CHAPTER I.

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The lightning streamed athwart the heavens
in quick and vivid flashes. One peal of thunder
after another echoed from cliff to cliff, while a
driving storm of rain, wind and hail, made the
face of nature black and dismal. There was something
frightfully congenial in this uproar of the
contending elements with the storm raging in Bacon's
heart, as he rushed from the scene of the
catastrophe we have just witnessed. The darkness
which succeeded the lurid and sulphureous
flashes was not more complete and unfathomable
than the black despair of his own soul.
These vivid contrasts of light and gloom were
the only stimulants of which he was susceptible,
and they were welcomed as the light of his path!
By their guidance he wildly rushed to his stable,
saddled, led forth, and mounted his noble charger,
his own head still uncovered. For once the

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gallant animal felt himself uncontrolled master of his
movements, fleet as the wind his nimble heels
measured the narrow limits of the island. A sudden
glare of intense light served for an instant to
reveal both to horse and rider that they stood upon
the brink of the river, and a single indication of the
rider's will was followed by a plunge into the
troubled waves. Nobly and majestically he rose
and sank with the swelling surges. His master
sat erect in the saddle and felt his benumbed faculties
revived, as he communed with the storm.
The raging elements appeared to sympathize with
the tumult of his own bosom. He laughed in horrid
unison with the gambols of the lightning, and
yelled with savage delight as the muttering thunder
rolled over his head.

There is a sublime stimulus in despair. Bacon
felt its power; he was conscious that one of the
first laws of our organization, (self-preservation,)
was suddenly dead within him.

The ballast of the frail vessel was thrown overboard,
and the sails were spread to the gathering
storm with reckless desperation. Compass and
rudder were alike abandoned and despised—they
were for the use of those who had hopes and fears.
For himself he spread his sails and steered his
course with the very spirit of the storm itself. Nature
in her wildest moods has no terrors for those
who have nothing to lose or win; no terrors for
them who laugh and play with the very elements
of her destruction; they are wildly, madly

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independent. It is the sublimity of the maniac! Nevertheless
there is a fascination in his reckless steps
as he threads the narrow and fearful windings of
the precipice, or carelessly buffets the waves of
the raging waters. There are other sensations of
a high and lofty character in this disjointed state
of the faculties. The very ease and rapidity with
which ordinary dangers are surmounted, serves to
keep up the delusion, and were it not for the irresponsible
condition of the mind, there would doubtless
be impiety in its developments. Such were Bacon's
sensations as he wildly stemmed the torrent.
He imagined that he was absolved from the ordinary
responsibilities and hazards of humanity! and
to his excited fancy, it seemed as though petty
fears and grovelling cautions were all that lay between
humanity and the superior creations of the
universe! that power also came with this absolution
from the hopes, fears and penalties of man's
low estate. In imagination “he rode upon the
storm and managed the whirlwind.” The monsters
of the deep were his playmates, the ill-omened
birds of the night his fellows. The wolves
howled in dreadful concord with the morbid efforts
of his preternaturally distorted faculties, as
the noble and panting animal first struck the shore
with his forefeet.

Emerging from the water, he stroked down the
dripping mane with a wild and melancholy affection.
The very consciousness of such a feeling
yet remaining in his soul, which he dared indulge,

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produced for the moment a dangerous and kindred
train of emotions. These as before led him upon
forbidden ground, and again the wild tumult of
his soul revived. Striking his heels into the animal's
flanks, and bending upon his neck, he urged
him over the ground at a pace in unison with the
impetuosity of his own feelings.

The fire and gravel flew from his heels, as he
bounded through the trackless forests of the unsubdued
wilderness. The frightened birds of night,
and beasts of prey, started in affright, wild at the appearance
upon the scene of one darker and wilder
than themselves. The very reptiles of the earth
shrunk to their hiding places, as the wild horseman
and his steed invaded their prescriptive dominions.

Mrs. Fairfax and her daughter, according to
the commands of Sir William Berkley, were conveyed
to his mansion. To them all places were
now alike. The mother after a long and death-like
trance, revived to a breathing and physical existence;
but her mind was overrun with horrors.
Reason was dethroned, and her lips gave utterance
to the wildest fantasies. Events with which,
and persons with whom, none of those about her
were conversant, were alluded to in all the incoherency
and unbridled impetuosity of the maniac.
The depletion and anodynes of the physician were
administered in vain. The ravages upon the seat
of nervous power had rendered the ordinary remedies
to the more distant chords of communication
utterly powerless. From a mild, bland, feeble and

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sickly state of melancholy, she was suddenly transformed
into a frenzied lunatic. Her muscular
power seemed to have received multiplied accessions
of strength. Yet there was “a method in her
madness”—the same names and scenes frequently
recurred in her raving paroxysms. That of
Charles was reiterated through the wild intonations
of delusion; sometimes madly and revengefully,
but more frequently in sorrow.

There was occasionally a moving and touching pathos
in these latter demonstrations—tearless it is
true, but thrilling and electrifying in the subdued
whisper in which they were sometimes uttered. A
flood of pent up emotions was poured forth with
a thrilling eloquence which had their origin in the
foundations of the soul. Scenes of days long past,
were revived with a graphic and affecting power,
which imagination cannot give if their mysterious
source and receptacle be not previously and
abundantly stored with the richest treasures of the
female heart and mind.

Because the by-standers do not happen to be in
possession of all the previous history of the sufferer,
so as to put together these melancholy and
broken relics, they are generally supposed to be
the creations of a distempered fancy.

So it was with Mrs. Fairfax; her detached reminiscences
fell upon the dull and uninstructed
ears of her attendants as the wildest hallucinations
of the brain, yet there was more connexion in these

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flights than they imagined. They supposed that
she thought herself conversing in her most subdued
and touching moments with young Dudley,
merely because his name was frequently pronounced,
and that he happened to be present at the disastrous
ceremony, which resulted so dreadfully to
all parties.

Among all these, Virginia's was the hardest lot—
so delicately and exquisitely organized, so gentle—
so susceptible—so full of enthusiasm—so rich
in innocence and hope, and all so suddenly prostrated.
Bacon was nerved with the wild yet exalted
heroism of manhood in despair. Her mother
was wrapt in a blessed oblivion of the present,
but she was sensitively and exquisitely alive to the
past, present and future. One fainting paroxysm
succeeded to another in frightful rapidity, for hours
after she was removed to her uncle's house.

The painful intervals were filled up with a concentration
of wretched reflections, which none but
a finely organized and cultivated female mind
could conceive or endure. No proper conception
of these can be conveyed in language, unless the
reader will suffer his imagination to grasp her
whole condition at once.—Beginning at the first
inception of the unsuspected passion for the noble
youth who is the hero of our tale—in her earliest
infancy; and afterwards following her as it matured
and strengthened by the reflections of riper
years.—Every faculty, both perceptive and

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intellectual, had combined to impress his image in the
most indelible colours upon her heart. He had
himself ripened these very faculties into maturity
by the most assiduous culture, and won her esteem
by the most touching, delicate, and respectful attentions.

All these things in detail were painfully revolved
in her mind. Every landscape, every book,
every subject, reminded her most forcibly of him
whom it was now criminal to think of. Her's
was the sorrow that no sympathy could soften, no
friendship alleviate. The sight of her intimate
and confidential friend drove her mad, for her
presence instantly revived the horrid recollections
of the chapel. Long after the clouds had cleared
away, the thunder still roared in her ears. The
sudden slamming of a door sounded to her nervous
irritability, like the report of a cannon. Her own
shadow conjured up horrible images. The most
violent and the most acute paroxysms of the human
organization, however, have a tendency to
wear themselves out, when left uninterruptedly to
their own action. Such was necessarily, in some
measure, the case with Virginia; her mother's
more alarming condition calling so much more
loudly for attention, and Wyanokee having fled,
and Harriet's presence proving so evidently hurtful,
she was consequently left with a single sable
domestic. Essentially she was in profound solitude;
and after the first paroxysms which we have
described, her mind naturally and irresistibly fell

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into a train of retrospective thought. Startling
and horrifying they certainly were at first, but
still the mind clung to them. Many of the circumstances
of the late disastrous meeting were
to her as yet unexplained. To these she clung as
to the last remnants of hope; they were the straws
at which she grasped with the desperation of the
drowning wretch. She had at first received her
mother's tacit acknowledgment of the mysterious
stranger's statement, or rather the effect produced
by that statement as irresistible confirmation of
its truth. But now she doubted the propriety of
her hasty conviction. She marvelled at the effect
produced upon her mother—yet there were other
means of accounting for it. Would she not have
exhibited a like sensibility, had a like statement
been made, however false, under such circumstances?—
did she not deny it, positively deny it
at the moment? Such was the train of reasoning
by which her mind began to reassure itself; and
it must be recollected that she had never heard
more of her mother's history, than that she was a
childless widow when her father married her.
Sufficient was left however of first impressions to
render her situation one of intense suffering and
suspense. She dared not ask for Bacon, yet a
restless and gnawing anxiety possessed her, to
know whether he acknowledged the truth of the
dreadful tale without a murmur, and without investigation.
But her physical organization could
not keep pace with the ever elastic mind; her

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gentle frame gave sensible evidence that the late violent
shocks had made sad inroads upon her system. One
chill was succeeded by another, until they were in
their turn followed by a burning fever. In this condition
she fell again into the hands of the physician,
and all mental distress was soon lost in the paramount
demands of the suffering body.

Toward the hour of midnight, the storm subsided.
Fragments of the black curtain which had
hung over the face of the heavens, shot up from
the eastern horizon in stupendous blue masses,
every now and then illuminated to their summits
with the reflection of the raging elements beyond.
The violence of the conflict in Bacon's breast had
also subsided. He rode along the banks of the
Chickahominy, his charger dripping with wet and
panting with the exhaustion of fatigue. The bridle
hung loose upon his neck, and his rider bent over
his mane like a worn-out soldier. His own locks
had unbent their stubborn curls to the driving
storm, and hung about his neck in drooping masses.
His silken hose were spattered with mud,
and his gay bridal dress hung about his person in
lank and dripping folds. His horse had for some
time followed the bent of his own humour, and
was now leading his master in the neighbourhood
of human habitations. The boughs of the tall
gloomy pines were fantastically illuminated with
broad masses of light, which ever and anon burst
from the smouldering remnants of a huge pine log
fire. Its immediate precincts were surrounded by

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some fifty or more round matted huts, converging
toward the summit like a gothic steeple.
Around the fire, and under a rude shelter, lay
some hundred warriors, wrapped in profound
slumber while one of their tribe stood sentinel
over the camp.

When Bacon had approached within a short
distance of this picturesque group, the sentinel
sprung upon his feet, and uttered a shrill warwhoop.
The horse stood still, erected his neck
and pricked up his ears, while his master folded
his arms upon his breast and calmly surveyed the
scene. Those warriors who slept under the sheds
near the fire, assumed the erect attitude with a
simultaneous movement, joining in the wild chorus
of the sentinel's yell as they arose.

