CHAPTER XXXIX.
"Selictar! unsheathe then our chief's scimetar; Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of war; Ye mountains! that see us descend to the shore, Shall view us as victors, or view us no more." --Byron.
The heavy showers that prevailed during the remainder of the daycompletely stopped the progress of the flames; though glimmering fireswere observed during the night, on different parts of the hill, whereverthere was a collection of fuel to feed the element. The next day thewoods for 'many miles were black and smoking, and were stripped of everyvestige of brush and dead wood; but the pines and hemlocks still rearedtheir heads proudly among the hills, and even the smaller trees of theforest retained a feeble appearance of life and vegetation.
The many tongues of rumor were busy in exaggerating the miraculousescape of Elizabeth; and a report was generally credited, that Moheganhad actually perished in the flames. This belief became confirmed, andwas indeed rendered probable, when the direful intelligence reached thevillage that Jotham Riddel, the miner, was found in his hole, nearlydead with suffocation, and burnt to such a degree that no hopes wereentertained of his life.
The public attention became much alive to the events of the last fewdays; and, just at this crisis, the convicted counterfeiters took thehint from Natty, and, on the night succeeding the fire, found means tocut through their log prison also, and to escape unpunished. When thisnews began to circulate through the village, blended with the fate ofJotham, and the exaggerated and tortured reports of the events on thehill, the popular opinion was freely expressed, as to the propriety ofseizing such of the fugitives as remained within reach. Men talked ofthe cave as a secret receptacle of guilt; and, as the rumor of oresand metals found its way into the confused medley of conjectures,counterfeiting, and everything else that was wicked and dangerous tothe peace of society, suggested themselves to the busy fancies of thepopulace.
While the public mind was in this feverish state, it was hinted thatthe wood had been set on fire by Edwards and the Leather-Stocking, andthat, consequently, they alone were responsible for the damages. Thisopinion soon gained ground, being most circulated by those who, by theirown heedlessness, had caused the evil; and there was one irresistibleburst of the common sentiment that an attempt should be made to punishthe offenders. Richard was by no means deaf to this appeal, and by noonhe set about in earnest to see the laws executed.
Several stout young men were selected, and taken apart with anappearance of secrecy, where they received some important charge fromthe sheriff, immediately under the eyes, but far removed from the ears,of all in the village. Possessed of a knowledge of their duty, theseyouths hurried into the hills, with a bustling manner, as if the fateof the world depended on their diligence, and, at the same time, with anair of mystery as great as if they were engaged on secret matters of thestate.
At twelve precisely a drum beat the "long roll" before the "BoldDragoon," and Richard appeared, accompanied by Captain Hollister, whowas clad in Investments as commander of the "Templeton Light Infantry,"when the former demanded of the latter the aid of the posse comitatusin enforcing the laws of the country. We have not room to record thespeeches of the two gentlemen on this occasion, but they are preservedin the columns of the little blue newspaper, which is yet to be found onthe file, and are said to be highly creditable to the legal formulaof one of the parties, and to the military precision of the other.Everything had been previously arranged, and, as the red-coated drummercontinued to roll out his clattering notes, some five-and-twentyprivates appeared in the ranks, and arranged themselves in the order ofbattle.
As this corps was composed of volunteers, and was commanded by a manwho had passed the first five-and-thirty years of his life in camps andgarrisons, it was the non-parallel of military science in that country,and was confidently pronounced by the judicious part of the Templetoncommunity, to be equal in skill and appearance to any troops in theknown world; in physical endowments they were, certainly, much superior!To this assertion there were but three dissenting voices, and onedissenting opinion. The opinion belonged to Marmaduke, who, however, sawno necessity for its promulgation. Of the voices, one, and that a prettyloud one', came from the spouse of the commander himself, who frequentlyreproached her husband for condescending to lead such an irregular bandof warriors, after he had filled the honorable station of sergeant-majorto a dashing corps of Virginia cavalry through much of the recent war.
Another of these skeptical sentiments was invariably expressed by Mr.Pump, whenever the company paraded generally in some such terms asthese, which were uttered with that sort of meekness that a native ofthe island of our forefathers is apt to assume when he condescends topraise the customs or character of her truant progeny:
"It's mayhap that they knows summat about loading and firing, d'ye see,but as for working ship? why, a corporal's guard of the Boadishey'smarines would back and fill on their quarters in such a manner as tosurround and captivate them all in half a glass." As there was no oneto deny this assertion, the marines of the Boadicea were held in acorresponding degree of estimation.
