp."
"How many mought there be, friend?" asked Horse Shoe, calmly.
"Between two and three hundred, at least," said the trooper; "we countedfifty in the vanguard--those that followed made a long column of march.They have stolen a good many horses and cattle, all of which are withthem, and several prisoners."
"What, ho!--Isaac, Henry Lindsay; fall to, and saddle, boys," shoutedHorse Shoe. "Miss Mildred, it will not do to stand. I am sorry to breakin upon your rest, but you must be ready to move in a few minutes."
Everything about the hut was now in confusion. Henry and the sergeantwere equipping the horses, whilst Isaac was gathering up the baggage.Bloody Spur--to adopt the rider's _nom de guerre_--had dismounted, andwas busy in removing the few articles of value from the hut; the motherand children, meanwhile, were pouring forth loud lamentations.
Mildred, in the midst of this scene of uproar, hurriedly made herpreparations for departure; and whilst she was yet engaged in this care,a confused murmur was heard, at some distance up the road--and therattle of sabres, as well as the hoarse voice and abrupt laughter ofmen, announced that the freebooters were at no great distance from thedwelling.
"Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Mildred, giving way for the first time toher fears; "they are fast approaching, and we shall be captured."
"Sister," said Henry, with scarcely less alarm, "I will die by yourside, before they shall hurt a hair of your head."
Horse Shoe, who at this moment was tightening the girths of Mildred'ssaddle, paused for an instant to listen, and then said:
"The wind is north-east, young lady, and the voice sounds far to-night.One could hardly expect you to be cool when one of these night-frays iscoming on, but there's no occasion to be frightened. Now, ma'am, if youplease, I'll heave you into your seat. There," continued the sergeant,setting Mildred upon her horse, "you have got four good legs under you,and by a fair use of them will be as safe as a crowned king. MisterHenry, mount, and ride with your sister slowly down the road, till Iovertake you."
Henry obeyed the order.
"Is the portmanteau and the rest of the baggage all safe, Isaac? Don'tbe flurried, you old sinner, but look about you, before you start off."
"All safe," replied the negro.
"Up and follow your master, then. Hark you, Mr. Bloody Spur," said HorseShoe, as Isaac rode off, to the trooper, who was still actively employedin turning the cattle loose from the inclosure, "what is the best roadhereabouts for my squad to keep out of the way of these bullies?"
"About a mile from here, take a road that strikes into the woods, uponyour right hand," answered the trooper hastily, "it will lead you up theriver to the falls of Pedee. If you should meet any of Marion's men,tell them what you have seen; and say Dick Peyton will be along closeafter you."
"Where is Marion?" asked the sergeant, mounting his horse.
"What man that knows Frank Marion could ever answer that question?" saidthe trooper. "He is everywhere, friend. But you have no time to lose: beoff."
As Bloody Spur said this, he disappeared, driving the cattle before him;whilst the mother, laden with an infant and as many pieces of furnitureas she could carry, and followed by her terrified children, fled towardsthe neighboring thicket.
Horse Shoe in a few moments overtook his companions, and, urging themforward at a rapid flight, soon reached the diverging road, along whichthey journeyed with unabated speed for upwards of a mile.
"How do you bear it, sister?" asked Henry, with concern.
"Ah, brother, with a sore heart to be made so painfully acquainted withthese frightful scenes. I lose all thought of my own annoyance, inseeing the calamities that are heaped upon the unoffending family of aman who dares to draw his sword for his country."
"Yes, ma'am," said Horse Shoe, gravely, "these incarnivorous devils havebroken the rest of many a good woman in the Carolinas, before theyrouted you out to-night, ma'am. But it is one of God's marcies to seehow you keep up under it."
"Mine's a trifling grievance, good sergeant: I lose but a little repose:that poor mother flies to save her children, uncertain, perhaps, ofto-morrow's subsistence; and her husband's life is in daily peril. It isa sad lot. Yet truly," added Mildred with a sigh, "mine is scarcelybetter. Gracious heaven!" she exclaimed, looking behind her, "they haveset fire to the dwelling!"
