Chapter 2: Friends In Need.
It was not to be surprised at that, after that terrible day andnight, Charles should awake from the restless sleep into which hehad dropped towards dawn in a state of high fever.
He lay raving in delirium for three days, whilst Humphrey satbeside him, putting water to his parched lips, striving to sootheand quiet him; often shuddering with horror as he seemed to seeagain with his brother's eyes those horrid scenes upon which thefevered man's fancy ever dwelt; waking sometimes at night in asweat of terror, thinking he heard the Indian war whoop echoingthrough the forest.
Those were terrible days for Humphrey--days of a loneliness thatwas beyond anything he had experienced before. His brother was nearhim in the flesh, but severed from him by a whole world of feveredimaginings. Sometimes Humphrey found it in his heart to wish thatthe Indians would come back and make a final end of them both. Allhope and zest and joy in life seemed to have been taken from him atone blow. He could neither think of the happy past without pangs ofpain, nor yet face a future which seemed barren of hope andpromise.
He could only sit beside his brother, tend him, nurse him, pray forhim. But the words of prayer too often died away upon his lips. Hadthey not all prayed together, after the godly habit of thehousehold, upon the very morning when this awful disaster fell uponthem? Were these vast solitudes too far away for God to hear theprayers that went up from them?
Humphrey had never known what awful loneliness could engulf thehuman spirit till he sat beside the fevered man in the vastsolitude of the primeval forest, asking in his heart whether GodHimself had not forsaken them.
It was the hour of sundown, and Humphrey had gone outside for abreath of fresh air. He looked ten years older than he had done afew days back, when he had come whistling through the forest track,expecting to see the children bounding forth to meet him. His eyeswere sunken, his face was pale and haggard, his dress was unkemptand ragged. There were no clever fingers now to patch tatteredraiment, and keep things neat and trim.
There was an unwonted sound in the forest! It was distant still. Tosome ears it would have been inaudible; but Humphrey heard it, andhis heart suddenly beat faster.
The sound was that of approaching steps--the steps of men. A fewminutes more and he heard the sound of voices, too. He had beenabout to dash into the shed for his gun, but the fresh soundsarrested his movement.
He had ears as sharp as those of an ambushed Indian, and hedetected in a moment that the men who were approaching the clearingwere of his own nationality. The words he could not hear, but hecould distinguish the intonation. It was not the rapid,thin-sounding French tongue; it was English--he was certain of it!And a light leaped to his eyes at the bare thought of meeting abrother countryman in this desolate place.
Probably it was some other settler, one of that hardy race thatfringed the colony on its western frontier. Miles and miles ofrolling forest lay between these scattered holdings, and since warwas but lately begun, nothing had been done for the protection ofthe hapless people now becoming an easy prey of the Indians stirredup to molest them.
Humphrey knew none of their neighbours. Forest travelling was toodifficult and dangerous to tempt the settler far away from his ownholding. If it were one of these coming now, most likely he too hadsuffered from attack or fear of attack, and was seeking a friend inthe nearest locality.
He stood like one spellbound, watching and waiting. The sound ofsteps drew nearer to the fringe of obscuring forest trees; thesound of voices became plainer and more plain. In another minuteHumphrey saw them--two bronzed and stalwart men--advancing from thewood into the clearing. They came upon it unawares, as was plainfrom their sudden pause. But they were white men; they werebrothers in this wild land. There was something like a sob inHumphrey's throat, which he hastily swallowed down, as he advancedwith great strides to meet them.
"You are welcome," he said. "I had thought the Indians had left noliving beings behind them in all this forest save my brother andmyself."
No introductions were needed in this savage place; the face ofevery white man lit up at sight of a like countenance, and at thesound of the familiar tongue. The men shook hands with a heartygrip, and one said to Humphrey:
"You have had Indians here?"
Humphrey made an expressive gesture with his hand.
"This was a week ago as fair a holding as heart of man could wishto see in this grim forest. You see what is left today!"
"Your house is burnt down, as we plainly see. Have you lost aughtbeside? Has human blood been spilt?"
"The corpse of my venerable father, and that of a bold baby boy,lie beneath yon heap of ruins which made their funeral pyre. Inyonder grave lie the mingled corpses of my brother's wife and fourfair children, hacked to death and half burnt by the savages. Andyet this work is not the work of savages alone. With them we havedwelt at peace these many years. The shame, the horror, thedisgrace of it is that we owe these horrors to the white sons ofFrance, who hound on the savages to make these raids, and stand byto see them do their bloody work!"
