Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker Read online

  Chapter XXV.

  "It was noonday before we reached the theatre of action. Fear andrevenge combined to make the people of Chetasco diligent and zealous intheir own defence. The havoc already committed had been mournful. Toprevent a repetition of the same calamities, they resolved to hunt outthe hostile footsteps and exact a merciless retribution.

  "It was likely that the enemy, on the approach of day, had withdrawnfrom the valley and concealed themselves in the thickets between theparallel ridges of the mountain. This space, which, according to theobject with which it is compared, is either a vale or the top of a hill,was obscure and desolate. It was undoubtedly the avenue by which therobbers had issued forth, and by which they would escape to the Ohio.Here they might still remain, intending to emerge from their concealmenton the next night and perpetrate new horrors.

  "A certain distribution was made of our number, so as to move in alldirections at the same time. I will not dwell upon particulars. It willsuffice to say that keen eyes and indefatigable feet brought us at lastto the presence of the largest number of these marauders. Seven of themwere slain by the edge of a brook, where they sat wholly unconscious ofthe danger which hung over them. Five escaped, and one of these securedhis retreat by wresting your fusil from your uncle and shooting himdead. Before our companion could be rescued or revenged, the assassin,with the remnant of the troop, disappeared, and bore away with him thefusil as a trophy of his victory.

  "This disaster was deplored, not only on account of that life which hadthus been sacrificed, but because a sagacious guide and intrepid leaderwas lost. His acquaintance with the habits of the Indians, and hisexperience in their wars, made him trace their footsteps with morecertainty than any of his associates.

  "The pursuit was still continued, and parties were so stationed that theescape of the enemy was difficult, if not impossible. Our search wasunremitted, but, during twelve or fourteen hours, unsuccessful. QueenMab did not elude all suspicion. Her hut was visited by differentparties, but the old woman and her dogs had disappeared.

  "Meanwhile your situation was not forgotten. Every one was charged toexplore your footsteps as well as those of the savages; but this searchwas no less unsuccessful than the former. None had heard of you or seenyou.

  "This continued till midnight. Three of us made a pause at a brook, andintended to repair our fatigues by a respite of a few hours; butscarcely had we stretched ourselves on the ground when we were alarmedby a shot which seemed to have been fired at a short distance. Westarted on our feet and consulted with each other on the measures to betaken. A second, a third, and a fourth shot, from the same quarter,excited our attention anew. Mab's hut was known to stand at the distanceand in the direction of this sound, and thither we resolved to repair.

  "This was done with speed, but with the utmost circumspection. Weshortly gained the road that leads near this hut, and at length gained aview of the building. Many persons were discovered, in a sort ofbustling inactivity, before the hut. They were easily distinguished tobe friends, and were therefore approached without scruple.

  "The objects that presented themselves to a nearer view were five bodiesstretched upon the ground. Three of them were savages. The fourth was agirl, who, though alive, seemed to have received a mortal wound. Thefifth, breathless and mangled, and his features almost concealed by theblood that overspread his face, was Edgar,--the fugitive for whom I hadmade such anxious search.

  "About the same hour on the last night I had met you hastening intoNorwalk. Now were you lying in the midst of savages, at the distance ofthirty miles from your home, and in a spot which it was impossible foryou to have reached unless by an immense circuit over rocks andthickets. That you had found a rift at the basis of a hill, and thuspenetrated its solidities, and thus precluded so tedious and circuitousa journey as must otherwise have been made, was not to be imagined.

  "But whence arose this scene? It was obvious to conclude that myassociates had surprised their enemies in this house, and exacted fromthem the forfeit of their crimes; but how you should have beenconfounded with their foes, or whence came the wounded girl, was asubject of astonishment.

  "You will judge how much this surprise was augmented when I was informedthat the party whom we found had been attracted hither by the samesignals by which we had been alarmed. That on reaching this spot you hadbeen discovered, alive, seated on the ground, and still sustaining thegun with which you had apparently completed the destruction of so manyadversaries. In a moment after their arrival you sunk down and expired.

