The Knights of the Horse-Shoe; A Traditionary Tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion:
Electronic Edition.
Caruthers, William Alexander, 1802-1846.
Funding from the University of North Carolina Library supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by
Apex Data Services, Inc.
Images scanned by
Bond Thompson
Text encoded by
Apex Data Services, Inc., Marisa Ramírez, and Sarah Ficke
ca. 996K
University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2006.
© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.
Source Description:
(title page) The Knights of the Horse-Shoe; A Traditionary Tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion.
[Caruthers, William Alexander]
iv, 248 p.
Wetumpka, Alabama:
Printed and Published by Charles Yancy.
1845.
Call number PS1262.C8 K5 1845 (Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
This electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.
The text has been entered using double-keying and verified against the original.
The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. Encountered typographical errors have been preserved, and appear in red type.
All footnotes are inserted at the point of reference within paragraphs.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively.
All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
All em dashes are encoded as --
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
Running titles have not been preserved.
Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Languages Used:
- English
- French
- Latin
- Italian
- German
LC Subject Headings:
Revision History:
- 2006-,
Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.
-
2006-06-27,
Sarah Ficke
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
-
2004-07-13,
Marisa Ramírez
finished TEI/SGML encoding.
- 2004-03-22,
Apex Data Services, Inc.
finished transcribing the text.
[Cover Image]
[Title Page Image]
THE
KNIGHTS
OF THE
HORSE-SHOE;
A TRADITIONARY TALE
OF THE
COCKED HAT GENTRY
IN THE
OLD DOMINION.
BY THE AUTHOR OF THE "CAVALIERS OF VIRGINIA," &c., &c.
WETUMPKA, ALABAMA:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY CHARLES YANCEY.
1845.
Page [ii]
To the Hon. JOHN TYLER,* Professor SAUNDERS, of William and Mary College, JOHN M. GREGORY, Esq., Col. ROBERT MCCANDLISH and Doctor ROBERT G. PEACHY.
* The above was written before Mr. Tyler was even thought of for the Vice Presidency. He was then a plain citizen, like the others who had tendered hospitalities and afforded facilities to the author, during his visit to Williamsburg.
Savannah, June, 1845.
DEAR SIRS:
To whom can the following traditionary tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry, be so appropriately dedicated as to you, their descendants, and to whom I was indebted for my first introduction to the mysteries of the old Apollo of the Raleigh.
On that occasion I had the honor to receive an illustration of Virginia hospitality, as well as a rich treat of traditionary stores, bearing directly upon the subject of my visit to that part of the State. The morning sun found us still lingering round the festive board, where was brought in review so many of the characters of the succeeding tale.
If I have been successful in giving but a tithe of the interest to these materials with which you invested them, my highest ambition will be gratified; for I aim but to spin out the fleeting existence of the old fireside traditions, to which we all so fondly cling.
With the highest regard, Gentlemen,
I remain, your friend and obedient servant,
THE AUTHOR.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS.
Page [iii]
INTRODUCTION.
THE materials of the following traditionary story were collected and embodied some years ago, and would have been given to the public through another channel, but for an unfortunate accident which befel the author.* * The burning of his house and papers.
The traditions forming the ground work of the plot, were many of them gathered on the good old classic ground of Virginia, and sometimes on the very spot of their occurrence. One of the country seats of Sir ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD, unfortunately, was consumed by fire previous to the author's visit to that part of the country. This was the more to be regretted, as the old Hall contained the pictures of Gen. ELLIOT, in armor, and of his Excellency in his court dress.
Many of the other old mansions yet stand, and are in possession, too, of the descendants of the old cocked hat gentry, of whom our story treats. It is but too true, that many others of these are either in a ruinous condition, or have entirely disappeared even from the memory of the oldest citizens. We have hunted up the former sites of these, and gathered together the fleeting traditions of their inhabitants with no little care and trouble. Sometimes wandering over the desolate scene only to find a ruinous old grave-yard, with here and there a dilapidated tomb stone, bearing, amongst its moss-grown evidences of antiquity, armorial bearings which look strangely out of place, surrounded by the institutions which have since banished all these lordly and aristocratic distinctions. At other times we were more fortunate, and fell in with some venerable old sexagenerian, who, surrounded by the family pictures, loved to turn back with us and tell their histories in the days of the vice-regal court, pointing the while to the veritable lineaments of the person whose actions were described.
So long a time has elapsed since the actors have slept in their graves, that we have presumed to use the real names of nearly all the principal personages whom we shall introduce to the reader. We have had the pleasure, and still reckon it amongst our highest honors, to number many of the descendants of these on the list of our friends, and from them we have obtained many of the personal traits and family traditions which will be found embodied in the following tale, as well as the names and localities of such of the old family mansions as it was impracticable to visit.
Having these high credentials for the authenticity of many of our traits, incidents and scenes, we hope to avoid giving offence to any of the descendants of our old time-honored gentry. This, however, is by no means an easy task; for nearly every principal name which we shall use, boasts descendants scattered over our widely extended country. To give the reader some idea of this wide separation of the descendants of the old cavaliers, and at the same time show, at what pains and labor we have collected the materials of our story, we will mention one fact in illustration. In tracing out the descendants of the venerable chieftain, whose achievements form the ground work of our plot, we commenced at the ancient capital of Virginia, indeed at both the ancient capitals. Not a vestige of them, in a direct line, could be found. Even his own
Page iv
remains had been interred in another state, (Annapolis, Maryland,) where he died on his way to take command of an expedition against Florida. Accidentally, we heard of a venerable old lady, some hundred miles off from this starting point, who was said to have been connected by marriage, or blood, with one of the descendants of the Governor. Thither we posted; and through the intervention of a friend, obtained not only many curious and valuable traditions, but a clue by which we first traced a lineal descendant to the extreme borders of western Virginia, and afterwards to the interior of Indiana. We forthwith opened a correspondence with him, and obtained a further store of old traditions, which we have likewise endeavored to work up for the amusement of our readers.
From all those whom we have been enabled to consult personally, or by letter, we have been amply encouraged to go on; but though we have found and consulted many, there are many others whom we could not reach, unless, indeed, we had undertaken to write a history, instead of a more humble traditionary tale of the olden time.
Would that we could do justice to the vast field which our explorations have barely entered; no where in this country is there such an unexplored storehouse of materials for the novelist, as may be found still clustering around the hearthstones of the old cocked hat gentry. In many of these old mansions, there are still preserved genealogical trees, and the family pictures of all the generations, from the landing of their forefathers down to the present time. There, may be learned at one and the same time, the histories of the old people, and the various costumes, from the hoops and farthingales down to the republican simplicity of THOMAS JEFFERSON'S era. This, alone, might form an interesting study to one sufficiently imbued with the true antiquarian spirit. But, alas! few in this country have the fortune or the elegant leisure, necessary to pursue these matters uninterruptedly; such is the fate of the author of the following imperfect and crudely digested effort, and he must offer it in extenuation of his many short comings.
Page 1
THE KNIGHTS
OF THE
HORSE-SHOE.
CHAPTER I.
A VIRGINIA FARM HOUSE.
AT a moderate distance from Yorktown, (since so famous by the surrender of CORNWALLIS,) there stood a plain looking structure, covering a considerable portion of ground, embracing, under one common roof, a long range of buildings of various dimensions, and surrounded with cool looking verandahs, which extended entirely round the lower story of the house; here entirely closing one portion from view, with the extension of green slats, and there throwing open another from the ceiling to the floor, so that the inmates might choose sunshine or shade, as suited their fancy. Besides this main building, there were others of various sizes and shapes, from the kitchen to the coach house, forming, altogether, quite an imposing looking establishment. One side of the dwelling commanded a fine prospect of the Chesapeake Bay, while the other faced a garden, at that day a curiosity in the colony. It extended beyond the reach of the eye landwards, until it was lost in a beautiful green lawn, which fell off abruptly towards a little bubbling brook which wound its way around the extended bluff upon which the mansion stood. This garden was laid out after the prim and rather pragmatical fashion of that day in the old country, and adorned with statues and grotoes, and curiously devised box hedges. In the centre of these, a jet d'eau constantly threw up its glittering spray, giving a most inviting air of coolness and repose to the place. The whole establishment was surrounded by a fence, painted white, the entrance to which was through a high arched gate in the fashion of the times.
This was called Temple Farm, from a circumstance which will appear in the course of our narrative, and was one of the country seats of Sir Alexander Spotswood, then Governor of Virginia, and Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's forces in the colony.
Further along the shores of the bay, stood a double row of small white cottages, with a narrow street running between, and one large building of two stories, in the centre, surmounted with a small cupola and weathercock; this was the negro quarter. Beyond this, again, stood the overseer's house; still following the same line.
The whole settlement presented a most inviting prospect to the eye of the weary traveller; and from the water was still more imposing; because, on that side, was one unbroken front, giving the idea of quite a village, from the number of the buildings. No one will wonder at the extent, even of this
Page 2
country establishment, when we state from undoubted authority, that his Excellency's income, at that time, exceeded twenty thousand pounds, per annum, independent of his official salary.
It was near sundown of a sultry day in the summer of 1714; the dim blue outlines of Acomac and North Ampton could just be discovered across the misty surface of the bay. Sir Alexander Spotswood was seated in a large arm chair in the front porch of the building, entirely alone, except his dogs, which were snoozing away around his chair in various groups. He had a pipe in his mouth, held from time to time in his fingers, while he blew away the smoke, and cast his eye now and then along the surface of the water. He were a cocked hat on his head, which was thrown rather to one side, so as to exhibit a profusion of iron-grey hair, done up in the bob wig fashion. His features were large and strong, but not unpleasing, especially when a smile broke over the otherwise bronzed and statue-like countenance. His face, from the brow to the chin, was covered with wrinkles. The sure guarantee that the youth of their possessor had not been passed in inglorious ease and luxury. He had a fine set of white teeth, which greatly redeemed his countenance from a look of premature age, assisted by an eye which, when under excitement, was black and brilliant with the unspent fires of youth or genius. Surmounting this weather-beaten countenance, was a high forehead, falling back at the temple, so as to leave a hollow on each side, and thus to produce what is called, in common parlance, the hatchet face. His limbs were brawny and athletic, showing their possessor capable of extraordinary physical exertion. He wore knee breeches, met by cloth gaiter leggings buttoned close to his well turned limbs, which, truth to say, were Virginia fashion, thrown over the bannisters, in the most careless attitude possible. Over his person he wore a hunting coat, thrown carelessly back from off his shoulders, while near by rested a fowling piece he had apparently just set down, being his almost inseparable companion in his long and celebrated walks.
While his Excellency thus lazily smoked away alone, in the front of his house, the other portions of the building were by no means in the same state of dreamy repose. About the entrance gate there was much bustle and confusion, incident to the departure of some guests and the arrival of others.
His extensive and princely hospitalities were renowned, even in the Old Dominion, and his establishment, whether in town or country, was the centre and focus of all the elite of the colony. Over that portion, he had already swayed a most happy and judicious influence, far better suited in its free and easy grace, to the age of the country, than the stately formalities of his predecessors. Upon occasions of public ceremony, he by no means abated the pomp and parapharnalia of his office. His previous life had been too purely military for that, but that very education of the camp, lent to the privaces of his own home all the careless ease and grace so common to the undress of the camp.
His being thus seated so long and so indolently gazing out upon the slumbering waves, was by no means accidental. Suddenly there appeared a faint flash and a quick report of fire arms in the offing, followed almost instantaneously by two others, so faint and far off as just to be heard and seen. These reports proceeded from small arms, and were very different from those of a vessel in distress, which idea, indeed, the dead calm of the bay itself precluded. Nevertheless, they seemed to rouse the Governor, the pipe was thrown over the bannister, his legs were drawn to the floor, and in the next instant he had snatched a spy glass, and looked long and silently over the water. After he had hurriedly replaced his glass, he seized his gun and fired three charges as rapidly as he could perform the evolutions of loading and firing. He had no sooner done this, than he ordered one of his servants to light a large pine
Page 3
torch, and having manned one of his boats, jumped in, followed by the boy holding aloft his burning brand. They steered out to a considerable distance from the landing, and then again he folded his arms, and looked long and ardently as before over the expanse of waters, the oarsmen resting upon their oars.
While he is thus employed, let us return to the mansion; over the windows of which, various lights are now seen, indicative of some more busy life within, than is usually to be found of summer evenings at an ordinary farm house.
CHAPTER II.
AN OLD FASHIONED FIRESIDE PARTY.
BEFORE we introduce our readers into this drawing room, let us pause at that old fashioned hall door, and read the inscription over the coat of arms, (the plate on which it was inscribed was in existence within the memory of many now living,) we think it reads thus: "PATIOR ET PORTIOR;" the most appropriate that could be conceived for its possessor, it was his life, both previous and subsequent, in an epigraph. Through this large old dining hall we pass into a parlor well lighted up, and furnished with much taste and elegance. The room was nearly full of company; and we shall proceed to introduce such of them as we take a fancy to.
But, before we do so, let us premise, that that drawing-room contained at that moment the future fathers and mothers of some of the most celebrated characters of our country. First, of course, we shall present the lady of the mansion; she was seated with some half dozen others of her own sex at a small table, around which they were working at the needle, busily chatting all the while, sometimes with the gentlemen standing around, and sometimes with other ladies similarly seated and occupied in other parts of the room. Lady Spotswood, notwithstanding the stiff fashion of the female costume and head dress at that time, was the very beau ideal of a rich farmer's wife. She looked quite young in comparison with her husband, and possessed the remains of a beauty that must have been formidable among courtiers of the royal household, from which atmosphere the General had plucked her. How many ladies thus transplanted, would not have carried with them the faded pomps and ceremonies of their former sphere? Not so, however, with lady Spotswood. No one could ever have imagined, that she had figured in her younger days within the cold formalities of a courtly circle, for there was a whole heartedness, a bon hommie of expression, a freedom of conversation in the highest degree enthusiastic sometimes, which we, simple hearted republicans, believe dies within the purlieus of the royal household. She seemed to enjoy her company with the highest relish, and, of course, she entertained them with ease.
At an opposite table sat her two daughters; Ann Catherine, the elder, by the General called Kate, and Dorothea, the younger. The eldest of these was about seventeen, and the other about two years younger. However much we might lament the unromantic sound of their names, we cannot help it, having previously pledged ourselves to adhere to the real ones. Sure we are, that if we cannot interest our readers in them under their real, we could not under fictitious ones. Being familiar with these, (aye, and with their characters,) almost from our youth, we shall use the Governor's privilege, and abbreviate them whenever we please.
Page 4
Kate, then, was a fair girl in every sense of the word, or, in other words, she was a blonde. Light hair, dress, and every thing light; even her voice and laughter seemed to indicate a light heart, and that is a very important point upon which to assure our readers. But in all this field of white, there were shades of most delicate tints; her eyes, though not white, were light blue, and the lashes over them, fell down so low sometimes as to form a fine shading for those laughing and rather mischievous, we should rather say merry, looking eyes.
It is a dangerous thing, looking too deep into the color and texture of a lady's eyes; they become very unfathomable, very, and have an aspect of wonderful profundity; and the longer one looks, the deeper they get, until, like looking down into the deep, deep sea, or the high blue arch above, we begin to wonder at the heighth and depth. It is a kind of star gazing, which may bewilder the brain as well as another.
Occasionally she would drop her needle and work, and clap her hands with the most heartfelt delight at the sallies of the youth standing over her chair. She was dressed with much simplicity, and her hair seemed to follow the pyramidical fashion of the day with great reluctance, for here and there a stray curl wandered down her pure white neck. The expression of her countenance was rather arch, produced by a slight contraction of the outer angle of the eye, and a constant dubiousness about her pouting lips, as if they did not know their own intention, whether to laugh or not. On one side of her, stood Bernard Moore; and on the other, sat the Rev. Commissary, Blair, who will be described presently. Her changing countenance, as she turned to one or the other, no doubt formed a pleasing study to the youth at least. One while, all quivering with archness and pent up mischief, and the next moment exhibiting the simplicity of childhood, as she caught the words that fell from the lips of the excellent prelate. She was a fine, tall girl, and one who performed whatever was in hand gracefully, it was impossible for her to be awkward; all this did not seem the result of education, but appeared like nature itself.
Dorothea was a full, round, plump little figure, not so tall as her sister, and of a beauty not quite so spiritual, and differing from her in many essentials, both of appearance and manners as well as character. Her hair was brown, her eyes hazel, her cheeks red. She wore an apron with a bunch of keys dangling at her side, giving one an idea of domestic operations, for which she seemed to have a peculiar turn. She was slightly inclined to embonpoint, yet a neat, tidy, trim, little figure.
Dorothea assigned to herself an humbler position than that allowed to her more brilliant sister, but the assent to this was by no means universal in the court circles. She was the favorite with many, and was in the habit of saying sometimes very pungent things in her demure way. Not with the ease, grace, and perfect self-possession of her sister, to be sure; but, perhaps, they told better from popping out as unexpectedly to the hearers as the speaker. She was a decided pet of the old gentleman, and was mostly to be found in his wake, when he chose to throw off the cares and toils of official life, for the more heart cheering enjoyments of the social circle. If no one else laughed at her observations upon things and men, as they passed in review in such constant rounds of society, he did; and it was no uncommon thing to see them sitting quite apart from the company, she chatting away most volubly, and he bursting every now and then into a laugh.
The two brothers were John and Robert--the former and elder of these sat apart from the rest of the company dressed in the green uniform of the Rangers, of which corps he was an officer. His arms were folded and he did not seem to be at his ease. His face had a general resemblance to that of the Governor and might once have been handsome, but it now bore the impress
Page 5
of early dissipation, and consequently of care and sorrow. The family seemed to look upon him with pain and commiseration, if not of smypathy, though it is questionable whether they understood exactly the cause of his general moodishness. The Rangers, of which John was a Captain, were composed of about twenty or thirty men each corps, and stationed at convenient distances along the then circumscribed frontier of the colony. He seemed to consider his present position what it truly was, one of honorable exile; consequently, he seized every opportunity to visit the capital. His presence at the fireside circle, was by no means a common circumstance. The sort of innocent gaiety that prevailed there at all times, had no charms for him. He was there now in the performance of imperative military duty, which he dared not disobey; he had ridden express to communicate with the Governor and wait his orders concerning frontier matters--which indeed he had done some time, and as it seemed to him without much chance of a speedy gratification of his impatience, for no Governor appeared. Others in that little party began to feel some surprise at his long absence, for the evening was now on the wane.
The Rev. Commissary Blair, as many of our readers know, was then at the head of William and Mary College, which was at that time as much a school for christianizing the savages as for general purposes of education. He was a hale, hearty, red faced old gentleman, dressed entirely in black velvet, with ruffles at his wrists and broad shining silver buckles at his knees and shoes, and much addicted to taking snuff, a box for which he carried often in his hand. He was a lively old gentleman, though grave at times. On the present occasion, he evidently enjoyed the merry sallies of Kate by whose side he sat. Bernard Moore, the youth who stood on the opposite side of her chair, had been but a few years emancipated from his government, consequently he stood rather in awe of his old master, but still fully amenable to the more lively impressions of his fair young friend. He will speak for himself.
The youngest son of the Governor, Robert, was quite a lad, and therefore to some extent, like all other lads, he was teazing his moodish brother after the most approved fashion, where we will leave him for the present, while we introduce some more of that company to our readers.
There was walking along the room a tall grey headed old man, of uncommonly benevolent countenance and prepossessing appearance. His hair was combed back from his high polished forehead and fell in long white locks upon his coat collar. He was dressed very much after the same style as his friend the Rev. Commissary, and at first sight might readily have been mistaken for some venerable old father of the church. It was Dr. Evylin, the most celebrated Physican of his day in the colony, and the bosom friend of his excellency.* * We believe this fact is inscribed upon his cenotaph at Williamsburg.
He stooped much in the shoulders, so as to give him the appearance of greater age than he really was. He carried in his hand an ivory headed cane almost as long as himself. Occasionally he stopped to hear a few words of her ladyship, not addressed immediately to him, said a word or two--shook his head perhaps--or smiled assent, and passed on. He was a man of few words but much thought. No one could converse in the room without feeling that he was present.
There were many others present at that snug little country fire-side party--stowed away in one end of that old parlor, but it is needless to bewilder the reader with them at present. The various parties were grouped as we have described, when the door was thrown open by a man in livery and the Governor entered. Nearly every one rose and bowed at his entrance, except his youngest daughter, who, as usual, ran up and threw herself into his arms.
Page 6
He however gently put her away and threw himself abruptly into a vacant chair, a proceeding so very unusual with him as to attract the particular attention of every one in the room. It was now observed that his face was of an ashy paleness, and her ladyship, who had approached and laid her hand upon his arm, started back in terror as she observed a spot of blood upon his face.
The whole party now gathered around his chair in the utmost surprise, each one enquiring what was the matter; some to the Governor in person and others to those nearest him. He told them that it was nothing--a mere scratch; but there was excitement, subdued it is true, but deep and intense excitement in the countenance of the veteran, which these words by no means allayed. He heeded them not however, but taking the arm of Dr. Evylin, walked away in the direction of his library.
CHAPTER III.
A NIGHT FUNERAL.
WE left the Governor and his boat in a preceding chapter, quietly reposing upon the bosom of the silent and motionless waves of the Chesapeake. He had not remained long in that position before the stealthy sound of muffled oars were heard approaching. He stood up in his boat and leaned forward with eagerness to catch the sound, which grew more and more distinct until the boat itself hove in sight, which proved to be a yawl manned by sailors, and under the command of the second officer of a ship. This official when the yawl came along side, rose and touched his cap, and enquired if he had the honor to address Gen. Spotswood. He replied in the affirmative, when the mate handed him a sealed packet, which he broke open and glanced over by the light of the torch. While he read the letter he trembled, and seemed agitated for one whose nerves had been braced and hardened in the fierce school of contending armies. "Have you the box here," said he at length addressing the same official.
He replied that it was in the yawl.
The boats were run gunnel to gunnel and lashed together, while all hands proceeded to lift a box of about seven feet long and three broad into the Governor's boat, after which he counted out money to the sailor, and departed as he had come, having ordered the slaves to pull for the little inlet formed by the small stream before described. After rowing some half an hour the boat was run aground high and dry, upon his own lands. The box was lifted out and placed upon poles, and the six oarsmen bore it through the garden until they came to the farthest extremity of the lawn, where had recently been erected a small tomb-like building,* with the ground floor bare and a new made grave open in the centre. On one side of this the box was deposited and the negroes ordered to depart.
* The remains of the temple were still standing a few years ago.
About half an hour afterwards the Governor returned bearing in one hand a dark lantern, followed by his carpenter, with various tools on his shoulder. The door was again unlocked and the man ordered to open the box, which he proceeded to do, not without fear and trembling. The outer boards being removed, exhibited a leaden coffin; this also he was ordered to cut through. When it was completed, the man was turned out and the Governor left alone. He then proceeded to roll down the lead about two feet; beneath this, were various folds of what once had been white satin, but now sadly stained and
Page 7
tarnished; this he likewise removed, when a ghastly spectacle exhibited itself. It was the body of a large fine looking man, in the uniform of a General Officer, his head severed entirely from the trunk and all much disfigured with blood. The Governor threw himself upon his knees and hung over this sad spectacle, and wept long and bitterly. Many times he took the last look of the features of that beheaded man, before he finally assumed composure enough to close it again and summon the workman. This he did at length,--and having changed his apparel, appeared in the drawing-room, as we have seen.
About midnight, there sat round the table in the Governor's library, himself, the Rev. Commissary and Dr. Evylin. The countenance of the former exhibited still the same ghastly appearance, and these of the other two gentlemen were not unmoved. We shall break into their conversation at the moment.
"You say truly, your Excellency, that secrecy in this business is of the last importance, not only to the due preservation of your proper authority, but for the interest of the colony itself, as at present situated."
"I differ with you my dear sir," replied the Doctor, "because I conceive that it can neither offend King nor Council, for one, however high in authority, to honor the remains of his own near kinsman with Christian burial."
"You forget, Doctor," rejoined the Commissary, "that that kinsman died the death of a traitor."
"Hell and fury!" shouted the Governor, striking his clenched fist upon the table--"he died a patriot--a martyr--a victim!"
"Softly, softly," said the Rev. gentleman, laying his hand upon the arm of the Governor, "I only spoke the language of common rumor--of the government--of the laws."
"May a thousand furies seize the government--the laws and rumor, all together!"
"Let me explain all this," mildly put in the Doctor. "Thus stands the case. Here is a gentleman, an officer of high rank, who is beheaded in Scotland for the alleged crime of high treason--alleged remember," seeing the Governor again start. "This gentleman who suffered, is the half brother of another military man who has been appointed Governor of one of the colonies under the very government which beheaded his kinsman. This is not all--this government at home had the same suspicious of this very Governor, and many of his friends shrewdly suspect that he was sent hither to keep him out of harm's way--in other words, on account of former brilliant military services--that he was sent hither in a sort of honorable exile. Is it not so?"
"You are right--you are right, Doctor," said the Governor, between his his teeth, "go on."
"Then the question presented is, shall he clandestinely inter these remains which have arrived here to-night, or shall he bury them openly in his own burying grounds? I think it better to make no mystery of it, and trust to the liberality and good sense of the ministry, should they hear of it. Such a proceeding would be very natural, surely."
"But you forget, Doctor," said the Commissary, "that this thing is to produce a vast effect upon others beside the ministry, and the first effect too. Recollect the state of the colony. Every party at home is exactly represented here. It is useless to conceal from ourselves, that the government of our friend meets with powerful opposition. What is it that prevents him from leading an army now across the mountains into that unknown eldorado beyond, but this very jealousy of his power and popularity; and would this opposition dare, for a moment, to show head, were it not for the more than encouragement they receive at home. Now, what effect would such a funeral have, when the subject of it was proclaimed through the colony?--that is the question."
"There is force in your reasoning," said the Doctor.
Page 8
"Besides, there is another point upon which we have not touched," said the Commissary. "The Governor will, doubtless, desire to have his friend and kinsman interred with the rights and ceremonies of the church; now, as he is the secular head of that church, and I am the unworthy representative of my lord Bishop, how can we publicly bestow funeral honors upon one who has fallen like this unfortunate gentleman?"
"You have settled the matter, reverend sir," said the Governor, musing, "you have settled the matter; and as every one seems now asleep, let us betake ourselves to our melancholy task."
It was a most strange looking group that, of the two reverend looking old gentlemen: the doctor with his long ivory headed cane, and the reverend Commissary in his surplice, following the Governor to a surreptitious grave, by the dubious light of a dark lanthorn. As they approached the temple, they all bared their heads, and the clergyman taking the lamp, commenced that most solemn and imposing ceremony of the English church. When he came to the appropriate place, the coffin was lowered by the Doctor and Governor, after which the grave was filled up, and they retired as they had come, the Governor leading the way.
The mansion house by this time, and all the surrounding scene, lay wrapped in the most profound repose; not a single light relieved the dark outlines of the now gloomy looking mansion, and even the statues, which in daytime gave a classic air of lightness and grace to the picture, now rather added to the solemn silence and mystic gloom by their shadowy figures. The late occupation of our three adventurers, too, added not a little to the sombre aspect of these dim outlines. There was that magnificent sheet of water, too, beyond, sending up forever its melancholy roar of the distant waves, and heralding the coming morn with its broken fragments of misty drapery, towering up here in huge abutments and there arching to the horizon. Away towards the ocean, between the dim outlines of Cape Charles and Cape Henry, the bay seemed relieved by a darker outline of clouds piled up against the sky like a chain of mountains.
CHAPTER IV.
COUNTRY LIFE--ITS DUTIES AND ENJOYMENTS.
THE next morning broke bright and cheerful, emancipated by the morning sun from the mists and clouds of the previous night. Kate Spotswood was up with the lark, brushing the dew from the grass and flowers with an elastic foot, which seemed made on purpose only to bound over nature's brightest and freshest beauties, so fawn-like were her movements. Yet her occupation on this morning seemed of a quite homely and domestic kind. She wore a sun bonnet, and carried a basket on her arm. She took the path leading across the garden and down towards the brook, and in a few minutes ascended the rising ground opposite, leading towards the negro quarter. In the basket were various phials and papers, all labelled in the most careful manner, and arranged so as to be of instant use. She entered the door of one of the white cottages rather apart from, and larger than the others, and called, in plantation language, the sick house. Here, around a pretty extensive and well ventilated room, were arranged sundry cots, upon which lay about one dozen negroes; some tossing in the restless delirium of fever, and others cadaverous with the hues of an ague. She approached their bedsides in succession, followed by an old crone, called the nurse, who scarcely ceased to bless her young mistress even to put a spoon between the teeth of a refractory patient.
Page 9
"God a mighty, bress miss Kate; poor nigger been dead but for her. She neber forget em! neber!"
She had not been long thus engaged, when a little pale faced white girl, dressed in linsey woolsey, entered the sick house, and stood before the young lady, dropping an awkward curtesy.
"Father begs, ma'm, that you'll come down and see him this morning, he's laid up with the rheumatis, and can't move a hand or foot."
"And who is your father, child!"
"He lives, ma'm, in the small log house on the other side of the overseer's, just beyond the nigger landing."
"Oh! old Jarvis, the fisherman? I remember him now. Run home, and tell your father that I will be there directly."
This fisherman's hut was full half a mile beyond the negro quarter, but she never hesitated. With alacrity she tripped over the damp grass, throwing back her hood as the blood came bounding into her cheeks with the glow of health and exercise, her fair cheeks fanned by the gentle breeze just rippling the bay. Neither ditches nor fences stopped her progress: she bounded over the one and climbed the other, like one accustomed to such obstacles. When she arrived within the fisherman's hut, she found old Jarvis laid up indeed, as his daughter had described, and racked with fever and pain. She felt his pulse long and carefully, looked at his tongue, and made many enquiries as to the manner of contracting his disease.
"I fear, Jarvis," she said at length, "that your case is rather beyond my skill, not that I would fail to try some of my simples to relieve you, but good old Dr. Evylin is at the house, and I will bring him to see you presently."
And then she turned to the old woman, his wife, and made many kind enquiries as to their means of living and present supplies, stroking her hand over the white headed urchins clustering around all the while. She soon after took her leave, promising to send supplies to the old woman as soon as she got home.
A goodly company assembled that morning at breakfast. Dorothea at the head of the table, and lady Spotswood on her right hand, with many other ladies, married and single, occupying the upper, while the gentlemen sat round the Governor at the lower end.
Dorothea seemed to have enjoyed the benefits of exercise, and the consequent glow and bloom of health as well as her sister, but she had been drilling the dairy maids, and marshalling fine pans of new milk, eggs, and butter, and, truth to say, her fair, ruddy face looked as if she enjoyed these good things herself with no little relish. Not that she was at all coarse or vulgar in her appearance, or that there was any thing in these rural occupations, tending that way. We only meant to say, that she looked more like a red checked country lass, the daughter of some respectable farmer, than a descendent of an aristocratic stock. She chatted volubly, but with no effort. She laughed heartily whenever she felt like it, and that was not seldom.
"Ha, Miss Catherine," said the Rev. Commissary, as that young lady entered and took her seat at the table, "had you been up with the lark this fine morning, and engaged as I saw your sister, you might have transferred the bloom of that pretty flower in your hair to your fair cheek."
"If your Reverence will but examine that flower," plucking it from her hair and handing it across the table to him, "you will perceive that it is not one to be had by stepping into the garden. I plead guilty to the remissness of dairy duty."
"This is truly a flower," said the old gentleman, examining it with his glass, "which is not to be found among your father's exotics. Is it not so?" handing it to Bernard Moore, "you have just returned from the hot houses and patterns of Europe." Bernard quietly slipped the beautiful little subject of dispute
Page 10
into the button-hole of his vest, before he replied, "That it was a native plant, and scarcely grew within a mile of the house."
Dorothea laughed a low musical chuckle, at the sly way in which Bernard appropriated the flower, and the blush with which her sister watched the proceeding. "I think, Reverend Sir," said she slily, "that the pursuit and capture of that flower has given sister quite as much color as my dairy performances."
The Governor did not seem to enjoy this small talk with his usual relish, for he was wont to encourage these playful sallies of his children, and loved above all things to see them cheerful. But now he sat silent and dispirited; and an occasional glance at his son John, who was beside him, seemed by no means calculated to inspirit him. That youth was so nervous that he could scarcely carry his cup to his head at all, and had not touched any thing to eat. He looked, too, haggard, bloated and sullen. He had once been the Governor's chief hope and delight, and he was equally the favorite of the old clergyman, who sat opposite to him, for his brilliant native abilities, and the highly creditable manner in which he acquitted himself of all his collegiate duties. It is true, that he was known then to be wild, but not viciously so. Now, however, his whole nature was changed. He scarcely noticed his sisters, whose still clinging affection he seemed to loathe. His mother he avoided on all possible occasions, and for these general family meetings in the country he had an especial abhorrence. There was a stealthy, suspicious glance about his eye, as foreign to his former nature as it was inexplicable to his father now, as he, from time to time, cast a sidelong glance at his rapidly depreciating heir.
There was one person at that table who understood the mystery of John Spotswood's peculiar behavior of late, and that was old Dr. Evylin, but he seemed to observe him even less than any other person at the table. Many strange things were told about John by the servants, such as his great precautions at night before he would go to bed; getting up in the night and calling for lights, swearing that some one was under the bed; at other times he would take a notion that some one was locked up in a certain closet. These things the whole family knew; they had been observed at his former visits, and now he was an object of the most undisguised solicitude to the whole of them, and to his father of dread. He thought his mind touched, and that ere long he would lose his reason, if, indeed, he had not partially done so already.
Catherine's brightest smiles were instantly clouded, if poor John happened to come within the range of her vision. At this very breakfast, she sat scarcely listening to the playful, bantering mood of Bernard Moore, so entirely was she abstracted by observing the more than commonly ferocious aspect of her elder brother. She would sit looking at him, lost in abstraction, until the speaker had twice or thrice repeated his words, and then she would reply without seeming entirely conscious of what she said. In short, a settled dejection brooded over the party since John had entered and taken his seat.
As Dr. Evylin was about to leave the table, Kate stepped behind his chair, and whispered a few words into his ear, which brightened up the old man's countenance instantly. "Ha!" said he aloud, catching her hand, and drawing back her retreating figure, "this young lady suffered herself to lie under mistaken imputations, when she ought not to have done so; she has been a mile this morning on foot, before breakfast, to visit a poor sick fisherman."
"Ah!" said the Governor "is old Jarvis sick?"
"He is," continued the Doctor, "and so ill that my pretty pupil has called a consultation upon his case."
"I owe you an apology, my dear Catherine," said the good Commissary, "and hope whenever I do get in your debt, it may be always for a similar cause, and as happily liquidated. You were right not to divulge the matter;
Page 11
the right hand should not know what the left doeth. These are services which God reserves for his own special pleasure of rewarding, and not subject to the poor payment of worldly praise." Kate had broken away and ran, before the old Doctor's sermon (as John called it,) was half over.
CHAPTER V.
AN EXCURSION ON HORSEBACK.
SOON after breakfast a number of horses were brought round to the front entrance of the house, to a gravelled court, separated from the box-bound flower beds before described, so as to admit horses and carriages to the very portico of the mansion.
The horses were of various sorts and degrees; some fine generous animals, others common cobs, while the rear was brought up by ponies and dogs in great abundance.
This was the daily custom of the establishment, at least every fair day. The Governor himself rode a fine imported war-horse, of fine proportions and admirably drilled. He stood at the porch door with his high erect head, waiting for his master, with as much pride and gaiety as if he had been a thinking animal. Various were the jokes and rejoinders passed among the grooms and stable boys, as they stood there, each one holding a horse by the bridle.
Any one must have visited a Virginia family party in the country to form any idea what an essential ingredient this morning excursion is in their domestic pleasure, and how highly it is enjoyed by young and old. We shall perhaps have occasion, before we part with our readers, to trace this and many other customs, which have survived the revolution to our British ancestry. At length the party issued from the house. Every one at liberty to consult his own fancy as to his company, unless some previous expedition had been such as a visit to some natural curiosity, or to church on Sunday.
Accordingly Kate on a fine pacing poney and Dr. Evylin by her side, had already set off in the direction of the fisherman's hut. The old gentleman was quite gallant, and managed his sensible looking little poney cavalier fashion.
It may seem strange that Bernard Moore should thus suffer the old gentleman to monopolize the attention of a young lady, for whose favors he was generally understood to be paying the most anxious and solicitous court; but the fact is, she herself had sent him off cantering in an opposite direction. Let our fair readers be not alarmed; he had not already proposed and been rejected. The case stood thus: Kate had expressed some regret that she could not accompany her brother a mile or two on his way to the capital, owing to her engagement with the Doctor. Bernard, in the most self-sacrificing and disinterested manner imaginable, proposed to be her substitute, which offer was most thankfully accepted. He and John were old class-mates and once very intimate, and she desired of all things to see that intimacy renewed, now that Bernard had returned from his foreign tour, acknowledgely one of the first young men in the colony.
Strange to say, the youth was so blinded by his self-doubting mood, as never once to reflect that this was the very highest compliment which she could, in the then position of affairs, pay to him.
He and John had also now cantered off in quite a different style from Kate and her venerable old beau. They made the fire fly from their horses heels, as they careered like winged messengers, over the road to Yorktown and Williamsburg.
Page 12
A very few moments ride at that gait brought them to the door of the tavern in the centre of the former, and Bernard was quite surprised to see John alight and give his bridle to the servant, for he knew not that he so purposed on setting out. He was invited to do likewise, which of course he did not knowing the business which detained his friend. That was soon explained; for John, instantly upon setting foot within the bar-room, ordered a bottle of spirits. It was with no little astonishment that Bernard saw him pour out and gulph down a tumbler of brandy and water, half and half, enough to have staggered any youth at a single blow. But he was still more astonished at the wonderful transformation, which this short and simple process effected. His old friend was himself again: he now chatted cheerfully, rode alongside of his companion without restraint and without effort to leave him; and above all, he appeared the highly intellectual and gifted man he had once known him to be. He spoke freely of European and colonial affairs, and took now an interest in many little things which he seemed not at all to notice before. Moore conversed with him freely, and at length fell into stories of former days and youthful frolics, until the woods rang again with their merriment. Having thus wrought up his subject to a proper key, as he supposed, purely by his own address, he ventured to ask him for an explanation of his late singular and inexplicable mood; but John passed it off in the slightingest manner imaginable; said it was nothing but a fit of the blue-devils--a constitutional infirmity, to which he was subject.
"But how comes it John," said Moore, most innocently, "that you were not subject to these when we were so long and so constantly together. I do not recollect of your being once so afflicted; during those ever happy and memorable school-boy days, you were the life and soul of every party. If any two started together upon an expedition and you were left behind, it was always--'come let's get Spotswood, there's no sport without him.'"
"True--true Bernard, but those happy hours of idleness do not last forever, indeed I presume that the change which you see in me is but the natural one of thoughtless boyhood, into the higher and more care-giving responsibilities of man's estate."
Thus they conversed; Moore pleased and amused at the half playful--half melancholy mood of his old friend, but not more than half convinced, by his reasoning, backed, as it was, by the change of mood itself--then that ungodly drink of brandy--that the son and heir of the Governor of Virginia should alight at a common tavern and thus quaff spirits like a sailor--it was inexplicable to him, but he finally set it down in his own mind to the effect of the military life in which his father was now attempting to train him. He therefore shook hands with his reanimated friend, as he supposed, with scarce concealed impatience, and galloped back to carry news of the pleasing change to Kate. Little did he imagine the real cause of that change and how very short a time it would last, or he would not thus exulting have sought an opportunity of returning his credentials. He met the Governor and Dr. Blair riding along the road at a staid and sober gait, and seemingly engaged in a conversation little less desponding than that from which he supposed he had just rescued poor John. He did not pursue them to see whether they too would be thus suddenly transformed by a glass of brandy and water. He was rather rejoiced than otherwise, for it assured him that his Excellency would not command his attendance, and thus detain him from the point at which he was aiming. Alas! true love never did run smooth; and Mr. Bernard Moore, after all his haste to join Kate and the Doctor, only arrived to find the position he sought already occupied by another young gallant from the capital, not less highly gifted by nature and fortune than himself. It was Mr. Kit Carter, a scion of the genuine aristocratic stock, and heir expectant of the splendid seat of Shirley. Moore was too highly schooled in all the
Page 13
courtesies of conventional breeding to shew chagrin at such an acquisition to the company at the mansion house, as Mr. Carter undoubtedly was; but we may say at once that he was disappointed in not being able to communicate the result of his diplomacy. It would have taken a shrewd and sagacious observer of human nature to have discovered even this, beneath all the courtly grace which they manifested. Carter and he met for the first time since the return of the latter, and that meeting was most warm and cordial. This was magnanimous, certainly, in Bernard; for, from their school days they had been rivals for the favor of Kate. The good old Doctor had not felt pulses so long and not yet be able to see a little into matters as they now stood, accordingly the old gentleman, with a sly smile, reigned in his pony and dropped in the rear, to muse upon one not less lovely and admired than her whose lively chat he had surrendered. Not a lady-love, nor even a wife--for the old gentleman was a widower--it was his lone and only daughter, almost a recluse within the walls of his own house at Williamsburg; yet so young, so highly cultivated, and, withal, so fascinating in every personal grace, she was fast becoming a devotee in religion. The good Doctor did not regret this, but he was naturally one of those calm, cheerful, philosophic minds, that are enabled to appreciate all that is excellent in our holy religion, without surrendering up the choicest blessing of social life--a cheerful and happy spirit. But we anticipate, the Doctor's lone idol will be introduced to the reader in due progress of our story.
In the meantime Kate was like powder between flint and steel; every spark elicited, fell upon her.
An encounter of wits between two highly endowed young men, and paying court to the same lady, is a study to those curious in psychological matters. But we will leave the whole party to dismount and dress for dinner, while we take a peep into other things having relation to the main thread of our narrative; until then, we bid our readers a cheerful and hearty goodnight.
CHAPTER VI.
A KITCHEN FIRE-SIDE IN THE OLD DOMINION.
IMAGINE to yourself, reader, a fire-place large enough to roast an ox whole, and within which a common wagon load of wood might be absorbed in such a speedy manner as to horrify one of our city economical house wives--though now, it was late in summer and of course no such pile of combustibles enlivened the scene--besides, it was night, and the culinary operations of the day were over. A few blazing fagots of rich pine, however, still threw a lurid glare over the murky atmosphere, and here and there sat the several domestics of the establishment; some nodding until they almost tumbled into the fire, but speedily regaining the perpendicular without ever opening their eyes, or giving any evidence of discomposure, except a loud snort, perhaps, and then dosing away again as comfortably as ever. Others were conversing without exhibiting any symptoms of weariness or drowsiness.
