"Let me go and investigate, colonel," said Seymour, leaping to his feet and seizing his sword.
"Do so, Seymour," cried the colonel, as the sailor hastily left the room. "Phoebus," to the butler, "go tell Caesar to call the slaves to the house. You, Scipio," to one of the footmen, "go open the arm-chest. Katharine, reach me my sword. See that the doors are closed, Billy," said the colonel to the other servant, rapidly and with perfect coolness. "I think, Katharine, that perhaps you would better retire to your room;" but even as he spoke the sound of hurried footsteps and excited voices outside was heard. After a few moments one of the field-hands, followed by Seymour, burst panting into the room, his mouth working with excitement and his eyes almost starting from his head.
"Well, sir, what is it?" said the colonel.
"Foh de Lawd"s sake, suh, dey"se a-comin", suh, dey"se a-comin".
Dey"se right behin" me; dey"ll be heah in a minute, suh."
"Who is coming, you idiot!" exclaimed the colonel.
"De redcoats, de British sojuhs, suh; dey "se fohty boat-loads ob "em; dey"se come off fum de lil" sloop out in de ribah, and dey "se gwine kill we all, and bu"n de house down. Dey done shot Mars" Blodgett, and dey"se coming heah special to get you, suh, Mars" Kunnel, kase I heahd dem say, when I was lyin" down on de wha"f, dat de man dey wanted was dat Kunnel Wilton."
"It is quite true, sir; they seem to be a party of raiders of some sort," said Seymour, coolly. "I fear that Blodgett has been killed, as I heard nothing of him. I saw them from the brow of the hill. Perhaps you may escape by the back way, though there is little time for that.
Do you take Miss Wilton and try it, sir; leave me to hold these men in play."
"Yes, yes, father," urged Katharine; "I know it must be Lord Dunmore"s men and Johnson. They know that you have come back from France, and now the man wants to take you prisoner. You remember what the governor told you at Williamsburg, that he would make you rue the day you cast your lot in with the colonists and refused to a.s.sist him in the prosecution of his measures. And you know we have been warned at least a dozen times about it. Oh, what shall we do? Do fly, and let me stay here and receive these men."
"What! my daughter, do you think a Wilton has ever left his house to be defended by his guest and by a woman! Seymour, I believe, however, as an officer in the service of our country, your best course is to leave while there is yet time."
"I will never leave you, sir; I will stay here with you and Mistress Katharine, and share whatever fate may have in store for you."
But even as he spoke, the crowding footsteps of many men were heard at both entrances to the wide hall-way which ran through the house. At the same moment the door was violently thrown open, and the dining-room was filled with an irregular ma.s.s of motley, ragged, red-coated men, whose reckless demeanor and hardened faces indicated that they had been recruited from the lowest and most depraved cla.s.ses of the inhabitants of the colony. They were led by a middle-aged man of dissipated appearance, whose rough and brutal aspect was not concealed by the captain"s uniform he wore, nor was the malicious triumph in his bearing and in his voice veiled by the mock courtesy with which he advanced, pistol in hand.
"What means this intrusion, sir?" shouted Colonel Wilton, in a voice of thunder.
"This is Colonel Wilton, I believe, is it not?" said the leader of the band, taking off his hat.
"Yes, sir, it is; you, Mr. Johnson, should be the last to forget it, and I desire to know at once the meaning of this outrageous descent upon a peaceful dwelling."
The man bowed low with mock courtesy. "I shall have to ask your pardon, my dear sir, for appearing before the great Colonel Wilton so unceremoniously. But my orders, I regret to say, allow me no discretion whatever; they are imperative. You are my prisoner. I have been sent here by my Lord Dunmore, the governor of this colony of Virginia, to secure the persons of some of the princ.i.p.al rebellious subjects of his majesty King George, and your name, unfortunately, is the first and chiefest on the list. I shall have to request you to accompany me at once."
The master of the situation smiled mockingly, and the colonel, white with anger, looked about the room. Resistance was perfectly hopeless; all the windows even were now blocked up by the irregular soldiery.
"He has chosen a fit man to do his work," said the colonel, in haughty scorn; "failing gentlemen, he must needs take blackguards and bullies into his service as housebreakers and raiders."
Johnson flushed visibly, as he said with another bow, "Colonel Wilton would better remember that I am master now."
"Sir, I am not likely to forget it. There is the family plate. I presume, from what I know of your habits, that will not be overlooked by you."
"Quite so," he returned; "it will doubtless be a welcome contribution to the treasury of his majesty"s colony. Mistress Wilton"s diamonds also," he said meaningly; and then, turning to two of his men, "Williams, you and Jones bundle up the plate in the tablecloth, get what"s on the sideboard too;" and laying his pistols down upon the table, he continued:
"But before Colonel Wilton insults me again, it might be well for him to remember that I am master not only of his person, but of the persons of all others who are in this room."
The colonel started, and Johnson laughed, looking with insolence from Katharine to her father.
"What, sir! I reach through your insolent pride now, do I? Curse you!" with sudden heat, throwing off even the mask of politeness he had hardly worn. "I swore I would have revenge for that insult at Williamsburg, and now it"s my hour. You are to go with me, and go peaceably and quietly, or, by G.o.d, I "ll have you kicked and dragged out of the building, or killed like that old fool who tried to stop us coming up on the landing."
