



Produced by David Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks,
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THE RANGERS

OR, THE TORY'S DAUGHTER

A Tale Illustrative Of The Revolutionary History Of Vermont And The
Northern Campaign Of 1777

By D. P. Thompson

The Author Of "The Green Mountain Boys"


Two Volumes In One

Tenth Edition





VOLUME I.


On commencing his former work, illustrative of the revolutionary history
of Vermont,--THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS,--it was the design of the author
to have embraced the battle of Bennington, and other events of historic
interest which occurred in the older and more southerly parts of the
state; but finding, as he proceeded, that the unity and interest of his
effort would be endangered by embracing so much ground, a part of the
original design was relinquished, or rather its execution was deferred
for a new and separate work, wherein better justice could be done to the
rich and unappropriated materials of which his researches had put him in
possession. That work, after an interval of ten years, and the writing
and publishing of several intermediate ones, is now presented to the
public, and with the single remark, that if it is made to possess less
interest, as a mere tale, than its predecessor, the excuse must be found
in the author's greater anxiety to give a true historic version of the
interesting and important events he has undertaken to illustrate.




THE RANGERS;

OR,

THE TORY'S DAUGHTER




CHAPTER I.

  "Sing on! sing on! my mountain home,
   The paths where erst I used to roam,
   The thundering torrent lost in foam.
   The snow-hill side all bathed in light,--
   All, all are bursting on my sight!"



Towards night, on the twelfth of March, 1775, a richly-equipped double
sleigh, filled with a goodly company of well-dressed persons of the
different sexes, was seen descending from the eastern side of the Green
Mountains, along what may now be considered the principal thoroughfare
leading from the upper navigable portions of the Hudson to those of the
Connecticut River. The progress of the travellers was not only slow,
but extremely toilsome, as was plainly evinced by the appearance of
the reeking and jaded horses, as they labored and floundered along the
sloppy and slumping snow paths of the winter road, which was obviously
now fast resolving itself into the element of which it was composed. Up
to the previous evening, the dreary reign of winter had continued wholly
uninterrupted by the advent of his more gentle successor in the changing
rounds of the seasons; and the snowy waste which enveloped the earth
would, that morning, have apparently withstood the rains and suns of
months before yielding entirely to their influences. But during the
night there had occurred one of those great and sudden transitions from
cold to heat, which can only be experienced in northern climes, and
which can be accounted for only on the supposition, that the earth, at
stated intervals, rapidly gives out large quantities of its internal
heats, or that the air becomes suddenly rarefied by some essential
change or modification in the state of the electric fluid. The morning
had been cloudless; and the rising sun, with rays no longer dimly
struggling through the dense, obstructing medium of the dark months gone
by, but, with the restored beams of his natural brightness, fell upon
the smoking earth with the genial warmth of summer. A new atmosphere,
indeed, seemed to have been suddenly created, so warm and bland was
the whole air; while, occasionally, a breeze came over the face of the
traveller, which seemed like the breath of a heated oven. As the day
advanced, the sky gradually became overcast--a strong south wind sprung
up, before whose warm puffs the drifted snow-banks seemed literally to
be cut down, like grass before the scythe of the mower; and, at length,
from the thickening mass of cloud above, the rain began to descend in
torrents to the mutely recipient earth. All this, for a while, however,
produced no very visible effects on the general face of nature; for the
melting snow was many hours in becoming saturated with its own and water
from above. Nor had our travellers, for the greater part of the day,
been much incommoded by the rain, or the thaw, that was in silent, but
rapid progress around and beneath them; as their vehicle was a covered
one, and as the hard-trodden paths of the road were the last to be
affected. But, during the last hour, a great change in the face of the
landscape had become apparent; and the evidence of what had been going
on unseen, through the day, was now growing every moment more and more
palpable. The snow along the bottom of every valley was marked by a
long, dark streak, indicating the presence of the fast-collecting waters
beneath. The stifled sounds of rushing streams were heard issuing from
the hidden beds of every natural rill; while the larger brooks were
beginning to burst through their wintry coverings, and throw up and push
on before them the rending ice and snow that obstructed their courses to
the rivers below, to which they were hurrying with increasing speed, and
with seemingly growing impatience at every obstacle they met in their
way. The road had also become so soft, that the horses sunk nearly to
the flank at almost every step, and the plunging sleigh drove heavily
along the plashy path. The whole mass of the now saturated and
dissolving snow, indeed, though lying, that morning, more than three
feet deep on a level, seemed to quiver and move, as if on the point of
flowing away in a body to the nearest channels.

