Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

296 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
race of Amazons, she was one of the most courageous masterpieces of her sex; but
for much of her prestige in. the war department she was indebted to an uuheroic
blemish which would have kept Helen of Troy safe in Sparta, prevented the Trojan
war and robbed the classic world of Homer's Iliad. Moreover, it would have ren
dered an Egyptian queen as unattractive to the eyes of courtship as was ever an
Egyptian mummy of the Hyksos dynasty; it would likewise have spoiled the Biblical
legend of Queen Esther and mutilated the exquisite romance of Mary Queen of
Scots.
She was cross-eyed!
Some one lias said that if Cleopatra's nose had been slightly tilted it would
have changed the countenance of medieval times. It sounds suspiciously like Douglas
Jcrrold. Certainly it is true that if the ill-starred Empress had been cross-eyed
she could never have captivated the famous general who, lured by the fatal charm
of beauty, scorned the plebian flowers of the Tiber to pluck the imperial blossom
of the Nile; and equally is it true that unless the Georgia war-queen had been cross
eyed she could never have held five British officers at bay with an old blunderbuss
which might have hung fire when she tried to shoot.
It was during the troublous days of Toryism in Upper Georgia that Nancy Hart,
in an humble cabin of the backwoods, electrified the whole tragic theater of war with
the story of her bold capture. "Up to this time, it surpassed anything in the entire
Eevolutionary annals; and, calling across the sea to France, it challenged the
prowess of the Maid of Orleans. Both Savannah and Augusta had become the
strongholds of the British; and all the frontier belt had commenced to swarm with
Tories, whose battle-cry was havoc. Gen. Elijah Clarke had recently transported
most of the women and children of the Broad River settlement to the Holstou region
of Kentucky, preparatory to waging direful warfare against the human wolves and
jackals that infested the thickets of Upper Georgia at this period. But Nancy Hart
had not traveled in the wake of the noted rifleman. She may have had some intima
tion of the part which she was expected to play in the Tory extermination. At any
rate, she was squared for action when the curtain rose upon the little drama which
was destined to exhibit her feminine pluck in the most amazing degree, and to start
her hitherto unheralded name upon the circuit rounds of Christendom.
Suggestive as the situation was of danger for the live targets who shivered in
front of the fowling-piece, it was also spiced with some flavor of humor to behold
five Tory protectors of the realm terrorized by an undaunted edition of Georgia
pluck, who, instead of wearing the spike-tail of the Continental army, wore the
petticoat of the calico brigade. Given to bloody deeds of violence as the Tories
were, they were like helpless babes in the wood as they stood before the flashing eyes
of this war-shod Diana of the forest. They were naturally perplexed. Never before
had they looked into the barrel of an old shotgun behind which were stationed such
an infernal pair of optics. If red-hot coals had risen from the ground underneath
and taken the place of eyeballs in the grim sockets above the cheekbone, they could
not have flashed more defiantly the brimstone message of the lower world. It was
undeniably an embarrassing moment; for each member of the squad thoixght in his
consternation that she was aiming her buckshot at him, and, like an upright piece of
lumber whose business it was to prop the ceiling, he stood riveted to the floor.
At last one of them, recovering from the paralytic spell, ventured forward to
wrest the weapon from her hand, but instantly as lightning he received the leaden
charge into his bosom and fell lifeless upon the timbers. Before another member
of the party could advance, she had snatched another musket and proceeded to hold
herself in readiness for the second victim. But he was loath to approach, for it
was evident at this stage of the game that the lady of the house knew how to shoot.
She might appear to be looking in all directions, but she could see straight ahead.
Succor now arrived. Captain Hart, having learned of the visit of the Tories,
appeared upon the doorstep in good time to see his wife drilling the squad in defen
sive tactics. But he reached the house none too soon. Time was now most precious.
Another moment might have changed the whole aspect of things. Well it was, too,
that the sturdy frontiersman brought substantial re-enforcements, for an ill-directed
shot might have liberated some of tfye best blood of the colonies. As it was, with
the aid of the stout muscles which the neighbors lent to the task of making the
prisoners secure, the .entire bunch was captured, and in less than half an hour,