The two strangers exchanged glances--meaning glances--and one ofthem laid a hand upon Humphrey's shoulder, looking earnestly intohis eyes the while.
"Is it so in very truth? So have we heard in whispers, but it was athing we could scarce believe. We have travelled far from the landsof the south to join our brethren of the English race. We heardrumours of wars cruel and bloody. Yet it seemed to us too strange athing to believe that here, amid the hostile, savage Indians, whiteman could wage war with white man, and take the bloody heathen manas his ally, instead of the brother who bears the name of Christ!"
Humphrey looked with some wonder and fascination into the face ofthe youth who spoke. It was a refined and beautiful face,notwithstanding the evidences of long exposure to sun and wind. Thefeatures were finely cut, sensitive and expressive, and the eyeswere very luminous in their glance, and possessed strangelypenetrating powers. In stature the young man was almost as tall asHumphrey, but of a much slighter build; yet he was wiry andmuscular, as could well be seen, and plainly well used to the lifeof the wild woodlands. His dress was that of the backwoods, dresseddeerskin being the chief material used. Both travellers woremoccasins on their feet, and carried the usual weapons of offenceand defence.
Yet Humphrey felt as though this man was in some sort differentfrom those he had met in the woods at rare times when out hunting.His voice, his words, his phraseology seemed in some sort strange,and he asked him wonderingly:
"From whence are you, friends?"
"From the land of the far south--from the rolling plains of thegiant Mississippi, that vast river of which perchance you haveheard?"
"Ay, verily," answered Humphrey, with a touch of bitterness in histone. "I have heard of that great river, which the French Kingclaims to have discovered, and which they say he will guard with achain of forts right away from Canada, and will thus command allthe New World of the West, pinning us English within the limits ofthat portion of land lying betwixt the ocean and the range of theAllegheny Mountains," and Humphrey waved his hand in thatdirection, and looked questioningly at the men before him.
He had an impression that all who came from the far south, from thecolony of Louisiana, as he had heard it called, must be in somesort French subjects. And yet these men spoke his own tongue, andseemed to be friends and brothers.
"That was the chimera of the French Monarch more than a centuryago. Methinks it is little nearer its accomplishment now than whenour forefathers, acting as pioneers, made a small settlement in agreen valley near to the mouth of the giant river, waiting for theKing to send his priests and missionaries to convert the heathenfrom their evil ways, and found a fair Christian realm in that fairland."
"Then were your forefathers French subjects?" asked Humphrey,rather bewildered. "If so, how come you to speak mine own tongue asyou do?"
"I come of no French stock!" cried the companion stranger, who hadremained silent until now, looking searchingly round t
he clearing,and examining Humphrey himself with curiosity; "I have no drop ofFrench blood in my veins, whatever Julian may have. I am FritzNeville. I come of an English family. But you shall hear all lateron, as we sit by our fire at night. I would hear all your tale ofdesolation and woe. We, for our part, have no cause to love theFrench oppressors, whose ambition and greed seem to know no bounds.Can you give us shelter by your hearth tonight? Food we have of ourown, since we find game in sufficient abundance in these foresttracks."
As he spoke he unslung from his shoulders a fine young fawn whichthey had lately shot, and Humphrey made eager answer to the requestfor hospitality.
"Would that we had better to offer! But the homestead is burnt. Mybrother lies sick of a fever in yon shed--a fever brought on byloss of blood and by anguish of mind. I have been alone in thisplace with him hard upon a week now, and to me it seems as thoughyears instead of days had passed over my head since the calamityhappened."
"I can well believe that," said the first speaker, whom hiscompanion had spoken of as Julian. "There be times in a man's lifewhen hours are as days and days as years. But let me see yourbrother if he be sick. I have some skill in the treatment offevers, and I have brought in my wallet some simples which we findwonderfully helpful down in the south, from where I come. I doubtnot I can bring him relief."
Humphrey's face brightened with a look of joyful relief, and Fritzexclaimed heartily:
"Yes, yes, Julian is a notable leech. We all come to him with ourtroubles both of body and mind.
"Lead on, comrade. I will cook the supper whilst you and he tendthe sick man; and afterwards we will tell all our tale; and takecounsel for the future."
