THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Lewis Lengfeld
 
 THE 
 
 BORDERERS 
 
 A TALE. 
 
 BT THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 " THE SPY," " THE RED ROVER," THE PRAIRIE,' 
 
 Sec. &c. &c. 
 
 . " But she is dead to him, to all ; 
 Her lute hangs silent on the wall, 
 And on the stairs, aud at the door, 
 Her fairy step is heard no more. 1 ' 
 
 ROGER*. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 NEW BUBLINGTON-STBEET. 
 
 1829.
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 being, yet are there hundreds of other families 
 in this country, whose traditions, though less 
 accurately and minutely preserved than the 
 little narrative you have submitted to my in 
 spection, would supply the materials of many 
 moving tales. You have every reason to exult 
 in your descent, for, surely, if any man may 
 claim to be a citizen and a proprietor in the 
 Union, it is one, that, like yourself, can point 
 to a line of ancestors whose origin is lost in the 
 obscurity of time. You are truly an American. 
 In your eyes, we of a brief century, or two, 
 must appear as little more than denizens quite 
 recently admitted to the privilege of a resi 
 dence. That you may continue to enjoy 
 peace and happiness, in that land where your 
 fathers so long flourished, is the sincere wish of 
 your obliged friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Ax this distant period, when Indian tradi 
 tions are listened to with the interest that we 
 lend to the events of a dark age, it is not easy 
 to convey a vivid image of the dangers and 
 privations that our ancestors encountered, in 
 preparing the Jand we enjoy for its present 
 state of security and abundance. It is the 
 humble object of the tale that will be found in 
 the succeeding pages, to perpetuate the tecol- 
 lection of some of the practices and events 
 peculiar to the early days of our history. 
 
 The general character of the warfare pur 
 sued by the natives, is too well known to require 
 any preliminary observations; but it may be 
 advisable to direct the attention of the reader, 
 for a few moments, to those leading circum-
 
 VI PEEFACE. 
 
 stances in the history of the times, that may 
 have some connexion with the principal business 
 of the legend. 
 
 The territory which now composes the three 
 states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
 Rhode-Island, is said, by the best-informed of 
 our annalists, to have been formerly occupied 
 by four great nations of Indians, who were, as 
 usual, subdivided into numberless dependent 
 tribes. Of these people, the Massachusetts 
 possessed a large portion of the land which 
 now composes the state of that name; the 
 Wampanoags dwelt in what was once the Co 
 lony of Plymouth, and in the northern districts 
 of the Providence Plantations ; the Narragan- 
 setts held the well-known islands of the beau 
 tiful bay which receives its name from their 
 nation, and the more southern counties of the 
 Plantations ; while the Pequots, or, as it is 
 ordinarily written and pronounced, the Pe- 
 quods, were masters of a broad region that 
 lay along the western boundaries of the three 
 other districts
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 There is great obscurity thrown around the 
 polity of the Indians, who originally occupied 
 the country lying near the sea. 
 
 The Europeans, accustomed to despotic go 
 vernments, very naturally supposed that the 
 chiefs found in possession of power, were 
 monarchs to whom authority had been trans 
 mitted in virtue of their birth-rights. They 
 consequently gave them the name of kings. 
 
 How far this opinion of the governments of 
 the aborigines was true, remains a question : 
 though there is certainly reason to think it less 
 erroneous in respect to the tribes of the Atlantic 
 states, than to those who have since been found 
 further west, where, it is sufficiently known, 
 that institutions exist which approach much 
 nearer to republics than to monarchies. It may 
 however have readily happened, that the son, 
 profiting by the advantages of his situation, 
 often succeeded to the authority of the father, 
 by the aid of influence, when the established 
 regulations of the tribe acknowledged no here 
 ditary claim. Let the principle of the descent 
 of power be what it would, it is certain the
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 experience of our ancestors proves, that, in very 
 many instances, the child was seen to occupy 
 the station formerly filled by the father, and 
 that, in most of those situations of emergency 
 in which a people so violent were often placed, 
 the authority he exercised was as summary as 
 it was general. The appellation of Uncas 
 came, like those of the Caesars and Pharaohs, 
 to be a sort of synonyme for chief with the 
 Mohegans, a tribe of the Pequods, among 
 whom several warriors of this name were known 
 to govern in due succession. The renowned 
 Metacom, or, as he is better known to the 
 whites, King Philip, was certainly the son of 
 Massassoit, the Sachem of the Wampanoags 
 that the emigrants found in authority when 
 they landed on the rock of Plymouth. Mianto- 
 nimoh, the daring but hapless rival of that 
 Uncas who ruled the whole of the Pequod 
 nation, was succeeded in authority, among the 
 Narragansetts, by his not less heroic and en 
 terprising son, Conanchet ; and, even at a much 
 later day, we find instances of this transmission 
 of power, which furnish strong reasons for
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 believing that the order of succession was in 
 the direct line of blood. 
 
 The early annals of our history are not want 
 ing in touching and noble examples of savage 
 heroism. Virginia has its legend of the power 
 ful Powhattan, and his magnanimous daughter, 
 the ill requited Pocahontas ; and the chroni 
 cles of New England are filled with the bold 
 designs and daring enterprises of Miantonimoh, 
 of Metacom, and of Conanchet. All the last 
 named warriors proved themselves worthy of 
 better fates, dying in a cause and in a manner, 
 that, had it been their fortunes to have lived in 
 a more advanced state of society, would have en 
 rolled their names among the worthies of the age. 
 
 The first serious war to which the settlers of 
 New England were exposed, was the struggle 
 with the Pequods. This people were subdued 
 after a fierce conflict ; and from being enemies, 
 all who were not either slain or sent into dis 
 tant slavery, were glad to become the auxilia 
 ries of their conquerors. This contest occurred 
 within less than twenty years after the puritans 
 had sought refuge in America
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 There is reason to believe that Metacom 
 foresaw the fate of his own people, in the hum 
 bled fortunes of the Pequods. Though his 
 father had been the earliest and constant friend 
 of the whites, it is probable that the puritans 
 owed some portion of this amity to a dire 
 necessity. We are told, that a terrible malady 
 had raged among the Wampanoags but a short 
 time before the arrival of the emigrants, and 
 that their numbers had been fearfully reduced 
 by its ravages. Some authors have hinted at 
 the probability of this disease having been the 
 yellow fever, whose visitations are known to be 
 at uncertain, and, apparently, at very distant 
 intervals. Whatever might have been the 
 cause of this destruction of his people, Mas- 
 sassoit is believed to have been induced by the 
 consequences, to cultivate the alliance of a 
 nation who could protect him against the 
 attacks of his ancient and less afflicted foes. 
 But the son appears to have viewed the increas 
 ing influence of the whites, with eyes more 
 jealous than those of the father. He passed 
 the morning of his life in maturing his great
 
 PREFACE. Xi 
 
 plan for the destruction of the strange race, 
 and his later years were spent in abortive 
 attempts to put this bold design in execution. 
 His restless activity in plotting the confedera 
 tion against the English, his fierce and ruthless 
 manner of waging the war, his defeat, and his 
 death, are too well known to require repetition. 
 
 There is also a wild and romantic interest 
 thrown about the obscure history of a French 
 man of that period. This man is said to have 
 been an officer of rank in the service of his king, 
 and to have belonged to the privileged class 
 which then monopolized all the dignities and 
 emoluments of the kingdom of France. The 
 traditions, and even the written annals of the 
 first century of our possession of America, 
 connect the Baron de la Castine with the 
 Jesuits, who were thought to entertain views 
 of converting the savages to Christianity, not 
 unmingled with the desire of establishing a 
 more temporal dominion over their minds. It 
 is, however, difficult to say, whether taste, or 
 religion, or policy, or necessity, induced this 
 nobleman to quit the salons of Paris for the
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 wilds of the Penobscot. It is merely known, 
 that he passed the greater part of his life on 
 that river, in a rude fortress that was then 
 called a palace, that he had many wives, a 
 numerous progeny, and that he possessed a 
 great influence over most of the tribes that 
 dwelt in his vicinity. He is also believed to 
 have been the instrument of furnishing the 
 savages, who were hostile to the English, with 
 ammunition, and with weapons of a more 
 deadly character than those used in their 
 earlier wars. In whatever degree he may have 
 participated in the plan to exterminate the 
 puritans, death prevented him from assisting in 
 the final effort of Metacom. 
 
 The Narragansetts are often mentioned in 
 these pages. A few years before the period 
 at which the tale commences, Miantonimoh 
 had waged a ruthless war against Uncas, the 
 Pequod or Mohegan chief. Fortune favoured 
 the latter, who, probably assisted by his civi 
 lized allies, not only overthrew the bands of 
 the other, but succeeded in capturing the per 
 son of his enemy. The chief of the Narra-
 
 PREFACE, Kill 
 
 gan setts lost his life, through the agency of the 
 whites, on the place that is now known by the 
 appellation of " The Sachem's Plain." 
 
 It remains only to throw a little light on the 
 leading incidents of the war of King Philip. The 
 first blow was struck in June 1675, rather 
 more than half a century after the English 
 first landed in New England, and just a cen 
 tury before blood was drawn in the contest 
 which separated the colonies from the mother 
 country. The scene was a settlement near the 
 celebrated Mount Hope, in Rhode Island, where 
 Metacom and his father had both long held 
 their councils. From this point, bloodshed and 
 massacre extended along the whole frontier of 
 New England. Bodies of horse and foot were 
 enrolled to meet the foe, and towns were burnt, 
 and lives were taken by both parties, with 
 little, and often with no respect for age, con 
 dition, or sex. 
 
 In no struggle with the native owners of the 
 soil, was the growing power of the whites 
 placed in so great jeopardy, as in this celebrated 
 contest with King Philip. The venerable his-
 
 Xiv PREFACE. 
 
 torian of Connecticut estimates the loss of lives 
 at nearly one tenth of the whole number of the 
 fighting men, and the destruction of houses 
 and other edifices, to have been in an equal 
 proportion. One family in every eleven, 
 throughout all New England, was burnt out. 
 As the colonists nearest the sea were exempt 
 from the danger, an idea may be formed, from 
 this calculation, of the risk and sufferings of 
 those who dwelt in more exposed situations. 
 The Indians did not escape without retaliation. 
 The principal nations, already mentioned, 
 were so much reduced as never afterwards to 
 offer any serious resistance to the whites, who 
 have since converted the whole of their ancient 
 hunting grounds into the abodes of civilized 
 man. Metacom, Miantonimoh, and Conanchet, 
 with their warriors, have become the heroes of 
 song and legend ; while the descendants of those 
 who laid waste their dominions and destroyed 
 their race, are yielding a tardy tribute to the 
 high daring and savage grandeur of their cha 
 racters.
 
 THE BORDERERS; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith." 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE incidents of this tale must be sought 
 in a remote period of the annals of America. 
 A colony of self-devoted and pious refugees 
 from religious persecution had landed on the 
 rock of Plymouth, less than half a century be- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 fore the time at which the narrative commences ; 
 and they, and their descendants, had already 
 transformed many a broad waste of wilderness 
 into smiling fields and cheerful villages. The 
 labours of the emigrants had been chiefly li 
 mited to the country en the coast, which, by 
 its proximity to the waters that rolled between 
 them and Europe, afforded the semblance of a 
 connexion with the land of their forefathers and 
 the distant abodes of civilization. But enter 
 prise and a desire to search for still more fertile 
 domains, together with the temptation offered 
 by the vast and unknown regions that lay along 
 their western and northern borders, had in 
 duced many bold adventurers to penetrate more 
 deeply into the forests. The precise spot to 
 which we desire to transport the imagination of 
 the reader, was one of these establishments of 
 what may, not inaptly, be called the forlorn hope, 
 in the march of civilization through the country. 
 So little was then known of the great outlines 
 of the American continent, that, when the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 3 
 
 Lords Say and Seal, and Brooke, connected 
 with a few associates, obtained a grant of the 
 territory which now composes the state of Con 
 necticut, the King of England affixed his name 
 to a patent, which constituted them proprietors 
 of a country that should extend from the shores 
 of the Atlantic to those of the South Sea. 
 Notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of 
 ever subduing, or of even occupying a terri 
 tory like this, emigrants from the mother co 
 lony of Massachusetts were found ready to 
 commence the Herculean labour, within fifteen 
 years from the day when they had first put 
 foot upon the well known rock itself. The 
 fort of Say-Brooke, the towns of Windsor, 
 Hartford, and New Haven, soon sprang into 
 existence, and, from that period to this, the 
 little community, which then had birth, has 
 been steadily, calmly, and prosperously ad 
 vancing in its career, a model of order and 
 reason, and the hive from which swarms of 
 industrious, hardy, and enlightened yeomen 
 B 2
 
 4 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 have since spread themselves over a surface 
 so vast, as to create an impression that they 
 still aspire to the possession of the immense 
 regions included in their original grant. 
 
 Among the religionists, whom disgust or 
 persecution had early driven into the volun 
 tary exile of the colonies, was more than an 
 usual proportion of men of character and edu 
 cation. The reckless and the gay, younger 
 sons, soldiers unemployed, and students from 
 the inns of court, early sought advancement 
 and adventure in the more southern provinces, 
 where slaves offered impunity from labour, 
 and where war, with a bolder and more stirring 
 policy, oftener gave rise to scenes of excite 
 ment, and of course, to the exercise of the 
 faculties best suited to their habits and dis 
 positions. The more grave, and the religi 
 ously disposed, found refuge in the colonies of 
 New England. Thither a multitude of private 
 gentlemen transferred their fortunes and their 
 families, imparting a character of intelligence
 
 THE BORDERERS. 5 
 
 and a moral elevation to the country, which 
 it has nobly sustained to the present hour. 
 
 The nature of the civil wars in England had 
 enlisted many men of deep and sincere piety 
 in the profession of arms. Some of them had 
 retired to the colonies before the troubles of 
 the mother country reached their crisis, and 
 others continued to arrive, throughout the 
 whole period of their existence, until the re 
 storation ; when crowds of those who had been 
 disaffected to the house of Stuart sought the 
 security of these distant possessions. 
 
 A stern, fanatical soldier, of the name of 
 Heathcote, had been among the first of his 
 class, to throw aside the sword for the imple 
 ments of industry peculiar to the advancement 
 of a newly established country. How far the 
 influence of a young wife may have affected 
 his decision it is not germane to our present 
 object to consider, though the records, from 
 which the matter we are about to relate is 
 gleaned, give reason to suspect that he thought
 
 6 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 his domestic harmony would not be less secure 
 in the wilds of the new world, than among the 
 companions with whom his earlier associations 
 would naturally have brought him in com 
 munion. 
 
 Like himself, his consort was born of one 
 of those families, which, taking their rise in 
 the Franklins of the times of the Edwards and 
 Henrys, had become possessors of hereditary 
 landed estates, that, by their gradually increas 
 ing value, had elevated them to the station 
 of small country gentlemen. In most other 
 nations of Europe they would have been rated 
 in the class of the petite noblesse. But the 
 domestic happiness of Captain Heathcote was 
 doomed to receive a fatal blow, from a quarter 
 where circumstances had given him but little 
 reason to apprehend danger. The very day 
 he landed in the long-wished-for asylum, his 
 wife made him the father of a noble boy, a 
 gift that she bestowed at the melancholy price 
 of her own existence. Twenty years the senior
 
 THE BORDEEEES. 7 
 
 of the woman who had followed his fortunes 
 to these distant regions, the retired warrior had 
 always considered it to be perfectly and abso 
 lutely within the order of things, that he him 
 self was to be the first to pay the debt of 
 nature. While the visions which Captain 
 Heathcote entertained of a future world were 
 sufficiently vivid and distinct, there is reason 
 to think they were seen through a tolerably 
 long vista of quiet and comfortable enjoyment 
 in this. Though the calamity cast an addi 
 tional aspect of seriousness over a character that 
 was already more than chastened by the sub 
 tleties of sectarian doctrines, he was not of a 
 nature to be unmanned by any vicissitude of 
 human fortune. He lived on, useful and 
 unbending in his habits, a pillar of strength 
 in the way of wisdom and courage to the im 
 mediate neighbourhood among whom he re 
 sided, but reluctant from temper, and from 
 a disposition which had been shadowed by 
 withered happiness, to enact that part in the
 
 8 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 public affairs of the little state, to which his 
 comparative wealth and previous habits might 
 well have entitled him to aspire. He gave his 
 son such an education as his own resources and 
 those of the infant colony of Massachusetts 
 afforded ; and, by a sort of delusive piety, 
 into whose merits we have no desire to look, 
 he thought he had also furnished a commend 
 able evidence of his own desperate resignation 
 to the will of Providence, in causing him to be 
 publicly christened by the name of Content. 
 His own baptismal appellation was Mark ; as 
 indeed had been that of most of his ancestors, 
 for two or three centuries. When the world 
 was a little uppermost in his thoughts, as 
 sometimes happens with the most humbled 
 spirits, he had even been, heard to speak of a 
 Sir Mark of his family, who had ridden a 
 knight in the train of one of the more warlike 
 kings of his native land. 
 
 There is some ground for believing, that 
 the great parent of evil early looked with
 
 THE BORDE11ERS. 9 
 
 a malignant eye on the example of peaceful- 
 ness, and of unbending morality that the co 
 lonists of New England were setting to the 
 rest of Christendom. At any rate, come from 
 what quarter they might, schisms and doctrinal 
 contentions arose among the emigrants them 
 selves; and men, who together had deserted 
 the fire-sides of their forefathers in quest of 
 religious peace, were ere long seen separating 
 their fortunes, in order that each might enjoy, 
 unmolested, those peculiar shades of faith, 
 which all had the presumption, no less than 
 the folly, to believe were necessary to propitiate 
 the omnipotent and merciful Father of the uni 
 verse. If our task were one of theology, a 
 wholesome moral on the vanity, no less than 
 on the absurdity of the race, might be here 
 introduced to some advantage. 
 
 When Mark Heathcote announced to the 
 
 community, in which he had now sojourned more 
 
 than twenty years, that he intended for a second 
 
 time to establish his altars in the wilderness, in 
 
 B 3
 
 10 THE BOEDERERS. 
 
 the hope that he and his household might wor 
 ship God as to them seemed most right, the 
 intelligence was received with a feeling allied 
 to awe. Doctrine and zeal were momentarily 
 forgotten in the respect and attachment which 
 had been unconsciously 'created by the united 
 influence of the stern severity of his air, and of 
 the undeniable virtues of his practice. The elders 
 of the settlement communed with him freely and 
 in charity ; but the voice of conciliation and alli 
 ance came too late. He listened to the reasonings 
 of the ministers, who were assembled from all the 
 adjoining parishes, in sullen respect; and he 
 joined in the petitions for light and instruction, 
 that were offered up on the occasion, with the 
 deep reverence with which he ever drew near to 
 the footstool of the Almighty ; but he did both 
 in a temper into which too much positiveness of 
 spiritual pride had entered, to open his heart to 
 that sympathy and charity, which, as they are 
 the characteristics of our mild and forbearing 
 doctrines, should be the study of those who
 
 THE BOflDERERS. 11 
 
 profess to follow their precepts. All that was 
 seemly, and all that was usual, were done ; but 
 the purpose of the stubborn sectarian remained 
 unchanged. His final decision is worthy of 
 being recorded. 
 
 *' My youth was wasted in ungodliness and 
 ignorance," he said, " but in my manhood have 
 I known the Lord. Near two score years have 
 I toiled for the truth, and all that weary time 
 have I passed in trimming my lamps, lest, like the 
 foolish virgins, I should be caught unprepared ; 
 and now, when my loins are girded and my race 
 is nearly run, shall I become a backslider and 
 falsifier of the word ! Much have I endured, 
 as you know, in quitting the earthly mansion of 
 my fathers, and in encountering the dangers of 
 sea and land for the faith ; and rather than let 
 go its hold, will I once more cheerfully devote 
 to the howling wilderness, ease, offspring, and, 
 should it be the will of Providence, life itself!" 
 
 The day of parting was one of unfeigned and 
 general sorrow. Notwithstanding the austerity
 
 12 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 of the old man's character, and the nearly un 
 bending severity of his brow, the milk of human 
 kindness had often been seen distilling from his 
 stern nature in acts that did not admit of misin 
 terpretation. There was scarcely a young be 
 ginner in the laborious and ill requited husban 
 dry of the township he inhabited, a district at no 
 time considered either profitable or fertile, who 
 could not recal some secret and kind aid which 
 had flowed from a hand that, to the world, seem 
 ed clenched in cautious and reserved frugality; 
 nor did any of the faithful of his vicinity cast 
 their fortunes together in wedlock, without re 
 ceiving from him evidences of an interest in their 
 worldly happiness, that was far more substantial 
 than words. 
 
 On the morning when the vehicles, groaning 
 with the household goods of Mark Heathcote, 
 were seen quitting his door and taking the road 
 which led to the sea-side, not a human being of 
 sufficient age, within many miles of his residence, 
 was absent from the interesting spectacle. The
 
 THE BORDERERS. 13 
 
 leave-taking, as usual on all serious occasions, 
 was preceded by a hymn and prayer, and then 
 the sternly-minded adventurer embraced his 
 
 neighbours with a mien, in which a subdued ex- 
 
 * 
 tenor struggled fearfully and strangely with 
 
 emotions that, more than once, threatened to 
 break through even the formidable barriers of 
 his acquired manner. The inhabitants of every 
 building on the road were in the open air, to 
 receive and to return the parting benediction. 
 More than once they, who guided his teams, 
 were commanded to halt, and all near, possessing 
 human aspirations and human responsibility, 
 were collected to offer petitions in favour of him 
 who departed, and of those who remained. The 
 requests for mortal privileges were somewhat 
 light and hasty, but the askings in behalf of 
 intellectual and spiritual light were long, fervent, 
 and oft repeated. In this characteristic manner 
 did one of the first of the emigrants to the new 
 world make his second removal into scenes of 
 renewed bodily suffering, privation and danger.
 
 14 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 Neither person nor property was transferred, 
 from place to place, in this country, at the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, with the des 
 patch and with the facilities of the present time. 
 The roads were necessarily few and short, and 
 communication by water was irregular, tardy, 
 and far from commodious. A wide barrier of 
 forest, lying between that portion of Massa 
 chusetts Bay from which Mark Heathcotc emi 
 grated, and the spot, near the Connecticut 
 river, to which it was his intention to proceed, 
 he was induced to adopt the latter mode of con 
 veyance. But a long delay intervened between 
 the time when he commenced his short journey 
 to the coast, and the hour when he was finally 
 enabled to embark. During this detention, he 
 and his household sojourned among the godly- 
 minded of the narrow peninsula, where there 
 already existed the germ of a flourishing town, 
 and where the spires of a noble and picturesque 
 city now elevate themselves above so many 
 thousand roofs.
 
 THE BOKDERERS. 15 
 
 The son did not leave the colony of his 
 birth and the haunts of his youth, with the 
 same unwavering obedience to the call of duty, 
 as the father. There was a fair, a youthful, 
 and a gentle being in the recently established 
 town of Boston, of an age, station, opinions, 
 fortunes, and, what was of still greater im 
 portance, of sympathies suited to his own. Her 
 form had long mingled with those holy images, 
 which his stern instruction taught him to keep 
 most familiarly before the mirror of his thoughts. 
 It is not surprising, then, that the youth hailed 
 the delay as propitious to his wishes, or that he 
 turned it to the account which the promptings 
 of a pure affection so naturally suggested. He 
 was united to the gentle Ruth Harding, only 
 the week before the father sailed on his second 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 It is not our intention to dwell on the inci 
 dents of the voyage. Though the genius of an 
 extraordinary man had discovered the world 
 which was now beginning to fill with civilized
 
 16 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 men, navigation at that day was not brilliant in 
 accomplishments. A passage among the shoals 
 of Nantucket must have been one of actual 
 danger, no less than of terror ; and the ascent 
 of the Connecticut itself was an exploit worthy 
 of being mentioned. In due time the adven 
 turers landed at the English fort of Hartford, 
 where they tarried for a season, in order to 
 
 obtain rest and spiritual comfort. But the 
 
 % 
 
 peculiarity of doctrine, on which Mark Heath- 
 cote laid so much stress, was one that rendered 
 it advisable for him to retire still further from 
 the haunts of men. Accompanied by a few 
 followers, he proceeded on an exploring expedi 
 tion, and the end of the summer found him 
 once more established on an estate that he had 
 acquired by the usual simple forms practised 
 in the colonies, and at the trifling cost for 
 which extensive districts were then set apart as 
 the property of individuals. 
 
 The love of the things of this life, \vhile 
 it certainly existed, was far from being pre-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 17 
 
 dominant in the affections of the puritan. He 
 was frugal from habit and principle, more 
 than from an undue longing after worldly 
 wealth. He contented himself, therefore, with 
 acquiring an estate that should be valuable, 
 rather from its quality and beauty, than from 
 its extent. Many such places offered them 
 selves, between the settlements of Weathersfield 
 and Hartford, and that imaginary line which 
 separated the possessions of the colony he had 
 quitted from those of the one he joined. He 
 made his location, as it is termed in the lan 
 guage of the country, near the northern boun 
 dary of the latter. This spot, by the aid of 
 an expenditure that might have been considered 
 lavish for the country and the age, of some 
 lingering of taste, which even the self-denying 
 and subdued habits of his later life had not 
 entirely extinguished, and of great natural 
 beauty in the distribution of land, water, and 
 wood, the emigrant contrived to convert into 
 an abode, that was not more desirable for its
 
 18 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 retirement from the temptations of the world, 
 than for its rural loveliness. 
 
 After this memorable act of conscientious 
 self-devotion, years passed away in quiet, amid 
 a species of negative prosperity. Rumours 
 from the old world reached the ears of the 
 tenants of this secluded settlement, months after 
 the events to which they referred were elsewhere 
 forgotten, and tumults and wars in the sister 
 colonies came to their knowledge, only at distant 
 and tardy intervals. In the mean time, the 
 limits of the colonial establishments were gradu 
 ally extending themselves, and valleys were 
 beginning to be cleared nearer and nearer to 
 their own. Old age had now begun to make 
 some visible impression on the iron frame of 
 the captain, and the fresh colour of youth and 
 health, with which his son had entered the 
 forest, was giving way to the brown covering 
 produced by exposure and toil. We say of 
 toil, for, independently of the habits and 
 opinions of the country, which strongly repro-
 
 THE BOEDERERS. 19 
 
 bated idleness, even in those most gifted by 
 fortune, the daily difficulties of their situation, 
 the chase, and the long and intricate passages 
 that the veteran himself was compelled to 
 adventure in the surrounding forest, partook 
 largely of the nature of the term we have used. 
 Ruth continued blooming and youthful, though 
 maternal anxiety was soon added to her other 
 causes of care. Still, for a long season, nought 
 occurred to excite extraordinary regrets for the 
 step they had taken, or to create particular 
 uneasiness in behalf of the future. The border 
 ers, for such by their frontier position they had 
 in truth become, heard the strange and awful 
 tidings of the dethronement of one king, of 
 the interregnum, as a reign of more than usual 
 vigour and prosperity is called, and of the 
 restoration of the son of him who is strangely 
 enough termed a martyr. To all these eventful 
 and unwonted chances in the fortunes of kings, 
 Mark Heathcote listened with deep and reve 
 rential submission to the will of Him, in whose
 
 20 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 eyes crowns and sceptres are merely the more 
 costly baubles of the world. Like most of his 
 contemporaries, who had sought shelter in the 
 western continent, his political opinions, if not 
 absolutely republican, had a leaning to liberty 
 that was strongly in opposition to the doctrine 
 of the divine rights of the monarch, while he 
 had been too far removed from the stirring 
 passions which had gradually excited those 
 nearer to the throne, to lose their respect for 
 its sanctity, and to sully its brightness with 
 blood. ^Vhen the transient and straggling 
 visitors that, at long intervals, visited his settle 
 ment, spoke of the Protector, who for so many 
 years ruled England with an iron hand, the 
 eyes of the old man would gleam with sudden 
 and singular interest ; and once, when com 
 menting, after evening prayer, on the vanity 
 and the vicissitudes of this life, he acknowledged 
 that the extraordinary individual, who was, in 
 substance, if not in name, seated on the throne 
 of the Plantagenets, had been the boon com-
 
 THE BORUERERS. 21 
 
 panion and ungodly associate of many of his 
 youthful hours. Then would follow a long, 
 wholesome, extemporaneous homily on the idle 
 ness of setting the affections on the things of 
 life, and a half-suppressed, but still intelligible 
 commendation of the wiser course which had 
 led him to raise his own tabernacle in the 
 wilderness, instead of weakening the chances of 
 eternal glory by striving too much . for the 
 possession of the treacherous vanities of the 
 world. 
 
 But even the gentle and ordinarily little 
 observant Ruth, might trace the kindling of the 
 eye, the knitting of the brow, and the flushings 
 of his pale and furrowed cheek, as the murder 
 ous conflicts of the civil wars became the themes 
 of the ancient soldier's discourse. There were 
 moments when religious submission, and, we 
 had almost said, religious precepts, were partially 
 forgotten, as he explained to his attentive son 
 and listening grandchild, the nature of the 
 onset, or the quality and dignity of the retreat.
 
 22 THE BOEDEREES. 
 
 At such times, his still nervous hand would 
 even wield the blade, in order to instruct the 
 latter in its uses, and many a long wintry 
 evening was passed in thus indirectly teaching 
 an art, that was so much at variance with the 
 mandates of his Divine Master. The chastened 
 soldier, however, never forgot to close his in 
 struction with a petition extraordinary, in the 
 customary prayer, that no descendant of his 
 should ever take life from a being unprepared 
 to die, except in justifiable defence of his faith, 
 his person, or his lawful rights. It must be 
 admitted, that a liberal construction of the 
 reserved privileges would leave sufficient matter 
 to exercise the subtlety of one subject to any 
 extraordinary propensity to arms. 
 
 Few opportunities were, however, offered, in 
 their remote situation and peaceful habits, for 
 the practice of a theory that had been taught in 
 so many lessons. Indian alarms, as they were 
 termed, were not unfrequent ; but as yet they 
 had never produced more than terror in the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 23 
 
 bosoms of the gentle Ruth and her young 
 offspring. It is true, they had heard of 
 travellers massacred, and of families separated 
 by captivity ; but, either by a happy fortune, 
 or by more than ordinary prudence in the 
 settlers who were established along that imme 
 diate frontier, the knife and the tomahawk had 
 as yet been sparingly used in the colony of Con 
 necticut. A threatening and dangerous struggle 
 with the Dutch, in the adjoining province of 
 New Netherlands, had been averted by the fore 
 sight and moderation of the rulers of the new 
 plantations ; and though a warlike and powerful 
 native chief kept the neighbouring colonies of 
 Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a state of 
 constant watchfulness, from the cause just men 
 tioned the apprehension of danger was greatly 
 weakened in the breasts of those so remote as 
 the individuals who composed the family of our 
 emigrant. 
 
 In this quiet manner did years glide by, the 
 surrounding wilderness slowly retreating from
 
 24 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 the habitations of the Heathcotes, until they 
 found themselves in the possession of as many of 
 the comforts of life as their utter seclusion from 
 the rest of the world could give them reason to 
 expect. 
 
 With this preliminary explanation, we shall 
 refer the reader to the succeeding narrative for a 
 more minute, and, we hope, for a more interest 
 ing account of the incidents of a legend that may 
 prove too homely for the tastes of those whose 
 imaginations seek the excitement of scenes mere 
 stirring, or of a condition of life less natural.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Sir, I do know you ; 
 And dare, upon the warrant of my art, 
 Commend a dear thing to you." 
 
 King Lear. 
 
 AT the precise time when the action of our 
 piece commences, a fine and fruitful season was 
 drawing to a close. The harvests of the hay, 
 and of the smaller corns, had long been over, 
 and the younger Heathcote, with his labourers, 
 had passed a day in depriving the luxuriant 
 maize of its tops, in order to secure the nutritious 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 blades for fodder, and to admit the sun and air 
 to harden a grain that is almost considered the 
 staple production of the region he inhabited. 
 The veteran Mark had ridden among the work 
 men, during their light toil, as well to enjoy a 
 sight which promised abundance to his flocks 
 and herds, as to throw in, on occasion, some 
 wholesome spiritual precept, in which doctrinal 
 subtlety was far more prominent than the rules 
 of practice. The hirelings of his son, for he had 
 long since yielded the management of the estate 
 to Content, were, without an exception, young 
 men born in the country, and long use and much 
 training had accustomed them to a blending of 
 religious exercises with most of the employments 
 of life. They listened, therefore, with respect ; 
 nor did an impious smile, or an impatient glance, 
 escape the lightest-minded of their number dur 
 ing his exhortations, though the homilies of the 
 old man were neither very brief nor particularly 
 original. But devotion to the one great cause of 
 their existence austere habits, and unrelaxcd in-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 27 
 
 dustry, in keeping alive a flame of zeal that had 
 been kindled in the other hemisphere, to burn 
 longest and brightest in this had interwoven the 
 practice mentioned with most of the opinions and 
 pleasures of these metaphysical, though simple- 
 minded people. The toil went on none the less 
 cheerily for the extraordinary accompaniment ; 
 and Content himself, by a certain glimmering of 
 superstition, which appears to be the concomitant 
 of excessive religious zeal, was fain to think that 
 the sun shone more brightly on their labours, 
 and that the earth gave forth more of its fruits, 
 while these holy sentiments were flowing from 
 the lips of a father, whom he piously loved, and 
 deeply reverenced. 
 
