"You will do well to persuade the officers at the garrison to lead out a party ag"in these vagabonds as soon as you git in, Hurry," Deerslayer commenced; "and you"ll do better if you volunteer to guide it up yourself. You know the paths, and the shape of the lake, and the natur"
of the land, and can do it better than a common, gin"ralizing scout.
Strike at the Huron camp first, and follow the signs that will then show themselves. A few looks at the hut and the Ark will satisfy you as to the state of the Delaware and the women, and, at any rate, there"ll be a fine opportunity to fall on the Mingo trail, and to make a mark on the memories of the blackguards that they"ll be apt to carry with "em a long time. It won"t be likely to make much difference with me, since that matter will be detarmined afore to-morrow"s sun has set, but it may make a great change in Judith and Hetty"s hopes and prospects!"
"And as for yourself, Nathaniel," Hurry enquired with more interest than he was accustomed to betray in the welfare of others--"And, as for yourself, what do you think is likely to turn up?"
"The Lord, in his wisdom, only can tell, Henry March! The clouds look black and threatening, and I keep my mind in a state to meet the worst.
Vengeful feelin"s are uppermost in the hearts of the Mingos, and any little disapp"intment about the plunder, or the prisoners, or Hist, may make the torments sartain. The Lord, in his wisdom, can only detarmine my fate, or your"n!"
"This is a black business, and ought to be put a stop to in some way or other--" answered Hurry, confounding the distinctions between right and wrong, as is usual with selfish and vulgar men. "I heartily wish old Hutter and I had scalped every creatur" in their camp, the night we first landed with that capital object! Had you not held back, Deerslayer, it might have been done, and then you wouldn"t have found yourself, at the last moment, in the desperate condition you mention."
""Twould have been better had you said you wished you had never attempted to do what it little becomes any white man"s gifts to undertake; in which case, not only might we have kept from coming to blows, but Thomas Hutter would now have been living, and the hearts of the savages would be less given to vengeance. The death of that young woman, too, was on-called for, Henry March, and leaves a heavy load on our names if not on our consciences!"
This was so apparent, and it seemed so obvious to Hurry himself, at the moment, that he dashed his paddle into the water, and began to urge the canoe towards the sh.o.r.e, as if bent only on running away from his own lively remorse. His companion humoured this feverish desire for change, and, in a minute or two, the bows of the boat grated lightly on the shingle of the beach. To land, shoulder his pack and rifle, and to get ready for his march occupied Hurry but an instant, and with a growling adieu, he had already commenced his march, when a sudden twinge of feeling brought him to a dead stop, and immediately after to the other"s side.
"You cannot mean to give yourself up ag"in to them murdering savages, Deerslayer!" he said, quite as much in angry remonstrance, as with generous feeling. ""Twould be the act of a madman or a fool!"
"There"s them that thinks it madness to keep their words, and there"s them that don"t, Hurry Harry. You may be one of the first, but I"m one of the last. No red-skin breathing shall have it in his power to say that a Mingo minds his word more than a man of white blood and white gifts, in any thing that consarns me. I"m out on a furlough, and if I"ve strength and reason, I"ll go in on a furlough afore noon to-morrow!"
"What"s an Injin, or a word pa.s.sed, or a furlough taken from creatur"s like them, that have neither souls, nor reason!"
"If they"ve got neither souls nor reason, you and I have both, Henry March, and one is accountable for the other. This furlough is not, as you seem to think, a matter altogether atween me and the Mingos, seeing it is a solemn bargain made atween me and G.o.d. He who thinks that he can say what he pleases, in his distress, and that twill all pa.s.s for nothing, because "tis uttered in the forest, and into red men"s ears, knows little of his situation, and hopes, and wants. The woods are but the ears of the Almighty, the air is his breath, and the light of the sun is little more than a glance of his eye. Farewell, Harry; we may not meet ag"in, but I would wish you never to treat a furlough, or any other solemn thing that your Christian G.o.d has been called on to witness, as a duty so light that it may be forgotten according to the wants of the body, or even accordin" to the cravings of the spirit."
March was now glad again to escape. It was quite impossible that he could enter into the sentiments that enn.o.bled his companion, and he broke away from both with an impatience that caused him secretly to curse the folly that could induce a man to rush, as it were, on his own destruction. Deerslayer, on the contrary, manifested no such excitement.
