The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter Part 10

"We all know how this young man is debarred from appearing here to-day; and it seems to me manifestly unjust that any power which deprives a man of the opportunity of appearing at court, should render judgment against him in consequence of his non-appearance. I would, therefore, suggest a delay in this cause. Perhaps, within a short time, he will employ counsel, or be liberated."

"And perhaps be hung for treason," said Stearns, in a sneering under-tone.

"Do you answer for him or not, Mr. Knights?" demanded Sabin, impatiently.

"No, your honor; he has not authorized me. I only made a suggestion,"

answered the former.

"Then judgment must go for Peters," rejoined Sabin, with ill suppressed warmth. "Traitors and rebels must look somewhere else for favor, beside this court, while I hold a seat here."

"n.o.body has yet been convicted of treason, I believe," promptly responded Knights, while an expression of indignant scorn flashed over his manly and intelligent countenance; "and till such is the case, I take it the rights of all have an equal claim on the court. I should be pleased to hear the opinion of the chief justice in this matter."

"Although I may have my doubts on this subject, Mr. Knights,"

graciously replied Chandler, "you could hardly expect me to be guilty of so great a discourtesy to my colleague here, as to interfere, after the intimation he has just given."

"Make the entry, Mr. Clerk," said Sabin, hastily; "judgment for costs, and a writ of possession. _I_ am not troubled with any doubts in the matter, and will take the responsibility of the decision."

Scarcely was the cause thus decided before Peters glided up to the clerk, and whispered in his ear; when the latter, nodding a.s.sentingly, opened his desk, and taking out two nicely-folded papers, handed them slyly to the other, who, receiving them in the same manner, immediately left the court-room and proceeded down stairs. As the exulting suitor pa.s.sed through the crowd gathered round the main entrance, he beckoned to a short, thick set, harsh-featured fellow, who immediately followed him around a corner of the building.

"Well, Fitch," said Peters, pausing as soon as they were out of the reach of observation, "have you done up your business in town, so as to be ready for a start for Guilford?"

"Yes; don't know but I have. But you can't have got your decision, papers made out, and all, so soon as this?" replied the other.

"All complete!" returned Peters, triumphantly.

"Why, the court has not been in session an hour!"

"True, but I had spoken to Judge Sabin to have my case taken up this morning; and, as n.o.body was authorized to answer for Woodburn, the case was disposed of in a hurry. And the clerk, with whom I had also arranged matters, had made out the papers before going into court, and got them all signed off and ready, in antic.i.p.ation; and here they are, ready for your hands, Mr. Constable."

"Ay, I see; but what is the necessity of serving them so immediately?"

"Why, there's no knowing what may happen, Fitch. If the rebels, in revenge for last night's peppering, should send over the mountain for old Ethan Allen and his gang to come here to stir up and lead on the disaffected, all legal proceedings might be stopped. I know most of our folks think, this morning, that the enemy are fairly under foot.

But Chandler, who is as keen as a fox for smelling out trouble, acts to me as if he was frightened; and I think he must have scented mischief brewing, somewhere."

"Some say he is a very timorsome man."

"Yes; but watchful and sagacious, and therefore an index not to be disregarded."

"May be so. But what are your orders about these papers?"

"With this, the writ of possession, go, in the first place, and turn the old woman, his mother, neck and heels, from the house; and then get some stiff fellow in for a tenant, rent free the first year, if you can do no better, provided he will defend the premises against Woodburn, if he escapes unhung. And with this paper, an execution for costs, as you will see, seize the fellow's cow and oxen, and all else you can find, and sell them as soon as the law will let you.

"Why, you won't leave enough of the fellow for a grease spot."

"Blast him; I don't intend to. But now is the time to do it, before he can get out of jail and back there to give fight and trouble us. So you fix all these matters about right for me, Fitch and I'll do the handsome thing by you when I come over, after the roads get settled, in the spring."

"Never fear me, as long as I know what a friend's wishes are," replied the constable, with a significant wink, as he stuffed the doc.u.ments into his hat, and bustled off on the detestable mission of his more detestable employer.

While Peters and his official minion was thus engaged, Tom Dunning was seen coming, with hasty strides, along the road, from the direction of his cabin, which was situated without the village, about a half mile north of the Court House, from which it would have been visible but for the pine thicket by which it was partially enclosed. As the hunter was entering the village, he met Morris, hastening up the street, from the opposite part of the town.

