 | CHAPTER XI. The wept of Wish-ton-Wish |  |
11. CHAPTER XI.
“It will have blood; they say, blood
Will have blood!”
Macbeth.
The visiters were Dr. Ergot, the Reverend Meek
Wolfe, Ensign Dudley, and Reuben Ring. Content
found these four individuals seated in an outer room,
in a grave and restrained manner, that would have
done no discredit to the self-command of an Indian
council. He was saluted with those staid and composed
greetings which are still much used in the
intercourse of the people of the Eastern States of
this Republic, and which have obtained for them a
reputation, where they are little known, of a want
of the more active charities of our nature. But that
was peculiarly the age of sublimated doctrines, of
self-mortification, and of severe moral government,
and most men believed it a merit to exhibit, on all
animal impulses. The usage, which took its rise in
exalted ideas of spiritual perfection, has since grown
into a habit, which, though weakened by the influence
of the age, still exists to a degree that often
leads to an erroneous estimate of character.
At the entrance of the master of the house, there
was some such decorous silence as that which is
known to precede the communications of the aborigines.
At length Ensign Dudley, in whom matter,
most probably in consequence of its bulk, bore
more than an usual proportion to his less material
part, manifested some evidences of impatience that
the divine should proceed to business. Thus admonished,
or possibly conceiving that a sufficient
concession had been made to the dignity of man's
nature, Meek opened his mouth to speak.
“Captain Content Heathcote,” he commenced,
with that mystical involution of his subject which
practice had rendered nearly inseparable from all
his communications; “Captain Content Heathcote,
this hath been a day of awful visitations, and of
gracious temporal gifts. The heathen hath been
smitten severely by the hand of the believer, and
the believer hath been made to pay the penalty of
his want of faith, by the infliction of a savage agency.
Azazel hath been loosened in our village, the
legions of wickedness have been suffered to go at
large in our fields, and yet the Lord hath remembered
his people, and hath borne them through a
trial of blood as perilous as was the passage of his
chosen nation through the billows of the Red Sea.
There is cause of mourning, and cause of joy, in
this manifestation of his will; of sorrow that we
have merited his anger, and of rejoicing that enough
of redeeming grace hath been found to save the
Gomorrah of our hearts. But I speak to one trained
in spiritual discipline, and schooled in the vicissitudes
to quicken his apprehension. We will therefore
turn to more instant and temporal exercises. Have
all of thy household escaped unharmed throughout
the strivings of this bloody day?”
“We praise the Lord that such hath been his
pleasure,” returned Content. “Other than as sorrow
hath assailed us through the mourning of friends,
the blow hath fallen lightly on me and mine.”
“Thou hast had thy season; the parent ceaseth
to chastise, while former punishments are remembered.
But here is Sergeant Ring, with matter to
communicate, that may still leave business for thy
courage and thy wisdom.”
Content turned his quiet look upon the yeoman,
and seemed to await his speech. Reuben Ring,
who was a man of many solid and valuable qualities,
would most probably have been exercising the
military functions of his brother-in-law, at that
very moment, had he been equally gifted with a
fluent discourse. But his feats lay rather in doing
than in speaking, and the tide of popularity had in
consequence set less strongly in his favor than might
have happened had the reverse been the case. The
present, however, was a moment when it was necessary
to overcome his natural reluctance to speak,
and it was not long before he replied to the inquiring
glance of his commander's eye.
“The Captain knows the manner in which we
scourged the savages at the southern end of the
valley,” the sturdy yeoman began, “and it is not
necessary to deal with the particulars at length.
There were six-and-twenty red-skins slain in the
meadows, besides as many more that left the ground
in the arms of their friends. As for the people, we
got a few hurts, but each man came back on his
own limbs.”
“This is much as the matter hath been reported.”
“Then there was a party sent to brush the woods
on the trail of the Indians,” resumed Reuben, without
appearing to regard the interruption. “The
scouts broke off in pairs in the duty, and finally
men got to searching singly, of which number I
was one. The two men of whom there is question—”
“Of what men dost speak?” demanded Content.
“The two men of whom there is question,” returned
the other, continuing the direct course of his
own manner of relating events, without appearing
to see the necessity of connecting the threads of
his communication; “the men of whom I have spoken
to the Minister and the Ensign—”
“Proceed,” said Content, who understood his man.