Sustained by his principles, inflexible in the purpose of acting up to them, and superior to any unmanly apprehension, he regarded all before him as a matter of course, and no more thought of making any unworthy attempt to avoid it, than a Mussulman thinks of counteracting the decrees of Providence. He stood calmly on the sh.o.r.e, listening to the reckless tread with which Hurry betrayed his progress through the bushes, shook his head in dissatisfaction at the want of caution, and then stepped quietly into his canoe. Before he dropped the paddle again into the water, the young man gazed about him at the scene presented by the star-lit night. This was the spot where he had first laid his eyes on the beautiful sheet of water on which he floated. If it was then glorious in the bright light of a summer"s noon-tide, it was now sad and melancholy under the shadows of night. The mountains rose around it like black barriers to exclude the outer world, and the gleams of pale light that rested on the broader parts of the basin were no bad symbols of the faintness of the hopes that were so dimly visible in his own future.
Sighing heavily, he pushed the canoe from the land, and took his way back with steady diligence towards the Ark and the castle.
Chapter XXIV
"Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame; Thy private feasting to a public fast; Thy smoothing t.i.tles to a ragged name; Thy sugar"d tongue to bitter worm wood taste: Thy violent vanities can never last."
Shakespeare, Rape of Lucrece, 11. 890-94.
Judith was waiting the return of Deerslayer on the platform, with stifled impatience, when the latter reached the hut. Hist and Hetty were both in a deep sleep, on the bed usually occupied by the two daughters of the house, and the Delaware was stretched on the floor of the adjoining room, his rifle at his side, and a blanket over him, already dreaming of the events of the last few days. There was a lamp burning in the Ark, for the family was accustomed to indulge in this luxury on extraordinary occasions, and possessed the means, the vessel being of a form and material to render it probable it had once been an occupant of the chest.
As soon as the girl got a glimpse of the canoe, she ceased her hurried walk up and down the platform and stood ready to receive the young man, whose return she had now been anxiously expecting for some time. She helped him to fasten the canoe, and by aiding in the other little similar employments, manifested her desire to reach a moment of liberty as soon as possible. When this was done, in answer to an inquiry of his, she informed him of the manner in which their companions had disposed of themselves. He listened attentively, for the manner of the girl was so earnest and impressive as to apprise him that she had something on her mind of more than common concern.
"And now, Deerslayer," Judith continued, "you see I have lighted the lamp, and put it in the cabin of the Ark. That is never done with us, unless on great occasions, and I consider this night as the most important of my life. Will you follow me and see what I have to show you--hear what I have to say."
The hunter was a little surprised, but, making no objections, both were soon in the scow, and in the room that contained the light. Here two stools were placed at the side of the chest, with the lamp on another, and a table near by to receive the different articles as they might be brought to view. This arrangement had its rise in the feverish impatience of the girl, which could brook no delay that it was in her power to obviate. Even all the padlocks were removed, and it only remained to raise the heavy lid, again, to expose all the treasures of this long secreted h.o.a.rd.
"I see, in part, what all this means," observed Deerslayer--"yes, I see through it, in part. But why is not Hetty present? Now Thomas Hutter is gone, she is one of the owners of these cur"osities, and ought to see them opened and handled."
"Hetty sleeps--" answered Judith, huskily. "Happily for her, fine clothes and riches have no charms. Besides she has this night given her share of all that the chest may hold to me, that I may do with it as I please."
"Is poor Hetty compa.s.s enough for that, Judith?" demanded the just-minded young man. "It"s a good rule and a righteous one, never to take when them that give don"t know the valie of their gifts; and such as G.o.d has visited heavily in their wits ought to be dealt with as carefully as children that haven"t yet come to their understandings."
Judith was hurt at this rebuke, coming from the person it did, but she would have felt it far more keenly had not her conscience fully acquitted her of any unjust intentions towards her feeble-minded but confiding sister. It was not a moment, however, to betray any of her usual mountings of the spirit, and she smothered the pa.s.sing sensation in the desire to come to the great object she had in view.
"Hetty will not be wronged," she mildly answered; "she even knows not only what I am about to do, Deerslayer, but why I do it. So take your seat, raise the lid of the chest, and this time we will go to the bottom. I shall be disappointed if something is not found to tell us more of the history of Thomas Hutter and my mother."
"Why Thomas Hutter, Judith, and not your father? The dead ought to meet with as much reverence as the living!"
"I have long suspected that Thomas Hutter was not my father, though I did think he might have been Hetty"s, but now we know he was the father of neither. He acknowledged that much in his dying moments. I am old enough to remember better things than we have seen on this lake, though they are so faintly impressed on my memory that the earlier part of my life seems like a dream."
"Dreams are but miserable guides when one has to detarmine about realities, Judith," returned the other admonishingly. "Fancy nothing and hope nothing on their account, though I"ve known chiefs that thought "em useful."