"What! Blodgett, my old friend Blodgett! You villain, you haven"t dared to kill him, have you? Oh, my faithful--"
"Silence, sir! We dare anything. What consideration has a rebel a right to expect at the hands of his majesty"s faithful Rangers? You, Bruce and Denton, seize the old man. If he makes any trouble, knock him down, or kill him, for aught I care. One of you, take the girl there. As for you, sir," to Seymour, who had been quietly watching the scene, "I don"t know who you are, but you are in bad company, and you will have to consider yourself a prisoner; I trust you have sense enough to come without force being used. And so," clapping his hat on his head defiantly, "G.o.d save the king!"
Two of the soldiers seized the colonel in spite of the vigorous resistance he made; another approached Katharine, who had stood with clasped hands during the whole of the colloquy between Johnson and her father. The soldier rudely chucked her under the chin, saying, "Come on, my pretty one! you "ll give us a kiss, won"t you, before we start?"
As she drew back, paling at the insult, Seymour, who had seen and heard it all, quick as a flash drew his sword, and threw himself upon the soldier; one rapid thrust at the surprised man he made, with all the force and skill begotten of long practice and a strong arm, and the hilt of his blade crushed against the man"s throat, and he fell dead upon the floor. At the same instant one of the other soldiers, who had observed the action, struck Seymour over the head with his clubbed musket, and he also fell heavily to the floor, and lay there senseless and still, blood running from a fearful-looking wound in his forehead.
The room was filled with tumult in an instant, and with shouts of "Kill him!" "Shove your bayonet through the d.a.m.n rebel hound!" "Shoot him!"
"Kill him!" the men moved towards Seymour. Johnson looked on unconcernedly.
"Good G.o.d!" shrieked the colonel, writhing in the grasp of the men who held him, "are you going to allow a senseless, wounded man to be murdered before your eyes? Oh, how could anybody ever mistake you for a gentleman for an instant?" he added, with withering contempt; and then turning his head toward the fierce soldiery, "Stop, stop, you b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sa.s.sins!" he cried.
"Silence, sir! He might as well die this way as on the gallows.
Besides, he struck the first blow, and he has killed one of his majesty"s loyal soldiers. The soldier only wanted to kiss the girl anyway, and she will find, before she gets to camp, that kisses are cheap."
"Oh, my G.o.d," groaned the father, "and they call this war!"
At this moment one of the soldiers lifted his bayonet to plunge it into the prostrate form of the unconscious sailor. There was a blinding flash of light in the room, and a quick, sharp report. The man"s arm dropped to his side, and he shrieked and groaned with pain. Katharine, unnoticed in the confusion, had slipped to the side of the table, and had quickly picked up one of the pistols which Johnson had laid upon it after the silver had been taken away. Her ready decision and unerring aim had saved her lover"s life. She threw the smoking pistol she had used with such effect down at her feet, and, seizing the other, she stepped over to the side of her unconscious lover.
"I swear," she said, in a shrill, high-pitched voice which just escaped a scream, and which trembled with the agitation of the moment, "by my hope of heaven, if a single man of you lay hands on him, he shall have this bullet also, you cowards!"
After a moment"s hesitation, amid shouts of "Kill the girl!" the men surged toward her. Chloe, her black maid, flung herself upon her mistress" breast.
"Oh, honey, I let dem kill me fust."
"Well done, Kate! It"s the true Wilton blood. Oh, if I had a free arm, you villains!" cried the still struggling colonel.
"Seize the girl," Johnson commanded promptly, "and let us get out of this."
The men made a rush toward the table where Katharine stood undaunted, her face flushed with excitement, her mouth tense with resolution. She cried,--
"Have a care, men! have a care!"
One life she could still command with her loaded pistol. Her hands did not tremble. She waited to strike once more for love and country, but it would be all over in a moment.
The colonel groaned in agony, "Kate, Kate!" but they were almost upon her, when a new voice rose above the uproar,--
"Hold! Are you men? Do you war with old men and women? Back with you! Get back, you dogs! Back, I say!"
CHAPTER V
_A Timely Interference_
A young man in the uniform of a British naval lieutenant leaped in front of the girl with drawn sword, with which he laid about him l.u.s.tily, striking some of the men with the flat of it, threatening others with the point; and backing his actions by the prompt commands of one not accustomed to be gainsaid, he soon cleared the s.p.a.ce in front of her.
"How dare you interfere in this matter, my lord?" shouted Johnson, pa.s.sionately. "I command this party, and I intend--"
"I know you do," replied the officer, "and that I am only a volunteer who has chosen to accompany you, worse luck! but I am a gentleman and a lieutenant in his Britannic majesty"s navy, and by heaven! when I see old men mishandled, and wounded helpless men about to be a.s.sa.s.sinated, and young women insulted, I don"t care who commands the party, I interfere. And I don"t propose to bandy words with any runagate American partisan who uses his commission to further private vengeance.
And I swear to you, on my honor, if you do not instantly modify your treatment of this gentleman, and call off this ragam.u.f.fin crew, you shall be court-martialled, if I have any influence with Dunmore or Parker or Lord Howe, or whoever is in authority, and I will have the rest of you hung as high as Haman. This is outrage and robbery and murder; it is not fighting or making prisoners," continued the young officer. "You are not fit to be an officer; and you, you curs, you disgrace the uniform you wear."