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diff --git a/36613-h/36613-h.htm b/36613-h/36613-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c413a72 --- /dev/null +++ b/36613-h/36613-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7988 @@ +<!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 The Kentuckian in New-York, Volume I (of 2), by William Alexander Caruthers</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + h1 { text-align:center; line-height:1.5; } + h1.pg { text-align:center; line-height:1; } + p.title { text-align:center; text-indent:0; + font-weight:bold; + line-height:1.4; margin-bottom:3em; } + small { font-size:60%; } + big { font-size:140%; } + + h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + + +blockquote, .blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + font-size: 90%; +} + + + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.bigfont {font-size: 1.3em; font-weight: bold;} + +.ralign {position: absolute;right: 16%; top: auto;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* 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; +} + +/* Poetry */ + + div.poem {border:none; + text-align:left; + margin: 1em auto; + } + .poem .stanza { + margin-top: 1em; + } + .stanza span + {border:none; + display:block; + line-height: 1.2em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + margin-top: 0; + } + .stanza br { + display: none; + } + + .poem .i0 {display:block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem .i1 {display:block; margin-left: 1em;} + + 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 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Kentuckian in New-York, Volume I (of 2), +by William Alexander Caruthers</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: The Kentuckian in New-York, Volume I (of 2)</p> +<p> or, The Adventures of Three Southerns</p> +<p>Author: William Alexander Caruthers</p> +<p>Release Date: July 4, 2011 [eBook #36613]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KENTUCKIAN IN NEW-YORK, VOLUME I (OF 2)***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Roberta Staehlin, Pat McCoy,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/kentuckianinnewy01carurich"> + http://www.archive.org/details/kentuckianinnewy01carurich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h1>KENTUCKIAN</h1> + +<h4>IN</h4> + +<h1>NEW-YORK.</h1> + + +<p class="title"><br /> +OR, THE<br /> +<br /> +<big>ADVENTURES OF THREE SOUTHERNS.<br /> +<br /> +BY A VIRGINIAN.</big></p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>"Perhaps it may turn out a sang,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Perhaps turn out a sermon."—<i>Burns.</i></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p class="title"><br /> +IN TWO VOLUMES.<br /> + +<big>VOL. I.</big></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + +<p class="title"><big>NEW-YORK:</big><br /> +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,<br /> +NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.<br /> +<br /> +<big>1834.</big></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="title">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834,<br /> +By <span class="smcap">Harper & Brothers</span>,<br /> +In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="title">NEARLY READY. +</p> + +<blockquote><p>HELEN. A new Tale. By <span class="smcap">Maria Edgeworth</span>—forming +the <i>tenth</i> volume of Harper's Uniform Edition of +her Works. Containing two beautiful Engravings on +steel.</p> + +<p>TALES AND SKETCHES,—such as they are. By +<span class="smcap">W. L. Stone</span>, Esq. In 2 vols. 12mo.</p> + +<p>THE FROLICS OF PUCK. In 2 vols. 12mo.</p> + +<p>THE KENTUCKIAN IN NEW-YORK. By <span class="smcap">A Virginian</span>. +In 2 vols. 12mo.</p> + +<p>GUY RIVERS. A Novel. By the Author of "Martin +Faber." In 2 vols. 12mo.</p> + +<p>MRS. SHERWOOD'S WORKS. Uniform Edition. +With Engravings on steel. 12mo.</p> + +<p>PAULDING'S WORKS. Uniform Edition. Revised +and corrected by the Author. 12mo.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE<br /> + +KENTUCKIAN IN NEW-YORK.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p class="center"> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<p>Towards the latter part of the summer of 18—, +on one of those cool, delightful, and invigorating +mornings which are frequent in the southern regions +of the United States, there issued from the +principal hotel on the valley-side of Harper's Ferry +two travellers, attended by a venerable and stately +southern slave. The experienced eye of the old +ferryman, as he stood in his flat-bottomed boat +awaiting the arrival of this party, discovered at +once that our travellers were from the far South.</p> + +<p>The first of these, Victor Chevillere, entered the +"flat," leading by the bridle a mettlesome southern +horse; when he had stationed this fine animal to +his satisfaction, he stood directly fronting the prescriptive +Charon of the region. This young gentleman, +who appeared to be the principal character +of the party just entering the boat, was handsomely +formed, moderately tall, and fashionably dressed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +His face was bold, dignified, and resolute, and +not remarkable for any very peculiar fashion +of the hair or beard which shaded it. He appeared +to be about twenty-three years of age, +and though so young, much and early experience +of the world had already o'ershadowed his face +with a becoming serenity, if not sadness. Not +that silly, affected melancholy, however, which is +so often worn in these days by young and romantic +idle gentlemen, to catch the errant sympathies of +some untravelled country beauty.</p> + +<p>The next personage of the party (who likewise +entered the boat leading a fine southern animal), +was a fashionable young gentleman, about the +middle size; his face was pale and wan, as if he +had but just recovered from an attack of illness. +Nevertheless there was a brilliant fire in his eye, +and a lurking, but too evident, disposition to fun +and humour, which illness had not been entirely +able to subdue. Augustus Lamar, for such was +his name, was the confidential and long-tried friend +of the first-named gentleman: their mutual regard +had existed undiminished from the time of their +early school days in South Carolina, through their +whole college career in Virginia up to the moment +of which we speak.</p> + +<p>The third and more humble personage of the +party bore the time-honoured appellation of Cato. +He was a tall old negro, with a face so black as to +form a perfect contrast to his white hair and brilliant +teeth. He was well dressed and cleanly in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +his person, and rather solemn and pompous in his +manners. Cato had served the father of his present +highly honoured young master, and was deeply +imbued with that strong feudal attachment to the +family, which is a distinguishing characteristic of +the southern negroes who serve immediately near +the persons of the great landholders.</p> + +<p>Our travellers were now smoothly gliding over +that most magnificent "meeting of the waters" of +the Shenandoah and Potomack, which is usually +known by the unpretending name of "Harper's +Ferry." It was early morning; the moon was +still visible above the horizon, and the sun had not +yet risen above those stupendous fragments whose +chaotic and irregular position gives token of the +violence with which the mass of waters rent for +themselves a passage through the mountains, when +rushing on to meet that other congregation of +rivers, with whose waters they unite to form the +Bay of the Chesapeake. The black bituminous +smoke from the hundred smithies of the United +States' armory, had just begun to rise above the +towering crags that seemed, at this early period, to +battle with the vapours which are here sent up in +thick volumes from the contest of rocks and rivers +beneath.