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diff --git a/36289-h/36289-h.htm b/36289-h/36289-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b894b29 --- /dev/null +++ b/36289-h/36289-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3751 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ormond, Volume I (of 3), by Charles Brockden Brown</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.small {font-size: 0.8em;} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ormond, Volume I (of 3), by Charles Brockden +Brown</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Ormond, Volume I (of 3)</p> +<p> or, The Secret Witness</p> +<p>Author: Charles Brockden Brown</p> +<p>Release Date: May 31, 2011 [eBook #36289]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORMOND, VOLUME I (OF 3)***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell, & Marc D'Hooghe<br /> + (<a href="http://www.freeliterature.org">http://www.freeliterature.org</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + the Google Books Library Project<br /> + (<a href="http://books.google.com/">http://books.google.com/</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Project Gutenberg also has the other two volumes of + this book.<br /> + <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36290/36290-h/36290-h.htm">Volume II</a>: See http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36290<br /> + <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36291/36291-h/36291-h.htm">Volume III</a>: See http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36291<br /> + <br /> + Images of the original pages are available through + the the Google Books Library Project. See + <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=PhgGAAAAQAAJ&oe=UTF-8"> + http://books.google.com/books?id=PhgGAAAAQAAJ&oe=UTF-8</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"><tr><td> +<p class="small"> +<a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br /> +</p> +</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>ORMOND;</h1> + +<h3>OR,</h3> + +<h3><i>THE SECRET WITNESS.</i></h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>B. C. BROWN,</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF WIELAND, OR TRANSFORMATION.</h4> + + +<h4><i>IN THREE VOLUMES.</i></h4> + +<h4>VOL. I.</h4> + + +<p class="center">"Sæpe intereunt aliis meditantes necem."</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 35em; font-size: 0.8em;">PHÆDRUS</p> + +<p class="center">"Those who plot the destruction of others, very often fall, +themselves the victims."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h5>PHILADELPHIA PRINTED,</h5> + +<h5>LONDON, RE-PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN,</h5> + +<h5>ENGLISH AND FOREIGN PUBLIC LIBRARY,</h5> + +<h5>CONDUIT-STREET, BOND-STREET.</h5> + +<h5>1811</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<h4>TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE</h4> + +<h4>LADY CASTLEREAGH,</h4> + +<h4>THESE VOLUMES</h4> + +<h4>are respectfully inscribed,</h4> + +<h4>by her Ladyship's</h4> + +<h4>most obedient, and humble Servant,</h4> + +<h4>HENRY COLBURN.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h3> + +<p><i>To I.E. Rosenberg.</i></p> + + +<p>You are anxious to obtain some knowledge of the history of Constantia +Dudley. I am well acquainted with your motives, and allow that they +justify your curiosity. I am willing to the utmost of my power to comply +with your request, and will now dedicate what leisure I have to the +composition of her story.</p> + +<p>My narrative will have little of that merit which flows from unity of +design. You are desirous of hearing an authentic and not a fictitious +tale. It will therefore be my duty to relate events in no artificial or +elaborate order, and without that harmonious congruity and luminous +amplification, which might justly be displayed in a tale flowing merely +from invention. It will be little more than a biographical sketch, in +which the facts are distributed and amplified, not as a poetical taste +would prescribe, but as the materials afforded me, sometimes abundant +and sometimes scanty, would permit.</p> + +<p>Constantia, like all the beings made known to us, not by fancy, but +experience, has numerous defects. You will readily perceive that her +tale is told by her friend; but I hope you will not discover many or +glaring proofs of a disposition to extenuate her errors or falsify her +character.</p> + +<p>Ormond will perhaps appear to you a contradictory or unintelligible +being. I pretend not to the infallibility of inspiration. He is not a +creature of fancy. It was not prudent to unfold <i>all</i> the means by which +I gained a knowledge of his actions; but these means, though singularly +fortunate and accurate, could not be unerring and complete. I have shown +him to you as he appeared on different occasions, and at successive +periods to me. This is all that you will demand from a faithful +biographer.</p> + +<p>If you were not deeply interested in the fate of my friend, yet my +undertaking will not be useless, inasmuch as it will introduce you to +scenes to which you have been hitherto a stranger. The modes of life, +the influence of public events upon the character and happiness of +individuals in America, are new to you. The distinctions of birth, and +the artificial degrees of esteem or contempt which connect themselves +with different professions and ranks in your native country, are but +little known among us. Society and manners constitute your favourite +study, and I am willing to believe that my relation will supply you with +knowledge, on these heads, not to be otherwise obtained. If these +details be in that respect unsatisfactory, all that I can add, is my +counsel to go and examine for yourself.</p> + +<p>S.C.</p> + +<p>Germany</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ORMOND,</h3> + +<h4>OR THE</h4> + +<h4><i>SECRET WITNESS.</i></h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + + +<p>Stephen Dudley was a native of New York. He was educated to the +profession of a painter. His father's trade was that of an apothecary. +But this son, manifesting an attachment to the pencil, he was resolved +that it should be gratified. For this end Stephen was sent at an early +age to Europe, and not only enjoyed the instructions of Fuzeli and +Bartolozzi, but spent a considerable period in Italy, in studying the +Augustan and Medicean monuments. It was intended that he should practise +his art in his native city, but the young man, though reconciled to +this scheme by deference to paternal authority, and by a sense of its +propriety, was willing as long as possible to postpone it. The +liberality of his father relieved him from all pecuniary cares. His +whole time was devoted to the improvement of his skill in his favourite +art, and the enriching of his mind with every valuable accomplishment. +He was endowed with a comprehensive genius and indefatigable industry. +His progress was proportionably rapid, and he passed his time without +much regard to futurity, being too well satisfied with the present to +anticipate a change. A change however was unavoidable, and he was +obliged at length to pay a reluctant obedience to his father's repeated +summons. The death of his wife had rendered his society still more +necessary to the old gentleman.</p> + +<p>He married before his return. The woman whom he had selected was an +unportioned orphan, and was recommended merely by her moral qualities. +These, however, were eminent, and secured to her, till the end of her +life, the affection of her husband. Though painting was capable of fully +gratifying his taste as matter of amusement, he quickly found that, in +his new situation, it would not answer the ends of a profession. His +father supported himself by the profits of his shop, but with all his +industry he could do no more than procure a subsistence for himself and +his son.</p> + +<p>Till his father's death young Dudley attached himself to painting. His +gains were slender, but he loved the art, and his father's profession +rendered his own exertions in a great degree superfluous. The death of +the elder Dudley introduced an important change in his situation. It +thenceforth became necessary to strike into some new path, to deny +himself the indulgence of his inclinations, and regulate his future +exertions by a view to nothing but gain. There was little room for +choice. His habits had disqualified him for mechanical employments. He +could not stoop to the imaginary indignity which attended them, nor +spare the time necessary to obtain the requisite degree of skill. His +father died in possession of some stock, and a sufficient portion of +credit to supply its annual decays. He lived at what they call a <i>good +stand</i>, and enjoyed a certain quantity of permanent custom. The +knowledge that was required was as easily obtained as the elements of +any other profession, and was not wholly unallied to the pursuits in +which he had sometimes engaged. Hence he could not hesitate long in +forming his resolution, but assumed the management of his father's +concerns with a cheerful and determined spirit.</p> + +<p>The knowledge of his business was acquired in no long time; He was +stimulated to the acquisition by a sense of duty; he was inured to +habits of industry, and there were few things capable to resist a +strenuous exertion of his faculties. Knowledge of whatever kind afforded +a compensation to labour; but the task being finished, that which +remained, which in ordinary apprehensions would have been esteemed an +easy and smooth path, was to him insupportably disgustful. The drudgery +of a shop, where all the faculties were at a stand, and one day was an +unvaried repetition of the foregoing, was too incongenial to his +disposition not to be a source of discontent. This was an evil which it +was the tendency of time to increase rather than diminish. The longer he +endured it the less tolerable it became. He could not forbear comparing +his present situation with his former, and deriving from the contrast +perpetual food for melancholy.</p> + +<p>The indulgence of his father had contributed to instil into him +prejudices, in consequence of which a certain species of disgrace was +annexed to every employment of which the only purpose was gain. His +present situation not only precluded all those pursuits which exalt and +harmonize the feelings, but was detested by him as something humiliating +and ignominious. His wife was of a pliant temper, and her condition less +influenced by this change than that of her husband. She was qualified to +be his comforter; but instead of dispelling his gloom by judicious +arguments, or a seasonable example of vivacity, she caught the infection +that preyed upon his mind, and augmented his anxieties by partaking in +them.</p> + +<p>By enlarging in some degree the foundation on which his father had +built, he had provided the means of a future secession, and might +console himself with the prospect of enjoying his darling ease at some +period of his life. This period was necessarily too remote for his +wishes; and had not certain occurrences taken place, by which he was +flattered with the immediate possession of ease, it is far from being +certain that he would not have fallen a victim to his growing +disquietudes.</p> + +<p>He was one morning engaged behind his counter as usual, when a youth +came into his shop, and, in terms that bespoke the union of fearlessness +and frankness, inquired whether he could be engaged as an apprentice. A +proposal of this kind could not be suddenly rejected or adopted. He +stood in need of assistance; the youth was manly and blooming, and +exhibited a modest and ingenuous aspect. It was possible that he was, in +every respect, qualified for the post for which he applied; but it was +previously necessary to ascertain these qualifications. For this end he +requested the youth to call at his house in the evening, when he should +be at leisure to converse with him, and furnished him with suitable +directions.</p> + +<p>The youth came according to appointment. On being questioned as to his +birthplace and origin, he stated that he was a native of Wakefield, in +Yorkshire; that his family were honest, and his education not mean; that +he was the eldest, of many children, and having attained an age at which +he conceived it his duty to provide for himself, he had, with the +concurrence of his friends, come to America, in search of the means of +independent subsistence; that he had just arrived in a ship which he +named, and, his scanty stock of money being likely to be speedily +consumed, this had been the first effort he had made to procure +employment.</p> + +<p>His tale was circumstantial and consistent, and his veracity appeared +liable to no doubt. He was master of his book and his pen, and had +acquired more than the rudiments of Latin. Mr. Dudley did not require +much time to deliberate. In a few days the youth was established as a +member of his family, and as a coadjutor in his shop, nothing but food, +clothing, and lodging being stipulated as the reward of his services.</p> + +<p>The young man improved daily in the good opinion of his master. His +apprehension was quick, his sobriety invariable, and his application +incessant. Though by no means presumptuous or arrogant, he was not +wanting in a suitable degree of self-confidence. All his propensities +appeared to concentre in his occupation and the promotion of his +master's interest, from which he was drawn aside by no allurements of +sensual or intellectual pleasure. In a short time he was able to relieve +his master of most of the toils of his profession, and Mr. Dudley a +thousand times congratulated himself on possessing a servant equally +qualified by his talents and his probity. He gradually remitted his +attention to his own concerns, and placed more absolute reliance on the +fidelity of his dependant.</p> + +<p>Young Craig, that was the name of the youth, maintained a punctual +correspondence with his family, and confided to his patron, not only +copies of all the letters which he himself wrote, but those which, from +time to time, he received. He had several correspondents, but the chief +of those were his mother and his eldest sister. The sentiments contained +in their letters breathed the most appropriate simplicity and, +tenderness, and flowed with the nicest propriety, from the different +relationships of mother and sister. The style, and even the penmanship, +were distinct and characteristical.</p> + +<p>One of the first of these epistles was written by the mother to Mr. +Dudley, on being informed by her son of his present engagement. It was +dictated by that concern for the welfare of her child befitting the +maternal character. Gratitude, for the ready acceptance of the youth's +services, and for the benignity of his deportment towards him, a just +representation of which had been received by her from the boy himself, +was expressed with no inconsiderable elegance; as well as her earnest +wishes that Mr. Dudley should extend to him not only the indulgence, but +the moral superintendence of a parent.</p> + +<p>To this Mr. Dudley conceived it incumbent upon him to return a +consenting answer, and letters were in this manner occasionally +interchanged between them.</p> + +<p>Things remained in this situation for three years, during which period +every day enhanced the reputation of Craig, for stability and integrity. +A sort of provisional engagement had been made between the parents, +unattended however by any legal or formal act, that things should remain +on their present footing for three years. When this period terminated, +it seemed as if a new engagement had become necessary. Craig expressed +the utmost willingness to renew the former contract, but his master +began to think that the services of his pupil merited a higher +recompense. He ascribed the prosperity that had hitherto attended him to +the disinterested exertions of his apprentice. His social and literary +gratifications had been increased by the increase of his leisure. These +were capable of being still more enlarged. He had not yet acquired what +he deemed a sufficiency, and could not therefore wholly relieve himself +from the turmoils and humiliation of a professional life. He concluded +that he should at once consult his own interest, and perform no more +than an act of justice to a faithful servant, by making Craig his +partner, and allowing him a share of the profits, on condition of his +discharging all the duties of the trade.</p> + +<p>When this scheme was proposed to Craig he professed unbounded gratitude, +considered all that he had done as amply rewarded by the pleasure of +performance, and as being nothing more than was prescribed by his duty. +He promised that this change in his situation should have no other +effect than to furnish new incitements to diligence and fidelity, in the +promotion of an interest, which would then become in a still higher +degree than formerly a common one. Mr. Dudley communicated his +intention to Craig's mother, who, in addition to many grateful +acknowledgments, stated that a kinsman of her son had enabled him, in +case of entering into partnership, to add a small sum to the common +stock, and that for this sum Craig was authorized to draw upon a London +banker. The proposed arrangement was speedily effected. Craig was +charged with the management of all affairs, and Mr. Dudley retired to +the enjoyment of still greater leisure. Two years elapsed, and nothing +occurred to interrupt the harmony that subsisted between the partners. +Mr. Dudley's condition might be esteemed prosperous. His wealth was +constantly accumulating. He had nearly attained all that he wished, and +his wishes still aimed at nothing less than splendid opulence. He had +annually increased the permanent sources of his revenue. His daughter +was the only survivor of many children who perished in their infancy, +before habit and maturity, had rendered the parental tie difficult to +break. This daughter had already exhibited proofs of a mind susceptible +of high improvement, and the loveliness of her person promised to keep +pace with her mental acquisitions. He charged himself with the care of +her education, and found no weariness or satiety in this task that might +not be amply relieved by the recreations of science and literature. He +flattered himself that his career, which had hitherto been exempt from +any considerable impediment, would terminate in tranquillity. Few men +might with more propriety have discarded all apprehensions respecting +futurity.</p> + +<p>Craig had several sisters, and one brother younger than himself. Mr. +Dudley, desirous of promoting the happiness of this family, proposed to +send for this brother and have him educated to his own profession, +insinuating to his partner that at the time when the boy should have +gained sufficient stability and knowledge, he himself might be disposed +to relinquish the profession altogether, on terms particularly +advantageous to the two brothers, who might thenceforth conduct their +business jointly. Craig had been eloquent in praise of this lad, and his +testimony had, from time to time, been confirmed by that of his mother +and sister. He had often expressed his wishes for the prosperity of the +lad; and, when his mother had expressed her doubts as to the best method +of disposing of him, modestly requested Mr. Dudley's advice on this +head. The proposal, therefore, might be supposed to be particularly +acceptable, and yet Craig expressed reluctance to concur with it. This +reluctance was accompanied with certain tokens which sufficiently +showed whence it arose. Craig appeared unwilling to increase those +obligations under which he already laboured; his sense of gratitude was +too acute to allow him to heighten it by the reception of new benefits.</p> + +<p>It might be imagined that this objection would be easily removed; but +the obstinacy of Craig's opposition was invincible. Mr. Dudley could not +relinquish a scheme to which no stronger objection could be made; and, +since his partner could not be prevailed upon to make this proposal to +the friends of the lad, he was determined to do it himself. He +maintained an intercourse by letters with several of those friends which +he formed in his youth. One of them usually resided in London. From him +he received about this time a letter, in which, among other information, +the writer mentioned his intention of setting out on a tour through +Yorkshire and the Scottish highlands. Mr. Dudley thought this a +suitable opportunity for executing his design in favour of young Craig. +He entertained no doubts about the worth and condition of this family, +but was still desirous of obtaining some information on this head from +one who would pass through the town where they resided, who would +examine with his own eyes, and on whose discernment and integrity he +could place an implicit reliance. He concealed this intention from his +partner, and entrusted his letter to a friend who was just embarking for +Europe. In due season he received an answer, confirming, in all +respects, Craig's representations, but informing him that the lad had +been lately disposed of in a way not equally advantageous with that +which Mr. Dudley had proposed, but such as would not admit of change.</p> + +<p>If doubts could possibly be entertained respecting the character and +views of Craig, this evidence would have dispelled them. But plans, +however skilfully contrived, if founded on imposture, cannot fail of +being sometimes detected. Craig had occasion to be absent from the city +for some weeks. Meanwhile a letter had been left at his lodgings by one +who merely inquired if that were the dwelling of Mr. Dudley, and being +answered by the servant in the affirmative, left the letter without +further parley. It was superscribed with a name unknown to any of the +family, and in a hand which its badness rendered almost illegible. The +servant placed it in a situation to be seen by his master.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley allowed it to remain unopened for a considerable time. At +length, deeming it excusable to discover by any means the person to whom +it was addressed, he ventured to unseal it. It was dated at Portsmouth +in New-Hampshire. The signature was Mary Mansfield. It was addressed to +her son, and was a curious specimen of illiterateness. Mary herself was +unable to write, as she reminds her son, and had therefore procured the +assistance of Mrs. Dewitt, for whose family she washed. The amanuensis +was but little superior in the art of penmanship to her principal. The +contents of the epistle were made out with some difficulty. This was the +substance of it:—</p> + +<p>Mary reproaches her son for deserting her, and letting five years pass +away without allowing her to hear from him. She informed him of her +distresses as they flowed from sickness and poverty, and were aggravated +by the loss of her son who was so handsome and promising a lad. She +related her marriage with Zekel Hackney, who first brought her tidings +of her boy. He was master, it seems, of a fishing smack, and voyaged +sometimes to New York. In one of his visits, to this city he met a +mighty spry young man, in whom he thought he recognized his wife's son. +He had traced him to the house of Mr. Dudley, and on inquiry discovered +that the lad resided here. On his return he communicated the tidings to +his spouse, who had now written to reproach him for his neglect of his +poor old mother, and to entreat his assistance to relieve her from the +necessity of drudging for her livelihood.</p> + +<p>This letter was capable of an obvious construction. It was, no doubt, +founded in mistake, though it was to be acknowledged that the mistake +was singular. Such was the conclusion immediately formed by Mr. Dudley. +He quietly replaced the letter on the mantel-piece, where it had before +stood, and dismissed the affair from his thoughts.