Though my sleep was dead, heavy, and dreamless, it lasted not long. I awoke with a sudden start and a sense of terrible apprehension. I am certain, indeed, that even when no visions perpetuate vaguely, during slumber, the thoughts which have occupied us waking, the sensations of the heart--if I may make such a distinction between heart and mind--persist, while all the ordinary faculties are steeped in oblivion, and knock at the doors of the brain till they awake us. I struck my repeater, and found it a quarter past three; and although I knew that in this latitude an hour or two of darkness had to intervene before the first dawn of day, I could find no more refuge in sleep. I lay there, and revolved the circumstances in which I was placed, and, as I imagined, all the probabilities--nay, even the possibilities--of the case. But I made no progress towards any conclusion. The prospect was as dark and dreary as ever! perhaps more so. At least it seemed so to me; for I know no more unpleasant hour to wake at, with feelings of apprehension on the mind, than three o'clock in the morning. It seems as if all the grizzly phantoms of imagination and dread gather thickly round our bed; and the dark sensation of that gloomy Nemesis, which hangs for ever brooding over human happiness, is felt more powerfully than at any other time. I struggled hard against it. I tried to put my trust in God. But there are moments when Faith and Hope seem darkened; when God's inspiring grace seems withdrawn; when the power of the prince of the air seems mighty over us in the darkness, and every image that can shake our trust is presented with appalling force.
"How many," I thought, "had the very night before risen from their knees to lay themselves down to rest with hope and faith in Him in whom I now strove to put my trust, and had never risen but to receive the death-blow of the murderer, or to weep over the ruin of every edifice of love. Oh, man! man! here lies our fault. Our hopes, our wishes, our faith, our trust, go not beyond this world. The dark chasm of the grave stops human thought and human feeling in their course, and we neither fully trust nor believe beyond." Such, at least, was the case with myself at that time. And the next hour and a half that passed, till the grey glimmer of the dawn began to appear, were amongst the most melancholy I ever endured in my life. Oh, Bessy! if you could have seen my heart then, you would have known more than words could ever convey. Before the sun was fully risen, Mr. Byles and I had quite a little levee around the door of our room. The first who appeared was Zed, who had found out where I had housed myself; and, coming with the first rays of dawn, had roused our worthy host and hostess from their short slumber. The second was good Mr. Jacobus himself, who reported that he had been able to learn very little, notwithstanding his utmost endeavours. All, in short, he had obtained was a vague rumour that Miss Davenport had been seen somewhere with old Jenny, Aunt Bab's cook; and that she would most probably be found with the other servants of the family at the sheriff's plantation, about seven or eight miles off. Next to him came Mr. Thornton, who had conducted his inquiries better, and had more reasonable suggestions to make than any of us. He cleared the room of the other two visitors; and then, seating himself in the only vacant corner, said,--
"I have been making inquiries this morning whether Halliday returned to the town last night. I find he has not been here since eight or nine o'clock, and I cannot discover where he has gone. This strikes me as somewhat strange; and I should propose, that as soon as they are awake and up, to inquire of the three young ladies whom he brought in, if they saw anything of Bessy and her companion. I dare say we shall be able to get speech of them presently; for people's minds have been too much agitated for much sleep to have hung over Jerusalem last night."
"In the meantime, however," I said, "I will ride over to the sheriff's quarters, and inquire if anything has been heard of the dear girl there."
"You had better wait till these young ladies have risen," rejoined Mr. Thornton. "They cannot be very long, I think; and they might give us information which would lead us in a totally different direction." I was too impatient to wait, and Billy Byles seconded me.
"Oh, they will sleep better now the daylight's come in," he said. "You won't have them up for these three hours; and by that time Sir Richard and I will be back again." A difficulty, however, occurred to me which I had not thought of before. I had no horses but those I had borrowed of Doctor Blunt for the purpose of riding into Jerusalem; and I did not think myself altogether justified in taking them any farther. The objection, however, was easily met by Billy Byles, who exclaimed,--
"Oh, there are lots of horses here, belonging to everybody and nobody. Come away over to the inn-stable, and you'll soon be able to provide yourself with a steed." I succeeded in doing so sooner than even he expected; for, on entering the stable, in the third stall to the left, what should I see but my own horse, which I had bought in Norfolk; and a little further on, that on which I had mounted Zed. Of course I had no hesitation in taking possession of my own property, though the ostler was inclined to make some opposition; but the word of Billy Byles was omnipotent with all who had to do with horse-flesh in that part of Virginia, and he declared he could swear to my horses amongst ten thousand. The ostler fairly owned that he did not know who had brought the beasts in, and the only further question was about saddles and bridles.
"Oh, take any one, take any one," said the ostler, with a grin; "we have been in such a state of confusion that nobody knows whether the saddle is on the right horse or not."
"Here's yem, master, here's yem," cried Zed, who had followed us into the stable; "but where mine is, Lord help us, I cannot tell. So I had better take the best I can find." These matters being at length arranged, we looked to the charging of our arms, and prepared to set out; but Zed approached my horse's side, asking what he was to do with Doctor Blunt's horses.
"Would you be afraid to take them back to Doctor Blunt's alone, Zed?" I asked.
"Oh dear, no, massa," he answered; "nobody hurt old Zed; and, besides, I think them fellers is had enough of it." I accordingly gave him money to pay for the animals' food, with orders to take them back to their master's house at once. Billy Byles and I set off at a rapid pace; but I could easily discover that my horse, although he had hardly been worked at all for the last two months, had been so hard ridden during the preceding four-and-twenty hours as to abate his strength and spirit considerably. Indeed, I afterwards found that he had been stolen by the insurgents from Mr. Stringer's house, on the night of the massacre, and had been used incessantly, without food, till the man who rode him was captured by a party of the militia. It was thus nearly an hour before we reached the lane which led down to the sheriff's plantation, upon or near which, we were told, aunt Bab's old servants were now quartered. We had not been able to find that tall and worthy functionary before we set out; and, consequently, we were without any specific information as to where the poor negroes were to be found. We rode direct towards the house, however; and, as we approached, saw a worthy gentleman--who might perhaps have some shade of colour in his blood, though very slight--quietly mounting a stout horse, of that round, compact form which generally betokens great powers of endurance.
