Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 295, 20 November 1906 — Page 7
me Richmond rauaaium, Tuesday, November 20, 1906.
Page Seven.
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Copyright. 1390. by D0U3LEDAT. PACE 41 CO
SYNOPSIS OF STORY.
Chapter I Harry Wingfield, narrator of the story, is tutor to Mary Cavendish, a belle of the colony of Virginia in 1682, and accompanies her on a ride to church. ' He discovers her implication in a conspiracy
LTjgaInst the king. She has imported
arms and ammunition to aid in tne plot. II and III Wingfield's past life in England. Although heir to large estates and well educated, he is now a deported convict in Virginia. Wingfield is devoted to his pupil. IV and V Sir Humphrey Hyde, In love with Mary, is with her in the
an mat rair lunorescence of life. But
'i'lie store of ammunition in the tomb! tne burgesses, we seven gaining oa
had been secretly removed and portioned out to the plant cutters at nightfall. It was no slight tak for even a hundred to cut such a wealth of tobacco as Major Robert Beverly had planted, work as fast as they might, and proceed over the fields iu a fierce crawl of destruction, like an army of locusts.
the rabble, in spite of the fact that many of them were mounted upon
j Major Robert Beverly's i best horses.
through their having less. knowledge of horsemanship, closed around Mary Cavendish on Merry Roger, clearing the ground with long galloping bounds, and Catherine, with the strange horseman, was somewhat behind.
and finally they begun to wax im- As we c:ime up with Mary she looked
patient. And finally up roe that ter- i at us over ner shoulder with a bright
magant, Mistress Longman, straighten
ing her back with a spring as If it were whalebone, showing us her face shameless with rage and stained green with tobac-o juice and here and there red with blood, for she had slashed ruth
lessly. She flu?g back her coarse tan-
eametimes death and destruction are gie of hair, threw up her arms with a
the means to life and immortality
Those great fields of Major Robert
Beverly's lay before us in the full
moonlight, overlapping wirh the lusty
breadth of the new leaves gleaming with silver dew, and upon them we
fell. We hacked and cut, we tore up
by the roots. In a trice we were bedlam loosened
that Is, the ruder part of us. Some of us
worked with no less fury, but still with
some sense of our own dignity as de
stroyers over destruction. But the rabble who had swelled our ranks were
all on fire with rage and wasted themselves as well as the tobacco. They filled the air with shouts and wild
plot, which is laid for the purpose of j screams and peals of laughter. That
cutting down" the young tobacco plants and thus depriving the king of his revenue under the unjust navigation act. VI and VII Mayday frolics at Drake Hill, home ' of Wingfield and Mary. Catherine Cavendi3h beseeches the tutor to save her sister from participation In the conspiracy. VIII Harry and Catherine conspire to keep knowledge of the plot from Madam Cavendish, the girls' grandmother, who is a stanch royalist. IX Mary is deceived by Wingfield into thinking that Catherine has purchased finery for her, the real benefactor being Wingfield. his object being not only to please her, but also to prevent Madam Cavendish from learninig of the disposition of Mary's own money, which has been expended for the
arms.
X-Catherine, who knows why Wingfield Is unjustly exiled, upbraids hira for deceiving Mary. Planning to
hid the arms and ammunition.
XI Madam Cavendish, whose silence about Winfleld's. innocence
shields her own granddaughter, Cath
erine. wishes him to wed Mary. Wingfield Is guided by a witch to a secure
hiding place for the arms. XII The crand ball at the governor's, with
Mary as belle. She reveals her affection for Wingfield. XIII and XIV The development of the plot to fight the king. XV Catherine and Mary both avow their love for Harry.
My party was headed by Captain Noel Jaynes, something to my discontentfor the hardest luck of choosing in the world to my mind is that of choosing a leader, for the leader Is in himself a very gallstone. Never had it pleased, me" to follow1- any man's bidding, and in one way' only could I romfort myself and retain my respect Major Beverly reading ths names of those presen
fiercest Joy of the world, the joy of
destruction, was upon them, and sure it must have been one of the chiefest
of the joys of primitive man, for all In a second it was as if the centuries of civilization and Christianity had gone for naught and the great gulf
which lies back of us to the past had
been leaped. . - " One had doubted it not had he seen those old men tearing up the tobacco plants, their mouths dribbling with a slow mutter of curses, for they had drunk much cider, and, being aged and none too well fed, it had more hold on them than on some of the others, and to see the women lost to all sense of decency, with their petticoats girded high on account of the dew, striding among the plants with high flings of stalwart legs, then slashing right and left with an uncertainty of fury which
threatened not only themselves but their neighbors as well as the tobacco, and shrieking now and then, regardless of who might hear, "Down with the king!" Often one cut a finger, but went on with blood flowing, and their hair begun to fly loose, and they smeared their faces with their cut hands, and as for the two black women, they pounced upon those green plants with fierce swashes of their gleaming knives and, though they could have sensed little about the true reason for it all, worked
with a fury of savagery which needed
no motive only its first impetus of mo
tion.
