The captain of the woodsmen was about
proceeding with his narrative, when a loud,
shrill, and prolonged cry, not unmusical, announced
to the morning watch, that their
turn had come to stand guard. This call
proceeded from Ben, the pipe-smoker, and in
its peculiar note was not unlike the seaman's
watch-cry over the fore-castle.
`It is past twelve o'clock,' said Red Beard,
as the deep keyed voice died away in the
forest; `it is time you were upon your bed;
but I will not detain you much longer.'
`I care not if I am held here listening un
til dawn,' answered Griffitt. `I am becoming
deeply interested in your wonderful history.
I am desirous of learning the success
of your demand of your lawful right. Was
your proclamation responded to?'
`Two weeks after its publication, as I was
seated in my chamber, writing a little note
to my daughter, who though but eight years
old, could write prettily, when a Roman
priest was announced. I received him at
once in my room, and he placed in my hand
a paper, saying that he had been desired to
do this by one who had died three days
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before in a neighboring town. He then left
me without ceremony; and I opened the
parcel which was sealed. It was addressed,
under the cover to me as “Lord Robert, Earl
&c. of * * * *.”'
`Your proper designation.'
`Yes, and be assured I prepared to read a
missive so addressed, with no little impatience.
I first glanced at the signature, and
my heart bounded, when I recognized a
name that had been for years imprinted upon
my brain, with those of her three accomplices.
'
`The name of the chief lady—the countess
who conspired against your mother;'
asked Griffitt with interest.
`Yes. It was written tremblingly and
faintly, but I recognized it. The confession
itself was penned by another, and stronger
hand, doubtless that of the priest. You can,
perhaps, form some faint conception, Master
Griffitt, of the emotions with which I persued
a full confession of her part in the plot,
which I have already made known to you,
for ruining my mother's name and fame. It
was a full and unreserved confession, relating
each circumstance as it occurred. It
was a complete vindication of my mother,
bearing the highest testimony to her virtue,
and wound up with asking my forgiveness;
and praying that I and mine might yet enjoy
our rights. She stated that she had seen my
proclamation, which so smote her with remorse
at her guilt, that she had taken to her
bed, and now hastened ere she should be
called to her final account, to relieve her
mind by a full confession of her crime.'
`How extraordinary this was.'
`It was so indeed. I had to read the document
over half a dozen times, before I
could fully realize that it was real, and I then
hastened with it to the lord chancellor at
once, quite overlooking my counsel, whom I
feared might not move so rapidly as I could
wish. His lordship read it and said, “this
seems to be genuine, and it confirms me in
my opinion, that your mother, the Lady Al
ice was a much injured woman; but —”
“`But what, my lord?” I cried with a
sinking of the heart.
“`Since you were here there have been
found very remote collateral heirs to the
title and estates of Lord * * * * *,
who I learn have filed a bill yesterday against
your pretensions. They will be sure to pronounce
this a forgery, and especially as it
bears no witness's signature.”'
`And it was not witnessed!' exclaimed
Griffitt.
`No, no! I saw at once it would not
avail me, in law; though it was a most blessed
paper to my own satisfaction; for it unfolded
completely the whole mystery which
had enveloped the presence of the nobleman,
in my mother's apartment. All was made
clear as light to my mind, and I felt that I
would rather have lost my lordship and lands
forever, than not had that precious paper.'
`I can conceive the satisfaction it must
have given you.'
`It was so great that its uselessness towards
forwarding my views, made but little
impression upon me. Nevertheless, I resolved
to make use of it; and the event
proved the sagacity of his lordship. It was
pronounced to be a forgery; and as I could
not produce the priest who had received the
confession, I found that so far as evidence
towards advancing my claim, it was of no
sort of value; but as clearing up to my mind
all the mysteries connected with the attempt
to ruin my mother, it was of inestimable
value.
`Perceiving that my presence in London
was not longer necessary, I left the business
of my claim with my counsel, and returned
to Scotland. I had been three months absent,
and as four weeks had elapsed since I
had heard from my dear child, I felt not a
little anxiety as I approached my abode.
Upon reaching the summit of an eminence
which commanded a prospect of the little
glen in which my patrimony lay, I strained
my eyes to catch a glimpse of the root that
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[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]
held my treasure. But the sight that met
my eyes so amazed and filled me with dreadful
doubt, that I believed I had mistaken the
glen, rather than that which I beheld should
be real.'
`And what did you discover of so painful
a character?' asked Griffitt, as the narrator
paused, and crossed the cabin twice or thrice
with a quick, agitated tread, while tears
trembled in his manly eyes.
`A black, smoking ruin,' responded Red
Beard, hoarsely. `All that I beheld of my
once happy home, was a single wall towering
skyward alone, amid the ruins of the rest. I
spurred forward, pale and trembling, and
soon overtook one of my tenants. I rapidly
demanded of him where my child was—if
she were safe?
`He stared upon me with a look of woe,
and shaking his head said,
“`She is burned up, and the old stewart
and mistress, and all gone, my lord. It happened
two days ago.”
`I heard him, and frantic with the news,
rode madly forward, and reached the smoking
pile. All was desolation and horror. A
few peasants were assisting the servants in
searching the ruins for the body of my child.
The charred remains of the faithful governess
had been found, but those of my old
steward and my child, my poor child! were
not to be discovered, for the house which
was large had fallen in, covering the whole
space on which it stood, which was smoking
like a crater.
