XXVIII
_THE MAID OF FINCASTLE_
In the autumn days as the century was closing, William Clark set outfor Virginia, as his brother had done in other years. Kentucky wasfilled with old forts, neglected bastions, moats, and blockhouses,their origin forgotten. Already the builders had passed on westward.
The Boone trace was lined now with settlements, a beaten bridle-paththronged with emigrant trains kicking up the dust. Through thefrowning portals of Cumberland Gap, Captain Clark and his man Yorkgalloped into Virginia.
From the southern border of Virginia to the Potomac passes the oldhighway, between the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge. Canteringthoughtfully along under the broad-leaved locusts and laurels, amelody like the laugh of wood-nymphs rippled from the forest.
"Why don't he go?" cried a musical feminine voice. "Oh, Harriet,Harriet!" With more laughter came a rustling of green leaves. Partingthe forest curtain to discover the source of this unusual commotion,Captain Clark descried two girls seated on a small pony, switchingwith all their slender energy.
"His feet are set. He will not move, Judy."
Leaping at once from his saddle, the Captain bowed low to the maidensin distress. "Can I be of any assistance?"
The sudden apparition of a handsome soldier in tri-cornered hat andlong silk hose quite took their breath away.
"Thank you, sir knight," answered the blonde with a flush ofbewitching colour. "Firefly, my pony, seems to object to carrying two,but we cannot walk across that ford. My cousin and I have on our satinslippers."
The Captain laughed, and taking the horse's bridle easily led thembeyond the mountain rill that dashed across their pathway.
"And will you not come to my father's house?" inquired the maiden. "Itis here among the trees."
Clark looked,--the roof and gables of a comfortable Virginian mansionshone amid the greenery. "I fear not. I must reach Colonel Hancock'sto-night."
"This is Colonel Hancock's," the girls replied with a smothered laugh.
At a signal, York lifted the five-barred gate and all passed in to thelong green avenue.
"The brother of my old friend, General George Rogers Clark!" exclaimedColonel Hancock. "Glad to see you, glad to see you. Many a time has hestopped on this road."
The Hancocks were among the founders of Virginia. With John Smith thefirst one came over "in search of Forrest for his building of Ships,"and was "massacred by ye salvages at Thorp's House, Berkeley Hundred."
General Hancock, the father of the present Colonel, equipped aregiment for his son at the breaking out of the Revolution. OnPulaski's staff, the young Colonel received the body of theillustrious Pole as he fell at the siege of Savannah.
From his Sea Island plantations and the sound of war in SouthCarolina, General Hancock, old and in gout, set out for Virginia. ButPulaski had fallen and his son was a prisoner under Cornwallis.Attended only by his daughter Mary and a faithful slave, the Generaldied on the way and was buried by Uncle Primus on the top of King'sMountain some weeks before the famous battle.
Released on parole and finding his fortune depleted, Colonel GeorgeHancock read Blackstone and the Virginia laws, took out a license,married, and settled at Fincastle. Here his children were born, ofwhom Judy was the youngest daughter. Later, by the death of thatheroic sister Mary, a niece had come into the family, HarrietKennerly. These were the girls that Captain Clark had encountered inhis morning ride among the mountains of Fincastle.
"Your brother, the General, and I journeyed together to Philadelphia,when he was Commissioner of Indian affairs. Is he well and enjoyingthe fruits of his valour?" continued the Colonel.
"My brother is disabled, the result of exposure in his campaigns. Hewill never recover. I am now visiting Virginia in behalf of hisaccounts with the Assembly,--they have never been adjusted. He eventhought you, his old friend, might be able to lend assistance, eitherin Virginia or in Congress."
"I am honoured by the request. You may depend upon me."
Colonel George Hancock had been a member of the Fourth Congress inWashington's administration, and with a four-horse family coachtravelled to and from Philadelphia attending the sessions.
Here the little Judy's earliest recollections had been of thebeautiful Dolly Todd who was about to wed Mr. Madison. Jefferson wasSecretary of State then, and his daughters, Maria and Martha, cameoften to visit Judy's older sisters, Mary and Caroline.
Judy's hair was a fluff of gold then; shading to brown, it was a fluffof gold still, that Granny Molly found hard to keep within bounds.Harriet, her cousin, of dark and splendid beauty, a year or two older,was ever the inseparable companion of Judy Hancock.
"Just fixing up the place again," explained Colonel Hancock. "It hassuffered from my absence at Philadelphia. A tedious journey, a tediousjourney from Fincastle."
But to the children that journey had been a liberal education. Thelong bell-trains of packhorses, the rumbling Conestogas, the bateauxand barges, the great rivers and dense forests, the lofty mountainsand wide farmlands, the towns and villages, Philadelphia itself, wereindelibly fixed in their memory and their fancy.
Several times in the course of the next few years, William Clark hadoccasion to visit Virginia in behalf of his brother, and each timemore and more he noted the budding graces of the maids of Fincastle.