"Well met," said Morris; "for I was bound to your quarters with a message, which----"

"Which I am ditter ready to receive, and give you one, which I started to carry to your folks, in return. So, first for yours."

"Mine is, that we are now drawn up, two hundred strong, in the first woods south of the village, and are ready to march."

"And mine, that we are der ditto; besides being a hundred better than you, all chafing, like ditter tied-up dogs, to be let on."

"I will back, then, to my post with the news; and in less than a half hour, tell them, they shall hear our signal of entering the village, as agreed, which we will expect you to answer, and then rush on, as fast as you please, to effect a junction, as we wheel into the court-yard. But stay: have the prisoners been apprized that their deliverance is at hand?"

"Yes; I ran up at the time the court ditter went in, and, in the bustle, got a chance to tell them through the grate."

"All right; but how are the wounded doing?"

"Ditter well, except French, who is fast going."

"Indeed! Poor fellow! But his blood will now soon be avenged," said Morris, as the two now separated and hastened back to their respective posts.

After Peters had despatched the constable on his work of legal plunder and revenge, he returned to the court-room for the purpose of pressing to a hearing some other cases which he had pending against political opponents, and which he hoped, through the favor of a biased and corrupt court, to curry as easily as the one wherein he had just so wickedly triumphed. But he was not permitted to reap any more of his despicable advantages; for he found that another, actuated by motives no less unworthy than his own, had already gained the attention of the court to a case of which he had been the prime mover and complainant.

This was Secretary Brush; and the trial he had been urging on, through Stearns, the acting state's attorney, was that of the alleged murderer, to whose somewhat mysterious, as well as suspicious, arrest and imprisonment allusion has already been made.

"As you say the witnesses are in court, Mr. Stearns," observed Chandler, after a moment's consultation with his colleague, "as all the witnesses are here, we have concluded to take up the criminal case in question. You may therefore direct the sheriff to bring the prisoner into court without delay."

The sheriff, accordingly, left the court-room, and, in a short time, reappeared with the prisoner, followed by two armed men, who closely guarded and conducted him forward to the criminal's box.

The prisoner was a man of the apparent age of sixty, of rather slight proportions of body, but with a large head, and coa.r.s.e features, that seemed to be kept almost constantly in play by a lively, flashing countenance, in which meekness and fire, kindness and austerity, were curiously blended. As he seated himself, he turned round and faced the court with a fearless and even scornful air, but promptly rose, at the bidding of the chief judge, to listen to the information, which the clerk proceeded to read against him at length, closing by addressing to the respondent the usual question as to his guilt or innocence of the charge.

"I once," calmly responded the prisoner--"I once knocked up a pistol, pointed at my breast by a robber. It went off and killed one of his fellows, and----"

"Say, guilty or not guilty?" sternly interrupted the clerk.

"Not guilty, then," answered the other, determined, while going through these preliminary forms, that his accusers, the court, and audience, should hear what, under other circ.u.mstances, he would have reserved for the more appropriate time of making his defence, or left to his counsel. "Ay, not guilty; and that gentleman," he rapidly continued, pointing to Brush, "that gentleman, who has offered to free me if I would submit to be robbed, well knows the truth of what I say.

The witnesses, whom he has suborned, also know it, if they know any thing about that luckless affray."

"Liar!" shouted Brush, springing up, in high excitement, as soon as he could recover from the surprise and confusion into which this bold and unexpected charge had thrown him.

"The man's insane--evidently insane, your honors!" cried Stearns, who, in his anxiety to shield his friend Brush, thought not of the effect of such a remark.

"I thank the attorney for the government for that admission, may it please the court," said Knights, rising, with a sarcastic glance at Stearns. "I may wish to make use of it."

"Are you counsel for the prisoner, sir?" sharply demanded the other.

"I am, sir," coolly replied Knights; "and you may find, before we get through the trial, that what the prisoner has said, as much out of place as it was, is not the only truth to be developed. But before the case proceeds any further, I offer a plea to the jurisdiction of this court, and at once submit, whether a man can be tried here for an offence alleged to have been committed in another county, without a special order from the governor for that purpose,"

"That order is obtained and on file, sir. So that learned bubble is burst, as will all the rest you can raise in favor of the miserable wretch you have stooped to defend," said Stevens, exultingly. "Mr.

Clerk, pa.s.s up that order to the court."

"Are you satisfied now, Mr. Knights?" asked Sabin, with undignified feeling, after glancing at the order which had been laid before the judges. "Mr. Stearns, proceed with the cause."