Hundreds of men, women, and children poured
from the surrounding huts,—most of the grown
males, with their faces painted in blue and red
stripes, their heads shaved close to the cranium,
except a tuft of hair upon the crown, and all armed
in readiness for battle. Bacon assumed the
command of his horse and rode into the very centre
of this wild congregation,—the fore hoofs resting
upon the spent embers of the fire.

He was greeted with another yell, after which
the savages stood back and viewed his strange and
untimely appearance with wonder not unmixed
with awe. His bridle again fell from his hand,
and his arms were crossed upon his breast. His
countenance was wild and haggard, and a flash of

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maniacal enthusiasm shot athwart his pale features.
His dress under present circumstances was fantastical
in the extreme.

A grim old warrior with savage aspect after staring
some time intensely at the intruder, was suddenly
struck with something in his appearance,
and stepping out a few paces from the mass of his
companions began to address them in his own language,
now and then pointing to the horseman, and
using the most violent gesticulations. At another
time the youth would have been not a little alarmed
at certain significant signs which the speaker
used when pointing to himself. These consisted
in twirling his war club round and round, as if he
was engaged in the most deadly conflict. Then
he placed his hand to the side of his head and bent
it near the earth as if about to prostrate himself,
and finally pointing to Bacon. When he had done
this, several of the crowd closed in toward his
horse, and seemed intensely to examine the lineaments
of his countenance. Having satisfied themselves,
they set up a simultaneous yell of savage
delight. He was quickly drawn from the saddle,
his hands tied behind him, and then placed
in the centre of the assembled throng.

Their savage orgies now commenced; a procession
of all the grown males moved in a circle of
some fifty feet in diameter round his person.
Several of the number beat upon rude drums, formed
of large calabashes with raw hides stretched
tight and dried over the mouths; while others

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dexterously rattled dried bones and shuffled with
their feet to their own music. Others chanted
forth a monotonous death song; the whole forming
the rudest, wildest, and most savage spectacle
imaginable.

Bacon himself stood an unmoved spectator of all
these barbarous ceremonies. He felt a desperate
and reckless indifference to what might befall him.
Human endurance had been stretched to its utmost
verge, and he felt within him a longing desire to
end the vain struggle in the sleep of death. To
one like him, who had in the last few hours endured
the mental tortures of a hundred deaths, their
savage cruelties had no terrors. A faint hope indeed
may have crossed his mind, that some warrior
more impetuous than his comrades, might
sink his tomahawk deep into his brain in summary
vengeance for the death of their chief. But they
better understood the delights of vengeance. After
performing their rude war-dance for some time,
they commenced the more immediate preparations
for the final tragedy. His hands were loosed, his
person stripped and tied to a stake, while some
dozen youths of both sexes busied themselves in
splitting the rich pine knots into minute pins.
These being completed, a circular pile of finely
cleft pieces of the same material was built around
his body, just near enough for the fire to convey
its tortures by slow degrees without too suddenly
ending their victim. A deafening whoop from
old and young announced the commencement of

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the ceremony. Each distinguished warrior present
had the privilege of inserting a given number
of splinters into his flesh. The grim old savage
who had first identified Bacon as the slayer of
their chief, stepped forward and commenced the
operation. He thrust in the tearing torments with
a ferocious delight, not a little enhanced by the
physical convulsive movements of his victim at
every new insertion. Worn out nature however
could not endure the uninterrupted completion of
the process, and the victim swooned away.

His body hung by the thongs which had bound
his waist and hands to the stake, his head drooping
forward as if the spirit had already taken its
flight. He was immediately let down and the
tenderest care observed to resuscitate him, in order
that they might not be cheated of their full revenge.
His head and throat were bathed in cold
water and his parched lips moistened through the
medium of a gourd. At length he revived, and
strange as it may appear, to a keener consciousness
of his situation than he had felt since he left the
church. All the wild horrors of his fate stared
him in the face. The savages screamed with delight
at his returning animation. Copious drafts of
water were administered as he called for them.
The most intense pain was already experienced
from the festering wounds around each of the
wooden daggers driven into his flesh. Again he
prayed that some of them might instantaneously
reach his heart, but his prayer was not destined to

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be granted. He was again fastened to the stake,
and the second in dignity and authority proceeded
to perform his share of the brutal exhibition. At
this moment a piercing scream rent the air, and all
tongues were mute, all hands suspended.

The sound proceeded from the extreme right of
the encampment. Here a larger hut than the rest
stood in solitary dignity apart from the others, like
an officer's marqueé in a military encampment. In
a few moments the rude door was thrust aside and
an Indian female of exquisite proportions rushed
to the scene of butchery, and threw herself between
the half immolated victim and his bloodthirsty
tormentors. Upon her head she wore a
rude crown, composed of a wampum belt tightly
encircling her brows, and surmounted by a circlet
of the plumes of the kingfisher, facing outwards
at the top. Around her waist was belted a short
frock of dressed deer-skin, which fell in folds
about her knees, and was ornamented around the
fringed border with beads and wampum. Over
her left shoulder and bust she gracefully wore a
variegated skin dressed with the hair facing externally;
from this her right arm extended, bare to
the shoulder, save a single clasp at the wrist; and
she carried in her hand a long javelin mounted at
the end with a white crystal. The remaining parts
of her figure exhibited their beautiful proportions
neatly fitted with a pair of buck-skin leggins, extended
and fringed on the seam with porcupine
quills, copper and glass ornaments. Similar de

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corations were visible on her exquisitely proportioned
feet and ankles. Thrusting her javelin in
the ground with energy, and proudly raising her
head, she cast a withering glance of scorn and indignation
upon the perpetrators of the cruelty.
Her address, translated into English, was to the following
purport: “Is it for this,” and she pointed
to Bacon's bleeding wounds, “that I have been invested
with the authority of my sires? Was it to
witness the perpetration of these cruelties that I
have been almost dragged from the house of my
pale faced friends? Scarcely has the fire burned out
which was kindled to celebrate my arrival among
you, before it is rekindled to sacrifice in its flames
him who redeemed me from captivity. Is this the
return which Chickahominies make for past favours?
If so, I pray you to tear from my person
these emblems of my authority among you.”

She was immediately answered by the old warrior
who had commenced the tortures; “Did not
the [1]long knife slay the chief of our nation?”

He was answered by a yell of savage delight
from all the warriors present. Wyanokee (for it
was she, as the reader has no doubt already surmised)
continued, “Ay, he did slay King Fisher
and his son—but were they not unjustly attempting
to take away the property of the pale faces?
and did they not commit the deed against their
solemn promise and treaty, and after they had

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smoked the pipe of peace? For shame, warriors
and men—would ye turn squaws, and murder a
brave and noble youth because he had fought for
his own people and for the preservation of his own
life?”

Her harangue was not received with the submission
and respect which she expected—many
murmured at her defence, and claimed the death of
the captive as a prescriptive right and an act of
retributive justice. She advanced to cut the cords
which bound the prisoner, but twenty more powerful
arms instantly arrested her movement. Tomahawks
were raised in frightful array, while deep and
loud murmurs of discontent, and demands for vengeance
rent the air. She placed herself before the
captive, and elevating her person to its utmost
height, and extending her hands before him as a protection,
she cried, “Strike your tomahawks here,
into the daughter of your chief, of him who led you
on to battles and to victory, but harm not the defenceless
stranger.” The principal warriors held
a consultation as to the fate of the prisoner. It was
of but short duration, there being few dissenting
voices to the proposition of the old savage, already
mentioned as principal spokesman of the party.
They soon returned and announced to their new
queen that the council of the nation had decreed
the prisoner's death. “Never, never!” exclaimed
the impassioned maiden, “unless you first
cleave off these hands with which I will protect
him from your fury. Ha!” she cried, as a

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sudden thought seemed to strike her; “there is
one plan of redemption by your own laws. I will
be his wife!” A deep blush suffused her cheeks
as she forced the reluctant announcement from her
lips. An expression of sadness and disappointment
soon spread itself over the countenances of
the revengeful warriors, for they knew that she
had spoken the truth. Another council was immediately
held; at which it was determined that
their youthful queen, might according to the usages
of the nation, take the captive for her husband, in
the place of her kinsman who was slain. When
this was proclaimed, Wyanokee slowly and doubtingly
turned her eyes upon Bacon to see whether
the proposition met a willing response in his breast.
A single glance sufficed to convince her that it did
not. Instantly, however, recovering her self-possession,
she cut the cords and led him to her hut,
where after having been reinvested with the sad
remnants of his bridal finery, we must leave him
for the night.

CHAPTER II.

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“The several causes of discontent in the colony
of Virginia long nourished in secret, or manifesting
themselves in partial riots and insurrections,
were now rapidly maturing, and only the slightest
incident was wanting to precipitate them into
open rebellion.

“Since the death of Opechancanough, the Indians,
deprived of the benefits of federative concert,
had made but few attempts to disturb the
tranquillity of the colony. Several of the tribes
had retired westward, and those which remained,
reduced in their numbers and still more in strength
by the want of a common leader, lingered on the
frontiers, exchanging their superfluous productions
at stated marts with their former enemies. A long
peace, added to a deportment almost invariably pacific,
had in a great measure relaxed the vigilance
of the colonists, and the Indians were admitted to
a free intercourse with the people of all the counties.
It was scarcely to be expected that during
an intercourse so irregular and extensive no
grounds of uneasiness should arise. Several thefts
had been committed upon the tobacco, corn, and
other property of the colonists.”