 But when the sun, usually at that season, in 
 the climate of Connecticut, a bright unshrouded 
 orb, fell towards the tree-tops which bounded the 
 western horizon, the old man began to grow 
 weary with his own well-doing. He therefore 
 finished his discourse with a wholesome admoni 
 tion to the youths to complete their tasks before
 
 ZO THE BORDERERS. 
 
 they quitted the field, and, turning the head of 
 his horse, he rode slowly, and with a musing 
 air, towards the dwellings. It is probable that, 
 for some time, the thoughts of Mark were occu 
 pied with the intellectual matter he had just been 
 handling with so much power ; but when his 
 little nag stopped of itself on a small eminence, 
 which the crooked cow-path he was following 
 crossed, his mind yielded to the impression of 
 more worldly and more sensible objects. As the 
 scene that drew his contemplations from so many 
 abstract theories to the realities of life was pe 
 culiar to the country, and is more or less con 
 nected with the subject of our tale, we shall en 
 deavour briefly to describe it. 
 
 A small tributary of the Connecticut divided 
 the view into two nearly equal parts. The fer 
 tile flats, that extended on each of its banks for 
 more than a mile, had been early stripped of their 
 burthen of forests ; and they now lay in placid 
 meadows, or in fields, from which the grain of 
 the season had lately disappeared, and over which
 
 THE BORDERERS. 29 
 
 the plough had already left the marks of recent 
 tillage. The whole of the plain, which ascended 
 gently from the rivulet towards the forest, was 
 subdivided in enclosures by numberless fences, 
 constructed in the rude but substantial manner 
 of the country. Rails, in which lightness and 
 economy of wood had been but little consulted, 
 lying in zig-zag lines, like the approaches which 
 the besieger makes in his cautious advance to 
 the hostile fortress, were piled on each other, 
 until barriers seven or eight feet in height were 
 interposed to the inroads of vicious cattle. In 
 one spot, a large square vacancy had been cut 
 into the forest ; and though numberless stumps 
 of trees darkened its surface, as, indeed, they did 
 many of the fields, on the flats themselves bright 
 green grain was sprouting forth luxuriantly from 
 the rich and virgin soil. High against the side 
 of an adjacent hill, that might aspire to be called 
 a low rocky mountain, a similar invasion had 
 been made on the dominion of the trees ; but ca 
 price or convenience had induced an abandon-
 
 30 THE BOUDERERS. 
 
 ment of the clearing, after it had ill requited the 
 toil of felling the timber by a single crop. In 
 this spot, straggling, girdled, and consequently 
 dead trees, piles of logs, and black and charred 
 stubbs. were seen deforming the beauty of a field, 
 that would, otherwise, have been striking from 
 its deep setting in the woods. Much of the sur 
 face of this opening, too, was now concealed by 
 bushes, of what is termed the second growth ; 
 though, here and there s places appeared in which 
 the luxuriant white clover, natural to the coun 
 try, had followed the close grazing of the flocks. 
 The eyes of Mark were bent inquiringly on this 
 clearing, which, by an air line, might have been 
 half a mile from the place where his horse had 
 stopped, for the sounds of a dozen differently 
 toned cow-bells were brought, on the still air of 
 the evening, to his ears, from among its bushes. 
 The evidences of civilization were the least 
 equivocal, however, on and around a natural 
 .elevation in the land, which arose so suddenly 
 x>n the very bank of the stream, as to give to it
 
 THE BORDERERS. 31 
 
 the appearance of a work of art. Whether 
 these mounds once existed everywhere on the 
 face of the earth, and have disappeared before 
 long tillage and labour, we shall not presume to 
 conjecture, but we have reason to think that 
 they occur much more frequently in certain 
 parts of our own country, than in any other 
 familiarly known to ordinary travellers ; unless 
 perhaps it may be in some of the valleys of 
 Switzerland. The practised veteran had chosen 
 the summit of this flattened cone for the esta 
 blishment of that species of military defence, 
 which the situation of the country, and the cha 
 racter of tfie enemy he had to guard against, 
 rendered advisable, as well as customary. 
 
 The dwelling was of wood, and constructed of 
 the ordinary frame-work, with its thin covering 
 of boards. It was long, low, and irregular; 
 bearing marks of having been reared at different 
 periods, as the wants of an increasing family 
 had required additional accommodation. It 
 stood near the verge of the natural declivity,
 
 32 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 and on that side of the hill where its base was 
 washed by the rivulet, a rude piazza stretching 
 along the whole of its front and overhanging 
 the stream. Several large, irregular, and clumsy 
 chimneys, rose out of different parts of the 
 roofs, another proof that comfort, rather than 
 taste, had been consulted in the disposition of 
 the buildings. There were also two or three 
 detached offices on the summit of the hill, 
 placed near the dwellings, and at points most 
 convenient for their several uses. A stranger 
 might have remarked that they were so disposed 
 as to form, far as they went, the different sides 
 of a hollow square. Notwithstanding the great 
 length of the principal building and the dis 
 position of the more minute and detached parts, 
 this desirable formation would not, however, 
 have been obtained, were it not that two rows 
 of rude constructions in logs, from which the 
 bark had not even been stripped, served to eke 
 out the parts that were deficient. These 
 primeval edifices were used to contain various
 
 THE BORDERERS. 33 
 
 domestic articles, no less than provisions ; and 
 they also furnished numerous lodging rooms 
 for the labourers and the inferior dependants of 
 the farm. By the aid of a few strong and high 
 gates of hewn timber, those parts of the build 
 ings which had not been made to unite in the 
 original construction, were sufficiently con 
 nected to oppose so many barriers against ad 
 mission into the inner court. 
 
 But the building which was most conspicuous, 
 by its position, no less than by the singularity 
 of its construction, stood on a low, artificial 
 mound in the centre of the quadrangle. It was 
 high, hexagonal in shape, and crowned with a 
 roof that came to a point, and from whose peak 
 rose a towering flag-staff. The foundation was 
 of stone ; but, at the height of a man above the 
 earth, the sides were made of massive squared 
 logs, firmly united by an ingenious combination 
 of their ends, as well as by perpendicular sup 
 porters, pinned closely into their sides. In this 
 citadel, or block-house, as from its materials it 
 
 c a
 
 34 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 was technically called, there were two different 
 tiers of long, narrow loop-holes, but no regular 
 windows. The rays of the setting sun, how 
 ever, glittered on one or two small openings in 
 the roof, in which glass had been set, furnishing 
 evidence that the summit of the building was 
 sometimes used for other purposes than those of 
 defence. 
 
 About half-way up the sides of the eminence 
 on which the dwelling stood, was an unbroken 
 line of high palisadoes, made of the bodies of 
 young trees, firmly knit together by braces and 
 horizontal pieces of timber, and evidently kept 
 in a state of jealous and complete repair. The 
 air of the whole of this frontier fortress was 
 neat and comfortable, and, considering that the 
 use of artillery was unknown to those forests, 
 not unmilitary. 
 
 At no great distance from the base of the 
 hill, stood the barns and the stables. They 
 were surrounded by a vast range of rude but 
 warm sheds, beneath which sheep and horned
 
 THE BOEDEKEHS. 35 
 
 cattle were usually sheltered from the storms of 
 the rigorous winters of the climate. The sur 
 faces of the meadows, immediately around the 
 out-buildings, were of a smoother and richer 
 sward than those in the distance, and the fences 
 were on a far more artificial, and perhaps dura 
 ble, though scarcely on a more serviceable plan. 
 A large orchard, of some ten or fifteen years 
 growth, too, added greatly to the air of im 
 provement, which put this smiling valley in 
 such strong and pleasing contrast to the endless 
 and nearly untenanted woods by which it was 
 environed. 
 
 Of the interminable forest it is not necessary 
 to speak. With the solitary exception, on the 
 mountain side, and of here and there a wind 
 row, along which the trees had been uprooted, 
 by the furious blasts that sometimes sweep off 
 acres of our trees in a minute, the eye could find 
 no other object to study in the vast setting of 
 this quiet rural picture, but the seemingly end 
 less maze of wilderness. The broken surface of
 
 36 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 the land, however, limited the view to an hori 
 zon of no great extent, though "the art of man 
 could scarcely devise colours so vivid or so 
 gay as those which were afforded by the bril 
 liant hues of the foliage. The keen, biting 
 frosts, known at the close of a New England 
 autumn, had already touched the broad and 
 fringed leaves of the maples, and the sudden 
 and secret process had been wrought upon all 
 the other varieties of the forest, producing that 
 magical effect, which can be nowhere seen, ex 
 cept in regions in which nature is so bountiful 
 and luxuriant in summer, and so sudden and so 
 stern in the change of the seasons. 
 
 Over this picture of prosperity and peace, the 
 eye of old Mark Heathcote wandered with a 
 keen degree of worldly prudence. The melan 
 choly sounds of the variously toned bells, ring 
 ing hollow and plaintively among the arches of 
 the woods, gave him reason to believe that the 
 herds of the family were returning, voluntarily, 
 from their unlimited forest pasturage. His
 
 THE BORDERERS. 37 
 
 grandson, a fine spirited boy of some fourteen 
 years, was approaching through the fields. The 
 youngster drove before him a small flock, which 
 domestic necessity compelled the family to keep 
 at great occasional loss, and at a heavy expense 
 of time and trouble ; both of which could alone 
 protect them from the ravages of the beasts of 
 prey. A species of half-witted serving lad, 
 whom charity had induced the old man to har 
 bour among his dependants, was seen issuing 
 from the woods, nearly in a line with the neg 
 lected clearing on the mountain side. The 
 latter advanced, shouting and urging before 
 him a drove of colts, as shaggy, as wayward, 
 and nearly as untamed, as himself. 
 
 '* How now, weak one, 11 said the Puritan, 
 with a severe eye, as the two lads approached 
 him, with their several charges from different 
 directions, and nearly at the same instant ; 
 " how now, sirrah ; dost worry the cattle in this 
 gait, when the eyes of the prudent are turned 
 from thee ? Do as thou wouldst be done by, is a
 
 38 THE BORDERER*. 
 
 just and healthful admonition, that the learned 
 ajid the simple, the weak and the strong of 
 mind, should alike recal to their thoughts and 
 their practice. I do not know that an over 
 driven colt will be at all more apt to make a 
 gentle and useful beast in its prime, than one 
 treated with kindness and care." 
 
 *' I believe the evil one has got into all the 
 kine, no less than into the foals," sullenly re 
 turned the lad ; " I've called to them in anger, 
 and I've spoken to them as if they had been my 
 natural kin, and yet neither fair word, nor foul 
 tongue, will bring them to hearken to advice. 
 There is something frightful in the woods this 
 very sun-down, master ; or colts, that I have 
 driven the summer through, would not be apt 
 to give this unfair treatment to one they ought 
 to know to be their friend. 1 " 
 
 " Thy sheep are counted, Mark ?" resumed 
 the grandfather, turning towards his descendant 
 with a less austere, but always an authoritative 
 brow ; < thy mother hath need of every fleece
 
 THE BORDERERS. 39 
 
 to provide covering for thee and others like 
 thee ; thou knowest, child, that the creatures 
 are few, and our winters weary and cold." 
 
 " My mother's loom shall never be idle from 
 carelessness of mine," returned the confident 
 boy ; " but counting and wishing cannot make 
 seven and thirty fleeces, where there are only 
 six and thirty backs to carry them. I have 
 been an hour among the briars and bushes of 
 the hill logging, looking for the lost wether, 
 and yet neither lock, hoof, hide, nor horn, is 
 there to say what hath befallen the animal." 
 
 " Thou hast lost a sheep ! this carelessness 
 will cause thy mother to grieve." 
 
 " Grandfather, I have been no idler. Since 
 the last hunt, the flock hath been allowed to 
 browse the woods, for no man, in all that week, 
 saw wolf, panther, or bear, though the country 
 was up, from the great river to the outer settle 
 ments of the colony. The biggest four-footed 
 animal that lost its hide in the muster was a 
 thin-ribbed deer, and the stoutest battle given
 
 40 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 was between wild Whittal Ring, here, and a 
 wood-chuck that kept him at arms' length for 
 the better part of an afternoon." 
 
 " Thy tale may be true, but it neither finds 
 that which is lost, nor completeth the number 
 of thy mother's flock. Hast thou ridden care 
 fully throughout the clearing? it is not long 
 since I saw the animals grazing in that quarter. 
 What hast thou twisting in thy fingers, in that 
 wasteful and unthankful manner, Whittal ?" 
 
 " What would make a winter blanket, if 
 there was enough of it ! wool ! and wool too, 
 that came from the thigh of old Straight-Horns ; 
 else have I forgotten a leg that gives the long 
 est and coarsest hair at the shearing." 
 
 " That truly seemeth a lock from the animal 
 that is wanting," exclaimed the other boy. 
 " There is no other creature in the flock, with 
 fleece so coarse and shaggy. Where found you 
 the handful, Whittal Ring?" 
 
 4i Growing on the branch of a thorn. Queer
 
 THE BORDERERS. 41 
 
 fruit this, masters, to be seen where young 
 plums ought to ripen !" 
 
 " Go, go," interrupted the old man, " thou 
 idlest, and misspendest the time in vain talk. 
 Go, fold thy flock, Mark ; and do thou, weak 
 one, house thy charge with less uproar than is 
 wont. We should remember that the voice is 
 given to man, firstly, that he may improve the 
 blessing in thanksgivings and petitions ; secondly, 
 to communicate such gifts as may be imparted 
 to himself, and which it is his bounden duty to 
 attempt to impart to others ; and then, thirdly, 
 to declare his natural wants and inclinations." 
 
 With this admonition, which probably pro 
 ceeded from a secret consciousness in the Puri 
 tan, that he had permitted a momentary cloud 
 of selfishness to obscure the brightness of his 
 faith, the party separated. The grandson and 
 the hireling took their several ways to the folds, 
 while old Mark himself slowly continued his 
 course towards the dwellings. It was near
 
 *a THE BORDERERS. 
 
 enough to the hours of darkness, to render the 
 preparations we have mentioned prudent ; still 
 no urgency called for particular haste, in the 
 return of the veteran to the shelter and protec 
 tion of his own comfortable and secure abode. 
 He therefore loitered along the path, occasion 
 ally stopping to look into the prospects of the 
 young crops, that were beginning to spring up 
 in readiness for the coming year, and at times 
 bending his gaze around the whole of his limited 
 horizon, like one who had the habit of exceeding 
 and unremitted care. 
 
 One of these numerous pauses promised to be 
 much longer than usual. Instead of keeping 
 his understanding eye on the grain, the look of 
 the old man appeared fastened, as by a charm, 
 on some distant and obscure object. Doubt and 
 uncertainty, for many minutes, seemed to mingle 
 in his gaze. But all hesitation had apparently 
 disappeared, as his lips severed and he spoke, 
 perhaps unconsciously, to himself, aloud.
 
 THE BOKDERERS. 43 
 
 " It is no deception," were the low words, 
 " but a living and an accountable creature of 
 the Lord's. Many a day has passed since such 
 a sight hath been witnessed in this vale ; but 
 my eye greatly deceives me, or yonder cometh 
 one ready to ask for hospitality, and, perad- 
 venture, for Christian and brotherly commu 
 nion." 
 
 The sight of the aged emigrant had not de 
 ceived him. One, who appeared a way-worn 
 and weary traveller, had indeed ridden out of 
 the forest, at a point where a path, that was 
 easier to be traced by the blazed trees that lay 
 along its route, than by any marks on the earth 
 itself, issued into the cleared land. The pro 
 gress of the stranger had, at first, been so wary 
 and slow, as to bear the manner of exceeding 
 and mysterious caution. The blind road, along 
 which he must have ridden not only far but 
 hard, or night had certainly overtaken him in 
 the woods, led to one of the distant settlements
 
 44 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 that lay near to the fertile banks of the Connec 
 ticut. Few ever followed its windings, but they 
 who had especial affairs, or extraordinary com 
 munion, in the way of religious friendships, with 
 the proprietors of the Wish-Ton-Wish, as, in 
 commemoration of the first bird that had been 
 seen by the emigrants, the valley of the Heath- 
 cotes was called. 
 
 Once fairly in view, any doubt or apprehen 
 sion that the stranger might at first have enter 
 tained, disappeared. He rode boldly and stea 
 dily forward, until he drew a rein that his impo 
 verished and weary beast gladly obeyed, within 
 a few feet of the proprietor of the valley, whose 
 gaze had never ceased to watch his movements, 
 from the instant when the other first came with 
 in view. Before speaking, the stranger, a man 
 whose head was getting gray, apparently as 
 much with hardship as with time, and one whose 
 great weight would have proved a grievous bur 
 then, in a long ride, to even a better conditioned
 
 THE BORDERERS. 45 
 
 beast than the ill favoured provincial hack he 
 had ridden, dismounted, and threw the bridle 
 loose upon the drooping neck of the animal. 
 The latter, without a momenfs delay, and with 
 a greediness that denoted long abstinence, pro 
 fited by its liberty to crop the herbage where it 
 stood. 
 
 " I cannot be mistaken when I suppose that 
 I have at length reached the valley of the Wish- 
 Ton-Wish, 1 ' the visiter said, touching a soiled 
 and slouched beaver that more than half conceal 
 ed his features. The question was put in an 
 English that bespoke a descent from those who 
 dwell in the midland counties of the mother 
 country, rather than in that intonation, which 
 is still to be traced, equally in the western por 
 tions of England and in the eastern states of the 
 Union. Notwithstanding the purity of his 
 accent, there was enough in the form of his 
 speech to denote a severe compliance with the 
 fashion of the religionists of the times. He used
 
 46 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 that measured and methodical tone, which was, 
 singularly enough, believed to distinguish an 
 entire absence of affectation in language. 
 
 t( Thou hast reached the dwelling of him thou 
 seekest; one who is a submissive sojourner in 
 the wilderness of the world, and an humble ser 
 vitor in the outer temple." 
 
 " This, then, is Mark Heathcote!" repeated 
 the stranger, in tones of interest, regarding the 
 other with a look of long, and, possibly, of sus 
 picious investigation. 
 
 " Such is the name I bear. A fitting confi 
 dence in Him who knows so well how to change 
 the wilds into the haunts of men, and much suf 
 fering, have made me the master of what thou 
 seest Whether thou comest to tarry a night, 
 a week, a month, or even for a still longer sea 
 son, as a brother in care, and I doubt not one 
 who striveth for the right, I bid thee wel 
 come." i 
 
 The stranger thanked his host, by a slow in-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 47 
 
 clination of the head, but the gaze, which began 
 to partake a little of the look of recognition, was 
 still too earnest and engrossing to admit of ver 
 bal reply. On the other hand, though the old 
 man had scanned the broad and rusty beaver, 
 the coarse and well-worn doublet, the heavy 
 boots, and, in short, the whole attire of his visi- 
 ter, in which he saw no vain conformity to idle 
 fashions to condemn, it was evident that per 
 sonal recollection had not the smallest influence 
 in quickening his hospitality. 
 
 " Thou hast arrived happily," continued the 
 Puritan ; " had night overtaken thee in the 
 forest, unless much practised in the shifts of our 
 young woodsmen, hunger, frost, and a supper- 
 less bed of brush, would have given thee motive 
 to think more of the body, than is either pro 
 fitable or seemly." 
 
 The stranger might possibly have known the 
 embarrassment of these several hardships, for 
 the quick and unconscious glance he threw over
 
 48 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 his soiled dress, should have betrayed some fami 
 liarity, already, with the privations to which his 
 host alluded. As neither of them, however, 
 seemed disposed to waste further time on mat 
 ters of such light moment, the traveller put an 
 arm through the bridle of his horse, and, in obe 
 dience to an invitation from the owner of the 
 dwelling, they took their way towards the forti 
 fied edifice, on the natural mound. 
 
 The task of furnishing litter and provender to 
 the jaded beast was performed by Whittal Ring, 
 under the inspection, and, at times, under the 
 instructions of its owner and his host, both of 
 whom appeared to take a kind and commend 
 able interest in the comfort of a faithful hack, 
 that had evidently suffered long and much in 
 the service of its master. When this duty was 
 discharged, the old man and his unknown guest 
 entered the house together ; the frank and un 
 pretending hospitality of a country like that 
 they were in, rendering suspicion, or hesitation,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 49 
 
 qualities that were unknown to the reception of 
 a man of white blood ; more especially if he 
 spoke the language of the island, which was 
 then first sending out its swarms, to subdue and 
 possess so large a portion of a continent, that 
 nearly divides the earth in moieties. 
 
 VOL I.
 
 50 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " This is most strange : your father's in some passion 
 That works him strongly." 
 
 Tempest. 
 
 A FEW hours made a great change in the 
 occupations of the different members of our 
 simple and secluded family. The kine had 
 yielded their nightly tribute ; the oxen had been 
 released from the yoke, and were now secure 
 beneath their sheds ; the sheep were in their 
 folds, safe from the assaults of the prowling wolf,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 51 
 
 and care had been taken to see that every thing 
 possessing life was gathered within the particu 
 lar defences that were provided for its security 
 and comfort. But while all this caution was 
 used in behalf of living things, the utmost indif 
 ference prevailed on the subject of that species 
 of moveable property, which, elsewhere, would 
 have been guarded with at least an equal jea 
 lousy. The homely fabrics of the looms of 
 Ruth, lay on their bleaching ground, to drink in 
 the night dew: and ploughs, harrows, carts, 
 saddles, and other similar articles, were left in 
 situations so exposed, as to prove that the hand 
 of man had occupations so numerous and so 
 urgent, as to render it inconvenient to bestow 
 labour where it was not considered absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 Content himself was the last to quit the 
 fields and the out-buildings. When he reached 
 the postern in the palisadoes, he stopped to call 
 to those above him, in order to learn if any yet 
 lingered without the wooden barriers. The 
 
 D 2 
 I
 
 52 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 answer being in the negative, he entered, and 
 drawing-to the small but heavy gate, he secured 
 it with bar, bolt, and lock, carefully and jea 
 lously, with his own hand. As this was no 
 more than a nightly and necessary precaution, 
 the affairs of the family received no interrup 
 tion. The meal of the hour was soon ended, 
 and conversation, with those light toils which 
 are peculiar to the long evenings of the fall 
 and winter in families on the frontier, succeeded, 
 as fitting employments to close the business of 
 a laborious and well-spent day. 
 
 Notwithstanding the entire simplicity which 
 marked the opinions and usages of the colonists 
 at that period, and the great equality of condi 
 tion which even to this hour distinguishes the 
 particular community of which we write, choice 
 and inclination drew some natural distinctions 
 in the ordinary intercourse of the inmates of 
 the Heathcote family. A fire, so bright and 
 cheerful as to render candles or torches unne 
 cessary, blazed on an enormous hearth in a sort
 
 THE BORDERERS. 53 
 
 of upper kitchen. Around it were seated six or 
 seven hardy and athletic young men, some 
 drawing coarse tools carefully through the cur 
 vatures of ox bows, others scraping down the 
 helves of axes, or perhaps fashioning sticks of 
 birch into homely but convenient brooms. A 
 demure, side-looking young woman kept her 
 great wheel in motion, while one or two others 
 were passing from room to room, with the 
 notable and stirring industry of handmaidens 
 busied in the more familiar cares of the house 
 hold. A door communicated with an inner 
 and superior apartment. Here was a smaller 
 but an equally cheerful fire ; a floor which had 
 recently been swept, while that without had 
 been freshly sprinkled with river sand ; candles 
 of tallow on a table of cherry-wood from the 
 neighbouring forest ; walls that were wainscotted 
 in the black-oak of the country ; and a few 
 other articles, of a fashion so antique, and of 
 ornaments so ingenious and rich, as to announce 
 that they had been transported from beyond
 
 54 THE BOI.DERERS. 
 
 sea. Above the mantel were suspended the 
 armorial bearings of the Heathcotes and the 
 Hardings, elaborately emblazoned in tent- 
 stitch. 
 
 The principal personages of the family were 
 seated around the latter hearth, while a strag 
 gler from the other room, of more than usual 
 curiosity, had placed himself among them, 
 marking the distinction in ranks, or rather in 
 situation, merely by the extraordinary care 
 which he took that none of the scrapings should 
 litter the spotless oaken floor. 
 
 Until this period of the evening, the duties 
 of hospitality and the observances of religion 
 had prevented familiar discourse. But the 
 offices of the housewife were now ended for the 
 night ; the handmaidens had all retired to their 
 wheels : and as the bustle of a busy and more 
 stirring domestic industry ceased, the cold and 
 self-restrained silence, which had hitherto only 
 been broken by distant and brief observations 
 of courtesy, or by some wholesome allusion to
 
 THE BORDERERS. 55 
 
 the lost and probationary condition of man, 
 seemed to invite an intercourse of a more gene 
 ral character. 
 
 " You entered my clearing by the southern 
 path," commenced Mark Heathcote, addressing 
 himself to his guest with sufficient courtesy, 
 " and needs must bring tidings from the towns 
 on the river side. Has aught been done by 
 our counsellors, at home, in the matter that 
 pertaineth so closely to the well-being of this 
 colony ?" 
 
 " You would have me say whether he that 
 now sitteth on the throne of England hath 
 listened to the petitions of his people in this 
 province, and hath granted them protection 
 against the abuses which might so readily flow 
 out of his own ill-advised will, or out of the 
 violence and injustice of his successors ?" 
 
 " We will render unto Caesar the things that 
 are Caesar's ; and speak reverently of men 
 having authority. I would fain know whether 
 the agent sent by our people hath gained the
 
 56 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 ears of those who counsel the prince, and ob 
 tained that which he sought?" 
 
 " He hath done more," returned the stranger, 
 with singular asperity; "he hath even gained 
 the ear of the Lord's anointed." 
 
 " Then is Charles of better mind and of 
 stronger justice than report hath spoken. We 
 were told that light manners and unprofitable 
 companions had led him to think more of the 
 vanities of the world, and less of the wants of 
 those over whom he hath been called by Pro 
 vidence to rule, than is meet for one that sitteth 
 on a high place. I rejoice that the arguments 
 of the man we sent, have prevailed over more 
 evil promptings, and that peace and freedom of 
 conscience are likely to be the fruits of the 
 undertaking. In what manner hath he seen 
 fit to order the future government of this 
 people ?" 
 
 " Much as it hath ever stood, by their own 
 ordinances. Winthrop hath returned, and is the 
 bearer pf a Royal Charter, which granteth all
 
 THE BORDERERS. oJ 
 
 the rights long claimed and practised. None 
 now dwell under the Crown of Britain with 
 fewer offensive demands on their consciences, or 
 with lighter calls on their political duties, than 
 the men of Connecticut" 
 
 " It is fitting that thanks should be rendered, 
 therefore, where thanks are most due," said the 
 Puritan, folding his hands on his bosom, and 
 sitting for a moment with closed eyes, like one 
 who communed with an unseen being. "Is it 
 known by what manner of argument the Lord 
 moved the heart of the prince to hearken to 
 our wants ; or was it an open and manifest 
 token of his power ?" 
 
 " I think it must needs have been the latter," 
 rejoined the visiter, with a manner that grew 
 still more caustic and emphatic. " The bauble, 
 that was the visible agent, could not haVe 
 weighed greatly with one so proudly seated 
 before the eyes of men." 
 
 Until this point in the discourse, Content and 
 Ruth; with their offspring, and the two or three 
 D 3
 
 58 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 other individuals who composed the audience, 
 had listened with the demure gravity which 
 characterized the manners of the country. The 
 language, united with the ill-concealed sarcasm 
 conveyed by the countenance, no less than the 
 emphasis of the speaker, caused them now to 
 raise their eyes, as by a common impulse. The 
 word " bauble " was audibly and curiously 
 repeated. But the look of cold irony had 
 already passed from the features of the stran 
 ger, and it had given place to a stern and fixed 
 austerity, that imparted a character of grimness 
 to his hard and sun-burnt visage. Still he 
 betrayed no disposition to shrink from the 
 subject; but, after regarding his auditors with 
 a glance in which pride and suspicion were 
 strongly blended, he resumed the discourse. 
 
 " It is known," he added, " that the grand 
 father of him the good people of these settle 
 ments have commissioned to bear their wants 
 over sea, lived in the favour of the man who last 
 sat upon the throne of England ; and a rumour
 
 THE BORDERERS. 59 
 
 goeth forth, that the Stuart, in a moment of 
 princely condescension, once decked the finger 
 of his subject with a ring, wrought in a curious 
 fashion. It was a token of the love which a 
 monarch may bear a man." 
 
 " Such gifts are beacons of friendship, but 
 may not be used as gay and sinful ornaments," 
 observed Mark, while the other paused like one 
 who wished none of the bitterness of his allu 
 sions to be lost. 
 
 " It matters not whether the bauble lay in 
 the coffers of the Winthrops, or has long been 
 glittering before the eyes of the faithful, in the 
 Bay, since it hath finally proved to be a jewel 
 of price," continued the stranger. " It is said, 
 in secret, that this ring hath returned to the 
 finger of a Stuart, and it is openly proclaimed 
 that Connecticut hath a charter." 
 
 Content and his wife regarded each other in 
 melancholy amazement. Such an evidence of 
 wanton levity and of unworthiness of motive, in 
 one who was entrusted with the gift of earthly
 
 60 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 government, pained their simple and upright 
 minds ; while old Mark, of still more decided 
 and exaggerated ideas of spiritual perfection, 
 distinctly groaned aloud. The stranger took a 
 sensible pleasure in this testimony of their ab 
 horrence of so gross and so unworthy a venality, 
 though he saw no occasion to heighten its effect 
 by further speech. When his host stood erect, 
 and, in a voice that was accustomed to obe 
 dience, he called on his family to join, in behalf 
 of the reckless ruler of the land of their fathers, 
 in a petition to Him who alone could soften the 
 hearts of princes, he also arose from his seat. 
 But even in this act of devotion, the stranger 
 bore the air of one who wished to do pleasure 
 to his entertainers, rather than to obtain that 
 which was asked. 
 
 The prayer, though short, was pointed, fer 
 vent, and sufficiently personal. The wheels in 
 the outer room ceased their hum, and a gene 
 ral movement denoted that all there had arisen 
 to join in the office, while one or two of their
 
 THE BORDERERS. 61 
 
 number, impelled by deeper piety, or stronger 
 interest, drew near to the open door between 
 the rooms, in order to listen. With this sin 
 gular, but characteristic interruption, that par 
 ticular branch of the discourse which had given 
 rise to it, altogether ceased. 
 
 * ' And have we reason to dread a rising of 
 the savages on the borders ?" asked Content, 
 when he found that the moved spirit of his 
 father was not yet sufficiently calmed, to return 
 to the examination of temporal things ; " one 
 who brought wares from the towns below, a 
 few months since, recited reasons to fear a move 
 ment among the red men." 
 
 The subject had not sufficient interest to 
 open the ears of the stranger. He was deaf, or 
 he chose to affect deafness, to the interrogatory. 
 Laying his two large and weather-worn, though 
 still muscular hands, on a visage that was much 
 darkened by exposure, he appeared to shut out 
 the objects of the world, while he communed 
 deeply, and, as would seem by a slight tremor,
 
 62 THE BORDERERS^ 
 
 that shook even his powerful frame, terribly 
 with his own thoughts. 
 
 " We have many to whom our hearts strongly 
 cling to heighten the smallest symptom of alarm 
 from that quarter," added the tender and 
 anxious mother, her eye glancing at the up 
 lifted countenances of two little girls, who, bu 
 sied with their light needle- work, sate on stools 
 at her feet. " But I rejoice to see that one 
 who hath journeyed from parts where the 
 minds of the savages must be better understood, 
 hath not feared to do it unarmed." 
 
 The traveller slowly uncovered his features, 
 and the glance that his eye shot over the face 
 of the last speaker, was not without a gentle 
 and interested expression. Instantly recovering 
 his composure, he arose, and turning to the 
 double leathern sack, which had been borne on 
 the crupper of his nag, and which now lay at 
 no great distance from his seat, he drew a pair 
 of horseman's pistols from two well contrived
 
 THE BORDERERS. 63 
 
 pockets in its sides, and laid them deliberately 
 on the table. 
 
 " Though little disposed to seek an encounter 
 with any bearing the image of man," he said, 
 " I have not neglected the usual precautions of 
 those who enter the wilderness. Here are wea 
 pons that, in steady hands, might easily take life, 
 or, at need, preserve it." 
 
 The young Mark drew near with boyish 
 curiosity, and while one finger ventured to touch 
 a lock, as he stole a conscious glance of wrong 
 doing towards his mother, he said, with as much 
 of contempt in his air as the schooling of his 
 manners would allow 
 
 " An Indian arrow would make a surer aim 
 than a bore as short as this ! When the trainer 
 from the Hartford town struck the wild-cat on the 
 hill clearing, he sent the bullet from a five foot 
 barrel; besides, this short-sighted gun would 
 be a dull weapon in a hug against the keen- 
 edged knife that the wicked Wampanoag is 
 known to carry."
 
 64 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Boy, thy years are few, and thy boldness 
 of speech marvellous," sternly interrupted his 
 parent in the second degree. 
 
 The stranger manifested no displeasure at the 
 confident language of the lad. Encouraging 
 him with a look, which plainly proclaimed that 
 martial qualities in no degree lessened the strip 
 ling in his favour, he observed that 
 
 " The youth who is not afraid to think of 
 the fight, or to reason on its chances, will lead 
 to a manhood of spirit and independence. A 
 huudred thousand striplings like this, might 
 have spared Winthrop his jewel, and the Stuart 
 the shame of yielding to so vain and so trivial a 
 bribe. But thou mayest also see, child, that had 
 we come to the death hug, the wicked Wampa- 
 noag might have found a blade as keen as his 
 own." 
 
 The stranger, while speaking, loosened a few 
 strings of his doublet, and thrust a hand into 
 his bosom. The action enabled more than one 
 eye to catch a momentary glimpse of a weapon
 
 THE BORDERERS. 65 
 
 of the same description, but of a size much 
 smaller than those he had already so freely 
 exhibited. As he immediately withdrew the 
 member, and again closed the garment with 
 studied care, no one presumed to advert to the 
 circumstance, but all turned their attention to 
 the long sharp hunting knife that he deposited 
 by the side of the pistols, as he concluded. 
 Mark ventured to open its blade, but he turned 
 away with sudden consciousness, when he found 
 that a few fibres of coarse, shaggy wool, that 
 were drawn from the loosened joint, adhered to 
 his fingers. 
 
