CHAPTER XXIX
On that part of Lake Champlain, or Corlear, as it was called by theIndians, where, quitting the narrow basin which it occupies from itssouthern extremity to some distance northward of Ticonderoga, it opensout into a broader sheet of water, and sweeps round the smallpeninsula of Crown Point, a large canoe was seen crossing to theCanada side, with some sixteen or seventeen persons on board, amongstwhom were Edith Prevost and her companion, Woodchuck. There was noattempt at concealment, no creeping along under shelter of the banks,but boldly and openly the Indians paddled on, within range of the gunsof the French fort, and then directly across the bows of two large,flat-bottomed boats or batteaux, accompanied by several light canoes,each of the latter containing six or seven men, which were going downthe lake in the direction of Ticonderoga.
From each of the larger boats the flag of France was conspicuouslydisplayed; but as the strange canoe above mentioned seemed bearingstraight for the shore, fully in possession of France, its movements,for a time, appeared to excite no attention. Neither the batteaux northe other canoes altered their course, the men in the formercontinuing a shouted conversation in a mixed jargon, part French, partIndian, with their dusky companions in the lesser craft, who kept asnearly alongside as possible.
At length, however, it would seem some suspicion was excited. Twofigures, male and female, were discerned from the batteaux in thestern of the strange canoe, whose dress at once showed them to belongto none of the Indian tribes, and was also somewhat different fromthat of either the Canadian colonists or the native French. The twoparties were now within less than a hundred yards of each other, andit seemed doubtful whether the large canoe would clear the easternFrench boat without trouble. But suddenly a voice was raised loud inthe foremost batteau and a question was put in French as to whitherthe others were bound, and who they were.
The Indians were silent, for they did not understand the wordsaddressed to them; but Woodchuck whispered eagerly: "Answer! answer!if you can speak their jargon. Rather be in the hands of Frenchofficers than these incarnate devils!"
Edith's eyes had been cast down, and so full of bitter tears that shehad seen nothing since they left the western shore. But now she lookedup, and in an instant her presence of mind returned. It is true shedid not speak at once, for she feared her voice would not reach theboat; but it was nearing the canoe fast, and in a moment after thequestion was repeated in a more peremptory and a more distinct tone.
"Tell them we are allies of the great French chief," said Apukwa, whoseemed to comprehend in some degree the meaning of the call. "Say weare going to join our Canadian father;" and he glared fiercely as hespoke.
"We are English!" exclaimed Edith, in French, exerting her utmostpower of voice. "We are English and Iroquois, going I know notwhither!"
Instantly, at a signal from the batteaux, the light canoes dashed outwith extraordinary rapidity, and before any effectual effort could bemade to escape, the larger canoe was surrounded, while the yells ofthe Hurons announced that they recognized at length a band of ancientenemies. With a fiend-like look at Edith, Apukwa drew his tomahawkfrom his belt; but the brother of the Snake spoke some words to him ina low tone, the weapon was replaced, the men ceased to work thepaddles, and every face assumed the quiet stillness of perfectindifference. The yells and whoops of the Hurons still continued, sothat one danger seemed only to be escaped to encounter a stillgreater. Their fierce faces and dark, half-naked forms, tattooed andpainted, were seen all round, and the tomahawk and the knife werebrandished, as if for immediate action. But one of the large boatsbore right down amongst them, and soon grappled the canoe in whichEdith and her companion were. A handsomely dressed, middle-aged manstood up in the stern, as it came near, and turning to an Indian whoseemed a chief, by his side, said to him in French: "Keep your peoplequiet, Great Elk!"
A few words were then spoken, or rather shouted, by the Indian to theothers in the canoes, in a language which Edith did not at allunderstand, and in an instant every Huron sank down in silence, andthe light skiffs lay quiet upon the water, or only moved slightly withthe momentum they had already received from the paddles. Then raisinghis hat and plume, with an air of much grace, the French officeraddressed Edith, saying: "Will you have the goodness to explain to me,mademoiselle, who and what you are, and how you came to be in theposition in which I find you? I am sorry to be obliged to detain alady, but you have too many men with you to suffer your canoe topass."