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These depredations were becoming daily more
numerous and alarming, and repeated petitions had
been sent in from all parts of the colony calling
upon Sir William Berkley in the most urgent
terms to afford them protection. The Governor
remained singularly deaf to these reasonable demands,
and took no steps to afford that protection
to the citizens for which government was in a
great measure established. Some excuse was offered
by his friends and supporters by pleading his
great age and long services. Sir H. Chicerly,
who had some time before arrived in the colony,
clothed with the authority of Lieutenant Governor,
and who had till now remained an inactive participator
of the gubernatorial honours, began to collect
the militia of the state; but Sir William was
no sooner informed of these proceedings, so well
calculated to allay the rising popular ferment, than
he at once construed it into an attempt to supersede
his authority, and forthwith disbanded the
troops already collected, and countermanded the
orders for raising more, which had been sent by his
subordinate through the several counties. These
high-handed measures of an obstinate and superannuated
man, inflamed the public mind. Meetings
were called without any previous concert in
almost every county in the province, and the most
indignant remonstrances were sent in to the Governor.
These, however, only served to stimulate his
obstinacy, while the continued depredations of the
Indians wrought up the general feeling of

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dissatisfaction into a blaze of discontent. While these
things were in progress, a circumstance happened,
which, while it brought the contest to an immediate
issue, had at the same time an important
bearing upon all the principal personages of our narrative.
On the night succeeding the melancholy
catastrophe at the chapel, related in the last chapter,
the tribes of Indians which had formerly been
leagued together in the Powhatan confederacy, simultaneously
rose at dead of night and perpetrated
the most horrid butcheries upon men, women, and
children, in every part of the colony. The council
had scarcely convened on the next morning before
couriers from every direction arrived with the
dreadful tidings. Among others, there came one
who announced to the Governor that his own country
seat had been consumed by the fires of the savage
incendiaries, and that Mrs. Fairfax, who had
been removed thither for change of scene by the advice
of her physician, was either buried in its ruins
or carried away captive by the Indians. Public
indignation was roused to its highest pitch, but it
was confidently expected, now that his excellency
himself was a sufferer both in property and feelings,
that he would recede from his obstinate refusal
to afford relief. But strange to say, in defiance
of enemies, and regardless of the remonstrances
of his friends, he still persisted. The result
ensued which might have been expected; meetings
of the people, which had before been called
called from the impulse of the moment, and

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without concert, were now regularly organized, and immediate
steps taken to produce uniformity of action
throughout the different counties.

While these elements of civil discord are fermenting,
we will pursue the adventures of our
hero, whom we left just rescued from the hands
of the relentless savages. The new queen of the
Chickahominies, after having conducted Bacon to
her own rude palace, retired for a short period in order
to allow him just time to prepare himself for
her reception. An Indian doctor was immediately
summoned and directed to extract the splinters
and dress the wounds. The departure of this
wild and fantastical practitioner of the healing art
was the signal for her own entrance. Slowly and
doubtfully she approached her visiter, who was reclining
almost exhausted upon a mat. Upon her
entrance he attempted to rise and profess his gratitude,
but overcome with pain, sorrow, and weakness,
he fell back upon his rude couch, a grim
smile and wild expression crossing his features.
She gracefully and benignantly motioned him to
desist, and at once waived all ceremony by seating
herself on a mat beside him. Both remained in a
profound and painful silence for some moments.
Bacon's mind could dwell upon nothing but the
horrid images of the preceding hours of the night.
Regardless of her presence and her ignorance of
those circumstances which dwelt so painfully upon
his memory, he remained in a wild abstraction,
now and then casting a glance of startled recognition
and surprise at his royal hostess.

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She examined him far more intently and with not
less surprise, after the subsidence of her first embarrassment.
Her sparkling eyes ran over his
strange dress and condition, with the rapidity of
thought, but evidently with no satisfactory result.
She was completely at a loss to understand the
cause of his visit, and the singular time and appearance
in which he had chosen to make it. It is not
improbable that female vanity, or the whisperings
of a more tender passion, connected it in some way
with her own recent flight. These scarcely recognised
impressions produced however an evident
embarrassment in her manner of proceeding. She
longed to ask if Virginia was his bride, yet dreaded
to do so both on her own account and his. She
had lived long enough in civilized society to understand
the signification of his bridal dress, but
she was utterly at a loss to divine why he should
appear in such a garb covered with mud, as if he
had ridden in haste, in the midst of a warlike nation,
and on the very night appointed for the celebration
of his nuptials, unless indeed she might
solve the mystery in the agreeable way before suggested.
Catching one of the originally white bridal
flowers of his attire between her slender fingers,
she said with a searching glance; “Faded so
soon?” He covered his face with his hands, and
threw himself prostrate upon the mat, writhing like
one in the throes of expiring agony.

His benevolent hostess immediately called a
little Indian attendant, in order to despatch him
for the doctor; but her guest shook his head and

[figure description] Page 025.[end figure description]

motioned with his uplifted hand for her to desis.
She reseated herself, more at a loss than ever to
account for his present appearance and conduct.
She had supposed that he was suffering from the
pain of his wounds, but she now saw that of these
he was entirely regardless. She became aware
that a more deeply seated pain afflicted him. Again
he turned his face toward the roof of the hut, his
hands crossed upon his breast, and his bosom racked
with unutterable misery.

“Is the pretty Virginia dead?”

The blackness of hell and horror was in his
face as he turned a scowl upon his interrogator,
and replied, “Is this a new method of savage torture?
If so, call in the first set, they are kind and
benignant compared to you.” But seeming suddenly
to recollect that she was ignorant of the pain she
inflicted, he took her hand kindly and respectfully,
and continued, “Yes, Wyanokee, she is indeed
dead to me. If you regard the peace of my soul,
or the preservation of my senses, never whisper
her name to the winds where it will be wafted to
my ears. Never breathe what she has taught you.
Be an Indian princess, but for God's sake look,
speak, or act not in such a way as to remind me of
passed days. Tear open these wounds, inflict
fresh tortures—yea, torture others if you will, so I
but horrify my mind with any other picture than
her's. O God, did ever sister rise before man's
imagination in such a damning form of loveliness?
With most men, that little word would suffice to

[figure description] Page 026.[end figure description]

dispel the horrid illusion! but with me, cursed
as I have been from my birth, and as I still am
deeper cursed, the further I pursue this wretched
shadow called happiness, I would wed her to-morrow,
yea were the curse of the unpardonable
sin denounced upon me from the altar instead of
the benediction. For her I would go forth to the
world, branded with a deeper damnation than ever
encircled the brows of the first great murderer. I
would be the scorn, the jest, the by-word of present
generations, and a never dying beacon to
warn those who come after me.”

As he proceeded, Wyanokee fixed her dark
penetrating eyes upon his face, until her own
countenance settled into the expression of reverential
awe, with which the Indian invariably listens
to the ravings of the maniac. At every period
she moved herself backward on the mat, until at
the conclusion, she had arrived at a respectful distance,
and crossed her hands in superstitious dread.
A single glance conveyed her impressions to his
mind, and he resumed, “No, no, my gentle preserver,
reason is not dethroned, she still presides
here, (striking his forehead,) a stern spectator of
the unholy strife which is kept up between her
sister faculties.” Leaning toward her upon his
elbow, he continued in a thrilling whisper, “You
have heard me read from the sacred volume of the
tortures prepared for the damned! of a future existence,
in which the torments of ten thousand
deaths shall be inflicted, and yet the immortal

[figure description] Page 027.[end figure description]

sufferer find no death! His soul will be prepared
for the endurance! I have already a foretaste of
that horrible eternity! And yet you see I preserve
the power to know and to endure! Is it not a
dread mystery in this frail compound of ours—
and portentous of evil to come, that this faculty
of supporting misery so long outlives the good?
The wise men of our race teach us that every
pain endured is a preparation of the opposite faculty
to enjoy pleasure! that our torpid fluids would
stagnate without these contrasted stimulants; 'tis
all a delusion, a miserable invention of the enemy.
Man can suffer in this life a compound of horrors,
for which its pleasures and allurements have no
equivalent; yea, and he suffers them after all chance
for happiness has vanished for ever. The pleasures
of the world are like the morning glories of a sea
of ice. The sun rises and sparkles in glittering
rainbows for an hour, and then sinks behind the
dark blue horizon, and leaves the late enraptured
beholder, to feel the chill of death creeping along
his veins, until his heart is as cold and dead as the
icebergs around `an atom of pleasure, and a universe
of pain.”'

His hearer sat in the most profound bewilderment;
much of his discourse was to her unintelligible,
and notwithstanding his protestations to
the contrary, she still retained her first impressions
as to the state of his mind. She knew something of
the various relations existing between the most
important personages of our story, and in her own

[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]

mind, had already begun to account for his present
state. She supposed him to have been rudely torn
from his bride. Her object therefore in the following
words, was to learn something more of these
particulars, and at the same time to soothe the excited
feelings of her guest.

“The great Father of the white man at Jamestown
will restore your bride. Does not your
good book say, `whom the' Great Spirit `has
joined together let no man put asunder?”'

“Ay!” replied Bacon, “but what does it say
when they are first joined together by the ties of
blood? Besides, he never did join us together in
the holy covenant. He stamped it with his curse?
He denounced his veto against it at the very foot
of the altar. The same voice which thundered
upon mount Sinai spoke there. His servant stood
up before him and asked, `If any man can show
just cause why they may not lawfully be joined
together let him now speak, or else hereafter forever
hold his peace.' And lo, both heaven and
earth interposed at the same moment. The thunders
of heaven rent the air, and that most fearful
man appeared as if by miracle.” Again lowering
his voice to a whisper, he continued, “As I rode
upon the storm last night, and communed with the
spirits of the air, some one whispered in my ear,
that the heavens were rent asunder and he came
upon a thunderbolt. And then again as I walked
upon the waves, and the black curtains gathered
around, a bright light darted into my brain and I

[figure description] Page 029.[end figure description]

saw the old Roundheads who were executed the
other day, sitting upon a glorious cloud, mocking
at my misery! yea, they mouthed at me. Ha, ha,
ha!” The sound of his own unnatural laughter
startled him like an electric shock—and instantly
he seemed to recollect himself.

He covered his face with his hands, and rested
them upon his knees in silence. Some one entered
and spoke to the queen in a low voice, and she immediately
informed her guest that his horse was
dead. “Dead!” said he, as he sprang upon his
feet. “His last—best—most highly prized gift
dead! All on the same night—am I indeed cursed—
in going out and in coming in? Are even
the poor brutes that cling to me with affection,
thus cut down? but I would see him ere he is cold.”

A torch-bearer soon appeared at the summons
of his mistress, and the royal hostess and her
guest proceeded to the spot. There lay the noble
animal, his once proud neck straightened in the
gaunt deformity of death. His master threw himself
upon his body and wept like an infant. The
tears, the first he had shed, humanized and soothed
his harrowed feelings. Slowly he arose, and gazing
upon the lifeless beast, exclaimed with a piteous
voice, “Alas poor Bardolph, thy lot is happier
than thy master's!”

The day was now dawning, and the morning air
came fresh and invigorating to the senses, redolent
of the wild perfumes blown upon the moor and
forest, from the influence of a humid night. These

[figure description] Page 030.[end figure description]

reviving influences however fell dead upon the benumbed
faculties of our hero. In accordance with
the urgent solicitations of his hostess, he agreed to
swallow an Indian soporific, and try to lose his
sorrows and his memory in that nearest semblance
of death. He did not fail, as he re-entered the wigwam,
to observe that the whole village (called
Orapacs) was busily preparing for some imposing
ceremony, and that great accessions had been made
to the numbers of the previous night.

Long and soundly he slept; when he awoke the
sun was coursing high in the heavens. The air
was balmy and serene, and his own monomaniacal
hallucinations were dissipated, partly worn out by
their own violence and partly dispelled by many
hours of uninterrupted repose. Dreadful is that
affliction which sleep will not alleviate. It is true
that one suffering under a weight of misery which
no hope lightens, no reasoning assuages, wakes to
a present sense of his condition with a startling
and miserable consciousness, yet upon the whole,
the violence of grief has been soothed and moderated.
So it was with our hero, and he walked forth
a new and revived creature.

