University of Virginia Library

18. CHAPTER XVIII.

The stars were yet shining when the slumbers of
Major Singleton were broken. His page, the devoted
Lance Frampton, stood beside him.

“Why, how now, Lance—what disturbs you?” was
the inquiry of the major rising from the brush on which
he had been lying. But he needed no answer to the
question. His own senses, now completely awakened,
readily took in the occasion of the disturbance. The
partisans were in motion on every side, and the shrill
voice, brief and emphatic, of Marion himself, was
heard on the edge of the island, in rapid command.
Horses were prancing, and a troop was evidently on
the approach from the upper edge of the swamp. The
quick, comprehensive whistle of the scouts came to
his ears, clearly, above all other sounds; and, obeying
the signal from the camp, the scouts themselves came
in a moment after.

Singleton was soon beside his commander. He had
slept in his clothes, having no other covering, beside
the greenwood tree, and the clear, transparent blue
sky, that shone, in glimpses, with its thousand eyes,

upon him, through the leaves. The movement of the
Swamp Fox was soon understood. That wily commander
only lingered for the morning watch to set
forth upon his journey, in order to form a timely junction
with the continentals. He had a wild region yet
to traverse before he could attain the object; and
every acre of ground was in possession either of confirmed
enemies, or doubtful friends. Sparing no precaution,
Marion, however, moved with confidence and
without fear.

“You are prompt, major, and as I would have it.
Make your own men ready—still keep their command,
till our disposition may be made more uniform—and put
them into a column of advance. Horry is just coming
in with his troop, from which your lead will be taken.
Our scouts are all in, and one brings me a courier with
news from the army. De Kalb is now on the way, in
rapid march from Salisbury with two thousand continentals;
Colonel Porterfield, with Virginia horse, is moving
to join him; and General Caswell, with the North
Carolina militia in force, arming for the same object.
Though better provided than ourselves, as well in arms
as in numbers, we must not hesitate to show ourselves
among them. General Gates will doubtless bring a
force with him; and it will be hard, if our boys, ragged
though they be, should not win some laurels and blankets
together.”

Singleton promptly passed to the sheltering clumps
of trees where his men had been placed, and his command
was in movement quite as soon as any of the
rest.

“This is scarcely civil, young man,” cried Porgy to
the soldier who had undertaken to arouse him, and who,
in order the more effectually to do so, had seized upon
the ends of the blanket in which the gourmand had
enveloped himself, and which he pulled at tightly—
“Scarcely civil, young man, I repeat. What if the
blanket is your property”—its adroit appropriation
by himself still running in his head—“if it is your
property, what of that? I have never denied it, and a

polite demand for it should have secured it readily.
But to disturb a gentleman's slumbers—it's an offence,
sir—a glaring offence, which should have its punishment;
and—let me but unwrap—I am a pacific man, and
my temper is not ungentle; but, to disturb my slumbers,
which are so necessary to the digestive organs—stop,
I say—d—n, don't pull so! Ah, Humphries, my dear
fellow, is that you?—you have come in season to my
relief. That intrusive fellow—but do take the torch
from my eyes, the glare is very offensive.”

Humphries, who now stood beside him with a flaming
brand, explained to the reluctant Porgy the true cause
of the disturbance, and relieved the unconscious soldier
from the impending danger. But the current of his
wrath was only turned in another direction.

“What! move now—leave the swamp! Why, my
dear fellow, either you or I am dreaming. Leave the
swamp! we have just come into it—haven't yet seen
it fairly, and know nothing of its qualities. I had
hoped to have dwelt here one or two days, at least—to
have enjoyed its products, and compared them with those
of the Cypress.”

“It's a truth, Porgy, and I'm sorry, for your sake, that
it is so. But the major's orders are to be quick, and
don't stand for trifles. The Swamp Fox, as the men
here call Marion, has been stirring this hour. You
see him yonder, where the soldiers are in the saddle—
he that has his cap off. He's talking to our men, and
you ought to be there to listen, for he talks mighty
strong to them, they say, and they all like to hear
him; so, be in a hurry, my boy, or you'll lose all.”