 " Straight-Horns has been against a bush 
 sharper than the thorn !" exclaimed Whittal 
 Ring, who had been at hand, and who watched 
 with childish admiration the smallest proceed 
 ings of the different individuals. " A steel for 
 the back of the blade, a few dried leaves and 
 broken sticks, with such a carver, would soon 
 make roast and broiled of the old bell-wether 
 himself. I know that the hair of all my colts is
 
 66 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 sorrel, and I counted five at sundown, which is 
 just as many as went loping through the under 
 brush when I loosened them from the hopples 
 in the morning ; but six-and-thirty backs can 
 never carry seven-and-thirty growing fleeces of 
 unsheared wool. Master knows that, for he is 
 a scholar, and can count a hundred !" 
 
 The allusion to the fate of the lost sheep was 
 so plain as to admit of no misinterpretation of 
 the meaning of the witless speaker. Animals 
 of that class were of the last importance to the 
 comfort of the settlers, and there was not pro 
 bably one within hearing of Whittal Ring, that 
 was at all ignorant of the import of his words. 
 Indeed, the loud chuckle and the open and 
 deriding manner with which the lad himself 
 held above his head the hairy fibres that he 
 had snatched from young Mark, allowed of no 
 concealment, had it been desirable. 
 
 '* This feeble gifted youth would hint that 
 thy knife hath proved its edge on a wether that 
 is missing from our flock, since the animals went
 
 THE BOKDKRERS. 67 
 
 on their mountain range in the morning, 11 said 
 the host, calmly ; though even he bent his eye to 
 the floor as he waited for an answer to a remark, 
 direct as the one his sense of justice and his 
 indomitable love of right had prompted. 
 
 The stranger demanded, in a voice that lost 
 none of its depth or firmness, " Is hunger a 
 crime, that they who dwell so far from the haunts 
 of selfishness visit it with their anger ?" 
 
 " The foot of Christian man never approached 
 the gates of Wish-Ton-Wish to be turned away 
 inuncharitableness, but that which is freely given 
 should not be taken in licentiousness. From off 
 the hill, where my flock is wont to graze, it is 
 easy, through many an opening of the forest, to 
 see these roofs ; and it would have been better 
 that the body should languish, than that a 
 grievous sin should be placed on that immortal 
 spirit, which is already too deeply laden, unless 
 thou art far more happy than others of the 
 fallen race of Adam."
 
 68 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Mark Heathcote," said the accused, and 
 ever with an unwavering tone, " look further 
 at those weapons, which, if a guilty man, I have 
 weakly placed within thy power. Thou wilt 
 find more there to wonder at, than a few strag 
 gling hairs, that the spinner would cast from her 
 as too coarse for service." 
 
 " It is long since I found pleasure in Hand 
 ling the weapons of strife ; may it be longer to 
 the time when they shall be needed in this abode 
 of peace. These are instruments of death, re 
 sembling those used in my youth, by cavaliers 
 that rode in the levies of the first Charles, and 
 of his pusillanimous father. There were worldly 
 pride and great vanity, with much and damning 
 ungodliness, in the wars that I have seen, my 
 children ; and yet the carnal man found pleasure 
 in the stirrings of those graceless days ! Come 
 hither, younker ; thou hast often sought to know 
 the manner in which the horsemen are wont to 
 lead into the combat, when the broad mouthed 
 artillery, and pattering leaden hail have cleared
 
 THE BORDERERS. 69 
 
 a passage for the struggle of horse to horse, and 
 man to man. Much of the justification of 
 these combats must depend on the inward 
 spirit, and on the temper of him that striketh at 
 the life of his fellow sinner ; but righteous 
 Joshua, it is known, contended with the heathen 
 throughout a supernatural day : and therefore, 
 always humbly confiding that our cause is just 
 I will open to thy young mind the uses of a 
 weapon that hath never before been seen in 
 these forests." 
 
 " I have hefted many a heavier piece than 
 this," said young Mark, frowning equally with 
 the exertion and with the instigations of his 
 aspiring spirit, as he held out the ponderous 
 weapon in a single hand ; " we have guns that 
 might tame a wolf with greater certainty than 
 any barrel of a bore less than my own height. 
 Tell me, grand'ther, at what distance do the 
 mounted warriors you so often name, take their 
 sight?" 
 
 But the power of speech appeared suddenly
 
 70 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 to have deserted the aged veteran. He had 
 interrupted his own discourse, and now, instead 
 of answering the interrogatory of the boy, his 
 eye wandered, slowly, and with a look of pain 
 ful doubt, from the weapon, that he still held 
 before him, to the countenance of the stranger. 
 The latter continued erect, like one courting a 
 strict and meaning examination of his person. 
 This dumb show could not fail to attract the 
 observation of Content. Rising from his seat, 
 with that quiet but authoritative manner which 
 is still seen in the domestic government of the 
 people of the region where he dwelt, he beck 
 oned to all present to quit the apartment. Ruth 
 and her daughters, the hirelings, the ill gifted 
 Whittal, and even the reluctant Mark, preceded 
 him to the door, which he closed with respectful 
 care : and then the whole of the wondering party 
 mingled with those of the outer room, leaving 
 the one they had quitted to the sole possession 
 of the aged chief of the settlement, and to his 
 still unknown and mysterious guest.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 Many anxious, and, to those who were exclud 
 ed, seemingly interminable minutes passed, and 
 the secret interview appeared to draw no nearer 
 its close. That deep reverence, which the years, 
 paternity, and character of the grandfather had 
 inspired, prevented all from approaching the 
 quarter of the apartment nearest to the room 
 they had left ; but a silence, still as the grave, 
 did all that silence could do, to enlighten their 
 minds in a matter of so much general interest. 
 The deep, smothered sentences of the speakers 
 were often heard, each dwelling with steadiness 
 and propriety on his particular theme : but no 
 sound that conveyed meaning to the minds of 
 those without, passed the envious walls. At 
 length the voice of old Mark became more than 
 usually audible, and then Content arose, with a 
 gesture to those around him to imitate his ex 
 ample. The young men threw aside the sub 
 jects of their light employments, the maidens left 
 the wheels, which had not been turned for 
 many minutes, and the whole party disposed
 
 72 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 themselves in the decent and simple attitudes of 
 prayer. For the third time that evening was 
 the voice of the Puritan heard, pouring out his 
 spirit in a communion with that Being on whom 
 it was his practice to repose all his worldly cares. 
 But, though long accustomed to all the peculiar 
 forms of utterance by which their father ordina 
 rily expressed his pious emotions, neither Con 
 tent, nor his attentive partner, was enabled to 
 decide on the nature of the feeling that was now 
 uppermost. At times, it appeared to be the 
 language of thanksgiving, and at others it assum 
 ed more of the imploring sounds of deprecation 
 and petition ; in short, it was so varied and, 
 though tranquil, so equivocal, if such a term 
 may be applied to so serious a subject, as com 
 pletely to baffle every conjecture. 
 
 Long and weary minutes passed after the 
 voice had entirely ceased, and yet no summons 
 was given to the expecting family, nor did any 
 sound proceed from the inner room, which the 
 respectful son was emboldened to construe into an
 
 THE BORDERERS. 7^ 
 
 evidence that he might presume to enter. At 
 length} apprehension began to mingle with con 
 jectures, and then the husband and wife com 
 muned apart, in whispers.. The misgivings and 
 doubt of the former, soon manifested themselves 
 in still more apparent forms. He arose, and was 
 seen pacing the wide apartment, gradually ap 
 proaching nearer to the partition which separated 
 the two rooms, evidently prepared to retire 
 beyond the limits of hearing, the moment he 
 should detect any proofs that his uneasiness was 
 without a sufficient cause. Still no sound pro 
 ceeded from the inner room. The breathless 
 silence which had so shortly before reigned where 
 he was, appeared to be suddenly transferred to 
 the spot in which he was vainly endeavouring 
 to detect the smallest proof of human existence. 
 Again he returned to Ruth, and again they con 
 sulted in low voices, as to the step that filial duty 
 seemed to require at their hands. 
 
 " We were not bidden to withdraw,' 1 said his 
 gentle companion ; " why not rejoin our parent, 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 now that time has been given to understand the 
 subject which so evidently disturbed his mind ?" 
 
 Content, at length, yielded to this opinion. 
 With that cautious discretion which distinguishes 
 his people, he motioned to the family to follow, 
 in order that no unnecessary exclusion should 
 give rise to conjectures, or excite suspicions, for 
 which , after all, the circumstances might prove 
 no justification. Notwithstanding the subdued 
 manners of the age and country, curiosity, and 
 perhaps a better feeling, had become so intense, 
 as to cause all present to obey this silent mandate, 
 by moving as swiftly towards the open door as 
 a never yielding decency of demeanour would 
 permit. 
 
 Old Mark Heathcote occupied the chair in 
 which he had been left, with that calm and 
 unbending gravity of eye and features, which 
 was then thought indispensable to a fitting 
 sobriety of spirit. But the stranger had dis 
 appeared. There were two or three outlets by 
 which the room, and even the house, might be
 
 THE BORDEREE3. f5 
 
 quitted, without the knowledge of those who 
 had so long waited for admission, and the first 
 impression led the family to expect the re-appear 
 ance of the absent man, through one of these 
 exterior passages. Content, however, read in 
 the expression of his father's eye, that the 
 moment of confidence, if it were ever to arrive, 
 had not yet come; and so admirable and 
 perfect was the domestic discipline of this family, 
 that the questions which the son did not see fit 
 to propound, no one of inferior condition, or 
 lesser age, might presume to agitate. With the 
 person of the stranger, every evidence of his 
 recent visit had also vanished. 
 
 Mark missed the weapon that had excited 
 his admiration ; Whittal looked in vain for the 
 hunting knife which had betrayed the fate of the 
 wether ; Mrs. Heathcote saw by a hasty glance 
 of the eye that the leathern sacks, which she had 
 borne in mind ought to be transferred to the 
 sleeping apartment of their guest, were gone ; 
 and a mild and playful image of herself, who
 
 76 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 bore her name, no less than most of those features 
 which had rendered her own youth more than 
 usually attractive, sought without success a 
 massive silver spur, of curious and antique 
 workmanship, which she had been permitted 
 to handle until the moment when the family 
 had been commanded to withdraw. 
 
 The night had now worn later than the hour 
 at which it was usual for people of habits so 
 simple to be out of their beds. The grandfather 
 lighted a taper, and, after bestowing the usual 
 blessing on those around him, with an air as calm 
 as if nothing had occurred, he prepared to retire 
 into his own room. And yet matter of interest 
 seemed to linger on his mind. Even on the 
 threshold of the door he turned ; and, for an in 
 stant, all expected some explanation of a circum 
 stance which began to wear no little of the 
 aspect of an exciting and painful mystery. But 
 their hopes were raised only to be disappointed. 
 " My thoughts have not kept the passage of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 77 
 
 the time," he said. " In what hour of the night 
 are we, my son ?" 
 
 He was told that it was already past the usual 
 moment of sleep. 
 
 " No matter ; that which Providence hath 
 bestowed for our comfort and support should 
 not be lightly and unthankfully disregarded. 
 Take thou the beast I am wont to ride, 
 thyself, Content, and follow the path which 
 leadeth to the mountain clearing ; bring away 
 that which shall meet thine eye, near the 
 first turning of the route toward the river towns. 
 We have got into the last quarter of the year ; 
 and in order that our industry may not flag, and 
 that all may be stirring with the sun, let the re 
 mainder of the household seek their rest." 
 
 Content saw, by the manner of his father, 
 that no departure from the strict letter of these 
 instructions was admissible. He closed the door 
 after his retiring form, and then, by a quiet ges 
 ture of authority, indicated to his dependants.
 
 7 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 that they were expected to withdraw. The 
 maidens of Ruth led the children to their cham 
 bers ; and, in a few more minutes, none remained 
 in the outer apartment, already so often named, 
 but the obedient son, with his anxious and affec 
 tionate consort 
 
 " I will be thy companion, husband, 1 ' Ruth 
 half whisperingly commenced, so soon as the little 
 domestic preparations for leaving the fires and 
 securing the doors were ended. " I like not 
 that thou shouldst go into the forest alone, at so 
 late an hour of the night.'* 
 
 ft One will be with me there, who never de- 
 serteth those who rely on his protection. Be 
 sides, my Ruth, what is there to apprehend in a 
 wilderness like this ? The beasts have been lately 
 hunted from the hills, and, excepting those who 
 dwell under our own roof, there is not one within 
 a long day's ride." 
 
 " We know not. Where is the stranger that 
 came within our doors as the sun was setting ?"
 
 THE BORDERERS. 79 
 
 u As thou sayest, we know not. My father 
 is not minded to open his lips on the subject of 
 this traveller ; and surely we are not now to 
 learn the lessons of obedience and self-denial." 
 
 " It would, notwithstanding, be a great easing 
 to the spirit to hear at least the name of him 
 who hath eaten of our bread and joined in our 
 family worship, though he were immediately to 
 pass away for ever from before the sight." 
 
 " That may he have done already !" returned 
 the less curious and more self-restrained hus 
 band. " My father will not that we inquire." 
 
 " And yet there can be little sin in knowing 
 the condition of one whose fortunes and move 
 ments can excite neither our envy nor our strife. 
 I would that we had tarried for a closer mingling 
 in the prayers , it was not seemly to desert a 
 guest who, it would appear, had need of an es 
 pecial up-offering in his behalf." 
 
 " Our spirits joined in the asking, though our 
 ears were shut to the matter of his wants. But
 
 8U THE BORDERERS. 
 
 it will be needful that I should be afoot with the 
 young men in the morning, and a mile of mea 
 surement would not reach to the turning, in the 
 path to the river towns. Go with me to the 
 postern, and look to the fastenings ; I will not 
 keep thee long on thy watch. 1 ' 
 
 Content and his wife now quitted the dwelling, 
 by the only door that was left unbarred. Lighted 
 by a moon that was full, though clouded, they 
 passed a gateway between two of the outer 
 buildings, and descended to the palisadoes. The 
 bars and bolts of the little postern were removed ; 
 and in a few minutes the former, mounted on 
 the back of his father's own horse, was galloping 
 briskly along the path which led into the part of 
 the forest he was directed to seek. 
 
 While the husband was thus proceeding, in obe 
 dience to orders that he never hesitated to obey, 
 his faithful wife withdrew within the shelter of the 
 wooden defences. More in compliance with a 
 precaution that was become habitual, than from
 
 THE BORDERERS; 81 
 
 any present causes of suspicion, she drew a single 
 bolt, and remained at the postern, anxiously 
 awaiting the result of a movement that was as 
 unaccountable as it was extraordinary. 
 
 E 3
 
 82 THE BORDEKEES. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " I' the name of something holy, Sir, why stand you 
 In this strange stare ?" 
 
 Tempest. 
 
 As a girl, Ruth Harding had been one of the 
 mildest and gentlest of the human race. Though 
 new impulses had been given to her naturally 
 kind affections, by the attachments of a wife and 
 mother, her disposition suffered no change by 
 marriage. Obedient, disinterested, and devoted 
 to those she loved, as her parents had known her, 
 so, by the experience of many years, had slffe
 
 THE BORDERERS. 83 
 
 proved to Content. In the midst of the utmost 
 equanimity of temper and of deportment, her 
 watchful solicitude in behalf of the few who 
 formed the limited circle of her existence never 
 slumbered. It dwelt unpretendingly, but active, 
 hi her gentle bosom, like a great and moving 
 principle of life. Though circumstances had 
 placed her on a remote and exposed frontier, 
 where time had not been given for the several 
 customary divisions of employments, she was un 
 changed in habits, in feelings, and in character. 
 The affluence of her husband had elevated her 
 above the necessity of burthensome toil ; and 
 while she had encountered the dangers of the 
 wilderness, and neglected none of the duties of 
 her active station, she had escaped most of those 
 injurious consequences which are a little apt to 
 impair the peculiar loveliness of woman. Not 
 withstanding the exposure of a border life, she 
 remained feminine, attractive, and singularly 
 youthful. 
 
 The reader will readily imagine the state of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 mind with which such a being watched the dis 
 tant form of a hu&band, engaged in a duty like 
 that we have described. Notwithstanding the 
 influence of long habit, the forest was rarely ap 
 proached, after night fall, by the boldest woods 
 man, without some secret consciousness that he 
 encountered a positive danger. It was the hour 
 when its roaming and hungry tenants were known 
 to be most in motion ; and the rustling of a leaf, 
 or the snapping of a dried twig, beneath the light 
 tread of the smallest animal, was apt to conjure 
 images of the voracious and fire-eyed panther, 
 or perhaps of a lurking biped, which, though 
 more artful, was known to be scarcely less savage. 
 It is true that hundreds experienced the uneasi 
 ness of such sensations, who were never fated to 
 undergo the realities of the fearful pictures. 
 Still facts were not wanting to supply sufficient 
 motive for a grave and reasonable apprehension. 
 Histories of combats with beasts of prey, 
 and of massacres by roving and lawless In 
 dians, were the moving legends of the border.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 85 
 
 Thrones might be subverted, and kingdoms 
 lost and won in distant Europe, and less should 
 be said of the events, by those who dwelt 
 in these woods, than of one scene of pecu 
 liar and striking forest incident, that called 
 for the exercise of the stout courage and 
 the keen intelligence of a settler. Such a 
 tale passed from mouth to mouth, with the 
 eagerness of powerful personal interest ; and 
 many were already transmitted from parent 
 to child, in the form of tradition, until, as, 
 in more artificial communities, graver impro 
 babilities creep into the doubtful pages of 
 history, exaggeration became too closely blend 
 ed with truth, ever again to be separated. 
 
 Under the influence of these feelings, and 
 perhaps prompted by his never failing dis 
 cretion, Content had thrown a well-tried piece 
 over his shoulder : and when he rose the ascent 
 on which his father had met the stranger, 
 Ruth caught a glimpse of his form, bending 
 on the neck of his horse, and gliding through
 
 OO THE BORDERERS. 
 
 the misty light of the hour, resembling one 
 of those fancied images of wayward and hard 
 riding sprites, of which the tales of the eastern 
 continent are so fond of speaking. 
 . Then followed anxious moments, during 
 which neither sight nor hearing could in the 
 least aid the conjectures of the attentive wife. 
 She listened without breathing, and once or twice 
 she thought the blows of hoofs, falling on the 
 earth harder and quicker than common, might 
 be distinguished ; but it was only as Content 
 mounted the sudden ascent of the hill-side 
 that he was again seen, for a brief instant, 
 while dashing swiftly into the cover of the 
 woods. 
 
 Though Ruth had been familiar with the 
 cares of the frontier, perhaps she had never 
 known a moment more intensely painful than 
 that when the form of her husband became 
 blended with the dark trunks of the trees. 
 The time was to her impatience longer than 
 usual : and, under the excitement of a feverish
 
 THE BORDERERS. 8? 
 
 inquietude, that had no definite object, she 
 removed the single bolt that held the postern 
 closed, and passed entirely without the stock 
 ade. To her oppressed senses, the palisadoes 
 appeared to place limits to her vision. Still, 
 weary minute passed after minute, without 
 bringing relief. During these anxious moments 
 she became more than usually conscious of the 
 insulated situation in which he and all who 
 were dearest to her heart were placed. The 
 feelings of a wife prevailed. Quitting the side 
 of the acclivity, she began to walk slowly 
 along the path her husband had taken, until 
 apprehension insensibly urged her into a 
 quicker movement. She had paused only 
 when she stood nearly in the centre of the 
 clearing, on the eminence where her father 
 had halted that evening to contemplate the 
 growing improvement of his estate. 
 
 Here her steps were suddenly arrested, for 
 she thought a form was issuing from the forest, 
 at that interesting spot which her eyes had
 
 OO THE BORDERERS. 
 
 never ceased to watch. It proved to be no 
 more than the passing shadow of a cloud, 
 denser than common, which threw the body 
 of its darkness on the trees, and a portion of 
 its outline on the ground near the margin of 
 the wood. Just at this instant, the recollection 
 that she had incautiously left the postern open 
 flashed upon her mind ; and, with feelings 
 divided between husband and children, she 
 commenced her return, in order to repair a 
 neglect, to which habit, no less than prudence, 
 imparted a high degree of culpability. The 
 eyes of the mother, for the feelings of that 
 sacred character were now powerfully upper 
 most, were fastened on the ground, as she 
 eagerly picked her way along the uneven sur 
 face : and so engrossed was her mind by the 
 omission of duty with which she was severely 
 reproaching herself, that they drunk in objects 
 without conveying distinct or intelligible 
 images to her brain. 
 
 Notwithstanding the one engrossing thought
 
 THE BORDERERS, 89 
 
 of the moment, something met her eye that 
 caused even the vacant organ to recoil, and 
 every fibre in her frame to tremble with terror. 
 There was a moment in which delirium nearly 
 heightened terror to madness. Reflection. came 
 only when Ruth had reached the distance of 
 many feet from the spot where this startling 
 object had half unconsciously crossed her 
 vision. Then for a single and a fearful instant 
 she paused, like one who debated on the 
 course she ought to follow. Maternal love 
 prevailed, and the deer of her own woods 
 scarcely bounds with greater agility than the 
 mother of the sleeping and defenceless family 
 now fled towards the dwellings. Panting and 
 breathless she gained the postern, which was 
 closed, with hands that performed their office 
 more by instinct than in obedience to thought, 
 and doubly and trebly barred. 
 . For the first time in some minutes, Ruth 
 now breathed distinctly and without pain. 
 She strove to rally her thoughts, in order to
 
 90 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 deliberate on the course that prudence and her 
 duty to Content, who was still exposed to the 
 danger she had herself escaped, prescribed. 
 Her first impulse was to give the established 
 signal that was to recal the labourers from the 
 field, or to awake the sleepers, in the event 
 of an alarm ; but better reflection told her 
 that such a step might prove fatal to him 
 who balanced in her affections against the rest 
 of the world. The struggle in her mind only 
 ended, as she clearly and unequivocally caught 
 a view of her husband, issuing from the forest, 
 at the very point where he had entered. The 
 return path unfortunately led directly past the 
 spot where such sudden terror had seized her 
 mind. She would have given worlds to have 
 known how to apprize him of a danger with 
 which her own imagination was full, without 
 communicating the warning to other and terri 
 ble ears. The night was still, and though the 
 distance was considerable, it was not so great 
 as to render the chances of success desperate.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 1 
 
 Scarcely knowing what she did, and yet pre 
 serving, by a sort of instinctive prudence, the 
 caution which constant exposure weaves into 
 all our habits, the trembling woman made the 
 effort. 
 
 " Husband! husband!" she cried, com 
 mencing plaintively, but her voice rising with 
 the energy of excitement, " husband, ride 
 swiftly ; our little Ruth lyeth in the agony. 
 For her life and thine, ride at thy horse's 
 speed. Seek not the stables, but come with 
 all haste to the postern ; it shall be open to 
 thee." 
 
 This was certainly a fearful summons for a 
 father's ear, and there is little doubt that, 
 had the feeble powers of Ruth succeeded in 
 conveying the words as far as she had wished, 
 they would have produced the desired effect. 
 But in vain did she call ; her weak tones, though 
 raised on the notes of the keenest appre 
 hension, could not force their way across 
 so wide a space. And yet had she reason to
 
 92 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 think they were not entirely lost, for once her 
 husband paused and seemed to listen, and 
 once he quickened the pace of his horse; 
 though neither of these proofs of intelligence 
 was followed by any further signs of his having 
 understood the alarm. 
 
 Content was now upon the hillock itself. If 
 Ruth breathed at all during its passage, it 
 was more imperceptibly than the gentlest re- 
 spii'ation of the sleeping infant. But when 
 she saw him trotting with unconscious security 
 along the path on the side next the dwellings, 
 her impatience broke through all restraint, 
 and throwing open the postern, she renewed 
 her cries, in a voice that was no longer useless. 
 The clattering of the unshodden hoof was 
 again rapid, and in another minute her hus 
 band galloped unharmed to her side. 
 
 " Enter !" said the nearly dizzy wife, seiz 
 ing the bridle ?% and leading the horse within the 
 palisadoes ; " enter, husband ; for the love 
 of all that is thine, enter, and be thankful."
 
 THE BORDEREUS. 93 
 
 What meaneth this terror, Ruth ?" de 
 manded Content, in as much displeasure, per 
 haps, as he could manifest to one so gentle, 
 for a weakness betrayed in his own behalf; 
 " is thy confidence in Him whose eye never 
 closeth, and who equally watcheth the life of 
 man and that of the falling sparrow, lost?" 
 
 Ruth was deaf. With hurried hands she 
 drew the fastenings, let fall the bars, and 
 turned a key which forced a triple-bolted lock 
 to perform its office. Not till then did she 
 feel either safe herself, or at liberty to render 
 thanks for the safety of him over whose dan 
 ger she had so lately watched in agony. 
 
 " Why this care ? Hast forgotten that the 
 horse will suffer hunger, at this distance from 
 the rack and manger ?" 
 
 " Better that he starve than hair of thine 
 should come to harm." 
 
 "Nay, nay, Ruth; dost not remember that 
 the beast is the favourite of my father, who
 
 94 THE BORDEltERS. 
 
 will ill brook his passing a night within the 
 palisadoes." 
 
 " Husband, you err ; there is one in the 
 fields." 
 
 " Is there place where One is not ?" 
 
 " But I have seen creature of mortal birth, 
 and creature too that hath no claim on thee 
 or thine, and who trespasseth on our peace, 
 no less than on our natural rights, to be where 
 he lurketh." 
 
 " Go to ; thou art not used to be so late 
 from thy pillow, my poor Ruth ; sleep hath 
 come over thee, whilst standing on thy watch. 
 Some cloud hath left its shadow on the fields, 
 or, truly, it may be that the hunt did not 
 drive the beasts as far from the clearing as we 
 had thought. Come, since thou wilt cling to 
 my side, lay hand on the bridle of the horse, 
 while I ease him of his burthen." 
 
 As Content coolly proceeded to the task he 
 had mentioned, the thoughts of his wife were
 
 THE BORDEBERS. 95 
 
 momentarily diverted from their other sources 
 of uneasiness, by the object which lay on the 
 crupper of the nag, and which, until now, had 
 entirely escaped her observation. 
 
 " Here is, indeed, the animal this day 
 missing from our flock !" she exclaimed, as 
 the carcass of a sheep fell heavily on the 
 ground. 
 
 " Ay, and killed with exceeding judgment, 
 if not aptly dressed to our hands. Mutton 
 will not be wanting for the husking feast, and 
 the stalled creature whose days were counted 
 may live another season." 
 
 " And where didst find the slaughtered 
 beast?" 
 
 " On the limb of a growing hickory. Eben 
 Dudley, with all his slight in butchering, and 
 in setting forth the excellence of his meats, 
 could not have left an animal hanging from 
 the branch of a sapling, with greater know 
 ledge of his craft. Thou seest, but a single
 
 96 THE BOUDEKEHS. 
 
 meal is missing from the carcass, and that thy 
 fleece is unharmed." 
 
 " This is not the work of a Pequod !" ex 
 claimed Ruth, surprised at her own discovery ; 
 " the red men do their mischief with less care."" 
 
 " Nor has the tooth of wolf opened the veins 
 of poor Straight-Horns. Here has been judg 
 ment in the slaughtering, as well as prudence 
 in consumption of the food. The hand that 
 cut so lightly had intention of a second visit." 
 
 " And our father bid thee seek the creature 
 where it was found ! Husband, I fear some 
 heavy judgment for the sins of the parents, is 
 likely to befall the children." 
 
 " The babes are quietly in their slumbers, 
 and, thus far, little wrong hath been done us. 
 I'll cast the halter from the stalled animal ere 
 I sleep, and Straight-Horns shall content us for 
 the husking. We may have mutton less sa 
 voury for this evil chance, but the number of 
 thy flock will be unaltered."
 
 THE BORDERERS. 97 
 
 "And where is he, who hath mingled in 
 our prayers, and hath eaten of our bread ; he 
 who counselled so long in secret with our 
 father, and who hath now vanished from among 
 us like a vision ?" 
 
 " That, indeed, is a question not readily to 
 be answered," returned Content, who had 
 hitherto maintained a cheerful air, in order to 
 appease what he was fain to believe a cause 
 less terror in the bosom of his partner, but 
 who was induced by this question to drop his 
 head like one that sought reasons within the 
 repository of his own thoughts. " It matter- 
 eth not, Ruth Heathcote ; the ordering of the 
 affair is in the hands of a man of many years 
 and great experience ; should his aged wisdom 
 fail, do we not know that One even wiser 
 than he, hath us in his keeping ! I will re 
 turn the beast to his rack : and when we shall 
 have jointly asked favour of eyes that never 
 sleep, we will go in confidence to our rest." 
 
 " Husband, thou quittest not the palisadoes 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 again this night,* 1 said Ruth, arresting the 
 hand that had already drawn a bolt, ere she 
 spoke. " I have a warning of evil." 
 
 " I would the stranger had found some other 
 shelter in which to pass his short resting 
 season. That he hath made free with my 
 flock, and that he hath administered to his 
 hunger at some cost, when a single asking 
 would have made him welcome to the best 
 that the owner of the Wish-Ton-Wish can 
 command, are truths that may not be denied. 
 Still is he mortal man, as a goodly appetite 
 hath proven, even should our belief in Provi 
 dence so far waver as to. harbour doubts of 
 its unwillingness to suffer beings of injustice 
 to wander in our forms and substance. I tell 
 thee, Ruth, that the nag will be needed for 
 to-morrow's service, and that our father will 
 give but ill thanks should we leave it to make 
 a bed on this cold hill-side. Go to thy rest 
 and to thy prayers, trembler ; I will close the 
 postern with all care. Fear not ; the stranger
 
 THE BORDERERS. 99 
 
 is of human wants, and his agency to do evil 
 must needs be limited by human power." 
 
 " I fear none of white blood, nor of Christian 
 parentage ; the murderous heathen is in our 
 fields." 
 
 " Thou dreamest, Ruth !" 
 
 " 'Tis not a dream I have seen the glowing 
 eye-balls of a savage. Sleep was little like to 
 come over me, when set upon a watch like this. 
 I thought me that the errand was of unknown 
 character, and that our father was exceedingly 
 aged, and that perchance his senses might be 
 duped, and how an obedient son ought not to 
 be exposed thou knowest, Heathcote, that I 
 could not look upon the danger of my children's 
 father with indifference, and I followed to the 
 nut-tree hillock." 
 
 " To the nut-tree ! It was not prudent in 
 thee. But the postern ? v 
 
 " It was open ; for were the key turned, 
 who was there to admit us quickly, had haste 
 been needed ?" returned Ruth, momentarily
 
 100 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 averting her face to conceal the flush excited 
 by conscious delinquency. " Though I failed 
 in caution, 'twas for thy safety, Heathcote ; but 
 on that hillock, and in the hollow left by a 
 fallen tree, lies concealed a heathen !" 
 
 " I passed the nut-wood in going to the 
 shambJes of our strange butcher, and I drew 
 the rein to give breath to the nag near it, as 
 we returned with the burthen. It cannot be ; 
 some creature of the forest hath alarmed thee." 
 
 " Ay ! creature, formed, fashioned, gifted 
 like ourselves, in all but colour of the skin and 
 blessing of the faith." 
 
 " This is strange delusion ! If there were 
 enemy at hand, would men, subtle as those you 
 fear, suffer the master of the dwelling, and, 
 truly I may say it without vain glory, one as 
 likely as another to struggle stoutly for his own, 
 to escape, when an ill-timed visit to the woods 
 had delivered him unresisting into their hands ? 
 Go, go, good Ruth ; thou mayst have seen a 
 blackened log; perchance the frosts have left
 
 THE BORDERERS. 101 
 
 a fire-fly untouched ; or it may be that some 
 prowling bear has scented out the sweets of thy 
 lately gathered hives." 
 
 Ruth again laid her hand firmly on the arm 
 of her husband, who had withdrawn another 
 bolt, and, looking him steadily in the face, she 
 answered by saying, solemnly, and with touching 
 pathos, 
 
 " Thinkest thou, husband, that a mother's 
 eye could be deceived ?" 
 
 It might have been that the allusion to 
 the tender beings whose fate depended on his 
 care, or that the deeply serious, though mild 
 and gentle manner of his consort, produced 
 
 
 
 some fresher impression on the mind of Content. 
 Instead of undoing the fastenings of the posr 
 tern, as he had intended, he deliberately drew 
 its bolts again, and paused to think. 
 
 " If it produce no other benefit than to quiet 
 thy fears, good Ruth," he said, after a moment 
 of reflection, " a little caution will be well re 
 paid. Stay you, then, here, where the hillock
 
 102 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 may be watched, while I go wake a couple of 
 the people. With stout Eben Dudley and 
 experienced Reuben Ring to back me, my 
 father's horse may surely be stabled." 
 
 Ruth contentedly assumed a task that she 
 was quite equal to perform with intelligence 
 and zeal. " Hie thee to the labourers' cham 
 bers, for I see a light still burning in the room 
 of those you seek, 11 was the answer she gave to 
 a proposal that at least quieted the intenseness 
 of her fears for him in whose behalf they had 
 so lately been excited nearly to agony. 
 
 " It shall be quickly done ; nay, stand not 
 thus openly between the beams, wife. Thou 
 rnayst place thyself here, at the doublings of 
 the wood, beneath the loop, where harm would 
 scarcely reach thee, though shot from artillery 
 were to crush the timber."" 
 
 With this admonition to be wary of a danger 
 that he had so recently affected to despise, 
 Content departed on his errand. The two 
 labourers he had mentioned by name, were
 
 THE BORDERERS. 103 
 
 youths of mould and strength, and they were 
 well inured to toil, no less than to the parti 
 cular privations and dangers of a border life. 
 Like most men of their years and condition, 
 they were practised too in the wilds of Indian 
 cunning ; and though the Province of Connec 
 ticut, compared to other settlements, had suf 
 fered but little in this species of murderous 
 warfare, they both had martial feats and peril 
 ous experiences of their own to recount, during 
 the light labours of the long winter evenings. 
 