</p> + +<p>Next day Craig returned from his journey. Mr. Dudley was employed in +examining some papers in a desk that stood behind the door in the +apartment in which the letter was placed. There was no other person in +the room when Craig entered it. He did not perceive Mr. Dudley, who was +screened from observation by his silence and by an open door. As soon as +he entered, Mr. Dudley looked at him, and made no haste to speak. The +letter, whose superscription was turned towards him, immediately +attracted Craig's attention. He seized it with some degree of eagerness, +and observing the broken seal, thrust it hastily into his pocket, +muttering at the same time, in a tone betokening a mixture of +consternation and anger, "Damn it!"—He immediately left the room, still +uninformed of the presence of Mr. Dudley, who began to muse with some +earnestness on what he had seen. Soon after, he left this room, and went +into another in which the family usually sat. In about twenty minutes +Craig made his appearance with his usual freedom and plausibility. +Complimentary and customary topics were discussed. Mrs. Dudley and her +daughter were likewise present. The uneasiness which the incident just +mentioned had occasioned in the mind of Mr. Dudley was at first +dispelled by the disembarrassed behaviour of his partner, but new matter +of suspicion was speedily afforded him. He observed that his partner +spoke of his present entrance as of the first since his arrival, and +that when the lady mentioned that he had been the subject of a curious +mistake, a letter being directed to him by a strange name, and left +there during his absence, he pretended total ignorance of the +circumstance. The young lady was immediately directed by her mother to +bring the letter, which lay, she said, on the mantle-tree in the next +room.</p> + +<p>During this scene Mr. Dudley was silent. He anticipated the +disappointment of the messenger, believing the letter to have been +removed. What then was his surprise when the messenger returned bearing +the letter in her hand! Craig examined and read it, and commented with +great mirth on the contents, acting all the while as if he had never +seen it before. These appearances were not qualified to quiet suspicion; +the more Dudley brooded over them the more dissatisfied he became. He +however concealed his thoughts, as well from Craig himself as his +family, impatiently waiting for some new occurrence to arise by which he +might square his future proceedings.</p> + +<p>During Craig's absence Mrs. Dudley had thought this a proper occasion +for cleaning his apartment. The furniture, and among the rest, a large +chest strongly fastened, was removed into an adjoining room which was +otherwise unoccupied, and which was usually kept locked. When the +cleansing was finished, the furniture was replaced, except this trunk, +which its bulk, the indolence of the servant, and her opinion of its +uselessness, occasioned her to leave in the closet.</p> + +<p>About a week after this, on a Saturday evening, Craig invited to sup +with him a friend who was to embark on the ensuing Monday for Jamaica. +During supper, at which the family were present, the discourse turned on +the voyage on which the guest was about to enter. In the course of talk +the stranger expressed how much he stood in need of a strong and +commodious chest, in which he might safely deposit his cloths and +papers. Not being apprized of the early departure of the vessel, he had +deferred till it was too late applying to an artizan.</p> + +<p>Craig desired him to set himself at rest on that head, for that he had +in his possession just such a trunk as he described. It was of no use to +him, being long filled with nothing better than refuse and lumber, and +that, if he would, he might send for it the next morning. He turned to +Mrs. Dudley and observed, that the trunk to which he alluded was in her +possession, and he would thank her to direct its removal into his own +apartment, that he might empty it of its present contents, and prepare +it for the service of his friend. To this she readily assented.</p> + +<p>There was nothing mysterious in this affair, but the mind of Mr. Dudley +was pained with doubts. He was now as prone to suspect as he was +formerly disposed to confidence. This evening he put the key of the +closet in his own pocket. When inquired for the next day, it was, of +course, missing. It could not be found on the most diligent search. The +occasion was not of such moment as to justify breaking the door. Mr. +Dudley imagined that he saw in Craig more uneasiness at this +disappointment than he was willing to express. There was no remedy. The +chest remained where it was, and next morning the ship departed on her +voyage.</p> + +<p>Craig accompanied his friend on board, was prevailed upon to go to sea +with him, designing to return with the pilot-boat, but when the pilot +was preparing to leave the vessel, such was this man's complaisance to +the wishes of his friend, that he concluded to perform the remainder of +the voyage in his company. The consequences are easily seen. Craig had +gone with a resolution of never returning. The unhappy Dudley was left +to deplore the total ruin of his fortune, which had fallen a prey to +the arts of a subtle imposture.</p> + +<p>The chest was opened, and the part which Craig had been playing for some +years, with so much success, was perfectly explained. It appeared that +the sum which Craig had contributed to the common stock, when first +admitted into partnership, had been previously purloined from the daily +receipts of his shop, of which an exact register was kept. Craig had +been so indiscreet as to preserve this accusing record, and it was +discovered in this depository. He was the son of Mary Mansfield, and a +native of Portsmouth. The history of the Wakefield family, specious and +complicated as it was, was entirely fictitious. The letters had been +forged, and the correspondence supported by his own dexterity. Here was +found the letter which Mr. Dudley had written to his friend requesting +him to make certain inquiries at Wakefield, and which he imagined that +he had delivered with his own hands to a trusty bearer. Here was the +original draught of the answer he received. The manner in which this +stratagem had been accomplished came gradually to light. The letter +which was written to the Yorkshire traveller had been purloined, and +another with a similar superscription, in which the hand of Dudley was +exactly imitated, and containing only brief and general remarks, had +been placed in its stead. Craig must have suspected its contents, and by +this suspicion have been incited to the theft. The answer which the +Englishman had really written, and which sufficiently corresponded with +the forged letter, had been intercepted by Craig, and furnished him a +model from which he might construct an answer adapted to his own +purposes.</p> + +<p>This imposture had not been sustained for a trivial purpose. He had +embezzled a large share of the stock, and had employed the credit of the +house to procure extensive remittances to be made to an agent at a +distance, by whom the property was effectually secured. Craig had gone +to participate these spoils, while the whole estate of Mr. Dudley was +insufficient to pay the demands that were consequently made upon him.</p> + +<p>It was his lot to fall into the grasp of men who squared their actions +by no other standard than law, and who esteemed every claim to be +incontestably just that could plead that sanction. They did not indeed +throw him into prison. When they had despoiled him of every remnant of +his property, they deemed themselves entitled to his gratitude for +leaving his person unmolested.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + + +<p>Thus in a moment was this man thrown from the summit of affluence to the +lowest indigence. He had been habituated to independence and ease. This +reverse, therefore, was the harder to bear. His present situation was +much worse than at his father's death. Then he was sanguine with youth +and glowing with health. He possessed a fund on which he could commence +his operations. Materials were at hand, and nothing was wanted but skill +to use them. Now he had advanced in life. His frame was not exempt from +infirmity. He had so long reposed on the bosom of opulence, and enjoyed +the respect attendant on wealth, that he felt himself totally +incapacitated for a new station. His misfortune had not been foreseen. +It was embittered by the consciousness of his own imprudence, and by +recollecting that the serpent which had stung him was nurtured in his +own bosom.</p> + +<p>It was not merely frugal fare and a humble dwelling to which he was +condemned. The evils to be dreaded were beggary and contempt. Luxury and +leisure were not merely denied him. He must bend all his efforts to +procure clothing and food, to preserve his family from nakedness and +famine. His spirit would not brook dependence. To live upon charity, or +to take advantage of the compassion of his friends, was a destiny far +worse than any other. To this therefore he would not consent. However +irksome and painful it might prove, he determined to procure hit bread +by the labour of his hands.</p> + +<p>But to what scene or kind of employment should he betake himself? He +could not endure to exhibit this reverse of fortune on the same theatre +which had witnessed his prosperity. One of his first measures was to +remove from New York to Philadelphia. How should he employ himself in +his new abode? Painting, the art in which he was expert, would not +afford him the means of subsistence. Though no despicable musician, he +did not esteem himself qualified to be a teacher of this art. This +profession, besides, was treated by his new neighbours with general, +though unmerited contempt. There were few things on which he prided +himself more than on the facilities and elegances of his penmanship. He +was besides well acquainted with arithmetic and accounting. He concluded +therefore to offer his services, as a writer in a public office. This +employment demanded little bodily exertion. He had spent much of his +time at the book and the desk: his new occupation, therefore, was +further recommended by its resemblance to his ancient modes of life.</p> + +<p>The first situation of this kind for which he applied he obtained. The +duties were constant, but not otherwise toilsome or arduous. The +emoluments were slender, but my contracting, within limits as narrow as +possible, his expenses, they could be made subservient to the mere +purposes of subsistence. He hired a small house in the suburbs of the +city. It consisted of a room above and below, and a kitchen. His wife, +daughter, and one girl, composed its inhabitants.</p> + +<p>As long as his mind was occupied in projecting and executing these +arrangements, it was diverted from uneasy contemplations. When his life +became uniform, and day followed day in monotonous succession, and the +novelty of his employment had disappeared, his cheerfulness began +likewise to fade, and was succeeded by unconquerable melancholy. His +present condition was in every respect the contrast of his former. His +servitude was intolerable. He was associated with sordid hirelings, +gross and uneducated, who treated his age with rude familiarity, and +insulted his ears with ribaldry and scurrilous jests. He was subject to +command, and had his portion of daily drudgery allotted to him, to be +performed for a pittance no more than would buy the bread which he daily +consumed. The task assigned him was technical and formal. He was +perpetually encumbered with the rubbish of law, and waded with laborious +steps through its endless tautologies, its impertinent circuities, its +lying assertions, and hateful artifices. Nothing occurred to relieve or +diversify the scene. It was one tedious round of scrawling and jargon; a +tissue made up of the shreds and remnants of barbarous antiquity, +polluted with the rust of ages, and patched by the stupidity of modern +workmen into new deformity.</p> + +<p>When the day's task was finished, jaded spirits, and a body enfeebled by +reluctant application, were but little adapted to domestic enjoyments. +These indeed were incompatible with a temper like his, to whom the +privation of the comforts that attended his former condition was +equivalent to the loss of life. These privations were still more painful +to his wife, and her death added one more calamity to those tinder which +he already groaned. He had always loved her with the tenderest +affection, and he justly regarded this evil as surpassing all his former +woes.</p> + +<p>But his destiny seemed never weary of persecuting him. It was not enough +that he should fall a victim to the most atrocious arts, that he should +wear out his days in solitude and drudgery, that he should feel not only +the personal restraints and hardships attendant upon indigence, but the +keener pangs that result from negligence and contumely. He was +imperfectly recovered from the shock occasioned by the death of his +wife, when his sight was invaded by a cataract. Its progress was rapid, +and terminated in total blindness.</p> + +<p>He was now disabled from pursuing his usual occupation. He was shot out +from the light of heaven, and debarred of every human comfort. Condemned +to eternal darkness, and worse than the helplessness of infancy, he was +dependant for the meanest offices on the kindness of others; and he who +had formerly abounded in the gifts of fortune, thought only of ending +his days in a gaol or an almshouse.</p> + +<p>His situation however was alleviated by one circumstance. He had a +daughter whom I have formerly mentioned, as the only survivor of many +children. She was sixteen years of age when the storm of adversity fell +upon her father's house. It may be thought that one educated as she had +been, in the gratification of all her wishes, and at an age of timidity +and inexperience, would have been less fitted than her father for +encountering misfortune; and yet when the task of comforter fell upon +her her strength was not found wanting. Her fortitude was immediately +put to the test. This reverse did not only affect her obliquely, and +through the medium of her family, but directly, and in one way usually +very distressful to female feelings.</p> + +<p>Her fortune and character had attracted many admirers. One of them had +some reason to flatter himself with success. Miss Dudley's notions had +little in common with those around her. She had learned to square her +conduct, in a considerable degree, not by the hasty impulses of +inclination, but by the dictates of truth. She yielded nothing to +caprice or passion. Not that she was perfectly exempt from intervals of +weakness, or from the necessity of painful struggles, but these +intervals were transient, and these struggles always successful. She was +no stranger to the pleadings of love from the lips of others, and in her +own bosom; but its tumults were brief, and speedily gave place to quiet +thoughts and steadfast purposes.</p> + +<p>She had listened to the solicitations of one not unworthy in himself, +and amply recommended by the circumstances of family and fortune. He was +young, and therefore impetuous. Of the good that he sought, he was not +willing to delay the acquisition for a moment. She had been taught a +very different lesson. Marriage included vows of irrevocable affection +and obedience. It was a contract to endure for life. To form this +connection in extreme youth, before time had unfolded and modelled the +characters of the parties, was, in her opinion, a proof of pernicious +and opprobrious temerity. Not to perceive the propriety of delay in this +case, or to be regardless of the motives that would enjoin upon us a +deliberate procedure, furnished an unanswerable objection to any man's +pretensions. She was sensible, however, that this, like other mistakes, +was curable. If her arguments failed to remove it, time, it was likely, +would effect this purpose. If she rejected a matrimonial proposal for +the present, it was for reasons that might not preclude her future +acceptance of it.</p> + +<p>Her scruples, in the present case, did not relate to the temper or +person, or understanding of her lover; but to his age, to the +imperfectness of their acquaintance, and to the want of that permanence +of character, which can flow only from the progress of time and +knowledge. These objections, which so rarely exist, were conclusive +with her. There was no danger of her relinquishing them in compliance +with the remonstrances of her parents and the solicitations of her +lover; though the one and the other were urged with all the force of +authority and insinuation. The prescriptions of duty were too clear to +allow her to hesitate and waver; but the consciousness of rectitude +could not secure her from temporary vexations.</p> + +<p>Her parents were blemished with some of the frailties of that character. +They held themselves entitled to prescribe in this article, but they +forbore to exert their power. They condescended to persuade, but it was +manifest that they regarded their own conduct as a relaxation of right; +and had not the lever's importunities suddenly ceased, it is not +possible to tell how far the happiness of Miss Dudley might have been +endangered. The misfortunes of her father were no sooner publicly +known, than the youth forbore his visits, and embarked on a voyage which +he had long projected, but which had been hitherto delayed by a superior +regard to the interests of his passion.</p> + +<p>It must be allowed that the lady had not foreseen this event. She had +exercised her judgment upon his character, and had not been deceived. +Before this desertion, had it been clearly stated to her apprehension, +she would have readily admitted it to be probable. She knew the +fascination of wealth, and the delusiveness of self-confidence. She was +superior to the folly of supposing him exempt from sinister influences, +and deaf to the whispers of ambition; and yet the manner in which she +was affected by this event convinced her that her heart had a larger +share than her reason in dictating her expectations.</p> + +<p>Yet it must not be supposed that she suffered any very acute distress on +this account. She was grieved less for her own sake than his. She had +no design of entering into marriage in less than seven years from this +period. Not a single hope, relative to her own condition, had been +frustrated. She had only been mistaken in her favourable conceptions of +another. He had exhibited less constancy and virtue than her heart had +taught her to expect.</p> + +<p>With those opinions, she could devote herself with a single heart to the +alleviation of her parent's sorrows. This change in her condition she +treated lightly, and retained her cheerfulness unimpaired. This happened +because, in a rational estimate, and so far as it affected herself, the +misfortune was slight, and because her dejection would only tend to +augment the disconsolateness of her parents, while, on the other hand, +her serenity was calculated to infuse the same confidence into them. She +indulged herself in no fits of exclamation or moodiness. She listened +in silence to their invectives and laments, and seized every opportunity +that offered to inspire them with courage, to set before them the good +as well as the ill to which they were reserved, to suggest expedients +for improving their condition, and to soften the asperities of his new +mode of life, to her father, by every species of blandishment and +tenderness.</p> + +<p>She refused no personal exertion to the common benefit. She incited her +father to diligence, as well by her example as by her exhortations; +suggested plans, and superintended or assisted in the execution of them. +The infirmities of sex and age vanished before the motives to courage +and activity, flowing from her new situation. When settled in his new +abode and profession, she began to deliberate what conduct was incumbent +on herself, how she might participate with her father the burden of the +common maintenance, and blunt the edge of this calamity by the resources +of a powerful and cultivated mind.</p> + +<p>In the first place, she disposed of every superfluous garb and trinket +She reduced her wardrobe to the plainest and cheapest establishment. By +this means alone she supplied her father's necessities with a +considerable sum. Her music, and even her books were not spared,—not +from the slight esteem in which these were held by her, but because she +was thenceforth to become an economist of time as well as of money, +because musical instruments are not necessary to the practice of this +art in its highest perfection, and because books, when she could procure +leisure to read, or money to purchase them, might be obtained in a +cheaper and more commodious form, than those costly and splendid volumes +with which her father's munificence had formerly supplied her.</p> + +<p>To make her expenses as limited as possible was her next care. For this +end she assumed the province of cook, the washing of house and clothes, +and the cleaning of furniture. Their house was small; the family +consisted of no more than four persons, and all formality and +expensiveness were studiously discarded; but her strength was unequal to +unavoidable tasks. A vigorous constitution could not supply the place of +laborious habits, and this part of her plan must have been changed for +one less frugal. The aid of a servant must have been hired, if it had +not been furnished by gratitude.</p> + +<p>Some years before this misfortune, her mother had taken under her +protection a girl, the daughter of a poor woman, who subsisted by +labour, and who dying, left this child without friend or protector. +This girl possessed no very improvable capacity, and therefore could not +benefit by the benevolent exertions of her young mistress so much as the +latter desired; but her temper was artless and affectionate, and she +attached herself to Constantia with the most entire devotion. In this +change of fortune she would not consent to be separated; and Miss +Dudley, influenced by her affection for her Lucy, and reflecting that on +the whole it was most to her advantage to share with her at once her +kindness and her poverty, retained her as her companion. With this girl +she shared the domestic duties, scrupling not to divide with her the +meanest and most rugged, as well as the lightest offices.</p> + +<p>This was not all. She in the next place considered whether her ability +extended no farther than to save. Could she not by the employment of her +hands increase the income as well as diminish the expense? Why should +she be precluded from all lucrative occupation? She soon came to a +resolution. She was mistress of her needle; and this skill she conceived +herself bound to employ for her own subsistence.</p> + +<p>Clothing is one of the necessaries of human existence. The art of the +tailor is scarcely less use than that of the tiller of the ground! There +are few the gains of which are better merited, and less infurious to the +principles of human society. She resolved therefore to become a +workwoman, and to employ in this way the leisure she possessed from +household avocations. To this scheme she was obliged to reconcile not +only herself but her parents. The conquest of their prejudices was no +easy task, but her patience and skill finally succeeded, and she +procured needlework in sufficient quantity to enable her to enhance in +no trivial degree the common fund.</p> + +<p>It is one thing barely to comply with the urgencies of the case, and to +do that which in necessitous circumstances is best. But to conform with +grace and cheerfulness, to yield no place to fruitless recriminations +and repinings, to contract the evils into as small a compass as +possible, and extract from our condition all possible good, is a task of +a different kind.