Chapter XXVI: Elfie in the Grove

Ask me not what the maiden feels,
Left in that dreadful hour alone;
Perchance her reason stoops or reels
Perchance a courage not her own,
Braces her mind to desperate tone.—SCOTT.

“Quick, boys! There is something dreadful going on in that grove! Some woman in extreme peril!” hastily exclaimed Justin Rosenthal, as he put spurs to his horse, and galloped forward, hotly followed by Wing and Hay.

The grove, at the point at which they approached it, was too thickly grown to admit the entrance of their horses.

So Colonel Rosenthal threw himself from his saddle, fastened his horse to a tree, drew his sword and plunged into the thicket.

This example was quickly followed by his companions.

The cries of distress had ceased; and the silence and the darkness of the place rendered it rather difficult for our Don Quixote to decide where to turn his steps and the point of his sword for the delivery of the distressed damsel.

“We must scatter ourselves, boys! Each must take a different direction and beat about the woods until we discover the cause of those cries! And he who first comes upon the scene of violence must shout for the others! Now go! And may Heaven grant that we may be in time!” hastily exclaimed Justin, waving his sword in the directions he wished the others to take, and then turning and striking deeper into the shadows of the grove.

It was very still and dark. Nothing could be seen but the occasional glance of a star, peeping down between the upper branches of the trees; and nothing could be heard but the ripple of a stream, hidden somewhere in the deep, dry undergrowth of the thicket.

Justin was completely bewildered, knowing not which way to turn.

“The unfortunate woman, whoever she is, must be murdered or worse before this! At all events, she is silenced,” he said to himself.

At that moment another cry arose; but this time it was a man’s voice—weak, quavering, cracked—but unmistakably a man’s voice, crying:

“Help! Murder! Help! Oh, all good Christians, help!”

“Gracious Heavens! has the woman got the better now, and is she killing the man; or what is the meaning of this second outcry?” exclaimed the colonel, in droll perplexity.

And guided by the cries, he clutched his sword with a firmer clasp, and strode on in the direction from which they came. He had not gone many yards before the cries arose for the third time; and now, as in the first instance, it was the woman’s voice, screaming:

“Murder! Murder! Help! Help!”

“This is very perplexing. Apparently there are two of them in distress, and they take turns in yelling,” said Justin, as he rushed on towards the scene of action.

Suddenly he came upon it. Striking through the thicket, he entered an opening in the grove where the clear bright starlight shone down upon a strange picture—a man, and a woman, each bound to a tree, only a few yards from each other.

“Help! Murder! Help!” shrieked the man.

“Don’t come near me, you monster! I have a revolver concealed in my bosom and I will shoot you as soon as I would a mad dog!” screamed the woman.

“ELFIE!” exclaimed Justin Rosenthal, in astonishment, advancing towards her.

“Oh, Justin dear! Justin, is it you? Thank Heaven! But I took you for a prowling guerrilla!” cried Elfie, struggling to free herself enough to welcome him.

“I was drawn here by your cries for help, Elfie. But who had the insolence and barbarity to treat you in this manner?” demanded Colonel Rosenthal, as with his sword he severed the cords that bound the girl and set her free.

“Let me sit down and breathe, and then I’ll tell you all about it,” said Elfie, with a sigh of relief, as she sank down on a heap of dry leaves at the foot of the tree.

Justin stood looking at her with eyes full of doubt, pity and anxiety.

“Don’t stand staring at me as if I had two heads, man! Go and set the parson free. He is a Christian hero, he is! and by that time I shall recover my breath and be able to talk to you,” said Elfie, with something of her old snappishness. And truly the poor girl had had enough to make her feel cross and nervous.

“I beg your pardon, Elfie,” said Justin, smiling, as he turned to obey her.

He cut the cords that bound the minister, who immediately stretched his arms, and then dropped upon the ground with a fervent:

“Thank goodness!”

At that moment Wing and Hay came up from different points. On seeing Elfie, Wing started and withdrew a little into the shade.

Justin went up to him said:

“I suppose you were led here by the cries, as I was?”

“Yes, sir, they resounded through every part of the grove, I assure you.”

“Well, I hope there has been no great harm done. We found a parson and the young lady whom you met as a captive among the guerrillas, bound here to a couple of trees. I do not quite understand the affair yet; but they are apparently uninjured. Now go, Wing—take Hay with you, and ride back to the field. Tell Lieutenant-Colonel Wedgewood that we shall encamp in and around this grove to-night. Tell him to send all the men here who are not engaged in looking after the wounded and the dead, or in guarding the prisoners.”

Wing bowed, beckoned Hay to follow him and left the scene.

Justin turned and seated himself on a fragment of rock near the bank of leaves on which Elfie rested.