 Content crossed the court with a quick step, 
 for, notwithstanding his steady unbelief, the 
 image of his gentle wife posted on her outer 
 watch hurried his movements. The rap he 
 gave at the door, on reaching the apartment of 
 those he sought, was loud as it was sudden. 
 
 " Who calls ?" demanded a deep-toned and 
 firm voice from within, at the first blow of the 
 knuckles on the plank. 
 
 " Quit thy beds quickly, and come forth with 
 the arms appointed for a sally."
 
 104 THE BOEDEEEBS. 
 
 " That is soon done," answered a stout 
 woodsman, throwing open the door and stand 
 ing before Content in the garments he had 
 worn throughout the day. " We were just 
 dreaming that the night was not to pass with 
 out a summons to the loops." 
 
 " Hast seen aught ?" 
 
 " Our eyes were not shut, more than those 
 of others ; we saw him enter, that no man hath 
 seen depart." 
 
 " Come, fellow ; Whittal Ring would scarce 
 give wiser speech than this cunning reply of 
 thine. My wife is at the postern, and it is 
 fit we go to relieve her watch. Thou wilt 
 not forget the horns of powder, since it would 
 not tell to our credit, were there service for 
 the pieces, and we lacking in wherewithal to 
 give them a second discharge." 
 
 The hirelings obeyed, and as little time was 
 necessary to arm those who never slept with 
 out weapons and ammunition within reach of 
 their hands, Content was speedily followed by
 
 THE BORDERERS. 105 
 
 his dependents. Ruth was found at her post, 
 but when urged by her husband to declare what 
 had passed in his absence, she was compelled to 
 admit that, though the morn had come forth 
 brighter and clearer from behind the clouds, 
 she had seen nothing to add to her alarm. 
 
 " We will then lead the beast to his stall, 
 and close our duty by setting a single watcher 
 for the rest of the night," said the husband. 
 " Reuben shall keep the postern, while Eben 
 and I will have a care for my father's nag, not 
 forgetting the carcass for the husking feast. 
 Dost hear, deaf Dudley ? cast the mutton upon 
 the crupper of the beast, and follow to the 
 stables." 
 
 " Here has been no common workman at 
 my office, 1 ' said the blunt Eben, who, though an 
 ordinary farm labourer, according to an usage 
 still very generally prevalent in the country, 
 was also skilful in the craft of the butcher. 
 " I have brought many a wether to his end, 
 but this is the first sheep, within all my ex- 
 F 3
 
 106 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 perience, that hath kept the fleece while a por 
 tion of the body has been in the pot ! Lie 
 there, poor Straight-Horns, if quiet thou canst 
 lie after such a strange butchery. Reuben, I 
 paid thee, as the sun rose, a Spanish piece in 
 silver, for the trifle of debt that lay between us, 
 in behalf of the good turn thou didst the shoes, 
 which were none the better for the last hunt in 
 the hills. Hast ever that pistareen about thee ?" 
 
 This question, which was put in a lowered 
 tone, and only to the ear of the party con 
 cerned, was answered in the affirmative. 
 
 " Give it me, lad ; in the morning thou shalt 
 be paid with usurer's interest." 
 
 Another summons from Content, who had 
 now led the nag loaded with the carcass of the 
 sheep without the postern, cut short the secret 
 conference. Eben Dudley, having received the 
 coin, hastened to follow. But the distance to 
 the out-buildings was sufficient to enable him 
 to effect his mysterious purpose without dis 
 covery. Whilst Content endeavoured to calm
 
 THE BOKDERERS. 107 
 
 the apprehensions of his wife, who still per 
 sisted in sharing his danger, by such reasons 
 as he could on the instant command, the cre 
 dulous Dudley placed the thin piece of silver 
 between his teeth, and with a pressure that 
 denoted the prodigious force of his jaws, 
 caused it to assume a beaten and rounded 
 shape. He then slily dropped the battered coin 
 into the muzzle of his gun, taking care to secure 
 its presence, until he himself should send it 
 on its disenchanting message, by a wad torn 
 from the lining of part of his vestments. Sup 
 ported by this redoubtable auxiliary, the 
 superstitious but still courageous borderer fol 
 lowed his companion, whistling a low air, that 
 equally denoted his indifference to danger of 
 an ordinary nature, and his sensibility to im 
 pressions of a less earthly character. 
 
 They who dwell in the older districts of 
 America, where art and labour have united for 
 generations to clear the earth of its inequa 
 lities, and to remove the vestiges of a state of
 
 108 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 nature, can form but little idea of the thousand 
 objects that may exist in a clearing, to startle 
 the imagination of one who has admitted alarm, 
 when seen in the doubtful light of even a cloud 
 less moon. Still less can they who have never 
 quitted the old world, and who, having only 
 seen, can only imagine fields smooth as the 
 surface of tranquil water, picture the effect 
 produced by those lingering remnants, which 
 may be likened to so many mouldering monu 
 ments of the fallen forest, scattered at such an 
 hour over a broad surface of open land. Ac 
 customed as they were to the sight, Content 
 and his partner, excited by their fears, fancied 
 each dark and distant stump a savage, and 
 they passed no angle in the high and heavy 
 fences, without throwing a jealous glance, to 
 see that some enemy did not lie stretched within 
 its shadows. 
 
 Still no new motive for apprehension arose 
 during the brief period that the two adven 
 turers were employed in administering to the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 109 
 
 comfort of the Puritan's steed. The task was 
 ended, the carcass of the slaughtered Straight- 
 Horns had been secured, and Ruth was al 
 ready urging her husband to return, when 
 their attention was drawn to the attitude and 
 mien of their companion. 
 
 " The man hath departed as he came, 11 said 
 Eben Dudley, who stood shaking his head in 
 open doubt, before an empty stall ; " here is 
 no beast, though with these eyes did I see the 
 half-wit bring hither a well filled measure of 
 speckled oats, to feed the nag. He who fa 
 voured us with his presence at the supper and 
 the thanksgiving, hath tired of his company 
 before the hour of rest had come." 
 
 " The horse is truly wanting," said Content : 
 "the man must needs be in exceeding haste 
 to have ridden into the forest as the night grew 
 deepest, and when the longest summer day 
 would scarce bring a better hack than that he 
 rode to another Christian dwelling. There is 
 reason for this industry, but it is enough that
 
 110 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 it concerns us not. We will now seek our 
 rest, in the certainty that One watcheth our 
 slumbers whose vigilance can never fail." 
 
 Though man could not trust himself to 
 sleep in that country without the security of 
 bars and bolts, we have already had occasion 
 to say, that property was guarded with but 
 little care. The stable-door was merely closed 
 by a wooden latch, and the party returned 
 from this short sortie, with steps that were a little 
 quickened by a sense of an uneasiness that beset 
 them in forms suited to their several characters. 
 But shelter was at hand, and it was speedily 
 regained. 
 
 " Thou hast seen nothing ?" said Content to 
 Reuben Ring, who had been chosen for his 
 quick eye, and a sagacity that was as remark 
 able as was his brother's impotency ; " thou 
 hast seen nothing at thy watch ?" 
 
 " Nought unusual ; and yet I like not yon 
 der billet of wood, near to the fence against 
 the knoll. If it were not so plainly a half-
 
 THE BORDERERS. Ill 
 
 burnt log, one might fancy there is life in it. 
 But when fancy is at work the sight is keen. 
 Once or twice, I have thought it seemed to be 
 rolling towards the brook ; I am not, even 
 now, certain that when first seen it did not lie 
 eight or ten feet higher against the bank." 
 
 " It may be a living thing !" 
 
 " On the faith of a woodman's eye, it well 
 may be," said Eben Dudley ; " but should it 
 be haunted by a legion of wicked spirits, one 
 may bring it to quiet from the loop at the 
 nearest corner. Stand aside, Madam Heath- 
 cote," for the character and wealth of the pro 
 prietors of the valley, gave Ruth a claim to this 
 term of respect among the labourers ; " let me 
 thrust the piece through the Stop ! there is an 
 especial charm in the gun which it might be 
 sinful to waste on such a creature. It may be 
 no more than some sweet-toothed bear. I will 
 answer for the charge at my own cost, if thou 
 wilt lend me thy musket, Reuben Ring." 
 
 " It shall not be, 1 ' said his master ; " one
 
 112 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 known to my father hath this night entered our 
 dwelling and fed at our board; if he hath 
 departed in a way but little wont among those 
 of this colony, yet hath he done no great wrong. 
 I will go nigh, and examine with less risk of 
 error." 
 
 There was, in this proposal, too much of 
 that spirit of right-doing which governed all of 
 those simple regions, to meet serious opposition. 
 Content, supported by Eben Dudley, again 
 quitted the postern, and proceeded, directly, 
 though still not without sufficient caution, to 
 wards the point where the suspicious object 
 lay. A bend in the fence had first brought it 
 into view, for previously to reaching that point, 
 its apparent direction might for some distance 
 have been taken under shelter of the shadows 
 of the rails, which at the immediate spot where 
 it was seen, were turned suddenly in a line with 
 the eyes of the spectators. It seemed as if the 
 movements of those who approached were watched, 
 for the instant they left the defences, the dark
 
 THE BORDERERS. 113 
 
 object was assuredly motionless, even the keen 
 eye of Heuben Ring beginning to doubt whe 
 ther some deception of vision had not led him, 
 after all, to mistake a billet of wood for a 
 creature of life. 
 
 But Content and his companion were not 
 induced to change their determination. Even 
 when within fifty feet of the object, though 
 the moon fell full and brightly upon the sur 
 face, its character baffled conjecture. One af 
 firmed it was the end of a charred log, many of 
 which still lay scattered about the fields, and 
 the other believed it some cringing animal of 
 the woods. Twice Content raised his piece to 
 fire, and as often did he let it fall in reluctance 
 to do injury to even a quadruped of whose 
 character he was ignorant. It is more than 
 probable that his less considerate, and but half 
 obedient companion would have decided the 
 question soon after leaving the postern, had 
 not the peculiar contents of his musket ren 
 dered him delicate of its uses.
 
 114 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 ** Look to thy weapons," said the former, 
 loosening his own hunting knife in its sheath. 
 " We will draw near, and make certainty of 
 what is doubtful." 
 
 They did so, and the gun of Dudley was 
 thrust rudely into the side of the object of their 
 distrust, before it again betrayed life or motion. 
 Then, indeed, as if further disguise was useless, 
 an Indian lad of some fifteen years, rose deli 
 berately to his feet, and stood before them in 
 the sullen dignity of a captured warrior. Con 
 tent hastily seized the stripling by an arm, 
 and, followed by Eben, who occasionally quick 
 ened the footsteps of the prisoner by an im 
 petus obtained from the breech of his own 
 musket, they hurriedly returned within the 
 defences. 
 
 " My life against that of Straight-Horns, 
 which is now of no great value," said Dudley, 
 as he pushed the last bolt of the fastenings into 
 its socket, " we hear no more of this red skin's 
 companions to-night. I never knew an Indian
 
 THE BOEDERERS. 115 
 
 raise his whoop, when a sc jut had fallen into 
 the hands of the enemy." 
 
 " This may be true," returned the other, 
 " and yet must a sleeping household be 
 guarded. We may be brought to'rely on the 
 overlooking favour of Providence, working 
 with the means of our own manhood, ere the 
 sun shall arise." 
 
 Content was a man of few words, but one 
 of exceeding steadiness and resolution in 
 moments of need. He was perfectly aware that 
 an Indian youth, like him he had captured, 
 would not have been found in that place, and 
 under the circumstances in which he was 
 actually taken, without a design of sufficient 
 magnitude to justify the hazard. The tender 
 age of the stripling, too, forbade the belief 
 that he was unaccompanied. But he silently 
 agreed with his labouring man that the cap 
 ture would probably cause the attack, if any 
 such were meditated, to be deferred. He 
 therefore instructed his wife to withdraw into
 
 116 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 her chamber, while he took measures to defend 
 the dwelling in the last emergency. Without 
 giving any unnecessary alarm, a measure that 
 would have produced less effect on an enemy 
 without than the imposing stillness which now 
 reigned within the defences, he ordered two or 
 three more of the stoutest of his dependents 
 to be summoned to the palisadoes. A keen 
 scrutiny was made into the state of all the dif 
 ferent outlets of the place ; muskets were care 
 fully examined ; charges were given to be 
 watchful, and regular sentinels were stationed 
 within the shadows of the buildings, at points 
 where, unseen themselves, they could look out 
 in safety upon the fields. 
 
 Content then took his captive, with whom 
 he had made no attempt to exchange a syllable, 
 and led him to the block-house. The door 
 which communicated with the basement of 
 this building was always open, in readiness 
 for refuge in the event of any sudden alarm. 
 He entered, caused the lad to mount by a
 
 THE BORDERERS. 117 
 
 ladder to the floor above, and then withdrawing 
 the means of retreat, he turned the key without, 
 in perfect confidence that his prisoner was 
 secure. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this care, morning had 
 nearly dawned before the prudent father and 
 husband sought his pillow. His steadiness 
 however had prevented the apprehensions, 
 which kept his own eyes and those of his gentle 
 partner so long open, from extending beyond 
 the few whose services were, in such an emer 
 gency, deemed indispensable to safety. To 
 wards the last watches of the night only, 
 did the images of the scenes through which 
 they had just passed become dim and confused, 
 and then both husband and wife slept soundly, 
 and, happily, without disturbance.
 
 118 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 *' Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon." 
 
 Coriolanus. 
 
 THE axe and the brand had been early and 
 effectually used immediately around the dwel 
 ling of the Heathcotes. A double object had 
 been gained by removing most of the vestiges 
 of the forest from the vicinity of the building ; 
 the necessary improvements were executed with 
 greater facility : and, a consideration of no small 
 importance, the cover, which the American
 
 THE BORDERERS. 119 
 
 savage is known to seek in his attacks, was 
 thrown to a distance that greatly diminished 
 the danger of a surprise. 
 
 Favoured by the advantage which had been 
 obtained by this foresight, and by the brilliancy 
 of a night that soon emulated the brightness of 
 day, the duty of Eben Dudley and of his as 
 sociate on the watch was rendered easy of ac 
 complishment. Indeed, so secure did they 
 become towards morning, chiefly on account of 
 the capture of the Indian lad, that more than 
 once, eyes that should have been differently 
 employed, yielded to the drowsiness of the hour 
 and to habit, or were only opened at intervals 
 that left their owners in some doubt as to the 
 passage of the intermediate time. But no 
 sooner did the signs of day approach, than, 
 agreeably to their instructions, the watchers 
 sought their beds, and for an hour or two, 
 they slept soundly and without fear. 
 
 When his father had closed the prayers of 
 the morning, Content, in the midst of the as-
 
 120 THE BORDERERS. / 
 
 sembled family, communicated as many of the 
 incidents of the past night, as in his judgment 
 seemed necessary. His discretion limited the 
 narrative to the capture of the native youth, 
 and to the manner in which he had ordered the 
 watch for the security of the family. On the 
 subject of his own excursion to the forest, and 
 all connected therewith, he was guardedly 
 silent. 
 
 It is unnecessary to relate the manner in 
 which this startling information was received. 
 The cold and reserved brow of the Puritan 
 became still more thoughtful ; the young men 
 looked grave but resolute; the maidens of the 
 household grew pale, shuddered, and whispered 
 hurriedly together; while the little Ruth, and a 
 female child of nearly her own age, named 
 Martha, clung close to the side of the mistress 
 of the family, who having nothing new to learn, 
 had taught herself to assume the appearance of 
 a resolution she was far from feeling. 
 
 The first visitation which befel the listeners,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 121 
 
 after their eager ears had drunk in the intel 
 ligence Content so briefly imparted, was a 
 renewal of the spiritual strivings of his father 
 in the form of prayer. A particular petition 
 was put up in quest of light on their future 
 proceedings, for mercy on all men, for a better 
 mind to those who wandered through the wil 
 derness seeking victims of their wrath, for the 
 gifts of grace on the heathen, and finally for 
 victory over all their carnal enemies, let them 
 come whence or in what aspect they might. 
 
 Fortified by these additional exercises, old 
 Mark next made himself master of all the 
 signs and evidences of the approach of danger, 
 by a more rigid and minute inquiry into the 
 visible circumstances of the arrest of the young 
 savage. Content received a merited and grate 
 ful reward for his prudence, in the approbation 
 of one whom he still continued to revere, with a 
 mental dependance little less than that with 
 which he had leaned on his father's wisdom in 
 the days of his childhood. 
 
 VOL. i. G
 
 122 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Thou bast done well and wisely," said his 
 father ; " but more remaineth to be performed 
 by thy wisdom and fortitude. We have had 
 tidings that the heathen near the Providence 
 plantations are unquiet, and that they are lend 
 ing their minds to wicked counsellors. We are 
 not to sleep in too much security, because a 
 forest journey of a few days lies between their 
 villages and our own clearing. Bring forth the 
 captive ; I will question him on the matter of 
 this visit." 
 
 Until now, so much did the fears of all turn 
 towards the enemies who were believed to be 
 lurking near, that little thought had been be 
 stowed on the prisoner in the block-house. Con 
 tent, who well knew the invincible resolution, 
 no less than the art, of an Indian, had forborne 
 to question him when taken, for he believed the 
 time to be better suited to vigilant action, than 
 to interrogatories which the character of the 
 boy was likely to render perfectly useless. He 
 now proceeded, however, with an interest that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 123 
 
 began to quicken as circumstances rendered its 
 indulgence less unsuitable, to seek his captive, 
 in order to bring him before the searching 
 ordeal of his father's authority. 
 
 The key of the lower door of the blockhouse 
 hung where it had been deposited ; the ladder 
 was replaced, and Content mounted quietly to 
 the apartment where he had placed his cap 
 tive. The room was the lowest of three that 
 the building contained, all being above that 
 which might be termed its basement. The lat 
 ter, having no aperture but its door, was a dark, 
 hexagonal space, partly filled with such articles 
 as might be needed in the event of an alarm, and 
 which, at the same time, were frequently re 
 quired for the purposes of domestic use. In the 
 centre of the area was a deep well, so fitted and 
 protected by a wall of stone, as to admit of water 
 being drawn into the rooms above. The door 
 itself was of massive hewn timber. The squared 
 logs of the upper stories projected a little be 
 yond the stone-work of the basement, the second 
 G 2
 
 124 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 tier of the timbers containing a few loops, out of 
 which missiles might be discharged downwards, 
 on any assailants that approached nearer than 
 should be deemed safe for the security of the 
 basement. As has been stated, the two princi 
 pal stories were perforated with long narrow 
 slits through the timber, which answered the 
 double purposes of windows and loop-holes. 
 Though the apartments were so evidently ar 
 ranged for defence, the plain domestic furniture 
 they contained, was suited to the wants of the 
 family, should they be driven to the building for 
 refuge. There was also an apartment in the 
 roof, or attic, as already mentioned, but it 
 scarcely entered into the more important uses of 
 the block-house. Still the advantage which it 
 received from its elevation was not overlooked. 
 A small cannon, of a kind once known and 
 much used under the name of grasshoppers, had 
 been raised to the place, and time had been 
 when it was rightly considered as of the last im 
 portance to the safety of the inmates of the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 125 
 
 dwelling. For some years its muzzle had been 
 seen, by all the straggling aborigines who visited 
 the valley, frowning through one of those open 
 ings which were now converted into glazed win 
 dows; and there is reason to think, that the 
 reputation which the little piece of ordnance 
 thus silently obtained, had a powerful agency irt 
 so long preserving, unmolested, the peace of the 
 valley. 
 
 The word unmolested is perhaps too strong. 
 More than one alarm had in fact occurred, 
 though no positive acts of violence had ever 
 been committed within the limits which the Pu 
 ritan claimed as his own. On only one occasion, 
 however, did matters proceed so far that the vete 
 ran had been induced to take his post in this 
 warlike attic, where, there is little doubt, had oc 
 casion further offered for his services, he would 
 have made a suitable display of his knowledge 
 in the science of gunnery. But the simple his 
 tory of the Wish-Ton-Wish had furnished ano 
 ther evidence of a political truth, which cannot
 
 126 
 
 THE BORDEUE11S. 
 
 be too often presented to the attention of our 
 countrymen ; we mean that the best preserva 
 tive of peace is preparation for war. In the case 
 before us, the hostile attitude assumed by old 
 Mark and his dependents had effected all that 
 was desirable, without proceeding to the extre 
 mity of shedding blood. Such peaceful triumphs 
 were far more in accordance with the present 
 principles of the Puritan, than it would have 
 been with the reckless temper which had govern 
 ed his youth. In the quaint and fanatical 
 humour of the times, he had held a family 
 thanksgiving around the instrument of their se 
 curity, and from that moment the room itself 
 became a favourite resorting place for the old 
 soldier. Thither he often mounted, even in the 
 hours of deep night, to indulge in those secret 
 spiritual exercises which formed the chiefest 
 solace, and seemingly, indeed, the great em 
 ployment of his life. In consequence of this 
 habit, the attic of the block-house came in 
 time to be considered sacred to the uses of the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 127 
 
 master of the valley. The care and thought of 
 Content had gradually supplied it with many 
 conveniences that might contribute to the per 
 sonal comfort of his father, while his spirit was 
 engaged in these mental conflicts. At length, 
 the old man was known to use the mattress, 
 that, among other things, it now contained, and 
 to pass the time between the setting and rising 
 of the sun in its solitude. The aperture origi 
 nally cut for the exhibition of the grasshopper, 
 had been glazed, and no article of .comfort, 
 which was once caused to mount the difficult 
 ladder that led to the chamber, was ever seen 
 to descend. 
 
 There was something in the austere sanctity 
 of old Mark Heathcote that was favourable to 
 the practices of an anchorite. The youths of 
 the dwelling regarded his unbending brow, and 
 the undisturbed gravity of the eye it shadowed , 
 with a respect akin to awe. Had the genuine 
 benevolence of his character been less tried, or 
 had he mingled in active life, at a later period,
 
 128 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 it might readily have been his fate to have 
 shared in the persecution which his countrymen 
 heaped on those who were believed to deal with 
 influences it is thought impious to exercise. 
 Under actual circumstances, however, the sen 
 timent went no farther than a deep and uni 
 versal reverence, that left its object and the 
 neglected little piece of artillery, to the quiet 
 possession of an apartment, to invade which 
 would have been deemed an act bordering on 
 sacrilege. 
 
 The business of Content, on the occasion 
 which caused his present visit to the edifice, 
 whose history and description we have thought 
 it expedient thus to give at some length, led him 
 no farther than to the lowest of its more military 
 apartments. On raising the trap, for the first 
 time a feeling of doubt came over him, as to the 
 propriety of having left the boy so long unso- 
 laced by words of kindness, or by deeds of cha 
 rity. It was appeased by observing that his
 
 THE BORDERERS. 129 
 
 concern was awakened in behalf of one whose 
 spirit was quite equal to sustain greater trials. 
 
 The young Indian stood before one of the 
 loops, looking out upon that distant forest in 
 which he had so lately roamed at liberty, with 
 a gaze too rivetted to turn aside even at the 
 interruption occasioned by the presence of his 
 captor. 
 
 " Come from thy prison, child," said Content, 
 in the tones of mildness ; " whatever may have 
 been thy motive in lurking around this dwelling, 
 thou art human, and must know human wants ; 
 come forth, and receive food ; none here will 
 harm thee." 
 
 The language of commiseration is universal. 
 Though the words of the speaker were evi 
 dently unintelligible to him for whose ears they 
 were intended, their import was conveyed in 
 the kindness of the accents. The eyes of the 
 boy turned slowly from the view of the woods, 
 and he looked his captor, long and steadily, in 
 the face. Content now, indeed, discovered that 
 
 G 3
 
 130 THE BORDERKRS. 
 
 he had spoken in a language that was unknown 
 to his captive, and he endeavoured, by gestures 
 of kindness, to invite the lad to follow. He 
 was silently and quietly obeyed. On reaching 
 the court, however, the prudence of a border 
 proprietor in some degree overcame his feelings 
 of compassion. 
 
 " Bring hither yon tether,'' he said to Whittal 
 Ring, who at the moment was passing towards 
 the stables ; " here is one wild as the most 
 untamed of thy colts. Man is of our nature 
 and of our spirit, let him be of what colour it 
 may have pleased Providence to stamp his fea 
 tures ; but he who would have a young savage 
 in his keeping on the morrow, must look sharply 
 to his limbs to-day." 
 
 The lad submitted quietly until a turn of the 
 rope was passed around one of his arms ; but 
 when Content was fain to complete the work 
 by bringing the other limb into the same state 
 of subjection, the boy glided from his grasp, 
 and cast the fetters from him in disdain. This
 
 
 THE BORDERERS. 131 
 
 act of decided resistance was however followed 
 by no effort to escape. The moment his person 
 was released from a confinement which he 
 probably considered as implying distrust of his 
 ability to endure pain with the fortitude of a 
 warrior, the lad turned quietly and proudly to 
 his captor, and, with an eye in which scorn and 
 haughtiness were alike glowing, seemed to defy 
 the fulness of his anger. 
 
 " Be it so," resumed the equal-minded Con 
 tent ; " if thou likest not the bonds, which, 
 notwithstanding the pride of man, are often 
 healthful to the body, keep then the use of thy 
 limbs, and see that they do no mischief. 
 Whittal, look thou to the postern, and remem 
 ber it is forbidden to go afield, until my father 
 hath had this heathen under examination. The 
 cub is seldom found far from the cunning of 
 the aged bear." 
 
 He then made a sign to the boy to follow, 
 and proceeded to the apartment where his
 
 132 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 father, surrounded by most of the family, 
 awaited their coming. Uncompromising do 
 mestic discipline was one of the striking charac 
 teristics of the sway of the Puritans. That 
 austerity of manner which was thought to mark 
 a sense of a fallen and probationary state, was 
 early taught ; for among a people who deemed 
 all mirth a sinful levity, the practice of self- 
 command would readily come to be esteemed 
 the basis of virtue. But whatever might have 
 been the peculiar merit of Mark Heathcote and 
 his household, in this particular, it was likely 
 to be exceeded by the exhibition of the same 
 quality in the youth who had so strangely 
 become their captive. 
 
 We have already said that this child of the 
 woods might have seen some fifteen years. 
 Though he had shot upwards like a vigorous 
 and thrifty plant, and with the freedom of a 
 thriving sapling in his native forests, rearing 
 its branches towards the light, his stature had
 
 THE BORDERERS. 133 
 
 not yet reached that of man. In height, form, 
 and attitudes, he was a model of active, natural, 
 and graceful boyhood. But while his limbs 
 were so fair in their proportions, they were 
 scarcely muscular; still every movement exhi 
 bited a freedom and ease, which announced the 
 grace of childhood, without the smallest evi 
 dence of that restraint which creeps into our 
 air as the factitious feelings of later life begin 
 to assert their influence. The smooth, rounded 
 trunk of the mountain ash is not more upright 
 and free from blemish, than was the figure of 
 the boy, who moved into the curious circle, 
 that opened for his entrance and closed against 
 his retreat, with the steadiness of one who came 
 to bestow, instead of appearing to receive, 
 judgment. 
 
 " I will question him," said old Mark 
 Heathcote, attentively regarding the keen and 
 settled eye that met his long, stern gaze as 
 steadily as a less intelligent creature of the
 
 134 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 woods would return the look of man " I 
 will question him ; and perchance fear will 
 wring from his lips a confession of the evil that 
 he and his have meditated against me and 
 mine." 
 
 " I think he is ignorant of our forms of 
 speech," returned Content : " for the words 
 of neither kindness nor anger will force him to 
 a change of feature." 
 
 " It is then meet that we commence by asking 
 Him who hath the secret to open all hearts to 
 be our assistant." The Puritan then raised his 
 voice in a short and exceedingly particular 
 petition, in which he implored the Ruler of the 
 Universe to interpret his meaning, in the 
 forthcoming examination, in a manner that, 
 had his request been granted, would have 
 savoured not a little of the miraculous. With 
 this preparation he proceeded directly to his 
 task. But neither questions, signs, nor prayer 
 produced the slightest visible effect. The boy
 
 THE BORDERERS. 135 
 
 gazed at the rigid and austere countenance of 
 his interrogator while the words were issuing 
 from his lips ; but the instant they ceased, his 
 searching and quick eye rolled over the different 
 curious faces by which he was hemmed in, as if 
 he trusted more to the sense of sight than that 
 of hearing, for the information he naturally 
 sought concerning his future lot. It was found 
 impossible to obtain from him gesture or sound, 
 that should betray either the purport of his 
 questionable visit, his own personal appellation, 
 or that of his tribe. 
 
 44 I have been among the red skins of the 
 Providence Plantations," Eben Dudley at length 
 ventured to observe ; " and their language, 
 though but a crooked and irrational jargon, is 
 not unknown to me. With the leave of all 
 present," he continued, regarding the Puritan 
 in a manner to betray that this general term 
 meant him alone " with the leave of all present,
 
 136 T-HE BORDERERS. 
 
 I will put it to the younker, in such a fashion 
 that he will be glad to answer." 
 
 Receiving a look of assent, the borderer 
 uttered certain uncouth and guttural sound?, 
 which, notwithstanding they entirely failed of 
 their effect, he stoutly maintained were the 
 ordinary terms of salutation among the people 
 to whom the prisoner was supposed to be 
 long. 
 
 " I know him to be a Narragansett," 
 continued Eben, reddening with vexation at 
 his defeat, and throwing a glance of no peculiar 
 amity at the youth f who had so palpably 
 refuted his claim to skill in the Indian tongues ; 
 " you see he hath the shells of the sea side 
 worked into the bordering of his moccasins : 
 and besides this sign, which is certain as that 
 night hath its stars, he beareth the look of a 
 chief that was slain by the Pequods, at the 
 wish of us Christians, after an affair, in which,
 
 THE B011DERERS. 137 
 
 whether it was well done or ill done, I did 
 some part of the work myself." 
 
 " And how call you that chief?" demanded 
 Mark. 
 
 " Why he had various names, according to 
 the business he was on. To some he was 
 known as the Leaping Panther, for he was a 
 man of an extraordinary jump; and others 
 again used to style him Pepperage, since there 
 was a saying that neither bullet nor sword could 
 enter his body ; though that was a mistake, as 
 his death hath fully proven. But his real name, 
 according to the uses and sounds of his own 
 people, was My Anthony Mow. 1 ' 
 
 " My Anthony Mow !"" 
 
 ** Yes ; My, meaning that he was their 
 chief ; Anthony being the given name, and 
 Mow that of the breed of which he came; 1 ' 
 rejoined Eben, with confidence, satisfied that 
 he had finally produced a sufficiently sonorous 
 appellative, and a perfectly lucid etymology. 
 But criticism was diverted from its aim by the
 
 138 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 action of the prisoner, as these equivocal sounds 
 struck his ear. Ruth recoiled, and clasped her 
 little namesake closer to her side, when she saw 
 the dazzling brightness of his glowing eyes, and 
 the sudden and expressive dilation of his 
 nostrils. For a moment, his lips were com 
 pressed with more than the usual force of 
 Indian gravity, and then they slightly severed. 
 A low, soft, and, as even the startled matron 
 was obliged to confess, a plaintive sound 
 issued from between them, repeating mourn 
 fully 
 
 "Miantonimoh !" 
 
 The word was uttered with a distinct, but 
 deeply guttural enunciation. 
 
 " The child mourneth for its parent," ex 
 claimed the sensitive mother. " The hand 
 that slew the warrior may have done an evil 
 deed!" 
 
 " I see the evident and fore-ordering will of 
 a wise Providence in this, 1 ' said Mark Heath-
 
 THE BORDERERS. ]39 
 
 cote, with solemnity. " The youth hath been 
 deprived of one who might have enticed him 
 still deeper into the bonds of the heathen, and 
 hither hath he been led in order to t>e placed 
 upon the straight and narrow path. He shall 
 become a dweller among mine, and we will 
 strive against the evil of his mind until instruc 
 tion shall prevail. Let him be fed and nur 
 tured, equally with the things of life and the 
 things of the world, for who knoweth that 
 which is designed in his behalf!" 
 
 If there were more of faith than of rational 
 conclusion in this opinion of the old Puritan, 
 there was no external evidence to contradict 
 it. While the examination of the boy was 
 going on in the dwelling, a keen scrutiny had 
 taken place in the out-buildings, and in the 
 adjacent fields. Those engaged in this duty 
 soon returned to say, that not the smallest trace 
 of an ambush was visible about the place, and 
 as the captive himself had no weapons of hos-
 
 140 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 tility, even Ruth began to hope that the 
 mysterious conceptions of her father on the 
 subject were not entirely delusive. The captive 
 was now fed, and old Mark was on the point 
 of making a proper beginning in the task he 
 had so gladly assumed, by an up-offering of 
 thanks, when Whittal Ring broke rudely into 
 the room and disturbed the solemnity of his 
 preparations by a sudden and boisterous 
 outcry. 
 
 " Away with scythe and sickle," shouted 
 the witling ; " it's many a day since the fields 
 of Wish-Ton-Wish have been trodden down 
 by horsemen in buff jerkins, or ambushed by- 
 creeping Wampanoags." 
 
 " There is danger at hand !" exclaimed the 
 sensitive Ruth. " Husband, the warning was 
 timely." 
 
 *' Here are truly some riding from the forest, 
 and drawing nigh to the dwellings ; but as they 
 are seemingly men of our kind and faith, we
 
 THE BORDERERS. 141 
 
 have need rather of rejoicing than terror. They 
 bear the air of messengers from the River." 
 
 Mark Heathcote listened with surprise, and 
 perhaps with a momentary uneasiness ; but all 
 emotion passed away on the instant, for one so 
 disciplined in mind rarely permitted any out 
 ward exposure of his secret thoughts. The 
 Puritan calmly issued an order to replace the 
 prisoner in the block-house, assigning the upper 
 of the two principal floors for his keeping : and 
 then he prepared himself to receive guests that 
 were little wont to disturb the quiet of his se 
 cluded valley. He was still in the act of giving 
 forth the necessary mandates, when the tramp of 
 horses was heard in the court, and he was 
 summoned to the door to greet his unknown 
 visiters. 
 
