But then Lord St. Amande spoke, saying: "That I should slay you now is impossible. In this house your life is sacred-at her prayer," and he pointed to me. "And, Since you are so bold a man, why such a villain? O'Rourke, seeing you as you are to-night I do believe you might have been worthy of better things. What had I, a helpless child, ever done to you that you should have sought my death as you did?"
"You had done nothing," the other replied, still standing in the same position as when he last spoke, "but your father was always my enemy, while your uncle was my friend. And I wanted money-when was there ever the time I did not want it until now, when I have taken honest service under Mr. Oglethorpe! – money for my sick daughter who is now dead so that I care not if I die too. Your uncle gave it to me largely to remove you."
"You swear that? If we should both live to reach England again would you swear that?"
"Both of us will never reach England again. I have said farewell to that country and to the old world for ever. Yet-yet-if it might be so done that I could keep my credit in Georgia and with my employers, if I might end my days there under the garb of an honest man, I could tell much that would help you to your rights."
"In return for your life being spared?" his lordship asked.
"No. I have not asked you to spare my life. Not in return for that, but as some mitigation of my past. But, come, we trifle time," and he picked up his cross-belt, and, adjusting it, drew forth his pistols and primed and loaded them. "You have had your opportunity of slaying me-that opportunity is past. Henceforth, except for the wrong I did you, we are equal. Now, madam," he said, turning to me, "I am at your disposal and ready to help you defend your house should it be surrounded. You received me as a gentleman when I first came to you"; – he put a bitter emphasis on the word "gentleman"; – "as a gentleman I will do my best to repay your courtesy."
"If you are a villain you are a bold one," said Lord St. Amande. "Ill luck take you for not being a better man."
"It would be best," said O'Rourke to me, ignoring his lordship, "to go call up the convicts, I think. There is one down there who, if he has not forgotten me-the man Peter Buck of whom you spoke once-will stand side by side with me whatever may happen. I knew him well in the past. And then, madam, the windows should be shuttered-"
"By your leave, sir," Lord St. Amande exclaimed now, "I purpose to undertake the defence of this house for-"
But, ere he could finish his speech, from Mary there came the most agonising scream while, with her eyes almost starting from her head she shrunk back to Mr. Kinchella, and, pointing with her hand to the lower part of the window, she shrieked, "Look! Look!"
And following the direction she indicated we saw the cause of her horror. For there, its almond-shaped eyelids half closed, though still enough open to show the glittering eyes within, its face hideously painted with white and red streaks, and its hair twisted into a knot on the top of its head, we saw the form of a savage crouched down on the porch and peering into the saloon.
In a moment O'Rourke had seen it, too, as she screamed and pointed, for, an instant later, there rang through the room the report of one of the pistols he had loaded, and, when the smoke cleared away, we saw the savage writhing on the porch while from his head gushed a great stream of blood.
"A fair hit," called out O'Rourke. "A fair hit. Od's bobs, my right hand has not forgot its cunning after all."
CHAPTER XVIII
BESIEGED
Three hours later our house, barricaded in every way possible, was in a state of siege and around it lay a band of Shawnee and Doeg Indians, some hundreds strong.
Nay, more, we knew from various signs that the whole village, or hamlet, of Pomfret was in the same condition, and that, indeed, the surrounding locality was attacked by the savages. From the church below our plantations there came at intervals of a few moments a flash, succeeded by a dull booming, which told us that the cannon that had stood on its tower for many years was being fired, and thereby put at last to the use for which it had been originally placed there. The ping of bullets from flint-locks, and muskets, and fuzees, as well as the more dead, hard sounds of musquetoons, were continuous also; the yells of the Indians rose sometimes high above the cheers of the white folks, and, to add to all, from every manor around was heard the ringing of the great bells in their cupolas, while the burning of beacons was to be seen. In our house we had taken every precaution that time would allow us, and, to all the ideas which our ancestors in the colonies had conceived for defending their homes and families against attack, we had added some more modern ones. Thus the ancient device of laying down on the lawns and paddock-across which the Indians must pass when they left the plantations and copses in which, at present, they remained-old doors with long nails thrust through them was carried out, in the hopes of maiming some of our aggressors. Broken glass was also plentifully strewn about, while, indoors, water was being boiled and kept to boiling heat, so as to be ready to empty on them if they approached us. Then, too, we had rapidly erected stockades and palisadoes which must check any onward rush; the mastiffs which had replaced those poor beasts that had been poisoned were brought up to the house by the bondsmen, whose duty it was to attend to them. The convicts and bondsmen themselves were now all aroused, and every door, shutter, and window was fast closed, so that the heat inside on this July night was scarcely to be endured.