</p> + +<p>Old Cato had by this time assumed his post at +the heads of the three horses, while our southerns +stood with folded arms, each impressed with the +scene according to his individual impulses. As +they approached nearer to the northern shore, Che<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>villere, +addressing Lamar, observed: "An unhappy +young lady she must be who arrived at our hotel +last evening. I could hear her weeping bitterly as +she paced the floor, until a late hour of the night, +when finally she seemed to throw herself upon the +bed, and fall asleep from mere exhaustion;" and +then, turning to the weather-beaten steersman, continued: +"I suppose we are the first passengers in +the 'flat' this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, you are not; a carriage from the same +tavern went over half an hour ago. There was +an old gray-headed man, and two young women +in it, besides the driver, and the driver told me +that they were all the way from York State,—the +mail stage, too, went over."</p> + +<p>"The same party," said Chevillere, abstractedly; +"Did you learn where they were to breakfast, +boatman?"</p> + +<p>"About ten miles from this, I think I heard say."</p> + +<p>They were soon landed and mounted, and cantering +away through the fog and vapours of the +early morning. Nor were they long in overtaking +a handsome travelling-carriage, which was moving +at a brisk rate, in accordance with the exertions of +two fine, evidently northern, horses. The carriage +contained an elderly, grave, formal, and magisterial +gentleman; his locks quite gray, and hanging loose +upon the collar of his coat; his countenance harsh, +austere, and forbidding in the extreme. By his +side sat a youthful lady, so enveloped in a large +black mantle, and travelling hat and veil, that but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +little of her form or features could be seen, except +a pair of brilliant blue eyes.</p> + +<p>It is not to be denied, that these sudden apparitions +of young and beautiful females, almost completely +shrouded in mantles, drapery, or veils, are +the very circumstances fully to arouse the slumbering +energies of a lately emancipated college Quixotte. +A lovely pair of eyes, brimful of tears,—a +"Cinderella" foot and ankle,—a white and beautifully +turned hand and tapered fingers, with perhaps +a mourning ring or two,—or a bonnet suddenly +blown off, so as to dishevel a magnificent head of +hair, its pretty mistress meanwhile all confusion, +and her snowy neck and temples suffused with +blushes,—these are the little incidents on which the +real romances of human life are founded. How +many persons can look back to such a commencement +of their youthful loves! nay, perhaps, refer +to it all the little enjoyment with which they have +been blessed through life! We venture to say, +that those who were so unfortunate as never to +bring their first youthful romance to a fortunate +denouement, can likewise look back upon such +occurrences with many pleasing emotions. A +bachelor or a widower, indeed, may not always +recur with pleasure to these first passages in the +book of life,—but the feelings even of these are +not altogether of the melancholy kind. The fairy +queens of their spring-tide will sometimes arise in +the present tense, until they almost imagine themselves +in the possession again of youth and all its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +raptures,—its brilliant dreams, airy castles, "hair-breadth +'scapes," and miraculous deliverances,—cruel +fathers, and perverse guardians, and stolen +interviews, and lovers' vows and tokens,—winding +up finally with a runaway match—all of the imagination.</p> + +<p>After the equipage before alluded to had been +for some time left behind, our travellers began to +descry, at the distance of several miles, the long +white portico of the country inn at which they +proposed to breakfast. The United States mail-coach +for Baltimore was standing at the door, evidently +waiting till the passengers should have +performed the same needful operation. Servants +were running hither and thither, some to the roost, +others to the stable, as if a large number of the +most distinguished dignitaries of the land had just +arrived.</p> + +<p>But, behold, when our travellers drew up, they +found that all this stir among the servants of the +inn was called into being by the real or affected +wants of a number of very young gentlemen. We +say affected, because we are sorry to acknowledge +that it is not uncommon to see very young and +inexperienced gentlemen, on such occasions, assume +airs and graces which are merely put on as a travelling +dress, and which would be thrown aside at +the first appearance of an old acquaintance. At +such times it is by no means rare to see all the +servants of the inn, together with the host and +hostess, entirely engrossed by one of these over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>grown +boys or ill-bred men, while their elders and +superiors are compelled either to want or wait +upon themselves. At the time we notice, some +young bloods of the cities were exercising themselves +in their new suit of stage-coach manners.</p> + +<p>"Here waiter! waiter!" with an affectedly delicate +and foreign voice, cried one of these youths, +enveloped in a brown "Petersham box" coat, and +with his hands stuck into his pockets over his hips. +Under the arm of this person was a black riding-switch, +with a golden head, and a small chain of +the same precious metal, fastened about six inches +therefrom, after the fashion of some old rapier +guards. He wore a rakish-looking fur cap, round +and tight on the top of his head as a bladder of +snuff; this was cocked on one side after a most +piratical fashion, so as to show off, in the best possible +manner, a great profusion of coarse, shining +black hair, which was evidently indebted to art +rather than nature for the curls that frizzled out +over his ears, while the back part of his head was +left as bare and defenceless as if he had already +been under the hands of a deputy turnkey. He +practised what may be called American puppyism, +as technically distinguished from the London species +of the same genus. "Here waiter! waiter!" +said he, "bring me a gin sling,—and half-a-dozen +Bagdad segars,—and a lighted taper,—and a fresh +egg,—and a bowl of water, and a clean towel,—and +polish my boots,—and dust my coat,—and then +send me the barber, do you hear?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, sir! we has no barber, nor Bagdab segars +neither; but we has plenty of the real Baltimores,—real +good ones, too,—as I knows very well, for +I smokes the old sodgers what the gentlemen throws +on the bar-room floor."</p> + +<p>"It is one of the most amusing scenes imaginable," +said Victor Chevillere to Augustus Lamar, +as they sat witnessing this scene, "when the waiter +and the master pro tempore are both fools. The +fawning, bowing, cringing waiter, with his big lips +upon the <i>qui vive</i>, his head and shoulders constantly +in motion, and rubbing his hands one over the other +after the most approved fashion of the men of +business. In such a case as that which we have +just witnessed, where puppyism comes in contact +with the kindred monkey-tricks of the waiter, I +can enjoy it. But when it happens, as I have +more than once seen, that the waiter is a manly, +sensible, and dignified old negro of the loftier sort, +such as old Cato,—then you can soon detect the +curl of contempt upon his lip,—and he is not long +thereafter in selecting the real gentlemen of the +party,—always choosing to wait most upon those +who least demand it."</p> + +<p>"I would bet my horse Talleyrand against an +old field scrub, that that fellow is a Yankee," answered +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"He may be a Yankee," continued Victor Chevillere, +"but you have travelled too much and reflected +too long upon the nature of man, to ascribe +every thing disgusting to a Yankee origin. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +my part, I make the character of every man I +meet in some measure my study during my travels, +and as we have agreed to exchange opinions upon +men and things, I will tell you freely what I think +of that fellow who has just retreated from our +laughter. I have found it not at all uncommon, to +see the most undisguised hatred arise between two +such persons as he of the stage-coach,—the one +from the north, and the other from the south,—when +in truth, the actuating impulse was precisely +the same in both, but had taken a different direction, +and was differently developed by different +exciting causes.