“I am very glad, Elfie, to find you safe at last,” he said, a little dubiously.

“Yes, thank Heaven, I have passed safely through the terrible days of my captivity,” said Elfie.

“I can answer for that. The men of Belial, bad as they were, didn’t dare to harm a hair of her head. From their chief downward, they all treated her with respect,” said the preacher.

“Hold your tongue, Mr. Simmons. I don’t need that _you_ should endorse me. I have little reason to be grateful to you, goodness knows, for saving your life at the expense of my liberty,” snapped Elfie.

The preacher bowed his head under this rebuke. And Justin Rosenthal looked from one to the other in perplexity.

“I will explain, Justin; but it is a long story, I can tell you. I have been through a campaign since I saw you last,” said Elfie.

“But before you begin, my dear young lady, let me ask the captain here a question.—Sir, might you have a morsel to eat or drink about you?” piteously inquired the poor consumptive preacher.

“No, I mightn’t, I am sorry to say,” smiled Justin.

“You see we haven’t broken our fast since the morning. And I feel a sort of inward sinking. And if you had a scrap of hard tack or a drop of old rye—”

“I regret very much that I have nothing of the sort. You know that we cavalry rangers, out after guerrillas, carry no provisions. We look to live on the country,” said Colonel Rosenthal.

The poor preacher laid his thin hands over his empty bread-basket, and groaned aloud. Even Elfie pitied him.

“Never mind, Mr. Simmons,” she said, “you heard the order given by Colonel Rosenthal. The men will be here presently, and you may depend they will not come empty-handed. We shall have a sumptuous supper presently.”

With this piece of comfort the preacher tried to content himself.

“And now, Elfie,” said Justin Rosenthal.

“Well, I suppose you heard that our picnic party was surprised by the guerrillas, and that I was carried off?”

“Yes, I heard of that, Elfie, through a spy I sent into the camp of the Free Sword. Tell me, my dear little friend, what happened after the spy had left,” said Justin.

And Elfie began and related in detail all her adventures while a captive among the guerrillas. She told the story with firmness, and even with humor, until she came to describe her forced marriage, when she suddenly burst into tears of rage and shame, and wept and sobbed as if her heart would break.

When Justin had heard the whole story of the marriage, he laid his hand upon Elfie’s bowed black head in a protecting and reassuring manner, and laughed as he said:

“Why, Elfie, the marriage is not binding upon you, unless you choose to make it so by yourself acknowledging its validity. If you protest against it as a forced marriage, and bring this clergyman here as your witness, it cannot hold good.”

“But there was a li—license! and a ring—ring! and an ordain—dained minister! and even a man—man to give me away! and all was reg—reg—reg—regular!” answered Elfie, scarcely able to articulate through her gasping sobs.

“Nonsense, my dear girl! The vital, valid, lawful part of the affair, without which all the rest was all invalid, null and void, was wanting,” laughed Justin.

“And what was that—at?” sobbed Elfie.

“The consent of the woman, of course!”

“Oh, but they had that!”

“ELFIE!”

“They took it by force, as they took me. That man—an—who acted as my pap—pap—papa, took me by my neck and hair and bobbed my head down three or four times in the most positive manner, as if he meant me to say, ‘Yes, _yes_, YES!’ and the ceremony went on.”

“The villain! But, Elfie, my dear, that was no consent. Nonsense, my child! You are no more bound in law or gospel to your guerrilla abductor than you are to any other savage you can think of. Give yourself no uneasiness on that subject, _Miss Fielding_,” said Justin, with an intentional emphasis on Elfie’s maiden name.

Apparently Elfie was not grateful for the consideration.

“Justin Rosenthal, I’ll thank you not to call me ‘Miss Fielding!’ How do I know but what I am Mrs. Goldsborough? I hate to be placed in unequivocal position; and I _won’t_ be neither, there! Call me Elfie. The name given me in baptism is the only one either you or I can feel dead sure I am entitled to bear!” exclaimed the girl, passionately.

“Very well, my child. Just as you please!” laughed Justin, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Elfie pouted so long in silence that Justin found it necessary to recall her to her narrative.

“Come, Elfie,” he said, “tell me how you and your companion in captivity happened to be bound to these trees?”

“You know,” answered Elfie, “I told you how when Albert Goldsborough found that a battle was in progress on the hill, he made us dismount, and took away our horses, and set a mounted guard of six guerrillas to watch us.”

“Yes.”

“Well, they watched us closely enough for a while. I couldn’t stir, even to walk about and stretch my cramped limbs, without being threatened with a rifle levelled at me!”

“The wretches!”

“And all that time we heard the firing in the distance, and knew that a great battle was going on between the guerrillas and our own troops. And we prayed heartily for the success of our men.”

“Your prayers were heard, Elfie.”

