Part 10 (1/2)
Arnold and Pamesack were each provided with a carbine, when Dauntrees, throwing his cloak across his shoulders, led the way to the horses, where the party having mounted, sallied through the gate of the fort at a gallop.
Their road lay around the head of St. Inigoe's creek, and soon became entangled in dark, woody ravines and steep acclivities which presented, at this hour, no small interruption to their progress. Pamesack, on a slouching pony, his legs dangling within a foot of the ground, led the way with an almost instinctive knowledge of his intricate path, which might have defied a darker night. The stars s.h.i.+ning through a crisp and cloudless atmosphere, enabled the party to discern the profile of the tree tops, and disclosed to them, at intervals, the track of this solitary road with sufficient distinctness to prevent their entirely losing it.
They had journeyed for more than two hours in the depths of the forest before they approached the inlet of St. Jerome's. Dauntrees had beguiled the time by tales of former adventures, and now and then by sallies of humour provoked by the dubious valour of the innkeeper,--for Weasel, although addicted to the vanity of exhibiting himself in the light of a swas.h.i.+ng, cut-and-thrust comrade in an emprise of peril, was nevertheless unable, this night, to suppress the involuntary confession of a lurking faint-heartedness at the result of the present venture.
This inward misgiving showed itself in his increased garrulity and in the exaggerated tone of his vauntings of what he had done in sundry emergencies of hazard, as well as of what he had made up his mind to do on the present occasion if they should be so fortunate as to encounter any peculiarly severe stress of fortune. Upon such topics the party grew jovial and Dauntrees laughed at the top of his voice.
”The vintner's old roystering courses would make us lose our road in downright blindness from laughing,” he said, as checking himself in one of these out-breaks, he reined up his horse. ”Where are we, Pamesack? I surely hear the stroke of the tide upon the beach;--are we so near St.
Jerome's, or have we missed the track and struck the bay sh.o.r.e short of our aim?”
”The she-fox does not run to her den where she has left her young, by a track more sure than mine to-night,” replied the guide:--”it is the wave striking upon the sand at the head of the inlet: you may see the stars on the water through yonder wood.”
”Pamesack says true,” added Arnold. ”He has found his way better than a hound.”
A piece of cleared land, or old field, a few acres in width, lay between the travellers and the water which began now to glimmer on their sight through a fringe of wood that grew upon the margin of the creek or inlet, and the fresh breeze showed that the broad expanse of the Chesapeake was at no great distance.
”The Wizard's Chapel,” said Dauntrees, ”by my reckoning then, should be within a mile of this spot. It were a good point of soldiers.h.i.+p to push forward a vanguard. That duty, Garret, will best comport with your mad-cap humour--there may be pith in it: so, onward, man, until you are challenged by some out-post of the Foul One--we will tarry here for your report. In the mean time, leave us your hamper of provender. Come, man of cold iron, be alert--thy stomach is growing restive for a deed of valour.”
”You are a man trained to pike and musquetoon,” replied the publican; ”and have the skill to set a company, as men commonly fight with men.
But I humbly opine, Captain, that our venture to-night stands in no need of vanguard, patrol or picquet. We have unearthly things to wrestle with, and do not strive according to the usages of the wars. I would not be slow to do your bidding, but that I know good may not come of it: in my poor judgment we should creep towards the Chapel together, not parting company. I will stand by thee, Captain, with a sharp eye and ready hand.”
”Thy teeth will betray us, Master Vintner, even at a score rods from the enemy,” said Dauntrees: ”they chatter so rudely that thy nether jaw is in danger. If thou art cold, man, b.u.t.ton up thy coat.”
”Of a verity it is a cold night, and my coat is none of the thickest,”
replied Weasel with an increasing shudder.
”I understand you, Garret,” responded the Captain with a laugh; ”we must drink. So, friends, to the green gra.s.s, and fasten your horses to the trees whilst we warm up the liver of our forlorn vintner with a cup. We can all take that physic.”
This command was obeyed by the immediate dismounting of the party and their attack upon one of the flasks in the basket.
”It has a rare smack for a frosty night,” said Dauntrees as he quaffed a third and fourth cup. ”When I was in Tours I visited the abbey of Marmoustier, and there drank a veritable potation from the huge tun which the blessed St. Martin himself filled, by squeezing a single cl.u.s.ter of grapes. It has the repute of being the kindliest wine in all Christendom for the invigorating of those who are called to do battle with the devil. The monks of the abbey have ever found it a most deadly weapon against Satan. And truly, Master Weasel, if I did not know that this wine was of the breed of the islands, I should take it to be a dripping from the holy tun I spoke of:--it hath the like virtue of defiance of Beelzebub. So, drink--drink again, worthy purveyor and valiant adjutant!”
