My name was not on the sentry-list for to-night; but upon the grounds now mentioned it was determined that I should be posted; and accordingly at three o'clock I took my stand about a hundred yards from the camp-fire, and soon beat a short path in the sand, where I was to walk out the hours of the night. The night ought to have been very dark and cloudy, with high winds, and a thunder-storm. I should have liked it much better; but it was not. On the contrary, the light of the moon in that latitude is sufficient to make a common newspaper type quite readable, and I was in the full blaze of it. But directly before me was the deep shade of the forest; so near, that by lengthening my walk a little I could have stepped into it, as from a lighted room into midnight darkness; and this gave enough of the mystical for the most imaginative sentry. The 'voices of the night' had died away one by one, leaving only the solemn roar of the sea and the pine-tops, and the wash of the tide, as it swept up occasionally into the long grass of the marsh. Once in a while, perhaps at a great distance, there would be a sharp, snappish cry, which I would stop a moment to analyze, and occasionally a splash, which might be an alligator crawling in from a night ramble; but to all these noises I had been previously hardened. However it may seem to the very romantic, it is not, after all, a very pleasant thing to stand in a bright light, where an enemy can approach within pistol-shot of you, or perhaps give you his first notice by a stab direct. The matter-of-fact probability, the expectancy, in this case is not so pleasant; and to one who has never been in just such a position, it would be amusing, the first night or two, to observe the increased circulation of blood, and the lively and exhilarated condition of body; far beyond a salt-water bath, and with nothing of the chill of it; on the contrary, very warm. Then the quick turn at the end of the walk, not knowing what may have taken place since the last facing; the Lot's-wife look over the shoulder; and all the time an acuteness of hearing that at last embraces a whole roar of small noises, surging and dashing like so many breakers.
I had been out about an hour, and was in something of a glow in this respect, when from the swamp side there came a sudden crashing. I halted, brought my gun to a half-bearing, and looked; nothing to be seen, but directly again, crash!—crash!—CRASH!
'Halloo!' said I, forgetting the militaire for a moment, and then resuming it with a blush, (I know I must have blushed,) cried out very boldly, 'Who comes there?' No answer, and nothing to be seen. I took out a small opera-glass and swept over a range of half a mile. Nothing moving, but the shade of the forest was so deep that any thing short of a bonfire might have been there, and I should never have seen it. All being still again, I resumed my walk, making it much shorter than before; and with very peremptory turns, half laughing to myself that any body should dare to approach a man with such a musket, and such a step, when again came the crash! crash! CRASH! and much nearer than before. 'Fury!' said I to myself; and I gave out the challenge, calling the corporal of the guard at the same time, with a rapidity that would have astonished a Frenchman. But there was no answer, and the whole camp was asleep.
This was a little too much. 'Man or devil!' I shouted, 'if you make one more step forward, I'll blow you to atoms!' and upon the last word, as a kind of bravado, as it seemed, came two more heavy crashes. Although considerably heated, I was at the same time very cool, and aiming carefully at the noise, I blazed away; a double charge of powder, a large musket-ball, and fifteen buck-shot. There was a rustling, and something like a fall, and then all was still again. I blew out the barrel, and with one eye on the marsh, was ramming down cartridge for another shot, when Boag came down, shouting like a madman: 'Where are they?' said he, looking all ways at once. 'There!' said I, ramming away, 'there; don't you see them?' 'Whoop!' said he; 'now I have 'em;' and aiming miscellaneously, he sent his ball almost any where in that direction, and gave another whoop that might have been taken for 'the real Indian.' My second cartridge followed immediately, and another was ready, when Bravo and his men marched down in battle array. 'Halt!' with a voice of thunder; 'make ready, take aim, fire!' and a whole volley was poured into the marsh. Boag was in raptures, and didn't wait for orders; but now, in charging for the next round, we discovered for the first time that the enemy didn't return the fire. Boag suggested that they might have crept round to the left wing, and proposed that we should fire in that direction; but that was considered rather promiscuous for a military operation. We sent out scouts, however, who went very short distances each way, but far enough to discover that all Augustine was close by; the horsemen taking the road, and those on foot coming cross-lots, crying out to us to hold on, and not fire till they came up; and making in various ways a vast display of courage, properly proportioned to the distance. The horsemen came up first, and made a furious charge upon the marsh, and all the people received orders not to fire in that direction till the cavalry returned. The day was now breaking, and the marsh was scoured for half a mile; but the enemy—had disappeared; not an Indian was to be seen; but wandering about, in a very distracted manner, was a young heifer, dangerously wounded, and close by lay her aged mother. She had received a musket-ball, and 'expired without a groan.'
Boag would have it that he saw Indians, and swore that he winged one of them, for he heard him yell, as did the guard, who knew all about Indian yells, and myself, who did not; but in a free country people will think as they like; and as they have dined, or been called out of bed to the consultation, will be the difference of opinion. Others in my position had been suddenly sick, and variously afflicted, to avoid duty. I had not; but this last chef d'œuvre did the thing effectually. From that day I was considered impracticable.
[SEED OF CONTENTMENT.]
FROM THE GERMAN.
Since Fate in her simple wisdom
Has passed me unfavored by,
I let the blind wheel of Fortune
Roll on without a sigh.
Still blest with humble fruition,
Disdained I the proffered store;
Nor to the current of youthful days
Did memory wander more.
Free from corrosive repining,
From discontentedness free,
I knew that to-day's enjoyment
A source of to-morrow's would be.