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley's situation required from him frugality and diligence. He was +regular and unintermitted in his application to his pen. He was frugal. +His slender income was administered agreeably to the maxims of his +daughter: but he was unhappy. He experienced in its full extent the +bitterness of disappointment.</p> + +<p>He gave himself up for the most part to a listless melancholy. Sometimes +his impatience would produce effects less excusable, and conjure up an +accusing and irascible spirit. His wife, and even his daughter, he would +make the objects of peevish and absurd reproaches. These were moments +when her heart drooped indeed, and her tears could not be restrained +from flowing. These fits were transitory and rare, and when they had +passed, the father seldom failed to mingle tokens of contrition and +repentance with the tears of his daughter. Her arguments and soothings +were seldom disappointed of success. Her mother's disposition was soft +and pliant, but she could not accommodate herself to the necessity of +her husband's affairs. She was obliged to endure the want of some +indulgences, but she reserved to herself the liberty of complaining, and +to subdue this spirit in her was found utterly impracticable. She died a +victim to discontent.</p> + +<p>This event deepened the gloom that shrouded the soul of her father, and +rendered the task of consolation still more difficult. She did not +despair. Her sweetness and patience was invincible by any thing that had +already happened, but her fortitude did not exceed the standard of +human nature. Evils now began to menace her, to which it is likely she +would have yielded, had not their approach been intercepted by an evil +of a different kind.</p> + +<p>The pressure of grief is sometimes such as to prompt us to seek a refuge +in voluntary death. We must lay aside the burden which we cannot +sustain. If thought degenerate into a vehicle of pain, what remains but +to destroy that vehicle? For this end, death is the obvious, but not the +only, or morally speaking, the worst means. There is one method of +obtaining the bliss of forgetfulness, in comparison with which suicide +is innocent.</p> + +<p>The strongest mind is swayed by circumstances. There is no firmness of +integrity, perhaps able to repel every species of temptation, which is +produced by the present constitution of human affairs, and yet +temptation is successful, chiefly by virtue of its gradual and +invisible approaches. We rush into danger, because we are not aware of +its existence, and have not therefore provided the means of safety, and +the dæmon that seizes us is hourly reinforced by habit. Our opposition +grows fainter in proportion as our adversary acquires new strength, and +the man becomes enslaved by the most sordid vices, whose fall would, at +a former period, have been deemed impossible, or who would have been +imagined liable to any species of depravity, more than to this.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley's education had entailed upon him many errors, yet who would +have supposed it possible for him to be enslaved by a depraved appetite; +to be enamoured of low debauchery, and to grasp at the happiness that +intoxication had to bestow? This was a mournful period in Constantia's +history. My feelings will not suffer me to dwell upon it. I cannot +describe the manner in which she was affected by the first symptoms of +this depravity, the struggles which she made to counteract this dreadful +infatuation, and the grief which she experienced from the repeated +miscarriage of her efforts. I will not detail her various expedients for +this end, the appeals which she made to his understanding, to his sense +of honour and dread of infamy, to the gratitude to which she was +entitled, and to the injunctions of parental duty. I will not detail his +fits of remorse, his fruitless penitence end continual relapses, nor +depict the heart-breaking scenes of uproar, and violence, and foul +disgrace that accompanied his paroxysms of drunkenness.</p> + +<p>The only intellectual amusement which this lady allowed herself was +writing. She enjoyed one distant friend, with whom she maintained an +uninterrupted correspondence, and to whom she confided a circumstantial +and copious relation of all these particulars. That friend is the writer +of these memoirs. It is not impossible but that these letters may be +communicated to the world, at some future period. The picture which they +exhibit is hourly exemplified and realized, though in the many-coloured +scenes of human life none surpasses it in disastrousness and horror. My +eyes almost wept themselves dry over this part of her tale.</p> + +<p>In this state of things Mr. Dudley's blindness might justly be +accounted, even in its immediate effects, a fortunate event. It +dissolved the spell by which he was bound, and which it is probable +would never have been otherwise broken. It restored him to himself, and +showed him, with a distinctness which made him shudder, the gulf to +which he was hastening. But nothing can compensate to the sufferers the +evils of blindness. It was the business of Constantia's life to +alleviate those sufferings, to cherish and console her father, and to +rescue him by the labour of her hands from dependence on public +charity. For this end, her industry and solicitude were never at rest. +She was able, by that industry, to provide him and herself with +necessaries. Their portion was scanty, and if it sometimes exceeded the +standard of their wants, not less frequently fell short of it. For all +her toils and disquietudes she esteemed herself fully compensated by the +smiles of her father. He indeed could seldom be prompted to smile, or to +suppress the dictates of that despair which flowed from his sense of +this new calamity, and the aggravations of hardship which his recent +insobrieties had occasioned to his daughter.</p> + +<p>She purchased what books her scanty stock would allow, and borrowed +others. These she read to him when her engagements would permit. At +other times she was accustomed to solace herself with her own music. The +lute which her father had purchased in Italy, and which had been +disposed of among the rest of his effects, at public sale, had been +gratuitously restored to him by the purchaser, on condition of his +retaining it in his possession. His blindness and inoccupation now broke +the long silence to which this instrument had been condemned, and +afforded an accompaniment to the young lady's voice.</p> + +<p>Her chief employment was conversation. She resorted to this as the best +means of breaking the monotony of the scene; but this purpose was not +only accomplished, but other benefits of the highest value accrued from +it. The habits of a painter eminently tended to vivify and make exact +her father's conceptions and delineations of visible objects. The sphere +of his youthful observation comprised more ingredients of the +picturesque than any other sphere. The most precious materials of the +moral history of mankind are derived from the revolutions of Italy. +Italian features and landscape constitute the chosen field of the +artists. No one had more carefully explored this field than Mr. Dudley. +His time, when abroad, had been divided between residence at Rome, and +excursions to Calabria and Tuscany. Few impressions were effaced from +his capacious register, and these were now rendered by his eloquence +nearly as conspicuous to his companion as to himself.</p> + +<p>She was imbued with an ardent thirst of knowledge, and by the acuteness +of her remarks, and the judiciousness of her inquiries, reflected back +upon his understanding as much improvement as she received. These +efforts to render his calamity tolerable, and inure him to the profiting +by his own resources, were aided by time, and when reconciled by habit +to unrespited gloom, he was sometimes visited by gleams of cheerfulness, +and drew advantageous comparisons between his present and former +situation. A stillness, not unakin to happiness, frequently diffused +itself over their winter evenings. Constantia enjoyed in their full +extent the felicities of health and self approbation. The genius and +eloquence of her father, nourished by perpetual exercise, and undiverted +from its purpose by the intrusion of visible objects, frequently +afforded her a delight in comparison with which all other pleasures were +mean.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + + +<p>This period of tranquillity was short. Poverty hovered at their +threshold, and in a state precarious as theirs could not be long +excluded. The lady was more accustomed to anticipate good than evil, but +she was not unconscious that the winter, which was hastening, would +bring with it numerous inconveniences. Wants during that season are +multiplied, while the means of supplying them either fail or are +diminished. Fuel is alone a cause of expense equal to all other articles +of subsistence. Her dwelling was old, crazy, and full of avenues to air. +It was evident that neither fire nor clothing would, in an habitation +like that, attemper the chilling blasts. Her scanty gains were equal to +their needs during summer, but would probably fall short during the +prevalence of cold.</p> + +<p>These reflections could not fail sometimes to intrude. She indulged them +as long as they served, merely to suggest expedients and provisions for +the future, but laboured to call away her attention when they merely +produced anxiety. This she more easily effected, as some months of +summer were still to come, and her knowledge of the vicissitudes to +which human life is subject taught her to rely upon the occurrence of +some fortunate though unforeseen event.</p> + +<p>Accident suggested an expedient of this kind. Passing through an alley +in the upper part of the town, her eye was caught by a label on the door +of a small house, signifying that it was to be let. It was smaller than +that she at present occupied, but it had an aspect of much greater +comfort and neatness. Its situation near the centre of the city, in a +quiet, cleanly, and well paved alley, was far preferable to that of her +present habitation in the suburbs, scarcely accessible in winter for +pools and gullies, and in a neighbourhood abounding with indigence and +profligacy. She likewise considered that the rent of this might be less, +and that the proprietor of this might have more forbearance and +benignity than she had hitherto met with.</p> + +<p>Unconversant as she was with the world, imbued with the timidity of her +sex and her youth, many enterprises were arduous to her, which would, to +age and experience, have been easy. Her reluctances, however, when +required by necessity, were overcome, and all the measures which her +situation prescribed executed with address and dispatch. One, marking +her deportment, would have perceived nothing but dignity and courage. He +would have regarded these as the fruits of habitual independence and +exertion, whereas they were merely the results of clear perceptions and +inflexible resolves.</p> + +<p>The proprietor of this mansion was immediately sought out, and a +bargain, favourable as she could reasonably desire, concluded. +Possession was to be taken in a week. For this end, carters and draymen +were to be engaged, household implements to be prepared for removal, and +negligence and knavery prevented by scrupulous attention. The duties of +superintendence and execution devolved upon her. Her father's blindness +rendered him powerless. His personal ease required no small portion of +care. Household and professional functions were not to be omitted. She +stood alone in the world; there was none whose services or counsel she +could claim. Tortured by a multiplicity of cares, shrinking from +exposure to rude eyes, and from contention with refractory and insolent +spirits, and overpowered with fatigue and disgust, she was yet compelled +to retain a cheerful tone in her father's presence, and to struggle +with his regrets and his peevishness.</p> + +<p>O, my friend, methinks I now see thee encountering the sneers and +obstinacy of the meanest of mankind, subjecting that frame of thine, so +exquisitely delicate, and therefore so feeble, to the vilest drudgery. I +see thee leading thy unhappy father to his new dwelling, and stifling +the sighs produced by his fruitless repinings and unseasonable scruples. +Why was I not partaker of thy cares and labours? Why was I severed from +thee by the ocean, and kept in ignorance of thy state? I was not without +motives to anxiety, for I was friendless as thou, but how unlike to +thine was my condition! I reposed upon down and tissue, never moved but +with obsequious attendance and pompous equipage; painting and music were +consolations ever at hand, and my cabinet was stored with poetry and +science. These, indeed, were insufficient to exclude care; and with +regard to the past I have no wish but that I had shared with my friend +her toilsome and humiliating lot. However an erroneous world might +judge, thy life was full of dignity, and thy moments of happiness not +few, since happiness is only attendant on the performance of our duty.</p> + +<p>A toilsome and sultry week was terminated by a Sabbath of repose. Her +new dwelling possessed indisputable advantages over her old. Not the +least of these benefits consisted in the vicinity of people, peaceable +and honest, though poor. She was no longer shocked by the clamours of +debauchery, and exposed, by her situation, to the danger of being +mistaken by the profligate of either sex for one of their own class. It +was reasonable to consider this change of abode as fortunate, and yet +circumstances quickly occurred which suggested a very different +conclusion.</p> + +<p>She had no intercourse, which necessity did not prescribe, with the +rest of the world. She screened herself as much as possible from +intercourse with prying and loquacious neighbours. Her father's +inclinations in this respect coincided with her own, though their love +of seclusion was prompted by different motives. Visitants were hated by +the father, because his dignity was hurt by communication with the +vulgar. The daughter set too much value upon time willingly to waste it +upon trifles and triflers. She had no pride to subdue, and therefore +never escaped from well-meant importunity at the expense of politeness +and good humour. In her moments of leisure she betook herself to the +poet and the moralist for relief.</p> + +<p>She could not at all times suppress the consciousness of the evils which +surrounded and threatened her; she could not but rightly estimate the +absorbing and brutifying nature of that toil to which she was condemned. +Literature had hitherto been regarded as her solace. She knew that +meditation and converse, as well as books and the pen, are instruments +of knowledge, but her musing thoughts were too often fixed upon her own +condition. Her father's soaring moods and luminous intervals grew less +frequent. Conversation was too rarely abstracted from personal +considerations, and strayed less often than before into the wilds of +fancy or the mazes of analysis.</p> + +<p>These circumstances led her to reflect whether subsistence might not be +obtained by occupations purely intellectual. Instruction was needed by +the young of both sexes. Females frequently performed the office of +teachers. Was there no branch of her present knowledge which she might +claim wages for imparting to others? Was there no art within her reach +to acquire, convertible into means of gain? Women are generally limited +to what is sensual and ornamental: music and painting, and the Italian +and French languages, are bounds which they seldom pass. In these +pursuits it is not possible—nor is it expected—that they should arrive +at the skill of adepts. The education of Constantia had been regulated +by the peculiar views of her father, who sought to make her, not +alluring and voluptuous, but eloquent and wise. He therefore limited her +studies to Latin and English. Instead of familiarizing her with the +amorous effusions of Petrarcha and Racine, he made her thoroughly +conversant with Tacitus and Milton. Instead of making her a practical +musician or pencilist, he conducted her to the school of Newton and +Hartley, unveiled to her the mathematical properties of light and sound, +taught her as a metaphysician and anatomist the structure and power of +the senses, and discussed with her the principles and progress of human +society.</p> + +<p>These accomplishments tended to render her superior to the rest of +women but in no degree qualified her for the post of a female +instructor: she saw and lamented her deficiencies, and gradually formed +the resolution of supplying them. Her knowledge of the Latin tongue and +of grammatical principles rendered easy the acquisition of Italian and +French, these being merely Scions from the Roman stock.</p> + +<p>Having had occasion, previous to her change of dwelling, to purchase +paper at a bookseller's, the man had offered her at a very low price a +second-hand copy of Veneroni's grammar: the offer had been declined, her +views at that time being otherwise directed. Now, however, this incident +was remembered, and a resolution instantly formed to purchase the book. +As soon as the light declined, and her daily task at the needle had +drawn to a close, she set out to execute this purpose. Arriving at the +house of the bookseller, she perceived that the doors and windows were +closed. Night having not yet arrived, the conjecture easily occurred +that some one had died in the house. She had always dealt with this man +for books and paper, and had always been treated with civility. Her +heart readily admitted some sympathy with his distress, and to remove +her doubts she turned to a person who stood at the entrance of the next +house, and who held a cloth steeped in vinegar to his nostrils. In reply +to her question the stranger said in a tone of the deepest +consternation—Mr. Watson do you mean? He is dead: he died last night of +the <i>yellow fever</i>.</p> + +<p>The name of this disease was not absolutely new to her ears. She had +been apprized of its rapid and destructive progress in one quarter of +the city, but hitherto it had existed, with regard to her, chiefly in +the form of rumour. She had not realized the nature or probable extent +of the evil. She lived at no great distance from the seat of the malady, +but her neighbourhood had been hitherto exempt. So wholly unused was +she to contemplate pestilence, except at a distance, that its actual +existence in the bosom of this city was incredible.</p> + +<p>Contagious diseases she well knew periodically visited and laid waste +the Greek and Egyptian cities. It constituted no small part of that mass +of evil, political and physical, by which that portion of the world has +been so long afflicted. That a pest equally malignant had assailed the +metropolis of her own country—a town famous for the salubrity of its +air and the perfection of its police—had something in it so wild and +uncouth that she could not reconcile herself to the possibility of such +an event.</p> + +<p>The death of Watson, however, filled her mind with awful reflections. +The purpose of her walk was forgotten amidst more momentous +considerations. She bent her steps pensively homeward. She had now +leisure to remark the symptoms of terror with which all ranks appeared +to have been seized. The streets were as much frequented as ever, but +there were few passengers whose countenances did not betray alarm, and +who did not employ the imaginary antidote to infection—vinegar.</p> + +<p>Having reached home, she quickly discovered in her father an unusual +solemnity and thoughtfulness. He had no power to conceal his emotions +from his daughter, when her efforts to discover them were earnestly +exerted. She learned that during her absence he had been visited by his +next neighbour—a thrifty, sober, and well meaning, but ignorant and +meddling person, by name Whiston. This person, being equally inquisitive +into other men's affairs, and communicative of his own, was always an +unwelcome visitant. On this occasion he had come to disburden on Mr. +Dudley his fears of disease and death. His tale of the origin and +progress of the epidemic, of the number and suddenness of recent deaths, +was delivered with endless prolixity. With this account he mingled +prognostics of the future, counselled Mr. Dudley to fly from the scene +of danger, and stated his own schemes and resolutions. After having +thoroughly affrighted and wearied his companion he took his leave.</p> + +<p>Constantia endeavoured to remove the impression which had been thus +needlessly made. She urged her doubts as to the truth of Whiston's +representations, and endeavoured, in various ways, to extenuate the +danger.</p> + +<p>"Nay, my child," said her father, "thou needest not reason on the +subject; I am not afraid; at least, on my own account, I fear nothing. +What is life to me that I should dread to lose it? If on any account I +should tremble it is on thine, my angelic girl. Thou dost not deserve +thus early to perish: and yet if my love for thee were rational, perhaps +I ought to wish it. An evil destiny will pursue thee to the close of thy +life, be it ever so long.</p> + +<p>"I know that ignorance and folly breed the phantoms by which themselves +are perplexed and terrified, and that Whiston is a fool; but here the +truth is too plain to be disguised. This malady is pestilential. Havock +and despair will accompany its progress, and its progress will be rapid. +The tragedies of Marseilles and Messina will be reacted on this stage.</p> + +<p>"For a time we in this quarter shall be exempt, but it will surely reach +us at last; and then, whither shall we fly? For the rich, the whole +world is a safe asylum, but for us, indigent and wretched, what fate is +reserved but to stay and perish? If the disease spare us, we must perish +by neglect and famine. Alarm will be far and wide diffused. Fear will +hinder those who supply the market from entering the city. The price of +food will become exorbitant. Our present source of subsistence, +ignominious and scanty as it is, will be cut off. Traffic and labour of +every kind will be at an end. We shall die, but not until we have +witnessed and endured horrors that surpass thy powers of conception.</p> + +<p>"I know full well the enormity of this evil. I have been at Messina, and +talked with many who witnessed the state of that city in 1743. I will +not freeze thy blood with the recital. Anticipation has a tendency to +lessen or prevent some evils, but pestilence is not of that number. +Strange untowardness of destiny! That thou and I should be cast upon a +scene like this!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley joined with uncommon powers of discernment a species of +perverseness not easily accounted for. He acted as if the inevitable +evils of her lot were not sufficient for the trial of his daughter's +patience. Instead of comforter and counsellor he fostered impatience in +himself, and endeavoured, with the utmost diligence, to undermine her +fortitude and disconcert her schemes. The task was assigned to her, not +only of subduing her own fears, but of maintaining the contest with his +disastrous eloquence. In most cases she had not failed of success. +Hitherto their causes of anxiety her own observation had, in some +degree, enabled her to estimate at their just value. The rueful pictures +which his imagination was wont to portray affected her for a moment; but +deliberate scrutiny commonly enabled her to detect and demonstrate their +fallacy. Now, however, the theme was new. Panic and foreboding found +their way to her heart in defiance of her struggles. She had no +experience by which to counteract this impulse. All that remained was to +beguile her own and her father's cares by counterfeiting cheerfulness, +and introducing new topics.