CHAPTER XXIX
Away went Gilpin, neck or nought, Away went hat and wig; He little dreamt, when he set out, Of running such a rig. --COWPER.
The road which it was necessary for the peddler and the English captainto travel, in order to reach the shelter of the hills, lay, for a halfmile, in full view from the door of the building that had so recentlybeen the prison of the latter; running for the whole distance over therich plain, that spreads to the very foot of the mountains, which hererise in a nearly perpendicular ascent from their bases; it then turnedshort to the right, and was obliged to follow the windings of nature, asit won its way into the bosom of the Highlands.
To preserve the supposed difference in their stations, Harvey rode ashort distance ahead of his companion, and maintained the sober,dignified pace, that was suited to his assumed character. On theirright, the regiment of foot, that we have already mentioned, lay, intents; and the sentinels who guarded their encampment were to be seenmoving with measured tread under the hills themselves.
The first impulse of Henry was, certainly, to urge the beast he rode tohis greatest speed at once, and by a coup de main not only accomplishhis escape, but relieve himself from the torturing suspense of hissituation. But the forward movement that the youth made for this purposewas instantly checked by the peddler.
"Hold up!" he cried, dexterously reining his own horse across the pathof the other. "Would you ruin us both? Fall into the place of a black,following his master. Did you not see their blooded chargers, allsaddled and bridled, standing in the sun before the house? How long doyou think that miserable Dutch horse you are on would hold his speed, ifpursued by the Virginians? Every foot that we can gain, without givingthe alarm, counts a day in our lives. Ride steadily after me, and on noaccount look back. They are as subtle as foxes, aye, and as ravenous forblood as wolves!"
Henry reluctantly restrained his impatience, and followed the directionof the peddler. His imagination, however, continually alarmed him withthe fancied sounds of pursuit, though Birch, who occasionally lookedback under the pretense of addressing his companion, assured him thatall continued quiet and peaceful.
"But," said Henry, "it will not be possible for Caesar to remain longundiscovered. Had we not better put our horses to the gallop, and by thetime they can reflect on the cause of our flight, we can reach thecorner of the woods?"
"Ah! you little know them, Captain Wharton," returned the peddler."There is a sergeant at this moment looking after us, as if he thoughtall was not right; the keen-eyed fellow watches me like a tiger lying inwait for his leap. When I stood on the horseblock, he half suspectedthat something was wrong. Nay, check your beast--we must let the animalswalk a little, for he is laying his hand on the pommel of his saddle. Ifhe mounts, we are gone. The foot-soldiers could reach us withtheir muskets."
"What does he now?" asked Henry, reining his horse to a walk, but at thesame time pressing his heels into the animal's sides, to be in readinessfor a spring.
"He turns from his charger, and looks the other way, now trot ongently--not so fast--not so fast. Observe the sentinel in the field, alittle ahead of us--he eyes us keenly."
"Never mind the footman," said Henry, impatiently, "he can do nothingbut shoot us--whereas these dragoons may make me a captive again.Surely, Harvey, there are horse moving down the road behind us. Do yousee nothing particular?"
"Humph!" ejaculated the peddler. "There is something particular, indeed,to be seen behind the thicket on our left. Turn your head a little, andyou may see and profit by it too."
Henry eagerly seized this permission to look aside, and the bloodcurdled to his heart as he observed that they were passing a gallows,which unquestionably had been erected for his own execution. He turnedhis face from the sight, in undisguised horror.
"There is a warning to be prudent," said the peddler, in the sententiousmanner that he often adopted.
"It is a terrific sight, indeed!" cried Henry, for a moment veiling hiseyes with his hand, as if to drive a vision from before him.
The peddler moved his body partly around, and spoke with energetic butgloomy bitterness, "And yet, Captain Wharton, you see it where thesetting sun shines full upon you; the air you breathe is clear, andfresh from the hills before you. Every step that you take leaves thathated gallows behind; and every dark hollow, and every shapeless rock inthe mountains, offers you a hiding place from the vengeance of yourenemies. But I have seen the gibbet raised, when no place of refugeoffered. Twice have I been buried in dungeons, where, fettered and inchains, I have passed nights in torture, looking forward to themorning's dawn that was to light me to a death of infamy. The sweat hasstarted from limbs that seemed already drained of their moisture; and ifI ventured to the hole that admitted air through grates of iron to lookout upon the smiles of nature, which God has bestowed for the meanest ofHis creatures, the gibbet has glared before my eyes, like an evilconscience harrowing the soul of a dying man. Four times have I been intheir power, besides this last; but--twice--did I think my hour hadcome. It is hard to die at the best, Captain Wharton; but to spend yourlast moments alone and unpitied, to know that none near you so much asthink of the fate that is to you the closing of all that is earthly; tothink that, in a few hours, you are to be led from the gloom, which, asyou dwell on what follows, becomes dear to you, to the face of day, andthere to meet all eyes fixed upon you, as if you were a wild beast; andto lose sight of everything amidst the jeers and scoffs of your fellowcreatures--that, Captain Wharton, that indeed is to die!"
