Wau-nan-gee or the Massacre at Chicago Part 2

"'Thanks, thanks,' she returned fervently. 'To-morrow you shall know all--the deep, the terrible secret that weighs at my heart shall be revealed to you. Yes, give me but until then to prepare myself for the full and entire disclosure of the unhappy truth, and you will not hate me for all that has taken place.'

"'Maria--Mrs. Ronayne!' I said with some slight severity of manner.

"'Oh, you are surprised at my language and sentiments. When the heart is full, the lip measures not its words. Yet, oh, my mother!

condemn me not. Hear first what I have to say. Again I repeat, ere your eyes are closed in sleep to-morrow night, you shall know all.

The tale will startle you; but now,' she added, 'I feel that I have strength enough to follow.'

"During this short and singular dialogue--singular enough, you must admit, on the part of Mrs. Ronayne--I had a.s.sisted her in restoring her dress, which, as I have already said, was very much disordered.

On turning to ascend by the stone steps, I remarked with surprise certain articles of food placed on the corner of the calico, which I had been too much occupied with Maria's condition to perceive before. These consisted of a wooden bowl of milk--a brown earthen pitcher of water--a number of flat cakes, seemingly made of corn meal, and a portion of dried venison ham; a wooden spoon was in the bowl, a black tin j.a.panned drinking cup near the water, and a common Indian knife stuck into the venison.

"'Bless me, Maria,' I said, with an attempt at pleasantry, after we had ascended, and closed the door, 'it was well I came to your rescue; Wau-nan-gee certainly meant to have kept you imprisoned here some time, if we may judge from the quant.i.ty of food he had provided.'

"'Such, I believe, was the original intention,' gravely replied Mrs. Ronayne.

"She made no other remark, but sighed deeply. We now drew near the gate where Collins and his men were stationed, looking out anxiously for our appearance. I recommended to Maria, in a low tone, not to appear dejected, as the men knew nothing of what had occurred--not even that Wau-nan-gee had been on the grounds--and any appearance of agitation might give rise to suspicion. She followed my suggestion and rallied. I returned Collins his bayonet, stating, with a poor attempt at pleasantry, that we had met with no enemy on whom to try it. He then led the way back, with his party, to the boat.

"The presence of the men acting, in some degree, as a check upon our conversation, Mrs. Ronayne consequently preserved an unbroken silence. She seemed immersed in deep and painful thought, and I could see beneath the thin veil she wore the tears coursing slowly down her cheek. Her first inquiry, on landing, was whether the fis.h.i.+ng party was returned, and, on being told that it had not, she seemed to be greatly relieved. I watched her closely, for I need not say that my own daughter could not have inspired me with deeper interest, and in the increased agitation I remarked as the hour of her husband's expected return drew nearer, I began to apprehend a fearful result. Not that, even if my suspicions were correct, she could well be blamed, as the mere victim of a violence she could not prevent; but what I did not like to perceive, and which pained me much, was her evident prepossession in favor of the impetuous boy, which induced her to abstain from all indignant censure. These, however, are merely my own, crude and perhaps unfounded impressions. That she has some terrible truth to reveal to me, there cannot be a question, nor is it likely that it can affect any but herself. This night, however, I shall know all from her own lips, which, although sealed in prudence to her husband, will not hesitate to confide to me the fullest extent of her painful secret; meanwhile, I should recommend that Wau-nan-gee be watched.

His long absence from the fort, while evidently concealed in the neighborhood, looks not well. Evidently, he has been long planning the abduction of Maria, and now that he finds himself foiled by her evasion this day, he will avail himself of the present crisis to leave no means unaccomplished to possess her, no matter what blood may be shed in the attainment of his object."

"Strange, indeed, what you have related," said Captain Headley, gravely, when his wife had ceased. "I confess I scarcely know what to think or how to act. I must hold council with my officers immediately--hear their opinions without divulging aught of what you have related, and act as my own judgment confirms. How unfortunate! Ronayne and his wife, accompanied by Von Voltenberg, have taken it into their heads to ride to Hardscrabble, and G.o.d knows when they will be back. Really, this is most annoying."

At that moment a terrible shriek, as that of a man in his last fearful agony, was heard without. Struck with sudden dismay, both Captain Headley and his wife rushed to the door, which they reached even as Ensign Ronayne, pale, without his hat, his hair blowing in the breeze, and his cheek colorless as death, was in the act of falling from his jaded horse, whose trembling limbs and sides covered with foam, attested the desperate speed with which he had been ridden.