It was inside the house that the greatest resistance-which, if it came to that, must be the last-would have to be made; and the saloon, as being the biggest apartment in the manor, as well as because it had windows looking on to both the back and the front of the house, was selected as our principal point of defence; and here we four-Lord St. Amande, Mr. Kinchella, Mary and myself-were assembled. Upstairs, in every room, were told off certain of the white servants, most of the blacks having hidden in the cellars where they shrieked and howled dreadfully; so that, if the enemy did force an entrance, they must undoubtedly soon be discovered; while the rest had run away. Of these white servants, Buck, the man who had been a highwayman, had command, with, under him, Lamb, the brother of my maid. And certainly, judging from the sounds we heard above, these men seemed to have thrown themselves into work of this nature with far more ardour than they ever did into their duties in the fields, for we could hear them laughing and talking, and even singing at such a dreadful time as this. "Ha, ha," we heard Buck roar.
"Ha, ha! This is indeed work fit for a gentleman to do; as good, i' faith, as a canter across Bagshot or Hounslow Heath, with the coach coming up well laden. Look now, look, Lamb, lad; look. Do'st see that red devil crawling up from out the plantation; at him, aim low and steady. So-so, wait till he cometh into the moonlight. Ha! now, steady, let go." Then there was a ping heard, a yell from outside, and next, above that, the voice of Buck again. "Fair! Fairly hit. Look how he kicks. So did I once shoot one of the Bow Street catchers who thought to take me at Fulham. Load, lad, load, though the next shot is mine," whereon the desperado fell to singing:
Oh, three jolly rogues, three jolly rogues,
Three jolly rogues are we
As ever did swing in a hempen string
Under the gallow's tree.
In the saloon where we were, we had laid out upon a table the arms and ammunition we were using, or might have to use. My lord had no pistol with him since he carried always his sword, but Mr. Kinchella possessed one as, since the practice of carrying arm's had long since become universal in the colonies, not even clergymen went now without them-the Indians being no respecters of persons. Then there were my pistol and Mary's, which Gregory and my father had taught us to use and grow accustomed to, so that we could shoot a pear hanging on a tree-though now our tremblings and excitement were so great that 'twas doubtful if we could hit a man's body; and, for the rest, we had gathered together all the firearms in the house. To wit, there were my father's birding pieces as well as muskets for large balls, several blunderbusses and musquetoons, and some brass horse-pistols. Yet, as we asked each other, of what avail would these or, indeed, any defence be which we could make if once the Indians advanced to our doors in large numbers.
Outside-the place he had selected, leaving Lord St. Amande and Mr. Kinchella to be our immediate bodyguard-was O'Rourke in command of the overseers (who supposed him to be either a friend of the family or of one of the two gentlemen) and of some of the other bondsmen, and he was indefatigable in his exertions. He and they kept up a continual fire on the foe from their positions behind trees or under the porch, or from the stables in the rear, while, horrible to relate, as each shot was seen to be successful it was greeted by oaths of delight and dreadful cries; and, besides their shooting, they had also laid mines of gunpowder which would be exploded when the Indians advanced. Indeed, as Lord St. Amande remarked as he noticed this through the light-holes of the shutters, or went out himself to assist the others from time to time, whatever O'Rourke's past villainies had been he was this night going far towards effacing them.
"The fellow," he said, coming back to us after one of these visits outside, when I nearly fainted at seeing blood trickling down his forehead-he having been grazed by a bullet-"the fellow spoke truly when he said he was no coward at least. He exposes his burly body everywhere fearlessly, though these savages have learned to use their weapons with marvellous precision and scarcely miss a shot. But just now he caught one of them creeping through the grass to get nearer us, and, wrenching his tomahawk from him, beat out his brains."
