The Land of Bondage

Even as he spoke, we heard the cracking and splintering of wood, we saw a strip of the massive pine-wood shutters forced in and a huge red hand and tattooed arm protruded through the opening, while the former, seizing the shutter, tore at it to wrench it apart.

"Hist!" said my lover, making a sign to the other to do nothing, "the first blood is mine," and, grasping his sword, he swung it over his head and, a moment later, the hand and forearm were lying at our feet. But no shriek from outside the window was heard, only, in the place of the bleeding stump that had been there, there came four large fingers of another hand that endeavoured to wrench away the wood as the other had done; fingers that met the same fate. Then for a moment there was silence outside-silence that was broken by renewed hammering from the tomahawks on all parts of the shutters.

But now there came a fearful howl from beyond the porch which was only explained to us by hearing the cry of Buck upstairs. "Good! Good! Give 'em another bath. 'Twill do 'em good. Their dirty skins h'aint been washed for a long while. Bring more hot water along quick, I say."

Unfortunately for us, those who were endeavouring to force their entry into the room where we stood, were sheltered from the boiling water by the roof of the porch (a solid stone one which served also as a balcony to the rooms above) as also were those attacking the main front entrance.

At the back of the house, however, on which a party of Indians were engaged in endeavouring to also force their way in, there was no porch, nor was there any to the sides of the building; and it was from these that we had heard the screams as the contents of Buck's great barrels had reached them.

It took, however, but little time for the water to become exhausted, and then we knew that the conflict must resolve itself into a hand-to-hand one. We might keep the savages at bay for some time, it was true, so long as they could enter the house by one door only, but how long, we had to ask ourselves, could such as that be the case? In a short time one of the windows of the saloon must go, or one of the great doors, of which there were two, or one of the side doors; and then the Indians would pour through the opening thus made and the massacre begin. Even with those men under O'Rourke and Buck we were not twenty-five strong, the cowardly negroes who were left being, as I have said, all huddled together in the vaults and cellars below, where they had locked themselves in-so that, since there must be two or three hundred Indians outside at least, the resistance could not continue long.

Alas! as it was, our front window giving on to the porch already showed signs of yielding to the attack from without, though now there was a fresh barricade offered to the incoming foe by a heap of their own slain who lay outside and also partly within the room. Already, my lord had shot several on the outside, taking deadly aim as their hideous faces appeared at the orifice, but the breach had widened so that two or three had crawled into the room to be, however, despatched at once by him or Mr. Kinchella.

And now, since, of all else, this window showed to those outside that it would yield more easily than any other spot, the attack was entirely directed towards it; the Indians were thundering against what remained of the iron-bound shutters with rams made of small trees that they had uprooted, as well as cutting away the lighter woodwork with their weapons.

"Another half hour more," said my lord, "will see the end. God He knows what it will be. Yet, dearest, since it is to come I am happy that I shall die in your sweet company. But, oh! Joice, Joice, if we might have lived how happy our future would have been."

"Must we die?" I wailed, woman-like, "must we die? And now when our love has not been told more than a few hours. Oh! Gerald."

"We can hope," he said, "but that is all. And, sweetheart, best it is to look things straight in the face." Then, even as he spoke, he fired again at a horrid savage who had half forced his body through the aperture-getting larger every moment-and added one more to the list of slain.

Now all the others were called for to come into the saloon and help in the resistance there, where the attack was principally directed; which call they instantly answered abandoning their previous posts. And, bad man as I at last knew O'Rourke to have been, I could not but respect him for what he had done on my behalf this night, nor could I but mourn for his evident sufferings. His bandaged arm, being helpless, hung by his side, his close cropped iron-grey hair was matted with blood from a wound in his head, and his face which had once been so purple was now as white as marble from his loss of blood.

"Oh! sir," I exclaimed, as I tried to still my shaking limbs as best I might, while I raised my head from Mary's breast on which it had been lying, she comforting me like an elder sister with soft words, "oh! sir, my heart bleeds for you. You have been indeed a true hero to-night in my cause, and I thank you."

