University of Virginia Library

35. CHAPTER XXXV.

This victory, though on a small scale, was complete
in itself. It was a favorable omen, too, and
might serve as a sort of rehearsal of the more important
battle to be fought on the same ground. In
one thing only Douglas had been disappointed, by
the eagerness of Schwartz's men. He had made
no prisoners, and the fallen enemy were all either
dead, or not in condition to be harassed by such
questions as he wished to ask. They were necessarily
committed to the care of such of the party as
lived in the neighborhood; and their horses and arms
being secured, were placed in the same hands for
safe keeping.

The feelings of Arthur, as he looked on this fearful
scene of slaughter, were such as might be expected
to possess the mind of a youth, who, as yet,
had never seen the blood of man shed in strife. But
these are nothing to the purpose of my tale. It is
enough to say, that the contemplation of it wrought
the usual change in his character. He now felt that
to kill or be killed was the order of the day; and,
though his next sleep was haunted by visions of the

ghastly objects that lay before him, he awoke from
it with a mind prepared for the stern duties of war.

Requesting the company and advice of his host,
Douglas now proceeded to examine the ground. He
found the river hills every where intersected, on
both sides of the river, by ravines such as that I
have described. The ford was shallow, but just
above was deep water, which, on the north side,
came down quite near to the gravel bar, which served
as a dam. Here a steep and high rock bounded the
river, and along the base of it, the water eddied in a
deep pool, and then swept away in a stong, but
shallow current. At a short distance below was
the mouth of a ravine, overgrown with lofty trees,
and clustering with brushwood, at a distance of fifty
yards from the landing-place. The road, issuing
from the river at the foot of the rock, holds a straight
course for twenty yards, or thereabouts, and then
turning short to the left, is no more in sight of the
river. From thence a short, but steep ascent through
a deep cleft in the hills, brings the traveller to the
top, where he turns again to the right, and resumes
the direction towards Lynchburg. After a thorough
examination of the whole, the party returned to breakfast
at the house of Mr. Gordon.

Douglas rode slowly and thoughtfully. At length
he said apart to Schwartz:

“Your plot is admirable; but I am afraid it will
fail.”

“What chance of that?” asked Schwartz. “They
will be ashamed to bring more than a thousand men
against you, even if they had them. We can raise
as many as they can, and we shall be on the ground,
and have the same advantage we had just now.”

“But suppose they come and take possession
first;” said Douglas.

“Oh! no danger of that. They'll be in no
hurry to leave their snug quarters any sooner than
they can help; and we can be here a day or two
before the time.”

“It may be so,” said Douglas; “but I don't
think Col. Mason takes me for an absolute fool; and
if he does, he has reason to know that I have sharp-witted
men about me. But any man's wits may fail
him sometimes. For example, it has never occurred
to either of us, that Mason will certainly not believe
that we have been fooled by such a fellow as this
Yankee of yours. Will he not, therefore, at once
suspect the truth, and conclude that we are trying to
catch him in his own trap?”

“I God!” said Schwartz, “that is true. I had
not thought of that. The fellow is too silly to be
made bait of, sure enough. But then, you see,
Captain, we can fix them any how. Mr. Gordon
here can raise men enough, in three days, to keep
them from crossing the river, until we are ready for
them; and then, you know, we can push across a
part of our men, and toll them over. If once we

get them into a right sharp fight, they 'll follow us
across the river fast enough.”

“I have no doubt of their coming to look for us,”
said Douglas; “and no doubt of a fight; but we
must be prepared to meet more men than we have
bargained for. Depend upon it, they will bring every
man they can raise. Why, would you believe it, the
fellow talked to me about living at home on codfish,
and potatoes, and cider, and pies, and all sorts of
sass? Such a simpleton could not impose on a
child. Col. Mason has talents worthy of a better
cause, and he will see through the whole affair. I
suppose he is superseded; but he is an honorable
man, and will frankly give the benefit of his suspicions
to his superior, who can hardly be such a fool
as to disregard his suggestions. We must bestir
ourselves, therefore, or give up the game and escape
from our own plot.

“Gentlemen,” continued Douglas, speaking aloud,
and in a sustained and decisive tone, “this is our
place of rendezvous; the time mid-day on the third
of November. Every man must come prepared for
action, and such as mean to accompany me to the
lower country, must bring with them all their necessaries.
Mr. Gordon, I must depend on you to hold
this pass, and keep the enemy from crossing the
river. I shall send a force to support you, if necessary.
You, Schwartz, know what to do better than
I can tell you. You, Witt, will return with me, and

we will talk, as we ride, of what is to be done. Mr.
Gordon, we could travel without food, but our horses
cannot. We must trouble you for something for all,
and then we part until the day of rendezvous. Until
that time, `Vigilance and Activity' is the word; but
then, `Freedom, Independence, and Glory.”'

As Douglas said this they arrived at Mr. Gordon's
door. The ready meal was hastily swallowed, the
horses fed, and they departed for the camp. On the
way Schwartz, turning to the left, kept a southward
course through the district, along the foot of the
mountains, to rouse the inhabitants in that quarter,
and to collect a party to support Mr. Gordon. The
rest returned to the camp, from whence runners were
despatched throughout all the adjacent country, and
even beyond the mountain to the head-waters of the
Holston. Leaving them thus employed, let us repair
to the head-quarters of the enemy.

In the handsome parlor of a handsome house, in
the suburbs of Lynchburg, we find two officers seated
at a game of piquet. The hour is nine at night.
The room is richly furnished. A bright fire burns on
the hearth, and the blaze of sconce and astral lamps
sheds its soft, luxurious, moonlight beams into
every corner. Wine, cordials, fruits, and cigars are
placed on a table, and every-thing betokens comfort
and luxury, ease and indolence. The dress of these
officers corresponds with the scene. Both glitter
with gold and flutter in lace, and their richly mounted

swords and highly finished pistols, which lie on
the table, show that the owners abound in the means
of display and self-indulgence.