</p> + +<p>This panic, stifled for a time, renewed its sway when she retired to her +chamber. Never did futurity wear, to her fancy, so dark a hue: never did +her condition appear to her in a light so dreary and forlorn. To fly +from the danger was impossible. How should accommodation at a distance +be procured? The means of subsistence were indissolubly connected with +her present residence, but the progress of this disease would cut off +these means, and leave her to be beset not only with pestilence but +famine. What provision could she make against an evil like this?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p>The terms on which she had been admitted into this house included the +advance of one quarter's rent and the monthly payment of subsequent +dues. The requisite sum had been with difficulty collected; the landlord +had twice called to remind her of her stipulation, and this day had been +fixed for the discharge of this debt. He had omitted, contrary to her +expectations and her wishes, to come. It was probable, however, that +they would meet on the ensuing day. If he should fail in this respect, +it appeared to be her duty to carry the money to his house, and this it +had been her resolution to perform.</p> + +<p>Now, however, new views were suggested to her thoughts. By the payment +of this debt she would leave herself nearly destitute. The flight and +terror of the citizens would deprive her of employment. Want of food +was an immediate and inevitable evil which the payment of this sum would +produce. Was it just to incur this evil? To retain the means of +luxurious gratification would be wrong, but to bereave herself and her +father of bare subsistence was surely no dictate of duty.</p> + +<p>It is true the penalty of non-payment was always in the landlord's +hands. He was empowered by the law to sell their movables end expel them +from his house. It was now no time for a penalty like this to be +incurred. But from this treatment it was reasonable to hope that his +lenity would save them. Was it not right to wait till the alternative of +expulsion or payment was imposed? Meanwhile, however, she was subjected +to the torments of suspense, and to the guilt of a broken promise. These +consequences were to be eluded only in one way: by visiting her +landlord, and stating her true condition, it was possible that his +compassion would remit claims which were in themselves unreasonable and +uncommon. The tender of the money, accompanied by representations +sufficiently earnest and pathetic, might possibly be declined.</p> + +<p>These reflections were the next morning submitted to her father. Her +decision in this case was of less importance in his eyes than in those +of his daughter. Should the money be retained, it was in his opinion a +pittance too small to afford them effectual support. Supposing +provisions to be had at any price, which was itself improbable, that +price would be exorbitant. The general confusion would probably last for +months, and thirty dollars would be devoured in a few weeks, even in a +time of safety. To give or to keep was indifferent for another reason. +It was absurd for those to consult about means of subsistence for the +next month, when it was fixed that they should die to-morrow. The true +proceeding was obvious. The landlord's character was well known to him +by means of the plaints and invectives of their neighbours, most of whom +were tenants of the same man. If the money were offered his avarice +would receive it, in spite of all the pleas that she should urge. If it +were detained without leave, an officer of justice would quickly be +dispatched to claim it.</p> + +<p>This statement was sufficient to take away from Constantia the hope that +she had fostered. "What then," said she, after a pause, "is my father's +advice? Shall I go forthwith and deliver the money?"</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "stay till he sends for it. Have you forgotten that +Matthews resides in the very midst of this disease. There is no need to +thrust yourself within in its fangs. They will reach us time enough. It +is likely his messenger will be an agent of the law. No matter. The debt +will be merely increased by a few charges. In a state like ours, the +miserable remnant is not worth caring for."</p> + +<p>This reasoning did not impart conviction to the lady. The danger flowing +from a tainted atmosphere was not small, but to incur that danger was +wiser than to exasperate their landlord, to augment the debt, and to +encounter the disgrace accruing from a constable's visits. The +conversation was dropped, and presently after she set out on a visit to +Matthews.</p> + +<p>She fully estimated the importance to her happiness of the sum which she +was going to pay. The general panic had already, in some degree, +produced the effect she chiefly dreaded; the failure of employment for +her needle. Her father had, with his usual diligence at self-torment, +supplied her with sufficient proofs of the covetous and obdurate temper +of her creditor. Insupportable, however, as the evil of payment was, it +was better to incur it spontaneously, than by means of legal process. +The desperateness of this proceeding, therefore, did not prevent her +from adopting it, but it filled her heart with the bitterest sensations. +Absorbed, as she passed along, by these, she was nearly insensible to +the vacancy which now prevailed in a quarter which formerly resounded +with the din of voices and carriages.</p> + +<p>As she approached the house to which she was going, her reluctance to +proceed increased. Frequently she paused to recollect the motives that +had prescribed this task, and to reinforce her purposes. At length she +arrived at the house. Now, for the first time, her attention was excited +by the silence and desolation that surrounded her. This evidence of fear +and of danger struck upon her heart. All appeared to have fled from the +presence of this unseen and terrible foe. The temerity of adventuring +thus into the jaws of the pest now appeared to her in glaring colours.</p> + +<p>Appearances suggested a refection which had not previously occurred, +and which tended to console her. Was it not probable that Matthews had +likewise flown? His habits were calculated to endear to him his life: he +would scarcely be among the last to shun perils like these: The omission +of his promised visit on the preceding day might be owing to his absence +from the city, and thus, without subjection to any painful alternative, +she might be suffered to retain the money.</p> + +<p>To give certainty to this hope, she cast her eye towards the house +opposite to which she now stood. Her heart drooped on perceiving proofs +that the dwelling was still inhabited. The door was open, and the +windows in the second and third story were raised. Near the entrance, in +the street, stood a cart. The horse attached to it, in its form and +furniture and attitude, was an emblem of torpor and decay. His gaunt +sides, motionless limbs, his gummy and dead eyes, and his head hanging +to the ground, were in unison with the craziness of the vehicle to which +he belonged, and the paltry and bedusted harness which covered him. No +attendant nor any human face was visible. The stillness, though at an +hour customarily busy, was uninterrupted except by the sound of wheels +moving at an almost indistinguishable distance.</p> + +<p>She paused for a moment to contemplate this unwonted spectacle. Her +trepidations were mingled with emotions not unakin to sublimity, but the +consciousness of danger speedily prevailed, and she hastened to acquit +herself of her engagement. She approached the door for this purpose, but +before she could draw the bell, her motions were arrested by sounds from +within. The staircase was opposite the door. Two persons were now +discovered descending the stairs. They lifted between them a heavy mass, +which was presently discerned to be a coffin. Shocked by this discovery, +and trembling, she withdrew from the entrance.</p> + +<p>At this moment a door on the opposite side of the street opened, and a +female came out. Constantia approached her involuntarily, and her +appearance not being unattractive, ventured more by gestures than by +words, to inquire whose obsequies were thus unceremoniously conducted. +The woman informed her that the dead was Matthews, who, two days before +was walking about, indifferent to and braving danger. She cut short the +narrative which her companion seemed willing to prolong, and to +embellish with all its circumstances, and hastened home with her utmost +expedition.</p> + +<p>The mind of Constantia was a stranger to pusillanimity. Death, as the +common lot of all, was regarded by her without perturbation. The value +of life, though no annihilated, was certainly diminished by adversity. +With whatever solemnity contemplated, it excited on her own account no +aversion or inquietude. For her father's sake only death was an evil to +be ardently deprecated. The nature of the prevalent disease, the limits +and modes of its influence, the risk that is incurred by approaching the +sick or the dead, or by breathing the surrounding element, were subjects +foreign to her education. She judged like the mass of mankind from the +most obvious appearances, and was subject like them to impulses which +disdained the control of her reason. With all her complacency for death, +and speculative resignation to the fate that governs the world, disquiet +and alarm pervaded her bosom on this occasion.</p> + +<p>The deplorable state to which her father would be reduced by her death +was seen and lamented, but her tremulous sensations flowed not from this +source. They were, in some sort, inexplicable and mechanical. In spite +of recollection and reflection, they bewildered and harassed her, and +subsided only of their own accord.</p> + +<p>The death of Matthews was productive of one desirable consequence. Till +the present tumult was passed, and his representatives had leisure to +inspect his affairs, his debtors would probably remain unmolested. He +likewise, who should succeed to the inheritance, might possess very +different qualities, and be as much, distinguished for equity as +Matthews had been for extortion. These reflections lightened her +footsteps as she hied homeward. The knowledge she had gained, she hoped, +would counterpoise, in her father's apprehension, the perils which +accompanied the acquisition of it.</p> + +<p>She had scarcely passed her own threshold, when she was followed by +Whiston. This man pursued the occupation of a cooper. He performed +journeywork in a shop, which, unfortunately for him, was situated near +the water, and at a small distance from the scene of original infection. +This day his employer had dismissed his workmen, and Whiston was at +liberty to retire from the city,—a scheme which had been the theme of +deliberation and discussion during the preceding fortnight.</p> + +<p>Hitherto his apprehensions seemed to have molested others more than +himself. The rumours and conjectures industriously collected during the +day, were, in the the evening, copiously detailed to his neighbours, and +his own mind appeared to be disburdened of its cares in proportion as he +filled others with terror and inquietude. The predictions of physicians, +the measure of precaution prescribed by the government, the progress of +the malady, and the history of the victims who were hourly destroyed by +it, were communicated with tormenting prolixity and terrifying +minuteness.</p> + +<p>On these accounts, as well as on others, no one's visits were more +unwelcome than his. As his deportment was sober and honest, and his +intentions harmless, he was always treated by Constantia with +politeness, though his entrance always produced a momentary depression +of her spirits. On this evening she was less fitted than ever to repel +those anxieties which his conversation was qualified to produce. His +entrance, therefore, was observed with sincere regret.</p> + +<p>Contrary, however, to her expectation, Whiston brought with him new +manners and a new expression of countenance. He was silent, abstracted, +his eye was full of inquietude, and wandered with perpetual +restlessness. On these tokens being remarked, he expressed, in faltering +accents, his belief that he had contracted this disease, and that now it +was too late for him to leave the city.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley's education was somewhat medical. He was so far interested in +his guest as to inquire into his sensations. They were such as were +commonly the prelude to fever. Mr Dudley, while he endeavoured by +cheerful tones to banish his dejection, exhorted him to go home, and to +take some hot and wholesome draught, in consequence of which he might +rise to-morrow with his usual health. This advice was gratefully +received, and Whiston put a period to his visit much sooner than was +customary.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley entertained no doubts that Whiston was seized with the +reigning disease, and extinguished the faint hope which his daughter had +cherished, that their district would escape. Whiston's habituation was +nearly opposite his own; but as they made no use of their front room, +they had seldom an opportunity of observing the transactions of their +neighbours. This distance and seclusion were congenial with her +feelings, and she derived pleasure from her father's confession, that +they contributed to personal security.</p> + +<p>Constantia was accustomed to rise with the dawn, and traverse for an +hour the State-house Mall. As she took her walk the next morning, she +pondered with astonishment on the present situation of the city. The air +was bright and pure, and apparently salubrious. Security and silence +seemed to hover over the scene. She was only reminded of the true state +of things by the occasional appearance of carriages loaded with +household utensils tending towards the country, and by the odour of +vinegar by which every passenger was accompanied. The public walk was +cool and fragrant as formerly, skirted by verdure as bright, and shaded +by foliage as luxuriant, but it was no longer frequented by lively steps +and cheerful countenances. Its solitude was uninterrupted by any but +herself.</p> + +<p>This day passed without furnishing any occasion to leave the house. She +was less sedulously employed than usual, as the clothes on which she was +engaged belonged to a family who had precipitately left the city. She +had leisure therefore to ruminate. She could not but feel some concern +in the fate of Whiston. He was a young man, who subsisted on the fruits +of his labour, and divided his gains with an only sister who lived with +him, and who performed every household office.</p> + +<p>This girl was humble and innocent, and of a temper affectionate and +mild. Casual intercourse only had taken place between her and +Constantia. They were too dissimilar for any pleasure to arise from +communication, but the latter was sufficiently disposed to extend to her +harmless neighbour the sympathy and succour which she needed. Whiston +had come from a distant part of the country, and his sister was the only +person in the city with whom he was connected by ties of kindred. In +case of his sickness, therefore, their condition would be helpless and +deplorable.</p> + +<p>Evening arrived, and Whiston failed to pay his customary visit. She +mentioned this omission to her father, and expressed her apprehension as +to the cause of it. He did not discountenance the inference which she +drew from this circumstance, and assented to the justice of the picture +which she drew of the calamitous state to which Whiston and his sister +would be reduced by the indisposition of either. She then ventured to +suggest the propriety of visiting the house, and of thus ascertaining +the truth.</p> + +<p>To this proposal Mr. Dudley urged the most vehement objections. What +purpose could be served by entering their dwelling? What benefit would +flow but the gratification of a dangerous curiosity? Constantia was +disabled from furnishing pecuniary aid. She could not act the part of +physician or nurse. Her father stood in need of a thousand personal +services, and the drudgery of cleaning and cooking already exceeded the +bounds of her strength. The hazard of contracting the disease by +conversing with the sick was imminent. What services was she able to +render equivalent to the consequences of her own sickness and death?</p> + +<p>These representations had temporary influence. They recalled her for a +moment from her purpose, but this purpose was speedily re-embraced. She +reflected that the evil to herself, formidable as it was, was barely +problematical. That converse with the sick would impart this disease was +by no means certain. Whiston might at least be visited. Perhaps she +would find him well. If sick, his disease might be unepidemical, or +curable by seasonable assistance. He might stand in need of a physician, +and she was more able than his sister to summon this aid.</p> + +<p>Her father listened calmly to her reasonings. After a pause he gave his +consent. In doing this he was influenced not by the conviction that his +daughter's safety would be exposed to no hazard, but from a belief that, +though she might shun infection for the present, it would inevitably +seize her during some period of the progress of this pest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + + +<p>It was now dusk, and she hastened to perform this duty. Whiston's +dwelling was wooden and of small dimensions. She lifted the latch softly +and entered. The lower room was unoccupied. She advanced to the foot of +a narrow staircase, and knocked and listened, but no answer was returned +to the summons. Hence there was reason to infer that no one was within, +but this, from other considerations, was extremely improbable. The truth +could be ascertained only by ascending the stairs. Some feminine +scruples were to be subdued before this proceeding could be adopted.</p> + +<p>After some hesitation, she determined to ascend. The staircase was +terminated by a door, at which she again knocked for admission, but in +vain. She listened and presently heard the motion as of some one in +bed. This was succeeded by tokens of vehement exertions to vomit. These +signs convincing her that the house was not without a tenant, she could +not hesitate to enter the room.</p> + +<p>Lying in a tattered bed, she now discovered Mary Whiston. Her face was +flushed and swelled, her eyes closed, and some power, appeared to have +laid a leaden hand upon her faculties. The floor was moistened and +stained by the effusion from her stomach. Constantia touched her hand, +and endeavoured to rouse her. It was with difficulty that her attention +was excited. Her languid eyes, were scarcely opened before they again +closed, and she sunk into forgetfulness.</p> + +<p>Repeated efforts, however, at length recalled her to herself, and +extorted from her some account of her condition. On the day before, at +noon, her stomach became diseased, her head dizzy, and her limbs unable +to support her. Her brother was absent, and her drowsiness, interrupted +only by paroxysms of vomiting, continued till his return late in the +evening. He had then shown himself, for a few minutes, at her bedside, +had made some inquiries and precipitately retired, since when he had not +reappeared.</p> + +<p>It was natural to imagine that Whiston had gone to procure medical +assistance. That he had not returned, during a day and a half, was +matter of surprise. His own indisposition was recollected, and his +absence could only be accounted for by supposing that sickness had +disabled him from regaining his own house. What was his real destiny it +was impossible to conjecture. It was not till some months after this +period that satisfactory intelligence was gained upon this head.</p> + +<p>It appeared that Whiston had allowed his terrors to overpower the sense +of what was due to his sister and to humanity. On discovering the +condition of the unhappy girl, he left the houses and, instead of +seeking a physician, he turned his step towards the country. After +travelling some hours, being exhausted by want of food, by fatigue; and +by mental as well as bodily anguish, he laid himself down under the +shelter of a hayrick, in a vacant field. Here he was discovered in the +morning by the inhabitants of a neighbouring farm house. These people +had too much regard for their own safety to accommodate him under their +roof, or even to approach within fifty paces of his person.</p> + +<p>A passenger whose attention and compassion had been excited by this +incident was endowed with more courage. He lifted the stranger in his +arms, and carried him from this unwholesome spot to a barn. This was the +only service which the passenger was able to perform. Whiston, deserted +by every human creature, burning with fever, tormented into madness by +thirst, spent three miserable days in agony. When dead, no one would +cover his body with earth, but he was suffered to decay by piecemeal.</p> + +<p>The dwelling being at no great distance from the barn, could not be +wholly screened from the malignant vapour which a corpse thus neglected, +could not fail to produce.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants were preparing, on this account, to change their abode, +but, on the eve of their departure, the master of the family became +sick. He was, in a short time, followed to the grave by his mother, his +wife, and four children.</p> + +<p>They probably imbibed their disease from the tainted atmosphere around +them. The life of Whiston, and their own lives, might have been saved by +affording the wanderer an asylum and suitable treatment, or at least +their own deaths might have been avoided by interring his remains.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Constantia was occupied with reflecting on the scene before +her. Not only a physician but a nurse was wanting. The last province it +was more easy for her to supply than the former. She was acquainted with +the abode but of one physician. He lived at no small distance from this +spot. To him she immediately hastened; but he was absent, and his +numerous engagements left it wholly uncertain when he would return, and +whether he would consent to increase the number of his patients. +Direction was obtained to the residence of another, who was happily +disengaged; and who promised to attend immediately. Satisfied with this +assurance, she neglected to request directions; by which she might +regulate herself on his failing to come.</p> + +<p>During her return her thoughts were painfully employed in considering +the mode proper for her to pursue in her present perplexing situation. +She was for the most part unacquainted with the character of those who +compelled her neighbourhood. That any would be willing to undertake the +attendance of this girl was by no means probable. As wives and mothers, +it would perhaps be unjust to require or permit it. As to herself, there +were labours and duties of her own sufficient to engross her faculties, +yet, by whatever foreign cares or tasks she was oppressed, she felt that +to desert this being was impossible.</p> + +<p>In the absence of her friend, Mary's state exhibited no change. +Constantia, on regaining the house, lighted the remnant of a candle, and +resumed her place by the bed side of the sick girl. She impatiently +waited the arrival of the physician, but hour succeeded hour, and he +came not. All hope of his coming being extinguished, she bethought +herself that her father might be able to inform her of the best manner +of proceeding. It was likewise her duty to relieve him from the +suspense in which her absence would unavoidably plunge him.