 " We have reached Wish-Ton-Wish, and 
 the dwelling of Captain Mark Heathcote," said 
 one, who appeared, by his air and better attire,
 
 142 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 to be the principal of four that composed the 
 party. 
 
 ** By the favour of Providence, I call my 
 self the unworthy owner of this place of re- 
 fuge." 
 
 " Then a subject so loyal, and a man who 
 hath so long proved himself faithful in the 
 
 wilderness, will not turn from his door the 
 
 " 
 agents of his Anointed Master. 1 ' 
 
 " There is One greater than any of earth, 
 who hath taught us to leave the latch free. I 
 pray you to alight, and to partake of that we 
 can offer." 
 
 With this courteous but quaint explanation 
 the horsemen dismounted, and giving their 
 steeds into the keeping of the labourers of the 
 farm, they entered the dwelling. 
 
 While the maidens of Ruth were preparing 
 a repast suited to the hour and to the quality of 
 the guests, Mark and his son had abundant
 
 THE BORDERERS. 143 
 
 opportunity to examine the appearance of the 
 strangers. They were men who seemed to 
 wear visages peculiarly adapted to the charac 
 ters of their entertainers, being in truth so sin 
 gularly demure and grave in aspect, as to excite 
 some suspicion of their being newly converted 
 zealots to the mortifying customs of the colony. 
 Notwithstanding their extraordinary gravity. , 
 and contrary to the usages of those regions, too, 
 they bore about their persons certain evidence 
 of being used to the fashions of the other hemis 
 phere. The pistols attached to their saddle bows, 
 and other accoutrements of a warlike aspect, 
 would perhaps have attracted no observation, 
 had they not been accompanied by a fashion in 
 the doublet, the hat, and the boot, that denoted 
 a greater intercourse with the mother country 
 than was usual among the less sophisticated 
 natives of those regions. None traversed the 
 forests without the means of defence ; but, on 
 the other hand, few wore the hostile implements
 
 144 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 with so much of a worldly air, or with so many 
 minor particularities of some recent caprice in 
 fashion. As they had however announced them 
 selves to be officers of the King, they who of 
 necessity must be chiefly concerned in the object 
 of their visit, patiently awaited the pleasure of 
 the strangers, to learn why duty had called 
 them so far from all the more ordinary haunts 
 f men : for, like the native owners of the soil, 
 the self-restrained religionists appeared to reckon 
 an indiscreet haste, in any thing, among the 
 more unmanly weaknesses. Nothing for the 
 first half hour of their visit escaped the guarded 
 lips of men evidently well skilled in their pre 
 sent duty, which might lead to a clue of its 
 purport. The morning meal passed almost 
 without discourse, and one of the party had 
 arisen with the professed object of looking to 
 their steeds, before lie who seemed the chief 
 led the conversation to a subject, that, by its 
 political bearing, might, in some degree, be sup-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 145 
 
 posed to have a remote connexion with the 
 principal object of his journey to that seques 
 tered valley. 
 
 " Have the tidings of the gracious boon that 
 hath lately flowed from the favour of the King, 
 reached this distant settlement ?" asked the 
 principal personage, one that wore a far less 
 military air than a younger companion, who, by 
 his confident mien, appeared to be the second 
 in authority. 
 
 " To what boon hath thy words import ?" 
 demanded the Puritan, turning a glance of 
 the eye at his son and daughter, together with 
 the others in hearing, as if to admonish them 
 to be prudent. 
 
 " I speak of the Royal Charter, by which 
 the people on the banks of the Connecticut, 
 and they of the Colony of New Haven, are 
 henceforth permitted to unite in government ; 
 granting them liberty of conscience, and great 
 freedom of self-controul." 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Such a gift were worthy of a King ! Hath 
 Charles done this ?" 
 
 " That hath he, and much more that is fitting 
 in a kind and royal mind. The realm is finally 
 freed from the abuses of usurpers, and power 
 now resteth in the hands of a race long set 
 apart for its privileges." 
 
 " It is to be wished that practice shall render 
 them expert and sage in its uses," rejoined 
 Mark, somewhat drily. 
 
 " It is a merry Prince ! and one but little 
 given to the study and exercises of his martyred 
 father ; but he hath great cunning in discourse, 
 and few around his dread person have keener 
 wit, or more ready tongue." 
 
 Mark bowed his head in silence, seemingly 
 little disposed to push tlie discussion of his 
 earthly master's qualities to a conclusion that 
 might prove offensive to so loyal an admirer. 
 One inclining to suspicion would have seen, or 
 thought he saw, certain equivocal glances from
 
 THE BORDERERS. 147 
 
 the stranger, while he was thus lauding the 
 vivacious qualities of the restored monarch, 
 which should denote a desire to detect how 
 far the eulogiums might be grateful to his 
 host. He acquiesced, however, in the wishes of 
 the Puritan, though whether understandingly, 
 or without design, it would have been difficult 
 to say, and submitted to change the discourse. 
 
 " It is likely, by thy presence, that tidings 
 have reached the Colonies from home," said 
 Content, who understood, by the severe and 
 reserved expression of his father's features, 
 that it was a fitting time for him to interpose. 
 
 " There is one arrived in the Bay, within 
 the month, by means of a King's frigate ; but 
 no trader hath yet passed between the countries, 
 except the ship which maketh the annual voy 
 age from Bristol to Boston." 
 
 " And he who hath arrived ; doth he come 
 in authority?" demanded Mark; " or is he 
 H 2
 
 148 THE BOEDEEEBS. 
 
 merely another servant of the Lord, seeking 
 to rear his tabernacle in the wilderness ?" 
 
 " Thou shalt know the nature of his errand," 
 returned the stranger, casting a glance of mali 
 cious intelligence obliquely towards his com 
 panions, at the same time that he arose and 
 placed in the hand of his host a commission 
 which evidently bore the Seal of State. " It 
 is expected that all aid will be given to one 
 bearing this warranty, by a subject of a loyalty 
 so approved as that of Captain Mark Heath- 
 cote."
 
 THE BORDERERS. 149 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " But, by your leave, 
 I am an officer of state, and come 
 
 To speak with " 
 
 Coriolanuf. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the sharp look which 
 the Messenger of the Crown deliberately and 
 now openly fastened on the master of Wish- 
 Ton-Wish, while the latter was reading the 
 instrument that was placed before his eyes, 
 there was no evidence of uneasiness to be de 
 tected in the unmoved features of the latter.
 
 150 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 Mark Heathcote had too long schooled his 
 passions to suffer an unseemly manifestation of 
 surprise to escape him, and he was by nature 
 a man of far too much nerve to betray alarm at 
 any trifling exhibition of danger. Returning 
 the parchment to the other, he said, with un 
 moved calmness, to his son 
 
 " We must open wide the doors of Wish- 
 Ton-Wish. Here is one charged with autho 
 rity to look into the secrets of all the dwellings 
 of the colony." Then turning with dignity to 
 the agent of the Crown, he added, " Thou 
 hadst better commence thy duty in season, for 
 we are many, and occupy much space." 
 
 The face of the stranger flushed a little ; it 
 might have been with shame for the vocation in 
 which he had come so far, or it might have 
 been in resentment at so direct a hint that the 
 sooner his disagreeable office should be ended, 
 the better it would please his host. Still he 
 betrayed no intention of shrinking from its per-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 151 
 
 formance. On the contrary, discarding some 
 what of that subdued manner which he had 
 probably thought it politic to assume, while 
 sounding the opinions of one so rigid, he broke 
 out rather suddenly in the exhibition of a hu 
 mour somewhat better suited to the tastes of 
 him he served. 
 
 " Come, then," he cried, winking at his com 
 panions, " since doors are opened, it would speak 
 ill of our breeding should we refuse to enter. 
 Captain Heathcote has been a soldier, and he 
 knows how to excuse a traveller's freedom. 
 Surely one who has tasted of the pleasures of 
 the camp, must weary at times of this sylvan 
 life !" 
 
 " The steadfast in faith weary not, though 
 the road be long, and the wayfaring grievous." 
 
 " Hum 'tis pity that the journeying be 
 tween merry England and these Colonies is not 
 more brisk. I do not presume to instruct a 
 gentleman who is my senior, and peradventure
 
 152 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 my better, but opportunity is every thing in a 
 man's fortunes. It were charity to let you 
 know, worthy Sir, that opinions have changed 
 at home : it is full a twelvemonth since I have 
 heard a line of the Psalms, or a verse of St. 
 Paul quoted, in discourse ; at least by men who 
 are at all esteemed for their discretion." 
 
 " This change in the fashion of speech may 
 better suit thy earthly than thy heavenly master," 
 said Mark Heathcote, sternly. 
 
 " Well, well, that peace may exist between 
 us, we will not bandy words about a text more 
 or less, if we may escape the sermon," rejoined 
 the stranger, no longer affecting restraint, but 
 laughing with sufficient freedom at his own con 
 ceit ; a species of enjoyment in which his com 
 panions mingled with great good will, and 
 without much deference to the humour of those 
 under whose roof they found themselves. 
 
 A small glowing spot appeared on the pale 
 cheek of the Puritan, and disappeared again, like
 
 THE BOEDERERS. 153 
 
 some transient deception produced by the play 
 of light. Even the meek eye of Content kindled 
 at the insult ; but, like his father, the practice 
 of self-denial, and a never slumbering con 
 sciousness of his own imperfections, smothered 
 the momentary exhibition of displeasure 
 
 " If thou hast authority to look into the 
 secret places of our habitations, do thy office,''' 
 he said, with a peculiarity of tone, which served 
 to remind the other, that though he bore the 
 commission of the Stuart, he was in an extre 
 mity of his empire, where even the authority of 
 a king lost some of its value. 
 
 Affecting to be, and possibly in reality con 
 scious of his indiscretion, the stranger hastily 
 disposed himself to the execution of his duty. 
 
 " It would be a great and a pain-saving 
 movement,"" he said, " were we to assemble 
 the household in one apartment. The govern 
 ment at home would be glad to hear something 
 of the quality of its lieges in this distant quarter* 
 H 3
 
 154 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 Thou hast doubtless a bell to summon the 
 flocks at stated periods." 
 
 "Our people are yet near the dwelling," 
 returned Content : " if it be thy pleasure, none 
 shall be absent from the search."" 
 
 Gathering from the eye of the other that he 
 was serious in this wish, the quiet colonist pro 
 ceeded to the gate, and placing a shell to his 
 mouth, blew one of those blasts that are so 
 often heard in the forests, summoning families 
 to their homes, and which are alike used as 
 the signals of peaceful recal, or of alarm. The 
 sound soon brought all within hearing to the 
 court, whither the Puritan and his unpleasant 
 guests now repaired, as to the spot best suited 
 to the purposes of the latter. 
 
 " Hallam," said the principal personage of 
 the four visiters, addressing him, who might once 
 have been, if he were not still, some subaltern 
 in the forces of the crown, for he was attired in 
 a manner that bespoke him but a half-disguised
 
 THE BORDERERS. 155 
 
 dragoon, " I leave thee to entertain this goodly 
 assemblage. Thou mayest pass the time in 
 discoursing on the vanities of the world, of 
 which I believe few are better qualified to speak 
 understandingly than thyself ; or a few words 
 of admonition to hold fast to the faith would 
 come with fitting weight from thy lips. But 
 look to it, that none of thy flock wander ; for 
 here must every creature of them remain, sta 
 tionary as the indiscreet partner of Lot, till I 
 have cast an eye into all the cunning places of 
 their abode. So set wit at work, and show thy 
 breeding as an entertainer." 
 
 After this irreverent charge to his subordi 
 nate, the speaker signified to Content and his 
 father, that he and his remaining attendant 
 would proceed to a more minute examination of 
 the premises. 
 
 When Mark Heathcote saw that the man 
 who had so rudely broken in upon the peace 
 ful habits of his family was ready to proceed,
 
 156 THE BORDE11EES. 
 
 he advanced steadily in his front, like one who 
 boldly invited inquiry, and by a grave gesture 
 desired him to follow. The stranger, perhaps, 
 as much from habit as from any settled design, 
 first cast a free glance around at the bevy of 
 fluttered maidens, leered even upon the modest 
 and meek-eyed Ruth herself, and then took the 
 direction indicated by him who had so unhesita 
 tingly assumed the office of a guide. 
 
 The object of this examination still remained 
 a secret between those who made it, and the 
 Puritan, who had probably found its motive 
 in the written warranty which had been sub 
 mitted to his inspection. That it proceeded 
 from fitting authority, none might doubt ; and 
 that it was in some manner connected with the 
 events that were known to have wrought so 
 sudden and so great a change in the govern 
 ment of the mother country, all believed pro 
 bable. Notwithstanding the seeming mystery 
 of the procedure, the search was not the less
 
 THE BORDERERS. 157 
 
 rigid. Few habitations, of any size or preten 
 sion, were erected in those times, which did not 
 contain certain secret places, where valuables 
 and even persons might be concealed at need. 
 The strangers displayed great familiarity with 
 the nature and ordinary positions of these pri 
 vate recesses. Not a chest, a closet, or even 
 a drawer of size, escaped their vigilance, nor 
 was there a plank that sounded hollow, but 
 the master of the valley was called on to ex 
 plain the cause. In one or two instances, 
 boards were wrested violently from their fasten 
 ings, and the cavities beneath were explored, 
 with a wariness that increased as the investiga 
 tion proceeded without success. 
 
 The strangers appeared irritated by their 
 failure. An hour passed in the keenest scru 
 tiny, and nothing had transpired which brought 
 them any nearer to their object. That they 
 had commenced the search with more than 
 usually confident anticipations of a favourable
 
 158 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 result, might have been gathered from the 
 boldness of tone assumed by their chief, and 
 the pointed personal allusions in which, from 
 time to time, he indulged, often too freely, 
 and always at some expense to the loyalty of 
 the Heathcotes. But when he had completed 
 the circuit of the buildings, having entered all 
 parts from their cellars to the garrets, his spleen 
 became so strong as, in some degree, to get 
 the better of a certain parade of discretion, 
 which he had hitherto managed to maintain in 
 the midst of all his levity. 
 
 " Hast seen nothing, Mr. Hallam ?"" he de 
 manded of the individual left on watch, as 
 they crossed the court in retiring from the 
 last of the outbuildings ; " or have those traces 
 which led us to this distant settlement proved 
 false ? Captain Heathcote, you have seen that 
 we come not without sufficient warranty, and 
 it is in my power to say we come not, without 
 sufficient "
 
 THE BORDERERS. 159 
 
 Checking himself, as if about to utter more 
 than was prudent, he suddenly cast an eye 
 on the block-house and demanded its uses. 
 
 " It is, as thou seest, a building erected 
 for the purposes of defence,"" replied Mark ; 
 " one to which, in the event of an inroad 
 of the savages, the family may fly for re- 
 fage." 
 
 " Ah ! these citadels are not unknown to 
 me. I have met with others during my jour 
 ney, but none so formidable or so military as 
 this. It hath a soldier for its governor, and 
 should hold out for a reasonable siege. Being 
 a place of pretension, we will look closer into 
 its mystery." 
 
 He then signified an intention to close the 
 search by an examination of this edifice. Con 
 tent unhesitatingly threw open its door, and 
 invited him to enter. 
 
 " On the word of one who, though now 
 engaged in a more peaceful calling, has been
 
 160 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 a campaigner in his time, 'twould be no child's 
 play to carry this tower without artillery. Had 
 thy spies given notice of our approach, Captain 
 Heathcote, the entrance might have been more 
 difficult than we now find it. We have a ladder, 
 here ! Where the means of mounting are found, 
 there must be something to tempt one to 
 ascend. I will taste your forest air from an 
 upper room." 
 
 " You will find the apartment above, like 
 this below, merely provided for the security 
 of the unoffending dwellers of the habitations, 1 ' 
 said Content, while he quietly arranged the 
 ladder before the trap, and then led the way 
 himself to the floor above. 
 
 " Here have we loops for the musketoons," 
 cried the stranger, looking about him, under- 
 standingly, " and reasonable defences against 
 shot. Thou hast not forgotten thy art. Captain 
 Heathcote, and I consider myself fortunate in 
 having entered thy fortress by surprise, or, I
 
 THE BORDERERS. 161 
 
 should rather say, in amity, since the peace is 
 not yet broken between us. But why have we 
 so much of household gear in a place so evi 
 dently equipped for war ? " 
 
 " Thou forgettest that women and children 
 may be driven to this block for a residence," 
 replied Content. " It would shew little discre 
 tion to neglect matters that might be useful to 
 their wants." 
 
 " Is there trouble with the savages ?" demand 
 ed the stranger, a little quickly ; " the gossips 
 of the colony bade us fear nothing on that 
 head." 
 
 " One cannot say at what hour creatures 
 trained in their wild natures may choose to rise. 
 The dwellers on the borders, therefore, never 
 neglect a fitting caution." 
 
 " Hist P interrupted the stranger ; " I hear 
 a footstep above. Ha ! the scent will prove 
 true at last ! Hilloa, Master Hallam !" he cried 
 from one of the loops, " let thy statues of salt
 
 162 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 dissolve, and come hither to the tower. Here 
 is work for a regiment ; for well do we know 
 the nature of that we are to deal with." 
 
 The sentinel in the court shouted to his com 
 panion in the stables, and then, openly and 
 boisterously exulting in the prospects of a final 
 success to a search, which had hitherto given 
 them useless employment throughout many a 
 long day and weary ride, they rushed together 
 to the block-house. 
 
 " Now, worthy lieges of a gracious master," 
 said the leader, when he perceived himself 
 backed by all his armed followers, and speaking 
 with the air of a man flushed with success, " now 
 quickly provide the means of mounting to the 
 upper story. I have thrice heard the tread of 
 man moving across that floor ; though it hath 
 been light and wary, the planks are tell-tales, 
 and have not had their schooling." 
 
 Content heard the request, which was uttered 
 sufficiently in the manner of an order, perfectly
 
 THE BOEDERERS. 163 
 
 \ 
 
 unmoved. Without betraying either hesitation 
 or concern, he disposed himself to comply. 
 Drawing the light ladder through the trap below, 
 he placed it against the one above him, and as 
 cending, he raised the door. He then returned 
 to the floor beneath, making a quiet gesture to 
 imply that they who chose might mount. But 
 the strangers regarded each other with very 
 visible doubts. Neither of the inferiors seemed 
 disposed to precede his chief, and the latter evi 
 dently hesitated as to the order in which it was 
 meet to make the necessary advance. 
 
 " Is there no other manner of mounting, but 
 by this narrow ascent ?" he asked. 
 
 " None : thou wilt find the ladder secure, and 
 of no difficult height. It is intended for the use 
 of women and children." 
 
 " Ay," muttered the officer, " but your 
 women and children are not called upon to 
 confront the devil in a human form. Fellows, 
 are thy TOgpons in serviceable condition ? Here
 
 164) THE BORDERERS. 
 
 may be need of spirit, ere we get our Hist ! 
 
 by the Divine Right of our Gracious Master ! 
 there is truly one stirring above. Harkee, my 
 friend ; thou knowest the road so well, we will 
 choose to follow thy conduct." 
 
 Content, who seldom permitted ordinary 
 events to disturb the equanimity of his temper, 
 quietly assented, and led the way up the ladder, 
 like one who saw no ground for apprehension in 
 the undertaking. The agent of the crown 
 sprang after him, taking care to keep as near 
 as possible to the person of his leader, and 
 calling to his inferiors to lose no time in backing 
 him with their support. The whole mounted 
 through the trap, with an alacrity nothing short 
 of that with which they would have pressed 
 through a dangerous breach : nor did either of 
 the four take time to survey the lodgement he 
 had made, until the whole party was standing 
 in array, with hands grasping the handles of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 165 
 
 their pistols, or seeking, as it were, instinctively 
 the hilts of their broadswords. 
 
 "By the dark visage of the Stuart!" ex 
 claimed the principal personage, after satisfying 
 himself by a long and disappointed gaze, that 
 what he said was true, " here is nought but an 
 unarmed savage boy P 
 
 " Didst expect to meet else ?" demanded the 
 still unmoved Content. 
 
 " Hum that which we expected to meet is 
 sufficiently known to the quaint old gentleman 
 below, and to our own good wisdom. If thou 
 doubtest of our right to look into thy very hearts, 
 warranty for that we do can be forthcoming. 
 King Charles hath little cause to be tender of 
 his mercies to the dwellers of these colonies, 
 who lent but too willing ears to the whinings 
 and hypocrisies of the wolves in sheep's clothing, 
 of whom old England hath now so happily 
 gotten rid. Thy buildings shall again be
 
 166 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 rummaged from the bricks of the chimney tops to 
 the corner stone in thy cellars, unless deceit and 
 rebellious cunning shall be abandoned, and the 
 truth proclaimed with the openness and fairness 
 of bold-speaking Englishmen." 
 
 " I know not what is called the fairness of 
 bold-speaking Englishmen, since fairness of 
 speech is not a quality of one people, or of one 
 land ; but well I do know that deceit is sinful, 
 and little of it, I humbly trust, is practised in 
 this settlement. I am ignorant of what is 
 sought, and therefore it cannot be that I medi 
 tate treachery." 
 
 " Thou hearest, Hallam ; he reasoneth on a 
 matter that toucheth the peace and safety of 
 the King !" cried the other, his arrogance of 
 manner increasing with the anger of disappoint 
 ment. " But why is this dark-skinned boy a 
 prisoner? Dost dare to constitute thyself a 
 sovereign over the natives of this continent,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 167 
 
 and affect to have shackles and dungeons for 
 such as meet thy displeasure. 11 
 
 " The lad is in truth a captive; but he 
 has been taken in defence of life, and hath 
 little to complain of, more than loss of free 
 dom." 
 
 " I will inquire deeply into this proceed 
 ing. Though commissioned on an errand 
 of different interest, yet, as one trusted in a 
 matter of moment, I take upon me the office 
 of protecting every oppressed subject of the 
 crown. There may grow discoveries out of 
 this practice, Hallam, fit to go before the 
 council itself." 
 
 " Thou wilt find but little here, worthy of 
 the time and attention of those burthened with 
 the care of a nation,' 1 returned Content. 
 " The youthful heathen was found lurking near 
 our habitations the past night, and he is kept 
 where thou seest, that he may not carry the 
 tidings of our condition to his people, who
 
 168 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 are, doubtless, outlying in the forest, waiting 
 for the fit moment to work their evil." 
 
 '' How meanest thou !" hastily exclaimed the 
 other ; " at hand in the forest, didst say ?" 
 
 ' There can be little doubt. One young as 
 this would scarce be found distant from the 
 warriors of his tribe ; and that the more es 
 pecially, as he was taken in the commission of 
 an ambush." 
 
 " I hope thy people are not without good 
 provision of arms, and other sufficient muni 
 ments of resistance. I trust the palisadoes are 
 firm, and the posterns ingeniously defended." 
 
 " We look with a diligent eye to our safety ; 
 for it is well known to us dwellers on the bor 
 ders, that there is little security but in untiring 
 watchfulness. The young men were at the 
 gates until the morning, and we did intend to 
 make a strong scouting into the woods as the 
 day advanced, in order to look for those signs 
 that may lead us to conclusions on the number
 
 THE BOEDEREES. 169 
 
 and purposes of those by whom we are envi 
 roned, had not thy visit called us to other 
 duties." 
 
 "And why so tardy in speaking of this in 
 tent ?" demanded the agent of the King, 
 leading the way down the ladder with sus 
 picious haste. " It is a commendable prudence, 
 and must not be delayed. I take upon me 
 the responsibleness of commanding that all 
 proper care be had in defence of the weaker 
 subjects of the crown who are here collected. 
 Are our roadsters well replenished, Hallam ? 
 Duty, as thou sayest, is an imperative master ; 
 is recalls us more into the heart of the colony. 
 I would it might shortly point the way to 
 Europe !" he muttered as he reached the 
 ground. " Go, fellows ; see to our beasts, and 
 let them be speedily prepared for departure." 
 
 The attendants, though men of sufficient 
 spirit in open war, and when it was to be ex 
 ercised in a fashion to which they were accus- 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 tomed, had, like other mortals, a wholesome 
 deference for unknown and terrific looking 
 danger. It is a well-known truth, and one 
 that has been proved by the experience of two 
 centuries, that while the European soldier has 
 ever been readiest to have recourse to the as 
 sistance of the terrible warrior of the American 
 forest, he has, in nearly every instance, when 
 retaliation or accident has made him the object 
 instead of the spectator of the ruthless nature 
 of his warfare, betrayed the most salutary, 
 and frequently the most abject and ludicrous 
 apprehension of the prowess of his ally. While 
 Content, therefore, looked so steadily, though 
 still seriously, at the peculiar danger in which 
 he was placed, the four strangers seemingly 
 saw all of its horrors without any of the known 
 means of avoiding them. Their chief quickly 
 abandoned the insolence of office, and the tone 
 of disappointment, for a mien of greater cour 
 tesy : and as policy is often seen suddenly to
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 change the sentiments of even more pretending 
 personages, when interests assume a new aspect, 
 so did his language rapidly take a character of 
 conciliation and courtesy. 
 
 The hand-maidens were no longer leered at ; 
 the mistress of the dwelling was treated with 
 marked deference : and the air of deep respect, 
 with which even the principal of the party ad 
 dressed the aged Puritan, bordered on an ex 
 hibition of commendable reverence. Something 
 was said in the way of apology for the dis 
 agreeable obligations of duty, and of a differ 
 ence between a manner that was assumed to 
 answer secret purposes, and that which nature 
 and a sense of right would dictate : but neither 
 Mark nor his son appeared to have sufficient 
 interest in the motives of their visiters, to put 
 them to the trouble of repeating explanations, 
 that were as awkward to those who uttered 
 them, as they were unnecessary to those who 
 listened. 
 
 I 2
 
 172 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 So far from offering any further obstacle to 
 the movements of the family, the borderers 
 were seriously urged to pursue their previous 
 intentions of thoroughly examining the woods. 
 The dwelling was accordingly entrusted, under 
 the orders of the Puritan, to the keeping of 
 about half the labourers, assisted by the Euro 
 peans, who clung with instinctive attachment 
 to the possession of the block -house; their 
 leader repeatedly and rightly enough declaring 
 that, though ready at all times to risk life on 
 a plain, he had an unconquerable distaste to 
 putting it in jeopardy in a thicket. Attended 
 by Eben Dudley, Reuben Ring, and two 
 other stout youths, all well, though lightly 
 armed, Content then left the palisadoes, and 
 took his way towards the forest. They en 
 tered the woods at the nearest point, always 
 marching with the caution and vigilance that 
 a sense of the true nature of the risk they ran
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 would inspire, and much practice only could 
 properly direct. 
 
 The manner of the search was simple as it 
 was likely to prove effectual. The scouts com 
 menced a circuit around the clearing, extend 
 ing their line as far as might be done without 
 cutting off support, and each man lending his 
 senses attentively to the signs of the trail, or 
 of the lairs, of those dangerous enemies, who, 
 they had reason to think, were outlying in their 
 neighbourhood. But like the recent search in 
 the buildings, the scouting was for a long time 
 attended by no results. Many weary miles 
 were passed slowly over, and more than half 
 their task was ended, and no sign of being 
 having life was met, except the very visible 
 trail of their four guests, and the tracks of a 
 single horse, along a path leading to the set 
 tlements, from the quarter by which the visiter 
 of the preceding night had been known to 
 approach. No comments were made by any
 
 174) THE BORDERERS. 
 
 of the party, as each in succession struck and 
 crossed this path, nearly at the same instant ; 
 but a low call from Reuben Ring which soon 
 after met their ears, caused them to assemble 
 in a body at the spot, whence the summons had 
 proceeded. 
 
 (t Here are signs of one passing from the 
 clearing," said the quick-eyed woodsman, u and 
 of one too that is not numbered among the 
 family of Wish-Ton-Wish ; since his beast 
 hath had a shodden hoof, a mark which be- 
 longeth to no animal of ours." 
 
 " We will follow," said Content, imme 
 diately striking in upon a straggling trail, that 
 by many unequivocal signs had been left by 
 some animal which had passed that way not 
 many hours before. Their search, however, 
 soon grew to a close. Ere they had gone any 
 great distance, they came upon the half-de 
 molished carcass of a dead horse. There was 
 no mistaking the proprietor of this unfortunate
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 animal. Though some beast, or rather beasts, 
 of prey, had fed plentifully on the body, -which 
 was still fresh, and had scarcely yet done 
 bleeding, it was plain, by the remains of the 
 torn equipments, as well as by the colour and 
 size of the animal, that it was no other than 
 the hack ridden by the unknown and myste 
 rious guest ; who, after sharing in the worship 
 and in the evening meal of the family of the 
 Wish-Ton-Wish, had so strangely and so sud 
 denly disappeared. The leathern sack, the 
 weapons which had so singularly rivetted the 
 gaze of old Mark, and indeed all but the car 
 cass and a ruined saddle, were gone ; but what 
 was left sufficiently served to identify the 
 animal. 
 
 " Here has been the tooth of wolf," said 
 Eben Dudley, stooping to examine into the 
 nature of a ragged wound in the neck ; " and 
 here, too, has been cut of knife ; but whether
 
 176 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 by the hand of a red-skin it exceedeth my art 
 to say." 
 
 Each individual of the party now bent cu 
 riously over the wound ; but the results of 
 their inquiries went no further than to prove 
 that it was undeniably the horse of the stranger 
 that had forfeited its life. To the fate of its 
 master, however, there was not the slightest 
 clue. Abandoning the investigation, after a 
 long and fruitless examination, they proceeded 
 to finish the circuit of the clearing. Night 
 had approached ere the fatiguing task was 
 accomplished. As Ruth stood at the postern, 
 waiting anxiously for their return, she saw, 
 by the countenance of her husband, that while 
 nothing had transpired to give any grounds of 
 additional alarm, no satisfactory testimony had 
 been obtained, to explain the nature of the 
 painful doubts with which, as a tender and 
 sensitive mother, she had been distressed 
 throughout the day.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 177 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Is there not milking-time, 
 When you go to bed, or kiln-hole, 
 To whistle off these secrets ; but you must be 
 Tattling before all our guests ?" 
 
 Winter's Tak. 
 
 LONG experience hath shewn that the white 
 man, when placed in situations to acquire such 
 knowledge, readily becomes the master of most 
 of that peculiar skill for which the North 
 American Indian is so remarkable ; and which 
 enables him, among other things, to detect the 
 i 3
 
 178 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 signs of a forest trail, with a quickness and 
 an accuracy of intelligence that amount nearly 
 to an instinct. The fears of the family were 
 therefore greatly quieted by the reports of the 
 scouts, all of whom agreed in the opinion that 
 no party of savages, that could be at all dan 
 gerous to a force like their own, was lying 
 near the valley; and some of whom, the 
 loudest of which number being stout Eben 
 Dudley, boldly offered to answer for the se 
 curity of those who depended on their vigi 
 lance with their own lives. These assurances 
 had, beyond a doubt, a soothing influence on 
 the apprehensions of Ruth and her hand 
 maidens; but they somewhat failed of their 
 effect with those unwelcome visiters who still 
 continued to cumber Wish-Ton-Wish with 
 their presence. Though they had evidently 
 abandoned all ideas connected with the ori 
 ginal object of their visit, tney spoke not of 
 departure. On the contrary, as night approach- 
 
 i
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 ed, their chief entered into council with old 
 Mark Heathcote ; and made certain proposi 
 tions for the security of his dwelling which 
 the Puritan saw no reason to oppose. 
 
 A regular watch was in consequence set, 
 and maintained till morning, at the palisadoes. 
 The different members of the family retired 
 to their usual places of rest, tranquil in ap 
 pearance, if not in entire confidence of peace ; 
 and the military messengers took post in the 
 lower of the two fighting apartments of the 
 citadel. With this simple, and, to the strangers, 
 particularly satisfactory arrangement, the hours 
 of darkness passed away in quiet; morning 
 returning to the secluded valley, as it had so 
 often done before, with its loveliness unim 
 paired by violence or tumult. 
 
 In the same peaceful manner did the sun set 
 successively three several times, and as often 
 did it arise on the abode of the Heathcotes 
 without further sign of danger, or motive of
 
 180 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 alarm. With the passage of time, the agents 
 of the Stuart gradually regained their confi 
 dence. Still, they never neglected to withdraw 
 within the protection of the block-house with 
 the retiring light, a post which the subordi 
 nate named Hallam more than once gravely 
 observed they were, by their disciplined and 
 military habits, singularly qualified to main 
 tain. Though the Puritan secretly chafed 
 under this protracted visit, habitual self-denial, 
 and a manner so long subdued, enabled him 
 to conceal his disgust. For the first two days 
 after the alarm, the deportment of his guests 
 was unexceptionable. All their faculties ap 
 peared to be engrossed with keen and anxious 
 watchings of the forest, out of which, it would 
 seem, they expected momentarily to see issue a 
 band of ferocious and ruthless savages; but 
 symptoms of returning levity began to be ap 
 parent, as confidence, and a feeling of secu-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 181 
 
 rity, increased with the quiet passage of the 
 hours. 
 
 It was on the evening of the third day 
 from that on which they had made their ap 
 pearance in the settlement, that the man called 
 Hallam was seen strolling, for the first time, 
 through the postern so often named, and tak 
 ing a direction which led towards the out 
 buildings. His air was less distrustful than 
 it had been for many a weary hour, and 
 his step proportionably confident and assum 
 ing. Instead of wearing, as he had been 
 wont, a pair of heavy horseman's pistols at 
 his girdle, he had even laid aside his broad 
 sword, and appeared more in the guise of 
 one who sought his personal ease, than in 
 that cumbersome and martial attire which all 
 of his party, until now, had deemed it pru 
 dent to maintain. He cast his glance curso 
 rily over the fiel s of the Heathcotes, as they 
 glowed under the soft light of a setting sun ;
 
 182 THE BOKDERERS. 
 
 nor did his eye even refuse to wander va 
 cantly along the outline of that forest, which 
 his imagination had so lately been peopling 
 with beings of a fierce and ruthless nature. 
 
