The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 1 of 2

by William Alexander Caruthers

  CHAPTER X.

  During the whole of the day succeeding the insurrection, our hero lay inthe most precarious and dangerous state; and the violent inflammatoryaction produced by several large sabre wounds so much unsettled hisreason, that the surgeon was compelled still farther to deplete hisalready exhausted frame. Towards night his mind recovered its powers,but his strength was still gone, and he lay upon his couch in all thehelplessness of infantile impotency; and toward evening, exhausted bythe previous night of turmoil and strife, succeeded by a day of feverishrestlessness, he at length fell asleep.

  There was one never-wearying eye that watched the fitful slumbers of theinvalid. Conscious, perhaps, that Bacon could never be more to her thana friend and protector, Wyanokee delighted in rendering him those quiet,but constant and indispensable services which his situation required.Not a change of his ever-varying countenance, as the workings of adiseased and excited imagination, were from time to time portrayed uponhis pale and already attenuated features, escaped her, while her ownbeautiful and expressive countenance, vividly displayed, in rapid andcorresponding changes, her sympathy with the sleeping sufferer. If anyone approached the door, her keen glance immediately arrested theintruder, her finger upon her lip, and a frown upon her brow, in herpowerful and national pantomimic token of silence. If the eye of thesleeper opened for an instant in bewildered amazement at the differencebetween the real scene before him, and the one from which in sleepingfancy he had just escaped, her wild and imaginative susceptibilitieswere instantly on the alert.

  The mind of the aboriginal, even when partially cultivated, is overcomewith superstitious reverence and awe, in the presence of one under theexcitement of a diseased imagination. Such had been the state of feelingwith Wyanokee during the whole of Bacon's mental hallucinationsthroughout the day, and now as she watched at his bed-side, during hisuneasy slumbers, her keen perceptions were tremendously alive to eachsuccessive demonstration. There was one member of the family, however,who entered and departed from the room unchallenged--Virginia! At thismoment she entered--her own tender sympathies wrought upon by all thelate harassing events; although differing in their developments andcause in some respects, they were in no wise inferior in degree to thoseof her protegee. She moved with noiseless step and suppressedrespiration until she stood over the couch of the wounded youth. Longand feelingly she gazed upon the sharp and pallid features; there wasnaught of passion in that gaze--it was pure and heavenly in its origin,as in its motive. Her moistened eye, with a movement almost peculiar tothe sick room, or the funeral chamber, turned slowly upon her attendant.No melting and sympathizing tear softened the brilliant and penetratingeye which met her gaze; there was excitement, deep excitement, but notthe mellowed emotion of regulated sympathy; in Wyanokee, the imaginationcontrolled the heart--in Virginia, the heart subdued and softened theimagination.

  There was something touchingly beautiful in the moral development ofthese two young and innocent hearts. There was a mutual instinctiveunderstanding of each, with regard to the position of the other, inrelation to the wounded youth before them; yet it had never beenadmitted even to their own consciousness, because they had neveranalyzed their own feelings, and circumstances as yet had never openlybetrayed them to each other. As they mutually exchanged glances,something like an electric thrill passed chilly through their veins, butit was only for an instant; the reasoning faculties of the mind examinedit not--they were not in a situation to examine it--imaginationcontrolled the whole mental organization of the one, and the tenderestand purest emotions of the heart that of the other. Virginia came torelieve the faithful and indefatigable Indian maiden, and as the onlypracticable means, sent her under some pretext to her mother. She nowoccupied a seat near the foot of the couch, in full view of thesleeper's countenance, faintly illuminated by the subdued rays of ashaded lamp. She had watched the varying and magnetic vibration ofmuscle and nerve for nearly an hour, when the eyes of the sleeping youthslowly and wildly opened upon her in a bewildered stare, and at lengthhe spoke.

  "The senses are not the only vehicles for communicating passing eventsto the mind," said he, his voice already hollow and sepulchral from theprevious excitement of the brain. Virginia understood him not, butsupposed that his mind was again wandering, but it was not so; hismental perceptions were preternaturally clear, as they sometimes areafter painful cerebral excitements.