But as he stepped from the wigwam, a spectacle
greeted his eye more akin to the fantasies of
the previous night than to stern reality. The village
was situated on a plain near the banks of the
river. The forest remained much as it first grew,
save that the undergrowth had been burned away
and the ground afterwards overgrown with a

[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]

luxuriant coat of grass. This summary method of
trimming the primitive forest gives it much the resemblance
of a noble park, cleared of its shrubs,
undergrowth, and limbs, by the careful hands of
the woodman. The scene, as Bacon looked along
the woodland vista, had a wild novelty, and its aspect
would doubtless have been sedative in its effect
had it not been for the spectacle already alluded
to, which we shall now endeavour to describe.
An immense concourse of Indians was collected
just without the external range of wigwams. They
were seated in groups, in each of which he recognised
the distinguishing marks of separate tribes,
the representatives of each distinct nation of the
peninsula having a distinct and separate place. At
the head of this warlike assemblage, on a rude
throne sat the youthful Queen of the Chickahominies.
Immediately around the foot of this elevation
were seated the few grim warriors yet remaining
of that once powerful nation, and on her right
hand the Powhatans. A fantastically dressed prophet
of the latter tribe, with a curiously coloured heron's
feather run through the cartilage of his nose
stood in the centre of the assembled nations, and
harangued the deputies with the most violent gesticulations,
every now and then pointing in the direction
first of Jamestown, and then of Middle Plantations,
(now Williamsburg,) and in succession after
these, to the other most thickly peopled settlements
of the whites. His rude eloquence seemed to have
a powerful effect upon his warlike audience, from

[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]

the repeated yells of savage cheering by which
each appeal was followed. He concluded his harangue
by brandishing a bloody tomahawk over
his head, and then striking it with great dexterity
into a pole erected in the centre of the area. Numerous
warriors and prophets from other tribes
followed with similar effect and like purpose, to
all of whom the stern savages listened with an
eager yet respectful attention. When they had
concluded, the youthful queen of the Chickahominies
descended one step from her throne, and addressed
the assembled nations; but her discourse
was received in a far different spirit from that
which had attended the eloquence of her predecessors.
She was evidently maintaining the opposite
side of the question which occupied the grave
assembly, and it was apparent that the feelings of
her auditors were hostile to her wishes and opinions.
No evidences of delight greeted her benevolent
counsels, and she resumed her seat almost
overpowered by the loud and general murmurs of
discontent which arose at the conclusion of her
“talk.” She felt herself a solitary advocate of
the plainest dictates of justice and humanity—she
felt the difficulty and embarrassment of addressing
enlightened arguments to savage ears and uncultivated
understandings, and a painful sense of her
own responsibility, and of regret for having assumed
her present station, pressed heavily upon
heart.

Bacon saw only the eloquent language of their

[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]

signs and gestures; but some knowledge of the outrages
already perpetrated easily enabled him to
interpret their intentions. He knew that bloodshed
and murder were the objects of their meeting,
and he resolved to seize the earliest opportunity to
escape, in order to take part in the defence of his
country. His mind turned eagerly to this wholesome
excitement, as the best outlet which was now
left for the warring impulses within his breast.

CHAPTER III.

[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]

The retirement of Wyanokee from her temporary
presidency in the grand council of the confederated
nations, was the signal for beginning
the general carouse, by which such meetings were
usually terminated. Two huge bucks, with their
throats cut, had been some time suspended from a
pole laid across a pair of stout forked saplings,
driven into the ground at the distance of a few
feet from each other; these were now brought
into the centre of the area, and quickly deprived
of their skins. The neighbourhood of civilized
man had already introduced that bane of savage
morals, whiskey; and plentiful supplies of this,
together with pipes and tobacco, were now served
to the representatives. A general scene of rude
and savage debauch immediately followed. Meat
was broiled or roasted upon the coals—whiskey
was handed round in calabashes, while the more
gay and volatile members of the assemblage found
an outlet for their animated feelings in the violent
and energetic movements of the Indian dance.
The sounds which issued from the forest were a
mingled din of tinkling metals—rattling bones,
and the monotonous humming of the singers, occasionally
enlivened by a sharp shrill whoop from

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

some young savage, as his animal spirits became
excited by the exercise. The squaws performed
the part of menials, and bore wood, water, and
corn, to supply the feast for their lords and masters.

The new queen of the nation, upon whose
ground these carousals were held, retired to her
own wigwam, as much disgusted with the moral
blindness and depravity of the deputies, as with
the commencing revels. Besides her disgust of
what was left behind, there was an attraction for
her in her own sylvan palace, which, till a few
hours back, it had sadly wanted in her eyes; not
that she approached it with any hope that her
passion would now or ever meet with a return
from its object—but still there was a melancholy
pleasure in holding communion with one so far
superior to the rude, untutored beings she had
just left. She felt also a longing desire, not only
to learn more of the mysterious transactions of
which she had gathered some vague indications
from Bacon's discourse, but to take advantage of
present circumstances in returning some of the
many favours heaped upon herself by her white
friends. There was a nobler motive for this than
mere gratitude; she wished to show to Bacon and
Virginia, that she could sacrifice her own happiness
to promote theirs. She felt now satisfied that
both of them had discovered the existence of her
passion, long before she was aware of the impropriety
of its exhibition according to civilized

[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]

usages, and she was anxious to evince to them how
nobly an Indian maiden could cover this false step
with honour. Full of these ennobling, and as it
proved, delusive ideas, she entered the wigwam
with a mien and step which would not have disgraced
a far more regal palace.

Bacon was found upon a mat, reclining in melancholy
mood against the side of the apartment, intently
eyeing the movements of the savages upon
the green. She followed his eye for a moment in
shame and confusion for the spectacle exhibited
by the men of her own race.

“Do you mark the difference,” said Bacon,
“between the dances in yonder forest and those
at Jamestown? Why do not the women join in
the merry-making? We consider them worthy to
partake of all our happiness.”

“Ay, 'tis true, there is no Virginia there!”

His brow settled into a look of stern displeasure
and offence, as he replied, “Would you renew the
scenes of the last night?”

“No, Wyanokee desires not to give pain, but
to remove it—as she came here now to show. You
heard me claim you last night as a husband.”—A
crimson tint struggled with the darker hue of her
cheek, as she forced herself to proceed.—“But it
was only to save you from the cruel hands of my
countrymen. You may, therefore, give up all uneasiness
on that subject—I know well that the Great
Spirit has decreed it otherwise that I desired, and
I submit without a murmur. It is useless for me to

[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]

conceal that I had learned too quickly to feel the
difference between a youth of your race, and one
of yon rude beings; but it was more owing to my
ignorance of your customs than any want of
proper maidenly reserve. That is now passed,
you are a married man, and as such I can converse
with you in confidence.”

“Yes,” said Bacon, a bitter smile playing over
his countenance, “I am married to stern adversity!
'Tis a solemn contract, and binds me to a
bride from whom I may not easily be divorced.
Death may cut the knot, but no other minister of
justice can. I must say too, that the ceremonies
of last night were fitting and proper. I wooed my
bride through earth, air, and water; in thunder,
lightning, and in rain. Nor was she coy or prudish.
She came to my arms with a right willing grace,
and clings to me through evil and through good
report. I am hers, wholly hers for ever. It is
meet that I should learn to love her at once. Ay,
and I do hug her to my heart. Is she not my
own? do we not learn to love our own deformities?
then why not learn to love our own sorrows?
Doubtless we shall be very happy—a few little
matrimonial bickerings at first, perhaps, but these
will soon be merged in growing congeniality. Man
cannot long live with any companion, without bestowing
upon it his affection; the snake, the spider,
the toad, the scorpion, all have been loved and
cherished: shall I not then love my bride? Is
there not a hallowed memory around her birth?

[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]

was she not nurtured and trained by these very
hands? Is there not wild romance too, in her
adventures and our loves? Is she not faithful and
true? yea, and young too! not coy perhaps, but
constant and devoted.”

Although this language was prompted by very
different states, both of heart and head, from that of
the preceding night, yet its literal construction
by the Indian maiden betrayed her into very little
more understanding of its import. She better
comprehended the language of his countenance.
That, she saw, indicated the bitterness of death, but
the cause was still a mystery. She therefore continued
her kind endeavours with something more
of doubt and embarrassment. “My intention was
to offer you and Virginia a home as soon as these
warlike men are pacified and gone—that you might
come here and live with me until her grand uncle
will receive her and you. Oh, it will make Wyanokee
very happy.”

She would, no doubt, have continued in this
strain for some time, but his impatience could be
contained no longer. “Is it possible that you do not
yet understand the depth and hopelessness of my
misery? Know it then in all its horrors. I was
half married last night to my own half sister! Did
fate, fortune or hell ever more ingeniously contrive
to blight the happiness of mortal man at one
fell blow? View it for a moment. There was the
game beautifully contrived—the stake was apparently
trifling, but the prize glittered with India's

[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]

richest rubies—the very thoughts of them conjured
up scenes of fairy land. The richest fantasies
of romance sparkled before the eye of the player.
The wildest dream of earthly happiness allured
him to each renewed attempt. First a little was
staked—then another portion—then another to insure
the two former, and so on until houses and
lands and goods and chattels—yea and life itself, or
all that made it valuable, were hazarded upon the
throw. Lo, he wins! Joy unutterable fills his
breast—he is about to place the jewels next his
heart, but behold they turn into scorpions. Rich
and beautiful in all their former ruby colour—but
there is a fearful talismanic power in their beauty.
There is a deadly poison in the sight! They charm
to kill. Lay them not near the heart or else the
great magician, the king of evil—the prince of
darkness himself, has bought you body and soul!
That was my case. I won the glorious stake, I
had it here (striking his breast), yea, and have it
now, and the devil is tempting me to lay it next
my heart. I have wrestled with him all the night,
but again he is at work. See that you do not help
him!”

Again she was lost in reverential awe. As his
paroxysm by slow degrees returned, she exhibited
in the mirror of her own countenance the passion,
the wild enthusiasm, reflected from his, until the
final charge to herself, when she was overcome with
wonder and fear. His own preternaturally quick
perceptions caught the effect produced, and he again

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

folded his arms and leaned back in grim and
sullen silence, but with the keen eye of the serpent
watching the changing countenance of his auditor.
She was sunk in abstraction for some moments, and
then, as if rather thinking aloud than communing
with another, she said, “Is it possible?”