</p> + +<p>"The puppyism of Charleston and that of Boston +are only different shades of the same character, +yet these kindred spirits can in nowise tolerate +each other. As is universally the case, those are +most intolerant to others who have most need of +forgiveness themselves. The mutual jealousy of +the north and south is a decided evidence of littleness +in both regions, and ample cause for shame to +the educated gentlemen of all parties of this happy +country. If pecuniary interest had not been mixed +up with this provincial rivalry, the feeling could +easily have been so held up to the broad light of +intelligence, as to be a fertile source of amusement, +and furnish many a subject for comedy and farce +in after-times."</p> + +<p>This specimen was by no means the only one +among the arrivals by the stage-coach. Every +waiter in the house was pressed into the service of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +these coxcombs,—some smoked,—some swaggered +through the private rooms,—others adjusted their +frizzled locks at the mirrors with brushes carried +for the purpose,—and all together created a vast +commotion in the quiet country inn.</p> + +<p>As our two young southerns sat in the long +piazza, eying these stage-coach travellers and waiting +for breakfast, the same equipage which they +had passed on the road, and containing our northern +party, drew up to the door.</p> + +<p>Not many minutes had elapsed before a black +servant stood in the entry between the double +suite of apartments, and briskly swung a small +bell to and fro, which seemed to announce breakfast, +from the precipitate haste with which the gentlemen +of the stage-coach found their way into the +long breakfasting-hall of the establishment. Our +southerns followed their example, but more quietly, +and by the invitation of the host. At the upper +end of the table stood the hostess, who, like most +of her kind in America, was the wife of a wealthy +landholder and farmer, as well as tavern-keeper. +She was a genteel and modest-looking woman, and +did the honours of the table like a lady at her own +hospitable board, and among selected guests. It +is owing to a mistake in the character of the host +and hostess, that so many foreigners give and take +offence at these establishments. They often contumaciously +demand as a right, what would have +been offered to them in all courtesy after the established +usages of the country.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the right of the hostess sat the youthful lady +who had spent such an unhappy night at the ferry,—in +the hearing of Victor Chevillere,—and whom +they had passed on the road. She was still so enveloped +in her travelling dress and veil as to be +but partially seen. On the same side, unfortunately, +as he no doubt thought, sat Chevillere with +Lamar. The grave-looking old gentleman, the +companion of the youthful lady mentioned, sat immediately +opposite to her. The gentlemen of extreme +ton (as they wished to be thought), were +ranged along the table, already mangling the dishes, +cracking and replacing the eggs, and apparently +much dissatisfied with the number of seconds they +had remained in heated water. Nor were they +long in striking up a conversation, as loud and full +of slang as their previous displays had been. During +this unseemly and boisterous conduct, some +more tender chord seemed to be touched within +the bosom of the lovely young female, than would +have been supposed from the character of the assailants. +Victor Chevillere turned his head in that +direction, and saw that her face had become more +deadly pale; at the same moment he heard her say, +in an under-tone, to the old gentleman her companion, +"My dear sir, assist me from this room,—my +head grows dizzy, and I feel a deathlike sickness."</p> + +<p>Chevillere was upon his feet in an instant, and +assisted the lady to rise; by this time, the old gentleman +having taken her other arm, they carried +rather than led her into one of the adjoining apart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>ments, +where, after depositing their beautiful burden +upon a sofa, Chevillere left her to the care of +the hostess, who had followed, and returned to the +breakfast-table.</p> + +<p>Let us describe a country breakfast for the uninitiated. +At the head of the table was a large +salver, or japanned waiter, upon which was spread +out various utensils of China-ware,—the only articles +of plate being a sugar-dish and cream-pot. +On the right of this salver stood a coffee and tea-urn, +of some composition metal, resembling silver +in appearance. At the other end of the table, +under the skilful hands of the host, was a large +steak, cut and sawed entirely through the sirloin +of the beef. Half-way up the table, on either side, +were dishes of broiled game, the intermediate +spaces being filled up with various kinds of hot +bread, biscuit and pancakes (as they are called +in some parts of the north). This custom of eating +hot bread at the morning and evening meal, is +almost universal at the south. Immediately in the +centre stood a pyramid of fresh-churned butter, +with a silver butter-knife sticking into the various +ornaments of vine-leaves and grapes with which +it was stamped.</p> + +<p>To this fare Chevillere found his friend Lamar +doing the most ample justice, nor was his own +keen appetite entirely destroyed by the temporary +indisposition of the lady who had so much excited +his curiosity and his sympathy. He could have +congratulated himself on the little occurrence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +which had given him some claims to a farther acquaintance, +and doubtless could have indulged in +delightful reveries as to the fair and youthful +stranger,—had not all his gay dreams been put to +flight by the boisterous laughter and meager attempts +at wit of the other travellers. As he returned +towards the table, the one whom we have +more particularly described elevated a glass, with +a golden handle, to his large, full, and impudent +eye. Chevillere returned the gaze until his look +almost amounted to a deliberate stare. The +"bloods" looked fierce, and exchanged pugnacious +looks, but all chance of a collision was prevented +by the return of the hostess. Notwithstanding the +disagreeable qualities of most of the guests at the +table, Chevillere found time to turn the little incident +of the sudden indisposition and its probable +cause several times in his own mind; and, as may +be well imagined, his mental soliloquy resulted in +no injurious imputation upon the youthful lady,—there +was evidently no trait of affectation.</p> + +<p>At length the meal was brought to a close,—not +however, before the driver of the mail-coach had +wound sundry impatient blasts upon his bugle,—general +joy seemed to pervade every remaining +countenance after the departure of the coxcombs. +Both the northern and southern travellers, who +were journeying northward, and who had breakfasted +at the inn, were soon likewise plodding along +at the usual rate of weary travellers by a private +conveyance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + + +<p>The misery of the young and the beautiful is +at all times infectious. Few young persons can +withhold sympathy in such a case,—especially if +the person thus afflicted be unmarried—of the other +sex—and near one's own age.