SMALL | MEDIUM
"Selictar! unsheath then our chief's scimetar;
Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of war;
Yo mountains! that see us descend to the shore,
Shall view us victors, or view us no more."
Byron.
The heavy showers that prevailed during the remainder of the day, completely stopped the progress of the flames; though glimmering fires were observed during the night, on different parts of the hill, wherever there was a collection of fuel to feed the element. The next day the woods, for many miles, were black and smoking, and were stript of every vestige of brush and dead wood; but the pines and hemlocks still reared their heads proudly along the hills, and even the smaller trees of the forest retained a feeble ap- pearance of life and vegetation.
The many tongues of rumour were busy in ex-
aggerating the miraculous escape of Elizabeth,
and a report was generally credited, that Mohe-
gan had actually perished in the flames. This
belief became confirmed, and was indeed rendered
probable, when the direful intelligence reached
the village, that Jotham Riddel, the miner, was
found in his hole, nearly dead with suffocation,
The public attention became much alive to the
events of the last few days, and just at this crisis,
the convicted counterfeiters took the hint from
Natty, and, on the night succeeding the fire,
found means to cut through their log prison also,
and to escape unpunished. When this news be-
gun to circulate through the village, blended with
the fate of Jotham, and the exaggerated and tor-
tured reports of the events on the hill, the popular
opinion was freely expressed, as to the propriety
of seizing such of the fugitives as remained with-
in reach. Men talked of the cave, as a secret re-
ceptacle of guilt; and, as the rumour of ores
and metals found its way into the confused med-
ley of conjectures, counterfeiting, and every thing
else that was wicked and dangerous to the peace
of society, suggested themselves to the busy fan-
cies of the populace.
While the public mind was in this feverish state,
it was hinted that the wood had been set on fire
by Edwards and the Leather-stocking, and that,
consequently, they alone were responsible for the
damages. This opinion soon gained ground, be-
ing most circulated by those who, by their own
heedlessness, had caused the evil; and there was
one irresistible burst of the common sentiment,
that an attempt should be made to punish the of-
fenders. Richard was by no means deaf to this ap-
peal, and by noon he set about in earnest, to see
the laws executed.
Several stout young men were selected, and ta-
ken apart, with an appearance of secrecy, where
they received some important charge from the
Sheriff, immediately under the eyes, but far re-
moved from the ears, of all in the village. Pos-
At twelve precisely, a drum beat the "long roll"
before the "Bold Dragoon," and Richard ap-
peared, accompanied by Captain Hollister, who
was clad in his vestments as commander of the
"Templeton Light-Infantry," when the former
demanded of the latter the aid of the posse comi-
tatus, in enforcing the laws of the country. We
have not room to record the speeches of the two
gentlemen on this occasion, but they are preserved
in the columns of the little blue newspaper, which
is yet to be found on file, and are said to be high-
ly creditable to the legal formula of one of the
parties, and to the military precision of the other.
Every thing had been previously arranged, and
as the red-coated drummer continued to roll out
his clattering notes, some five-and-twenty privates
appeared in the ranks, and arranged themselves
in order of battle.
As this corps was composed of volunteers, and
was commanded by a man who had passed the
first five-and-thirty years of his life in camps and
garrisons, it was the nonpareil of military science
in that country, and was confidently pronounced,
by the judicious part of the Templeton communi-
ty, to be equal in skill and appearance to any
troops in the known world; in physical endow-
ments they were, certainly, much superior! To
this assertion there were but three dissenting
voices, and one dissenting opinion. The opinion
belonged to Marmaduke, who, however, saw no
necessity for its promulgation. Of the voices,
one, and that a pretty loud one, came from the
Another of these sceptical sentiments was inva-
riably expressed by Mr. Pump, whenever the com-
pany paraded, generally in some such terms as
these, which were uttered with that sort of meek-
ness that a native of the island of our forefathers
is apt to assume, when he condescends to praise
the customs or characters of her truant progeny --
"It's mayhap that they knows sum'mat about
loading and firing, d'ye see; but as for working
ship! why a corporal's guard of the Boadishey's
marines would back and fill on their quarters in
such a manner as to surround and captivate them
all in half a glass." As there was no one to de-
ny this assertion, the marines of the Boadicea
were held in a corresponding degree of estimation.
The third unbeliever was Monsieur Le Quoi, who
merely whispered to the sheriff, that the corps was
one of the finest he had ever seen, second only to
the Mousquetaires of Le Bon Louis! However, as
Mrs. Hollister thought there was something like
actual service in the present appearances, and was,
in consequence, too busily engaged with cer-
tain preparations of her own, to make her com-
ments; as Benjamin was absent, and Monsieur Le
Quoi too happy to find fault with any thing, the
corps escaped criticism and comparison altogether
on this momentous day, when they certainly had
greater need of self-confidence, than on any other
previous occasion. Marmaduke was said to be
again closeted with Mr. Van der School, and
no interruption was offered to the movements of
the troops. At two o'clock precisely the corps
"Keep off! Billy Kirby, keep off! I wish ye
no harm; but if a man of ye all comes a step nigh-
er, there'll be blood spilt a-twixt us. God for-
give the one that draws it first; but so it must be."
