University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.

Byron.

Several weeks after writing the foregoing letters,
Henry received the following from Dr.
Watson.—

“Your information concerning Butler was
well-timed. It aroused our vigilance and led
to the detection of his villany. A deep and
nefarious conspiracy was formed against our
settlement, in which hundreds of our tory
neighbours were implicated. Many of them,
among whom is Butler, have fled, and some
are in prison. The latter, it is believed, for
better security, will be sent to Reading. The
bearer of this, carries despatches from our
council to your General, detailing our present
perilous condition, and requesting succour,
which, I trust, we shall receive in time for
our protection.

“On receiving your letter, my first impulse
was to lay it before our council. But as
you had expressed yourself doubtfully in relation

to the guilt of Butler, and seemed desirous
that I should watch rather than accuse him, I
resolved to do so, for I felt unwilling to involve
into a trouble a man who might eventually be
innocent. There is an individual in our settlement
in whom I have long placed a greater degree
of confidence than is known to any one besides
ourselves. I have entrusted him with secrets
which I never entrusted to another, and
have, in consequence, derived from him consolation
none else could afford. This man is of wandering
habits; but wise, intelligent and venerable.
He is respected by all the people throughout
the settlements. Even the Indians, whom
he often visits, and with whose language he is
familiar, esteem him much, and on affairs of
intricacy consult him often. You will by
this time have perceived that I mean Rodolph,
the Hermit of the Woods.

“Rodolph had himself observed some movements
among the tories, and especially among
the New England refugees, over whom Butler
possesses great influence. Many of them had
lately visited the Mohawk Indians, a tribe
with which Rodolph is well acquainted. They,
in consequence, as he supposes, have held public
councils, and seem to be preparing for some
enterprise. But the circumstance most convincing
of Butler being connected with these

movements, is his having been absent for nearly
four weeks, about the time when you state
that he was suspected to be in Philadelphia.
We concluded, therefore, that your friend was
under no mistake respecting him; and we looked
upon him not only as connected with the
treason which you suspected, but as the arch-traitor
and chief contriver of the whole.

“Still we kept our suspicions from the public
ear. No one had as yet done any thing to
warrant his arrest; and by remaining in a state
of apparent security and indifference, we might
tempt the conspirators into some indiscretion
which would enable us to discover and baffle
their designs.

“Rodolph's political sentiments are not very
generally known. Until the agitations of the
times began to embroil the affairs of this disstrict,
he, perhaps, felt but little interest in
them; and, although he wandered much among
the valleys, he was never very communicative
with the inhabitants. His manners are reserved,
mild, and meditative, and obnoxious to
no party. The whiggish inclination of his
opinions, therefore, is known to only a few
of his select friends. The tories know nothing
of them. On perusing your letter, he
availed himself of this circumstance to deceive
them for the public good. He resolves to act

the dangerous part of a spy on their conduct,
for which purpose he feigned an approbation
of their sentiments, and a preference for their cause.

“By this means he became acquainted with
the intrigues that were now actively going forward
among the refugees, and soon discovered
that the principal mover was Butler. I now
determined to put our rulers on their guard.
I had no longer any cause for hesitation. He
whom I should accuse, I could prove to be
guilty. Still there was an obstacle in the way.
The near kinsman of the traitor, you know, is
at the head of our local government. He is
a worthy man, and one in whom the whigs
justly repose confidence. He had been hospitable
and kind to his deceitful relative, and
had taken him under his protection, in the conviction
of his conversion to the cause of the
country being sincere. To inform such a man
that his cousin and protogee was a traitor,
would, to say the least of it, be to inflict a
pang of no ordinary kind upon his feelings.—
And would not the governor's friendship for
the accused naturally cause him to hesitate giving
credence to the accusation? I feared not
the latter. I had confidence in the governor's
patriotism and integrity, and I had proofs sufficient
to produce conviction on his mind. As

for giving him pain, that was too trifling a consideration
not to fade away before the importance
of the revelations I was to make. I
therefore hastened to him. I made the revelations.
He was astonished; for the professions
of his kinsman had completely deceived him.
He was grieved; for he had cherished an affection
for the traitor, and was also on terms of
intimacy with many others involved in the
treason.

