Durant would not permit a continuation of such interchange of thoughts, and they were separated.
On the following day Hamilton was fastened to the stake, and an Indian stood ready with a torch to fire the combustibles so soon as the word of command was given.
"Behold the fate of him you pretend to love!" said Durant to Ellen, whom he had dragged to the spot. "His destiny is yet in the balances; say but the word, and he shall go free!"
Pale as death itself, and scarcely able to stand, Ellen replied:
"The will of G.o.d be done! I am prepared for the worst!"
"The worst?" and he hissed in her ear some words of infamy.
"Oh, G.o.d! not that! not that!" and she reeled as if struck with a blow.
"Then, in the name of reason, save yourself, save both! It is easily done."
The villain"s words calmed her in a moment, and she responded:
"Either fate is more than I can bear; but I will not perjure my soul to save myself from any fate it pleases G.o.d to send upon me."
"And you will not be an honorable bride, then?"
"Yours,--_never_!"
"Fire the f.a.gots!" he commanded in a voice of rage, and the order was instantly obeyed by the Indian who stood impatiently awaiting the word.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BURNING STAKE
The material around the stake was the most highly inflammable that could be collected, and a mighty blaze soon spread along the pile, with its fiery spires leaping high in air, and its forked tongues hissing like serpents!
Snapping, crackling, roaring! the devouring flames rushed to their work of death!
The stake was in the center of the heap, the wood being piled around it at a distance of some feet, leaving an open s.p.a.ce on all sides, in which the prisoner could walk, being fastened with a cord, some ten feet in length, one end of which was lashed to the stake, a large post, driven firmly into the ground. This vacant s.p.a.ce was purposely left, that the sufferings of the doomed might be prolonged, a species of cruelty common in Indian tortures. As it would be some time before the flames would touch Hamilton, though his sufferings from heat would be excruciating in a little while, murdering him by slow inches, Durant hoped that the sufferings and reflections of this interval would bring repentance at the eleventh hour, and cause his victim to plead for mercy on his own terms.
The fiery circle kept drawing nearer and nearer, narrowing the s.p.a.ce between life and death at every moment; yet no groan escaped the lips of Hamilton; and he evinced the steady and unflinching heroism of a martyr. At a sign from Durant, the Indians prepared themselves with long splinters, which were to be fired at one end, and then driven into the flesh of the sufferer; the guns were loaded with powder, to be fired against the naked person of the prisoner when the signal should be given. Hamilton saw all these preparations, but they shook not his firm resolve for a moment. His proud soul rose above all the horrors of the scene, and remained calm in the dignity of its earthly despair and eternal hopes. He knelt down by the stake and engaged in prayer:
"Oh, Father! give me strength to endure this trial by fire! Forsake me not in this hour of extremity, but send Thy ministering angels to strengthen and sustain my spirit, that it faint not with the consuming flesh! And, oh, G.o.d! protect Thy persecuted daughter, and save, oh, save her from the grasp of the destroyer! Let not the wicked triumph! my G.o.d, let not the wicked triumph! but shield, oh, shield the innocent! Thou art He who canst do wonders; make known Thy power in the rescue and salvation of the afflicted child of misfortune from the hands of the spoiler! Not for myself, but for her, I implore Thee for deliverance! Oh, hear my prayer in her behalf, and send help in the hour of need!"
Durant listened to this prayer in spite of himself; there was a something about it which held him spell-bound, fascinated; and he forgot, for the moment, that his followers were awaiting his orders--everything, in fact, but the one scene before him, the man on his knees at the stake. And there was another of those present no less deeply interested, though in a different way--Ellen, who was in agony at the sight before her. A thought entered her mind--a wild thought, which only despair could arouse. She saw the fixed attention of her persecutor, and at the close of Hamilton"s fervent prayer, she sprung from the midst of her enemies, and ere they comprehended her design, or had time to lift a hand to stay her progress, rushed through the flames, and fell on her knees by the side of her lover.