Captain Jaynes rode hither and thither striving to keep the mob in
order and enjoining silence upon them,
and now and then lashing out with his long riding whip, but he had set forces
In motion which he could not stop. Fire and flood ajid wind and the passions of men, whether for love or rage, are
beyond the leading of them who invoke them, being the instruments of the
gods.
Sir Humphrey nyde, who was beside
me, slashing away at the plants, whis
pered, "My God, Harry, how far will this fire which we have kindled spread?" but not In fear so much as
amazement
And I, bringing down a great ring
of the green leaves, replied, and felt
as I spoke as if some other than I had
my tongue and my voice
"Maybe in the end, before It hath
quite died out, ,to the destroying of
tyranny and monarchy and the clear
ing of the fields for a new government
of equality and freedom." But Sir Humphrey stared at me,
wild hurrahing motion and screamed out in such a volume of shrillness that she overcapped all the rest of the tumult: To the stable, to the stables! Let out Major Beverly's horses and let
them trample down the tobacco.'
of merriment, like a child successful in mischief, and laughed and waved her hand in which, as I live, she held n sword ich had long graced the hall at DralTe Hill, and I believe she meditated cutting the tobacco herself. Then n great cheer went up for her, in which we, in spite of our misgivings.
joined. Something so wonderful and innocent there was in the fresh enthusiasm of the maid. Then again her
sweet voice rang out:
"Down with the tobacco, gentlemen cf Virginia, and down with all tyranny.
Then, such a cry echoed her that I ' Remember Nathaniel Bacon, remember
trow- it might have proceeded from a t Nathaniel Bacon!" thousand throats instead of one hun- j Then we all caught up that last cry dred odd, and In spite of all that Cap- of hers, and the air rang with "Remem-
tain Jaynes could do, seconded by some few of us gentlemen who rallied about him, but were helpless since we Mistress Longman urging that the tobaxco be trevmpled down
could not fire upon our coadjutors, that
mob swept into "Beverly's stables, and presently out leaped, plunging with terror, all his fine thoroughbreds, the
mob riding them about the fields In
wild career. And one of the maddest
of the riders, sitting astride and flog
ging her steed with a locust branch.
was Mistress Longman, while her husband vainly fled after her, beseeching her to stop, and those around were
roaring with laughter.
Then some must let out the major's
hogs, and they came rooting and turn
bling with unwieldy gambols. And
with this wild troop of animals, and the mob shrieking in -a frenzy of de
light, and . now and then a woman In
terror before the onslaught of a gallop
ing horse, and now and' then a whole
group of cutters overset by a charging hog, and up and after him, and slaying him, and his squeals of agony verily I
had preferred a battlefield of a different
sort. And all this time Major Robert Bev
erly's house stood still in the moonlight, and not a' noise from the slave quarters, and the fields were all In a pumice of wasted plant life, and we were about
to go farther, when I heard again the
cry of the little child coming from a chamber window. I trow they had
given her some quieting potion or she
had broken silence before. With all our efforts the mob could not be persuaded to return Major Beverly's horses to bis stables, which circumstance was afterward to ihe saving of his neck, since it was argued that he would not have abetted the using of his fine stud in such wise, some of the horses being recovered and some being lamed and cut. So out of the Beverly plantation we swept," those on horseback at a gallop and those on foot tramping after, and above the tumult came that farthest reaching cry of the world the cry of a little child frantic with terror. Then they were for going to another large plantation belonging to one Richard Forster, who had gone in Ralph
1 that was bv the consider'?5 than to force tbe kIn2 to 8ee la DrakC 8 PUrtT' When aU f a 8udden the x luai was vj me tonemer ccoionv hath frown f rom infancv to horses of us who were leading swerved, i roiiowca by my own win , " ' " . I " ; "
of self, and
ation that
and so In one sense led myself,
When at last we set forth, some of
tis riding and some on foot, with that old pirate captain to the front, hunched to his saddle, for he never could sit a borse like a landsman, but clung to
him as if he were a swaying mast and
worked bis bridle like a wheel, with the
result of heavy lunges to right or left, 1 felt for the first time since I had
come to Virginia like my old self.