"I am the daughter of an English gentleman," replied Edith. "I havebeen attacked and captured with the friend who was escorting me frommy father's house to that of Colonel Schneider; my two servants weremurdered--at least one of them, I am sure, was. The Indians who arewith me are Iroquois, who are taking me forcibly across the lake,toward Canada, and I have little doubt that I shall be put to deathalso, if you do not save me from their hands."
"But this is a strange story, mademoiselle," said the officer. "TheIroquois and your countrymen are in alliance."
"I cannot account for it," said Edith. "They are certainly Iroquois,for they speak no other language, except a few words of English. Youmust ask them what is the meaning of their conduct, if you have any onboard who can speak their tongue."
The officer turned once more to his Indian companion and addressedsome words to him in French; but the chief shook his head, and thendrawing his eyelids together, as if to see more distinctly, gazed intothe canoe, scanning the persons of the Indians closely. "They areIroquois," he said, at length. "Let us scalp them."
This proposal the officer did not think fit to comply with, at leastfor the time, and he replied, with a laugh: "Wait a little, my friend.The Great Elk shall have scalping enough soon. We will take themashore with us, at all events, and perhaps may learn more. Then, ifthey are really enemies, you may exercise your skill upon them to yourheart's content. The lady and her English companion, however, I claimas my prisoners. Permit me, mademoiselle, to assist you into the boat.You will be safer here, and may trust to the honor and courtesy of aFrench gentleman."
"I have no fears on that score, sir," answered Edith, rising; and,with the aid of the officer and Woodchuck, passing into the otherboat, which, flat-bottomed and heavily laden, was not much higherabove the water than the canoe. Woodchuck followed her closely, butnot without exciting the wrath of the Honontkoh. They had sat eversince the canoe had been grappled by the boat with the most tranquilstillness. Not a limb, not a feature had moved; and to the eye of anobserver ignorant of their habits, they would have seemed perfectlyindifferent to all that was taking place. In fact, one of themappeared actually going to sleep; for the sun, which had now brokenout after the storm, shone full on his face, and his eyes were closed,and his head bent. But the moment that Woodchuck put his foot over theside of the batteau a yell of disappointed rage burst from every lip;and, unable to contain himself, Apukwa arose and poured forth a fewwords of Huron, mixed with a good deal of Iroquois.
"Hold your tongues!" exclaimed the French officer, waving his handimperiously. "Tow them along behind us; and you, Great Elk, commandyour people to keep close round them and see they do not cut the ropeand slip away."
The orders were given as he directed, and the arrangements made; butwhen all was completed, and the boat was once more moving along thelake, the Indian by his side pulled the officer's sleeve, thusinterrupting a speech he had just begun, with a gallant air, to Edith,and seemed to explain something to him in a low tone.
"Well, we shall soon find out," said the Frenchman, with a gay laugh."If they are Iroquois who are going to become Hurons, and take serviceunder his majesty, we will make them fight for us where we are going.We shall not have too many hands to help us, Great Elk, and they'llmake a good reinforcement to your party. As for the lady and herattendant, I will take care of them;" and turning to Edith, with acourteous smile, he spread his roquelaure in a more convenient part ofthe boat, and assisted her to seat herself more comfortably, saying:"Mademoiselle is a great deal too charming to travel any m
ore withsuch savages. But may I know the name of this gentleman? Can he notspeak French?"
"Not a word, I believe," replied Edith.
"That is singular," exclaimed the Frenchman, giving expression to thegeneral feeling of his nation, who seem to believe that the Frenchlanguage is one of those blessings of God which it is strange Heshould deny to any of his creatures. "What is his name?"
It instantly passed through the mind of Edith that if she gave hergood companion the name of Captain Brooks she would be certain tocause his detention as a prisoner of war, and she therefore simplyreplied: "He is called Woodchuck."