Meanwhile the night grew late, and I, who had heard so many stories of how the Indians pursued their attack, though, heaven be praised, this was the first experience I had ever had of so dreadful a thing, knew very well that, if they meant to besiege the house itself, the time must now be drawing nigh. At this period of the year it was full daylight by four o'clock, when, if they were not first driven off and routed, the Indians would withdraw into the woods, and there sheltering themselves renew their attack at nightfall. But as to driving them off, it was, we deemed, not to be hope for. Outside assistance we could not expect. The booming of the church-roof cannon that still went on, the ringing of bells from neighbouring plantations with-worst of all! the lurid light in the sky that told of some other manor, or perhaps village, in flames, forbade us to think that. So we had none to depend on but ourselves-a handful of brave men and a number of almost useless, timorous women. And thus, knowing what must come, we waited for the worst.
"Promise me," I whispered to my lord at this moment, "promise me that, as the first Indian crosses the threshold and if all hope is gone, you will never leave me, or that, if you must do so, you will slay me first. To fall into their hands would be more bitter than death or the grave itself." And unwittingly, for I was sore distraught, I laid my hand upon his arm and gazed up into his eyes.
His eyes, glancing down, met mine as he said, "Joice, my dear, I shall never leave you now. Oh! sweetheart, in this hour of peril I may tell you what I might never have told you else, being smirched and blemished from my birth as I am. My dear, my sweet, I do love you so that never will I leave you if it rests with me, and if you die then will I die too."
After which, drawing me to him, he folded me in his arms and kissed me again and again, and stroked my hair and whispered, "My pretty Joice, I have loved you always; aye, from the very first time when I saw your golden head bending over your flowers in the garden."
Thus in this black hour our love was told, and he whom I have called "my lord" was so in very truth. Yet how dreadful was it to reflect, how dreadful now to look back upon even after long years, that this love, which surely should have been whispered in some soft tranquil hour, was told amid such surroundings. Outside was a host of savages thirsting for our blood, and, in the case of the women, worse than their blood; while our defenders, with but two exceptions, were all men who had been malefactors punished by their country's laws. Yet it cannot but be acknowledged that these men, sinners as they had been, were as brave as lions in our cause, and, had they been the greatest Christian heroes that ever lived, could not have striven more manfully against great odds. From Peter Buck upstairs still came the roars of encouragement to those whom he commanded, mixed with his ribald and profane snatches of verse, while, without, O'Rourke's voice was heard also encouraging and animating those who fought by his side. As for my lover, not even our new pledged vows could keep him by me; ever and again he plunged forth into the night, coming back sometimes with his sword dripping with blood, sometimes with a smoking pistol with which he had gone forth in his hand, and once bearing in his hand-oh! horror of horrors! – an Indian's head-band made of human fingers and toes, which he had wrenched away from a savage he had slain. As for Mr. Kinchella, never have I seen mortal man look more calm or more firm than he, as, sometimes supporting Mary with loving words, sometimes with kisses, he bade her trust in God that all might yet be well.
So we waited for the end that was to come.
"Bravo! bravo!" roared Buck from upstairs, evidently in praise of some shot that had just been fired. "Bravo, our battalion! Faith! if our lily mistress gives us not our freedom after this she's not the lass I take her for. Stop those women squealing in there," he continued, calling into another room where some of the white servant-women were huddled together; "one would think the devil or the Indians were amongst them already, or that the former had got them before their time. And Lamb, my lad, go down and ask the gentlefolks for some drink for us; 'tis as hot as Tyburn on a bright summer morning, and my thirst as great as that of any gallant gentleman riding there in the cart."
Lamb came down a moment afterwards, a smart, bright-looking young man-though now begrimed with much burnt powder-and was sent back with a great jar of rum and water, while, ere he went, I whispered to him:
"Tell Buck that I have heard his words about your freedom, and that 'tis granted. From to-night all who have defended my house are free, and shall have their note of discharge and can remain and work for me for a wage, or go where they list."
