XXVI.
_WHY AUGUSTUS DID NOT PROPOSE._
The valiant confederates, returning from the pursuit of the escapedprisoners, proved themselves possessed of at least one importantqualification for serving the rebel cause. They were able to give amarvellously good account of themselves. Whatever the militaryauthorities may have thought of it, the people believed that the littleband of Union men had been nearly annihilated.
In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Augustus Bythewood returned home,and went in the evening to call upon, counsel, and console the daughtersof the old man Villars.
"O, Massa Bythewood!" cried Toby, in great joy at sight of him, "deybeen killin' ol' massa up on de mountain; and de young ladies--O, MassaBythewood! ye must do sumfin' for de young ladies and ol' massa!"
Mr. Augustus flattered himself that he had arrived at just the righttime.
"My dear Virginia! you cannot conceive of my astonishment and grief onhearing what has happened to your family! I have but just this hourreturned to town, or I should have hastened before to assure you thatall I can do for you I will most gladly undertake. My very dear younglady, be comforted, I conjure you; for it grieves me to the heart to seehow pale, how very pale and distressed, you look!"
Thus the amiable, the chivalrous, the friendly Gus overflowed witheloquent sympathy and protestation, pressing affectionately the hand ofthe "very pale and distressed" fair one, and bowing low his dark,aristocratic southern curls over it; appearing, in short, the verycourteous, noble, and devoted gentleman he wasn't.
Virginia breathed hard, compressed her lips, white with indignation aswell as with suffering, and let him act his part. And the confidentlover did not dream that those eyes, red with grief and surrounded bydark circles, saw through all his hypocritical professions, or that thecold, passive little hand, abandoned through the apathy of despair tohis caresses, would have been thrust into the fire, before ever he wouldhave been allowed to win it.
"Surely," she managed to say in a voice scarce above a whisper, "if everwe needed a true, disinterested friend, it is now. Sit down; and be sokind as to excuse me a moment. I will call my sister."
So she withdrew. And Augustus smiled. "Now is my time!" he saidcomplacently to himself, resolved to make an offer of that valuable handof his that very night: forlorn, friendless, wretched, was it possiblethat she could refuse such a prize? So he sat, and fondled his curls,and practised sweet smiles, and sympathized with Salina when she came,and waited for Virginia,--little knowing what was to happen to her, andto him, and to all, before ever he saw that vanished face again.
For Virginia had business on her hands that night. She remembered thehurried directions Penn had given for communicating with her father, andshe was already preparing to send off Toby to the round rock.
"Gracious, missis!" said the old negro, returning hastily to the kitchendoor where she stood watching his departure, "dar's a man out dar, awaitin'! Did ye see him, missis?"
She had indeed seen a human figure advance in the darkness, as if withintent to intercept or follow him. Perplexed and indignant at thediscovery, she suffered the old servant to return into the house, andremained herself to see what became of the figure. It moved off a littleway in the darkness, and disappeared.
"Wha' sh'll we do?" Toby rolled up his eyes in consternation. "Do jes'speak to Mr. Bythewood, Miss Jinny; he's de bestist friend--he'll tellwhat to do."
"No, no, Toby!" said Virginia, collecting herself, and speaking withdecision. "He is the last person I would consult. Toby, you must tryagain; for either you or I must be at the rock before ten o'clock."
"You, Miss Jinny? Who eber heern o' sich a ting!"
"Go yourself, then, good Toby!" And she earnestly reminded him of thenecessity.
"O, yes, yes! I'll go! Massa can't lib widout ol' Toby, dat's a fac'!"
But looking out again in the dark, his zeal was suddenly damped. "Deycotch me, dey sarve me wus 'n dey sarved ol' Pete, shore! Can't helptinkin' ob dat!"
Virginia saw what serious cause there was to dread such a catastrophe.But her resolution was unshaken.
"Toby, listen. That man out there is a spy. His object is to see if anyof our friends come to the house, or if we send to them. He won't molestyou; but he may follow to see where you go. If he does, then make a widecircuit, and return home, and I will find some other means ofcommunication."
Thus encouraged, the negro set out a second time. Virginia followed himat a distance. She saw, as she anticipated, the figure start up again,and move off in the direction he was going. Toby accordingly commencedmaking a large detour through the fields, and both he and the shadowdogging him were soon out of sight.