“After one of these men was brought to his end,
I saw no reason for making the day bloodier than
it already was, the more especially as the Lord had
caused it to begin with a merciful hand which shed
its bounties on my own dwelling. Under such an
opinion of right-doing, the other was bound and led
into the clearings.”
“Thou hast made a captive?”
The lips of Reuben scarce severed as he muttered
a low assent; but the Ensign Dudley took upon
himself the duty of entering into further explanations,
which the point where his kinsman left the
narrative enabled him to do with sufficient intelligence.
“As the Sergeant hath related,” he said, “one
of the heathen fell, and the other is now without,
awaiting a judgment in the matter of his fortune.”
“I trust there is no wish to harm him,” said Content,
glancing an eye uneasily around at his companions.
“Strife hath done enough in our settlement
this day. The Sergeant hath a right to claim
the scalp-bounty, for the man that is slain; but for
him that liveth, let there be mercy!”
“Mercy is a quality of heavenly origin,” replied
Meek Wolfe, “and it should not be perverted to
defeat the purposes of heavenly wisdom. Azazel
must not triumph, though the tribe of the Narragansetts
should be swept with the besom of destruction.
Truly, we are an erring and a fallible race,
Captain Heathcote; and the greater, therefore, the
necessity that we submit, without rebellion, to the
inward monitors that are implanted, by grace, to
teach us the road of our duty—”
“I cannot consent to shed blood, now that the
strife hath ceased,” hastily interrupted Content.
“Praised be Providence! we are victors; and it is
time to lean to councils of charity.”
“Such are the deceptions of a short-sighted wisdom!”
returned the divine, his dim, sunken eye
shining with the promptings of an exaggerated and
subtle spirit. “The end of all is good, and we may
not, without mortal danger, presume to doubt the
suggestions of heavenly gifts. But there is not question
here concerning the execution of the captive.
since he proffereth to be of service in far greater
things than any that can depend on his life or death.
The heathen rendered up his liberty with little
struggle, and hath propositions that may lead us to
a profitable conclusion of this day's trials.”
“If he can aid in aught that shall shorten the
perils and wantonness of this ruthless war, he shall
find none better disposed to listen than I.”
“He professeth ability to do that service.”
“Then, of Heaven's mercy! let him be brought
forth, that we counsel on his proposals.”
Meek made a gesture to Sergeant Ring, who quitted
the apartment for a moment, and shortly after
returned followed by his captive. The Indian was
one of those dark and malignant-looking savages
that possess most of the sinister properties of their
condition, with few or none of the redeeming qualities.
ing equally apprehension and revenge; his form of
that middling degree of perfection which leaves as
little to admire as to condemn, and his attire such
as denoted him one who might be ranked among
the warriors of a secondary class. Still, in the composure
of his mien, the tranquillity of his step, and
the self-possession of all his movements, he displayed
that high bearing, his people rarely fail to exhibit,
ere too much intercourse with the whites begins to
destroy their distinctive traits.
“Here is the Narragansett,” said Reuben Ring,
causing his prisoner to appear in the centre of the
room; “he is no chief, as may be gathered from his
uncertain look.”
“If he effect that of which there hath been question,
his rank mattereth little. We seek to stop the
currents of blood that flow like running water, in
these devoted Colonies.”
“This will he do,” rejoined the divine, “or we
shall hold him answerable for breach of promise.”
“And in what doth he profess to aid in stopping
the work of death?”
“By yielding the fierce Philip, and his savage
ally, the roving Conanchet, to the judgment. Those
chiefs destroyed, our temple may be entered in
peace, and the voice of thanksgiving shall again
rise in our Bethel, without the profane interruption
of savage shrieks.”
Content started, and even recoiled a step, as he
listened to the nature of the proposed peace-offering.
“And have we warranty for such a proceeding,
should this man prove true?” he asked, in a voice
that sufficiently denoted his own doubts of the propriety
of such a measure.
“There is the law, the necessities of a suffering
returned the divine.
“This outsteppeth the discreet exercise of a delegated
authority. I like not to assume so great power,
without written mandates for its execution.”
“The objection hath raised a little difficulty in
my own mind,” observed Ensign Dudley; “and as
it hath set thoughts at work, it is possible that what
I have to offer will meet the Captain's good approbation.”