"I expect nothing for the future from them, my good friend, but cannot help remembering what has been. This is idle, however, when half an hour of examination may tell us all, or even more than I want to know."
Deerslayer, who comprehended the girl"s impatience, now took his seat and proceeded once more to bring to light the different articles that the chest contained. As a matter of course, all that had been previously examined were found where they had been last deposited, and they excited much less interest or comment than when formerly exposed to view. Even Judith laid aside the rich brocade with an air of indifference, for she had a far higher aim before her than the indulgence of vanity, and was impatient to come at the still hidden, or rather unknown, treasures.
"All these we have seen before," she said, "and will not stop to open.
The bundle under your hand, Deerslayer, is a fresh one; that we will look into. G.o.d send it may contain something to tell poor Hetty and myself who we really are!"
"Ay, if some bundles could speak, they might tell wonderful secrets,"
returned the young man deliberately undoing the folds of another piece of course canva.s.s, in order to come at the contents of the roll that lay on his knees: "though this doesn"t seem to be one of that family, seeing "tis neither more nor less than a sort of flag, though of what nation, it pa.s.ses my l"arnin" to say."
"That flag must have some meaning to it--" Judith hurriedly interposed.
"Open it wider, Deerslayer, that we may see the colours."
"Well, I pity the ensign that has to shoulder this cloth, and to parade it about on the field. Why "tis large enough, Judith, to make a dozen of them colours the King"s officers set so much store by. These can be no ensign"s colours, but a gin"ral"s!"
"A ship might carry it, Deerslayer, and ships I know do use such things.
Have you never heard any fearful stories about Thomas Hutter"s having once been concerned with the people they call buccaneers?"
"Buck-ah-near! Not I--not I--I never heard him mentioned as good at a buck far off, or near by. Hurry Harry did till me something about its being supposed that he had formerly, in some way or other, dealings with sartain sea robbers, but, Lord, Judith, it can"t surely give you any satisfaction to make out that ag"in your mother"s own husband, though he isn"t your father."
"Anything will give me satisfaction that tells me who I am, and helps to explain the dreams of childhood. My mother"s husband! Yes, he must have been that, though why a woman like her, should have chosen a man like him, is more than mortal reason can explain. You never saw mother, Deerslayer, and can"t feel the vast, vast difference there was between them!"
"Such things do happen, howsever;--yes, they do happen; though why providence lets them come to pa.s.s is more than I understand. I"ve knew the f"ercest warriors with the gentlest wives of any in the tribe, and awful scolds fall to the lot of Injins fit to be missionaries."
"That was not it, Deerslayer; that was not it. Oh! if it should prove that--no; I cannot wish she should not have been his wife at all. That no daughter can wish for her own mother! Go on, now, and let us see what the square looking bundle holds."
Deerslayer complied, and he found that it contained a small trunk of pretty workmanship, but fastened. The next point was to find a key; but, search proving ineffectual, it was determined to force the lock. This Deerslayer soon effected by the aid of an iron instrument, and it was found that the interior was nearly filled with papers. Many were letters; some fragments of ma.n.u.scripts, memorandums, accounts, and other similar doc.u.ments. The hawk does not pounce upon the chicken with a more sudden swoop than Judith sprang forward to seize this mine of hitherto concealed knowledge. Her education, as the reader will have perceived, was far superior to her situation in life, and her eye glanced over page after page of the letters with a readiness that her schooling supplied, and with an avidity that found its origin in her feelings. At first it was evident that the girl was gratified; and we may add with reason, for the letters written by females, in innocence and affection, were of a character to cause her to feel proud of those with whom she had every reason to think she was closely connected by the ties of blood. It does not come within the scope of our plan to give more of these epistles, however, than a general idea of their contents, and this will best be done by describing the effect they produced on the manner, appearance, and feeling of her who was so eagerly perusing them.
It has been said, already, that Judith was much gratified with the letters that first met her eye. They contained the correspondence of an affectionate and inteffigent mother to an absent daughter, with such allusions to the answers as served in a great measure to fill up the vacuum left by the replies. They were not without admonitions and warnings, however, and Judith felt the blood mounting to her temples, and a cold shudder succeeding, as she read one in which the propriety of the daughter"s indulging in as much intimacy as had evidently been described in one of the daughter"s own letters, with an officer "who came from Europe, and who could hardly be supposed to wish to form an honorable connection in America," was rather coldly commented on by the mother. What rendered it singular was the fact that the signatures had been carefully cut from every one of these letters, and wherever a name occurred in the body of the epistles it had been erased with so much diligence as to render it impossible to read it. They had all been enclosed in envelopes, according to the fashion of the age, and not an address either was to be found. Still the letters themselves had been religiously preserved, and Judith thought she could discover traces of tears remaining on several. She now remembered to have seen the little trunk in her mother"s keeping, previously to her death, and she supposed it had first been deposited in the chest, along with the other forgotten or concealed objects, when the letters could no longer contribute to that parent"s grief or happiness.
