Chainbearer, The

Chainbearer, The, novel by Cooper, published in 1845 as the second part of his Littlepage Manuscripts.

Mordaunt, son of Cornelius Littlepage and heir to his New York estates, is educated at Princeton, and in the last year of the Revolutionary War is an ensign in the company of the bluff Dutch surveyor Andries Coejemans, called Chainbearer, who later goes to Ravensnest and Mooseridge, the Littlepage frontier estates, as chief surveyor. There Mordaunt joins him, and falls in love with his niece Dus Malbone. Mordaunt and the Indian guide Susquesus are captured while spying on Aaron Thousandacres, a surly squatter who has been plundering the timber at Ravensnest. Susquesus escapes to summon Chainbearer, who comes to parley with Thousandacres. The squatter demands that Dus marry his son, and when the indignant uncle refuses there is an altercation in which he is killed. Thousandacres is killed by a posse while resisting arrest, and members of the Littlepage family arrive intime to learn of the betrothal of Mordaunt and Dus.