</p> + +<p>Victor Chevillere could not expel from his imagination +the image of the fair stranger. Again +and again did he essay to join Lamar in his light +and sprightly conversation, as they, on the day +after the one recorded in the last chapter, pursued +their journey along the noble turnpike between +Fredericktown and Baltimore. The same profound +revery would steal upon him, and abide +until broken by the merry peals of Lamar's peculiarly +loud and joyous laughter, at the new mood +which seemed to have visited the former. When +a young person first begins to experience these +abstracted moods, there is nothing, perhaps, that +sounds more harsh and startling to his senses, than +the mirthful voice of his best friend. He looks up +as one would naturally look at any unseemly or +boisterous conduct at a funeral. He seems to +gaze and wonder, for the first time, that all things +and all men are jogging on at their usual gait. +Thus were things moving upon the Fredericktown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +turnpike: Lamar riding forty or fifty paces in front, +singing away the blue devils; Chevillere in the +centre, moody and silent; and old Cato, stately as +a statue on horseback, bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>From hearing sundry merry peals of laughter +from Lamar's quarter, Chevillere was induced at +length to forego his own society for a moment, to +see what new subject his Quixotic friend had found +for such unusual merriment; and a subject he had +indeed found in the shape of a tall Kentuckian. +The name of the stranger, it seems, was Montgomery +Damon. He was six feet high, with broad +shoulders, full, projecting chest, light hair and complexion, +and a countenance that was upon the first +blush an index to a mind full of quaint, rude, and +wild humour. His dress was any thing but fashionable; +he wore a large, two-story hat, with a +bandana handkerchief hanging out in front, partly +over his forehead, as if to protect it from the great +weight of his castor. His coat and pantaloons +were of home-made cotton and woollen jeans, and +he carried in his hand a warlike riding-whip, loaded +with lead, and mounted with silver, with which, +now and then, he gave emphasis to his words, by +an unexpected and sonorous crack.</p> + +<p>Our Kentuckian was no quiet man; but, like most +of his race, bold, talkative, and exceedingly democratic +in all his notions; feeling as much pride in +his occupation of drover, as if he had been a senator +in Congress from his own "Kentuck," as he emphatically +called it. He was a politician, too, inas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>much +as he despised <i>tories</i>, as he called the federalists, +approved of the late war, and had a most +venomous hatred against Indians, of whatever +tribe or nation. We shall break into their dialogue +at the point at which Victor became a +listener.</p> + +<p>"How did it happen," said Lamar, "that you +did not join the army either of the north or south, +when your heart seems to have been so entirely +with them?"</p> + +<p>"O! as to <i>jine</i>en the army to the north," said +Damon, "I was afraid the blasted tories would sell +me to the British, me and my messmates, like old +Hull, the infernal old traitor, sold his men for so +much a head, <i>jist</i> as I sell my hogs. As to t'other +business, down yonder, under Old Hickory, I +reckon I <i>did</i> take a hand or so aginst the bloody +Injins."</p> + +<p>"You prefer a fight with Indians, then, to one +with white men."</p> + +<p>"To be sure I do; I think no more of taking +my jack-knife, and unbuttonin the collar of a Creek +Injin, than I would of takin the jacket off a good +fat bell-wether, or mout-be a yerlin calf. Old +Hickory's the boy to <i>sculp</i> the bloody creters; he's +the boy to walk into their bread-baskets; and Dick +Johnston ain't far behind him, I can tell you, +stranger; he's the chap what plumped a bullet +right into old Tecumseh's bagpipes. Let him alone +for stoppin their war-whoops."</p> + +<p>"You were a rifleman, I suppose," said Lamar.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Right agin, stranger. Give me a rifle for ever; +they never spiles meat, though, as one may say, +Injin's meat ain't as good as blue-lick buck's; but +for all that, it's a pity to make bunglin work of a +neat job; besides, your smooth bores waste a +deal of powder and lead upon the outlandish +creters."</p> + +<p>"Were you ever wounded?" asked Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Yes! don't you see this here hare-lip to my +right eye? Well! that was jist the corner of an +Injin's hatchet. Bob Wiley jist knocked up his arm +in time to save me for another whet at the varmints; +if so mout be that we ever has another +brush with 'em, and Bob goes out agin, maybe I +may do him a good turn yet; he's what I call a +tear down sneezer (crack went the whip). He's +got no more fear among the Injins than a wild cat +in a weasel's nest; O! it would have done your +heart good to see him jist lie down behind an old +log, and watch for one of the varmint's heads bobbin +up and down like a muskovy drake in a barn +yard, and as sure as you saw the fire at the muzzle +of his gun, so sure he knocked the creter's hind +sights out. You see he always took 'em on the +bob, jist as you would shoot a divin bird, and that's +what I always called taking the bread out of the +creter's mouth, for he was watchin for the same +chance."</p> + +<p>"Did you scalp the slain?" said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No!" replied Damon, "we had plenty of +friendly Injins to do that, and it used to make me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +laugh to see the yallow raskals sculpin their kin; +that's what I call dog eat dog."</p> + +<p>"Do you think an Indian has a soul?" said +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" roared the Kentuckian, giving +a crack of unusual emphasis, "that's what I call a +stumper; but as you're no missionary, I 'spose I'll +tell you. I knows some dumb brutes—here's this +Pete Ironsides that I'm ridin on, has more of a +Christian soul in him than any leather-skin between +Missouri and Red River. Why! stranger! what's +an Injin good for, more nor a wild cat? You +can't tame ne'er a one of 'em."</p> + +<p>"But those missionaries you spoke of, don't you +think they will civilize, if not Christianize them?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" shouted Damon, with another +loud crack, and rolling a huge quid of tobacco +to the opposite side of his mouth, "they might as +well mount the trees and preach to the 'coons +and tree-frogs; one of your real psalm-singers +mout tree a coon at it, but hang me if he can ever +put the pluck of a white man under a yellow jacket. +Catch a weasel asleep or a fox at a foot race. I +rather suspicion, stranger, that I've seen more +Injins than your missionaries, and I'll tell you the +way to tame 'em;—slit their windpipes and hamstring +'em."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are an enemy to religion, or prejudiced +against the missionaries?"</p> + +<p>"No! no! stranger, no! I likes religion well +enough of a Sunday; but hang me if I should not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +die of laughin to see 'em layin it down to the redskins. +I'd as soon think of going into my horse +stable and preachin to the dumb brutes. Old Pete +here knows more now than many an Injin, and he's +got more soul than some Yankees that mout be +named; but come, stranger, here's a public house, +let's go in and cut the phlegm."</p> + +<p>"Agreed," said Lamar, "but it must be at my +expense."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Damon, "we'll not quarrel about +that;" and turning to Victor, "Stranger, won't +you join us in a glass of tight?"</p> + +<p>"No! I thank you," said Chevillere, "but I will +look on while you and my friend drink to the better +acquaintance of us all."</p> + +<p>After the parties had refreshed themselves and +their horses, and remounted, the conversation was +resumed. "Well now," said the Kentuckian, addressing +Victor, "I wish I may be contwisted if +you ain't one of the queerest men, to come from the +Carolinas, I have clapped eyes on this many a +day. You don't chaw tobacco, and you don't +drink nothin; smash my apple-cart if I can see +into it."