  She made him no answer, hoping that he would again close his eyes torepose. But he continued, "How else can we gain knowledge of thingswhich have transpired when all the senses are shut up in profoundslumber? Just now I slept deeply, but not soothingly, and I thought Iwas on the brink of destruction, from which none but you could save me;and that Wyanokee persisted in attempting the rescue, and the more shestruggled the more irremediable became my difficulties. At length youappeared upon the scene, leaning upon your mother's arm; and she carriedaway Wyanokee while you redeemed me from destruction. This is indeed nofarther true than that you have taken the place of your attendant, andthat your mild sympathizing countenance is far more genial to my presentweakened state, than her wild and startling glances. But does it notseem as if my mental perceptions had caught a glimpse of passing eventswithout the intervention of the animal senses?"

  Virginia put her finger upon her lip and shook her head, to remind hercharge that strict silence was enjoined. For this there were othermotives acting upon her perturbed feelings besides the injunction of thesurgeon, had they been wanting.

  The invalid closed his eyes, and in a short time seemed to sleep morecalmly and soundly than he had yet done. It being the portion of thenight through which Virginia had insisted upon watching, she movedquietly to a couch by the window looking upon the river, and the bluehills beyond, and threw herself upon it and gazed out at the enchantingscene. Her own flower garden lay beneath the window, stretching awaytowards the river, and ornamented midway with a tasteful littlesummer-house designed by herself, and decorated by the hands of theingenious youth who now lay so helpless before her. The air was balmyand serene; and redolent of the richest perfumes of fruits and flowersjust bursting into maturity with the advancing summer. Millions of starstwinkled in the high cerulean arch of heaven, and were reflected backfrom the broad expanse of waters beneath, with an enchantingbrilliancy. The murmuring waters of the Powhatan rippled along the sandyshore with a melancholy monotony, indescribably soothing to her harassedand troubled mind. The various noises of the busy world around were oneby one sinking into silence. Occasionally the profound stillness whichsucceeded, disturbed by the distant bark of a watch-dog, or the morerural cackling of geese, faded away in the distance so imperceptibly asto leave the mind at a loss to know whether they were real sounds, orthose associations with the scene which the imagination often conjuresup to bewilder us on such occasions. Her eyes were half closed for amoment under these soothing and seducing influences, and the next,quickly opened to catch the fiery track of some darting meteor as itwinged its way through the starry heavens, or to follow the humblerlights borne through the air by myriads of fire flies which brilliantlyfloated upon the transparent atmosphere. A wild and startling note fromsome beast of prey, as it roamed through the trackless and unsubduedforests beyond the river, occasionally struck upon her ear, and ever andanon she turned her eyes toward her sleeping charge, and all the painfuland harassing feelings of the last few days returned. It was likeawaking from a delicious dream, to the stern reality of some pressingand constantly obtrusive misfortune. Her previous life had been tranquiland unruffled; until now her spirits buoyant and elastic. Suddenly thescene had changed, and all the unmarked and unrecorded pleasures of heryouthful years were lost in the cares and troubles of the present. Sheimagined herself the most irremediably wretched being in existence. Sonew was unhappiness to her, that the slight cloud which now hung betweenher and the happiness she had enjoyed seemed fearfully dark andlowering.

  But again the soothing influences of the scene without imperceptiblystole upon her senses, and she fell i
nto a slumber. Her imagination, nowuncontrolled by the sterner qualities of mind, mingled the imagesretained from the stirring events of the last few days in the mostfantastic forms. She saw her mother enter the garden with a slow andsolemn step, clad in the habiliments of the grave.

  Her form was aerial and graceful, and her features supernaturallybeautiful and glorious. Presently this figure was met by another ofcolossal proportions, approaching the summer house from the opposite endof the garden; his step was grand and majestic, and his countenancestern and warlike. He was clad in complete armour, and his mailed heelas it struck the gravel, sent the blood cold to her heart, and at onceconvinced her of the reality of the scene. As the figures met theypaused and seemed to hold communion for a time, and then pursued theirway together; but when they returned to view, the relations of theparties were changed, the colossal figure was using the most violentgesticulation, to which his companion seemed to bow her head in meeknessand submission, but not in conviction. At this the other suddenly sprangforward, seized his victim, and was about to leap the garden walls whenan attempt to scream dispelled the illusion. Virginia opened her eyesand glanced around the room to assure herself of the reality of thescene before her. The wounded youth still slept soundly, and the lampstill threw its flickering shadows on the wall. By a slower and morecautious movement of the eyes she next examined the garden without; allwas still and quiet as the grave, and gazing long and abstractedly uponthe little arbour she again gave way to the exhaustion of her physicalpowers, and again the same figures rose upon her fancy. Now all doubt oftheir reality was discarded from the very circumstance of the former'shaving proved a delusion. She knew the other was a dream, but this shefelt was truth, and she even went so far as to reason in her mind uponthe strange coincidence of the dream, and the present real scene. Thegigantic figure was now clad in the gray garb of the Recluse, his limbsmanacled with chains, while her mother knelt apart in the attitude ofdeep and unutterable wo. A crowd was gathered round as if to witness apublic execution; soldiers and citizens, knights and nobles mingled inthe confused throng. The criminal was kneeling upon his coffin, the capwas drawn over his face, and the fatal word was given! She awoke withthe sound of firearms still ringing in her ears, and the piercingshrieks of the female figure thrilling through her veins.

