The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter Part 25

"You cannot seriously think of accepting this appointment father," she said, with a look of concern; "you cannot think of leaving your quiet and comfortable home, and engaging, at your age, in the fatigues and dangers of the camp?"

"Why not, Sabrey?" replied the other, reprovingly. "From my knowledge of the country, I can be of great use in procuring the supplies which the army will need, as the general doubtless foresaw; and I consider it my duty to the king to lend my feeble aid when called. The post is not, it is true, a very high one; but it is honorable and lucrative, and I shall accept it."

'If this is Miss Sabrey Haviland, I have a letter for her also,' here interposed the messenger, rising and presenting the letter in question.

Sabrey broke open the proffered letter, which proved to be from her friend Miss McRea, and ran thus:--

"You remember your promise, Sabrey, to visit me the first opportunity.

That opportunity now occurs. Captain Jones and other friends have presented your father's name at head-quarters for promotion; and he has now, I am informed, received an appointment. If he accepts, as I am sure he will, I hope you will accompany him, and remain with me. I have just received one of those letters so precious to me: he says the army will probably move on to Fort Edward next week, the obstructions in the road being mostly removed; so that, by the time you arrive, I shall probably be enabled to introduce you to the beautiful and accomplished ladies of whom he has so much to say,--such as the Countess of Reidesel, Lady Harriet Ackland, and others, who accompany their husbands in the campaign. But you will perhaps say that he is interested in praising these ladies for the love and heroism which prompt them to brave such fatigues and dangers for the sake of their lords, since he is warmly urging me to consent to an immediate union, that I may follow their example. He says, in his last letter,--and I think truly,--that I cannot long remain where I am, in a section which he evidently antic.i.p.ates, will soon become a frightful scene of strife and bloodshed; and that I must therefore go away with my friends, and leave him, perhaps forever, or put myself under his protection in the army. And he seems hurt that I hesitate in a choice of the alternatives. On the other hand, my connections and friends here think it would be little short of madness in me to yield to my lover's proposal. The people about here are greatly alarmed at the expected approach of the British army, which is known to be accompanied by a large body of Indians, Many are already removing and nearly all preparing to go The crisis hastens, and yet I am undecided. Prudence points one way, love the other. What shall I do? O Sabrey what shall I do? Should you come on with your father, I think I should feel a confidence in going with you to the British encampment. Come then, my friend, come quickly, for I feel as if I could not go on without friends, and especially a female friend, to accompany me; while, at the same time, I feel as if some irresistible destiny would compel me to the attempt. And yet why would I hesitate to take any step which _he_ advises? Why refuse to share with him any dangers which _he_ may encounter? And why should my antic.i.p.ations of the future, which have never, till recently, during my happy intimacy with Mr. Joes, been so bright and blissful, be clouded now? I know not; I know not why it should be so; but lately my bosom has become disturbed by strange misgivings, and my mind perplexed by dark and undefined apprehensions.

I must not, however, indulge them; and your presence, I know, would entirely dissipate them. I repeat, therefore, come, and that quickly.

Adieu.

"Yours, truly, JANE McREA."

The messenger in waiting, having been invited into another room to partake of some refreshment, and the father and daughter being thus left again by themselves, the latter now handed the other for his perusal the affectionate but too truly boding letter of her fated friend.

"And what answer do you intend to return to this kind and pressing invitation of your friend, Sabrey?" asked Haviland, after attentively reading the epistle.

"That I do not think it advisable to accept it, at this time, father,"

answered the girl.

"Why not advisable?" asked the other, in a censorious tone. "I see nothing to object to in the step, going, as you will, under the protection of a father; while it will introduce you to a circle which few American girls can ever reach."

"I feel quite willing to forego the honor of such an introduction,"

coolly returned the daughter. "And were it otherwise, the very letter that brings me the invitations unfolds enough to deter me from the undertaking."

"You wholly mistake your friend's meaning," responded the former. "Her apprehensions are merely the natural effect of maiden timidity. I think, as her lover seems to do, that the safest place for her is with the British army. So I think it will be for you; for I know not what punishment will be inflicted on these settlements for their rebellious and treasonable conduct And it is my wish to separate myself and family from them, before the day of reckoning arrives. I shall, therefore, expect you to attend me."