We hurried along the moonlit road,
then struck Into a bridle path, being bound for Major Robert Beverly's plantation, he. being supposedto know naught of it. and indeed after his is
suing of orders he had ridden to Jamestown to see Sir Henry Chicbely and keep him quiet with a game at piquet, which he much affected.
As we rode along in silence, if any
man spoke Captain Jaynes quieted
him with a great oath smothered In his chest cs if by a bed of feathers, and presently! became aware there were more of us than when we started. We swarmed through the woods, our com
pany being swelled Invisibly from
every side, and not only men. but wom
en, were there. Both Mistress Allgood and Mistress Longman were pressing on with their petticoats tucked up, and
to my great surprise both of the black
women who lived at Barry Upper
Branch. They slunk along far to the
rear, .with knives gleaming like white fire at their girdles, keeping well out of sight f the Barry brothers, who
were both of our party, and looking for
all the world like two female tigers of
some savage jungle in search of prey.
since each moved with a curious power
ful crouch of secrecy as to her back
fid hips and wary roll of fierlce eyes.
When we were fairly In the open of
Major Beverly's plantation some few torches were lit. and then I saw that we were Indeed a good hundred strong, and of the party were that old graybeard who had played Maid Marlon on May day and many of the morris dan
cers and those lusty lads and lasses.
and they had been at the cider this
time aa at the other, but all bad their wits at their service. .
Not a light was In Major Beverly's
great nouse. not a stir in tne slave quarters. . One would have sworn they were all asleep or dead. But Captain
Jaynes called a halt and divided us
into rank and file like a company ot reapers, and to work we went on the
great tobacco fields.
I trow it seemed a shame, as it ever
does, to invoke that terrible force of the world which man controls, whether
o his liberty or his slavery 'tis the
"uua. and bring destructiea. uaon
manhood and hath an arm to be re
Fpected, and compel him-to repeal the
navigation act. What else, Harry?"
Then I, speaking again as if some other moved my tongue, replied that none could say what matter a little fire kindletb, but those that came after
us might know the result of that which
we that night begun. But Sir Humphrey shook his head.
"If but Nat Bacon were alive!" he
sighed. "No leader have we, Harry,
Oh, Harry, if thou w"-t not a convict! Captain Jaynes Is su?e out of his element in defending the rights of the op
pressed and should be on his own quarter deck with his cutlass In hand
and his rapscallions around him, slay
ing and robbing,, to be In full feather. Naught can he do here. Lord, hear those women shriek! Why did they let women come hither, narry? Sure Nick
Barry is in his cups. Not thus would
matters have been were Bacon alive.
The women would have been at home in their beds, and no man in liquor at work, for I trust not the militia. Would
Captain Bacon wero alive, as he would have been had he not been foully done
to death
This he said believing, as did many, that Bacon's death was due to treachery and not fever, nor, as many of his
enemies affirmed, from overindulgence in strong spirits, and I must say
that I, remembering Bacon's greatness of enthusiasm aud fixedness of pur
pose, was of the same belief.
As he spoke I seemed to see that
aside, and there was Mistress Mary
Cavendish on her Merry Roger, and by
her side, pulling vainly at her bridle,
her sister Catherine.
M
ber Nathaniel Bacon!"