</p> + +<p>On entering her own apartment, she found a stranger in company with Mr. +Dudley. The latter perceiving that she had returned, speedily acquainted +her with the view of their guest. His name was M'Crea; he was the nephew +of their landlord, and was now become, by reversion, the proprietor of +the house which they occupied. Matthews had been buried the preceding +day, and M'Crea, being well acquainted with the engagements which +subsisted between the deceased and Mr. Dudley, had come thus +unreasonably to demand the rent. He was not unconscious of the +inhumanity and sordidness of this proceeding, and therefore endeavoured +to disguise it by the usual pretences. All his funds were exhausted. He +came not only in his own name, but in that of Mrs. Matthews his aunt, +who was destitute of money to procure daily and indispensable +provision, and who was striving to collect a sufficient sum to enable +her and the remains of her family to fly from a spot where their lives +were in perpetual danger.</p> + +<p>These excuses were abundantly fallacious, but Mr. Dudley was too proud +to solicit the forbearance of a man like this. He recollected that the +engagement on his part was voluntary and explicit, and he disdained to +urge his present exigences as reasons for retracting it. He expressed +the utmost readiness to comply with the demand, and merely desired him +to wait till Miss Dudley returned. From the inquietudes with which the +unusual duration of her absence had filled him, he was now relieved by +her entrance.</p> + +<p>With an indignant and desponding heart, she complied with her father's +directions, and the money being reluctantly delivered, M'Crea took an +hasty leave. She was too deeply interested in the fate of Mary Whiston +to allow her thoughts to be diverted for the present into a new channel. +She described the desolate condition of the girl to her father, and +besought him to think of something suitable to her relief.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dudley's humanity would not suffer him to disapprove of his +daughter's proceeding. He imagined that the symptoms of the patient +portended a fatal issue. There were certain complicated remedies which +might possibly be beneficial, but these were too costly, and the +application would demand more strength than his daughter could bestow. +He was unwilling, however, to leave any thing within his power untried. +Pharmacy had been his trade, and he had reserved, for domestic use some +of the most powerful evacuants. Constantia was supplied with some of +these, and he consented that she should spend the night with her patient +and watch their operation.</p> + +<p>The unhappy Mary received whatever was offered, but her stomach refused +to retain it. The night was passed by Constantia without closing her +eyes. As soon as the day dawned, she prepared once more to summon the +physician, who had failed to comply with his promise. She had scarcely +left the house, however, before she met him. He pleaded his numerous +engagements in excuse for his last night's negligence, and desired her +to make haste to conduct him to the patient.</p> + +<p>Having scrutinized her symptoms, he expressed his hopelessness of her +recovery. Being informed of the mode in which she had been treated, he +declared his approbation of it, but intimated, that these being +unsuccessful, all that remained was to furnish her with any liquid she +might choose to demand, and wait patiently for the event. During this +interview the physician surveyed the person and dress of Constantia with +an inquisitive eye. His countenance betrayed marks of curiosity and +compassion, and, had he made any approaches to confidence and +friendliness, Constantia would not have repelled them. His air was +benevolent and candid, and she estimated highly the usefulness of a +counsellor and friend in her present circumstances. Some motive, +however, hindered him from tendering his services, and in a few moments +he withdrew.</p> + +<p>Mary's condition hourly grew worse. A corroded and gangrenous stomach +was quickly testified by the dark hue and poisonous malignity of the +matter which was frequently ejected from it. Her stuper gave place to +some degree of peevishness and restlessness. She drank the water that +was held to her lips with unspeakable avidity, and derived from this +source a momentary alleviation of her pangs. Fortunately for her +attendant her agonies were not of long duration. Constantia was absent +from her bedside as rarely and for periods as short as possible. On the +succeeding night the sufferings of the patient terminated in death.</p> + +<p>This event took place at two o'clock, in the morning,—an hour whose +customary stillness was, if possible, increased tenfold by the +desolation of the city. The poverty of Mary and of her nurse; had +deprived the former of the benefits, resulting from the change of bed +and clothes. Every thing about her was in a condition noisome and +detestable. Her yellowish and haggard visage, conspicuous by a feeble +light, an atmosphere freighted with malignant vapours, and reminding +Constantia at every instant of the perils which encompassed her, the +consciousness of solitude and sensations of deadly sickness in her own +frame, were sufficient to intimidate a soul of firmer texture than hers.</p> + +<p>She was sinking fast into helplessness, when a new train of reflections +showed her the necessity of perseverance. All that remained was to +consign the corpse to the grave. She knew that vehicles for this end +were provided at the public expense; that, notice being given of the +occasion there was for their attendance, at receptacle and carriage for +the dead would be instantly provided. Application at this hour, she +imagined, would be unseasonable: it must be deferred till the morning, +which was yet at some distance.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile to remain at her present post was equally useless and +dangerous. She endeavoured to stifle the conviction that some mortal +sickness had seized upon her own frame. Her anxieties of head and +stomach she was willing to impute to extraordinary fatigue and +watchfulness, and hoped that they would be dissipated by an hour's +unmolested repose. She formed the resolution of seeking her own chamber.</p> + +<p>At this moment, however, the universal silence underwent a slight +interruption. The sound was familiar to her ears. It was a signal +frequently repeated at the midnight hour during this season of calamity. +It was the slow movement of a hearse, apparently passing along the +street in which the alley where Mr. Dudley resided terminated. At first +this sound had no other effect than to aggravate the dreariness of all +around her. Presently it occurred to her that this vehicle might be +disengaged. She conceived herself bound to see the last offices +performed for the deceased Mary. The sooner so irksome a duty was +discharged the better: every hour might augment her incapacity for +exertion. Should she be unable when the morning arrived to go as far as +the City-Hall, and give the necessary information, the most shocking +consequences would ensue. Whiston's house and her own were opposite each +other, and not connected with any on the same side. A narrow space +divided them, and her own chamber was within the sphere of the +contagion which would flow, in consequence of such neglect, from that of +her neighbour.</p> + +<p>Influenced by these considerations she passed into the street, and +gained the corner of the alley just as the carriage, whose movements she +had heard, arrived at the same spot. It was accompanied by two men, +negroes, who listened to her tale with respect. Having already a burden +of this kind, they could not immediately comply with this request. They +promised that, having disposed of their present charge, they would +return forthwith, and be ready to execute her orders.</p> + +<p>Happily one of these persons was known to her. At other seasons his +occupation was that of <i>wood-carter</i>, and as such he had performed some +services for Mr. Dudley. His temper was gentle and obliging. The +character of Constantia had been viewed by him with reverence, and his +kindness had relieved her from many painful offices. His old occupation +being laid aside for a time, he had betaken himself like many others of +his colour and rank, to the conveyance and burial of the dead.</p> + +<p>At Constantia's request, he accompanied her to Whiston's house, and +promised to bring with him such assistance as would render her further +exertions and attendance unnecessary. Glad to be absolved from any new +task, she now retired to her own chamber. In spite of her distempered +frame, she presently sunk into a sweet sleep. She awoke not till the day +had made considerable progress, and found herself invigorated and +refreshed. On re-entering Whiston's house, she discovered that her +humble friend had faithfully performed his promise, the dead body having +disappeared. She deemed it unsafe, as well as unnecessary, to examine +the clothes and other property remaining; but, leaving every thing in +the condition in which it had been found, she fastened the windows and +doors, and thenceforth kept as distant from the house as possible.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + + +<p>Constantia had now leisure to ruminate upon her own condition. Every day +added to the devastation and confusion of the city. The most populous +streets were deserted and silent. The greater number of inhabitants had +fled; and those who remained were occupied with no cares but those which +related to their own safety. The labours of the artisan and the +speculations of the merchant were suspended. All shops but those of the +apothecaries were shut. No carriage but the hearse was seen, and this +was employed night and day in the removal of the dead. The customary +sources of subsistence were cut off. Those whose fortunes enabled them +to leave the city, but who had deferred till now their retreat, were +denied an asylum by the terror which pervaded the adjacent country, and +by the cruel prohibitions which the neighbouring towns and cities +thought it necessary to adopt. Those who lived by the fruits of their +daily labour were subjected, in this total inactivity, to the +alternative of starving, or of subsisting upon public charity.</p> + +<p>The meditations of Constantia suggested no alternative but this. The +exactions of M'Crea had reduced her whole fortune to five dollars. This +would rapidly decay, and her utmost ingenuity could discover no means of +procuring a new supply. All the habits of their life had combined to +fill both her father and herself with aversion to the acceptance of +charity. Yet this avenue, opprobrious and disgustful as it was, afforded +the only means of escaping from the worst extremes of famine.</p> + +<p>In this state of mind it was obvious to consider in what way the sum +remaining might be most usefully expended. Every species of provision +was not equally nutritious or equally cheap. Her mind, active in the +pursuit of knowledge and fertile of resources, had lately been engaged, +in discussing with her father the best means of retaining health in a +time of pestilence. On occasions, when the malignity of contagious +diseases has been most signal, some individuals have escaped. For their +safety they were doubtless indebted to some peculiarities in their +constitution or habits. Their diet, their dress, their kind and degree +of exercise, must somewhat have contributed to their exemption from the +common destiny. These, perhaps, could be ascertained, and when known it +was surely proper to conform to them.</p> + +<p>In discussing these ideas, Mr. Dudley introduced the mention of a +Benedictine of Messina, who, during the prevalence of the plague in that +city, was incessantly engaged in administering assistance to those who +needed. Notwithstanding his perpetual hazards he retained perfect +health, and was living thirty years after this event. During this period +he fostered a tranquil, fearless, and benevolent spirit, and restricted +his diet to water and polenta. Spices, and meats, and liquors, and all +complexities of cookery, were utterly discarded.</p> + +<p>These facts now occurred to Constantia's reflections with new vividness, +and led to interesting consequences. Polenta and hasty-pudding, or samp, +are preparations of the same substance,—a substance which she needed +not the experience of others to convince her was no less grateful than +nutritive. Indian meal was procurable at ninety cents per bushel. By +recollecting former experiments she knew that this quantity, with no +accompaniment but salt, would supply wholesome and plentiful food for +four months to one person<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>. The inference was palpable.</p> + +<p>Three persons were now to be supplied with food, and this supply could +be furnished during four months at the trivial expense of three dollars. +This expedient was at once so uncommon and so desirable, as to be +regarded with temporary disbelief. She was inclined to suspect some +latent error in her calculation. That a sum thus applied should suffice +for the subsistence of a year, which in ordinary cases is expended in a +few days, was scarcely credible. The more closely, however, the subject +was examined, the more incontestably did this inference flow. The mode +of preparation was simple and easy, and productive of the fewest toils +and inconveniences. The attention of her Lucy was sufficient to this +end, and the drudgery of marketing was wholly precluded.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See this useful fact explained and demonstrated in Count +Rumford's Essays.</p></div> + +<p>She easily obtained the concurrence of her father, and the scheme was +found as practicable and beneficial as her fondest expectations had +predicted. Infallible security was thus provided against hunger. This +was the only care that was urgent and immediate. While they had food and +were exempt from disease, they could live, and were not without their +portion of comfort. Her hands were unemployed, but her mind was kept in +continual activity. To seclude herself as much as possible from others +was the best means of avoiding infection. Spectacles of misery which she +was unable to relieve would merely tend to harass her with useless +disquietudes and make her frame more accessible to disease. Her father's +instructions were sufficient to give her a competent acquaintance with +the Italian and French languages. His dreary hours were beguiled by this +employment, and her mind was furnished with a species of knowledge which +she hoped, in future, to make subservient to a more respectable and +plentiful subsistence than she had hitherto enjoyed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the season advanced, and the havock which this fatal malady +produced increased with portentous rapidity. In alleys and narrow +streets, in which the houses were smaller, the inhabitants more numerous +and indigent, and the air pent up within unwholesome limits, it raged +with greatest violence. Few of Constantia's neighbours possessed the +means of removing from the danger. The inhabitants of this alley +consisted of three hundred persons: of these eight or ten experienced no +interruption of their health. Of the rest two hundred were destroyed in +the course of three weeks. Among so many victims it may be supposed that +this disease assumed every terrific and agonizing shape.</p> + +<p>It was impossible for Constantia to shut out every token of a calamity +thus enormous and thus near. Night was the season usually selected for +the removal of the dead. The sound of wheels thus employed was +incessant. This, and the images with which it was sure to be +accompanied, bereaved her of repose. The shrieks and lamentations of +survivors, who could not be prevented from attending the remains of a +husband or child to the place of interment, frequently struck her +senses. Sometimes urged by a furious delirium, the sick would break from +their attendants, rush into the street, and expire on the pavement, +amidst frantic outcries and gestures. By these she was often roused from +imperfect sleep, and called to reflect upon the fate which impended over +her father and herself.</p> + +<p>To preserve health in an atmosphere thus infected, and to ward off +terror and dismay in a scene of horrors thus hourly accumulating, was +impossible. Constantia found it vain to contend against the inroads of +sadness. Amidst so dreadful a mortality it was irrational to cherish the +hope that she or her father would escape. Her sensations, in no long +time, seemed to justify her apprehensions. Her appetite forsook her, her +strength failed, the thirst and lassitude of fever invaded her, and the +grave seemed to open for her reception.</p> + +<p>Lucy was assailed by the same symptoms at the same time. Household +offices were unavoidably neglected. Mr. Dudley retained his health, but +he was able only to prepare his scanty food, and supply the cravings of +child with water from the well. His imagination marked him out for the +next victim. He could not be blind to the consequences of his own +indisposition at a period so critical. Disabled from contributing to +each other's assistance, destitute of medicine and food; and even of +water to quench their tormenting thirst, unvisited, unknown and +perishing in frightful solitude! These images had a tendency to +prostrate the mind, and generate or ripen the seeds of this fatal +malady, which, no doubt at this period of its progress every one had +imbibed.</p> + +<p>Contrary to all his fears, he awoke each morning free from pain, though +not without an increase of debility. Abstinence from food, and the +liberal use of cold water, seemed to have a medicinal operation on the +sick. Their pulse gradually resumed its healthy tenor, their strength +and their appetite slowly returned, and in ten days they were able to +congratulate each other on their restoration.</p> + +<p>I will not recount that series of disastrous thoughts which occupied the +mind of Constantia during this period. Her lingering and sleepless hours +were regarded by her as preludes to death. Though at so immature an age, +she had gained large experience of the evils which are allotted to man. +Death, which in her prosperous state was peculiarly abhorrent to her +feelings, was now disrobed of terror. As an entrance into scenes of +lightsome and imperishable being it was the goal of all her wishes: as a +passage to oblivion it was still desirable, since forgetfulness was +better than the life which she had hitherto led, and which, should her +existence be prolonged, it was likely that she could continue to lead.</p> + +<p>These gloomy meditations were derived from the languors of her frame: +when these disappeared, her cheerfulness and fortitude revived. She +regarded with astonishment and delight the continuance of her father's +health and her own restoration. That trial seemed to have been safely +undergone, to which the life of every one was subject. The air, which +till now had been arid and sultry, was changed into cool and moist. The +pestilence had reached its utmost height, and now symptoms of remission +and decline began to appear. Its declension was more rapid than its +progress and every day added vigour to hope.</p> + +<p>When her strength was somewhat retrieved, Constantia called to mind a +good woman who lived in her former neighbourhood, and from whom she had +received many proofs of artless affection. This woman's name was Sarah +Baxter. She lived within a small distance of Constantia's former +dwelling. The trade of her husband was that of a porter, and she +pursued, in addition to the care of a numerous family, the business of a +laundress. The superior knowledge and address of Constantia had enabled +her to be serviceable to this woman in certain painful and perplexing +circumstances.</p> + +<p>This service was repaid with the utmost gratitude. Sarah regarded her +benefactress with a species of devotion. She could not endure to behold +one, whom every accent and gesture proved to have once enjoyed affluence +and dignity, performing any servile office. In spite of her own +multiplied engagements, she compelled Constantia to accept her +assistance on many occasions, and could scarcely be prevailed upon to +receive any compensation for her labour. Washing clothes was her trade, +and from this task she insisted on relieving her lovely patroness.</p> + +<p>Constantia's change of dwelling produced much regret in the kind Sarah. +She did not allow it to make any change in their previous arrangements, +but punctually visited the Dudleys once a week, and carried home with +her whatever stood in need of ablution. When the prevalence of disease +disabled Constantia from paying her the usual wages, she would by no +means consent to be absolved from this task. Her earnestness on this +head was not to be eluded; and Constantia, in consenting that her work +should, for the present, be performed gratuitously, solaced herself with +the prospect of being able, by some future change of fortune, amply to +reward her.</p> + +<p>Sarah's abode was distant from danger, and her fears were turbulent. She +was nevertheless punctual in her visits to the Dudleys, and anxious for +their safety. In case of their sickness, she had declared her +resolution to be their attendant and nurse. Suddenly, however, her +visits ceased. The day on which her usual visit was paid was the same +with that on which Constantia sickened, but her coming was expected in +vain. Her absence was, on some accounts, regarded with pleasure, as it +probably secured her from the danger connected with the office of a +nurse; but it added to Constantia's cares, inasmuch as her own sickness, +or that of some of her family, was the only cause of her detention.</p> + +<p>To remove her doubts, the first use which Constantia made of her +recovered strength was to visit her laundress. Sarah's house was a +theatre of suffering. Her husband was the first of his family assailed +by the reigning disease. Two daughters, nearly grown to womanhood, +well-disposed and modest girls, the pride and support of their mother, +and who lived at service, returned home, sick, at the same time, and +died in a few days. Her husband had struggled for eleven days with his +disease, and was seized, just before Constantia's arrival, with the +pangs of death.</p> + +<p>Baxter was endowed with great robustness and activity. This disease did +not vanquish him but with tedious and painful struggles. His muscular +force now exhausted itself in ghastly contortions, and the house +resounded with his ravings. Sarah's courage had yielded to so rapid a +succession of evils. Constantia found her shut up in a chamber, distant +from that of her dying husband, in a paroxysm of grief, and surrounded +by her younger children.</p> + +<p>Constantia's entrance was like that of an angelic comforter. Sarah was +unqualified for any office but that of complaint. With great difficulty +she was made to communicate the knowledge of her situation. Her visitant +then passed into Baxter's apartment. She forced herself to endure this +tremendous scene long enough to discover that it was hastening to a +close. She left the house, and hastening to the proper office, engaged +the immediate attendance of a hearse. Before the lapse of an hour, +Baxter's lifeless remains were placed in a coffin, and conveyed away.</p> + +<p>Constantia now exerted herself to comfort and encourage the survivors. +Her remonstrances incited Sarah to perform with alacrity the measures +which prudence dictates on these occasions. The house was purified by +the admission of air and the sprinkling of vinegar. Constantia applied +her own hand to these tasks, and set her humble friend an example of +forethought and activity. Sarah would not consent to part with her till +a late hour in the evening.