“Yea, as true as that the serpent infused his
poison into the ear of the mother of mankind. As
true as that man was the first creature that died on
the face of the earth by the hands of his fellow.
As true as death and hell! As true as that there
is a hereafter. Happiness is negative! Misery
positive. There is always a subtle doubt lingering
upon our most substantial scenes of happiness;
but with misery it is slow, certain and enduring;
the proof conclusive and damning. It is more real
than our existence, and exists when it is no more.
Our nerves are strung to vibrate to the touches of
harmony and happiness only when played upon by
inspirations from above, but they vibrate in discord
to the earth, the air, the winds, the waves,
the thunder—the lightning. They are rudely handled
by men, beasts, reptiles, devils, by famine,
disease and death. Am I not a wretched monument
of its truth? Are not these miserable and
faded trappings, the funeral emblems of my moral
decease? Am I not a living tomb of my own soul?
A memento of him that was, with an inscription
on my forehead, `Here walks the body of Nathaniel
Bacon, whose soul was burned out on the ever
memorable night of his own wedding, by an

[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]

incendiary in the mortal habiliments of his own Father,
with a torch lit up in pandemonium itself?
His body still walks the earth as a beacon and a
warning to those who would commit incest!' ”

The door was darkened for a moment, and in
the next the Recluse stood before him. His giant
limbs lost none of their extent or proportions as
viewed through the dim light which fell in scanty
and checkered masses from the insterstices of the
sylvan walls. He stood in the light of the only
door,—his features wan and cadaverous, and his
countenance wretchedly haggard. “Why lingerest
thou here in the lap of the tawny maiden, when
thy countrymen will so soon need the assistance of
thy arm? This night the torch of savage warfare
and cruelty will in all probability be lighted
up in the houses of thy friends and kindred.
Is it becoming, is it manly in thee to seek these
effeminate pastimes, in order to drown the images
of thy own idle fancy? If thou hast unconsciously
erred, and thereby cruelly afflicted thy nearest
kindred, is this the way to repair the evil? Set
thou them the example! Be a man—the son of a
soldier. Thy father before thee has suffered tortures
of the mind, and privations of the body, to
which thine are but the feeble finger-aches of
childhood as compared to the agonies of a painful
and protracted death. Rouse thyself from thy
unmanly stupor, and hie thee hence to the protection
of those who should look up to thee. Be not
anxious for me, maiden; I see thy furtive glances

[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]

at the besotted men of thy race, and thence to me.
I have long watched their movements. They see
me not; they will attempt no injury—and if they
should their blows would fall upon one reckless of
danger—who has nought to gain or lose,—who
has long had his lights trimmed, and lamp burning,
ready for the welcome summons.”

When he first entered the wigwam, Bacon
sprang upon his feet, and gazed upon the unwelcome
apparition as if he doubted his humanity;
but as his hollow and sepulchral voice fell upon
his ear in the well known, deep excited intonations
of the chapel, he moved backward, his
hands clasped, until his shoulders rested against
the wall. There, shuddering with emotion, he
gazed earnestly and in silence upon his visiter,
whose words fell upon an indiscriminating ear.
The Recluse perceived something of his condition
as he continued, “Hearest thou not?—seest
thou not? Rouse thee from this unmanly weakness.
I saw thy dead horse upon the moor. I
will leave thee mine at the head of the Chickahominy
Swamp. When night closes upon yonder
brutal scene, mount and ride as if for thy life, even
then thou mayst be too late! Remember! This
night be thou in Jamestown!”

Having thus spoken, he stooped through the
door, and vanished among the trees behind the
wigwam, as he had come. Bacon still gazed upon
the place where he had been, as if he still occupied
the spot, his eyelids never closing upon the

[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

distended iris, until he fell upon the floor in a swoon.
Such restoratives as an Indian wigwam afforded,
were speedily administered, and very soon the
desired effect was produced. While he lay thus
worn down by the sufferings produced by the
tortures of the previous night, and the cruel excitement
of his feelings, Wyanokee discovered,
as she was bathing his temples, the small gold
locket, which he had worn suspended from his
neck, since the death of Mr. Fairfax. Apparently
it contained nothing but the plaited hair
and the inscription already mentioned. She caught
it with childlike eagerness, and turned it from
side to side, with admiring glances, when her finger
touched a spring and it flew open; the interior
exhibited to view the features of a young and lovely
female.

At this juncture Bacon revived. His countenance
was pale and haggard from the exhaustion
of mental and bodily sufferings. His perceptions
seemed clearer, but his heart was burdened and oppressed—
he longed for speedy death to terminate
the wretched strife. The prospect was dark and
lowering in whatever direction he cast his thoughts;
no light of hope broke in upon his soul—all before
him seemed a dreary joyless waste. In this mood
he accidentally felt the open trinket within the
facings of his doublet, and inserting his hand he
drew it forth. His head was elevated instantly,
his eyes distended and his whole countenance exhibited
the utmost astonishment. His first

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

emotion was any thing but pleasant—as if he had drawn
from his bosom one of his own figurative scorpions,
but this was speedily succeeded by one of a different
nature. The first sensation of pleasure which
he had felt since he left Jamestown beamed upon
his mind; it was mingled with the most unbounded
surprise; but quick as thought the light of hope broke
in upon his dark and cheerless prospects. Again and
again the picture was closely scrutinized, but with
the same conviction, never before had he beheld that
face. It was resplendent with smiles and beauty.
The dark hazel eyes seemed to beam upon him with
affectionate regard. The auburn tresses almost fluttering
in the breeze, so warm and mellow were
the lights and shadows. But what rivetted his attention
was the want of resemblance in the picture
to the lady whom he had been so recently and so
painfully taught to believe his mother. The latter
had light flaxen ringlets and blue eyes, and the
tout ensemble of the features were totally dissimilar.
He imagined he saw a far greater resemblance
between the picture and himself, and hence the
ray of hope. But in the place of despair came
feverish suspense—he now longed again to meet
the Recluse, whose presence had so lately filled
him with horror. His mind sought in vain within
its own resources for means to bring the question
to an immediate issue. Was he the first-born
son of Mrs. Fairfax or not? Perhaps Brian O'
Reily could tell something of the picture, or had
seen the original. No sooner had this faint

[figure description] Page 045.[end figure description]

glimmering prospect of unravelling the mystery dawned
upon his mind, than he was seized with the
most feverish desire to set out for Jamestown.

The savages still kept up the carouse, but it
would be hazardous in the extreme, as he was assured
by his hostess, to attempt to leave Orapacs
until the conclusion of the feast, which perhaps
would last till night. At that time they were all
to proceed to the Powhatan domain. He was
compelled therefore to content himself with reading
the lineaments of the interesting countenance
just opened to his view.

Upon what a frail foundation will a despairing
man build up his fallen castles in the air. Such
was the occupation of our hero until the light of
the sun had vanished over the western hills. He
lay upon his mat in the twilight gloom, indulging
in vague uncertain reveries. He had examined
the picture so long, so intently, and under such a
morbid excitement of the imagination, that he supposed
himself capable of recollecting the features.
He had called up dim and misty shadows of memory
(or those of the imagination nearly resembling
them) from a period wrapped in obscurity
and darkness. He endeavoured to go back step
by step to his years of childhood, until his excited
mind became completely bewildered among the
fading recollections of long passed days. As the
rippling waters of the purling stream mingled with
the monotonous whistling of the evening breeze,
his versatile imagination fell into a kindred train.
The music of the nursery, by which his childish

[figure description] Page 046.[end figure description]

struggles had been lulled to repose, floated over his
memory in the tenderest and purest melancholy.
Who that has music in his soul has not, at a like
season and hour, refreshed his heart with these
early impressions? Nor are they entirely confined
to an inviting melancholy mood and the hour
of twilight. In the full vigour of physical and
mental power, and when the spirits are bounding
and elastic—in the midst of dramatic representations
or the wildest creations of Italian musical
genius, these stores of memory's richest treasures
will suddenly flood the soul, touched perhaps by
the vibration of some kindred chord. Bacon's
harassed mind was refreshed by the tender and
softened mood into which he had fallen. Besides,
he was now stimulated by the glimmering dawn
of hope. When therefore darkness had completely
covered the face of the land, he arose to go upon
his mission, a different being. Although his own
emotions on parting were faint compared to those
of Wyanokee, they were yet sorrowful and tender.
He lamented the lot of the Indian maiden,
and respected the virtues and accomplishments
which elevated her so far above those by whom
she was surrounded. He bade her adieu with the
most heartfelt gratitude for her services, and aspirations
for her welfare.

When he stepped from the wigwam he was
astonished to see the huge fires, upon which they
had cooked the feast, still burning with undiminished
brilliancy, and still more startled to observe
twenty or more savages lying drunk around them,

[figure description] Page 047.[end figure description]

and half as many sober ones holding vigils over
their slumbers. He immediately changed his intended
direction, and skirted round the forest in
which they lay, so as to arrive at the place pointed
out by the Recluse by a circuitous rout.

When he came opposite to the fires, and half way
upon his circuit, he was not a little alarmed to hear
the astounding warwhoop yelled by one of the
sentinels. Casting his eyes in that direction he saw
that all the guard were on the qui vive, and some
of the slumberers slowly shaking off their stupidity.
He supposed that one of the sentinels had
heard his footsteps, and thus alarmed the rest.
Taking advantage of the trees, and the distance
he had already gained, he was enabled to elude
their vigilant senses. But when he came to the
spot pointed out by the Recluse, a greater difficulty
presented itself. The horse was already gone, but
not taken by the one who brought him there, as he
saw evidently from the impressions of his feet in
the earth, where he had stood most of the afternoon.
He soon came to the conclusion that the Indians
had found and carried him off. This was the more
probable as they adjourned their council about
the time he must have been taken. His call to
Jamestown was too urgent to be postponed, and
however feeble in body he determined to exert
his utmost strength to arrive there during the night.

CHAPTER IV.

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

Our hero reached Jamestown late on the very
morning when the couriers arrived in such rapid
succession, with the startling intelligence of the
Indian massacres. All night he had wandered
over the peninsula, vainly endeavouring to discover
his way; light after light shot up amidst the
surrounding gloom, and more than once he had
been misled by these, almost into the very clutches
of the swarming savages. His heart sank within
him as he saw plantation after plantation, in their
complete possession; the illumination of their incendiary
trophies lighting up the whole surrounding
country. It seemed indeed to his startled
senses as if the Indians had simultaneously risen
upon and butchered the whole white population of
the colony. With the exception of a small remnant,
they had already once perpetrated the like
horrible deed, and he again saw in his imagination
the dreadful scenes of that well remembered night.
Feeble old men, women and children indiscriminately
butchered—perhaps Virginia, whom he once
again dared to think of, among the number. True,
Wyanokee had assured him otherwise, but might
not the grand council have determined upon the

[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]

deed at the more appropriate time of their nightly
meeting?

