The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
History
The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Vermont -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
While in one part of the building the officers just named, with other
distinguished persons, were engaged in discussing the incidents of the
day, in another and more retired apartment, on a pillowed couch, lay
the wounded Father Herriot, who, having been stricken down in the last
moments of the battle, as before intimated, had been borne hither to
complete the willing sacrifice he had made of his life to the cause of
his country. On a small table, within his reach, lay several documents,
which were fresh from the hand of that ready writer, the accomplished
secretary of the Council of Safety, who had just left the apartment.
And around his bedside stood those in whom all his private interests and
sympathies had been for some time secretly concentrated, though to two
of them personally unknown till a few hours before, when he had beer
brought in wounded and committed to their care. Those persons were Henry
Woodburn, Bart Burt, Sabrey Haviland, and Vine Howard, who, ignorant of
his particular wishes or intentions, and wondering why the presence of
all of them should be desired at the same time, had been summoned to his
bedside to hear his last communication and receive his blessing.
“My prayer is answered,” said Herriot, after looking round
affectionately a while upon his expectant auditors, who, at his request,
after the room was cleared of other company, had advanced to his
bedside. “My last prayer has been to be permitted to see all of you,
in whose personal welfare I have been led to take a peculiar interest,
assembled before me while life and reason remained, so that I could
commune with you; and the prayer has been graciously answered. Still,
when, at the close of our first, and, as we all then supposed, final
triumph to-day, Miss Haviland, with her friend, at my request, was
conveyed here to her former home, of which I had become the purchaser,
I then thought to have met you all here this evening under circumstances
in which I could have actively shared with you in the rejoicings that
our victory so naturally calls forth, as well as in the happiness,
which, as far as regards you, I believed I could superadd by my own
acts. But He who holds the fate of individuals, as well as that of
armies, in his hands, has seen fit to deny me such participation; and
_He doeth all things well_.”
“Your wound is not necessarily a mortal one, Father Herriot and I trust
you may yet live to enjoy the fruits of a victory you have contributed
so much by your bravery to win,” observed Woodburn, feelingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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