Henry listened in amazement, as his companion uttered this speech with avehemence altogether new to him; both seemed to have forgotten theirdanger and their disguises.
"What! were you ever so near death as that?"
"Have I not been the hunted beast of these hills for three years past?"resumed Harvey; "and once they even led me to the foot of the gallowsitself, and I escaped only by an alarm from the royal troops. Had theybeen a quarter of an hour later, I must have died. There was I placed inthe midst of unfeeling men, and gaping women and children, as a monsterto be cursed. When I would pray to God, my ears were insulted with thehistory of my crimes; and when, in all that multitude, I looked aroundfor a single face that showed me any pity, I could find none--no, noteven one; all cursed me as a wretch who would sell his country for gold.The sun was brighter to my eyes than common--but it was the last time Ishould see it. The fields were gay and pleasant, and everything seemedas if this world was a kind of heaven. Oh, how sweet life was to me atthat moment! 'Twas a dreadful hour, Captain Wharton, and such as youhave never known. You have friends to feel for you, but I had none but afather to mourn my loss, when he might hear of it; but there was nopity, no consolation near, to soothe my anguish. Everything seemed tohave deserted me. I even thought that HE had forgotten that I lived."
"What! did you feel that God Himself had forgotten you, Harvey?"
"God never forsakes His servants," returned Birch, with reverence, andexhibiting naturally a devotion that hitherto he had only assumed.
"And whom did you mean by HE?"
The peddler raised himself in his saddle to the stiff and uprightposture that was suited to his outward appearance. The look of fire,that for a short time glowed on his countenance, disappeared in thesolemn lines of unbending self-abasement, and, speaking as if addressinga negro, he replied,--
"In heaven there is no distinction of color, my brother, therefore youhave a precious charge within you, that you must hereafter render anaccount of;" dropping his voice--"this is the last sentinel near theroad; look not back, as you value your life."
Henry remembered his situation, and instantly assumed the humbledemeanor of his adopted character. The unaccountable energy of thepeddler's manner was soon forgotten in the sense of his own immediatedanger; and with the recollection of his critical situation, returnedall the uneasiness that he had momentarily forgotten.
"What see you, Harvey?" he cried, observing the peddler t
o gaze towardsthe building they had left, with ominous interest. "What see you atthe house?"
"That which bodes no good to us," returned the pretended priest. "Throwaside the mask and wig; you will need all your senses without muchdelay; throw them in the road. There are none before us that I dread,but there are those behind who will give us a fearful race!"
"Nay, then," cried the captain, casting the implements of his disguiseinto the highway, "let us improve our time to the utmost. We want a fullquarter to the turn; why not push for it, at once?"
"Be cool; they are in alarm, but they will not mount without an officer,unless they see us fly--now he comes, he moves to the stables; trotsbriskly; a dozen are in their saddles, but the officer stops to tightenhis girths; they hope to steal a march upon us; he is mounted; now ride,Captain Wharton, for your life, and keep at my heels. If you quit me,you will be lost!"
A second request was unnecessary. The instant that Harvey put his horseto his speed Captain Wharton was at his heels, urging the miserableanimal he rode to the utmost. Birch had selected his own beast; andalthough vastly inferior to the high-fed and blooded chargers of thedragoons, still it was much superior to the little pony that had beenthought good enough to carry Caesar Thompson on an errand. A very fewjumps convinced the captain that his companion was fast leaving him, anda fearful glance thrown behind informed the fugitive that his enemieswere as speedily approaching. With that abandonment that makes miserydoubly grievous, when it is to be supported alone, Henry cried aloud tothe peddler not to desert him. Harvey instantly drew up, and sufferedhis companion to run alongside of his own horse. The cocked hat and wigof the peddler fell from his head the moment that his steed began tomove briskly, and this development of their disguise, as it might betermed, was witnessed by the dragoons, who announced their observationby a boisterous shout, that seemed to be uttered in the very ears of thefugitives; so loud was the cry, and so short the distance between them.
"Had we not better leave our horses," said Henry, "and make for thehills across the fields, on our left? The fence will stop our pursuers."
