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Wacousta (Volume II)

J >> John Richardson >> Wacousta (Volume II)




"Am I then the only one whom the warriors have overtaken
in their pursuit?"

"There was a woman, the sister of that boy," and he
pointed contemptuously to the young chief who had so
recently assailed him, and who now, in common with his
followers, stood impatiently listening to a colloquy that
was unintelligible to all. "Speak truly, was SHE not the
traitress who conducted you here?"

"Had you found me here," returned the officer, with
difficulty repressing his feelings, "there might have
been some ground for the assertion; but surely the councils
of the chiefs could not be overheard at the distant point
at which you discovered me."

"Why then were you there in this disguise?--and who is
he," again holding up the bloody scalp, "whom I have
despoiled of this?"

"There are few of the Ottawa Indians," returned Captain
de Haldimar, "who are ignorant I once saved that young
woman's life. Is it then so very extraordinary an attachment
should have been the consequence? The man whom you slew
was my servant. I had brought him out with me for protection
during my interview with the woman, and I exchanged my
uniform with him for the same purpose. There is nothing
in this, however, to warrant the supposition of my being
a spy."

During the delivery of these more than equivocal sentences,
which, however, he felt were fully justified by
circumstances, the young officer had struggled to appear
calm and confident; but, despite of his exertions, his
consciousness caused his cheek to colour, and his eye to
twinkle, beneath the searching glance of his ferocious
enemy. The latter thrust his hand into his chest, and
slowly drew forth the rope he had previously exhibited
to Ponteac.

"Do you think me a fool, Captain de Haldimar," he observed,
sneeringly, "that you expect so paltry a tale to be palmed
successfully on my understanding? An English officer is
not very likely to run the risk of breaking his neck by
having recourse to such a means of exit from a besieged
garrison, merely to intrigue with an Indian woman, when
there are plenty of soldiers' wives within, and that too
at an hour when he knows the scouts of his enemies are
prowling in the neighbourhood. Captain de Haldimar," he
concluded, slowly and deliberately, "you have lied."

Despite of the last insult, his prisoner remained calm.
The very observation that had just been made afforded
him a final hope of exculpation, which, if it benefited
not himself, might still be of service to the generous
Oucanasta.

"The onus of such language," he observed coolly and with
dignity, "falls not on him to whom it is addressed, but
on him who utters it. Yet one who professes to have been
himself a soldier, must see in this very circumstance a
proof of my innocence. Had I been sent out as a spy to
reconnoitre the movements, and to overhear the councils
of our enemies, the gate would have been open for my
egress; but that rope is in itself an evidence I must
have stolen forth unknown to the garrison."

Whether it was that the warrior had his own particular
reasons for attaching truth to this statement, or that
he merely pretended to do so, Captain de Haldimar saw
with secret satisfaction his last argument was conclusive.

"Well, be it so," retorted the savage, while a ferocious
smile passed over his swarthy features; "but, whether
you have been here as a spy, or have merely ventured out
in prosecution of an intrigue, it matters not. Before
the sun has travelled far in the meridian you die; and
the tomahawk of your father's deadly foe--of--of--of
Wacousta, as I am called, shall be the first to drink
your blood."

The officer made a final effort at mercy. "Who or what
you are, or whence your hatred of my family, I know not,"
he said; "but surely I have never injured you: wherefore,
then, this insatiable thirst for my blood? If you are,
indeed, a Christian and a soldier, let your heart be
touched with humanity, and procure my restoration to my
friends. You once attempted my life in honourable combat,
why not wait, then, until a fitting opportunity shall
give not a bound and defenceless victim to your steel,
but one whose resistance may render him a conquest worthy
of your arm?"

"What! and be balked of the chance of my just revenge?
Hear me, Captain de Haldimar," he pursued, in that low,
quick, deep tone that told all the strong excitement of
his heart:--"I have, it is true, no particular enmity to
yourself, further than that you are a De Haldimar; but
hell does not supply a feeling half so bitter as my enmity
to your proud father; and months, nay years, have I passed
in the hope of such an hour as this. For this have I
forsworn my race, and become--what you now behold me--a
savage both in garb and character. But this matters not,"
he continued, fiercely and impatiently, "your doom is
sealed; and before another sun has risen, your stern
father's gaze shall be blasted with the sight of the
mangled carcase of his first born. Ha! ha! ha!" and he
laughed low and exultingly; "even now I think I see him
withering, if heart so hard can wither, beneath this
proof of my undying hate."