"Oh, G.o.d! he has heard all--he knows all," murmured Mrs. Headley, as she fell back in the arms of her husband. "Now, then, is the drama of horror but commenced."

Before the unfortunate officer could be--raised and carried to his apartments by the sympathizing soldiers of the garrison, another horseman followed into the fort. It was Doctor Van Voltenberg, whose flushed face and excited appearance denoted the speed at which he too had ridden. He flung himself from his horse, and followed anxiously to the apartment of his friend.

But where was the third of the party? where was Maria, the universally beloved of every soldier of that garrison? where was Mrs. Ronayne?

CHAPTER III.

"A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, and mouncht."

--_Macbeth_

"Thy abundant goodness shall excuse this deadly blot in thy digressing son."

--_Richard II._

Little more than a month had elapsed since the marriage of the impetuous and generous Ensign Ronayne to the woman he adored.

Absorbed by the intensity of their pa.s.sion, fed by the solitude around, each day increased their attachment, and their full hearts acknowledged that the love which the man bears to his mistress--the affianced sharer of his inmost thoughts--is pa.s.sionless compared with that which follows the mystic tie, linking their most secret being in fearlessness of devotion. Then, for the first time, had they felt and acknowledged all the power of the beauty of G.o.d's holy ordinance, which seemed to wed not in mere form, but in fact, the deepest emotions of their glowing souls. What was the world to them? They hoped to live and die among those wild scenes in which their pa.s.sion had been cradled and nurtured, until now it had acquired a force almost more than human. Often then, and often even since the short period of their union, had they fallen on their knees in the silence and solitude of the wilderness around, and, clasped to each other's heart, returned fervent thanks to the Deity, not only for having given them hearts to comprehend love in all its mysterious and holy sublimity, but in having blessed them with the dearer self in which each other found pleasure and lived a double existence. More calm, more softened, more subdued in feeling, after this pa.s.sionate ebullition, a holy and voluptuous calm would beam from their eyes; and when they alluded gently and fondly to the years and years of happiness that yet awaited them in the health and fulness of their youth, thoughts and looks, not words, attested the deep thankfulness of their hearts.

All this had been up to the evening of the incidents named in our opening chapter. Then, for the first time, had a change come over Maria's feelings and manner. On leaving Mrs. Headley, she had retired to her apartments, endeavoring to prepare herself for the momentarily expected arrival of her husband, whom she longed, yet dreaded to meet. She received him with a restraint which she had great difficulty in disguising, and wept many bitter tears, as, anxiously remarking her changed and extraordinary manner, he looked reproachfully and fixedly at her, without, however, saying a word that was pa.s.sing in his mind.

"Nay, nay, Ronayne; you think me reserved, altered, to-day; but indeed I am not well. The cause you shall know later, not now--it would be premature. I am a bad dissembler, and cannot look gay when my heart is full of anguish to overwhelming; but, my love, I must entreat a very great favor of you, which I know you will not refuse."

"Is there aught under heaven that I can refuse to my adored one?"

returned Ronayne, tenderly clasping her to his breast; "no, Maria, you have a boon to ask, and the boon shall be granted."

"After all, it is not a Very great deal," she remarked, with a sickly smile; "but I have a strong desire to ride to Hardscrabble to-morrow. You know it is long since I have been there, and I have a particular reason to visit it in the course of the afternoon to-morrow." Her voice trembled, and she felt ill at ease.

Her husband looked grave. "Nay, Maria, is this wise? You know, as you have just said, that you have not visited that scene since the death of your father; wherefore now, and simply to reopen a fast-closing wound?"

"It is for the reason," she said, "that I have so long neglected this duty that I am the more anxious to repair the seeming neglect."

"Your first visit," remarked Ronayne, half reproachfully, "methinks ought to have been to the grave of your poor mother. You have not been over to the cottage since her death."

Had an arrow pa.s.sed through the heart of Mrs. Ronayne, it could not have imparted more exquisitely keen sensations than did that casual remark. She turned pale, but made no reply; nay, almost fell fainting on his bosom.

"What, my soul's beloved, is the matter? Nay, pardon me for bringing up again the memory so suddenly upon your gentle thought! I should have used more caution in renewing the recollection of the past."

"Say rather of the present," murmured Mrs. Ronayne, in a tone so low that she could not be distinctly heard by her husband. "Oh, this poor heart!"

