All eyes were quickly turned toward the place indicated, but there was nothing strange there.
“It is the old Whig! look! look! see that gaping wound—the gash upon his temple! It was I that did it—I killed him! Hark! hear how he cries for vengeance! See! he comes this way! Oh, horror, horror! he stretches out his hands to seize me—I feel their icy grasp! Oh God! I am dy—dying!” and with a piercing shriek, he fell back upon his couch.
The assemblage gazed upon the expiring man in gloomy silence. It was, indeed, a horrible sight to see him writhing in such agony. Edgar and Imogene, their hearts bowed down with sorrow, turned away; they could not endure the sight.
It lasted, however, but a few moments more. The impress of the hand of Death was on his pallid brow, and straightening out his stiffening limbs, he gave one long, struggling gasp, then all was over.
The surgeon sprung to his side, but the Tory chieftain was—dead.
CHAPTER XIII.
SMILES THROUGH TEARS.
On one bright spring morning about six months after the events previously related, the woods in the vicinity of Fort Ann were filled with a brilliant assemblage of Continental officers and their ladies, who were all in a merry mood, for there was a wedding to take place between Captain Edgar Sherwood and Imogene Lear.
The whole week had been occupied in preparing the grove for this important occasion. Seats had been erected for the guests, and under the shade of a giant oak a picturesque bower twined with wild roses and luxuriant foliage, had been constructed for the reception of the clergyman. The regimental band also had found a place near at hand made for their benefit.
In a word, every thing had been arranged with the idea of making the captain’s wedding a grand affair. It was not to be in a gloomy church, or a fashionable drawing-room crowded to suffocation, but in a grand old forest, under the bright light of heaven.
The troops of the garrison were drawn up in a long line on either side of the walk leading to the bower, and, stationed here and there along the way, were young girls dressed in white, and holding baskets of flowers to strew before the bride and groom as they passed.