A Legend of the Chesapeake - The Adventure And The Rescue

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A Legend of the Chesapeake
by John P. Kennedy
article from "Southern Literary Messenger, A Magazine Devoted To Literature,
Science and Art" VolXXIV-11  March, 1857.

The Adventure And The Rescue

We must return to the Manor of New Connaught, upon the Elk river.  There we
shall find a sorrowful household. The Lord of the Manor is in captivity: his
people are dejected with a presentiment that they are to see him no more: his
wife is lamenting with her children, and counting the weary days of his
imprisonment.
                       "His hounds they all ran masterless,
                        His hawks they flee from tree to tree."
Every thing in the hospitable woodland home is changed.  November, December,
January had passed by since Talbot was lodged in the Goucester prison, and
still no hope dawned upon the afflicted lady. The forest around her howled
with the rush of the winter wind, but neither the wilderness nor the winter
were so desolate as her own heart.  The fate of her husband was in the hands
of his enemies.  She trembled at the thought of his being forced to a trial
for his life in Virginia, where he would be deprived of that friendly sympathy
so necessary even to the vindication of innocence, and where he ran the risk
of being condemned without defence, upon the testimony of exasperated
opponents.  but she was a strong-hearted and resolute woman, and would not
despair.  

She had many friends around her - friends devoted to her husband and
herself.  Amongst these was Phelim Murray, a cornet of cavalry under the
command of Talbot - a brave, reckless, true-hearted comrade, who had often
shared the hospitality, the adventureous service and sports of his commander.
To Murray I attribute the planning of the enterprise I am about to relate.  He
had determined to rescue his chief from his prison in Virginia.  His scheme
required the co-operation of Mrs. Talbot and one of her youngest children -
the pet boy, perhaps, of the family, some two or three years old - I imagine
the special favorite of the father.  The adventure was a bold one, involving
many hardships and perils.  Towards the end of January, the lady, accompanied
by her boy with his nurse, and attended by two Irish men-servants, repaired to
St. Mary's where she was doubtless received as a guest in the mansion of the
Proprietary, now the residence of young Benedict Leonard and those of the
family who had not accompanied Lord Baltimore to England.  

Whilst Mrs. Talbot tarried here the Cornet was busy in his preparations.  He 
had brought the Colonel's shallop from Elk river to the Patuxent, and was here 
concerting a plan to put the little vessel under the command of some 
ostensible owner, who might appear in the character of its master to any 
over-curious or inopportune questioner. He had found a man exactly to his hand, 
in a certain Roger Skreene, whose name might almost be thought to be adopted 
for the occasion and to express the part he had to act.  He was what we may call 
the sloop's husband, but was bound to do whatever Murray commanded; to ask no 
questions, and to be profoundly ignorant of the real objects of the expedition.  
This pliant auxiliary had, like many thrifty - or more probably thriftless -
persons of that time, a double occupation. He was amphibious in his habits,
and lived equally on land and water.  At home he was a tailor, and abroad a
seaman, frequently plying his craft as skipper on the Bay, and sufficiently
known in the latter vocation to render his present employment a matter to
excite no suspicious remark.  You will perceive, in the course of his present
adventure, that he is quite innocent of any avowed complicity in the design
which he was assisting.

Murray had a stout companion with him, a good friend to Talbot, probably one
of the familiar frequenters of the Manor House of New Connaught - a bold
fellow, with a hand and a heart both ready for any perilous service.  He may
have been a comrade of the Cornet's in his troop.  His name was Hugh Riley - a
name that has been traditionally connected with dare-devil exploits ever since
the days of Dermot McMorrogh.  There have been, I believe, but few hard fights
in the world  to which Irishmen have had anything to say, without a Hugh Riley
somewhere in the thickest part of them. 

The preparations now being complete, Murray anchored his shallop near a 
convenient landing - perhaps within the Mattapony creek.  In the dead of 
winter, about the 30th of January, 1685, Mrs. Talbot, with her servants, her 
child and nurse, set forth from the Proprietary residence in St. Mary's, to 
journey over to Patuxent - a cold, bleak ride of fifteen miles.  The party 
were all on horse-back; the young boy, perhaps, wrapped in thick coverings, 
nestling in the arms of one of the men; Mrs. Talbot braving the sharp wind 
in hood and cloak, and warmed by her own warm heart, which beat with a 
courageous pulse, against the fierce blasts that swept and roared across her 
path.  

Such a cavalcade, of course, could not depart from St. Mary's without 
observation at any season; but at this time of the year so unusual a sight 
drew every inhabitant to the windows, and set in motion a current of gossip 
that bore away all other topics from every fireside.  The gentlemen of the 
council, too, doubtless had frequent conference with the unhappy wife of 
their colleague during her sojourn in the government house, and perhaps, 
secretly counselled with her on her adventure. Whatever outward or seeming 
pretext may have been adopted for this movement, we can hardly suppose that 
many friends of the Proprietary were ignorant of its objects.  We have, 
indeed, evidence that the enemies of the Proprietary charged the council with 
a direct connivance in the scheme of Talbot's escape, and made it a subject 
of complaint against Lord Baltimore that he afterwards approved of it. 

Upon her arrival at the Patuxent, Mrs. Talbot went immediately on board of 
the sloop, with her attendants. There she found the friendly Cornet, and his 
comrade Hugh Riley, on the alert to distinguish their loyalty in her cause. 
The amphibious Master Skreene was now at the head of a picked crew - the 
whole party consisting of five stout men, with the lady, her child and nurse.  
All the men but Skreene were sons of the Emerald Isle - of a race whose boast 
is the faithfullness of their devotion to a friend in need and chivalrous 
courtesy to woman; but still more their generous and gallant championship 
of woman in distress.  On this occasion this national sentiment was enhanced 
when it was called into exercise in behalf of the sorrowful lady of the chief 
of their border settlements.  

They set sail from Patuxent on Saturday, the 31st of January.  On Wednesday, 
the fifth day afterwards, they landed  on the southern bank of the 
Rappahannock, at the house of Mr. Ralph Wormeley, near the mouth of the river.  
This long voyage of five days over so short a distance, would seem to 
indicate that they departed from the common track of navigation to avoid 
notice. The next morning Mr. Wormeley furnished them horses and a servant, 
and Mrs. Talbot, with her nurse and child, under the conduct of Cornet Murray, 
set out for Gloucester - a distance of some twenty miles.  The day following - 
that is, on Friday - the servant returned with the horses, having left the 
party behind.  Saturday passed and part of Sunday, when, in the evening, 
Mrs. Talbot and the Cornet reappeared at Mr. Wormeley's.  The child and nurse 
were left behind; and this was accounted for by Mrs. Talbot saying she had 
left the child with his father, to remain with him until she should return 
to Virginia.  I infer that the child was introduced into this adventure to 
give some seeming to the visit, which might lull suspicion and procure easier 
access to the prisoner. And the leaving of him in Gloucester proves that 
Mrs. Talbot had friends, and, probably, confederates there, to whose care 
he was committed.

Continued in Chesapeake7.txt.