But as soon as might be I rode close enough to speak with Mary Cavendish, and Sir Humphrey was on the other side, each with our jealousy lost sight of in our concern for her. "Child, thou must turn and go home," I said, and I fear my voice lost its firmness, for I was half mad with admiration and love and apprehension for her. Then Sir Humphrey echoed me. "The militia will be upon us presently," he shouted in her ear above the din. "Ride home as fast as you may." She looked from one to the other of us and laughed gayly and shook her head, and her golden curls flew to the wind, and she touched Merry Roger with her whip and he bounded ahead, and we had all we could do to keep pace, he being fresh. Then Parson Downs pelted to her side and besought her to turn, and so did Captain Jaynes, though he was half laughing with delight at her spirit, and his bright eyes viewed her In such wise .that I could scarce keep my fingers from his throat But Mary Cavendish would hear to none, and no way there was of turning her, lest we dragged her from her saddle. Again I rode close and spoke so that no one beside her could hear. "Go home, I pray you, if you love
me," I said. But she looked at me with a proud defiance and such , a spirit of a man that I marveled at her. " 'Tis no time to talk of love, sir," said she. "When a people strike for liberty they stop not for honey nor kisses." Then she cried again, "Remember Nathaniel Bacon!" And again that wild shout echoed her silver voices But then I spoke again, catching her bridle rein as I rode. "Then go, if not because you love me, because I love thee," I said close to her ear with her golden hair blowing athwart my face. "I obey not the man who loves me, but the man who weds me, and that yon will not do because you hold your pride dearer than love," said she, "Nay, because I hold thee dearer than my love," said I. "'Tis a false principle you act upon, and love is before all else, even that Mary shouting "Remember Nathaniel Ba.con!V
the tobacco and gave him a knife, and
he went to cutting, having just enough wit to do that for, which his mind had
been headed, and naught else.
The mob took a fancy to that new
cry of Mary Cavendish's, and every now and then the field rang with it.
"Remember Nathaniel Bacon Remem
ber Nathaniel Bacon!" It had a curious effect, through starting in a distant
quarter, where some of the fiercest
of the workers were grouped, then
coming nearer and nearer, till the
whole field rang with that wide over
spread of human voice, above the juicy
slashing of the tobacco plants.
We had been at work some little time
when a tall woman in black on a black
horse came up at a steady amble, her horse being old. She dismounted near
me and her horse went to nibbling the
low hanging boughs of a locust near by,
and the moon shone full on her face, and I saw she was the Widow Tabitha Story, with that curious patch on her forehead. Down to the tobacco she
bent and went to work stifHy with un
accustomed hands to such work, and then again rang that cry of "Remember Nathaniel Bacon r And when she
heard that, up she reared herself, and raised such a shrill response of "Re
member Nathaniel Bacon!" in a high
sobbing voice, as I never heard.
And after that for a minute the field seemed to fairly howl with that cry of
following, and memory for the dead hero, always Madam Tabitha Story's voice in the lead, shrieking over it like
a cat's.
"Lord, have mercy on us," said Par
son Downs at my elbow. "She will
have all England upon us, and where
fore could not the women have kept
out of this stew?"
With that he went over to the widow
and strove to quiet her, but she
only shrieked with more fury, with Mistresses Longman and Allgood to aid
her, and then came in a mad rush upon us of horse and foot, the militia, under Captain Robert Waller.
CHAPTER XVIII. HAVE seen the same effect when a stone was thrown into a boil of river rapids an enhancement and marvel-
whick may harm it, and thou knowest not the heart of a woman if thou dost love one, sir," said she. Then she gave
a quick glance at my face, so close to hers in the midst of that hurrying
throng, and her blue eyes gleamed Into
CHAPTER XVII. ART CAVENDISn raised her
vdiee high until It seemed to niine, and she said, with a bright blush me like a silver trumpet and ! ovef Qer cheeks and forehead and neck,
. ... - . i l. . . j. 11 mm l -1 - n . 1
uui yruuuijr il ssxitj ueiitu even ues
cried out, with a wave of her
white arm to them all: "On to Laurel Creek, I pray you! Oh, I pray you,
good people, on to Laurel Creek, and cut
down my tobacco for the sake of Vir
ginia and the honor of the colony."
It needed but a puff of any wrind of
human will to send that fiery mob leap
ing in a new direction. Straightway they shouted with one accord: "To
Laurel Creek, to Laurel Creek I Down
with the tobacco, down with the gov
ernor, down with the king! To Laurel
Creek!" and forged ahead, turning to the left instead of the right as had been ordered, and Mary was swept
along with them, and Catherine would have been crushed had not a horse
man, whom I did not recognize, caught her up on the saddle with him with a
wonderful swing of, a long, . lithe arm and then galloped after. And as for
myself and Captain Jaynes and Sir Humphrey and others of the burgesses whom I had best not call by name, we went, too, since we might as well have
tried to hold the current of the James
river as that headlong company.