"Fiend!--monster!--devil!" exclaimed the excited officer,
now losing sight of all considerations of prudence in
the deep horror inspired by his captor:--"Kill me--torture
me--commit any cruelty on me, if such be your savage
will; but outrage not humanity by the fulfilment of your
last disgusting threat. Suffer not a father's heart to
be agonised--a father's eye to be blasted--with a view
of the mangled remains of him to whom he has given life."

Again the savage rudely pulled the thong that bound his
prisoner to his girdle, and removing his tomahawk from
his belt, and holding its sullied point close under the
eye of the former, exclaimed, as he bent eagerly over
him,--

"See you this, Captain de Haldimar? At the still hour of
midnight, while you had abandoned your guard to revel in
the arms of your Indian beauty, I stole into the fort by
means of the same rope that you had used in quitting it.
Unseen by the sentinels I gained your father's apartment.
It was the first time we had met for twenty years; and
I do believe that had the very devil presented himself
in my place, he would have been received with fewer marks
of horror. Oh, how that proud man's eye twinkled beneath
this glittering blade! He attempted to call out, but my
look paralysed his tongue, and cold drops of sweat stole
rapidly down his brow and cheek. Then it was that my
seared heart once more beat with the intoxication of
triumph. Your father was alone and unarmed, and throughout
the fort not a sound was to be heard, save the distant
tread of the sentinels. I could have laid him dead, at
my feet at a single blow, and yet have secured my retreat.
But no, that was not my object. I came to taunt him with
the promise of my revenge--to tell him the hour of my
triumph was approaching fast; and, ha!" he concluded,
laughing hideously as he passed his large rude hand
through the wavy hair of the now uncovered officer," this
is, indeed, a fair and unexpected first earnest of the
full redemption of my pledge. No--no!" he continued, as
if talking to himself, "he must not die. Tantulus-like,
he shall have death ever apparently within his grasp;
but, until all his race have perished before his eyes,
he shall not attain it."

Hitherto the Indians had preserved an attitude of calm,
listening to the interrogatories put to the prisoner with
that wonder and curiosity with which a savage people hear
a language different from their own; and marking the
several emotions that were elicited in the course of the
animated colloquy of the pale faces. Gradually, however,
they became impatient under its duration; and many of
them, in the excitement produced by the fierce manner of
him who was called Wacousta, fixed their dark eyes upon
the captive, while they grasped the handles of their
tomahawks, as if they would have disputed with the former
the privilege of dying his weapon first in his blood.
When they saw the warrior hold up his menacing blade to
the eye of his victim, while he passed his hand through
the redundant hair, they at once inferred the sacrifice
was about to be completed, and rushing furiously forward,
they bounded, and leaped, and yelled, and brandished
their own weapons in the most appalling manner.

Already had the unhappy officer given himself self up
for lost; fifty bright tomahawks were playing about his
head at the same instant, and death--that death which is
never without terror to the young, however brave they
may be in the hour of generous conflict--seemed to have
arrived at last. He raised his eyes to Heaven, committing
his soul to his God in the same silent prayer that he
offered up for the preservation of his friends and
comrades; and then bending them upon the earth, summoned
all his collectedness and courage to sustain him through
the trial. At the very moment, however when he expected
to feel the crashing steel within his brain, he felt
himself again violently pulled by the thong that secured
his hands. In the next instant he was pressed close to
the chest of his vast enemy, who, with one arm encircling
his prisoner, and the other brandishing his fierce blade
in rapid evolutions round his head, kept the yelling band
at bay, with the evident unshaken determination to maintain
his sole and acknowledged right to the disposal of his
captive.

For several moments the event appeared doubtful; but,
notwithstanding his extreme agility in the use of a
weapon, in the management of which he evinced all the
dexterity of the most practised native, the odds were
fearfully against Wacousta; and while his flashing eye
and swelling chest betrayed his purpose rather to perish
himself than suffer the infringement of his claim, it
was evident that numbers must, in the end, prevail against
him. On an appeal to Ponteac, however, of which he now
suddenly bethought himself, the authority of the latter
was successfully exerted, and he was again left in the
full and undisturbed possession of his prisoner.

