Wacousta (4 page)

When this duty was accomplished, the officers proceeded to the posts of the several sentinels who had been planted since the last relief, to ascertain if any or either of them had observed aught to justify the belief that an enemy had succeeded in scaling the works. To all their enquiries, however, they received a negative reply, accompanied by a declaration, more or less positive with each, that such had been their vigilance during the watch, had any person come within their beat, detection must have been inevitable. The first question was put to the sentinel stationed at the gate of the fort, at which point the whole of the officers of the garrison were, with one or two exceptions, now assembled. The man at first evinced a good deal of confusion; but this might arise from the singular fact of the alarm that had been given, and the equally singular circumstance of his being thus closely interrogated by the collective body of his officers: he, however, persisted in declaring that he had been in no wise inattentive to his duty, and that no cause for alarm or suspicion had occurred near his post. The officers then, in order to save time, separated into two parties, pursuing opposite circuits, and arranging to meet at that point of the ramparts which was immediately in the
rear, and overlooking the centre of the semicircular sweep of wild forest we have described as circumventing the fort.

“Well, Blessington, I know not what you think of this sort of work,” observed Sir Everard Valletort, a young lieutenant of the ____ regiment, recently arrived from England, and one of the party who now traversed the rampart to the right; “but confound me if I would not rather be a barber’s apprentice in London, upon nothing, and find myself, than continue a life of this kind much longer. It positively quite knocks me up; for what with early risings, and watchings (I had almost added prayings), I am but the shadow of my former self.”

“Hist, Valletort, hist! speak lower,” said Captain Blessington, the senior officer present, “or our search must be in vain. Poor fellow!” he pursued, laughing low and good humouredly at the picture of miseries thus solemnly enumerated by his subaltern;–“how much, in truth, are you to be pitied, who have so recently basked in all the sunshine of enjoyment at home. For our parts, we have lived so long amid these savage scenes, that we have almost forgotten what luxury, or even comfort, means. Doubt not, my friend, that in time you will, like us, be reconciled to the change.”

“Confound me for an idiot, then, if I give myself time,” replied Sir Everard affectedly. “It was only five minutes before that cursed alarm bell was sounded in my ears, that I had made up my mind fully to resign or exchange the instant I could do so with credit to myself; and, I am sure, to be called out of a warm bed at this unseasonable hour offers little inducement for me to change my opinion.”

“Resign or exchange with credit to yourself!” sullenly observed a stout tall officer of about fifty, whose spleen might well be accounted for in his rank of “Ensign” Delme. “Methinks
there can be little credit in exchanging or resigning, when one’s companions are left behind, and in a post of danger.”

“By Jasus, and ye may say that with your own pritty mouth,” remarked another veteran, who answered to the name of Lieutenant Murphy; “for it isn’t now, while we are surrounded and bediviled by the savages, that any man of the ____ rigimint should be after talking of bating a retrate.”

“I scarcely understand you, gentlemen,” warmly and quickly retorted Sir Everard, who, with all his dandyism and effeminacy of manner, was of a high and resolute spirit. “Do either of you fancy that I want courage to face a positive danger, because I may not happen to have any particular vulgar predilection for early rising?”

“Nonsense, Valletort, nonsense,” interrupted, in accents of almost feminine sweetness, his friend Lieutenant Charles de Haldimar, the youngest son of the Governor: “Murphy is an eternal echo of the opinions of those who look forward to promotion; and as for Delme–do you not see the drift of his observation? Should you retire, as you have threatened, of course another lieutenant will be appointed in your stead; but, should you chance to lose your scalp during the struggle with the savages, the step goes in the regiment, and he, being the senior ensign, obtains promotion in consequence.”

“Ah!” observed Captain Blessington, “this is indeed the greatest curse attached to the profession of a soldier. Even among those who most esteem, and are drawn towards each other as well by fellowship in pleasure as companionship in danger, this vile and debasing principle–this insatiable desire for personal advancement–is certain to intrude itself; since we feel that over the mangled bodies of our dearest friends and companions, we can alone hope to attain preferment and distinction.”

