Littlepage Manuscripts: Satanstoe, The Chainbearer & The Redskins (Complete Edition). James Fenimore Cooper

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СКАЧАТЬ were in the batteau. Perfectly inactive, it is not surprising that so young a soldier should feel sobered by the solemn reflections that are apt to get possession of the mind, at the probable approach of death—if not to myself, at least to many of those who were around me. Nor was there anything boastful or inflated in the manner or conversation of our distinguished leader, who had seen much warm service in Germany, in the wars of his reputed grandfather and uncle, young as he was. On the contrary, My Lord Howe, that day, was grave and thoughtful, as became a man who held the lives of others in his keeping, though he was neither depressed nor doubting. There were moments, indeed, when he spoke cheerfully to those who were near him; though, as a whole, his deportment was, as I have just said, grave and thoughtful. Once I caught his eye fastened on me, with a saddened expression; and, I suppose that a question he soon after put me, was connected with the subject of his thoughts.

      “How would our excellent and respectable friend, Madam Schuyler, feel, did she know our precise position at this moment, Mr. Littlepage? I do believe that excellent woman feels more concern for those in whom she takes an interest, than they often feel for themselves.”

      “I think, my lord, that, in such a case, we should certainly receive the benefit of her prayers.”

      “You are an only child, I think she told me, Littlepage?”

      “I am, my lord; and thankful am I that my mother cannot foresee this scene.”

      “I, too, have those that love me, though they are accustomed to think of me as a soldier, and liable to a soldier’s risks. Happy is the military man who can possess his mind, in the moment of trial, free from the embarrassing, though pleasing, and otherwise so grateful ties of affection. But, we are nearing the shore, and must attend to duty.”

      This is the last conversation I held with that brave soldier; and these were the last words, of a private nature, I ever heard him utter. From that moment, his whole soul seemed occupied with the discharge of his duty, the success of our arms, and the defeat of the enemy.

      I am not soldier enough to describe what followed in a very military or intelligible manner. As the brigade drew near the foot of the lake, where there was a wide extent of low land, principally in forest, however, some batteaux were brought to the front, on which were mounted a number of pieces of heavy artillery. The French had a party of considerable force to oppose our landing; but, as it appeared they had not made a sufficient provision of guns, on their part, to contend with success; and our grape scouring the woods, we met with but little real resistance. Nor did we assail them precisely at the point where we were expected but proceeded rather to the right of their position. At the signal, the advanced brigade pushed for the shore, led by our gallant commander, and we were all soon on terra firma, without sustaining any loss worth naming. We four, that is, Guert, Dirck, myself and Jaap, kept as near as was proper to the noble brigadier, who instantly ordered an advance, to press the retreating foe. The skirmishing was not sharp, however, and we gained ground fast, the enemy retiring in the direction of Ticonderoga, and we pressing on their rear, quite as fast as prudence and our preparations would allow. I could see that a cloud of Indians was in our front, and will own, that I felt afraid of an ambush; for the artful warfare practised by those beings of the wood, could not but be familiar, by tradition at least, to one born and educated in the colonies. We had landed in a cove, not literally at the foot of the lake, but rather on its western side; and room was no sooner obtained, than Gen. Abercrombie got most of his force on shore, and formed it, as speedily as possible, in columns. Of these columns we had four, the two in the centre being composed entirely of King’s troops, six regiments in all, numbering more than as many thousand men; while five thousand provincials were on the flanks, leaving quite four thousand of the latter with the boats, of which this vast flotilla actually contained the large number of one thousand and twenty five! All our boats, however, had not yet reached the point of debarkation; those with the stores, artillery, &c., &c., being still some distance in the rear.

      Our party was now placed with the right centre column, at the head of which marched our noble acquaintance. The enemy had posted a single battalion in a log encampment, near the ordinary landing; but finding the character of the force with which he was about to be assailed, its commandant set fire to his huts and retreated. The skirmishing was now even of less moment than it had been on landing, and we all moved forward in high spirits, though the want of guides, the density of the woods, and the difficulties of the ground, soon produced a certain degree of confusion in our march. The columns got entangled with each other, and no one seemed to possess the means of promptly extricating them from this awkward embarrassment. Want of guides was the great evil under which we laboured; but it was an evil that it was now too late to remedy.

      Our column, notwithstanding, or its head rather, continued to advance, with its gallant leader keeping even pace with its foremost platoon. We four volunteers acted as look-outs, a little on its flank; and I trust there will be no boasting, if I say, we kept rather in advance of the leading files, than otherwise. In this state of things, French uniforms were seen in front, and a pretty strong party of the enemy was encountered, wandering, like ourselves, a little uncertain of the route they ought to take, in order to reach their entrenchments in the shortest time. As a matter of course, this party could not pass the head of our column, without bringing on a collision, though it were one that was only momentary. Which party gave the first fire, I cannot say, though I thought it was the French. The discharge was not heavy, however, and was almost immediately mutual. I know that all four of us let off our rifles, and that we halted, under a cover, to reload. I had just driven the ball down, when my eye caught the signs of some confusion in the head of the column, and I saw the body of an officer borne to the rear. It was that of Lord Howe! He had fallen at the first serious discharge made by the enemy in that campaign! The fall of its leader, so immediately in its presence, seemed to rouse the column into a sense of the necessity of doing something effective, and it assaulted the party in its front with the rage of so many tigers, dispersing the enemy like chaff; making a considerable number of prisoners, besides killing and wounding not a few.

      I never saw a man more thoroughly aroused than was Guert Ten Eyck, in this little affair. He had been much noticed by Lord Howe, during the residence of that unfortunate nobleman at Albany; and the loss of the last appeared to awaken all that there was of the ferocious in the nature of my usually kind-hearted Albany friend. He acted as our immediate commander; and he led us forward on the heels of the retreating French, until we actually came in sight of their entrenchments. Then, indeed, we all saw it was necessary to retreat in our turn; and Guert consented to fall back, though it was done surlily, and like a lion at bay. A party of Indians pressed us hard, in this retreat, and we ran an imminent risk of our scalps; all of which, I have ever believed, would have been lost, were it not for the resolution and Herculean strength of Jaap. It happened, as we were dodging from tree to tree, that all four of our rifles were discharged at the same time; a circumstance of which our assailants availed themselves to make a rush at us. Luckily the weight of the onset fell on Jaap, who clubbed his rifle, and literally knocked down in succession the three Indians that first reached him. This intrepidity and success gave us time to reload; and Dirck, ever a cool and capital shot, laid the fourth Huron on his face, with a ball through his heart. Guert then held his fire, and called on Jaap to retreat. Fie was obeyed; and under cover of our two rifles, the whole party got off; the red-skins being too thoroughly rebuked to press us very closely, after the specimen they had just received of the stuff of which we were made.

      We owed our escape, however, as much to another circumstance, as to this resolution of Jaap, and the expedient of Guert. Among the provincials was a partisan of great repute, of the name of Rogers. This officer led a party of riflemen on our left flank, and he drove in the enemy’s skirmishers, along his own front, with rapidity, causing them to suffer a considerable loss. By this means, the Indians before us were held in check; as there was the danger that Major Rogers’s party might fall in upon their rear, should they attempt to pursue us, and thus cut them off from their allies. It was well it was so; inasmuch as we had to fall back more than a mile, ere we reached the spot where Abercrombie brought his columns СКАЧАТЬ