In one corner of the fire-place sat old Sylvia, a Moor, who had accompanied the father of the Governor (a British naval officer) all the way from Africa, the birth place of his Excellency. She had straight hair, which was now white as the driven snow, and hung in long matted locks about her shoulders, not unlike a bunch of candles. She was by the negroes called outlandish, and talked a sort of jargon entirely different from the broken lingo
Page 14
of that race. She was a general scape-goat for the whole plantation, and held in especial dread by the Ethiopian tribe. She was not asleep, nor dozing, but sat rocking her body back and forth, without moving the stool, and humming a most mournful and monotonous ditty, all the while throwing her large stealthy eyes around the room. In the opposite corner sat a regular hanger-on of the establishment, and one of those who kept a greedy eye always directed towards the fleshpots, whenever he kept them open at all. His name was June, and he wore an old cast-off coat of the Governor's, the waist buttons of which just touched his hips, while the skirts hung down to the ground in straight lines, or rather in the rear of the perpendicular, as if afraid of the constant kicking which his heels kept up against them when walking. His legs were bandied, and set so much in the middle of the foot, as to render it rather a difficult matter to tell which end went foremost. His face was of the true African stamp: large mouth, flat nose, and a brow, overhung with long, plaited queus, like so many whip cords, cut off short and even all round, and now quite grey. The expression of his countenance was full of mirthfulness and good humor, mixed with just enough of shrewdness to redeem it from utter vacuity. There was a slight degree of cunning twinkled from his small terrapin-looking eye, but wholly swallowed up, by his large mouth, kept constantly on the stretch. He had the run of the kitchen; and, for these perquisites, was expected and required to perform no other labor than running and riding errands to and from the capital; and it is because he will sometimes be thus employed, that we have been so particular in describing him, and because he was the banjo player to all the small fry at Temple Farm. He had his instrument across his lap, on the evening in question, his hands in the very attitude of playing, his eyes closed, and every now and then, as he rose up from a profound inclination to old Somnus, twang, twang, went the strings, accompanied by some negro doggrel, just lazily let slip through his lips in half utterance, such as the following:
"Massa is a wealthy man, and all de nebor's know it,
"Keeps good liquors in his house, and always says, here goes it."
The last words were lost in another declination of the head, until cat-gut and voice became merged in a grunt or snort, when he would start up, perhaps strain his eyes wide open, and go on again:
"Sister Sally's mighty sick, oh what de debil alls her,
"She used to eat good beef and beans, but now her stomach fails her."
The last words spun out again into a drawl to accompany a monotonous symphony, until all were lost together, by his head being brought in wonderful propinquity to his heels in the ashes.
While old June thus kept up a running accompaniment to Sylvia's Moorish monotony, on the opposite side of the fire; the front of the circle was occupied by more important characters.
Old Essex, the major domo of the establishment, sat there in all the panoply of state. He was a tall, dignified old negro, with his hair queued up behind and powdered all over, and not a little of it sprinkled upon the red collar of his otherwise scrupulously clean livery. He wore small clothes and knee-buckles, and was altogether a fine specimen of the gentlemanly old family servant. He felt himself just as much a part and parcel of the Governor's family, as if he had been related to it by blood. The manners of Essex were very far above his mental culture; this, no one could perceive by a slight and superficial observation, because he had acquired a most admirable tact (like some of his betters,) by which he never travelled beyond his depth; added to this, whatever he did say, was in the most appropriate manner, narrowly discerning nice shades of character, and suiting his replies to every one who addressed him. For instance, were a gentleman to alight at
Page 15
the Hall door, and meet old Essex, he would instantly receive the attentions due to a gentleman; whereas, were a gentlemanly dressed man to come, who feared that his whole importance might not be impressed upon this important functionary, Essex would instantly elevate his dignity in exact proportion to the fussiness of his visitor. Alas! the days of Essex's class are fast fading away. Many of them survived the Revolution, but the Mississippi fever has nearly made them extinct.
On the present occasion, though presumed to be not upon his dignity, the old Major sat with folded arms and a benignant, but yet contemptuous smile playing upon his features, illumined as they were by the lurid fire light, while Martin, the carpenter, told one of the most marvelous and wonder-stirring stories of the headless corpse, ever heard within those walls, teeming, as they were, with the marvelous. Essex had often heard stories first told over the gentlemens' wine, and then the kitchen version, and of course knew how to estimate them exactly: now that before mentioned incredulous smile began to spread until he was forced to laugh outright as Martin capped the climax of his tale of horror, by some supernatural appearance of blue flames over the grave. Not so the other domestics, male and female, clustering around his chair; they were worked up to the highest pitch of the marvelous. Even old June ceased to twang his banjo, and at length got his eyes wide open, as the carpenter came to the sage conclusion, that the place would be haunted.
It was really wonderful, with what rapidity this same point was arrived at by every negro upon the plantation, numbering more than a hundred; and these having wives and connexions on neighboring plantations, the news that Temple Farm was haunted, became a settled matter for ten miles round, in less than a week, and so it has remained from that day to this.
On the occasion alluded to, the story-teller for the night had worked his audience up to such a pitch of terror, that not one individual dared stir for his life, every one seeming to apprehend an instant apparition. This effect on their terrified imaginations, was not a little heightened by the storm raging without. The distant thunder had been some time reverberating from the shores of the bay, mingling with the angry roar of the waves as they splashed and foamed against the beach, breaking and then retreating for a fresh onset.
It was yet quite early in the evening, and all the white family had gone to the house of one of the neighboring gentry to spend the evening. No one was apprehending their return for some hours, when a thundering clatter of horses and wheels were heard on the gravelled road, followed by several loud peals upon the knocker of the hall door. A lurid glare of lightning at the same instant flashed athwart the sky, tinging every living and inanimate thing, to the farthest corner of the room, with a bluish silver white, and revealing the mansion-house, on the opposite side of the yard, through the window, in magnified proportions like some giant castle looming up for an instant in goblin outlines, and then vanishing amidst a most astounding and overwhelming crash. During this terrible uproar of the elements, and a deluging torrent of rain, the same incessant rattle of the knocker was kept up on the hall door. No one dared to answer it except old Essex, who sat pinioned to the floor by the poor affrighted creatures clinging to his legs, and arms, and neck; his lips moving all the while in threatening pantomine, vainly endeavoring to be heard amidst the screams around him, and the continuous roar overhead. At every pause in the furious storm, rap--rap--rap went the knocker, a signal for the closer gathering of the terrified domestics. At length the storm took breath, allowing a small interval of repose, which old Essex taking advantage of, threw the crowd from him, in despair of getting his subordinate to answer the summons, and rushed across the court and into the back door of the mansion-house himself, and speedily let go the fastenings of the hall door. Stern, and schooled as he
Page 16
was in the outward show of calmness, borrowed from his betters, the old Major's knees knocked a little as he threw open the hall door and let the light of the lamp fall over the portico and gravelled road.
There stood at the threshold of the door, three persons, two males and a female dressed in black, with black silk masks over their faces. The lady was leaning upon the arm of him who appeared the younger of her two companions, while a carriage and four horses stood opposite the door. The elder of the visitors requested leave to enter for a moment's shelter from the furious peltings of the storm. Essex knew the hospitable habits of the place too well to have paused thus long, had he not been confounded by the studious appearance of mystery in his visitors, and apprehension for the safety of his master's goods and chattels; but these impressions lasted only for a moment, when the old fellow again resumed his courtly air and bowed them into the hall with inimitable grace. His unerring tact had already discovered that these, if robbers at all, were not of the common sort, and were of no ordinary address. One attitude, a wave of the hand, the general air, was enough for the practised eye of the major domo, to discover that they were no ruffians; besides, there was a shrinking, a clinging dependence about the lady, which at once interested him. If he was surprised at this singular visit, thus far, how much more so, when he saw them, after entering the hall, walk straight up to the picture of a soldier in armor, hanging against the wall. It was the well-known portrait of Gen. Elliot, half brother to the Governor, and one of the most renowned soldiers, as well as unfortunate men of his day.* * This incident was related to the author by a descendant of the Governor.
Before this picture, the mysterious three stood, the two males conversing in a suppressed voice, while the young lady sobbed audibly and most painfully, and, finally became so much affected that a chair had to be brought her, which, she turned towards the picture, gazing upon it and weeping by turns. Old Essex handed her a glass of wine and water, which she declined. They presently moved opposite to the full length picture of the Governor, in his court dress, and examined it studiously and with some interest, but not of the painful sort with which they had looked at the other. The lady soon returned to her former position, and there she clung, until removed almost by force; one gentleman taking her under each arm.
As they left the hall, the elder of the two threw a sealed packet upon the table, stopping to turn up the direction, and place it in so conspicuous a place as to be sure to attract attention. The steps were put up, the door shut and offering Essex a piece of coin, the whip cracked and the coach and four moved away as it had come, leaving the old Major in sad perplexity, whether the whole occurrences of the night had not been a part of the goblin stories of Old Martin, among the frightened domestics. The sight of the package, was a sure guarantee that it was no such dream of the imagination, and he turned it over and examined it most carefully, seal and surperscription. Not being able to read even the outside, he of course made little progress with its contents, but he examined the coat of arms upon the seal with the eyes of one not entirely unaccustomed to such things--coming to the sage conclusion, that the writer was some body at all events. He did not return to his late affrighted colleagues in the kitchen, but seated himself to wait the return of the family.
The storm was now clearing away, and there was a prospect that he would not long be left to chew the cud of sweet and bitter fancies. He was presently aroused by the sound of horses and carriages, and soon after by the entrance of the whole party, which had by this time received several accessions. These with sundry other matters appertaining thereto, will found in the next chapter.
Page 17
CHAPTER VII.
A FAMILY SCENE.
THE party entered the hall in fine glee, with the exception of the Governor, who still remained dejected, pale, and entirely different from his usually hearty and even gleeful mood. Kate had again been on horseback, in which she delighted, and entered the room with her skirt upon her arm, and a black cap upon her head, full of drooping feathers. She was quite flushed and really looked charming with the excitement of the ride, or that clashing of rival wits, she so well knew how to keep up between her two assiduous attendants, but it was all playful and courteous in the highest degree. It was the daily practice of Carter and Moore to walk off arm in arm, after one of these sprightly encounters for her favor. The fact was that Kate did not perceive as yet, that either of these youths were in that die-away state, usually called being in love. They had all played together for the last five years, except when the young gentlemen were upon their travels and now that they were returned so much improved, she saw no cause of rejecting attentions due to her and which she really enjoyed. Neither of them had approached the threshold of love-making--the Virginia system requires a much longer probation than that, and the good old custom prevails still, thanks to the good sense of our charming lassies, that even this old prescriptive right of their sex is left willed to them by their great grandmothers.
One addition to the party was Mr. Nathaniel Dandrige, a youth just emerging from his teens and his syntax, and a scion of the same class to which the two others belonged. In the language of the times he was a young gentleman of fortune and birth--the former in expectation of course. As he entered Dorothea had his arm, and was carrying on a most desperate juvenile flirtation in which his Excellency seemed only prevented from taking part by his painful reflections, which every now and then came over him; as it was, he hung in their near neighborhood, and gave way to a smile in spite of himself, occasionally, at the perfect good humor and naivette of his favorite.
Old Essex had replaced the letter and was standing in most respectful deference, awaiting the movements of his master.
"Who brought this, Essex?" was his instant enquiry as he broke the seal.
"Two gentlemen and a lady, all in masks, sir."
The Governor threw himself into a chair and commenced the perusal, with not a little interest. The whole party by this time were seated and waiting impatiently for further developments.
"Did the people in masks run away with any of my spoons and cream pots, Essex?" asked Dorothea.
"No, Miss, they were quite of another sort when I came to see them."
"And the lady," said Carter, "was she pretty, and young?"
"I could not see her face, sir, but she was very young."
"Had she a pretty foot and hand?" continued Carter.
"The prettiest I ever saw in my life, sir."
All the young people laughed outright at old Essex's close observation upon points which the gentleman seemed to consider so essential a test.
"And her figure, Essex" asked Carter, "did that correspond with the two beautiful members?"
"Most happily, sir. Very much such a figure as Miss Catherine's."
"Thank you, Essex, for your compliment."
"The Governor, though reading rapidly, lost not a word of all this, trifling though it was, meanwhile he was racking his imagination for some other clue to their identity, than any he found in the letter. As soon as he had finished
Page 18
he handed the epistle to Dr. Blair, and then turned to Essex, but the faithful and discreet old Major, maintained his reserve. He said not a word about pictures, nor the lady's weeping, but dealt entirely in a general account of the visit, the ostensible objects of which were to avoid the storm and leave the letter. No one in the room perceived that the old fellow still held something back, but his master. He knew him so well, that he divined some cause for his reluctance to make a clean breast of it; accordingly he soon after retired to his library, followed by Essex, and there learned the whole affair, as our readers have done likewise.
Dr. Blair seeing nothing in the letter to conceal, and knowing that if there was it would soon become public, commenced reading it aloud, it ran as follows:
LONDON, 1714.
To His Excellency, Alexander Spotswood, Esq.
DEAR SIR--This letter will be handed to you by one of the most unfortunate adherents of the Pretender. Start not my dear Sir--he is but one of the Scottish jacobins, and will in no wise compromise you. The very fact of his seeking your country is evidence enough if it were wanting, that he desires to be at peace from the toils and dangers of political partizanship. These are claims enough for citizenship you may think, but not warrant sufficient to claim your personal friendship. He has these also, for he was one of those unfortunate men who befriended and supported your late kinsman to the last. He protests that he will in no wise compromise your Excellency with the ministry or their adherents on your side of the water, and has begged me not to write, but knowing that you would delight to befriend so staunch an adherent of the unfortunate General, I have insisted on his taking a sealed packet at all events, as it would contain other matters than those relating purely to himself. And now for those matters. He will be accompanied by a great many ruined families of rather a higher class than that from which your immigrants are generally furnished--they, too, are worn out in spirit and in fortune, with the ceaseless struggles between the hereditary claimant of the crown and the present occupant. They see, also, breakers ahead. The Queen's health is far from being stable, and in case of her sudden demise there will be an awful struggle here. Are they not right then to gather up the little remnant of their property and seek an asylum on your peaceful shores?
Your scheme of scaling the mountains, and cutting asunder the French settlements, meets with the hearty approbation of all the military men about the Court, and not a question of the Queen's approbation would remain, were it not for the everlasting squabbles between Bolinbroke and Oxford. Your friend Mr. --, ceaselessly urges the matter, and contends that now is the very time to strike the blow; but my dear Sir, there is a desire for peace on the other side of the channel, and I would advise you to have your preparations in readiness to set out upon the first intimation of her Majesty's consent, so that the news of it cannot possibly reach here before your grand scheme is accomplished.
It is a magnificent one, and at any other time would fire the minds, of our young military men. Hold on then, my dear Sir, to the end, and you will be the ultimate means of laying the foundation of a future Empire, greater than all Europe in extent, and pregnant with a vast future which even your experienced and sagacious eye cannot as yet discover.
There is a young lady to accompany this gentleman, but she is even more loth [missing one letter]han himself to burden your Excellency with what she calls the taint of the rebel. I know full well, that you will be a father to this poor heart-broken houseless girl, thrown upon our unfeeling world; not only poor, but suffering untold wretchedness, whether she looks to the past or the future. God Almighty
Page 19
have mercy upon her tender years. All her gentle rearing will now be turned into sources of sorrow. Her cup is poisoned forever, where she is known--and where she is not, she will bear with her recollections enough, to overshadow her future days with a vision so dark, that no human hand may ever raise the veil. I cannot say more, for I have promised that I would not, but I think that I have said enough to interest you in these most unfortunate strangers, and make you cherish them. Your heart has changed since we served together, if I have not directed them to the very man of all the world, and in the very position to most befriend them. There is a new world opened to them in more senses of the word than one--let it be as happy as possible.
Your old friend and companion in arms,
G. B. L.
"Dear me," said Kate, "and our visitors were doubtless some of these Poor girl, she has followed her father and her brother to these wilds--but perhaps the young gentleman was her lover. That would give quite a romantic turn to the affair."
"I think that hard shower of rain, if they were out in it, would drench what little romance out of them the sea voyage left," said Dorothea.
"Poor child," said Dr. Blair, seeming rather to commune with his own charitable thoughts, "I pity her from my soul."
"I do not see," whispered Carter to Kate, "that a lady with such a foot and ankle, is any such object of commiseration after all."
"Perhaps an orphan," said Lady Spotswood, glancing at her own happy little circle with a tear almost starting in her eye.
These various remarks upon the visitors were cut short by the re-entrance of the Governor, who walked to that portion of the room where the young gentlemen were seated, and asked which of them would volunteer to ride to York on such a night, in search of these unhappy visitors? Moore immediately rose to his feet and volunteered his services, as indeed did both the others, but the former being first, the Governor commissioned him to go, and find them out if possible and bring them back as his guests.
Kate seeing how earnest and grave her father seemed, gave her beau a look of gratitude, which he considered ample remuneration for riding half an hour in a wet night.
The party were soon after assembled for family prayers--the young ladies having hastily retired to throw off their riding skirts and hats. A small reading desk was placed before Dr. Blair, while Kate ascended a platform erected before an organ, fitting into the recess formed by the projecting abutment of the chimney. Then the servants came filing in one by one and ranged themselves against the wall on the opposite side of the room. The old Major at their head.
The whole group being composed to a proper and becoming solemnity, the Doctor commenced reading a hymn. When he had finished, the slow and solemn tones of the organ began to ascend in a prelude of great beauty. Kate raised the tune in a fine mellow voice, which, in that high old fashioned apartment, reverberated through its lofty ceilings, mingled with the tones of the organ, so as to attune all their hearts to this befitting close of the scenes of the day. The fine enthusiasm of the young musician's eye and mein, told how earnestly her heart was concerned in what was before her. When she had finished, the whole party by one accord sat breathless and motionless, evidently desirous to catch the last note as it died away amidst the solemn moan of the waves without. All then bowed the knee to the throne of mercy to follow in humble response the petitions of one of the purest men that ever adorned the church in the Old Dominion, or illustrated his Master's divine system of Heavenly charity, by a life of spotless purity.
What a fitting prelude to the excellent Prelate's solemn reading, was Kate's
Page 20
musical exaltation of spirit. Surely the voice of ardent and honest supplication ascends all the nearer to Heaven by being heralded in such divine strains. If there is any inspiration known and felt by the creatures of this earth, as pure and refined above all earthly pollution, it is this musical enthusiasm mingling with the sublimations of deeply prayerful and humble hearts. Surely God looks down upon such scenes on earth, with benignity. It is at all events the purest earthly feeling--the freest from the dross and corruptions of this world, of any thing that we know of, and in such an attitude would we present most of the personages kneeling around that family altar. A purer and more guileless group of beings has seldom before or since assembled in one room, and ere an all wise Providence scatters them and their descendants upon a wider and a longer pilgrimage than ever was decreed to the Israelites, we would fix them in the affections of our readers.
CHAPTER VIII.
AMALGAMATION IN THE OLDEN TIME.
MOORE returned to breakfast looking rather haggard, after a sleepless night and a fruitless journey. He said he had traced the coach back to York, but there it had been dismissed and there in all probability it belonged. There was a faint clue he said to the supposition that they had gone on to the capital, directly after their return from Temple Farm. Kate, as she entered and took her seat at the table, welcomed him with a cheerful mood, and asked in a playful way if he had discovered their Hero and Heroine of the masks. She looked quite disappointed at the result, and expressed her regret especially that Bernard had not brought the lady back. "It is such an unusual thing," she said, "people calling at a house in the night with masks on, in a country like this--and that house too belonging to the Chief Magistrate of the Colony."
"If you had been in York last night, and seen the crowds of houseless strangers that I saw," said Moore, "just arrived from England, you could not have been at a loss to select any sort of character from among them."
"Let us all then ride there this morning?" said Kate, "and see for ourselves."
No objection being made, it was settled that they would make a general descent upon York, and see one of those human swarms from the European hives, by which this country was populated. The letter of the previous night also, added a zest to the general curiosity to see that portion of these said to be of a higher order than usual.
"Who can that hot headed man be?" said Kate, "whom papa's friend speaks of in his letter, as having compromised himself by meddling in matters that did not concern him."
"Our College," said the Reverend Commissary, "will one day or other, save our young gentry from the temptation of meddling in transatlantic affairs. Now it is made a mere grammar school--this is all wrong. What say you Mr. Carter? Mr. Moore?"
"I think, Sir, to speak with frankness," said Moore, "that it will never be any thing else, while it remains half savage, half civilized."
Both Kate and Dorothea smiled at the rude interpretation which might be put upon this speech. The Doctor replied:
"I understand, you allude to Mr. Boyle's plan of educating the Indians."
Page 21
"Exactly, and to the utter impracticability of ever carrying on a literary institution with two such heterogeneous classes as those now in College."
"Why Sir," said Carter, "I have been looking for bloodshed between your Indian hostage pupils and our native young bloods for some time."
"Alas," replied the Doctor, "that the most benevolent intentions, devised with the truest apparent wisdom, are ever thus thwarted by the wickedness of man."
"We grant you the intentions," said Moore, "but for the wisdom of shutting up twenty or thirty wild young Indians, in the same building with an equal number of whites, quite as wild in one sense, we cannot vouch. You must recollect, Doctor, that Carter and myself have been personal witnesses of the experiment, and we can testify to the ceaseless arrogance on the part of the whites, and the consequent deadly enmity of the Indians. They are most of them princes of the blood, too, and may ill brook indignity from mere plebeian youths, even of our color. Why Sir, it was no longer ago than one night last week, being in the capital and hearing a great noise and confusion in the College, I walked up to ascertain the cause. Must I tell it, Doctor?"
"Tell it--tell it," said Kate.
"Tell it," said Dorothea.
"I see the two Doctors and the Governor, hang their heads, but being put upon the stand I must tell the whole truth. Thus, then, you know ladies, that there is a particular wing of the College, devised by Sir Christopher Wren, for the express accommodation of their young savage majesties. Two occupy each room, and for their farther accommodation, there are two cots. Now on the night alluded to, half an hour after the Indian class was dismissed to their quarters, and after prayers, such a yelling was heard from that wing that the people of the town actually thought the College again on fire, and some of the wicked lads in the other end began tolling the bell, which brought also the firemen with their buckets and ladders. In the melee I arrived and found upon enquiring, that the connecting pins from every cot in the Indian wing had been removed, so that each one caught a tumble when he supposed himself only leaping into bed, and that was not all. Every tub and bucket in old Mrs. Stites' kitchen (the Stewardess of the College) had been filled with water, and as far as they would go, placed under the cots, so that many of them got a ducking into the bargain. Such yelling, and screeching, and whooping, never was heard. The savage youngsters were for rushing in a body upon their white assailants, and it required all the authority of the Indian master, backed by the other Professors and citizens who had assembled, to quell the riot. A party of citizens had to patrol the College the whole night, to prevent bad consequences between the two races."
"It is too true," said Dr. Blair, "but that is the fault of our boys, and not of the original design."
"I beg your pardon, Reverend Sir, for controverting your position, said Carter, but the original design to be entitled to the wisdom which you claim for it, should have provided for the liability in boys of one race to play pranks upon another. This is not a solitary instance. Moore and myself could entertain this goodly company till dinner time, with accounts of these disasters."
The Reverend Commissary had risen from the table and was walking along the room back and forth, his hands locked behind him, thrown into painful reflections by the testimony and the arguments of his former pupils. The girls were still laughing over the ridiculous figures which the savages must have cut, but not daring to give full vent to their feelings because they knew that it was a tender subject with all three of the elderly gentlemen.
In this very different state of feeling in the two--the elder and the younger' the breakfast table was soon deserted. The young people to prepare for the contemplated excursion, and the elders to debate that matter gravely, over which the others were still amusing themselves.
Page 22
CHAPTER XI.
YORKTOWN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
IT is not known to most of our readers, perhaps, that Yorktown, the closing scene of the Revolution, was once the principal importing mart for all that region of country, now supplied by Baltimore, Richmond and Norfolk. Such was its importance at the date of our story. The roadsted, now occupied by a few miserable fishing smacks, was once occupied by merchant-ships, and a tall forest of masts crowded a quay, now only the mart of the celebrated York River Oysters. Large ware-houses and imposing edifices, both public and private, and brisk business occupied its streets. Such was its appearance as Kate Spotswood cantered up its principal avenue, Moore on one side and Carter on the other, the whole cavalcade following. They rode through the principal streets of the city, until they came to that point, since known as the location of the wind-mill--there on both sides of the angle formed by the entrance of the river into the waters of the bay, in every vacant lot, and even in the unfrequented streets were tents, and camp-fires, many of the latter without the comforts of the former, while the hotels were filled to overflowing with strangers of higher grade. The party rode in among the encamped emigrants, and commenced making enquiries for their mysterious visitors, but there were so many for whom the description would answer, and so many had already set out to the interior, that it was impossible to trace them. Both the young ladies dismounted and walked among the poorer sort, dispensing their charities: they found so many really needy applicants and in some instances sufferers, that they promised to send them a wagon with more substantial supplies as soon as they got home. The Governor had alighted at the house of Mr. Diggs, a member of the general assembly, and a personal and political friend, and here again he sent out messengers for the bearer of the letter, but all in vain. White thus occupied a young stranger presented himself as a candidate for employment. He stated that he was one of the emigrants, and without means to prosecute his journey into the interior, and without a single relation among all those who had arrived with him--that he was a classical scholar and desirous of obtaining the situation of private tutor in some gentleman's family, for a short time, in order to obtain means to prosecute his designs in coming over; that his name was Henry Hall--twenty-four years of age, and intended to reside permanently in the colony. The Governor was pleased with the young man, and wanted just such an one to direct Mr. Robert's studies. He told the applicant, therefore, that he would send a horse for him as soon as he arrived at home, and as no credentials or testimonials of qualification had been exhibited, he would place him in the hands of Dr. Blair, who would put him through his syntax, and as for the mathematics, said the veteran, his eyes glistening with delight, and rubbing his hands, I will try you about that myself. "Do you know anything about military engineering, young man, continued he, as he saw him about to depart?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Ha, then, you are just my man, we will make a night of it, depend upon it."
The party soon after returned to Temple Farm without having obtained any clue to the route of those whom they were so anxious to find. The Governor dispatched old June with a horse for the young man who proposed becoming tutor to Robert, as he had promised. Each one now sought out his own amusement until dinner time, some strolled upon the lawn, while others walked upon the beach and gathered shells. Old Dr. Evylin retired into the house to read a letter from his daughter, which the post brought him
Page 23
that morning, in answer to a most pressing invitation from the ladies of the mansion to visit them. As it was characteristic of the lady, and as she is quite an important little personage, we will give it entire:
"WILLIAMSBURG, July, 1714.
"Dear Father:
Your note of last night, containing an invitation to Temple Farm, from Kate, has just been received. I will go, but for a reason, among others, which I fear my ever kind friend, Kate, will consider any thing but complimentary--it is because this house is haunted, and I can no longer stay in it. Look not so grave, dear father, 'tis no ghost. I wish it was, or he was, for it is that same tedious, tiresome, persecuting, Harry Lee. I have been most anxiously expecting your return; but, as it seems, you have become a permanent fixture at Temple Farm, it is but right that I should grow along side of the parent stem. The townsfolk are even more anxious for your return than I am. I tell them you ran away from practice, but it seems the more you desire to run away from it, the more they run after you. Few people in this dreary world have been able to effect so much unmixed good as you have, and for that, I thank God. Dear Father, I have no desire to live but for your sake, and that the short time we are to live together may not be diminished by any act of mine, I will be with you presently. Our poor pensioners and invalids are all doing as well as usual, and I leave them in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Jones, who, I know, will care for them as we would. He is surely one of God's chosen instruments for doing good in this world. He has shouldered his cross in earnest, and devoutly does he labor to advance the Redeemer's kingdom.
"The week that you have been absent, dear father, has appeared the longest seven days of my life. I do not know what my flowers and birds will do without me, but I am sure they can better spare my presence than I can yours.
"Ever your affectionate and devoted daughter,
"ELLEN EVYLIN."
Kate was sitting anxiously waiting to hear from the old gentleman what answer his daughter returned, and she saw a tear glistening in his eye, as he handed her the note. She read it over; the old gentleman sitting silent until she had finished and returned it. "Poor Ellen," said she, as she looked up in his face, from which the tears were now stealing down, "but despond not, dear Doctor, the change of scene and air will surely do her good."
"I fear her case is beyond the reach of human aid," replied he.
"Indeed! do you consider it so hopeless?"
"Her's is a crushed spirit, my dear Kate, she has no physical disease except such as is produced by it, and you know it is hard to pluck up the rooted sorrow."
"Never despair, dear Doctor, cheerful company and fresh air on horseback, and long rambling walks among the flowers and green leaves, and the sea-breeze, may do wonders for her. I'll show you that I have not been your disciple for nothing."
They separated; the old man to walk along the beach, and try to relieve his melancholy forebodings by watching the sparkling wave, and the white rails as they spread for that land from which he had brought the mother of his drooping daughter. Let no desponding heart walk upon the sea-shore to cultivate cheerfulness; it is too much like standing on the borders of eternity. The melancholy and monotonous roar of the distant waves is too depressing; they are too much like the great current of human life, forever pouring onwards, regardless of individual suffering.
That evening the Doctor's old family coach came rumbling up to the hall door, at a staid and sober gait, and the whole party in the parlor turned out
Page 24
to receive so unusual a visitor. There stood the gentlemen, old and young, bare headed, and the ladies likewise, surrounding the steps of the carriage, each one anxious to render assistance, but all giving way for the Doctor to receive his daughter in his arms, carrying her, poor old man, to the platform before he suffered her to regain her feet. Fondly she hung upon his neck as they stood there, he within one step of the landing, and she on the top; no one ventured to disturb them, for both were weeping and seemed to have forgotten the presence of any body else.
One hour afterwards she entered the parlor, supported by Kate on one side and Dorothea on the other, to a large arm chair, made soft with shawls. She was rather a petit figure, but what was lost in majesty of form was fully compensated for by symmetry of mould, or rather had been, for she was now thin and shadowy. Her face was almost transparent, it was so purely white, and the blue veins upon her temples shone through her wax-like skin, as if the current of life was restrained but by a gossamer texture. Her eyes were large, and of a fine deep blue, so that when they slowly moved over the objects in the room, it almost startled one, so shadow-like was her general appearance. Her hair was of a brown color, but when the rays of light fell upon its rich folds, they played among them, so as to bring out their fine auburn tints--at one moment exhibiting a black shade, and the next a purple. She had no cough, nor any apparent symptoms of physical disease, yet she was evidently wasting away in the very first bloom of her youth and beauty, for beautiful she still was, and in perfect health, must have been a fascinating little fairy. How those two girls tried to entertain her, hanging round her chair, and bringing to her in succession, every object of curiosity or interest about the place! Even little Robert had piled her lap with curious shells, and Kate was turning over some new volumes of Pope's and Swift's poetry, just then in the first novelty of their recent publication; every now and then reading her passages which struck their fancy. How the whole conversation of a room full of company became subdued by the presence of one poor little valetudinarian, instead of chosing the most cheerful and enlivening subjects, the sufferer is sure to be painfully impressed with the fact that he or she, is a drawback to the enjoyment of others; and so it was on the present occasion, for she soon observed it, and spoke of it to Kate.
"You must not let me engross the attention of every one, my dear Kate," said she, in a suppressed voice, "it is painful to me."
The Governor, who was sitting near, heard it, and replied, "Suppose, then, we have in the young tutor, and put him through his facings: Essex tells me he is waiting."
"No, no, papa," said Kate, "it will never do, remember the young man has some feeling, and may not choose to be examined upon his proficiency in a room full of company."
"Poh! poh," said the Governor, "bring him in Essex, we will treat Bob to a scene of his master learning some of his own lessons, before he administers the birch to him."
The boy rubbed his hands with delight at the proposition, and his father sent him off to bring in an armful of Latin and Greek books from the library.
The Reverend Commissary was sent for too, who came, spectacles on nose, just fresh from his books. He, too, objected to the publicity of the examination, but knowing the peculiarities of his friend, his sudden whims and eccentricities, he attempted like a skilful tactitian, to compromise the matter.
"I left the young man in the library," said he, "and I will return and ask him if he has any objection."
"Tell him then," said the Governor, "that I will require these young gentlemen to construe verse about with him, and we will try which has the best of it, Old Oxford or William and Mary."
The youngsters seemed not quite so ready for the exhibition, now that they
Page 25
were to take part in the performance, as they were before, but they acquiesced of course.
The Rev. Commissary returned with the young scholar. He was dressed in black, rather the worse for the wear, but still scrupulously neat and clean. The deep impress of long familiarity with persons of high breeding was in every step and movement.
"Egad, he's a gentleman at all events," said the Governor, as he eyed him coming up the room, and rather abashed himself, that he had proposed such a boyish freak to such a man: such was his way, however, and he attempted to smooth over the matter.
"Mr. Hall, here are two or three young gentlemen, alumni of our Western College, which you have doubtless heard of, and I have proposed that the Rev. Commissary shall play the pedagogue to-night with the the whole of us; what say you, will you be one of the class?"
"Most willingly, your Excellency;" seeming to understand the Governor's mood at once.
"Get the books, Bob, the books, the books."
But just at that moment, Kate and her sister ran up to poor Ellen Evylin, who would have fallen had they not caught her, she was almost gone. She had been sitting in her big arm chair, so arranged that she had not seen the proposed tutor. As she recovered a little, she whispered to Kate, upon whose shoulder her head was leaning, "Oh, that voice, it was so like"--then she stopped, and Kate prepared to wheel her into another room, but she strenuously opposed it, and even desired her chair to be turned round, so that she could see the occupants of the other side of the table.
From that moment, her eye seemed absolutely rivetted to the face of the stranger, and whenever it came to his turn to read, Kate felt her whole system thrill and vibrate like one in an ague. This was very strange; and still more surprised Kate, but she kept these thoughts to herself.
The Governor was once more in high glee with his new class, and was really taking it turn about with the youngsters at the bucolics. Indeed it seemed to afford fine sport for all concerned.
Once or twice the stranger youth raised his eyes above his book and examined the group, now located on the other side of the room.
The new tutor was far from being an an ordinary looking man. To use a common homely saying, he was one who had evidently seen better days. This alone invests one with some interest. The thread-bare garments which he wears, are deprived at once of all their shabbiness and meanness, and invested with a compound interest. A graceful movement, an uncommon expression rivets the eye upon him. We are carried back in imagination to the place and scenes of his birth and naturally our curiosity is excited. Nor was this all in the present instance, there was a desponding sadness in the voice of this young man, a depth in its tones which affected his lady hearers powerfully. They were all more or less interested in him. Then that deep scar across his face; how came that there? had he been a soldier? This question was destined to have some light thrown upon it sooner than they expected. The Governor being satisfied with his classical attainments, in his impatience for his favorite studies, soon had Robert's black board brought in and was figuring away with his chalk at a great rate. He was becoming delighted with his prize, for even Dr. Blair whispered to him that he was a ripe scholar. From mathematics it was an easy transition to their military application, and in less than half an hour his Excellency had one of Marlborough's late battles drawn fully out, and he and his new antagonist engaged in a most animated discussion. The veteran's eye glistened with delight as he listened to the young man's glowing description of the battle. He placed it in an entirely new light, and the Governor now understood
Page 26
some matters which had been puzzling him ever since the accounts were received. He therefore gave up the controversy, which was quite a new thing for him in military matters and no mean compliment to his new adversary. After reposing his eye in a brown study for a few moments on the black board, where the lines of attack and defence still remained, he wheeled suddenly upon his antagonist and exclaimed: "I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Tutor, you must have seen service--none but a true military eye could correct the errors of my lines."
The poor youth was struck dumb, all his late animation and military ardor engendered amidst the clashing of imaginary armies, vanished in a moment. He was confused. His antagonist seeing this, continued: "Never mind young man on which side you took up arms--there shall be no tales out of school here. You are in a freer atmosphere than that which you lately left--where the Dutchess and Mrs. Masham alternately sway the fate of contending armies. I have been a soldier of fortune myself, and it boots little to me in what school you learned your tactics. Sufficient that you are a soldier."
"Gad, Bob, with such a master you will beat John yet, if you only spur up, my man."
"Your Excellency seems fully informed of the shameful wrangling of the Queen's Ministers," replied Hall modestly.
"Rather say the wrangling of the female gossips of the Court, and you would come nearer the mark. It is no longer Oxford and Bolinbroke, and that was bad enough, but it is now a fair fight of petticoat against petticoat. The instructions which I receive by one packet are countermanded by the next. If this state of things continue I must divide my papers into two packages and label one, 'despatches from her grace of Marlborough,' and the other 'from her high Mightiness, Mrs. Masham.'"
"Any further news from home, Governor?" asked Carter, "concerning the grand expedition across the mountains."
"Not one syllable. I have been twice ordered to prepare my little army, and twice has it been countermanded, ere I could cleverly commence operations. The council, damn them--I beg your Reverences pardon as being of them--is too much like the Queen's privy council, they are under petticoat government too, and thus far have most effectually thwarted me."
By this time he had become quite excited, and was walking with immense strides across the floor and talked on, almost in a continuous strain. "They hope to unhorse me before I can set out, but upon the very first intimation from the ministry that my measures are approved, I will set out--then arrest me who can. Curse the block-heads of the council."
"Softly, softly, your Excellency," said the Commissary, "you should not denounce these men, because they cannot think exactly with us. The General Assembly were fully as much to blame, for they refused to vote the necessary funds. They could not see with our eyes."
"See with our eyes!" replied the Governor, contemptuously, "nor with any other, damn them, they cannot see an inch from from their noses. What do they know about military matters?" turning to Henry Hall, as he continued vehemently--"you see, Sir, those rascally Frenchmen are hemming us in, in every direction. They are gradually approximating their military settlements up the branches of the Mississippi, on the one hand, and down the lakes on the other, until they are just about to meet on the other side of the mountains. Now I propose to march an expedition across these mountains and by force, if necessary, seize the strip of land lying between their settlements. No military eye could look upon the thing for one single moment, without being struck with the magnificence of the conception. I have written to the ministry, sent maps of the rivers and mountains, and urged them
Page 27
before it is too late,--but while they are carrying on their cursed squabbles between the rival factions of two old wives, our enemies will have already seized upon the ground."
While he spoke thus, he had seized the chalk, and was rapidly sketching the course of the principal rivers, having their sources most directly among the mountains, and the Blue Ridge, and beyond that again, the sources of the Mississippi, running South and South-west, and the rivers on the North emptying into the great lakes. He was a fine draughtsman, and a military engineer of the highest repute in that day, and when he had finished his handy work, really presented a field for a martial enterprise, calculated to fire up the enthusiasm of much tamer spirits than those he addressed. Hall especially, entered into his views with an ardor and a zeal which captivated the old veteran at once. His practised eye ran over the plan of the campaign with the rapidity of intuition, and in less than half an hour, he had mastered all the then known geography of the country, together with the forces, position and number of the French settlements. It is true, that they knew not of the double chain of mountains, and had never heard of the great valley of Virginia,--that garden spot of the land,--but with that exception, these plans were wonderfully correct, and into that mistake they were purposely betrayed, as will be seen as we progress.
They supposed that the head waters of the Mississippi, had their source immediately beyond the mountains, which could be just faintly discovered from the then frontier settlements of the Colony.
The table was soon strewed with papers and maps, giving an exact detail of the militia and regular force of the Colony, and all the known Geography of Virginia.
"I see," remarked Hall, "that your population numbers an hundred thousand, your militia nine thousand five hundred and twenty two, of which two thousand three hundred and sixty-three are light horse, and seven thousand one hundred and fifty-nine are foot and dragoons."
"Exactly," said the Governor, "and yet these craven hearted delegates and councillors contend that I want to strip the colony of its military protection, to go upon some wild Quixotic expedition beyond the borders of civilization, from whence we will never return, and if we do, to find them all butchered at home. Was any thing ever heard so supremely ridiculous?"
"Can you not raise an entirely new force for the transmontaine expedition?" asked Hall.
"As how?" said his Excellency, eagerly.
"Suppose you issue a proclamation, calling upon all the young gentry of the colony to come forward, with each so many followers of his own enlisting, or chosing. Say three hundred gentlemen, with each fifty followers. If you take possession of this fine country beyond the mountains in her Majesty's name, surely her Ministers will make liberal grants to those who thus conquer or acquire it."
"A glorious conception, by Heavens," hugging the new tutor actually in his arms, and giving way to other evidences of delight.
"I'll tell you what it is, Harry Hall, you shall draw up that proclamation this very night. I'll read it before I go to bed."
"No, no papa," said Kate, interfering, "Mr. Hall is already fatigued with his day's toil and is besides just from the confinement of a ship, he has already been wearying himself reading at least a bushel of your dry papers."
"Dry papers!" replied the father, "they are far more interesting than the gingling nonsense which Bernard has been reading to you young ladies the last half hour."
"Fie, fie papa, to call Mr. Pope's beautiful pastorals gingling nonsense. I
Page 28
appeal to Dr. Blair, whether there is not food in them to satisfy minds of even masculine vigor."
"Right, right my Kate," said the old prelate, "in both cases. The young man is doubtless fatigued and the poetry is good."
"I am not the least weary, your Excellency, and will draft your proclamation on the spot, if you say so."
"No, no, the general voice is against me, and we will adjourn the subject until after breakfast in the morning, especially as I see Bob is coming already for his first lesson."
The youngster had been standing some time leaning upon a pair of foils, and now approaching bashfully, asked Hall if he could give him lessons with these also.
"Oh yes," said he, taking one of the instruments out of his hand, and telling Robert to put on his basket, while he laid his own on the table, and placed himself bare-headed in a posture of defence. He suffered the boy to make a few passes at him, and then disarmed him so handsomely and so easily that he threw the foil entirely over, end for end, and caught it in his own hand.
"A trick of the Continental army, by Heavens!" exclaimed the Governor. "Come here, Moore, this gentleman needs a more formidable competitor, than Bob. Here, Mr. Hall, is one of my holiday pupils; toast him a little for the amusement of these girls."
At it they went in fine style, both evidently playing shy until they should see a little into the others fence, and both giving and parrying with caution and dexterity. Neither had much advantage in length of limb, and both were practised swordsmen, but Moore rather undervaluing his plebeian adversary, began to push at him pretty fiercely; instantly his foil was seen turning pirouetts in the air.
