4. CHAPTER IV.
THE LAST MEETING.
The doors of the Palace, the next day, were thrown open to all the gentry
in the city of whatever party, and the Governor received the congratulations of
his friends with beaming eyes and outstretched hands. He was now indeed
the frank, hearty, joyous old soldier which he had been in former days. The
doubts and difficulties which had so long weighed down his spirits, no longer
clouded his brow, and his broad jokes and merry laughter were once more
heard within the Gubernatorial mansion. Indeed the horizon in every direction
seemed brightening to his vision. The ministry no longer interfered with his
operations—the faction in the council was silenced—public opinion gathered
strength and power from the victory in the house of Burgesses, and above all,
his son and heir, seemed now entirely relieved from the dominion of the monster
passion, which, as he supposed, had so long thrown that air of mystery and
reckless dejection about him.
John entered fully into his father's views, and was eager to plunge into the
bustle and business of preparation. There was, it is true, an impetus given
to his movements towards the opposite extreme, from his late sudden legarthy
and gloomy misanthropy, which an acute observer well versed in the human
heart would have distrusted, but his father was too much pleased with his
renovated spirits and new born energy, to criticise it closely.
This was the last day which he was to spend in the capital. It had been
determined, that he was to proceed at once to the fort at Germana, and there
take command of several companies of Rangers, which the Governor had
ordered to concentrate at that point, and from thence, he was to join his father
on the march.
As he walked out of the Palace gate, and up the avenue toward Gloucester
street, he had not proceeded many rods before his steps were arrested by an
object directly in his path, It was star light, and he could not see distinctly
who it was, and made an effort to pass to the right or left, but still he found
the same object in his way. He brought his face close up to the person thus
way-laying him, and now discovered that it was Wingina wrapped up in her
brother's cloak.
“What, Wingina!” exclaimed he, in a suppressed voice, but hoarse, from
excitement, “Do you dog my footsteps? Do you watch me to my father's
home. Am I secure from your persecutions nowhere?”
“Oh, Capt. Spotswood! you are very unjust, very cruel. I heard you were
going to set out to-night to my own country, and I come to beg you, for God's
sake to take me along. I cannot much longer conceal my dreadful secret.
Before you get back, it will be not only discovered but I shall be killed; my
brother strongly suspects it now.”
“But, Wingina, Chunoluskee goes with my father as his guide, and, before
he returns, in all probability, your troubles will be over.”
“Alas! they will indeed be over; but my life will pass away with them.”
“What an inconsistent creature you are, Wingina; but lately, you professed
to be willing to court death, and now you whine over its possible occurrence,
like some sick child!”
“It is a very different thing to court it, when the resolution is worked up to
it, and to be in continual dread of it from an angry brother of whom one has
lived in constant dread, and always under his constant authority. You know
how arbitrary it is among our race; the male over the female.”
“Why, he always appears mild and gentle to me, Wingina?”
“Aye, and so does the fiercest warrior of our tribe when mingling with
your race, but in the wigwam it is different. An Indian girl should never be
enlightened at all, unless she is to be permanently removed from the tyranny
of the wigwam. It was a thorough knowledge of this, which made me fall
so easy a prey to—I will not say to you, but my love for you;” and she laid
her hand gently upon his arm, and looked up in his face, as if she would fain
discover by the doubtful light, whether his mood towards her was softe ned.
“Hush, Wingina; saw you not a tall shadow pass from behind the trees
towards Gloucester street?”
The Indian girl wheeled her head suddenly in that direction, at the same
time clinging with both hands to the young officer's arm, as she exclaimed: “It
is! it is my brother! Oh, John, I am now lost indeed, unless you save me.
I will never return in life to my brother's house.”
Spotswood took her arm and hurried her along through the shadows of the
trees and across the common, until he arrived at the brick wall of the grave
yard, and following this—still keeping close within its protecting shadow, they
were soon within its enclosure, and seated upon a low tomb stone.
“Now tell me Wingina—and think and speak quick, for I have not a moment
to lose, whether you can ride on horseback?”
“Oh yes, indeed.”
“And if I procure you a suit of boy's clothes, will you wear them and pass
for my servant if I take you with me, until I can find some of your people.”
At first she hung her head, as if pressed down with hopeless dejection.
Spotswood mistook her feelings and supposed that maidenly delicacy prevented
her from at once acceding to the plan, but her thoughts were running upon
a very different point of the discussion as her next question will show. “And
should we happen to meet some of our people, will you go with me and be a
great chief among them,as your father is here?”
“Poh, poh, Wingina, I thought you had given up all that nonsense long
ago. How can I go with you, when I am to lead part of this army over the
mountains? Come decide quick about my plan, I am to set out for Germana
to night, and if you agree to my plan, I will take you at once to an acquaintance
of mine in the suburbs, to wait while I procure the dress and order
round the horses.”
“I have no choice left, Capt. Spotswood, I am compelled to go with you, I
dare not present myself before my brother again.”
They were soon hurrying through the cross streets of the capital until they,
came to a small shanty occupied by an old negro woman. There they entered
and John taking the crone to one side, made her understand that she was to observe
secrecy about what they were goining to do, and that she was to cut
off the girl's hair and assist her to put on the clothes which he would bring, so
as to have her ready by the time he came with the horses.
In about half an hour he returned and handed in a bundle to the old woman
at the door, and again hurried off.
The negro assisted, as she had been ordered, at the strange toilet of Wingina,
the first step of which was to cut off her long black hair. When it was completed,
it would have been difficult to find in the colony a neater and trimmer
little page than she presented. John scarcely knew her himself, when he
alighted to see that all was ready, so complete had been the metamorphosis.
Still he fould her dress not complete, for she had resisted all the old negro's entreaties
to exchange her moccasins for a pair of boots. John soon convinced
her that, all the other changes were useless, unless she completed it by the
change proposed; that her Indian moccasins were the most dangerous mark
she could wear about her. At length she complied, but with great reluctance,
for she had been partly ruined by flattery addressed to her diminutive foot,
and her prettily ornamented moccasins. John understood well what was passing
in her mind, and he could not avoid cursing himself, that he had undone
such a mere child of nature. The fact was, all his reflections and observations
upon her character and peculiarities came too late. A lustful imagination
had blinded him to every thing but her personal attractions. These attractions
were still the same, yet how powerless now.
We must leave them to pursue their midnight journey, while we turn our
attention to the main thread of our narrative.