But as soon as might be I shouted
out w sir iumpnrey above tne din
dead hero as be would have looked in that our first duty must be to save oar midst with the moonlight shining Mary and Catherine. And be answered on the stern whiteness of his face and hack in a hoarse 6hout, "Oh, for God's that look of high command in his eyes sake, ride fast, Harry, for should the
which none dared gainsay. And I militia come what would happen to
answered again and again, as with an tnemr impulse not my own, "And maybe Ba- But I needed no urging. I know not con in truth leada us still, if not by his whom I rode down I trust not any, own chosen ways, to his own ends." but I know not. I got before them all
"Truly, Harry," Sir Humphrey j in some wise. Sir Humphrey following
agreed, "had it not been for Bacon, I close behind, and Ralph Drake also.
doubt if we had been at this night's swearing that he knew not what pos-
work." I sessed the lades to meddle in such
All the time we talked we advanced matters and shouting to the rabble to
in our slashing swath, up the field, stop, but he might as well have shout-
and all the time that chorus of wild ed to the wind. And by that time
laughter and shrieks of disloyalty kepi
lime with the swash of the knives, and II the time rose Captain Jaynes
storm of fruitless curses and corn-
there were more than a hundred of us, though whence they had come I know not.
We gentlemen kept together in some
mands. and now and then the stinging wise and graduallv gained on Mary,
lash of bis riding whip, and also Dick who had had the start, and. there were Barry's. As for Nick Barry, he lay some seven of us one of the Barrya, overcome with sleep on a heap of the Sir Humphrey Hyde, Ralph Drake, cut tobacco. . Parson Downs, in such guise for a parAnd all the time not a light shone in son that no one would have known any of Major Robert Beverly's win- him. booted and spurred and riding dows, and the slave quarters were as harder than any by virtue of his best still aa Uiq tomb, 1 horse in the colony, myself and two of
maiden shame in the cause of love, "But thou shalt yet know one, Harry." Then, as if she had said too much, she pulled her bridle loose from my detaining hand with a quick jerk and touched her horse, and we were on that
hard gallop to Laurel Creek. Laurel Creek was not a large planta
tion, but the fields of tobacco were well
set. and it was some task to cut them,
Captain Jaynes essayed to form the
cutters into ranks, but j with no avail, though he galloped back and forth, shouting like a madman, , Every man set to work for himself, and it was again bedlam broke loose as at the other plantation. Then, Indeed, for the
first time I saw Mary Cavendish shrink
a little, as if she were somewhat in
timidated by the fire which she had lighted, and she resisted not when Sir
Humphrey and her cousin Ralph and
I urged her Into the house. And as she
entered there was Catherine, having been brought thither by that stranger who bad disappeared. And we shut
the door upon both women and then
felt freer in our minds. Captain Noel Jaynes swore 'twas a jade fit to lead an army, then inquired what brought
Widow Tabitha Story
her thither and why women were in the front in ail our Virginian wars, whether they wore white aprons or not? As ho spoke Ralph Drake shouted out with a great laugh that maybe 'twas for the purpose of carrying the men, and pointed, and there was one of the black wenches bringing Nick Barry, who else had fallen, upon her back to the field. Then eb set Mo. .down in
ous entanglement of swiftness and fury
and spread of broken circles which
confused the sight at the time and the
memory afterward. It was but a small body of horse end
foot which charged us whilst we were cutting the tobacco on the plantation
of Laurel Creek, but it needed not a
large one to put to rout a company so
overbalanced by enthusiasm and cider and that marvelous greed of destruc
tion. No more than seven gentlemen of us there were to make a stand, and not more than some twenty-five of the
rabble to be depended upon. As for me. the principal thought In my mind when the militia burst upon us was the safety of Mary Cavendish. Straight to the door of the great house I rushed, and Sir Humphrey Hyde was with me. As for the other gentlemen, they were fighting here and there as they could. Captain Jaynes making efforts to keep the main body of the defenders at bis back, but with little avail. I stood against the door of the house, resolved upon but one coursethat my dead body should be . the threshold over which they crossed to
Mary Cavendish. It was but a pitiful resolve, for what could I do single handed, except for the boy Humphrey Hj'de, against so many? But it was all, and a man can but give his ail. I knew if the militia were to find Mary and Catherine Cavendish in that house grave harm might come to them, If Indeed it came not already without that. So I stood back against the door, which I bad previously tried and found fast, and Sir Humphrey was with me. Then came a hush for a moment whilst the magistrate, with
Captain Waller and others sitting on their horses around bim, read the riot act and bade us all disperse and repair to our homes, and, verily, I wonder if ever there hath been in all the history of England such a farce and mummery as that same riot act, and If ever it Kere ra with much effect when a riot were well under way. Scarcely time they gave the worthy man to finish, and indeed bis voice trembled as if he had the ague, and
he seemed shrinking for shelter under
his big wig, but they drowned out his last words with hisses. Then there was a wild rush of the rabble and a cry of "Down with the tobacco!" and "A
Bacon, a Bacon!" Then the militia charged, and there were the flashes of swords and partisans and the thunder
of firearms. : ,
I stood there, feeling like a deserter from the ranks, yet bound to keep the
door of Laurel Creek, and I bad a pis
tol in either hand, and so had Sir Hum
phrey Hyde, but for a minute nobody seemed to heed us. Then as I stood there I felt the door behind me yield
a bit, and a hand was thrust out, and
a voice whispered: "Harry, Harry,
come In hither. We can hold the house
against an army."