</p> + +<p>"I am one of those that don't believe in the +happy effects of either brandy or tobacco," replied +Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Then you are off the trail for once in your life, +stranger, for I take tobacco to be one of God's +mercies to the poor. Whether it came by a rigular +dispensation of providence (as our parson used<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +to say), or in a natural way, I can't tell; but hang +me, if when I gets a quid of the real Kentuck twist +or Maryland kite-foot into my mouth, if I ain't as +proud a man as the grand Turk himself. It drives +away the solemncholies, and makes a fellow feel +so good-natured, and so comfortable; it turns the +shillings in his pocket into dollars, and his wrath +into fun and deviltry. Let them talk about tobacco +as they choose among the fine gals, and at their +theatres, and balls, and cotillions, and all them sort +of things; but let one of 'em git twenty miles deep +into a Kentuck forest, and then see if a chew of +the stuff ain't good for company and comfort."</p> + +<p>"But you did not tell me," resumed Lamar, +"whether you had ever shot at a white man?"</p> + +<p>"No! no! I never did; and I don't know that +I ever will. I think I should feel a leetle particlar, +at standin up and shooting at a real Christian man, +with flesh and blood like you and me. You see, +when we boys of the long guns shoot, we don't +turn our heads away and pull trigger in a world +of smoke, so that nobody can tell where the lead +goes; we look right into the white of a fellow's +eye, and can most always tell which side of his +nose the ball went, and you see that would be but +a slayin and skinnen business among white people; +but as to shootin and sculpin +Injins, that's a thing +there is no bones made about, because out on the +frontiers at the west, if a man should stand addlin +his brains about the right and the wrong of the thing, +the red devils would just knock them out to settle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +the matter, and sculp him for his pains into the bargain. +Shooting real Christian men's quite another +thing. It's what I ha'nt tried yet; but when we +Kentuck boys gits at it, it won't all end like a log-rollin, +with one or two broken shins and a black +eye. But I'm told the Yankees always sings a +psalm before they go to battle. Now, according +to my notion, a chap would make a blue fist of +takin a dead aim through double sights, with the +butt end of a psalm in his guzzle."</p> + +<p>"Some person must have told you that as a +joke," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I believe it, because we had just such +a fellow once in our neighbourhood—a Yankee +schoolmaster—and we took him out a deer-driving +two or three times, and he was always singing a +psalm at his stand. He spoilt the fun, confound +him! Hang me if I didn't always think the fellow +was afraid to stand in the woods by himself without +it. I went to his singin school of Saturday +nights, too; but I never had a turn that way. All +the master could do, he could'nt keep me on the +trail,—I was for ever slipping into Yankee Doodle; +you see, every once in a while, the tune would take +a quick turn, like one I knowed afore, so I used to +blaze away at it with the best of 'em, but the same +old Yankee Doodle always turned up at the end. +But the worst of it was, the infernal Yankee spoiled +all the music I ever had in me; when I come out +of the school, I thought the gals at home would +have killed themselves laughin' at me. They said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +I ground up Yankee Doodle and Old Hundred +together, all in a hodge-podge, so I never sings to +no one now but the dumb brutes in the stable, +when they gits melancholy of a rainy day. Old +Pete here raises his ears, and begins to snort the +minute I raises a tune."</p> + +<p>"Your singing-master was, like his scholar, an +original."</p> + +<p>"An original! When he come to them parts, +he drove what we call a Yankee cart, half wagon +and half carriage, full of all sorts of odds and ends; +when he had sold them out, he sold his horse and +cart too, and then turned in to keepin a little old-field +school; and over and above this, he opened a +Saturday night singin-school,—and I reckon we +had rare times with the gals there. At last, when +the feller had got considerable ahead, the word +came out that he was studyin to be a doctor; and +sure enough, in a few months, he sold out the school +for so much a head, just like we sell our hogs; then +off the Yankee starts to git made a doctor of; and +hang me if ever I could see into that business. +How they can turn a pedlar into a doctor in four +months, is a leetle jist over my head. It's true +enough they works a mighty change in the chaps +in that time. Our Yankee went off, as well-behaved +and as down-faced a chap as you would wish to +see in a hundred, and wore home-made clothes like +mine; but when he had staid his four months out, +and 'most everybody had forgot him, one day as +I was leanen up against one of the poplar trees in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +the little town, I saw a sign goin up on the side of +a house, with <span class="smcap">Doctor Gun</span> in large letters. I'll +take my Bible oath, when I saw the thing, I thought +I should have broke a blood-vessel. Howsomever, +I strained 'em down, till an old woman would have +sworn I had the high-strikes, with a knot o' wind +in my guzzle. But I quieted the devil in me, and +then I slipped slyly over the street, behind where +the doctor was standing with his new suit of black; +one hand stuck in his side, and the other holding +an ivory-headed stick up to his mouth in the most +knowing fashion, I tell you. I stole up behind +him, and bawled out in his ear, as loud as I could +yell, '<i>faw—sol—law—me</i>.' Oh! my grandmother! +what a smashin rage he flew into; he shook his +cane—he walked backwards and forwards—and +didn't he make the tobacco juice fly? I rather +reckon, if I hadn't had so many inches, he'd have +been into my meat; but the fun of it all was, the +feller had foreswore his mother tongue; dash me +if he could talk a word of common lingo, much less +sing psalms and hymns by note; he rattled off +words as long as my arm, and as fast as a windmill. +Some of the old knowing ones says they've +got some kind of a mill, like these little hand-organs, +and that chops it out to the chaps eny +night and morning, pretty much as I chop straw to +my horses; but I'm going in to see that doctor-factory, +when I git to Philadelphia, if they don't +charge a feller more nor half a dollar a head."</p> + +<p>"I hope we shall travel together to Philadelphia,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +said Lamar; "and if so, I will introduce you into +the establishment, free of expense."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, thank you," said the Kentuckian; +"but I'm rather inclined to think that we +will hardly meet again after to-day; 'cause, you +see, I'm 'bliged to do a might of business in Baltimore +afore I can go on. After that, then I can +go on as I please; as I'm only goin to see the +world abit, afore I settle down for life."</p> + +<p>"But," said Lamar, "if you will call at Barnum's, +and leave word what day you will set out, I will +see that we travel together, for I will suit my time +to yours; and I would advise you to send your +horse a short distance into the country, both for the +sake of convenience and economy."</p> + +<p>"What! part with old Pete here! Bless my +soul, stranger! he would go into a gallopin consumption! +or die of the solemncholies, if a rainy +spell should come on, and he and I couldn't have a +dish of chat together; and then I shouldn't know +no more what to do in one of your coaches nor a +cow with a side-pocket."</p> + +<p>"My word for it," replied Victor, "you would +soon enjoy yourself inside of a stage-coach. Come, +let us make a bargain. I will engage to have your +horse well taken care of in the country, and provide +him with a groom that will soon learn his +ways, and be able to cheer him up when he gets +low-spirited."</p> + +<p>"Yes, do!" said Lamar, jocosely; "we are +anxious to have your company during our visit to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +the cities. We are from Carolina, and you are +from Kentuck; and after you get through with +your business, we shall all be on the same errand—pleasure +and improvement."</p> + +<p>"And a wild-goose chase it's like to be, I'm +afraid; especially if I'm to be of your mess. But +suppose you should meet with some fine lady +acquaintances, what, in the name of old Sam, would +you do with me? I should be like a fifth wheel to +a wagon."