 The hour was one when rustic economy 
 brings the labours of the day to a close. 
 Among those who were more than usually ac 
 tive at that busy moment was a hand-maiden 
 of Ruth, whose clear sweet voice was heard in one 
 of the enclosures, occasionally rising on the notes 
 of a spiritual song, and as often sinking to a 
 nearly inaudible hum, as she extracted from 
 a favourite animal liberal portions of its 
 nightly tribute to the dairy of her mistress. 
 To that enclosure the stranger, as it were by 
 accident, suffered his sauntering footsteps to 
 stroll, seemingly as much in admiration of the 
 sleek herd, as of any other of its comely te 
 nants. 
 
 11 From what thrush hast taken lessons, my 
 pretty maid, that I mistook thy notes for one
 
 THE' BORDERERS. 183 
 
 of the sweetest songsters of thy woods?" he 
 asked, trusting his person to the support of 
 the pen, in an attitude of easy superiority. 
 " One might fancy it a robin or a wren, 
 trolling out his evening song, instead of hu 
 man voice rising and falling in every-day 
 psalmody." 
 
 " The birds of our forest rarely speak," 
 returned the girl ; " and the one among them 
 which has most to say does it like those who 
 are called gentlemen, when they set wit to 
 work to please the ear of simple country 
 maidens." 
 
 " And in what fashion may that be ?" 
 
 " Mockery." 
 
 " Ah ! I have heard of the creature's skill. 
 It is said to be a compound of the harmony of 
 all other forest songsters ; and yet I see little 
 resemblance to the honest language of a soldier 
 in its manner of utterance."
 
 184 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 "It speaketh without much meaning; and 
 oftener to cheat the ear than in honest reason. 11 
 
 " Thou forgettest that which I told thee in 
 the morning, child. It would seem that they 
 who named thee have no great cause to exult 
 in their judgment of character, since Unbelief 
 would better describe thy disposition than 
 Faith." 
 
 " It may be that they who named me, little 
 knew how great must be credulity to give ear 
 to all I have been required to credit." 
 
 " Thou canst have no difficulty in admitting 
 that thou art comely, since the eye itself will 
 support thy belief; nor can one of so quick 
 speech fail to know that her wit is sharper than 
 common. Thus far, I admit, the name of Faith 
 will not surely belie thy character." 
 
 " If Eben Dudley hear thee use such vanity- 
 stirring discourse," returned the half pleased girl, 
 " he might give thee less credit for wit than 
 thou seemest willing to yield to others. I hear
 
 THE BORDERERS. 185 
 
 his heavy foot among the cattle, and ere long 
 we shall be sure to see a face that hath little 
 more of lightness to boast." 
 
 " This Eben Dudley is a personage of no mean 
 importance, I find !" muttered the other, con 
 tinuing his walk, as the borderer named made 
 his appearance at another entrance of the pen. 
 The glances exchanged between them were far 
 from friendly, though the woodsman permitted 
 the stranger to pass without any oral expression 
 of displeasure. 
 
 " The skittish heifer is getting gentle at last, 
 Faith Ring," said the borderer, casting the butt 
 of his musket on the ground with a violence 
 that left a deep impression on the faded sward 
 at his feet, " That brindled ox, old Logger, 
 is not more willing to come into his yoke, than 
 is the four-year-old to yield her milk." 
 
 " The creature has been getting kind, since 
 you taught the manner to tame its humour, 1 " 
 returned the dairy girl, in a voice that, spite of
 
 186 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 every effort of maiden pride, betrayed some 
 thing of the flurry of her spirits, while she 
 plied her light task with violent industry. 
 
 " Umph ! I hope some other of my teachings 
 may be as well remembered ; but thou art quick 
 at the trick of learning, Faith, as is plain by 
 the ready manner in which thou hast so 
 shortly got the habit of discourse with a man as 
 nimble-tongued as yon riding reprobate from 
 over sea." 
 
 *' I hope that civil listening is no proof of 
 unseemly discourse on the part of one who 
 hath been trained in modesty of speech, Eben 
 Dudley. Thou hast often said it was the 
 bounden duty of her who was spoken to, to 
 give ear, lest some might say she was of 
 scornful mind, and her name for pride be better 
 earned than that for good nature." 
 
 " I see that more of my lessons than I had 
 hoped are still in thy keeping. So thou lis-
 
 THE BOUDERERS. 1&7 
 
 tenest thus readily, Faith, because it is meet 
 that a maiden should not be scornful !" 
 
 " Thou sayest so. Whatever ill name I may 
 deserve, thou hast no right to count scorn 
 among my failings." 
 
 If I do, may I " Eben Dudley bit his 
 
 lip, and checked an expression which would 
 have given grievous offence to one whose habits 
 of decency were as severe as those of his com 
 panion. " Thou must have heard much that 
 was profitable to-day, Faith Ring," he added, 
 " considering that thy ear is so open, and that 
 thy opportunities have been great." 
 
 '' I know not what thou wouldst say by 
 speaking of my opportunities," returned the 
 girl, bending still lower beneath the object of 
 her industry, in order to conceal the glow 
 which her own quick consciousness told her 
 was burning on her cheek. 
 
 " I would say that the tale must be long that
 
 188 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 needeth four several trials of private speech to 
 finish." 
 
 " Four ! as I hope to be believed for a girl 
 of truth, in speech or deed, this is but the 
 third time that the stranger hath spoken to me 
 apart, since the sun hath risen." 
 
 " If I know the number of the fingers of my 
 hand, it is the fourth !" 
 
 " Nay, how canst -thou, Eben Dudley, who 
 hast been afield since the crowing of the cock, 
 know what hath passed about the dwellings? It 
 is plain that envy, or some other evil passion, 
 causeth thee to speak angrily."" 
 
 " How is it that I know ! perhaps thou 
 thinkest, Faith, thy brother Reuben only hath 
 the gift of sight." 
 
 " The labour must have gone on with great 
 profit to the Captain, whilst eyes have been 
 roving over other matters ! But perhaps they 
 kept the strong of arm for the lookers-out, and 
 have set them of feebler bodies to the toil."
 
 THE BORDERERS. 189 
 
 " I have not been so careless of thy life as 
 to forget, at passing moments, to cast an eye 
 abroad, pert one. Whatever thou mayst think 
 of the need, there would be fine wailings in the 
 butteries and dairies, did the Wompanoags get 
 into the clearing, and were there none to give 
 the alarm in season." 
 
 " Truly, Eben, thy terror of the child in the 
 block must be grievous for one of thy man 
 hood, else wouldst thou not watch the buildings 
 so narrowly," retorted Faith, laughing; for, with 
 the dexterity of her sex, she began to feel the 
 superiority she was gradually obtaining in the 
 discourse. " Thou dost not remember that we 
 have valiant troopers from old England, to 
 keep the younker from doing harm. But here 
 cometh the brave soldier himself: it will be 
 well to ask vigilance at his hands, or this night 
 may bring us to the tomahawk in our sleep !" 
 
 " Thou speakest of the weapon of the 
 savao-es !" said the messenger, who had drawn
 
 190 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 near again, with a visible willingness to share in 
 an interview which, while he had watched its 
 progress at a distance, appeared to be growing 
 interesting. " I trust all fear is over, from that 
 quarter." 
 
 " As you say, for this quarter,"' said Eben, 
 adjusting his lips to a low whistle, and coolly 
 looking up to examine the heavenly body to 
 which he meant allusion. " But the next 
 quarter may bring us a pretty piece of Indian 
 skirmishing." 
 
 " And what hath the moon in common 
 with an incursion of the savages ? Are there 
 those among them, who study the secrets of the 
 stars ?" 
 
 " They study deviltries and other wicked 
 ness, more than aught else. It is not easy for 
 the mind of man to fancy horrors such as they 
 design, when Providence has given them success 
 in an inroad." 
 
 " But thou didst speak of the moon ! In
 
 THE BORDERERS. 191 
 
 what manner is the moon leagued with their 
 bloody plots ?" 
 
 " We have her now in the full, and there is 
 little of the night when the eye of a watcher 
 might not see a red-skin in the clearing ; 
 but a different tale may be heard when an 
 hour or two of jet darkness shall again fall 
 among these woods. There will be a change 
 shortly ; it behoveth us> therefore, to be on 
 our guard. 1 ' 
 
 " Thou thinkest then, truly, that there are 
 outlyers waiting for the fitting moment, 11 said 
 the officer, with an interest so marked as to 
 cause even the but half pacified Faith to 
 glance an arch look at her companion, though 
 he still had reason to distrust a wilful expres 
 sion that lurked in the corner of her eyes, 
 which threatened at each moment to contra 
 dict his relation of the sinister omens. 
 
 " There may be savages lying in the hills, 
 at a day^ journey in the forest ; but they know
 
 192 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 the aim of a white man's musket too well to 
 be sleeping within reach of its range. It is the 
 nature of an Indian to eat and sleep while he 
 has time for quiet, and to fast and murder 
 when the killing hour hath come." 
 
 " And what call you the distance to the 
 nearest settlement on the Connecticut?" de 
 manded the other, with an air so studiously 
 indifferent as to furnish an easy clue to the 
 inner workings of his mind. 
 
 " Some twenty hours would bring a nimble 
 runner to the outer habitations, granting small 
 time for food and rest. He that is wise, 
 however, will take but little of the latter, until 
 his head be safely housed within some such 
 building as yon block, or until there shall stand 
 between him and the forest at least a goodly 
 row of oaken pickets. 
 
 " There is no path ridden by which tra 
 vellers may avoid the forest during the dark 
 ness ?"
 
 THE BORDERERS. 193 
 
 . j 
 
 " I know of none. He who quits Wish-Ton- 
 Wish for the towns below, must make his pillow 
 of the earth, or be fain to ride as long as beast 
 can carry." 
 
 " We have truly had experience of this 
 necessity, journeying hither. Thou thinkest, 
 friend, the savages are in their resting time, 
 and that they wait the coming quarter of the 
 moon ?" 
 
 " To my seeming we shall not have them 
 sooner," returned Eben Dudley, taking care 
 to conceal all qualification of this opinion, 
 if any such he entertained, by closely locking 
 its purport in a mental reservation. 
 
 " And what season is it usual to choose for 
 getting into the saddle, when business calls any 
 to the settlements below ?" 
 
 u We never fail to take our departure 
 about the time the sun touches the tall pine, 
 which stands on yonder height of the mountain. 
 Much experience hath told us it is the safest 
 
 VOL. i. r
 
 194 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 hour ; hand of time-piece is not more sure than 
 yon tree." 
 
 " I like the night," said the other, looking 
 about him with the air of one suddenly struck 
 with the promising appearance of the weather. 
 " The blackness no longer hangs about the 
 forest, and it seems a fitting moment to push 
 the matter on which we are sent nearer to its 
 conclusion.'' 
 
 So saying, and probably believing that he 
 had sufficiently concealed the motive of his 
 decision, the uneasy dragoon walked with an 
 air of soldierly coolness towards the dwellings, 
 signing at the same time to one of his compa 
 nions, who was regarding him from a distance, 
 to approach. 
 
 u Now dost thou believe, witless Dudley, 
 that the four fingers of thy clumsy hand have 
 numbered the full amount of all that thou 
 callest my listenings!" said Faith, when she 
 thought no other ear but his to whom she
 
 THE BORDERERS. 195 
 
 spoke could catch her words, and at the same, 
 time laughing merrily beneath her heifer, 
 though still speaking with a vexation she could 
 not entirely repress. 
 
 " Have I spoken aught but truth ? It is 
 not for such as I to give lessons in journeying, 
 to one who follows the honest trade of a 
 man-hunter. I have said that which all 
 who dwell in these parts know to be rea 
 sonable." 
 
 " Surely nought else. But truth is made 
 so powerful in thy hands, that it needs be 
 taken, like a bitter healing draught, with closed 
 eyes and at many swallows. One who drinketh 
 of it too freely, may well nigh be strangled. 
 I marvel that he who is so vigilant in providing 
 for the cares of others, should take so little 
 heed of those he is set to guard." 
 
 " I know not thy meaning, Faith. When 
 was danger near the valley, and my musket 
 wanting ?"
 
 196 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 u The good piece is truer to duty than its 
 master. Thou mayest have lawful license to 
 sleep on thy post, for we maidens know nothing 
 of the pleasure of the Captain in these matters ; 
 but it would be as seemly, if not as soldierly, 
 to place the arms at the postern and thy 
 self in the chambers, when next thou hast 
 need of watching and sleeping in the same 
 hour." 
 
 Dudley looked as confused as one of his 
 mould and unbending temperament might well 
 be, though he stubbornly refused to understand 
 the allusion of his offended companion. 
 
 u Thou hast not discussed with the trooper 
 from over sea in vain," he said, " since thou 
 speakest so wisely of watches and arms." 
 
 " Truly he hath much schooled me in the 
 matter." 
 
 " Umph ! and what may be the amount of 
 his teaching ?" 
 
 " That he who sleepeth at a postern should 
 
 '
 
 THE BORDERERS. 197 
 
 neither talk too boldly of the enemy, nor expect 
 maidens to put too mucn trust " 
 
 " In what, Faith ?" 
 
 " Thou surely knowest I mean in his watch 
 fulness. My life on it, had one happened to 
 pass at a later hour than common near the 
 night-post of that gentle-spoken soldier, he 
 would not have been found, like a sentinel of 
 this household in the second watch of the night 
 that is gone, dreaming of the good things of 
 the madam's buttery." 
 
 " Didst truly come then, girl ?" said Eben, 
 dropping his voice, and equally manifesting his 
 satisfaction and his shame. " But thou knowest. 
 Faith, that the labour had fallen behind 
 in behalf of the scouting party, and that 
 the toil of yesterday exceeded that of our 
 usual burthens. Nevertheless I keep the pos 
 tern again to-night, from eight to twelve, 
 and" 
 
 t( Will make a goodly rest of it, I doubt
 
 198 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 not. No, he who hath been so vigilant 
 throughout the day, must needs tire of the 
 task as night draws on. Fare thee well, wake 
 ful Dudley ; if thine eyes should open on 
 the morrow, be thankful that the maidens 
 have not stitched thy garments to the pali- 
 sadoes 1" 
 
 Notwithstanding the efforts of the young 
 man to detain her, the light-footed girl eluded 
 his grasp, and bearing her burden towards 
 the dairy, she tripped along the path with 
 a half-averted face, in which triumph and 
 repentance were already struggling for the 
 possession. 
 
 In the mean time, the leader of the messen 
 gers and his military subordinate had a long 
 and interesting conference. When it was 
 ended, the former took his way to the apart 
 ment in which Mark Heathcote was wont 
 to pass those portions of his time, that were 
 not occupied in his secret strivings for the
 
 THE BORDERERS. 199 
 
 faith, or in exercise without, while superintend 
 ing the labourers in the fields. With some 
 little circumlocution, which was intended to 
 mask his real motives, the agent of the King 
 announced his intention to take his final depar 
 ture that very night. 
 
 " I felt it a duty as one who has gained 
 experience in arms by some practice in the 
 wars of Europe," he said, "to tarry in thy 
 dwelling while danger threatened from the 
 lurking savage. It would ill become soldiers 
 to speak of their intentions; but had the alarm 
 in truth sounded, thou wilt give faith when I 
 say that the block-house would not have been 
 lightly yielded ! I shall make report to them 
 that sent me, that in Captain Mark Heathcote 
 Charles hath a loyal subject, and the Con 
 stitution a firm supporter. The rumours of a 
 seemingly mistaken description, which have led 
 us hither, shall be contradicted, and doubtless 
 it will be found that some accident hath given
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 rise to the deception. Should there be occasion 
 to dwell on the particulars of the late alarm, I 
 trust the readiness of my followers to do good 
 service to one of the King's subjects, will not 
 be overlooked." 
 
 " It is the striving of a. humble spirit to 
 speak nought evil of its fellows, and to con 
 ceal no good," returned the reserved Puritan. 
 " If thou hast found thy abode in my dwelling 
 to thy liking, thou art welcome ; and if duty 
 or pleasure calleth thee to quit it, peace go 
 with thee. It will be useful to unite with us 
 in asking that thy passage through the wilder 
 ness may be unharmed ; that He who watcheth 
 over the meanest of his creatures should take 
 thee in his especial keeping; and that the 
 savage heathen " 
 
 " Dost think the savage out of his villages ?" 
 demanded the messenger, with an indecorous 
 rapidity, that cut short the enumeration of 
 the particular blessings and dangers that his
 
 THE BORDERERS. 201 
 
 host thought it meet to include in the leave- 
 taking prayer. 
 
 " Thou surely hast not tarried with us to 
 aid in the defence, and yet feel it doubtful 
 that thy services might be useful?" observed 
 Mark Heathcote, drily. 
 
 " I would the Prince of Darkness had thee 
 and all the other diabolicals of these woods 
 in his own good gripe I* muttered the mes 
 senger between his teeth; and then, as if 
 guided by a spirit that could not long be 
 quelled, he assumed something more of his 
 unbridled and natural air, boldly declining 
 to join in the prayer, on the plea of haste, 
 and the necessity of his looking in person to 
 the movements of his followers. "But this 
 need not prevent thee, worthy Captain, from 
 pouring out an asking in our behalf, while we 
 are in the saddle," he concluded ; " for our 
 selves, there remaineth much of thy previously 
 bestowed pious aliment to be digested, though 
 K 3
 
 202 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 we doubt not that should thy voice be raised 
 in our behalf, while journeying along the first 
 few leagues of the forest, the tread of the 
 hacks would not be heavier, and, it is certainty, 
 that we ourselves should be none the worse 
 for the favour." 
 
 Then casting a glance of ill-concealed levity 
 at one of his followers, who had come to say 
 that their steeds awaited, he made the parting 
 salutation with an air, in which the respect 
 that one like the Puritan could scarce fail to 
 excite, struggled with his habitual contempt 
 for things of a serious character. 
 
 The family of Mark Heathcote, the lowest 
 dependant included, saw these strangers de 
 part with great inward satisfaction. Even the 
 maidens, in whom nature, in moments weaker 
 than common, had awakened some of the 
 lighter vanities, were gladly rid of gallants, 
 who could not soothe their ears with the unction 
 of flattery, without frequently giving great
 
 THE BORDERERS. 203 
 
 offence to their severe principles by light and 
 irreverent allusions to things on which they 
 themselves were accustomed to think with 
 fitting, awe. Eben Dudley could scarcely 
 conceal the chuckle with which he saw the 
 party bury themselves in the forest, though 
 neither he, nor any of the more instructed in 
 such matters, believed they incurred serious 
 risk from their sudden enterprise. 
 
 The opinions of the scouts proved to be 
 founded on accurate premises. That and many 
 a subsequent night passed without alarm. The 
 season continued to advance, and the labour 
 ers pursued their toil to its close, without 
 another appeal to their courage, or any ad 
 ditional reasons for vigilance. Whittal Ring 
 followed his colts with impunity, among the 
 recesses of the neighbouring forests, and the 
 herds of the family went and came, as long 
 as the weather would permit them to range 
 the woods, in regularity and peace. The pe-
 
 204 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 riod of the alarm, and the visit of the agents 
 of the crown, came to be food for tradition : 
 and during the succeeding winter, the former 
 often furnished motive of merriment around 
 the blazing fires that were so necessary to the 
 country and the season. 
 
 Still there existed in the family a living 
 memorial of the unusual incidents of that 
 night. The captive remained, long after the 
 events which had placed him in the power of 
 the Heathcotes were beginning to be for 
 gotten. 
 
 A desire to quicken the seeds of spiritual 
 regeneration which, however dormant they 
 might be, old Mark Heathcote believed to 
 exist in the whole family of man, and conse 
 quently in the young heathen as well as in 
 others, had become a sort of ruling passion in 
 the Puritan. The fashions and mode of 
 thinking of the times had a strong leaning 
 towards superstition: and it was far from diffi-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 cult for a man of his ascetic habits and exag 
 gerated doctrines, to believe that a special in 
 terposition had cast the boy into his hands, 
 for some hidden but mighty purpose, that time 
 in the good season would not fail to reveal. 
 
 Notwithstanding the strong colouring of fa 
 naticism which tinged the characters of the 
 religionists of those days, they were rarely 
 wanting in worldly discretion. The agents 
 they saw fit to employ, in order to aid the 
 more hidden purposes of Providence, were in 
 common useful and rational. Thus, while 
 Mark never forgot to summon the lad from 
 his prison at the hour of prayer, or to include 
 an especial asking, in behalf of the ignorant 
 heathen in general, and of this chosen youth x 
 in particular, he hesitated to believe that a 
 manifest miracle would be exerted in his favour. 
 That no blame might attach to the portion 
 of duty that was confided to human means, he 
 had recourse to the discreet agency of kindness
 
 206 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 and unremitted care. But all attempts to lure 
 the lad into the habits of a civilized man were 
 completely unsuccessful. As the severity of 
 the weather increased, the compassionate and 
 thoughtful Ruth endeavoured to induce him 
 to adopt the garments that were found so ne 
 cessary to the comfort of men, who were 
 greatly his superiors in hardihood and in 
 strength. Clothes, decorated in a fashion suit 
 ed to the taste of an Indian, were conside 
 rately provided, and entreaties and threats 
 were both freely used, with a view to make 
 the captive wear them. On one occasion he 
 was even forcibly clad by Eben Dudley, and 
 being brought, in the unwonted guise, into 
 the presence of old Mark, the latter offered 
 up an especial petition that the youth might 
 be made to feel the merits of this concession 
 to the principles of a chastened and instructed 
 man. But within an hour, the stout woodsman, 
 who had been made on the occasion so active
 
 THE BORDERERS. 207 
 
 an instrument of civilization, announced to the 
 admiring Faith that the experiment was un 
 successful ; or, as Eben somewhat irreverently 
 described the extraordinary effort of the Pu 
 ritan, " the heathen hath already resumed his 
 skin leggings and painted waist-cloth, notwith 
 standing the Captain has strove to pin better 
 garments on his back, by virtue of a prayer 
 that might have clothed the nakedness of a 
 whole tribe." In short the result proved, in 
 the case of this lad, as similar experiments 
 have since proved in so many other instances, 
 the difficulty of tempting one trained in the 
 freedom and ease of a savage, to consent to 
 admit of the restraints of a state of being that 
 is commonly thought to be so much superior. 
 In every instance in which the youthful captive 
 had liberty of choice, he disdainfully rejected 
 the customs of the whites, adhering, with a 
 singular and almost heroic pertinacity, to the 
 usages of his people and his condition. 

 
 208 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 The boy was not kept in his bondage with 
 out extraordinary care. Once, when trusted 
 in the fields, he had openly attempted to 
 escape, nor was the possession of his person 
 recovered without putting the speed of Eben 
 Dudley and Reuben Ring to a more severe 
 trial, as was confessed by the athletic young 
 borderers themselves, than any they had hither 
 to undergone. From that moment he was 
 never permitted to pass the palisadoes. When 
 duty called the labourers afield the captive was 
 invariably secured in his prison, where, as 
 some compensation for his confinement, he was 
 supposed to enjoy the benefit of long and 
 familiar communication with Mark Heathcote, 
 who had the habit of passing many hours of 
 each day, and, not unfrequently, long por 
 tions of the night too, within the retirement 
 of the block-house. During the time only 
 when the gates were closed, or when some one 
 of strength and activity sufficient to control
 
 THE BORDERERS. 209 
 
 his movements was present, was the lad per 
 mitted to stroll, at will, among the buildings 
 of the border fortress. This liberty he never 
 failed to exercise, and often in a manner that 
 overcame the affectionate Ruth with a painful 
 excess of sensibility. 
 
 Instead of joining in the play of the other 
 children, the young captive would stand aloof, 
 and regard their sports with a vacant eye: or, 
 drawing near to the palisadoes, he often passed 
 hours in gazing wistfully at those endless forests 
 in which he first drew breath, and which pro 
 bably contained all that was most prized in 
 the estimation of his simple judgment. Ruth, 
 touched to the heart by this silent but expres 
 sive exhibition of suffering, endeavoured in vain 
 to win his confidence, with a view of enticing 
 him into employments that might serve to re 
 lieve his care. The resolute but still quiet boy 
 would not be lured into a forgetfulness of his 
 origin. He appeared to comprehend the kind
 
 210 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 intentions of his gentle mistress, and frequently 
 he even suffered himself to be led by the mother 
 into the centre of her own joyous and merry 
 offspring, but it was only to look upon their 
 amusements with his former cold air, and to 
 return, at the first opportunity, to his beloved 
 site at the pickets. Still there were singular 
 and even mysterious evidences of a growing 
 consciousness of the nature of the discourse of 
 which he was occasionally an auditor, that would 
 have betrayed greater familiarity with the lan 
 guage and opinions of the inhabitants of the 
 valley, than his known origin and his absolute 
 withdrawal from communication could give rea 
 son to expect. This important and inexplicable 
 fact was proved by the frequent and, meaning 
 glances of his dark eye, when aught was uttered 
 in his hearing that affected, ever so remotely, 
 his own condition : and, once or twice, by the 
 haughty gleamings of ferocity that escaped him, 
 when Eben Dudley was heard to vaunt the
 
 THE BORDEREES. 211 
 
 prowess of the white men in their encounters 
 with the original owners of the country. The 
 Puritan did not fail to note these symptoms of a 
 budding intelligence, as the pledges of a fruit 
 that would more than reward his pious toil, and 
 they served to furnish a great relief to certain 
 occasional repugnance, which all his zeal could 
 not entirely subdue, at being the instrument of 
 causing so much suffering to one who, after all, 
 had inflicted no positive wrong on himself. 
 
 At the period of which we are writing, the 
 climate of these States differed materially from 
 that which is now known to their inhabitants. 
 A winter in the Province of Connecticut was 
 attended by many successive falls of snow, until 
 the earth was entirely covered with firmly com 
 pressed masses of the frozen element. Occa 
 sional thaws and passing storms of rain, that 
 were driven away by a return of the clear and 
 cutting cold of the north-western gales, were 
 wont at times to lay a covering on the ground
 
 212 THE BORDEEERS. 
 
 that was congealed to the consistency of ice, 
 until men, and not unfrequently beasts, and 
 sometimes sleighs, were seen moving on its sur 
 face, as on the bed of a frozen lake. During 
 the extremity of a season like this, the hardy 
 borderers, who could not toil in their customary 
 pursuits, were wont to range the forest in quest 
 of game, which, driven for food to known resort 
 ing places in the woods, then fell most easily a 
 prey to the intelligence and skill of such men as 
 Eben Dudley and Reuben Ring. 
 
 The youths never left the dwellings on these 
 hunts without exciting the most touching inte 
 rest in their movements, on the part of the 
 Indian boy. On all such occasions he would 
 linger at the loops of his prison throughout the 
 day, listening intently to the reports of the dis 
 tant muskets, as they resounded in the forest, 
 and the only time, during a captivity of so many 
 months, that he was ever seen to smile, was 
 when he examined the grim look and muscular
 
 THE BORDERERS. 213 
 
 claws of a dead panther, that had fallen beneath 
 the aim of Dudley, in one of these excursions 
 to the mountains. The compassion of all the 
 borderers was powerfully awakened in behalf of 
 the patient and dignified young sufferer, and 
 gladly would they have given their captive the 
 pleasure of joining in the chase, had not the task 
 been one that was far from easy of accomplish 
 ment. The former of the woodsmen just men 
 tioned had even volunteered to lead him, like a 
 hound in a leash ; but this was a species of de 
 gradation against which it was certain that a 
 young Indian, ambitious of the character and 
 jealous of the dignity of a warrior, would have 
 openly rebelled. 
 
 The quick interest of the observant Ruth had, 
 as it has been seen, early detected a growing 
 intelligence in the boy. The means by which 
 one, who never mingled in the employments, and 
 who rarely seemed to listen to the dialogues of 
 the family, could come to comprehend the mean-
 
 214 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 ing of a language that is found sufficiently diffi 
 cult for a scholar, were, however, as much of a 
 mystery to her, as to all around her. Still, by 
 the aid of that instinctive tact, which so often 
 enlightens the mind of woman, was she certain 
 of the fact. Profiting by this knowledge, she 
 assumed the task of endeavouring to obtain an 
 honorary pledge from her protege, that, if per 
 mitted to join the hunters, he would return to 
 the valley at the end of the day. But though 
 the language of the woman was gentle as her 
 own kind nature, and her entreaties that he 
 would give some evidence of having compre 
 hended her meaning were zealous and oft re 
 peated, not the smallest symptom of intelligence, 
 on this occasion, could be extracted from her 
 pupil. Disappointed, and not without sorrow, 
 Ruth had abandoned the compassionate design 
 in despair, when, on a sudden, the old Puritan, 
 who had been a silent spectator of her fruitless 
 efforts, announced his faith in the integrity of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 215 
 
 the lad, and his intention to permit him to make 
 one of the very next party that should leave 
 the habitations. 
 
 The cause of this sudden change in the hi 
 therto stern watchfulness of Mark Heathcote 
 was, like so many other of his impulses, a secret 
 in his own bosom. It has just been said, that 
 during the time Ruth was engaged in her kind 
 and fruitless experiment to extract some evi 
 dence of intelligence from the boy, the Puritan 
 was a close and interested observer of her efforts. 
 He appeared to sympathize in her disappoint 
 ment ; but the weal of those unconverted tribes 
 who were to be led from the darkness of their 
 ways by the instrumentality of this youth, was 
 far too important to admit the thought of rashly 
 losing the vantage ground he had gained, in the 
 gradually expanding intellect of the boy, by 
 running the hazard of an escape. To all ap 
 pearance, the intention of permitting him to quit 
 the defences had therefore been entirely aban-
 
 216 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 doned, when old Mark so suddenly announced 
 a change of resolution. The conjectures on the 
 causes of this unlocked for determination were 
 exceedingly various. Some believed that the 
 Puritan had been favoured with a mysterious 
 intimation of the pleasure of Providence, in the 
 matter : and others thought that, beginning to 
 despair of success in his undertaking, he was 
 willing to seek for a more visible manifestation 
 of its purposes, by hazarding the experiment of 
 trusting the boy to the direction of his own im 
 pulses. All appeared to be of opinion, that if 
 the lad returned, the circumstance might be set 
 down to the intervention of a miracle. Still, 
 with his resolution once taken, the purpose of 
 Mark Heathcote remained unchanged. He 
 announced this unexpected intention after one 
 of his long and solitary visits to the block-house, 
 where it is possible he had held a powerful spi 
 ritual strife on the occasion : and, as the weather 
 was exceedingly favourable for such an object,
 
 THE BORDEBERS. 217 
 
 he commanded his dependants to prepare to 
 make the sortie on the following morning. 
 
 A sudden and an uncontrollable gleam of 
 delight flashed on the dark features of the 
 captive, when Ruth was about to place in his 
 hands the bow of her own son, and, by signs 
 and words, she gave him to understand that 
 he was to be permitted to use it in the free air 
 of the forest. But the exhibition of pleasure 
 disappeared as quickly as it had been betrayed. 
 When the lad received the weapons, it was 
 rather with the manner of a hunter accus 
 tomed to their use, than of one to whose 
 hands they had so long been strangers. As 
 he left the gates of Wish-Ton-Wish, the hand 
 maidens of Ruth clustered about him, in won 
 dering interest, for it was strange to see a 
 youth so long guarded with jealous care, again 
 free and unwatched. Notwithstanding their 
 ordinary dependance on the secret lights and 
 great wisdom of the Puritan, there was a very 
 
 VOL. i. L
 
 218 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 general impression that the lad, around whose 
 presence there was so much that was mysterious 
 and of interest to their own security, was now 
 to be gazed upon for the last time. The boy 
 himself was unmoved to the last. Still he 
 paused, with his foot on the threshold of the 
 dwelling, and appeared to regard Ruth and 
 her young offspring with momentary concern. 
 Then, assuming the calm air of an Indian 
 warrior, he suffered his eye to grow cold and 
 vacant, following with a nimble step the hunt 
 ers, who were already passing without the 
 palisadoes.
 
 THE BOKDERERS. 219 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Well, I am your theme ; you have the start of me ; I am 
 dejected; lam not able to answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance 
 itself is a plummet over me : use me as you will." 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 .POETS, aided by the general longing of 
 human nature, have given a reputation to the 
 Spring that it rarely merits. Though this 
 imaginative class of writers have said so much 
 
 O 
 
 of its balmy airs and odoriferous gales, we find 
 it nearly everywhere the most reluctant, chur 
 lish, and fickle of the four seasons. It is the 
 L 2
 
 220 THE BOJIDERERS. 
 
 youth of the year, and, like that probationary 
 period of life, most fitted to afford the promise 
 of better things. There is a constant struggle 
 between reality and hope, throughout the whole 
 of this slow-moving and treacherous period, 
 which has an unavoidable tendency to deceive. 
 All that is said of its grateful productions is 
 fallacious, for the earth is as little likely to 
 yield a generous tribute without the quickening 
 influence of the summer heats, as man is wont 
 to bring forth commendable fruits, without the 
 agency of a higher moral power than any he 
 possesses in virtue of his innate propensities. 
 On the other hand, the fall of the year possesses 
 a sweetness, a repose, and a consistency, which 
 may be justly likened to the decline of a well 
 spent life. It is, in all countries, and in every 
 climate, the period when physical and moral 
 causes unite to furnish the richest sources of 
 enjoyment. If the Spring is the time of hope, 
 Autumn is the season of fruition. There is
 
 THE BORDERERS. 221 
 
 just enough of change to give zest to the cur 
 rent of existence, while there is too little of 
 vicissitude to be pregnant of disappointment. 
 Succeeding to the nakedness of Winter, the 
 Spring is grateful by comparison, while the 
 glories of Autumn are enjoyed, after the genial 
 powers of Summer have been lavishly ex 
 pended. 
 