"Ha," said the old veteran, rising and rubbing his hands, "have I found an antagonist at last? Now for it, Mr. Hall."
Even the ladies began to take some interest in the game, for they were quite accustomed to such scenes, and did not usually turn even to notice so ordinary an affair; but now when two such extraordinary swordsmen encountered, every one was looking on with pleased interest. Long and dexterously did they thrust and parry, advancing and retreating, until they were so worn down that the two blades lay against each other in close pressure, neither willing or daring to renew the encounter.
"Come, come," said Dr. Blair, "that's enough--you are both satisfied." Like two boys tired out with fighting, they were willing enough to desist.
The tutor was soon after shown to his own room. When he had gone, the Governor was loud in his praise, and pronounced him a most extraordinary young man, and the finest swordsman that he had encountered since he left the army.
"I'll tell you what it is, Governor--I have been thinking what an acquisition that young man would be to our College," said the Commissary.
"The College may go a begging this time, Dr. Blair, I intend that Henry Hall shall see the highest blue peak of the Apelachian mountains before I am done with him. Providence has doubtless sent him to me with some such design, and when I have caught the bird in my net, you come and open your cage, and say, let him fly in here. No, no--I have engaged Mr. Hall for Bob, and your College must get along without him, I assure you."
"Well, well, it will be time enough for us when you return from the mountains, if indeed you don't leave the bones of the fine youth bleaching upon their highest peaks."
Rather an unkind cut of the old Doctor, and which set the Governor to thinking for a moment ere he replied.
"Just as sure as the sun shines to-morrow, I tell you, Dr. Blair, that I will
Page 29
lead an expedition over yonder blue mountains, and I will triumph over the French--the Indians, and the Devil, if he chooses to join forces with them."
"No doubt of it--no doubt of it. I did not question the result at all, I only meant to allude to the mishaps inevitable from all human undertakings, and against these, even your great military experience cannot guarantee this youth."
The evening closed as previous ones had done, with family prayer, after which the party separated for the night.
CHAPTER X.
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM.
THE morning broke still and serene over the shores of the Chesapeake, now in the full fruition of their summer glories, and the flowers clustering with a rich harvest of beauties o'er hill and dale, garden and lawn, meadow and brook. The sun was just scattering his ruddy rays over the eastern shores, and lighting up the sleepy waters of that glorious inland, sea, like a burnished mirror clearing itself from the taint of human breath. The marine birds soared in lazy flights along the surface, admiring their own graceful shadows, perhaps, while out toward the ocean, they seemed like white feathers floating lazily in the sun beams. It was a morning to give wings to the imagination, yet the picture cannot be embodied perfectly to the mind of another, it must be felt as well as seen. The accessaries of temperature, health, position, and, above all, the true mood must be present to insure its perfect enjoyment. To exist, to breathe, is then a positive enjoyment.
Kate Spotswood was of a temperament to enjoy all these summer glories, with a relish only known to nature's poets and painters. She was not disposed to indulge in the dreamy mood alone, however, for at the first peep of dawn she was in Ellen Evylin's room, and had roused up the valetudinarian. That wakeful child of sorrow lay with her eyes as preternaturally bright as they were the night before, and Kate saw that they had been very differently employed than in sleeping, for her pillow was yet moist with tears. She begged her friend to leave her to her thoughts; but no, Kate said, "she was her physician, that her father had put her under her care, and she was now about to administer the first prescription;" she drew the curtain from the window, and pointed to the glorious scene without, stretching away in the distance, until it was lost in the misty junction of the watery horizon. "Look, dear Ellen, at those long blue pennants sweeping out towards Cape Charles, did you ever see any thing more beautiful? see how they contrast with the lighter blue of the sky, and now how the sun, rolling up behind, tips their edges with crimson. Get up, dear Ellen, God never made these morning glories to be seen in bed; it is the salutation of Heaven to Earth; nature is just drawing the first curtain from before his altar, and we of the earth should not reject the proffered boon."
"Dear Kate, what an enthusiast you are?" said poor Ellen, still longing to be alone.
"Enthusiast, Ellen? indeed I am an enthusiast, God loves enthusiasts, and the wicked only hate them. They chime not with gross and grovelling pursuits; they are of Heaven, not of Earth. All that is bright and lovely and beneficent on Earth, is born of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm first discovered this glorious land; it fired the hearts of the Crusaders; and if they recovered not the Holy Land, did far more, for they exalted our sex to their true position
Page 30
and dignity. My father, too, he is called an enthusiast by the cold-blooded common sense men: look at him, dear Ellen, his thoughts soar forever over those blue mountains, and that very passion will carry him one day to their summits, and does it not ennoble his character? Is he not elevated by it; see how pure and guileless he walks among the poor intriguing politicians who clog his steps and yet cannot advance one of their own. Is he not the life and soul of the whole Colony?"
"Kate, you bear down all opposition, I give up to enthusiasm; only bring me back to its brilliant hopes and aspirations, and you will earn your title of Doctress, indeed!"
"That will I, my poor scared bird; you have been caged so long, that you have forgotten how to flutter, much less fly; but come, soar along with me among the bright wings that surround us without, and your pinions will come back again. You were never made, dear Ellen, to grovel, and pine, and die among the tamer duties and every day drudgeries of life."
"I have substituted duty for enthusiasm, Kate."
"Duty! well, come Mrs. Duty, only give me your hand and I will trip you over field and flower, and brae and brake, and moor and lawn, until we shall accomplish all Mrs. Duty's task, and far more besides. I tell you, Ellen, that duty is none the worse for a little of the genuine fire, she goes lame without wings, and even hobbles on crutches, but clap the pinions to her, and she soars aloft, and sips the very beauties which God created to be met half way by such a spirit. Heaven itself is but one continued scene of enthusiasm; we cannot form a conception of its glories without bidding good-day to Earth."
"And leave poor old Duty behind."
"There you are wrong, dear Ellen, to separate them; I would only clothe the dame in brilliant hues, while you want to murder her with rags and poverty."
"Oh, Kate, how you do run away with the argument."
"Not at all, Ellen, I only want to convince you that there are more ways than one to do right, and that even doing right in in a peculiar way, is very near a kin to doing wrong."
"Why, Kate, one would think to hear you talk, that I had been doing something very wrong."
"It is not exactly that, dear Ellen, but I wish to convince you that there are higher and nobler duties than those, with the performance of which you satisfy your conscience."
"You surprise me exceedingly! tell me what those high duties are?"
"A cheerful spirit is the first and greatest thing which you lack," seeing the poor valetudinarian burst into tears, she pushed away her woman and threw her arms round her, while she continued:
"Nay, nay, nay, Ellen, I would not wound you for the world; I wished rather to coax than scold you from your settled dejection."
"Kate, you know not what I suffer, you cannot, no one can know."
"There is the very point dearest--try it with me, no mother ever listened to daughter with the same indulgence that I will listen to you. If your imagination magnifies trifles into matters of importance, it is enough for me that they are so to you, and I will look at them with your eyes. Dear Ellen, I seek your confidence with the most sincere desire to befriend you--I promise you I will feel too much as you feel--I will weep when you weep, and if you cannot laugh when I laugh, why, we will e'en cry together. Dear Ellen, throw me not off, I love you like my own own Sister."
"I cannot withstand your appeal, Kate, you have made a child of me, and you must put up with my childishness."
By this time Kate had her arm round the waist of the invalid, and was urging her through the garden, to the grove beyond.
Page 31
"Here is a lovely seat," said she, "and we can sit here at the foot of this old tree and talk till we are tired--or rather till you are tired, for when that comes, then I will talk to you. The birds you see are warbling their pretty stories among the fresh green leaves. See that mocking bird, how it chatters to its mate, that is me, Ellen, and the silent one represents you, only I'm sure I cannot discourse such sweet music as my prototype."
"Dear Kate, the very sound of your voice, cheers my heart,--before I left home, I had not walked this far, for many, many months."
"Oh how I rejoice, that you are come at last,--you don't know how I have longed to have you here, just as now, your whole confidence mine."
"I shall be so, Kate, and I have often wished for such a confident, but my whole being shrinks from disclosing the weaknesses of earlier days."
"One to hear you talk, would suppose you fifty at the least."
"I may appear staid and sober enough, but I have not always been so. Do you not recollect when we first met at the Capital, what a thoughtless rattlebrain I was?"
"I recollect only that you took me captive, heart and soul, little girls as we were, and if I remember right, I was not the only one."
"Oh, Kate! what memories your words recall--what happiness--what weaknesses! those of childhood, to be sure,--but is not the sturdy oak bent when it is a twig, and grows it not so forever? You know it is so Kate, with our sex at least. The world is all wrong in supposing that we wait to come out into the world to prepare for the world. Those things which fix--irretrievably fix our destiny, are the legitimate fruits of childhood--they are matters of feeling, not of judgment. I am almost wicked enough to repine sometimes when I think that my destiny for this life was cast and lost before I was perfectly a responsible being, but it was doubtless so designed by an All-Wise Providence, to teach me that this is not my true home."
"There now, Ellen, we might begin the argument again, were I disposed to interrupt you, but I am not. You were speaking at the time when we first met."
"Or rather Kate, when I first met Frank Lee. You see I can even call his name now, which my poor fond father would no more do in my presence, than he would explode a petard at my feet. Poor Frank was left a ward of my father's, you know. Papa attended old Mr. Lee in his last illness, he was unprepared to die--no will made. Papa wrote his will and agreed to accept the trust of his two sons, Francis and Henry. He brought them from Westmoreland with him and they went to College from our house. Oh, what happy, joyous, frolicksome days were those of the first year. I saw no difference in the boys, they were both my seniors, and both as brothers to me. Those happy, happy evenings during the long winter nights, when my father used to sit and talk to us about the structure of the earth--its revolutions, and those of the other planets, and then of the innumerable worlds beyond--and sometimes he would perform chemical experiments for our amusement--in short he became a child among children, in order that they might become men. But I went hand in hand in all their studies, aye, and plays too--they almost made a little Amazon of me, and I really believe they would have taken me out gunning with them, if papa had not put his veto upon it. This he could not do however with all the unfeminine amusements into which they forced me. You recollect my little sorrel poney, and how we three cantered over the neighborhood of Williamsburg. Not an old fish or oyster negro, but knew us a mile off. Oh, how merry Frank was--so full of buoyant spirits--so exhiliarated with hope--so cheerful--so kind to every body, so obliging--so repentant when he did wrong, so stern and steady when right. I think I can see his pouting lip now maintaining his boyish rights.
"Do you know Kate, that I saw a fearful resemblance to the expression of
Page 32
his mouth in that strange tutor last night. I know it was only a chance resemblance, wholly accidental, but it has interested me in that young man. When I saw him throw his eyes to the floor and become lost in a reverie, until they had to jog him quite rudely, when it came to his turn to read, I would have given any thing in this world to have travelled with his thoughts to his distant home, and proscribed friends. Perhaps thought I, he too has been left an orphan like poor Frank, and wandered as he did, from the happy scenes of his childhood, and is now calling them up one by one, in painful pictures of the past. I longed to compare notes with him, I know it was very foolish, but it was all conjured up by that smile.
"Oh such an expression, never but one youth before had. It told a history--there were years of association with it, long years of memory lent their shadows, and that bright smile was like the dimples round a stone thrown at random into the river, slowly receding and vanishing--leaving the shores and their histories as if the stone had never been thrown. But where was I? Oh! up to this time, I had never perceived any difference between the brother's, or never analyzed it if I had. Frank being the elder, seemed very naturally to take the lead in everything. One circumstance I did remark, by the by--whenever he went away to spend a day or a week, with some neighboring youth among the gentry, we were all moped to death. Father and Harry were as much rejoiced to see him return as I was, but this was attributed by me at the time, to the breaking up of our little family party. I knew not but it would have been the same if any other one had gone. I perceived not that he was the very life and soul of our little meetings. Neither had I perceived up to this time, that Frank was at all different from other youths of his age, he appeared just like them to me--he dressed like the rest of the young gentry--rode like them--talked like them. No, not exactly either--he did not talk like common boys, for there was a winning gentleness about him mingled with the manliness of riper years, which the old negroes used to say betokened an early death. Alas, how true those forebodings were. You see I cannot keep up the history of the two boys together, I so runaway with the memory of Frank. There was no perceptible difference in their attainments at school, more than could easily be accounted for by disparity of years. This was not great, but two or three years is greater I believe in mental than physical growth.
"As I began to approach my fourteenth year, now five years ago, I marked the distinctive identity of my father's wards. I observed little things, but not great ones--those on the surface, but nothing deeply. Henry was the more silent of the two, more cautious, prouder and more given to the pomps and vanities of his station. He loved to affect the gentleman even thus early, would seldom ride out without a servant, and loved to be waited upon for show and ceremony's sake, as well as from convenience or actual necessity. He could not bear a joke, or playfulness of any sort at his own expense, while he was very willing to be amused at the expense of others; yet, when he laughed or played, it was never with his whole heart and soul, like his brother. You see, dear Kate, I am answering your oft repeated appeals in behalf of Henry Lee, in giving his history.
"Henry, to tell the truth, loved self too much, and regarded others too little, while his brother was the very reverse in every respect. Frank, you know, by the laws of the land, inherited the bulk of his father's property, which had been in no way disturbed by the will, except to give Harry his mother's share, which was amply sufficient, I am told, to have made him independent, and better off than younger brothers generally are. Yet there was now evidently growing up a jealousy of his brother's great possessions. Though the younger he would sneer at his brother's position, as the head of the family--bow to him when rebuked, in mock humility.
Page 33
"In all their College squabbles with other boys, Harry was sure to be the aggressor in the quarrel, and Frank was sure to do the fighting; not that Harry was a coward at all, but his brother was so much more of a generous and chivalrous nature. I have seen him come home all bloody from fighting Harry's battles, and cannot remember an instance of the latter becoming the champion of the other."
"He was the younger," said Kate.
"True, but he was the stouter and stronger too, I believe. However, give him all the advantages of his position; I would not detract one iota from his claims, of any kind. These distinctive marks in their character began to develope themselves more and more every day, until the very servants plainly showed their partiality for Frank. My father, too, impartial, calm and temperate, as you know him to be in his feelings, could not help showing his greater fondness for the elder brother, and this brings me to the relation of a fact, a small one it is true, but these develope character. Harry perceived this growing partiality of my father--if that may be called partiality, which was nothing more than the love of good and generous actions, and was not long in telling him of it. Not only did he charge him with it, but he alleged that it was the result of interested motives, and grew entirely out of his desire to secure Frank and his fortune for his daughter. We were all present, and I am very sure that I shall never forget the scene which succeeded. My venerable old father was terribly shocked, as you may suppose, and he rebuked Harry, as I never heard him rebuke any one before. If Harry had possessed any genuine feeling, he would have shrunk into nothing, at such a withering castigation, from a source usually so mild and gentle. But he was far from feeling remorse on the occasion, and never retracted.
"It was a beautiful moonlight night, and I ran out into the garden, and there, in that old summer house which you have so often chided me for making my home, I had like to have cried my very eyes out, for mortification. I had never had such a thought pass through my mind, any more than if Frank had been my brother. Now that it was distinctly presented, and in such startling light, too, shall I confess it to you, my dear Kate, my kind confessor, that it was not wholly unpleasant. The mortification was profound, but I fear the poison had sunk equally deep with it. I, of course, at that age, could not enter into a very rigid self-examination; my powers of self-analysis, if I had even been disposed to exercise them, could not be very great, but I can trace my feelings now, and I confess to you, that that charge, a disgraceful one if true, carried with it a surmise that, though wholly untrue on our parts, it might not be so on Frank's. Oh, what a terrible quarrel succeeded between those two young brothers; Frank poured down such a torrent of indignation upon his brother, as no one could have supposed would ever issue from lips usually so mild and gentle; and, must I confess all, it was mingled with such praises of me, as no poor motherless girl of fourteen could hear in safety. I did not eave's-drop, but hearing the quarrel somewhat abate, I essayed to get to my own room, which could only be approached through the one in which they were sitting. I retreated to my seat again. My poor, almost heart broken father, was already locked up in his chamber, and did not again make his appearance that night.
"At length Henry was silenced, but not abashed or repentant, and walked himself off in great state, declaring he would never enter out doors again. He slept that night, truly enough, in College. When he was gone, Frank came in search of me. You, dear Kate, can imagine my feelings; young as I was, I was covered with shame, and must have looked to him like the guilty participator in the interested scheme with which his brother charged me, but it was from a very different cause.
Page 34
"I was beginning to have a faint idea that the youth before me was indeed dearer to me than a brother; and after what had been said, and feeling as I did, how could I look him in the face? And how could he look at my evident shame and embarrassment, without having a suspicion, at least, that that part was true; but he was a brave, noble, generous boy; his own nature was too bright and pure to suspect others. He seated himself on the grass at my feet, and took both my hands, and then poured out his whole soul to me, boy as he was, with all its generous treasures and lofty aspirations. He too, it seemed, had been unconscious of the slumbering passion within, until it had been revealed sometime before by a similar scene between him and his brother, when quite alone. Kate, I had to respond to his eloquent, pleading passion, or else give further grounds for suspecting me of some sinister design in future, because I had betrayed too much already to affect concealment now, and I met his confiding nature with a frankness equal to his own.
"Oh, that bright, fair youth! how the true fervor of passion, in its first and brightest dream, gashed from his heart. How brilliantly his graceful and chaste imagination entwined our future lives, through vistas all green and luxuriant with flowers, and from which even the rude blasts were most carefully excluded. He knew little of the real world; he was as guileless and unpractised in wickedness as a babe, and I was quite as inexperienced. Is it surprising, then, that I listened to him with a charmed ear and a willing heart? No, Kate; no girl reared as I had been could anticipate my sad experience; and it springs not up in the mind by intuition. I listened and believed; my faith was laid in the deepest foundations of my being; it was grounded in my very soul. You, Kate, know something of a woman's love, even in its inception; you know that it is not only a part of her being, but it is the whole, at least, the layer upon which all else is built. But I not only had true and unwavering faith in Frank himself, but I believed in his imaginary paradise, which his glowing and delighted imagination had painted for us. I believe that all of our sex spend at least the first quarter of their lives under a similar illusion, if accident or circumstances produce not the youth who is to walk hand in hand with us through these bowers of Eden, imagination furnishes him at once, clothed in the same ideal colors which we throw around the real youth, when he rises up before us. Oh, what a gorgeous dream it is while it lasts! how its hues are thrown around every thing in our little circumscribed world! your beautiful horizon this morning, Kate, crimson lit, as it was, seemed poor and tame compared with these pictures, which memory was even then rearing up over all the past. Can you wonder that when I turn from them, and look into the cold and dreary future, my physical strength, and even my moral courage, should sink under the withering contrast?
Even our little Eden found a tempter, I will not call him a serpent, for you know Harry Lee and respect him, and he is often your father's guest, but I will say that he is by no means exempt from the fierce and deadly passions of our nature. Nay, more, and let this be the answer once for all to his suit, his long and persevering suit, pleaded by so many able advocates. Though so calm and high-bred in all his exterior man, he is but a common man still--all his passions and deadly enmities are only schooled into good behavior; though wreaths and flowers grow upon the surface, serpents slumber beneath.
"He returned to our house next morning, nothwithstanding his anathmas of the evening before, and his stealthy and watchful jealousy very soon discovered that there was an understanding between Frank and me, if not approved by my father, and this brings me to the latter's view of the matter. He has always been mother and father both, to me, consequently the most unreserved confidence existed between us, as much so as ever existed between parent and daughter. I went, after a sleepless night, and told him the whole story of our
Page 35
youthful love and its premature revelation; for I can call it nothing else but a discovery, and an accidental one on our parts. He was most deeply moved, aye, and interested too, beyond that which a fond parent might be supposed to feel, for he was struck with the novelty of such a youthful engagement. I know that that youthful sentiment, or call it what you will, has interwoven itself into the very essence of my moral existence--it has become purified and chastened still more, I know, by poor Frank's untimely fate." Here she was interrupted for a while by her tears, but presently proceeded. "I say it has become sublimated until it mingles with my higher sentiments, and has become a part of my religious faith. I know of no aspirations after Heaven and its enjoyments, that are not mixed up with thoughts of his pure spirit."
"And yet, Ellen, you chided my enthusiasm this very morning?"
"Aye, dear Kate, not because I did not understand your feelings--I realized them too vividly, and it brought a shudder over me to think how soon that pure fountain of your own might be poisoned at its source."
"Let me not interrupt you."
"My father, I could see, was pleased in spite of himself, and in spite of Harry's poisonous breath having been blown into our cup of happiness; but he decided at once, that Frank must anticipate his Edinburgh course, before determined upon, and they had a long interview that morning, the result of which was that he was to set out forthwith. Here again, let me say that this very thing constantly rises up in judgment against Harry. It is unjust, perhaps, but I cannot help viewing him as in part the cause of poor Frank's unhappy fate. True, he would have gone some time or other, like all the youth among our gentry, to finish his education in Europe, but he would not have gone then, and might have escaped the entanglement with your unhappy relative's affairs, at any other time. Harry could not conceal his delight at the new arrangement, even under his cold, proud exterior, and positively refused to accompany his brother.
"The parting between Frank and me was at yonder town, and as you may imagine was only supportable from the hope of our soon uniting again. My father accompanied us to the ship, and we lay upon the water in our little boat, waving our handkerchiefs, until that noble vessel had become a speck not mach bigger than the boat itself. I could have stayed there forever, or until he came back, for he carried with him my present existence as well as future. The past only is now my own, and its treasures I have been pouring out with a lavish hand to you, my truest and oldest friend. Harry seemed to think that he had the whole game in his own hands, after Frank's departure--he could not conceal his exultation--he attempted to assume his position in our family, and even went so far as to affect his easy, careless ways and winning manners. You know enough of that proud and haughty spirit, to estimate how very unbecoming it appeared in him, but why need I dwell upon that particular assumption of what was not his own--has he not assumed the hues of the chameleon; and above all, has he not taken every thing that was Franks?"
"There, dear Ellen, I think you are a little unjust, for he, of course, must inherit his brother's property."
"Of course, but it is not just that--it was the indecent haste to step into his shoes in all respects, to which I intended to allude, but perhaps I am unjust to Harry in detailing particulars. I do not wrong him, however, in the spirit which I attribute to him as to his past life. I know the man, Kate, most thoroughly and intimately. Has not our childhood been spent together--and is he not now ever at our house? No, no, Kate, I have not wronged him on the whole--I have drawn a flattering likeness of him, and now contrast poor Frank's personal outlines with his, and you have the two pictures complete." Saying which she drew forth a small picture hanging to a ribbon, and looked at it steadily for a moment as a mother hangs over some
Page 36
memento of her lost one, and then handed it to Kate. It was the miniature of a fair haired youth, yet in his teens, in a crimson velvet dress--the ruffles falling from his very white neck and hands, so as rather to add to the extreme youthfulness of the general air. It was a face to look upon and remember forever--an eye that sparkled with the high impulses of genius as well as the flush of health and ardor of youth.
"No wonder, dear Ellen, that you cannot look upon Henry with favor, when you cherish ever near your person such a rival as this. Oh, 'tis a noble youth!"
"But let us put it by, Kate. It is not well for me to add to my own regrets by hearing him praised by others. You already know all that sad part of his history connected with your uncle's execution. You know that he fell fighting like a hero for his rescue."
"Would it not be well, my Ellen, to lay it out of sight altogether. I would certainly advise the step, as the first preparation to fit you for resuming your proper duties in society."
"Dear Kate, what inconsistent creatures we poor mortals are--but now I had almost taken your place, and become the enthusiast of the morning--and you have almost taken mine, and gone to preaching of duty."
"It is only the different lights in which circumstances place us. We are not so dissimilar by nature as these have made us."
"Oh, Kate, may yours never change so as to render us alike in circumstances, as in nature, if it should so unfortunately turn out, all those brilliant colors and gay flowers in which you are wont to clothe every thing, will be changed to a vision of darkness. A young girl with hope blotted from the catalogue of her attributes, is like the sky with the lights extinguished--the longer and deeper you look into it, the blacker and more cheerless it looks. In other words, it is despair, so far as this world is concerned. A woman who can re-enact the scenes through which I have gone, must be like a tragedy queen at rehearsal. No, no, Kate, we are formed for but one great trial of this sort, and my probation is over. I long to sleep forever from the feverish dream of this life's false hopes and bitter delusions. Death has no terrors for me; I look at it as a kind friend, and I solemnly believe, that nothing but my duty to the living has inspired me thus far to carry my troubles amongst the joy of others. Yes, Kate, to make my confession the whole truth, without reserve, there is one faint shadow at which I still cling. Do you know, that sometimes, even yet, I cannot believe that Frank is dead? I cannot realize it, you will say, because I was not present at the sad ceremonies. That is something, doubtless, but I cling to things a little more substantial; two circumstances, so slight, that none but the hopeless could grasp at such straws. First, then, we have never been enabled to hear those sad particulars, the last scene I mean; and, secondly, Harry has some such faint notion himself; I will not call it either a fear or a hope, for I cannot name it, but there is such a surmise; and now, to conclude, let me confess further, that I came here with the expectation of having this hope quenched or revived."
"Indeed!" said Kate, truly surprised.
"Yes, Kate, there has been a secret funeral here, of one near and dear to your father, and with whose death Franks was most intimately connected. Your father has received many papers relating to these things, and I am going to commission you sometime soon to be my embassador. Upon that hope I live, Kate.'
"Most willingly will I assist you, for I do believe that something certain in that matter is absolutely necessary for you, and that shall be obtained at all events, now or hereafter; but do tell me, what funeral do you allude to, and how could it be secret?"
"The remains of Gen. Elliot have been clandestinely removed here,
Page 37
whether by your father's orders or by his friends in Europe, I know not, but certainly with the Governor's approbation, for he had the place of their reception prepared before the body arrived."
"How, you astonish me! first at the facts themselves, and next at your obtaining the information before me; but tell me how you know this to be true?"
"I received the intelligence in a letter from my papa, the very same which enclosed your pressing invitation; he told it to me as a secret, however, never supposing for a moment that I could divulge it to anybody, much less that I would be down here almost as soon as the answer; and brought, too, by this news. I obtained his permission to mention all this to you, last night, as he said your father intended to communicate it to the family, the first moment you were all alone."
"This is very strange, but now I recollect, that gloomy looking structure at the foot of the lawn, in the centre of a cluster of trees; and this accounts, too, for papa's strange appearance the night we saw blood on his face, and his unusually grave demeanor ever since. And this it was that brought you to Temple Farm, a desire to pry further into these matters that made me your confidant, after all."
"Nay, nay, Kate, could I not as well have chosen Dorothea?"
"Yes, and got laughed at for your pains; sister has no more idea of any one wasting away from immaterial afflictions than she has of alchemy. Ten to one but she would prescribe for your case a bowl of new cream, drank at her dairy before breakfast. Dear, laughing little jade, she will never die the victim of sentiment, depend upon it."
"Thrice happy she," replied Ellen with a deep drawn sigh, "such should be all the daughters of this world, but she has yet to be tried, Kate. You may underrate her susceptibilities."
"I meant no more myself, Ellen--dear good natured laughing little baggage. I am sure I underrate her in nothing. I think this wide, wide world, contains few such. Father lives over his own youth in her; but we are forgetting the business in hand, and while we talk of our plans, let us be moving towards the house slowly, the sun is getting too warm here for you. Now let me know exactly what I am to do."
"Why, you are to seize the first opportunity of having a private interview with your father, at which you are to inform him how far we are already let into his secrets, and then beg as a special favor for me the the perusal of all the papers relating to the trial, death and attempted rescue of General Elliot."
"And will you, my Ellen, go into his library and pour over those piles of musty papers, at the same table with this new private secretary of his, for I understand that he is going to confer that vacant office, also, upon the stranger who has so captivated him?"
"No Kate, no, we must have them in your room, and then we will search them together, you have become interested sufficiently in my story, to take that much interest, or if you dislike the task I will do it alone. No mother ever read an epistle from a sick child with the same avidity that I will pour over those musty papers."
By this time they had reached the house, and seated themselves at the breakfast table.
Page 38
CHAPTER XI.
MATCH MAKING.
THE Governor's guests and family were already seated at breakfast, more than one messenger having been despatched for the two missing young ladies. They entered at the very moment, when some surprise was being expressed at the unwonted length of Miss Evylin's walk.
"So, so, Doctor," said the Governor, looking in triumph at his worthy old friend, "I told you Kate was the better Doctor of the two, now look at your daughter and tell me if that is not pretty well for the first morning?"
The Doctor made room near himself, for his daughter, and looked indeed with much interest for the refreshened bloom to which his Excellency alluded. There it was sure enough, two round red spots in her cheeks--whether the result of health or disease he seemed somewhat puzzled to tell.
Be that as it might, the effect upon her beauty was indeed lustrous. Her eyes too, which on the previous night, seemed to move slowly and painfully over objects in the room, were bright as diamonds, with the late excitement. Every one approved of Kate's practice, and the Doctor was free to confess himself out-done, yet he was not so sanguine as others as to the final result. He would rather have seen that red and white blending imperceptibly in her cheeks like Kate's. His professional experience led him to distrust those deceitful heralds of an early grave. The effect for the present was much the same however, for the triumphant and enthusiastic Kate herself, had not brought in from the fields and flowers a richer harvest of beauty. Sickness rather lent an interest to, than diminished from, the loveliness of that delicate young creature. In that large company of gay and fashionable people, she looked like a little nun, just escaped from the gates of a living tomb. Those two, father and daughter, were objects of peculiar solicitude and interest--there was a sweet, confidential air between them, quite different from the ordinary manifestations in similar relations, so placed. They appeared to be all in all to each other--they had of late lived with and for no one else--of course that air of monastic seclusion about the daughter particularly, was far removed from the conventional courtly grace of most of those around her. Not that there was any gaucherie, far from it, she was rather elevated above the conventional standard, than fallen below it--so much did that constant, self-sustained spirit and mental endowments of the rarest order, elevate her above any mere temporary rules of propriety. She scarcely seemed to think that she was called upon to bear a part in the general conversation, and yet, when the Governor or Reverend Commissary, addressed any remark to her, she answered in a manner to convince every one, that she had read and reflected upon most subjects comprehended under the terms of general information, even in the sterner sex.
It had been one of the favorite projects of the Governor, in days gone by, to unite his eldest son and heir to the daughter of his oldest and best friend. There seemed a peculiar propriety in this, on every account. Some persons thought they could perceive a remarkable similarity of mental constitution. John Spotswood was then one of the ablest men within the boundaries of the Old Dominion--of vigorous intellect--learned and subtle in the use of scholastic weapons, and with a power of eloquence, when he chose to use it, which a public assembly could rarely withstand. There seemed then a propriety in the proposed union of these most carefully educated persons, but a greater mutual repugnance sprung up between them than could could have been imagined from the premises stated. These are matters our fair readers have doubtless discovered ere this, which are not soluble either by mathematical or logical
Page 39
rules. So it seemed in this case. Any one to have become acquainted with the parties, separately, would have declared at once, that they were just made for each other, and yet all things, thus conspiring thereto, the match could not be brought about. We are speaking of John rather as he once was, than as he has been presented to the reader. He was now a walking mystery to his friends--past finding out--perhaps that mystery may be solved ere we progress much farther in our narrative. He paid her several visits, and spent some long evenings with the Doctor, but when his father catechised him in his bantering way upon the progress of the affair, he answered abruptly that she was a prude.
Ellen ran her eyes over the company at the table, in search of the new tutor, anxious to see how he would appear by daylight, and almost afraid to see those lips again that called up so many painful memories--while she was in the very act, a servant entered with an answer to a message, which the Governor had despatched to him previous to her entrance--to the effect, that he would pay his respects to his Excellency and his guests directly.
"Poor fellow," said the Governor, "he doubts his position in our little circle, and was too unpresuming to present himself, but I will soon shew him that if Lady Spotswood marshals her guests to the table in order of their rank, that I range mine in the order of their merit."
Her Ladyship laughed at this sally and replied "That it was the first time in her recollection that she had been charged with too exact an observance of form and ceremony. What says the Commissary?"
"I think that the papers relating to the Tramontaine expedition might answer that question for his Excellency. Are not three-fourths of the aristocracy of the land ranged against it?" said he.
"It was not her Ladyship who offended them; that sin lies upon my shoulders. Indeed I did but jest about the order of precedence."
A cloud came over that hard weather-beaten face, as soon as the great subject of all his meditations were mentioned, and he remained in a thoughtful mood for a while, and then continued: "My first offence was that I, a military man, and nothing else, arrived in the Colony most unexpectedly to take the place of a gentleman who was captured on his way hither by the French. He was expected to espouse the cause of the clique whom I have mortally offended by attending to the real interests of the whole Colony. Instead of being too much of a political partizan, I have not been enough so to please them. In the second place, I have established ware-houses for the inspection of tobacco at convenient places throughout the land, and this touches the pockets of the planting interest. In the third place, I have established a large iron furnace and forge, and this separates me still more from that interest. And fourthly and lastly, I have advocated the establishment of military posts from the frontiers to the head waters of the Mississippi, thus disuniting the grasping French from forming in our rear, and this they say, all the men and tobacco in the Colony could not accomplish. Is it truly put, Mr. Commissary?"
"Very fairly stated, but you forgot to mention the Indian hostages at the College."
"Oh, aye. They say farther that I am putting a stick into the hands of savages to break our own heads. Now we have the whole case; was ever a glorious and magnificent scheme of conquering an Empire, thwarted from from such pitiful and contemptible motives. Oh, if I only had some of Marlborough's brave boys here, how I would shame these poor sordid narrow minded creatures. I would plant the British Lion on the most commanding position which it has ever yet occupied. Grand as the enterprise is, in a military point of view, it is far surpassed in importance by its civil and social relations. The discovery of Columbus itself was nothing--the achievements
Page 40
of Smith and Raleigh are nothing if we are to be hemmed in here within a narrow strip of land along the Atlantic coast. Accomplish my design and resources are opened to the west, which the most enthusiastic visionary cannot now foresee."
Kate exchanged a smile with some of the young gentlemen. She had so often heard him dilate upon the same subject, while Dorothea looked up in his face and remarked, "Papa, I have always heard that old soldiers love to fight their battles over again, but you are always fighting them by anticipation."
Patting her on the head, he replied, "Then I am a gasconader, am I?"
Before any reply was uttered, the tutor entered, dressed pretty much as he had been the night before, but looking weary and haggard as if he had spent a sleepless night. Notwithstanding this, his carriage was erect, and he walked to his place and made the salutations of the morning with a grace and ease, more-like a courtier just from the saloons of the Queen, than a poor houseless tutor and private secretary. There was nothing extravagant at all in his manners; on the contrary, they were regulated with the best possible taste, with the exception, that he had seemingly not yet schooled himself into the humble deferential air, usually supposed to become one in his position. Before he was seated, the Governor named the ladies to him, and he again bowed to them, bending over very low and gracefully as he saluted Kate and Ellen, but not uttering a syllable. He passed the hour of breakfast very much in the same way, scarcely ever speaking, except when the Governor addressed some questions directly to him, and which he answered like a man possessed of ample information touching all the interesting questions then involved in the subject of the succession.
It was curious to watch the painful sort of interest with which Ellen Evylin's eyes seemed to glint on his face every now and then, before she would turn away with a dissatisfied air.
His face was one which, like the Governor's, had seen some little vicissitudes of weather, with this difference, that old Boreas had put his marks on the first after the zenith of life had been passed, while in the other, it was scarcely approached. He wore large brown whiskers, overshadowing much of his face, retained no doubt from his military life, and stretching from one of them, the scar of a deep sabre cut ran along his face and down into his very mouth. So that his countenance, when in repose, had rather a ferocious look, from which, however, it was instantly redeemed when lighted up in conversation. He was tall and slender, and not apparently in good health. Altogether, he was a remarkable looking man.
Kate whispered to Ellen, as they were leaving the room, arm in arm, "Our new tutor has quite as aristocratic an air as any person at the table, and more of the camp grace about him than even papa himself."
"Did you ever hear such a deep toned voice, Kate?" said Ellen, "it sounds like the bass pipes of your organ; I could not help fancying him giving commands along a line of soldiers in battle array."
"The very idea, Ellen! there is command in it, aye, and in more than that about him; poor man, he has not always been a tutor, I dare say."
"Kate, I always feel sorry for your broken down gentleman; there is no more melancholy expression in our language, than 'such a one has seen better days,' and how instantly they occur on looking at Mr. Hall. Without the slightest appearance of an attempt to excite sympathy--indeed quite the reverse--every tone and attitude tells of fallen fortunes. Papa seems to have fallen in love with him at first sight, but that big scar over his face would captivate him, at any time. He loves a soldier for his own sake, independent of the cause he has been engaged in!"
"And what cause, Kate, did Mr. Hall espouse?"
"I do not know, Ellen, perhaps papa enquired into that; but, as I said just
Page 41
now, it would matter little with him, if his soldiership and personal honor remained unimpeached."
"I would almost be a surety for them myself, so firmly persuaded am I that he is a true man."
"What strange prejudices you do take up, Ellen, and almost at first sight. Here is Mr. Harry Lee, a gentleman of princely fortune, high birth, great personal accomplishments, and a playmate of your childhood, whom you cannot bear the sight of; while on the other hand, you are ready to vouch for the honor and honesty of a poor stanger whom you never saw but once before in your life."
"True, Kate, I believe it is the nature of our sex to judge more by the heart than the head, and I don't know but they err as seldom in their estimates of character as the other. As to the fortune and birth, and all that, which you have tossed into Harry Lee's scale in balancing these two characters. I do not value them at that," (snapping her fingers.) "I would not marry him if he was heir apparent to the throne of England."
"I heard a servant announce to my father, as I left the room, that Mr. Lee would be here to-day."
"Yes, I recognized the livery, and so odious has even the poor servant's badge of office become, that it hurried me from the table."
"Why, my Ellen, I had no idea, that you were such a spiteful, bitter little jade!"
"Did you suppose because out of health, I was a poor tame somebody that said yea and nay, with a drawl, and nasal twang, and that I would be Mr. Lee's humble servant as soon as he laid his fortune at my feet. No, no Kate, you, if placed in my position, without changing characters, would do just as I have done."
"I confess Ellen, that I never admired him myself, even before your sketch, and I cannot say that my estimate has increased since; he is a gentleman for all that."
"Yes, as your holyday world has it--your world that estimates every thing by the surface, he is a gentleman, but oh, Kate, how I have come to despise that hollow, deceitful, average of all men to one common conventional standard. A certain quantity of broad-cloth or velvet--quantum sufficit (as father's prescriptions say) of lace, four silver buckles--or perhaps gold--a pair of pumps and a cocked hat--and there is your gentleman."
"Oh no, Ellen, that is a mere stuffed figure, such as the tailors shew their fine clothes upon."
"Well, what more is your ball room gentleman, just give this figure a motion backwards and forwards, whenever it meets a lady and is spoken to, and is not the picture complete?"
"Oh no, Ellen, it must talk and laugh."
"Yes, Kate, and to be very excruciating, it must weep too, but how much talk will answer, and how small a phial of tears? poh! poh! you know their small talk is nothing--half of it is about the weather, and the vane upon the cupola does that a great deal better, and says nothing."
"Why, Ellen! if the forthcoming shadow of Harry Lee makes you as satirical as that amusing churchman whom I read to you last night, what will his real presence do?"
"Make me as stately and formal as he is, if not so pompous."
"And is he one of your stuffed figures, that talks of the weather and one thing or another--a walking weather-cock, or the clerk of the weather's deputy?"
"No, not just that to give him his due, he has some mind--covered up, beneath all the pomps and vanities of all the Lee's."
"And what is the staple of his conversation?"
Page 42
"His world material and immaterial, has one common centre, and that is Mr. Harry Lee, member of the house of Burgesses. He is a philosopher too, and has discovered a new theory of the solar system!"
"Indeed, and what is his grand principle?"
"Why, that Henry Lee, Esq., of Westmoreland, is the grand centre of that system, and that the sun revolves around him."
"Oh, Ellen, how we have all been slandering you here, in your absence. One gentleman declared, that you were only prevented from taking the veil, because there was no nunnery convenient. Another that you were going to join the Dissenters, and another the Quakers--and poor John, that you were a man-hater."
"I am sure I never gave your brother any reason to say so. He, I'm certain, can never be ranked with the automaton figures. Neither of us had much fancy I believe for each other, in a matrimonial point of view, but no one can converse with John, for one hour, without respecting his understanding; but do you know Kate, that he has imbibed deeply of Bolingbroke's most dangerous opinions?"
"Ha! and that is the secret then of your sudden disagreement, or rather agreement to disagree?"
"No, no, Kate, I have let you enough into the history of my past life, to convince you, that I can never listen to the addresses of any living being more, and this may explain also, the story of my man-hating; and presbyterianism, and quakerism; but I will not disguise from you, that had those things never happened, I could never love, honor, and obey any man who did not honor and obey our holy religion. That creature, whether male or female, who has lived in this world even no longer than we have, (and God knows I have lived long enough) must be radically wrong in heart, mind, or education, who can suppose that we poor mortals were placed upon this earth to grope our way, without a guide or light of any kind. Look Kate, at the wonderful disproportion in the grasp of our minds and the duration of our lives. We are but beginning to live as rational creatures when we are called upon to die. Father tells me that his mind is maturing every day, and that he is conscious of no diminution of mental vigor, and his head is silvered o'er with age. His mind is actually climbing the steps of knowledge and science, while his body is going fast down the hill of mortality to the grave. Would it not be the bitterest mockery, if this were our only stage of existence. Why should the mind grow brighter and brighter, as the body grows weaker and weaker, if the mind was not to survive the struggle? No, no, Kate, John and I could never have been more to each other, than the children of old, long tried friends."
"You astonish as well as afflict me, Ellen, by this statement."
"I know it, my dear Kate, but seeing how ignorant you all are, of the dangerous precipice upon which he stands, could I be silent. I have debated the matter with him, to the full extent of my poor capacity, but what can a heart-sick, half educated girl do in an argument with a man like your brother--his natural endowments of the highest order, and polished by the culture of the schools. Don't you undertake the subject Kate, he will only play with your woman's argument as the fisherman plays with the trout. Your brother is an antagonist, powerful enough for Dr. Blair. Tell him of it, Kate, and let his long tried wisdom select the time and the manner of combatting these pernicious principles. Oh, I do hope he will be rescued before it is too late. I could tell you more about your brother, but I have distressed you enough for one occasion. Come, get ready for church, you are going to York with Dr. Blair, I know. In the mean time, I will seek my own room and think over all these things. Good day, Kate,["]
Page 43
CHAPTER XII.