A low and earnest conversation now ensued among the
chiefs, in which, as before, Wacousta bore a principal
part. When this was terminated, several Indians approached
the unhappy officer, and unfastening the thong with which
his hands were firmly and even painfully girt, deprived
him both of coat, waistcoat, and shirt. He was then bound
a second time in the same manner, his body besmeared with
paint, and his head so disguised as to give him the
caricature semblance of an Indian warrior. When these
preparations were completed, he was led to the tree in
which he had been previously concealed, and there firmly
secured. Meanwhile Wacousta, at the head of a numerous
band of warriors, had departed once more in the direction
of the fort.

With the rising of the sun now vanished all traces of
the mist that had fallen since the early hours of morning,
leaving the unfortunate officer ample leisure to survey
the difficulties of his position. He had fancied, from
the course taken by his guide the previous night, that
the plain or oasis, as we have elsewhere termed it, lay
in the very heart of the forest; but that route now proved
to have been circuitous. The tree to which he was bound
was one of a slight belt, separating the encampment from
the open grounds which extended towards the river, and
which was so thin and scattered on that side as to leave
the clear silver waters of the Detroit visible at intervals.
Oh, what would he not have given, at that cheering sight,
to have had his limbs free, and his chance of life staked
on the swiftness of his flight! While he had imagined
himself begirt by interminable forest, he felt as one
whose very thought to elude those who were, in some
degree, the deities of that wild scene, must be paralysed
in its first conception. But here was the vivifying,
picture of civilised nature. Corn fields, although trodden
down and destroyed--dwelling houses, although burnt or
dilapidated--told of the existence of those who were of
the same race with himself; and notwithstanding these
had perished even as he must perish, still there was
something in the aspect of the very ruins of their
habitations which, contrasted with the solemn gloom of
the forest, carried a momentary and indefinable consolation
to his spirit. Then there was the ripe and teeming
orchard, and the low whitewashed cabin of the Canadian
peasant, to whom the offices of charity, and the duties
of humanity, were no strangers; and who, although the
secret enemies of his country, had no motive for personal
hostility towards himself. Then, on the river itself,
even at that early hour, was to be seen, fastened to the
long stake driven into its bed, or secured by the rude
anchor of stone appended to a cable of twisted bark, the
light canoe or clumsy periagua of the peasant fisherman,
who, ever and anon, drew up from its deep bosom the
shoal-loving pickerel or pike, or white or black bass,
or whatever other tenant of these waters might chance to
affix itself to the traitorous hook. It is true that his
view of these objects was only occasional and indistinct;
but his intimate acquaintance with the localities beyond
brought every thing before Captain de Haldimar's eye;
and even while he sighed to think they were for ever cut
off from his reach, he already, in idea, followed the
course of flight he should pursue were the power but
afforded him.

From this train of painful and exciting thought the
wretched captive was aroused, by a faint but continued
yelling in a distant part of the forest, and in the
direction that had been taken by Wacousta and his warriors.
Then, after a short interval, came the loud booming of
the cannon of the fort, carried on with a spirit and
promptitude that told of some pressing and dangerous
emergency, and fainter afterwards the sharp shrill reports
of the rifles, bearing evidence the savages were already
in close collision with the garrison. Various were the
conjectures that passed rapidly through the mind of the
young officer, during a firing that had called almost
every Indian in the encampment away to the scene of
action, save the two or three young Ottawas who had been
left to guard his own person, and who lay upon the sward
near him, with head erect and ear sharply set, listening
to the startling sounds of conflict. What the motive of
the hurried departure of the Indians was he knew not;
but he had conjectured the object of the fierce Wacousta
was to possess himself of the uniform in which his wretched
servant was clothed, that no mistake might occur in his
identity, when its true owner should be exhibited in it,
within view of the fort, mangled and disfigured, in the
manner that fierce and mysterious man had already
threatened. It was exceedingly probable the body of
Donellan had been mistaken for his own, and that in the
anxiety of his father to prevent the Indians from carrying
it off, the cannon had been directed to open upon them.
But if this were the case, how were the reports of the
rifles, and the fierce yellings that continued, save at
intervals, to ring throughout the forest to be accounted
for? The bullets of the Indians evidently could not reach
the fort, and they were too wily, and attached too much
value to their ammunition, to risk a shot that was not
certain of carrying a wound with it. For a moment the
fact itself flashed across his mind, and he attributed
the fire of small arms to the attack and defence of a
party that had been sent out for the purpose of securing
the body, supposed to be his own; yet, if so, again how
was he to account for his not hearing the report of a
single musket? His ear was too well practised not to know
the sharp crack of the rifle from the heavy dull discharge
of the musket, and as yet the former only had been
distinguishable, amid the intervals that ensued between
each sullen booming of the cannon. While this impression
continued on the mind of the anxious officer, he caught,
with the avidity of desperation, at the faint and improbable
idea that his companions might be able to penetrate to
his place of concealment, and procure his liberation;
but when he found the firing, instead of drawing nearer,
was confined to the same spot, and even more fiercely
kept up by the Indians towards the close, he again gave
way to his despair, and resigning himself to his fate,
no longer sought comfort in vain speculation as to its
cause. His ear now caught the report of the last shell
as it exploded, and then all was still and hushed, as if
what he had so recently heard was but a dream.