</p> + +<p>"Were you never in the company of fine ladies?" +asked Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Yes! and flummuck me if ever I want to be +so fixed again; for there I sat with my feet drawn +straight under my knees, heads up, and hands +laid close along my legs, like a new recruit on +drill, or a horse in the stocks; and, twist me, if I +didn't feel as if I was about to be nicked. The +whole company stared at me as if I had come +without an invite; and I swear I thought my arms +had grown a foot longer, for I couldn't get my +hands in no sort of a comfortable fix—first I tried +them on my lap; there they looked like goin to +prayers, or as if I was tied in that way; then I +slung 'em down by my side, and they looked like +two weights to a clock; and then I wanted to cross +my legs, and I tried that, but my leg stuck out like +a pump handle; then my head stuck up through a +glazed shirt-collar, like a pig in a yoke; then I +wanted to spit, but the floor looked so fine, that I +would as soon have thought of spittin on the win<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>dow; +and then to fix me out and out, they asked us +all to sit down to dinner! Well, things went on +smooth enough for a while, till we had got through +one whet at it. Then a blasted imp of a nigger come +to me first with a waiter of little bowls full of something, +and a parcel of towels slung over his arm; +so I clapped one of the bowls to my head, and +drank it down at a swallow. Now, stranger, what +do you think was in it?"</p> + +<p>"Punch, I suppose," said Lamar, laughing; "or +perhaps apple toddy."</p> + +<p>"So I thought, and so would anybody, as dry as +I was, and that wanted something to wash down +the fainty stuffs I had been layin in; but no! it +was warm water! Yes! you may laugh! but it +was clean warm water. The others dipped their +fingers into the bowls, and wiped them on the +towels as well as they could for gigglin; but it +was all the fault of that pampered nigger, in bringin +it to me first. As soon as I catched his eye, I gin +him a wink, as much as to let him know that if ever +I caught him on my trail, I would wipe him down +with a hickory towel."</p> + +<p>"But I suppose you enjoyed yourself highly before +it was all over?" said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"When it was all over, I was glad enough; I +jumped and capered like a school-boy at the first +of the holydays."</p> + +<p>"Have you never been invited out since?" +asked Lamar.</p> + +<p>"O yes, often," said Damon; "but you don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +catch a weasel asleep again. I like to give a joke, +and take a joke; but then the joke was all on one +side. If I can take a hand in the laugh, I don't care +whether a person laughs <i>at</i> me, or <i>with</i> me."</p> + +<p>"But what say you?" said Chevillere; "shall +we send your horse to the country with ours?"</p> + +<p>"Why! as you gentlemen seem to speak me so +fair, and to know the world so well, I don't care if +I do send old Pete out to board awhile. I shouldn't +be surprised though if he should give me up for +lost, and fret himself to death. But I must see the +man that goes to the country with them; 'cause +Pete couldn't bear shabby talk; he's what I call a +leetle particular in his company for a dumb brute."</p> + +<p>"The man rides behind us," said Chevillere, +"who will perform that duty. Cato! this gentleman +wishes to speak to you."</p> + +<p>"Did you call, your honour?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Cato! Mr. Damon wishes to give you +some charges about his horse, which you are to +take into the country with ours."</p> + +<p>"Cato," said Damon, "tell the farmer who takes +the horses, that old Pete Ironsides here has been +used to good company, and that he has been treated +more like a Christian nor a horse, and that I wish +him indulged in his old ways."</p> + +<p>During this harangue, Cato cast sundry glances +from his master to the speaker, as if to ascertain +whether he was in earnest, or only playing off one +of those freaks in which the young men had so often +indulged in his presence. Being accustomed, how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>ever, +to treat with respect those whom his master +respected, and seeing his eye calm and serious, he +bowed with grave deference, saying, "It shall be +done as you direct, your honour;" and then fell +back.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Damon, "that's what I call a well-bred +nigger. I would venture that old Scip +would'nt have puzzled me with the warm water; +'cause he knows that I'm not one of them there sort +of chaps what knows all their new-fangled kick-shaws. +He knows in a case of real needcessity, +or life and death, as I may say, either to man, +woman, or horse, I'm more to be depended on than +a dozen such chaps as went along here in the stage +this morning."</p> + +<p>"You saw the dandies in the stage, then?" asked +Victor.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and one of 'em popped his head out of the +window, and says to me as they went by, 'Country,' +says he, 'there's something on your horse's tail.'—'Yes,' +says I, 'and there's something in his head that +you hav'nt got, if his ears ain't so long.'"</p> + +<p>Thus were our acquaintances and their new +companion jogging along when the distant rumbling +of wheels upon the pavements and the dense clouds +of black smoke which seemed to be hanging in the +heavens but a short distance ahead, announced +that they were soon to enter the monumental city.</p> + +<p>There is not, perhaps, a feeling of more truly +unmixed melancholy, incident to the heart of an +inexperienced and modest student, than that which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +steals over him upon his first entrance into a strange +city; a feeling of incomparable loneliness, even +deeper than if the same individual were standing +alone upon the highest blue peak of the far stretching +Alleghany. The vanishing rays of twilight +were extending their lengthening shadows; the +husbandman and his cattle were seen wending their +way to their accustomed abodes for the night; and +the feathered tribes had already sought the resting-places +which nature so plentifully provides for +them in our well-wooded land. The sad, and it +may be pleasing reflections which such sights produced, +were occasionally interrupted by the clattering +of a horse's hoofs upon the turnpike, as some +belated countryman sought to redeem the time he +had spent at the alehouse; or as the solitary marketman, +with more staid and quiet demeanour, sped +upon a like errand. Occasionally the scene was +marred by some besotted and staggering wretch, +seeking his lowly and miserable hut in the suburbs. +At intervals too, the barking of dogs and the lowing +of cattle contributed their share to remind our +friends that they were about to take leave of these +quiet and pastoral scenes, for an indefinite period, +and to mix in the bustle and gay assemblage of city +life. Often, at such junctures, there is a presentiment +of the evil which awaits the unhappy exchange. +Warning clouds of the mind are believed +to exist by many of the clearest heads and soundest +hearts: we do not say that our heroes were thus +sadly affected, nor that the Kentuckian had a fore-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>taste +of evil; but certain it is, that all were silent +until they arrived at the place of separation. All +things having been previously settled, they exchanged +salutations, and departed upon their separate +routes. They passed a variety of streets in +that most gloomy period of the day when lamp-lighters +are to be seen, with their torches and ladders, +starting their glimmering lights first in one +direction and then in another, as they hurry from +post to post. Draymen were driving home with +reckless and Jehu-like speed; and the brilliant +lights which began to appear at long intervals, +gave evidence that the trading community carried +their operations also into that portion of time +which nature has allotted for rest and repose to +nearly all living things. Our travellers now +alighted at Barnum's; but as their adventures +were of an interesting character, we shall defer +them till a new chapter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + + +<p>After a substantial meal had been despatched, +our travellers repaired to the livery-stable, to inspect +in person the condition of their horses. The establishment +was lighted with a single lamp, swung in +the centre of the building. The approach of the +two young gentlemen was not therefore immediately +noticed by old Cato and another groom (who +proved to be the coachman of the equipage they had +left on the road), as they were busily engaged in +rubbing down their horses, the dialogue between +them was not brought to a close at once.