A moment or two of silence ensued, in the course of which each individual appeared to be bringing home to his own heart the application of the remark just uttered; and which, however they might seek to disguise the truth from themselves, was too forcible to find contradiction from the secret monitor within. And yet of those assembled there was not one, perhaps, who would not, in the hour of glory and of danger, have generously interposed his own frame between that of his companion and the steel or bullet of an enemy. Such are the contradictory elements which compose a soldier’s life.

This conversation, interrupted only by occasional questioning of the sentinels whom they passed in their circuit, was carried on in an audible whisper, which the close approximation of the parties to each other, and the profound stillness of the night, enabled them to hear with distinctness.

“Nay, nay, De Haldimar,” at length observed Sir Everard, in reply to the observation of his friend, “do not imagine I intend to gratify Mr. Delme by any such exhibition as that of a scalpless head; but, if such be his hope, I trust that the hour which sees my love-locks dangling at the top of an Indian pole may also let daylight into his own carcass from a rifle bullet or a tomahawk.”

“And yit, Captin, it sames to me,” observed Lieutenant Murphy, in allusion to the remark of Blessington rather than in reply to the last speaker,–“it sames to me, I say, that promotion in ony way is all fair and honourable in times of hardship like thase; and though we may drop a tare over our suparior when the luck of war, in the shape of a tommyhawk, knocks him over, still there can be no rason why we shouldn’t stip into his shoes the viry nixt instant; and it’s that, we all know, that we fight for. And the divil a bitter chance any man of us all has of promotion thin yoursilf. Captin: for it’ll be
mighty strange if our fat Major doesn’t git riddlid like a cullinder through and through with the bullits from the Ingians’ rifles before we have quite done with this business, and thin you will have the rigimintal majority, Captin; and it may be that one Liftinint Murphy, who is now the sanior of his rank, may come in for the vacant captincy.”

“And Delme for the lieutenancy,” said Charles de Haldimar significantly. “Well, Murphy, I am happy to find that you, at least, have hit on another than Sir Everard Valletort: one, in fact, who will render the promotion more general than it would otherwise have been. Seriously, I should be sorry if any thing happened to our worthy Major, who, with all his bustling and grotesque manner, is as good an officer and as brave a soldier as any his Majesty’s army in Canada can boast. For my part, I say, perish all promotion for ever, if it is only to be obtained over the dead bodies of those with whom I have lived so long and shared so many dangers!”

“Nobly uttered, Charles,” said Captain Blessington: “the sentiment is, indeed, one well worthy of our present position; and God knows we are few enough in number already, without looking forward to each other’s death as a means of our own more immediate personal advancement. With you, therefore, I repeat, perish all my hopes of promotion, if it is only to be obtained over the corses of my companions! And let those who are most sanguine in their expectations beware lest they prove the first to be cut off, and that even before they have yet enjoyed the advantages of the promotion they so eagerly covet.”

This observation, uttered without acrimony, had yet enough of delicate reproach in it to satisfy Lieutenant Murphy that the speaker was far from approving the expression of such selfish anticipations at a moment like the present, when danger,
in its most mysterious guise, lurked around, and threatened the safety of all most dear to them.

The conversation now dropped, and the party pursued their course in silence. They had just passed the last sentinel posted in their line of circuit, and were within a few yards of the immediate rear of the fortress, when a sharp “Hist!” and sudden halt of their leader, Captain Blessington, threw them all into an attitude of the most profound attention.

“Did you hear?” he asked in a subdued whisper, after a few seconds of silence, in which he had vainly sought to catch a repetition of the sound.

“Assuredly,” he pursued, finding that no one answered, “I distinctly heard a human groan.”

“Where?–in what direction?” asked Sir Everard and De Haldimar in the same breath.

“Immediately opposite to us on the common. But see, here are the remainder of the party stationary, and listening also.”

They now stole gently forward a few paces, and were soon at the side of their companions, all of whom were straining their necks and bending their heads in the attitude of men listening attentively.

“Have you heard any thing, Erskine?” asked Captain Blessington in the same low whisper, and addressing the officer who led the opposite party.

