Noble Deeds Of American Women Part 25

HEROIC DECISION.

No thought of flight, None of retreat, no unbecoming deed That argued fear.

MILTON.

We have elsewhere in this work spoken of the perils necessary to be encountered by Christian missionaries, and particularly those who connect themselves with stations in Africa. The history of the Methodist Episcopal mission in that quarter of the globe, presents a n.o.ble, if not a long, list of soldiers who early fell there while contending with Error. They sank upon the battle field, with their armor on and covered with glory. They fell not before the hosts of paganism; they were conquered by the climate. Most of those who have not died on the field, have been obliged to shortly flee to their native land for the restoration of health. Here and there one has withstood the adverse nature of the climate, toiled for years, and done a n.o.ble work, which has caused rejoicing in Heaven and honored the name of Christ on earth.

Few persons, whose names are connected with the history of modern missions, have displayed a more devoted, self-sacrificing spirit, or greater moral courage, than Miss Sophronia Farrington. Prior to the autumn of 1834, of six missionaries who had entered the field in Africa under the patronage of American Methodists, three[64] were in their graves, and two[65] had returned to the United States for health. Miss Farrington stood alone, and the question arose, what she should do. The officers of the Missionary Society were willing she should return home, and her friends were urging it upon her. With her co-laborers all dead or fled, she seemed herself to be left to the alternative either to flee or fall. Should she choose the former course, the mission would be wholly, and, for ought she knew, for ever, abandoned. What then should she do? Like a hero, to use her own words, she had "offered her soul upon the altar of her G.o.d, for the salvation of that long benighted continent," and with courage that shames the facer of the cannon's mouth, she resolved to remain and toil alone, beside the graves of her fallen companions till more help should come or the Divine Husbandman close the labors of the lone vine-dresser. More help arrived in a few months, and, according to the annual report of 1836, the mission, of whose history she formed at one time the connecting link, "continued to loom up in bright perspective, and promise a rich reward for all the labors and sufferings of the faithful missionaries."

[64] Rev. M. B. c.o.x and Rev. O. S. Wright and wife.

[65] Rev. Mr. Spaulding and lady.

THE DAUGHTER OF AARON BURR.

'Tis thine on every heart to 'grave thy praise, A monument which Worth alone can raise.

BROOME.

Theodosia, the only daughter of Aaron Burr, was a woman of superior mental accomplishments, and very strong affections. She was married to Joseph Alston, Esq., afterwards Governor of South Carolina, in 1801. She was then in her eighteenth year. That she was an excellent wife may be gathered, not merely from the story of her life, but from the testimony of her husband. Writing to her father in 1813--soon after her death--he says, "The man who has been deemed worthy of the heart of Theodosia Burr, and has felt what it was to be blest with such a woman's, will never forget his elevation."[66]

[66] Memoirs of Aaron Burr, by Matthew L. Davis, vol. 2, p. 432.

In regard to her attachment to her father, a writer, quoted in the appendix to Safford's Life of Blennerha.s.sett, remarks as follows: "Her love for her father partook of the purity of a better world; holy, deep, unchanging; it reminds us of the affection which a celestial spirit might be supposed to entertain for a parent cast down from heaven, for sharing in the sin of the 'Son of the Morning.' No sooner did she hear of the arrest of her father, than she fled to his side.[67] There is nothing in human history more touching than the hurried letters, blotted with tears, in which she announced her daily progress to Richmond; for she was too weak to travel with the rapidity of the mail."

[67] He was imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia.--AUTHOR.

Had her health permitted, and occasion presented itself, she would have matched in heroism any act in the life of Margaret Roper or Elizabeth Cazotte.[68]

[68] Mrs. Roper accompanied her father, Sir Thomas More, to prison, and after he was executed and his head had lain fourteen days on London Bridge, she purchased it, and thus saved it from being thrown into the Thames. For this intrepidity, by the king's orders she was cast into prison--though she was soon permitted to escape.

Mademoiselle Cazotte was the daughter of an aged Frenchman, who, on one occasion, during the Revolution in his country, would have lost his life but for her courage. He was a "counter-revolutionist," and after an imprisonment, during which his daughter chose to be immured with him, on the second day of September, he was about to be slain. An axe was raised over his head, when Elizabeth threw herself upon him, and exclaimed, "Strike, barbarians; you cannot reach my father but through my heart."

She did other heroic deeds.

The trial of her father for treason, and his virtual banishment, not only depressed her spirits, but fearfully racked her already feeble const.i.tution, yet his disgrace abated not a t.i.ttle the ardor of her affection; and when he returned from Europe, though in feeble health, she resolved to visit him in the city of New York. She was then in South Carolina. Embarking in the privateer Patriot, on the thirteenth of January, 1813, she was never heard of afterwards. The schooner may have fallen into the hands of pirates; but, as a heavy gale was experienced for several days soon after leaving Georgetown, the probability is that the craft foundered. Thus closed a life to which the panegyrical exclamation of Milton happily applies:

O glorious trial of exceeding love Ill.u.s.trious evidence, example high.