The third unbeliever was Monsieur Le Quoi, who merely whispered to thesheriff, that the corps was one of the finest he had ever seen secondonly to the Mousquetaires of Le Boa Louis! However, as Mrs. Hollisterthought there was something like actual service in the presentappearances, and was, in consequence, too busily engaged with certainpreparations of her own, to make her comments; as Benjamin was absent,and Monsieur Le Quoi too happy to find fault with anything, the corpsescaped criticism and comparison altogether on this momentous day, whenthey certainly had greater need of self-confidence than on any otherprevious occasion. Marmaduke was said to be again closeted with Mr.Van der School and no interruption was offered to the movements of thetroops. At two o'clock precisely the corps shouldered arms, beginning onthe right wing, next to the veteran, and carrying the motion through tothe left with great regularity. When each musket was quietly fixed inits proper situation, the order was given to wheel to the left, andmarch. As this was bringing raw troops, at once, to face their enemy, itis not to be supposed that the manoeuver was executed with their usualaccuracy; but as the music struck up the inspiring air of Yankee-doodle,and Richard, accompanied by Mr. Doolittle preceded the troops boldlydown the street, Captain Hollister led on, with his head elevated toforty-five degrees, with a little, low cocked hat perched on his crown,carrying a tremendous dragoon sabre at a poise, and trailing at hisheels a huge steel scabbard, that had war in its very clattering. Therewas a good deal of difficulty in getting all the platoons (there weresix) to look the same way; but, by the time they reached the defileof the bridge, the troops were in sufficiently compact order. In thismanner they marched up the hill to the summit of the mountain, no otheralteration taking place in the disposition of the forces, excepting thata mutual complaint was made, by the sheriff and the magistrate, of afailure in wind, which gradually' brought these gentlemen to the rear.It will be unnecessary to detail the minute movements that succeeded.We shall briefly say, that the scouts came in and reported, that, so farfrom retreating, as had been anticipated, the fugitives had evidentlygained a knowledge of the attack, and were fortifying for a desperateresistance. This intelligence certainly made a material change, not onlyin the plans of the leaders, but in the countenances of the soldieryalso. The men looked at one another with serious faces, and Hiram andRichard began to consult together, apart.
At this conjuncture, they were joined by Billy Kirby, who came along thehighway, with his axe under his arm, as much in advance of his team asCaptain Hollister had been of his troops in the ascent. The wood-chopperwas amazed at the military array, but the sheriff eagerly availedhimself of this powerful reinforcement, and commanded his assistance inputting the laws in force. Billy held Mr. Jones in too much deferenceto object; and it was finally arranged that he should be the bearer ofa summons to the garrison to surrender before they proceeded toextremities. The troops now divided, one party being led by the c
aptain,over the Vision, and were brought in on the left of the cave, while theremainder advanced upon its right, under the orders of the lieutenant.Mr. Jones and Dr. Todd--for the surgeon was in attendance also--appearedon the platform of rock, immediately over the heads of the garrison,though out of their sight. Hiram thought this approaching too near, andhe therefore accompanied Kirby along the side of the hill to withina safe distance of the fortifications, where he took shelter behind atree. Most of the men discovered great accuracy of eye in bringing someobject in range between them and their enemy, and the only two of thebesiegers, who were left in plain sight of the besieged, were CaptainHollister on one side, and the wood-chopper on the other. The veteranstood up boldly to the front, supporting his heavy sword in oneundeviating position, with his eye fixed firmly on his enemy, while thehuge form of Billy was placed in that kind of quiet repose, with eitherhand thrust into his bosom, bearing his axe under his right arm, whichpermitted him, like his own oxen, to rest standing. So far, not a wordhad been exchanged between the belligerents. The besieged had drawntogether a pile of black logs and branches of trees, which they hadformed into a chevaux-de-frise, making a little circular abatis in frontof the entrance to the cave. As the ground was steep and slippery inevery direction around the place, and Benjamin appeared behind the workson one side, and Natty on the other, the arrangement was by no meanscontemptible, especially as the front was sufficiently guarded by thedifficulty of the approach. By this time, Kirby had received his orders,and he advanced coolly along the mountain, picking his way with the sameindifference as if he were pursuing his ordinary business. When he waswithin a hundred feet of the works, the long and much-dreaded rifle ofthe Leather-Stocking was seen issuing from the parapet, and his voicecried aloud:
"Keep off! Billy Kirby, keep off! I wish ye no harm; but if a man of yeall comes a step nigher, there'll be blood spilt atwixt us. God forgivethe one that draws it first, but so it must be."
