An hour before day-light next morning, Hall rose from his straw couch and
bundling up his small stock of clothes, and taking his staff in hand, carefully
stole out of the room which he now, to his surprise, discovered, was occupied

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by other sleepers. It was yet very dark, and a drizzling rain was falling as
he walked abroad into the wild dark forest. He took the road toward Germana,
and travelled along with cheerfulness and alacrity, rejoiced to think
how fortunate he had been to escape the observation of his pursuer, for he
doubted not, that Henry Lee was seeking him for some purpose or other.

The circumstances of a young man must be unfortunate indeed, and the
weather far more unpropitious than that described, if exercise in the early
morning does not produce a bright rebound of the spirits. Hall experienced
bright and glowing sensations, as he trudged along the muddy road; having
left his enemies far behind, as he supposed, and anticipating great pleasure in
once more beholding his friends of the voyage and the masking adventure, and,
above all, he pictured to himself, that calm and delightful repose which he
thought must surely be found in a settlement so far removed from the scenes
of trade, and politics, and intrigue, which he was so rapidly casting behind
him. “There,” said he, “I will live, in the profound solitudes of nature,
where the turbulent passions of men come not to disturb me—where I may
hope to escape from the storm which has so long tossed me about at its pleasure.
There the consequences of the one great error of my life cannot pursue
me—there nature in her primitive simplicity and purity reigns forever; beneath
my humble log cabin I may sit and smoke my pipe in peace, until these lowering
clouds have passed away. But while we leave him to pursue his
onward way through the forest, as well as the train of reflections upon which
he struck, we will glance at the block-house once more, which he had just left.

About day-light a shrill scream was heard from the sleeping room alluded
to, which roused every inmate within the stockade, even to the drowsy sontinel
at the gate.

It was a prolonged and agonized scream, such as is never heard except
on occasions of mortal extremity. How quickly the ear detects these heralds
of death or disaster. Instantly the shantees and cabins were seen to pour
out their tenants as if roused by one simultaneous impulse, all rushing toward
the place from whence the sound issued.

Some fifteen or twenty persons in all, were assembled, crowding thickly round
some object which lay upon the floor. Among the others stood Harry Lee,
gesticulating wildly, and his eye dilated with horror and astonishment.
Immediately in the centre of the group lay the body of John Spotswood,
wrapped up in the same cloak which he had borrowed from Lee the night
before (having lent his own to Wingina) and perfectly dead. He had been
killed by a single blow of a dagger driven through his heart, and sent with
such force that the long formidable weapon (worn in those days by Indian
fighters,) had actually penetrated the floor and pinioned him to the puncheons
beneath. As if the attrocity of the deed was not sufficient, an attempt had been
made to mutilate his person by a circular incision upon his crown.[11]

Lee immediately ordered a guard posted at the entrance of the fort, and that,
no one should be permitted to escape until he had investigated the matter,
about which he immediately set to work. He found that the room had been
occupied by two sleepers who had already escaped, and the woman had proceeded
no farther in her description of the one who had lain next to the deceased,
than the whiskers and the big scar, before Lee called to the orderly and
commanded him to divide his corps into two bodies, and pursue the fugitive
until he should find him, and bring him back, dead or alive.

The other absentee was described as a small Indian boy, and as having come
with the deceased officer himself. Lee was sorely puzzled to imagine who
this could be, and Spotswood's servant could give him no information, except

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that he had been picked up in the capital, just before they had set out, and that
he had ridden with his master more as a companion than a servant. The
woman who had received the travellers on the previous evening, and from whose
throat the scream had issued, stated that the boy had slept in another apartment,
by Capt. Spotswood's own orders, while one of the servants declared that he
had seen him lying across the door-way of that very room, during the night.
The instrument with which the deed had been committed, was a silver mounted
two edged dagger, highly ornamented, which several recollected, and Lee
himself knew to have been worn by the deceased himself.