"Thank you, lady," said the young man. "I'll tell him," with which he darted out and up the stairs with the drink, and a moment afterwards we heard Buck crying for a cheer for Mistress Joice.
But now I heard my lord's voice call out, "Stand by to fire the train. Wait; don't hurry. Stop until they pass the palisadoes. See, now. Now!"
Then, as there came a fearful glare from outside, accompanied by a dull concussion or noise like the roaring of flames up a great chimney, and by horrid screams of agony, we knew that the powder on the lawn was fired and that many of the foe had been blown to pieces or dreadfully injured.
Yet, above all this, there pealed loud the horrid yell of all the Shawnee warriors and their allies, the Doegs-and the yell was nearer now than it had hitherto been. 'Twas answered, however, by a ringing British cheer from those outside and those in the rooms above, while still Buck was heard inspiring the latter to take cool aim and shoot slow.
But to defend the house from the outside was now no longer possible; our gallant little band was driven back, and so my lord, O'Rourke, and the overseers came all in, and rapidly the last door that had been left open was barred tight, every shutter closed even more fast than before, every loophole secured except those from which we could shoot at the oncoming enemy. And against windows and doors the heavy furniture was piled, both with a view to resist their being forced open and to stop any bullets that might come through, while the order was sent upstairs to have the boiling water ready to empty on the heads of the besiegers as they neared the house.
To Mary and me, who had never seen aught of bloodshed before, and whose lives had been so peaceful and calm in this my old home, you may feel sure that the dreadful scenes we were passing through were most terrifying and appalling. For, not to calculate the ruin to my house and its surroundings, to my trodden-down plantations and devastated furniture, who could tell what would be the result of the night's work? That the manor would be burnt to the ground was the least to be expected, and what might follow was too awful to consider. That all the men in the house would be put to death, or taken away to be tortured, was a certainty, we thought, once the Indians had gained the victory and forced an entrance. As to the women's fate, that was not to be dwelt upon. Happily, we had our lovers to slay us at the last moment, or, even should they themselves be slain, and so fail us, there were the weapons to our hands with which to bring about our doom, if necessary.
O'Rourke was wounded badly already, his arm being now roughly bandaged. Yet, beyond begging for some drink, he desisted not in his efforts but instantly took up his place in the hall, on which an attack might at once be anticipated and from which he could easily reach us should he be required in the saloon. And with him went the overseers. From above, we knew that Buck and his party were still firing on the advancing foe-who were now on the lawn and close on the porch-and once he called out to us that the "niggers" were bringing up small trees and brushwood, evidently with the intention of firing the house. But that which warned us more surely than all that our bitterest hour was at hand, was the sound we heard at the shutters of the saloon window.
That sound was the sharp clicking noise made by the tomahawks of the Indians on the wood of those shutters and on the iron bars.
They were cutting away the last defence between us and them!
My lord advanced to the table on which were all the pistols primed and loaded-for Mary and I had attended to each one as it had been emptied-and bade Kinchella stand behind him. Then he drew me to him, and folded me once more in his arms and kissed me, saying:
"My dearest one, my heart's only love, here we stand together for, perhaps, the last time. If I can shield you with my life I will, if I should lose that life I pray God to bless you ever. Now, Kinchella," turning to him, "stand you also by my side as you once stood by it when I wanted a friend badly enough, God He knows; and, as you befriended me in those days, so will I befriend you now if 'tis in my power. Kiss your girl, Kinchella, as I have kissed mine, and then forget for the time being that you are a clergyman and remember nothing but that you are a man fighting for her you love."
And, even as he spoke, still louder grew the clicking of the tomahawks outside.
CHAPTER XIX
AT BAY
My lord's pistol was raised, ready. The first hand or arm that appeared through the shutters would be shattered as it came. Yet, even as he stood there waiting to see the woodwork forced in, he altered his tactics somewhat. The table was too full in front of the windows, too much exposed to any missile that might be directed into the room. It would be better, he said, at the side.
