The Secret Shot; Or, The Rivals Of Misty Mount — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JNA LOVE AND AVARICE. 5 the grim reality during the first few years of the struggle; though an irregular parti- san warfare was almost constantly waged. The surrender of the American garrison at Charleston, under General Lincoln’s command, to the British, (May 12th, 1780,) disastrous as it Was felt throughout the land, was, nevertheless, the preeursor of events which, eventually, were to shake the in- yader from Southern’ soil, then almost at his merey. Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander, deluding himself with the thought that both Georgia and the Carolinas were virtually conquered, and might soon be wholly reclaimed to the royal cause, de- parted from Charleston (June 6th) for New organized from among the young men of the valley. But there were not a few in the South who took an entirely different view of the subject. These were the To- ries, The obloquy, which has fallen on many of them, was unmerited ; as they, for the most part, were thoroughly conscien- tious in their opinions, and in their support of the king, whom they honestly believed to be possessed of a divine prerogative, which it was sacrilege to subvert. Equally natural was it for them to be hated’ and jealously watched by the patriotic majority. Valleyton and its vicinity were not free of this class of men; and prominent among them were Gleason and his two sons, Heart- stead and Charles. The two latter joined the royal forces at the outbreak of hostili- ties, while the old man remained_at home —much as the “ Butternut ” of a later day— hiding his disloyalty to liberty under an out- ward guise of neutrality ; but each day long-, ing for the mail that it might bring him bulletins of disaster to his country’s cause. In the ease of Heartstead Gleason, how- ever, many regrets were mingled with his adoption of the British cause. The most prominent of these was that it involved an almost hopeless relinquishment of his pas- sion for Ida Gwin, which, though unrequited, he had suffered himself to cherish from his youth upward. ‘Yet, mere differences of opinion, which, in peace, are trifling seams, in time of war, widen to impassable gulfs ; and the young man saw his hopes fast fad- ing as the war-gleams flickered fiercer round their homes. Still he would not despair, but nursed his passion against hope itself, with the brooding spirit of a reckless and unprincipled nature. Jacob Gleason had his regrets in this respect also. Old age had ing Lord Cornwallis with but four thousand regulars, to complete the conquest of those colonies. “Whereupon Marion, Sumter, Pickens, and other brave leaders, rallied the royalists and Tories; and the British commander found himself watched and laid in wait for by a vigilant and active foe at every step he undertook. The patriotic spirit of the people, however, was almost hopelessly crushed by the battle of Camden, (Aug. 16th,) which resulted in the disastrous defeat of the American army under General Gates, (Lincoln’s successor,) and their com- pulsory retreat to Hillsborough, in North Carolina. This unfortunate event left South northward in the ope of driving Gates in- to Virginia before reénforcements could reach him from the North. At this mo- mentous time, when the dwellers of Valley- ton and vicinity were full of anxiety at the rumored approach of the invader, we take brought avarice and meanness along with it| up the thread of our story. + as it crept on him; and he had often eyed *- ; beascath the fair domains of his generous neighbor Fe with a speculating eye as to what the future 4 Ld © might hold in its womb if some certain person or persons should happen to die sud- denly, and some other certain person, very. rich, and young, and lovely withal, should fall in love with and marry his handsome scapegrace of a son, Heartstead, and bring the fair lands of Gwin and Gleason into o little principality of the wilds. This dream was sadly broken into by the war, and the lonely old man remained at home, keeping his avarice alive with the hope of better times. The Southern colonies were comparatively little burdened with the actual presence of CHAPTER ID" Portraits, and a Deed of Darkness, ‘*Vice slipped from his tongue: Oh treachery ! throu 4 , His make-believe; and coiled like an adder In his too sunny smile.” F Ir was in the golden depths of Autumn. The trees were turning into tenderer hues of yellow, saffron and ardent red; the gold- hour the mountains looked more hazy and somber as the cooler breezes took their York, with the majority of his forces, leay- their people for contest or depredation upon _ Carolina completely at the mercy of Corn- wallis, who, ne after, took up his march © The assassin spoke out from his laugh; hissed en grain was gathered and stored; hour by | | COME S© im