</p> + +<p>These exertions had like to have been fatally injurious to Constantia. +Her health was not sufficiently confirmed to sustain offices so arduous. +In the course of the night her fatigue terminated in fever. In the +present more salubrious state of the atmosphere, it assumed no malignant +symptoms, and shortly disappeared. During her indisposition she was +attended by Sarah, in whose honest bosom no sentiment was more lively +than gratitude. Constantia having promised to renew her visit the next +day, had been impatiently expected, and Sarah had come to her dwelling +in the evening, full of foreboding and anxiety, to ascertain the cause +of her delay. Having gained the bedside of her patroness, no +consideration could induce her to retire from it.</p> + +<p>Constantia's curiosity was naturally excited as to the causes of +Baxter's disease. The simple-hearted Sarah was prolix and minute in the +history of her own affairs. No theme was more congenial to her temper +than that which was now proposed. In spite of redundance and obscurity +in the style of the narrative, Constantia found in it powerful +excitements of her sympathy. The tale, on its own account, as well as +from the connection of some of its incidents with a subsequent part of +these memoirs, is worthy to be here inserted. However foreign the +destiny of Monrose may at present appear to the story of the Dudleys, +there will hereafter be discovered an intimate connection between them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + + +<p>Adjacent to the house occupied by Baxter was an antique brick tenement. +It was one of the first erections made by the followers of William Penn. +It had the honour to be used as the temporary residence of that +venerable person. Its moss-grown penthouse, crumbling walls, and ruinous +porch, made it an interesting and picturesque object. Notwithstanding +its age, it was still tenable.</p> + +<p>This house was occupied, during the preceding months, by a Frenchman: +his dress and demeanour were respectable: his mode of life was frugal +almost to penuriousness, and his only companion was a daughter. The lady +seemed not much less than thirty years of age, but was of a small and +delicate frame. It was she that performed every household office. She +brought water from the pump, and provisions from the market. Their house +had no visitants, and was almost always closed. Duly as the morning +returned a venerable figure was seen issuing from his door, dressed in +the same style of tarnished splendour and old-fashioned preciseness. At +the dinner-hour he as regularly returned. For the rest of the day he was +invisible.</p> + +<p>The habitations in this quarter are few and scattered. The pestilence +soon showed itself here, and the flight of most of the inhabitants +augmented its desolateness and dreariness. For some time, Monrose (that +was his name) made his usual appearance in the morning. At length the +neighbours remarked that he no longer came forth as usual. Baxter had a +notion that Frenchmen were exempt from this disease. He was, besides, +deeply and rancorously prejudiced against that nation. There will be no +difficulty in accounting for this, when it is known that he had been an +English grenadier at Dettingen and Minden. It must likewise be added, +that he was considerably timid, and had sickness in his own family. +Hence it was that the disappearance of Monrose excited in him no +inquisitiveness as to the cause. He did not even mention this +circumstance to others.</p> + +<p>The lady was occasionally seen as usual in the street. There were always +remarkable peculiarities in her behaviour. In the midst of grave and +disconsolate looks, she never laid aside an air of solemn dignity. She +seemed to shrink from the observation of others, and her eyes were +always fixed upon the ground. One evening Baxter was passing the pump +while she was drawing water. The sadness which her looks betokened, and +a suspicion that her father might be sick, had a momentary effect upon +his feelings. He stopped and asked how her father was. She paid a polite +attention to his question and said something in French. This, and the +embarrassment of her air, convinced him that his words were not +understood. He said no more (what indeed could he say?) but passed on.</p> + +<p>Two or three days after this, on returning in the evening to his family, +his wife expressed her surprise in not having seen Miss Monrose in the +street that day. She had not been at the pump, nor had she gone, as +usual, to market. This information gave him some disquiet; yet he could +form no resolution. As to entering the house and offering his aid, if +aid were needed, he had too much regard for his own safety, and too +little for that of a frog-eating Frenchman, to think seriously of that +expedient. His attention was speedily diverted by other objects, and +Monrose was, for the present, forgotten.</p> + +<p>Baxter's profession was that of a porter. He was thrown out of +employment by the present state of things. The solicitude of the +guardians of the city was exerted on this occasion, not only in +opposing the progress of disease, and furnishing provisions to the +destitute, but in the preservation of property. For this end the number +of nightly watchmen was increased. Baxter entered himself in this +service. From nine till twelve o'clock at night it was his province to +occupy a certain post.</p> + +<p>On this night he attended his post as usual: twelve o'clock arrived, and +he bent his steps homeward. It was necessary to pass by Monrose's door. +On approaching this house, the circumstance mentioned by his wife +recurred to him. Something like compassion was conjured up in his heart +by the figure of the lady, as he recollected to have lately seen it. It +was obvious to conclude that sickness was the cause of her seclusion. +The same, it might be, had confined her father. If this were true, how +deplorable might be their present condition! Without food, without +physician or friends, ignorant of the language of the country, and +thence unable to communicate their wants or solicit succour; fugitives +from their native land, neglected, solitary, and poor.</p> + +<p>His heart was softened by these images. He stopped involuntarily when +opposite their door. He looked up at the house. The shutters were +closed, so that light, if it were within, was invisible. He stepped into +the porch, and put his eye to the key-hole. All was darksome and waste. +He listened, add imagined that he heard the aspirations of grief. The +sound was scarcely articulate, but had an electrical effect upon his +feelings. He retired to his home full of mournful reflections.</p> + +<p>He was billing to do something for the relief of the sufferers, but +nothing could be done that night. Yet succour, if delayed till the +morning, might be ineffectual. But how, when the morning came, should he +proceed to effectuate his kind intentions? The guardians of the public +welfare at this crisis were distributed into those who counselled and +those who executed. A set of men, self-appointed to the generous office, +employed themselves in seeking out the destitute or sick, and imparting +relief. With this arrangement Baxter was acquainted. He was resolved to +carry tidings of what he had heard and seen to one of those persons +early the next day.</p> + +<p>Baxter, after taking some refreshment, retired to rest. In no long time, +however, he was awakened by his wife, who desired him to notice a +certain glimmering on the ceiling. It seemed the feeble and flitting ray +of a distant and moving light, coming through the window. It did not +proceed from the street, for the chamber was lighted from the side, and +not from the front of the house. A lamp borne by a passenger, or the +attendants of a hearse, could not be discovered in this situation. +Besides, in the latter case, it would be accompanied by the sound of the +vehicle, and, probably by weeping and exclamations of despair. His +employment as the guardian of property, naturally suggested to him the +idea of robbery. He started from his bed, and went to the window.</p> + +<p>His house stood at the distance of about fifty paces from that of +Monrose. There was annexed to the latter a small garden or yard, bounded +by a high wooden fence. Baxter's window overlooked this space. Before he +reached the window, the relative situation of the two habitations, +occurred to him. A conjecture was instantly formed that the glimmering +proceeded from this quarter. His eye, therefore, was immediately fixed +upon Monrose's back door. It caught a glimpse of a human figure passing +into the house through this door. The person had a candle in his hand. +This appeared by the light which streamed after him, and which was +perceived, though faintly, through a small window of the dwelling, after +the back-door was closed.</p> + +<p>The person disappeared too quickly to allow him to say whether it was +male or female. This scrutiny confirmed rather than weakened the +apprehensions that first occurred. He reflected on the desolate and +helpless condition of this family. The father might be sick, and what +opposition could be made by the daughter to the stratagems of violence +of midnight plunderers? This was an evil which it was his duty, in an +extraordinary sense, to obviate. It is true, the hour of watching was +passed, and this was not the district assigned to him; but Baxter was, +on the whole, of a generous and intrepid spirit. In the present case, +therefore, he did not hesitate long in forming his resolution. He seized +a hanger that hung at his bedside, and which had hewn many an Hungarian +and French hussar to pieces. With this he descended to the street. He +cautiously approached Monrose's house. He listened at the door, but +heard nothing. The lower apartment, as he discovered through the +key-hole, was deserted and dark. These appearances could not be +accounted for. He was, as yet, unwilling to call or to knock. He was +solicitous to obtain some information by silent means, and without +alarming the persons within, who, if they were robbers, might thus be +put upon their guard, and enabled to escape. If none but the family were +there, they would not understand his signals, and might impute the +disturbance to the cause which he was desirous to obviate. What could he +do? Must he patiently wait till some incident should happen to regulate +his motions?</p> + +<p>In this uncertainty, he bethought himself of going round to the back +part of the dwelling, and watching the door which had been closed. An +open space, filled with rubbish and weeds, adjoined the house and garden +on one side. Hither he repaired, and, raising his head above the fence, +at a point directly opposite the door, waited with considerable +impatience for some token or signal, by which he might be directed in +his choice of measures.</p> + +<p>Human life abounds with mysterious appearances. A man perched on a fence +at midnight, mute and motionless, and gazing at a dark and dreary +dwelling, was an object calculated to rouse curiosity. When the muscular +form and rugged visage, scared and furrowed into something like +ferocity, were added,—when the nature of the calamity by which the city +was dispeopled was considered,—the motives to plunder, and the +insecurity of property arising from the pressure of new wants on the +poor, and the flight or disease of the rich, were attended to, an +observer would be apt to admit fearful conjectures.</p> + +<p>We know not how long Baxter continued at this post. He remained here +because he could not, as he conceived, change it for a better. Before +his patience were exhausted, his attention was called by a noise within +the house. It proceeded from the lower room. The sound was that of +steps, but this was accompanied with other inexplicable tokens. The +kitchen door at length opened. The figure of Miss Monrose, pale, +emaciated, and haggard, presented itself. Within the door stood a +candle. It was placed on a chair within sight, and its rays streamed +directly against the face of Baxter, as it was reared above the top of +the fence. This illumination, faint as it was, bestowed a certain air of +wildness on the features which nature, and the sanguinary habits of a +soldier, had previously rendered, in an eminent degree, harsh and stern. +He was not aware of the danger of discovery in consequence of this +position of the candle. His attention was, for a few seconds, engrossed +by the object before him. At length he chanced to notice another object.</p> + +<p>At a few yards' distance from the fence, and within it, some one +appeared to have been digging. An opening was made in the ground, but it +was shallow and irregular. The implement which seemed to have been used +was nothing more than a fire-shovel, for one of these he observed lying +near the spot. The lady had withdrawn from the door, though without +closing it. He had leisure, therefore, to attend to this new +circumstance, and to reflect upon the purpose for which this opening +might have been designed.</p> + +<p>Death is familiar to the apprehensions of a soldier. Baxter had assisted +at the hasty interment of thousands, the victims of the sword or of +pestilence. Whether it was because this theatre of human calamity was +new to him, and death, in order to be viewed with his ancient unconcern, +must be accompanied in the ancient manner, with halberts and tents, +certain it is, that Baxter was irresolute and timid in every thing that +respected the yellow fever. The circumstances of the time suggested, +that this was a grave, to which some victim of this disease was to be +consigned. His teeth chattered when he reflected how near he might now +be to the source of infection: yet his curiosity retained him at his +post.</p> + +<p>He fixed his eyes once more upon the door. In a short time the lady +again appeared at it. She was in a stooping posture, and appeared to be +dragging something along the floor. His blood ran cold at this +spectacle. His fear instantly figured to itself a corpse, livid and +contagious. Still he had no power to move. The lady's strength, +enfeebled as it was by grief, and perhaps by the absence of nourishment, +seemed scarcely adequate to the task which she had assigned herself.</p> + +<p>Her burden, whatever it was, was closely wrapped in a sheet. She drew it +forward a few paces, then desisted, and seated herself on the ground +apparently to recruit her strength, and give vent to the agony of her +thoughts in sighs. Her tears were either exhausted or refused to flow, +for none were shed by her. Presently she resumed her undertaking. +Baxter's horror increased in proportion as she drew nearer to the spot +where he stood; and yet it seemed as if some fascination had forbidden +him to recede.</p> + +<p>At length the burden was drawn to the side of the opening in the earth. +Here it seemed as if the mournful task was finished. She threw herself +once more upon the earth. Her senses seemed for a time to have forsaken +her. She sat buried in reverie, her eyes scarcely open, and fixed upon +the ground, and every feature set to the genuine expression of sorrow. +Some disorder, occasioned by the circumstance of dragging, now took +place in the vestment of what he had rightly predicted to be a dead +body. The veil by accident was drawn aside, and exhibited, to the +startled eye of Baxter, the pale and ghastly visage of the unhappy +Monrose.</p> + +<p>This incident determined him. Every joint in his frame trembled, and he +hastily withdrew from the fence. His first motion in doing this produced +a noise by which the lady was alarmed; she suddenly threw her eyes +upward, and gained a full view of Baxter's extraordinary countenance, +just before it disappeared. She manifested her terror by a piercing +shriek. Baxter did not stay to mark her subsequent conduct, to confirm +or to dissipate her fears, but retired in confusion to his own house.</p> + +<p>Hitherto his caution had availed him. He had carefully avoided all +employments and places from which he imagined imminent danger was to be +dreaded. Now, through his own inadvertency, he had rushed, as he +believed, into the jaws of the pest. His senses had not been assailed by +any noisome effluvia. This was no implausible ground for imagining that +his death had some other cause than the yellow fever. This circumstance +did not occur to Baxter. He had been told that Frenchmen were not +susceptible of this contagion. He had hitherto believed this assertion, +but now regarded it as having been fully confuted. He forgot that +Frenchmen were undoubtedly mortal, and that there was no impossibility +in Monrose's dying, even at this time, of a malady different from that +which prevailed.</p> + +<p>Before morning he began to feel very unpleasant symptoms. He related his +late adventure to his wife. She endeavoured, by what argument her +slender ingenuity suggested, to quiet his apprehensions, but in vain. He +hourly grew worse, and as soon as it was light, dispatched his wife for +a physician. On interrogating this messenger, the physician obtained +information of last night's occurrences, and this being communicated to +one of the dispensers of the public charity, they proceeded, early in +the morning, to Monrose's house. It was closed as usual. They knocked +and called, but no one answered. They examined every avenue to the +dwelling, but none of them were accessible. They passed into the garden, +and observed, on the spot marked out by Baxter, a heap of earth. A very +slight exertion was sufficient to remove it, and discover the body of +the unfortunate exile beneath.</p> + +<p>After unsuccessfully trying various expedients for entering the house, +they deemed themselves authorised to break the door. They entered, +ascended the staircase, and searched every apartment in the house, but +no human being was discoverable. The furniture was wretched and scanty, +but there was no proof that Monrose had fallen a victim to the reigning +disease. It was certain that the lady had disappeared. It was +inconceivable whither she had gone.</p> + +<p>Baxter suffered a long period of sickness. The prevailing malady +appeared upon him in its severest form. His strength of constitution, +and the careful attendance of his wife, were insufficient to rescue him +from the grave. His case may be quoted as an example of the force of +imagination. He had probably already received, through the medium of the +air, or by contact of which he was not conscious, the seeds of this +disease. They might have perhaps have lain dormant, had not this panic +occurred to endow them with activity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + + +<p>Such were the facts circumstantially communicated by Sarah. They +afforded to Constantia a theme of ardent meditation. The similitude +between her own destiny and that of this unhappy exile could not fail to +be observed. Immersed in poverty, friendless, burdened with the +maintenance and nurture of her father, their circumstances were nearly +parallel. The catastrophe of her tale was the subject of endless but +unsatisfactory conjecture.</p> + +<p>She had disappeared between the flight of Baxter and the dawn of day. +What path had she taken? Was she now alive? Was she still an inhabitant +of this city? Perhaps there was a coincidence of taste as well as +fortunes between them. The only friend that Constantia ever enjoyed, +congenial with her in principles, sex, and age, was at a distance that +forbade communication. She imagined that Ursula Monrose would prove +worthy of her love, and felt unspeakable regret at the improbability of +their ever meeting.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the dominion of cold began to be felt, and the contagious +fever entirely disappeared. The return of health was hailed with rapture +by all ranks of people. The streets were once more busy and frequented. +The sensation of present security seemed to shut out from all hearts the +memory of recent disasters. Public entertainments were thronged with +auditors. A new theatre had lately been constructed, and a company of +English Comedians had arrived during the prevalence of the malady. They +now began their exhibitions, and their audiences were overflowing.</p> + +<p>Such is the motley and ambiguous condition of human society, such is the +complexity of all effects, from what cause soever they spring, that none +can tell whether this destructive pestilence was on, the whole, +productive of most pain or most pleasure. Those who had been sick and +had recovered found in this circumstance a source of exultation. Others +made haste by new marriages to supply the place of wives, husbands, and +children, whom the scarcely-extinguished pestilence had swept away.</p> + +<p>Constantia, however, was permitted to take no share in the general +festivity. Such was the colour of her fate, that the yellow fever, by +affording her a respite from toil, supplying leisure for the acquisition +of a useful branch of knowledge, and leading her to the discovery of a +cheaper, more simple, and more wholesome method of subsistence, had been +friendly, instead of adverse to her happiness. Its disappearance, +instead of relieving her from suffering, was the signal for the approach +of new cares.</p> + +<p>Of her ancient customers, some were dead, and others were slow in +resuming their ancient habitations, and their ordinary habits. +Meanwhile two wants were now created and were urgent. The season +demanded a supply of fuel, and her rent had accumulated beyond her power +to discharge. M'Crea no sooner returned from the country than he applied +to her for payment. Some proprietors, guided by humanity, had remitted +their dues, but M'Crea was not one of these. According to his own +representation, no man was poorer than himself, and the punctual payment +of all that was owing to him was no more than sufficient to afford him a +scanty subsistence.</p> + +<p>He was aware of the indigence of the Dudleys, and was therefore +extremely importunate for payment, and could scarcely be prevailed upon +to allow them the interval of a day for the discovery of expedients. +This day was passed by Constantia in fruitless anxieties. The ensuing +evening had been fixed for a repetition of his visit. The hour arrived, +but her invention was exhausted in vain. M'Crea was punctual to the +minute. Constantia was allowed no option. She merely declared that the +money demanded she had not to give, nor could she foresee any period at +which her inability would be less than it then was.</p> + +<p>These declarations were heard by her visitant with marks of unspeakable +vexation. He did not fail to expatiate on the equity of his demands, the +moderation and forbearance he had hitherto shown, notwithstanding the +extreme urgency of his own wants, and the inflexible rigour with which +he had been treated by <i>his</i> creditors. This rhetoric was merely the +prelude to an intimation that he must avail himself of any lawful means, +by which he might gain possession of <i>his own</i>.</p> + +<p>This insinuation was fully comprehended by Constantia, but it was heard +without any new emotions. Her knowledge of her landlord's character +taught her to expect but one consequence. He paused to observe what +effect would be produced by this indirect menace. She answered, without +any change of tone, that the loss of habitation and furniture, however +inconvenient at this season, must be patiently endured. If it were to be +prevented only by the payment of money, its prevention was impossible.</p> + +<p>M'Crea renewed his regrets that there should be no other alternative. +The law sanctioned his claims, and justice to his family, which was +already large, and likely to increase, required that they should not be +relinquished; yet such was the mildness of his temper and his aversion +to proceed to this extremity, that he was willing to dispense with +immediate payment on two conditions. First, that they should leave his +house within a week, and secondly, that they should put into his hands +some trinket or movable, equal in value to the sum demanded, which +should be kept by him as a pledge.