As the dawning day unfolded to his view the
relative bearings of the country, these gloomy
anticipations were partly realized. Every avenue
to the city, both by land and water, was
crowded with people of all sexes, colours and conditions,
flying to the protection of the Fort. Wagons,
carts, negroes, and white bondsmen, were
laden with furniture, provisions, and valuables.
Ever and anon a foaming charger flew swiftly by,
bearing some Cavalier to the city, doubly armed for
retributive vengeance. By these he was greeted
and cheered upon his way, as well as informed of
the depredations committed in the neighbourhood
whence they had come. From one of these also
he procured a horse, and joined a cavalcade of his
associates and friends, proceeding to the same
centre of attraction. To them also he unfolded
so much of his recent adventures as related to the
general interests of the colony. Long, loud, and
vindicative were their denunciations, as well of
the treacherous savages as the stubborn old man
at the head of affairs in the colony.

Although evident traces of his late bodily sufferings
were perceptible in Bacon's countenance, no
vestige of his mental hallucinations on one particular
theme was perceived; his mind was intently
occupied upon the all absorbing topic of common
safety. As they proceeded together to the
city, it was proposed to him to assume the

[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]

command of a volunteer regiment, which they undertook
to raise as soon as they arrived in Jamestown.
His military talents and daring bravery were already
well known by most of his associates, but he
doubted whether he was the most proper person
in the colony to assume so responsible a command.
As to his own personal feelings, never did fortune
throw the chance of honourable warfare more
opportunely in the way of a desperate man. True,
it would have come still more seasonably twenty-four
hours sooner, but then he would only have been
better qualified for some desperate deed of personal
daring, not for a command upon which hung the
immediate fate of all the colonists, and the ultimate
supremacy of the whites in Virginia. He promised,
however, to accede to their proposal, provided,
after the regiment was raised, in which he must
be considered a volunteer, the majority cheerfully
tendered him their suffrages. He stated the hostility
of the Governor to him personally, without
enlightening them as to its most recent cause; but
they were now as resolute upon disregarding the
feelings and wishes of Sir William, as he had already
shown himself in disregarding their own. In
short, they resolved at once to assume that authority
to protect their lives and property, which they
now felt, if they had never before known, was an
inalienable right. Here was sown the first germ
of the American revolution. Men have read the
able arguments—the thrilling declamations, the
logical defence of natural and primitive rights,

[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]

which the men of '76 put forth to the world, with
wonder at the seeming intuitive wisdom that burst
so suddenly upon the world at the very exigency
which called it into action. But in our humble
opinion, the inception of these noble sentiments
was of much earlier date—their development not
so miraculous as we would like to flatter ourselves.
Exactly one hundred years before the American
revolution, there was a Virginian revolution based
upon precisely similar principles. The struggle
commenced between the representatives of the
people and the representatives of the king. The
former had petitioned for redress, “time after
time,”—remonstrance after remonstrance had been
sent in to Sir William Berkley, but he was deaf
to all their reasonable petitions. The Cavaliers
and citizens of the colony now arrived at the
infant capital, resolved to take upon themselves
as much power as was necessary for the defence
of life, freedom, and property. While the gathering
multitude flocked to the State House and public
square in immense numbers, Bacon alighted at
the Berkley Arms, in order to change his dress,
and before he joined them, perform one act of duty
which it would have been difficult for him to say
whether it was anticipated with most pain or
pleasure. It was a visit to Mrs. Fairfax and her
daughter. He walked immediately from the hotel
to the quarters usually occupied by the servants
of the Fairfax family, in hopes of finding O'Reily—
to despatch for his effects, which he supposed

[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]

he could not obtain in person, without suddenly
and unpreparedly exposing himself to the notice
of the family. But the house was silent as the
tomb! No gently curling smoke issued from the
chimney; no cheering light broke in at the windows;
all was dark, noiseless, and desolate. The
domestic animals still lingered around their accustomed
haunts, apparently as sad in spirit as he
who stood with his arms folded gazing upon the
deserted mansion. The streets were indeed crowded
with the eager and tumultuous throng, but after
the first unsuccessful essay at the door of the
servant's hall, he had passed round into the garden
of the establishment, and stood as we have
described him, a melancholy spectator of the painful
scene. There hung Virginia's bird cage against
the casings of the window, perhaps placed by her
own hands on the morning of the unfortunate catastrophe,
but the little songster was lying dead upon
the floor. The blooming flowers around her windows
hung in the rich maturity of summer, but
seemed to mock the desolation around with their
gay liveries. The dogs indeed lazily wagged their
tails at his presence, and fawned upon him, but
they too, slunk away in succession, as if conscious
of the rupture which had taken place in his relations
with the family.

What a flood of tender recollections rushed upon
his memory as he stood thus solitary in the flower
garden of her who was the sole object of his youthful
and romantic dreams, and gazed upon the well

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

known objects,—each one the memento of some
childish sport or pleasure. There too stood the
shaded seats and bowers of more mature adventures,
redolent of the richest fruits and flowers,
and teeming with the hallowed recollection of
love's young dream. Nor were tears wanting to
the memory of that early friend and patron who
had given him shelter in his helpless days, from
the cold neglect and inhospitality of the world,
and thus, perhaps, saved him the degradation of a
support at the public expense. These softened
and subdued emotions humanized the savage mood
which sprung up from similar reminiscences on a
previous occasion. The current of his feelings
had been changed by a single ray of hope. The
fountain was not now wholly poisoned, and the
sweet water turned to gall and bitterness. The
scene therefore, painful and melancholy as it was,
produced beneficial results. But he marvelled
that the house should be so totally deserted. He
supposed that the lady and her daughter might be
sojourning for a time with the Governor, but what
had become of their numerous domestics? They
too could not be quartered at the gubernatorial
mansion. And above all, what had become of his
own Hibernian follower? Certainly, he was not
thus provided for. He knew his privileged servant's
warm partialities and hatreds too well to believe
that he had accepted any hospitality from his
master's bitterest enemy. At that moment a servant
of the Berkley Arms was passing, and having

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

called him into the garden, Bacon raised a window
leading to his own apartments, procured such of
his garments as he most needed, and despatched
them to the hotel. When he had encased himself
in these, somewhat to his own satisfaction (and
most young Cavaliers in those days wore their garments
after a rakish fashion) he sallied out to perform
the duty which he felt to be most incumbent
on him. He knocked at the door of Sir William
Berkley's mansion, with very different feelings
from any he had before experienced on a similar
occasion. The relations so lately discovered to
exist between himself and those for whom his visit
was intended, as well as his feelings toward those
who had the right of controlling in some measure
the persons admitted to visit at the mansion, awakened
anxious thoughts not a little heightened by the
anticipation of meeting Beverly, with whom an unexpected
interview promised few agreeable emotions.
The family seemed determined too that he
should have the benefit of all these reflections, from
the length of time they kept him standing in the
street. At length the porter opened the door with
many profound inclinations of the head, still standing
however full within the entrance, and continuing
his over wrought politeness. “Is Mrs. Fairfax
within?” was the inquiry.

“She is dead! may it please your honour!”

“Dead!” uttered Bacon with a hoarse and trembling
voice. “When and how?”

“His Excellency has just received the news—

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

she was murdered last night at his country seat by
the Indians.”

“Was Miss — was his niece there also?” he
asked with a bewildered doubt whether he had better
inquire any further.

“No, Sir, she lies ill of a fever up stairs. Dr.
Roland scarcely ever leaves her room, except to
tell Master Frank the state of his patient.”

“I will enter for a moment and speak a few
words with the good doctor.”

“Pardon me, your honour, it gives me great
pain to refuse any gentleman admittanee, but my
orders are positive from Sir William himself to
admit no one to the sick room, and above all not
to admit your honour within these doors. I have
over and over again turned away Miss Harriet, who
seems as if she would weep her eyes out, poor
lady, at my young mistress' illness and the Governor's
cruelty, as she calls it.”

“I see you have a more tender heart than your
master; here is gold for you, not to bribe you
against your duty or inclinations; but you will
fully earn it by informing Dr. Roland that Mr.
Bacon wishes to speak with him for five minutes
at the Arms, upon business of the last importance.”

“I will tell him, sir; but I do not think he will
go, because he has himself given the strictest injunctions
that your name shall not be whispered in
the room, or even in the house. No longer than
this morning, sir, she heard them announce the
death of her mother down stairs. Her hearing is

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

indeed extraordinary, sir, considering her so poorly.
Since that she has been much worse.”

Bacon did not choose to expose himself to the
chance of insult any longer by meeting some of the
male members of the family, he therefore took
his departure from the inhospitable mansion, and
skirted round the unfrequented streets, in order to
avoid the immense multitude collected in the
square and more frequented passages. He could
hear the shouts and cheering which echoed against
the houses as he proceeded, but little did he imagine
that they welcomed his own nomination to
the responsible station of commander to the colonial
forces. His intention was to proceed to the
Arms, and there await the arrival of the doctor;
but he no sooner entered the porch than he was
seized by the hand in the well known and sympathizing
grasp of Dudley.

While the friends were yet uttering their words
of greeting, and before they had propounded one
of the many questions which they desired to ask,
Bacon was seized under each arm with a rule, but
not disrespectful familiarity—saluted by the title of
General, and borne off toward the state house in
spite alike of remonstrances and entreaties.

It was with great difficulty they could gain the
square, so dense was the barricade of ox carts loaded
with furniture, and wagons thronged with negro
children; while families in carriages and on horseback,
and thousands of the multitude promiscuously
huddled together, increased the difficulty of

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

making way. Since he had heard the startling
news of the death of Mrs. Fairfax, his mind was
more than ever bent upon joining the proposed
expedition; and had it not been for the interruption
to the anticipated meeting with the Doctor, no one
could have appeared upon the rostrum with greater
alacrity.

The contumaceous conduct of the Governor toward
the respectful remonstrances and petitions of
the citizens, and more especially his unwarranted
and disrespectful treatment of himself, recurred
to his mind in good time. He mounted the rude
platform hastily erected in front of the state
house, burning with indignation, and glowing with
patriotism.[2] “He thanked the people for the unexpected
and unmerited honour they had just conferred
upon him. He accepted the office tendered
to him with alacrity, and none the less so
that yonder stubborn old man will not endorse it
with his authority, and sanction our proceeding under
the ordinary forms of law. What has produced
this simultaneous explosion in the colony?
What are the circumstances which can thus array
all the wealth, intelligence and respectability of
the people against the constituted authorities. Let
your crippled commerce, your taxed, overburdened
and deeply wronged citizens answer? The
first has been embarrassed by acts of parliament,
which originated here, the most severe, arbitrary
and unconstitutional, while your citizens

[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]

both gentle and hardy, have been enormously and
indiscriminately taxed in order to redeem your
soil from the immense and illegal grants to unworthy
and sometimes non-resident favourites.