As the daughter was about to reply a domestic came in and announced the arrival of Colonel Peters; and the latter, the next moment, with a dark and sullen brow, unceremoniously entered the apartment. He did not, however, deign immediately to unfold the cause of his evident ill-humor, but contented himself with listening to the news, which the elated Haviland was prompt to impart in relation to his own promotion, the invitation received by his daughter to accompany him to the army or its vicinity, and his thus far rejected advice to her to accede to the proposal. The cold countenance of Peters brightened with selfish delight at the recital; for in the old gentleman's appointment, his determination to accept it, and his intention of taking his daughter with him, if she could be so persuaded, the former saw the triumph of his machinations to involve the family inextricably in the royal cause. But that triumph would not be complete, unless the daughter, whose predilections for Woodburn and the American cause were more than suspected, could be kept within the scope of loyal influence. He therefore secretly resolved that, if her father left the settlement to join the army, she should not be left behind, but should be induced or compelled to accompany him. He consequently was not slow to add his advice and entreaties to those of the father. This he did for a while with some show of respect and kindness; but finding her still immovable, he at length became irritated, and a.s.sumed a tone of dictation so inconsistent with the natural delicacy of a lover, that she declined any further conversation with him on the subject.

"Where will you go, perverse and blinded girl?" now interposed the father, reproachfully. "You would not stay here alone and unprotected, would you?"

"I should not hesitate to do so on account of any molestation which _American_ troops would offer me," replied Sabrey, with a significant emphasis on the word American. "And should others approach, I would go to my connections on the other side of the mountains."

"Miss Haviland may have her private reasons for wis.h.i.+ng to remain in this section of the country," said Peters, with an ill-suppressed sneer, turning to the father.

"Will you please explain your meaning, sir?" demanded the girl with spirit.

"I mean," replied Peters, "that she who would hold clandestine meetings with one whom her father has seen fit to eject from his house, might see the advantage of remaining where her interviews could be enjoyed without molestation."

"Sabrey Haviland, is that true?" asked the old gentleman with a gathering frown.

"She will hardly deny, I think," said Peters, "that the fellow was here soon after I left last night. At all events, he was seen to leave the premises in pursuit of me. By whom he was informed of the direction I took, I know not; but I know he overtook me, beset me like a ruffian, and shot my horse by a ball intended for the rider."

"Is all that true, I repeat?" again fiercely demanded Haviland of his daughter, in a burst of rage.

But without deigning one word of reply either to the insulting insinuations of Peters, or the angry and ill-timed demand of her father, Sabrey, with cheeks glowing with offended delicacy and just indignation, rose from her seat, and was about to leave the apartment, when her step was arrested by the altered voice of her father, who, quickly becoming sensible of the harshness of his conduct from its visible effects, now spoke to her in a softened and more expostulatory tone.

"Surely, Sabrey, you are not going to deny my right, as a parent, to question you, or at least ask you for an explanation respecting charges which have the appearance of involving your character?"

"I might not," said she, coolly, but respectfully; "and indeed, I should not, at another time, have refused to answer your question so far as I could, however harshly it was put to me; but I must still decline to do so in this presence!" she added, glancing towards the abashed Peters, with an air of scorn to which her usually serene and benignant countenance never before, perhaps, gave expression.

"Perhaps, Miss Haviland," said Peters, stung by the remark and manner of the other, and now rallying for the revenge to which such minds are p.r.o.ne to resort--"perhaps Miss Haviland, on a little more reflection, may be willing to acknowledge that I, also, am not wholly without a right to ask for an explanation in an affair which she seems to admit requires one."

"I am not aware, sir," promptly responded the maiden, so much aroused by the cool arrogance of the other, as to forget her determination to hold no more conversation with him--"I am not aware, sir, of having admitted any necessity of an explanation And had I done so, I should be very far from acknowledging your right to require it of me."