From this circumstance, some of those present were disposed to believe
that the deceased had committed the rash act upon his own person, but this
surmise was put entirely at rest, by the gash upon the head, as well as several
distinct finger marks upon the throat, showing that whoever had perpetrated
it; had held his victim by a powerful grasp, to prevent noise while the
blow was inflicted.

Hall had deviated from the great military road to take a near cut by an
Indian path, and thus his pursuers passed him. About ten o'clock in the
morning he again emerged into the great thoroughfare, (if two wagon ruts
through a pine forest could be called such) and was seated, with his bundle
open before him, and helping himself to some cold provisions with which he
was provided. He ate with great relish and a fine appetite, and seemed to be
disturbed by naught under the sun. The drizzling clouds had blown away,
and he looked forward to a cheerful and happy day, amidst the almost unexplored
beauties of nature; in one of her wildest and grandest phases. His
spirit was buoyant with the idea that at last he had cast off the cares of
civilized life and above all, that he had broken loose from those entangling
meshes, either of designing men, or fortuitous circumstances, under which
he had so long suffered. There was a shade of sadness over his face it is
true, it could hardly be otherwise with one who had so lately and so severely
suffered—he was more cheerful, however, than at any former period when
presented to the reader. He rejoiced in the anticipation of soon enjoying the
society of two persons who were now situated so much like himself—Mr.
Elliot and his charming daughter. He recollected well the wiser determination
of the old gentleman, when they last parted, to abandon at once the crowded
thoroughfares of life, and the arguments they had held upon the subject, and
he now freely confessed, that the elder was the wiser man of the two. But
he had objects to accomplish in daring the frowns of that society, which he
had offended, and many of those objects he had more than accomplished,
while on the other hand his adventure had resulted more disastrously, in some
respects, than he could have anticipated. One subject gave him poignant
regret; it was the difficulty of his now accompanying the tramontane expedition.
His heart had been fixed upon the Governor's grand scheme, and he
had forseen that it would be an admirable offset, could he distinguish himself
in that enterprise, for the real offence which he had committed against society.

Alas, he little imagined that he was soon about to be brought to the bar of
justice, for the commission of a crime far more heinous than any with which
he had yet been charged. With all his previous sufferings, he was not fully
aware of those strange and mysterious links which observing men have discovered
in the chain of successive misfortunes, insomuch that no adage is
of more common use than that “misfortunes never come single-handed.” It
is a most inexplicable law of Providence. There is such a crisis of greater
or less magnitude in the life of every man. Doubtless, to brave and noble
spirits, these storms are tempered with more severity than those decreed to
the “shorn lamb.” One thing is certain, that no one ever attains to preeminence
in this world, without having passed through this terrible gauntlet.
Tamer spirits shrink from them, or succumb at once, while the more daring

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and heroic natures bare their hearts to the storm, and manfully buffet them to
the last.

Hall was still seated at his rude and homely breakfast, when he heard the
distant tramp of horses. His eye was first directed down the road towards the
stockade which he had left in the morning, seeing nothing in that direction
but the long and monotonous road, he turned his eyes to the other end, and
soon perceived five or six horsemen galloping towards him. His mind was
relieved at once on perceiving that they belonged to his own race, for he had
been for a few moments painfully reflecting how defenceless was his condition,
should the new comers prove to be Indians with any hostile intent.

The whole guard immediately dismounted and proceeded deliberately to
tie their horses to each other, while the sergeant walked up and tapping him
upon the shoulder, pronounced him his prisoner. When informed of the death
of Capt. Spotswood, and that he was charged with the murder, he was awestruck.
A clap of thunder and a bolt falling at his feet from a cloudless sky,
could not have more truly astonished him; but when informed farther, by the
sergeant, that his face was even then sprinkled with the blood of his victim,
his whole frame trembled like an aspen, under a superstitious dread of that
unseen power which seemed so relentlessly to pursue him.