My heart leapt, for it was Mary, and quicker than a flash I had my mind made up. I turned upon Sir Humphrey and thrust him in before he knew it through the opening of the
door and called out to him to bar and bolt as best he could inside while I held
the door. He, whether he would or
not, was in the house and,' seeing some
of the soldiers Tiding our way with Captain Waller at their head, was
forced to clap to the door and shoot the
bolts, but as he did so I heard a wom
an's shrill cry of agony ring out.
I stood there, and Captain Waller rode up with his soldiers and, flashing
his sword before my face like a streak of fire, bade me surrender in the name of bis majesty and stand aside. But f stood still with my two pistols leveled and had him full within range. Captain Waller was a young man and a brave one. and never to my dying day shall I forget that face which I bad the power to still with death. He looked into the muzzles of my two pistols, and his rosy color never wavered, and he shouted out again to me his command to surrender and stand aside in the name
of the king, and I stood still and made
no reply, I knew that I could take
two lives and then struggle unarmed for perhaps a moment's space and that all the time saved might be precious
for those in the house. At all events. It
was all that I could do for Mary Cav
endish.
I held my pistols and watched hi3
eyes, knowing well that all action, through havlnsr its source In the brain
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9
fit man, gives first evidence In the
eyes. Then the time came when I saw his impulse to charge start in his eyes, and I fired, and he fell. Then I fired again, but wildly, for everything was
in motion, and I know not whom I hit.
if any one. Then I felt my own right leg
Harry with piatela leveled
sink under me, and I knew that I was bit. Then down on my knees I sank
and put one arm through the great latch of the door, and thrust out with my knife with the free hand, and stout arms were at my shoulders striving to
drag me away, but they might as well
for a time have tried to drag a bar of
steel from its fastenings.
I thrust out here and there, and I
trow my steel drew blood, and I sup
pose my own flowed, for presently I was kneeling in a widening circle of red. I cut those forcing hands from
my arm, and others came. - It was one
against a multitude, for the rabble, after
hitting wild blows os often at their friends as at their enemies, had broken
and fled, except those who were taken
prisoners. But the women stayed until the last and fought like wildcats, with
the exception of Madam Tabitha Story,
who quietly got upon her old horse and ambled away, and cut down her own
tobacco until daybreak, pressing her slaves into service.