"Come, old chap," said Billy, good-naturedly,
"don't be crabbed, but hear what a man has got
to say. I've no concarn in the business, only to
see right 'twixt man and man; and I don't kear
the valie of a beetle-ring which gets the better;
but there's Squire Doolittle, out yonder behind
the beech sapling, he has invited me to come in
and ask you to give up to the law -- that's all."
"I see the varmint! I see his clothes!" cried the
indignant Natty; "and if he'll only show so
much flesh as will bury a rifle bullet, thirty to the
pound, I'll make him feel me. Go away, Billy,
I bid ye; you know my aim, and I bear you no
malice."
"You over calkilate your aim, Natty," said
the other, as he stepped behind a pine that stood
near him, "if you think to shoot a man through
There was a simple seriousness in the counte-
nance of Natty, that showed he was much in
earnest; but it was, also, evident that he was re-
luctant to shed human blood. He answered the
vaunt of the wood-chopper, by saying --
"I know you drop a tree where you will, Billy
Kirby; but if you show a hand, or an arm, in
doing it, there'll be bones to be set, and blood to
stanch, I tell you. If it's only to get into the
cave that ye want, wait till a two hour's sun, and
you may enter it in welcome; but come in now
you shall not. There's one dead body, already, ly-
ing on the cold rocks, and there's another in
which the life can hardly be said to stay. If you
will come in, there'll be dead without as well as
within."
The wood-chopper stept out fearlessly from his
cover, and cried --
"That's fair; and what's fair, is right. He
wants you to stop till it's two hours to sun-down;
and I see reason in the thing. A man can give
up when he's wrong, if you don't crowd him too
hard; but you crowd a man, and he gets to be
like a stubborn ox -- the more you beat, the worse
he kicks."
The sturdy notions of independence maintain-
ed by Billy, neither suited the emergency, nor the
impatience of Mr. Jones, who was burning with a
desire to examine the hidden mysteries of the
cave. He, therefore, interrupted this amicable
dialogue with his own voice.
"I command you, Nathaniel Bumppo, by my
authority, to surrender your person to the law,"
he cried. "And I command you, gentlemen, to
"I'd follow ye, Squire Dickens," said Benja-
min, removing the pipe from his mouth, (for du-
ring the whole scene the ex-major domo had been
very composedly smoking,) "Ay! I'd sail in
your wake, sir, to the end of the world, if-so-be
that there was such a place, which there isn't, seeing
that it's round. Now, mayhap, Master Hollister,
having lived all your life on shore, you is'nt ac-
quainted that the world, d'ye-see -- "
"Surrender!" interrupted the veteran, in a
voice that startled his hearers, and which actually
caused his own forces to recoil several paces;
"Surrender, Benjamin Penguillum, or expect no
quarter."
"Damn your quarter," said Benjamin, rising
from the log on which he was seated, and taking
a squint along the barrel of the swivel, which had
been brought on the hill, during the night, and
now formed the means of defence on his side of
the works. "Look you, Master, or Captain,
thof I questions if ye know the name of a rope,
except the one that's to hang ye, there's no need
of singing out, just as if ye was hailing a deaf
man on a top-gallant-yard. Mayhap you think
you've got my true name in your sheep-skin; but
what British sailor finds it worth while to sail in
these seas, without a sham on his stern, in case of
need, d'ye-see. If you call me Penguillan, you
calls me by the name of the man on whose land,
d'ye-see, I hove into daylight; and he was a gen-
tleman; and that's more than my worst enemy
will say of any of the family of Benjamin
Stubbs."
"Send the warrant round to me, and I'll put in
an alias," cried Hiram, from behind his cover.
"Put in a jackass, and you'll put in yourself,
Mister Doo-but-little," shouted Benjamin, who
kept squinting along his little iron tube, with great
steadiness.
"I give you but one moment to yield in," cried
Richard. "Benjamin! Benjamin! This is not
the gratitude I expected from you."
"I tell you, Richard Jones," said Natty, who
dreaded the sheriff's influence over his comrade;
"though the canister the gal brought, be lost,
there's powder enough in the cave to lift the
rock you stand on. I'll take off my roof, if you
don't hold your peace."
"I think it beneath the dignity of my office to
parley further with the prisoners," the sheriff ob-
served to his companion, while they both retired
with a precipitancy that Captain Hollister mis-
took for the signal to advance.
"Charge baggonet!" shouted the veteran;
"march!"