"And, Kinchella," he exclaimed as thus they altered it, "keep you on one side the window while I take the other. With a pistol in each hand you can shoot them one by one, while I, on this, can do the same; or, better still, we can fire alternately. Unless they can force in the whole front and enter in a mass, we should be able to hold the place for hours."
Even as he spoke, we heard the cracking and splintering of wood, we saw a strip of the massive pine-wood shutters forced in and a huge red hand and tattooed arm protruded through the opening, while the former, seizing the shutter, tore at it to wrench it apart.
"Hist!" said my lover, making a sign to the other to do nothing, "the first blood is mine," and, grasping his sword, he swung it over his head and, a moment later, the hand and forearm were lying at our feet. But no shriek from outside the window was heard, only, in the place of the bleeding stump that had been there, there came four large fingers of another hand that endeavoured to wrench away the wood as the other had done; fingers that met the same fate. Then for a moment there was silence outside-silence that was broken by renewed hammering from the tomahawks on all parts of the shutters.
But now there came a fearful howl from beyond the porch which was only explained to us by hearing the cry of Buck upstairs. "Good! Good! Give 'em another bath. 'Twill do 'em good. Their dirty skins h'aint been washed for a long while. Bring more hot water along quick, I say."
Unfortunately for us, those who were endeavouring to force their entry into the room where we stood, were sheltered from the boiling water by the roof of the porch (a solid stone one which served also as a balcony to the rooms above) as also were those attacking the main front entrance.
At the back of the house, however, on which a party of Indians were engaged in endeavouring to also force their way in, there was no porch, nor was there any to the sides of the building; and it was from these that we had heard the screams as the contents of Buck's great barrels had reached them.
It took, however, but little time for the water to become exhausted, and then we knew that the conflict must resolve itself into a hand-to-hand one. We might keep the savages at bay for some time, it was true, so long as they could enter the house by one door only, but how long, we had to ask ourselves, could such as that be the case? In a short time one of the windows of the saloon must go, or one of the great doors, of which there were two, or one of the side doors; and then the Indians would pour through the opening thus made and the massacre begin. Even with those men under O'Rourke and Buck we were not twenty-five strong, the cowardly negroes who were left being, as I have said, all huddled together in the vaults and cellars below, where they had locked themselves in-so that, since there must be two or three hundred Indians outside at least, the resistance could not continue long.
Alas! as it was, our front window giving on to the porch already showed signs of yielding to the attack from without, though now there was a fresh barricade offered to the incoming foe by a heap of their own slain who lay outside and also partly within the room. Already, my lord had shot several on the outside, taking deadly aim as their hideous faces appeared at the orifice, but the breach had widened so that two or three had crawled into the room to be, however, despatched at once by him or Mr. Kinchella.
And now, since, of all else, this window showed to those outside that it would yield more easily than any other spot, the attack was entirely directed towards it; the Indians were thundering against what remained of the iron-bound shutters with rams made of small trees that they had uprooted, as well as cutting away the lighter woodwork with their weapons.
"Another half hour more," said my lord, "will see the end. God He knows what it will be. Yet, dearest, since it is to come I am happy that I shall die in your sweet company. But, oh! Joice, Joice, if we might have lived how happy our future would have been."
"Must we die?" I wailed, woman-like, "must we die? And now when our love has not been told more than a few hours. Oh! Gerald."
"We can hope," he said, "but that is all. And, sweetheart, best it is to look things straight in the face." Then, even as he spoke, he fired again at a horrid savage who had half forced his body through the aperture-getting larger every moment-and added one more to the list of slain.
Now all the others were called for to come into the saloon and help in the resistance there, where the attack was principally directed; which call they instantly answered abandoning their previous posts. And, bad man as I at last knew O'Rourke to have been, I could not but respect him for what he had done on my behalf this night, nor could I but mourn for his evident sufferings. His bandaged arm, being helpless, hung by his side, his close cropped iron-grey hair was matted with blood from a wound in his head, and his face which had once been so purple was now as white as marble from his loss of blood.
"Oh! sir," I exclaimed, as I tried to still my shaking limbs as best I might, while I raised my head from Mary's breast on which it had been lying, she comforting me like an elder sister with soft words, "oh! sir, my heart bleeds for you. You have been indeed a true hero to-night in my cause, and I thank you."
