XIX.
_THE ESCAPE._
Walking off quickly across the field towards Mrs. Sprowl's house, heturned suddenly aside from the path and plunged into the woods.
He soon perceived that he was followed. A man--only one--came throughthe undergrowth. Penn stopped. "God forgive me!" he said within himself;"but this is more than human nature can bear!" He had been, as it were,smitten on one cheek and on the other also: it was time to smite back.He picked up a club: his nerves became like steel as he grasped it: hiseyes flashed fire.
The man advanced; he was unarmed. Suddenly Penn dropped his club, anduttered a cry of joy. It was his friend Stackridge.
"What! the Quaker will fight?" said the farmer, with a grim smile.
"That shows," said Penn, bursting into tears as he wrung the farmer'shand, "that I have been driven nearly insane!"
"It shows that some of the insanity has been driven out of you!" repliedStackridge, beginning to have hopes of him. "If you had taken my pistoland used it freely in the first place, or at least shown a good will touse it, you'd have proved yourself a good deal more of a man in myestimation, and been quite as well off."
"Perhaps," murmured Penn, convinced that this passive submission tomartyrdom was but a sorry part to play.
"But now to business," said Stackridge. "You must get away as quicklyand secretly as possible, unless you mean to stay and fight it out. I amhere to help you. I have a horse in the woods here, at your disposal. Ithought there might be such a thing as your slipping through theirhands, and so I took this precaution. I will show you a bridle-road thatwill take you to the house of a friend of mine, who is a heartyUnionist. You can leave my horse with him. He will help you on to thehouse of some friend of his, who will do the same, and so you willmanage to get out of the state. I advise you to travel by night, as ageneral thing; but just now it seems necessary that you should see alittle hard riding by daylight. You'll find some luncheon in thesaddlebags. When you get into some pretty thick woods, leave the road,and find a good place to tie up till night; then go on cautiously to myfriend's house. I'll give you full directions, while we're finding thehorse."
They made haste to the spot where the animal was tied.
"He has been well fed," said the farmer. "You will water him at thefirst brook you cross, and let him browse when you stop. Now just tradethat coat for one that will make you look a little less like a Quakerschoolmaster."
He had brought one of his own coats, which he made Penn put on, and thenexchanged hats with him. Penn was admirably disguised. Brief, then, werethe thanks he uttered from his overflowing heart, short theleave-takings. He was mounted. Stackridge led the horse through thebushes to the bridle-path.
"Now, don't let the grass grow under your feet till you are at leastfive miles away. If you meet anybody, get along without words if youcan; if you can't, let words come to blows as quick as you please, andthen put faith in Dobbin's heels."
Again, for the last time, he made Penn the offer of a pistol. There wasno leisure for idle arguments on the subject. The weapon was accepted.The two wrung each other's hands in silence: there were tears in theeyes of both. Then Stackridge gave Dobbin a resounding slap, and thehorse bounded away, bearing his rider swiftly out of sight in the woods.
All this had passed so rapidly that Penn had scarcely time to think ofany thing but the necessity of immediate flight. But during thatsolitary ride through the forest he had ample leisure for reflection. Hethought of the mountain cave, whose gloomy but quiet shelter, whose darkbut nevertheless humane and hospitable inmates he seemed to have quittedweeks ago, so crowded with experiences had been the few hours since lasthe shook Pomp and Cudjo by the hand. He thought of Virginia and herfather, to visit whom for perhaps the last time he had incurred the riskof descending into the valley; whom now he felt, with a strangelyswelling heart, that he might never see again. And he thought withgrief, pity, and remorse of Carl, a rebel now for his sake.
These things, and many more, agitated him as he spurred the farmer'shorse along the narrow, shaded, lonesome path. He met an old man onhorseback, with a bright-faced girl riding behind him on the crupper,who bade him a pleasant good morning, and pursued their way. Next camesome boys driving mules laden with sacks of corn. At last Penn saw twomen in butternut suits with muskets on their shoulders. He knew by theirlooks that they were secessionists hastening to join their friends intown. They regarded him suspiciously as he came galloping up. Pennperceived that some off-hand word was necessary in passing them.
"Hurry on with those guns!" he cried; "they are wanted!"
And he dashed away, as if his sole business was to hurry up guns for theconfederate cause.
He met with no other adventure that day. He followed Stackridge'sdirections implicitly, and at evening, leaving his horse tied in thewoods, approached on foot the house to which he had been sent.
He was cordially received by the same old man whom he had seen riding totown in the morning with a bright-faced girl clinging behind him. At ahint from Stackridge the man had hastily ridden home again, passing Pennat noon while he lay hidden in the woods; and here he was, honest,friendly, vigilant, to receive and protect his guest.
"You did well," he said, "to turn off up the mountain; for I am not theonly man that passed you there. You have been pursued. Three personshave gone on after you. I met them as I was going into town; theyinquired of me if I had seen you, and when I got home I found they hadpassed here in search of you. They have not yet gone back."
This was unpleasant news. Yet Penn was soon convinced that he had beenextremely fortunate in thus throwing his pursuers off his track. It wasfar better that they should have gone on before him, than that theyshould be following close upon his heels.
He staid with the farmer all night, and departed with him early the nextmorning to pursue his journey. It was not safe for him to keep the road,for he might at any moment meet his pursuers returning; accordingly, theold man showed him a circuitous route along the base of the mountains,which could be travelled only on foot, and by daylight.
"Here I leave you," said his kind old guide, when they had reached thebanks of a mountain stream. "Follow this run, and it will take youaround to the road, about a mile this side of my brother's house.There's a bridge near which you can wait, when you get to it. If yourpursuers go back past my house, then I will harness up and drive on tothe bridge, and water my horse there. You will see me, and get in toride, and I will take you to my brother's, and make some arrangement forhelping you on still farther to night."