</p> + +<p>"Who did you say the gentleman was?" said old +Cato.</p> + +<p>"His name is Brumley," replied coachee.</p> + +<p>"And the young lady is his daughter, I suppose?" +continued Cato.</p> + +<p>"Oh! as to that, I cannot say," continued coachee, +"but I believe she is only his step-daughter; they +calls her Miss Fanny St. Clair, and sometimes of +late the old gentleman calls her Mrs. Frances; but +between you and me and the horse-stall, there is +some strange things about this family; I rather +guess that Sukey, the maid up yonder, could tell us +something that would make us open our eyes, if +she was not so confounded close; all that I know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +about it is, that the harsh old gentleman sometimes +gives her a talk in the carriage that throws her +a'most into a faintin' spell. But I could never +see into it, not I; I don't somehow believe in all +these little hurrahs the women kicks up just for +pastime."</p> + +<p>Our travellers did not think proper to listen further +to the gossip of the grooms, and having executed +their business at the livery, they retraced +their steps to the splendid establishment at which +they had put up. Notwithstanding the doubtful +source from which Chevillere had gained his latest +information concerning the singularly interesting +young lady whom they had seen at the inn, it made +its impression. Corrupt indeed must be that channel +of information relative to a beautiful and attractive +female, apparently in distress, which will not find +an auditor in the person of a sensitive young man +just emancipated from college. On such occasions, +and with such persons, the credibility of all witnesses +is the same, and the most improbable tale +is taken at once, and made the foundation of a whole +train of reveries, dreams, and plans.</p> + +<p>It is not to be denied that Victor Chevillere had +worked his imagination up to a very romantic +height, and had allowed his curiosity concerning the +youthful lady to reach such a pitch that little else +gave occupation to his fancies.</p> + +<p>He was in this state of mind, leisurely marking +time with lazy steps, and in an abstracted mood, +as he ascended the grand staircase of the establish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>ment, +when his attention was again riveted by +the sound of the lady's voice in earnest entreaty +with the old gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Consider, my dear Frances," said the latter, +"that your health is now nearly re-established, and +that these are subjects that you must dwell upon; +why not, therefore, become accustomed to it at +once?"</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake! for my dear mother's! +never, sir, mention that fearful marriage, and more +fearful death to me again! Why should I recall +hideous and frightful dreams!"</p> + +<p>Chevillere was compelled to move on, but it must +be confessed that his steps were slower than before; +and it may be readily imagined, that his fancy +and his curiosity were not much allayed by the +shreds of conversation which he had involuntarily +overheard. When he had ascended to his own +apartment, and could indulge freely in that bachelor +recreation of pacing to and fro, the two words +still involuntarily quickened his movements whenever +they flashed through his mind—-"marriage" +and "death" were words of opposite import certainly, +viewed in the abstract, and we doubt whether +he had ever connected them together before;—-"Fearful +marriage! and more fearful death!" what +could it mean? to whom could they refer? Only +one of them could refer to her, that was certain; +who then was married and died so fearfully? +Ah! thought he, I have it! her mother has married +this old man, and died suddenly; and he has got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +the fortune of both in his hands! Suspicious circumstance! +If fortune puts it in my power, I will +watch him narrowly! I disliked his countenance +from the first!—must be cool, however, and deliberate—must +watch—and wait! pshaw, what am I +at! Thus ended Victor Chevillere's solution of +the enigma, when Lamar stepped into the room +and disturbed his revery.</p> + +<p>"What! still musing, Chevillere. By my troth, +she must be a witch; but it will be glorious +news to write to our friend Beverly Randolph, of +old Virginia. What say you? Shall I sit down +and indite an epistle? Let me see—how do such +narratives generally begin? Cupid, and darts, and +arrows—blind of an eye—shot right through the +vitals of a poor innocent youth that never did him +any harm—never was struck before—covered with +a panoply, and shield, and armour, and all that; +and then worship prostrate before the shrine; and +vows, and tears, and tokens; and then the dart is +taken out—and the wound heals up—and then—'Richard's +himself again!' What say you to that, +or rather what would Randolph say to that, think +you?"</p> + +<p>"He would say that Augustus Lamar was still +the same mirth-loving fellow, without regard to +time or place."</p> + +<p>"Then it is a serious affair, and too true to +make a joke of! Well, then I have done! She's a +beautiful young creature, it is true; but then from +what I had seen of your cold philosophy, I did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +think you were the man to be slain at first sight, +and surrender at discretion before a single charge."</p> + +<p>"I will acknowledge to you, Lamar, that my +curiosity is most painfully excited with regard to +that unhappy young lady, but nothing more, I +assure you. Some facts have, without my seeking, +come to my knowledge, with which you are entirely +unacquainted, and which have tended greatly +to increase that curiosity. I cannot at this time +explain; as soon as my own mind is satisfied on +the subject, my confidence shall not be withheld +from you."</p> + +<p>"Lovers are truly a singular set of mortals—-here +is a young lady (and a Yankee too, perhaps) +of some dozen hours' acquaintance, and with whom +you have never exchanged a dozen words; and +yet you are already entrusted with profound +secrets, which excite you in the most painful +manner!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Lamar, I see you are determined +to misunderstand me. Let us drop the subject. +What do you think of the Kentuckian?"</p> + +<p>"I think he is an admirable fellow; and I intend +to patronise him; and induct him into fashionable +life; but do you think his singularities are the +natural products of the life, manners, and climate +of Kentucky?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot decide whether there is much in him +that is peculiar to Kentucky. Some of the most +elegant and accomplished gentleman I have seen +were natives of that state."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He takes a laugh at his expense admirably."</p> + +<p>"He does, but you must be careful not to exceed +the limits he has laid down for himself and us, in +that respect. For my own part, I entertain a +serious respect for Damon and his unsophisticated +honesty, degenerating, as it sometimes does, into +prejudices and ludicrous fancies."</p> + +<p>"Good night, and pleasant dreams to you. I +will call early to interpret them for you."