“Rodolph had discovered that an assemblage
of the tories was to take place in a few days in
an obscure valley, called the Hemlock Glade,
some miles to the westward of our village.
Several of the leading whigs were immediately
summoned to the governor's house. The particulars
of the information were laid before
them, and their opinions asked as to the measures
it would be most advisable to pursue.
After some deliberation, it was agreed that the
information should be kept secret, lest alarm
might be given to the tories, and their assembling
prevented—for, it was considered, that the act
of their assembling would be such manifest proof
of their treasonable designs, as would reconcile
their best friends to the necessity and justice
of their punishment. In the mean time it was
proposed that an armed force, sufficient to overpower
them, should be collected as secretly as

possible, by which their meeting might be surprised,
themselves carried to prison, and all
their machinations frustrated and their power
of doing mischief destroyed at one blow. This
plan had also another essential advantage. It
would furnish sufficient evidence of the guilt
of the culprits, without obliging the authorities
to expose the individual from whom the information
originated. Such exposure was, if possible,
to be avoided, as it would incapacitate
him from afterwards serving the patriotic cause
in the character of a spy.”

Thus far the epistle of Dr. Watson has answered
the purpose of our narrative. The remainder
having by some accident been destroyed,
the story must proceed without its aid. By
industrious research the writer has obtained a
sufficient acquaintance with the facts, to be able
to relate them accurately enough without the
aid of any written document.

The measures mentioned by the Doctor having
been agreed to, a young and spirited officer
of the militia of the district, named Dennison,
undertook to have a sufficient armed force in
readiness for the service. In the valley appointed
for the meeting of the tories, there
was a small log house belonging to one of their
faction. About noon, on the appointed day,
around this rustic building, the conspirators

began to assemble, and until about two o'clock
continued to increase in number, without proceeding
to business. Butler, Brandt, and
Aranooko, the Sachem of the Mohawks, were
early on the scene. In conformity with the
custom of modern and fashionable historians,
we shall stop the progress of the story for a
short time, in order to give a brief sketch of
these three distinguished personages. Though
this may communicate no important information,
it may satisfy the curiosity of the reader,
and, if so, will not be writing in vain.

Butler possessed a good figure; and, in his
pleasant moods, a handsome countenance. But
in his moments of gloom and resentment he
betrayed the looks of a ruffian, and in his periods
of wrath the scowl of a demon. On
such occasions the contracted brows, the flushed
cheeks, the clenched teeth, the quivering lips,
and the eyes flashing fire like burning mirrors,
denoted the hellish fury of his mind, and if he
did not become loathsome, he became terrifying.
But his most furious fits could be controlled
by his hypocrisy where his interest required
it. A moment's reflection would replace
him on his guard, and restore to him a placidity
yet an expressiveness of countenance, which at
once indicated great knowledge of the world,
and ability to deceive it.—But having spoken

of his appearance and character in a preceding
part of our narrative, it is unncessary to enlarge
upon it here.

The ferocity of Brandt, his courage, his activity
and robust strength, are well known to
the readers of history, which has abundantly
exposed to an indignant world, the sanguinary
and vengeful disposition of this most daring of
savages. His hatred of the whites is said to
have been of a more embittered character than
was usual even among the Indians. This is the
more remarkable, as he himself was but a half-Indian,
his father having been a white man, of
German descent, who on occasion of some disgust
which he had imbibed against civilized society,
took up his residence among the Indians. The
collisions with the frontier settlers into which
the restless and enterprising disposition of
Brandt had frequently brought him, and in
which he had met with many repulses, no
doubt tended much to irritate his feelings, and
arouse that animosity against the whites which
was the reigning passion of his soul.

The Sachem, Aranooko, was an Indian of a
dignified figure, somewhat advanced in years,
but still athletic and healthful. He was actuated
with all the antipathy natural to the
aborigines against the despoilers of their race;
yet he was averse to useless and wanton warfare

upon them. He was unlike Brandt in the
circumstance, that the destruction of white men
of itself, unattended with any advantage to the
Indian cause, afforded him no pleasure. At
least, like a prudent father of his people, he
was unwilling to plunge them into the horrors
of war, when it afforded no prospect of a successful
issue, merely from vengeful motives.
He possessed neither the unbounded ferocity
nor reckless hardihood of Brandt—yet he was
greatly under the influence of that mongrel
savage; and it was chiefly by his persuasions
that he had been induced to join the present
confederacy against the inhabitants of Wyoming.