  "This scene was attended with inexplicable circumstances. The musketwhich lay beside you appeared to have belonged to one of the savages.The wound by which each had died was single. Of the four shots we haddistinguished at a distance, three of them were therefore fatal to theIndians, and the fourth was doubtless that by which you had fallen; yetthree muskets only were discoverable.

  "The arms were collected, and the girl carried to the nearest house inthe arms of her father. Her situation was deemed capable of remedy, andthe sorrow and wonder which I felt at your untimely and extraordinaryfate did not hinder me from endeavouring to restore the health of thisunfortunate victim. I reflected, likewise, that some light might bethrown upon transactions so mysterious by the information which might becollected from her story. Numberless questions and hints were necessaryto extract from her a consistent or intelligible tale. She had beendragged, it seems, for miles, at the heels of her conquerors, who atlength stopped in a cavern for the sake of some repose. All slept butone, who sat and watched. Something called him away, and, at the samemoment, you appeared at the bottom of the cave, half naked and withoutarms. You instantly supplied the last deficiency by seizing the gun andtomahawk of him who had gone forth, and who had negligently left hisweapons behind. Then, stepping over the bodies of the sleepers, yourushed out of the cavern.

  "She then mentioned your unexpected return, her deliverance and flight,and arrival at Deb's hut. You watched upon the hearth, and she fellasleep upon the blanket. From this sleep she was aroused by violent andcruel blows. She looked up: you were gone, and the bed on which she laywas surrounded by the men from whom she had so lately escaped. Onedragged her out of the hut and levelled his gun at her breast. At themoment when he touched the trigger, a shot came from an unknown quarter,and he fell at her feet. Of subsequent events she had an incoherentrecollection. The Indians were successively slain, and you came to her,and interrogated and consoled her.

  "In your journey to the hut you were armed. This in some degreeaccounted for appearances: but where were your arms? Three muskets onlywere discovered, and these undoubtedly belonged to your enemies.

  "I now had leisure to reflect upon your destiny. I had arrived soonenough on this shore merely to witness the catastrophe of two beingswhom I most loved. Both were overtaken by the same fate, nearly at thesame hour. The same hand had possibly accomplished the destruction ofuncle and nephew.

  "Now, however, I began to entertain a hope that your state might not beirretrievable. You had walked and spoken after the firing had ceased andyour enemies had ceased to contend with you. A wound had, no doubt, beenpreviously received. I had hastily inferred that the wound was mortal,and that life could not be recalled. Occupied with attention to thewailings of the girl, and full of sorrow and perplexity, I had admittedan opinion which would have never been adopted in differentcircumstances. My acquaintance with wounds would have taught me toregard sunken muscles, lividness, and cessation of the pulse, as mereindications of a swoon, and not as tokens of death.

  "Perhaps my error was not irreparable. By hastening to the hut, I mightascertain your condition, and at least transport your remains to somedwelling and finally secure to you the decencies of burial.

  "Of twelve savages discovered on the preceding day, ten were now killed.Two at least remained, after whom the pursuit was still zealouslymaintained. Attention to the wounded girl had withdrawn me from theparty, and I had now leisure to return to the scene of these disasters.The sun ha
d risen, and, accompanied by two others, I repaired thither.

  "A sharp turn in the road, at the entrance of a field, set before us astartling spectacle. An Indian, mangled by repeated wounds of bayonetand bullet, was discovered. His musket was stuck in the ground, by wayof beacon attracting our attention to the spot. Over this space I hadgone a few hours before, and nothing like this was then seen. Theparties abroad had hied away to a distant quarter. Some invisible powerseemed to be enlisted in our defence and to preclude the necessity ofour arms.

