Arnold's TempterComfort, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Freeman)
History
Arnold's Tempter
Comfort, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Freeman)
Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801 -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
Dr. Greydon at once notified his wife and daughter. In less than
half an hour his carriage was ready, and he had left, prepared with
delicacies and medicines to succor a fellow being. There was no
calculation of consequences on his part.
Mollie asked her father if she might accompany him, but he explained
that she could be of little assistance, so she stood on the portico,
and watched her father’s carriage until it had reached the road through
the avenue of hemlocks.
But no sooner had her father’s carriage vanished through the trees,
than she ran with all of her might to the lodge of Segwuna.
With eyes full of despair, she ran up to Segwuna, and exclaimed:
“Segwuna! Segwuna! I have just learned that Mr. Barclugh has been
stricken with the _peste_, and father has started to go to him.
“Oh! Segwuna! what shall I do? What shall I do? I am fearful that
something will happen to him, and father would not let me go to help
nurse him,” as she burst into a fit of heart-rending sobs and buried
her head on Segwuna’s breast.
“Do not weep, my sweetheart. If you cannot go, Segwuna can go. I will
go and take the medicine that will save him. Do not fear, my dear.
“Segwuna will nurse him back to you. Be calm and let me get ready. It
will not take me long to reach his side.”
Segwuna went to her mother and gave her a few directions; in a few
minutes she was ready with a bundle of herbs, and with light step, and
the light of a guardian angel shining out of her beautiful eyes, she
and Mollie took the winding path down to the Wingohocking, then through
the avenue of hemlocks to the highway that led to Philadelphia.
Mollie stopped at the huge gate at the roadside and kissed Segwuna
thrice, as she bade her Godspeed, and prayed silently:
“That the sick one would have the protection of Divine Providence in
his affliction, and that God would bless the efforts of her friend,
Segwuna, to lead the sick one out of the ‘valley of the shadow of
death,’ and bring him nearer to his God and His Son, Jesus Christ.”
“God bless you,” was the parting salutation to Segwuna as Mollie stood
and watched the Indian maiden go lightly on her mission of mercy.
She watched her until Segwuna was a mere speck in the roadway, and then
turned silently to go to her bed-chamber to pray for the man, whom she
felt was dear to her, yet she could not tell why.
CHAPTER XXX
When Dr. Greydon reached the bedside of Roderick Barclugh, Dr. Biddle
was bathing his patient’s hands and arms, and laboring over him to
reduce the temperature. As the two doctors met in the sick-room, Dr.
Biddle arose and quietly addressed his friend:
“Dr. Greydon, I am glad that you have come. This gentleman is suffering
from a severe wound in the shoulder, and this fever has attacked him in
a virulent form, and unless we can reduce the temperature, his chances
are very slim for recovery.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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