FEMALE INTREPIDITY.

Be not dismayed--fear nurses up a danger, And resolution kills it in the birth.

PHILLIPS.

During the war between the Indians and Kentuckians, while the owner of a plantation in a thinly settled part of the state, was at work with his slaves in the field, a sable sentinel, who was posted near the house, saw a party of savages approaching. One of them was more fleet than he, and reaching the house at the same moment, they rushed within doors together. The planter's wife instantly closed the door and the negro and Indian grappled. The former was the stronger of the two, though the latter was the more expert. After a hard struggle, the negro threw the Indian, and held him fast until the woman beheaded him with a broad-axe.

The negro then seized the guns, and began to fire at the other Indians through the loop-holes. The guns were loaded by the woman as fast as discharged. Their frequent report soon brought the laborers from the field, and the surviving Indians were driven away.

THE WIFE OF RICHARD SHUBRICK.

Be fire with fire; Threaten the threatener, and out face the brow Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes, That borrow their behavior from the great, Grow great by your example.

SHAKSPEARE.

The following anecdotes of Mrs. Richard Shubrick may be found in the First Series of Major Garden's Revolutionary Anecdotes. "There was," he writes, "an appearance of personal debility about her that rendered her peculiarly interesting: it seemed to solicit the interest of every heart, and the man would have felt himself degraded who would not have put his life at hazard to serve her. Yet, when firmness of character was requisite, when fort.i.tude was called for to repel the encroachments of aggression, there was not a more intrepid being in existence.

"An American soldier, flying from a party of the enemy, sought her protection, and was promised it. The British, pressing close upon him, insisted that he should be delivered up, threatening immediate and universal destruction in case of refusal. The ladies, her friends and companions, who were in the house with her, shrunk from the contest, and were silent; but, undaunted by their threats, this intrepid lady placed herself before the chamber into which the unfortunate fugitive had been conducted, and resolutely said, 'To men of honor the chamber of a lady should be as sacred as the sanctuary! I will defend the pa.s.sage to it though I perish. You may succeed, and enter it, but it shall be over my corpse.' 'By G.o.d,' said the officer, 'if muskets were only placed in the hands of a few such women, our only safety would be found in retreat. Your intrepidity, madam, gives you security; from me you shall meet no further annoyance.'

"At Brabant, the seat of the respectable and patriotic Bishop Smith, a sergeant of Tarleton's dragoons, eager for the acquisition of plunder, followed the overseer, a man advanced in years, into the apartment where the ladies of the family were a.s.sembled, and on his refusing to discover the spot in which the plate was concealed, struck him with violence, inflicting a severe sabre wound across the shoulders. Aroused by the infamy of the act, Mrs. Shubrick, starting from her seat, and placing herself betwixt the ruffian and his victim, resolutely said, 'Place yourself behind me, Murdoch; the interposition of my body shall give you protection, or I will die:' then, addressing herself to the sergeant, exclaimed, 'O what a degradation of manhood--what departure from that gallantry which was once the characteristic of British soldiers. Human nature is degraded by your barbarity;--but should you persist, then strike at _me_, for till I die, no further injury shall be done to _him_.' The sergeant, unable to resist such commanding eloquence, retired."[69]

[69] "The hope, however, of attaining the object in view, very speedily subjected the unfortunate Murdoch to new persecution. He was tied up under the very tree where the plate was buried, and threatened with immediate execution unless he would make the discovery required. But although well acquainted with the unrelenting severity of his enemy, and earnestly solicited by his wife, to save his life by a speedy confession of the place of deposit, he persisted resolutely, that a sacred trust was not to be betrayed, and actually succeeded in preserving it."

KEEN RETORT OF MRS. ASHE.

I have a thousand spirits in one breast, To answer twenty thousand such as you.

SHAKSPEARE.

While General Leslie was staying with the British troops at Halifax, North Carolina, Colonel Tarleton and other officers held their quarters at the house of Colonel Ashe, whose wife was a firm friend of liberty.

Her beau ideal of the hero was Colonel William Was.h.i.+ngton; and, knowing this fact, the sarcastic Tarleton took great delight in speaking diminutively of this officer in her presence. In his jesting way, he remarked to her one time, that he should like to have an opportunity of seeing her friend, Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, whom he had understood to be a very small man. Mrs. Ashe promptly replied, "If you had looked behind you, Colonel Tarleton, at the battle of the Cowpens, you would have had that pleasure."[70]

[70] It is said that this taunt was so keenly felt that Tarleton laid his hand on the hilt of his sword. General Leslie entered the room at the moment, and seeing the agitation of Mrs. Ashe, and learning its cause, said to her, "Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe; Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my presence."

PHILANTHROPIC WIFE OF A DRUNKARD.

There's in you all that we believe of heaven.