"Madam," he said, speaking faintly, "I came here to do my best for you because-because-well-well, because you and this other lady received me as a gentleman; treatment that I have not been much accustomed to since I was a boy; though I was one once. No matter. The end is at hand, I imagine-ah! well hit, my lord, well hit, but it will avail us nothing now-I am glad that Patrick O'Rourke is making a good one."

The bit he spoke of was one directed by Gerald at yet another Indian who had just succeeded in crawling into the room as far as his head and shoulders; after which Gerald himself came back, and, standing by the others, said:

"All our partings have to be made now. See how they bulge that shutter inwards. There will be a score of savages in the room in a moment! Farewell, Joice, my darling; farewell, Miss Mills. Old friend," and he put his hand lovingly on Kinchella's shoulder; "farewell. And for you, O'Rourke," looking round at him, "well, tonight's work-especially your night's work-wipes all the past out of my mind for ever. O'Rourke," and he held out his hand, "let us part in peace."

At first O'Rourke made no reply but stood regarding the other as though dazed, and then raised his hand to his head, so that my lover exclaimed, "You are badly hurt. Is that wound in your head worse than it appears?"

"No, no," O'Rourke answered, speaking slowly, though he kept his eye ever fixed on the window, waiting for the inrush that was now at hand; "but it seems to me that the end-my end-is near. I have had these presentiments come over me often of late-it may be to-night, now in a moment-God He knows! And when Gerald St. Amande holds out his hand in forgiveness to me, it must be- Ah, well, at least you shall see I will die fighting-yes, die fighting"; and, as he spoke, he clasped Gerald's hand in his and thanked God that he had lived to have it extended to him. Then, once again, he asked his pardon for all the evil he had wrought him.

And now there came in Buck and Lamb and the other bondsmen and convicts-though no longer either bondsmen or convict-servants if they could live through this dreadful night-for they were useless upstairs any longer. With them came the mastiffs who had replaced those poisoned; fierce beasts, who seemed to scent the Indians they were trained to fight and whose eyes glared savagely at the windows to which they ran, while they stooped their great heads to the bodies of the dead ones lying inside the sill and sniffed at their already fast congealing blood.2 And the deep bays that they sent up, and which rang through the beleaguered house, seemed for the moment to have had its effect outside. For, during that moment, the yells of the foe ceased and the rushes against the iron-bound shutters ceased also, but only for a moment.

"What!" exclaimed Buck, catching some of O'Rourke's words, "die fighting, my noble captain! Ay, so I should say; or rather, fight and live. What! We have seen fighting in our day before," whereon he winked at the other, "but never in so good a cause as this for our gentle mistress. And if we do die fighting," he went on, as coolly as though death was not within an ace of us all now, "why, dam'me, 'tis better than the cart and a merry dance in the chains afterwards on a breezy common. So cheer up, my noble, and let's at 'em. Ha, ha! here they come!"

As he spoke, with a crash the shutters came in at last and, through the open space they left in their fall, there swarmed the hideous foe, while with a scream Mary and I flung ourselves into each other's arms.

Oh! how shall I write down the sight we saw? Naked from their waists upwards, their bodies painted and tattooed with rings and circles, bars and hoops; their faces coloured partly vermilion, partly white and partly black; their long coarse hair streaming behind them, their hands brandishing tomahawks or grasping guns and pistols, which they discharged into the room, they rushed in, while when they saw our white faces their demoniacal howls and yells were awful to hear. Yet, at first, all was not to succumb to them. Of those who first entered, four were instantly torn to the ground by the mastiffs who seized each a savage, and, having pulled them down, pinned them there as they gored their throats. Also, of those who came on behind these, many were shot or cut down ere they could leap over their prostrate comrades' forms. My lord and Mr. Kinchella by a hasty arrangement made with the others, fired only to the left of the window, Lamb and Buck taking those who came in on the right side, while O'Rourke, his sword flashing unceasingly through the smoke and the light of the room, fought hand to hand with those Indians who passed between the shots of the others, he being ably backed up by the remainder of the bondsmen and convicts.