"You spoke, Maria?"

"Oh, I did but repeat my dreamings to myself. I scarcely know what I said."

"Well, love, since you desire to ride to Hardscrabble to-morrow, I will even meet your wishes; and yet I know not how it is, but something tells me that ill will grow out of this."

"Oh, no, say not so," she suddenly exclaimed, sinking on her knees at his feet, and holding up her hands in an att.i.tude of supplication; "can that be ill in your eyes which brings happiness to the heart of your loving wife? Pity rather the existence of those fears which cause her to tremble, lest the cup be dashed from her lips ere yet half tasted. Oh! I dare not speak more plainly--not yet--not yet--to-morrow--then shall the restraint be removed, from my lips and heart, and, whatever be the result, you shall know all. I feel that to you I must appear to speak in parables and mystery; but oh, since yesterday, I feel that I am not myself."

She drooped her head upon his shoulder, and wept profoundly.

"Calm yourself, dearest; I will hara.s.s you with no more converse on this subject to-night. Let one remark suffice. I am afraid that Captain Headley will refuse permission for us to venture as far as Hardscrabble; he thinks it attended by risk to the officers on the part of the Indians; of course, much more to you."

"Nay, Ronayne, there cannot surely be a greater risk incurred there than in venturing on a fis.h.i.+ng excursion, as you have done to-night.

Besides, we need not let him know that we are going in that direction."

"What! you wicked mutineer," chided Ronayne, playfully, "do you recommend insubordination? Would you have me to disobey the orders of the commanding officer? Oh, fie!"

"Not exactly that," she returned, with a slight blush; "but gratify me only this once, and I will never allow you to break an order again."

"Nay, sweetest, I did but jest; were my life the penalty, I would not deny you."

"Ah! how little does he think that more than life depends upon it,"

murmured Mrs. Ronayne to herself. "Or who could have supposed yesterday that my heart would have been oppressed by the feelings which a.s.sail it now? Wau-nan-gee--strange, wildly--loving, fascinating, and incomprehensible boy--with what confidence do I repose on your truth; with what joy do I at length glory in that devotedness which has made you so wholly, so exclusively mine."

These words were abstractedly, almost involuntarily, uttered in a low tone, as Ronayne left the room in search of Doctor Von Voltenberg, who he was desirous should, for the better protection of his wife from accident, accompany them on their ride of to-morrow.

She herself soon retired for the night, but not to rest.

In that wild and simple garrison, where the germs of the heart and head alone shone forth, reflecting their brilliancy and beauty more forcibly from the fact of the very limitation of their sphere of contact, there was no sacrifice to the mere conventionalisms of inane fas.h.i.+on. Customs there were military customs, duly observed, and not less than treason against the state would it have been considered by Captain Headley, had any officer of his sallied forth without being duly caparisoned as a member of the corps to which he belonged; but in all things else, and where duty was not involved, each was free to adopt the style of costume or the general habits that best suited his own fancy. And, whenever inclined, they were suffered to leave the fort, either dressed in the rough, s.h.a.ggy blanket of the Canadian trapper or voyageur, or the more fanciful and picturesque dress of the Indian. This had not always been the case. Captain Headley had once been as severe as he now was indulgent, and the uttermost conformity of costume with the regulations of the United States had for a long period been exacted; but gradually, on finding, as he conceived, the Indians around him too favorably disposed to require the continuance of the imposing military parade with which it had been his policy to awe them, he had gradually relaxed in his system of discipline, conceding not more to his officers themselves than to his n.o.ble and amiable wife, who was ever the soother of whatever temporary differences sprang up between them, many little points of etiquette, to which formerly he had most scrupulously adhered.

Among the varieties of dresses possessed by Ensign Ronayne, was a very handsome one which the mother of Wau-nan-gee, for whom it was made, had disposed of to him; and this, when preparing for the ride the next day, his wife strongly advised him to wear. As he knew there could be no objection on the part of Captain Headley only to the direction in which they rode, and that only from the possibility of encountering a party of hostile Indians, and not to the costume itself, he laughingly remarked that her old flame, Wau-nan-gee, had certainly made a deeper impression on her heart than she was willing to admit, since no dress pleased her half so well as that which had once been worn by the gentle and dark--eyed youth.

For a moment or two she turned pale, and then suddenly flus.h.i.+ng the deepest dye, as the sense of her husband's remark came fully upon her apprehension, she said, not without some pain and confusion, mingled with gentle reproach:--