"Woodchuck!" exclaimed the Frenchman; "quel drol de nom! Is MonsieurWoodchuck in the army?"
To the question, thus put, Edith could fairly answer in the negative,for Brooks, though he had seen no little fighting in his day, wasmerely one of those amateur soldiers, then very common in theprovinces, who rarely missed an opportunity of joining some band ofvolunteers in times of war with France, or fighting upon their ownhand, according to the Dutchman's expression, as one of the extensiveclass called stragglers. They generally bore away from the field,especially if they distinguished themselves, some military title, suchas captain or major, without ever having commanded half a dozen men intheir lives.
After having asked hie questions, and settled his conduct, the Frenchofficer's next business was, of course, politeness, and he would fainhave engaged his lovely companion in gay and lively conversationduring the rest of their little voyage; but Edith, though her mind wasgreatly relieved to find herself freed from the power of theHonontkoh, had many a subject of melancholy contemplation to occupyher thoughts. There was the dark and dreary consideration of herbrother's fate; there was the uncertainty of what might befall herfather and her lover; there was the separation from all most dear toher; there was the doubt, even now, whether she might not herself bedetained a prisoner amongst strangers; for the war in America hadhitherto been conducted by the French upon principles the mostbarbarous and most opposed to the ordinary characteristics of thenation. The scene which succeeded the capture of Fort William Henrywas a dark and damning fact, never to be obliterated from the minds ofmen; and although it has been put forth by an American author as theonly stain upon the character of Montcalm, that author must surelyhave forgotten the violated capitulation of Oswego, the death of thegallant De la Court, and the scalping and massacre of the sick in thehospital. All that we can trust is that these barbarities were onlypermitted, not encouraged. But how can we account for or excuse, howcan we even palliate, the witting and voluntary delivery of twenty ofthe garrison into the hands of the Indians, in direct violation of thearticles of capitulation, to be tortured to death under the very eyesof the French soldiery, as compensation for the loss of twenty of theFrench Indians? It is a fact which has never been denied, or it wouldbe too horrible for belief.
Edith replied briefly, therefore, to the compliments and prettyspeeches of her military companion, and in the meanwhile the boatproceeded rapidly over the surface of the lake, passed Crown Point,and entered the narrow portion of Lake Champlain, which stretches fromthat promontory to the spot where the Sounding Waters, as the Indianscalled the outlet of Lake George, flow into the greater lake, nearTiconderoga.
The French officer, somewhat baffled in his attempts to make herspeak, tried his fortune with Woodchuck, but with still less success;for to everything he said in French he received what can hardly becalled an answer in English; and generally, it must be said, not avery civil one; for Brooks was filled with all the most unreasonableprejudices of his country, and never uttered the word "Frenchman"without coupling it with the epithet "rascally." The voyage wasbrought to a close, however, before night fell, for the boat stoppedshort by a mile or two of Ticonderoga, and considerably to the northof the spot where the ferry now exists.
The scene would have appeared beautiful, had Edith's mind been free toenjoy it, for in front were seen the tops of the several boldeminences round the French fort, On the one side were those richlands, varied at that time with scattered masses of forest, though nowmore highly cultivated, known as the New Hampshire grants, and to thewestward a varied country, rising gradually to the foot of the MoheganMountains. The spot chosen for the landing was a secluded cove in thewoods, where the shelving rocks broke through the soil and dippedgradually into the water. Boats and canoes were all speedily hauledup. The commander of the party, with delicate attention, handed Edithout, and then gave orders to his men to follow him, which was effectedwith rapidity and precision. The savages, under the orders of theirchief, took care of the Iroquois prisoners, and apparently by noslight act of forbearance resisted the great temptation to possessthemselves of their scalps. When all had disembarked the canoes weredrawn safely up under concealment of the bushes on either side, andthe voyageurs in the two larger boats pushed off and took their way upthe lake again.