  It may be readily imagined that her startled perceptions were by nomeans tranquillized on perceiving, as she opened her eyes, the shadowsof moving figures upon the wall before her. In order to see from whomthese reflections came she must turn her head and look in the directionof the opposite wall, but for her life she dared not move! Terrorchained her to the couch. At length the shadows moved towards the door!By a desperate effort she turned her head in that direction, and to heramazement beheld her mother dressed in white, exactly as she had seenher in her dream, slowly and steadily leaving the apartment. She claspedher hand to her forehead and endeavoured to recall her bewilderedsenses. The confused images of her slumbering and waking perceptionswere so inextricably mingled together that for a time she was utterly ata loss to know whether the whole was real or a dream. Certainly theactors were the same, and the impressions continuous. She had not longlain in this bewilderment when she heard the door leading into thegarden, just beneath her window, softly opened, and her mother in a fewmoments walked down the avenue in the very direction she had before seenher take.

  Her eyes were intently riveted upon the movements of her parent, untilthey were hid from her view by the intervening trees and shrubbery.

  But she removed them not--they were still fixed upon the spot where shehad last seen her, until her white robes emerged here and there from thefoliage, when her eyes instinctively followed her, straining her alreadyweakened organs to catch the slightest change of position, and seeminglydesirous to penetrate the sombre shadows of the night, whenever thefigure upon which she gazed was lost to view. At length the door againsoftly opened beneath her window; and she saw the figure no more. But avery few moments elapsed, however, before another appeared upon thescene, of far more gigantic proportions and questionable business atthat place and hour. It was the same figure which she had before seenassociated with the one which had just departed; and now that she reallysaw them in flesh and blood, she was more than ever at a loss to knowwhich and how many of her visions of the night were real and whichillusory.

  The one now before her eyes was clad in his usual, half puritanical,half military tunic, and as usual he was fully armed, but the weaponshung quietly by his side; his arms were folded upon his breast, and hiswhole carriage and demeanour was subdued, sad, and melancholy. He stoodleaning against the vine-clad column of the arbour, with his eyesintently fixed upon the spot where the preoccupant of the scene haddisappeared. His chest heaved with emotion, which ever and anon foundvent in laboured respirations of unspeakable misery.

  At this moment a fierce watch-dog sprung at the intruder with savageferocity, and to one less accustomed to danger in all its shapes, woulddoubtless have proved a formidable foe; but in an instant a heavy blowfrom his iron sheathed sabre laid the animal struggling at his feet. Hestood leaning upon his weapon for an instant, and then moved slowly awayuntil he came near the river, when he laid his hand upon the palisaderunning along the foot of the garden, and leapt upon the beach like ayouth of twenty. In a short time Virginia saw his boat upon the water,his gigantic form rising and bending to his work with desperate andreckless efforts, the frail bark gliding over the smooth waters, "like athing of life," until it faded away in the distance to a mere speck.

  Her eye followed the receding object as it became more and moreindistinct, until a mere undefined point was left upon the retina, herown voluntary powers sinking more deeply in repose from the intentnesswith which she pursued the single object.

  How long she slept she knew not, but when she awoke the horizontal raysof the rising sun were beaming through the parted curtains, and themisty drapery from the river was rolling over the hills, and pouringthrough the intervening valleys in thousands of fantastic forms,weaving, here a rich festoon round the summit of one blue hill, andthere spreading out a curtain of mellow tints before another.