It was new life to Humphrey to hear the sound of human voices, tofeel the touch of friendly hands, to know himself not alone in theawful isolation of the vast forest. He led the way to the roughshed, which he had contrived during the past days to convert into arude species of sleeping and living room. He had made a hearth anda chimney, so that he could cook food whilst still keeping an eyeupon his sick brother. He had contrived a certain amount of rudecomfort in Charles's bed and surroundings. The place lookedpleasant to the wearied, travellers, for it was spotlessly clean,and it afforded shelter from the keen night air.
They had been finding the nights grow cold as they journeyednorthward, and Fritz rubbed his hands at sight of the glow of thefire, and set to work eagerly upon his culinary tasks; whilstJulian and Humphrey bent over Charles, the former examining thecondition of his pulse and skin with the air of one who knows howto combat the symptoms of illness.
He administered a draught, and bathed the sick man's temples withsome pungent decoction of herbs which he prepared with hot water;and after giving him a small quantity of soup, told Humphrey thathe would probably sleep quietly all night, and might very likelyawake without any fever, though as weak as a child.
And in effect only a short time elapsed before his eyes closed, andhe sank into a peaceful slumber, such as he had not knownthroughout the past days.
"Thank God you came!" said Humphrey with fervour; "I had thought tobury my brother here beside his wife, and the loneliness and horrorhad well nigh driven me mad. If he live, I shall have somethingleft to live for; else I could have wished that we had all perishedtogether!"
"Nay," cried Fritz from the fire, "we can do better than that: wecan join those who have the welfare of the country at heart. We canpunish proud France for her ambition and encroachments, andperchance--who knows?--England's flag may ere long proudly wavewhere now only the banner of France has floated from her scatteredforts."
But just at this moment Humphrey could not be roused to anypatriotic fervour. The sense of personal loss and horror was strongupon him. His thoughts were turning vaguely towards the mothercountry from which his fathers had come. For the moment the wildWest was hateful to him. He could not face the thought of taking upthe old life again. He had been uprooted too suddenly andruthlessly. The spell of the forest was gone. Sometimes he feltthat he never wished to look upon waving trees again.
As they partook of the well-cooked supper which Fritz had provided,and afterwards sat smoking their pipes beside the fire, whilst thewind moaned and sighed round the corners of the shed, and whisperedthrough the trees around the clearing, he told these strangers thewhole history of his life, and how it had seemed to be suddenly cutin half a week ago, whilst the last half already began to look andfeel to him longer than the first.
There was no lack of sympathy and interest in the faces of hishearers. When they heard how a Frenchman had been with the Indiansupon their raid, Fritz smote the ground heavily with his open hand,exclaiming:
"That is what we heard as we journeyed onward; that is the rumourthat reached us even in the far south. It was hard to believe thatbrother should turn against brother out here in these tracklesswilds, amid hordes of savage Indians. We said it must surely befalse--that Christian men could not be guilty of such wickedness!Yet it has proved all too true. We have heard stories during ourjourney which have filled our hearts with loathing and scorn.France is playing a treacherous, a vile and unworthy game. Englandis no match for her yet--unprepared and taken at a disadvantage.But you will see, you will see! She will arise from sleep like agiant refreshed! And then let proud France tremble for her bloodylaurels!"
His eye flashed, and Julian said thoughtfully:
"Ay, truly has she stained her laurels with blood; and she is evennow staining her annals with dark crimes, when she stirs up thesavage Indian to bring death and desolation to those peacefulsettlers with whom they have so long lived as friends. God willrequire their blood at the hands of France. Let her beware! for thehour of her destruction will not be prolonged if she sells herselfto sin."
There was a long silence then between the three men; it was atlength broken by Humphrey, who looked from one to the other, andsaid:
"You have not yet told me of yourselves. Who are you, and whence doyou come? I have heard of vast plains and mighty rivers in thesouth and west, but I know nothing beyond these forest tracks whichlie about our desolated home."
Fritz signed to Julian to be the speaker, and he leaned his backagainst the wall, clasping his hands behind his head. The firelightgleamed upon his earnest face and shone in his brilliant eyes.Humphrey regarded him with a species of fascination. He had neverseen a man quite of this type before.
"Have you ever heard," asked Julian, "of that great explorer LaSalle, who first made the voyage of the great river Mississippi,and founded the infant colony of Louisiana, albeit he himselfperished by the hand of an assassin in the wilderness, before hehad half achieved the object to which he was pledged?"