The company we have introduced consisted of four gentlemen and two
ladies, all belonging, very evidently, to the most wealthy, and, up to
that time, the most honored and influential class of society. But though
all seemed to be of the same caste, yet their natural characters, as any
physiognomist, at a glance, would have discovered, were, for so small a
party, unusually diversified. Of the two men occupying the front seat,
both under the age of thirty, the one sitting on the right and acting
as driver was tall, showily dressed, and of a haughty, aristocratic air;
while his sharp features, which set out in the shape of a half-moon,
the convex outline being preserved by a retreating forehead, an aquiline
nose, and a chin sloping inward, combined to give him a cold, repulsive
countenance, fraught with expressions denoting selfishness and
insincerity. The other occupant of the same seat was, on the contrary,
a young man of an unassuming demeanor, shapely features, and a mild,
pleasing countenance. The remaining two gentlemen of the party were much
older, but scarcely less dissimilar in their appearance than the two
just described. One of them was a gaunt, harsh-featured man, of the
middle ago, with an air of corresponding arrogance and assumption. The
other, who was still more elderly, was a thick-set and rather portly
personage, of that quiet, reserved, and somewhat haughty demeanor,
which usually belongs to men of much self-esteem, and of an unyielding,
opinionated disposition. The ladies were both young, and in the full
bloom of maidenly beauty. But their native characters, like those of
their male companions, seemed to be very strongly contrasted. The one
seated on the left was fair, extremely fair, indeed; and her golden
locks, clustering in rich profusion around her snowy neck and temples,
gave peculiar effect to the picture-like beauty of her face. But her
beauty consisted of pretty features, and her countenance spoke rather
of the affections than of the mind, being of that tender, pleading cast,
which is better calculated to call forth sympathy than command respect,
and which, showed her to be one of those confiding, dependent persons,
whose destinies are in me hands of those whom they consider their
friends, rather than in their own keeping. The other maiden, with
an equally fine form and no less beautiful features, was still of
an entirely different appearance. She, indeed, was, to the one first
described what the rose, with its hardy stem, is to the lily leaning on
the surrounding herbage for its support; and though less delicately fair
in mere complexion, she was yet more commandingly beautiful; for there
was an expression in the bright, discriminating glances of her deep
hazel eyes, and in the commingling smile that played over the whole of
her serene and benignant countenance, that told of intellects that could
act independently, as well as of a heart that glowed with the kindly
affections.

"Father," said the last described female, addressing the eldest
gentleman, for the purpose, apparently, of giving a new turn to the
conversation, which had now, for some time, been lagging,--"father, I
think you promised us, on starting from Bennington this morning, not
only a fair day, but a safe arrival at Westminster Court-House, by
sunset, did you not?"

"Why, yes, perhaps I did," replied the person addressed; "for I know I
calculated that we should get through by daylight."

"Well, my weatherwise father, to say nothing about this storm, instead
of the promised sunshine, does the progress, made and now making, augur
very brightly for the other part of the result?"

"I fear me not, Sabrey," answered the old gentleman, "though, with the
road as good as when we started, we should have easily accomplished it.
But who would have dreamed of a thaw so sudden and powerful as this?
Why, the very road before us looks like a running river! Indeed, I think
we shall do well to reach Westminster at all to-night. What say you, Mr.
Peters,--will the horses hold out to do it?" he added, addressing the
young man of the repulsive look, who had charge of the team, us before
mentioned.

"They _must_ do it, at all events, Squire Haviland," replied Peters.
"Sheriff Patterson, here," he continued, glancing at the hard-featured
man before described, "has particular reasons for being on the ground
to-night. I must also be there, and likewise friend Jones, if we can
persuade him to forego his intended stop at Brattleborough; for, being
of a military turn, we will give him the command of the forces, if he
will go on immediately with us."

