Satanstoe; Or, the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the Colony

by James Fenimore Cooper

As this was well, he was told to watch the enemy, while we bore our friend towards the Nest. Dirck consented to precede us, and let the melancholy truth be known, while I continued with Guert, who held my hand the whole distance. We were a most melancholy procession, for victors. Not a serious hurt had any of our party received, in this last affair, the wound of Guert Ten Eyck excepted; yet, I question if more real sorrow would have been felt over two or three other deaths. We had become accustomed to our situation; it is wonderful how soon the soldier does; rendering death familiar, and disarming him of half his terrors; but calamities can, and do occur, to bring back an army to a sense of its true nature and its dependence on Providence. Such had been the effect of the loss of Lord Howe, on the troops before Ticonderoga, and such was the effect of the fall of Guert Ten Eyck, on the small band that was collected to defend the possessions and firesides of Ravensnest.

We entered the gate of the house, and found most of its tenants already in the court, collected like a congregation in a church that awaits the entrance of the dead. Herman Mordaunt had sent an order to have his own room prepared for the sufferer, and thither we carried Guert. He was placed on the bed; then the crowd silently withdrew. I observed that Guert's eyes turned anxiously and inquiringly around, and I told him, in a low voice, I would go for the ladies myself. A smile, and a pressure of the hand, showed how well I had interpreted his thoughts.

Somewhat to my surprise, I found Mary Wallace, pale it is true, but comparatively calm and mistress of herself. That instinct of propriety which seems to form a part of the nature of a well-educated woman, had taught her the necessity of self-command, that no outbreak of her feelings should affect the sufferer. As for Anneke, she was like herself, gentle, mourning, and full of sympathy for her friend.

As soon as apprised of the object of my visit, the two girls expressed their readiness to go to Guert. As they knew the way, I did not attend them, purposely proceeding an another direction, in order not to be a witness of the interview. Anneke has since told me, however, that Mary's self-command did not altogether desert her, while Guert's cheerful gratitude probably so far deceived her as to create a short-lived hope that the wound was not mortal. For myself, I passed an hour in attending to the state of things in and around the house, in order to make certain that no negligence occurred still to endanger our security. At the end of that time, I returned to Guert, meeting Herman Mordaunt near the door of his room.

“The little hope we had is vanished,” said the last, in a sorrowful tone. “Poor Ten Eyck has, beyond a question, received his death-wound, and has but a few hours to live. Were my people safe, I would rather that everything at Ravensnest, house and estate, were destroyed, than had this happen!”

Prepared by this announcement, I was not as much surprised as I might otherwise have been, at the great change that had occurred in my friend, since the time I quitted his room. It was evident he anticipated the result. Nevertheless he was calm; nay, apparently happy. Nor was he so much enfeebled as to prevent his speaking quite distinctly, and with sufficient ease. When the machine of life is stopped by the sudden disruption of a vital ligament, the approaches of death, though more rapid than with disease, are seldom so apparent. The first evidences of a fatal termination are discovered rather through the nature of the violence, than by means of apparent effects.

I have said that Guert seemed even happy, though death was so near. Anneke told me, subsequently, that Mary Wallace had owned her love, in answer to an earnest appeal on his part, and, from that moment, he had expressed himself as one who was about to die contented. Poor Guert! It was little he thought of the dread future, or of the church on earth, except as the last was entitled to, and did receive on all occasions, his outward respect. It seemed that Mary Wallace, habitually so reserved and silent among her friends, had been accustomed to converse freely with Guert, and that she had made a serious effort, during her residence in Albany, to enlighten his mind, or rather to arouse his feelings on this all-important subject, and that Guert, sensible of the pleasure of receiving instruction from such a source, always listened with attention. When I entered the room, some allusion had just been made to this theme.

“But for you, Mary, I should be little better than a heathen,” said Guert, holding the hand of his beloved, and scarce averting his eyes from their idol a single instant. “If God has mercy on me, it will be on your account.”

“Oh! no—no—no—Guert, say not, think not thus!” exclaimed Mary Wallace, shocked at this excess of his attachment even for herself at such a moment. “We all receive our pardons through the death and mediation of his Blessed Son. Nothing else can save you, or any of us, my dear, dear Guert; and I implore you not to think otherwise.”

Guert looked a little bewildered; still he looked pleased. The first expression was probably produced by his not exactly comprehending the nature of that mysterious expiation, which baffles the unaided powers of man, and which, indeed, is to be felt, rather than understood. The look of pleasure had its origin in the 'dear, dear Guert,' and, more than that, in the consciousness of possessing the affections of the woman he had so long loved, almost against hope. Guert Ten Eyck was a man of bold and reckless character, in all that pertained to risks, frolic, and youthful adventure; but the meekest Christian could scarcely possess a more lowly opinion of his own frailties and sins, than this dashing young fellow possessed of his own claims to be valued by such a being as Mary Wallace. I often wondered how he ever presumed to love her, but suppose the apparent vanity must be ascribed to the resistless power of a passion that is known to be the strongest of our nature. It was also a sort of moral anomaly that two so opposed to each other in character; the one verging on extreme recklessness, the other pushing prudence almost to prudery; the one so gay as to seem to live for frolic, the other quiet and reserved should conceive this strong predilection for each other; but so it was. I have heard persons say, however, that these varieties in temperament awaken interest, and that they who have commenced with such dissimilarities, but have assimilated by communion, attachment, and habits, after all, make the happiest couples.