Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
by Mary, so Would he deal by her sister, he gave the canoe the rst impulse, and it
shot out like an arrow, distancing and defying pursuit.
Oneco’s coup-de-main seemed to petrify all present. They were roused by
Sir Philip Gardiner, who, coming round the base of the cli, appeared among
them; and, learning the cause of their amazement, he ordered them, with a burst
of passionate exclamation, instantly to man the boat, and proceed with him in
pursuit. This one and all refused. “Daylight and calm water,” they said, “would be
necessary to give any hope to such a pursuit, and the storm was now gathering so
fast as to render it dangerous to venture out at all.”
Sir Philip endeavoured to alarm them with threats of the governor’s displeasure,
and to persuade them with oers of high reward; but they understood too well the
danger and hopelessness of the attempt to risk it, and they remained inexorable.
Sir Philip then went in quest of Digby, and at the distance of a few paces met him.
Alarmed by the rapid approach of the storm, he was seeking Miss Leslie; when
he learned her fate from Sir Philip’s hurried communication, he uttered a cry of
despair. “Oh! I would go after her,” he said, “if I had but a cockle-shell; but it seems
as if the foul ends were at work:. my boat was this morning sent to town to be
repaired. And yet, what could we do?” He added, shuddering, “The wind is rising
to that degree, that I think no boat could live in the bay; and it is getting as dark as
Egypt. O God, save my precious young lady! God have mercy on her!” he continued.
A sudden burst of thunder heightened his alarm: “ Man can do nothing for her.
Why, in the name of Heaven,” he added, with a natural desire to appropriate the
blame of misfortune, “why must they be forever meddling; why not let the sisters
meet and part in peace?”
“Oh, why not ?” thought Sir Philip, who would have given his right hand to
have retraced the steps that had led to this most unlooked-for and unhappy issue
of the aair. They were now joined by the guard with their prisoners. Digby was
requested to lead them instantly to a shelter. He did so; and, agitated as he was
with fear and despair for Miss Leslie, he did not fail to greet Magawisca as one to
whom all honour was due. She heeded him not; she seemed scarcely conscious
of the cries of Faith Leslie, who was weeping like a child, and clinging to her. The
treachery that had betrayed her rapt her soul in indignation, and nothing roused
her but the blasts of wind and ashes of lightning, that seemed to her the deathknell
of her father.
The storm continued for the space of an hour, and then died away as suddenly as
it had gathered. In another hour the guard had safely landed at the wharf, and were
conveying their prisoners to the governor. He and his condential counsellors, who
had been awaiting at his house the return of their emissaries, solaced themselves
with the belief that all parties were safely sheltered on the island, and probably
would remain there during the night. While they were whispering this conclusion
to one another at one extremity of the parlour, Everell sat beside Miss Downing in
the recess of a window that overlooked the garden. The huge projecting chimney
formed a convenient screen for the lovers. The evening was warm, the window-
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