In a moment they were in each others" arms, shedding tears on each others"
bosoms.
The spectators of this strange exhibition were struck dumb with wonder, as they beheld this act of devoted heroism, and looked on in astonishment, then exchanged glances of bewilderment and consternation. A solemn pause ensued, as though all were paralyzed by such a deed of self-devotion to death.
"Tear away the fire! scatter the burning embers!" at length fell from the lips of Durant, as he aroused himself from the spell that was on him.
"Quick! for your lives! for if they are not rescued, you shall all die!"
His command was obeyed with alacrity, and every one present worked as though life really depended upon his exertions.
Un.o.bserved by any of the actors in this strange and exciting drama, a dark cloud had gathered and spread over the face of heaven, black as the heralding banner of an approaching hurricane, from whose bosom the lurid lightning leaped forth, and the deep-toned thunder resounded. Presently the large drops of rain fell peltering on the leaves; then the first heavy dash of the fitful storm came down, and presently extinguished the fire, which, by this time, was pretty well scattered over the ground. Walter and Ellen, still locked in a close embrace, were rescued from the jaws of the devouring element, and restored to a state of life more painful to contemplate than the prospect of ending existence in each others" arms, even at the stake.
But He who had interposed to save them, was now speaking through the storm in a voice which made the guilty Durant tremble with conscious-smitten fear. Flash followed flash in quick succession, and the jarring thunder, loud and terrible, broke, peal after peal, on the ear! Then the howling wind, like ten thousand furies, came crashing and roaring through the forest, bearing whole trees on its driving wings, while others bent low before the blasting swoop of its leveling might!
Cowering like a condemned criminal, the dark-deeded villain crept toward a shelter, dragging with him his captives. Suddenly a dazzling flood of light, blinding and bewildering, enveloped the whole party, and, at the same instant, an earth-shaking, sky-rending burst of sound stunned them all to prostration. It was some seconds before any one recovered. Then Hamilton arose and lifted Ellen also. On looking around, they perceived a large oak had been riven by the descending bolt at a short distance from them. A splinter from the tree had struck Durant on the breast and temple, and he lay bleeding and senseless upon the earth, but whether dead or alive, none could tell, as they had no time to certainly determine the point at such a moment. Hastily gathering him up, Ramsey and two of the Indians carried him to the cave, where they were all glad to congregate themselves during the continuance of the frightful tornado.
Once sheltered, Walter and Ellen gazed out upon the raging tempest in bewildered amazement, not unmixed with awe. Never had they beheld the elements so fearfully agitated as now! Blacker than midnight were the pall-like clouds that "hung the heavens." Loud as thunder was the roaring of the wind. Incessantly the vivid lightnings blazed forth in blinding flashes; while above all the mingled commotion of the storm strife, the bursting thunders boomed. Like feathers in the breeze, great limbs of trees were wrenched from their places, and whirled, and twirled, and borne away.
The tough oaks were twisted from their stems, or pulled up by the roots, while the smaller trees were snapped off like brittle reeds.
"Terribly grand!" said Hamilton to his companion.
"A fearful display of G.o.d"s power!" responded Ellen.
"A mere breath of his omnipotence--nothing more!"
For half an hour the tempest raged in violence, then its fury was spent, and soon after the clouds rolled away. During its continuance, the wild pa.s.sions of the savages were awed into quiet, and their hearts filled with other thoughts and emotions than those of vengeance and cruelty. They were silent as the grave, and harmless as silent.
The party now found time to look about them. Durant had manifested signs of life, but was evidently badly hurt. Presently he opened his eyes, and stared about, but his glances were those of bewildered delirium. A high fever was burning in his veins; its fires penetrated to the head, and, reveling amid the brain, unhinged reason, and let loose the fierce pa.s.sions so long time grown strong and o"ermastering.
