| Object ID |
A2 |
| Object Name |
Painting |
| Dimensions |
H-19 W-13 inches |
| Early Date |
1925 |
| Late Date |
1926 |
| Description |
But leaving these belligerents for the present, we will now follow those who departed to execute the other part of this novel enterprise.
Keeping within the border of the woods, Warrington and his attendants soon made the circuit round the clearing, and arrived at the bank of the Creek in the rear of the buildings, before the attack was made on the other detachment. They had scarcely gained this position, however, before they were aroused by the rattling of Mclntosh’s salutatory volley on their companions at the other extremity of the opening. And, though the rise of land which intervened between them and the scene of action prevented them from ascertaining by sight the exact situation of affairs, yet readily concluding that the enemy in full force had taken the open field as had been anticipated, they made for the house with all possible speed to get possession of the works before the occupants could find time to return. On reaching the inclosure round the house, Warrington, leaving his men in the rear, went round to the front side and, after a moment spent in reconnoitering from behind a woodpile the parties in the field, crept up and made an attempt to open the gate. But to his disappointment he soon discovered that it was securely barred on the inside; while the noise of some slight movement within apprised him that the place had not been left wholly unguarded. On making these discoveries he immediately retreated to the rear without being seen by the enemy. There, standing beside the wall of the inclosure and eagerly gazing through a small crevice between the timbers, he found Selden, who, now turning with an expressive look, silently beckoned him to approach. Obeying the sign Warrington carefully stepped up to the spot and put his eye to the aperture which the other, now yielding the place, pointed out with his finger, when all that part of the arena within which was in front of the house was opened to his view. And the object that there met his eye struck him with scarce less surprise than what had just been manifested by his more romantic companion. Near the barricaded entrance into the yard, instead of a bearded warrior, stood a young and neatly dressed female of striking beauty, holding a musket and apparently enacting the part of a sentry to fire an alarm gun, or open the gate on the signal of her friends. She had evidently heard the movements of those without, and was now standing, like a startled fawn, her bosom heaving with suppressed alarm, her lips slightly drawn apart, and her head turned in the attitude of intense listening—all combining to give an air of charming and picturesque wildness to her whole appearance. A swarthy-faced girl was timidly peeping from the nearly shut door of the house, to which, on hearing the noise, she had apparently retreated. From the dress and appearance of the latter, Warrington was but at little loss in tracing between these two females the relation of mistress and maid. And now, with a rapid survey of the situation of the whole interior, as far as could be seen, he hastily quitted his stand at the crevice and turned to Selden.
“Isn’t she a vision of a creature?” eagerly whispered the latter, his fine dark eyes sparkling with animation. “What in the name of feminine wonders will you show us next, Warrington? But who and what can she be?”
“I am scarcely wiser than yourself, in that respect.”
“If the other was a Juno, this, I suppose, must be some warrior sylph of the Green Mountains.”
“Not of the Green Mountains, I suspect,” rejoined Warrington, “but be she sylph or Satan in heavenly guise, we must pay her a visit, and have possession of the works within ten minutes—the enemy are on the retreat for the gate, and there is no time to lose. Advance, boys, and lend me your shoulders for a stepping stone to scale this wall.”
The walls of the inclosure were about ten feet high, exclusive of the pickets which surmounted them, and which were formed of stakes three or four feet long, sharply pointed at the top and set into large augur holes bored in the upper layer of timber.
Taking his men to a part of the wall in the rear of the house which would screen them in their attempt from the view of the inmates in front, and thus afford them a better chance to get over unmolested and without causing an alarm to be given too soon, the leader mounted the shoulders of one of his men, leaped on to the top of the timbers, and soon luckily and without noise succeeded in wrenching out pickets enough to give him a ready ingress. And taking up his rifle from the hands of those below and ordering two of them to follow, and the other, who would have no means of getting up, to act in concert with Jones, he now swung himself down upon the ground. In another moment Selden and the man he had selected having been equally successful, they all three stood undiscovered on the ground in the narrow space between the wall and the back side of the house.
“Well, Selden,” said Warrington, with a humorous look, “in what manner shall we proceed with this formidable garrison - by storm or parley?”
“The latter, certainly, unless the storm is to be a storm of kisses,” replied the other, in the same spirit; “but seriously, lest the appearance of all of us at once occasion unnecessary alarm, I propose that one of us go forward alone for this purpose.”
“Yours shall be the chance, then, of displaying your bravery, gallantry, or diplomacy, as the case may require, in treating with the fair commander.”
“Thank’ee, captain.”
“But have a caution, sir—remember that other things sometimes inflict wounds besides leaden bullets!”
“Oh, borrow no trouble on my account, on either score,” gayly responded Selden, as he disappeared round the corner of the house on his delicate mission.
The merry boast of the last speaker, however, had, but for his good fortune, been a vain one: For the next moment after he passed out of the sight of his friends, the stunning report of a musket saluted their ears, while a bullet whistled by them and buried itself in the wall of the inclosure a few feet from where they stood. Instantly springing forward toward the scene of action, they found Selden standing in mute surprise, but unhurt, a few yards in front of the house and as many rods from the mad girl, who, in the suddenness of the alarm and trepidation that seized her as she accidentally turned round and unexpectedly beheld an enemy within the inclosure and approaching her, had just committed the half involuntary, half frenzied act of discharging at him a well-loaded musket, whose fatal contents he had but narrowly escaped. For a moment there was a dead pause, during which neither of the parties stirred from their respective positions, being nearly invisible to each other in the smoke which was rising in eddying whirls between them. Soon, however, the light and airy form of the warrior damsel became visible to her astonished besiegers. There, pale, agitated, and almost frantic with conflicting emotions, she still stood as if chained to the spot, holding with convulsive grasp the yet smoking musket, and apparently scarcely less frightened at what she had done than for her own personal safety.
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| Credit |
Gift of Thos. Nelson & Sons |
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