"Here's the overseer," said Billy Byles. "We'll ask him where we can find the poor people." He accordingly rode up, and put his questions; and the good overseer, bowing civilly, said,--
"I will show you, gentlemen: they are at what we call the old quarters, two miles off, just upon the edge of the Swamp. Mr. ---- thought it would be better to place them there, as the cabins are comfortable and were vacant; and no one could get at them to steal them without crossing the plantation. I have put them," he added, "to a little task-work, just to give them something to do. But a regular account is kept of what they earn, which will be given in, when the courts decide to whom they belong." He looked at me as he spoke, as if understanding fully that I was one of the claimants; and I thought I recognized his face as one of those who had been with the party who pursued the kidnappers of these poor people, as far almost as the frontier of North Carolina.
"I suppose the negroes are very well content," I replied, "to remain here, and not go to New Orleans."
"That they are," answered the man, "and very much obliged to you, sir, for stopping them just when you did. I believe one-half of them would have died, if they had taken them away. They were born here and bred here, and have all been very happy here; and you'll find very few that like to quit Virginia, go where they may." I could not but smile at the man's patriotism; though, to say the truth, I did not much doubt he was right; for, as far as I had ever seen then, and have ever seen since, the existence of slavery--great as the evil is in every form--is so mitigated in that state, that I doubt not the slaves themselves would "rather bear the ills they have, than fly to others that they know not of."
"Pray," I asked, as we rode on, "when speaking of task-work, what do you consider as a fair day's task here?"
"That depends upon the nature of the work, sir," he answered. "But I can show you, as we go along, what we should consider a fair day's task in several different kinds of field labour." He did so; and I found that it was rather less than one-half of what an English labourer could perform easily in a day.
"Do you mean to say," I inquired, "that one of your hands cannot get through more than that in a day?"
"Oh dear, no, sir," he replied. "They can do twice as much in ordinary weather. Sometimes, it is dreadful hot to be sure; and then they can't do as much; but generally they have a good many hours to do what they like about their own place, if they are industrious--if not, to be still and sleep, as some of them do. Task-work, I think, is the best plan for them; the master is sure to get his work done; and, just as the hand is active and willing, he gets the advantage of it, which is an encouragement." There was something honest and straightforward about the man's manner and speech which pleased me; and I remarked also, that the negroes whom he met upon the road showed him not only that respect which might proceed from fear of his authority, but a degree of affectionate familiarity, which could only be generated by kindness on his part. One big fellow, in a light cotton jacket, ran along by the side of his horse for a quarter of a mile, with his hand upon the mane, talking to him about things he wanted done; and the women laughed and showed their white teeth, while they bobbed a courtesy, as if they were glad, rather than afraid, to see him. Billy Byles, to whom all such matters of Virginia detail were too familiar to be of any interest, whistled absently as we walked along; and it was only when my questions turned towards the fate of Bessy Davenport that he woke up to some degree of attention.
"I have heard nothing of the young lady myself, sir," said the overseer; "but as for that matter, we'll soon get information. She is very much beloved about all this part of the country; and whoever these black devils hurt, I hardly think they would venture to hurt her."
"I fear you calculate too much upon their forbearance," I said. "Have you not heard how indiscriminate their rage has been?"
"O yes, sir," he replied; "we have heard a great deal about them, although we have been rather out of their way here. Some passed over the corner of the plantation, I hear, last night, on their way towards the Swamp; but they seemed to be flying in great haste, so the men say, and did not stop to talk with any one."
"They were too near the sheriff's quarters," said Billy Byles. "His people are all right and straight, are they not?"
"O yes, Mr. Byles," answered the overseer. "Not one of them stirred, or wanted to stir. I sat up all night; but I might just as well have gone to bed; for master is always just with them. He always will have his work done; but he requires no more than is fair. He never punishes a mistake, or even a folly, though he may reprimand it; but he punishes a fault, if he sees it was intentional, always a little within the law, and never till he has considered the matter full four-and-twenty hours. It is those who have been too hard with them, or too soft with them, who are likely to suffer whenever there is a rising." Thus talking, we rode along, partly through woods, partly through open fields, till we reached a spot, where, built round a little sort of amphitheatre, sloping downwards towards pleasant meadows or savannah, beyond which again appeared a wide extent of ragged forest-ground, with glimpses of gleaming water here and there, appeared thirty or forty very neat and tidy cabins. At the doors of several were groups of women and children; and a number of men, with various implements of husbandry in their hands, appeared just setting out to their labour. To a European eye, accustomed to nothing but white faces, the sight of a number of negroes gathered together is a curious spectacle, to which people do not easily get accustomed. But very soon, other feelings, as we rode up, carried me away from the interest I felt in the spectacle of so many of what old Fuller calls, "God's images carved in ebony." The men rested at the sight of the overseer; the women rose; but, after a moment or two, some of them recognized me as aunt Bab's nephew, and as the man who had prevented them from being sold into another state. Great and loud was the excitement and the clamour. The word passed from mouth to mouth. The women and the men surrounded me; the little boys and girls tumbled head over heels; and though I do not think the Virginian negroes are very clamorous, a scene of din and excitement succeeded which made Billy Byles laugh, caused the overseer to smile, and prevented me, for some time, from explaining the object of my coming. At the first word, however, of probable danger to Bessy Davenport, everything was still. The capering and the singing and the laughing ceased; and the black, gleaming eyes were turned upon each other's faces, as if some terrible marvel had been told them.