The first intimation given him of the return of the
savages was the death howl, set up by the women within
the encampment. Captain de Haldimar turned his eyes,
instinct with terror, towards the scene, and beheld the
warriors slowly issuing from the opposite side of the
forest into the plain, and bearing in silence the dead
and stiffened forms of those who had been cut down by
the destructive fire from the fort. Their mien was sullen
and revengeful, and more than one dark and gleaming eye
did he encounter turned upon him, with an expression that
seemed to say a separate torture should avenge the death
of each of their fallen comrades.

The early part of the morning wore away in preparation
for the interment of the slain. These were placed in
rows under the council shed, where they were attended by
their female relatives, who composed the features and
confined the limbs, while the gloomy warriors dug, within
the limit of the encampment, rude graves, of a depth just
sufficient to receive the body. When these were completed,
the dead were deposited, with the usual superstitious
ceremonies of these people, in their several receptacles,
after which a mound of earth was thrown up over each,
and the whole covered with round logs, so disposed as to
form a tomb of semicircular shape: at the head of each
grave was finally planted a pole, bearing various devices
in paint, intended to illustrate the warlike achievements
of the defunct parties.

Captain de Haldimar had followed the course of these
proceedings with a beating heart; for too plainly had he
read in the dark and threatening manner both of men and
women, that the retribution about to be wreaked upon
himself would be terrible indeed. Much as he clung to
life, and bitterly as he mourned his early cutting off
from the affections hitherto identified with his existence,
his wretchedness would have been less, had he not been
overwhelmed by the conviction that, with him, must perish
every chance of the safety of those, the bare recollection
of whom made the bitterness of death even more bitter.
Harrowing as were these reflections, he felt that immediate
destruction, since it could not be avoided, would be
rather a blessing than otherwise. But such, evidently,
was not the purpose of his relentless enemy. Every
species of torment which his cruel invention could supply
would, he felt convinced, be exercised upon his frame;
and with this impression on his mind, it would have
required sterner nerves than his, not to have shrunk from
the very anticipation of so dreadful an ordeal.

It was now noon, and yet no visible preparation was making
for the consummation of the sacrifice. This, Captain de
Haldimar imputed to the absence of the fierce Wacousta,
whom he had not seen since the return of the warriors
from their skirmish. The momentary disappearance of this
extraordinary and ferocious man was, however, fraught
with no consolation to his unfortunate prisoner, who felt
he was only engaged in taking such measures as would
render not only his destruction more certain, but his
preliminary sufferings more complicated and protracted.
While he was thus indulging in fruitless speculation as
to the motive for his absence, he fancied he heard the
report of a rifle, succeeded immediately afterwards by
the war-whoop, at a considerable distance, and in the
direction of the river. In this impression he was confirmed,
by the sudden upstarting to their feet of the young
Indians to whose custody he had been committed, who now
advanced to the outer edge of the belt of forest, with
the apparent object of obtaining a more unconfined view
of the open ground that lay beyond. The rapid gliding of
spectral forms from the interior of the encampment in
the same direction, denoted, moreover, that the Indians
generally had heard, and were attracted by the same sound.