"It is possible," rejoined the former in the same strain--"it is possible Miss Haviland may be willing to qualify her last remark a little, when she is reminded of the existence of a certain marriage contract, to which she voluntarily became a party."

"I need no prompting to make me mindful of that evidence of my youthful indiscretion, sir," responded Miss Haviland; "nor should I be likely to forget the particular provisions of an instrument, the thought of which has cost me, as my entreaties to be released from it should have apprised you, so many painful regrets. But, while mindful of all this, I have yet to be informed of the provision which, till the contract is consummated, gives you any control over my actions, or right to require me to account for or explain them."

"If the instrument, which I have somewhere about me, I believe,"

replied the other, with his usual cold indifference, as he took the doc.u.ment from his pocket, and began, with a businesslike air, to glance over the contents--"if the instrument does not express, or rather if it is not admitted to presuppose and give me, any of the rights I have named till it is consummated, then it is time that I should insist on its consummation, which, as few others would have done, I have so long forborne to urge."

"I perfectly agree with Colonel Peters," interposed Mr. Haviland, catching at the last suggestion in his growing alarm for the success of his favorite scheme, which the unexpected state of feeling here displayed taught him might be endangered, if not speedily consummated.

"I perfectly agree with him, that this business has already been sufficiently delayed; and I think, as the family is now about to break up, that the final ceremony had better be performed before we go, or, at the farthest, when we reach the army, where, as Sabrey would perhaps prefer, it might take place at the same time as that of her friend, who is similarly situated."

"You forget," said the maiden, now freshly aroused at this combined attempt to make her forego her last remaining privilege in the abhorrent negotiation--"you both forget that the very instrument, by which you claim to dispose of my hand, expressly leaves to me, and to me only, the right and privilege of deciding upon the time for that ceremony, by which you would now, it seems, so summarily consummate your unmanly scheme. And thank Heaven!" she continued, turning to the nonplused suitor with an air of decision and fearlessness which the excitement of insulted feeling could only have given her--"thank Heaven, I had the forethought to insist on a privilege now so precious to me; for let me a.s.sure you, sir, that distant will be the day when _I_ shall fix on a time for consummating a contract, wrung from girlish inexperience, to gratify selfish ambition or mistaken views in the first place, and now claimed to hold me like a sold article of merchandise, for the use and control of one whose feelings, principles, and whole character are every way uncongenial with my own."

"What!--how!" exclaimed the irritated and evidently astonished Haviland, who, in his obtuseness, even now, could not perceive what objection his daughter could have to a match esteemed by him so advantageous. "What can this mean? Why, the girl must be demented! You to decide on the time! Why, reasonable time is all that was meant by that, if it is not so expressed!"

"That is all; nothing more," eagerly chimed in Peters.

"If a part of the instrument is to be construed differently from what is expressed, and as you choose, why not other parts, and as I choose?" calmly asked the unmoved girl. "If so, then its power to bind me shall cease with this hour."

"What folly!" again exclaimed the old gentleman, balked and chafing worse than before. "Why, don't the infatuated girl know that, to say nothing about losing prospects which no other young lady in the country would reject--that by marrying any other man, she will forfeit her birthright in my estate, and make herself, as she will deserve to be, a beggar?"

"I have no thought of marrying any other man while in my present embarra.s.sing position," quickly retorted the former, with an offended air. "But should I wish to do so, I should hardly be deterred from it by either of the considerations you have just named, I think. And, indeed, if the mercenary and ambitious motives, which you would have actuate me, were alone to be my guide in such a step, I could see but little temptation for the sacrifice in the honors and wealth which are so much to depend on a triumph that, for all your boasts, I believe will never be accomplished; while the failure, if the same justice is meted out to you which you seem to be meditating for others, will leave you with a branded name, and no estate here to give or withhold."

"Silence! audacious girl," exclaimed the baffled loyalist, unable longer to endure the calm but scorching rebuke involved in the reply of his daughter. "I will listen to no more of your railings. This comes of being allowed to mingle with an ignorant, rebellious populace.

But that evil shall, at least, be remedied. You will attend me to the army, where, I trust, your eyes may soon be opened to your folly."