"Steady! steady!" called out my lord. "Easy. Not too fast. Ere long there will be a barricade of their dead carcasses so that none can leap over them. Joice, my darling, shelter yourself behind the spinet; so, 'tis well. Miss Mills, how goes it with you."

"Give it to 'em, noble captain," roared Buck as, firing at a savage who came near him, he brought him down, exclaiming, "fair between the eyes. Fair." Then again, "At 'em, captain, at 'em, skin 'em alive; lord! this beats the best fight we ever had with any of the Bow Street crew; at 'em, lop 'em down, captain; ah, would you!" to an Indian who had advanced near enough to aim a blow at him with his tomahawk which would have brained him had it reached its mark, "would you!" and with that he felled the other with the butt end of his gun. "Heavens," he cried, "how I wish one of these redskins was the judge who sentenced me!"

It had become a mêlée now, in which all were fighting hand to hand-O'Rourke was down, lying prone, yet still grasping his sword; Mr. Kinchella standing before me and Mary still kept off those who endeavoured to seize us; my lord, Buck, and Lamb, side by side, fought yet unharmed; and of the others some were slain, some wounded, and some still able to render assistance.

And now, oh! dreadful sight! I saw the blood spurt from my beloved one's forehead; I saw him reel and stagger, and, with a shriek, I rushed forth and caught him in my arms as he fell; his blood dyeing my white satin evening dress and mantua.

Then, mad with grief and frenzy, I cared no longer what the end of this night's work might be. He whom I loved so fondly lay with his head upon my breast, while I knew not whether he was yet dead or still dying. My home was wrecked; all the light of my life was gone out, as I deemed, for ever. Nothing mattered now-nothing; the sooner the howling savages around me slew us all the better. So, through my tears, I looked on at the scene of carnage, praying that some bullet might crash through my brain or some tomahawk scatter my brains upon the floor where I sat with him in my arms.

What the end of this night's work might be! Alas, alas! the end was at hand!

The fighting had ceased at last. On our side there were no longer any to continue it; on the Indians' side there was nothing to be done but to bind and secure their prisoners. The ammunition had given out, after which Buck and Lamb were soon made fast and their hands tied behind them. Mr. Kinchella and the other men were treated in the same way and now came our turn; the turn of the two unhappy women who had fallen into the power of these human fiends. Yet, savages as they were, they offered us, at present at least, no violence, while one who had fought in the van ever since they had entered the saloon came forward and, standing before Mary and me, said in good English (many of the Shawnees and Doegs having learnt our language when they dwelt in peace with the colonists, and retained it and taught it to their descendants): "White women-children of those who drove us forth from them when we would have remained their friends, children of those who stole our lands under the guise of what they called fair barter and traffic-the fortune of the night's fight has gone against you and you are in our power."

"What do you intend to do with us?" I stammered, looking up at the great Indian who towered above all others. "I, at least, and those of my generation have never harmed you, yet now you have attacked my house like this."

"It is known to us, white woman," answered the chief, as I deemed him to be, "that you, the English woman ruling here, have harmed none, therefore you are unharmed now, you and this other. But it is the order of our great medicine chief, whose works are more wonderful than the works of any other man who dwells upon the earth, that you be kept prisoners until he comes; both you and this other with the dark eyes and skin."

"And who," exclaimed Mary, her eyes flashing angrily at the superbly handsome chief who stood before her, "who is your great medicine chief of whom we know nothing, yet who knows us?"

"He knows you as he knows everything that takes place from the rising of the sun until its setting, and who he is you soon will learn. Even now he comes from the destruction of other white men's houses like unto yours, he comes to claim you as his squaws who shall abide with him for ever."

I shrieked as he spoke, for I knew from tales and narratives told over many a winter's fire in Virginia what was the fate of those women who were borne away to be the squaws of these Indian chiefs; but, even as I did so, we heard shouts without as though those savages who had not entered the house were hailing some new arrival.

"Hark, hark!" exclaimed the chief. "He comes-he comes to claim you at last, as he has promised himself for many moons he would claim you. Hark, it is the great medicine man himself."