Such was indeed the fact. The pay of the army,
gradually increased by law during thirty years, had
grown to a noble revenue. The emoluments, as they
are called, under a system of fraud and connivance,
had advanced (without law) yet more rapidly; so
that to be a Colonel in the army of the United States
was to be a rich man. Such was the rank of both
these officers. It was true that the treasury had
already begun to feel the drain of the vast sums
accumulated under an iniquitous tariff, and now
employed to fortify the tyranny that had enforced
that pernicious system. The loss of the southern
trade gave reason to fear that the supply now on
hand, if once exhausted, would not be speedily
renewed. But the rulers felt but the more sensibly
that the energetic employment both of force and
corruption was necessary to retain the little that
remained, by holding Virginia in subjection. With
this view, the same system of wasteful expenditure,
commenced twenty years before, was kept up; and
all who served the crown with becoming zeal were
encouraged to hold open their mouths that they
might be filled.

In another part of the room a company of subalterns
fluttered around a bevy of fair damsels. To
these young ladies the mistress of this mansion had

of late become an object of much increased regard.
No friend was so dear, no society so desirable, no
house so pleasant to visit at as hers. Many an extra
visit did she receive, since the abounding loyalty of
her husband had invited the commandant of the post
to make it his head-quarters. Many a wistful glance
had been cast during the evening, from the assiduous
subalterns, toward the handsome and unheeding
wearer of two epaulettes, to whose authority all who
approached him were bound to bow. But it was all
in vain. Sufficient to himself, he valued not the
admiring eyes which were bent upon him; or if they
occupied any thing of his attention, it was to be
made the subject of invidious comparison with the
ladies of the highest fashion in the northern cities,
whose lavish attentions had rendered him totally
heedless of the vulgar admiration of a parcel of half-bred
Virginia girls.

These remarks, however, apply to only one of the
officers in question. The other manifested no such
insensibility, though his attentions to the fair were
only marked by a staid courtesy, hardly more flattering
than the perfect indifference of his companion.
Still he paid such attention as it becomes a gentleman
to pay to every thing that wears the exterior of
a lady. But the day when he was himself an object
of court to them was past. Indeed, the ladies had
already begun to despair of thawing the coldness of
his temperament, when, being superseded by a

younger and handsomer commander, he was laid on
the shelf and condemned as quite passé.

But it is high time to make the reader acquainted
with the two military gentlemen, to whose presence
he has been introduced.

The reader, without doubt, already understands
that, of the two officers before us, the elder in years,
though the younger in commission, is Col. Mason,
late commandant of the post. His companion is
Col. Owen Trevor, whose impatience for distinction
has been indulged by sending him to Lynchburg
with his regiment. Here, taking rank of Mason, he
has been in fact placed in command of a brigade,
with an understanding that time and opportunity
will be afforded him to show himself qualified for the
rank, by discharging the functions of a brigadier.
This post has been assigned him because in this
direction is the only enemy actually in arms.

Although the force under the command of Douglas
had been originally but a handful, Mason had seen
that it possessed, in a marvellous degree, the faculty
of occasional expansion. His intelligence had taught
him to expect that it would ere long be greatly increased,
if not crushed by a vigorous movement on his part.
Hence he was desirous of acting on the offensive,
especially as he had no doubt, from the past, that
Lynchburg was the object of Douglas. But he had
seen enough of the character and resources of his
enemy to know that a small force would be unavailing,

and had therefore earnestly desired to be reinforced.
In answer to this request he had received,
not the moderate aid that he had desired, but an
order to surrender his command to Col. Trevor,
whose well-appointed regiment was ordered to the
post.

Col. Mason was a man of honor and talent. He
was one of the many subjects of that strong delusion
which had so extensively prevailed; and, under the
influence of which, Virginia, for thirty years, had
been sacrificing the substance of liberty and prosperity
to the forms of a constitution devised to
secure, but perverted to destroy them. He belonged,
moreover, to that unfortunate class of partisans whom
it is safe to neglect. Acting on principles, however
erroneous, it was clearly seen that these alone were
sufficient to bind him to the service to which he had
devoted himself. It was at the same time little
doubted that a change of opinions would be followed
by a renunciation of all the advantages of his situation,
whatever they might be. To waste on such a
man the means of corrupting the corruptible, and
securing the faithless, would indeed have been
“ridiculous excess.” He had won his way to his
present rank by the strict performance of every duty
of the subordinate offices, through which he had
risen by regular gradation. In the shuffling and
cutting of the military pack, he had seen junior
officers placed above him by that sort of legerdemain

which had so long before procured his master
the name of the magician. He had not indeed
acquiesced tamely in this, but means had been
always found to soothe him, and he had been retained
in the service by dextrous appeals to that
magnanimity which they who knew not how to
appreciate, yet knew well how to play upon.

But he had not yet forgotten how, ten years
before, some pretext had been found for reversing
the relative rank of himself and Col. Trevor, when
both were very young and both subalterns. But on
that occasion, as usual, some complimentary though
temporary arrangement had been devised to reconcile
him to that which gave the rank of Captain to
one, whom he, still a Lieutenant, had once commanded.
Having repressed his dissatisfaction at
that time, he now felt bound to acquiesce in the
circumstances which placed his former subordinate
immediately in authority over him. If this occurrence
made him repent his former tameness, now
when it was too late to remonstrate, he did not say
so, but addressed himself with grave precision to the
fulfilment of all his commander's orders.