“Of course we could not guess which way the tide of victory would turn. We could only see the clouds upon clouds of black and sulphurous smoke rolling over the hill, and hear the continual firing, and smell the suffocating fumes of gunpowder that were overpowering even at this distance.”

“That was because the wind blew straight from the hill in this direction.”

“In this way several hours passed, and then we began to hear the thunder of flying horsemen crossing the plain. And one of our guard rode out to reconnoitre, and came back in a hurry, exclaiming:

“‘By the devil! if the clock peddlers haven’t beaten us! Our men are flying as fast as their horses can carry them before the Yankee cavalry! I am not agoing to stay here guarding a girl and a parson, until I am captured! What do you say, boys?’

“Apparently the ‘boys’ agreed with their companion. They rode together and consulted in a low voice and in great excitement, while we still felt, as it seemed, the very earth shake with the thunder of the flying and chasing horsemen. Meanwhile I felt great hopes of being allowed to escape. My hopes were soon destroyed, however, by the words of the corporal, who had command of the guard.

“‘It will never do to let _them_ get off, blast them! any more than it will do for us to stay here and be captured by the Yankees! I’ll tell you what, boys! we will tie them to trees, so that if the colonel _does_ come back to look for them—which I doubt very much if he will, even if he should have escaped being killed or wounded, or taken prisoner—he will find them; that’s all! Now what do you say to that!’

“The corporal’s proposal was adopted by acclamation. And the wretches immediately seized us and bound us, each to a tree, as you found us, Justin. And then they mounted their horses and galloped away, and we saw no more of them.”

“Nor of any others?”

“No! we remained here, while the night grew darker, and darker. We still occasionally felt the earth shake under the thunder of the flying and following horsemen; but no one entered the grove. And after a while even _that_ noise ceased.”

“Were you frightened, Elfie?”

“No, not until a wolf or some other wild animal came up and stood before me, and looked up in my face with his fiery eyes, as if he were balancing the question whether he should eat me then, or take his supper a few minutes later. I felt my flesh creep and my blood grow cold then, Justin! And I screamed with all my might. And the creature took to its heels and ran away!”

“Poor Elfie!”

“After that Mr. Simmons and I, thinking that some of our men might be about, took our turns in crying, ‘Help’ and ‘Murder.’ And at last, just as our lungs were giving out, you came to our relief, Justin.”

“And that is all!”

“Yes, except this, Justin! In the midst of our own personal distress, we still remembered to thank Heaven for giving us the victory!”

As Elfie spoke, the sound of an approaching troop of horses was heard. And soon they seemed to have drawn up on the outskirts of the grove.

Wing came to report to his colonel.

“The regiment has arrived on the ground, sir. Also the army wagons with the commissary stores that were sent after us from W. Lieutenant Colonel Wedgewood has dispatched messengers to hurry up the ambulances for the transportation of the wounded, who are now receiving all the attention that it is possible to bestow upon them in their present position. To-morrow I hope to be able to submit to you a correct report of the killed, wounded and prisoners.”

“Quite right, Adjutant,” said Colonel Rosenthal. Then, changing his tone a little, he continued: “And now, Wing, I think you had better remain here with this young lady and the preacher, while I go to take a look at my poor fellows.”

And with a bow to Elfie and her companion, Justin Rosenthal walked away from them.

Now all was cheerful bustle in and around the grove.

The men dismounted, took their saddles from their horses, and secured the weary beasts to the trees on the outer edge of the grove.

Then they began active preparations for refreshment and rest. They unloaded the army wagons, and every man watered and foddered his horse before thinking of himself.

Then some went to work kindling fires to cook by; others began preparing food; others again busied themselves with building rude shelters of boughs to protect them from the night air.

By the orders of Colonel Rosenthal, a party of the men went to that part of the grove where Elfie and her companions were waiting, and there, under the immediate direction of Adjutant Wing, they constructed a comfortable hut of cedar boughs for Elfie’s accommodation.

And soon in front of this hut a good supper was served of strong coffee, with white sugar and condensed milk, and broiled ham, with fried potatoes, and loaf bread and camp biscuits.

Elfie, Mr. Simmons, Colonel Rosenthal and Wing sat down to this supper. And though every one of them played well their parts, the poor, consumptive preacher excelled them all in gastronomic feats.

During the meal, which was eaten by torch light, strange glances were observed to pass between Elfie and Wing. From time to time Elfie looked furtively at the young adjutant, who sedulously avoided her glances. But at length, when Wing surprised Elfie gazing steadily at him he opened his dark eyes to their widest extent and favored her with a stare of astonishment that at once put an end to the play.

After supper Elfie retired to her hut where, upon a bed of leaves, she slept comfortably, guarded on one side of her dwelling by the old minister, and on the other side by the young adjutant.