"What! our missie?" cried an old woman at length, in a deep, horrified tone. "Our Bessy! Have they hurt her? Oh, I will tear out the hearts of them! But it can't be! They darn't." I explained to her and those around that all was in uncertainty--that Bessy and I had escaped from the house of Mr. Stringer; but I had lost her in the wood, and that she certainly was now missing. Another silence fell upon them all; and it was clear, from the astonishment with which the tidings had been received, that Bessy had not found shelter there. At length, one tall man, of about forty, stepped forward, and asked in an eager tone,--
"How was she dressed, massa? Had she anything white about her?"
"Yes," I answered; "she had a white shawl on, and a gown you might take for white, at a distance." The man mused, and spoke for a few moments in a low tone to a woman who had a baby in her arms. In the meanwhile, a lad of nineteen or twenty came forward, saying,--
"Didn't you tell us, sir, aunt Jenny was with her? Missus' cook that was." (I nodded my head.) "I'll find her; she is my aunt, massa, and been as good as a mother to me."
"We'll find them both," said the big man, turning round again. "We'll find them both, living or dead. Massa Overseer, no offence, sir, I hope, but we can't work to-day, because we must find Miss Bessy and aunt Jenny. You know you can trust us. We'll all be back before sun-down; but find them we must, and we will. I think I know where to look."
"Where, where?" I asked, eagerly.
"No matter, just yet," answered the man. "P'r'aps I'm mistaken, but we'll find her, massa, be you sure of that, if there's a living man left of us."
"Well," I answered, "any one who brings me intelligence to the town of where Miss Bessy is, between this hour and tomorrow morning, shall have a reward of a hundred dollars. I trust, sir, you have no objection," I said, turning to the overseer, "against these good people seeking for the young lady."
"None whatever," he replied. "I am quite certain they will all come back; for I don't think any of them has had anything to complain of during his whole life."
"Never, sir, till our old missus die," said the tall man; "and never since we came here, I will say. Robert Thornton's time was a different case. The dirty nigger! he ought to have the racket." He then turned to talk with his companions; and so eager were they all with the matter in hand, that they took very little further notice of us, and hardly seemed to perceive our departure. The overseer, it is true, remained with them, wishing us a civil good day, and though I gave all credit to their zeal, I was not sorry they should have some one to direct it aright, who had more extended experience than themselves.
"You are an extravagant fellow, Sir Richard," said Billy Byles, as we rode hack towards the town. "Your promise of the hundred dollars won't help the finding of poor Bessy a bit."
"I must leave no means or inducement untried," I said, in as calm and tranquil a tone as I could assume. "Miss Davenport, you see, was under my protection. I cannot help blaming myself for having left her at all; and every one will have just cause for censuring me severely if I neglect any means of discovering what has become of her." Billy Byles laughed aloud.
"My dear Sir Richard," he said, "I dare say you have got a thousand good reasons for your eagerness; but I divine one little one which you do not mention, and that is just the one which would make me hunt up Louisa Thornton in the same manner, if she were in the same predicament. Come along, here's a place where we can gallop; and though Jordan is a hard road to travel, the sooner we get back to Jerusalem the better."
I could not help thinking, as we rode along, now through deep woods, now across small pieces of cultivated ground, what a favourable country this would be for a desultory guerilla sort of warfare; and I easily conceived how the Indians, in former days, had maintained their woody fastnesses against all the advantages of European discipline. Indeed, had the insurgents, on the present occasion, but known how to profit by the opportunities the country afforded--had they kept their hands from any indiscriminate massacre, and contented themselves with picking off their assailants from behind the screen which the forest afforded in every direction, they might, and certainly would, have been beaten at last, but they would have been much more successful in the beginning, and maintained the contest for a greater length of time. I did not feel at all sure that they would not have a shot at us from the denser parts of the forest, as we passed along through the narrow paths which we had to thread in order to reach the high road; and I kept my gun upon my knee, to give it back again in case of need. But the great highway to Suffolk was reached at length, and on we went in more security. A large, lumbering, heavy stage-coach passed us, with its tall springs and huge body, looking like a great solitary capon, and quite unlike the neat, compact, dashing vehicles which roll along with such tremendous speed over our smooth English roads. It stopped for a moment, to give time for the passengers and driver to ask us--"What news?" and then went on again, rolling and wallowing through the sand, and the ruts, and the holes, like a porpoise in a rough sea. About two miles farther on, just as we were coming to the opening of another road branching to the left, I heard a well-known voice exclaiming,--
"Hi, massa, hi!" Looking round, I saw Zed just starting up from a large log on which he had been sitting. He ran as quickly towards us as his crooked leg would admit; and, coming close to my horse, he said, in a low, mysterious, and important voice,--
"Got news of Miss Bessy, massa. Saw an ole woman in her cabin, half-way between Doctor Blunt's and Mr. Hiram Shield's; and she tell me that she saw four men and two women, a-horseback, pass by last night just as it was growing dark. They were all white men, and one was a white woman. She says, she swears, she was Miss Bessy. T'other woman's face she could not see; but she says she was mighty fat, so that must be aunt Jenny."
"Which way did they take?" I demanded, though I did not exactly see why there should not be other fat women in the world besides aunt Jenny.
"Oh, they have gone to Jerusalem, of course," cried Billy Byles. "It was some of Halliday's party, depend upon it. Very likely they split into two; but they have all taken to Jerusalem, you may be sure of it. You see, in the crowd and confusion last night, no one could find anything, and the search for Bessy was like looking for a needle in a pottle of hay.