GOING TO CHURCH IN THE COUNTRY.
ABOUT twelve o'clock, a long cavalcade drove up to Old-York Church. First came the outriders, in livery, then the body guard of the Governor, in full uniform. This corps, numbering about twenty-seven men, consisted mostly of old veterans who had served with the Governor in his continental campaigns, and one old fellow having a wooden leg. They were a martial looking band, and had the appearance of having seen service. The Governor's country establishment had a range of dormitories for these, and stables for their horses, but he never called them out, except on something like public occasions. Next came the family coach, drawn by four horses, and managed by two postillions in livery, and behind which stood two powdered footmen. The coach contained her ladyship and daughters, with the Reverend Commissary in his canonicals. Then came the Governor, flanked on one side by Dr. Evylin, and on the other by little Bob on his poney. The remainder was composed of the carriages of visitors, followed by the young gentlemen: and then again by the family servants, two and two, on horseback, many of them also in livery, and all scrupulously neat and clean.
We have already said, that it was a beautiful Sabbath morning, accordingly the road from Temple Farm to York was lined with neatly dressed people, going to hear the celebrated Divine then at the head of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. Many were on horseback, but many more on foot, and all filed to the right and left to let the cavalcade pass. Scarcely a pedestrian but touched his hat, or bared his head entirely as his Excellency went by, while the negroes did the same, grinning from ear to ear at the same time, at the display made by the grooms in livery, and soldiers in uniform. Many a poor family from the neighborhood of Temple Farm, greeted Kate and Dorothea, with rude courtesy as they passed.
With all the middle and lower ranks the Governor and his family were very popular, perhaps for the very reason, that he was now at deadly feud with some of the largest and most influential families in the land. The time was now rapidly approaching when this very favor of the plebeian ranks stood him in great stead. The favorite scheme of his life--one for which he had perilled his office--his influence--his standing--his fortune, having been accomplished at last much through their means.
The old Church at York, was built like all those of that period in the shape of a cross, and out of perhaps the strangest materials that ever entered into the structure of a sacred edifice, or any other. These are square blocks hewn from fossil shells, deeply imbedded in a basis of sand or marl stone, giving the whole structure much the appearance of a toy house, built entirely of shells, such as is seen often in the shops. Not that there was any thing puerile, or beneath the dignity of a sacred edifice, in the general appearance of the whole, for it was highly imposing, and must have looked grey and venerable, when comparatively of recent structure. It stood on one of the highest points of the town, commanding a prospect of the city of York, then one of the first in importance in the Colony.
The party entered the main aisle, and proceeded to the two large pews set apart for his Excellency's family, with the exception of Kate, who, attended by Bernard Moore, and followed by a servant bearing an armful of music, entered the gallery and took her station at the organ.
She greeted most sweetly the bevy of city damsels, forming the choir, and taking the music from the servant, proceeded to distribute the score of the
Page 44
pieces she was about to play. Moore seated himself at a respectable distance among the masculine voices, but it is questionable, whether his attention was not too much absorbed by the instrumental music to follow the score very closely. Kate seeing the old prelate enter, commenced her prelude. Even the venerable old clergyman seemed lost in a pleasing reverie, while she attuned the hearts of the congregation to a fitting mood to bow before the throne of mercy.
It was a beautiful picture, to see that fair young creature, so full of life, and health, and high hope, bend in such profound humility at the mercy seat, her pure white neck bent over the prayer book, and uttering the responses, with such a heartfelt gratitude, that the words seemed to gush up with the emphasis of her own fervid conceptions.
It was not so much that she felt the responsibility of her own position and example at the head of the young ladies of that great Colony, as her own inborn acknowledgment of the necessity of these stated confessions. A sense of elevated position, and the force of example, are often talked largely of by those in high places, but she knew and felt that these, to be of any avail, must come from the heart: it is then, and only then, they reach the hearts of others.
The preacher chose a subject, in exact accordance not only with her views, but her devotional feelings at the time. It was the sermon on the mount. How it chimed in with Kate's previous thoughts, when the old man read out slowly and solemnly "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven." It seemed as if her very inmost mind had been penetrated by the preacher, and that the words of the text were only embodying her own thoughts in appropriate language.
No better example in all that Church, whether among the gentry or plebeians, could have been found of the very spirit blessed, than that fair daughter of Virginia's aristocracy. She was indeed poor in spirit, as contra-distinguished from mean in spirit. Much of her very grace and beauty, came from that sweet humility, which seemed to be all unconscious of the graces it inspired. A beautiful maiden, without the true Christian graces, is only a beautiful animal at last, from the Venus de Medici to Pocahontas, before her baptism; it requires the finishing touch of the divine spirit upon the heart, before even the person becomes really lovely, in the highest acceptation of the term, and that very grace spoken of by the preacher, she had; that humble, self-condemning, self-sacrificing spirit, which seeks the lowest seat in the synagogue. Kate Spotswood was a Christian; but she was scarcely conscious of it, so truly had she taken to heart the first words of the sermon on the mount. She had never even been confirmed, for the Commissary had not that power, and as to her being a professed disciple, she never even dared to think herself good enough. Often, during that solemn and heart-searching sermon, did the silent tears steal down her unconscious face, and when it was concluded, she looked round like one just waked up from a moving dream, so absorbed had she been.
Bernard Moore, sad, wicked dog, as we fear our readers will consider him, was sitting, learning his head upon his hand, and gazing at the devout beauty, and tracing the pearly drops that stole from her eyelids with a true sympathy. "How beautiful are the poor in spirit," thought he. He admired religion exceedingly, when the operations upon the heart, and mind, and person, were thus exhibited; and, to do him justice, he had as high reverence for things holy, as most of his order; but he was a gay young man of fortune for all that. We shall see whether Kate proselyted him, as we progress with our narrative.
"What an excellent sermon," said she, as taking Bernard's arm in the gallery to join her family, "it seemed to me, that I could see our Saviour's figure in all its glorious majesty, proclaiming such welcome doctrines to the sons
Page 45
and daughters of affliction on the earth, and such an unwelcome one to the self-sufficient among the great and worldly-minded."
"Excellent, indeed," said he, "I never enjoyed a sermon more in my life, and it was beautifully illustrated."
"Yes, the imagery was grand indeed; that description of the mountain scene must have touched papa upon a tender chord?"
"I did not allude to that exactly," said Moore, slily "I meant rather to say, that it was most happily personified."
"Yes, I agree with you there too: never was precept better borne out by personal example. Dear, good Dr. Blair, I love him almost as well as my own father."
"Still you do not take my meaning, though I agree with you on that point too."
"To whom, then, do you allude?" looking enquiringly into his smiling face, "not to me, surely?"
"Exactly and to no one else."
"That is a far strained compliment, Mr. Moore; too much at variance with truth and honesty for me to accept any part of it. How little you know my heart, if you suppose me poor in spirit, in the true meaning of the preacher. How little do you know its rebellion, its pride, its vanity, its self-deception, its disingeniousness to others--me, poor in spirit, indeed! Why, I was suffering the pains of self-condemnation, during the whole sermon, for lacking that greatest essential in the Christian character, that very poverty of spirit so admirably described.["]
By this time they had arrived at the door of the carriage, and Moore helped her in, where the other ladies were already seated, and then mounted his own horse, held ready by his servant, and followed on as they had come.
During their return to Temple Farm, the company had an accession of Henry Lee, Esq. He was a tail, elegantly dressed young man, about the same age as Moore and Carter, but with rather more form and ceremony in his address, and rather more studied attention to his toilet, than distinguished either of them. His features were large and sharp, but well formed, and indicative of more than ordinary mental power. His hair was harsh and frizzled, and set close to his head, so as to give it rather a clean cut, statuary look. When he smiled, the man shone out in his own identity. His teeth were very regular, except two projecting tusks at each corner, which gave a harsh expression to his whole physiognomy, so that when he gave himself up to the freest mood of relaxation, he appeared in reality more forbidding, than when his face was in entire repose, for in the former case, there was a classic air of high birth and breeding, under which the other peculiarities were hidden. One single such guest, throws a damper over a whole company, however much disposed to glee and hilarity. It is like a stream of cold air blowing into a warm room, pile on the combustibles as much as you will, and still the same chilling sensation comes over you.
How stately rode the representative of all the Lee's that day, followed by two servants in livery, one bearing a portmanteau strapped to his saddle, as large as a modern travelling appendage of the same sort for a whole family.
"Mama," said Dorothea, her eye still fastened on the pompous young cavalier, his cocked hat perched to its highest elevation upon his head. "Mama, do you think Mr. Henry Lee is very poor in spirit?"
The old Commissary tried to look very grave, so as to suppress a fast coming smile, while Lady Spotswood, looked out of the opposite window of the carriage, so as to get her eye the farthest possibly removed from the person spoken of, and thus smooth down her gravity before she replied.
"You should not apply the sermon just preached, to others, child, but to yourself; do you not recollect the Pharisee?"
"La, mama, you have made the case worse who could look at that young
Page 46
gentleman now, and not imagine to himself, that he was saying 'Lord I thank thee that I am not as other men.'"
The Commissary was compelled to laugh in spite of himself, in which Kate and her mother now, joined with hearty good will. The picture was too true and too happily applied, to be resisted; it was like a fortunate stroke of a painter's pencil, which completes the likeness, and little Dorothea sat and viewed her work, with a complacency, which nearly upset the prelate every time he turned towards her. Now tossing her head--exactly as the gentleman mentioned, tossed his, and now waving a hand with a majestic air, and presently inserting a thumb under the edge of her stomacher, as he placed his in the arm hole of his vest. So inimitable was her mimicry, that the good Commissary begged her to desist, lest he should arrive at home, in a plight very unbecoming a minister of the gospel, just descended from the sacred desk.
Even after a long silence, there was a flushed appearance of the whole four, when they alighted from the carriage, which excited the curiosity of Moore. He wondered what could have changed their mood so suddenly after he left them. Kate would not, or could not tell, but broke away and ran into the house, referring him to Dorothea for an explanation. Dorothea promised at some other time, that she would go over the whole story, but now she could not, for papa was shaking his finger at her. "Don't you know," she whispered, "that Mr. Lee has a vote in the house of Burgesses." Papa says I must learn to be a politician, or I shall frighten away all his political friends.
The party separated to dress for dinner, that great affair of the twenty-four hours in the Old Dominion.
CHAPTER XIII.
MEMORY OF THE PAST.
HOW silent a large hospitable establishment in the country, seems on Sunday, just after being deserted by a large and gay party? how deserted the halls and chambers? in what profound repose sleep the dogs? and the very insects fly more more lazily and hum more monotonously. The fowls seek the roost, and the geese stand upon one leg, and bury their heads under their wings, while the cattle in the fields gather in clusters under the shade of some umbrageous tree. So overpowering is this general feeling of repose, that children often imagine that there is a Sabbath in nature--a holyday for the heavens and the earth, as well as for man. Such seemed the day to that heart-sick young creature, Ellen Evylin, as she sat in a deep recess at a window of the parlor, the curtains falling down, and totally secluding her, even from the interruption of a chance servant. She held in her hand Milton's Paradise lost, and appropriate as the subject was to her own peculiar feelings, and deeply attuned as they were to harmonize, with the solemn strains of the poet, her hand lay still in her lap with the open book, and her eyes followed the dreamy expanse of waters, stretching out, and farther out, until they filled with tears from mere exhaustion. Why did she thus look ever towards the far off ocean? Why did her eyes attempt to penetrate beyond that long white surf, that came tumbling up as an avant courier from the mighty deep beyond, and rolled into the bay, as if glad to reach a haven once more. She pursued the very track of the vessel, which years before, had borne from his native shores, a youth with whose hopes and destinies, her own had been linked in bonds, as durable as life itself. She lived upon the past alone, the
Page 47
present and the future were almost blotted from the tablets of her mind. Is it strange then, that she became what she now was, a pensive dreamer, who loved to steal from society of the men, and open up there these her only treasures? Is it strange that even her appearance should partake of this coloring of the past, and indifference to the present, and that she should forever seek the shades of her own sweet little conservatory at home, where she held converse with the silent and sometimes melancholy flowers--those little miniature pictures of a young girl's life--those especially that come "like angel's visits, few and far between"--that bloom but once in a life-time: or is it any wonder that she should prefer the solitary house in which she now was, to all the bustle and confusion, which had distracted her for the last few hours? But was she indeed all alone with her own sad thoughts as she supposed? did she not hear a step and deep breathing in the room? Slowly she drew aside one corner of the curtain, beneath whose ample folds she might have been rolled twenty times; why did her heart throb so tumultuously, and her vision grow dim? It was because there was a man in that room, a strange man--using most strange gestures to a dumb picture. It was the new tutor, standing before the picture of General Elliott. What could he know of that unfortunate officer? Why should he be gesticulating to a picture he never saw before a few hours back, and the original of which he never saw at all? It was very strange. More than once she attempted to move towards him and ask an explanation of his conduct, but as often her courage failed her, until the man had disappeared as silently as he came, and she was left alone with her own thoughts and the silent house, and the more solitary ocean beyond. The tutor gone--the excitement of the moment once calmed--and her nervous irritability stilled, the mystery did not appear so great after all. The young man was generally supposed to have been some way connected with the unfortunate troubles abroad, and thus to have laid the foundation of his own. Was it any great stretch of imagination to suppose him to have known something of one so famous as the original of that picture. This sufficed for a time, but alas, how painfully and fearfully excitable are the children of sorrow. To such, a spark of the fire exploding, sounds like a cannon--the sudden slamming too of a door, is the herald of a convulsion of nature; a black cloud in the horizon, the adumbration of the gathering tornado, and a tale or a suggestion of horror, meets with too ready a response, and even the imagination is ever instant with its sombre shadows, to clothe up the skeleton's of the past in goblin outlines comformable to its wretched experience. The ear is ready to start, the eye to dilate with fright, and the wonder working kaleidescope of the mind, revolves in perpetual revolution, turning up in rapid succession a gloomy catalogue of spectral images.
Poor Ellen, her imagination was roaming at large over the too certain past, and the too uncertain future. Again and again the strange behavior of the tutor rose up before her, and she would rear up a tale, in connexion with him, improbable to a perfectly calm mind, until she would almost laugh at the trick which her imagination was playing her. One sane and sound suggestion, however, she retained from the dreamy and fitful reveries of the morning, it was the probability that this individual could throw some light upon that one subject, ever nearest to her heart, the last hours of poor Frank Lee, and to ascertain that he was indeed numbered with the dead. She resolved at once to seek him. She wandered through the house in eager pursuit of the same individual who, but half an hour before had thrown her into such painful excitement; she regretted now, that she had not sought him upon the instant, for no where was he to be found. She rang the bell, and called up a servant, who informed her, that he had walked out into the fields about the time he must have left the room.
Why appeared the divine poet so tame, so dull that morning, of all others
Page 48
so fitting to discourse of Paradise, and the reader, of all others, to imagine its loss so vividly? When the imagination is at its highest tension, no living or dead author may bridle the unruly power, and tame it to the beaten track. The judgment may be schooled, the heart purified by suffering and affliction, but the wings of the mind, like the wind, goeth where it listeth. The book was again thrown down, and a long reverie wound up that dreamy morning.
She was first roused from her mood by the clatter of the horses hoofs and the carriage wheels of the party returning from church; she made a precipitate retreat to her own room, where she was scarcely seated before Kate came flying in, exclaiming, "Oh, Ellen, you don't know what you have missed by staying away from Church, such a sermon from Dr. Blair! it was worth riding twenty miles to hear. He preached from the Sermon on the Mount, and is going to continue the series through the whole chapter."
"I am sorry I could not go, Kate, but I was really scarcely able, and still less in fitting mood; there is a preparation for going to church in other things besides dress, and I believe it better to stay away, than go with one mind's wandering, like the fool's eyes, to the ends of the earth."
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Mr. Henry Lee was there; and Dorothea has been apostrophising him as a personification of the true spirit of the text. I'm sure I shall never hear of the Pharisee in the parable again, without thinking of him. She says she means to call him henceforth the Pharisee. I need not add that he joined our party, and you may expect to meet him at dinner--I had like to have forgotten it, that was the object of my call, so now you may be prepared to meet him."
"If he is here, I would prefer not going down to dinner."
"But he may here these three weeks, and you cannot avoid him all that time."
"If he stays three weeks I am very sure he will do so without my company, for I will go home."
"No, no, my Ellen, we are not going to part with you so soon, after such difficulty in getting you here. I will dismiss the gentleman myself, with a bee in his bonnet, rather than you should do that."
"That would never do, Kate, what would your father say to such treatment of a gentleman whom he is so anxious to propitiate?"
"Then Dorothea and I will ridicule him off the field. Leave him to be dealt with by us, or surrender him entirely into sister's hands; she will drive him off, depend upon it, and escape under the plea of non-age. It is your gentle ways, Ellen, that keeps the proud man forever dangling at your apron string."
The maid entering to prepare her young mistress's toilet for dinner, the parties separated.
CHAPTER XIV.
AN OLD FASHIONED DINNER.
IT was a fine old Hall, that at Temple Farm, hung with many war-like trophies, and stag-horns, and fox tails, while here and there were some little peculiarities that distinguished the hospitable owner, from others of the Cocked Hat Gentry. Near the centre of the room on one side, hung the General's own martial implements which he had worn upon the field, and suspended over them in a small silk net was a rusty cannon ball of about three pounds weight. This had struck the veteran himself when it was
Page 49
nearly spent, and he was in the habit of showing it to his guests, when fighting his battles again over his wine. Dorothea used to insist upon it, that the true signal for the departure of the ladies, was the introduction of the cannon ball by her father, instead of the lead from Lady Spotswood.
Two immense fire places occupied the best part of each end of the hall, surmounted by curiously carved work, reaching quite to the ceiling, while the side pannels corresponding to these were painted with various scenes, intended to represent the most remarkable military events of the age. The whole appearance of the room, bore rather a military than a feudal or baronial aspect, for all the scenes and trophies were of that sort, and quite recent, even to the antlers.
The dinner was on the table, and such a dinner! The reeking viands would have furnished a French restaurateur a stock in trade for a month. A whole surloin of beef formed the chief ornament of one end of the table. It was furnished from the Governor's own stock, upon which he prided himself not a little. At the opposite end was a ham, which if not the real, rivalled the Westphalia in flavor. These were flanked with various dishes of fowls, both wild and tame, not forgetting the canvass back ducks. They were all placed on the table together, after the good old fashion, and the ladies soon after entered in the order of their rank, and placed themselves at the head of the table; Ellen Evylin among the others. Mr. Lee walked entirely round the table to greet her, which he did in a really warm manner for him, with many compliments upon her improved looks, all which was received with the most freezing courtesy; barely returning his repeated bows, with a single inclination of the head. Dorothea bit her lip till it almost bled, in her itching restlessness, at such temporizing with so obstinately complacent a man. As he returned to his seat, Mr. Hall was entering and met him full face, just as the Governor presented him by name to the new guest. Hall held out his hand in the most frank and open manner, but the other paid him off with one of the cold bows he had just received from Miss Evylin, leaving the poor tutor with his hand awkwardly extended, without a response. Every one seemed to feel for the young man, except him who had inflicted the unnecessary indignity. The subject of it recovered himself with great dignity, after the first awkward moment, and as if fate intended on purpose to revenge him, his chair was found to be next to Ellen Evylin and Kate. His late discomfiture was soon forgotten amidst the lively chat of the two charming girls. Kate bearing the burthen of the entertainment, of course, while her friend threw in a quiet response occasionally. Both the young ladies seemed determined to make amends to the slighted tutor, for the previous repulse, at the same time, perhaps, rejoicing that they saw it rankling in the heart of him who inflicted it. Several times, while Kate eagerly conversed with the tutor, Ellen sat looking up through her long eye lashes, lost in painful reflections. Again she saw the same smile flashing over that otherwise sad and sombre face, as the summer lightning blazes up behind the dark blue clouds of the horizon. The impression was indescribable, so indistinct, so confused with memories of the past; blending so strangely with the personal outlines of others, yet in spite of all improbabilities and obstacles to the contrary, carrying her back to days and scenes long passed by--her days of childhood. She was of course very absent. The tutor seemed desirous to draw her out, and for that purpose would turn a question or reply to her, instead of her friend, but she would frequently have to ask a second time, even the subject of discourse, then join in for a moment quite brilliantly, and glide away again; busy with her memory.
She desired to become better acquainted with Mr. Hall, preparatory to her asking the questions she meditated: yet he was himself the innocent and unconscious cause of her becoming lost, again and again. But absent as she was, and imperfectly as she may have borne her part in the conversation, it
Page 50
was by far the most interesting dinner party that she had been present at for many a long day. She had almost forgotten that such a man lived as Mr. Henry Lee, until he suddenly addressed a question to her across the table.
"Miss Evylin, here is the Rev. Commissary running a tirade against the new Bolingbroke fashion of tying the hair, (he sported it himself with no small complacency,) what say you, is it an improvement or not?"
"I will turn that grave matter over to my friend Dorothea, if you please, Mr. Lee, I have been so long out of the world of fashion, that I do not feel competent to answer," said Ellen.
"Well, I think," said Dorothea, "that it is far more important what a gentleman has in his head, than how it is tied outside."
Even the Commissary smiled at the home thrust which the little girl had given the inquisitor, while the young ladies exchanged glances of satisfaction.
"I do not like these innovations upon our good old customs," said his Excellency, "with all due deference to you younger gentlemen: they will put aside our old Cocked Hats next, and gentlemen will cease to wear swords."
"The war has commenced already, my good sir," said Dr. Evylin, "for I read in No. 526 of the Spectator, that John Sly, a haberdasher of hats and tobacconist, is directed to take down the names of such country gentlemen as have left the hunting, for the military Cock of the Hat; and in No. 532, is a letter written in the name of the said John Sly, in which he states, that he is preparing hats for the several kinds of heads that make figures in the realms of Great Britain, with cocks significant of their powers and faculties. His hats for law and physic, do but just turn to give a little life to their sagacity; his military hats, glare full in the face; and he has proposed a familiar easy cock, for all good companions between the two extremes."
"Capital," said the Commissary, "by and by we shall be enabled, Dorothea, to tell what a man has in his head by the cut of his beaver, so that you see the outside of the head has something to do at last with the inside; but how are we to divine what lies beneath these ever towering pyramids upon the ladies' heads? I hope they will take a fashion seen, that may indicate the powers beneath."
"They indicate pretty forcibly the powers above now," said Dorothea, "for I heard Kate declare, the other day, that the maid had screwed her's up so tight, that she could not wink her eyes without crying."
"Fie! fie! Dorothea," said Kate, laughing, nevertheless.
"Castle-building, you see, Mr. Hall," said she turning to that gentleman, "is now done on the outside of our heads, while our grandmothers, if all tales of them he true, were wont to erect them elsewhere."
"You seem disposed to carry on Mr. Lee's craniological discussion, while that gentleman has dropped out of the debate," replied he, sotto voce.
The conversation gradually merged into literary matters, in which the Doctors both of Theology and Physic took a part, as well as the Governor and Mr. Hall. The latter seemed now more at home than he had been, and having but recently arrived from the fountain head, added many new and interesting materials to the common stock, from Newton's latest philosophical discoveries, to Joe Miller's last and best.
"Have you seen any of our native productions, Mr. Hall?" enquired the Commissary.
"I have not, sir; indeed, I have not yet had an opportunity. I have seen a small newspaper in his Excellency's library, published, I think, in Philadelphia, and that of not very recent date, but nothing in durable shape."
"Well,["] said Dorothea, "if you will only excuse me for one moment, I will run and fetch you a specimen of native poetry, which, I think, will satisfy you at once, that there is one genius at least, this side of the water."
She rose from the table, notwithstanding that portentous finger of her father,
Page 51
raised in a threatening attitude. The rest of the company being unanimous, he was overruled, and she tripped away to bring it, and soon returned with a narrow strip of paper, and handed it to Mr. Harry Lee, with a request to read it. That gentleman's physiognomy perceptibly lengthened, and his eyes dilated, while running over the two lines, which, as soon as he had finished, he crumpled up and inserted into his pocket, protesting against such a specimen being taken as the standard of the colony. Dorothea declared she mast have the paper, that it was a genuine native production, and must be read. All the company being more eager now than ever to see it, he was forced to produce it, and she handed it to Mr. Hall, with a request that he would read it aloud. He had no sooner cast his eyes over the lines, than he burst into a fit of laughter, the first he had indulged in since landing upon the shores of Virginia. When he had wiped the tears from his eyes, and was sufficiently composed, he rose and read, in mock heroic intonations, the following lines:
* A genuine specimen.
"God bless the Church, and the Queen, its defender,
Convert fanatics, and baulk the Pretender."*
Every one laughed, except the grave Mr. Lee, he seemed to writhe under the infliction, as if his personal peculiarities were the subject of merriment.
"Why, Mr. Lee," said Dorothea, "you take the thing so much to heart, that we shall suspect you of being the author, presently."
"Those memorable lines," said his Excellency, seeing his guest's confusion, "remind me, that we have not yet drank a toast, never neglected at this table, 'Health and long life to the Queen, God bless her.'"
Ladies and gentlemen paid it due homage, with one exception; Mr. Hall merely raised his glass, as if about to touch it to his lips, but set it down again, his hand trembling violently. Lee observed it, as did the young ladies, who sat near him; the eye of the former twinkled with gratified feelings of some sort, while the latter were all pained at the young man's embarrassment. The Governor did not notice the affair; or, if he did, chose to wink at it.
The desert having been removed, Lady Spotswood soon after gave the signal to the ladies, and they retired to the drawing-room, leaving the gentlemen over their wine. Before Kate departed she stopped behind her father's chair, and in a whisper, begged a moment's conversation with him. He rose, led his daughter to the door leading to the library. After they had passed the threshold, she told him of the secret which Ellen had communicated to her, and begged his permission to peruse the papers which he had received with the body of General Elliot. "What," said he, "you and Ellen turn diplomatists and read my state papers. No, no, my child, it would never do--never." But Kate coaxed and intreated until the old gentleman was compelled to give way, and he opened the door and called Mr. Hall, and directed him to gather up those papers that he had been directed to copy, and hand them to his daughter. He soon returned with the bundle and handed them to Kate, and as he did so, she could not help observing, how excessively agitated be was, but she attributed it to the late patriotic toast which he had declined drinking, and knowing that her father was not the man to create a mountain out of that mole hill, she thought she might as well assure him of it at once, and she did so, endeavoring at the same time to reassure the perplexed youth. He made no other reply than an inclination of the head, and thanks for the interest she manifested in him. Having escaped from the dining-room, and supposing that a poor tutor and private secretary would scarcely be missed, he made good his retreat altogether. Kate secured her treasure in her pocket, resolved, however, not to divulge the secret to Ellen, until they had found their own apartments for the night.
Page 52
CHAPTER XV.
THE PAPERS.
THAT night those two fair young creatures sat in one of the upper apartments of the house, pouring over a pile of papers strewed over the table, consisting of manuscripts and newspapers, some relating to the trial of Kate's unfortunate relative, all the testimony of which, was there before them; and some of royal proclamations, and paragraphs from the governmental and opposition papers. The clock down stairs struck twelve, and one, and two, in the morning, still they sat in those high-backed gothic chairs, the taper burning dimly beneath the accumulating wick, charred to a black mass, and yet neither of them flagged or faltered. Ellen particularly devoured with eagerness, even the advertisements in the newspapers, which she read from corner to corner, in hopes to find some faint clue upon which to fasten her hopes--for hopes she still had. The only things they could find at all bearing upon the objects of their search, was the newspaper account of General Elliot's execution, and the attempted rescue by a party, supposed to be adherents of the Chevalier St. George, followed by a proclamation offering a reward for the production, dead or alive, of the young officer who had headed the onset. He was described, and his name given in full as Mr. Francis Lee, but no allusion whatever was made to the place of his nativity. He was supposed to have served under the unfortunate officer, for the rescue of whose life he had perilled his own. The accounts went on to say that the party attempting the rescue had been cut to pieces or captured, that the young man was seen to fall early in the affair, that no efforts had been successful in tracing his whereabouts. Little doubt was entertained that he died from the desperate wounds he was known to have received, yet there was nothing absolutely certain, touching the matter. So desperate had been the state of mind of Ellen, that even this afforded comfort. She threw the papers aside, leaned back in her chair, and came at last to the settled conviction that poor Frank yet lived. So strong is youthful hope, even against a powerful array of circumstantial evidence.
From that moment a brighter light shone from her eyes--too bright, as her friends feared, with those feverish fires which are only extinguished in the grave. Kate was really astonished to see, instead of a sad and settled dejection upon her friend, a sort of hopeful composure steal over her features. Her own convictions were stronger than ever, that there was not a vestige of hope for her. Yet she held on to that frail shadow of a shade--so constant, so persevering is the female heart, to hope against all probability of hope. They separated for the night, but not to sleep on the part of her who most needed its balmy and restorative influence. That whole night she paced her silent and solitary chamber, or sat and strained her imagination, vainly endeavoring to penetrate the future. Towards morning she threw her feverish limbs upon the bed, and caught a few hours of unsatisfactory sleep; mingled with fitful dreams. She thought she saw her betrothed standing before her; but that they were in a strange land, and surrounded with strange faces and things; and that he was pale and emaciated, and grown quite grey with pain and sorrow. Then a change came over the spirit of her dream, and the face of the loved youth was gone, and a stranger stood in his place. She was roused from these tantalizing shadows of a distempered imagination, by the maid entering to assist at her morning toilet, where we will leave her, while we glance at some other rooms in that building, and see what the inmates are doing.
The mornings and evenings were now beginning to be a little cool, and
Page 53
heavy damp fogs rose from the surface of the bay, to correct which it is usual to build a brisk blazing fire, to last only until the revivifying effects of the morning sun are felt. Some of the early planters were in the habit of pursuing this plan for three-fourths of the year.
Such a bright fire was blazing in the breakfast parlor, and there sat round it, his Excellency, the two Doctors, Mr. Henry Lee, Bernard Moore, Carter, Dandridge, and Henry Hall. Quite an interesting conversation was going on; intensely so to some of the party. Mr. Lee finding what a universal favorite the latter was becoming, not only with the Governor but with the whole family, even down to Master Robert, perceptibly softened in his manner towards the young stranger. He came down from his room determined to be very amiable to this new favorite and pet of the eccentric man then at the head of the colony. What his motives were, we leave our readers to imagine, from the position of the various parties. Hall was quite surprised, therefore, to hear himself addressed by the haughty young aristocrat, after the demonstration of the previous day, and however justified he might have been in returning that ill treatment, he took better council of his discretion, and answered quite courteously.
"Mr. Hall," said Lee, "I have some relations of your name, both in this country and in England--on the mother's side, or rather I had in this country, for the last of them recently died, a venerable old grand aunt."
"And I have some in this country of your name, and when I was first presented to you yesterday, it was my intention to have enquired of you about them."
"Indeed! will you be so good as to mention what family you are off, and their place of residence?"
The young man appeared not a little embarrassed, but proceeded to name the place of his family residence in Scotland, as well as to describe his living relations and their descent from the common stock of the Hall's of --shire. Not only so, but he traced distinctly the collateral branch which had emigrated to America, some fifty years before, until he arrived at the last remaining female relation, whose death he had not heard of; the very person alluded to by Mr. Lee.
"How very strange!" said Mr. Lee, "and your christian name is Henry?"
Hall nodded assent, but his face flushed a crimson hue.
"And had you received no letters from America, previous to your embarkation?"
"None concerning my relations whatever."
"What a strange coincidence," said Lee, "I have the pleasure of informing you, that you are the heir to a very snug little property, left by our venerable old friend."
By this time the ladies had entered, and were also gathered round the fire, and every one was listening with the deepest attention, to the singular conversation going on, and every one seemed pleased too, at the unexpected good fortune of the young man, who was supposed to stand in such need of it--all but that young gentleman himself, he was very much embarrassed, so as to attract the attention of every one in the room.
"Of course," continued Mr. Lee, "it will be quite easy for you to establish your identity; you have brought letters to some persons in this country?"
"No, sir, I did not; and, I hear, that I shall meet with more difficulty than you seem to imagine, in the matter." Becoming more and more embarrassed, at every turn which the conversation seemed to take, or to be likely to take.
"Perhaps you have letters addressed to you, in England, from some of our common relations?"
"None with me," replied Hall, "I expect the remainder of my baggage by the next vessel from England, by which time, I may be enabled to produce sufficient testimony to claim the estate."
Page 54
"Among those expected letters," said Lee, pertinaciously, "there are doubtless, some from our venerable relation, for I see among her papers numerous letters from you?"
Hall was, by this time, almost speechless with vexation and embarrassment and his face flushed to his ears. He merely nodded assent.
The Governor seeing the young man's painful position, and thinking in his own mind, that he, perhaps, knew Hall's difficulty, determined to come to the rescue. He had already had some suspicion that his protegee's expatriation had not been altogether quite voluntary. "Let us adjourn this discussion," said he, "I think I can put Mr. Hall upon a plan of proving his identity, without even waiting for his papers or returns from the other side of the water."
As he pronounced the last words of the sentence, he placed a peculiar emphasis upon them, casting a sly and playful glance at Hall, only remarked by the person for whom they were intended, and perhaps one other very quiet little individual in the room.
"Agreed," said Mr. Lee, "As I am the executor to my Aunt's will, it is, of course, my duty to act in conformity to law; but I assure your Excellency, and your friend, that no unnecessary difficulties shall be thrown in his way by me; on the contrary, all possible facility shall be afforded him, and I will immediately, upon my return to the capital, instruct my attorney, Mr. Clayton, to draw out upon paper for his use, such steps as it will be necessary for him to take. In the mean time, he can draw upon me for such sums as his present necessities may call for, out of the proceeds of the property, which I will advance upon my own responsibility."
"Wonders will never cease," said Dorothea to Ellen, as they moved round to the breakfast table. "Mr. Henry Lee has been doing a generous thing, but Mr. Hall should credit it to the account of Miss Ellen Evylin, and not to Mr. Henry Lee.
"Fie! fie! Dorothea, do give Mr. Lee credit for his good actions such as they are, surely he has done nothing but what the strictest justice would warrant; true, he might have withheld Mr. Hall's rights, but they are his after all, and he could soon establish them as such. If, indeed, he is not prevented by--." There she stopped suddenly, as if recollecting herself. "If he is not prevented by what Ellen--."
"Hush, Dorothea, not a word of this--another time I will explain it to you--now, it may be a dangerous subject; and one in which more than mere property is involved.["]
CHAPTER XVI.
A NEW ARRIVAL--A STRANGE VISITOR.
BEFORE the party separated from the breakfast table, a servant threw open the door and announced Chunoluskee. The Governor instantly rose and extended to him his hand, at the same time ordered a chair to be placed for him at the table. Chunoluskee was a young Indian chief, of the Shawneese tribe, whom the Governor had rescued some four years before, while a prisoner with one of the tributary tribes. The tributaries, were those Indian nations, which had either been subdued by force of arms, or were under treaty stipulations by more peaceable means, to pay a nominal tribute yearly to the Governor of Virginia. Nearly all the well known tribes along the eastern borders of the colony, were thus happily situated. The tribute consisted
Page 55
of a few skins and Indian arrows. These tributaries, however, were occasionally at war with other tribes farther removed, thus they sometimes brought home prisoners. The young chief, who has just been introduced to the reader, was one of them. The Governor invariably claimed these, and placed them at one of his primary schools, one of which he had located within the borders of every tributary tribe in the Colony. When they had remained a certain time at these primary schools, say about two years, they were then removed to the Indian department in William and Mary College, in accordance with the benevolent bequest of the Hon. Robert Boyle.
Some of these pupils were first taken as hostages, and were brought the distance of four hundred miles, so that the College was at once a sort of honorable prison, and a school for higher purposes.
Chunoluskee, the chief before us, had been four years at hard study; two in the primary school, and two in the College, and, for his remarkable proficiency in the latter, he received an office from the Governor, that of Interpreter to the Queen. He was the medium of communication between his Excellency and the various deputations of Indians from the tributaries, and those beyond, which were constantly visiting the capital of Virginia. At no time, since the settlement of the Colony, had there been such numerous assemblages of these. The extraordinary exertions of the Governor and the Rev. Commissary among these native sons of the soil, excited curiosity even in these stoics of the forest. They had heard of the Indian schools, which were then in the first tide of experiment throughout the Colony. How far they looked with approbation upon the singular trial, will, perhaps, appear in the course of our narrative. Certainly, in the instance before us, it had been crowned with success, and we take pleasure in presenting before our readers, an educated Indian; a gentleman, who held office under the crown, sat at the Governor's table, and mingled with the social circle that surrounded that hospitable board.
To a perfect stranger from abroad, he must have appeared by far the most imposing character in that room, not excepting the Governor of Virginia; for his dress exceeded that of his Excellency, both in the fineness of its texture, its colors, and the fashion of the wearer, both as to cut and the manner of display.
He was about twenty-one years of age, tall and slender in form, but handsomely proportioned, with a very uncommon face for one of his race. Nearly the whole of the Indian stoicism was wanting; and, instead of neglecting to notice those little things upon which good breeding so much depends, he was scrupulously attentive to the least movement of any one around him. His eye, instead of having the settled rattlesnake glare of his race, was soft and humanized in its expression, and looked as if it could weep upon occasion, which all those who have studied the forest specimen know, always seems impossible with them. His hair grew long and straight to his shoulders, and fell down his temples in perfectly straight lines. On his head, he wore a scarlet velvet cap, bound round with gold lace, and surmounted with drooping plumes of red and white, while he held gracefully upon his left arm, the skirts of a robe of the same gaudy color, which fell in loose drapery from his shoulders. He wore dressed buckskin small clothes, and long gaiters to meet them, terminating at the foot in exquisitely worked moccasins, curiously inlaid with beads and porcupine feathers, and covering a foot and ankle which any lady in the room might have envied. Under his scarlet robe, he wore a buff jacket, fitting so exactly to his rounded form, that, at the first glance, a stranger might have supposed it the natural covering of the muscles, so exactly did it display the outlines of his figure.
He had been taken prisoner when desperately fighting to save a blind mother and a sister, the latter then only twelve years of age. They, also, were brought by the Governor to the capital, and the old blind Indian had been a
Page 56
constant pensioner upon the bounty of the Governor and his family, while the young girl had been placed with Mrs. Stith, (the Stewardess of the College.) until very recently, when prudence suggested, that she was now becoming of an age, to require that other quarters should be provided for her. Accordingly, the Governor had erected for them a suitable house in the suburbs of the capital, and the Interpreter, his sister and his mother, all lived together.
Such was the character and history of the being, who now walked up to meet the Governor, with an air that might have put the blush upon any king in Europe. He trod those boards with a majestic air, and a grace too, which would have made the fortune of a hero of the buskin; and bowed over the Governor's hand, in which his own was locked long and feelingly, as if he designed to express both homage and gratitude.
"Thank goodness," whispered Dorothea to her sister, "Mr. Lee's nose is put out of joint now."
Strange to say, that Mr. Lee was the least inclined to treat this descendant of our forest kings with respect, of any person in the room. Such is the apparent inconsistency of human nature, when viewed only upon the surface. To an impartial spectator, the two seemed wonderfully alike in mental constitution; that son of a long line of aristocratic progenitors, and the son of an Indian Sachem, alas, now in exile, and doubtless supplanted in his princedom by some more successful young warrior.
The Governor presented him to Mr. Hall, after he had bowed respectfully to the ladies, he being the only person in the room with whom he was unacquainted. He was then placed at the table, and made his breakfast, observing all the little formalities, which are so much of a second nature to us, that we do not notice them except when wanting. Hall watched him closely, expecting no doubt, to see him help himself with his hand, and eat with his fingers, but he not only used knife and fork, but helped others to the dishes near him, without the slightest faux pas of any kind. He was rather more modest in conversation, than one would have supposed from his princely carriage. He had learned the first great lesson in the advancement of the mind, that is, to know his own ignorance; yet, he took part in nearly all the conversation, being appealed to directly by some of the worthies round him. The fact is, the Rev. Commissary, as well as his Excellency, were proud of their pupil, and they loved to exhibit him, as well to the stranger, as to such scoffers as Moore and Carter, in regard to Indian capabilities.
There was another subject of pride and gratification with his Excellency, he had received many of his views of the tramontaine country from this young Indian, and he loved to hear him dwell upon its glories, and would sit entranced while his tawny young subordinate dilated upon these matters.
"Now for it," whispered Kate to Ellen, as the ladies left the room to the possession of the gentlemen, "papa will soon carry Mr. Hall over the mountains, where he has before marched so many before him, whether with their own free will or not, their own good breeding sayeth not. Just look back Ellen, and see with what apparent relish Mr. Moore and Mr. Carter are preparing themselves to listen to papa and that noble looking chief."
The Governor, truly enough, only waited for the Interpreter to finish with his knife and fork before he commenced drawing him out. His maps were spread out before him on the table, and he had called Mr. Hall to his side. Not an individual in that room, but had occupied the same position repeatedly, except himself, and he prepared the way by tracing out with his pencil, the water courses which had their rise in the mountains.
"Now Chunoluskee, here is a gentleman just from the mountains of my own native land, (Scotland,) and glorious mountains they are too, and delightful vales between them, but I want you to shew him that there is a finer country beyond your blue hills, than any even in old Scotia. What say you my man?"
Page 57
"The vales beyond those mountains are my native war paths, your Excellency, and I look back to them with the same sort of pleasure which you remember the scenes of your own childhood."
"Aye, and you shall look forward to them, man. I will lead you back to your native land, and place you in possession of your rights."
"So your Excellency has promised, and it is therefore, that I have come to look upon your proposed enterprise, with nearly as much delight, as your Excellency."
"But is the country worth the trouble. That is the point that touches these lazy Virginians?"
"It is the most glorious land that ever the sun shone upon, there is a valley beyond those mountains, almost a perfect terrestrial paradise, abounding in deer, elk, buffalo, and game of every sort--the land teeming with wild fruits of every kind, and bright with the purest fountains of water that ever gushed from the solid rocks."
"O aye, I know that is your opinion, but it is contradicted by all the French accounts, and all others which we have received, besides you were a mere boy when you left that happy valley, and cannot know exactly its geography."
"Indian boys, your Excellency, do not, it is true, study geography upon paper, but they study it upon a much larger scale; they learn the original; and what is more, they never forget it. I can take your Excellency to the very spot where I was taken prisoner."