"That way lies the gallows," returned the peddler. "These fellows gothree feet to our two, and would mind the fences no more than we dothese ruts; but it is a short quarter to the turn, and there are tworoads behind the wood. They may stand to choose until they can take thetrack, and we shall gain a little upon them there."
"But this miserable horse is blown already," cried Henry, urging hisbeast with the end of his bridle, at the same time that Harvey aided hisefforts by applying the lash of a heavy riding whip he carried. "He willnever stand it for half a mile farther."
"A quarter will do; a quarter will do," said the peddler, "a singlequarter will save us, if you follow my directions."
Somewhat cheered by the cool and confident manner of his companion,Henry continued silently urging his horse forward. A few moments broughtthem to the desired turn, and as they doubled round a point of lowunderbrush, the fugitives caught a glimpse of their pursuers scatteredalong the highway. Mason and the sergeant, being better mounted than therest of the party, were much nearer to their heels than even the peddlerthought could be possible.
At the foot of the hills, and for some distance up the dark valley thatwound among the mountains, a thick underwood of saplings had beensuffered to shoot up, where the heavier growth was felled for the sakeof the fuel. At the sight of this cover, Henry again urged the peddlerto dismount, and to plunge into the woods; but his request was promptlyrefused. The two roads, before mentioned, met at very sharp angles at ashort distance from the turn, and both were circuitous, so that butlittle of either could be seen at a time. The peddler took the one whichled to the left, but held it only a moment, for, on reaching a partialopening in the thicket, he darted across into the right-hand path andled the way up a steep ascent, which lay directly before them. Thismaneuver saved them. On reaching the fork, the dragoons followed thetrack and passed the spot where the fugitives had crossed to the otherroad, before they missed the marks of the footsteps. Their loud crieswere heard by Henry and the peddler, as their wearied and breathlessanimals toiled up the hill, ordering their comrades in the rear to ridein the right direction. The captain again proposed to leave their horsesand dash into the thicket.
"Not yet, not yet," said Birch, in a low voice. "The road falls from thetop of this hill as steep as it rises; first let us gain the top." Whilespeaking, they reached the desired summit, and both threw themselvesfrom their horses, Henry plunging into the thick underwood, whichcovered the side of the mountain for some distance above them. Harveystopped to give each of their beasts a few severe blows of his whip,that drove them headlong down the path on the other side of theeminence, and then followed his example.
The peddler entered the thicket with a little caution, and avoided, asmuch as possible, rustling or breaking the branches in his way. Therewas but time only to shelter his person from view when a dragoon led upthe ascent, and on reaching the height, he cried aloud,--
"I saw one of their horses turning the hill this minute."
"Drive on, spur forward, my lads," shouted Mason; "give the Englishmanquarter, but cut down the peddler, and make an end of him."
Henry felt his companion grip his arm hard, as he listened in a greattremor to this cry, which was followed by the passage of a dozenhorsemen, with a vigor and speed that showed too plainly how littlesecurity their overtired steeds could have afforded them.
"Now," said the peddler, rising from the cover to reconnoiter, andstanding for a moment in suspense, "all that we gain is clear gain; for,as we go up, they go down. Let us be stirring."
"But will they not follow us, and surround this mountain?" said Henry,rising, and imitating the labored but rapid progress of his companion."Remember, they have foot as well as horse, and, at any rate, we shallstarve in the hills."
"Fear nothing, Captain Wharton," returned the peddler, with confidence;"this is not the mountain that I would be on, but necessity has made mea dexterous pilot among these hills. I will lead you where no man willdare to follow. See, the sun is already setting behind the tops of thewestern mountains, and it will be two hours to the rising of the moon.Who, think you, will follow us far, on a November night, among theserocks and precipices?"
"Listen!" exclaimed Henry; "the dragoons are shouting to each other;they miss us already."
"Come to the point of this rock, and you may see them," said Harvey,composedly setting himself down to rest. "Nay, they can see us--observe,they are pointing up with their fingers. There! one has fired hispistol, but the distance is too great even for a musket."
"They will pursue us," cried the impatient Henry, "let us be moving."
"They will not think of such a thing," returned the peddler, picking thecheckerberries that grew on the thin soil where he sat, and verydeliberately chewing them, leaves and all, to refresh his mouth. "Whatprogress could they make here, in their heavy boots and spurs, and longswords? No, no--they may go back and turn out the foot, but the horsepass through these defiles, when they can keep the saddle, with fear andtrembling. Come, follow me, Captain Wharton; we have a troublesomemarch before us, but I will bring you where none will think of venturingthis night."