”What is that?” exclaimed Weasel, taking the cup from his lips before he had finished the contents. ”There is something far off like the howl of a dog and yet more devilish I should say--did ye not hear it, masters? I pray heaven there be no evil warning in this:--I am cold--still cold, Captain Dauntrees.”
”Tush, it is the ringing of your own ears, Garret, or it may be, like enough, some devil's cur that scents our footsteps. Make yourself a fire, and whilst you grow warm by that grosser element we will take a range, for a brief s.p.a.ce, round the Chapel. You shall guard the forage till we return.”
”That is well thought of,” replied the innkeeper quickly. ”Light and heat will both be useful in our onslaught:--while you three advance towards the sh.o.r.e I will keep a look out here; for there is no knowing what devices the enemy may have a-foot to take us by surprise.”
Some little time was spent in kindling a fire, which had no sooner begun to blaze than Dauntrees, with the Ranger and the Indian, set forth on their reconnoissance of the Chapel, leaving Weasel a.s.sured that he was rendering important service in guarding the provender and comforting himself by the blazing f.a.gots.
They walked briskly across the open ground towards the water, and as they now approached the spot which common rumour had invested with so many terrors, even these bold adventurers themselves were not without some misgivings. The universal belief in supernatural agencies in the concerns of mankind, which distinguished the era of this narrative, was sufficient to infuse a certain share of apprehension into the minds of the stoutest men, and it was hardly reckoned to derogate from the courage of a tried soldier that he should quail in spirit before the dreadful presence of the Powers of Darkness. Dauntrees had an undoubting faith in the malignant influences which were said to hover about the Wizard's Chapel, and nothing but the pride and subordination of his profession could have impelled him to visit this spot at an hour when its mysterious and mischievous inhabitants were supposed to be endued with their fullest power to harm. The Ranger was not less keenly impressed with the same feelings, whilst Pamesack, credulous and superst.i.tious as all of his tribe, was, like them, endowed with that deeply-imprinted fatalism, which taught him to suppress his emotions, and which rendered him seemingly indifferent to whatever issue awaited his enterprise.
”By my troth, Arnold,” said Dauntrees, as they strode forward, ”although we jest at yonder white-livered vintner, this matter we have in hand might excuse an ague in a stouter man. I care not to confess that the love I bear his Lords.h.i.+p, together with some punctilio of duty, is the only argument that might bring me here to-night. I would rather stand a score pikes in an onset with my single hand, where the business is with flesh and blood, than buffet with a single imp of the Wizard. I have heard of over-bold men being smote by the evil eye of a beldam hag; and I once knew a man of unquenchable gaiety suddenly made mute and melancholy by the weight of a blow dealt by a hand which was not to be seen: the remainder of his life was spent in sorrowful penance. They say these spirits are quick to punish rashness.”
”As Lord Charles commands we must do his bidding,” replied the forester. ”When the business in hand must be done, I never stop to think of the danger of it. If we should not get back, Lord Charles has as good men to fill our places. I have been scared more than once by these night devils, till my hair lifted my cap with the fright, but I never lost my wits so far as not to strike or to run at the good season.”
”_Laet lopen die lopen l.u.s.te_, as we used to say in Holland,” returned the Captain. ”I am an old rover and have had my share of goblins, and never flinched to sulphur or brimstone, whether projected by the breath of a devil or a culverin. I am not to be scared now from my duty by any of Paul Kelpy's brood, though I say again I like not this strife with shadows. His Lords.h.i.+p shall not say we failed in our outlook. I did purpose, before we set out, to talk with Father Pierre concerning this matter, but Garret's wine and his wife together put it out of my head.”
”The holy father would only have told you,” replied Arnold, ”to keep a Latin prayer in your head and Master Weasel's wine and wife both out of it.”
”So he would, Arnold, and it would have gone more against the grain than a hair-s.h.i.+rt penance. I have scarce a tag of a prayer in my memory, not even a line of the Fac Salve; and I have moreover a most special need for a flask of that vintage of Teneriffe on a chilly night;--and then, as you yourself was a witness, I had most pressing occasion to practise a deceit upon Mistress Dorothy. The Priest's counsel would have been wasted words--that's true: so we were fain to do our errand to-night without the aid of the church.--Why do you halt, Pamesack?”