"Ole woman thinks they took t'other way," said Zed; "but you see, massa, her cabin just stand at de corner, where you can see no way at all; for they could turn either right or left when they got a hundred yards farther; and she only judge by the sound of the horses' feet."
"Oh, they've gone to Jerusalem," said Billy Byles. And turning to Zed, he added, "She was quite sure they were white men?"
"Oh, she swore by gorry dey was white men," answered Zed. "No doubt of dat."
"Then she is safe, at all events," answered Billy Byles; "and we had better make the best of our way on to town and seek for her. So that she hasn't fallen into the hands of these devils, we have no occasion to be afraid." Zed's intelligence certainly was a great relief to my mind; yet I was not entirely at my ease; for there were various points which seemed strange to me, and I could not feel satisfied till they were accounted for. Nevertheless, Billy Byles's plan seemed the only feasible one for the moment. Therefore, telling Zed to follow as fast as he could, I rode towards Jerusalem. We found the town somewhat more orderly and quiet than it had been on the preceding day, although it appeared that several parties of military had arrived during the night and that morning, and two pieces of artillery were planted in the square. Provisions had arrived likewise; and breakfast was going on with great zeal in the inn and the different houses which had given shelter to the fugitives. In the inn we found Mr. Thornton and all his family; but his first question showed me that he himself had obtained no satisfactory information.
"What news do you bring?" he said. "Do aunt Bab's people know anything of our poor girl?"
"Nothing whatever," I replied; "but we have since got some important intelligence." And I told him all we had heard from Zed.
"That is satisfactory, at all events," he said, with a brighter look. "We shall hear more soon, and most likely see her come trotting in in the course of the day. I dare say she has gone to some plantation where the people are on their guard, and feel secure. At all events, she is safe, and our worst fears are allayed." He then went on to inform me that he had spoken with the young ladies whom Colonel Halliday had brought in, and found that Bessy had certainly never been with them. He had brought them, however, Mr. Thornton said, from a house quite close to the high-road after having made a tour with his party through the woods in search of the insurgents. He had returned on his search, immediately after having lodged them in safety, and he might have met with Bessy either before or afterwards.
"The only strange thing is," continued Mr. Thornton, "that Halliday himself has never returned; but I trust he will appear very soon." Mrs. Thornton, who always was rather of a despondent disposition, here expressed a hope--which, with her, generally meant a dread of an exactly opposite event--that Colonel Halliday had not met with a superior party of the negroes, and been defeated. A friend of mine, who was somewhat of a susceptible and apprehensive character himself, but who took especial care never to express any gloomy forebodings, used to declare that he always eschewed, the society of what he calleddread-fulpeople; "for when I am in a fright about anything myself," he said, "they are sure to drive me half mad with all sorts of possibilities." Now, though I do not intend to apply the termdread-fulto my excellent friend, Mrs. Thornton, yet I did wish she had spared me this suggestion. I had argued myself into believing that there was no doubt of Bessy's safety, although, of course, I could not be altogether easy till I saw her again; and though the phantom which Mrs. Thornton conjured up was not very tangible, it made me uncomfortable. If it was not probable, it was within the range of possibility; and upon it my mind rested with very unpleasant sensations.
"Pooh! nonsense, mamma!" said Louisa Thornton. "Mr. Halliday had too many men with him for anything like that. Did you not hear how they were all scattered and dispersed at Doctor Blunt's? In the meantime, Sir Richard is getting no breakfast and must be half starving."
"And so am I too," said Billy Byles; "but you don't care whetherIstarve or not, Miss Louisa."
"Oh, I have no fears about you," she answered. "You will never starve when there's anything to be got to eat. You had better make haste, however, and get down to the dining-room, for there is a famishing multitude round, which will leave not a morsel if you do not fight for it." What she said was literally true. The breakfast we got was very scanty, although Billy Byles did almost fight for it; but it served, at all events, to appease our hunger; and, what was perhaps of more consequence to me, to fill up some short space of time in which I had nothing else to do. Active exertion was indeed most necessary for me; but for the time, the opportunity was wanting. Zed had not yet returned to the town; and my horse was too tired, what with the morning's ride and the fatigue he had undergone during the preceding night and day, to go any farther without some repose. Nothing was to be done, then, but to wander about amongst the various groups in the town, to converse with those whom I knew, and to gather the scattered pieces of intelligence which were brought in from the country. All seemed agreed that the negroes had been completely dispersed the night before; that they had lost heart and hope; and that the insurrection was at an end. Several families who had taken refuge in the town moved back to their own dwellings, and some parties of the militia and volunteers marched out to return home. Still Colonel Halliday did not appear, and still no farther intelligence came of Bessy Davenport. Zed came in about two hours after Billy Byles and I reached the town, although the distance he had to walk was not more than four miles; but he assured me he had been making all sorts of inquiries, and I doubt not but what he said was true; for where is the negro who can pass another without stopping to ask him some question? After I had heard his excuse for the delay, I told him to get the horse he usually rode, ready for me, adding,--
"He must be rested by this time; and if Colonel Halliday doesn't come in in an hour, I shall go out to talk with this old woman, you mention, myself."
"You had better take me with you, massa," said Zed. "You'll not find out much by yourself. People will tell ole Zed when they won't tell you. But dere's dat free yellow man looking after you, I think, where you sleep last night." I looked round in the direction to which his eyes were turned, and saw good old Jacobus standing at a little distance, apparently waiting respectfully till my conversation with Zed was over.
"What is it, Jacobus?" I said, approaching him. "Have you anything to tell me?"