"Well, well, leave the point about the double range of mountains to be decided by the event, and go on with your account."
"Beyond that valley is the range of the real Apalachee, and when you have crossed these, then you open into a new world indeed; one in which this little Colony might be set down and not observed to enlarge or diminish it. Before you entirely cross all its wonderful width and breadth however, there are natural curiosities so remarkable, that these gentlemen will again laugh at my presumption and your credulity, if I tell of them."
"Tut, man, tut! a fig for Moore and Carter's skepticism; tell your story as if they were not present."
"I have often told your Excellency of the ever-boiling springs in which you may cook an egg, and others, the medicinal virtues of which are so great, that even the deer and buffalo, visit them constantly. Indian tribes from the mouth of the Mississippi, on the one hand, and the lakes on the other, visit them in the hunting season, bringing there, the lame and the blind, and the halt, just as I have since read was the custom in the Jewish country."
Moore and Carter here laughed outright, and the latter asked the Interpreter, "if he could enumerate the diseases of which the buffalo and the deer were cured, and how they undertook to administer the medicine; whether they had Dr. Buffalo and Dr. Buck, and if they felt pulses and looked at the tongue. What say you to this, Doctor, turning to the old physician?"
The Interpreter did not give him time to answer, for he was now becoming excited with his subject, and goaded with the repeated taunts and jeers of the youngsters.
"You may laugh, young gentlemen," said he, "as you have often done before, and you may call it romancing, but I tell you and his Excellency, that the half has not been told. There are wonders of the natural world there, which throws in the shade even these medicinal springs; apocryphal as you consider them," throwing down his knife and fork with which he had been trifling with the remains of his breakfast, he strode once or twice rapidly through the room, and again halted before the group seated at the lower end of the table, and continued: "There are palaces there under ground, far more magnificent than the one inhabited by his Excellency at Williamsburg; long colonades, that have supported the dome which they now bear since the world began, and
Page 58
galleries with fancy work, which would shame the skill of any of your handy craft-men, and there is also a noble arch of solid rock--extending from mountain to mountain, and beneath which the Governor's round tower at the Capital could stand, without being a greater object to distract the attention, when looking from above, than the binnacle is to the sailor at the mast-head, when he casts his eye upon deck. The sachems who went before me, have a tradition that the great spirit himself, once upon a time was walking upon the earth, and came to the stupendous rent between those two mountains, inaccessible from their perpendicular sides, and that he threw the wonderful arch across, and then walked over upon it. It looks indeed as if it might have been a causeway for the gods, or some colossal race of men, who perhaps inhabited the earth, when animals dwelt upon it tall enough to browse upon the tops of our forest trees."
"Then you have," said Carter, "in that fine valley of yours, medicines to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to, forever pouring in perennial streams from their bright fountains, so that you are free from the pains denounced against the balance of our race; fruits forever tempting the hand to pluck them; water heated to your hand ever ready to perform your culinary operations, and yet not content with this paradise, you have now erected a bridge between heaven and earth, over the valley of death, upon which the gods and your people freely interchange visits. Have you not also some springs or trees or herbs, by which the whole curse of earning bread by the sweat of our brow might be dispensed with? Methinks that the great spirit who first made your fine country, would not have stopped half way, but would have remodelled Eden over again, and upon a pattern too, which would have made Old Adam laugh at himself, for being so taken in with that orchard, which proved his ruin."
"I understand your irony, Mr. Carter," said the chief, "but it cannot alter the facts of the case, for the truth of which I will pledge my life. Indeed the half has not been told; there are springs beyond the great Apalachee, which produce salt, made almost ready to your hands. You have only to boil the water, which spouts out from the ground, and the work is done. In the same neighborhood, is a burning spring; flames forever wreathing up from the surface of the water. This the natives of the soil are afraid of and believe that the great spirit of evil dwells there."
"I thought so," rejoined Carter, "you have only now to tell us of that spring from whose fountain flows the life-giving power of perpetual youth, so long sought for by the Spaniards at the other end of the continent, by all the gods and goddesses in the mythology, we will bring back your Excellency so rejuvenated, that Lady Spotswood herself will scarcely know you. By the by, what a place of resort it will be for elderly ladies. I know several that would accompany the expedition upon half the inducements held out by the Chief."
"Poh, poh, Carter, with your nonsense; Chunoluskee has no motive for deceiving us," said his Excellency, "and if he had, and could succeed, in the matter of the medicine springs, and the subterranean palaces, and the mighty arch, suspended between heaven and earth; we know that the land is there, and that is enough for us. The others will be so much clear gain, if we find them--and if we do not, you and Moore will not be much deceived, at all events."
"I see nothing so very improbable in the herds of deer and buffalo seeking the medicinal springs," said Dr. Evylin. "We know that these creatures, and many far inferior to them, have an instinct by which they seek relief from medicine, even in the vegetable kingdom, and we know moreover, that the sulphur and salt springs commonly called salt licks, are plenty all over the continent, and that the wild animals do seek them at certain seasons of the year. I see no reason to believe that the chief has even colored the impressions
Page 59
of his youth with imaginary drapery--in fact, there is a good deal of internal evidence of truth in his recollection of the country."
"And his recollection of the sources and courses of the rivers this side of the mountains," added the Governor, "have been remarkably accurate, so far as we have been enabled to trace them yet. Take, for instance, the James river, he has always adhered to it, that this stream runs through this wonderful valley, and through the mountains. This, the council at first laughed at, but every succeeding survey only renders it more and more probable. Its source or headwaters have never yet been reached, or any thing like it."
The youths professed to give in to the Governor's views, but walked off nevertheless, indulging their merriment at the extravagant romancing of the interpreter.
The Governor and the two Doctors hung over those maps for hours, tracing out the future course of the expedition; sticking pins along the designated route, and from time to time acquiring new information, as to the face of the country, distances, means of supply, &c., all of which the former required Hall to note down accurately.
The reader must, in order to realize the terra incognita, into which they were about to plunge, remember that Virginia, at that day, consisted of some twenty odd counties, clustering around the Seat of Government, and they only thickly populated along the rich alluvia of the rivers, and the two shores of the bay, and that the population of the colony was just one hundred thousand.
Few more bold, daring, and chivalrous adventures have ever been undertaken, even in this land of wild adventure, than that planned and executed by Governor Spotswood. It must be recollected, too, that his was among the first of the kind; that he was the pioneer, even to Lewis and Clark, and that his ingenuity invented many of those appliances now so common in such adventures. He was going beyond the reach of civilized resources--among savage tribes--over mountains, hitherto considered impassable--and through a trackless wilderness, in the last degree difficult for the transportation of the necessary supplies.
Was it any wonder that it was opposed by most of the old men of the Colony; by nearly all those considered wise and prudent? They confidently predicted that the Governor, and the mad youths whom he might induce to accompany him, would never return, and some exercised their parental authority, so far as to forbid their sons from accompanying the Governor. To such a height had this opposition ran during the preceding winter, that a public meeting was held, and a committee appointed to memorialize the ministry on the subject. If successful, this of course was equivalent to the Governor's removal, and he had been waiting in some anxiety to hear the result. The two factions of Oxford and Bolinbroke, of which the ministry was composed, were too busy fighting their own battles, to heed these petitions from beyond seas. Sir Alexander Spotswood was fully determined to see the other side of the mountains, either as Governor of Virginia, or as the leader of a private expedition, which he was amply able to set on foot. The question of supplies had been brought up also before the House of Burgesses the preceding winter, and rejected by a very close vote. Since that time, he had been exerting no little address to induce young men to come out for the vacant or uncontested seats, especially such as were known to be favorable to his darling project. Two of these we have already seen almost domesticated in his own house, the open hospitalities of which was no mean auxiliary in the great cause, especially when presided over by the elegant kinswoman of the Duke of Ormond, and her not less fascinating daughters. In short, his personal influence, his official sway, his social position, his wealth, and every thing that was his, was thrown into the scale by the Governor. He almost directed Mr. Boyle's benevolent
Page 60
scheme for christianizing the Indians into the same channel, and he had enlisted the Rev. President of the College, warmly in his interests. A new trial was now rapidly approaching--the members for another house of Burgesses had been elected, and were soon to assemble at the capital. Proclamations were sent to every county, calling upon the young gentry to enlist fifty men, and enrol themselves under his banner. The ranks of the Rangers had been filled up, and new officers appointed, wherever opposition was manifested to the expedition, and these were now undergoing daily drill, and performing camp duty along the whole frontier of the colony, as preparatory to the grand tour. The removal of these very corps was one strong ground of opposition by the timid. They had for some time formed the main security of the Colony, against the inroads of the savages. These Rangers were stationed along the whole line of frontier, within communicating distance of each other, and were perhaps the best security ever devised for a colony in the then condition of Virginia. The Governor's son John, was now in command of these, and as rapidly preparing them for field service as possible. The Governor proposed to march the whole of these, as well as a certain portion of militia from each battalion. Here was another cause of opposition; these men did not like the idea of being marched five hundred miles through a trackless wilderness, and over inaccessible mountains, while their families were perhaps starving at home, and their crops totally neglected, as well the preparation for the coming one as the proper curing of that already housed. The Governor's main dependence, however, was upon the young gentry, and such men as they could voluntarily enlist or persuade from among their own adherents. He thought that if he could embody a sufficient number of them with the Rangers, that the forcible objections against the expedition might be removed, as he would no longer attempt to coerce the militia, from whom powerful opposition had arisen. Indeed something like a pledge had been given at the late elections, that such should be the case, and the whole colony was now looking on with anxiety, to see what would be the result. Such of the gentry as had united in the remonstance to the ministry, despaired of ever receiving assistance from that quarter, so that the great battle had to be fought at home.
In accordance with these views, the Governor on the morning in question, despatched his new protegee to Yorktown to enlist, not only fifty followers for his own share, but as many more of the emigrants as might choose to try their fortunes in the far west. Largesses of land were most liberally promised, besides the pay, rations, and accoutrements of the soldier. Among those who had arrived with Hall, were a large number of Scotch, Irish, and Presbyterians, a hardy, brave, intelligent set of people, as ever lived. These Hall found to listen most readily to his tempting promises of land and a new home, and freedom from religious restraint. The scheme chimed in exactly with their views, and he was therefore not long in making up his complement of fifty men, and enlisting as many more as the Governor might choose to provide for out of his own private purse. These were quartered in the suburbs of York, and were soon busily engaged in preparing to march at a moment's warning.
Governor Spotswood was not long in discovering that his new protegee was exactly the sort of aid-de-camp which he had been looking for. He possessed a thorough education, not a little of which had been learned in the school of adversity, and a sufficiency for his purpose, in the camp. He accordingly set to work in earnest, to have all things in readiness to seize upon that most favorable season of the year, now called Indian summer, for the march. Before that could take place, many things had yet to be done, besides the subsidies to be voted by an assembly, whose opinions were still somewhat doubtful. Clothes, ammunition, horses and supplies of every kind, were to be provided, and the latter in such a shape as to admit of their transportation
Page 61
without inconvenience. Camp equipage, such as tents, iron, utensils, &c., &c., were not so easily gathered in that day in the Colony. He had already built a round tower in the public square of the capital, for the reception of arms and ammunition, and was accumulating them silently, but surely.* * The remains of this curious tower still stand at Williamsburg.
Both his public and private stables were already crowded with horses, and he was still purchasing more.
The time was now approaching when that happy family party were to leave the delightful summer retreat on the shores of the Chesapeake bay, for the bustle, the gaiety, and even the political intrigues of the capital. The female inmates would willingly have dwelt at Temple Farm forever. They loved the quiet scenery of the place, and the privilege it gave them of, in some measure, selecting their company, but the present busy season of preparation, on the part of the lord of the manor, required that removal, and they acquiesced. His presence was wanted at the capital, and it now began to form the staple subject of conversation among the young people.
Bandboxes were not yet in requisition, but Kate was already paying farewell visits in the neighborhood, and visiting her pensioners for the last time before a long separation. The negroes were already crowding round the doors, whenever a leisure moment allowed them, to look for those never failing little tokens of good will and remembrance dispensed on such occasions. Others, with purer motives, loved to return their humble thanks to their young mistress, for her kindness in sickness. It was indeed a melancholy day among the domestics of Temple Farm, when all that gave it life and cheerfulness were gone. Old June declared to Kate that the very poultry and stock all looked melancholy, when the "white folks" were gone. On the evening of that day, he brought out his old banjoe into the yard, seeing Kate and Ellen promenading the verandah, and was tuning it up preparatory to improvising their departure in most moving and melancholy strains. What Southron is there who has not been moved by the mere tones of these monotonous doggrels? Even in their liveliest strains, and when the words of the song are ludicrous in the highest degree, these same mournful sounds accompany them. The same may be said of their harvest and boat songs. On the present occasion June muttered something like the following, to one of his corn songs:
"Oh Miss Kate, she's gwine away, g'wine away,
To leave poor nigger on de lone bay;
The house shut up--the windows closed--
The fire put out--den nigger froze.
Long time ago, long time ago.
The fine young men dey no more come,
On de prancin horse to our cold home,
To see Miss Kate, the flower of the bay,
So glad, so glad, de live long day.
Long time ago, &c."
"Oh June," said Kate, "sing of our return, not of our going away. Don't you see that you affect the spirits of Ellen?"
"Oh, misses, it's for poor June's spirits to be 'fected; specially when he aint had no spirits all de day long."
"And do you think June that a glass of spirits would change the melancholy of your song."
"De spirits make June feel berry happy misses long as he last, but he no bring back Miss Kate, and all de fine young gentlemen, and de ladies, and de carriages, and de hosses."
"Why, what in the world can these things be to you, June; you eat the same, and wear the same, whether we are here or at the capital?"
"'Oh, Miss Kate, dey all de world to June; de berry light ob he eye; when
Page 62
white folks gone, it is all one long rainy day at de Farm--no banjoe den--frog haball de fun to heself and de whoopperwill, he sing so solemn, he make poor nigger cry for true.'
"Why you are quite sentimental, June!"
"Don't know zactly what de sentinel is, but he see one at de arsenal at Williamsburg, walking so lone jist like June, when young missus gone. De birds find out directly when de house shut up--he no fraid ob nigger; de owl come on that big tree, and he sit and moan all night long ober de empty house, make June tink some of de familey gwine to die; and de bay! oh, he moan for true so far off, way down to the sea, and den he come back to de house and fine ebery body gone, he go way along the water, sighing and meaning all de way; but when Miss Kate come back, all de birds sing glad for true!"
"You shall have the spirits June; tell Essex so; but no more banjoe to night, June; it affects our spirits."
"Good night, and tanky missus, June gwine to broke he eye, cryin till you come back."
CHAPTER XVII.
A GRIM MONSTER.
IN the suburbs of the capital of Virginia, there stood a one story building, containing several rooms, rather neatly, but plainly furnished. This house was separated from one of the back streets by a vegetable garden, of no very tasteful arrangement, and through its centre led a grass walk, opening from the street directly toward the main entrance.
In the only sitting room which it contained, were three persons. One was an aged Indian female, seated in the chimney corner on a low stool, her elbows on her knees and her head resting upon her hands, so that she seemed almost doubled into a knot, as she crouched over a few smoking chips in the hearth, over which an iron kettle was suspended. She was totally blind, and in some measure, helpless. The other two consisted of a male and female; the former was John Spotswood, and the latter an Indian girl, about sixteen years of age. She had the general appearance of her race, so far as color and general outline of features went, but our readers must not suppose that she was an ordinary young squaw, rolled in a blanket, for she had been delicately nurtured, and had learned many of the customs, as well as the language and costume of the whites. Her Anglicised name was Wingina, and she was a sister of Chunoluskee the interpreter to the Queen, until lately a sort of companion to Mrs. Stith at the College, and recently removed with her mother and brother to their new house. She was dressed mostly after the European fashion, with however a few remnants of her Indian taste still clinging about her. Instead of shoes and stockings, she wore moccasins, on a pair of the most diminutive feet imaginable; and over her ankles and wrists, broad silver clasps, and large gold rings in her ears. Her hair was plaited, and usually hung down her back; and round her neck were many strands of gaudy colored beads. She was as perfect in feature as any of that race ever is; preserving nevertheless, all their distinctive characteristics, such as the high cheek bones and wide set eyes. These were softened by a childlike simplicity of expression in her countenance, and a general air of dependence and deference in her manners; acquired no doubt, from her isolated and forlorn condition, in the midst of the most polished capital in America, without friends of her own race and rank.
Page 63
Her position was a very peculiar one; while an inmate of Mrs. Stith's household, she was half way between the two races--too elevated to associate with the negroes, and scarcely considered equal to the whites. We have already said, that she had been removed from the College from prudential motives; her age, and accumulated personal attractions, having already subjected her to very doubtful attentions from the gay youths of the capital; but it was too late. In an evil hour, she in her guileless simplicity had listened to professions from the young man before her, as ruinous to her, as they were degrading to him.
John Spotswood was no premeditated seducer. He never for one moment harbored the deliberate intention, indeed until it was too late he had never analyzed his own feelings and intentions. He was as much overcome in an evil hour, as his unfortunate victim; and he was consequently, a victim himself of never ceasing remorse. His visit on the present occasion, was not of his seeking, but had been brought about by the earnest solicitations of Wingina herself. She seized the occasion of her brother's visit to Temple Farm, to hold one more last interview with the youth who had unintentionally wronged her; we say unintentionally, because he was under the influence of wine at the time, and the world scarcely holds him a perfectly free agent, who surrenders his reason into the keeping of such a master. Wingina's circumstances were becoming desperate, and she sought very naturally the council of the only one in all the world acquainted with her secret.
Her brother, the proud and haughty young chief of the Shawnese, she knew would put her to death upon the instant he learned her shame; and shall we reveal the whole weakness of that poor, frail, half-civilized creature?--she dreaded still more his vengeance against the repentant perpetrator of her wrongs. Most willingly would she have plunged headlong into the neighboring river on either side of the city, but would this surely relieve her partner in the transgression? This was one of the questions she wished to solve by the interview. She had wrought up her mind to the necessary point of daring and desperation for the deed, but she doubted the stability of that calmness and stoicism with which young Spotswood might look upon it afterwards; and she feared, instead of healing all difficulties, her death would only plunge those whom she tenderly loved more irretrievably into ruin.
John had more than once generously offered to dare all consequences, and reveal the true state of the case to her brother and his father, but her fears would not suffer her to listen to this plan; besides, it promised nothing by way of relief for their instant difficulties.
Our readers must recollect the aristocratic notions of that day in Virginia, to realize how utterly impracticable was the marriage of the parties, as a remedy. Could the son of the chivalrous Governor of Virginia, take such a wife to the proud home of his father?--could he make her an equal, and an associate, with his innocent and accomplished sisters?--especially after the revelations which a few months would add to his present difficulties. He saw that it was next to impossible; yet, to do him justice, he thought it more feasible than his innocent victim. She scarcely dared imagine such a thing; so far did he appear elevated above her in social rank. The idea of clandestingly making her his wife and then secluding her upon the frontiers, occurred to him, but then the difficulties with which such a step would embarrass his father's preparations for the great campaign, drove it from his thoughts. He knew that the Governor mainly depended upon her brother, as a guide for the expedition.
What was to be done under such distressing circumstances? This was the question which racked the young man's brain, as he walked the floor. Oh, how the stings of fruitless remorse writhed themselves into his innermost heart. There sat the poor heart-stricken little stranger; a pensioner upon
Page 64
the bounty of his family, the holiday pet of his own sisters; ruined, past all help, and by him, who ought and would have perilled life and limb for her safety. Her head hung drooping upon her bosom, and her hands locked immovably upon her lap, while the burning tears fell in a plentiful shower from her eyes. Her plaited hair, curiously interwoven with beads and porcupine feathers, hung on each side of her neck; and all together she presented a moving picture of hopelessness and utter abandonment, even to an indifferent observer, but to John the very sight of her was agony.
Every now and then he extended his walk to a small table in one corner of the room, upon which stood a decanter of wine, and poured out and gulphed down a measure of the liquid. This was the best remedy he knew of, for that utter despondence which overwhelmed him; he resolved to adjourn the wretchedness of to-day, for the accumulated sufferings of to-morrow; never thinking, that while he thus drowned his sorrow, he also drowned his reason, and thereby incapacitated himself from seeing clearly his position, and devising the best means of escape.
Whichever way he turned his eyes, they were met by a picture, that might have moved one less sensitive; the helplessly blind mother, and the scarcely less helpless daughter. It is true, the old woman understood not his language, and was therefore in blissful ignorance; but that circumstance rather added to than lessened his remorse. He saw that in the day of full revelation before the world, that ruined family of strangers, from a strange land, would create a tale of wrong and outrage which would overwhelm him. He thought of what would have been his own feelings of indignation against the perpetrator of such a deed, and his own hand was almost ready to be raised against himself.
"Fool that I was," muttered he, as wildly striding through that low narrow apartment, "thus, for a momentary gratification, to peril all the brilliant hopes and high aspirations of my life. Another might have committed such a faux pas, and nothing have come of it, except, perhaps, a street brawl with a young savage; but here am I, the man of all the world, in the position to render the affair not only perilous to myself, but falling exceedingly heavy upon my father. He is the great patron of these Indians; he has taken them as hostages; they are therefore under trust to him, and to all connected with him or under him. If this one false step could be retrieved, what a millstone would be taken from about my neck? What a cruel fate was that, which precipitated me into this cursed business?--a life blighted forever by one false step; and that step so trifling when taken by others, so overwhelming to me. It does seem as if a cruel and unrelenting destiny was mocking at me! Are there not thousands of totally debased and profligate men, who pursue long careers of wickedness and folly, without being thus overtaken? Oh, it is hard to be borne! Great God! why was I reserved for a miserable and degrading position like this? Was it because I can feel it? That little bigotted twattler Ellen Evelyn, predicted that my sun would set in darkness. Did she foresee the catastrophe? or was it a conclusion from general premises? What is there in my life, my thoughts, my heart, from which any one could predict such ruin? I love all mankind, and would any time rather do an act of kindness than otherwise. I have wronged no one. Yes--I have wronged this poor creature, but it was not a premeditated wrong. Could she draw the conclusion from my scepticism?--what has the ruin of this Indian girl to do with my religious faith?--methinks these questions would puzzle the old moralist at the College. What a mist we live in; how hard to draw clear perceptions of moral obligation, from general providences? If sin were always followed in this world by sharp and sure punishment, we might see the hand of an all-wise and overruling power, but it is your generous-hearted and unwary youths that are entrapped; your old lecher escapes scot free, while the perpetrator of a single wrong is plunged to ruin. A man who
Page 65
murders a single individual, is most sure to swing for it; while your wholesale butcher is glorified as a hero. This life is but a mockery surely; a bitter jest; we are but laughing stocks for the universe. And yet some people manage to make a beautiful illusion of it! Dr. Blair for instance--Dr. Evylin--my father and my sisters--my pure and innocent sisters--the dream of life is really beautiful as illustrated by them. Why has the dark destiny fallen to my lot alone?--can it be, as Ellen Evylin says, that it is our religious faith that shapes our destiny, and that there is indeed an overruling providence which superintends not only the general movement of worlds, but the most minute details, even to the falling of a hair, as the Bible hath it. Can it be possible that it is I who labor under the delusion, and that they are right after all?--absurd! It is nevertheless a pleasing dream; and I would that my stern philosophy would sleep a while and let me become a Goody Two Shoes, to be tied to my lady-mother's apron string, and dole out charities on a pony, by the side of my sisters, and the two old twattlers now at the Farm. Ha, ha, ha, what a ridiculous idea, and where the devil could it have come from in such a scene as this, with ruin and despair staring me in the face. There sits that Indian girl, a picture of wo; she, too, was being reared to join the happy few, who believe in the protective and conservative power of religion; and I, like a mad fool, must pull down what they were so carefully rearing. Curse my ill-starred destiny, that I should be reserved for such a hang-dog fate. What a mystery is it, this fitful dream of life; but, thank fortune, it has one speedy solution within the reach of the feeblest hand. Here within this vest, I carry a small steel talisman which may unriddle the secrets beyond the grave before their time." Saying which, he drew a small glittering dagger, and held it up admiringly to the light, which Wingina no sooner saw, than she rushed towards him, throwing her arms around his neck, and burying her head in his bosom, crying--"Oh, Captain Spotswood, let me be the victim, I alone am to blame!"
"Poh, poh," said the young man, moving her away with his left hand, and holding her at arm's length, "I meditated nothing just now, I but talked to this little silent friend of mine; but tell me, Wingina, have you really no fear of death?--you look desperate enough, indeed, to dare it. Can such a frail, feeble thing brave the king of terrors? Do you yet retain enough of the heroism of your ancestors, to lay down this life when it is a burthen to you?"
"All that I know, Captain Spotswood, of suicide, I have learned from you and your race. The warriors from which I sprung, consider that an act of cowardice, which you have called heroism."
"Aye, aye, here is another school of philosophy; one of nature's teaching; let us learn of it also! It seems I am destined always to be schooled of a petticoat, why not this poor Indian girl, as well as her superiors? Perhaps she has drawn some wholesome truths from the Great Book, whose edges are bound by the sea, and gilt by the sun. Tell me, girl, whence come the notions of your race against self-destruction?["]
"An Indian thinks outside, and a white man inside."
"Ah, I see, I see--their whole thoughts are occupied externally, and the reflective faculties are not cultivated; then their opposition to suicide, is only after all, because they never reflect sufficiently to become desperate."
"Sir!'
"Your race never commits self-murder, because they never feel wretched enough to loathe this life--that is only a result of our boasted civilization."
"Captain Spotswood, it is I only that should make these complaints of your race--you have taught me to suffer, and God knows I have learned little else."
"Poor Wingina, my teaching has been sad indeed."
"Oh, sir, pity me not; it makes me all a woman again; just now I could have rendered up my life, if only to convince you that a poor Indian girl
Page 66
could die as heroically as one of your own proud race. I could dare it yet, but from another motive which you have never understood, I fear."
"And what is that Wingina?"
Laying her hand gently upon his arm, which had now fallen by his side, and looking up winningly and beseechingly in his face, she said softly, "I could die for you."
"You could die for me? poor girl!"
"Aye, and will too; only assure me that my death would remove all these troubles of which you complain so grievously, and the summer flower is not gone more rapidly."
The desperate young man looked long and searchingly in her face, and then suddenly grasped her by the arm, as he said, "And do you indeed love me still Wingina, after all that has passed?"
"Better than the Great Spirit--more than I love that poor blind old mother, and a brother that became a captive for my sake. I would this instant forsake all, if you will follow me to the wigwam of the Indian, and become a great chief among my people."
"But what, if I loved you not in return?"
The poor girl staggered from his side and reeled into her former seat, and there sat with her head drooping as before, and her hands locked in the attitude of despair.
Spotswood saw that the unpremeditated blow had struck home--that despair was in every expression of her eye and countenance, and his own turbulent passions grew fiercer from the contagion. He strode up to where she was sitting, and drew a chair and seated himself so as to bring his lips almost touching her ear, and said in a tremulous whisper, "Wingina, though I love you not well enough to brave the scoffs and jeers of my race, I do love you well enough; at least, I am struck with admiration enough for you to dare death in your company, what say you?"
Her hand was instantly clasped in his, with emotion, as of one who desires to close a bargain only held to her option for the moment, exclaiming at the same time, "Oh how cheerfully."
"Enough!" said he, rising to depart, "when all things are ready--when the storm which is now rising in black clouds round the horizon, shall have closed over head, and all is dark whichever way we look, and just ready to burst, then I will come to you to redeem my promise. Consider my faith as pledged to it; farewell, poor wronged, betrayed Wingina; we will seal the solemn covenant of our marriage, by a ceremony that if the world approves not, it cannot laugh at. Our races were never formed to amalgamate in this world, let us then adjourn our cases to that immortal tribunal, so much talked of." "Surely," said he, as he left the door, and walked musingly toward the street; "surely that great many headed monster will be satisfied with the sacrifice I propose to offer upon its unholy altar; the perpetual fires of which are lighted by the devil himself."
The sun was by this time sinking behind the horizon, and the shadows of night stealing over the silent and sombre scene, chiming too well with the darker shadows fast gathering over the hopes and fortunes of that once bright youth. As was too often of late the case, he bent his footsteps to the principal tavern of the place, and there met at the threshold Bernard Moore, just from Temple Farm. "Oh Moore!" said John, "by heavens I am glad to see you; it is a long time since we have had a night together; now we will indeed revive the memory of those good old times, to which you alluded so often on that damned dull morning after I had been moped to death all day and night, between old Dr. Blair on one side, and Dr. Evylin on the other. How come on the old twattlers, and how is my father and the family?"
Page 67
"All well, John, but I fear I cannot join in your revelry to-night--I come upon pressing business of the Governor's."
"What's in the wind now?"
"A proclamation calling upon the young gentry of the Colony, to come out in favor of the tramontaine expedition, and to such of them as have succeeded in enlisting fifty followers, to march to the capital forthwith. It is a fine chance for you now, John to distinguish yourself, and to grow rich besides."
"O curse the tramontaine expedition; I have breakfasted, dined, and supped on nothing else for the last three hundred and sixty-five days, until I really believe that I have got a young mountain growing up in my stomach, and made of lime too, for it is eternally parched up with thirst; but tell me how I may grow rich by this eternal crossing of the mountains? that's a new maggot in my good dad's knowledge box."
"It is a project of his new private secretary, Mr. Hall--it is to give magnificent donations of land to all who will comply with the proposed terms."
"And who the devil is Mr. Hall? I never heard of him before."
"A very extraordinary young man, I assure you. He arrived at York with the Scotch emigrants, and applied for a tutor's place over master Bob. He has completely captivated the Governor."
"Oh, aye, any body could do that who would affect strongly the mountain frenzy; tell me now, was that not the way the thing was done?"
"I believe you are partly right, but he exhibited some very curious tricks of fence with the small sword too, which finished what the other left undone."
"Some rascally impostor I'll warrant; but he will not impose on me with his mountain enthusiasm, nor his second hand tricks with the small sword either."
"I tell you, John, he is a match for the Governor himself, and toasted me like a roasted goose with the spit run through him. Your father tried him also at mathematics, and the Commissary at the classics, and in all he was their equal."
"And yet you say he is a poor adventurer. How does he dress and behave?"
"His dress is rather seedy, to tell you the truth, but he has the manners of a gentleman."
"It is all very strange, but let me see the proclamation; that too is his handy work, I suppose?"
"Yes--here it is." Handing him a copy of the paper, which John glanced over hastily and contemptuously, and then handed it back and took Moore's arm as he said, "Enough, Bernard, enough--the very thoughts of the mountain expedition has made me as thirsty as a lime kiln--what shall I order up? port, sherry, madeira, or claret--or will you go with me to the palace? I am all alone there, and we can send out and have as fine a set of fellows in half an hour as ever sung a song or told a story; and, by heavens, we will begin upon the oysters to-night."
"No, John, no--I cannot join you at either place to-night, I am on business of importance, and must hurry back in the morning. I have to send an express to some of the remote counties before I start; of course I shall be engaged until late at night, in giving instructions to these messengers, part of whom are already in the house."
"No matter about that, we will make them all gloriously drunk, and then pack them off at cross purposes; ten to one but they all bring up at Temple Farm in the morning, and get put in the stocks for their pains; a capital place, I'm told, to get sober. It keeps the blood upon a dead spirit level, so you see it prevents determination to the head."
"Why, John, I think you must have dined out already--you seem disposed to make merry of everything, from the Governor down."
"Egad you are right--I have been out and have supped upon horrors--the
Page 68
very recollection of which smacks of brimstone, and that's the reason I'm so thirsty now. Come, you shall not escape me, I swear, if I have to sit and hear your instructions to every one of these express riders. I will have you still. Come down to the palace, order these fellows down there, where we can have the whole house to ourselves. I am determined to make a night of it."
Moore seeing that he must either comply or quarrel with his old friend, determined upon the former for many reasons, and therefore set to work in earnest with his business, determined to despatch that before he should be engaged with one so likely to pledge him in deep cups. He was not more than half inclined to join him at all--not that he did not enjoy a carouse to some extent, like other youths, but there was a wildness, a desperation about John, which pained as well as alarmed him.
They were soon seated over their wine in one of the most luxurious rooms of the Governor's palace, each with a pipe in his mouth and servants standing ready to obey the slightest command. It was an evening to enjoy luxuriously a glass of wine, a cheerful fire, and the soothing repose induced by the glorious Virginia weed, and Moore seemed disposed to make the best of his capture and enjoy these good things like a rational creature, using the wine and tobacco rather as mental than physical stimulants, and plying them lazily and luxuriously along as the conversation flagged. Not so with his friend--he was disposed for desperate and deep potations, he was restless and uneasy, and all the luxury in the world could not have produced in him a sensation of calmness and repose. He scarcely seemed fitted for conversation--he wanted roistering companions, and noisy sport, and practical jokes--and nothing prevented him from having them but the declaration of Moore, that he would only spend a social evening with him in the present way and no other. The only thing therefore for John, was to make up in the depth and frequency of his libations for want of more jovial company, with the faint hope at the same time that Moore would soon be brought to that point of excitement, when he, too, would be led to seek stirring adventure.
Still he sat and sipped his wine, or puffed his pipe, his feet cased in slippers, and his legs over the seat of a chair, while his head was thrown back in the attitude of luxurious repose.
"Come Moore," said John, "let's drink a bumper to the success of that expedition which the Governor seems to have innoculated you with, like all others who come within the reach of his influence."
"With all my heart, John, I will drink to its success, but no more bumpers for me. I do not want to look in the morning as if the devil had sent me a case knife to cut my own throat."
"Lord, Moore, you have sung psalms and hymns with old Dr. Blair and Dr. Evylin, until you are becoming, I fear, one of those nice, moral young men, praised by the old ladies, and held up as patterns by our dads, for imitation. You are becoming evangelical, is that not the word?"
"Pshaw, John, you are suffering yourself to fall off too far to the other extreme, you know very well that I am no stickler for propriety and decorum, farther than they are necessary as the barriers between the various orders of society?"
"Oh, damn the barriers of social order. If I had my way, I would cement the whole of them with the hot fumes of wine into one great social circle of democracy--with our joy in common, our property in common; in short, I would revolutionize your social structure: I would wipe out old things, and begin all anew again."
"Why, John, you are a madman!"
"Egad, I have thought that myself sometimes, but that is always in my dark hour."
Page 69
He moved his chair round near to Moore, and waved his hand to the servants to vanish, and then seeing that they were alone, by a stealthy glance round the room, he whispered in his car, "I am pursued by a demon!"
"Good God! John, you should consult advice--your spectre or demon is altogether in your disordered vision. Let me send now for the Doctor, and see if he does not say that you should loose blood on the spot?"
John laughed before he replied. "Tush, man, there is nothing the matter with me now, any more than there is with you, but sleep in my room to-night, (and here his voice fell to a whisper,) and I will show you whether it is a mind diseased or not. Call in that old negro, and ask him if I do not have one of these nocturnal visitors every night?"
"No, no, there is no need, I will sleep in the same room with you myself, and see this strange visitor of yours; but does he follow you wherever you go?"
"Yes, wherever I am, I see these strange sights--whether I am asleep or or awake, I know not, but the visitor, as you call him, is not always of the same identity."
John soon after began to grow boisterous--then to sing, and then to hiccup, and finally was carried off neck and heels to bed by two of the servants.
Moore occupied a bed in the same room, in which he ordered a light to be left burning, that he might see the dreaded apparition.
About three o'clock in the morning, he was roused from a deep sleep by a strange unnatural noise in the room, and remembering the conversation with John, instantly sprang out of bed and stood beside him. There lay his friend cronched into a knot, the pillow wound tight round his head, just leaving room for his fiery eye balls to gleam through.
"There, Moore," said he in a whisper of mortal terror, "there he stands; don't you see him? Oh! what a hedious monster; his eye balls are like red hot coals of fire, and his tongue forked like that of a serpent; see, see, he moves. Protect me from him, for God's sake. Look, now he goes--he goes--watch him--Ha, ha, ha--he is gone."
"Why, John, this is the very madness of the moon. You should consult advice at once, for Heaven's sake let me send an express for Dr. Evylin."
"No, no," still in a strained, painful and husky whisper, "here they come again, a legion of them, with fiery serpents in their hands--my God, see how they fling them about."
He had now screwed himself up into the smallest possible compass in the further corner of the bed, his eye balls still glaring from beneath the pillow, and every instant schreeching in the most hedious manner, and now darting from one side of the bed to the other, declaring that it was full of these terrible reptiles. Presently he was hard at work tossing them out of the bed, imitating the exact action of a man grasping suddenly at some dangerous reptile, and then tossing it wildly towards the floor. The cold dewy perspiration was standing over his blue cadaverous face, until here and there it was gathering into little streams and trickling from his nose and chin. His breathing was excessively labored, and his eye balls had now become fiery, and rolled in their sockets without the least volition. His teeth were sunk into his lips until the blood gushed from his mouth, while his hands were alternately clutching the reptiles from sinking their fangs into his person, and tossing them aloft in desperation. He leaped and screamed like a wild man. With astonishing agility, and the strength of a lion, he tossed the servants about, who now stood round and attempted to hold him.
Once or twice, by the persuasion of Moore, he was calmed for awhile, and laid down as if to sleep, and the servants were seated and mutely attentive. The stillness of death pervaded the room, nothing but whispers, and they scarcely breathed, were heard. The eyes of the young man were closed, as if by a powerful effort; and his breathing deep and convulsive. His attendants
Page 70
all thought him asleep; but with the velocity of lightning he sprang from the bed and alighted in the middle of the floor, uttering at the same moment a long shrill scream. He was instantly seized by three or four stout servants, and Moore himself assisting, but all together they could not hold him. He doubled and twisted himself into a thousand strange contortions, and dashed one servant to the wall with his foot, and levelled another on the floor with his arm. At last when exhausted, and about to be overpowered by their numbers, and the steady determination of Moore, he lay in a delirious agony of fear. One frightful monster after another raised his hideous form to his astonished and bewildered gaze. No sooner had one been exorcised, than a more hideous spectre occupied its place.
Bernard Moore determined at once to send an express for Dr. Evylin. He had inquired of the servants and learned that this was far the most alarming attack which he had had. Leaving the unfortunate youth in their charge for a few moments, he despatched such a note to the old Doctor, as he knew would bring him; at the same time leaving it to his own discretion, whether to alarm the family or not. Having seen the boy depart on a fleet horse, he resumed his melancholy position by the bedside of his friend.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LOVE OF FLOWERS--CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SEXES.
ABOUT ten o'clock next morning, Moore was startled from his position at the bedside, by the rustling sound of a lady's dress in the entry below. He slipped out and ran down, just in time to meet Kate at the foot of the stairs. He took her hand, and led her into a room, where he seated her.
"Oh, Mr. Moore," exclaimed she, almost breathless; "do tell me what all this means--what is the matter with John?"
"Tell me first how you knew any thing about it?"
"Oh it matters not, for Heaven's sake do not keep me in suspense, but tell me when was he taken? how is he affected? is he dangerous? and oh, above all, will he recover?"
"My dear Catharine calm yourself, your brother is ill, I will not deceive you about it, but I hope there is nothing dangerous in his disease."
"Well lead me to him at once, let me see and judge for myself, you know that I am not one to faint at the sight of a sick chamber."
"Stop, stop, not yet--I must prepare you before you go, for your brother's state of mind. He is quite delerious, and sometimes frantic."
She waited to hear no more, but threw open the door and ran up stairs herself, and entered the room so silently, that a sleeping infant would scarcely have been disturbed; but there was an ear listening to that soft tread upon the carpet, that would have caught the vibration of a thread, so magnified was its sense of hearing. John had roused himself upon one elbow in spite of three powerful arms, the instant he heard the first foot fall, and was waiting with distended eyes, for the approach of the dread visitor, which his imagination had conjured up. As Kate passed the threshold, he shaded his eyes with his hands, and glared at her with that vacant stare, which betokens a wandering mind. She approached slowly, so as to give him time to recognize her, and hoping every moment to hear him call her name, perhaps coupled with some endearing epithet, but it was all in vain. His eyes distended wider and wider as she came nearer, until the iris looked almost like a ring of fire, as she gently laid her hand upon his arm, and uttered the words, "My brother!" he started
Page 71
as if stung by a scorpion--pushing back and back, until he had planted himself firmly against the wall, and drawn the bed clothes over his head; trembling and quivering, she repeated, "My dear brother, speak to me."
Kate threw herself into a chair, and buried her face in the bed, and wept long and bitterly. During the while, the poor patient several times raised his head from beneath the bed clothes, and listened to her sobs, as the startled stag listens to the approaching huntsman, bending his head forward, and turning one ear foremost in the attitude of one who listens intensely. The sounds seemed at last to soothe him into a gentler mood, and he stretched forth his hand and smoothed down her glossy blond hair, as one who commiserates the object caressed. Kate raised her face towards his, all streaming with tears, gratified in the midst of them that he had at least ceased to dread her presence; but still he did not recognize her; "go home now," said he, "go home to your poor blind mother--that's a good girl, and weep not for me."
Dr. Evylin and Governor Spotswood soon after entered; the latter was terribly shocked, and even the venerable old physician found the case worse than he had expected. He immediately ordered the room darkened, and cleared of all but the necessary attendants, and then poured out a dose of some liquid medicine, and handed it to Moore, "there, give him that," said he, "enough to kill any two of us!" After which, Kate was led out by Mr. Moore to another room.
"Oh Mr. Moore," said she, "this is very dreadful! can you form any idea of the cause of his derangement?"
"It is not ordinary madness, Catharine," (how affliction levels conventional forms, like the grave,) "it is not ordinary madness, but from what I have heard and seen, it is the mania induced by intemperate drinking."
"Is it possible?--and is my brother indeed that degraded thing, a drunkard?"
"Distress not yourself, the case is no worse now, perhaps, than it has been for some time; indeed this very attack may wean him from the wretched thraldom."
Half an hour afterwards, the old Doctor came in, a bright smile breaking upon his features, his pipe in his mouth, and assured Kate that her brother slept"--"a thing," said he, "which I will venture to say he has not done for hours before." He assured her also, that if this sleep continued for some time, he would awake better, and probably in his sound mind.
Kate insisted that she would watch by his bedside, and that the servants might stand at the door within call; and sure enough, there she posted herself, and remained six long hours. She watched in that dark room, until her eyes at length became accustomed to it; and she could see her brother's countenance, the corrugated brew, the quivering eyelid, the alternately distended and colla psed nostril, and the compressed lips, the latter sometimes muttering the delerious wanderings of the mind.