  "We proceeded to the hut. The savages were there, but Edgar had risenand flown! Nothing now seemed to be incredible. You had slain threefoes, and the weapon with which the victory had been achieved hadvanished. You had risen from the dead, had assailed one of the survivingenemies, had employed bullet and dagger in his destruction, with both ofwhich you could only be supplied by supernatural means, and haddisappeared. If any inhabitant of Chetasco had done this, we should haveheard of it.

  "But what remained? You were still alive. Your strength was sufficientto bear you from this spot. Why were you still invisible? and to whatdangers might you not be exposed before you could disinvolve yourselffrom the mazes of this wilderness?

  "Once more I procured indefatigable search to be made after you. It wascontinued till the approach of evening, and was fruitless. Inquirieswere twice made at the house where you were supplied with food andintelligence. On the second call I was astonished and delighted by thetidings received from the good woman. Your person, and demeanour, andarms, were described, and mention made of your resolution to cross thesouthern ridge and traverse the Solesbury Road with the utmostexpedition.

  "The greater part of my inquietudes were now removed. You were able toeat and to travel, and there was little doubt that a meeting would takeplace between us on the next morning. Meanwhile, I determined to concurwith those who pursued the remainder of the enemy. I followed you, inthe path that you were said to have taken, and quickly joined a numerousparty who were searching for those who, on the last night, had attackeda plantation that lies near this, and destroyed the inhabitants.

  "I need not dwell upon our doublings and circuities. The enemy wastraced to the house of Selby. They had entered, they had put fire on thefloor, but were compelled to relinquish their prey. Of what number theyconsisted could not be ascertained; but one, lingering behind hisfellows, was shot, at the entrance of the wood, and on the spot whereyou chanced to light upon him.

  "Selby's house was empty, and before the fire had made any progress weextinguished it. The drunken wretch whom you encountered had probablyreturned from his nocturnal debauch after we had left the spot.

  "The flying enemy was pursued with fresh diligence. They were found, byvarious tokens, to have crossed the river, and to have ascended themountain. We trod closely on their heels. When we arrived at thepromontory described by you, the fatigues of the night and day renderedme unqualified to proceed. I determined that this should be the bound ofmy excursions. I was anxious to obtain an interview with you, and,unless I paused here, should not be able to gain Inglefield's as earlyin the morning as I wished. Two others concurred with me in thisresolution, and prepared to return to this house, which had beendeserted by its tenants till the danger was past, and which had beenselected as the place of rendezvous.

  "At this moment, dejected and weary, I approached the ledge whichsevered the headland from the mountain. I marked the appearance of someone stretched upon the ground where you lay. No domestic animal wouldwander hither and place himself upon this spot. There was somethinglikewise in the appearance of the object that bespoke it to be man; but,if it were man, it was incontrovertibly a savage and a foe. Idetermined, therefore, to rouse you by a bullet.

  "My decision was perhaps absurd. I ought to have gained more certaintybefore I hazarded your destruction. Be that as it will, a moment'slingering on your part would have probably been fatal. You started onyour feet, and fired. See the hole which your random shot made throughmy sleeve! This surely was a day destined to be signalized byhairbreadth escapes.

  "Your action seemed incontestably to confirm my prognostics. Every onehurried to the spot and was eager to destroy an enemy. No one hesitatedto believe that some of the shots aimed at you had reached their mark,and that you had sunk to rise no more.

  "The gun which was fired and thrown down was taken and examined. It hadbeen my companion in many a toilsome expedition. It had rescued me andmy friends from a thousand deaths. In order to recognise it, I neededonly to touch and handle it. I instantly discovered that I held in myhand the fusil which I had left with you on parting, with which youruncle had equipped himself, and which had been ravished from him by asavage. What was I hence to infer respecting the person of the lastpossessor?

  "My inquiries respecting you, of the woman whose milk and bread you hadeaten, were minute. You entered, she said, with a hatchet and gun inyour hand. While you ate, the gun was laid upon the table. She sat near,and the piece became the object of inquisitive attention. The stock andbarrels were described by her in such terms as left no doubt that thiswas the _fusil_.