Content knew that his ancient servitor was,
though often uncouth in its exhibition, at the bottom
a man of humane heart. On the other hand,
while he scarce admitted the truth to himself, he
had a secret dread of the exaggerated sentiments
of his spiritual guide; and he consequently listened
to the interruption of Eben, with a gratification he
scarcely wished to conceal.
“Speak openly,” he said; “when men counsel in
a matter of this weight, each standeth on the surety
of his proper gifts.”
“Then may this business be dispatched without
the embarrassment the Captain seems to dread. We
have an Indian, who offers to lead a party through
the forests to the haunts of the bloody chiefs, therein
bringing affairs to the issue of manhood and discretion.”
“And wherein do you propose any departure
from the suggestions that have already been made?”
Ensign Dudley had not risen to his present rank,
without acquiring a suitable portion of the reserve
which is so often found to dignify official sentiments.
Having ventured the opinion already placed, however
vaguely, before his hearers, he was patiently
awaiting its effects on the mind of his superior, when
the latter, by his earnest and unsuspecting countenance,
no less than by the question just given, showed
the subaltern wished to suggest.
“I think there will be no necessity for making
more captives,” resumed Eben, “since the one we
have appears to create difficulties in our councils.
If there be any law in the Colony, which says that
men must strike with a gentle hand in open battle,
it is a law but little spoken of in common discourse;
and though no pretender to the wisdom of legislators,
I will make bold to add, it is a law that may as
well be forgotten until this outbreaking of the savages
shall be quelled.”
“We deal with an enemy that never stays his
hand at the cry of mercy,” observed Meek Wolfe,
“and though charity be the fruit of Christian qualities,
there is a duty greater than any which belongeth
to earth. We are no more than weak and feeble
instruments in the hands of Providence, and as such
our minds should not be hardened to our inward
promptings. If evidence of better feeling could be
found in the deeds of the heathen, we might raise
our hopes to the completion of things; but the Powers
of Darkness still rage in their hearts, and we
are taught to believe that the tree is known by its
fruits.”
Content signed to all to await his return, and left
the room. In another minute, he was seen leading
his daughter into the centre of the circle. The half-alarmed
young woman clasped her swaddled boy to
her bosom, as she gazed timidly at the grave faces
of the borderers; and her eye recoiled in fear, when
its hurried glance met the sunken, glazed, excited,
and yet equivocal-looking organ of the Reverend
Mr. Wolfe.
“Thou hast said that the savage never hearkens
to the cry of mercy,” resumed Content; “here is
living evidence that thou hast spoken in error. The
misfortune that early befell my family, is not unknown
trembling creature the daughter of our love—her
we have so long mourned. The wept of my household
is again with us; our hearts have been oppressed,
they are now gladdened. God hath returned our
child!”
There was a deep, rich pathos in the tones of
the father, that affected most of his auditors, though
each manifested his sensibilities in a manner suited
to his particular habits of mind. The nature of the
divine was touched, and all the energies of his severe
principles were wanting to sustain him above
the manifestation of a weakness that he might have
believed derogatory to his spiritual exaltation of
character. He therefore sat mute, with hands folded
on his knee, betraying the struggles of an awakened
sympathy only by a firmer compression of the
interlocked fingers, and an occasional and involuntary
movement of the stronger muscles of the face.
Dudley suffered a smile of pleasure to lighten his
broad, open countenance; and the physician, who
had hitherto been merely a listener, uttered a few
low syllables of admiration of the physical perfection
of the being before him, with which there was
mingled some evidence of natural good feeling.
Reuben Ring was the only individual who openly
betrayed the whole degree of the interest he took
in the restoration of the lost female. The stout
yeoman arose, and, moving to the entranced Narra-mattah,
he took the infant into his large hands, and
for a moment the honest borderer gazed at the boy
with a wistful and softened eye. Then raising the
diminutive face of the infant to his own expanded
and bold features, he touched it cheek with his
lips, and returned the babe to its mother, who witnessed
the whole proceeding in some such tribulation
as the startled wren exhibits when the foot of
young.
“Thou seest that the hand of the Narragansett
hath been stayed,” said Content, when a deep silence
had succeeded this little movement, and speaking in
a tone which betrayed hopes of victory.
