Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American Tale
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we have made a fine haul this trip."----"Yes, but poor Bob,though, was plump'd over by the d----d skulkers!"----"Aye, and had wenot tugged bravely at the oars, they would have hook'd us."----"Rascallycow-boys detained us too long."----"Well, never mind it; let us knockaround the wine, and then divide the spoil."
At this moment, Alonzo and Edgar, followed by the five men, rushed intothe room, crying. "_Surrender, or you are all dead men!_" In an instantthe room was involved in pitchy darkness; a loud crash was heard, then ascampering about the floor, and a noise as if several doors shut to,with violence. They however gave the alarm to the men without, by loudlyshouting "_Look out_;" and immediately the discharge of several guns washeard around the mansion. One of the men flew up stairs and brought alight; but, to their utter amazement, no person was to be discovered inthe room except their own party. The table, with its apparatus, and thechairs on which these now invisible beings had sat, had disappeared, nota single trace of them being left.
While they stood petrified with astonishment, the men from withoutcalled for admittance. The door being unlocked, they led in a strangerwounded, whom they immediately discovered to be one of those they hadseen at the table.
The men who had been stationed around the mansion informed, that sometime before the alarm was made, they saw a number of persons crossingthe yard from the western part of the enclosure, towards the house; thatimmediately after the shout was given, they discovered several peoplerunning back in the same direction: they hailed them, which beingdisregarded, they fired upon them, one of whom they brought down, whichwas the wounded man they had brought in. The others, though they pursuedthem, got off.
The prisoner's wound was not dangerous, the ball had shattered his arm,and glanced upon his breast. They dressed his wound as well as theycould, and then requested him to unfold the circumstances of thesuspicious appearance in which he was involved.
"First promise me, on your honour, said the stranger, that you will useyour influence to prevent my being punished or imprisoned."
This they readily agreed to, on condition that he would conceal nothingfrom them--and he gave them the following relation:
That they were a part of a gang of _illicit traders_; men who hadcombined for the purpose of carrying on a secret and illegal commercewith the British army on Long Island, whom, contrary to the existinglaws, they supplied with provisions, and brought off English goods,which they sold at very extortionate prices. But this was not all; theyalso brought over large quantities of counterfeit continental money,which they put off among the Americans for live stock, poultry, produce,&c. which they carried to the Island. The counterfeit money theypurchased by merely paying for the printing; the British having obtainedcopies of the American emission, struck immense quantities of it inNew-York, and insidiously sent it out into the country, in order to sinkour currency.
This gang was likewise connected with the cow-boys, who made it theirbusiness to steal, not only milch cows, and other cattle, but also hogsand sheep, which they drove by night to some convenient place on theshores of the Sound, where these _thief-partners_ received them, andconveyed them to the British.
"In our excursions across the Sound, continued the wounded man, we hadfrequently observed this mansion, which, from every appearance, we wereconvinced was uninhabited:--we therefore selected it as a suitable placefor our future rendezvous, which had therefore been only in the openwoods. To cross the moat, we dragged up an old canoe from the sea shore,which we concealed in the bushes as soon as we recrossed from the oldmansion. To get over the wall we used ladders of ropes, placing a flatof thick board on the top of the spikes driven into the wall. We foundmore difficulty in getting into the house:--we however at lengthsucceeded, by tearing away a part of the back wall, where we fitted in adoor so exactly, and so nicely painted it, that it could not bedistinguished from the wall itself. This door was so constructed, thaton touching a spring, it would fly open, and when unrestrained, wouldshut to with violence. Finding the apartment so eligible for ourpurpose, and fearing that at some future time we might be disturbedeither by the owner of the building or some tenant, we cut similar doorsinto every room of the house, so that on an emergency we could traverseevery apartment without access to the known doors. Trap-doors on asimilar construction, communicated with the cellar:--the table, whichyou saw us sitting around, stood on one of those, which, on your abruptappearance, as soon as the candles were extinguished, was with itscontents, precipitated below, and we made our escape by those secretdoors, judging, that although you had seen us, if we could get off, youwould be unable to find out any thing which might lead to our discovery.