"Come, old chap," said Billy, good-naturedly, "don't be crabb'd, buthear what a man has got to say I've no consarn in the business, onlyto see right 'twixt man and man; and I don't kear the valie of abeetle-ring which gets the better; but there's Squire Doolittle, yonderbe hind the beech sapling, he has invited me to come in and ask you togive up to the law--that's all."
"I see the varmint! I see his clothes!" cried the indignant Natty: "andif he'll only show so much flesh as will bury a rifle bullet, thirty tothe pound, I'll make him feel me. Go away, Billy, I bid ye; you know myaim, and I bear you no malice."
"You over-calculate your aim, Natty," said the other, as he steppedbehind a pine that stood near him, "if you think to shoot a man througha tree with a three-foot butt. I can lay this tree right across you inten minutes by any man's watch, and in less time, too; so be civil--Iwant no more than what's right."
There was a simple seriousness in the countenance of Natty, that showedhe was much in earnest; but it was also evident that he was reluctant toshed human blood. He answered the taunt of the wood-chopper, by saying:
"I know you drop a tree where you will, Billy Kirby; but if you show ahand, or an arm, in doing it, there'll be bones to be set, and blood tostaunch. If it's only to get into the cave that ye want, wait till a twohours' sun, and you may enter it in welcome; but come in now you shallnot. There's one dead body already, lying on the cold rocks, and there'sanother in which the life can hardly be said to stay. If you will comein, there'll be dead with out as well as within."
The wood-chopper stepped out fearlessly from his cover, and cried:
"That's fair; and what's fair is right. He wants you to stop till it'stwo hours to sundown; and I see reason in the thing. A man can give upwhen he's wrong, if you don't crowd him too hard; but you crowd a man,and he gets to be like a stubborn ox--the more you beat, the worse hekicks."
The sturdy notions of independence maintained by Billy neither suitedthe emergency nor the impatience of Mr. Jones, who was burning witha desire to examine the hid den mysteries of the cave. He thereforeinterrupted this amicable dialogue with his own voice;
"I command you Nathaniel Bumppo, by my authority, to surrender yourperson to the law," he cried. "And I command you, gentlemen, to aid mein performing my duty. Benjamin Penguillan I arrest you, and order youto follow me to the jail of the county, by virtue of this warrant."
"I'd follow ye, Squire Dickens," said Benjamin, removing the pipe fromhis month (for during the whole scene the ex-major-domo had been verycomposedly smoking); "ay! I'd sail in your wake, to the end of the world,if-so--be that there was such a place, where there isn't, seeing thatit's round. Now mayhap, Master Hollister, having lived all your life onshore, you isn't acquainted that the world, d'ye see."
"Surrender!" interrupted the veteran, in a voice that startled hishearers, and which actually caused his own forces to recoil severalpaces; "surrender, Benjamin Pengullan, or expect no quarter.'"
"Damn your quarter!" said Benjamin, rising from the log on which he wasseated, and taking a squint along the barrel of the swivel, which hadbeen brought on the hill during the night, and now formed the means ofdefence on his side of the works. "Look you, master or captain, thof Iquestions if ye know the name of a rope, except the one that's to hangye, there's no need of singing out, as if ye was hailing a deaf man on atopgallant yard. May-hap you think you've got my true name in your sheepskin; but what British sailor finds it worth while to sail in theseseas, without a sham on his stern, in case of need, d'ye see. If youcall me Penguillan, you calls me by the name of the man on whose hand,dye see, I hove into daylight; and he was a gentleman; and that's morethan my worst enemy will say of any of the family of Benjamin Stubbs."
"Send the warrant round to me, and I'll put in an alias," cried Hiram,from behind his cover.
"Put in a jackass, and you'll put in yourself, Mister Doo-but-little,"shouted Benjamin, who kept squinting along his little iron tube, withgreat steadiness.