"Yes, sir," said the man, speaking in a low and mysterious tone. "There's a boy on the bridge wants to see you. He won't come into the town, for he seems afraid of the soldiers and the cannon; but he says he has a message for you." I turned hastily away, and walked towards the bridge. There were two or three people at the nearer end, but no one was upon it except a man driving a cart, and a young boy of perhaps thirteen years old, who was mounted upon the rail and swinging himself backwards and forwards over the water. He was as black as ebony; and I had no recollection of having seen him before. But he grinned from ear to car as I came up, evidently recognizing me; and, dismounting from his rail, he ran forward, saying,--
"Hercules say, mas'r, he got news already ob Miss Bessy. You don't leave de town till you hear from him again."
"And who is Hercules, my good friend?" I asked.
"Oh, our Hercules," answered the lad, with a look of wonder at my ignorance. "De great big nigger. You saw he dis mornin'."
"And has he got intelligence already?" I inquired. "He must have been very quick. It is hardly four hours since I saw him."
"Ah, dis nigger run all de way," cried the boy, "right troo de woods--neber stop for noting."
"Then you must need something, my good boy," I replied. "Come into the town with me, and I'll see if I can get you some breakfast."
"O no, mas'r," answered the boy. "Had good drink out there," and he pointed to the river. "But mind you now, you wait till Hercules come. He can want you in a minute, he say. He am very fierce about someting, and get half de nigger together and went away again, so soon he sent me off." I tried to get some further information from the boy, but it was in vain. He evidently knew nothing more than the message with which he had been charged; and giving him some pieces of silver for his trouble, with which he seemed mightily delighted, I let him go. On returning to the inn, I found the dining-hall occupied by a party of gentlemen arranging their plans for a very melancholy duty. This was to divide the district in which the massacre had taken place into sections, and in parties of sufficient force, to visit the houses which had suffered, in order to take the necessary steps to dispose decently of the bodies of the victims. A good-looking military man was in the chair, with a calm and intelligent countenance. I found afterwards it was General Eppes, the commandant of the district. He was just addressing a few words of advice and exhortation to those who were about to set out.
"I believe, gentlemen," he said, "that all danger may be considered over. The insurrection may be said to be at an end, though several of the leaders have escaped as yet. I would advise you, however, to go well armed, and five or six in a body, lest you should fall in with any scattered party of these unfortunate people. I would beseech you, however, should you meet with any of them, to be calm, and to forbear from anything like violence or cruelty. Let them be brought in to await the action of the law; but do not permit indignation and anger to move you to acts as barbarous as their own. You may think it strange, and perhaps improper, that I should address such advice to you at all; but I have just received intelligence of a most brutal outrage committed upon some unoffending negroes by persons who should know better. My good friend, the sheriff, has just set out to inquire into the whole matter, and I trust will bring the offenders to punishment. For it is dangerous and intolerable, on an occasion like this, when the restoration of tranquillity depends as much upon justice and forbearance as upon courage and activity, that the peaceable and well-disposed should be treated like the malcontent and the guilty, especially," he added, in a very marked tone, "where private malevolence may be suspected as the motive for a cruel and unjustifiable act. This is all I wish to say; but I think it is worth your attention, for I know that many who hear me must set forth with feelings highly irritated, which will be naturally increased by the sad spectacles they will have to witness." His tone was calm, firm, and dignified, and he was listened to with evident attention and respect. Some, indeed, wished that he would give farther explanations in regard to the particular case of outrage to which he had alluded. But he replied, after a moment's thought,--
"Gentlemen, my information is vague, and I do not like to give circulation to rumours affecting the character and conduct of any gentleman in the neighbourhood. We have had too many rumours already, and, until the particulars are well ascertained, I shall say no more. The matter is in the hands of the sheriff, whose energy and activity you all know, and it will be thoroughly investigated." The meeting then began to break up, organizing itself into different parties to perform the mournful duty they had undertaken. Each selected its particular little district to act in, and each chose a leader for itself to direct its proceedings. This spirit of organization is one of the most peculiar and serviceable traits of the American character. In other countries, a mob is a mob; every one strives for the lead; every one tries to cram his own opinion down the throats of others. But no sooner do a number of Americans meet for any purpose whatsoever, than the first thing they do is to organize; they choose their leaders and their officers, and thus, very often, the most disorderly acts are performed in the most orderly manner. This is one of the ancient characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons, showing itself amongst their remote descendants. Our pagan, piratical, barbarous, bloodthirsty ancestors, had no sooner taken possession of Great Britain, than they devised, and carried out, one of the most beautiful systems of organization ever conceived; and if both Englishmen and Americans have, as I am afraid is the case, inherited some of the piratical propensities of our worthy forefathers, they have come in for their share of the better qualities also. Mr. Henry Thornton was placed at the head of one party, Billy Byles of another, and I think about seven little bodies of men were formed to visit the different houses where massacres had been committed. I was asked by Mr. Thornton to join his party; but I explained to him that I wished to remain in the town till Colonel Halliday made his appearance, and I besought him, if he obtained any intelligence of Bessy, to let me know at once.
"Halliday's absence is very strange," said Mr. Thornton; "but let me advise you, Sir Richard, if I may do so without seeming impertinent, to deal with him calmly when he does come in. There are various circumstances which may make him irritable in regard to any matter where Bessy is concerned, and I think we have had pistols and bullets enough for some time to come." Thus closed our conversation, and when the various parties had set out on their way, I betook myself to the open space before the inn, not alone to be ready for whatever might occur, but to dissipate my impatience, as it were, in a way that could not be annoying to others. I ought, perhaps, in politeness, to have gone to sit with Mrs. Thornton and her daughters in the balcony; but I felt that I was not fit for society, and that my company could not be very desirable to any one in the mood which was then upon me.
