Maud then rapidly recounted her plan, and implored her father to see it executed. The captain had none of her apprehensions on the subject of his people"s fidelity, but he yielded to the girl"s earnest entreaties.
Mrs. Willoughby was so agitated with all the unlooked-for events of the day, that she joined her daughter in the request, and Maud was told to proceed with the affair, in her own way.
A lamp was brought, and placed by Maud in a pantry that was lighted by a single, long, narrow, external window, at the angle of the building next the offices, and the door was closed on it. This lamp was the signal for the major to approach, and with beating hearts the females bent forward from the windows, secure of not being seen in the night, which had now fairly closed on the valley, to listen to his approaching footsteps beneath. They did not wait long ere he was not only heard, but dimly seen, though totally out of the line of sight from all in the Hut, with the exception of those above his head. Captain Willoughby had prepared a rope, one end of which was dropped, and fastened by the major, himself, around his body. A jerk let those above know when he was ready.
"What shall we do next?" asked the captain, in a sort of despair.
"Woods and I can never drag that tall, heavy fellow up such a distance.
He is six feet, and weighs a hundred and eighty, if he weighs a pound."
"Peace," half-whispered Maud, from a window. "All will be right in a moment." Then drawing in her body, the pale but earnest girl begged her father to have patience. "I have thought of all. Mike and the blacks may be trusted with our lives--I will call them."
This was done, and the county Leitrim-man and the two Plinys were soon in the room.
"O"Hearn," said Maud, inquiringly--"I think you are my friend?"
"Am I my own!--Is it yees, is the question? Well, jist wish for a tooth, and ye may take all in my head for the asking. Och, I "d be a baste, else! I"d ate the remain of my days wid not"ing but a spoon to obleege ye."
"As for you, Pliny, and your son here, you have known us from children.
Not a word must pa.s.s the lips of either, as to what you see--now pull, but with great care, lest the rope break."
The men did as ordered, raising their load from the ground, a foot or two at a time. In this manner the burthen approached, yard after yard, until it was evidently drawing near the window.
"It"s the captain hoisting up the big baste of a hog, for provisioning the hoose, ag"in a saige," whispered Mike to the negroes, who grinned as they tugged; "and when the cr"atur squails, see to it, that ye do not squail yerselves."
At that moment the head and shoulders of a man appeared at the window, Mike let go the rope, seized a chair, and was about to knock the intruder on the head; but the captain arrested the blow.
"It"s one of the vagabond Injins that has undermined the hog, and coome up in its stead," roared Mike."
"It"s my son"--answered the captain, mildly--"see that you are silent, and secret."
Chapter XIII.
And glory long has made the sages smile, Tis something, nothing, words, illusion, wind-- Depending more upon the historian"s style Than on the name a person leaves behind.
Troy owes to Homer what whist owes to Hoyle The present century was growing blind To the great Marlborough"s skill in giving knocks, Until his late Life by Archdeacon c.o.xe.
Byron.
Major Willoughby"s feet were scarcely on the library floor, when he was clasped in his mother"s arms. From these he soon pa.s.sed into Beulah"s; nor did his father hesitate about giving him an embrace nearly as warm.
As for Maud, she stood by, weeping in sympathy and in silence.
"And you, too, old man," said Robert Willoughby, dashing the tears from his eyes, and turning to the elder black, holding out a hand--"this is not the first time, by many, old Pliny, that you have had me between heaven and earth. Your son was my old play-fellow, and we must shake hands also. As for O"Hearn, steel is not truer, and we are friends for life."
The negroes were delighted to see their young master, for, in that day, the slaves exulted in the honour, appearance, importance and dignity of their owners, far more than their liberated descendants do now in their own. The major had been their friend when a boy; and he was, at present, their pride and glory. In their view of the matter, the English army did not contain his equal in looks, courage, military skill, or experience; and it was treason _per se_ to fight against a cause that he upheld. The captain had laughingly related to his wife a conversation to this effect he had not long before overheard between the two Plinys.
"Well, Miss Beuly do a pretty well"--observed the elder, "but, den he all"e better, if he no get "Merican "mission. What you call raal colonel, eh? Have "e paper from "e king like Ma.s.ser Bob, and wear a rigimental like a head of a turkey c.o.c.k, so! Dat bein" an up and down officer."
"P"rhaps Miss Beuly bring a colonel round, and take off a blue coat, and put on a scarlet," answered the younger.
"Nebber!--nebber see dat, Plin, in a rebbleushun. Dis got to be a rebbleushun; and when _dat_ begin in "arnest, gib up all idee of "mendment. Rebbleushuns look all one way--nebber see two side, any more dan coloured man see two side in a red-skin."
As we have not been able to trace the thought to antiquity, this expression may have been the original of the celebrated axiom of Napoleon, which tells us that "revolutions never go backwards." At all events, such was the notion of Pliny Willoughby, Sen., as the namesake of the great Roman styled himself; and it was greatly admired by Pliny Willoughby, Jun., to say nothing of the opinions of Big Smash and Little Smash, both of whom were listeners to the discourse.
"Well, I wish a colonel Beekman"--To this name the fellow gave the true Doric sound of _Bakeman_--"I wish a colonel Beekman only corprul in king"s troops, for Miss Beuly"s sake. Better be sarjun dere, dan briggerdeer-ginral in "Merikan company; dat _I_ know."