"I fear, mademoiselle," said the captain of the French soldiers, whomight have amounted to sixty or seventy, "I must trouble you to take asomewhat fatiguing promenade of some four or five miles; at least so Iam told, for I have never been here myself, and do not know thedistance."
"Then are we not going to Fort Ticonderoga?" asked Edith.
"Not so," replied the officer. "We are going a little beyond, and Ishall have no opportunity of detaching any party whom I could trust tosend you into the fort to-night. The Indians, indeed, could bespared--at least a sufficient number to escort you--but I shouldreally be apprehensive from what I know of their habits, that youmight not be quite so safe in their charge as under the protection ofmy musketeers, with your devoted servant at their head. We willendeavor to make you as comfortable as we can for the night, and Idoubt not that early to-morrow I shall be visited by some superiorofficer, who will have the honor of conveying you to the fort."
"Then am I to consider myself as a prisoner?" asked Edith, in a coldtone. "I did not know that it was the habit of French officers to makewomen captives."
"No!" replied the Frenchman, with a graceful bow; "we ourselves aremuch more frequently their captives. But, my dear lady, within thelimits of this garrison I myself have no command--am merely actingunder orders, and feel myself imperatively bound to send you and yourcompanion, Monsieur Woodchuck, to the commandant of the fortress, whowill act, I am sure, as he finds befitting. I only regret that Icannot do so at once; but my orders are strict, my route marked out,and I am told to hasten across this small peninsula, as fast aspossible without approaching the fortress. It is certainly a ratherlong walk, but if you feel fatigued I can easily make my men constructa little litter, and carry you. We shall find some preparation madefor us where we are going, though, I am afraid, not very suitable foryour use."
Edith evidently saw that remonstrance was in vain; and saying that sheshould prefer to walk, she took the arm of Woodchuck, and explained tohim as they went all that had passed between her and the Frenchman.
"I guess he is going to form an ambuscade," said Woodchuck. "If so,Miss Prevost, our army must be near, and we shall be long in theirhands. I wish to heaven I could get away from them, and had but ahorse to carry me," he added, thoughtfully, and with a sigh. "But it'sno use wishing. God knows his own ways best! Them Hurons look verymuch as if they would eat the Oneidas before they've done. Pray Godthey mayn't take such a fancy to us, too!"
Thus saying, he took the place which was assigned to him and Edith inthe march. A number of Indians preceded, several little parties movedupon the flanks, the small body of French infantry moved on twoabreast, for the trail was barely wide enough for that number.Woodchuck and Edith followed them, and the French officer, with theIndian whom he called Great Elk, walked next, succeeded by theIroquois prisoners, a large quantity of baggage, borne on men'sshoulders, and the remainder of the Huron auxiliaries.
It was now twilight in the forest, and for more than an hour afterdarkness had fallen upon the earth the weary and somewhat perilousmarch was continued. Once a small stream was crossed, Woodchuck takingup his fair comp
anion in his sturdy arms and bearing her over like aninfant. Nothing of any note occurred, except a slow and low-tonedconversation in the rear, which led Edith to believe that theIroquois, her late captors, had found some of the other band ofnatives with whom they could converse; but she could not distinguishanything that was said.
Weary and exhausted, the sight of a fire at length glimmering throughthe trees was an exceedingly pleasant sight to her eyes, and a minuteor two after a scene presented itself which might have seemed drearyand comfortless enough under other circumstances, but which lookedcheerful and comfortable after that long and miserable march.
The trail which they had followed terminated in a small open space,flanked on three sides by low earthworks of no very regularconstruction, but evidently designed by an experienced military hand.The outer surface of these works was partially concealed by a thicket,and great care had been taken not only to preserve the brambles andthe large-leaved raspberry, but to fill every gap in this shrubberyscreen with branches of pine, and hemlock, and maple. Within theseembankments the ground had, to a certain extent, been cleared, thoughtwo or three of the larger trees had been left standing, to prevent avacancy being apparent from without. About the middle of the openspace a number of rude huts had been erected, of small felled treesand branches; and before one, somewhat larger than the rest, asentinel was seen planted, who, at the moment Edith came in sight,stood motionless, presenting arms, as his comrades filed into thelittle quadrangle. Behind the soldier, and between him and the huts,was a large blazing fire, which threw out his dark figure, sharplyoutlined upon the flame.