"I give you but one moment to yield," cried Richard. "Benjamin!Benjamin! this is not the gratitude I expected from you."
"I tell you, Richard Jones," said Natty, who dreaded the sheriff'sinfluence over his comrade; "though the canister the gal brought belost, there's powder enough in the cave to lift the rock you stand on.I'll take off my roof if you don't hold your peace."
"I think it beneath the dignity of my office to parley further withthe prisoners," the sheriff observer to his companion, while they bothretired with a precipitancy that Captain Hollister mistook for thesignal to advance.
"Charge baggonet!" shouted the veteran; "march!"
Although this signal was certainly expected, it took the assailed alittle by surprise, and the veteran approached the works, crying,"Courage, my brave lads! give them no quarter unless they surrender;" andstruck a furious blow upward with his sabre, that would have divided thesteward into moieties by subjecting him to the process of decapitation,but for the fortunate interference of the muzzle of the swivel. As itwas, the gun was dismounted at the critical moment that Benjamin wasapplying his pipe to the priming, and in consequence some five orsix dozen of rifle bullets were projected into the air, in nearly aperpendicular line. Philosophy teaches us that the atmosphere will notretain lead; and two pounds of the metal, moulded into bullets of thirtyto the pound, after describing an ellipsis in their journey, returnedto the earth rattling among the branches of the trees directly over theheads of the troops stationed in the rear of their captain. Much ofthe success of an attack, made by irregular soldiers, depends on thedirection in which they are first got in motion. In the present instanceit was retrograde, and in less than a minute after the bellowing reportof the swivel among the rocks and caverns, the whole weight of theattack from the left rested on the prowess of the single arm of theveteran. Benjamin received a severe contusion from the recoil of hisgun, which produced a short stupor, during which period the ex-stewardwas prostrate on the ground. Captain Hollister availed himself of thiscircumstance to scramble ever the breastwork and obtain a footing in thebastion--for such was the
nature of the fortress, as connected withthe cave. The moment the veteran found himself within the works of hisenemy, he rushed to the edge of the fortification, and, waving his sabreover his head, shouted:
"Victory! come on, my brave boys, the work's our own!"
All this was perfectly military, and was such an example as a gallantofficer was in some measure bound to exhibit to his men but the outcrywas the unlucky cause of turning the tide of success. Natty, whohad been keeping a vigalent eye on the wood-chopper, and the enemyimmediately before him, wheeled at this alarm, and was appalled atbeholding his comrade on the ground, and the veteran standing on his ownbulwark, giving forth the cry of victory! The muzzle of the long riflewas turned instantly toward the captain. There was a moment when thelife of the old soldier was in great jeopardy but the object to shoot atwas both too large and too near for the Leather-Stocking, who, insteadof pulling his trigger, applied the gun to the rear of his enemy, andby a powerful shove sent him outside of the works with much greaterrapidity than he had entered them. The spot on which Captain Hollisteralighted was directly in front, where, as his feet touched the ground,so steep and slippery was the side of the mountain, it seemed to recedefrom under them. His motion was swift, and so irregular as utterly toconfuse the faculties of the old soldier. During its continuance, hesupposed himself to be mounted, and charging through the ranks of hisenemy. At every tree he made a blow, of course, as at a foot-soldier;and just as he was making the cut "St. George" at a half burnt saplinghe landed in the highway, and, to his utter amazement, at the feetof his own spouse. When Mrs. Hollister, who was toiling up the hill,followed by at least twenty curious boys, leaning with one hand on thestaff with which she ordinarily walked, and bearing in the otheran empty bag, witnessed this exploit of her husband, indignationimmediately got the better, not only of her religion, but of herphilosophy.
"Why, sargeant! is it flying ye are?" she cried--"that I should live tosee a husband of mine turn his hack to an inimy! and such a one! HereI have been telling the b'ys, as we come along, all about the saige ofYorrektown, and how ye was hurted; and how ye'd be acting the same aginthe day; and I mate ye retraiting jist as the first gun is fired. Och! Imay trow away the bag! for if there's plunder, 'twill not be the wife ofsich as yerself that will be privileged to be getting the same. They dosay, too, there is a power of goold and silver in the place--the Lordforgive me for setting my heart on woorldly things; but what falls inthe battle, there's scriptur' for believing, is the just property of thevictor."