</p> + +<p>This last hint suggested an expedient for obviating the present +distress. The lute with which Mr. Dudley was accustomed to solace his +solitude was, if possible, more essential to his happiness than shelter +or food. To his daughter it possessed little direct power to please. It +was inestimable merely for her father's sake. Its intrinsic value was at +least equal to the sum due, but to part with it was to bereave him of a +good which nothing else could supply. Besides, not being a popular and +saleable instrument, it would probably be contemptuously rejected by the +ignorance and avarice of M'Crea.</p> + +<p>There was another article in her possession of some value in traffic, +and of a kind which M'Crea was far more likely to accept. It was the +miniature portrait of her friend, executed by a German artist, and set +in gold. This image was a precious though imperfect substitute for +sympathy and intercourse with the original. Habit had made this picture +a source of a species of idolatry. Its power over her sensations was +similar to that possessed by a beautiful Madonna over the heart of a +juvenile enthusiast. It was the mother of the only devotion which her +education had taught her to consider as beneficial or true.</p> + +<p>She perceived the necessity of parting with it, on this occasion, with +the utmost clearness, but this necessity was thought upon with +indescribable repugnance. It seemed as if she had not thoroughly +conceived the extent of her calamity till now. It seemed as if she could +have endured the loss of eyes with less reluctance than the loss of this +inestimable relic. Bitter were the tears which she shed over it as she +took it from her bosom, and consigned it to those rapacious hands that +were stretched out to receive it. She derived some little consolation +from the promises of this man, that he would keep it safely till she was +able to redeem it.</p> + +<p>The other condition—that of immediate removal from the house—seemed at +first sight impracticable. Some reflection, however, showed her that the +change might not only be possible but useful. Among other expedients for +diminishing expense, that of limiting her furniture and dwelling to the +cheapest standard had often occurred. She now remembered that the house +occupied by Monrose was tenantless; that its antiquity, its remote and +unpleasant situation, and its small dimensions, might induce M'Crea, to +whom it belonged, to let it at a much lower price than that which he now +exacted. M'Crea would have been better pleased if her choice had fallen +on a different house; but he had powerful though sordid reasons for +desiring the possession of this tenement. He assented therefore to her +proposal, provided her removal took place without delay.</p> + +<p>In the present state of her funds this removal was impossible. Mere +shelter would not suffice during this inclement season. Without fuel, +neither cold could be excluded, nor hunger relieved. There was nothing +convertible into money but her lute. No sacrifice was more painful, but +an irresistible necessity demanded it.</p> + +<p>Her interview with M'Crea took place while her father was absent from +the room. On his return she related what had happened, and urged the +necessity of parting with his favourite instrument. He listened to her +tale with a sigh. "Yes," said he, "do what thou wilt, my child. It is +unlikely that any one will purchase it. It is certain that no one will +give for it what I gave; but thou may'st try.</p> + +<p>"It has been to me a faithful friend. I know not how I should have lived +without it. Its notes have cheered me with the sweet remembrances of old +times. It was, in some degree, a substitute for the eyes which I have +lost; but now let it go, and perform for me perhaps the dearest of its +services. It may help us to sustain the severities of this season."</p> + +<p>There was no room for delay. She immediately set out in search of a +purchaser. Such a one was most likely to be found in the keeper of a +musical repository, who had lately arrived from Europe. She entertained +but slight hopes that an instrument scarcely known among her neighbours +would be bought at any price, however inconsiderable.</p> + +<p>She found the keeper of the shop engaged in conversation with a lady, +whose person and face instantly arrested the attention of Constantia. A +less sagacious observer would have eyed the stranger with indifference. +But Constantia was ever busy in interpreting the language of features +and looks. Her sphere of observation had been narrow, but her habits of +examining, comparing, and deducing, had thoroughly exhausted that +sphere. These habits were eminently strong with relation to this class +of objects. She delighted to investigate the human countenance, and +treasured up numberless conclusions as to the coincidence between mental +and external qualities.</p> + +<p>She had often been forcibly struck by forms that were accidentally seen, +and which abounded with this species of mute expression. They conveyed +at a single glance what could not be imparted by volumes. The features +and shape sunk, as it were, into perfect harmony with sentiments and +passions. Every atom of the frame was pregnant with significance. In +some, nothing was remarkable but this power of the outward figure to +exhibit the internal sentiments. In others, the intelligence thus +unveiled was remarkable for its heterogeneous or energetic qualities; +for its tendency to fill her heart with veneration or abhorrence, or to +involve her in endless perplexities.</p> + +<p>The accuracy and vividness with which pictures of this kind presented +themselves to her imagination resembled the operations of a sixth sense. +It cannot be doubted, however, that much was owing to the enthusiastic +tenor of her own conceptions, and that her conviction of the truth of +the picture principally flowed from the distinctness and strength of its +hues.</p> + +<p>The figure which she now examined was small, but of exquisite +proportions. Her complexion testified the influence of a torrid sun; but +the darkness veiled, without obscuring, the glowing tints of her cheek. +The shade was remarkably deep; but a deeper still was required to become +incompatible with beauty. Her features were irregular, but defects of +symmetry were amply supplied by eyes that anticipated speech and +positions which conveyed that to which language was inadequate.</p> + +<p>It was not the chief tendency of her appearance to seduce or to melt. +Hers were the polished cheek and the mutability of muscle, which belong +to woman, but the genius conspicuous in her aspect was heroic and +contemplative. The female was absorbed, so to speak, in the rational +creature, and the emotions most apt to be excited in the gazer partook +less of love than of reverence.</p> + +<p>Such is the portrait of this stranger, delineated by Constantia. I copy +it with greater willingness, because, if we substitute a nobler stature, +and a complexion less uniform and delicate, it is suited with the utmost +accuracy to herself. She was probably unconscious of this resemblance; +but this circumstance may be supposed to influence her in discovering +such attractive properties in a form thus vaguely seen. These +impressions, permanent and cogent as they were, were gained at a single +glance. The purpose which led her thither was too momentous to be long +excluded.</p> + +<p>"Why," said the master of the shop, "this is lucky. Here is a lady who +has just been inquiring for an instrument of this kind. Perhaps the one +you have will suit her. If you will bring it to me, I will examine it, +and, if it is complete, will make a bargain with you." He then turned to +the lady who had first entered, and a short dialogue in French ensued +between them. The man repeated his assurances to Constantia, who, +promising to hasten back with the instrument, took her leave. The lute, +in its structure and ornaments, has rarely been surpassed. When +scrutinised by this artist it proved to be complete, and the price +demanded for it was readily given.</p> + +<p>By this means the Dudleys were enabled to change their habitation, and +to supply themselves with fuel. To obviate future exigences, Constantia +betook herself once more to the needle. They persisted in the use of +their simple fare, and endeavoured to contract their wants, and +methodize their occupations, by a standard as rigid as possible. She +had not relinquished her design of adopting a new and more liberal +profession, but though, when indistinctly and generally considered, it +seemed easily effected, yet the first steps which it would be proper to +take did not clearly or readily suggest themselves. For the present she +was contented to pursue the beaten track, but was prepared to benefit by +any occasion that time might furnish, suitable to the execution of her +plan.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + + +<p>It may be asked if a woman of this character did not attract the notice +of the world. Her station, no less than her modes of thinking, excluded +her from the concourse of the opulent and the gay. She kept herself in +privacy: her engagements confined her to her own fireside, and her +neighbours enjoyed no means of penetrating through that obscurity in +which she wrapt herself. There were, no doubt, persons of her own sex +capable of estimating her worth, and who could have hastened to raise so +much merit from the indigence to which it was condemned. She might, at +least, have found associates and friends justly entitled to her +affection. But whether she were peculiarly unfortunate in this respect, +or whether it arose from a jealous and unbending spirit that would +remit none of its claims to respect, and was backward in its overtures +to kindness and intimacy, it so happened that her hours were, for a long +period, enlivened by no companion but her father and her faithful Lucy. +The humbleness of her dwelling, her plain garb, and the meanness of her +occupation, were no passports to the favour of the rich and vain. These, +added to her youth and beauty, frequently exposed her to insults, from +which, though productive for a time of mortification and distress, she, +for the most part, extricated herself by her spirited carriage and +presence of mind.</p> + +<p>One incident of this kind it will be necessary to mention. One evening +her engagements carried her abroad. She had proposed to return +immediately, finding by experience the danger that was to be dreaded by +a woman young and unprotected. Something occurred that unavoidably +lengthened her stay, and she set out on her return at a late hour. One +of the other sex offered her his guardianship; but this she declined, +and proceeded homeward alone.</p> + +<p>Her way lay through streets but little inhabited, and whose few +inhabitants were of the profligate class. She was conscious of the +inconveniences to which she was exposed, and therefore tripped along +with all possible haste. She had not gone far before she perceived, +through the dusk, two men standing near a porch before her. She had gone +too far to recede or change her course without exciting observation, and +she flattered herself that the persons would behave with decency. +Encouraged by these reflections, and somewhat hastening her pace, she +went on. As soon as she came opposite the place where they stood, one of +them threw himself round, and caught her arm, exclaiming, in a broad +tone, "Whither so fast, my love, at this time of night?" The other, at +the same time, threw his arm round her waist, crying out, "A pretty +prize, by G—: just in the nick of time."</p> + +<p>They were huge and brawny fellows, in whose grasp her feeble strength +was annihilated. Their motions were so sudden that she had not time to +escape by flight. Her struggles merely furnished them with a subject of +laughter. He that held her waist proceeded to pollute her cheeks with +his kisses, and drew her into the porch. He tore her from the grasp of +him who first seized her, who seemed to think his property invaded, and +said, in a surly tone, "What now, Jemmy? Damn your heart, d'ye think +I'll be fobbed? Have done with your slabbering, Jemmy. First come, first +served," and seemed disposed to assert his claims by force.</p> + +<p>To this brutality Constantia had nothing to oppose but fruitless +struggles and shrieks for help. Succour was, fortunately, at hand. Her +exclamations were heard by a person across the street, who instantly +ran, and with some difficulty disengaged her from the grasp of the +ruffians. He accompanied her the rest of the way, bestowed on her every +polite attention, and, though pressed to enter the house, declined the +invitation. She had no opportunity of examining the appearance of her +new friend: this the darkness of the night, and her own panic, +prevented.</p> + +<p>Next day a person called upon her whom she instantly recognized to be +her late protector. He came with some message from his sister. His +manners were simple and unostentatious and breathed the genuine spirit +of civility. Having performed his commission, and once more received the +thanks which she poured forth with peculiar warmth for his last night's +interposition, he took his leave.</p> + +<p>The name of this man was Balfour. He was middle-aged, of a figure +neither elegant nor ungainly, and an aspect that was mild and placid, +but betrayed few marks of intelligence. He was an adventurer from +Scotland, whom a strict adherence to the maxims of trade had rendered +opulent. He was governed by the principles of mercantile integrity in +all his dealings, and was affable and kind, without being generous, in +his treatment of inferiors. He was a stranger to violent emotions of any +kind, and his intellectual acquisitions were limited to his own +profession.</p> + +<p>His demeanour was tranquil and uniform. He was sparing of words, and +these were uttered in the softest manner. In all his transactions he wad +sedate and considerate. In his dress and mode of living there were no +appearances of parsimony, but there were, likewise, as few traces of +profusion.</p> + +<p>His sister had shared in his prosperity. As soon as his affairs would +permit, he sent for her to Scotland, where she had lived in a state +little removed from penury, and had for some years been vested with the +superintendence of his household. There was a considerable resemblance +between them in person and character. Her profession, or those arts in +which her situation had compelled her to acquire skill, had not an equal +tendency to enlarge the mind as those of her brother, but the views of +each were limited to one set of objects. His superiority was owing, not +to any inherent difference, but to accident.</p> + +<p>Balfour's life had been a model of chasteness and regularity,—though +this was owing more to constitutional coldness, and a frugal spirit, +than to virtuous forbearance; but, in his schemes for the future, he did +not exclude the circumstance of marriage. Having attained a situation +secure as the nature of human affairs will admit from the chances of +poverty, the way was sufficiently prepared for matrimony. His thoughts +had been for some time employed in the selection of a suitable +companion, when this rencounter happened with Miss Dudley.</p> + +<p>Balfour was not destitute of those feelings which are called into play +by the sight of youth and beauty in distress. This incident was not +speedily forgotten. The emotions produced by it were new to him. He +reviewed them oftener, and with more complacency, than any which he had +before experienced. They afforded him so much satisfaction, that, in +order to preserve them undiminished, he resolved to repeat his visit. +Constantia treated him as one from whom she had received a considerable +benefit. Her sweetness and gentleness were uniform, and Balfour found +that her humble roof promised him more happiness than his own fireside, +or the society of his professional brethren.</p> + +<p>He could not overlook, in the course of such reflections as these, the +question relative to marriage, and speedily determined to solicit the +honour of her hand. He had not decided without his usual foresight and +deliberation; nor had he been wanting in the accuracy of his +observations and inquiries. Those qualifications, indeed, which were of +chief value in his eyes, lay upon the surface. He was no judge of her +intellectual character, or of the loftiness of her morality. Not even +the graces of person, or features or manners, attracted much of his +attention. He remarked her admirable economy of time, and money, and +labour, the simplicity of her dress, her evenness of temper, and her +love of seclusion. These ware essential requisites of a wife, in his +apprehension. The insignificance of his own birth, the lowness of his +original fortune, and the efficacy of industry and temperance to confer +and maintain wealth, had taught him indifference as to birth or fortune +in his spouse. His moderate desires in this respect were gratified, and +he was anxious only for a partner that would aid him in preserving +rather than in enlarging his property. He esteemed himself eminently +fortunate in meeting with one in whom every matrimonial qualification +concentred.</p> + +<p>He was not deficient in modesty, but he fancied that, on this occasion, +there was no possibility of miscarriage. He held her capacity in deep +veneration, but this circumstance rendered him more secure of success. +He conceived this union to be even more eligible with regard to her than +to himself, and confided in the rectitude of her understanding for a +decision favourable to his wishes.</p> + +<p>Before any express declaration was made, Constantia easily predicted the +event from the frequency of his visits; and the attentiveness of his +manners. It was no difficult task to ascertain this man's character. Her +modes of thinking were, in few respects, similar to those of her lover. +She was eager to investigate, in the first place, the attributes of his +mind. His professional and household maxims were not of inconsiderable +importance, but they were subordinate considerations. In the poverty of +his discourse and ideas she quickly found reasons for determining her +conduct.</p> + +<p>Marriage she had but little considered, as it is in itself. What are the +genuine principles of that relation, and what conduct with respect to it +is prescribed to rational beings by their duty, she had not hitherto +investigated. But she was not backward to inquire what are the precepts +of duty in her own particular case. She knew herself to be young; she +was sensible of the daily enlargement of her knowledge: every day +contributed to rectify some error, or confirm some truth. These benefits +she owed to her situation, which, whatever were its evils, gave her as +much freedom from restraint as is consistent with the state of human +affairs. Her poverty fettered her exertions, and circumscribed her +pleasures. Poverty, therefore, was an evil, and the reverse of poverty +was to be desired. But riches were not barren of constraint, and its +advantages might be purchased at too dear a rate.</p> + +<p>Allowing that the wife is enriched by marriage, how humiliating were the +conditions annexed to it in the present case! The company of one with +whom we have no sympathy, nor sentiments in common, is, of all species +of solitude, the most loathsome and dreary. The nuptial life is attended +with peculiar aggravations, since the tie is infrangible, and the choice +of a more suitable companion, if such a one should offer, is for ever +precluded. The hardships of wealth are not incompensated by some +benefits; but these benefits, false and hollow as they are, cannot be +obtained by marriage. Her acceptance of Balfour would merely aggravate +her indigence.</p> + +<p>Now she was at least mistress of the product of her own labour. Her +tasks were toilsome, but the profits, though slender, were sure, and +she administered her little property in what manner she pleased. +Marriage would annihilate this, power. Henceforth she would he bereft +even of personal freedom. So far from possessing property, she herself +would become the property of another.</p> + +<p>She was not unaware of the consequences flowing from differences of +capacity, and that power, to whomsoever legally granted, will be +exercised by the most addressful; but she derived no encouragement from +these considerations. She would not stoop to gain her end by the hateful +arts of the sycophant, and was too wise to place an unbounded reliance +on the influence of truth. The character, likewise, of this man, +sufficiently exempted him from either of those influences.</p> + +<p>She did not forget the nature of the altar-vows. To abdicate the use of +her own understanding was scarcely justifiable in any case; but to vow +an affection that was not felt, and could not be compelled, and to +promise obedience to one whose judgment was glaringly defective, were +acts atrociously criminal. Education, besides, had created in her an +insurmountable abhorrence of admitting to conjugal privileges the man +who had no claim upon her love. It could not be denied that a state of +abundant accommodation was better than the contrary; but this +consideration, though, in the most rational estimate, of some weight, +she was not so depraved and effeminate as to allow to overweigh the +opposite evils. Homely liberty was better than splendid servitude.</p> + +<p>Her resolution was easily formed, but there were certain impediments in +the way of its execution. These chiefly arose from deference to the +opinion, and compassion for the infirmities of her father. He assumed no +control over her actions. His reflections in the present case were +rather understood than expressed. When uttered, it was with the +mildness of equality, and the modesty of persuasion. It was this +circumstance that conferred upon them all their force. His decision on +so delicate a topic was not wanting in sagacity and moderation; but, as +a man, he had his portion of defects, and his frame was enfeebled by +disease and care; yet he set no higher value on the ease and +independence of his former condition than any man of like experience. He +could not endure to exist on the fruits of his daughter's labour. He +ascribed her decision to a spirit of excessive refinement, and was, of +course, disposed to give little quarter to maiden scruples. They were +phantoms, he believed, which experience would dispel. His morality, +besides, was of a much more flexible kind; and the marriage vows were, +in his opinion, formal and unmeaning, and neither in themselves, nor in +the opinion of the world, accompanied with any rigorous obligation. He +drew more favourable omens from the known capacity of his daughter, and +the flexibility of her lover.</p> + +<p>She demanded his opinion and advice. She listened to his reasonings, and +revolved them with candour and impartiality. She stated her objections +with simplicity; but the difference of age and sex was sufficient to +preclude agreement. Arguments were of no use but to prolong the debate; +but, happily, the magnanimity of Mr. Dudley would admit of no sacrifice. +Her opinions, it is true, were erroneous; but he was willing that she +should regulate her conduct by her own conceptions of right, and not by +those of another. To refuse Balfour's offers was an evil, but an evil +inexpressibly exceeded by that of accepting them contrary to her own +sense of propriety.</p> + +<p>Difficulties, likewise, arose from the consideration of what was due to +the man who had already benefited her, and who, in this act, intended to +confer upon her further benefit. These, though the source of some +embarrassment, were not sufficient to shake her resolution. Balfour +could not understand her principal objections. They were of a size +altogether disproportioned to his capacity. Her moral speculations were +quite beyond the sphere of his reflections. She could not expatiate, +without a breach of civility, on the disparity of their minds, and yet +this was the only or principal ground on which she had erected her +scruples.