“There's no policy worse than that. Never hurry
—keep cool, keep cool, keep cool—those are the
three great precepts for happiness. Life is to be
looked after, and you'll never find it if you hurry.
Happiness is a thing of grains and fractions: and it is
with pleasure, as with money-making, according to the
rule laid down by that old Pennsylvania printer, `Take
care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of
themselves.' Take care of the moments, and you need

never look after the hours. That's my doctrine for
happiness—that is the grand secret. Hurry forbids all
this. You skip moments—you skip happiness. Why
do you sip rum punch? why, indeed, do you sip all
goodly stomachics?—simply to prolong the feeling of
enjoyment. It is your beast only that gulps, and gapes,
and swallows. It is only your beast that hurries. Happiness
is not for such.”

“But we must hurry now, Porgy, if we want to hear
what he says.”

“I never hurried for my father, though he looked
for me hourly. I will not hurry for the best speech
ever delivered. Do oblige me with that belt; and lay
down your torch, my good fellow, and pass the strap
through the buckle for me. There—not so tight, if you
please; the next hole in the strap will answer now; an
hour's riding will enable me to take in the other, and
then I shall probably try your assistance. Eh! what's
that?”

The pitiful howling of a negro, aroused from his
slumbers, prematurely, by the application of an irreverent
foot to his ribs, now called forcibly the attention of
the party, and more particularly that of Porgy.

“That's Tom's voice—I'll swear to it among a thousand;
and somebody's beating him—I'll not suffer that.”
And with the words he moved rather rapidly away
towards the spot whence the noise proceeded.

“Don't be in a hurry now, Porgy; remember—keep
cool, keep cool, keep cool,” cried Humphries, as he
followed slowly after the waddling philosopher.

“Do I not, Humphries? I am not only cool myself,
but I go with the charitable purpose of cooling another.”

“But what's the harm?—he's only kicking Woolly-head
into his senses.”

“Nobody shall kick Tom while I'm by. The fellow's
too valuable for blows;—boils the best rice in
the southern country, and hasn't his match, with my
counsel, at terrapin in all Dorchester. Holla! there,
my friend, let the negro alone, or I'll astonish you.”

The soldier and Tom, alike, came forward at the salutation,
and with the first possible opportunity of contact,
Porgy grappled the first by the collar, and shook him
violently. The soldier, in astonishment, demanded the
cause of the assault.

“That's the cause, my friend—that's the cause—an
argument that runs on two legs, and upon which no
two legs in camp shall trample.”

Porgy pointed to the negro, who stood by, shaking
his head and grumbling.

“Das right, Massa Porgy. Wha' for he kick nigger
das doing noting but sleep? ax um dat, Mass Porgy.”

The soldier now grew ruffled, and as he was stout
and vigorous, would most probably have tumbled Porgy
in the dirt without much effort, had not the approach
of Singleton, already in the saddle, called for the
prompt obedience and pacific aspect of all parties.

“To saddle, Mr. Porgy—to saddle; and be ready for
a movement in five minutes. The colonel will soon
give the word, and I would not that any of our troop
should be cause of delay.”

“Nor I, Major Singleton—nor I. Ambitious emulation
is the soldier's principle; and though I would
never hurry, I would never be a laggard. The golden
medium, sir, should be still preserved. I approve it
much. But slumbers once broken—visions intruded
upon—seldom return in their original felicity. We
may try, but glimpses only come back to us, telling us
not so much what to enjoy, as what we have lost the enjoyment
of.”

“You must allow for circumstances; perilous necessity,
Mr. Porgy, you well know, has a standard of
its own.”

“A manifest truism, Major Singleton; and in its recognition,
I will even hurry to obey our present orders.
Tom, old boy—why, d—n it, that fellow's bloodied your
nose! Your left nostril has an ugly abrasion.”

“'Speck so, Mass Porgy—he feel very much like he
bin hurt.”