Was it any thing wonderful, that Moore's attention, as he occasionally stole to the door and peeped in, was not wholly absorbed by the condition of his friend? Was he not excusable if a stray glance wandered over that fair neck and arm, as they rested upon the table, while their owner gazed upon the unfortunate sufferer? In fact he caught all the changes upon John's distorted features, reflected with beautiful fidelity upon that of his sisters.
About five o'clock in the afternoon her brother waked up to a stupid sort of consciousness, took a little broth, and fell off again into a deep sleep, the first of the kind that he had enjoyed for many, many weeks. After Kate saw her brother thus comfortably disposed, she took a few turns through the garden to see how her flowers had been attended to in her long absence. This garden presented some of the rarest exotics ever then seen in America, and was furnished with conservatories and hot houses upon a large scale.*
* The remains of these were still visible at the author's last visit to Williamsburg.
Page 72
The gardener was now preparing to re-convey many of the tenderest of his silent family to their winter quarters. Kate walked through the box hedges, inquiring into the condition of each old acquaintance, deploring the sickening condition of some, and praising the luxuriance of others, here clipping off a decayed leaf, and there propping up a rickety stem.
Moore was as excessively fond of flowers, as he had been remarkably devout, when Kate read the responses; he went into raptures over the faded beauties of some little foreign stranger, and was really pathetic over the disasters which absence and want of delicate culture had produced upon her favorites. Oh, what a hypocrite! he did not care a fig for the most delicate pink that ever blushed through its green foliage, any more than he did for a red cabbage, i. e. he had none of the true ferver. He loved the flowers, because he was in love with every thing that she loved; but he did not love them for themselves.
This is the way that men generally love flowers, they like to see the ladies of their love fall into raptures over their silent and beautiful little friends, but few of them have that sort of affection for flowers, genuine affection, which ladies have.
Kate not only loved her flowers, but there was a sort of secret communion between them. Moore was of a philosophic turn, even in his love, and he desired to penetrate deeper into this connexion.
"Will you tell me," said he, "what this passionate admiration of flowers is like, in your sex?"
"Adoration, would have been the better word, Mr. Moore," replied she, "not that we commit idolatry in our enthusiasm, but we approach the Deity through them, as the Catholic approaches him through the saints."
"Ah, that is a new idea to me altogether; with us it is different, we do not ascend so high in our purest poetical feelings concerning them. We have--I mean the least grovelling of us, have very sweet associations with the memory, as well as the presence of flowers."
"Is that all?" said Kate, looking up from a pale, delicate autumnal flower; "is that all? why, what poor creatures you are! we mix up our love for these gentle, silent things with our higher sentiments. I am sure I never look at one of them without silent adoration to that Great Being, who could so extend his broad cast benevolence, as to create them that they might minister to our pleasures. Did you ever reflect that they were created for a wise purpose? Nothing was ever created in vain, neither were these. Look at this frail and beautiful thing, it has no medicinal properties whatever, and of course must have been created to minister to our pleasures alone. God must delight in these innocent enjoyments of his creatures, or else he never would have strewed them so plentifully along our paths through this world."
"The passion is all very well in your sex--very lovely, very beautiful; but would it not be a little effeminate in ours?"
Kate rose up, and looked him steadily in the face, before she replied. "Effeminate! effeminate, Mr. Moore, take back that word, I pray you. Remember what our Saviour said, 'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' Ponder upon those beautiful words. All the poets that ever sung, never uttered in such a compass a sentiment so full of innocence, purity, and beauty. Oh, it is almost sublime in its perfect sublimation. Think of that word arrayed--he speaks of these, my little dumb friends, as if the very angels had been employed at their toilet. What an eye for pure and perfect beauty he must have had! The morning robes of the lily surpassed the glory of the most sumptuously clad monarch in the history of the world, in his eyes. What a contrast that was, in the comparatively rude age in which it was uttered! Who, at that day, had
Page 73
ever before comprehended the whole and perfect beauty of that pale and unobtrusive flower? And yet you are afraid of being thought effeminate, if you indulge in enthusiasm like ours."
"No, no, not afraid. I asked if it would not look so to you."
"Well, then, I answer no--certainly not; but tell me truly, is it so, that your sex does not feel these things which I have been describing, as we feel them?"
"To tell you honestly, Miss Catharine, we do not. I see that it will lower us in your estimation, but I have been reflecting upon it, and I'll tell you what I think is the reason, and perhaps that may set us all right again in your favor. We are not pure enough; we mix too much with the business and the anxieties of the world. The Saviour, though in the garb of humanity, was pure and spotless; does not his very capacity for the highest enjoyment of these, old mother nature's pets, seem to favor my idea?"
"There is force in your remark, but I must say at the expense of your sex; I had not no idea that it was so debased; but it cannot be true of all men--there must be some exception, some pure enough to relish flowers. I will henceforth, I believe, go through the world looking for one who loves flowers for their own sake."
"He stands before you; do not leave me just yet, your brother sleeps, and do you listen into what a rhapsody I will fall over this little yellow flower."
Kate laughed at him heartily over her shoulder as she entered the house, and replied, "that the one he had selected was the poorest thing in the garden, but that it would do very well to begin with, and by the time he had mounted to a potato blossom, she would be ready to listen to him."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TUTOR'S NARRATIVE.
DURING Kate's absence, Ellen Evylin wandered over the house like one in a dream--Dorothea tried her rural system upon her one morning, by dragging her to see the dairy-maids perform their manual exercise, but it was all labor in vain. Ellen told her that it required high health and spirits for these things.
"There you are wrong," said Dorothea, "for it is these that bring health and spirits--did you ever see me low-spirited?"
"No, indeed, my dear Dorothea, I never did, but remember you are just fifteen; the next five years to you may contain the sorrows of twenty."
The little girl laughed and replied, "not unless all the cows take the hollow horn. Do you think I will?" to young Dandridge, looking on.
"No, I am sure if you ever have the blues," replied he, "it will sour all the milk in the dairy."
Ellen sauntered off alone, leaving the healthful and merry young pair to their fun and frolic. She had not wandered long on the banks of the little brook at the foot of the garden, before she discovered Mr. Hall standing opposite to that gloomy structure, before designated as the scene of the night funeral. He was standing with his hands locked behind him and his hat drawn with the corner down over his eyes, and his head bent upon his breast, every now and then raising it, to look at the tomb or vault, and then sinking it as before.
Ellen walked within a few feet of him, but he heeded her not. She was determined not to be baffled this time, however, and accordingly took her stand at a few yards distance, to wait the termination of his colloquy with the dead, for she could hear him talking in an under tone, and once or twice he raised his right arm and let it fall listlessly again by his right side. She heard him
Page 74
say, "his last words to me were, we shall meet again! but who could have thought that it would be thus?"
Ellen coughed, so as to arrest his attention, and preclude the suspicion of stealing upon him unawares. He turned round quickly and colored to his ears, but approached her, removing his hat.
He was aware that she sought his presence, and was not a little surprised at it, and approached her with an inquiring anxious look, as he said--"Can I render any possible service to Miss Evylin?"
She seemed puzzled how to communicate her errand, but after a considerable pause replied--"Mr. Hall, it would be useless to attempt to conceal that I have been for some time seeking this interview."
"Is it possible!"
His surprise startled her, and she was on the point of retreating at last, without accomplishing her end, but she mustered up her courage and came to the charge again. "Yes, I acknowledge that I have sought for it, with a particular object in view, but before I make it known, permit me to state that I was in the room last Sunday, when you approached the picture of General Elliot and apostrophised it, as you were just now doing his tomb."
Hall started, in still greater surprise, and look confused and rather displeased--he waited anxiously for her to go on. She continued:
"It was purely accidental, my being in the room, and but for my surprise and fright, I would have informed you of it. I do not now state these things to obtain any sort of claim upon your confidence, but purely to explain why I suppose you capable of throwing some light upon a dark portion of the history of"--here she stopped short, she did not know how to finish the sentence--but presently added, "of another."
She looked up--the change was indeed surprising--every muscle of his mouth quivered with excitement, as he struggled for an answer, and his eye told of the most intense interest. They were rivetted upon her face as if he would search her very soul.
"Of whom?" at length he asked.
"Of Frank Lee."
He started as if a bullet had pierced his heart.
"Of Frank Lee!" exclaimed he.
"Aye, did you know him?" said she tremblingly anxious for his reply.
"Know him--know him!" he drawled out, "too well, too well." Still gazing with a dreamy eye and absent manner upon that beautiful, agitated, downcast face.
Instantly her countenance rose, and she sprung forward with her hands clasped together beseechingly, as she asked, "Oh, tell me, does he live?"
"Live--live--does he live? I cannot say."
"Oh, why do you hesitate?"
This question seemed to rouse him to his full consciousness, and he answered: "The truth is, Miss Evylin, your inquiries have been so sudden and unexpected, and let me add, so embarrassing, that I scarcely know what I say."
"Why are they embarrassing?"
"Because I cannot tell you all I know of him for whom you inquire, without exposing myself. I have not always been what I now seem."
"Oh, you need have no fears of me--secrets in which he was involved, would be sacred with me at least, and you--could you suppose that I would betray you, if there was anything to betray?"
"No, I hope not, but there is another embarrassing point, which I know not how to approach without offending you."
"There need be no offence between two straight forward honest people."
"Here, then, is a seat in this arbor; you look fatigued and exhausted, let me fetch you a glass of water from the fountain."
Page 75
"No, no--no water; I will take the seat, but I could listen forever while you talk of him."
"You must know that I was more intimate with him than with any living being."
"Oh, tell me all then quickly, and end my suspense."
"I knew your story when I first entered yonder mansion, as well as I do now, but poor Frank labored under a grievous mistake as to your feelings towards him, unless they have lately changed back again into their old channel."
"Changed back again! old channel! what can you mean? the course of that stream has not been half so steady and constant as the current of my very heart's blood, in his favor."
"Before God, I believe you, but there was some gross deception practised upon him some where. Not an hour before he made the desperate and suicidal attempt to rescue the brave officer who lies buried there, he expressed the desperate determination to throw his life away. All this, produced by a letter from this country."
"From whom?" exclaimed she with vehemence, "from whom I pray you?"
"From his own brother."
"From Harry Lee! is it possible! And what could he say to produce so desperate a resolve in Frank?"
"I saw the letter and can speak very positively to that point. He said that he expected to marry you before his brother's return, that he had already obtained her father's consent, and only waited to break down the obstacles which young maidens love to gather round themselves; that they were already giving way, and would soon totally disappear before the warmth of his suit. Those were almost his very words."
"Oh, the base ingrate--there was scarcely a word of truth in the whole--it is true he asked my Father's consent to pay his addresses to me, but he only referred him to me for a decision, telling him at the same time that he would never interfere with my inclinations, so long as the object of my choice was respectable and intelligent; and as to the obstacle, I was really endeavoring to teach myself to look upon him in the light of a brother, until finding my motives entirely misunderstood, I had to put him upon the stately footing which you have seen, and which much better suits him. Now all being explained, tell me what became of Frank after the attempted rescue?"
"There was still another thing which made him believe Harry's letter, your own had ceased for some time, which gave his statements a remarkable coloring of truth."
"Of the cause of that I know nothing, except his frequent change of place after leaving London. I wrote to him regularly."
"I believe you, most sincerely, and now I will tell you what little I know of him. When he first came over, he spent sometime in travelling, and then entered the University at Edinburgh, as was his first intention, and made great progress with his studies, and would really have been distinguished as a scholar, but for an unfortunate circumstance which happened. You will recollect that Gen. Elliot, the half brother of Gov. Spotswood, came to Edinburgh about the time alluded to, and his brow being adorned with the laurels obtained in battle, he was of course a subject of curiosity to all the ardent youths about the city, and especially to those with any aspirations after military honors. Frank sought him out, and their mutual relations to Gov. Spotswood, soon produced an intimacy. Frank was burning with impatience to join the army, but his guardian's instructions were so positive about the necessity of finishing his collegiate course, that he resisted his impulses for the time. The intimacy with the General, however, still continued. The affairs of this country furnished a never failing theme of mutual interest between
Page 76
them, and it was the intention of the General at some future day to emigrate hither. Alas! he little supposed that his removal would be after death. I was in College at the same time, and knew every turn of Frank's mind as well as if he had been my brother. I was actuated by the same motives, and longed for the same chance of distinguishing myself.
"Gen. Elliot at length left the city, but we did not return to our studies with the same ardor after his departure. Our hearts were in the army, and of course the books were soon thrown aside for the foil, and the broadsword, and if we read at all, it was works connected with military science.
"The General was absent some months, and when he returned he was a changed man.
"His fine blithesome and sportive humor had left him, for a settled and perplexed air. He walked about like one in a dream, and we were not long in discovering that the character of his associates had entirely changed. You know that both himself and the Governor were Scotchmen by birth, and in that country there was a strong predilection for the hereditary claimant of the crown, running through all ranks of society, more or less. Even with those who held office and had fought for the existing order of things, their affections were with the young Chevalier. Besides, it was thought that the Queen could not live long, and there was little hope entertained even then, of a direct hereditary descent of the crown. I believe that if the question could have been impartially put to the Scotch people, without fear or favor weighing in either scale, whether the young Stewart or a foreigner should reign, that the former would have obtained seventy-five in every hundred votes. Gen. Elliot in his then recent excursion into one of the counties of England, had (most unfortunately, as it turned out,) encountered the young Pretender himself. He became at once charmed with the youth, and enamored of his cause. This result was brought about, not a little by the disgust which filled his breast against the ministry for their treatment of his patron and commander, the Duke of Marlborough, who was just then beginning to reap that bitter harvest of ingratitude with which his sovereign repaid his noble achievements.
"Gen. Elliot on his second visit to Edinburgh, had come expressly on business connected with another contemplated attempt of the Chevalier, and hence his perplexed air and new associates. His time was now almost wholly taken up with these men, and a very extensive correspondence. We were not long in discovering that something very unusual was in progress, and it was therefore, I suppose, that the General determined to take us into his fatal confidence. It was with no desire to involve us in difficulties, for his own sanguine nature scarcely contemplated defeat; but if he had any misgivings he was not to blame, for he was in some measure compelled to take us into his confidence, owing to Frank's intimacy with him--brought about by his position with regard to this country, and Frank and I, you know, were relations, and very intimate of course. So that we were almost without premeditation, linked in the treasonable affair. Not that we designed to commit treason, or contemplated our acts as such; we had been led to believe that we were espousing the cause of the rightful heir to the crown, and that it was our opponents who were the traitors. It is success you know that re-baptizes these things with new names--rebellion is patriotism when successful; and treason, when defeated.
The better to blind suspicion, we were still nominally attending our Collegiate routine, but in reality hatching a most formidable plot against the occupant of the crown. Gen. Elliot was not a man to go tamely to work in any thing that he undertook; his whole heart and soul were in the enterprise, and we were not less heartily engaged.
He had now taken a house, the better to have complete control over all those around him, and for the purpose of receiving such young gentlemen as
Page 77
were anxious to join our cause. Such neophytes were generally sounded first by my cousin or myself, and if found of the right materials, were then introduced at head-quarters, which the General's house literally was. Over his household, a young lady presided, who I must say was one of the most arch little traitors that ever ran away with the hearts of a set of young gentlemen. My cousin was greatly attracted by her society, as well as myself."
Poor Ellen, she looked aghast at this, which the young man seeing, he quickly added, "But Frank's attentions to this most charming lady, were dictated by the purest brotherly regard, in which you would have joined him, heart and hand, had you been there. Her name is Eugenia Elliot, a relation of the General's. She came to this country in the same vessel with me."
"To this country!" exclaimed Ellen in surprise, "Where is she?"
"Not long ago, she was in that very house."
"Is it possible? I never heard this before."
"Did you hear nothing of the three masks?"
"Ah, then you were one of the three, and this young lady was another, and who was the third?"
"Her father, Humphrey Elliot, Esq., another of those unfortunate gentlemen like my cousin and myself, who were ruined in fortune and reputation."
"And where are they now?"
"Gone to a place called Germana, a frontier settlement, I believe. They have doubtless changed their names ere this, and are happily settled, I hope, in as peaceful and as happy seclusion as their circumstances will permit."
"And why have you kept these things from Governor Spotswood, when you know that he has been making such anxious inquiries for them?"
"Because I pledged myself to Mr. Elliot that I would do so, and I now only reveal them to you to make my story complete, and under the same injunction of secrecy."
"It shall be observed faithfully, but go on with your narrative."
"While our preparations were in such fine train, as we supposed, for the intended enterprise, and just on the eve of accomplishment, the city was one morning astounded with the news that General Elliot had been arrested in his own house, and conveyed to prison. We had scarcely heard the news before my cousin and myself were arrested, and our papers submitted to the most rigid scrutiny. Fortunately there was nothing in them which could in the least compromise us, and we were after a short examination liberated. I need not dwell upon the melancholy particulars of the General's trial, you have doubtless read them in the English newspapers; suffice it to say, that he was convicted of high treason, and sentenced to be beheaded. Before that fatal day came, all of us who had been implicated in fact, but not in law, resolved to make one daring and desperate effort for his rescue. You know, also, the result of the mad attempt. It was led by Frank--he was cut down by the soldiers on duty, and rode over by a troop of dragoons. No one supposed it possible that he could survive. He was carried off by a party of Collegians, who witnessed the affray and recognised him. To the world he has been dead eversince."
"To the world," exclaimed Ellen, seizing his hand entreatingly, "then he yet lives to his friends."
"I will not, cannot say positively; but I will say, that I saw him after he was reported to be dead."
"Oh God, I thank thee!" exclaimed his auditor, and would have fallen from her seat had he not supported her.
When she had somewhat recovered, he continued: "while he was yet in a state quivering between life and death, he dictated a long letter to you."
"I have never received a line from him since that fatal day, and indeed for some time before."
"I have that letter in my possession."
Page 78
"Oh then give it to me at once--keep me not in suspense."
"It is in my trunk--if you feel able now to walk to the house, I will hand it to you as soon as we arrive there."
"On the instant, I am as strong as ever I was in my life, I could walk to the capital, if that were necessary."
Toward the house they moved; the invalid, who but a few hours before dragged her steps along, now almost pulled the tutor, so impatient was she, and so buoyant and elastic her step.
When she had received the precious document, she rushed out of the door leading to her apartment never stopping to thank the donor, or make any salutation whatever. There he stood in the middle of the floor, his hands still extended, and his moist eye resting on the place where she last stood. Whether he envied the unfortunate youth all his misfortunes, who was the subject of such an undisguised attachment, we cannot undertake to say. His interest in that pale young creature seemed to have been deeply aroused, but whose would not, under such circumstances.
She never afterwards recollected how she arrived at her room, but the door was locked all the balance of that day. Occasionally she was heard walking about, no one could account for it, except Mr. Hall, and he said nothing. Such things were so common for her, however, that her prolonged absence was passed over. Her father, the Governor, and Kate, were all at Williamsburg.
The letter ran as follows:
DEAR ELLEN:
I still call you so, in spite of all that is passed. Before you receive this letter, I shall be in my grave; what a termination is this to all those bright and hopeful dreams of youth, which mutually inspired our hearts at our last meeting: but I do not regret it--indeed I have sought an honorable death, as a relief from the deep, deep disappointment of those hopes. Oh, Ellen, you recollect--you must recollect that blessed evening when our young hearts were suddenly and unexpectedly laid bare to each other. Why could not those blissful moments continue forever? Does the curse which has gone forth against our race, interdict the continuance of such happiness as was then ours? It seems so; our betrothal has but terminated as all other youthful engagements have done before it; but I did hope other and better things of her who was so entwined round my heart, that to tear away her image, would be to unseat my very soul itself; and so it yet appears to me. I can die, and leave my possessions to my brother; and above all of them, I can resign you to him--for I considered you as much mine as the pupil of my eye; but I cannot live and see these things. I would scarcely trust myself with the sight of you as another's wife, even if that other were my brother.
I could not have believed that it could come to this; and would not now believe it, if I had not received it from Harry's own hand, and no one who bears the name of Lee can lie? It was corroborated also by your own mysterious silence. But think not, still ever dear Ellen, that I have propped up my feeble frame on the bed of death to utter reproaches against you, far from it--far, very far from it. I thought it might relieve your burthened memory in after time, if I would, before I died, voluntarily release you with my own hand from all engagements to me. I know that you were very young at the time of our rash promises to each other, and I know that our affections are not always within our own control. Let not the memory, then, of our youthful loves poison those of your maturer years.
May you and Harry glide gently down the vale of life, undisturbed by the trials which have wrecked my peace! May the gentlest dews of heaven moisten your green paths; and hand in hand may you support each other through whatever afflictions may be thrown in your way--and at last, may we all meet hereafter in a higher and nobler sphere of action.
Page 79
These wishes are sincere and honest, for they are the products of the bitter and honest hour of death. I could not write them sooner, and it were not safe to defer it longer, for already I feel the damp dews of death gathering upon my brow, and the shadowy visions of the dark valley falling over my eyes--they are covered with mist. Farewell! farewell!
FRANK LEE
.It would be impossible to depict the various and conflicting emotions which agitated her heart while perusing this letter. She read it over and over again, and walked the room with it in her hand, occasionally referring to it, to note some passages whose meaning she was attempting to understand more clearly. Night came and still she pondered over that single page of writing, though she had learned every word of it by heart. The very punctuation became a matter of moment. A single note of interrogation alter the word lie, though placed there in the hurry of agitated composition, or by mistake, seemed to her excited fancy as if poor Frank had intended to ask the question, whether Harry could have falsified her or not. Who is there in this world of trouble, who has not thus dwelt upon a letter containing bad news, vainly endeavoring to draw consolation from some chance word by which the disastrous news might be softened, and torturing the words of the writer into meanings never meant to be conveyed? Though that long day and night were spent in grief and suffering, it was merely over a new aspect given to the old sorrow by the letter. On the whole, her heart was relieved by a review of the story of the Tutor, and she now, with something like reason, nursed the hope on her heart, that she would one day yet meet her long lost lover. In this happy conviction she fell into a deep sleep before morning, from which she was not roused until the sun was high up in his daily rounds.
CHAPTER XX.
VIRGINIA COURTSHIPS.
IN the course of a few days John Spotswood was able to sit up in his chair, and receive the visits and congratulations of his friends. He seemed to have lost all relish for the disgusting poison which had thus carried him to the very brink of the grave, but the same settled despondence still brooded over his young hopes. Kate was ever at his side, not only anticipating every desire, but exerting her powers to the uttermost to entertain and enliven her dejected brother. She read to him, she sang to him, she culled flowers to amuse his solitary hours, and even affected a gaiety which she felt not, to cheer him from his settled melancholy; but all to no purpose--to the books he listened not, to her charming voice he turned a deaf ear, and her flowers he would take in his hand and perhaps snuff their fragrance, and then let them fall listlessly upon the carpet beside him. No subject, no book, no person seemed to possess the least attraction for him, he hardly tolerated the society of his own sister, delightful as that society was. His whole comfort now consisted in his tobacco, which the old Doctor allowed him to whiff occasionally. He would sit for hours with his pale emaciated face thrown up, his head resting upon the back of his couch, and his eyes fastened upon the ceiling, or following the rich volumes of smoke which issued from the fragrant weed, and never utter a syllable.
Kate would steal away into another room and weep and sob as if her heart would break, and then after removing all traces of her distress, glide back again to her position at his side. Many times she was compelled to rush out
Page 80
of the room to hide her emotion, at some remark of her brother's, showing his utter hopelessness and deep despondence; she was not always alone in her duties at her brother's sick couch. Bernard Moore spent a great portion of his time there, and by his lively conversation and playful humor, assisted Kate in her endeavors to pluck the rooted sorrow from John's heart; but it is very questionable, whether he was not much more successful in planting the seeds of it in his own. It is a very dangerous thing for a young gentleman to see a beautiful girl daily and hourly performing those hundred little offices which minister to the wayward fancies of an invalid, especially if those sweet charities are offered with a cheerful spirit and a temper always yielding, even to the impositions of the unreasonable patient. It is not that man in his selfishness is looking forward to the days of his own imbecility, when he may perhaps need a nurse himself--it is not that or any thing like it, that so lays open his heart on such occasions; there is very little in reference to self passing through his mind; 'tis purely because it presents woman in her true sphere; it is because it presents her in the attitude of a ministering angel.
How noiselessly she moves through the room--with what gentle and steady hands she presents the cup to the parched sufferer--how nicely she balances the pillow supporting the throbbing temples, and then lays it down again so softly, that the slumbers of an infant would scarcely be disturbed. There is no impatience--no drowsiness--no yawning--not even talking, when out of place--they endure all things, suffer all things.
Kate was wholly absorbed with her brother's condition; she seemed entirely unconscious that a very assiduous beau was as constant in his attentions to her slightest wants, as she was to those of her brother. Not that she slighted Moore in any degree, nor on the other hand, did she manifest that alarming politeness, which to the discerning lover is the prelude to a dismissal. The most keen-sighted and sagacious observer of the sex would have been sorely puzzled to say, in what estimation she held the youth. The Virginia system, or custom, has always required a long probation of the lover, and during all the while, how admirable is the self-possession of the sly and demure damsel! Not a look, or gesture, or word, or pressure of the fingers betrays the state of the affections. How this admirable result is brought about, we know not; we speak of the performance of the ladies' part, as matter of history. The object is sometimes effected by a playful railery, and affectation of indifference, in other regions; but it is not so in the Old Dominion. The lady preserves a charming degree of naturalness in the midst of the most interesting passages of life. That nature is wholly suppressed, and that there are no little straws floating upon the still stream, by which the current may be detected, we do not mean to say. We only speak of the general habits and manners of the people.
Moore (as all other Virginia lovers do even at this day) doubtless weighed these things, and certainly took encouragement from the examination, as his perseverance evinced, but Carter did the same, and both could not be right. Thus holding two admirers exactly equipoised, will our readers accuse her of coquetry? There was not a particle of that feline propensity in her composition, which plays with a victim and then destroys him. Nature has placed the female sex in the defensive in this matter; they cannot woo, but must wait to be woed; and man in his thousand intricacies of character, and seeming inconsistencies, retreats as she advances; it is therefore the true philosophy of the sex to be utterly non-committal, until the all-important hour arrives, when these conventional barriers are broken down by the other. Then how charmingly the frost work of that long probation melts before the assiduities of the ardent and persevering lover! Before that day arrives, there are a thousand little playful courtships on the part of the gentleman; he often assumes quite a quixotic devotion, and hesitates not to profess his admiration, at which the lady looks on quite smilingly and demurely, but these are the mere skirmishes
Page 81
of the outposts which precede the pitched battle. It was partly on this account that Moore's position was so dangerous; all this skirmishing and quixotic devotion to the sex was in a great measure dropped in the sick room, and he flattered himself that he had caught sundry little nameless confiding pieces of forgetfulness in Kate. He saw that she looked up to and relied even upon his presence as a comfort in her present position. In other words, the sick room breaks down a small portion of these conventional barriers. They consulted quite confidentially about the varying state of the invalid's health, and the state of his mind. Was he so selfish as to wish John's sickness prolonged; we hope not; we know not; it would have been no inconsistent phase of human nature if he had; but he was constant in his attentions, and ever instant with his services. Those whispering conversations which they held in the recess of the palace window, while the patient slept, were exceedingly comfortable things to the doubting youth. How he drank in the words that fell from her now all serious and confiding face, and how he loved to see her eye rest upon him for consolation, after a prolonged gaze upon her sleeping brother.
On the evening in question, as they thus sat, after a little playful bantering of Moore's, and several ineffectual attempts to reinstate her in her usual cheerfulness, she thus spoke to him:
"Will you be frank and sincere with me now, and say, if you know the cause of this sad change in my brother?"
"Thus appealed to, most assuredly I will Kate; but it is a fruitless frankness in this instance, for I am as ignorant as yourself. The day that you sent me in your place to accompany him on the road, I endeavored to draw it out, but he baffled me."
"You know more of human nature, at all events, more of young men's nature, than I do, what do you imagine could cause this dreadful despondence? Place yourself in his situation as near as you can, what would depress you thus?"
"I know not, unless being crossed in love." Kate turned her head slightly from the speaker, and a warm and just perceptible color flashed over her cheeks for an instant, leaving her face rather pale, and her ears very red. He continued: "But I do not know that any such thing has happened to John?"
"No," replied she--"there was a slight effort made by their friends to induce my brother and Ellen to fancy each other, but they very soon discovered that these are feelings which, in their origin at least, must be spontaneous. Neither of them, I believe, were heart-broken by the effort; I can speak with certainty of the lady."
"And I, of the gentleman--of course, that cannot be the cause. Have you never heard of any other attachment of his?"
Kate made no reply, but seemed busied with some mortifying recollection, and then darted off to perform some little nameless duty about her brother's sick couch. When she returned, she did not seem to think the question still required an answer, and the subject was dropped.
That same night Moore was seated in his room at the Hotel, wrapped in his dressing gown, his feet cased in slippers and thrown over a chair, while volumes of smoke rose up in pyramids over his head, and broke in fanciful festoons for many yards around. A large volume, with plates, was open before him, and his table was strewed with flowers. He did not seem to be studying very attentively, for every now and then he threw his eyes to the ceiling, and was lost in a pleasing reverie. Presently a rap or two was heard at the door, when who should enter but Carter, just from Temple Farm, Moore sprang up and grasped his hand cordially, as he said:
"Oh, Carter, where the treasure is, there will the heart be also."
"True, my fine fellow, how is Kate?"
"Well, I thank you, but I had supposed you would ask first about her brother."
Page 82
"You thank me! and who the devil gave you any right to thank me? You speak as if you were already one of the family. Come, come, Moore, fair play; there must be no stealing a march upon me. We are pledged to a fair race, and that it shall not be terminated until we have crossed the mountains."
"Ha, ha, ha," shouted Moore, "Gad, that would be a long track, sure enough; the Governor to hold the stakes, I suppose?"
"Moore, what a fellow you are, for turning every thing into a joke."
"Aye, Carter, true; but where my tongue tickles, your's stings."
"But what do you mean by having these flowers upon your table, and that huge book on medicine; are you going to study the art?"
"This is a book on botany, and these are specimens. Kate is giving me lessons."
"Ha, ha, ha," said Carter, "love makes fools of us all. You know that you have no more of the gennine passion than a savage. If she were to order you upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, don't you think you would undertake it?"
"By Heavens, Carter, we are both going on one little short of it; and if the honest truth were told, it is more the daughter's influence than the father's arguments that leds us over those mountains, as studiously as you may pore over the old veteran's maps. Is it not so?"
"Right, Moore, right."
"Well, what is the difference now between my courting the daughter with botany, and your courting the old gentleman with geography?"
"None, except that I fear you have taken the shortest and pleasantest road; but talking of mountains, I understand our expedition is to be no child's play after all; there is terrible work with the Indians along our southern borders. The North Carolinians have had quite a brush with them, and the infection is extending even to some of our tributaries, and to the whole of the South Western Indians. I do not like the idea of that fellow, Chunoluskee, being our guide."
"Nor I--did you ever hear such stuff as that which he palmed off upon those three old gentlemen that morning. He is an arrant hypocrite."
"As ever lived, and yet the Governor will not believe it; he will peril the success of his expedition, if not the whole of our lives, if his eyes be not opened before we set out."
"It must be our business to see to that, but tell me, have you heard from any more of the counties? Will the young men join us?"
"Yes; I saw the Governor to-night and he is in fine spirits. He says they are pouring into the capital from every quarter."
"What, the gentry, or their recruits?"
"Both; some have brought their men, and mules, and horses, and are now actually ready; while others have been brought here by the proclamation, to see and learn for themselves. I left at least twenty of the latter down stairs as I came through; they are smoking and drinking over the discussion of the subject, even now."
"How talk they--for us or against us?"
"For us--I think most of them seem to have caught at that new idea of the Tutors, about the immense rewards in lands. Gad, Moore, that's an extraordinary fellow, a clever rogue; but the Governor says he's a soldier, every inch of him."
"Yes, you can see that in his very step; he never turns his head, but he seems as if it were on a pivot."
"But I forgot to tell you the news about him, since you left the Farm; he is desperately smitten with the old Doctor's little nun."
"Is it possible?--he is presumptuous."
"Yes, it is a fact, and what is still more remarkable, the little prude is quite
Page 83
pleased with his attentions; she seems at last to have found one of our sex whom she can tolerate, and a pretty selection she has made of it. Only to think of her rejecting John Spotswood, and then accepting this desperate adventurer with the seedy garments."
"As to fortune, Carter, I grant you it would be rather a mesalliance, but in every other respect he is a match for any man's daughter. I am very much mistaken if he has not always moved in circles of the highest rank. But tell me what induces you to think that there is any thing in the story?"
"Well, I'll tell you; since you left the Farm they have been inseparable. The morning that Kate came away, they spent about half the day together, over that strange vault at the foot of the garden, about which there is so much gossip just now; after which she locked herself up for the remainder of the day and night. Next morning she came out bright as a new guinea, and again they wandered off together, along the bay shore, he talking poetry, and she discoursing of heaven, no doubt. Well, they came into dinner, and there she sat laughing and talking as loud as Dorothea herself. I asked the little dairy maid in an under tone, if she did not think her friend was hysterical, for which she slapped me in the face with her fan. It, however, proved to be no hysterics after all, for she has been quite cheerful ever since, and sits out the evening in the parlor, and has taken Kate's place at the organ every evening. There is a great change in her, from some cause or other--others have noticed it, and her bloom is already returning. If I had not engaged in this everlasting race with you over the mountains for the prize of Kate's hand, and if Ellen was not such an intolerable little blue-stocking, I could find it in my heart to fall in love with her myself; she is a bewitching little fairy after all."
"Well, how does the representative of all the Lees bear being choused by a poor Tutor?"
"Oh, there's the sport--Dorothea, I fear, will die with the effort to suppress her delight; she encourages the mutual attraction of the two quiet ones, while Lee struts like a peacock."
"But, Carter, how was it he played the magnanimous to the Tutor, about the property left him, has he taken all that back?"
"Oh, he was in a patronizing mood then, and cannot very well retract, for the Governor actually drew some of the proceeds of the estate out of him before this business commenced. The adventurer carries it off boldly, I assure you, for he treats Harry as if he were the debtor and Hall the creditor."
"Such is the fact, Carter, if his story be true."
"Poh, poh, Moore, will you never learn the world better; I tell you he is some broken down gambler, or attorney, or perhaps a cashiered officer."
"How could he have known all that family history which he detailed to Lee?"
"Learned it for the purpose of swindling, no doubt."
"I cannot believe it; if Hall is an impostor, I'll never trust mankind again."
"Well, we shall see, for depend upon it if he goes on putting his spoon into Lee's dish, as he is doing now, that gentleman will soon bring him to the proofs of his identity. Indeed, I heard him swear before I left the Farm, that he had suffered himself to be imposed upon, and he wrote a long letter by me to Attorney General Clayton, upon this very subject. You will be sure to see a fox chase before the matter is ended. Clayton read the letter in my presence, and questioned me very closely about the young man, He evidently thinks with me, that he is an impostor. He says the question can be placed beyond doubt, in a short time; that there is a man now living in the Colony who came from the neighborhood of these Hall's in Scotland, and who knows the young man Henry Hall to whom the estate was left. He is, moreover, one of the witnesses to this very will, and was consulted, it seems, by the old lady, about his character and habits, and all that; and her selection of him from the rest of his family, was mainly through his instrumentality. His name
Page 84
is McDonald, and Clayton has written to him to be at the capital by the time the Governor's family remove thither for the season. So you see we are likely to have some sport."
"Should this business terminate as you so confidently predict, it will be another terrible blow to that little sensitive plant of the Doctor's; that is, if she is really pleased with his attentions, as you say."
"Tut, tut, Moore, if she can be inveigled from her seclusion by one man, she can by another. She is no man-hater, take my word for it. It is only your broken backed girls and old maids seared with the smallpox, that truly hate the men, and then it is only because they discover the aversion in us first. I never saw one of your man-haters who was a pretty girl, in my life. I confess that Miss Evylin came near shaking my faith for a while, but since I have observed her closely, as she conversed with this man Hall, I have become more confirmed than ever in my belief. If ever I saw a girl's soul in her eyes, it was in her's while conversing with that man."
"You astonish me, Carter. Miss Evylin is the last person in the world whom I would have supposed would be accessible to a stranger at all, but that the affair has progressed to the length you describe, really astounds me. As much as I confess myself taken with Mr. Hall, I would have preferred a longer probation in the case of a lady."
"Kate leads us a different sort of a dance, aye Moore? I rather suspect you would not object to any precipitancy in that quarter."
"No, Carter, no; you are a generous rival I must confess, and bear off our mutual sufferings with a happy grace, but will you excuse me, if I say that I do not think you are very deeply touched."
"The devil you don't! wherefore do you think so? Is it because I can still crack my jokes and be merry over my wine and tobacco?"
"Your jokes, Carter, as I said before, sometimes sting more than they tickle."
"Ha, ha, ha, they do, do they? I thought I had wrung your withers. Forgive me, Moore, I have no right to rejoice over your greater sufferings, but being a fellow sufferer, I have some right to laugh."
At this time a slight knock was heard upon the door, with sundry scrapings of the feet. Moore smiled as soon as heard them, and cried come in. In glided old June, wringing his tarnished cocked hat with both hands, as if he designed rending it in twain--bowing his head at every step as he approached, and scraping back his right foot with a grating noise upon the floor.
"Well June," said, Moore, "what brings you to the capital?"
"I come wid Moss Carter, to fetch back letter for Miss."
"Ah, and you are going back to the Farm to-night. Well, what's your will with me, June?"
"Glass rum for poor nigger--please God."
Moore ordered the servant to bring it, which June having prefaced with a long speech, by way of toast, drank off at a single breath, and then smacked his mouth and wiped his lips, and stood as before, still rolling or twisting his hat with his hands.
"Well, June, now you have got the rum, what next? Your tongue is loosened; now for the news on the Farm. Have you seen any more ghosts, since the night of the thunder storm?"
"No massa, ant seen spirit since, but June dreame last night."
"Oh! well let us have your dream, what was it? About your Miss Catherine and her beaux again?"
"No, Massa, not dis time. I dreame say, I bin der der trable, trable, trable, ta-a-ah! clean wha neber been befo. De keep on trable, trable, so tay! at las, I see high fence--look jis like big wall--he white, jis like chork, ony he
Page 85
bery shine. When I see dat, I walk all about, der try find who lib dere. I walk, I walk--tay I see big gate dey tan wide open. I gin peep dis way, and peep dat way--las, I skin he eye open tight, and I see plenty ob people. Some dey walk about--some dey lay down--some dey eat--some dey drink--some dey sleep, ugh! dey look so happy. Tay, I look gin, and see some of my fellow sarbents dey, aint hab noting 'tall for do. One call me--say, 'broder June, come in, come in, glad for see you, him de look for you long time--me too glad for see you.' I gone in, ugh! de place pirty, for true--I'h! de corn--de tatoe--ebery ting growin dey. All my fellow sarbents dey walk bout in de sunshine. No hab no close 'tall--ebery ting comfort--no spade, no hoe, no plough--nottin 'tall do, but eat and drink, and sleep in de warm sunshine. I walk 'bout, and I eat and drink, and feel too happy. My Lor', feel too happy last night--happy for true--so tay, I gwine haben to look hine de do, ugh! wha you tink I see, mass Moore--wha you tink I see dey?--Lor', massa, see big red cowskin hang up dey! Kerry, when June see dat, he trable, trable back gin, till he bark shin ginst skillet, and wake up and find he no nigger hebben arter all."
The youngsters burst into a loud laugh, in the midst of which the banjo player, with many quaint bows, departed, as he had done from his negro heaven, and was soon riding at the rate of eight miles an hour in the direction of Temple Farm; thereby verifying the old adage, that a spur in the head is worth two in the heel.
CHAPTER XXI.
HARD WORDS.
WHILE a portion of those in whom we hope our readers take an interest still linger at the capital, let us again revisit the charming shores of the Chesapeake--that choice region, which is daily deserted by its natives for an unknown land of frogs, and vapors, and swamps.
Before another half century rolls round, the borders of this most magnificent of all inland seas will be sought for by travellers in their summer rounds, from both sides of the Atlantic, and its now decaying mansions will be rebuilt, with far more than their former splendor. The little old squat farm houses, with their dormar windows, will be supplanted by elegant villas, and neat cottages and stately castles, and the hundreds and thousands of monuments erected in memory of the dead of a former generation, and now slanting to the horizon, and many of them dilapidated and disjointed, will be eagerly sought out by some old Mortality, and their nearly obliterated insignia restored and redeemed from oblivion. Perhaps the descendants of these very restless emigrants, now miring in the swamps of Mississippi, may return, and hunt out the faded and perishing memorials of their forefathers, and cast their tents beside them, and say, here will we and our posterity dwell forever, in the land given to our fathers. Well would it have been for thousands and tens of thousands had they been content to dwell in this most favored land, endowed by nature as it is with all that should cheer the heart and content the mind of man. We say, that in less than half a century, the tide of emigration will roll backward, and the desolate shores of the Chesapeake yet blossom as the rose. Oh may that day soon come, when Virginians will learn to venerate more and more the land where the bones of their sires lie; that land consecrated as the burial place of a whole generation of high-hearted patriots, and where yet breathes the purest spirit of enlightened freedom that ever refreshed and purified
Page 86
the earth; that land in which was exhibited that rarest combination of social aristocracy and public equality--where virtue, and talents, and worth alone were consecrated to reverence, through hereditary lines of descent. Many an hour did we toil to replace the fallen cap of some old tomb-stone, of a sire, perhaps, whose descendants were every one gone to a strange land. We were accompanied in our labor of love sometimes by one,* who even then bore about his person the too sure evidence that he, too, would soon sleep with the consecrated dead, whose memories and monuments he loved so well to cherish.
*The late Senator Page of Williamsburg--the sole lineal descendant, we believe, of Governor Page. He had the true antiquarian zeal. His was a pure and bright spirit. Peace to his ashes.
We could not pass through Old York on our way to Temple Farm, without one more glimpse at that melancholy and utterly ruinous grave yard; where the traveller beholds the faded efforts of heraldry, like a cross-bones and death's head, gaping from every tomb-stone. There the stones themselves, erected to perpetuate earthly honors, are fast sinking to the grave, staring and gaping as they fall, and holding aloft their effigied arms, as if in supplication to the passer by to save them from the threatened desecration. That old grave yard is turned out like their old fields, to rejuvenate upon the very carrion which is left from the ceaseless battle that time wages with all things. Oh Virginians! ye noble few who still cling to the hearth-stones of your forefathers, rouse up, and preserve these old time-honored monuments--these old tomb stones, that have withstood the storms of the Chesapeake for a hundred and fifty years. When those old grave stones are replaced, and flowers once more bloom over their green and dark forms, then will the regeneration of the Old Dominion commence, and not till then.