About half an hour had passed, during which I had walked up and down, exchanging a few words, from time to time, with different gentlemen in the street, when I saw a negro-lad coming at a quick pace from the side of the bridge. I thought I recollected his face, though I have always found it very difficult to distinguish one of his race from another, by the features, when there is no mixture of the white. I accordingly advanced to meet him, and saw at once that it was of me he was in search.
"Come along as quick as possible, mas'r," he said, "you is wanted down dar very much. Mas'r sheriff gone down; but you wanted too. I met mas'r sheriff on the road. Poor Hercules and two other is shot. Dey tink him die, and he want to see you."
"Shot!" I exclaimed. "Good Heaven! by whom?" The boy had been speaking low; but he now dropped his voice to a whisper, while he replied--
"Mas'r William Thornton, and his son Bob, and dat Irish driver." I paused to ask no further questions; but called to Zed to bring out the horses as fast as possible, which he did with more than his usual alacrity. My own beast still looked very tired, and stood with his head drooping. I determined therefore to take the horse that Zed usually rode, and to go alone, although my good servant, who always had a sort of protecting air with him, as if he thought that, as a white man and an Englishman, I was not at all fit to take care of myself in Virginia, urged me strongly to take him with me. I rode away without him, however; proceeding slowly, till I was beyond the town, with the negro-lad walking by my side. But we had hardly passed the bridge when he said,--
"You know de way, don't you, mas'r?" I nodded my head, and he added--"You had better get on den, fear poor Ercles die first. Dis nigger come after." I marked the road too well to miss it; and putting my horse into as quick a pace as possible, I hurried forward till I reached the turning which went down by the sheriff's plantations. Rapid riding is rather favourable to rapid thought; but I had very few data on which to base conclusions in the present case. This event, which the boy had communicated to me, was evidently the outrage to which General Eppes had alluded shortly before; but I puzzled myself in vain to assign some motive for such an act on the part of Robert Thornton. Could it be mere malice because the slaves had been taken out of his hands; I could not believe in such brutality. Yet what other inducement could he have? It was all in vain; and, turning through the woods, I was soon near the sheriff's house. I found no one there, however, except some women and children, who told me that their master had gone down to the old quarters. One woman was crying bitterly, and I asked her if poor Hercules was dead. She said she believed not; but every one said he would die. No further information could I get; for the poor creatures seemed ignorant of everything except that some of their friends, perhaps relations, had been dangerously hurt. On I went then as fast as possible, till I reached the group of cabins which I have before described. Round the door of one of them the greater part of the negroes seemed to have collected; and thither I rode, judging at once that the wounded man lay there. A boy sprang, forward to hold my horse. Another whispered as I dismounted,--
"Doctor's wid him, sir." But I went in notwithstanding; and there, upon the lowly, pallet-bed, saw extended the large frame of the negro I had beheld in the morning, full of life and energy, but now apparently reduced to almost infant weakness. Bending over him with what I suppose was a pair of forceps plunged into a wound in his right side, was Doctor Christy, the surgeon who had attended me when suffering from a much lighter wound. The poor negro's eyes were closed, and he did not open them till the ball was extracted; but when he did, and they fell upon me, he raised himself a little on his elbow, as if about to speak.
"There! lie still, my good fellow, lie still," said the surgeon. "We have got the bullet out; keep quiet and all will go well."
"I want to speak with that gentleman--Imustspeak with him, though I die. I'se going to die anyhow, I know dat, and I will speak with him when I can."
"I hope he is likely to recover, Mr. Christy," I said advancing.
"I hope so," answered the surgeon, in a somewhat doubtful tone. "But he must keep quiet, and not speak much; for I am not sure that the lower edge of the lung has not been touched." While he spoke, he was busily engaged in putting on compresses and bandages; but the negro eagerly beckoned me towards him, and judging that he would not remain quiet till he had said what he wished to say, I walked up and bent down my head, telling him to speak slowly and calmly.
"Miss Bessy was dere, I'se sure," said the poor man. "Bob Thornton never shoot us for asking after her, if she warn't. She mayn't be dere now, for I dar say he send her away, 'case she saw all he do."
"Then was it Robert Thornton himself who shot you?" I asked. "I thought he was still too ill to move."
"Ay, but he shot me himself," said the negro. "He came to de window in his dressing-gown, and leaned de gun on de chair. Ole Bill and de two Irishmen shot de others; butheshot me. But hark'ee, mas'r, if you and sheriff don't find Miss Bessy, go right across de Swamp. He got de ole house dere--right across, mind, straight east. You find her dere, I tink. Dat's anoder State. He won't keep her in Virginny after what he hab done."
"I cannot really let this go on," said Doctor Christy. "The poor man's life depends upon his being quiet."
"Well, good-bye, Hercules," I said. "I will see you tomorrow."
"Ah, you bring me word dat Miss Bessy found all safe," answered the wounded man. "Dat do me more good nor anything." I drew the surgeon towards the door, round which the other negroes had remained all the time in perfect silence, and asked him in a low tone if it would not be better to have the man's deposition taken down, as he evidently believed himself to be dying.
"What's the use of his deposition?" asked the surgeon drily. "Don't you know a negro can't testify against a white man? His voice will be quite as powerful in the grave as when he is living. But I think he will do well. These negroes always think they will die when anything is the matter." No good could be done by staying; and deeper interest called me away.
"Can any of you show me the way to Mr. William Thornton's house?" I asked, speaking generally to the little crowd without.
"Here's de nigger who can," said an active young negro springing forward. "We'll soon catch up de sheriff. He not long gone. I can run all de way. I wish I hab a gun," he continued, looking at the one which was strapped across my shoulders. "I shoot Bob Thornton wid all my heart."