Then Virginia lost no time in executing the other plan at which she hadhinted. Instead of returning, to give up the undertaking in despair, andlisten to matrimonial proposals from Gus Bythewood, she took a longbreath, gathered up her skirts, and set out for the mountain.
There was a new moon, but it was hidden by clouds. Still the evening wasnot very dark. The long twilight of the summer day still lingered in thevalley. Here and there she could distinguish landmarks,--a knoll, arock, or a tree,--which gave her confidence. I will not say that shefeared nothing. She was by nature timid, imaginative, and she fearedmany things. Her own footsteps were a terror to her. The moving of abush in the wind, the starting of a rabbit from her path, caused herflesh to thrill. At sight of an object slowly and noiselessly emergingfrom the darkness and standing before her, motionless and spectral, shealmost fainted, until she discovered that it was an old acquaintance, atall pine stump. But all these childish terrors she resolutely overcame.Her heart never faltered in its purpose. Affection for her father,anxiety for his welfare, and, it may be, some little solicitude for herfather's friend, who had appointed the tryst at the rock,--not withherself, indeed, but with Toby,--kept her firm and unwavering in hercourse. And beneath all, deep in her soul, was a strong religious sense,a faith in a divine guidance and protection.
What most she feared was neither ghost nor wild beast of the mountains.She felt that, if she could avoid encountering the brutal soldiers ofsecession, keeping watch along the mountain-side, she would willinglyrisk everything else. With the utmost caution, with breathless tread,she drew near the road she was to cross. Her footsteps were less loudthan her heart-beats. Dogs barked in the distance. In a pool near by,some happy frogs were singing. The shrill cry of a katydid came from apoplar tree by the road--"Katy did! Katy didn't!" with vehementiteration and contradiction. No other sounds; she waited and listenedlong; then glided across the road.
She had come far from the village in order to avoid meeting any one. Hercourse now lay directly up the mountain-side. The round rock was afamous bowlder known to picnic parties that frequented the spot insummer to enjoy a view from its summit, and a luncheon under its shadow.She had been there a dozen times; but could she find it in the night? Invain, as she toiled upwards, she strained her eyes to see the huge dimstone jutting out from the shadowy rocks and bushes.
At length a sudden light, faint and silvery, streamed down upon her. Shelooked and saw the clouds parted, and below them the crescent moonsetting, like a cimeter of white flame withdrawn by an invisible handbehind the vast shadowy summit of the mountain. Almost at the samemoment she discovered the object she sought. The rock was close beforeher; and close upon her right was the grove which she herself had sooften helped to fill with singing and laughter. How little she felt likeeither singing or laughing now!
She remembered--indeed, had she not remembered all the way?--that thelast time she visited the spot it was in company with Penn. Now she hadcome to meet him again--how unmaidenly the act! In darkness, inloneliness, far from the village and its twinkling lights, to meet anattractive and a very good looking young man! What would the world say?Virginia did not care what the world would say. But now she began toquestion within herself, "What would Penn think?" and almost to shrinkfrom meeting him. Strong, however, in her own conscious purity of heart,strong also in
her confidence in him, she put behind her every unworthythought, and sought the shelter of the rock.
And there, after all her labors and fears, scratches in her flesh andrents in her clothes,--there she was alone. Penn had not come. Perhapshe would not come. It was by this time ten o'clock. What should she do?Remain, hoping that he would yet fulfil his promise? or return the wayshe came, unsatisfied, disheartened, weary, her heart and strengthsustained by no word of comfort from him, by no tidings from her father?
She waited. It was not long before her eager ear caught the sound offootsteps. An active figure was coming along the edge of the grove. Howjoyously her heart bounded! In order that Penn might not be too suddenlysurprised at finding her in Toby's place, she stepped out from theshadow of the bowlder, and advanced to meet him. She shrank back againas suddenly, fear curdling her blood.
The comer was not Penn. He wore the confederate uniform: this was whatterrified her. She crouched down under the rock; but perceiving that theman did not pass by,--that he walked straight up to her,--she startedforth again, in the vain hope to escape by flight. Almost at the firststep she tripped and fell; and the hand of the confederate soldier wason her arm.