  "A comparison of incidents enabled me to trace the manner in which youcame into possession of this instrument. One of those whom you found inthe cavern was the assassin of your uncle. According to the girl'sreport, on issuing from your hiding-place you seized a gun that wasunoccupied, and this gun chanced to be your own.

  "Its two barrels were probably the cause of your success in that unequalcontest at Mab's hut. On recovering from _deliquium_, you found it whereit had been dropped by you, out of sight and unsuspected by the partythat had afterwards arrived. In your passage to the river, had it oncemore fallen into hostile hands? or had you missed the way, wandered tothis promontory, and mistaken a troop of friends for a band of Indianmarauders?

  "Either supposition was dreadful. The latter was the most plausible. Nomotives were conceivable by which one of the fugitives could be inducedto post himself here, in this conspicuous station; whereas, the roadwhich led you to the summit of the hill, to that spot where descent tothe river-road was practicable, could not be found but by those who wereaccustomed to traverse it. The directions which you had exacted fromyour hostess proved your previous unacquaintance with these tracts.

  "I acquiesced in this opinion with a heavy and desponding heart. Fatehad led us into a maze which could only terminate in the destruction ofone or of the other. By the breadth of a hair had I escaped death fromyour hand. The same fortune had not befriended you. After my tedioussearch, I had lighted on you, forlorn, bewildered, perishing with coldand hunger. Instead of recognising and affording you relief, I compelledyou to leap into the river, from a perilous height, and had desistedfrom my persecution only when I had bereaved you of life and plunged youto the bottom of the gulf.

  "My motives in coming to America were numerous and mixed. Among thesewas the parental affection with which you had inspired me. I came withfortune, and a better gift than fortune, in my hand. I intended tobestow both upon you, not only to give you competence, but one who wouldendear to you that competence, who would enhance, by participating,every gratification.

  "My schemes were now at an end. You were gone, beyond the reach of mybenevolence and justice. I had robbed your two sisters of a friend andguardian. It was some consolation to think that it was in my power tostand, with regard to them, in your place; that I could snatch them fromthe poverty, dependence, and humiliation, to which your death and thatof your uncle had reduced them.

  "I was now doubly weary of the enterprise in which I was engaged, andreturned with speed to this rendezvous. My companions have gone to knowthe state of the family who resided under this roof, and left me tobeguile the tedious moments in whatever manner I pleased.

  "I have omitted mentioning one incident that happened between thedetection of your flight and our expedition to Chetasco. Having formed aplausible conjecture as to him who walked in the long room, it wasobvious to conclude that he who purloined your manuscript, and thewalker,
was the same personage. It was likewise easily inferred that theletters were secreted in the cedar chest or in some other part of theroom. Instances similar to this have heretofore occurred. Men haveemployed anxious months in search of that which, in a freak ofnoctambulation, was hidden by their own hands.

  "A search was immediately commenced, and your letters were found,carefully concealed between the rafters and shingles of the roof, in aspot where, if suspicion had not been previously excited, they wouldhave remained till the vernal rains and the summer heats had insensiblydestroyed them. This packet I carried with me, knowing the value whichyou set upon it, and there being no receptacle equally safe but your owncabinet, which was locked.

  "Having, as I said, reached this house, and being left alone, Ibethought me of the treasure I possessed. I was unacquainted with thereasons for which these papers were so precious. They probably had somemomentous and intimate connection with your own history. As such, theycould not be of little value to me, and this moment of inoccupation andregrets was as suitable as any other to the task of perusing them. Idrew them forth, therefore, and laid them on the table in this chamber.

  "The rest is known to you. During a momentary absence you entered.Surely no interview of ancient friends ever took place in so unexpectedand abrupt a manner. You were dead. I mourned for you, as one whom Iloved, and whom fate had snatched forever from my sight. Now, in ablissful hour, you had risen, and my happiness in thus embracing you istenfold greater than would have been experienced if no uncertainties andperils had protracted our meeting."