"A circumstance soon occurred, which tended to embarrass our plans, andat first seemed to menace their overthrow. Our assembling at the mansionwas irregular, as occasion and circumstances required; often not morethan once a week, but sometimes more frequent, and always in thenight.--Late one night, as we were proceeding to the mansion, and hadarrived near it, suddenly one of the chamber windows was opened and alight issued from within. We entered the house with caution, and soondiscovered that some person was in the chamber from whence we had seenthe light. We remained until all was silent, and then entered thechamber by one of our secret doors, and to our inexpressible surprise,beheld a beautiful young lady asleep on the only bed in the room. Wecautiously retired, and reconnoitering all parts of the mansion, foundthat she was the only inhabitant except ourselves. The singularity ofher being there alone, is a circumstance we have never been able todiscover, but it gave us fair hopes of easily procuring her ejectment.We then immediately withdrew, and made preparations to dispossess thefair tenant of the premises to which we considered ourselves moreproperly entitled, as possessing a prior incumbency.
"We did not effect the completion of our apparatus under three or fourdays. As soon as we were prepared, we returned to the mansion. As weapproached the house, it appears the lady heard us, for again shesuddenly flung up a window and held out a candle: we skulked from thelight, but feared she had a glimpse of us.--After we had got into thehouse we were still until we supposed her to be asleep, which we foundto be the case on going to her chamber.
"We then stationed one near her bed, who, by a loud rap on the floorwith a cane, appeared to arouse her in a fright. Loud noises were thenmade below, and some of them ran heavily up the stairs which led to herchamber; the person stationed in the room whispering near her bed--sheraised herself up, and he fled behind the curtains. Soon after she againlay down; he approached nearer the bed with a design to lay his hand,on which he had drawn a thin sheet-lead glove, across her face; butdiscovering her arm on the out side of the bedclothes, he graspedit--she screamed and sprang up in the bed; the man then left the room.
"As it was not our intention to injure the lady, but only to drive herfrom the house, we concluded we had sufficiently alarmed her, and havingextinguished the lights, were about to depart, when we heard herdescending the stairs. She came down and examined the doors, when one ofour party, in a loud whisper, crying "_away! away_;" she darted upstairs, and we left the house.
"We did not return the next night, in order to give her time to get off;but the night after we again repaired to the mansion, expecting that shehad gone, but we were disappointed. As it was late when we arrived, shewas wrapped in sleep, and we found that more forcible measures must beresorted to before we could remove her, and for such measures we wereamply prepared."
The stranger then unfolded the mysteries of that awful night, whenMelissa was so terrified by horrible appearances. One of the tallest andmost robust of the gang, was attired, as has been described, when heappeared by her bed side. The white robe was an old sheet, stained insome parts with a liquid red mixture; the wound in his breast wasartificial, and the blood issuing therefrom was only some of thismixture, pressed from a small bladder, concealed under his robe. On hishead and face he wore a mask, with glass eyes----the mask was painted tosuit their purposes. The bloody dagger was of wood, and painted.
Thus accoutred, he took
his stand near Melissa's bed, having first blownout the candles she had left burning, and discharged a small pistol.Perceiving this had awakened her, a train of powder was fired in theadjoining room opposite the secret door, which was left open, in orderthat the flash might illuminate her apartment; then several large cannonballs were rolled through the rooms over her head, imitative of thunder.The person in her room then uttered a horrible groan, and gliding alongby her bed, took his stand behind the curtains, near the foot. Thenoises below, the cry of murder, the firing of the second pistol, andthe running up stairs, were all corresponding scenes to impress terroron her imagination. The pretended ghost then advanced in front of herbed, while lights were slowly introduced, which first shone faintly,until they were ushered into the room by the private door, exhibitingthe person before her in all his horrific appearances. On her shrieking,and