"I have heard the name," said Humphrey; "I used to hear the men ofPhiladelphia talk of such things when I was a boy. But he was aFrenchman."
"Yes, and came with a commission from the King of France hard upona century ago. My great-grandfather and his father were of thecompany of La Salle, although they bore their part in a differentexpedition from that which is known to the world."
"Are you then French?" asked Humphrey, half disappointed, though hecould not tell why.
Julian smiled, reading the thought in his heart.
"French in little beside name," he replied. "My great grandfather,Gaspard Dautray, was half English through his mother, anEnglishwoman; and he married Mary Neville, an English maiden, fromwhose family Fritz there is descended. In brief, let me tell youthe story. Long before La Salle had penetrated the fastnesses ofthe west, there had grown up in a green valley a little colony ofEnglish, outcasts from their own land by reason of their faith.They had lived at peace for long with the Indian tribes; but whenmore white men began invading their country, jealousy and fury wereawakened in the hearts of the Indians, and this little settlementwas in great danger. In their extremity this little colony sent toLa Salle, and though he himself was absent, his lieutenant sentthem a band of men to aid them in defending their lives andproperty, and in routing the attacking Indian force.
"But it
was no longer safe to remain in the green valley which hadsheltered them so long. They heard of the lands of the south, downthe great mysterious river, and they resolved to seek an asylumthere.
"With the company of La Salle, and yet not attached to it, was aholy man whom all the world called Father Fritz; a priest, yet onewho followed not the Pope of Rome, but loved each Christianbrother, and recognized only one Church--the Church of thebaptized. He went with the little band, and they made themselves anew home in the land of the south. They were beloved of the Indiansabout them. Father Fritz taught them, baptized such as were trulyconverted, and lived amongst them to a hoary old age, loving andbeloved; seeking always to hold them back from greed andcovetousness, and teaching them that the hope for which they mustlook was the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to reign uponthe earth."
Julian paused, looking thoughtfully into the fire. Humphrey heaveda great sigh, and said half bitterly:
"But the Lord delayeth His coming, and men wage war against theirbrethren."
"Yes, verily; yet I think that should make us long the more for theday which will surely come. However, let me tell my tale. The greatenterprise of France in the south and west has come to but a verysmall thing. No chain of forts guards the great river. The highwayfrom Canada to the south has never been opened up. France isspeaking of it to this day. These very hostile movements towardsEngland are all part and parcel of the old plan. She still desiresto hold the whole territory by this chain of forts, and shutEngland in between the sea and those mountains yonder. You haveheard, I doubt not, how England is resolved not to be thus held incheck. Major George Washington and General Braddock have both madeattacks upon Fort Duquesne, and though both have suffered defeatowing to untoward causes and bad generalship, the spirit withinthem is still unquenched. Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara, FortTiconderoga--these are the three northern links of the chain, and Ithink that England will never rest until she has floated her flagover these three forts.
"We have come from far to the heart of that great struggle whichall men know must come. The day of rest for us seemed ended. Wehave been travelling all through the long, hot summer months, tofind and to be with our countrymen when the hour of battle shouldcome."
Humphrey looked from one to the other, and said:
"There are only two of you. Where are all the rest from yoursmiling valley of the south? Were you the only twain that desiredto join the fight?"
"A dozen of us started, but two turned back quickly, discouraged bythe hardness of the way, and a few died of fever in the greatswamps and jungles: Others turned aside when we neared the greatlakes, thinking to find an easier way. But Fritz and I had our ownplan of making our way to New England, and after long toil andtravel here we are at the end of our journey. For this indeed seemslike the end, when we have found a comrade who will show us the wayand lead us to the civilized world again!"
"Ay, I can do that," answered Humphrey; "I know well the road backto the world. Nor is it a matter of more than a few days' travel toreach the outlying townships. I have often said I would go andvisit our sisters and friends, but I have never done so. Alas thatI should go at last with such heavy tidings!"
"Heavy tidings indeed," said Fritz, with sympathy; "yet we willavenge these treacherous murders upon those who have brought themto pass."
"That will not restore the dead to life," said Humphrey mournfully.
"No, but it will ease the burning heart of its load of rage andvengeance."
Humphrey's eyes turned for a moment towards his sleeping brother.He knew how welcome would be such words to him--that is, if heawoke from his fever dreams in the same mood as they had found him.