</p> + +<p>Her father loved her too well not to be desirous of relieving her from a +painful task, though undertaken without necessity, and contrary to his +opinion. "Refer him to me," said he; "I will make the best of the +matter, and render your refusal as palatable as possible; but do you +authorize me to make it absolute, and without appeal."</p> + +<p>"My dear father! how good you are! but that shall be my province. If I +err, let the consequences of my mistake be confined to myself. It would +be cruel indeed to make you the instrument in a transaction which your +judgment disapproves. My reluctance was a weak and foolish thing. +Strange, indeed, if the purity of my motives will not bear me out on +this, as it has done on many more arduous occasions."</p> + +<p>"Well, be it so; that is best I believe. Ten to one but I, with my want +of eyes would blunder, while yours will be of no small use in a contest +with a lover. They will serve you to watch the transitions in his placid +physiognomy, and overpower his discontents."</p> + +<p>She was aware of the inconveniences to which this resolution would +subject her; but since they were unavoidable, she armed herself with the +requisite patience. Her apprehensions were not without reason. More than +one conference was necessary to convince him of her meaning, and in +order to effect her purpose she was obliged to behave with so much +explicitness as to hazard giving him offence. This affair was +productive of no small vexation. He had put too much faith in the +validity of his pretensions, and the benefits of perseverance, to be +easily shaken off.</p> + +<p>This decision was not borne by him with as much patience as she wished. +He deemed himself unjustly treated, and his resentment exceeded those +bounds of moderation which he prescribed to himself on all other +occasions. From his anger, however, there was not much to be dreaded; +but, unfortunately, his sister partook of his indignation and indulged +her petulance, which was enforced by every gossiping and tattling +propensity, to the irreparable disadvantage of Constantia.</p> + +<p>She owed her support to her needle. She was dependent therefore on the +caprice of customers. This caprice was swayable by every breath, and +paid a merely subordinate regard, in the choice of workwomen, to the +circumstances of skill, cheapness and diligence. In consequence of +this, her usual sources of subsistence began to fail.</p> + +<p>Indigence, as well as wealth, is comparative. He indeed must be +wretched, whose food, clothing, and shelter, are limited, both in kind +and quantity, by the standard of mere necessity; who, in the choice of +food, for example, is governed by no consideration but its cheapness, +and its capacity to sustain nature. Yet to this degree of wretchedness +was Miss Dudley reduced.</p> + +<p>As her means of subsistence began to decay, she reflected on the change +of employment that might become necessary. She was mistress of no +lucrative art but that which now threatened to be useless. There was but +one avenue through which she could hope to escape from the pressure of +absolute want. This she regarded with an aversion that nothing but +extreme necessity, and the failure of every other expedient, would be +able to subdue. This was the hiring herself as a servant. Even that +could not answer all her purposes. If a subsistence were provided by it +for herself, whither should her father and her Lucy betake themselves +for support?</p> + +<p>Hitherto her labour had been sufficient to shut out famine and the cold. +It is true she had been cut off from all the direct means of personal or +mental gratification; but her constitution had exempted her from the +insalutary effects of sedentary application. She could not tell how long +she could enjoy this exemption, but it was absurd to anticipate those +evils which might never arrive. Meanwhile, her situation was not +destitute of comfort. The indirect means of intellectual improvement in +conversation and reflection, the inexpensive amusement of singing, and, +above all, the consciousness of performing her duty, and maintaining her +independence inviolate, were still in her possession. Her lodging was +humble, and her fare frugal, but these temperance and a due regard to +the use of money would require from the most opulent.</p> + +<p>Now retrenchments must be made even from this penurious provision. Her +exertions might somewhat defer, but could not prevent, the ruin of her +unhappy family. Their landlord was a severe exacter of his dues. The day +of quarterly payment was past, and he had not failed in his usual +punctuality. She was unable to satisfy his demands, and Mr. Dudley was +officially informed, that unless payment was made before a day fixed, +resort would be had to the law, in that case made and provided.</p> + +<p>This seemed to be the completion of their misfortunes. It was not enough +to soften the implacability of their landlord. A respite might possibly +be obtained from this harsh sentence. Entreaties might prevail upon him +to allow of their remaining under this roof for some time longer; but +shelter at this inclement season was not enough. Without fire they must +perish with the cold; and fuel could be procured only for money, of +which the last shilling was expended. Food was no less indispensable; +and, their credit being gone, not a loaf could be extorted from the +avarice of the bakers in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The sensations produced by this accumulation of distress may be more +easily conceived than described. Mr. Dudley sunk into despair, when Lucy +informed him that the billet of wood she was putting on the fire was the +last. "Well," said he, "the game is up. Where is my daughter?" The +answer was, that she was up-stairs.</p> + +<p>"Why, there she has been this hour. Tell her to come down and warm +herself. She must needs be cold, and here is a cheerful blaze. I feel it +myself. Like the lightning that precedes death, it beams thus brightly, +though in a few moments it will be extinguished forever. Let my darling +come and partake of its comforts before they expire."</p> + +<p>Constantia had retired in order to review her situation and devise some +expedients that might alleviate it. It was a sore extremity to which she +was reduced. Things had come to a desperate pass, and the remedy +required must be no less desperate. It was impossible to see her father +perish. She herself would have died before she would have condescended +to beg. It was not worth prolonging a life which must subsist upon alms. +She would have wandered into the fields at dusk, have seated herself +upon an unfrequented bank, and serenely waited the approach of that +death which the rigours of the season would have rendered sure. But as +it was, it became her to act in a very different manner.</p> + +<p>During her father's prosperity, some mercantile intercourse had taken +place between him and a merchant of this city. The latter on some +occasion had spent a few nights at her father's house. She was greatly +charmed with the humanity that shone forth in his conversation and +behaviour. From that time to this all intercourse had ceased. She was +acquainted with the place of his abode, and knew him to be affluent. To +him she determined to apply as a suppliant in behalf of her father. She +did not inform Mr. Dudley of this intention, conceiving it best to wait +till the event had been ascertained, for fear of exciting fallacious +expectations. She was further deterred by the apprehension of awakening +his pride, and bringing on herself an absolute prohibition.</p> + +<p>She arrived at the door of Mr. Melbourne's house, and inquiring for the +master of it, was informed that he had gone out of town, and was not +expected to return for a week.</p> + +<p>Her scheme, which was by no means unplausible, was thus completely +frustrated. There was but one other resource, on which she had already +deliberated, and to which she had determined to apply if that should +fail. That was to claim assistance from the superintendants of the poor. +She was employed in considering to which of them, and in what manner she +should make her application, when she turned the corner of Lombard and +Second Streets. That had scarcely been done, when casting her eyes +mournfully round her, she caught a glimpse of a person whom she +instantly recognized passing into the market-place. She followed him +with quick steps, and on a second examination found that she had not +been mistaken. This was no other than Thomas Craig, to whose malignity +and cunning all her misfortunes were imputable.</p> + +<p>She was at first uncertain what use to make of this discovery. She +followed him instinctively, and saw him at length enter the Indian Queen +Tavern. Here she stopped. She entertained a confused conception that +some beneficial consequences might be extracted from this event. In the +present hurry of her thoughts she could form no satisfactory conclusion; +but it instantly occurred to her that it would at least be proper to +ascertain the place of his abode. She stept into the inn, and made the +suitable inquiries. She was informed that the gentleman had come from +Baltimore a month before, and had since resided at that house. How soon +he meant to leave the city her informant was unable to tell.</p> + +<p>Having gained this intelligence, she returned home, and once more shut +herself in her chamber to meditate on this new posture of affairs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + + +<p>Craig was indebted to her father. He had defrauded him by the most +atrocious and illicit arts. On either account he was liable to +prosecution; but her heart rejected the thought of being the author of +injury to any man. The dread of punishment, however, might induce him to +refund, uncoercively, the whole or some part of the stolen property. +Money was at this moment necessary to existence, and she conceived +herself justly entitled to that of which her father had been +perfidiously despoiled.</p> + +<p>But the law was formal and circuitous. Money itself was necessary to +purchase its assistance. Besides, it could not act with unseen virtue +and instantaneous celerity. The co-operation of advocates and officers +was required. They must be visited, and harangued, and importuned. Was +she adequate to the task? Would the energy of her mind supply the place +of experience, and with a sort of miraculous efficacy, afford her the +knowledge of official processes and dues? As little on this occasion +could be expected from her father as from her. He was infirm and blind. +The spirit that animated his former days was flown. His heart's blood +was chilled by the rigours of his fortune. He had discarded his +indignation and his enmities, and together with them, hope itself had +perished in his bosom. He waited in tranquil despair, for that stroke +which would deliver him from life, and all the woes that it inherits.</p> + +<p>But these considerations were superfluous. It was enough that justice +must be bought, and that she had not the equivalent. Legal proceedings +are encumbered with delay, and her necessities were urgent. Succour, if +withheld till the morrow, would be useless. Hunger and cold would not +be trifled with. What resource was there left in this her uttermost +distress? Must she yield, in imitation of her father, to the cowardly +suggestions of despair?</p> + +<p>Craig might be rich: his coffers might be stuffed with thousands. All +that he had, according to the principles of social equity, was hers; yet +he, to whom nothing belonged, rioted in superfluity, while she, the +rightful claimant, was driven to the point of utmost need. The proper +instrument of her restoration was law, but its arm was powerless, for +she had not the means of bribing it into activity. But was law the only +instrument?</p> + +<p>Craig perhaps was accessible. Might she not, with propriety, demand an +interview, and lay before him the consequences of his baseness? He was +not divested of the last remains of humanity. It was impossible that he +should not relent at the picture of those distresses of which he was the +author. Menaces of legal prosecution she meant not to use, because she +was unalterably resolved against that remedy. She confided in the +efficacy of her pleadings to awaken his justice. This interview she was +determined immediately to seek. She was aware that by some accident her +purpose might be frustrated. Access to his person might, for the +present, be impossible, or might be denied. It was proper, therefore to +write him a letter, which might be substituted in place of an interview. +It behoved her to be expeditious, for the light was failing, and her +strength was nearly exhausted by the hurry of her spirits. Her fingers +likewise were benumbed with the cold. She performed her task, under +these disadvantages, with much difficulty. This was the purport of her +letter:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"THOMAS CRAIG,</p> + +<p>"An hour ago I was in Second Street, and saw you. I followed you +till you entered the Indian Queen Tavern. Knowing where you are, I +am now preparing to demand an interview. I may he disappointed in +this hope, and therefore write you this.</p> + +<p>"I do not come to upbraid you, to call you to a legal, or any other +account for your actions. I presume not to weigh your merits. The +God of equity be your judge. May he be as merciful in the hour of +retribution as I am disposed to be!</p> + +<p>"It is only to inform you that my father is on the point of +perishing with want. You know who it was that reduced him to this +condition. I persuade myself I shall not appeal to your justice in +vain. Learn of this justice to afford him instant succour.</p> + +<p>"You know who it was that took you in, an houseless wanderer, +protected and fostered your youth, and shared with you his +confidence and his fortune. It is he who now, blind and indigent, +is threatened by an inexorable landlord to be thrust into the +street, and who is, at this moment without fire and without bread.</p> + +<p>"He once did you some little service; now he looks to be +compensated. All the retribution he asks is to be saved from +perishing. Surely you will not spurn at his claims. Thomas Craig +has done nothing that shows him deaf to the cries of distress. He +would relieve a dog from such sufferings.</p> + +<p>"Forget that you have known my father in any character but that of +a supplicant for bread. I promise you that on this condition I also +will forget it. If you are so far just, you have nothing to fear. +Your property and reputation shall both be safe. My father knows +not of your being in this city. His enmities are extinct, and if +you comply with this request, he shall know you only as a +benefactor.</p> + +<p>"C. DUDLEY." </p></blockquote> + +<p>Having finished and folded this epistle, she once more returned to the +tavern. A waiter informed her that Craig had lately been in, and was now +gone out to spend the evening. "Whither had he gone?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"How was he to know where gentlemen eat their suppers? Did she take him +for a witch? What, in God's name, did she want with him at that hour? +Could she not wait, at least, till he had done his supper? He warranted +her pretty face would bring him home time enough."</p> + +<p>Constantia was not disconcerted at the address. She knew that females +are subjected, through their own ignorance and cowardice, to a thousand +mortifications. She set its true value on base and low-minded treatment. +She disdained to notice this ribaldry, but turned away from the servant +to meditate on this disappointment.</p> + +<p>A few moments after, a young fellow smartly dressed entered the +apartment. He was immediately addressed by the other, who said to him, +"Well, Tom, where's your master: there's a lady wants him," (pointing to +Constantia, and laying a grinning emphasis on the word "lady".) She +turned to the new-comer: "Friend, are you Mr. Craig's servant?"</p> + +<p>The fellow seemed somewhat irritated at the bluntness of her +interrogatory. The appellation of servant sat uneasily, perhaps, on his +pride, especially as coming from a person of her appearance. He put on +an air of familiar ridicule, and surveyed her in silence. She resumed, +in an authoritative tone:—"Where does Mr. Craig spend this evening? I +have business with him of the highest importance, and that will not bear +delay. I must see him this night." He seemed preparing to make some +impertinent answer, but she anticipated it: "You had better answer me +with decency. If you do not, your master shall hear of it."</p> + +<p>This menace was not ineffectual. He began in perceive himself in the +wrong, and surlily muttered, "Why, if you must know, he is gone to Mr. +Ormond's." And where lived Mr. Ormond? In Arch Street; he mentioned the +number on her questioning him to that effect.</p> + +<p>Being furnished with this information, she left them. Her project was +not to be thwarted by slight impediments, and she forthwith proceeded to +Ormond's dwelling. "Who was this Ormond?" she inquired of herself as she +went along: "whence originated and of what nature is the connection +between him and Craig? Are they united by unison of designs and sympathy +of character, or is this stranger a new subject on whom Craig is +practising his arts? The last supposition is not impossible. Is it not +my duty to disconcert his machinations and save a new victim from his +treachery? But I ought to be sure before I act. He may now be honest, or +tending to honesty, and my interference may cast him backward, or +impede his progress."</p> + +<p>The house to which she had been directed was spacious and magnificent. +She was answered by a servant, whose uniform was extremely singular and +fanciful, whose features and accents bespoke him to be English, with a +politeness to which she knew that the simplicity of her dress gave her +no title. Craig, he told her, was in the drawing-room above stairs. He +offered to carry him any message, and ushered her, meanwhile, into a +parlour. She was surprised at the splendour of the room. The ceiling was +painted with a gay design, the walls stuccoed in relief, and the floor +covered with a Persian carpet, with suitable accompaniments of mirrors, +tables, and sofas.</p> + +<p>Craig had been seated at the window above. His suspicions were ever on +the watch. He suddenly espied a figure and face on the opposite side of +the street, which an alteration of garb and the improvements of time +could not conceal from his knowledge. He was startled at this incident, +without knowing the extent of its consequences. He saw her cross the way +opposite this house, and immediately after heard the bell ring. Still he +was not aware that he himself was the object of this visit, and waited +with some degree of impatience for the issue of this adventure.</p> + +<p>Presently he was summoned to a person below, who wished to see him. The +servant shut the door as soon as he had delivered the message and +retired.</p> + +<p>Craig was thrown into considerable perplexity. It was seldom that he was +wanting in presence of mind and dexterity, but the unexpectedness of +this incident made him pause. He had not forgotten the awful charms of +his summoner. He shrunk at the imagination of her rebukes. What purpose +could be answered by admitting her? It was undoubtedly safest to keep +at a distance; but what excuse should be given for refusing this +interview? He was roused from his reverie by a second and more urgent +summons. The person could not conveniently wait; her business was of the +utmost moment, and would detain him but a few minutes.</p> + +<p>The anxiety which was thus expressed to see him only augmented his +solicitude to remain invisible. He had papers before him, which he had +been employed in examining. This suggested an excuse—"Tell her that I +am engaged just now, and cannot possibly attend to her. Let her leave +her business. If she has any message, you may bring it to me."</p> + +<p>It was plain to Constantia that Craig suspected the purpose of her +visit. This might have come to his knowledge by means impossible for her +to divine. She now perceived the wisdom of the precaution she had taken. +She gave her letter to the servant with this message:—"Tell him I +shall wait here for an answer, and continue to wait till I receive one."</p> + +<p>Her mind was powerfully affected by the criticalness of her situation. +She had gone thus far, and saw the necessity of persisting to the end. +The goal was within view, and she formed a sort of desperate +determination not to relinquish the pursuit. She could not overlook the +possibility that he might return no answer, or return an unsatisfactory +one. In either case, she was resolved to remain in the house till driven +from it by violence. What other resolution could she form? To return to +her desolate home, pennyless, was an idea not to be endured.</p> + +<p>The letter was received, and perused. His conscience was touched, but +compunction was a guest whose importunities he had acquired a peculiar +facility of eluding. Here was a liberal offer. A price was set upon his +impunity. A small sum, perhaps, would secure him from all future +molestation.—"She spoke, to-be-sure, in a damned high tone. 'Twas a +pity that the old man should be hungry before supper-time. Blind too! +Harder still, when he cannot find his way to his mouth. Rent unpaid, and +a flinty-hearted landlord. A pretty pickle, to-be-sure. Instant payment, +she says. Won't part without it. Must come down with the stuff. I know +this girl. When her heart is once set upon a thing, all the devils will +not turn her out of her way. She promises silence. I can't pretend to +bargain with her. I'd as lief be ducked, as meet her face to face. I +know she'll do what she promises: that was always her grand failing. How +the little witch talks! Just the dreamer she ever was! Justice! +Compassion! Stupid fool! One would think she'd learned something of the +world by this time."</p> + +<p>He took out his pocket-book. Among the notes it contained the lowest was +fifty dollars. This was too much, yet there was no alternative; +something must be given. She had detected his abode, and he knew it was +in the power of the Dudleys to ruin his reputation, and obstruct his +present schemes. It was probable that, if they should exert themselves, +their cause would find advocates and patrons. Still the gratuitous gift +of fifty dollars sat uneasily upon his avarice. One idea occurred to +reconcile him to the gift. There was a method he conceived of procuring +the repayment of it with interest: he enclosed the note in a blank piece +of paper, and sent it to her.</p> + +<p>She received the paper, and opened it with trembling fingers: when she +saw what were its contents, her feelings amounted to rapture. A sum like +this was affluence to her in her present condition; at least it would +purchase present comfort and security. Her heart glowed with exultation, +and she seemed to tread with the lightness of air as she hied homeward. +The languor of a long fast, the numbness of the cold, were forgotten. +It is worthy of remark how much of human accommodation was comprised +within this small compass; and how sudden was this transition from the +verge of destruction to the summit of security.</p> + +<p>Her first business was to call upon her landlord, and pay him his +demand. On her return she discharged the little debts she had been +obliged to contract, and purchased what was immediately necessary. Wood +she could borrow from her next neighbour, and this she was willing to +do, now that she had the prospect of repaying it.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><b>END OF VOL. I.</b></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORMOND, VOLUME I (OF 3)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 36289-h.txt or 36289-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/2/8/36289">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/8/36289</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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