As for the other gentlemen, they were
fighting as best they could, and all the
time striving vainly to gather the mob into a firm body of resistance. None of them saw the plight I was in, nor in
deed could have helped me had they done so, since there were but seven
gentlemen of us in all, and some by this time wounded, and one dead. I knelt there upon the ground before the door, slashing out as best I could with one hand, and they closed faster and thicker upon me, and at last I
could no more. I felt a stinging pain
in my right shoulder, and then for a
minute my senses left me. But it was
only for a moment. When I came to myself I was lying bound, with a soldier standing guard over me, though there was small need of it. and they were raining battering
blows upon the door of Laurel Creek. Somehow they had conceived the idea that there was something of great Import therein by my mad and desperate defense. I know not what they thought, but gradually all the militia were centered at that point, striving to force the door, Aa for the shutters, they were heavily barred and oflered no easier entrance. Indeed, the whole house had been strengthened for defense against the Indians before the Bacon uprising and was near as, strong as a fort. It would have been well bad we all entered and defended It, though we could not have held out for long, through not being provisioned. At last Captain Jaynes and the other gentlemen began to conceive the situation, and I caught sight of them forcing their way toward me and shouted to them with a failing voice, for I had lost much blood, to come nearer and assist me to hold the door. Then I saw Captain Jaynes sink in Lis saddle, and T caught a glimpse of a mighty retreat of plunging haunches of Parson Downs' horse, and indeed the gist of the blame for it all was afterward put upon the parson's great fiery horse, which it was claimed had run away with him first into the fight, then away from it, stfch foolish reasons do men love to give for the lapses of the clergy. However, to do the parson justice,
he did not fly until he saw the day was lost, and. I trow, did afterward better service to me than he might have done by staying . As for the burgesses, I know not whither nor when they had
gone, for they had melted away like shadows by reason of the great obloquy wblen would have attached to
them should men in their high office have been discovered in such work. Ralph Drake was left, who made ft
push toward me with a hoarse shout, and then he fell, though not severely wounded, and then the soldiers pressed
closer. And then I felt again the door yield at my back, and before I knew it I was dragged inside, and, in spite of the pressure of the mob, the door was pushed to with incredible swiftness by Humphrey Hyde's great strength, and the bolt shot.
There I lay on the floor of the hall
well nigh spent, and Mary Cavendish was chafing my. hands, bandaging mv
wounds wltn some linen got 1 knew not whence, and Catherine was there, and all the fime the great battering blows upon the door were kept up, and also on the window shutters, and the door began to shake. Then I remembered something. There was behind the house a creek which was dry in midsummer, but often, ad now, in springtime, swollen with rains, and of sufficient depth and force to float a boat. And when it was possible it had been the custom to send stores of tobacco for lading on shipboard to England by this short cut of the creek, Harry beseech Sir Ouanskrvy to Mavry
which discharged itself Into the river below, and there was for that purpose a great boat in the cellar, and also a
door and a little landing.
I, remembering this, whispered to Mary Cavendish with all the strength
which I could muster.
"For God's sake," I cried, "go you to the cellar the boat the creek:" But Mary looked at me, and I can
see her face now.
','Thiuk you I did not know of that
wayr sue said. na you tninn i
would leave you here to die? No, lei them come in and do their worst."
Then I turned to 8lr Humphrey Hyde.
"For God's sake, Iad,M I cried, lf you love her, save herj Only a moment and
they will be in here. Hear the door tremble, and then 'twill be arrest and imprisonment, and I tell thee, lad, leave me and save them."
"They can do as they choose," cried
Mary. Then she turned to Sir Hum
phrey. "Take Catherine, and she win show you the wsy out by the creek," she said. "As for me, I remain here."
Catherine bent over me and tightened
a bandage, but she did not speak. Sir
Humphrey looked at me palely and
doubtfully.
"Harry," he said, "I can carry thee to the boat, and we can all escape in that way." "Yes," I replied, "but If I escape through them 'twill serve to convict them,' and and besides, lad, I cannot bo moved, for the bleeding of my wounds, such a long way; and, besides, it is at the best arrest for me, since I have been seen by the whole poase and have shot down Captain Waller. Whither could I fly, pray? Not back to England. Me they will take in custody in any case, and they will not shoot a wounded captive. My life Is safe for the time being. Humphrey" With that I beckoned him to lean over me, which be did, putting his ear close. "Seise Mary by force and bear ber away, lad." I whispered: "down cellar to the boat. Catherine will show thee the way." "I cannot. Harry," he whispered back, and as I live the tears were In the boy's eyes. "I cannot leave thee, Harry." "You must. There Is no other way If you would save her," I whispered -back. "And what good can you do by staying? The four of us will be taken, for yeu can do nothing for me single handed. Captain Jaynes is killed I saw him fail and the parson has tied, and and I know not where be the
others. For God's sake, lad, save her!"
Then Sir Humphrey, with such a look at me as I never forgot, but have
always loved him for, with no more ado turned upon Mary Cavendish and
caught her. pinioning-both arms, and
lifted her at if she had been an infant.
and Catherine would have gone to her rescue, but I caught at her band, which was still at work on my bandage. "Go you with them and show the way to the boat," I whispered. She set ber mouth hard and looked at me. "I will not - t" h !d.
(To Be Continued.)
Fred Barton left yesterday for a hunting trip in the southern part of the state.
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