“Not a sound ourselves, but here is Sir Everard’s black servant, Sambo, who has just riveted our attention, by declaring that
he
distinctly heard a groan towards the skirt of the common.”

“He is right,” hastily rejoined Blessington; “I heard it also.”

Again a death-like silence ensued, during which the eyes
of the party were strained eagerly in the direction of the common. The night was clear and starry, yet the dark shadow of the broad belt of forest threw all that part of the waste which came within its immediate range into impenetrable obscurity.

“Do you see any thing?” whispered Valletort to his friend, who stood next him: “look–look!” and he pointed with his finger.

“Nothing,” returned De Haldimar, after an anxious gaze of a minute, “but that dilapidated old bomb-proof.”

“See you not something dark, and slightly moving immediately in a line with the left angle of the bomb-proof?”

De Haldimar looked again.–“I do begin to fancy I see something,” he replied; “but so confusedly and indistinctly, that I know not whether it be not merely an illusion of my imagination. Perhaps it is a stray Indian dog devouring the carcass of the wolf you shot yesterday.”

“Be it dog or devil, here is for a trial of his vulnerability–Sambo, quick, my rifle.”

The young negro handed to his master one of those long heavy rifles, which the Indians usually make choice of for killing the buffalo, elk, and other animals whose wildness renders them difficult of approach. He then, unbidden, and as if tutored to the task, placed himself in a stiff upright position in front of his master, with every nerve and muscle braced to the most inflexible steadiness. The young officer next threw the rifle on the right shoulder of the boy for a rest, and prepared to take his aim on the object that had first attracted his attention.

“Make haste, massa,–him go directly,–Sambo see him get up.”

All was breathless attention among the group of officers; and when the sharp ticking sound produced by the cocking of the rifle of their companion fell on their ears, they bent their
gaze upon the point towards which the murderous weapon was levelled with the most aching and intense interest.

“Quick, quick, massa,–him quite up,” again whispered the boy.

The words had scarcely passed his lips, when the crack of the rifle, followed by a bright blaze of light, sounded throughout the stillness of the night with exciting sharpness. For an instant all was hushed; but scarcely had the distant woods ceased to reverberate the spirit-stirring echoes, when the anxious group of officers were surprised and startled by a sudden flash, the report of a second rifle from the common, and the whizzing of a bullet past their ears. This was instantly succeeded by a fierce, wild, and prolonged cry, expressive at once of triumph and revenge. It was that peculiar cry which an Indian utters when the reeking scalp has been wrested from his murdered victim.

“Missed him, as I am a sinner,” exclaimed Sir Everard, springing to his feet, and knocking the butt of his rifle on the ground with a movement of impatience. “Sambo, you young scoundrel, it was all your fault,–you moved your shoulder as I pulled the trigger. Thank Heaven, however, the aim of the Indian appears to have been no better, although the sharp whistling of his ball proves his piece to have been well levelled for a random shot.”

“His aim has been too true,” faintly pronounced the voice of one somewhat in the rear of his companions. “The ball of the villain has found a lodgment in my breast. God bless ye all, my boys; may your fates be more lucky than mine!” While he yet spoke, Lieutenant Murphy sank into the arms of Blessington and De Haldimar, who had flown to him at the first intimation of his wound, and was in the next instant a corpse.

THREE

“To your companies, gentlemen, to your companies on the instant. There is treason in the fort, and we had need of all our diligence and caution. Captain de Haldimar is missing, and the gate has been found unlocked. Quick, gentlemen, quick; even now the savages may be around us, though unseen.”

“Captain de Haldimar missing!–the gate unlocked!” exclaimed a number of voices. “Impossible!–surely we are not betrayed by our own men.”

“The sentinel has been relieved, and is now in irons,” resumed the communicator of this startling piece of intelligence. It was the adjutant of the regiment.

“Away, gentlemen, to your posts immediately,” said Captain Blessington, who, aided by De Haldimar, hastened to deposit the stiffening body of the unfortunate Murphy, which they still supported, upon the rampart. Then addressing the adjutant, “Mr. Lawson, let a couple of files be sent immediately to remove the body of their officer.”