Our readers have caught a glimpse of the position of some of the parties at Temple Farm, from the conversation of Kit Carter and Bernard Moore; but there were others at the farm, to whom they were not so amusing. Harry Lee could scarcely believe his own eyes, when he saw the young lady at whose feet he had been casting his princely fortune, and not less princely self, daily wandering along the shores of the bay, and through the garden and the shady groves, and along the banks of the little brook, with one whom he considered as only occupying his present social position by sufferance. He was struck with the fact, that the more Ellen and Hall were together, the more the hatred of the latter was manifested to him. He determined therefore to seek an early opportunity for explanation from both. In the meantime, it seemed to him as if the stay of the old Doctor would be prolonged forever, so impatient was he for his return. He inquired for him at every meal.
On one of these occasions, Dorothea, with a sly smile upon her face, proposed to despatch a messenger for the Doctor, if Mr. Lee was getting much worse, as she said her brother was better, and the Doctor could no doubt be spared in case of emergency.
"I thank you," said Lee, "I am not myself the patient who most needs his valuable services," glancing scornfully at the Tutor.
"I did not know," innocently replied the little girl, "but it might be gout in the stomach, or a disease of the heart, and these things, you know, mama, are so frightful and so insidious; they never have any external signs, I believe."
Ellen on these occasions would look beseechingly at her little friend, while her Ladyship would carry off the conversation upon some other topic, as if Dorothea had not spoken. On one of these mornings, Lee walked into the library, at that hour when he knew the Secretary was at work and alone. He bowed stiffly to Hall. The latter rose hastily, handed him a chair, and at the same time stuck the pen behind his ear, after which he took his own seat, and waited for Mr. Lee to open the conversation, which he did as follows:
Page 87
"Mr. Hall, in the absence of Governor Spotswood and Dr. Evylin, I have taken upon myself a very unpleasing duty, and one which I fear in its performance may inflict pain upon you."
"I am utterly at a loss to comprehend you."
"You shall not long remain so, sir--I am not one to shrink from the performance of what I consider due to the worthy and honorable gentlemen, whose representative I consider myself, in some measure, in their absence."
"Indeed--I had rather thought that I had been charged by his Excellency with representing him in his absence."
"I thought, sir, that you must be laboring under some strange delusion as to your position here."
"I am still in the dark, sir."
"So I perceive, and it is my intention to enlighten you."
"I will listen with the greatest attention, and all the respect to which your remarks may be entitled."
Lee bit his lip, and elevated his person still more than usual, if possible, as he proceeded:
"You must know, sir, that it is not usual in this country, for one who holds the--the subordinate office of Tutor or Private Secretary, to assume an equal station with gentlemen of birth and fortune."
"I am at a loss to know, Mr. Lee, in what I have transcended the indulgence extended to me by Gov. Spotswood himself. I even abstained from presenting myself at his table, until expressly commanded to do so by himself."
"In that matter he had doubtless a right to do as he pleased; but you must know that the Governor is a very eccentric man, and somewhat whimsical--he may command you to set at his table to-day, and refuse you to-morrow."
"But, sir, he expressly stated it to me as his desire, that I would set at his table, as one of his family. Am I to understand Mr. Lee, as expressing a contrary desire?"
"By no means--I only alluded to your appearance at table as an example, and because you first alluded to it yourself; my design was to touch upon other matters--your intimate association with the female inmates of his family."
"Ah! you allude to my late rambles with Miss Evylin."
"I do, sir, and it is somewhat remarkable that they should have commenced the moment the Governor and the Doctor disappeared."
"With regard to the point of time, I had nothing in the world to do. The interview was sought by the lady. I state this in justification of myself, and only under such circumstances as the present, would I say this much. Further I will not utter a single syllable, unless you can show by what authority you question me in this matter at all."
"I have already said, that I consider myself, in some measure, as the representative of those two gentlemen."
"Yes, sir, but you are the self-elected representative, and have not yet exhibited to me any other authority."
"Then, sir, I have another title to question you in this matter. I have the authority of the lady's father for occupying a very delicate relation towards her."
"And the lady's, also?"
"About that, sir, you have no right to question, and I consider it rather presumptuous in one in your position to presume as far as you have."
By this time both had risen. Hall replied--"and I consider it equally presumptuous in you, sir, to question me."
Lee looked astounded. "Very well, sir," said he, "I have at least brought this matter to an issue, and I will state the case to the ladies of the family, and they can act as they choose, until the gentlemen return."
"And I, sir, will relate the whole of this conversation, word for word, to Miss Evylin, so that she at least may know how far each of us have presumed."
Page 88
"Beware, sir, how you mention my name in that quarter. I will hold your person responsible."
"I don't know what you mean by holding my person responsible. If it be that you imagine that you can hold me to any sort of responsibility, in which you will not be equally so held, you have mistaken me, far more than I can have mistaken my position."
"We shall see--we shall see--it will depend upon your success in establishing your claims to bear the name which now you wear. In the event of this unpleasant business proceeding to hostilities between us, you will not find me unwilling to yield you far more, in such a case, than I think you have any right to claim now, in a social position."
"That is, am I to understand that Mr. Lee is willing to grant me to be a gentleman in war, but not in love."
"Beware, sir, how you trifle with me in this matter. It is no proof of either your courage or breeding to taunt me, while your hands are tied."
"There, sir, you spoke the truth, and I honor even an enemy for that. It is indeed too true, my hands are tied, and that I was too precipitate--thus far, I retract, but the main issue between us must continue, until I establish my claims to be your equal.["] Soon after which Lee left the room, with a rather more polite and respectful air than he had entered it. He neverthless went straightway to the parlor, and despatched a servant for Miss Evylin. While he was kicking his heels in the parlor, we will glance into the Governor's library again, where we left the Tutor. There was no more drawing of military maps that morning--he threw himself into a chair and buried his face in his hands, and if he did not weep, his frame was convulsed mightily like it. This was a poor preparation for a hostile meeting of any sort, but the bitter things of the heart will have vent, when alone, however much we brave them away in the midst of a personal altercation. How many men would see the error of their ways, if they would thus honestly meditate upon all that they have just said and done after such an affair; not that Hall regretted, in the main, any thing he had said.
He threw on his hat and walked abroad into the fields to cool his feverish brow and excited feelings, and to reflect upon what it was best to do, under the accumulating embarrassments of his situation. He had hoped that the tramontaine expedition would set out before his own private affairs might come to a crisis, but that he now foresaw was impossible, and this reflection made him miserable; for he had entered into all the Governor's plans with spirit and enthusiasm, and besides had other private motives, above the ordinary youthful desire for notoriety--to distinguish himself. He was waiting, too, anxiously for news from Europe--alas, he little knew how disastrous would be the first aspect of that news to him--he little imagined that at that very moment a vessel was ploughing her way into the bay, bringing information almost the reverse of what he expected. Without this last drop to his already brimming cup, he found the weight of his troubles sufficient for all his fortitude and patience.
The main subject of his present reflections was the impending personal difficulty with Mr. Lee. He foresaw that a crisis in that affair was inevitable, and that it was surrounded with difficulties which would ruin him, if he seized upon either horn of the dilemma. He could neither fight Lee, nor refuse to fight with honor, according to the prevailing notions of the country and the times, and yet he gathered from some expressions dropped by that young gentleman in their late altercation, that he would force it to such an issue in the last resort. We will leave him, however, to struggle with his own difficulties, while we return to Mr. Lee, who waited a considerable time for Ellen to make her appearance. She dreaded the interview, because she supposed it was like so many that had gone before it, but she resolved that it should be the last. As she descended the stairs, she was pondering
Page 89
the best manner of communicating to the gentleman, not only her utter aversion to him, but also how she might make him comprehend, with his arrogance and great self-esteem, that his persevering suit amounted to persecution. It may be readily conceived that such a train of reflections were not well calculated to prepare her to receive in a very amiable mood the harangue which was to follow.
She saw as she entered the room, that she had mistaken his object for once, and seating herself, kept her eye upon his countenance, with an anxious inquiring look for his object.
"Miss Evylin," he began, "I have sent for you, to have some conversation upon a subject which I fear will be painful, but I felt it to be my duty to do so, in the absence of Governor Spotswood and your father."
"You startle me, sir," she suddenly exclaimed, "will you be so good as to mention the subject, without farther circumlocution?"
"I am not one given to much circumlocution, Miss Evylin, but on occasions such as the present, when very delicate matters are involved, it is right to prepare the mind for the reception of disagreeable news."
"News!" cried she, "of whom--my father?--has any thing happened to him?" and she ran up and grasped his arm.
"He is well as you might have divined, from my mentioning his absence as the cause of my having imposed the present disagreeable duty upon myself."
"True," she said, and threw herself into a chair in a listless mood, as if she cared not what else he might say. She was however mistaken there, for she was roused again in an instant, as he proceeded:
"Miss Evylin--Mr. Hall has used your name in a way, which I have every reason to believe was entirely unauthorized by you, and one, too, which I must say it becomes you to authorize me to contradict at once."
"Mr. Hall, use my name! authorize you to contradict! why what could Mr. Hall say of me?"
"Oh, I see that it was all made up for the occasion; I thought it would turn out so. Why, thus it was. When I took him to task for his presumption in associating so intimately with the ladies of the Governor's family in his absence, and more especially with yourself, he with quite an air boasted that his society had been sought by you, and not yours by him."
Ellen rose to her feet, and walked straight up to Lee, and looked into his face, as she inquired in a slow, almost whispered voice, so deep was her emotion, "Did Mr. Hall use such language of me, and with such a motive, and with such an air?"
"He did--and I cannot of course speak as to the exact words, but such was precisely the impression left upon my mind."
"Mr. Lee, refresh your memory again--I would have perilled my life upon the truth and honor of that gentleman--have not your own feelings colored his expressions?"
"I have already stated how the conversation happened, and given you the result as near as I am capable of--there can be no mistake, for it happened not half an hour ago, in the Governor's Library."
She threw herself back into a seat, as one who gives up, and said: "Then I have indeed been grossly deceived."
"You have truly, and by as arrant an impostor as ever lived, and as bold a one. This comes of the Governor receiving men into his family, without credentials of any sort; but I need not say any thing of his Excellency, for this man imposed as bold a piece of clumsy swindling upon me as any one, and is actually now in possession of monies belonging to my aunt's estate."
Ellen rose to take her leave, from which Mr. Lee endeavored to persuade her, saying that he had far more important matters to discuss with her, than the clumsy tricks of an every day impostor; but she pleaded her deep mortification,
Page 90
and the confused state of her mind, from the perplexing doubts which still crowded upon her, and that she needed repose and that calm reflection which solitude alone could give. As she slowly mounted the staire, she thought of the letter which Hall had brought her, and from whom, and was on the point of rushing back into the room, and telling Lee that she would rather doubt him than Hall; but such was his high standing for a man of honor and veracity, that she did not dare thus to brave the pet of public opinion. She resumed her way, the same train of reflections still forcing themselves upon her mind--how could he (Hall) know all the delicate and intricate matters which he had related to her, if he was the gross and vulgar impostor, that Mr. Lee represented him to be. Her reason was almost bewildered by these conflicting views--between the internal evidence of truth in Hall's narrative to her, and Lee's positive testimony as to his gross and ungentlemanly statement with regard to herself. In whatever manner he might have possessed the information alluded to, if Lee's statement was true, he was undoubtedly some low creature.
Any sagacious observer of human nature will readily divine on which side the victory lay. Ellen was all a woman, and of course the heart won the day against the judgment. Nevertheless her indignation every now and then burst out, whenever she thought of the manner in which he had perverted her acts and spoken of them. Whatever might be her heart's leaning to the accused, she resolved that nothing of it should appear in her conduct; that she would show him that she knew and scorned his assumptions. Such was about the confused and doubtful result arrived at, when her maid entered to prepare her for dinner.
In the mean time Lee had not been idle--he next sent for Lady Spotswood, and to her and Dorothea he related a somewhat similar story, suppressing particulars in Ellen's case, barely referring them to her for proof of base ingratitude, as well as falsehood. He found all the ladies prepossessed in the Tutor's favor, and Dorothea remained so, in spite of all he could say to the contrary. Of course she did not presume to controvert her mother's decision in a grave matter like that, in the absence of her father too, but she left the room tossing her head, and declaring that there was a mistake somewhere.
Lady Spotswood held a long consultation with the accuser with regard to what was to be done until his Excellency returned, and whether it was best to send after him; and they came to the conclusion to let the business stand just as it was; only that all intercourse between the ladies of the family and the Tutor was to be cut off, except, of course, at table; and ladies generally understand full well how to keep improper persons at a distance.
Reader, did'st ever see some poor wight who had fallen under the displeasure of a party in the country, sitting apart? If you have, you can form some idea of the situation of Hall that day at Temple Farm.
Dorothea encountered young Dandridge as she made her exit from the family council, and to him she related the story of the Tutor's reputed perfidy. Little Bob, too, formed one of the youthful council, and the three came to the unanimous conclusion that he was innocent. How slow is the young heart to believe in the guilt of those for whom they have taken a liking; and with all of us, even of maturer age, how easy to believe what we wish to believe.
Bob took his hat straightway and followed his Tutor to the fields where he had lately seen him. The young man seemed to understand the warmth of heart which had brought his pupil upon his errand of love, and he silently folded the lad in his arms, while scalding tears trickled from his scarred face. The child was dumb at this sight, his own heart was overflowing, and had any more been wanting, the finishing stroke was added to his convictions. He took the hand of the Tutor and silently and slowly accompanied him to the house.
Page 91
Dinner was soon after announced and Hall took his seat as usual, entirely unaware of the extent of the prejudices which had been excited against him. His own countenance exhibited traces of excitement which would have claimed the sympathy of any company not previously set against him. There was inexpressible sadness, almost despair, marked upon every feature; but he had yet to experience a far greater degree of suffering. In that pale and beautiful face in which he hoped to find sympathy and comfort, he encountered nothing but scorn and indignation. Not a word was vouchsafed to him of any sort, and when her eyes met his, it was the cold glance of a distant acquaintance. He turned an inquiring look towards her Ladyship, and there he met the same cold displeasure. The conversation was carried on between her Ladyship, Lee, and Ellen, as if the poor Tutor had been still in Scotland. Not so, however, the youthful three--Dandridge, Dorothea, and Bob, vied with each other in helping their favorite to the choice dishes, but he ate nothing. Altogether it was a very unpleasant meeting. Most of the guests had departed, except those specially named, and among the others the Indian Chief, so that there was no relief to be found in numbers.
The meal concluded, Ellen hurried to her room and burst into tears; she was soon followed by Dorothea, who exclaimed when she saw her weeping, "I'm glad of it, I'm right down glad of it, so I am, you ought to cry your eyes out, so you ought, for treating poor Mr. Hall so naughtily."
"But Dorothea," said Ellen 'midst her sobs, "how could I help it?"
"Why, slapped Mr. Lee's face and told him to go home about his business. Did'nt he make all this mischief here. Harry Lee will take the house, plantation and all, if papa don't soon come home."
"Fie, fie, Dorothea, Mr. Lee is not to blame for Mr. Hall's faults."
"I tell you, Ellen, it's Mr. Lee who has the beam in his own eye, and he has swallowed one too for what I know, he's so stiff."
The little girl flirted out of the room in the pouts, little imagining that she left behind her, in the heart of the other, a warmer advocate even than herself in favor of the Tutor.
CHAPTER XXII.
WORDS COMING TO BLOWS.
THE same afternoon Hall encountered Ellen as she was passing through the apartment. He followed and begged her to grant him but a few moment's conversation. She stopped and looking at him with an expression which said as plain as words might speak it, it is more in sorrow than in anger that I avoid you.
"Will Miss Evylin deign," he said, "to inform so humble an individual as myself, how he has fallen not only under her displeasure, but also that of the family?"
She replied, "Mr. Hall, you have so grossly misinterpreted what I have already said and done, that it is hazardous to hold any communication with you."
"I have misinterpreted what you have said! never! I have never for one moment of my life harbored any but the kindest and gentlest thoughts towards Miss Evylin, much less spoken disrespectfully of her."
"Then you have been shamefully slandered."
"I thought as much, and it was therefore that I sought this opportunity for an explanation. Will Miss Evylin be so good as to inform me what I was reported to have said of her? I need not ask by whom."
Page 92
"You are reported, sir, to have boasted that so far from your having sought my favor, that I had sought yours."
"Miss Evylin, this is one of those ingenious falsehoods, which none but a perverse head or a false heart could have coined out of what I did say."
"Then you acknowledge that there was some foundation for it."
"As stated by you, it is wholly false in coloring, and nearly so in fact; but the world is governed by such falsehoods as these; what is called public opinion, is made up of these many little streams combined into one great torrent--why should I endeavor to arrest the mighty current with my puny arm?"
"You can at all events set yourself right in my esteem, by a plain statement of facts--do you consider it worthy of the effort?"
"Hereafter I can only hope to enjoy the good opinion of the choice few, among whom I would gladly rank Miss Evylin. I will state how the offence was given, if offence it be. Mr. Lee undertook to take me to task for pushing myself, a poor Tutor, forward into society, where my presence was not wanted. He went so far as to intimate that I presumed in sitting at the table with the rest of the family, and when I told him I had done so at the express command of his Excellency, he then changed his ground and claimed to catechise me with regard to my attentions to you. I challenged his right to do so, and he then stated that he was an avowed suitor, with your father's approbation. Under these circumstances I thought myself justified in stating the fact, that the first interview was sought by you. I stated neither more nor less, without coloring of any sort, and simply to justify myself from his charge of presumption. This is the whole of my offence."
She offered him her hand, as she said, "Mr. Hall, forgive me, but I am not to blame. I was led astray; I trusted too implicitly to his honor, for though he did not, it seems, tell what the world calls a falsehood, it answered all the purposes of one, and was so ingeniously designed as to mislead me and baffle detection."
"Aye, his conduct in this affair was not unlike another in which you were concerned, Miss Evylin; I should have thought that would teach you to guard your too confiding nature against him; but enough for the present, if I am wholly reinstated in your good opinion, I am satisfied."
"You are, and I take shame to myself that even this explanation was necessary."
"Having then judged hastily this time, promise that in future, when circumstances appear to be against me, you will hear my vindication before you decide."
"Most assuredly I will."
"I ask it, Miss Evylin, because I foresee that I may soon he placed in a position from which it may seem impossible to extricate myself. I will not deny to you, that I am surrounded by difficulties, the causes of some of which you know more than any other person. I make it, then, my last solemn request to you, to hear before you judge. Good day."
He had seen Lee passing in front of the verandah, and followed him down the garden, where he soon overtook and addressed him, thus: "You came to me this morning, sir, professing yourself under the painful necessity of communicating something disagreeable, I now address you under precisely similar circumstances."
"I am ready with all patience, sir, to hear you."
"Few words will suffice to convey my meaning, and therefore your patience will not be heavily taxed. You prevaricated, sir, in relating our conversation to Miss Evylin."
"Prevaricated, sir, and this to me!"
"Aye, prevaricated is the word, sir."
"Very well, sir! very well! you shall hear from me shortly." And with
Page 93
this he strode off, but presently returned, and said, "Hark you, Sir Tutor, you must establish your claims to be treated as a gentleman, and that right speedily, or I will not only chastise you in a way you will not fancy, but I will take such steps as to guard the community from your becoming heir to any more stray legacies."
Hall's lips curled in disdain as he replied, "choose your own manner and time of redress for the insult which now adheres to you. I shall be ready to repel in whatever way you advance." Lee was again retreating, as Hall continued, "And hark you, in your turn, Sir, beware how you report any more of our conversations. I will not trust your memory." This was said in a bitter sarcastic tone. Lee strode rapidly up to him in a threatening attitude, with his hand upon his sword, his face but a few inches from that of his adversary, and replied, "Do you mean to provoke me to forget that we are the only grown white males upon the place, and that the ladies are under our, or rather my protection?"
"You should under such circumstances remember the truth, it is peculiarly incumbent on you to do so."
Lee drew his rapier and flashed it in the face of the Tutor, as he exclaimed by heavens another such taunt and I will let out your base churl's blood here upon the walk, in spite of all the restraints upon me. Human nature can stand no more."
Hall wore no sword, but he carried a small rattan in his hand, which he elevated, touching the point almost in his adversary's face, as one who puts himself in the attitude to guard, exclaiming, "Come on, sir, I am more than a match for you, even thus."
Lee scorned his scientific posture and rushed upon him as if he would despatch him at single lunge, but the next moment found his sword twirling in the air, and Hall leaning upon his cane laughing at the foaming and now fruitless anger of his adversary. A few yards distant, among the shrubbery, he saw little Bob's face peeping out in the same mirthful delight, but truth to say, it was blanched white with fear, and the color had not yet returned.
Lee clutched his sword and hurried from the garden, swearing vengeance against the impostor. He rushed to the house, and after a hasty word or two with Lady Spotswood, ordered his horses and rode post haste to the capital. Not, however, before he had scratched a few words on a slip of paper, and sent them to the young man in the garden. They read as follows: "The first moment, Sir, after you have established your pretended claims to gentle birth and breeding, you shall hear from me. A reasonable time elapsing and this not done, I will chastise you at sight."
Hall's countenance loured as he read this note, and then tore it into fragments and gave them to the wind, but instantly relapsed into the merry mood as Bob ran at him with a stick, exactly imitating Lee's murderous thrust. "He did not see you twist the foil out of Mr. Moore's hand that night, or he would not have ventured his sword even against your rattan," said the boy.
"No, Bob, I am glad he did not, and then we should have met differently, which I assure you I am rejoiced to avoid, more than you can imagine."
"Well, now I must run and tell Nat and Dorothea, they will laugh till their sides ache; let me see how it was, thus you twitched him that double demisimiquaver. I would give my pony if I could just catch that trick."
"All in good time, Robert, but come here; you must not mention this unless Mr. Lee communicates it first; now remember, you will injure instead of befriend me, if you do."
"Well, to be sure, it's a great privation not to be allowed to tell of this. But you will not object if I make them promise not to tell."
"Yes, Bob, I do object; I have particular reasons for keeping it quiet for the present, and I am sure you would do nothing to injure me willingly."
Page 94
"No, no," answered the boy. "I would not injure you for any thing, and if telling it would do so, I will keep it though I burst in trying."
Still he kept on playing with his stick, every now and then bursting into a loud laugh, as the Tutor would humor him by twitching it out of his hand.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FALL OF THE LEAVES.
TWILIGHT, that witching time between day and night, came; always a pleasant hour of the twenty-four, but in Virginia particularly so. Here the climate, at the season upon which we have arrived, renders it very delightful, the sun just leaves enough of heat lingering with his departing rays, to temper the cool breeze of the evening. It is not to be denied, however, that there is something melancholy in these early autumnal twilights. The leaves of the green trees which have so long delighted and protected us, begin now to put on their variegated dress. First the deep green fades to a lighter shade, and then is tinged with a pale margin of yellow, and finally puts on the russet dress of winter. Here and there, also, those that have clung to the parent stern by a frail tenure, loose their vitality, and are seen floating about in the lazy atmosphere, as if reluctant to mingle with the parent dust.
"The fall of the leaves," said Ellen to Hall, as they wandered along the banks of the little stream which wound through the grounds, "the fall of the leaves in autumn, reminds us too forcibly of the death of a human generation. These pale heralds of the coming death to all their class, are like the sickly, and the feeble, and the old, of our race; do they not produce that impression upon you?"
"Sometimes, but not always. It depends much upon our circumstances at the time. If the country has always been our home, and we have drawn our chief delight from rural pleasures, then the impression is pretty sure to be a melancholy one: but to the city dame, it is the dawn of the gay season, of routs, and parties, and balls--here I mean in our capital. In London the season of pleasure is much later. To the literary man they produce a mixed sensation; a pleasing melancholy, tinged with the philosophy you have described, and also a cheerful looking forward to long winter nights, and bright blazing fires, and sweet communion with delightful books."
"That indeed, gives a cheerful and warm glow to the wintry picture, which my melancholy imagination scarcely fetches. Your remark has brought to mind a similar one, with which poor Frank rejoiced my heart one night. Oh what a bright and cheerful spirit he was blessed with! We were sitting listening to the dismal howlings of the wind as it rattled our windows and whistled through the key holes, and the rain and sleet alternately vied for conquest, when I remarked that it was a dismal night and affected my spirits sadly. He took my hand and looked up in my face, (we were alone,) and said cheerfully--'it is from within that the brightest illumination is to be drawn. There, if the heart, and mind, and affections be all right--is an everlasting sunshine of the soul--so bright that no night or storm ever comes over it.' Well, Frank, said I, unlock that magic lanthorn of yours, and try its bright rays on the contending storm and darkness, struggling for entrance at all these windows. Look how the contending demons scowl at us from without, now do drive them away, that's a good boy. Straightway his eye dilated, and he commenced a description of a domestic fireside scene of comfort, which really heightened its colors of beauty from the contrast of the darker shadows
Page 95
without. I imperceptibly caught the bright glow, from his more daring imagination."
"Poor Frank," said Hall, musingly, "some of his brightest fancies have been extinguished, I fear--like my own:" added he hastily, as he saw Ellen's eye reading his thoughts.
"No, they are not extinguished," at length replied Ellen, with a sudden flash of enthusiasm, "for if alive, those bright illuminations of genius, like the light of the diamond, but shine the brighter when all that is earthly around is obscured. There is but one thing on this earth that can extinguish that glorious light from within--IT IS CRIME! Let the conscience be clear, and the light of the soul illumines our dreary path--sheds the ray of hope through the valley of death, and is rekindled again at the parent fountain of the ever-living God."
"In this world, man is impelled forward to action amidst the stirring adventures which are gathered around him like the meshes of a plot, until it becomes with his doubtful and doubting reason hard to separate the narrow boundaries which divide crime from errors of judgment. Nay, even when the actions are past, the ever busy monitor you have named, conscience, hangs suspended over the deeds, at a loss whether to strike or be silent."
"For a little while only," replied Ellen quietly, "when time has sobered the tumult of the passions which drove him forward, conscience, though scared away for a while, will come back in the calmer moments of our lives. This very witching hour of twilight is a favorite time for such visits. In the bright and pure morning, our spirits are elastic and cheerful, and few heinous crimes are committed then; in the noon-tide, the storm of human passions rage, and if the intent is deadly and malignant, it is prolonged into the silent watches of the night; but with a large majority of our race, darkness brings repentance for the crimes of the day. What a beneficent provision of the Creator it was, rolling our little planet but one side at a time next the sun, that while one half the world fretted, and stormed, and sinned, the other half might repent and sleep."
"You seem to have observed mankind!"
"Nay, I am only sporting in borrowed feathers, at all events, only a part of them are my own. These very subjects were discussed by poor Frank and myself many a time, before he sailed upon that fatal voyage. So much had we learned to think in common, that it is hard now for me to separate my own ideas from his. Doubtless my constant association with him gave a masculine cast to many of my thoughts, the observation of which no doubt elicited your remark."
"No, no, I cannot say that they are masculine; at all events, they are not unfeminine. Whatever relates to our higher sentiments and our spiritual natures, certainly belongs in common to the sexes, and if man has usurped the whole claim to discuss them, he assuredly has no right to do so. Indeed, your sex is so much purer than ours, that any thing of heavenly philosophy seems to fall with peculiar propriety from their lips. Poor Frank! indeed he little knew how the germs of his young mature philosophy have been treasured in his absence, and into what good ground they had fallen, and to what a rich fruition they are even now springing up. Do you know that every boyish dreamer sketches, for his own futurity, the very circumstances which have fallen as a rich inheritance to my friend in his absence?"
"I cannot say that I understand you fully."
"Every youth, in the hey-day of his imagination, sketches out some charming little beau-ideal of a partner for life, and into this beautiful creation of his own he almost performs the part of creator, for he breathes into her such feelings, sentiments, and opinions as he desires she should possess; now here is poor Frank, with the ideal creature reduced to reality; but like
Page 96
all the bright glimpses vouchsafed to our race, no sooner is it perfected ready for him to grasp, than it either eludes his pursuit, or he is himself engulphed in that remorseless and relentless vortex, whither have been hurried so many bright spirits before him."
"I certainly feel flattered, Mr. Hall, that you should consider me worthy to represent Frank's ideal creations, but I fear the drapery with which your own imagination has clothed me would speedily vanish, amidst the stern realities of such a homely world as ours. I am conscious of the fact, however, so far as the mind is concerned; for there is not a day of my life, and scarcely an hour, as you have seen, that I do not detect myself uttering some of his sentiments at second hand. His mental superiority must have been greater than even I gave him credit for, as I can see the impress of his association even upon your own thoughts, as unconscious as you may be of it."
"I grant you that his influence over me was very great, not less than that which was swayed so powerfully over your own days of childhood."
"Nearly every girl that arrives at womanhood has passed through the same schooling of the affections. True, in our cases, there was a constant similarity in training, association, and circumstances, which merged down the dissimilarities of mental character, but in every other case, the experience is the same, even without these. The heart of every girl clings to some image or other, real or imaginary, and they cling to it through life, whether married or single. If married, the idol of the imagination is set up in secret, as one of the household Gods, and this is one reason there is so much matrimonial unhappiness. It was the early observation of these very things which led me so pertinaciously to cling to that prize which I had drawn in the lottery of life; and I shall continue to cling to it, even if it is but shadow, far preferring that to all the real pomps and honors which this world affords."
"The experience of our race seems to be every where the same. Not only was it cursed and condemned to earn its bread by the sweat of the brow, but the sentence extends much farther. All that beautiful poetry of the fresh and pure young hearts' sentiments, which promises such a heavenly harvest of future flowers, before those sentiments become tainted with grosser passions, seem never destined to fruition in this world. We are just allowed to peep into the garden of Eden, and then banished forever amidst the dark by-ways and crowded thoroughfares of busy life. True, we cling fondly to the memory of this poetic dream of youth, and doubtless these bright morning glories continue to throw a mellow but saddened light over all the future. This constitutes the sum and substance of our ideal paradise in this world, the poetry of real life."
"And do you really think there is no exception to the sweeping denunciation? Are there none who ever realize the romantic dreams of youth?"
"Oh, very few indeed. Look into your own experience, Miss Evylin. You are one of the very few who have struggled heroically against this sweeping flood of the busy world, which overwhelms nearly all who oppose it. Where there is one who thus stands out against the decree, hundreds have fallen victims around; some to ambition--some to avarice, and a much larger portion to the mixed motives which interested parents know so well how to ply the young heart with. And even you, are you not daily besot to listen to the voice of the tempter? Comes he not to you, with splendid estates, and gandy establishments, and tinselled honors, which your sex loves so well?"
"True, true--but I would not give up that one dear, dear dream of my young life, for all the honors of the world."
"And do you know the fate of the pious and noble few of your sex, who thus devote their lives to the perpetuation of life's young dream?"
"No, I have never counted the cost."
"It is a life of single blessedness. Pardon me, Miss Evylin, but you are
Page 97
a candidate for admission into that abused sisterhood ycleped old maids--that slandered and traduced, class--nearly every one of which are living monuments of the infidelity of man--that noble sisterhood, which lives forever upon the memory of the past--keeping up perpetual fires upon the pure and vestal altars, before whose shrines were offered their first, best, and dearest affections."
"Welcome, thrice welcome the lot!" said Ellen, a pure light beaming from her eyes, as she locked her hands with energy, in the earnestness of her invocation. "It has no terrors for me. As you say, I can turn back upon the past, and what is much better, I can even look to the future with hope. Thanks to that divine personification of hope, charity, and mercy, I can look beyond the narrow confines of this world. Believe me, Sir, these disappointments of the young heart's freshest aspirations, are not ordered in vain. If we could here enjoy an uninterrupted paradise, this world would no more be one of probation and trial; and though I for one am determined never to be merged with the interested throng you have described, I do not therefore repine at, and rebel against, an inevitable destiny. My own course is one of difficulty and self-denial, and perhaps of reproach and odium, and therefore we, old maids I mean, work out our salvation, if successful, by one road, while our more ambitious sisters travel another."
"Oh, I do not mean to class you just yet with the class alluded to--I only pointed out what would be the result, unless you listened to some of these splendid proposals so often laid at your feet."
"I am willing now to take the veil of the sisterhood, and shoulder all the odium and reproach."
"What! and surrender up the hope of Frank's being alive, and one day returning."
"No, no, not exactly that--I would only take refuge among them, until this short, and fitful, and feverish state of suspense be over."
"And should he even yet return, the fountain of your joys has already been poisoned."
"How? I pray you."
"Why, he has been carried by the tide of this world far past those beautiful eddies in the stream, overhung with green leaves, and redolent of summer flowers. He has been tossed upon some of life's stormiest billows, and if not actually wrecked and lost, he may be so weather-beaten and pelted by the contending elements, as to be, when he comes, like an ancient mariner, a better subject for repose and repentance, than for a fresh voyage."
"I know he was fashioned somewhat like other youths--impetuous and rash, and perhaps ambitious, but no storms of the world, such as you describe, can ever leave indelible stains or scars upon him. He may be weather-beaten and worn, but he will be my own Frank for all that, and whatever he may be--should even his tender conscience have suffered with the wear and tear almost inevitable in the dreadful conflicts of the thronged, and busy and turbulent world--still let him be welcome; for better, for worse, come weal, come woe, joy or sorrow, our destinies are linked forever--throughout this life, and I trust a longer and a better hereafter."
Hall's eye fully expressed his unmeasured admiration of the little devoted creature, as she poured out almost her whole heart. Our readers will readily perceive that he had been purposely tampering with the purest and brightest sentiments of her nature, whether in wanton sport or with higher motives, will be developed as our narrative proceeds. He continued:
"Ah, Miss Evylin, the experience of your pure and charming sex is very different from ours. Your views of the world, and your estimate of human nature, are taken through a very clear medium; and pardon me, I do not wish to flatter, but I must say that Miss Evylin is even exalted above that of her sex."
Page 98
"No, I am sure it is not--my experience of the world has been short, it is true, computing it in mere years, but it has been long in sorrow, and bitter in disappointment. You yourself have furnished me with some of the evidence upon which my views are based. What can I think of Henry Lee, after his conduct to his brother?--and in what way can I interpret his late disingenuousness conduct to you, unless very unfavorably to himself and to his kind. I have endeavored to think that the whole proceeded from his blinding passions, and consequent obliquity of moral vision, but I find it hard to make excuses for him."
"And you will find it harder, Miss Evylin, as his character is more fully developed; but I do not wish to speak touching him--another very unpleasant altercation has since occurred between us, and he has gone off very much enraged."
"I am very sorry for what you state, but I am glad that he is gone."
By this time they had entered the house.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A JOURNEY--THE END UNFORESEEN.
JOHN SPOTSWOOD was soon well enough to ride out with his sister in the carriage, and after several experiments of his strength, and continued improvement from day to day, it was at length determined to remove him for a short time to Temple Farm. His spirits had now become placid if not cheerful, and every one remarked that he began to look, and speak, and act more like his former self, than he had done for many months before. It was a mere farewell family reunion which was proposed to take place, preparatory to the removal of the whole establishment to the capital. That removal could not now longer be delayed, for the House of Burgesses was soon to assemble, besides a general meeting of all those favorable to the great tramontaine expedition. Accordingly, the same principal parties were soon re-established in the country who were there when we first introduced them to the reader, with such additions as had been made from time to time. Henry Lee did not return with the Governor.
It was impossible for his Excellency not to observe that Lady Spotswood was highly offended with the Tutor from some cause or other, and he very soon took occasion to inquire into the matter.
He first heard his lady's reasons for the difficulty, and then summoned Hall to the library to hear his.
"Well, Mr. Hall," said his Excellency as the Tutor entered, "sit down here, and tell me all about this difficulty with Harry Lee and the ladies of my family. For once they seem to have sided with him, and of course are against you."
"Not all of them your Excellency--I have satisfactorily explained the matter to the only one who has afforded me an opportunity, and the one, too, about whom the unpleasant altercation occurred."
"I am very glad to hear it. That is Miss Evylin, I presume."
"Yes, sir, and I am very sure she will be kind enough to set me right with her Ladyship, which she can do so much better than I can."
Hall here related the whole of the conversation with Lee, word for word, as near as he could recollect it. While he progressed, the old veteran's brow at first loured, but presently cleared away again, and by the time Hall had finished, he was laughing quite heartily. When this humor had somewhat spent itself, he wiped the tears from his eyes, and extended his hand to
Page 99
Hall, saying--"Never mind him; if I had been here, the affair would not have occurred; and if you had known him as well as I do, you would have given the whole thing the go-by, more especially as it was no more your interest to quarrel with him than it is mine. In your case, there is an estate pending, in which his good opinion is worth cultivating, and in mine, there is a vote in the House of Burgesses; but I suppose it is too late to mend the matter between you now."
"It is, your Excellency." He did not tell him of the rencounter in the garden--he did not think it necessary.
"But tell me Mr. Hall, is this true that I hear, that you are likely to carry off the Doctor's charming daughter after all, against all these rich and high born rivals?--you need not blush man, I meant no insinuation against your own parentage. Was Lee's rumpus nothing but a freak of jealousy?"
"Nothing else, sir, I solemnly believe, not that there was the least foundation for it. I have put in no claim to the lady."
"Aye, claims refers to rights, and these are rights something like squatting upon lands or our corn laws, which you have heard talked of no doubt. Is it so, and have you been squatting upon Lee's lands? Come man, out with it."
'No your Excellency--my temporary association with Miss Evylin grew entirely out of her solicitude for another. I have no right to bring those matters farther into discussion between us; but assure you, sir, that our frequent meetings had very little to do with me personally, any more than the reader of an interesting history has to do with the historian."
"Well, well, it is best, perhaps, as it is. Here comes John--I will leave you with him, for I want you to get well acquainted. You will find that he has an ardent thirst for military adventure; in the meantime, be sure I will set all things straight in the other end of the house."
John came hobbling upon his stick on one side, and leaning on Kate's arm on the other, looking very pale and care worn. His face, which was before full and unnaturally fleshy about its lower features, was now thin--clean cut and intellectual, with perhaps a dash of reckless determination about the thin closely compressed lips. He had evidently taken a prejudice against the Tutor, and notwithstanding Kate's warm encomiums, he received him coldly and rather cavalierly. Hall's late experience had well prepared him for this, and he bore it with patience and even humility. He waited for John to lead the subjects of conversation, and dropped in so gently, and yet threw so much light upon whatever he touched, that John was compelled to respect him, at least. Kate had left them together.
After John had conversed with the Tutor for an hour or two, his prejudices vanished, and he then communicated to him a proposition of his father's, and which he frankly confessed he was unwilling to do, until he had seen a little more of him. It was that Hall should proceed to the capital, taking with him the Scotch Irish recruits from York, and there take the command of the garrison in John's stead, until his health should be entirely restored.
Hall professed the utmost readiness to do so--indeed, he said he would prefer active employment in the present state of his mind, even to teaching master Bob, for whom, he said, he had taken a great liking.
"Well," continued John, "I must prepare you before hand for a motley array which you will find at the garrison. There are ten companies of the rangers, a little over two hundred men--they are old campaigners, and well enough, perhaps; but if the volunteer militia, who have come in with their homespun clothes, and with the burrs yet in their horses' tails and manes, can be drilled into decent looking dragoons before we set out, I will call you a soldier indeed."
"Never fear, never fear," said Hall, rising at once to make his preparations for the march. "Some of Marlborough's bravest soldiers were doubtless once as raw as your homespun militia."
Page 100
"Oh the materials are good enough," replied John, "these Virginia yeomanry would fight the devil, or thrice their number of Indians; it is their appearance which I fear will discourage you, but we are getting them equipped as fast as possible. You will find ten Lieutenants of Rangers, these we are distributing among the raw recruits, so that soon we hope to present quite an imposing little army to the good citizens of Williamsburg. The arms and accoutrements you will find in the tower, and at your disposal."
After receiving further instructions from the Governor, Hall was ready to set out for York. When he went to take leave of the ladies, he found Lady Spotswood somewhat mollified but still rather stately. Bob shed tears and begged to be permitted to march over the mountains with Mr. Hall. Dorothea and Kate were warm and unreserved in their good wishes, and old Dr. Blair bid him God speed. Ellen Evylin said little, but seemed to feel keenly that she was about to lose the society of one who had contributed not a little to that renovation of health and bloom spoken of in admiration by all the party just returned.
Hall cantered off, attended by old June, with a portmanteau bearing his baggage strapped behind his saddle. The former had already exchanged his seedy garments for those more becoming the society in which he had been moving, and every time he glanced at his external renovation, it rankled in his heart to think that the money with which they had been purchased, was obtained from Henry Lee, not that it long interrupted his reflections as he cantered down the avenue on his departure from a place where he had enjoyed so many hours of calm and delightful intercourse with its inmates. His thoughts were soon running upon far different matters than cocked hats, and silk hose, and velvet waistcoats. He had sought the Governor's country establishment as a quiet retreat, where he might for the present shun the observation of men, and though he was at first thrown into the company of some of the very persons whom he would have avoided, yet they were now gone, and he could have remained there for the short time still intervening before the departure of the family, without danger of exposure. He was ordered off just at this opportune moment, and into the most conspicuous part of the capital. Little did he imagine how speedily he would be removed from that position and in what manner! But we anticipate. There were other and gentler thoughts which forced themselves upon his attention. Could the image of that fair little blue eyed girl, be so soon obliterated from the memory even of an indifferent observer. But to him who stood sponser, as it were, for her long lost lover, and with a skilful and gentle hand had led her back over memory's brightest and darkest pages, could he forget her? Was there no impression left upon his heart by an association so dangerous? Let those of our fair readers answer who have poured the tale of their unhappy loves into the willing ear of some very benevolent and sympathizing youth; for our part we question the stoicism of these youthful philosophers, as much as we question the possibility of platonic attachments between opposite sexes. Especially do we question the stoicism of the gentleman, where (as in the present case) the lady is young, lovely, and intelligent. We do not know that Ellen Evylin had a sly design upon the heart of the poor Tutor, but this we know, that he did not leave Temple Farm unscathed. But there were other difficulties gathering over his head, far more formidable than all the wounds of the heart.
CHAPTER XXV.
REFLECTIONS IN PRISON.