Although this signal was certainly expected, it
took the assailed a little by surprise, and the ve-
teran approached the works, crying, "courage,
my brave lads! give them no quarter unless they
surrender," and struck a furious blow upwards
with his sabre that would have divided the steward
in moieties, by subjecting him to the process of
decapitation, but for the fortunate interference of
the muzzle of the swivel. As it was, the gun was
dismounted at the critical moment that Benjamin
was applying his pipe to the priming, and in con-
sequence, some five or six dozen of rifle bullets
were projected into the air, in, nearly, a perpendi-
cular line. Philosophy teaches us that the atmos-
phere will not retain lead; and two pounds of the
metal moulded into bullets, of thirty to the pound,
"Victory! come on, my brave boys, the work's
our own!"
All this was perfectly military, and was such
an example as a gallant officer was in some mea-
sure bound to exhibit to his men; but the outcry
was the unlucky cause of turning the tide of suc-
cess. Natty, who had been keeping a vigilant
eye on the wood-chopper, and the enemy imme-
diately before him, wheeled at this alarm, and was
appalled at beholding his comrade on the ground,
and the veteran standing on his own bulwark,
giving forth the cry of victory! The muzzle of
the long rifle was turned instantly towards the
captain. There was a moment when the life of
the old soldier was in great jeopardy; but the
"Why, Sargeant! is it flying ye are?" she
cried -- "That I should live to see a husband of
mine turn his back to the inimy! and sich a one!
Here have I been telling the b'ys as we come
along, all about the saige of Yorrektown, and how
ye was hurted; and how ye'd be acting the same
ag'in the day; and I mate ye retrating jist as the
first gun is fired. Och! I may trow away the
bag! for if there's plunder 'twill not be the wife
of sich as yeerself that will be privileged to be
getting the same. They do say too, there's a
power of goold and silver in the place -- the Lord
forgive me for setting my heart on sich worreldly
"Retreating!" exclaimed the amazed veteran;
"where's my horse? he has been shot under
me -- I -- "
"Is the man mad!" interrupted his wife --
"divil the horse do ye own, sargeant, and yee're
nothing but a shabby captain of malaishy. Och!
if the ra'al captain was here, 'tis the other way
ye'd be riding, dear, or you would not follow
your lader!"
While this worthy couple were thus discussing
events, the battle began to rage more violently
than ever, above them. When the Leather-
stocking saw his enemy fairly under head-way,
as Benjamin would express it, he gave his atten-
tion again to the right wing of the assailants. It
would have been easy for Kirby, with his power-
ful frame, to have seized the moment to scale the
bastion, and with his great strength, to have
sent both its defenders in pursuit of the veteran;
but hostility appeared to be the passion that the
wood-chopper indulged the least in, at that mo-
ment, for, in a voice that was heard even by the
retreating left wing, he shouted,
"Hurrah! well done, captain! keep it up!
how he handles his bush hook! he makes nothing
of a sapling!" and such other encouraging excla-
mations to the flying veteran, until, overcome by his
mirth, the good-natured fellow seated himself on
the ground, kicking the earth with delight, and
giving vent to peal after peal of laughter.
Natty stood all this time in a menacing atti-
tude, with his rifle pointed over his breast-work,
watching with a quick and cautious eye the least
movement of the assailants. The outcry unfortu-
nately tempted the ungovernable curiosity of Hi-
ram to take a peep from behind his cover, at the state
He made two or three steps, with great preci-
sion, to the front, and, placing one hand on the
afflicted part, stretched forth the other, with a
menacing air, towards Natty, and cried aloud --
"Gawl darn ye! this shan't be settled so easy;
I'll follow it up from the `common pleas' to the
`court of errors.' "
Such a shocking imprecation, from the mouth
of so orderly a man as Squire Doolittle, with the
fearless manner in which he exposed himself, to-
gether with, perhaps, the knowledge that Natty's
"Silence and peace! why do I see murder and
bloodshed attempted! is not the law sufficient to
protect itself, that armed bands must be gathered,
as in rebellion and war, to see justice performed!"
"'Tis the posse comitatus," shouted the She-
riff, from a distant rock, "who" --
"Say rather a posse of demons. I command
the peace." --
"Hold! shed not blood!" cried a voice from
the top of the Vision -- "Hold! for the sake of
Heaven, fire no more! all shall be yielded! you
shall enter the cave!"
Amazement produced the desired effect. Nat-
ty, who had reloaded his piece, quietly seated
himself on the logs, and rested his head on his
hand, while the "Light Infantry" ceased their
military movements, and waited the issue in mute
suspense.
In less than a minute Edwards came rushing
down the hill, followed by Major Hartmann with
a velocity that was surprising for his years. They
reached the terrace in an instant, from which the
youth led the way, by the hollow in the rock, to
the mouth of the cave, into which they both enter-
ed; leaving all without silent and gazing after
them with astonishment.