"Well, come along," I said, with feelings too much akin to his own to reprove him for his sanguinary wishes. "Take the shortest way, and never mind wide paths or narrow; we'll force our way through." On he bounded like a deer, without care of brambles or thorns, of rough places or swamps; and, to say truth, though he was on foot, and I was on horseback, I had a good deal of difficulty to keep up with him. The way was rather long; and the by-paths he took did not strike a wider road, for at least five miles; but when we had gained the more open way, we almost immediately found ourselves in the presence of the sheriff, with a considerable party of white men, and two or three blacks. Amongst the rest, I instantly recognized Robert Thornton, very pale, but apparently quite convalescent. There was an elder man, whom I took to be his father, from the strong personal resemblance, though the latter was thin, fox-faced, and eager-looking, with that peculiar, quick, and hungry aspect which I have never seen except in men who have spent a life and employed all their energies in a fruitless pursuit of wealth by cunning and dirty means--a look of shrewd activity, rendered almost fierce by disappointment. Behind, with handcuffs on them, were the two Irishmen whom I remembered well to have seen with Robert Thornton when he was attempting to carry off aunt Bab's servants. The rest were men whom I did not know. The moment the sheriff perceived me, he drew up his horse, and said,--
"I am sorry to tell you, Sir Richard, Miss Davenport is certainly not there, although we had every reason to believe that she was. I had not, indeed, time to pursue my inquiries as far as I could wish; for my other duties call me to Jerusalem as fast as possible. But I searched every room and every cabin round the house; and, whether she has been there or not, she is not there now."
"You will take notice, Mr. Sheriff," cried Robert Thornton, before I could say anything in reply, "that I again protest against this proceeding as altogether illegal and unwarranted; and I give you notice, I shall undoubtedly bring an action against you for false imprisonment, which you know quite well will lie."
"You will do as you are advised, Mr. Thornton," replied the sheriff, coolly. "The district is in an exceptional state just now, and the presumptions are very strong against you. But, as I said before, my mind is perfectly made up as to my course. You have not often known me abandon my determinations; and I shall not suffer any of you four gentlemen to depart till you have given sufficient bail to meet any charge which may be preferred against you."
"Why, you have not even a pretence, sir," said the elder Mr. Thornton. "Nothing but the idle tattle of a parcel of niggers." The sheriff smiled sarcastically.
"You forget," he said, "we may yet have some curious testimony from Colonel Halliday, and various gentlemen of his party; and, moreover," he continued, more slowly and emphatically, "some testimony, which, though it is not present, and may not even be in this State at the present moment, may become available hereafter. At all events, I will take my chance of what is upon the cards, and please God, I will carry you to Jerusalem this night." I could see that the countenances of Robert Thornton and his father both fell considerably at some parts of the sheriff's reply, which they understood better than I did, and they did not attempt to make any further opposition.
"Sir Richard," said the sheriff, beckoning me a little aside, "you had better return with us. You will not find the lady there; and, without guides and some force, I don't think you will be able to do anything to-night."
"I will go on at all events," I answered. "I have got some hints from that poor fellow whom they have wounded, which I want to follow up at once. I shall probably be back to-night, or at latest, to-morrow."
"Well take care what you do," he replied. "Remember you are not in your own country. But I shall be round in the direction which I suppose you are taking early to-morrow; and, if there should be any difficulty, may be able to give you assistance, though I think this man's creatures will be completely cowed when they find he is apprehended. Indeed, that Irishman there on the left, is going to turn State's evidence, or I am very much mistaken. I would go with you; but I have a great deal to do to-night. Mind what you do in the Swamp; for people have got in there who have never got out again. Now, gentlemen, we will go forward, if you please. Mr. Thornton, you will have the goodness to cease your communications with that man. I wish him to give his evidence unprompted; and as it is a matter which may affect his own life and the lives of two or three others, he had better be permitted to speak freely. I suppose you are aware this district is under martial law at present."
"Then your functions are suspended," said Robert Thornton, sharply.
"Excuse me, sir," said the sheriff. "I am acting under due authority; and, at all events, might makes right in the present instance, as you will find." Thus saying, he rode on; and as Robert Thornton passed me, though his tongue said nothing, his look said a great deal. Poor Hercules had told me to go straight east across the Swamp, if I did not find dear Bessy at Mr. William Thornton's house; and the sheriff assured me she was not there: so that I was inclined at first to leave the house, which was now in sight on my right, along a path which seemed long beaten. On second thought, however, I determined to go up to the house and make further inquiries; not that I doubted the sheriff, or had the vanity to attribute to myself superior acumen; but I have often remarked that where one man of intelligence has been unable to obtain information, or get a clue to some secret, a second man, perhaps inferior to himself, will stumble, by accident, upon the very thing that is wanted. In fact, there are two sides to every hedge; one man takes one, and another man takes the other; and where the form is, there the hare will be. At the door of Mr. Thornton's house, stood two or three negro women and one man. Springing from my horse without hesitation, I gave the rein to my companion, and walked up to them in a familiar manner. They seemed a dull, sullen, heavy set of people, indeed the lowest specimens of the negro race I had yet met with. Yet the conduct and the character of the master must have been that which had brutalized them, for they were exactly of the same race as all the rest round about; and, indeed, most of them seemed to have some portion of white blood in their veins.
"How long is it since Miss Davenport went?" I said, taking out my watch.
"I don't know anything about her," answered the man, in a surly tone.
"I didn't ask you, my good friend," I said; "I asked the woman who attended upon her. You were the girl," I continued, picking out a young woman of two-and-twenty, who looked cleaner, and was more neatly dressed than the rest. "You are the girl who waited upon her last night, are not you?" She hesitated and stammered in her reply, and seemed a good deal confused by the directness of my assertion. At length, however, she blurted forth,--
"Don't know what you are talking about, mas'r." In the meanwhile, the man had walked slowly away, as if he had had enough of my questions; and, turning to an old woman who was one of the party, I said,--
"At all events, goody, you can tell me where aunt Jenny is--Mrs. Bab Thornton's cook. She is my servant now, you know, and I don't want her ill-used or neglected."
