[CHAPTER XVIII]
BESIEGED
Three hours later our house, barricaded in every way possible, was in a state of siege and around it lay a band of Shawnee and Doeg Indians, some hundreds strong.
Nay, more, we knew from various signs that the whole village, or hamlet, of Pomfret was in the same condition, and that, indeed, the surrounding locality was attacked by the savages. From the church below our plantations there came at intervals of a few moments a flash, succeeded by a dull booming, which told us that the cannon that had stood on its tower for many years was being fired, and thereby put at last to the use for which it had been originally placed there. The ping of bullets from flint-locks, and muskets, and fuzees, as well as the more dead, hard sounds of musquetoons, were continuous also; the yells of the Indians rose sometimes high above the cheers of the white folks, and, to add to all, from every manor around was heard the ringing of the great bells in their cupolas, while the burning of beacons was to be seen. In our house we had taken every precaution that time would allow us, and, to all the ideas which our ancestors in the colonies had conceived for defending their homes and families against attack, we had added some more modern ones. Thus the ancient device of laying down on the lawns and paddock--across which the Indians must pass when they left the plantations and copses in which, at present, they remained--old doors with long nails thrust through them was carried out, in the hopes of maiming some of our aggressors. Broken glass was also plentifully strewn about, while, indoors, water was being boiled and kept to boiling heat, so as to be ready to empty on them if they approached us. Then, too, we had rapidly erected stockades and palisadoes which must check any onward rush; the mastiffs which had replaced those poor beasts that had been poisoned were brought up to the house by the bondsmen, whose duty it was to attend to them. The convicts and bondsmen themselves were now all aroused, and every door, shutter, and window was fast closed, so that the heat inside on this July night was scarcely to be endured.
It was inside the house that the greatest resistance--which, if it came to that, must be the last--would have to be made; and the saloon, as being the biggest apartment in the manor, as well as because it had windows looking on to both the back and the front of the house, was selected as our principal point of defence; and here we four--Lord St. Amande, Mr. Kinchella, Mary and myself--were assembled. Upstairs, in every room, were told off certain of the white servants, most of the blacks having hidden in the cellars where they shrieked and howled dreadfully; so that, if the enemy did force an entrance, they must undoubtedly soon be discovered; while the rest had run away. Of these white servants, Buck, the man who had been a highwayman, had command, with, under him, Lamb, the brother of my maid. And certainly, judging from the sounds we heard above, these men seemed to have thrown themselves into work of this nature with far more ardour than they ever did into their duties in the fields, for we could hear them laughing and talking, and even singing at such a dreadful time as this. "Ha, ha," we heard Buck roar.
"Ha, ha! This is indeed work fit for a gentleman to do; as good, i' faith, as a canter across Bagshot or Hounslow Heath, with the coach coming up well laden. Look now, look, Lamb, lad; look. Do'st see that red devil crawling up from out the plantation; at him, aim low and steady. So-so, wait till he cometh into the moonlight. Ha! now, steady, let go." Then there was a ping heard, a yell from outside, and next, above that, the voice of Buck again. "Fair! Fairly hit. Look how he kicks. So did I once shoot one of the Bow Street catchers who thought to take me at Fulham. Load, lad, load, though the next shot is mine," whereon the desperado fell to singing:
Oh, three jolly rogues, three jolly rogues,
Three jolly rogues are we
As ever did swing in a hempen string
Under the gallow's tree.
In the saloon where we were, we had laid out upon a table the arms and ammunition we were using, or might have to use. My lord had no pistol with him since he carried always his sword, but Mr. Kinchella possessed one as, since the practice of carrying arm's had long since become universal in the colonies, not even clergymen went now without them--the Indians being no respecters of persons. Then there were my pistol and Mary's, which Gregory and my father had taught us to use and grow accustomed to, so that we could shoot a pear hanging on a tree--though now our tremblings and excitement were so great that 'twas doubtful if we could hit a man's body; and, for the rest, we had gathered together all the firearms in the house. To wit, there were my father's birding pieces as well as muskets for large balls, several blunderbusses and musquetoons, and some brass horse-pistols. Yet, as we asked each other, of what avail would these or, indeed, any defence be which we could make if once the Indians advanced to our doors in large numbers.
Outside--the place he had selected, leaving Lord St. Amande and Mr. Kinchella to be our immediate bodyguard--was O'Rourke in command of the overseers (who supposed him to be either a friend of the family or of one of the two gentlemen) and of some of the other bondsmen, and he was indefatigable in his exertions. He and they kept up a continual fire on the foe from their positions behind trees or under the porch, or from the stables in the rear, while, horrible to relate, as each shot was seen to be successful it was greeted by oaths of delight and dreadful cries; and, besides their shooting, they had also laid mines of gunpowder which would be exploded when the Indians advanced. Indeed, as Lord St. Amande remarked as he noticed this through the light-holes of the shutters, or went out himself to assist the others from time to time, whatever O'Rourke's past villainies had been he was this night going far towards effacing them.