Presently afterwards, repeated "waughs!" and
"Wacousta!--Wacousta!" from those who had reached the
extreme skirt of the forest, fell on the dismayed ear of
the young officer. It was evident, from the peculiar
tones in which these words were pronounced, that they
beheld that warrior approaching them with some communication
of interest; and, sick at heart, and filled with
irrepressible dismay, Captain de Haldimar felt his pulse
to throb more violently as each moment brought his enemy
nearer to him.

A startling interest was now created among the Indians;
for, as the savage warrior neared the forest, his lips
pealed forth that peculiar cry which is meant to announce
some intelligence of alarm. Scarcely had its echoes died
away in the forest, when the whole of the warriors rushed
from the encampment towards the clearing. Directed by
the sound, Captain de Haldimar bent his eyes upon the
thin skirt of wood that lay immediately before him, and
at intervals could see the towering form of that vast
warrior bounding, with incredible speed, up the sloping
ground that led from the town towards the forest. A ravine
lay before him; but this he cleared, with a prodigious
effort, at a single leap; and then, continuing his way
up the slope, amid the low guttural acclamations of the
warriors at his extraordinary dexterity and strength,
finally gained the side of Ponteac, then leaning carelessly
against a tree at a short distance from the prisoner.

A low and animated conversation now ensued between these
two important personages, which at moments assumed the
character of violent discussion. From what Captain de
Haldimar could collect, the Ottawa chief was severely
reproving his friend for the inconsiderate ardour which
had led him that morning into collision with those whom
it was their object to lull into security by a careful
avoidance of hostility, and urging the possibility of
their plan being defeated in consequence. He moreover
obstinately refused the pressing request of Wacousta, in
regard to some present enterprise which the latter had
just suggested, the precise nature of which, however,
Captain de Haldimar could not learn. Meanwhile, the rapid
flitting of numerous forms to and from the encampment,
arrayed in all the fierce panoply of savage warfare,
while low exclamations of excitement occasionally caught
his ear, led the officer to infer, strange and unusual
as such an occurrence was, that either the detachment
already engaged, or a second, was advancing on their
position. Still, this offered little chance of security
for himself; for more than once, during his long conference
with Ponteac, had the fierce Wacousta bent his eye in
ferocious triumph on his victim, as if he would have
said,--"Come what will--whatever be the result--you, at
least, shall not escape me." Indeed, so confident did
the latter feel that the instant of attack would be the
signal of his own death, that, after the first momentary
and instinctive cheering of his spirit, he rather regretted
the circumstance of their approach; or, if he rejoiced
at all, it was only because it afforded him the prospect
of immediate death, instead of being exposed to all the
horror of a lingering and agonising suffering from the
torture.

While the chiefs were yet earnestly conversing, the alarm
cry, previously uttered by Wacousta, was repeated, although
in a low and subdued tone, by several of the Indians who
stood on the brow of the eminence. Ponteac started suddenly
to the same point; but Wacousta continued for a moment
or two rooted to the spot on which he stood, with the
air of one in doubt as to what course he should pursue.
He then abruptly raised his head, fixed his dark and
menacing eye on his captive, and was already in the act
of approaching him, when the earnest and repeated demands
for his presence, by the Ottawa chief, drew him once more
to the outskirt of the wood.

Again Captain de Haldimar breathed freely. The presence
of that fierce man had been a clog upon the vital functions
of his heart; and, to be relieved from it, even at a
moment like the present, when far more important interests
might be supposed to occupy his mind, was a gratification,
of which not even the consciousness of impending death
could wholly deprive him. From the continued pressing of
the Indians towards one particular point in the clearing,
he now conjectured, that, from that point, the advance
of the troops was visible. Anxious to obtain even a
momentary view of those whom he deemed himself fated
never more to mingle with in this life, he raised himself
upon his feet, and stretched his neck and bent his eager
glance in the direction by which Wacousta had approached;
but, so closely were the dark warriors grouped among the
trees, he found it impossible. Once or twice, however,
he thought he could distinguish the gleaming of the
English bayonets in the bright sunshine, as they seemed
to file off in a parallel line with the ravine. Oh, how
his generous heart throbbed at that moment; and how
ardently did he wish that he could have stood in the
position of the meanest soldier in those gallant ranks!
Perhaps his own brave and devoted grenadiers were of the
number, burning with enthusiasm to be led against the
captors or destroyers of their officer; and this thought
added to his wretchedness still more.

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