So they parted; the lonely fugitive feeling that the kindness of a fewsuch men, scattered like salt through the state, was enough to redeem itfrom the fate of Sodom, which otherwise, by its barbarism and injustice,it would have seemed to deserve.
Following the stream in its windings through a wilderness of thicketsand rocks, he reached the bridge about the middle of the afternoon. Hisprogress had been leisurely. The day was warm, bright, and tranquil. Thestream poured over ledges, or gushed among mossy stones, or tumbled downjagged rocks in flashing cascades. Its music filled him with memories ofhome, with love that swelled his heart to tears, with longings for peaceand rest. Its coolness and beauty made a little Sabbath in his soul, apause of holy calm, in the midst of the fear and tumult that lay beforeand behind him.
During that long, solitary ramble he had pondered much the greatquestion which had of late agitated his mind--the question which, inpeaceful days, he had thought settled with his own conscience forever.But days of stern experience play sad havoc with theories not founded inexperience. In all the ordinary emergencies of life Penn had found thedoctrine of non-resistance to evil, of overcoming evil with good,beautiful and sublime. But had he not the morning before given way to anatural impulse, when he seized a club, firmly resolved to oppose forcewith force? The recollection of that incident had led him into asingular train of reasoning.
"I know," he said, "that it is still the highest doctrine. But am Iequal to it? Can I, under
all circumstances, live up to it? I have seensomething of the power and recklessness of the faction that woulddestroy my country. Would I wish to see my country submit? Never! Suchsubmission would be the most unchristian thing it could do. It would bethe abandonment of the cause of liberty; it would be to deliver up thewhole land to the blighting despotism of slavery; it would postpone themillennium I hope for thousands of years. I see no other way than thatthe nation must resist; and what I would have the nation do I should beprepared, if called upon, to do myself. If this government were aChristian government I would have it use only Christian weapons, and nodoubt those would be effectual for its preservation. But there never wasa Christian government yet, and probably there will not be for an age ortwo. Governments are all founded on human policy, selfishness, andforce. Or if _I_ was entirely a Christian, then _I_ would have notemptation, and no right, to use any but spiritual weapons. But until Iattain to these, may I not use such weapons as I have?"
These thoughts revolved slowly and somewhat confusedly in the youngman's mind, when an incident occurred to bring form, sharply andsuddenly, out of that chaos.
He had reached the bridge. He looked up and down the road, and saw nohuman being. It was hardly time to expect the farmer yet; so he climbeddown upon some dry stones in the bed of the stream, where he could watchfor his coming, and be at the same time hidden from view and shelteredfrom the sun.
He had not been long in that situation when he heard the sounds ofhoofs. It was not his white-haired farmer whom he saw approaching, buttwo men on horseback. They were coming from the same direction in whichhe was looking for the old man. As they drew near, he discovered thatone was a negro. The face of the other he recognized shortly afterwards.It was that of Mr. Augustus Bythewood, who was evidently takingadvantage of the fine weather to make a little journey, accompanied by ablack servant.
Penn's heart contracted within him as he thought of his friend Pomp, andof the wrongs he had suffered at this man's hands. He thought of his ownsafety too, and crept under the bridge. He had time, however, before hedisappeared, to catch a glimpse of three other horsemen coming from thenorth. His heart beat fast, for he knew in an instant that these werehis pursuers returning.
He had already prepared for himself a good hiding-place, in a cavitybetween the two logs that supported the bridge. Upon the butment, closeunder the trembling planks, he lay, when Bythewood and his man rodeover. The dust rattled upon him through the cracks, and sifted down intothe stream. The thundering and shaking of the planks ceased, but helistened in vain to hear the hoofs of the two horses clattering off inthe distance. To his alarm he perceived that Bythewood and his man hadhalted on the other side of the bridge, and were going to water theirhorses in the bed of the stream. Clashing and rattling down the steep,stony banks, and plashing into the water, came the foam-streakedanimals. The negro rode one, and led the other by the bridle. There hesat in the saddle, watching the eager drinking of the thirsty beasts,and pulling up their heads occasionally to prevent them from swallowingtoo fast or too much; all in full sight of the concealed schoolmaster.Bythewood, after dismounting, also walked down to the edge of the streamin full view.
Such was the situation when the three horsemen from the north arrived.They all rode their animals down the bank into the water. Penn had notbeen mistaken as to their character and business. Two of them were themen who had adjusted the noose to his neck the day before. The third wasno less a personage than Captain Lysander Sprowl. Penn lay breathlessand trembling in his hiding-place; for those men were but a few yardsfrom him, and all in such plain view that it seemed inevitable but theymust discover him.
"What luck?" said Bythewood, carelessly, seating himself on a rock andlighting a cigar.
"The rascal has given us the slip," said Lysander, from his horse. "Ibelieve we have passed him, and so, on our way back, we'll search thehouse of every man suspected of Union sentiments. He started off withStackridge's horse, and we tracked him easy at first, but to-day wehaven't once heard of him."
"It's my opinion he don't intend to leave the state," said Bythewood,coolly smoking. "Sam, walk those horses up and down the road till I callyou: I want a little private talk with the captain."
The captain's attendants likewise took the hint, reined their horses upout of the water, rode over the shaking bridge and Penn's head under it,and proceeded to search the next house for him, while Sprowl wasconversing with Augustus.
"Let's go over the other side," said Bythewood, "where we can be in theshade. The sun is powerful hot."
They accordingly walked over Penn's head a moment later, climbed downthe same rocks he had descended, picked their way along the dry stonesto the bridge, and took their seats in its shadow beneath him, and sonear that he could easily have reached over and taken the captain's capfrom his head!