“Wash it, and tighten that girth, Tom. I did not

think he had hurt you so, or I should have confounded
him. An ugly slit that; but no matter. See to the
girth; and before we mount, be sure that you have that
cold ham which I wrapped up in the buckskin. We
shall get nothing better to-morrow, boy, and we must
be secure of that.”

Talking all the while, now with Tom, now with this
or that trooper beside him, Porgy continued, until, ordering
silence, Singleton led his cavalcade forward to
a designated point, where the greater portion of the
partisans under their several leaders had already assembled.

Under that forest canopy, in that solemn starlight,
and amid waving torches and prancing steeds, Marion
unfolded his plan, and briefly informed his men of
the condition of things, not only as they concerned the
colony, but as they concerned the confederation. He
read to them a resolve of congress, in which that body
had declared its determination to save each and every
province that had linked its fortunes with the federal
union, and particularly declared its resolution, in the
teeth of a report to this effect which the British and
tories had industriously circulated in South Carolina
and Georgia, not to sacrifice those two colonies to the
invader, on any terms of peace or compromise which
they might make with him. Such a resolve had become
highly necessary; as the great currency given to
the rumour of such a compromise, and on these especial
terms, had produced, in part, the results which had been
desired. The patriots, drooping enough before, had
begun to despair entirely, while the tories were encouraged
by it into perseverance, and stimulated to the
most adventurous and daring action. This read—and
the formal resolution as it had been adopted by
congress was in his hand for the purpose—Marion then
proceeded to recapitulate, not only the information
which he had been enabled to obtain of their own
army, but of that of their enemies. His information,
gathered from various sources, had been singularly extensive;
and while it taught his men the full extent of

the danger with which they were to contend, on all
hands, it also served greatly to increase their confidence
in a commander, whose knowledge of passing
and remote events seemed intuitive; and whose successes
had been so unbroken, though small, as to inspire
in them a perfect assurance of his invincibility.
The military force of the British then in Carolina, was
distributed judiciously throughout its entire circuit.
The twenty-third and thirty-third regiments of infantry,
the volunteers of Ireland, the infantry of the legion,
(Tarleton's,) Brown's and Hamilton's corps, and a detachment
of artillery under the command of Lord Rawdon,
hutted in, and about, the town of Camden. Major
McArthur with the 71st regiment was stationed at Cheraw,
near the Peedee region, covering the country
between Camden and Georgetown, and holding continued
correspondence with the rank and thickly settled
tory region of Cross Creek, North Carolina.
With the approach of the continentals, this regiment
had been ordered in, to a junction with himself, by
Rawdon; and they left the passage open for Marion
through the country where most of his warfare was to be
carried on. In Georgetown, a large force of provincials
was stationed. The chain of British military posts, to
the west of Camden, was connected with Ninety Six by
Rocky Mount, itself a strong post on the Wateree, occupied
by Lieutenant-colonel Turnbull of the New-York
tory volunteers and militia. Lieutenant-colonel Balfour,
and subsequently Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, commanded
at Ninety Six. The troops there consisted of battallions
of Delancey's, Innis's, and Allen's provincial regiments,
with the 16th and three other companies of light
infantry. Major Ferguson's corps, with a large body of
tory militia, traversed the country between the Wateree
and the Saluda rivers, and sometimes stretched away
even to the borders of North Carolina. Lieutenant-colonel
Brown held Augusta with a large force of British and
tories; Savannah was garrisoned by Hessians and provincials
under Colonel Alured Clark; Charlestown contained
the 7th, 63d, and 64th regiments of infantry, two
battalions of Hessians, a large detachment of the royal
artillery, and several corps of provincials under the immediate
command of Brigadier-general Patterson. The
legion dragoons (Tarleton's) were employed in keeping
open the communication between the several cantonments.
In addition to these, there were the posts of Fort
Watson, Biggins' Church, Dorchester, and many others,
which, as the whole colony lay at the feet of the conquerors,
were maintained with small bodies of men,
chiefly as posts of rest, rather than of danger or defence.[1]