  The cool and invigorating morning breeze from the river, joined to theeffects of her last refreshing and uninterrupted sleep, completelydispelled the shadowy illusions of the night, and she arosecomparatively cheerful and happy. She was frightened when she cast hereyes upon the couch of the sufferer and found him awake, to think howmuch and how long she had neglected him. There was one indefatigable anduntiring nurse watching by the bed-side, however! She had stolen inunperceived during the night, and now sat upon an humble seat at thefoot of the couch; her eye as brilliant as if it was not subject to theordinary fatigues of humanity. The invalid too had slept soundly, andawakened this morning refreshed and invigorated, and with all hisinflammatory symptoms much abated.

  With all these cheering influences around her, Virginia's countenancewould have been soon clad in her wonted smiles, had it not been for anunbidden scene which every now and then was conjured up before herimagination, in which those near and dear to her were principal actors.But these, painful and inexplicable as they seemed to her, were far frombeing well defined in her own mind. For her life, she could not separatethe real evidences of her drowsy senses from the vivid images of herimagination. She was firmly impressed, however, with the belief, thatsome parts of them were true and real transactions! She firmly believedthat she had seen her mother and the Recluse during the night--nottogether certainly, but near the same spot and in quick succession; andshe as firmly believed that she had seen the latter disable thewatch-dog, mount over the palisade, and hurry away in his boat. So muchwas indeed true; her mother had actually visited the wounded youthduring the night, and she had actually walked in the garden, and theRecluse was actually there, but no meeting took place, except in theimagination of the worn-out maiden.

  She entered the breakfast room with these various impressions, real andimaginary, curiously mingled and confused, and bearing up
on her owncountenance an expression of embarrassment not less surprising to hermother, who was the first person she encountered. Twenty times she wason the point of asking her mother whether she had walked in the gardenduring the night, but as often a strange embarrassment came over her,resulting partly from what she thought she had seen, and partly fromwords dropped by the Recluse in her hearing--the whole confused,unarranged and undigested--the latter perhaps being entirelyunrecognised by her consciousness, but still operating imperceptiblyupon her conduct. She was not a little astonished, therefore, when hermother came directly to the point occupying her own thoughts at themoment, saying, as she approached her, and affectionately smoothed downthe clustering ringlets upon her brow. "You slept upon your post lastnight, my dear daughter? Nay--no excuses--there needs none. You wantedrest, little less than he whom you watched."

  "I did not sleep so soundly as you imagine, my dear mother; I saw you,methought, either sleeping or waking, and to speak truly, I scarcelyknow which state I was in;" and as she spoke she cast a searching glanceat her mother, but her countenance was calm and unruffled as shereplied, "You must have been sleeping, my dear Virginia, I stooped overyou and kissed your cheek as you slept."

  "And did you not walk in the garden?"

  "Yes I did! is it possible you saw me and spoke not?"

  "I did see you, dear mother, but I was afraid to speak."

  "Afraid to speak! Oh! you were afraid of waking Nathaniel?"

  "No! no! I was frightened at the appearance of your companion in thegarden."

  "My companion in the garden! my poor child, you must indeed havedreamed; I had no companion in the garden."

  Mr. Fairfax coming in at this moment, Virginia hastily took her chair atthe head of the table, and busily commenced her duties at the table, herthoughts all the while occupied upon any thing else.

  "What a strange being is that Recluse," said Mr. Fairfax, with apparent_non chalance_, "have you ever seen him, my dear?" addressing his wife.

  Virginia dropped the plate she was in the act of handing to her fatherand was seized with, to her parents, the most unaccountableembarrassment. She endeavoured to make some excuse in order, as shesupposed, to hide her mother's inevitable confusion. But the lattercalmly replied, "No, my dear, I have never seen him. I have always hadsome curiosity to behold him, but now that he has proved himself such apublic benefactor, I shall not be satisfied till the wish is gratified.Nathaniel had before excited us much by his account of him, but now Isuppose the whole city will be eager to pay him their respects."

  Virginia stared at her mother during this speech in the most undisguisedastonishment, until she saw the calm serenity of her countenance--theexpression of truth and sincerity, which had never deceived her, sostrongly portrayed there, when she was again lost in bewilderment, whichlasted throughout the meal. Her parents, however, were too much engagedwith their own subject of discourse to observe her unusual abstraction,and the meal therefore and the dialogue came to a close without anyfarther development pertaining to our narrative.