 In obedience to this great law of the earth, 
 let poets sing and fancy as they may, the 
 
 f 
 
 Spring and Autumn of America partake largely 
 of the universally distinctive characters of the 
 rival seasons. What Nature has done on this 
 continent has not been done niggardly: and 
 while we may boast of a decline of the year, 
 that certainly rivals, and, with few exceptions, 
 eclipses the glories of most of the climates of 
 the old world, the opening months rarely fail 
 of equalizing the gifts of Providence, by a very 
 decided exhibition of all the disagreeable qua 
 lities for which they are remarkable.
 
 222 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 More than half a year had elapsed, between 
 the time when the Indian boy had been found 
 lurking in the valley of the Heathcotes and 
 that day when he was first permitted to go 
 into the forest, fettered by no other restraint 
 than the moral tie which the owner of the 
 valley either knew, or fancied, would not fail 
 to cause him to return to a bondage he had 
 found so irksome. It was April ; but it was 
 April as the month was known a century ago 
 in Connecticut, and as it is even now so often 
 found to disappoint all expectations of that 
 capricious season of the year. The weather 
 had returned suddenly and violently to the 
 rigour of winter. A thaw had been succeeded 
 by a storm of snow and sleet, and the interlude 
 of the spring-time of blossoms had terminated 
 with a biting gale from the north-west, which 
 had apparently placed a permanent seal on the 
 lingering presence of a second February. 
 
 On the morning that Content led his follow-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 223 
 
 ers into the forest, they issued from the postern 
 clad in coats of skin. Their lower limbs were 
 protected by the coarse leggings which they 
 had worn in so many previous hunts, during 
 the past winter, if that might be called past 
 which had returned, weakened but little of its 
 keenness, and bearing all the outward marks 
 of January. When last seen, Eben Dudley, 
 the heaviest of the band, was moving firmly 
 on the crust of the snow, with a step as sure 
 as if he had trodden on the frozen earth itself. 
 More than one of the maidens declared, that 
 though they had endeavoured to trace the foot 
 steps of the hunters from the palisadoes, it 
 would have exceeded even the sagacity of an 
 Indian eye to follow their trail along the icy 
 path they travelled. 
 
 Hour after hour passed, without bringing 
 tidings from the chase. The reports of fire 
 arms had indeed been occasionally heard, ring 
 ing among the arches of the woods, and broken
 
 224 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 echoes were, for some hours, rolling from one 
 recess of the hills to another. But even these 
 signs of the presence of the hunters gradually 
 receded with the advance of the day : and long 
 ere the sun had gained the meridian, and its 
 warmth at that advanced season, not without 
 power was shed into the valley, the whole 
 range of the adjoining forest lay in its ordinary 
 dull and solemn silence. 
 
 The incident of the hunt, apart from the 
 absence of the Indian boy, was one of too com 
 mon occurrence to give birth to any particular 
 motives of excitement. Ruth quietly busied 
 herself among her women : and when the recol- 
 ection of those who were scouring the neigh 
 bouring forest came at all to her mind, it was 
 coupled with the care with which she was pro 
 viding to administer to their comforts, after the 
 fatigue of a day of extraordinary personal 
 efforts. This was a duty never lightly per 
 formed. Her situation was one eminently fitted
 
 THE BOUDERERS. 225 
 
 to foster the best affections of woman, since it 
 admitted of few temptations to yield to other 
 than the most natural feelings ; she was, in con 
 sequence, known on all occasions to exercise 
 them with the devotedness of her sex. 
 
 " Thy father and his companions will look on 
 our care with pleasure," said the thoughtful 
 matron to her youthful image, as she directed 
 a more than usual provision of her larder to be 
 got in readiness for the hunters ; " home is ever 
 sweetest after toil and exposure." 
 
 " I doubt if Mark be not ready to faint with 
 so weary a march," said the child already intro 
 duced by the name ( of Martha ; " he is young 
 to go into the woods, with scouters tall as great 
 Dudley." 
 
 " And the heathen," added the little Ruth ; 
 " he is young too as Mark, though more used 
 to the toil. It may be, mother, that he will 
 never come to us more !" 
 
 " That would grieve our venerable parent ; 
 L 3
 
 226 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 for thou knowest. Ruth, that he hath hopes of 
 working on the mind of the boy, until his 
 savage nature shall yield to the secret power. 
 But the sun is falling behind the hill, and the 
 evening is coming in cool as winter ; go to the 
 postern, and look out upon the fields. I would 
 know if there be any signs of thy father and his 
 party." 
 
 Though Ruth gave this mandate to her 
 daughter, she did not the less neglect to exercise 
 her own faculties in the same grateful office. 
 While the children went, as they were ordered, 
 to the outer gate, the matron herself ascended 
 to the lower apartment of the block, and, from 
 its different loops, she took a long and anxious 
 survey of the limited prospect. The shadows 
 of the trees, that lined the western side of the 
 view, were already thrown far across the broad 
 sheet of frozen snow, and the sudden chill, 
 which succeeded the disappearance of the sun, 
 announced the rapid approach of a night that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 227 
 
 promised to support the severe character of the 
 past day. A freezing wind, which had brought 
 with it the cold airs of the great lakes, and 
 which had even triumphed over the more natu 
 ral influence of an April sun, had however 
 fallen, leaving a temperature not unlike that 
 which dwells in the milder seasons of the year 
 among the glaciers of the Upper Alps. 
 
 Ruth was too long accustomed to such forest 
 scenes, and to such a * ' lingering of winter in 
 the lap of May," to feel, on their account, any 
 additional uneasiness. But the hour had now 
 arrived when she had reason to look for the 
 return of the hunters. With the expectation 
 of seeing their forms issuing from the forest, 
 came the anxiety which is an unavoidable at 
 tendant of disappointment. The shadows con 
 tinued to deepen in the valley, until the gloom 
 thickened to the darkness of night, without 
 bringing any tidings from those without. 
 
 When a delay, which was unusual in the
 
 228 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 members of a family circumstanced like that of 
 the Wish -Ton-Wish, came to be coupled with 
 various little observations that had been made 
 during the day, it was thought that reasons for 
 alarm were beginning, at each instant, to grow 
 more plausible. Reports of fire-arms had been 
 heard, at an early hour, from opposite points in 
 the hills, and in a manner too distinct to be 
 mistaken for echoes a certain proof that the 
 different members of the hunt had separated in 
 the forest. Under such circumstances, it was 
 not difficult for the imagination of a wife and a 
 mother, of a sister, or of her who secretly con 
 fessed a still more tender interest in some one 
 of the hunters, to conjure to the imagination 
 the numberless dangers to which those who were 
 engaged in these expeditions were known to be 
 exposed. 
 
 " I doubt that the chase hath drawn them 
 further from the valley than is fitting for the 
 hour and the season," observed Ruth to her
 
 THE BORDERERS. 229 
 
 maidens, who had gathered in a group about 
 her, at a point that overlooked as much of the 
 cleared land around the buildings as the dark 
 ness would allow ; " the gravest man becomes 
 thoughtless as the unreflecting child when led 
 by the eagerness of the pursuit. It is the duty 
 of older heads to think for those that want 
 experience. But into what indiscreet complaints 
 are my fears leading ! It may be that my hus 
 band is even now striving to collect his party, 
 in order to return. Hast any heard his conch 
 sounding the recall ?"" 
 
 "The woods are still as the day the first 
 echo of the axe was heard among the trees," 
 returned Faith. " I did hear that which 
 sounded like a strain of brawling Dudley's 
 songs, but it proved to be no more than the 
 lowing of one of his own oxen. Perchance the 
 animal misseth some of its master's care." 
 
 u Whittal Ring hath looked to the beasts, 
 and it may not be that he hath neglected to
 
 230 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 feed, among others, the creatures of Dudley. 
 Thy mind is given to levity, Faith, in the 
 matter of this .young man. It is not seemly 
 that one of thy years and sex should manifest 
 so great displeasure at the name of a youth, 
 who is of an honest nature, and of honest ha 
 bits, too, though he may appear ungainly to the 
 eye, and have so little favour with one of thy 
 disposition." 
 
 " I did not fashion the man," said Faith, 
 biting her lip and tossing her head ; " nor is it 
 aught to me whether he be gainly or not. As 
 to my favour, when he asks it, the man shall 
 not wait long to know the answer. But is not 
 yon figure the fellow himself, Madame Heath- 
 cote here, coming in from the eastern hill, along 
 the orchard path ? The form I mean is just 
 here ; you may see it at this moment turning 
 by the bend in the brook." 
 
 " There is one, of a certainty, and it should 
 be one of our hunting party, too ; and yet he
 
 THE BORUERERS. 231 
 
 doth not seem to be of a size, or of a gait like 
 that of Eben Dudley. Thou shouldst have a 
 knowledge of thy kindred, girl ; to me it seera- 
 eth thy brother." 
 
 " Truly, it may be Reuben Ring ; still it 
 hath much of the swagger of the other, though 
 their stature be nearly equal. The manner of 
 carrying the musket is much the same with all 
 the borderers, too. One cannot easily tell the 
 form of man from a stump by this light and, 
 yet do I think it will prove to be the loitering 
 Dudley. 1 ' 
 
 " Loiterer or not, he is the first to return 
 from this long and weary chase, 1 ' said Ruth, 
 breathing heavily, like one who regretted that 
 the truth were so. " Go thou to the postern, 
 and admit him, girl. I ordered bolts to be 
 drawn, for I like not to leave a fortress defended 
 by a female garrison, at this hour, with open 
 gates. I will hie to the dwelling, and see to 
 the comforts of those who are a-hungered, since
 
 232 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 it will not be long ere we shall have more of 
 them at hand." 
 
 Faith complied, with affected indifference 
 and sufficient delay. By the time she had 
 reached the place of admission, a form was seen 
 ascending the acclivity, and taking the direction 
 which led to the same spot. In the next mi 
 nute, a rude effort to enter announced an arrival 
 without. 
 
 "Gently, Master Dudley/' said the wilful 
 girl, who held the bolt with one hand, though 
 she maliciously delayed to remove it. " We 
 know thou art powerful of arm, and yet the 
 palisadoes will scarcely fall at thy touch. Here 
 are no Samsons to pull down the pillars on 
 our heads. Perhaps we may not be disposed to 
 give entrance to them who stay abroad out of 
 all season." 
 
 " Open the postern, girl," said Eben Dudley ; 
 "after which, if thou hast aught to say, we 
 shall be better convenienced for discourse."
 
 THE BORDERERS. 233 
 
 . " It may be that thy conversation is most 
 agreeable when heard from without. Render 
 an account of thy backslidings throughout this 
 day, penitent Dudley, that I may take pity on 
 thy weariness. But Test hunger should have 
 overcome thy memory, I may serve to help thee 
 to the particulars. The first of thy offences 
 was to consume more than thy portion of the 
 cold meats; the second was to suffer Reuben 
 Ring to kill the deer, and for thee to claim it ; 
 and a third was the trick thou hast of listen 
 ing so much to thine own voice, that even 
 the beasts fled thee, from dislike of thy 
 noise." 
 
 " Thou triflest unseasonably, Faith ; I would 
 speak with the Captain without delay." 
 
 " It may be that he is better employed than 
 to desire such company. Thou art not the only 
 strange animal by many who hath roared at the 
 gate of Wish-Ton- Wish." & 
 
 " Have any come within the day, Faith ? v
 
 234 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 demanded the borderer, with the interest such 
 an event would be likely to create in the mind 
 of one who habitually lived in so great retire 
 ment. 
 
 " What sayest thou to a second visit from the 
 gentle spoken stranger, he who favoured us 
 with so much gay discourse, the by-gone fall of 
 the year ? That would be a guest fit to receive ! 
 I warrant me his knock would not be heard a 
 second time." 
 
 " The gallant had better beware the moon !" 
 exclaimed Dudley, striking the but of his 
 musket against the ice with so much force as to 
 cause his companion to start in alarm. " What 
 fool's errand hath again brought him to prick 
 his nag so deep into the forest ?" 
 
 " Nay, thy wit is ever like the unbroken colt, 
 a head-strong run-away. I said not in full 
 meaning, that the man had come ; I only in 
 vited thee to give an opinion in the event that 
 he should arrive unexpectedly, though I am far
 
 THE BORDERERS. 235 
 
 from certain that any here ever expect to see 
 his face again." 
 
 " This is foolish prating," returned the youth, 
 provoked at the exhibition of jealousy into 
 which he had been incautiously betrayed. " I 
 tell thee to withdraw the bolt, for I have great 
 need to speak with the Captain, or with his 
 son." 
 
 " Thou mayest open thy mind to the first, if 
 he will listen to what thou hast to say," re 
 turned the girl, removing the impediment to 
 his entrance ; " but thou wilt sooner get the 
 ear of the other by remaining at the gate, 
 since he has not yet come in from the 
 forest." 
 
 Dudley recoiled a pace, and repeated her 
 words, in the tone of one who admitted a feeling 
 of alarm to mingle with his surprise. 
 
 " Not in from the forest !" he said ; " surely 
 there are none abroad, now that I am 
 home F
 
 236 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 * Why dost say it ? I have put my jibes 
 upon thee more in payment of ancient trans 
 gressions than for any present offence. So far 
 from being last, thou art the first of the hunters 
 we have yet seen. Go in to the Madam without 
 delay, and tell her of the danger, if any there 
 be, that we take speedy measures for our 
 safety." 
 
 10 
 
 " That would do little good, truly," mut 
 tered the borderer, like one musing. " Stay 
 thou here, and watch the postern, Faith ; I 
 will back to the woods ; for a timely word, or a 
 signal blown from my conch, might quicken 
 their footsteps," 
 
 " What madness hath beset thee, Dudley ! 
 Thou wouldst not go into the forest again, 
 at this hour, and alone, if there be reason 
 for fear. Come farther within the gate, man, 
 that I may draw the bolt ; the Madam will 
 wonder that we tarry here so long. 
 
 " Ha ! I hear feet moving in the meadow ;
 
 THE BORDERERS. 237 
 
 I know it by the creaking of the snow ; the others 
 are not lagging.' 1 
 
 Notwithstanding the apparent certainty of 
 the young man, instead of going forth to 
 meet his friends, he withdrew a step, and 
 with his own hand drew the bolt that Faith 
 had just desired might be fastened; taking 
 care, at the same time, to let fall a swinging 
 bar of wood, which gave additional security 
 to the fastenings of the postern. His appre 
 hensions, if any such had induced this caution, 
 were, however, unnecessary ; for ere he had 
 time to make, or even to reflect on, any 
 further movement, admission was demanded, 
 in the well-known voice of the son of him 
 who owned the valley. The bustle of the 
 arrival for with Content entered a group of 
 companions* loaded with venison put an end 
 to the dialogue. Faith seized the opportunity 
 to glide away in the obscurity, in order to an 
 nounce to her mistress that the hunters had re-
 
 238 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 turned an office which she performed without 
 entering at all into the particulars of her own 
 interview with Eben Dudley. 
 
 It is needless to dwell on the satisfaction 
 with which Ruth received her husband and 
 son, after the uneasiness she had just suffered. 
 Though the severe manners of the province 
 admitted of no violent exhibition of passing 
 emotions, secret joy was reigning in the mild 
 eyes, and glowing about the flushed cheeks, 
 of the discreet matron, while she personally 
 officiated in the offices of the evening meal. 
 
 The party had returned teeming with no 
 extraordinary incidents ; nor did they appear 
 to be disturbed with any of that seriousness of 
 air which had so unequivocally characterised 
 the deportment of him who had preceded 
 them. On the contrary, each had his quiet 
 tale to relate, now, perhaps, at the expense 
 of a luckless companion, and sometimes in 
 order that no part of his own individual skill
 
 THE BORDERERS. 239 
 
 as a hunter should be unknown. The delay 
 -was accounted for, as similar delays are com 
 monly explained, by distance, and the temp 
 tations of an unusually successful chase. As 
 the appetites of those who had passed the day 
 in the exciting toil were keen, and the viands 
 tempting, the first half hour passed quickly, 
 as all such half hours are wont to pass, in 
 garrulous recitals of personal exploits, and of 
 the hair-breadth escapes of deer, which, had 
 fortune not been fickle, should have now been 
 present, as trophies of the skill of the hand 
 by which they fell. It was only after perso 
 nal vanity was sufficiently appeased, and when 
 the hunger even of a border man could 
 achieve no more, that the hunters began to 
 look about them with a diminished excitement, 
 and to discuss the events of the day with a 
 fitting calmness, and with a discretion more 
 suited to their ordinary self-command 
 
 r 
 
 " We lost the sound of thy conch, wan-
 
 240 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 dering Dudley, as we fell into the deep hol 
 low of the mountain,' 1 said Content, in a pause 
 of the discourse ; " since which time neither eye 
 nor ear of any has had trace of thy movements, 
 until we met thee at the postern, stationed like 
 a looker-out on his watch." 
 
 The individual addressed had mingled in 
 none of the gaiety of the hour. While others 
 fed freely, or joined in the quiet joke, which 
 could escape the lips of even men chastened 
 as his companions, Eben Dudley had tasted 
 sparingly of the viands. Nor had the muscles 
 of his hard countenance once relaxed in a smile. 
 A gravity and silence so extraordinary, in one 
 so little accustomed to exhibit either quality, 
 did not fail to attract attention. It was uni 
 versally ascribed to the circumstance that he 
 had returned empty-handed from the hunt ; 
 and now that one having authority had seen 
 fit to give such a direction to the discourse,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 241 
 
 the imaginary delinquent was not permitted 
 to escape unscathed. 
 
 " The butcher had little to do with this 
 day's killing," said one of the young men; 
 " as a punishment for his absence from the 
 slaughter, he should be made to go on the 
 hill, and bring in the two bucks he will find 
 hanging from a maple sapling near to the 
 drinking spring. Our meat should pass through 
 his hands in some fashion or other, else will it 
 lack savour." 
 
 " Ever since the death of the straggling 
 wether, the trade of Eben hath been at a 
 stand," added another ; " the down-hearted 
 youth seems like one ready to give up his 
 calling to the first stranger that shall ask it." 
 
 " Creatures which run at large prove better 
 mutton than the stalled wether," continued a 
 third ; " and thereby custom was getting low 
 before this hunt. Beyond a doubt, he has a 
 
 VOL. i. M
 
 242 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 full supply for all who shall be likely to seek 
 venison in his stall." 
 
 Ruth observed that the countenance of her 
 husband grew grave, at these allusions to an 
 event he had always seemed to wish forgotten ; 
 and she interposed, with a view to lead the 
 minds of those who listened back to matter 
 more fitting to be discussed. 
 
 "How is this!" she exclaimed in haste; 
 " hath the stout Dudley lost any of his craft ? 
 I have never counted with greater certainty on 
 the riches of the table, than when he hath been 
 sent among the hills for the fat deer, or the 
 tender turkey. It would much grieve me to 
 learn that he beginneth to lack the hunter's 
 skill." 
 
 " The man is getting melancholy with over 
 feeding," muttered the wilful tones of one busied 
 among the vessels, in a distant part of the room. 
 " He taketh his exercise alone, in order that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 248 
 
 none need discover the failing. I think he be 
 much disposed to go over sea, in order to be 
 come a trooper." 
 
 Until now, the subject of these mirthful at 
 tacks had listened like one too confident of his 
 established reputation to feel concern; but at 
 the sound of the last speaker's voice, he grasped 
 the bushy covering of one entire cheek in his 
 hand, and, turning a reproachful and irritated 
 glance at the already half-repentant eye of Faith 
 Ring, all his natural spirit returned. 
 
 " It may be that my skill hath left me," he 
 said, " and that I love to be alone, rather than 
 to be troubled with the company of some that 
 might readily be named, no reference being 
 had to such gallants as ride up and down the 
 colony, putting evil opinions into the thoughts 
 .of honest men's daughters; but why is Eben 
 Dudley to bear all the small shot of your hu 
 mours, when there is another who, it might 
 M 2
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 seem, hath strayed even further from your 
 trail than he ?" 
 
 Eye sought eye, and each youth, by hasty 
 glances, endeavoured to read the countenances 
 of all the rest in company, in order to learn 
 who the absentee might be. The young bor 
 derers shook their heads, as the features of 
 every well-known face were recognised, and a 
 general exclamation of denial was about to 
 break from their lips, when Ruth exclaimed 
 
 " Truly the Indian is wanting !" 
 
 So constant was the apprehension of danger 
 from the savages, in the breasts of those who 
 dwelt on that exposed frontier, that every man 
 arose at the words, by a sudden and common 
 impulse, and each individual gazed about him, 
 in a surprise that was a little akin to dismay. 
 
 <l The boy was with us when we quitted the 
 forest," said Content, after a moment of death 
 like stillness. " I spoke to him in commenda-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 245 
 
 tion of his activity, and of the knowledge he 
 had shewn in beating up the secret places of 
 the deer, though there is little reason to think 
 my words were understood." 
 
 " And were it not sinful to take such solemn 
 evidence in behalf of so light a master, I could 
 be qualified on the book itself, that he was at 
 my elbow as we entered the orchard," added 
 Reuben King, a man renowned in that little 
 community for the accuracy of his vision. 
 
 " And I will make oath, or declaration of 
 any sort, lawful or conscientious, that he came 
 not within the postern, when it was opened by 
 my own hand," returned Eben Dudley. " I 
 told off the number of the party, as you 
 passed, and right sure am I that no red-skin 
 entered." 
 
 " Canst thou tell us aught of the lad ?" 
 demanded Ruth, quick to take the alarm on 
 a subject that had so long exercised her care 
 and given food to her imagination.
 
 246 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Nothing. With me he hath not been 
 since the turn of the day. I have not seen the 
 face of living man from that moment, unless, 
 in truth, one of mysterious character, whom I 
 met in the forest, may be so called. 1 " 
 
 The manner in which the woodsman spoke 
 was too serious and too natural, not to give 
 birth in his auditors to some of his own 
 gravity. Perhaps the appearance of the Puri 
 tan, at that moment, aided in quieting the 
 levity that had been uppermost in the minds of 
 the young men ; for it is certain, that when 
 he entered, a deeper and a general curiosity 
 came over the countenances of all present. 
 Content waited a moment in respectful silence, 
 till his father had moved slowly through the 
 circle, and then he prepared himself to look 
 further into an affair, that began to assume 
 the appearance of matter worthy of investiga 
 tion.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 247 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ber. Last night of all, 
 
 When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, 
 
 Had made its course to illume that part of heaven 
 
 Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, 
 
 The bell then beating one- 
 Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again ! 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 IT is our duty, as faithful historians of the 
 events recorded in this homely legend, to 
 conceal no circumstance which may throw the 
 necessary degree of light on its incidents, nor 
 any opinion that may serve for the better 
 instruction of the reader in the characters of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 ' its actors. In order that this obligation may 
 be discharged with sufficient clearness and 
 precision, it has now become necessary to make 
 a short digression from the immediate action of 
 the tale. 
 
 Enough has been already shewn, to prove 
 that the Heathcotes lived at a time } and in a 
 country, where very quaint and peculiar reli 
 gious dogmas had the ascendancy. At a period 
 when visible manifestations of the goodness of 
 Providence, not only in spiritual, but in tem 
 poral gifts, were confidently expected and 
 openly proclaimed, it is not at all surprising 
 that more evil agencies should be thought to 
 exercise their power in a manner that is some 
 what opposed to the experience of our own 
 age. As we have no wish, however, to make 
 these pages the medium of a theological or 
 metaphysical controversy, we shall deal tenderly 
 with certain important events, that most of the 
 writers, who were contemporary with the facts.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 249 
 
 assert took place in the colonies of New England, 
 at and about the period of which we are now 
 writing. It is sufficiently known that the art 
 of witchcraft, and one even still more diabolical 
 and direct in its origin, were then believed to 
 flourish, in that quarter of the world, to a 
 degree that was probably in a very just propor 
 tion to the neglect with which most of the other 
 arts of life were treated. 
 
 There is so much grave and respectable 
 authority, to prove the existence of these evil 
 influences, that it requires a pen hardier than 
 any we wield, to attack them, without a suitable 
 motive. " Flashy people," says the learned 
 and pious Cotton Mather, Doctor of Divinity, 
 and Fellow of the Royal Society, " may 
 burlesque these things ; but when hundreds of 
 the most sober people, in a country where they 
 have as much mother wit, certainly, as the rest 
 of mankind, know them to be true, nothing but 
 the absurd and froward spirit of Sadducism 
 M 3
 
 250 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 can question them." Against this grave and 
 credited authority we pretend to raise no 
 question of scepticism. We submit to the 
 testimony F such a writer as conclusive, though, 
 as credulity is sometimes found to be bounded 
 by geographical limits, and to possess something 
 of a national character, it may be prudent to 
 refer certain readers, who dwell in the other 
 hemisphere, to the Common Law of England, 
 on this interesting subject, as it is ingeniously 
 expounded by Keeble, and approved by the 
 twelve judges of that highly civilized and 
 enlightened island. With this brief reference 
 to so grave authorities, in support of what we 
 have now to offer, we shall return to the matter 
 of the narrative, fully trusting that its incidents 
 will throw some additional light on a subject of 
 so deep and so general concern. 
 
 Content waited respectfully until his father 
 had taken his seat, and then perceiving that 
 the venerable Puritan had no immediate inten-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 251 
 
 tion of moving personally in the affair, he com 
 menced the examination of his dependant as 
 follows : opening the matter with a seriousness 
 that was abundantly warranted by the gravity 
 of the subject itself. 
 
 " Thou hast spoken of one met in the forest," 
 he said ; " proceed with the purport of that 
 interview, and tell us of what manner of man it 
 was."" 
 
 Thus directly interrogated, Eben Dudley 
 disposed himself to give a full and satisfactory 
 answer. First casting a glance around, so as 
 to embrace every curious and eager countenance, 
 and letting his look rest a little longer than 
 common on a half-interested, half-incredulous, 
 and a somewhat ironical dark eye, that was 
 ri vetted on his own from a distant corner 
 of the room, he commenced his statement as 
 follows : 
 
 " It is known to you all," said the borderer, 
 " that when we had gained the mountain top,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 there was a division of our numbers, in such 
 a fashion that each hunter should sweep his 
 own range of the forest, in order that neither 
 moose, deer, nor bear, might have reasonable 
 chance of escape. Being of large frame, and 
 it may be of swifter foot than common, the 
 young captain saw fit to command Reuben 
 Ring to flank one end of the line, and a man 
 who is nothing short of him in either speed or 
 strength, to do the same duty on the other. 
 There was nothing particularly worthy of men- 
 lion that took place on the flank I held, for the 
 first two hours, unless, indeed, the fact, that 
 three several times did I fall upon a maze of 
 well beaten deer tracks, that as often led to 
 nothing " 
 
 " These are signs common to the woods, and 
 they are no more than so many proofs that the 
 animal has its sports, like any other playful 
 creature, when not pressed by hunger or by 
 danger," quietly observed Content.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 253 
 
 , " I pretend not to take those deceitful tracks 
 much into the account," resumed Dudley ; 
 " but shortly after losing the sound of the 
 conchs, I roused a noble buck, from his lair 
 beneath a thicket of hemlocks, and having the 
 game in view, the chase led me wide-off to 
 wards the wilderness, it may have been the dis 
 tance of two leagues." 
 
 " And in all that time had you no fitting 
 moment to strike the beast ?" 
 
 " None whatever ; nor, if opportunity had 
 been given, am I bold to say, that hand of mine 
 would have been hardy enough to aim at its 
 life." 
 
 " Was there aught in the deer that a hunter 
 should seek to spare it ?" 
 
 *' There was that in the deer that might 
 bring a Christian man to much serious reflec 
 tion/' 
 
 " Deal more openly with the nature and ap 
 pearance of the animal, 1 " said Content, a little
 
 254 THE BORDE11ERS. 
 
 less tranquil than usual ; while the youths and 
 maidens placed themselves in attitudes still 
 more strongly denoting attention. 
 
 Dudley pondered an instant, and then he 
 commenced a less equivocal enumeration of 
 what he conceived to be the marvels of his tale. 
 
 ** Firstly," he said, " there was no trail, nei 
 ther to nor from the spot where the creature 
 had made its lair ; secondly, when roused, it 
 took not the alarm, but leaped, sportingly, 
 ahead ; taking sufficient care to be beyond the 
 range of musket, without ever becoming hid 
 from the eye ; and, lastly, its manner of dis 
 appearance was as worthy of mention, as any 
 other of its movements.'" 
 
 "And in what manner didst thou lose the 
 creature ?" 
 
 " I had gotten it upon the crest of a hillock, 
 where true eye and steady hand might make 
 sure of a buck of much smaller size, when - 
 didst hear aught that might be accounted won-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 255 
 
 derful, at a season of the year when the snows 
 are still lying on the earth ?" 
 
 The auditors regarded one another curiously, 
 each endeavouring to recall some unwonted 
 sound, which might sustain a narrative that 
 was fast obtaining the seducing interest of the 
 marvellous. 
 
 " Wast sure, Charity, that the howl we heard 
 from the forest was the yell of the beaten 
 hound ?" demanded a handmaiden of Ruth, of 
 a blue-eyed companion, who seemed equally 
 well disposed to contribute her share of evi 
 dence in support of any exciting legend. 
 
 " It might have been other," was the an 
 swer; "though the hunters do speak of their 
 having beaten the pup for restiveness. r) 
 
 *< There was a tumult among the echoes, 
 that sounded like the noises which follow the 
 uproar of a falling tree," said Ruth, thought 
 fully. " I remember to have asked if it might 
 not be, that some fierce beast had caused a
 
 256 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 general discharge of the musketry ; but my 
 father was of opinion that death had under 
 mined some heavy oak." 
 
 " At what hour might this have happened ?" 
 
 " It was past the turn of the day ; for it 
 was at the moment I bethought me of the 
 hunger of those who had toiled since light in 
 the hills." 
 
 " That, then, was the sound I mean. It 
 came not from falling tree, but was uttered in 
 the air, far above all forests. Had it been 
 heard by one better skilled in the secrets of 
 nature " 
 
 " He would say it thundered, 1 ' interrupted 
 Faith Ring, who, unlike most of the other lis_ 
 teners, manifested little of the quality which 
 was expressed by her name. " Truly, Eben 
 Dudley hath done marvels in this hunt ; he 
 hath come in with a thunderbolt in his head, 
 instead of a fat buck on his shoulders !" 
 
 " Speak reverently, girl, of that thou dost
 
 THE BORDERERS. 257 
 
 not comprehend," said Mark Heathcote, with 
 stern authority. " Marvels are manifested, 
 equally, to the ignorant and to the learned ; 
 and although vain-minded pretenders to phi 
 losophy affirm, that the warring of the elements 
 is no more than nature working out its own 
 purification, yet do we know, from all ancient 
 authorities, that other manifestations are therein 
 exhibited. Satan may have control over the 
 magazines of the air; he can let off the ord 
 nance of Heaven. That the prince of the 
 powers of darkness hath as good a share in 
 Chemistry as goes to the making of aurum 
 fulminans, is asserted by one of the wisest 
 writers of our age." 
 
 From this declaration, and more particularly 
 from the learning discovered in the Puritan's 
 speech, there was no one so hardy as to dissent. 
 Faith was glad to shrink back among the bevy 
 of awe-struck maidens, while Content, after a 
 sufficiently respectful pause, invited the woods-
 
 258 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 man, who was yet teeming with the most im 
 portant part of his communication, to proceed. 
 
 " While my eye was searching for the light 
 ning, which should in reason have attended that 
 thunder, had it been uttered in the manner of 
 nature, the buck had vanished ; and when I 
 rushed upon the hillock, in order to keep the 
 game in view, a man mounting its opposite side 
 came so suddenly upon me, that our muskets 
 were at each other's breasts before either had 
 time for speech.'' 
 
 ** What manner of man was he ?" 
 
 "So far as human judgment might deter 
 mine, he seemed a traveller, who was endea 
 vouring to push through the wilderness, from 
 the towns below, to the distant settlements of 
 the Bay Province ; but I account it exceeding 
 wonderful, that the trail of a leaping buck 
 should have brought us together in so un 
 wonted a manner !" 
 
 " And didst thou see aught of the deer after 
 that encounter ?"
 
 THE BORDERERS. 259 
 
 " In the first hurry of the surprise, it did 
 certainly appear as if an animal were bounding 
 along the wood into a distant thicket ; but it 
 is known how readily one may be led by seem 
 ing probabilities into a false conclusion, and so 
 I account that glimpse as delusion. No doubt, 
 the animal having done that which it was com 
 missioned to perform, did then and there dis 
 appear, in the manner I have named." 
 
 " It might have been thus. And the 
 stranger had you discourse with him before 
 parting ?" 
 
 "We tarried together a short hour. He 
 related much marvellous matter of the expe 
 riences of the people near the sea. According 
 to the testimony of the stranger, the powers of 
 darkness have been manifested in the provinces 
 in a hideous fashion. Numberless of the be 
 lievers have been persecuted by the invisibles, 
 and greatly have they endured suffering, both 
 in soul and body." 
 
 " Of all this have I witnessed surprising
 
 260 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 instances, in my day," said Mark Heathcote, 
 breaking the awful stillness that succeeded the 
 annunciation of so heavy a visitation on the 
 peace of the colony, with his deep-toned and 
 imposing voice. " Did he, with whom you 
 conferred, enter into the particulars of the 
 trials?" 
 
 " He spoke also of certain other signs, that 
 are thought to foretell the coming of trouble. 
 When I named the weary chase that I had 
 made, and the sound which came from the 
 air, he said that these would be accounted 
 trifles in- the towns of the Bay, where the 
 thunder and its lightnings had done much evil 
 work, the past season ; Satan having especially 
 shown his spite, by causing them to do injury 
 to the houses of the Lord." 
 
 " There has long been reason to think, that 
 the pilgrimage of the righteous into these 
 wilds will be visited by some fierce opposition 
 of those envious natures, which, fostering evil
 
 THE BORDERERS. 261 
 
 themselves, cannot brook to look upon the 
 toiling of such as strive to keep the narrow 
 path. We will now resort to the only weapon 
 it is permitted us to wield in this controversy, 
 but which, when handled with diligence and 
 zeal, never fails to lead to victory." 
 