“There was a time when both Cavalier and yeoman
dared to be free; when your assembly, boldly
just to their constituents, scrupled not to contend
with majesty itself in defence of our national and
chartered rights. But melancholy is the contrast
which Virginia at this time presents. The right
of suffrage which was coeval with the existence of
the colony, which had lived through the arbitrary
reign of James, and with a short interruption
through that of the first Charles, which was again
revived during the commonwealth, and was considered
too sacred to be touched even by the impure
hands of the Protector, is now sacrilegiously
stolen from you during a season of profound peace
and security.

“The mercenary soldiers, sent from the mother
country at an immense expense to each of you, fellow-citizens,
where are they? Revelling upon the
fat of the land at distant and unthreatened posts,
while our fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and
sisters, are butchered in cold blood by the ruthless
savage. Where is now the noble and generous
Fairfax, the favourite of the rich and the poor?
Where his estimable and benevolent lady? Murdered
under the silent mouths of the rusty cannon
which surmount yonder palisade. Look at his
sad and melancholy mansion, once the scene of

[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]

generous hospitality to you all—behold its deserted
halls and darkened windows. But this is only
the nearest evidence before our eyes—within the
last twenty-four hours hundreds of worthy citizens
have shared the same fate.

“Shall these things be longer borne, fellow-citizens?”

“No! no! no!” burst from the multitude—
“down with the Governor, and extermination to
the Indians.”

He continued. “Already I see a noble band
of mounted youths, the sons of your pride and
your hopes—flanked by a proud little army of
hardier citizens; from these I would ask a pledge,
that they never lay down their arms, till their
grievances are redressed.”—

“We swear—we swear,” responded from all,
and then, three cheers for General Bacon, made
the welkin ring. At this juncture the trumpet,
drum, and fife, were heard immediately behind the
crowd, and a party of the royal guard, some fifty
in number, halted upon the outskirts of the assemblage,
while their officer undertook to read a
proclamation from the Governor, ordering the mob,
as he was pleased to style the meeting, to disperse
under penalty of their lives and property. The
army of the people, already getting under arms,
immediately commenced an evolution by which
the temporary commander of the mounted force
would have been thrown directly fronting the
guard, and between them and the multitude.

[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]

Bacon saw the intended movement, and instantly
countermanded the orders, “Let the people,” said
he, “deal with this handful of soldiers; we will
not weaken our force, and waste our energies by
engaging in intestine broils, when our strength is so
much called for by the enemies of our race upon
the frontiers.” The suggestion was immediately
adopted; before the hireling band could bring their
weapons to the charge, the multitude had closed in
upon them, and disarmed them to a man. This accomplished,
they were taken to the beach, in spite
of the remonstrances of many of the more staid
and sober of the Cavaliers and citizens, and there
soundly ducked. Very unmilitary indeed was
their appearance, as they were marshalled into
battle array, all drooping and wet, and thus marched
to the music of an ignominious tune to the front
of the Governor's house.

The frantic passion of Sir William Berkley can
be more easily imagined than described. He saw
that he was left almost alone—that those citizens
most remarkable for their loyalty had deserted
him. However wilful and perverse, he saw the necessity
of making temporary concessions, although
at the same time more than ever bent upon summary
vengeance against the most conspicuous leaders
of the opposing party whenever chance or fortune
should again place the real power of the
colony in his hands. At present he felt that he
was powerless—the very means which he had
taken to thwart and provoke the people now

[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]

became the source of the bitterest regret to himself,
namely—sending the mercenary soldiers of the
crown to distant posts on fictitious emergencies.
He resolved therefore to disguise his real feelings
until the departure of the popular army, when he
could recall his own regular troops, and thus take
signal vengeance upon such of the agitators as
should be left behind, and thence march immediately
to the subjugation of the force commanded
by Bacon. Scarcely had the presence of the dripping
guard, as seen through his window, suggested
these ideas, before an opportunity offered of putting
in practice his temporary forbearance.

A committee was announced, at the head of
which was Mr. Harrison, his former friend and
supporter—they were the bearers of a conciliatory
letter from General Bacon. In this letter the
young commander in chief, in accordance with
the suggestions of the older Cavaliers, respectfully
announced his election to the command of the volunteer
army, and concluded by requesting the
Governor to heal all existing breaches by sanctioning
his own appointment, as well as that of the
appended list of young Cavaliers, to the various
stations annexed to their names; and that no delay
might occur in the pursuit of the enemy, an immediate
answer was requested. The stout old
Cavalier was ready to burst with ill suppressed
rage as he marked the cool and respectful tone of
this epistle, coming from one he most cordially

[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]

detested and despised, both on public and private
grounds.

The committee waited until he had penned his
answer, which was cold and formal, but polite.
In it he declined signing the commissions in the
absence of the council, but promised to convene it
early on the ensuing day, when he stated that he
would despatch a courier after the army, if the
council thought proper to approve of the popular
proceedings. He promised also to dismantle the
distant forts, and immediately to call in the foreign
troops for the defence of the capital.

With this answer, the committee, he to whom it
was addressed, and the populace were well satisfied.
It really promised more than they had expected
of the obstinate old Governor. Little did
they dream of the lurking treachery in the old
man's heart, much less did they truly interpret
the equivocal language contained in the note itself,
concerning the foreign soldiers, and the defence
of the capital. Little did they imagine that they
themselves were the foes against whom he proposed
to employ the mercenaries.

The army now took up its line of march across
the bridge, amidst the cheers and blessings of the
multitude; men, women, and children following
them to the boundaries of the island.

Part of the force was sent up the river in sloops,
in order to co-operate with the main army in their
design of driving the tribes scattered along the

[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]

water courses of the peninsula, to a common point
of defence, and thus forcing them, if possible, into
an open, general, and decisive engagement. The
youthful commander in chief was intimately acquainted
with all the localities between the seat
of government, and the falls of the river, (where
Richmond now stands,) and he very ingeniously
arranged his forces by land and water, so that he
might at the same time drive the treacherous
enemy before him through the peninsula, and
avoiding a premature battle, concentrate the enemy
at the point already indicated. It was with
this general view, that one part of his force was
now sent up the river, while the other pursued
the route between the Chickahominy and the
Pamunky rivers. These general views were discussed,
and the plan decided upon at a council of
war, held on the main land, immediately after the
troops had passed the bridge. Bacon having imparted
to Charles Dudley, his Aid-de-Camp, such
orders as the emergency required, turned his horse's
head again toward the bridge, and retraced his steps
to Jamestown.

CHAPTER V.

[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]

The martial sounds of drums and trumpets had
scarcely died away over the distant hills, when
Sir William Berkley despatched couriers to the
various military outposts of the colony, peremptorily
ordering the commanders to march forthwith
to Jamestown with the forces under their command.
To these couriers also were given secret
instructions for the private ears of such of his
loyal friends among the Cavaliers living on their
routes, as he knew would adhere to him under any
circumstances, urgently soliciting their immediate
presence at the capital. After these were despatched,
he summoned a secret conclave of such friends,
equally worthy of his trust, as were yet to be
found in the city.

Thus were they engaged, as General Bacon,
habited in the rich military fashion of the day,
rode along the north western skirt of the city, his
own gay attire, and the splendid trappings of his
horse wretchedly mocking the desolation within.
He drew up at the back court of the Berkley
Arms, dismounted, and passed immediately into
a private room. Having despatched a servant for
the landlord, he employed the time before he

[figure description] Page 065.[end figure description]

made his appearance, in meditations upon the
singular and protracted absence of Brian O'Reily,
the new responsibilities which he had just assumed,
and the present condition and future destinies of
the fair invalid at the gubernatorial mansion.

When the landlord entered he quickly demanded
if Doctor Roland had inquired for him during
the forenoon, and was answered that he had not.
A servant was despatched with a note to the Doctor
repeating his request for an interview of five
minutes at the Arms. After he had waited some
time in the most intense impatience, the servant
returned with a verbal message stating that the
doctor would wait on Gen. Bacon immediately.

“From whom did you obtain this answer?”

“From the porter at the door, sir.”

“Very well, you may retire!”

As he sat impatiently listening for the heavy
footsteps of the doctor, he heard a light fairy foot
tripping up the stairs toward his room, and in the
next instant a gentle tap at the door. His heart
almost leaped to his mouth as he indistinctly bade
the applicant to come in. “Can it be possible,”
said he to himself, “that Virginia has escaped from
her jailers? Was the story of her illness but an
invention of the Governor's?”

Before he had answered these questions to his
own satisfaction, the door was suddenly thrust
backward and Harriel Harrison stood before him.

She was pale, agitated, and gasping for breath,
as she threw herself unasked into a seat. Bacon

[figure description] Page 066.[end figure description]

was from his previous emotions scarcely more
composed, and his heart beat tumultuously against
his doublet, as he endeavoured vainly to offer the
courtesies due to her sex and standing.

“Oh, Mr. Bacon!” (gasped the agitated girl)
“fly for your life.”

“On what account, my dear young lady?”

“I'll tell you as quick as I can. I had just obtained
admission to-day to Virginia's room for
the first time, when, after having spent the time,
and more, allotted to me by the doctor, as I was
coming down the stairs I had to pass the door of
Sir William's library, and I accidentally overheard
him giving orders to an officer to collect some
soldiers from the barracks and make you a prisoner
in this house. How he knew you were here
I know not; but I was no sooner out of the door
than I flew to the back court below, demanded of
the servant holding your horse to point out your
room, and rushed in in this strange manner to put
you on your guard. Now, fly for your life—you
have not a moment to lose!”

“One word of Virginia, your fair friend, and I
am gone. Will she survive? Is her reason unsettled?
Does she believe the strange story of the
Recluse?”

“In a word then, she is better—of sound mind,
and in her heart does not believe one word of that
story, though sober reason is strangely perplexed.”

“One word more, and I have done. Does she
inquire for me?”

[figure description] Page 067.[end figure description]

“The very first word she said to me was, `Does
Nathaniel believe it?' Now go, while yet you may.
Should any new emergency arise in your absence
I will despatch a courier after you.”

“Yet one message to Virginia. Tell her that
I have accidentally discovered in the trinket preserved
by her father, and worn by me in the days
of my infancy, the likeness of her whom I have
every reason to believe my mother. Tell her not
to hope too sanguinely, but to give that circumstance
its weight, and trust to the developments of
time; and now I commit you both, my dearest
friends, to the protection of an overruling Providence;
farewell.”

With these parting words he rushed down stairs,
mounted his fleet charger, and swiftly left the court
just as the Governor's emissaries entered the front
porch of the house to arrest him.

Harriet drew her veil closely over her face, and
almost as fleetly sought her father's dwelling.