When Hall alighted at the Tavern in Williamsburg, after installing the York recruits at the Garrison, and delivering his credentials to the officer in command--he
Page 101
was met immediately by a man who was a stranger to him, but whom Hall soon discovered to have something sinister in the expression of his countenance. The stranger approached with one of those official bows; or, "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Hall?" said he.
"You have, Sir," replied the gentleman.
"Mr. Henry Hall, late Tutor at Temple Farm?"
"The same, Sir."
"Will you be so good, Sir, as to cast your eye over that paper and tell me whether it is your signature?"
Hall took the paper and colored slightly as he read it, and then turned pale as he answered, "It is, Sir."
"I am authorized by the gentleman in whose favor it is drawn, to request the payment."
"To request the payment!" exclaimed Hall, "why, Sir, the debt is not due to him, except nominally--the money was advanced to me voluntarily by him, as part of the proceeds of an estate which he himself informed me that I had fallen heir to, and he told me when that paper was given that it was intended as a mere voucher on the final settlement of the estate, and now he demands payment almost before the warmth of his hands is off the money."
"I am sorry, Sir, but I must do my duty."
"And I am, I suppose, more sincerely sorry--first that I took the money at all--secondly, that I spent it, after it was taken--and, thirdly, that I accepted an obligation at all from such a man."
"Then I am to understand that you cannot pay it."
"Not to-day, Sir--not until I can write to Gov. Spotswood."
"I am sorry again, Sir, but if you will read that paper, you will see that I am required to demand bail."
"What?"
"Yes Sir, I am compelled to perform a disagreeable duty."
"And suppose I cannot give bail?"
"Then you must go to jail, I am sorry to say, Sir; but you certainly have some friend who will go bail for your appearance."
"No one in the world--at least none here--let me see, is Dr. Evylin at home?"
"I cannot say, but I will walk there with you, with pleasure."
Away they walked to the old Doctor's house.
How Hall's heart thumped as the Deputy Sheriff knocked at the door. It seemed to him as if every jolt upon the pannel was re-echoed by his ribs. The servant came, but informed them that the Doctor was out of town. Hall turned away, rather relieved than otherwise, so mortified was he, at the bare thoughts of asking the old gentleman to bail him from jail, the very first hour of his appearance in the capital of Virginia.
There was something inexpressibly sad in his voice and countenance, as he turned to the Sheriff and said: "I am ready now, Sir, to accompany you to jail, lead the way. I have no other acquaintance in the capital."
In half an hour he was sitting at the iron grated windows of the prison--situated in one of the lowest and most disagreeable spots of Williamsburg; but the locality affected him little. Time and place were to him matters of indifference.
He turned away from the window and paced his solitary cell. His thoughts became calmer by the exercise, and once his observation withdrawn from without, they naturally turned within. There all was calm, pure, and bright. He felt that thus far in the drama of life, he had most signally failed in his part, but he was conscious at the same time that he deserved to succeed. Like all the sons of Adam, he knew that he had erred, and of those errors he repented sincerely--but on the whole, his conscience bore good testimony upon the
Page 102
cross examination to which he now subjected it. He rapidly passed the main incidents of his life in review before him, and if he did not grow better from tracing out the causes of his present misfortunes, he certainly became wiser. What a crisis that is in the life of every man, when he thus pauses and contemplates the first failures of his youth. It is then that the arch enemy of mankind is busiest with his infernal sophistry. He even suggests doubts of the beneficence of the Creator, and questions whether we are not, after all, made in mockery and derision--whether our globe is not one grand theatre; mankind the performers; and the universe sitting round in the immensity of space, the audience.
These satanic suggestions find too ready a response in many young hearts, upon the first experience of disappointment. To a sufferer, farce and tragedy, and melo-drama, seem indeed strangely and inextricably mixed up in this life--tragedy treading so closely on the heels of farce, that it is hard to draw the true moral solution of the wonderful mystery of human life.
One of the wisest and wittiest of mankind has boldly called "the world a stage, and all the men and women actors;" but if it be so, it is the stage reversed--for in real life, the actors lead off in broad farce, and as invariably end in dire tragedy. Oh! if this life is indeed but a frolic for the amusement of the Gods, it is a bitter jest at which angels might weep. If such alone were the aim and object of our existence, it was a cruel mockery to add sensibility to pain, to our capacity for pleasure. Hall had arrived just at that critical period of life where the buffoonery ends. He had for the better part of his days been playing in genteel comedy, and of late had taken a few turns in the tragedy. It was time then to pause and examine the contract, to see whether he was to play as a mountebank or a hero. It is a solemn and important question in the life of every individual, upon its answer depends his weal or wo, throughout his after existence. Oh, happy is that youth, who comes out of the conflict resolved to pursue the cause of right, and justice, and virtue, and religion, leaving the consequences wholly with that great and Almighty Being, who is the author and manager of the mystery which we cannot solve.
That man's heart never was in the right place, or rather it never was enlightened with a spark from the true divinity, who suffers the wrongs of the world to lead and persuade him to desperation.
Not for one moment did Hall's heart waver under the solemn jugglery of the great author of evil, though his meshes were around him everywhere. He felt himself a prisoner. He was resolved to adjourn his case to the keeping of Providence. Oh! what a great and triumphant court that is, even in this world. The retributive court of equity! Let the triumphant victor in the court below carry off his perishing honors; there is a silent witness in the busy throng of evil-doers who comes to the stand at last, and rights the injured and the oppressed, by the very hands of the oppressors. When some striking event of retributive providence happens to be revealed to the gaze of men, how they gape and wonder at the moral miracle, as if God who worketh in secret were not always overruling the rulers of this world. Let the inmates of penitentiaries, and the confessions of criminals under the gallows, speak to the point. Trace out the small and almost invisible links of circumstances by which their guilt is at last revealed, and the finger of the Almighty is at the end of it. The gaping crowd of their fellow-sinners calls the immediate cause of the development an accident; but these things, call them what you will, have lost or won the greatest battles ever fought upon earth. The whole machinery of the world, both moral and physical, is managed by the same Almighty invisible hand, which strikes sparks from these electric chains. None but the good are truly wise--such are the men who surrender up the mysterious management of the universe into the hands
Page 103
to which it truly belongs--such are the men who are content to pursue simple and unostentatious virtue, leaving consequences, which must be so left at last by every one, to the only living and true God--such are the men who become as little children, and are willing to follow where they know that no mortal may lead. Hall felt that he could not extricate himself from the accumulating difficulties which surrounded him, but his heart had been bruised, and torn, and subdued, until he now calmly surrendered the guidance of his destiny into wiser and better hands; he fully trusted and believed in an all-wise and overruling providence--he clearly and unequivocally acknowledged it.
He had weighed the great argument of all the wicked of the earth--the arch tempter had already turned his eyes to the apparent triumph of villainy, thrift and fawning, throughout all the walks of life, and consequent depression of honesty and humble virtue, and he deliberately chose the latter as his portion.
When the rain falls and the floods descend, the gathering torrent rushes down the accustomed channels in a noisy turbid stream. To the inexperienced, it looks as if it never would or could become clear again; but presently the pure and limpid mountain stream begins to work its bright way through the centre of the angry current--for a while it is lost and swallowed up in the surrounding filth, but slowly and silently the work of purification goes on, the muddy and turbulent waves are hurried toward the ocean, and their places are supplied by the purified waters from above. So it is with the current of human life; wave after wave of the busy and noisy throng of the corrupt and the vicious are hurried on to the great ocean of eternity, while their places are slowly but surely filling up with brighter and purer races of men. The world is as certainly growing wiser and better, as that its destinies are ruled over by an all-wise and beneficent spirit. The pure and limpid stream of christian truth is forever working its slow and silent course among the turbid waves of sin and pollution, until the whole ocean of humanity shall be purified.
Hall was by no means a perfect man, but he now had the sincere desire to purge his own heart from all those turbulent passions which had thus far brought nothing but misery and wretchedness in their train. He did not, it is true, elongate his visage and whine psalms through his nose, and proclaim to all the world that he was a changed man, but his misfortunes were working their proper office upon his mind and heart. He was truly humbled in spirit--he felt that there was a mightier hand at work with all the intricacies in which he had been successively involved, than the proud and envious young man who was the immediate instrument of his sufferings.
When the sufferer is able to draw this very definition between the correction from on high, and the poor instrument in whose hands it is placed, it is one of the first great lessons in the heart's purification, because he at once learns to look more in sorrow than in anger upon the immediate author of his woes, while he bows in humble humility before that power, against which it is impossible to feel personal malevolence. Happy is that prisoner who first frees his soul from the bondage of death!
We would not present the imprisoned youth as one who had made large strides in the upward and difficult journey which leads by a narrow path and a straight gate, but as one who had learned that the great thoroughfare of mankind leads to death. He was a mere neophyte, and the best evidence that he had a true and sincere desire to turn from his evil ways, was that he felt as a mere child--he surrendered himself wholly to the guidance of that unseen power which had already so wonderfully delivered him. Alas, his trials were not near ended. In the very hour that many such thoughts as we have condensed were passing through his mind, there was one sojourning in the same town busy entangling the web more inextricably around him. In
Page 104
the very hour that Hall sat down to write a short note to Gov. Spotswood, another individual was penning a very different epistle for the same eye, to be conveyed by the same messenger, old June.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LETTERS CONTRASTED.
It was at night, the candles burned brightly, and the fire blazed cheerfully, while the Governor's family and guests were seated in the same room in which we first presented them. A more than usual cheerfulness pervaded the family circle, not only on account of the Governor's brightening prospects, with regard to the great enterprise of his life, but likewise on account of John's returning health. They all thought the mystery now cleared up, and that henceforth his bright career would go on brightening as in days of yore. Essex had already announced June's arrival from the capital, having just learned the fact from a little negro who conveyed the important tidings from the kitchen. He went out to bring in any letters or messages which June might have brought, and soon returned with the two epistles alluded to in the last chapter.
The consternation of the circle may be imagined, when the following letter was read from Hall. They had all before perceived that something therein contained, had moved the Governor greatly. It ran as follows:
"James City Jail, Williamsburg.
"To His Excellency, Sir Alexander Spotswood.
"DEAR SIR.--You will no doubt be surprised that I date this letter from the county jail, instead of the barracks, but, Sir, so it is--deeply mortifying as it is to me to state the fact. I had scarcely alighted in the capital, after marching the soldiers to the garrison, before I was waited upon by the Deputy Sheriff of the county, with a bail writ, (or whatever that process is called by which the law seizes a man's person,) at the suit of Henry Lee, Esq., and for the very money which your Excellency was mainly instrumental in procuring at his hands for me. You will recollect, no doubt, that as a mere matter of form, (so the gentleman expressed it,) I gave him a note of hand for the amount. Unfortunately I paid away part of the sum for my passage money, and the remainder to recruit my dilapidated wardrobe, so that instant payment was out of the question. None of my new and kind friends were in the city. I had, indeed, hoped to find the good Doctor at home, but unfortunately for me he was absent in the country.
"I had no other friend upon whom I dared call--indeed, to confess the truth to your Excellency, I have not a friend left in the whole world, now living, upon whom I have any right to make a demand for such help as my circumstances require. This, my honored Sir, is but a passage in the chapter of accidents which have fallen to my lot in the last few years, and until the storm has spent its fury, it would seem useless to attempt to assist me. I will honestly confess to you, that I came to this country at this time to avoid those very difficulties (or kindred ones) which have assailed me here. A superstitious man might be inclined under such circumstances to imagine himself pursued by some invisible agency, but I have no such idle fears. I know my persecutors well, and I can afford, even in my humble lodgings, to pity them. I am very sure that I am a happier man this evening, than he at whose suit I am thus deprived of my liberty.
"I have accidentally heard that he utters very bitter and unwarrantable
Page 105
things against me, and even threatens a prosecution for swindling. My ears tingle as I write the word, but I may as well write that which I may soon be compelled to endure the odium of in a more tangible shape. All that I can say to your Excellency, and to those who have hitherto espoused my humble cause, is, that I rest for the present in the calm and perfect security of an injured and innocent man, trusting that that God who has permitted the snares of the wicked thus to gather round me, will clear them away in his own good time. This, you may think and say, is poor evidence with which to furnish you, against one so rich and powerful as my adversary; but, Sir, it is even so--it is all I have to give at present. Under such circumstances, I shall not be the least surprised to find that you have turned me over to the tender mercies of my creditor. I cannot hope that my unsustained protestations of innocence of the charges that I hear he brings against me, will be sustained. So let it be. I am willing to sojourn even in this dreary prison for a while, well assured that the time will come, when my name will once again be redeemed from reproach--until then, I must be content to subscribe myself your Excellency's obliged humble servant.
HARRY HALL."
A profound silence prevailed while the Governor (spectacles on nose) read over this letter. The letter remained in his hand, and his hand on his knee, while with the other he raised the spectacles upon his forehead, in a thoughtful abstracted mood. The young ladies waited in respectful silence for a few moments, expecting every instant that he would burst out into some vehement exclamation--they could not long suppress their own indignation. Ellen Evylin was the first to give utterance to her excited feelings, which she did in no measured terms. Kate took the same view of the subject--while Lady Spotswood remained entirely silent, watching the changes of her husband's countenance with not a little interest, heightened no doubt by the late circumstances which had happened under her own eye.
Dorothea wanted to know how the Sheriff could take Mr. Hall for borrowing his own money from Mr. Lee.
"A very pertinent question," said her father, with a nod of approbation.
Carter declared the denouement was what he had been looking for for some time, and appealed to Moore, whether he had not predicted it when they were last at the capital.
Moore confirmed the fact of the statement, but demurred to the truth of the charges, alleging his still undiminished confidence in Hall, whatever might be the apparent suspicious circumstances against him. "Suppose your Excellency would read Lee's version of the affair--I see his seal upon the letter before you," said he.
"True, true, I had overlooked it, in the first excitement produced by Hall's letter--let us hear the other side." Saying which he broke the seal, and read as follows:
"Williamsburg.
"To his Excellency, Sir Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and Commander of Her Majesty's forces.
"DEAR SIR: I owe you an apology for the very abrupt manner in which I left your house, where I had been tacitly, as it were, left in charge of the ladies; but the fact is, Sir, that I found the young person whom you had hastily employed as Tutor, presumptuous and impertinent, and that I must either degrade myself by a personal encounter with him, or leave the premises. I chose the latter, and had hoped to have paid my respects to your Excellency before you left the capital, but was detained by unavoidable legal business until you had unfortunately left the city. It is useless now to enter into particulars as to his conduct in your absence; for the evidence is now before me, that he is such a gross impostor and swindler, that it is scarcely worth while to inquire into minor particulars of conduct. While I was in the very
Page 106
act of consulting Attorney General Clayton, (who is also my own legal adviser,) about the steps necessary to be taken in order to repossess the funds out of which I weakly suffer myself to be cheated, I received a ship letter by way of York. Whom does your Excellency suppose that letter was from? Why, sir, from Mr. Henry Hall, my cousin, the real gentleman, whose name and character this base impostor had assumed for the lowest purposes. You will recollect that I had written to the young man before this person appeared at your house, informing him of my aunt's will. This letter which I have received is in answer to that one, and states among other things that the writer would sail in the very first vessel for this country after the one which would bring the letter, so that by the time that this pseudo Mr. Hall manages to release himself from prison, where I have snugly stowed him, the real personage, whose name he has assumed, will be here to confront him. I am delighted that I am thus able to relieve your Excellency from the disagreeable duty of unmasking the impostor; for if your Excellency will permit me to say so, your kindly nature had so far led you astray with regard to this man, that you might have found it rather unpleasant to deal with him. Leave all that to me, Sir--I will give him his deserts, be well assured; and if he escapes with whole ears and a sound skin, he may thank the clemency of the law, and not mine.
"I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant,
"HENRY LEE, of Westmoreland."
The party was truly astonished by these two letters, both conveying such surprising news. The Governor took a few turns hastily through the room, pained and excited. He was very loth to give up one for whom he had taken such a liking, and for whom he intended such an important share in the great enterprise; but the evidence was too plain and palpable to be resisted, and he resolved to let the law take its course. As he came to this conclusion, he threw himself into a chair and exclaimed, "By heavens I would have believed nothing less!" "And I do not believe this," said Ellen vehemently, her eye bright with excitement, and her frame quivering with the thoughts which oppressed her.
The Governor was reclining in his arm chair in an attitude almost of hopelessness, but when Ellen uttered her bold challenge of the truth of Lee's statement, he sat bolt upright, as if his mind would seize upon the slightest pretext to reinstate his favorite. "Why, what reason have you to doubt Harry Lee's veracity, Miss Evylin?" said he.
"The best evidence in the world, Governor Spotswood. He has committed as great mistakes as this before."
"Indeed, do you mean to say that the young gentleman has ever knowingly swerved from the truth."
"I cannot say whether it was knowingly or whether it is his remarkable obliquity of moral vision, but I assert the fact, that he has before wronged others, as much as I believe he now wrongs this unfortunate young gentleman."
"You surprise me exceedingly--do tell me, I pray you, who the person was?"
"Well, Sir, I have no objection to saying that it was myself."
All the gentlemen exclaimed at once, "What, a lady!"
"Further than that," continued Ellen, "I do not say at present."
The Governor seemed very much perplexed to know what to do--he strode rapidly about the room--his lips compressed, and his shaggy brows louring over his eyes, and muttering violent expressions through his clenched teeth. While he was thus swayed by contending emotions, Moore rose hastily, took his hat, and left the room. In a few minutes he was followed by Ellen Evylin, and soon afterwards by Kate. The latter found Ellen in a most earnest conversation with the former in the verandah. She had never seen her friend under such excitement. She was pressing upon Mr. Moore a purse
Page 107
of gold which she held in her extended hand, and which she plead with him to take.
"No, no, no," said Moore, "I will attend to all that--guilty or innocent, he shall have the benefit of the bare doubt. To-morrow morning's sun shall see him a free man. Will that not content you?"
"No, indeed, Mr. Moore--it will not--I claim to have rights in this matter which you have not. I beg of you not to deny me."
"But my dear young lady, if I take your gold and offer it to him, it will be the very way to make him refuse the assistance; many a sensitive man will accept aid from his own sex, when he would peremptorily refuse it from one of your's."
"Well, take it and give it, without letting him know from whom it comes. I ask it as a particular favor."
"Do, Mr. Moore," said Kate pleadingly, and with a look which was irresistible.
"By all that's lovely," said Moore gaily, as he pocketed the gold, and threw on his cloak for the night's ride, "I think I will contrive some way to get into jail myself, if it is only to excite the tears of sympathy in so many lovely eyes. Suppose I find myself in the young man's position before morning, do you think I should have a couple of as fair damsels contriving my release?"
"Indeed you shall," said Kate.
"Good night," said Moore, kissing his hand gallantly, and striking his spurs into his horse at the same moment.
The girls returned to their own apartment, and there Ellen informed Kate of all that had transpired in her absence, but still there were many things wanting, even to them, to unravel the mystery of the two Halls.
A very keen encounter of tongues was going on below meanwhile, between Dorothea and Carter. The latter contended that Hall was a bold bungling impostor, and that he had seen through him at a glance, and that he had no pretensions to gentility whatever."
"How comes it, then, Mr. Carter," asked Dorothea, "that he overmastered so many of you at accomplishments considered quite refined? How was it at the small sword?"
"Oh, any French dancing-master may and often does possess such tricks."
"Aye, but French dancing-masters do not often read the classics very elegantly, if at all; and here is Dr. Blair, who says that Mr. Hall is an elegant scholar."
"Doubtless a schoolmaster, then, some broken down pedagogue."
"But papa says, he is an accomplished and scientific soldier."
"Learned no doubt, while acting as drummer or fifer to some marching regiment--said you not a while ago that he played upon the flute?"
"Yes," said Dorothea, "he is a musician."
"I'll tell you what it is, Carter," interposed the Governor, "if Hall is a hypocrite and impostor, he is one of the most accomplished swindlers that ever I have met with. It is a rare thing in my experience of human nature--and it has not been confined in its range--to see a man descending in villainy, and elevating himself at the same time in all the elegant courtesies of life. Neither is it common to see men of that stamp cultivating their minds highly."
"Oh I grant you," said Carter, "that he is no common vagabond--he is a very accomplished rogue, if you will, but still a sly rogue for all that."
"I am not so sure about that," replied the Governor. "There may be some mistake, or Harry Lee may have been imposed upon, or his own feelings may have colored the matter too highly."
"What! your Excellency? When he has actually received a letter--a foreign letter too--with the European post mark, from his real cousin--could
Page 108
his imagination make facts, stubborn facts, like these? No, no--either Hall is a consummate swindler and impostor, or Harry Lee is an outrageous liar--one or other horn of the dilemma you must take."
"It has an ugly aspect to be sure," said the Governor musingly, and dropping off into a brown study, while Carter turned once more to the playful and amusing combat with his little lady antagonist. But we must follow the main thread of our narrative; while they are thus agreeably employed.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE WANDERER.
IT was a bright moonlight night, and Moore rode merrily on his way, notwithstanding the melancholy nature of his errand. His fancy was busy with the sweet pleading Kate--he remembered only that her eyes had rested upon him, with confidence that her appeal would not be in vain. So busy was his memory with the most delicate shadows of his mistress' countenance, that he was entirely unconscious that he was riding the fine animal which he bestrode at a murderous rate, until his servant made an appeal in behalf of the horse.
His train of reflections were now turning to the other end of the road. He had a disagreeable duty before him, not in liberating Hall, for that was pleasant to his feelings, but he would be constrained to show that his confidence had been a little shaken, far more than he had been willing to acknowledge to the friends whom he had just left.
This business of the two Halls bore an ugly aspect, and he dreaded the laceration of feeling he would suffer in seeing a man of gentlemanly feelings floundering between inextricable tergiversations. Unless Hall came down frankly and explained the difficulty, he was resolved to make short work of his liberation and be done with him. He began to see, moreover, that he was about to interfere in a more delicate affair than he at first imagined. Not that he was a man to shrink from a task he had undertaken because of any displeasure of Harry Lee, on his own account; he was anxious to make fair weather with him because of the Governor's interests.
He rode immediately to the house of the Sheriff whom he well knew, and roused him up. The whole city was buried in slumber, and Hall himself no doubt slept soundly after the wholesome and honest self-examination through which he had put himself. The jailor was next aroused, and together they proceeded to the apartment of the prisoner. He was, indeed, very unromantically sleeping soundly, wrapped up in his old military cloak, and stretched at full length upon a hard straw mattrass. Moore stood and gazed at him for a few moments, and then remarked to the Sheriff, "that man's face in the honest expression of sleep, looks as little like that of a swindler, as any man's I have ever seen. It is impossible to look at him thus without being interested in his fate."
"Fact, Sir, said the Sheriff, he has a taking away with him, he has the whole establishment here, jailors, family and all, interested for him already, but it is generally the way with your gentlemanly rogues. I have seen some of them, capital company."
"You think him a swindler then?" asked Moore sadly.
"Certain I do sir. What else can he be when he takes another man's name in order to swindle honest people with it.["]
Moore paid the money without further words, and had, influenced by the homely common sense of the hard official, determined to slip away without
Page 109
being soon, but just as he was escaping, Hall sprang to his feet, very much startled and surprised by the lights and the persons he saw in the room, rubbing his eyes in perplexity and bewilderment. "Mr. Moore," he at length exclaimed, "I ought to say I am glad to see you, but I cannot do so honestly, under present circumstances."
"Not when I inform you that I come as a friend," inquired Moore.
"It will be a friend indeed who will adhere to me, under present circumstances," said Hall sadly.
Moore made a sign to the officials to withdraw, when they had done so, he drew one of the miserable stools which the place afforded, seated himself, and motioned for Hall to do likewise, which he did upon the edge of his rude couch.
"How far I may adhere to you," said he, "depends upon yourself. I have come to release you from confinement in any event."
"My mere liberation from this place, is a matter of little moment to me at present, not that I would in the smallest degree lessen the obligation which I am under to you for the generous intention, but that I consider my confinement here as a small portion of my embarrassments."
"Explain then to me, the mystery of the other Hall, you have doubtless heard that Mr. Lee has received an answer to his letter addressed to Mr. Hall, which he says, is the real one."
"I have indeed heard such a rumor, but I cannot do more at present than beg those who are disposed to befriend me, to suspend their opinions until the other Mr. Hall arrives. Let us be confronted, and then the mystery may be explained, and not until then."
"But why cannot you explain it all now, and authorize me to satisfy your anxious friends at Temple Farm? Surely this would seem to be the proper course for you to pursue."
"No one, Mr. Moore can judge of my circumstances but myself. No one could be more anxious than I am, to stand fair once more with the dear friends to whom you allude, but I must be content for the present to be suspected. I cannot expect them to take my character upon trust, under such adverse circumstances, and therefore, I do not ask it; all I do request is, for them to suspend their opinions of me if they can. I promise you that the time will come, when they will no longer blush to own me; but if they cannot even do that, and they must condemn me, I will not blame them. They shall not be troubled with my presence again until such time as I may be enabled to vindicate myself fully before the world."
"Well," said Moore rising and evidently chagrined and disappointed, "be it so. I cannot force your confidence; until the time you have mentioned--and for your own sake I hope it may come speedily--I must wait patiently; I at least will suspend my judgment. I am more than half willing to take you upon trust now, but I could not promise to reinstate you in the good opinion of all your friends so easily. You have therefore, I think, decided wisely to seclude yourself until such time as you are ready to clear your name and fame from all aspersions. You are free to go hence when you please, and I would advise it to be as speedily as possible, both from hence and from the capital. Your creditor will find other means to seize upon your person; indeed I have heard that he meditated a criminal prosecution. Excuse me, Sir, but I must be plain with you."
"No apology is necessary to one in my situation, and more especially for an act of kindness. My desperate fortunes have arrived at that pass when it will not do for me to shrink at the bare mention of those things which I may be compelled to experience in the next twenty-four hours."
Seeing Moore about to depart, he followed him to the door, and extended his hand, as he continued, "Farewell, Sir. I shall never forget that you have
Page 110
rode eight miles and perilled a considerable sum of money to befriend one against whom the world is almost unanimous in its condemnation."
"No, no, not unanimous, Mr. Hall, there are gentle hearts at 'the Farm' whom any man would feel flattered to have interested as you have--there is a warm interest in your favor there, at least. You don't know how much you are indebted to them for my exertions, which you are so willing to attribute to my generosity alone. You may find out some day that I am not so disinterested after all. Farewell, farewell. I hope we may soon meet under happier auspices."
Saying which he left the prison, leaving Hall standing at the door, wrapt in profound reflection. Recovering from his abstraction, he bundled up what few things he could call his own, tied them up in a pocket handkerchief, and sallied out into the dark wide world, not to seek his fortune, but repose from the turmoil of life, and its fierce passions and bitter enmities, and heartless friendships. His rapid strides soon threw the capital far in his rear. Solitary and disheartened he passed along the dreary road, cut through the tall pines those most melancholy of trees. It was a silent and solemn walk in the moonlight, with no other company, but the grand and gloomy old forest, which had stood there before the soil was ever pressed by the foot of the white man. It is a cheerless occupation to walk alone at night, at all times, but when one sets out, a wanderer from the haunts of men, fleeing from unknown evil, and seeking repose in total seclusion, he is a philosopher or a christian if he does not repine at his lot. Hall had one cheering star of hope still glimmering in his dark horizon, bright eyes and warm hearts still glistened and pulsated in his behalf, as Moore informed him. "Oh woman!" exclaimed he, as he trudged on his otherwise painful journey, "Oh woman! blessed angel of love, and mercy, and charity--this earth were indeed a gloomy and dreary waste without thee--may my lot be indeed what it now promises, if ever I again doubt thee. Oh, blessed one above all her sex, pure and bright and constant as yon polar star, may an omnipotent and overruling Providence guard thee, as it has hitherto done, from the snares of the wicked, untill I may once more resume my proper station in society--and then--!"
Page 111
THE KNIGHTS
OF THE
HORSE-SHOE;
A TRADITIONARY TALE
OF THE
COCKED HAT GENTRY
IN THE
OLD DOMINION.
VOLUME II.
CHAPTER I.
THE GOVERNOR'S LEVEE.
WILLIAMSBURG, one of the ancient capitals of Virginia, was first laid out in the shape of the letter W, in honor of the Prince after whom it was named, and through whose munificence its principal ornament was first endowed. This strange and even enigmatical plot of the town was, however, soon abandoned for one more consonant with the natural features of its admirable position.
The houses of the gentry were principally built upon one great thoroughfare, and this was then called the Duke of Gloucester street--for shortness, Gloucester street. At one end, and immediately at right angles to it, stood, and yet stands, William and Mary College; and at the other, about three-quarters of a mile distant, the capital.
These two edifices at once gave a character and dignity to the place; and the traveller even now turns his head naturally, first to the one and then to the other, as he enters the ancient city. We have entered the modern Babel of our country, and, like all other neophytes, have been deeply impressed with the tumultuous and thronging ideas and sensations which they produced, but never have we been so deeply impressed as while entering for the first time the scene where those old ruinous walls were once vocal with the eloquence of Patrick Henry, on the one hand, and the academic shades on the other, where Jefferson and Madison wandered in the days of their boyhood, and where was concocted the first germ of that rebellion which eventuated in the
Page 112
most glorious structure of civil liberty which the eye of man has ever yet looked upon.
Strange, that the thousands who live under its benign influence--and Virginians especially--have no curiosity to visit this ancient cradle of our liberties. It lies gradually mouldering to decay, and only saved from utter demolition, by the noble literary institution, which has survived alike the royal and republican capital. Long may it rear its noble head above the ruins which surround it, the great conservator, of all that remains of Virginia's ancient metropolis, as well as the stern republican principles which first had their growth beneath its portals.
About the centre of Gloucester-street, two parallel avenues of noble trees led through a green lawn, near two hundred yards, to the front of the Palace. A little to the left of this opening, as you faced the Palace, stood the Episcopal Church, then recently built. On the opposite side of the street, its line was again broken a little nearer to the Capitol, by a public square, in which were contained the Market-House and the military round tower, already alluded to as having been erected by Governor Spotswood. Facing this public square, was a small Theatre,* and nearly opposite to all these again, on the other side of the street, was the hotel frequented by the gentry and Burgesses, when the assembly was in session.
* We have undoubted authority--both traditional and historical--for the assertion, that a Theatre existed at the time stated, though overlooked, if not denied, by Dunlap.
The Palace was a large brick building, flanked on the right and left by two smaller ones, nearly adjoining it one of which contained, the dormitories and offices connected with the culinary department, and appropriated exclusively by the servants--the other contained the Governor's library, official departments, &c., &c., so the whole of the main building was appreciated to the elegant and extensive hospitalities, at all times considered as appertaining to the Gubernatorial mansion in Virginia.
It was a few days after Hall's departure from prison, upon his melancholy pilgrimage, that the well known sound of a trumpet startled the denizens of the city--many of them from their early dinners. It proceeded from the Governor's body guard, not yet visible in the city, but the enlivening blast of the bugle could be heard, from time to time, as they wound along the turnings of the road--the breeze sometimes wafting its mellow sounds to the ear, and, at others, suffering them to fall faintly in the distance, as it lulled with the breeze.
It was always a glad day to the citizens when the Governor and his family returned from his summer residence. Joy was visible upon the countenances of the portly dames and merry urchins, as they crowded round their respective doors, to welcome back the loved inmates of the Palace. Near the gate of the mansion, among the trees of the double avenue, stood a long line of little girls all dressed in white, with flowers in their bands, waiting to strew the path of the ladies from the carriage to the house. They were pupils of a female school, of which Lady Spotswood was chief patron.
First came a company of Rangers, which had been detailed to escort the Governor, followed by the veteran body guard, all in full regimentals. Then his Excellency, with his staff, and male guests, on horseback--next, the state coach with the Governor's immediate family, and Dr. Evylin's carriage containing his daughter, alone; the rear of the cavalcade brought up by the family servants, in carriages and on horseback, old Essex riding at their head, like a field-marshal, and June bringing up the extreme rear, awfully carricaturing the Major's stately equestrianism.
The troops on duty at the capital, consisting mostly of Rangers--under the command of Duke Holloway, second to John Spotswood--were drawn up on the green in front of the Palace, and presented arms as the Governor approached:
Page 113
the military escort filing to the right and left as they entered the avenues.
Dr. Evylin's carriage drove on to his private residence, which stood a little back from Gloucester street, between the Church and the College, embowered in trees and vines, and presenting to the eye one of the sweetest retreats it was possible to imagine, in the midst of the capital. Every thing about the premises gave evidence of the ministering hand of that gentle and tasteful spirit, which, since the death of the Doctor's lady, had conducted all his household affairs. The good old physician stood at the wicket gate, almost as impatient as a lover, to throw his arms round the neck of his cherished idol. Even before entering the house, they walked hand in hand among the fast fading shrubs and flowers, the old man giving an account of his stewardship, during his daughter's absence, and having a little history ready for each favorite plant. How these gentle and humanising, affections, throw a mellow hue over such trifles as these, and how the heart loves to toy with them on the surface, while its depths, like a deep and silent stream, are tossed all the more for the serene calm above. The servants too, loved their young mistress, and came flocking round, dropping their rude curtsies and awkward bows, and asking about her health as if she had crossed the Atlantic. Each one expressed delight at the renovated bloom of their favorite, and the old Doctor himself, seemed so happy at the change, that he became almost as puerile as any of them. Once more seated in their quiet parlor, Ellen's arm thrown affectionately round her father's neck, we will leave her to detail all the transactions of the Governor's country establishment, while we return to the Palace, where the bustle and excitement of the important arrivals still continued.
The city was thronged with visitors, brought together by the proclamations of the Governor, inviting them thither; and also by the arrival of many of the Burgesses, who came in obedience to the call of his Excellency for the assembling of their body, somewhat in anticipation of their usual time of meeting.
In the evening, a levee was held, where all the gentry, without distinction of party, were expected to call and pay their respects.
The Governor was very much gratified to find that his proclamation, containing the scheme for new conquests of lands, had fired either the cupidity or ambition of most of the young men of the colony; but while he listened, with sparkling eye and gratified feelings, to the plans of his young friends, he could not resist the feelings of regret which the subject brought with it, for the young Secretary who had originated the scheme. His eye turned anxiously to the door at each successive arrival of guests, but Hall made not his appearance. He had been greatly prepossessed in favor of this young man, and notwithstanding the powerful array of circumstances against him, he was loth to give him up entirely. He still hoped that something would turn up, to prove at least that he was not criminal. In these hopes, he was seconded by most of the females of the family. Kate and Dorothea at all times expressed their most decided convictions, that he would yet turn out to be a gentleman of untarnished name; and Ellen, before her departure from the country seat, could brook no suspicions of his integrity or honor. She maintained openly, that there were no charges against him, except those brought by Harry Lee, and that she was ready at any time to lay as great ones at his own door, if necessary, and, consequently, that he was not an unimpeached witness.
It was expected by the young ladies that something would turn up during the evening, by which Mr. Lee might understand, that Hall's case was espoused by them, and that they intended to carry the war home to him if he continued his persecutions against their favorite. Only one thing prevented an open rupture between the parties. Lee was a member of the House of
Page 114
Burgesses, as before stated, and the Governor wanted his vote. He had consequently warned them against a premature move in the matter. Those however who are experienced with the world, will understand how difficult it was for him to make the ladies of his establishment understand any thing of political expediency.
Lee was among the earliest arrivals, and it may be well imagined that his movements did not pass unnoticed by any of the parties just mentioned. His first demonstration however was in quite an unexpected quarter, on encountering Bernard Moore, soon after paying his respects to the Governor and his Lady, he treated him with the utmost hauteur and disdain. Not a hand was extended by either party. Moore was quite taken by surprise, but, in a moment recollected his late interference in Lee's schemes of revenge. He passed on, after a cold and distant bow, a smile of derision playing about his mouth. Could he have seen Kate's eyes flashing fire and indignation, as she witnessed the interview, he would have been truly flattered and pleased and, perhaps might have sought a renewal of the experiment, but he did not; he passed on, and joined himself with more congenial spirits than Harry Lee, and soon forgot that young gentleman, amidst the animated discussion going on relative to the tramontane expedition. Not so with Kate, she followed with her eyes, the haughty young aristocrat's movements wherever he went. She was moved by strong impulses, which brooked no control from cold political expediency. She was all a woman in her feelings; and like a woman would she have acted, had the opportunity offered. Fortunately for her father's interests, no occasion was presented for the execution of the plans of the female trio, those developements were destined to fulfilment in another quarter. Ellen Evylin was not present at the Levee, seeing which, Mr. Lee soon absented himself from the party, and bent his steps toward the Doctor's house. He rejoiced in his own mind, that it was so; for he now imagined, that he had placed the man who had interfered with his movements in such a light, that Ellen must feel nothing but gratitude towards him for his efforts in the cause. Such were his anticipations as he lifted the knocker of the Doctor's door--he was admitted. What occurred at the interview will be related in the next chapter.
CHAPTER II.
PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE.
HOW delightfully fell the impress of all he saw upon the cold nature of Harry Lee? How his intense selfishness warmed itself by the cosy fire blazing in the hearth? The pictures that hung round the walls, too, delighted him, because they were many of them painted by a hand that he hoped to call his own. He stood before them in succession, and pleased himself to think, how the same gentle hand would sketch the glorious landscapes presented, in many aspects upon his own thousand acres. The sweet flowers, too, snugly stowed away from the rude September blasts, in a little glass conservatory, separated from the room in which he was, but by a single step. He walked out into the green artificial summer, the lights of the parlor windows threw their bright rays over and around, revealing a little aviary, high up among the green shrubbery. Henry Lee knew every nook and corner about the charming little dove's nest which he intended to rob. He was like a boy climbing a tree in search of such an object--his head grew dizzy, as the prospect of clutching the prize seemed just within his grasp. He walked
Page 115
back--the nest was still warm, but he had frightened the pretty songster away A score of music was lying open upon the table, which she had evidently just left, in her precipitate retreat, for some of her female parapharnalia was lying beside it. He walked up and read the title of the song--it was in his brother's own hand writing. Hurriedly he closed the book, and wheeled upon his heel to another part of the room. He picked up a book, lying open in a rocking chair, the face turned down, as if it had likewise received a share of the lady's recent attention. He picked it up, and seated himself; the leaves fell over of themselves, as even they acquire habits sometime, and there again was his brother's name as the donor. It seemed as if his ghost was haunting him at every turn. He threw down the book hastily, and strode through the room with his head down, determined to see nothing more which might recall painful memories. At this moment, the old Doctor entered, cloaked up to the neck, a shawl tied over his cocked hat and under his chin and his thin legs cased in warm cloth spatterdashes, buttoned up close to his knee buckles.
"Ah, good Doctor!" said Lee, advancing to meet him, "still administering to the sufferings of the sick and the afflicted? What a noble calling is yours?"
"Yes," said the Doctor, rather gruffly, as he took the proffered hand, before he seated himself over the blazing pine knots in the hearth. "Yes, it is indeed a noble profession, and all those should earn the crown of martyrdom who practise it."
"You surprise me, sir--I thought, if there was a man in the world satisfied with the lot which had fallen to him, it was Dr. Evylin!"
"And so I am; but that makes the remark I made none the less true. I am content to be a martyr. It is true, that I am sometimes a little chafed, that men look upon our paths as if they were strewed with flowers."
"Well, Doctor, I confess that I am one who looked upon your profession as affording the highest gratification to its followers. You are always relieving the pains and sufferings of others."
"No, not always; we stand by a dying patient powerless, and feeling as nothing before the great Ruler, who holds the destinies of man in his hands. But that is not all; we are forever shouldering the troubles of other people--always looking upon the black shadows of the picture of human life--it is impossible for one of my profession to be uniformly cheerful. Then, its dreadful responsibilities weigh down all those who have any sensibility, and only such are fit to enter a family when the hearts of all its members are laid bare; when the lacerated affections require to be ministered to as well as the physical suffering. One advantage we have over other men: we see less of the hypocrisy of our race than they do; suffering stamps a solemn sincerity upon every countenance around a sick couch. I was called, the other night, to visit one of the comedians of our little Theatre--he was very sick, and his bedside surrounded by his brethren of the sock and buskin in the same dresses which they had just worn upon the stage. Farce and Comedy sunk abashed before the Tragedy of real life. The sufferer himself, though the principal comedian, was one of the most captious and fretful men I ever attended. The scene impressed me powerfully--yet, somewhat of the same thing is presented to me daily. The sick couch disrobes every man of his masquerading dress."
"Yes," said Lee, musing, "you have fine opportunities to study human nature. You see it in its undress."
"Aye," replied the Physician, "we do see it in a state of nudity truly, and the disrobing adds nothing to the beauty and symmetry. One half of our race, at least, is presented in entirely different aspects from what it appears to other men. The male portion appear in new and untried lights on the sick couch."
"Ah! is there then so much difference in the sexes?"
"Aye, truly--women, in civilized countries, are constant inhabitants of the
Page 116
house, and often even of a single room, and sickness makes no such great change in this respect to them, but there are characteristic differences besides those produced by habit and occupation--and all telling in favor of the weaker sex. They are much purer in heart than we are, Mr. Lee, much more elevated in sentiment, more patient and hopeful in suffering, with a much livelier and realizing faith in the power and presence of an overruling Providence. Seeing these thing, it almost looks wrong, to one of my profession, to see them excluded from active participation in more than half of all the concerns of life. They have not yet, with all our boasted refinement and civilization, their due influence."
"That is made up, Sir, by their sway over the hearts of men."
"Ah, that may do very well for a very young man to say, at such an age, it is boasted of and paraded as an excuse for our wrongs, but old men know how long it lasts, especially old Physicians--it lasts a much shorter time than the honey money."
Ellen entered at this moment, and returned Lee's salutation with a cold and formal inclination of the head. Her lips were compressed in a way quite unnatural to them, and giving a rather harsh expression to her usually pensive and mild countenance. Her health seemed still on the mend; she walked firmly and actively to the seat which her father had just vacated. She threw a beseeching glance at the older gentleman as he left the room, as much as to beg him to remain and support her through the interview; but he seemed to have a sly suspicion of the subject about to be brought upon the tapis, and he retired--a quizzical, and half humorous smile playing about his mouth as he shut the door, and gave one glance back at his daughter.
The two, thus left alone, sat for some moments without exchanging a word the gentleman, for once in his life, very much embarrassed, and the lady more at her ease. The former, at length, broke the silence. "Your father, Miss Ellen, has just been complimenting your sex in a way, which was quite new to me; he was giving me, as you entered, his professional testimony in their behalf."
"The best men are the best witnesses in such a cause."
"True, but your father was giving me much higher testimony than ordinary men could give. He need not go far, Miss Evylin,