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Henry Ancrum: A Tale of the Last War in New Zealand, Volume 2

Chapter V

page 55

Chapter V.

Time passed on, no reference was ever made to the conversation above detailed, it seemed to have been forgotten between them; but it was not so, neither of them could ever forget it. Celia devoted herself entirely to Henry Ancrum, she insisted on cooking his meals for him, she made up his bed every day with fresh fern; when he awoke in the morning, he would find a bucket of fresh water from the river at his door ready for his ablutions; it was of no use remonstrating with her, it was no use pointing out that he ought to do these things for himself. No, she chose to do it, and she would do page 56it; then she would ask him to read to her out of some books which had been given to her by the missionary. And she would listen to him for hours, asking him questions about anything in them which she did not understand.

Again, as has been mentioned, whilst residing in the missionary's family she had eagerly read every book she could obtain possession of. As may be supposed, in this desultory style of reading she had met with a great many things far beyond her comprehension. When this was the case, she had immediately overwhelmed the poor missionary with questions; some were satisfactorily answered, but when this was not the case, the matter was stored up in her mind for future examination.

"Ah," she would say to herself, "I do not understand it now, but I may some of these days."

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As a matter of course, all these unexplained mysteries were now referred to Henry Ancrum. He, on his part, was perfectly astonished at her cleverness and the freshness of her ideas; and as he possessed that not very common talent of being able clearly and distinctly to explain to others all he knew himself, he was luckily able to solve nearly all the questions propounded to him.

To Celia these conversations were the source of unmixed delight; she had never been so happy in her life. What could be greater bliss than to sit by the man she adored, to look in his loved face, and best of all, to find day by day that he was a cleverer and better man than even she had imagined.

To Henry Ancrum hia intercourse with Celia was a source of great pleasure, she was the one bright spot amidst the dense page 58gloom of his captivity. No man on earth can be quite insensible to the charms of a lovely and clever woman, if that woman is also devoted to himself. But his pleasure was not unmixed with other feelings, and these feelings were very bitter, for they were feelings of self-reproach.

What business, he would say to himself, have I to be so happy in the society of any woman, when I am the engaged husband of another?

Again, where is the constancy of which I was so proud; it's true, I have told Celia my story, but I ought to behave in a colder manner to her. I ought to repress her affection; I ought to show her that gaining mine is impossible. Then came the bitter thought, was it impossible? Other men, perhaps wiser and better than himself, had given way to temptation, might not he do so too.

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The result of much self-examination of this kind was to make Henry Ancrum determine to try and escape from his captivity, even if he ran considerable risk in doing so, and chance threw in his way what he considered a favourable opportunity.

One morning, having passed a rather restless night, he got up at daylight, and walked towards the river; the sun was just rising as he reached its bank, and lighting up the whole scene. As he looked towards Whangamarino, he saw some large dark objects on the river. He looked at them attentively, and saw that they were boats full of troops crossing over to the other side of the river. His first idea naturally was that the General's intention was to march a body of troops up the opposite bank; but then the question arose with what object? If it were to take the page 60aories in rear, then the force could only do that by recrossing the river higher up, and this they could not do without boats, as the river was not fordable at any place. But how were the boats to get to them? it could not be done by the river, as the channel ran close to the Maori rifle-pits, and the boats could not possibly row up stream under such a fire. Again, the boats could not be taken by land, as there was no road. Moreover, there was a thick wood opposite, and hills hehind it, and in many places there were swamps.

Henry Ancrum was puzzled for a moment, but it soon occurred to him that the General's object must be to make a reconnoissance of the Maori position from the hill on the other side of the river, which being rather high, would afford a good view of it. To effect this, it would be necessary to send a body of troops to protect the officers page 61making the reconnoissance. He had hardly come to this conclusion when he heard the heavy boom of one of the Armstrong guns at Whangamarino; then another followed. This did not surprise him; it was probably done to draw off the Maories' attention from what was going on on the other side of the river.

