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
Every thing, the next morning, seemed as quiet and peaceful in the
village, as if nothing unusual had occurred there. The commotion of the
preceding night appeared to have wholly subsided. With such secrecy and
caution, indeed, had the revolutionists managed, that no knowledge of
their movements had yet reached the ears of any of their opponents. And
so guarded was their conduct, through the whole morning, that the court
party leaders, although their spies had early been out, prowling round
the whole village, were yet kept in entire ignorance of all that
had transpired among the former during the night. Being consequently
deceived by the false appearance which every thing within the reach of
their observation had been made to wear, and feeling thus relieved of
their last night's guilty fears of a popular outbreak, these cruel and
dastardly minions of royalty now counted on their triumph as complete,
and, soon giving way to noisy exultation, they began openly to boast
of the sanguinary measure by which their supposed victory had been
achieved. And, about nine o'clock in the forenoon, the judges and
officers of court, with a select number of their most devoted adherents,
all in high spirits, and wholly unsuspicious of the storm that was
silently gathering around them, formed a procession at the house of
Brush, and, attended by a strong armed escort, marched ostentatiously
through the street to the Court House, and entered the courtroom to
commence the session.
After the judges had been ushered to their seats, and while they were
waiting for the crowd to enter and settle in their places, Chandler, who
had kept aloof till the procession had begun to form, was seen to run
his wary and watchful eye several times over the assembly, to ascertain
whether there were any discoverable indications there pointing to any
different state of things from the one so confidently assumed by his
confederates, when he soon appeared to have noted some circumstance
which caused him suddenly to exchange the bland smile he had been
wearing for a look of thoughtfulness and concern.
“Do you notice anything unusual in the crowd this morning, Judge
Sabin?” he said to his colleague, in an anxious whisper as he closed his
scrutiny.
“No, your honor,” replied the other, “unless it be the cheering sight of
encountering none but friendly faces, instead of the hostile ones, which
a man would have been led to expect to meet here, after so much clamor
about popular disaffection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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