In the quarter to which she directed her eyes, the horizon was alreadyilluminated with the blaze of Wingate's hut. The light grew brighter fora short interval, and brought into bold relief upon the sky, the tall,dark forms of the stately pines of which the forest was composed.
"They are fools as well as villains," said Horse Shoe, with an angryvehemence; "they have had liquor to-night, or they would hardly kindleup a blaze which should rouse every Whig on Pedee to track them likehounds. It would be sport worth riding to look at, if Marion should geta glimpse of that fire. But these wolves have grown obstropolous eversince Horatio Gates made his fox paw at Camden."
"Oh, it is a most savage war," said Mildred, "that roots up the humblehearth, and fires the lowly roof, where none but defenceless women andchildren abide. I shudder to think of such wanton barbarity."
"There's the thing, Miss Lindsay, that turns all our blood bitter. Manto man is fair game, all the world
over: but this ere stealing ofcattle, and burning of houses, and even cutting up by the roots theplants of the 'arth, and turning of women and children naked into theswamps, in the dead of night! it's a sorry business to tell of aChristian people, and a cowardly business for a nation that's a boastingof its bravery."
The light of the conflagration had soon died away, and our wandererspursued their solitary road in darkness, ignorant of the country throughwhich they passed, and uncertain of the point to which they tended. Afull hour had gone by in this state of suspense, and Robinson had oncemore resolved to make a halt, and encamp his party in the woods. Before,however, he could put this design into execution, he was unexpectedlychallenged, from the road-side, with the military demand of--"Who goesthere?"
"Travellers," was the reply.
"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"
"The first question I can answer," said Horse Shoe, "and that is, fromOld Virginny, a fortnight ago, but, to-night, from a tolerable snuglodging, where some onmannerly fellows troubled our sleep. But as towhere we're going, it's more likely you can tell that for us."
"You are saucy, sir."
"It's more than I meant to be," replied the sergeant. "Mayhap you moughthave hearn of a man they call Bloody Spur?"
"He has pricked your pillows for you--has he? Dick Peyton is good atthat," said a second questioner.
"Aha, comrades, I understand you now," said Horse Shoe, with alacrity."Dick Peyton and Bob Wingate both belong to your party. Am I right? Weare friends to Marion."
"And therefore friends to us," said the patrole. "Your name, sir, andthe number you have in company?"
"Take us to the general, and we will answer that," replied Horse Shoe."The Tories have set upon Wingate's house and burnt it to the ground.It's like we may be able to tell something worth hearing athead-quarters. Your man Bloody Spur gave us in charge to report him, andto say that he would soon follow upon our track. I wonder that he isn'there before now."
"I will remain," said one of the soldiers to his companion; "you shalltake charge of the travellers."
The trooper accordingly turned his horse's head and commanded Horse Shoeand his party to follow.
The scout conducted our adventurers along a by-road that led round thehead of a marsh, and through several thickets which, in the darkness ofthe night, were penetrated with great difficulty; during this ride heinterrogated Horse Shoe as to the events of the late inroad of theTories. He and his comrade had been stationed upon the path where thesergeant encountered them, to direct the out-riding parties of his corpsto the spot of Marion's encampment, the policy of this wary officerbeing to shift his station so frequently as almost equally to defy thesearch of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and thetrooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to thecommanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formeda bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order hisreconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, wherevidettes were directed to repair in order to inform them of hisposition,--a fact which, as his movements were accomplished withwonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertainin any other way.
At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by theplash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance ofthe scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, risingby a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dryground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacentswamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last halfmile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of thewood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men andhorses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses werepicketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array ofsaddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, thatwere hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as theycaught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified innumber equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seenpacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodiesof patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularityof military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, orawaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sattogether amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, moreappropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upontheir grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.
"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with aninvoluntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"
"Sister, I wish you were at home," said Henry, eagerly, "and Steve and Ihad the Rangers on this field to-night. I would undertake to command apicket with any man here!"