Who shall paint the darkness of a corrupt heart, when for years the basest feelings human nature is capable of experiencing have been nourished until more than mature? It was more dreadful to listen to the ravings of Durant than to witness the fearful war of the elements. The tempest just over, was nothing to the one that was struggling and out-breaking in his bosom. We shall not attempt to record all the dark revelations he made of his own evil thoughts and deeds, as we would spare the reader"s feelings from the shock so revolting a record would produce. In his delirium he raved of the past, and unbosomed his intentions for the future. First he seemed to be enacting over the tragic scenes of the day.
"Tear away the f.a.gots!" he cried. "I say, tear them away! Stupid blockheads! do you not know that I must have my revenge on the girl?
Scatter the f.a.gots! G.o.ds! if she dies the heart"s blood of every dog of you shall be spilled! I--I must, I _will_ have her alive!"
During the utterance of those words his voice, gestures, and expression of countenance were in keeping with the language itself, and truly horrible.
Suddenly a change came over his countenance; the dark lines of pa.s.sion retreated, and an expression of timidity or fear came in their place. He muttered incoherently for a time, and then, as if communing with himself, he spoke in a subdued voice of the last scene in his conscious life. A few sentences were audible and connected, showing how his mind was affected by the tempest:
"How I dread the storm! It tells me there is a G.o.d! that the thunder is his voice, and the fierce wind but the motion of his breath! And the lightning!
oh, the lightning! how it looks into the heart and exposes all its secrets to the eye of Deity! What a flash was that! Come! to the cave! to the cave!"
With the concluding words his quiet ceased, and he struggled as if exerting himself to do something very hastily. A moment more and a short, frightened cry, escaped his lips, and he sunk back, as if dead. It was plain that he was re-living and re-enacting the day, and its scenes; and in this condition he remained for some time; then his insanity took a wilder and wider range, recalling the past, and exposing the future of his life and designs. He raved and cajoled, commanded and persuaded by times; was now quiet, and, anon, in a fever of excitement, or rage. After one of his quiet moods, he slowly aroused and addressed himself in this manner:
"That oath! it was a great mistake, this worst blunder I have made. In spite of myself it will haunt me. And the curse! that awful curse! G.o.ds!
will it never cease ringing in my ears! night and day, sleeping and waking it never leaves me! I see her now! How weird-like her prophetic looks! How like the sentence of doom are her words, as, with flashing eye and quivering lip, she says: "As you have wilfully, voluntarily, and wickedly called it down upon your own head, may the curse of G.o.d rest upon you in this world and the world to come." G.o.ds and demons! if their should be "a world to come!"--How her words burn into my heart! and, worst of all, they are proving a reality! I am accused! my "plans of villainy" do fail, and I _am_ a "vagabond upon the face of the earth!" But I"ll not endure it longer! I"ll shake myself from these haunting fears! aye, and I"ll prove them false! I"ll do it if all the curses of the universe rise up before me!
Avaunt, ye specters! I"ll be a man despite your efforts to frighten me by your grim presence!"
Again, in another strain, he broke forth with this development of his inward thoughts.
"Heigh, ho! I am on the track now, and nothing can save her! Oh, but I"ll be sweetly revenged! I"ll teach the proud minx to insult a Durant! Won"t she be humbled, though! ha! ha! ha! How she will struggle and beg for mercy! But will I pity her? Yes, "as the wolf the lamb!" Oh, if I but possessed her now!"
And again:
"Proud as ever! Never mind, I"ll bring her down! I"ll wreathe that lofty brow with shame! I"ll strike her through her lover! To save _him_ at the stake she"ll yield! I"ll revel in her charms, and then--then what? Ha! ha!
As a reward for her condescensions, _I"ll burn him alive_! Ha! ha! Fool, she"ll be to think I"d let a _rival_ live, when _her_ heart was _his_!" * * *
"How pale she is! the charm works! she"ll bend to my will at last. * * Not yet? Look at his agony, have you the heart to see him suffer so? Ah, how dearly you must love him, to stand by and see him burn to ashes when a word from your lips would rescue him from the flames!" * * * * * * * *