Atlantic Monthly Vol. 6, No. 33, July, 1860

by his store of historical knowledge, I became acquainted with a tradition touching a strange incident that had reference to a mysterious person connected wi

heir descendants, and that I am, perhaps, the only individual in th

margin of the brook and across the ledges of the rock. This rough shelter went by the name of Talbot's Cave down to a very recent period, and would still go by that name, if it were yet in existence. But it happened, not many years since, that Port Deposit was awakened to a sudden notion of the value of the granite of the cliff, and, as commerce is a most ruthless contemner of all romance, and never hesitates between a speculation of profit and a speculation of history, Talbot's Cave soon began to figure conspicuously in the Price Current, and in a

in the date, uncertain as to persons, mysterious as to the event,--just such a tradition as to whet

e,--how long, the tradition does not say. This region was then inhabited by a fierce tribe of Indians, who are described on Captain John Smith's map as the "Sasquesahannocks," and who were friendly to the outlaw and supplied him with provisions. To these details was added another, which threw an additional interest over the story,--that Talbot had a pair of beautiful English hawks, such as were most p

eing males. For many years, it was affirmed,--long after the outlaw had vanished from the scene,--these gallant old rovers of the river still pursued their accustomed game, a solitary pair, without kindred or acquaintance in our woods. They had survived their master,--no one could tell how long,--but had not abandoned the

these morsels of narrative. Who this Talbot was,--what was his crime,--how long he lived i

uppose that this short sketch has already stirred the bosoms of the novel-reading portion, at least, of my readers with a desire that I should tell them what, in my late

y; and there is one of the oldest counties of Maryland that bears the name of his family,-- perhaps called so in honor of himself. Then he

nd yet the date could not have been much earlier than that century, because the hawks had been seen by old persons of the last generation somewhere about the period

ct of passion,--a homicide, probably, provoked by a quarrel, and enacted in hot blood. This Talbot was too well conditioned for a

oreover, had made himself acceptable to the Indians, to whose power he had committed himself, we may conclude that he possessed some winning points of character; and I therefo

vidence, we weave the network of quite a natural story of Talbot; and our meagre tra