"Ah! this will do," said the French commander, in a tone of relief."The commandant has been careful of us. Mademoiselle, I welcome you tomy redoubt, and will do my best to make the evening pass pleasantlyfor you. Now bring in the baggage. Tell the cook to get supper ready;and you, Pierrot, see that hut properly arranged for this young lady'saccommodation. I calculated on sleeping upon a very comfortablebearskin to-night, but I will most willingly resign it to you,mademoiselle, in the hope of your passing a good night's rest."
Edith would fain have declined accepting a sacrifice so enhanced, butthe captain insisted; and his servant, whom he called Pierrot, at onceset about the preparations for her comfort with a degree of skill anddexterity truly French. In the meantime, while Edith, sitting on thetrunk of a fallen tree, waited till all was ready, and while a groupof stragglers unpacked the baggage which had just been deposited fromthe sturdy shoulders of the bearers, the French officer called hisfriend, the Huron chief, to council; and Apukwa and the other Oneidaswere brought before him, accompanied by two young Hurons, whoundertook to act as interpreters. Many were the questions asked, andwhat between the captain's ignorance of Indian manners, and theinterpreters' ignorance both of the French and Iroquois, the worthyofficer seemed completely puzzled.
At length, however, after consulting the Great Elk in a low voice, heexclaimed: "Tell them, if their tale be really true--though I've gotmy doubts, for I never heard of Free Masons amongst Indians before,and that must be what you mean by Honontkoh--but if their tale bereally true, they may stay here with us, and prove their devotion toHis Majesty Louis the Fifteenth, King of France, by fighting theEnglish at our side. They shall be sharply watched, however," headded, in a low voice, as if speaking to himself.
Apukwa heard his words translated, and then, saying something inreply, pointed to Edith and her English companion with a look of toomuch meaning to be misunderstood.
"Nothing of the kind," answered the French officer, without waitingfor the words which seemed about to follow. "Tell him there's but onechoice, either to prove their story and their loyalty by fighting onour side, or to pass under the fire of these gentlemen," and he laidhis hand upon a pile of muskets which stood close beside him.
This intimation was quite sufficient. The Honontkoh agreed to stay andfight without any further conditions, and the Frenchman then gavestrict orders, both to his own soldiers and the Hurons--by whom theywere much more likely to be efficiently obeyed--that their verydoubtful allies should be kept continually in sight. He then seemed tocast all thought of the affair behind him, and turned toward Edith,who was already in the hut, saying: "I hope, mademoiselle, Pierrot hastaken good care of you."
"With all the skill and courtesy of a Frenchman, monsieur," sheanswered, really pleased with the attention and almost fatherlykindness of the soldier who had been arranging the hut.
"Then, now, as you have the means of rest, it only remains to provideyou with meat and drink," said the officer. "I see they have spread mytablecloth on the grass there. Will you and your friend come andpartake of my fare? Pray make my words understood to him."
Woodchuck readily agreed to accept the Frenchman's hospitality, butEdith declined taking anything more than a little bread and some wine,alleging that she needed rest more than anything. The French officer,however, would not be content with this, but with his own handsbrought her some savory messes which would not have disgraced aParisian dinner table, some choice wine, and, what was still morevaluable to her, a small lamp. He then closed the hurdle door of thehut upon her and returned to his meal with Woodchuck, keeping up withhim for half an hour a sort of conversation by words and signs,one-half of which was probably unintelligible to both. The Frenchmanthen took possession of another hut, and invited Woodchuck to share itwith him for the night; but the stout woodsman declined any coveringbut the sky, and stretching himself across Edith's door, was soon inprofound slumber.