"I don't know nothing of nobody, mas'r," replied the old woman. "But I do know we'se got to obey orders; and if we stands here talking to strangers about mas'r's 'fairs, we'se likely to get flogged."
"Neither Mr. Thornton nor his son will ever flog you again," I answered; "for they have both gone to prison for what they did here this morning."
"Can't tell, don't know, mas'r," answered the old woman. And she beat a retreat into the house, followed by another, somewhat younger than herself. The youngest of the party, however, stood her ground; and, after a quick glance round, apparently to see that no one was watching, she gave a rapid movement of her thumb, over her shoulder towards the wood, which, on the eastern side, came within two hundred yards of the house. My eye followed her gesture, which certainly was not the exact direction I had intended to take; and, as I could perceive no horse-path, I looked, I suppose, a little puzzled.
"You go down dere quick," said the girl, in a whisper; "follow de track, you find it." Then raising her voice aloud, she said, evidently intending her words for the ears of others,--
"Can't tell you anything, mas'r. Don't know; so no use your waiting." Beckoning the lad to follow with my horse, I crossed the field in the direction she had pointed out, guided by a narrow, and not very distinct, track of footsteps, which, however, widened out and became more like a beaten path as we approached the wood. There two or three other little paths converged; and I found I could pass on horseback easily enough. How far I had to go, I know not; nor what might be likely to occur on the way. But, after some consideration and some doubt, I determined to send back my companion, and proceed on my journey alone. As soon as we were completely out of sight of the house, I took the rein from him, saying,--
"I will not take you any farther, my good boy. I think you had better find some other way back, so that they may not see, from the house, that you have left me."
"Oh, I do dat easily, mas'r," answered the lad; "go down de edge of de Swamp and round."
"First, tell me," I said, "where does this road lead?"
"Ole Billy Thornton's ole house," answered the youth.
"But this is not, I think, the road that poor Hercules intended me to take?" I added, interrogatively.
"Dar say he meant the waggon-road; but it is all de same," replied the lad. "Dey both come out close together, and dat ar gal jog her turn dis way. I see her, dough she were mighty quick." And he laughed with the peculiar laugh of his people.
"Then I cannot miss my way to the old place," I observed.
"Oh, dear, no," answered the boy; "only just follow de track; keep always de biggest; and when you ride 'cross de savannah, look where him very green. Don't you go dere, for he's very deep dere. But keep where him brown and bushy, and where you see ox or horse feet." His directions were very good, as I found afterwards; although I will confess that I had no idea at the time of the sort of place I was venturing into, called, and not without reason, "The Great Dismal Swamp." I am told that in the spring of the year, nothing can be more deceitfully beautiful than the aspect which it puts on. The whole ground, even in the most plashy places, is covered with flowers. The trees are literally robed and loaded with the yellow jasmine, the trumpet honey-suckle, and other climbing plants. The cedars and junipers mingle their darker colours with the light-green foliage of the spring; and the very snakes as they glide across the path, or curl among the branches, look as if they were masses of living gems. In the height of summer, or the beginning of autumn, the scene is very different. Still, however, there is something grand about it from its very gloom. A profound sense of loneliness came upon me as I rode on. I don't know what it was, or how to account for the feeling, but the sensation produced by the aspect of these woods was different from that of any other forest scenery through which I had passed in Virginia. Where patches of woodland, very often of considerable extent, had been scattered amongst the cultivated ground, one always felt that one should soon reach free air and human associations again; but here, it seemed as if one were at the end of man's domain--as if the ground one trod upon never had been, never could be, cultivated; that there was a bar, and a proscription, and a curse against it--that one was proceeding away from civilization, and tending towards nothing. The first half-mile was through dense, deep forest, with tall, thin trees, rising up so close together that they evidently had not room to glow; each struggling with his fellow, as, in too densely a crowded population, every man stinted his neighbour in his own struggle for life. Then came a track, where I know not what catastrophe seemed to have terminated this overcrowded contention. For three or four square miles, the scene was one of desolation and decay. Fallen trees, stunted bushes, low junipers, plashy pools, thickets of laurel and ivy, silver gleams of small ponds, scanty lines of savannah--here, a dried-up patch of black mud, cracked into deep fissures; there, an undrainable spot, where the horse sank above his knees at every step in slimy ooze; now, a tangled brake, where a hundred men might have concealed themselves; and now, a swampy piece, from the long grass of which a tall white bird would spring up and soar away,--such were the objects that presented themselves on every side; and when viewed from the rather more elevated ground, by which the track was approached, showed like a wild and dismal moor with here and there a clump of tall trees rising above the rest of the expanse, and a deep, lowering belt of forest in the distance, girding it in on every side. On I rode, however, my horse sometimes stumbling over the thorn-trees, sometimes sinking almost to his girths in the deep, black mud. The sun declining in the sky, and the gloomy aspect of everything round me, sank into my heart, and depressed my spirits. Oh, how closely allied in this mysterious state of being is the material and the moral--how susceptible is even the soul itself of the influences poured in upon it through the channels of the external senses! The memories of all that had been taking place during the last two days seemed to combine themselves with the gloomy features of the scene around me. Hope diminished, apprehension increased. Imagination triumphed over reason; and I felt as if I were going on towards sorrow and disappointment and misfortunes. Such gloomy fits have sometimes possessed me before; but it is man's privilege and his duty to triumph over them; and whenever I feel the shadow of the cloud, I try to nerve my heart to resist, and to call up faith and trust to support mere human resolution.
"There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." "Not a hair of our head falls to the ground unnumbered." And if so, God is with us. Onward!