Young Lion of the Woods / Or, A Story of Early Colonial Days

by Thomas Barlow Smith

On Paul's return to his tribe, he told the Indians that DeFalt had become acquainted with a pretty young squaw named Charlotte Toney, and had gone over to Fort Cumberland to spend a few months with the Toney family, who were moving over there to settle during the coming winter, and that DeFalt would likely be married before his return. The Iroquois shortly after this returned to Grimross to spend a few days with his pale-faced friends. He told Margaret that some of the tribe were greatly agitated. The American sympathisers had seduced them by making great promises and by holding up to them a grand future. Paul said to Captain Godfrey, "you may all be murdered if you stay at Grimross; some bad white men now among Indians." Margaret did not care to advise her husband to leave, although she had learnt enough from Paul to convince her that great danger was all about them.

The Iroquois had proposed to Margaret to escape with her children to Fort Frederick, saying that he would take them down the river in DeFalt's canoe, which he had kept at Grimross. He said to her, "I will never leave you in times of trouble and will lose my life to save yours." She would not consent to leave her husband, although he strongly advised her to go, if she thought their lives in danger.

At length the Rebels and Red men grew furious. They arrived at Grimross early one morning, while Paul was out among the tribe trying to keep them quiet, and surrounding the house and store of Captain Godfrey they demanded his surrender. The yells and whoops of the Indians were terrific, demons from the depths of perdition could not have made a more frightful noise. The children were terrified; the youngest fainted with fright. At this crisis Margaret Godfrey calmly walked to the door while her husband and son Charlie stood a few paces in her rear. She opened the door, and as she did so in rushed the demons, led by the cross-eyed, monkey-faced rebel. One of the Indians by name Pete Gomez, took hold of Margaret and forced her to the floor, Charlie took up a stick of wood and knocked Gomez senseless. At this moment Paul Guidon returned, Horatio Keys, one of the rebels, had seized Captain Godfrey by the throat and was holding him tightly against the wall, Margaret clinched the rolling-pin and in an instant sent Keys staggering to the floor. The squinting monkey-faced rebel's name was Will, and Will by force pushed Margaret to the floor, and was dragging her by the hand toward the door, as Paul stepped in. Paul struck him with his fist, and like lightning placed both his feet against the rebel's breast, almost knocking the life out of him. Jim Wade, Sam Scarp, and Mark Paul, three Indians, rushed in after Paul, who turned and struck Wade a terrific blow on the neck, knocking him out. The Captain, Charlie, Paul and Margaret went for the other two in lively style and soon laid them low. The remaining rebels and Indians beat a hasty retreat to the woods. The insolent invaders who had got so deservedly well punished at the hands of the Godfrey household were pitched out of the house, and when they had sufficiently recovered they also made for the woods. During the tumult the four smaller children were fastened in the bedroom and their screams were terrible. The night after the assault was a dismal and anxious one at Grimross. The children trembled and sobbed during the entire hours of darkness. The morning at length dawned, and with its dawning Margaret Godfrey's soul went out for counsel and guidance to Him, who in all their perils, in the darkest moments of their lives, had never forsaken them.

She said to Paul Guidon, "the rebels may kill my husband, my children and myself, but from this hour their threats shall not intimidate me from acting as a British subject should act in a British Colony. I shall do my duty, for under God I am determined whenever and however we attempt to make our escape, if I have to die I shall die free and not as a slave or traitor." The Indian who had attentively listened to Margaret's words promised to stand by her.

"Paul Guidon," she continued, "there remains to us a great duty to be performed. I am fully convinced there will be a way of escape opened to us, but we must seek it first. Cannot we escape to Fort Frederick? Is the canoe safe to convey the whole of us and what stuff we may require?" To which the Iroquois replied, "If water smooth no trouble, trouble may be Indians 'long river bank, I go up Neck and bring down canoe." This latter he quickly did, hauling it on shore and hiding it among some bushes.

In a few days three of the rebels, armed with pistols, again came to the shop of Captain Godfrey, and sternly demanded of him all his goods and chattels, to be held by them in trust, and to be restored to him at the close of the American rebellion, on condition that he joined General Washington. His refusal of these conditions was, by the decree of the war committee, to be punished with death. This committee had a number of armed men as the instruments by which they enforced their decrees. The three envoys gave the Captain one hour to consider their proposal.

At the expiration of the hour Margaret Godfrey and her husband came into the room where the rebels were seated. Margaret asked them how her husband and family should be able to join General Washington; "Would they not be arrested as spies or enemies of the New England colonists if they attempted to pass over among them?"

One of the rebels answered her, "If you will go and join General Washington, we will give you a pass into New England, and as soon as we can consult with the war committee we will bring or send you the passport."

Margaret trembled lest her husband would suddenly object to the proceeding, as nothing definite had been arranged during their hour of debating the situation, only that they must escape if possible. She was well aware of her husband's sterling loyalty. She caught his eye and nodded to him to assent to the proposition of the rebels.

He did so. The rebels left, promising the pass the next day, and that in twenty-four hours after receiving it, a guard would be ready to escort them on their way to New England. It being late in the afternoon the rebels then left. At noon the following day a messenger arrived with the passport, and also an order to be ready to proceed toward New England on the following day. The permit or passport read as follows: