Kate Aylesford: A Story of the Refugees

by Charles J. Peterson

Directly in front of the equestrians, appeared a space from which the trees had been cut off by the charcoal-burners employed in providing fuel for the neighboring iron-furnace. Here and there about this clearing, which was nearly a mile long and a half a mile deep, stood various smoking, semi-circular mounds, like huge black ovens; while scattered around, were to be seen cubical piles of pine-wood, some partially covered with earth, and some as yet entirely bare. Though Major Gordon had never seen the process of charcoal making before, its different stages, as thus revealed, explained the whole to him. A log-hut, the rudest in construction he had ever seen, located in the midst of this desolate tract, showed that the charcoal burners temporarily resided here. But, at present, no signs of human life were visible about the cabin. Indeed, the eye of the Major did not rest on it, or on the smoking mounds, for more than a second, the spectacle beyond being such as to fix his attention immediately.

Back of the charcoal-clearing stretched the pine forest, like a wall of enormous reeds, sombre and gloomy as death. Just as the Major and Kate arrived at the turn of the road, the fire, racing before a brisk wind, had come into sight at the further end of the clearing. In little more than a minute, it swept across a tract of woodland nearly a furlong in extent. The flames had scarcely caught the lower part of a tree before they had run to its very top. Distance seemed to be no impediment to them, for, reaching a side-road, they did not perceptibly pause, but crossed it at once. Indeed, the dry, resinous trees appeared often to take fire without the contact of the elements, flashing into conflagration from the heat alone.

As the ocean of flame advanced, it tossed billows of pitchy smoke up into the sky, while red forky tongues shot continually forth, and lapping the air for a moment, went out forever. Where the undergrowth had been left standing along the edge of the wood, or where there was a tract of wild grass, the fire, catching to it, whistled along with a rapidity the eye could scarcely follow. It was a melancholy sight to see the tall pines, the growth of a century, standing one moment green to the top; and the next, after writhing helplessly in the lurid fire, left blackened and shrivelled wrecks. The roar of the conflagration, meantime, was awful, the sound of it seeming to pervade all space. Every instant it grew louder and deeper, for the flames had now skirted along almost the entire side of the clearing, and were consequently directly opposite to our equestrians, within only half a mile.

For the first time it now occurred to the Major that their situation might possibly become perilous. He censured himself for not suspecting this before, but as less than five minutes had elapsed since their arrival, perhaps less than half that time, and as, in that brief interval, his whole attention had been engrossed by the novel spectacle, his error was natural. He turned immediately to Kate.

She had not been less absorbed than himself, and was still eagerly regarding the conflagration, her whole attitude and air betraying intense abstraction. The quick, earnest words of her companion aroused her, however, at once. She started with a blush, at the first sound of his deep voice.

“We shall be cut off by the fire,” he said, “if we don’t fly for our lives. As soon as the flames reach this end of the clearing, they will extend laterally in our direction; for that is the course of the wind. Not a minute must be lost.”

Kate scarcely waited to hear him out. At once she saw the truth of what he said, and recognizing the imminency of their peril even better than he did, for she was more familiar with the treacherous rapidity of these conflagrations, she turned her steed, and, with no answer but a look, galloped back along the road they had come.

The horses had, for some time, been restless. But their riders, engrossed by the scene, had not observed this, though mechanically quieting them, from unconscious habit. The moment the animals felt the rein relax, and found their backs turned on the nameless horror which had oppressed them, they gave way to their affright, and rushed onward with terror, the sweat starting on their glossy coats, and their distended nostrils reddening with blood. Neither the Major nor Kate made any effort to check them. For both now recollected that the road they were following curved in towards the line of the fire, and that for a considerable time at least, they would be approaching the conflagration, instead of increasing their distance from it. In this extremity the same thought occurred to both. It was whether it would not be wiser to return, for, even in the event of being surrounded by the flames, the clearing would afford comparative safety. But each felt that already it was doubtful if they could regain the clearing, and that nothing was left but to press on at the most rapid pace of which Arab and Selim were capable. They looked at each other but did not speak, for looks supply the place of words in great emergencies. Both read each other’s thoughts, and both said mentally that their lives now depended on the mettle of their horses.

The air, meantime, was becoming so oppressive, that breathing grew difficult. The smoke and heat filled the whole atmosphere, and the terrified animals, now more unnerved than ever, were bathed completely in sweat, and began to exhibit a disposition to bolt aside. It was with the utmost difficulty that Kate could keep Arab’s head facing the approaching fire, the alarmed beast swerving continually. Selim, from having been trained to the battle field, was less affrighted at the smoke, though, as terror is infectious, he also commenced to be unmanageable.

Precious moments were thus lost. Suddenly the conflagration made its appearance, about two hundred yards in front of them, and crossing the road almost immediately, blocked up the passage with a solid wall of fire; while rapidly spreading laterally, it threatened, in a few instants more, to engulf our equestrians. Blazing fragments of bark were already falling around them; the flames crackled sharper, and the roar deepened.