73. CHAPTER LXXIII.
THE MARCH TO RICHMOND.
The enraged Despot, in contempt of the science of war,
and in spite of the appeals of his Generals, who vainly
declared that none of the necessary preparations for an
advance had been completed, ordered all the cavalry and
all the light artillery to follow him in a precipitate attack
upon the rear guard of the enemy.
Lord Slysir, left to himself, remained undecided what
step to take in such an emergency. In the game of diplomacy,
he was ever ready; but in the actual incidents of war,
he was, like other great negotiators, uncertain which course
to pursue. Whilst he promenaded the nave of the chapel,
along which the rays of a summer's sun were brightly streaming,
one of the flat stones near the altar slowly rose from
the floor. Upon this was inscribed the name of one of the
rectors who had been buried a century before, and his
Lordship started back involuntarily, as if the sheeted dead
were about to come from their graves in his presence. But,
when he looked again, he beheld the dusky features of a
negro man who had selected that novel locality as a place
of concealment for the living.
“Why are you there?” demanded Slysir.
“Pray, massa, don't tell anybody!” said the negro.
“I see how it is. You are a slave. I will not betray
you. The Northern people and the British will make a free
man of you.”
“No, they won't! I'm gwine back to Alabama! I've
had 'nuff of 'em!” said the man, leaping out of the grave,
and throwing back the slab with such violence that it was
broken to pieces.
“What do you mean? Where are you going?” demanded
his Lordship, seeing the negro striding towards the
door.
“I'm gwine to massa Crook. But he musn't see me.
I'm followin' him. He's my massa. I belong to him. I
ran away in de under-ground railroad las year—and got
sick ob de Norf. Dey starbed me, and wouldn't give me
physic when I was sick—and now dey's got a gulleting dat
chops off people's heads! Stan' aside, I say!”
The negro strode past his Lordship without molestation.
And the next moment, with the noise of a hurricane, came
the cavalry of Ruffleton. A yellow dust enveloped the
earth as the host swept past, however, leaving here and
there a horse or its rider stricken to the earth by a chance
shot from the Federal batteries, now beginning to play on
the intruders, and the Protector himself, at length reflecting
on the impropriety of his conduct, paused suddenly in his
career. He descended from his charger, surrounded by his
staff, and rushed into the chapel, as he said, to get a
mouthful of pure air, and to wipe the dust from his eyes.
“By Jupiter!” he exclaimed, on beholding Slysir, “here
is one capital prize at all events. Your Lordship is my
prisoner! If I cannot consign you to a deserter's doom—
and we have overtaken and slaughtered a thousand this
day—at all events I can prevent any further co-operation
with the enemy.”
“What does your Highness mean?” demanded his Lordship.
“Are you not a deserter? Answer me that!”
“Deserter? Whom have I deserted?”
“Have you not unceremoniously abandoned me, your
ally?”
“By no means! I am gratified to find myself rescued
from the hands of the enemy by your Highness. I was a
prisoner—but now, I hope, I am free.”
“You assert, then, that your flight was not a voluntary
abandonment of my cause?”
“I do most positively assert it!”
“And that you did not escape with Alice Randolph?”
“Certainly not. She preceded me, and I knew nothing
of her flight before my own seizure.”
“Then I have made a grave mistake! Maller, sound a
recall! Slysir, mount one of my horses—a number of them
have lost their riders. Let us get back again before more
mischief is done! Where's Col. Snare?”
“He pursued the carriage,” said one of the aides.
“Send him word to return! Or they will cage him again,
where it will not be in my power to release him.”
Col. Snare, promoted on the threshold of the prison door
in Georgetown, dashed forward at the head of several hundred
men, and surrounded the carriage as it ascended the
hill pointed out by the President. But Bim was there.
And Captain Fink, with his Wild Western Scouts, was
likewise within striking distance. A most terrible conflict
ensued. Bim on one side and Fink on the other, sprang
upon the dragoons like tigers, and in a shorter space of
time than it takes to record it, one half the horses of the
enemy were galloping away without their riders. But two
of the carriage horses being wounded, Alice, exposed to the
shower of balls flying in every direction, descended to the
ground, and induced the rest to follow. They took refuge
in a deep ravine at the roadside without the slightest hindrance
from Snare, whose attention was wholly occupied
by his assailants. Bim charged at the head of about a hundred
mounted Blue Caps, and Fink's men, throwing down
their rifles, rushed upon the foe with their tomahawks, uttering
horrible yells like wild savages. Snare fought pretty
well, but in vain. Fruitless were his desperate efforts to
retrieve his past mishaps. The notes of the bugle recalling
him from the enterprise fell upon his ear, and he was under
the necessity of relinquishing the prize which he supposed
at one time had been secured. And it was full time. Five
minutes more, and every one of this rash detachment would
have been destroyed. When they overtook the Protector,
himself in full retreat, Randolph, Blount, Crook, Valiant,
and Carleton were launching their concentric thunders upon
them.
In the meantime, however, the Generals of the Northern
army had marshalled their mighty columns in battle array;
and when the Protector, at the head of the cavalry, found
shelter under their protection, the signal of battle was given.