So saying, they both arose, and were soon hid from view amongst therocks and caverns of the mountain.
The conjecture of the peddler was true. Mason and his men dashed downthe hill, in pursuit, as they supposed, of their victims, but, onreaching the bottom lands, they found only the deserted horses of thefugitives. Some little time was spent in examining the woods near them,and in endeavoring to take the trail on such ground as might enable thehorse to pursue, when one of the party descried the peddler and Henryseated on the rock already mentioned.
"He's off," muttered Mason, eying Harvey, with fury; "he's off, and weare disgraced. By heavens, Washington will not trust us with the keepingof a suspected Tory, if we let the rascal trifle in this manner with thecorps; and there sits the Englishman, too, looking down upon us with asm
ile of benevolence! I fancy that I can see it. Well, well, my lad, youare comfortably seated, I will confess, and that is something betterthan dancing upon nothing; but you are not to the west of the HarlemRiver yet, and I'll try your wind before you tell Sir Henry what youhave seen."
"Shall I fire and frighten the peddler?" asked one of the men, drawinghis pistol from the holster.
"Aye, startle the birds from their perch--let us see how they can usethe wing." The man fired the pistol, and Mason continued--"'Fore George,I believe the scoundrels laugh at us. But homeward, or we shall havethem rolling stones upon our heads, and the royal gazettes teeming withan account of a rebel regiment routed by two loyalists. They have toldbigger lies than that, before now."
The dragoons moved sullenly after their officer, who rode towards theirquarters, musing on the course it behooved him to pursue in the presentdilemma. It was twilight when Mason's party reached the dwelling, beforethe door of which were collected a great number of the officers and men,busily employed in giving and listening to the most exaggeratedaccounts of the escape of the spy. The mortified dragoons gave theirungrateful tidings with the sullen air of disappointed men; and most ofthe officers gathered round Mason, to consult of the steps that ought tobe taken. Miss Peyton and Frances were breathless and unobservedlisteners to all that passed between them, from the window of thechamber immediately above their heads.
"Something must be done, and that speedily," observed the commandingofficer of the regiment, which lay encamped before the house. "ThisEnglish officer is doubtless an instrument in the great blow aimed at usby the enemy lately; besides, our honor is involved in his escape."
"Let us beat the woods!" cried several at once. "By morning we shallhave them both again."
"Softly, softly, gentlemen," returned the colonel. "No man can travelthese hills after dark, unless used to the passes. Nothing but horse cando service in this business, and I presume Lieutenant Mason hesitates tomove without the orders of his major."
"I certainly dare not," replied the subaltern, gravely shaking his head,"unless you will take the responsibility of an order; but MajorDunwoodie will be back again in two hours, and we can carry the tidingsthrough the hills before daylight; so that by spreading patrols across,from one river to the other, and offering a reward to the countrypeople, their escape will yet be impossible, unless they can join theparty that is said to be out on the Hudson."
"A very plausible plan," cried the colonel, "and one that must succeed;but let a messenger be dispatched to Dunwoodie, or he may continue atthe ferry until it proves too late; though doubtless the runaways willlie in the mountains to-night."
To this suggestion Mason acquiesced, and a courier was sent to the majorwith the important intelligence of the escape of Henry, and anintimation of the necessity of his presence to conduct the pursuit.After this arrangement, the officers separated.
When Miss Peyton and her niece first learned the escape of CaptainWharton, it was with difficulty they could credit their senses. Theyboth relied so implicitly on the success of Dunwoodie's exertions, thatthey thought the act, on the part of their relative, extremelyimprudent; but it was now too late to mend it. While listening to theconversation of the officers, both were struck with the increased dangerof Henry's situation, if recaptured, and they trembled to think of thegreat exertions that would be made to accomplish this object. MissPeyton consoled herself, and endeavored to cheer her niece, with theprobability that the fugitives would pursue their course withunremitting diligence, so that they might reach the neutral groundbefore the horse would carry down the tidings of their flight. Theabsence of Dunwoodie seemed to her all-important, and the artless ladywas anxiously devising some project that might detain her kinsman, andthus give her nephew the longest possible time. But very different werethe reflections of Frances. She could no longer doubt that the figureshe had seen on the hill was Birch, and she felt certain that, insteadof flying to the friendly forces below, her brother would be taken tothe mysterious hut to pass the night.
Frances and her aunt held a long and animated discussion by themselves,when the good spinster reluctantly yielded to the representation of herniece, and folding her in her arms, she kissed her cold cheek, and,fervently blessing her, allowed her to depart on an errand offraternal love.