Greenway Court; or, the Bloody Ground, Chapters LXIV-LXXV [pp. 440-465]

Greenway Court; or, the Bloody Ground.
ward the summit of the western range.
The horseman was a man apparently
about twenty-four years of age, and clad
in the uniform of a Colonel of the British army. His stature was lofty, his
seat in the saddle firm and graceful,
his person erect and as straight as an
arrow. There was something, in addition to all this, in the stranger's aspect
and bearing, which produced the impression of great strength of will, and dignity of character. His head was set almost proudly upon his shoulders-his
eye was clear and penetrating-in the
firm iron lip might be seen a resolution
which no obstacles could ever daunt. No
doubt from the troublous nature of the
times, for the Indians and French had
just touted the forces of General Braddock near Fort Duquesne-the horseman
was fully armed, both with sword and
pistols.
After pausing a moment to look around
him, he ascended, as we have said, the
western mountain, and in half an hour
reached a small cottage, in front of
which be dismounted.
Attaching the bridle of his horse to a
drooping bough, he approached the door,
at which, with a strange hesitation he
knocked. No one answered; no barking
dog indicated the presence of life in any
shape.
The stranger leaned his shoulder
against the door, and the rusty hinges
slowly turned, and gave him entrance.
The house was deserted. Some broken furniture alone indicated that it
had once been occupied. The stranger
looked around him with painful earnestness, anrid then went toward a small
apartment, upon one side of the main
room, his heavy heels armed with huge
spurs clashing upon the decayed floor,
and arousing a hundred echoes.
The smaller apartment was bare like
the larger, but the stranger suddenly
stooped and picked up an object from the
floor. It wats a small portion of a woman's or a child's ruffle apparentlysuch as at that period decorated the
upper edge of the bodice. An imperceptible tremour passed over the stalwart
frame of the personage as he gazed at
Last year shle die(],
The melody was sad and plaintivelike the whisper of the wind in the
mountain pines-the sigh of the autumn
breeze in the broomstra,w at twilight;like the gentle and murmurous lapse of
the waves, as they glide away beneath
drooping boughs, or under the bending
flowers of the meadows.
By the side of her cousin, whom she
had loved so dearly, near the grave of
Falconbridge, the child thus slept in
pea-ce. In the vast wild solitude, on the
brow of the great precipice, beneath the
outstretched arms of the mighty pine,
which bent in the wind, or swayed under
the f eet of the eagle, these children of
nature slept serenely.
We leave them to their slumber, awaiting the last trump. Afew words will terminate our chronicle.
1859.1
463
Caniiie I-)y iiiy side, clear and loving Now slie is I-,itigliing there iio more!
11 Briglit as a sunbe-,tn-i on the mountain;
Fair as the lily by lier side,
'Fresli tite water in the fountain,
Was Cannie, my 3oung Virginia bride!
1; Oll! all the world is sad and dreary
Nothing brings me solace all the dayDaytii-iie and nighttime I am weary Catinie's lbrever gone away!
'Long time I loved lier; now a roai-ning
Wide o'er the world cot(] and poor,
Ofttimes I tliiii] I see Iter coming,
Oittin-ies I liear ber by the silore!"
Such were the rude, homely Iii3es, to
which were attached this chorus, full tf
rude pathos:
11 Oli she was an angel,
Toll the bell, a funeral knell
For my young Virginia bride!"
LXXV.
THE LAST SCENE OF ALL.
Since these events, some years have
passed.aw.-iy, when on a beautiful evening of June, a solitary cavalier entered the gorge of the Fort Mountain
Valley, and took the road leading to