Next came another bundle, and these were filled with the protestations of love, written with pa.s.sion certainly, but also with that deceit which men so often think it justifiable to use to the other s.e.x. Judith had shed tears abundantly over the first packet, but now she felt a sentiment of indignation and pride better sustaining her. Her hand shook, however, and cold shivers again pa.s.sed through her frame, as she discovered a few points of strong resemblance between these letters and some it had been her own fate to receive. Once, indeed, she laid the packet down, bowed her head to her knees, and seemed nearly convulsed.
All this time Deerslayer sat a silent but attentive observer of every thing that pa.s.sed. As Judith read a letter she put it into his hands to hold until she could peruse the next; but this served in no degree to enlighten her companion, as he was totally unable to read. Nevertheless he was not entirely at fault in discovering the pa.s.sions that were contending in the bosom of the fair creature by his side, and, as occasional sentences escaped her in murmurs, he was nearer the truth, in his divinations, or conjectures, than the girl would have been pleased at discovering.
Judith had commenced with the earliest letters, luckily for a ready comprehension of the tale they told, for they were carefully arranged in chronological order, and to any one who would take the trouble to peruse them, would have revealed a sad history of gratified pa.s.sion, coldness, and finally of aversion. As she obtained the clue to their import, her impatience would not admit of delay, and she soon got to glancing her eyes over a page by way of coming at the truth in the briefest manner possible. By adopting this expedient, one to which all who are eager to arrive at results without enc.u.mbering themselves with details are so apt to resort, Judith made a rapid progress in these melancholy revelations of her mother"s failing and punishment. She saw that the period of her own birth was distinctly referred to, and even learned that the homely name she bore was given her by the father, of whose person she retained so faint an impression as to resemble a dream. This name was not obliterated from the text of the letters, but stood as if nothing was to be gained by erasing it. Hetty"s birth was mentioned once, and in that instance the name was the mother"s, but ere this period was reached came the signs of coldness, shadowing forth the desertion that was so soon to follow. It was in this stage of the correspondence that her mother had recourse to the plan of copying her own epistles. They were but few, but were eloquent with the feelings of blighted affection, and contrition.
Judith sobbed over them, until again and again she felt compelled to lay them aside from sheer physical inability to see; her eyes being literally obscured with tears. Still she returned to the task, with increasing interest, and finally succeeded in reaching the end of the latest communication that had probably ever pa.s.sed between her parents.
All this occupied fully an hour, for near a hundred letters were glanced at, and some twenty had been closely read. The truth now shone clear upon the acute mind of Judith, so far as her own birth and that of Hetty were concerned. She sickened at the conviction, and for the moment the rest of the world seemed to be cut off from her, and she had now additional reasons for wishing to pa.s.s the remainder of her life on the lake, where she had already seen so many bright and so many sorrowing days.
There yet remained more letters to examine. Judith found these were a correspondence between her mother and Thomas Hovey. The originals of both parties were carefully arranged, letter and answer, side by side; and they told the early history of the connection between the ill-a.s.sorted pair far more plainly than Judith wished to learn it. Her mother made the advances towards a marriage, to the surprise, not to say horror of her daughter, and she actually found a relief when she discovered traces of what struck her as insanity--or a morbid desperation, bordering on that dire calamity--in the earlier letters of that ill-fated woman. The answers of Hovey were coa.r.s.e and illiterate, though they manifested a sufficient desire to obtain the hand of a woman of singular personal attractions, and whose great error he was willing to overlook for the advantage of possessing one every way so much his superior, and who it also appeared was not altogether dest.i.tute of money. The remainder of this part of the correspondence was brief, and it was soon confined to a few communications on business, in which the miserable wife hastened the absent husband in his preparations to abandon a world which there was a sufficient reason to think was as dangerous to one of the parties as it was disagreeable to the other. But a sincere expression had escaped her mother, by which Judith could get a clue to the motives that had induced her to marry Hovey, or Hutter, and this she found was that feeling of resentment which so often tempts the injured to inflict wrongs on themselves by way of heaping coals on the heads of those through whom they have suffered. Judith had enough of the spirit of that mother to comprehend this sentiment, and for a moment did she see the exceeding folly which permitted such revengeful feelings to get the ascendancy.