`The fatal news was repeated by each one,
till my ears ached, and my heart was nigh
bursting. I galloped round and round the
funeral pyre of my child, madly calling on
her name. But why should I dwell on this
painful theme. I saw my child no more.
An arm of the old man was found, the rest
of his body being doubtless burned to ashes.
After three weeks' assiduous search for something
that I might guess to be the ashes of
my child, I enclosed the whole in a wall, and
inscribed upon it my child's name, as follows:
“`The Tomb—
OF—
WINFRED.”'
`I do not know how to find words, sir, to
express my sympathy for you,' said Ringold,
as Red Beard paused and dashed a tear from
his cheek.
`Your sympathy is grateful to me But
let me hasten to the conclusion of my sad
tale. As you may suppose, the dreadful affliction
which had befallen me made me a
stricken man. I ceased to smile, and
shunned men; and the valley of my childhood,
and the home of my mother, where lay
the ashes of my child, became hateful to my
soul. I therefore resolved to leave it never
to return more, and once more became a
wanderer. I sold my land, and with the
small sum in gold, I left Scotland, and took
ship from an English port, I cared not whither,
so I left behind the scenes wherein I had
passed through so much woe. We had been
two days at sea before I asked whither the
vessel was bound, and then learned that it
was steering for the New World.'
`When was this, sir?' asked Ringold.
`Nine years ago.'
`Did you learn how — but I will not
allude again to the painful event!'
`Speak freely.'
`Was it told you how your castle was
burned?'
`Yes. It had taken fire in the night, and
the servants awaked by the flames, had barely
time to escape; while my child and the governess,
sleeping in a wing, were cut off from
escape, by the fire filling the hall, perished;
and the steward lost his life in trying to reach
them, to warn them and save them. The
ship in which I crossed the Atlantic put into
Baltimore. I there landed a stranger, and a
broken-hearted man. All my fortune consisted
of a small bag of gold, less than three
hundred pounds.'
`Pardon me,' said Griffitt, `but had you
given up all hopes touching your claim in
England?'
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[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]
`All. I had left with my counsel a certain
amount of fee-money; but before I left
Scotland they wrote me that they had taken
certain preliminary steps, and had hopes of
effecting a diversion in my favor; but they
could not proceed farther without more money.
As my child was no more, and I had
but little gold left, I felt no disposition to
pursue the matter further, and wrote to them
that unless they were willing to run some
risks, and act without means, they had best
drop it.'
`And doubtless they did so.'
`Yes, of that I subsequently heard. Upon
my arrival in Baltimore I assumed a name,
which still I bear.'
`Then Robert Burnside is not your real
name!' said Griffitt with surprise.
`The christian name only is mine; the
rest belongs to my mother's family. For
several weeks I remained in Baltimore at an
Inn, melancholy and desponding. I had no
purpose in view to inspire me to exertion,
nothing to render life worth the purchase by
labor. But I felt at length that my gold
would not last forever, and that I must, if I
would live, invest it in some manner. By
accident, I heard that wild lands were to be
sold in a valley of the Susquehannah. I had
heard the name of the river before to remember
it, having in one of my rambles on the
wharves, encountered three or four men who
taking me for a purchaser, accosted me, saying
they had a raft of mast timber from the
Susquehannah. One of these men was Derick,
my head raftsman now. I was struck
with the hardy, independent bearing of these
men, and became interested in them, and
put many inquiries to them touching their
country, and mode of life. I saw it was an
adventurous one, and as my life had been
one of adventures, I resolved, if I were driven
to my last crown, that I would attach myself
to the party of these men. So when a few
days afterwards I heard of the sale of forest
lands at a bargain, I resolved to become a
purchaser, so far as my means would allow.
You know the rest. I bought the one hundred
acres where I now live in the valley,
built a cabin there, and devoted myself to an
agricultural and woodland life, forgetting, or
rather trying to forget that I had not been
born a peasant.'
`While you have been relating your past
history,' said Griffitt, `I have been wondering
not a little how you chanced to be an inhabitant
of our valley; but I see it now very
plainly. But a man of your experience and
character, could not be suffered to remain in
retirement, among an active people like
ours.'
`No, and I had not been a dweller on my
new purchase long, before the proprietors of
these forest lands proposed to me,as you know,
to take the camp and oversee their gangs.
I found I wanted excitement and action, and
at once accepted the office, and become both
raftsman and woodman.
`Few men suspect that the bold and skilful
raftsman “Red Beard,” (pardon the appellation,
sir) is a high-born British noble.
You have deeply interested me, sir. I always
was well convinced that you were superior
to your condition; and there has always
existed a sort of mystery about you,
which no body could solve. Many looked
upon you to be more than you seemed, while
others said that a man who could shoot a
raft of a thousand logs so skilfully over the
falls, was never more nor less than a woodsman
all his days.'
`Yet I do not know why there should have
been any mystery about me. You alone, of
all men, have known the particulars of my
history.'
`It is because they did know it, you were
a mystery to us inquisitive Americans,' said
Griffitt with a smile.
-- --
Ingraham, J. H. (Joseph Holt), 1809-1860 [1847], Ringold Griffitt, or, The raftsman of the Susquehannah: a tale of Pennsylvania (F. Gleason, Boston) [word count] [eaf208].
