The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter A tale illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont By: D. P. Thompson (1795-1868)
First Page: This eBook was produced by David Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE RANGERS OR THE TORY'S DAUGHTER A TALE ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF VERMONT AND THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN OF 1777 BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS" TWO VOLUMES IN ONE TENTH EDITION VOLUME I. On commencing his former work, illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS, it was the design of the author to have embraced the battle of Bennington, and other events of historic interest which occurred in the older and more southerly parts of the state; but finding, as he proceeded, that the unity and interest of his effort would be endangered by embracing so much ground, a part of the original design was relinquished, or rather its execution was deferred for a new and separate work, wherein better justice could be done to the rich and unappropriated materials of which his researches had put him in possession. That work, after an interval of ten years, and the writing and publishing of several intermediate ones, is now presented to the public, and with the single remark, that if it is made to possess less interest, as a mere tale, than its predecessor, the excuse must be found in the author's greater anxiety to give a true historic version of the interesting and important events he has undertaken to illustrate. THE RANGERS; OR, THE TORY'S DAUGHTER CHAPTER I. "Sing on! sing on! my mountain home, The paths where erst I used to roam, The thundering torrent lost in foam. The snow hill side all bathed in light, All, all are bursting on my sight!" Towards night, on the twelfth of March, 1775, a richly equipped double sleigh, filled with a goodly company of well dressed persons of the different sexes, was seen descending from the eastern side of the Green Mountains, along what may now be considered the principal thoroughfare leading from the upper navigable portions of the Hudson to those of the Connecticut River. The progress of the travellers was not only slow, but extremely toilsome, as was plainly evinced by the appearance of the reeking and jaded horses, as they labored and floundered along the sloppy and slumping snow paths of the winter road, which was obviously now fast resolving itself into the element of which it was composed. Up to the previous evening, the dreary reign of winter had continued wholly uninterrupted by the advent of his more gentle successor in the changing rounds of the seasons; and the snowy waste which enveloped the earth would, that morning, have apparently withstood the rains and suns of months before yielding entirely to their influences. But during the night there had occurred one of those great and sudden transitions from cold to heat, which can only be experienced in northern climes, and which can be accounted for only on the supposition, that the earth, at stated intervals, rapidly gives out large quantities of its internal heats, or that the air becomes suddenly rarefied by some essential change or modification in the state of the electric fluid. The morning had been cloudless; and the rising sun, with rays no longer dimly struggling through the dense, obstructing medium of the dark months gone by, but, with the restored beams of his natural brightness, fell upon the smoking earth with the genial warmth of summer. A new atmosphere, indeed, seemed to have been suddenly created, so warm and bland was the whole air; while, occasionally, a breeze came over the face of the traveller, which seemed like the breath of a heated oven. As the day advanced, the sky gradually became overcast a strong south wind sprung up, before whose warm puffs the drifted snow banks seemed literally to be cut down, like grass before the scythe of the mower; and, at length, from the thickening mass of cloud above, the rain began to descend in torrents to the mutely recipient earth... Continue reading book >>

The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter A tale illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont By: D. P. Thompson (1795-1868)

First Page:

This eBook was produced by David Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE RANGERS

THE TORY'S DAUGHTER

A TALE

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE

REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF VERMONT

AND THE

NORTHERN CAMPAIGN OF 1777

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS"

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE

TENTH EDITION

VOLUME I.

On commencing his former work, illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS, it was the design of the author to have embraced the battle of Bennington, and other events of historic interest which occurred in the older and more southerly parts of the state; but finding, as he proceeded, that the unity and interest of his effort would be endangered by embracing so much ground, a part of the original design was relinquished, or rather its execution was deferred for a new and separate work, wherein better justice could be done to the rich and unappropriated materials of which his researches had put him in possession. That work, after an interval of ten years, and the writing and publishing of several intermediate ones, is now presented to the public, and with the single remark, that if it is made to possess less interest, as a mere tale, than its predecessor, the excuse must be found in the author's greater anxiety to give a true historic version of the interesting and important events he has undertaken to illustrate.

THE RANGERS;

OR,

THE TORY'S DAUGHTER

CHAPTER I.

"Sing on! sing on! my mountain home, The paths where erst I used to roam, The thundering torrent lost in foam. The snow hill side all bathed in light, All, all are bursting on my sight!"

Towards night, on the twelfth of March, 1775, a richly equipped double sleigh, filled with a goodly company of well dressed persons of the different sexes, was seen descending from the eastern side of the Green Mountains, along what may now be considered the principal thoroughfare leading from the upper navigable portions of the Hudson to those of the Connecticut River. The progress of the travellers was not only slow, but extremely toilsome, as was plainly evinced by the appearance of the reeking and jaded horses, as they labored and floundered along the sloppy and slumping snow paths of the winter road, which was obviously now fast resolving itself into the element of which it was composed. Up to the previous evening, the dreary reign of winter had continued wholly uninterrupted by the advent of his more gentle successor in the changing rounds of the seasons; and the snowy waste which enveloped the earth would, that morning, have apparently withstood the rains and suns of months before yielding entirely to their influences. But during the night there had occurred one of those great and sudden transitions from cold to heat, which can only be experienced in northern climes, and which can be accounted for only on the supposition, that the earth, at stated intervals, rapidly gives out large quantities of its internal heats, or that the air becomes suddenly rarefied by some essential change or modification in the state of the electric fluid. The morning had been cloudless; and the rising sun, with rays no longer dimly struggling through the dense, obstructing medium of the dark months gone by, but, with the restored beams of his natural brightness, fell upon the smoking earth with the genial warmth of summer. A new atmosphere, indeed, seemed to have been suddenly created, so warm and bland was the whole air; while, occasionally, a breeze came over the face of the traveller, which seemed like the breath of a heated oven. As the day advanced, the sky gradually became overcast a strong south wind sprung up, before whose warm puffs the drifted snow banks seemed literally to be cut down, like grass before the scythe of the mower; and, at length, from the thickening mass of cloud above, the rain began to descend in torrents to the mutely recipient earth... Continue reading book >>

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