FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>  
ime when a tall woman in black on a black horse came up at a steady amble, her horse being old. She dismounted near me and her horse went to nibbling the low-hanging boughs of a locust nearby, and the moon shone full on her face, and I saw she was the Widow Tabitha Story, with that curious patch on her forehead. Down to the tobacco she bent and went to work stiffly with unaccustomed hands to such work, and then again rang that cry of "Remember Nathaniel Bacon!" And when she heard that, up she reared herself, and raised such a shrill response of "Remember Nathaniel Bacon!" in a high-sobbing voice, as I never heard. And after that for a minute the field seemed to fairly howl with that cry of following, and memory for the dead hero, always Madam Tabitha Story's voice in the lead, shrieking over it like a cat's. "Lord, have mercy on us," said Parson Downs at my elbow. "She will have all England upon us, and wherefore could not the women have kept out of this stew?" With that he went over to the widow and strove to quiet her, but she only shrieked with more fury, with Mistresses Longman and Allgood to aid her, and then--came in a mad rush upon us of horse and foot, the militia, under Capt. Robert Waller. XVIII I have seen the same effect when a stone was thrown into a boil of river-rapids; an enhancement and marvellous entanglement of swiftness and fury, and spread of broken circles, which confused the sight at the time and the memory afterwards. It was but a small body of horse and foot, which charged us whilst we were cutting the tobacco on the plantation of Laurel Creek, but it needed not a large one to put to rout a company so overbalanced by enthusiasm, and cider, and that marvellous greed of destruction. No more than seven gentlemen of us there were to make a stand, and not more than some twenty-five of the rabble to be depended upon. As for me, the principal thought in my mind when the militia burst upon us, was the safety of Mary Cavendish. Straight to the door of the great house I rushed, and Sir Humphrey Hyde was with me. As for the other gentlemen, they were fighting here and there as they could, Captain Jaynes making efforts to keep the main body of the defenders at his back, but with little avail. I stood against the door of the house, resolved upon but one course--that my dead body should be the threshold over which they crossed to Mary Cavendish. It was but a pitiful resolve, for what c
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>  



Top keywords:
marvellous
 

Cavendish

 

Remember

 

Nathaniel

 

gentlemen

 
memory
 
tobacco
 

militia

 
Tabitha
 

overbalanced


charged

 

rapids

 
enhancement
 

confused

 
circles
 

enthusiasm

 
broken
 
swiftness
 

needed

 

entanglement


plantation

 

cutting

 

Laurel

 

spread

 

whilst

 

company

 

defenders

 

Captain

 

Jaynes

 

making


efforts

 
pitiful
 

resolve

 

crossed

 

threshold

 
resolved
 

fighting

 
rabble
 

depended

 
principal

twenty
 

thought

 
Humphrey
 
rushed
 

safety

 

Straight

 
destruction
 

reared

 
unaccustomed
 

forehead