"You may perhaps compel me to go, sir," responded the still unawed maiden; "but if you do so, let me warn you against all hope of thereby rendering my feelings less repugnant to the scheme we have been discussing, or of changing my views of the cause in which you are about to embark; for I will now openly declare, what I have often before left you to infer, that I have no sympathies for those who come to oppress and enslave my country; nor will I ever aid or sanction their ign.o.ble purposes--not even to the withholding any intelligence I may gain of their movements, which may avert disaster or peril from our struggling people."

"Hurrah for the tory's daughter!" now burst on the ears of the astonished group, from a band of armed men standing immediately beneath the open but thickly vine-clad windows without, whither, it seemed, they had approached unperceived, and thus become unintentional listeners to the last part of the foregoing dialogue, which they were still hesitating to break in upon, when their admiration of the heroic girl's declarations led to the irrepressible burst of applause just mentioned--"Hurrah for the tory's daughter! She shall be remembered for that!"

The party within instantly rose to their feet at so strange and unexpected a salutation. Peters, aware, from the experience of the last night, that his capture was sought, was the first, as might be expected, to take the alarm. With a hasty step towards the window, and an equally hasty glance through the screening foliage at the new-comers, he hurriedly retreated through a door leading to the rear of the house. Haviland, scarcely less alarmed, though having no conception of the main object of the visit, advanced, with evident perturbation, to the front door, when he was met at the threshold by the secretary of the Council of Safety, who, bowing politely, proceeded to apologize for the noisy outbreak of his attendants, which, contrary to his wishes, he said, had been made to announce his arrival.

"Attendants, sir?" exclaimed Haviland, casting a flurried glance at the file of soldiers in the yard--"attendants--armed men led up here to my door? Who are they? What is then business, and yours, sir? This affair needs explanation, sir."

"Well, sir, if so, I am here to give it," composedly replied Allen.

"But, as you appear somewhat agitated, let us walk in and talk over the matter calmly."

Mechanically complying with the suggestion, Haviland turned and led the way into the room, where his daughter still stood, mutely awaiting the development; when the secretary, after bowing with marked respect to Miss Haviland, with whom, it appeared, he was slightly acquainted, resumed,--

"The Council of Safety, sir, having determined on defending the state to the last extremity, in the present crisis, have perceived, with deep regret, that there are those in our midst who hesitate not either to take up arms against their countrymen, or, what is no better, secretly to aid the enemy, and harbor and conceal in their houses hostile emissaries, trying to seduce our people. And not perceiving the policy or justice of longer permitting their cause thus to be endangered, the council have decided on a measure for promptly remedying the evil--a measure which they had less hesitation in adopting, as they believed, from the repeated threats of the loyalists, they would only be antic.i.p.ating their opponents by inflicting penalties, that, in case of the conquest of this country, will be visited on themselves. They have pa.s.sed a solemn decree, sir, to confiscate, for the public use, all the estates of both of the cla.s.ses of loyalists I have named, among one of which, at least, they have abundant proof, I regret to say, to warrant them in cla.s.sing Esquire Haviland. And they direct me to permit him to take one of the horses, lately his own, and depart, with the least possible delay, for the British camp, where, they think, he more properly belongs."

The arrogant loyalist, who had hitherto looked upon the Council of Safety with utter contempt for either their powers or their efficiency, was now perfectly thunderstruck at the announcement of so bold and unexpected a measure; and, for some moments, his mouth seemed wholly sealed against any remonstrance to a step which, not for public good, but for his own aggrandizement, he was conscious of intending to recommend to the British government in relation to the estates of the leading rebels, and especially those of the treasonable body by whom, as had just been so truthfully told him, his selfish designs had now been antic.i.p.ated. Soon rallying, however, he wrathfully muttered,--

"They dare not do it; their audacity will not carry them to that length. But if they do," he continued, with louder and more menacing tones--"if they do attempt to carry out their plundering purposes, I will bring down upon them, within eight and forty hours, a British force that will give them enough to do to take care of themselves and their own property, without meddling with that of others."