Randolph, from an eminence, surveyed the imposing attitude
of the enemy, and knew it would be impossible to
withstand such a multitude of combatants upon that ill-chosen
field. Yielding to a necessity, apparent even to
Crook, and contenting himself with the severe rebuke administered
to the Northern Commander-in-Chief, he gave
the order to retire along the line marked out for the retreat
days and weeks before.
Save the occasional discharges from the batteries of the
rearguard of the Federal army, as the enemy encroached
too near upon them, there were no sounds of conflict during
the remainder of the day. At night the two armies encamped
some five miles apart; and at daylight the pursuit
was resumed. And thus the invasion and the retreat continued
for many days, during which no serious engagement
occurred.
Scarcely a negro slave was seen by the invaders. This
class of locomotive property had been previously removed
out of the range of the Northern liberators. But the
Southern and Federal forces in the field did not seem to
increase, for Randolph was garrisoning all the forts, some
eighty in number, which had been previously constructed
by the labor of the slaves. These fortifications extended in
a line five hundred miles in length, and from ten to fifty
miles east and west of the track of the invaders. Every
commanding position, every point, unassailable by nature,
had been designated by the engineers, and were now occupied
by the defenders of the soil. These were the depots
for the arms, ammunition, and provisions, so that the main
army in its retreat would be always accessible to supplies,
and never under the necessity of transporting, like the
enemy, excessive stores of articles indispensable for their
subsistence.
Ruffleton marched directly to Richmond, declaring his
purpose to spare the town, provided the bridges were not
destroyed, and no resistance made to his entry into the
Capital of Virginia. And Randolph evacuated the place
without hesitation, followed by most of the inhabitants.
The Protector, not yet seriously suffering for food, and not
having sustained any losses of magnitude except from desertions,
affected great state, and assumed an air of magnanimity
in his intercourse with such of the Southern people as
ventured in his presence. He issued here a lengthy Proclamation,
in which he stated that the torch had been applied
to Mount Vernon by a party who had misconstrued
their orders. He announced that the Federal system was
a failure—that the sovereignty of States and the National
sovereignty constituted an absurdity—an
imperium in imperio,
which experience had proved a fallacy, and it was his
mission to put a period to it. Like the Romans, we should
henceforth be known only as Americans. State lines were
to be obliterated. There were to be no Governors except
in conquered provinces, and these were to be appointed by
the head of the American Empire. The Senate should be
composed of an hereditary order of nobles—the descendants
of men who had won distinction. The Representatives
were to be chosen as provided in the Constitution, and
several other provisions in that instrument were to be preserved—its
system of land offices—its post offices, etc., etc.
And, although it would be necessary to have an Emperor—
and for life,
or during good behavior, still the Government
would be a
Republic, as that of Rome, with its Emperors.
And, like Republican Rome, American would have its Patrician
Order, to be chosen by the Emperor and the Senate;
and the title of nobility would be conferred as the reward
of existing merit, as well as on the descendants of illustrious
men of former generations.
In regard to Slavery, the Proclamation
amazed everybody by the distinct declaration
that the institution should be perfectly lawful, as in Rome,
EVERYWHERE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE EMPIRE; that the
agitations of anti-slavery fanatics should end, under pain of
the death penalty. That sectional prejudices should cease,
because, henceforth, there would be no distinctive sections
at all, other than the points of the compass. That the navy
should consist of 1,000 ships of war; and the army should
number 500,000 men. That the entire Continent, and all
the Islands adjacent, must submit to the sway of the American
Empire. That religion, of all denominations, should
be everywhere tolerated—but polygamy and free-love
should be punished, as inconsistent with religion. Therefore
the Protector, whose authority had been conferred by
the millions of freemen who had changed the Government
by the right of Revolution, called upon the people of the
South to rally under his standard, and aid him in the reconstruction
of the Government on an enduring basis. The
Proclamation asserted that Virginia, particularly, as well as
several of the sea-board Southern States, contained many
families entitled to the patrician distinction, and it was
desirable that they should participate in the important public
affairs of the Empire.
This document had been suggested, as a master-stroke, by
Mr. Windvane, who affected to have the names of certain
prominent Southern politicians, who, if the institution of
slavery were conceded by the despot, would be willing to
unite with him in overturning the Federal Government.
But it turned out, when Ruffleton occupied the Governor's
mansion, awaiting a responsive demonstration on the part
of the aristocratic families of the Old Dominion, that none
but a few old women had been captivated by his dazzling
overtures. His Highness then resolved to penetrate still
further, and with the utmost vigor. He seized all the flour
found in the great mills in the vicinity of Richmond, the
British fleet having failed to open a communication with the
army by means of James river. The United States ships
of war and the well-served batteries at Fortress Monroe,
presented an insuperable barrier to the entrance of Hampton
Roads. Therefore the Despot determined to pursue
the invasion, assured that the British ships would be able
to furnish the supplies he stood in need of in Albemarle
Sound, North Carolina, and that the navigable portion of
the Roanoke would be indefensible against his approaches.