Our hero in a very few minutes placed the river
which separates the island from the main land between
him and his pursuers. The sun was yet
above the western horizon, and the clouds which
spread in fleecy and stationary masses, were tinted
with the softest hues of the violet and the rose,
filling the mind with pleasing images of repose,
cheerfulness, and hope. These soothing and delightful
influences of the summer evening were in
a great measure lost however upon our hero as he

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pursued his solitary way through the unbroken forest
in the immediate footsteps of the army.

Besides the inevitable suspense attending the
developments of his own origin and destiny—there
were immediate anticipations before him of no
pleasing character. He had just assumed the responsibilities
of an office, which at the very outset
was attended with the most painful embarrassments.
His keen military eye ran over the ground occupied
by the enemies of his country, and perceived
at once that to make his enterprise completely and
permanently successful, the savages must be driven
entirely from the peninsula.

The very first on the list of these nations was
the Chickahominy, at the head of which was the
youthful queen, who had so lately perilled her
life and her authority for his own salvation from
the tortures of her countrymen. His decisive and
energetic mind perceived the stern necessity
which existed of driving these melancholy relies
of once powerful nations far distant from the
haunts of the white man. The question was not
now presented to his mind, whether a foreign nation
should land upon the shores of these aboriginal
possessors. That question had long since been
decided. It was now a matter of life or death
with the European settlers and their descendants—
a question of existence or no existence—permanent
peace or continual murders. The whites
had tried all the conciliatory measures of which
they supposed themselves possessed. Peace after

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peace had succeeded to the frequent fires and
bloodshed of the savages. The calumet had been
smoked time after time, and hostage after hostage
had been exchanged, yet there was no peace
and security for the white man. The right of
the aboriginals to the soil was indeed plain and
indisputable; yet now that the Europeans were in
possession, whether by purchase or conquest, the
absolute necessity of offensive warfare against them
was equally plain and unquestioned in his mind.
These views had been hastily communicated to the
council of officers held on the banks of the river, at
the commencement of the march, and unanimously
concurred in by them. Notwithstanding this
unanimity of opinion among his associates in command,
the very first duty which presented itself
in accordance with these views, harrowed his feelings
in the most painful manner. His imagination
carried him forward to the succeeding morning,
when his followers would in all probability be carrying
fire and sword into the heart of the settlement
ruled by his preserver. As the refined and
feeling surgeon weeps in secret over the necessity
of a painful and dangerous operation upon a delicate
female friend, yet subdues his feelings and
steels his nerves for the approaching trial, so our
youthful commander silenced the rising weakness
in his heart, and urged his steed still deeper into
the forest. He determined to temper and soften
stern necessity with humanity.

A few hours' ride brought him up with the

[figure description] Page 070.[end figure description]

baggage and artillery of the army. The sun had
already gone down, but a brilliant starlight, and
a balmy and serene air revived his drooping spirits,
as he swiftly passed these lumbering appendages.

Scarcely had he placed himself at the head of the
marching column, and perceived that the flower
and chivalry of his command—the mounted Cavaliers,
were still in advance of him, before the
sharp quick report of their firearms was heard at
some three quarters of a mile distance in advance.
These were quickly succeeded by the savage warwhoop,
and in a few moments a bright red column
of fire and smoke shot up towards the heavens
immediately in front. His spurs were dashed into
his charger's flanks, and he flew through the fitfully
illuminated forest toward a gently swelling
hill from beyond which the light seemed to proceed.

When he had gained this eminence, a sight
greeted his eyes which awakened all the tenderest
sympathies of his nature. Orapacs, the sole remaining
village of the Chickahominies—the scene
of his late tortures—as well as his preservation,
was wrapped in flames. Ever and anon a terrified
or wounded savage came darting through the forest
heedless alike of him and of the martial sounds
in his rear. He reined up his courser on the
summit and sadly viewed the scene.

His commands were no longer necessary for the
existing emergency. The deed, for which he had
been so laboriously and studiously preparing his

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mind was done. The royal wigwam, the very
scene of his shelter, and of Wyanokee's hospitality,
was already enveloped by the devouring element.
A few struggling and desperate warriors still kept
up the unequal contest, but in a few moments, even
the despairing yells of these were hushed in the
cold and everlasting silence of death. Painfully
and intently he gazed upon the crumbling walls of
the once peaceful home of his Indian friend. He
could perceive no appearance of the unfortunate
queen. His imagination immediately conjured
up the image of the heroic maiden, her form bleeding
and mutilated as it lay among the last defenders
of the land of her fathers. By a singular
sophistry of the mind, he consoled himself by the
reflection, that the orders had not proceeded from
his lips—that his hand had no part in the matter,
although he had himself laid down the plan of the
campaign, of which the scene before him was the
first result. True, he had mentioned no exact
time for the accomplishment of this measure, and
the ardour of his young companions in arms had
outstripped his own intentions; nevertheless, the
design was his, however much he might soothe his
own feelings by the want of personal participation.

By the time that the infantry and heavy artillery
had arrived upon the spot occupied by their
General, the village of Orapacs was a heap of
smouldering ruins. The scene was again covered
with darkness, save when it was illuminated at

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intervals by a fitful gleam, as some quivering ruin
fell tardily among the smouldering embers of the
walls which had already fallen. He assumed the
command of his troops, and marched them into
the plain between the place they then occupied,
and the site of the melancholy scene we have described.
By his orders also, the trumpets were
ordered to command the return of the impetuous
Cavaliers. Dudley and his compatriots soon
came bounding over the plain, exhilarated with
the first flush of success, and not a little surprised
at the cold and respectful salutations which greeted
them from their commander. Most of them, however,
were acquainted with his late sufferings and
feeble bodily health, and to this cause they were
willing to attribute his present want of euthusiasm.

Bacon had no sooner issued the necessary orders
for the night than, taking Dudley by the arm, he
walked forth into the forest beyond the sentinels
already posted.

“Tell me, Dudley,” (said he in a hurried and
agitated voice,) “was she slain?”

“Was who slain?”

“The queen of these dominions!”

“No, I believe not. I think she was borne
from the scene early in the conflict, by some of
her tribe.”

“Thank God!” he fervently ejaculated, and
then addressing himself to his aid, he continued,
“Return, Dudley, to the camp—superintend the
execution of the orders I have issued for our

[figure description] Page 073.[end figure description]

security, in person, but follow me not, and suffer no
one, either officer or soldier, to approach the ruins.
I will return in the course of a couple of hours.”

Having thus spoken, he suddenly disappeared
through the forest, and his companion returned to
the camp.

With slow and melancholy steps our hero approached
the late busy and animated scene. The
beasts of prey were sending up their savage, but
plaintive notes in horrible unison with his own
feelings. The cool evening breeze fanned the
dying embers, and occasionally loaded the atmosphere
with brilliant showers of sparks and flakes
of fire. As these rolled over his person and fell
dead upon his garments, he folded his arms, and
contemplated the ruins of the wigwam in which
he had found protection.

“There,” said he, “was perhaps the birth-place
of a hundred monarchs of these forests. Until
civilized man intruded upon these dominions, they
were in their own, and nature's way, joyous,
prosperous, and happy. They have resided amidst
the shades of these venerable trees, perhaps since
time began! The very waters of the stream bubbling
joyously over yonder pebbles, have borrowed
their name. Where are they all now? The last
male youth of their kingly line was slain by these
hands, and the last habitations of his race fired
and plundered by soldiers owing obedience to my
commands. The plough and the harrow will soon
break down alike their hearth-stones and the

[figure description] Page 074.[end figure description]

scene of their council fires. Yea, and the very
monuments of their dead must be levelled to
meet the ever craving demands of civilized existence.
But pshaw! is this the preparation to
steel a soldier's heart, and fire it with military
ardour and enthusiasm? Let me rather ponder
upon my own sufferings on this spot. Let me
remember the groans of dying old men, women,
and children, which rent the air twelve hours
since. And above all, let me bear in mind the
despairing shrieks of her, who was more than a
mother to me, of her who clothed and fed and
protected me in infancy. Where is she now?”

“She is alive and well!” answered a feeble and
plaintive voice from the wild flowers and shrubbery
which grew upon an earthen monument erected
to the savage dead.

“Who is it that speaks?”

“One that had better have slept with those who
sleep beneath!”

“Wyanokee?”

“Ay, who is left but Wyanokee and these
mouldering bones beneath, of all the proud race
that once trod these plains unchallenged, and free
as the water that bubbles at your feet.”

He approached the rude monument as she spoke.
It consisted of a grass-grown mount some thirty
feet in length, by ten in height and breadth, and
was surmounted by thick clustering briers and
wild flowers. The youthful queen was sitting
upon the margin of the tumulus, her head resting

[figure description] Page 075.[end figure description]

upon her hand, and it in its turn supported on her
knee. As the officer approached, she stood erect
upon the mount. Her person was clad and ornamented
much as when he had last seen her, except
that above one shoulder protruded a richly carved
unstrung bow, and from the other, a quiver of
feather-tipped arrows crossing the bow near her
waist. The soldier replied,

“It is almost useless for me to profess now, how
wholly, how profoundly, I sympathize with you
in witnessing this scene of desolation. Naught
but the dictates of inevitable necessity could have
induced the army under my command to perpetrate
this melancholy devastation. But I trust
that the soothing influences of time, your own
good sense, and the ministrations of your kind
white friends, will reconcile you to these stern
decrees of fate.”

“Kind indeed is the white man's sympathy—
very kind. He applies the torch to the wigwam
of his red friend, shoots at his women and children
as they run from the destruction within, and then
he weeps over the ruins which his own hands
have made.”

“It is even so, Wyanokee. I do not expect
you to understand or appreciate my feelings upon
the instant; but when you are once again peacefully
settled at Jamestown with your sorrowing
young friend, and will cast your eyes over this
vast and fertile country, and see to what little
ends its resources are wasted, and on the other

[figure description] Page 076.[end figure description]

hand, what countless multitudes are driven hither
by the crowded state of other parts of the world,
you will begin to see the necessity which is driving
your red brethren to the far west. You can
then form some conception of the now unseen
power behind, which is urging them forward. You
will see the great comprehension and sublime spectacle
of God's political economy! you will see it
in its beauty and its justice. You feel the partial
and limited effects of these swelling waves of the
great creation now upon yourself and your nation.
I grant they are hard to be borne, but once place
yourself above these personal considerations, and
compare the demands of a world with the handful
of warriors lying dead around those ruins, and you
will bow to the justice of the decree which has
gone forth against your people!”

“Does your Great Spirit then only care for the
good of his white children? You taught me to
believe that he too created the red men, and
placed them upon these hunting grounds, that he
eared as much for them as he did for their white
brethren—but now it seems he is angry with the
poor red man, because he lives and hunts as he
was taught, by the Great Spirit himself. These
hunting grounds are now wanted for his other
children, and those to whom he first gave them,
must not only yield them up, but they must be
driven by the fire and the thunder, and the long
knives of those who have been professing themselves
our brethren.”

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