To Horse Shoe these were familiar scenes, and he could not comprehendthe source of that sudden interest which had so vividly aroused theadmiration of his companions; but asking the guide to conduct themimmediately to General Marion, he followed the soldier across the wholeextent of the bivouac, until they halted beneath a large tree, nearwhich a few officers were assembled. One of this group was seated on theground; and close by him, planted in the soil, a blazing pine-faggotflung a broad light upon a saddle, the flap of which the officer hadconverted, for the occasion, into a writing-desk.
"Make way for a squad of travellers picked up on the road to-night,"said the scout in a loud voice. "They wish to see General Marion."
In a moment our party was surrounded by the officers; and Horse Shoe,unceremoniously dismounting, addressed the person nearest to him:--
"A lady, sir, from Virginia, that I started with from her father'shouse, to fetch to Carolina; but who has been most audaciously unhousedand unbedded in the very middle of the night by a hellish pack ofTories."
"My name is Lindsay, sir," said Henry, riding to the front; "my sisterand myself were travelling south, and have been obliged to fly,to-night, before a detachment of horse-stealers."
"From Bob Wingate's," said Horse Shoe, "as I should judge, some sixmiles back. I want to report to General Marion: the lady, likewise, istired, as she has good right to be."
The officer to whom this was addressed, directed a soldier to seekGeneral Marion, and then approaching Mildred, said:
"Madam, we can promise but little accommodation suitable to a lady: thegreenwood tree is but an uncouth resting-place: but what we can supplyshall be heartily at your service."
"I feel sufficiently thankful," replied Mildred, "to know that I am inthe hands of friends."
"Sister, alight," said Henry, who now stood beside her stirrup, andoffered his hand: and in a moment Mildred was on her feet.
The officer then conducted her to a bank, upon which a few blankets werethrown by some of the soldiers in attendance. "If this strange placedoes not alarm you," he said, "you may perhaps find needful repose upona couch even as rough as this."
"You are very kind," replied Mildred, seating herself. "Brother, do notquit my side," she added, in a low voice: "I feel foolishly afraid."
But a few moments elapsed before the light of the torches, gleaming uponhis figure, disclosed to Mildred the approach of a person of shortstature and delicate frame, in whose step there was a singular alertnessand rapidity. He wore the blue and buff uniform of the staff, with apair of epaulets, a buckskin belt, and broadsword. A three-corneredcocked-hat, ornamented with a buck-tail, gave a peculiar sharpness tohis naturally sharp and decided features; and a pair of small, dark eyestwinkled in the firelight, from a countenance originally sallow, but nowswarthy from sun and wind. There was a conspicuous alacrity and courtesyin the gay and chivalrous tone in which he accosted Mildred:
"General Marion, madam, is too happy to have his poor camp honored bythe visit of a lad
y. They tell me that the Tories were so uncivil as tobreak in upon your slumbers to-night. It adds greatly to my grudgeagainst them."
"I have ventured," said Mildred, "into the field of war, and it does notbecome me to complain that I have met its vicissitudes."
"Gallantly spoken, madam! May I be allowed to know to whom I am indebtedfor the honor of this visit?"
"My name is Lindsay, my father resides at the Dove Cote in Virginia:under the protection of my brother and a friend, I left home to travelinto Carolina."
"A long journey, madam," interrupted Marion; "and you have been sadlyvexed to-night, I learn. We have a rude and unquiet country."
"My sister and myself," said Henry, "counted the chances before we setout."
"I would call you but an inexperienced guide, sir," said the General,addressing Henry, and smiling.
"Oh, as to that," replied the youth, "we have an old soldier withus--Horse Shoe Robinson--hem--Stephen Foster, I meant to say."
"Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Marion, "where is he?"