"Thank you, Mr. Peters," replied Jones, smiling. "I do not covet the
honor of a command, though I should be ready to go on and assist, if I
really believed that military forces would be needed."

"Military forces needed for what?" asked Haviland, in some surprise.

"Why, have you not heard, Squire Haviland," said the sheriff, "that
threats have been thrown out, that our coming court would not be
suffered to sit?"

"Yes, something of the kind, perhaps," replied Haviland, contemptuously;
"but I looked upon them only as the silly vaporings of a few disaffected
creatures, who, having heard of the rebellious movements in the Bay
State, have thrown out these idle threats with the hope of intimidating
our authorities, and so prevent the holding of a court, which they fear
might bring too many of them to justice."

"So I viewed the case for a while," rejoined Patterson; "but a few days
ago, I received secret information, on which I could rely, that these
disorganizing rascals were actually combining, in considerable numbers,
with the intention of attempting to drive us from the Court-House."

"Impossible! impossible! Patterson," said the squire; "they will never
be so audacious as to attempt to assail the king's court."

"They are making a movement for that purpose, nevertheless," returned
the former; "for, in addition to the information I have named, I
received a letter from Judge Chandler, just as I was leaving my house in
Brattleborough, yesterday morning, in which the judge stated, that
about forty men, from Rockingham, came to him in a body, at his house in
Chester, and warned him against holding the court; and had the boldness
to tell him, that blood would be shed, if it was attempted, especially
if the sheriff appeared with an armed posse."

"Indeed! why, I am astonished at their insolence!" exclaimed the squire.
"But what did the judge tell them?"

"Why the judge, you know, has an oily way of getting along with ugly
customers," replied the sheriff, with a significant wink; "so he thanked
them all kindly for calling on him, and gravely told them he agreed with
them, that no court should be holden at this time. But, as there was one
case of murder to be tried, he supposed the court must come together
to dispose of that; after which they would immediately adjourn. And
promising them that he would give the sheriff directions not to appear
with any armed assistants, he dismissed them, and sat down and wrote me
an account of the affair, winding off with giving me the directions he
had promised, but adding in a postscript, that I was such a contrary
fellow, that he doubted whether I should obey his directions; and he
should not be surprised to see me there with a hundred men, each with a
gun or pistol under his great-coat. Ha ha! The judge is a sly one."

"One word about that case of murder, to which you have alluded, Mr.
Patterson," interposed Jones, after the jeering laugh with which the
sheriff's account was received by Haviland and Peters, had subsided. "I
have heard several mysterious hints thrown out by our opponents about
it, which seemed to imply that the prosecution of the prisoner was got
up for private purposes; and I think I have heard the name of Secretary
Brush coupled with the affair. Now, who is the alleged murderer? and
where and when was the crime committed?"

"The fellow passes by the name of Herriot, though it is suspected
that this is not his true name," responded the sheriff. "The crime was
committed at Albany, several years ago, when he killed, or mortally
wounded, an intimate friend of Mr. Brush."

"Under what circumstances?"

"Why, from what I have gathered, I should think the story might be
something like this: that, some time previous to the murder, this
Herriot had come to Albany, got into company above his true place,
dashed away a while in high life, gambled deeply, and, losing all his
own money, and running up a large debt to this, and other friends of
Brush, gave them his obligations and absconded. But coming there again,
for some purpose, a year or two after, with a large sum of money, it was
thought, which had been left or given him by a rich Spaniard, whose life
he had saved, or something of the kind, those whom he owed beset him
to pay them, or play again. But he refused to play, pretending to have
become pious, and also held back about paying up his old debts. Their
debts, however, they determined to have, and went to him for that
purpose; when an affray arose, and one of them was killed by Herriot,
who escaped, and fled, it seems, to this section of the country, where
he kept himself secluded in some hut in the mountains, occasionally
appear-ing abroad to preach religion and rebellion to the people, by
which means he was discovered, arrested, and imprisoned in Westminster
jail, where he awaits his trial at the coming term of the court. And
I presume he will be convicted and hung, unless he makes friends with
Brush to intercede for a pardon, which he probably might do, if the
fellow would disgorge enough of his hidden treasures to