Henry now ran round the side of the hill, under which he had been standing, and came up to its summit, at a point where he knew he would be clear of the line of fire. From this point he observed that not only were the two Armstrong guns keeping up a heavy fire on the advanced rifle-pits of the Maories, but that a column of troops was winding down the steep sides of the Whangamarino hill, and crossing the creek to the side nearest their fortifications

Henry Ancrum was still perfectly certain page 62that what he saw was merely a feint to cover the reconnoissance which was being carried on on the other side of the river, and to enable it to be conducted without any interruption whatever; but it was evident that the Maories thought that they were going to be attacked in real earnest. Their camp presented an appearance of the wildest confusion; some of the dusky warriors were divesting themselves of their superfluous clothing, as a Maori generally fights in his shirt faugh!; others were fastening on their pouches with ammunition, and examining their guns: others again, fully accoutred after their own fashion, were rushing off to the rifle-pits. All were talking at the top of their voices. But the confusion was more apparent than real; every man knew where he had to go to, and in a short time they had all disappeared into their fortifications. Henry Ancrum page 63gazed around him; all was now silent, not a soul was to be seen.

"Now," he said to himself, "I think I hove an opportunity of escaping; if I can only reach the canoes in the swamp unobserved, I can easily paddle one of the small ones through the channels of water which intersect it, till I regain the creek, and then by going down it I can reach the British camp."

Full of this idea he descended to the low ground, and skirting round the base of the hills, passed from one valley into another, until he emerged on a level plain only a few feet above the swamp, and extending into it until it terminated in a long low point; at the extremity of this point were the canoes.

Henry advanced slowly towards them; his object in doing this was that, should he be observed from a distance by any Maori page 64scout, it might be imagined that he was only taking a walk; he, however, looked eagerly about him, and suddenly became aware, to his dismay, that close to the canoes, and partly hidden by trees, a party of Maories were standing. Scarcely had he observed this, when one of them left the rest and came rapidly towards him.

As he approached, Henry observed that it was a cousin of Ihaka's, with whom he had often had long conversations; he also saw that the man was very angry.

"What are you doing here?" said the Maori.

"I am taking a walk," replied Henry.

"A walk!" was the answer. "It would have been your last walk if you had not met me! As it is, my men say that you are a spy, and are eager to kill you. You must return instantly, and I will go with page 65you; as, if any other party met you, you would certainly be tomahawked!"

After this, Henry and the friendly Maori proceeded on their way in silence, taking a circuit under the hills, so that it might appear that the former had returned from the opposite direction from which he had really come. Then the Maori stopped, and merely watched Henry till he entered his whari. Here he met Celia, who questioned him as to where he had been; to which he answered, which was partly true, that he had been watching what was taking place.

By this time the firing of the Armstrong guns had ceased, but the column which had crossed the Whangamarino Creek still retained its position on the side of it next to the Maori camp, and the Maorics themselves still remained in their rifle-pits. The column which had covered the operations of the reconnoitring party had retraced its page 66steps, and was now recrossing the river. In a short time afterwards the troops who had crossed the creek retired to their own side of it again, and all waa quiet and silent as usual.

The Maories left their rifle-pits in a high state of delight; they were certain that the General had intended to attack them, but had found their position too strong to do so; so the hopper sounded, and they had a long korero (talk) and rejoiced exceedingly, and wrote letters to their friends, telling them that the General was getting tired, and that he would soon go away, and to come and join them, in order, when he did so, that they might all fall on his retiring columns, and drive them and all the Pakehas into the sea, &c., &c.

Nothing of any importance occurred for some time after the events above narrated. Henry and Celia were now thrown entirely page 67into one another's society, for Henry found that since his attempt to escape, which had probably become generally known, he had become an object of suspicion to the Maories, and that he could not stir even a few yards beyond the immediate precincts of the camp without exposing himself to extreme danger.

Under these circumstances he was given over, bound hand and foot, to Celia; and that young lady used her power without mercy. She was young, she was beautiful, she was clever—what a combination against the constancy of any man! But besides all these, Henry Ancrum felt and knew that she loved him with all the energy of her strong, wild, determined character. Celia had nothing bad in her disposition; she would not willingly have injured any person, but where her feelings were concerned she thought only of herself. If any page 68person came in her way, that was their affair; where she had the power she would have swept them out of her path as ruthlessty as she would crush an insect.

She loved Henry Ancrum, and she was determined to marry him—everything, she thought, must give way to this. No art that a fond and loving woman could use was left untried to secure his affection; and even another inducement was used, for, without actually telling him so, she gave him to understand that in the present state of Maori feeling his safety, his very life depended on a union with herself.