 So saying, without waiting to hear more of 
 the tale of Eben Dudley, old Mark Heathcote 
 arose, and assuming the upright attitude usual 
 among the people of his sect, he addressed him 
 self to prayer. The grave and awe-struck, 
 but deeply confiding congregation, imitated his 
 example, and the lips of the Puritan had parted 
 in the act of utterance, when a low, faltering 
 note, like that produced by a wind instrument, 
 rose on the outer' air, and penetrated to the 
 place where the family was assembled. A 
 conch was suspended at the postern, in readi 
 ness to be used by any of the family whom 
 accident or occupation should detain beyond 
 the usual hour of closing the gates : and, both
 
 262 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 by the direction and nature of this interruption, 
 it would seem that an applicant for admission 
 stood at the portal. The effect on the auditors 
 was general and instantaneous. Notwithstand 
 ing the recent dialogue, the young men in 
 voluntarily sought their arms, while the startled 
 females huddled together like a flock of trem 
 bling and timid deer. 
 
 " There is, of a certainty, a signal from with 
 out !" Content at length observed, after waiting 
 to suffer the sounds to die away among the 
 angles of the buildings. " Some hunter, who 
 hath strayed from his path, claimeth hospi 
 tality." 
 
 Eben Dudley shook his head like one who 
 dissented ; but, having with all the other youths 
 grasped his musket, he stood as undetermined 
 as the rest concerning the course it was proper 
 to pursue. It is uncertain how long this in 
 decision might have continued, had no further 
 summons been given ; but he without appeared 

 
 THE BOBDERERS. 263 
 
 too impatient of delay to suffer much time to 
 be lost. The conch sounded again, and with 
 far better success than before. The blast was 
 longer, louder, and bolder than that which had 
 first pierced the walls of the dwelling, rising 
 full and rich on the air, as though one well 
 practised in the use of the instrument had placed 
 lips to the shell. 
 
 Content would scarcely have presumed to 
 disobey a mandate coming from his father, had 
 it been little in conformity with his own in 
 tentions. But second thoughts had already 
 shown him the necessity of decision, and he 
 was in the act of motioning to Dudley and 
 Reuben Ring to follow, when the Puritan bade 
 him look to the matter. Making a sign for 
 the rest of the family to remain where they 
 were, and arming himself with a musket which 
 had more than once that day been proved to 
 be of certain aim, he led the way to the postern 
 which has already been so often mentioned.
 
 264 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Who sounds at my gate ?" demanded 
 Content, when he and his followers had gained a 
 position, under cover of a low, earthen mound, 
 erected expressly for the purpose of command 
 ing the entrance ; " who summons a peaceful 
 family, at this hour of the night to their outer 
 defences ?" 
 
 " One who hath need of what he asketh, 
 or lie would not disturb thy quiet," was the 
 answer. " Open the postern, Master Heath- 
 cote, without fear ; it is a brother in the faith, 
 and a subject of the same laws that asketh 
 the boon." 
 
 " Here is truly a Christian man, without," 
 said Content, hurrying to the postern ; which, 
 without a moment's delay he threw freely open, 
 saying, as he did so, " Enter, of Heaven's mercy, 
 and be welcome to that we have to bestow." 
 
 A tall, and, by his tread, a heavy man, wrap 
 ped in a riding cloak, bowed to the greeting, 
 and immediately passed beneath the low lintel.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 265 
 
 Every eye was keenly fastened on the stranger, 
 who, after ascending the acclivity a short dis 
 tance, paused, while the young men, under their 
 master's orders, carefully and scrupulously re 
 newed the fastenings of the gate. When bolts 
 and bars had done their office, Content joined 
 his guest, and after making another fruitless 
 effort, by the feeble light which fell from the 
 stars, to scan his person, he said, in his own 
 meek and quiet manner 
 
 " Thou must have great need of warmth 
 and nourishment. The distance from this 
 valley to the nearest habitation is wearisome, 
 and one who hath journeyed it, in a season 
 like this, may well be nigh fainting. Follow, 
 and deal with that we have to bestow as freely 
 as if it were thine own." 
 
 Although the stranger manifested none of 
 that impatience, which the heir of the Wish- 
 Ton-Wish appeared to think one so situated 
 might in all reason feel, thus invited he did not 
 
 VOL. i. N
 
 266 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 hesitate to comply. As he followed in the 
 footsteps of his host, his tread, however, was 
 leisurely and dignified : and once or twice, when 
 the other half delayed in order to make some 
 passing observation of courtesy, he betrayed no 
 indiscreet anxiety to enter on those personal 
 indulgences, which might in reality prove so 
 grateful to one who had journeyed far in an 
 inclement seaso^ and along a road where neither 
 dwelling nor security invited repose. 
 
 " Here is warmth and a peaceful welcome," 
 pursued Content, ushering his guest into the 
 centre of a group of fearfully anxious faces : 
 " in a little time other matters shall be added 
 to thy comfort." 
 
 When the stranger found himself under the 
 glare of a powerful light, and confronted to so 
 many curious and wondering eyes, for a single 
 instant he hesitated. Then stepping calmly 
 forward, he cast the short riding cloak, which had 
 closely muffled his features from his shoulders,
 
 THE BOIIDERERS. 267 
 
 and discovered the severe eye, the stern linea 
 ments, and the athletic form of him, who had 
 
 % 
 once before been known to enter the doors of 
 
 Wish-Ton- Wish with little warning, and to 
 have quitted them so mysteriously. 
 
 The Puritan had arisen, with quiet and grave 
 courtesy, to receive his visiter ; but obvious, 
 powerful, and extraordinary interest gleamed 
 about his usually subdued visage, when, as the 
 features of the other were exposed to view, he 
 recognized the person of the man who advanced 
 to meet him. 
 
 " Mark Heathcote," said the stranger, "my 
 visit is to thee. It may, or it may not, prove 
 longer than the last, as thou shalt receive my 
 tidings. Affairs of the last moment demand 
 that there should be little delay in hearing 
 that which I have to offer." 
 
 Notwithstanding the excess and nature of the 
 surprise which the veteran Mark had certainly 
 betrayed, it endured just long enough to allow 
 N 2
 
 268 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 those wondering eyes, which were eagerly de 
 vouring all that passed, to note its existence. 
 Then the subdued and characteristic manner, 
 which in general marked his air, instantly re 
 turned, and with a quiet gesture, b'ke that 
 which friends use in moments of confidence and 
 security, he beckoned to the other to follow to 
 an inner room. The stranger complied, making 
 a slight bow of recognition to Ruth, as he passed 
 her on the way to the apartment chosen for an 
 interview, that was evidently intended to be 
 private.
 
 THR BORDERERS. 269 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? 
 Hor. Do, if it will not stand. 
 Ber 'Tis here ! 
 Hor 'Tis here ! 
 Mar. 'Tis gone ! 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 THE time that this unexpected visiter stood 
 uncloaked and exposed to recognition, before 
 the eyes of the curious group in the outer 
 room, did not much exceed a minute. Still it 
 was long enough to allow men who rarely over 
 looked the smallest peculiarity of dress or air,
 
 270 THE BOttDERERS. 
 
 to note some of the more distinguishing accom 
 paniments of his attire. The heavy horseman's 
 pistols, once before exhibited, were in his girdle, 
 and young Mark got a glimpse of a silver- 
 handled dagger which had pleased his eye be 
 fore that night. But the passage of his grand 
 father and the stranger from the room, pre 
 vented the boy from determining whether it 
 was entirely of the same fashion as that which, 
 rather as a memorial of by-gone scenes than 
 for any service that it might now be expected 
 to perform, hung above the bed of the former. 
 
 " The man hath not yet parted with his 
 arms !"" exclaimed the quick-sighted youth, 
 when he found that every other tongue con 
 tinued silent. " I would he may now leave 
 them with my grandfather, that I may chase 
 the skulking Wompanoag to his hiding " 
 
 " Hot-headed boy ! Thy tongue is too much 
 given to levity," said Ruth, who had not only 
 resumed her seat, but the light employment that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 271 
 
 had been interrupted by the blast at the gate, 
 with a calmness of mien that did not fail in 
 some degree to re-assure her maidens. " In 
 stead of cherishing the lessons of peace that are 
 taught thee, thy unruly thoughts are ever bent 
 on strife." 
 
 " Is there harm in wishing to be armed with 
 a weapon suited to my years, that I may do 
 service in beating down the power of our ene 
 mies ; and perhaps aid something, too, in afford 
 ing security to my mother !" 
 
 " Thy mother hath no fears," returned the 
 matron, gravely, while grateful affection prompt 
 ed a kind but furtive glance towards the high- 
 spirited though sometimes froward lad. " Rea 
 son hath already taught me the folly of alarm, 
 because one has knocked at our gate in the 
 night season. Lay aside thy arms, men ; you 
 see that my husband no longer clings to the 
 musket. Be certain that his eye will give us 
 warning, when there shall be danger at hand."
 
 272 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 The unconcern of her husband was even 
 more strikingly true than the simple language 
 of his wife would appear to convey. Content 
 had not only laid aside his weapon, but he had 
 resumed his seat near the fire, with an air as 
 calm, as assured, and, it might have seemed to 
 one watchfully observant, as understanding as 
 her own. Until now, the stout Dudley had re 
 mained leaning on his piece, immovable and ap 
 parently unconscious as a statue. But follow 
 ing the injunctions of one he was accustomed to 
 obey, he placed the musket against the wall, 
 with the care of a hunter, and then running a 
 hand through his shaggy locks, as though the 
 action might quicken ideas that were never 
 remarkably active, he bluntly exclaimed 
 
 " An armed hand is well in these forests, but 
 an armed heel is not less wanting, to him who 
 would push a roadster from the Connecticut 
 to the Wish-Ton-Wish, between a rising and a 
 setting sun I The stranger no longer journeys
 
 THE BOKDEKERS. 273 
 
 in the saddle, as is plain by the sign that his 
 boot beareth no spur. When he worried, by 
 dint of hard pricking, the miserable hack that 
 proved food for the wolves, through the forest, 
 he had better appointments. I saw the bones 
 of the animal no later than this day. They 
 have been polished by fowls and frost, till the 
 driven snow of the mountains is not whiter !" 
 
 Meaning and uneasy, but hasty glances of 
 the eye were exchanged between Content and 
 Ruth, as Eben Dudley thus uttered the 
 thoughts which had been suggested by the 
 unexpected return of the stranger. 
 
 " Go you to the look-out at the western pali- 
 sadoes," said the latter ; " and see if perchance 
 the Indian may not be lurking near the dwel 
 lings, ashamed of his delay, and perchance 
 fearful of calling' us to his admission. I 
 cannot think that the child means to desert 
 us with no sign of kindness, and without 
 leave-taking." 
 
 N 3
 
 274) THE BOKDERER3. 
 
 " I will not take upon me to say how 
 much, or how little of ceremony the young 
 ster may fancy to be due to the master of 
 the valley and his kin; but if not gone 
 already, the snow will not melt more quietly 
 in the thaw, than the lad will one day dis 
 appear. Reuben Ring, thou hast an eye for 
 light or darkness ; come forth with me, that 
 no sign escape us. Should thy sister, Faith, 
 make one of our party, it would not be easy 
 for the red -skin to pass the clearing without 
 a hail." 
 
 " Go to," hurriedly answered the female ; 
 " it is more womanly that I tarry to see to the 
 wants of him who hath journeyed far and hard 
 since the rising of the sun. If the boy pass 
 thy vigilance, wakeful Dudley, he will have 
 little cause to fear that of others." 
 
 Though Faith so decidedly declined to make 
 one of the party, her brother complied without 
 reluctance. The young men were about to
 
 THE BORDERERS. 275 
 
 quit the place together ; when the latch, on 
 which the hand of Dudley was already laid, rose 
 quietly without aid from his finger, the door 
 opened, and the object of their intended search 
 glided past them, and took his customary 
 position in one of the more retired corners of 
 the room. There was so much of the ordinary 
 noiseless manner of the young captive in this 
 entrance, that for a moment they who witnessed 
 the passage of his dark form across the apart- 
 ment, were led to think the movement no more 
 than the visit he was always permitted to make 
 at that hour. But recollection soon came^ and 
 with it not only the suspicious circumstance of 
 his disappearance, but the inexplicable man 
 ner of his admission within the gates. 
 
 " The pickets must be looked to !" exclaimed 
 Dudley, the instant a second look assured him 
 that his eyes in truth beheld him who had been 
 missing. " The place that a stripling can scale 
 might well admit a host. 1 '
 
 276 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 " Truly," said Content, " this needeth ex 
 planation. Hath not the boy entered when the 
 gate was opened for the stranger? Here cometh 
 one that may speak to the fact !" 
 
 " It is so," said the individual named, who 
 re-entered from the inner room in season to hear 
 the nature of the remark. " I found this 
 native child near thy gate, and took upon me 
 the office of a Christian man to bid him welcome. 
 Certain am I, that one, kind of heart and 
 gently disposed, like the mistress of this 
 family, will not turn him away in anger." 
 
 " He is no stranger at our fire, or at our 
 board," said Ruth; " had it been otherwise, 
 thou wouldst have done well." 
 
 Eben Dudley looked incredulous. His mind 
 had been powerfully exercised that day with 
 visions of the marvellous, and, of a certainty, 
 there was some reason to distrust the manner in 
 which the re-appearance of the youth had been 
 made.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 277 
 
 " It will be well to look to the fastenings, 11 
 he muttered, " lest others, less easy to dispose 
 of, should follow. Now that invisible agencies 
 are at work in the colony, one may not sleep too 
 soundly !" 
 
 " Then go thou to the look-out, and keep the 
 watch till the clock shall strike the hour of 
 midnight," said the Puritan, who uttered the 
 command in a manner to shew that he was in 
 truth moved by considerations far deeper than 
 the vague apprehensions of his dependant. 
 " Ere sleep overcome thee, another shall be 
 ready for the relief." 
 
 Mark Heathcote seldom spoke, but respectful 
 silence permitted the lowest of his syllables to 
 be audible. On the present occasion, when his 
 voice was first heard, such a stillness came over 
 all in presence, that he finished the sentence 
 amid the nearly imperceptible breathings of the 
 listeners. In this momentary but death-like 
 quiet, there arose a blast from the conch at the
 
 278 THF, BOEDKRERS. 
 
 gate, that might have seemed an echo of that 
 which had so lately startled the already excited 
 inmates of the dwelling. At the repetition of 
 sounds so unwonted all sprang to their feet, but 
 no one spoke. Content cast a hurried and in 
 quiring glance at his father, who in his turn had 
 anxiously sought the eye of the stranger. The 
 latter stood firm and unmoved. One hand was 
 clenched upon the back of the chair from which 
 he had arisen, and the other grasped, perhaps 
 unconsciously, the handle of one of those 
 weapons which had attracted the attention of 
 young Mark, and which still continued thrust 
 through the broad leathern belt, that girded his 
 doublet. 
 
 " The sound is like that which one little 
 used to deal with earthly instruments might 
 raise," muttered one of those whose mind had 
 been prepared by the narrative of Dudley, to 
 believe in any thing marvellous. 
 
 " Come from what quarter it may, it is a
 
 THE BORDERERS. 279 
 
 summons that must be answered," returned 
 Content. " Dudley, thy musket; this visit is so 
 unwonted, that more than one hand should do 
 the office of porter." 
 
 The borderer instantly complied, muttering 
 between his teeth, as he shook the priming 
 deeper into the barrel of his piece, " Your over 
 sea gallants are quick on the trail to-night !" 
 Then throwing the musket into the hollow of 
 his arm, he cast a look of discontent and resent 
 ment towards Faith Ring, and was about to 
 open the door for the passage of Content, when 
 another blast arose on the silence without. The 
 second touch of the shell was firmer, longer, 
 louder, and more true than that by which it had 
 just been preceded. 
 
 " One mighty fancy the conch was speaking 
 in mockery," observed Content, looking with 
 meaning towards their guest. " Never did 
 sound more resemble sound than these we have
 
 280 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 just heard, and those thou drew from the shell 
 when asking admission." 
 
 A sudden light appeared to break in upon the 
 intelligence of the stranger. Advancing more 
 into the circle, rather with the freedom of long 
 familiarity than with the diffidence of a newly 
 arrived guest, he motioned for silence, 1 as he 
 said 
 
 " Let none move, but this stout woodsman, 
 the young captain, and myself. We will go forth, 
 and doubt not that the safety of those within 
 shall be regarded." 
 
 Notwithstanding the singularity of this pro 
 posal, at it appeared to excite neither surprise 
 nor opposition in the Puritan or his son, the rest 
 of the family offered no objection. The stran 
 ger had no sooner spoken, than he advanced 
 near to the torch, and looked closely into the 
 condition of his pistols. Then, turning to old 
 Mark, he continued, in an under tone
 
 THE BORDERERS. 281 
 
 " Peradventure there will be more wordly 
 strife than any which can flow from the agencies 
 that stir up the unquiet spirits of the Colonies. 
 In such an extremity, it may be well to observe 
 a soldier's caution." 
 
 " I like not this mockery of sound," returned 
 the Puritan ; *' it augureth a taunting and 
 fiend-like temper. We have of late had in this 
 colony tragical instances of what the disappoint 
 ed malice of Azazel can attempt, and it would 
 be vain to hope that the evil agencies are not 
 vexed with the sight of my Bethel." 
 
 Though the stranger listened to the words of 
 his host with respect, it was plain that his 
 thoughts dwelt on dangers of a different cha 
 racter. The member that still rested on the 
 handle of his weapon was clenched with greater 
 firmness, and a grim, though a melancholy, ex 
 pression was seated about a mouth, that was 
 compressed in a manner to denote the physical 
 rather than the spiritual resolution of the man.
 
 282 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 He made a sign to the two companions he had 
 chosen, and led the way to the court. 
 
 By this time, the shades of night had materi 
 ally thickened, and, although the hour was still 
 early, a darkness had come over the valley that 
 rendered it difficult to distinguish objects at any 
 distance from the eye. The obscurity made it 
 necessary that they, who now issued from the 
 door of the dwelling, should advance with cau 
 tion, lest, ere properly admonished of its pre 
 sence, their persons should be exposed to some 
 lurking danger. When the three, however, 
 were safely established behind the thick curtain 
 of plank and earth that covered and commanded 
 the entrance, and where their persons, from the 
 shoulders downward, were completely protected, 
 alike from shot and arrow, Content demanded 
 to know who applied at his gates for admission 
 at an hour when they were habitually closed for 
 the night ? Instead of receiving, as before, a 
 ready answer, the silence was so profound, that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 283 
 
 his own words were very distinctly heard re 
 peated, as was not uncommon at that quiet 
 hour, among the recesses of the neighbouring 
 woods. 
 
 " Come it from devil, or come it from man, 
 here is treachery !" whispered the stranger, after 
 a fitting pause. " Artifice must be met by 
 artifice ; but thou art much abler to advise 
 against the wiles of the forest, than one trained, 
 as I have been, in the less cunning deceptions of 
 Christian warfare." 
 
 " What thinkst, Dudley ?" asked Content 
 " will it be well to sally, or shall we wait ano 
 ther signal from the conch ?" 
 
 " Much dependeth on the quality of the 
 guests expected," returned he of whom counsel 
 was asked. " As for the braggart gallants, that 
 are over valiant among the maidens, and heavy 
 of heart when they think the screech of the jay 
 an Indian whoop, I care not if ye beat the 
 picquets to the earth, and call upon them to
 
 284< THE BORDERERS. 
 
 enter on the gallop. I know the manner to 
 send them to the upper story of the block 
 quicker than the cluck of the turkey can muster 
 its young; but" 
 
 " 'Tis well to be discreet in language, in a 
 moment of such serious uncertainty," interrupt 
 ed the stranger ; " we look for no gallants of 
 the kind." 
 
 " Then will I give you a conceit that shall 
 know the reason of the music of yon conch. Go 
 ye two back into the house, making much con 
 versation by the way, in order that any without 
 may hear. When ye have entered, it shall be 
 my task to find such a post nigh the gate, that 
 none shall knock again, and no porter be at 
 hand to question them in the matter of their 
 errand." 
 
 l( This soundeth better," said Content ; " and 
 that it may be done with all safety, some others 
 of the young men, who are accustomed to this 
 species of artifice, shall issue by the secret door,
 
 THE BORDERERS. 285 
 
 and lie in wait behind the dwellings, in order 
 that support shall not be wanting in case of 
 violence. Whatever else thou dost, Dudley, 
 remember that thou dost not undo the fastenings 
 of the postern." 
 
 " Look to the support," returned the woods 
 man ; " should it be keen-eyed Reuben Ring, 
 I shall feel none the less certain that good aid 
 is at my back. The whole of that family are 
 quick of wit and ready of invention, unless it 
 may be the wight who hath got the form with 
 out the reason of a man." 
 
 " Thou shalt have Reuben, and none other 
 of his kin," said Content. t( Be well advised of 
 the fastenings, and so I wish thee all fitting 
 success, in a deception that cannot be sinful, 
 since it aims only at our safety." 
 
 With this injunction, Content and the stran 
 ger left Dudley to the practice of his own 
 devices, the former observing the precaution to 
 speak aloud while returning, in order that any
 
 286 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 listeners without might be led to suppose the 
 whole party had retired from the search, satis 
 fied of its fruitlessness. 
 
 In the mean time, the youth left nigh the 
 postern, set about the accomplishment of the 
 task he had undertaken, in sober earnest. In 
 stead of descending in a direct line to the pali- 
 sadoes, he also ascended, and made a circuit 
 among the out-buildings on the margin of the 
 acclivity. Then bending so low as to blend his 
 form with objects on the snow, he gained an 
 angle of the palisadoes, at a point remote from 
 the spot he intended to watch, and, as he hoped, 
 aided by the darkness of the hour and the sha 
 dows of the hill, completely protected from obser 
 vation. When beneath the palisadoes the sen 
 tinel crouched to the earth, creeping with 
 extreme caution along the timber which united 
 their lower ends, until he found himself arrived 
 at a species of sentry box, that was erected for 
 the very purpose to which he now intended it
 
 THE BORDERERS. 287 
 
 should be applied. Once within the cover of 
 this little recess, the sturdy woodsman bestowed 
 his large frame, with as much attention to com 
 fort and security as the circumstances would 
 permit. Here he prepared to pass many weary 
 minutes before there should be further need of 
 his services. 
 
 The reader will find no difficulty in believ 
 ing that one of opinions like those of the bor 
 derer, did not enter on his silent watch without 
 much distrust of the character of the guests 
 that he might be called upon to receive. 
 Enough has been shewn to prove that the 
 suspicion uppermost in his mind was, that the 
 unwelcome agents of the government had re 
 turned on the heels of the stranger. But not 
 withstanding the seeming probability of this 
 opinion, there were secret misgivings of the 
 earthly origin of the two last windings 
 of the shell. All the legends, and all the 
 most credited evidence in cases of prestigious
 
 288 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 agency, as it had been exhibited in the colo 
 nies of New England, went to show the ma 
 lignant pleasure the evil spirits found, in in 
 dulging their wicked mockeries, or in other 
 wise tormenting those who placed their sup 
 port on a faith that was believed to be so 
 repugnant to their own ungrateful and aban 
 doned natures. Under the impressions natu 
 rally excited by the communication he had 
 held with the traveller in the mountains, Eben 
 Dudley found his mind equally divided be 
 tween the expectation of seeing, at each mo 
 ment, one of the men whom he had induced 
 to quit the valley so unceremoniously, return 
 ing to obtain, surreptitiously, admission with 
 in the gate, or of being made an unwilling 
 witness of some wicked manifestation of that 
 power, which was temporarily committed to 
 the invisibles. In both of these expectations, 
 however, he was fated to be disappointed. 
 Notwithstanding the strong spiritual bias of
 
 THE BORDERERS. 289 
 
 the opinions of the credulous sentinel, there 
 was too much of the dross of temporal things 
 in his composition, to elevate him altogether 
 above the weakness of humanity. A mind so 
 incumbered began to weary with its own con 
 templations, and, as it grew feeble with its 
 extraordinary efforts, the dominion of matter 
 gradually resumed its sway. Thought, in 
 stead of being clear and active, as the emer 
 gency would have seemed to require, began 
 to grow misty. Once or twice the borderer 
 half arose, and appeared to look about him 
 with observation ; and then, as his large frame 
 fell heavily back into its former semi-recum 
 bent attitude, he grew tranquil and stationary. 
 This movement was several times repeated, at 
 intervals of increasing length, till, at the end 
 of an hour, forgetting alike the hunt, the 
 troopers, and the mysterious agents of evil, 
 the young man yielded to the fatigue of the 
 day. The tall oaks pf the adjoining forest 
 VOL. i. o
 
 290 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 stood not more immovable in the quiet of the 
 tranquil hour, than his frame now leaned 
 against the side of its narrow habitation. 
 
 How much time was thus lost in inactivity, 
 Eben Dudley could never precisely tell. He 
 always stoutly maintained it could not have 
 been long, since his watch was not disturbed 
 by the smallest of those sounds from the 
 woods, which sometimes occur in deep night, 
 and which may be termed the breathing of the 
 forest in its slumbers. His first distinct re 
 collection, was that of feeling a hand grasped 
 with the power of a giant. Springing to his 
 feet, -the young man eagerly stretched forth an 
 arm, saying, as he did so, in words sufficiently 
 confused 
 
 " If the buck hath fallen by a shot in the 
 head, I grant him to be thine, Reuben Ring : 
 but if struck in limb or body, I claim the 
 xenison for a surer hand." 
 
 " Truly a very just division of the spoil,"
 
 THE BORDERERS. 2Q1 
 
 returned one in an under tone, and speaking 
 as if sounds too loud might be dangerous. 
 " Thou givest the head of the deer for a target 
 to Reuben Ring, and keepest the rest of the 
 creature to thine own uses." 
 
 " Who hath sent thee, at this hour, to 
 the postern? Dost not know that there 
 are thought to be strangers outlying in the 
 fields ?" 
 
 " I know that there are some, who are not 
 strangers, in-lying on their watch !" said Faith 
 Ring. " What shame would come upon thee, 
 Dudley, did the Captain, and they who have 
 been so strongly exercised in prayer within, but 
 suspect how little care thou hast had of their 
 safety, the while !" 
 
 " Have they come to harm ? If the Cap 
 tain hath held them to spiritual movements, I 
 hope he will allow that nothing earthly hath 
 passed this postern to disturb the exercise. As 
 I hope to be dealt honestly by, in all matters
 
 292 THE BORDERERS. 
 
 of character, I have not once quitted the gate, 
 since the watch was set." 
 
 " Else wouldst thou be the famousest sleep 
 walker in the Connecticut Colony ! Why, 
 drowsy one, conch cannot raise a louder blast, 
 than that thou soundest, when eyes are fairly 
 shut in sleep. This may be watching accord 
 ing to thy meaning of the word ; but infant, 
 in its cradle, is not half so ignorant of that 
 which passeth around it, as thou hast been." 
 
 '* I think, Faith Ring, that thou hast gotten 
 to be much given to back-biting, and evil 
 saying against friends, since the visit of the 
 gallants from over sea." 
 
 " Out upon the gallants from over sea, and 
 thee too, man ! I am not a girl to be flouted 
 with bold speech from one, who doth not know 
 whether he be sleeping or waking. I tell 
 thee, thy good name would be lost in the 
 family, did it come to the ears of the Captain, 
 and more particularly to the knowlege of that
 
 THE BORDERERS. 293 
 
 soldier stranger, up in the dwelling, of whom 
 even the Madam maketh so great ceremony, 
 that thou hast been watching with a tuneful 
 nose, an open mouth, and a sealed eye." 
 
 " If any but thee hadst said this slander of 
 me, girl, it would go nigh to raise hot speech 
 between us! Thy brother, Reuben Ring, 
 knows better than to stir my temper, by such 
 falsity of accusation." 
 
 " Thou dealest so generously by him, that 
 he is prone to forget thy misdeeds. Truly he 
 hath the head of the buck, while thou contentest 
 thyself with the offals and all the less worthy 
 parts ! Go to, Dudley ; thou wast in a heavy 
 dream when I caused thee to awake." 
 
 " A pretty time have we fallen upon, when 
 petticoats are used instead of beards and strong 
 armed men, to go the rounds of the sentinels, 
 and to say who sleepeth and who is watchful ! 
 What hath brought thee so far from the exer 
 cises and so nigh the gates, Mistress Faith, now 
 o 2
 
 294) THE BORDERERS. 
 
 that there is no over-sea gallant to soothe thy 
 ears with lying speech and light declarations." 
 
 " If speech not to be credited is that I seek," 
 returned the girl, " truly the errand hath not 
 been without its reward. What brought me 
 hither, sooth ! why, the Madam hath need of 
 articles from the outer buttery and ay and 
 my ears led me to the postern. Thou knowest, 
 musical Dudley, that I have had occasion to 
 hearken to thy watchful notes before this night. 
 But my time is too useful to be wasted in idle 
 ness; thou art now awake, and may thank her, 
 who hath done thee a good turn with no wish 
 to boast of it, that one of a black beard is not 
 the laughing stock of all the youths in the fa 
 mily. If thou keepest thine own counsel, the 
 Captain may yet praise thee for a vigilant sen 
 tinel ; though Heaven forgive him the wrong 
 he will do the truth !" 
 
 '* Perhaps a little anger at unjust suspicions 
 may have prompted more than the matter need-
 
 THE BORDERERS. 295 
 
 ed, Faith, when I taxed thee with the love of 
 backbiting, and I do now recal that word. 
 Though I will ever deny that aught more, than 
 some wandering recollection concerning the hunt 
 of this day, hath come over my thoughts, and 
 perhaps made me even forgetful that it was 
 needful to be silent at the postern ; and there 
 fore, on the truth of a Christian man, I do 
 forgive thee, the " 
 
 But Faith was already out of sight and out 
 of hearing. Dudley himself, who began to 
 have certain prickings of conscience concerning 
 the ingratitude he had manifested to one who 
 had taken so much interest in his reputation, 
 now bethought him seriously of that which 
 remained to be done. He had much reason to 
 suspect, that there was less of the night before 
 him than he had at first believed, and he be 
 came in consequence more sensible of the neces 
 sity of making some report of the events of his 
 watch. Accordingly he cast a scrutinizing
 
 296 THE BORDEHERS. 
 
 glance around, in order to make sure that the 
 facts should not contradict his testimony, and 
 then, first examining the fastenings of the pos 
 tern, he mounted the hill, and presented himself 
 before the family. The members of the latter, 
 having in truth passed most of the long interval 
 of his absence in spiritual exercises, and in reli 
 gious conversation, were not so sensible of his 
 delay in reporting, as they might otherwise have 
 been. 
 
 " What tidings dost thou bring us from 
 without ?" said Content, so soon as the self-re- 
 
 v 
 
 lieved sentinel appeared. " Hast seen any, or 
 hast heard that which is suspicious ?" 
 
 Ere Dudley would answer, his eye did not 
 fail to study the half-malicious expression of the 
 countenance of her who was busy in some do 
 mestic toil, directly opposite to the place where 
 he stood. But reading there no more than a 
 glance of playful though smothered irony, he 
 was encouraged to proceed in his report.
 
 THE BORDERERS. 297 
 
 " The watch has been quiet, " was the an 
 swer ; " and there is little cause to keep the 
 sleepers longer from their beds. Some vigilant 
 eyes, like those of Reuben Ring and my own, 
 had better be open until the morning ; further 
 than that, is there no reason for being wake 
 ful." 
 
 Perhaps the borderer would have dwelt more 
 at large on his own readiness to pass the remain 
 der of the hours of rest, in attending to the 
 security of those who slept, had not another 
 wicked glance from the dark, laughing eye of 
 her who stood so favourably placed to observe 
 his countenance, admonished him of the pru 
 dence of being modest in his professions. 
 
 " This alarm hath then happily passed 
 away," said the Puritan, arising. " We will 
 now go to our pillows in thankfulness and peace. 
 Thy service shall not be forgotten, Dudley; 
 for thou hast exposed thyself to seeming danger, 
 at least, in our behalf."
 
 298 THE BORDEHE11S. 
 
 " That hath he !" half-whispered Faith ; 
 " and sure am I, that we maidens will not for 
 get his readiness to lose the sweets of sleep, in 
 order that the feeble may not come to harm.' 1 
 
 ** Speak not of the trifle," hurriedly returned 
 the other. " There has been some deception in 
 the sounds, for it is now my opinion, except to 
 summon us to the gate, that this stranger might 
 enter the conch hath not been touched at all 
 to-night." 
 
 " Then is it a deception which is repeated !" 
 exclaimed Content, rising from his chair as a 
 faint and broken blast from the shell, like that 
 which had first announced their visiter, again 
 struggled among the buildings, until it reached 
 every ear in the dwelling. 
 
 " Here is warning as mysterious as it may 
 prove portentous !" said old Mark Heathcote, 
 when the surprise, not to say consternation, of 
 the moment, had subsided. " Hast seen nothing 
 that might justify this ?"
 
 THE BORDERERS. 299 
 
 Eben Dudley, like most of the auditors, was 
 too much confounded to reply. All seemed to 
 attend anxiously for the second and more pow 
 erful blast, which was to complete the imitation 
 of the stranger's summons. It was not necessary 
 to wait long, for in a time, as near as might be, 
 to that which had intervened between the two 
 first peals of the horn, followed another, and in a 
 note so true, again, as to give it the semblance 
 of an echo. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SHACKELL AND BAYLIS, JOHNSON's-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
 
 WORKS BY MR. COOPER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE SPY," " THE PILOT," &C. 
 
 _ . . 
 
 1. PRECAUTION ; A NOVEL. 3 vols. 12mo. 1L Is. 
 
 2. The PRAIRiaijk TALE. 3 vols. 12mo. 11. 4s. 
 
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