"Retreating!" exclaimed the amazed veteran; "where's my horse? he hasbeen shot under me--I----"
"Is the man mad?" interrupted his wife--"devil the horse do ye own,sargeant, and ye're nothing but a shabby captain of malaishy. Oh! if thera'al captain was here, tis the other way ye'd be riding, dear, or youwould not follow your laider!"
While this worthy couple were thus discussing events, the battle beganto rage more violently than ever above them. When Leather-Stocking sawhis enemy fairly under headway, as Benjamin would express it, he gavehis attention to the right wing of the assailants. It would have beeneasy for Kirby, with his powerful frame, to have seized the moment toscale the bastion, and, with his great strength, to have sent both ofits defenders in pursuit of the veteran; but hostility appeared to bethe passion that the wood-chopper indulged the least in at that moment,for, in a voice that was heard by the retreating left wing, he shouted:
"Hurrah well done, captain! keep it up! how he handles his bush-hook! hemakes nothing of a sapling!" and such other encouraging exclamations tothe flying veteran, until, overcome by mirth, the good-natured fellowseated himself on the ground, kicking the earth with delight, and givingvent to peal after peal of laughter.
Natty stood all this time in a menacing attitude, with his rifle pointedover the breastwork, watching with a quick and cautions eye the leastmovement of the assail ants. The outcry unfortunately tempted theungovernable curiosity of Hiram to take a peep from behind his cover atthe state of the battle. Though this evolution was performed with greatcaution, in protecting his front, he left, like many a better commander,his rear exposed to the attacks of his enemy. Mr. Doolittle belongedphysically to a class of his countrymen, to whom Nature has denied,in their formation, the use of curved lines. Every thing about him waseither straight or angular. But his tailor was a woman who worked,like a regimental contractor, by a set of rules that gave the sameconfiguration to the whole human species. Consequently, when Mr.Doolittle leaned forward in the manner described, a loose draperyappeared behind the tree, at which the rifle of Natty was pointed withthe quickness of lightning. A less experienced man would have aimed atthe flowing robe, which hung like a festoon half-way to the earth; butthe Leather-Stocking knew both the man and his female tailor better;and when the smart report of the rifle was heard, Kirby, who watched thewhole manoeuvre in breath less expectation, saw the bark fly from thebeech and the cloth, at some distance above the loose folds, wave at thesame instant. No battery was ever unmasked with more promptitiude thanHiram advanced from behind the tree at this summons.
He made two or three steps, with great precision, to the front and,placing one hand on the afflicted part, stretched forth the other with amenacing air toward Natty, and cried aloud:
"Gawl darn ye: this shan't he settled so easy; I'll follow it up fromthe 'common pleas' to the 'court of errors.'"
Such a shocking imprecation, from the mouth of so orderly a man asSquire Doolittle, with the fearless manner in which he exposed himself,together with, perhaps, the knowledge that Natty's rifle was unloaded,encouraged the troops in the rear, who gave a loud shout, and fired avolley into the tree-tops, after the contents of the swivel. Animated bytheir own noise, the men now rushed on in earnest; and Billy Kirby, whothought the joke, good as it was, had gone far enough, was in the actof scaling the works, when Judge Temple appeared on the opposite side,exclaiming:
"Silence and peace! why do I see murder and blood shed attempted? Is notthe law sufficient to protect itself, that armed bands must be gathered,as in rebellion and war, to see justice performed?"
"'Tis the posse comitatus," shouted the sheriff, from a distant rock,"who-"
"Say rather a posse of demons. I command the peace."
"Hold shied not blood!" cried a voice from the top of the Vision. "Hold,for the sake of Heaven, fire no more! all shall be yielded! you shallenter the cave!"
Amazement produced the desired effect. Natty, who had reloaded hispiece, quietly seated himself on the logs, and rested his head on hishands, while the "Light Infantry" ceased their military movements, andwaited the issue in suspense.
In less than a minute Edwards came rushing down the hill, followed byMajor Hartman, with a velocity that was surprising for his years. Theyreached the terrace in an instant, from which the youth led the way, bythe hollow in the rock, to the mouth of the cave, into which theyboth entered, leaving all without silent, and gazing after them withastonishment.
The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna Page 40