Having narrated, at full, the amount of the British
force distributed thus throughout the colony, Colonel
Marion did not scruple to present, without any exaggeration,
a true picture of the strength of that power
which was to meet and contend with it. He painted
to them the depressed condition of congress, the difficulties
of Washington, and taught them how little was
to be looked for, in the shape of succour and assistance,
apart from that which he insisted was in their own
hands—in their own firm determination, fearless spirits,
and always ready swords. “I take up the sword,
gentlemen,” said he, “with a solemn vow, never to
lay it down, until my country, as a free country, shall
no longer need my services. I have informed myself
of all these difficulties and dangers—these inequalities
of numbers and experience between us and our enemies,
of which I have plainly told you. Having them
all before my own eyes, I have yet resolved to live or
die in the cause of my country, placing the risks and
privations of the war in full opposition to the honour and
the duty—the one which I may gather in her battles,
and the other which I owe to her in maintaining them
to the last. I have told you all that I know, in order
that each man may make his election as I have done.
I will urge no reasons why you should love and fight
for your country, as my own sense of honour and shame
would not suffer me to listen to any from another on
the same subject. Determine for yourselves without

argument from me. Let each man answer, singly,
whether he will go forward under my lead, or that of
any other officer that General Gates shall assign, or
whether he will now depart from our ranks, choosing a
station, henceforward, of neutrality, if such will be allowed
him, or with the force of our enemy. Those
who determine with me, must be ready to depart within
the hour, on the route to Lynch's creek, and to the
continental army.”

The piercing black eye of Marion, darting around
the assembly at the conclusion of his speech, seemed
to look deep into the bosom of each soldier in his
presence. There was but a moment's pause when he
had concluded, before they gave a unanimous answer.
Could they have had other than one sentiment on such
an occasion? They had not—and no single voice spoke
in hesitation or denial. It was a cheering, soul-felt
response.

“We will all go!—Marion for ever!” and from the
rear came up the more familiar cry—

“Hurra for the Swamp Fox!—let him take the track,
and we'll be after him.”

A single bow—a slight bend of the body, and brief
inclination of the head—testified their leader's acknowledgment;
and, after a few directions to Horry, he ordered
the advance. With a calm look and unchanging
position, he noted, with an individual and particular
glance, each trooper as he filed past him. A small
select guard was left behind, who were to conduct the
women and children to the friendly whig settlement of
Williamsburg. They were to follow, after this, upon a
prescribed route, and meet with the main body at
Lynch's creek. An hour later, and the silence of the
grave was over the dim island in the swamp of the
Santee, so lately full of life and animation. The brands
were smoking, but no longer in blaze; and the wildcat
might be seen prowling stealthily around the encampment
which they had left, looking for the scraps
of the rustic feast partaken at their last supper by its
recent inmates.

“A devilish good speech,” said Porgy to Humphries,
as the latter rode beside him, a little after leaving the
island—“a devilish good speech, and spoken like a
gentleman. No big words about liberty and death, but
all plain and to the point. Then there was no tricking
a fellow—persuading him to put his head into a rope
without showing him first how d—d strong it was. I
like that, for now I can see the way before me. Give
me the leader that shows me the game I'm to play, and
the odds against me. In fighting, as in eating, I love
to keep my eyes open. Let them take in all the danger,
and all the dinner, that I may neither have too
little appetite for the one, nor too much for the other.”

“Ah, Porgy,” said Humphries in reply, “you will
have your joke though you die for it.”

“To be sure, old fellow, and why not? God help
me when I cease to laugh. When that day comes,
Humphries, look for an aching shoulder. I'm no trifle
to carry, and I take it for granted, Bill, for old acquaintance'
sake, you'll lend a hand to lift a leg and
thigh of one that was once your friend. See me well
buried, my boy; and if you have time to write a line
or raise a headboard, you may congratulate death upon
making an acquaintance with one who was remarkably
intimate with life.”