"Madam," he said, speaking faintly, "I came here to do my best for you because-because-well-well, because you and this other lady received me as a gentleman; treatment that I have not been much accustomed to since I was a boy; though I was one once. No matter. The end is at hand, I imagine-ah! well hit, my lord, well hit, but it will avail us nothing now-I am glad that Patrick O'Rourke is making a good one."
The bit he spoke of was one directed by Gerald at yet another Indian who had just succeeded in crawling into the room as far as his head and shoulders; after which Gerald himself came back, and, standing by the others, said:
"All our partings have to be made now. See how they bulge that shutter inwards. There will be a score of savages in the room in a moment! Farewell, Joice, my darling; farewell, Miss Mills. Old friend," and he put his hand lovingly on Kinchella's shoulder; "farewell. And for you, O'Rourke," looking round at him, "well, tonight's work-especially your night's work-wipes all the past out of my mind for ever. O'Rourke," and he held out his hand, "let us part in peace."
At first O'Rourke made no reply but stood regarding the other as though dazed, and then raised his hand to his head, so that my lover exclaimed, "You are badly hurt. Is that wound in your head worse than it appears?"
"No, no," O'Rourke answered, speaking slowly, though he kept his eye ever fixed on the window, waiting for the inrush that was now at hand; "but it seems to me that the end-my end-is near. I have had these presentiments come over me often of late-it may be to-night, now in a moment-God He knows! And when Gerald St. Amande holds out his hand in forgiveness to me, it must be- Ah, well, at least you shall see I will die fighting-yes, die fighting"; and, as he spoke, he clasped Gerald's hand in his and thanked God that he had lived to have it extended to him. Then, once again, he asked his pardon for all the evil he had wrought him.
And now there came in Buck and Lamb and the other bondsmen and convicts-though no longer either bondsmen or convict-servants if they could live through this dreadful night-for they were useless upstairs any longer. With them came the mastiffs who had replaced those poisoned; fierce beasts, who seemed to scent the Indians they were trained to fight and whose eyes glared savagely at the windows to which they ran, while they stooped their great heads to the bodies of the dead ones lying inside the sill and sniffed at their already fast congealing blood.2 And the deep bays that they sent up, and which rang through the beleaguered house, seemed for the moment to have had its effect outside. For, during that moment, the yells of the foe ceased and the rushes against the iron-bound shutters ceased also, but only for a moment.
"What!" exclaimed Buck, catching some of O'Rourke's words, "die fighting, my noble captain! Ay, so I should say; or rather, fight and live. What! We have seen fighting in our day before," whereon he winked at the other, "but never in so good a cause as this for our gentle mistress. And if we do die fighting," he went on, as coolly as though death was not within an ace of us all now, "why, dam'me, 'tis better than the cart and a merry dance in the chains afterwards on a breezy common. So cheer up, my noble, and let's at 'em. Ha, ha! here they come!"
As he spoke, with a crash the shutters came in at last and, through the open space they left in their fall, there swarmed the hideous foe, while with a scream Mary and I flung ourselves into each other's arms.
Oh! how shall I write down the sight we saw? Naked from their waists upwards, their bodies painted and tattooed with rings and circles, bars and hoops; their faces coloured partly vermilion, partly white and partly black; their long coarse hair streaming behind them, their hands brandishing tomahawks or grasping guns and pistols, which they discharged into the room, they rushed in, while when they saw our white faces their demoniacal howls and yells were awful to hear. Yet, at first, all was not to succumb to them. Of those who first entered, four were instantly torn to the ground by the mastiffs who seized each a savage, and, having pulled them down, pinned them there as they gored their throats. Also, of those who came on behind these, many were shot or cut down ere they could leap over their prostrate comrades' forms. My lord and Mr. Kinchella by a hasty arrangement made with the others, fired only to the left of the window, Lamb and Buck taking those who came in on the right side, while O'Rourke, his sword flashing unceasingly through the smoke and the light of the room, fought hand to hand with those Indians who passed between the shots of the others, he being ably backed up by the remainder of the bondsmen and convicts.