"What a briggerdeer mean, Plin?" inquired Little Smash, with interest.
"Who he keep company wid, and what he do? Tell a body, do--so many officer in "e army, one nebber know all he name."
""Mericans can"t hab "em. Too poor for _dat_. Briggerdeer great gentleum, and wear a red coat. Ole time, see "em in hundreds, come to visit Ma.s.ser, and Missus, and play wid Ma.s.ser Bob. Oh! no rebbleushun in dem days; but ebbery body know he own business, and _do_ it, too."
This will serve to show the political sentiments of the Plinys, and may also indicate the bias that the Smashes were likely to imbibe in such company. As a matter of course, the major was gladly welcomed by these devoted admirers; and when Maud again whispered to them the necessity of secresy, each shut his mouth, no trifling operation in itself, as if it were to be henceforth hermetically sealed.
The a.s.sistants were now dismissed, and the major was left alone with his family. Again and again Mrs. Willoughby embraced her son; nor had her new ties at all lessened Beulah"s interest in her brother. Even the captain kissed his boy anew, while Mr. Woods shook hands once more with his old pupil, and blessed him. Maud alone was pa.s.sive in this scene of feeling and joy.
"Now, Bob, let us to business," said the captain, as soon as tranquillity was a little restored. "You have not made this difficult and perilous journey without an object; and, as we are somewhat critically situated ourselves, the sooner we know what it is, the less will be the danger of its not producing its proper effect."
"Heaven send, dear sir, that it fail not in its effect, indeed,"
answered the son. "But is not this movement in the valley pressing, and have I not come opportunely to take a part in the defence of the house?"
"That will be seen a few hours later, perhaps. Everything is quiet now, and will probably so remain until near morning; or Indian tactics have undergone a change. The fellows have lighted camp-fires on their rocks, and seem disposed to rest for the present, at least. Nor do I know that they are bent on war at all. We have no Indians near us, who would be likely to dig up the hatchet; and these fellows profess peace, by a messenger they have sent me."
"Are they not in their war-paint, sir? I remember to have seen warriors, when a boy, and my gla.s.s has given these men the appearance of being on what they call "a war-path.""
"Some of them are certainly in that guise, though he who came to the Knoll was not. _He_ pretended that they were a party travelling towards the Hudson in order to learn the true causes of the difficulties between their Great English and their Great American Fathers. He asked for meal and meat to feed his young men with. This was the whole purport of his errand."
"And your answer, sir; is it peace, or war, between you?"
"Peace in professions, but I much fear war in reality. Still one cannot know. An old frontier garrison-man, like myself, is not apt to put much reliance on Indian faith. We are now, G.o.d be praised! all within the stockade; and having plenty of arms and ammunition, are not likely to be easily stormed. A siege is out of the question; we are too well provisioned to dread that."
"But you leave the mills, the growing grain, the barns, even the cabins of your workmen, altogether at the mercy of these wretches."
"That cannot well be avoided, unless we go out and drive them off, in open battle. For the last, they are too strong, to say nothing of the odds of risking fathers of families against mere vagabonds, as I suspect these savages to be. I have told them to help themselves to meal, or grain, of which they will find plenty in the mill. Pork can be got in the houses, and they have made way with a deer already, that I had expected the pleasure of dissecting myself. The cattle roam the woods at this season, and are tolerably safe; but they can burn the barns and other buildings, should they see fit. In this respect, we are at their mercy. If they ask for rum, or cider, that may bring matters to a head; for, refusing may exasperate them, and granting either, in any quant.i.ty, will certainly cause them all to get intoxicated."
"Why would not that be good policy, Willoughby?" exclaimed the chaplain. "If fairly disguised once, our people might steal out upon them, and take away all their arms. Drunken men sleep very profoundly."
"It would be a canonical mode of warfare, perhaps, Woods," returned the chaplain, smiling, "but not exactly a military. I think it safer that they should continue sober; for, as yet, they manifest no great intentions of hostility. But of this we can speak hereafter. Why are you here, my son, and in this guise?"
"The motive may as well be told now, as at another time," answered the major, giving his mother and sisters chairs, while the others imitated their example in being seated. "Sir William Howe has permitted me to come out to see you--I might almost say _ordered_ me out; for matters have now reached a pa.s.s when we think every loyal gentleman in America must feel disposed to take sides with the crown."
A general movement among his auditors told the major the extent of the interest they felt in what was expected to follow. He paused an instant to survey the dark-looking group that was cl.u.s.tering around him; for no lights were in the room on account of the open windows, and he spoke in a low voice from motives of prudence; then he proceeded:
"I should infer from the little that pa.s.sed between Maud and myself,"
he said, "that you are ignorant of the two most important events that have yet occurred in this unhappy conflict?"
"We learn little here," answered the father. "I have heard that my Lord Howe and his brother Sir William have been named commissioners by His Majesty to heal all the differences. I knew them both, when young men, and their elder brother before them. Black d.i.c.k, as we used to call the admiral, is a discreet, well-meaning man; though I fear both of them owe their appointments more to their affinity to the sovereign than to the qualities that might best fit them to deal with the Americans."
"Little is known of the affinity of which you speak[*], and less said in the army," returned the major, "but I fear there is no hope of the object of the commission"s being effected. The American congress has declared the colonies altogether independent of England; and so far as this country is concerned, the war is carried on as between nation and nation. All allegiance, even in name, is openly cast aside."