“The ways of Providence are mysterious!” returned
Meek; “wherein they bring comfort to the
heart, it is right that we exhibit gratitude; and
wherein they are charged with present affliction, it
is meet to bow with humbled spirits to their orderings.
But the visitations on families are merely—”
He paused, for at that moment a door opened,
and a party entered bearing a burthen, which they
deposited, with decent and grave respect, on the
floor, in the very centre of the room. The unceremonious
manner of the entrance, the assured and
the common gravity of their air, proclaimed that
the villagers felt their errand to be a sufficient
apology for this intrusion. Had not the business of
the past day naturally led to such a belief, the manner
and aspects of those who had borne the burthen
would have announced it to be a human body.
“I had believed that none fell in this day's strife,
but those who met their end near my own door,”
said Content, after a long, respectful, and sorrowing
pause. “Remove the face-cloth, that we may know
on whom the blow hath fallen.”
One of the young men obeyed. It was not easy
to recognise, through the mutilations of savage barbarity,
the features of the sufferer. But a second
and steadier look showed the gory and still agonized
countenance of the individual who had, that morning,
left the Wish-Ton-Wish on the message of the
colonial authorities. Even men as practised as those
present, in the horrible inventions of Indian cruelty,
turned sickening away from a spectacle that was
calculated to chill the blood of all who had not become
sign to cover the miserable remnants of mortality,
and hid his face, with a shudder.
It is not necessary to dwell on the scene that followed.
Meek Wolfe availed himself of this unexpected
event, to press his plan on the attention of
the commanding officer of the settlement, who was
certainly far better disposed to listen to his proposals,
than before this palpable evidence of the ruthless
character of their enemies was presented to
his view. Still Content listened with reluctance,
nor was it without the intention of exercising an
ulterior discretion in the case, that he finally consented
to give orders for the departure of a body of
men, with the approach of the morning light. As
much of the approach was managed with those
half-intelligible allusions that distinguished men of
their habits, it is probable that every individual
present had his own particular views of the subject;
though it is certain, one and all faithfully believed
that he was solely influenced by a justifiable regard
to his temporal interest, which was in some degree
rendered still more praiseworthy by a reference to
the service of his Divine Master.
As the party returned, Dudley lingered a moment,
alone, with his former master. The face of the
honest-meaning Ensign was charged with more than
its usual significance; and he even paused a little,
after all were beyond hearing, ere he could muster
resolution to propose the subject that was so evidently
uppermost in his mind.
“Captain Content Heathcote,” he at length commenced,
“evil or good comes not alone in this life.
Thou hast found her that we sought with so much
pain and danger, but thou hast found with her more
than a Christian gentleman can desire. I am a man
of humble station, but I may make bold to know
what should be the feelings of a father, whose child
gift.”
“Speak plainer,” said Content, firmly.
“Then I would say, that it may not be grateful
to one who taketh his place among the best in this
Colony, to have an offspring with an Indian cross of
blood, and over whose birth no rite of Christian
marriage hath been said. Here is Abundance, a
woman of exceeding usefulness in a newly-settled
region, hath made Reuben a gift of three noble
boys this very morning. The accession is little
known, and less discoursed of, in that the good wife
is accustomed to such liberality, and that the day
hath brought forth still greater events. Now a child,
more or less, to such a woman, can neither raise
question among the neighbors, nor make any extraordinary
difference to the household. My brother
Ring would be happy to add the boy to his stock;
and should there be any remarks concerning the color
of the younker, at a future day, it should give no
reason of surprise, had the whole four been born, on
the day of such an inroad, red as Metacom himself!”
Content heard his companion to the end, without
interruption. His countenance, for a single instant,
as the meaning of the Ensign became unequivocal,
reddened with a worldly feeling to which he had
long been a stranger; but the painful expression as
quickly disappeared, and in its place reigned the
meek submission to Providence that habitually characterized
his mien.
“That I have been troubled with this vain thought.
I shall not deny,” he answered; “but the Lord
hath given me strength to resist. It is his will that
one sprung of heathen lineage shall come beneath
my roof, and let his will be done! My child, and all
that are hers, are welcome.”
Ensign Dudley pressed the point no further, and
they separated.
| CHAPTER XI. The wept of Wish-ton-Wish | |