"And yet," said Julian thoughtfully, "we have been taught by ourfathers that brothers should live at peace together, even as we inour valley lived long at peace with all and with one another. Solong as the memory of our venerable Father remained alive there wasall harmony and concord, and every man sought his brother's wellbeing as earnestly as his own."
"Can you remember the holy man?" asked Humphrey, with interest.
"No; but my father remembered him well. He was well grown towardsmanhood before the venerable old man died at a great age. Mygrandfather has told me story after story of him. I have beenbrought up to love and revere his memory, and to hold fast thethings which he taught us. But after his death, alas! a new spiritgradually entered into the hearts of our people. They began to growcovetous of gain, to trade with the Indians for their own benefit,to fall into careless and sometimes evil practices. Before myfather died he said to me that the Home of Peace was no longer theplace it once had been, and that he should like to think that Imight find a better place to live in, since I was young and had mylife before me."
"Was that long ago?"
"Just a year. My mother had died six months earlier. Thedissensions of the parent countries had begun to reach to us. Wehad been French and English from the beginning, but had dwelt inpeace and brotherly goodwill for nigh upon eighty years. We hadmarried amongst ourselves, so that some amongst us scarce knewwhether to call themselves French or English. But for all thatdisunion grew and spread. Stragglers of Louisiana found their wayto us. They brought new fashions of thought and teaching with them.Some Romish priests found us out, and took possession of the littlechapel which Father Fritz had built with such loving care, and theMass was said instead of that simpler service which he had drawn upfor us. Many of us the priests dubbed as heretics, and because wewould not change our views for them, they became angry, and we wereexcommunicated. It has been nothing but growing strife and disunionfor the past two years. I was glad to turn my back upon it at last,and find my way to a freer land, and one where a man may worshipGod according to his conscience; albeit I have no desire to speakill of the priests, who were good men, and sought to teach us whatthey deemed to be the truth."
"I am a Protestant," said Humphrey; "I know little about Romishdevices. I was taught to hate and abhor them. We dwelt among theQuaker folk of Pennsylvania. but we are not Quakers ourselves. Outhere in the wilds we must live as we can. We have the Bible--andthat is all."
"People say of the Quakers that they will not fight!" said Fritzsuddenly. "Is that so?"
"I know not," answered Humphrey; "I think I have heard my fathersay something of that sort. But surely they will fight to avengesuch things as that!" and he made a gesture with his hand as thoughindicating the burnt homestead and the graves of the murdered womanand children.
"If they be men they surely will. You will go and tell them yourstory, Humphrey?"
"Ay, that I will!" answered Humphrey, between his shut teeth.
Fritz sat staring into the fire for some time, and then he toobroke out with some heat.
"Yes, it is the same story all over. It was the French who came andspoiled our happy home. If they had let us alone, perchance wemight have been there still, hunting, fishing, following the samekind of life as our fathers--at peace with ourselves and with theworld. But they came amongst us. They sowed disunion and strife.They were resolved to get rid of the English party, as they calledit. They were all softness and mildness to them. But those in whomthe sturdy British spirit flourished they regarded with jealousyand dislike. They sowed the seeds of disunion. They spoiled ourvalley and our life. Doubtless the germs were there before, but itwas the emissaries of France who wrought the mischief. If theycould have done it, I believe they would have taught the Indians todistrust us English; but that was beyond their power. Even theyheld in loving reverence the name of Father Fritz, and none of hischildren, as they called us all alike, could do wrong in theireyes. So then it was their policy to get rid of such as would notown the supremacy of France in all things. I was glad at the lastto go. We became weary of the bickerings and strife. Some of theelders remained behind, but the rest of us went forth to findourselves a new home and a new country."
Humphrey listened to this tale with as much interest as it waspossible for him to give to any concern other than his own.Something of that indignan
t hatred which was springing into activelife all through the western continent began to inflame his breast.It had been no effect of Charles's inflamed imagination. The Frenchwere raising the Indians against them, and striving to overthrowEngland's sons wherever they had a foothold, beyond their immediatecolonies. It was time they should arise and assert themselves.Humphrey's eyes kindled as he sat thinking upon these things.
"I too will go forth and fight France," he said at last; and withthat resolve the sense of numb lethargy and despair fell away fromhim like a worn-out garment, and his old fire and energy returned.