"Mr. Henry Lindsay, General, and me," said the sergeant, bluntly, "havebeen practising a lie to tell the Tories, in case they should take usunawares; but it sticks, you see, in both of our throats. It's the truefact that I'm Horse Shoe himself. This calling me Stephen Foster is onlya hanging out of false colors for the benefit of the red-coats andTories, upon occasion."
"Horse Shoe, good fellow, your hand," said Marion, with vivacity, "Ihave heard of you before. Miss Lindsay, excuse me, if you please; I havebusiness to-night which is apt impertinently to thrust itself between usand our duty to the ladies. Richards," he continued, addressing a youngofficer who stood near him, "see if you can find some refreshment thatwould be acceptable to the lady and her brother. Horse Shoe, this way: Iwould speak with you."
Marion now retired towards the place where the writing materials werefirst noticed, and entered into an examination of the sergeant, as tothe particulars of the recent attack upon Wingate's cabin.
Before Robinson had finished his narrative of the events of the night, ahorseman dashed up almost at full speed to the spot where Marion stood,and, flinging himself from his saddle, whilst his horse stood pantingbeside him, asked for the General.
"How now, Bloody Spur! What's the news?" demanded Marion.
"The Black River hawks are flying," said the soldier.
"I have heard that already," interrupted the chieftain. "Tell me whatelse."
"I stayed long enough to secure Wingate's cattle, and then set out forthe river to cut loose the boats at the Ferry. I did it in good time.Four files followed close upon my heels, who had been sent ahead to makesure of the means of crossing. The fellows found me after my work wasdone, and chased me good three miles. They will hardly venture, General,to swim the river to-night, with all the thievery they have in theirhands; and I rather take it they will halt at the ferry till daylight."
"Then that's a lucky cast, Dick Peyton," exclaimed Marion. "Ho, there!Peters, wake up that snoring trumpeter. Tell him to sound 'to saddle.'Come lads, up, up. Gentlemen, to your duties!"
Forthwith the trumpet sounded, and with its notes everything asleepstarted erect. Troopers were seen hurrying across the ground in rapidmotion: some hastily buckling on broadswords and slinging their muskets;others equipping the horses; and everywhere torches were seen passing toand fro in all the agitation of a sudden muster. As soon as Marion hadset this mass in action, he repaired to Mildred, and in a manner thatbetokened no excitement from the general stir around him, he said--
"I owe you an apology, Miss Lindsay, for this desertion, which I am sureyou will excuse when you know that it is caused by my desire to punishthe varlets who were so ill-mannered as to intrude upon your slumbers. Ihope, however, you will not be a loser by the withdrawal of our people,as I will take measures to put you under the protection of a good friendof mine, the widow of a worthy soldier, Mistress Rachel Markham, wholives but two miles from this, and whose hospitable mansion will affordyou a shelter more congenial to your wishes than this broad canopy ofours. A guide shall be ready to conduct you."
"Your kindness, general," said Mildred, "puts me under manyobligations."
"Horse Shoe shall take a line of explanation to my friend," addedMarion. "And now, madam, farewell," he said, offering his hand. "Andyou, Master or Mister Henry, I don't know which--you seem entitled toboth--good night, my brave lad: I hope, before long, to hear of yourfiguring as a gallant soldier of independence."
"I hope as much myself," replied Henry.
Marion withdrew, and by the time that he had prepared the letter and putit into Horse Shoe's hands, his troops were in line, waiting their orderto march. The general mounted a spirited charger, and galloping to thefront of his men, wheeled them into column, and, by a rapid movement,soon left Horse Shoe and his little party, attended by one trooper whohad been left as a guide, the only tenants of this lately so busy scene.The change seemed almost like enchantment. The fires and many torcheswere yet burning, but all was still, except the distant murmur of thereceding troops, which grew less and less, until, at last, there reignedthe silence of the native forest.
Our travellers waited, almost without exchanging a word, absorbed in thecontemplation of an incident so novel to Mildred and her brother, untilthe distant tramp of the cavalry could be no longer heard: then, underthe direction of the guide, they set out for the residence of Mrs.Markham.
Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency Page 43