</p> + +<p>As Lamar closed the door, Chevillere drew from +his pocket a little basket segar-case, from which he +extracted a genuine Havana, and lighting a taper +at the candle, and throwing himself into one of those +easy attitudes familiar to smokers, with his head +back, and his eyes closed, gave himself up to those +absorbing reveries, generally delightful in proportion +to the goodness of the segar, which a southern +knows so well how to enjoy. To be fully relished, +segars should be resorted to only in the evening, +and then in moderation. The sensibility is blunted +by excess, and in that case, tobacco, like the intoxicating +drinks, will sometimes conjure up frightful +images upon the wall of a dimly-lighted chamber, +or among the embers of a dying fire. Victor, +however, had not converted his capacity for enjoyment +into fruitful sources of mental and physical +suffering—-he sat for a long time gently throwing +the fragrant results of his efforts into various columns, +wreaths, and pyramids. Not that his mind +dwelt upon these things for a moment; he was +far distant in spirit; his imagination was calling up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +delightful dreams of love and friendship, with +thoughts of a beloved cousin, of his friend and +room-mate Beverley Randolph—his mother, his +home, and the scenes of his childhood, and finally, +of the lady of the black mantle. He beheld airy +castles,—romantic adventures,—bridal scenes—and +flowers,—assemblies,—parties,—and the high +hills of the Santee.</p> + +<p>Aladdin's lamp never wrought more rich and +highly-coloured scenes of enchantment than did +this same Havana; but the most pleasant dream +must come to an end, as well as the richest flavoured +segar—and so did Chevillere's. Tossing +the little hot remnant from him with a passionate +jerk, as if in anger at the insensible cause of his +interruption, he bounced into the centre of the floor +and began to pace to and fro, in his accustomed +mood, clenching his fists now and then, and by his +whole appearance showing a perfect contrast to +the calm and delightful revery attendant upon the +first stage of tobacco intoxication.</p> + +<p>In this mood we shall leave him to seek his rest, +while we recount in the next chapter what farther +befel our late collegians on the following morning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<p>A brilliant morning found our collegians refreshed +in health and elastic in spirits. The more +gloomy fancies of the previous night, which had +beset Chevillere both in his waking and sleeping +hours—like the mists of the morning, had been dispelled +by the bright sunshine, and the refreshing +breezes of the bay. After the usual meal had been +some time despatched; and while Chevillere was +leisurely turning over the papers of the day (Lamar +having departed in pursuit of the Kentuckian) he +was surprised by the entrance of Mr. Brumley +(the austere gentleman), who saluted him with the +most friendly greetings of the hour and season, +and concluded by inviting him into their private +parlour. It may be readily imagined that this +invitation was not tardily complied with, for he +now imagined that the whole history of the lady +would be unravelled by a single word—so sanguine +is youthful hope, and so apt are we, at that interesting +period, to jump to those conclusions which +are desirable, without ever considering the previous +steps, and painful delays, and necessary +forms, and conventional usages which inevitably +intervene between our highest hopes and their +fruition. How often would the ardent wishes and +the bold hands of youth seize upon futurity, de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>spoiling +it of the thin veil which separates us from +what we wish to know, especially when this could +be learned by dispensing with the accustomed formalities +and wholesome restraints of refined society. +A train of kindred thoughts was passing through +the mind of Chevillere as he was ushered into a +small but elegant saloon, connected with the back +chambers by folding-doors, which were now closed. +On the left of the door, and between the windows +opening upon a great thoroughfare, sat the lady +who occupied his thoughts. She was sitting, or +rather reclining upon one end of a sofa, her head +resting upon her hand in a thoughtful mood. As +is true of most daughters of this favoured land, +nature had evidently in nowise been thwarted, +either in her mental or physical education. She +appeared to possess that naiveté which is so apt +to be the result of a mixed town, and country education; +with just enough of self-possession to +show that native modesty had been properly +regulated by much good society, but not too much +to forbid an occasional crimsoning of the neck and +face. Her eyes were blue, shaded by long dark +lashes, and so sparkling and joyous in their expression, +that the evident present sorrow which hung +over her spirits, could not efface the impression to +a beholder, that they were naturally much more +inclined to beam with mirth and gayety, than to +weeping; her features were regular—arch in their +expression, and finely formed—her complexion of +the finest shade—with a rich profusion of light<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +brown hair, braided and parted on the forehead +without a single curl; her figure was just tall +enough to be elegant and graceful, and exhibited +the graces of that interesting period, when the +school-girl is merging into the reserved woman.</p> + +<p>As Chevillere was ushered into the presence of +this youthful lady, the old gentleman presented +him as Mr. Chevillere, of South Carolina, and the +lady by the name of (his step-daughter) Frances +St. Clair; she assumed the erect position barely +long enough to return the salutation of the gentleman, +then reclined again and lapsed apparently into her +sad mood; for a moment she pressed her +handkerchief to her face as if she would drive +away some horrible image, and then waited a moment +as if she expected her father to speak upon +some previously settled subject. Perceiving, however, +that she waited in vain, she with some difficulty +forced herself to say, "Mr. Chevillere, I requested +my father to invite you to our apartments +to"—here she seemed overpowered and stopped. +Chevillere seeing her distress, replied, "Madam, +you do me too much honour; but I see you are +distressed—let me say then, without any farther +formality, that if there is any way in the world by +which I can lighten that distress, command me."</p> + +<p>"It is about these very emotions that I would +speak," she answered; "I was afraid you might +think the scene at the breakfast-table two days +since was got up in some silly girlish affectation, +in pretended disgust at the rudeness of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +young men present; but believe me when I say, +their conduct would at many times in my life have +furnished me with an ample fund for laughter; it +was not in their manners, it was in the subject of +one of their discourses that I felt so much affected—I +tried to subdue my feelings, but the more I +tried the more they overcame me; the truth is, +some painful recollections were awakened"—Here +again she covered her face with her handkerchief, +and seemed to be for a moment almost suffocated. +The lady resumed; "Nor should I have thought it +proper to offer this explanation to one who is apparently +a perfect stranger; but, sir, I have known +you for some time by reputation."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, madam, I must be indebted to some +most flattering mistake for my present good fortune; +I am but just emancipated from college +walls and rules, and have, of course, even a reputation +to make for myself."</p> + +<p>"No! no!" said the youthful lady (a beautiful +smile passing swiftly over her sad countenance), +"there can be no mistake about it," and drawing +from her work-bag a small bit of paper, rolled up +in the shape of a letter, she presented it to him; +adding, "Do you know that hand-writing?"</p> + +<p>He gazed upon the signature for an instant, and +then exclaimed, "My honoured mother's! by all +that's fortunate! then indeed we are old acquaintances—with +your permission; and I am perfectly +content with the reputation which you spoke of, +when I know that it originated in such a source."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your mother was indeed a prudent and a +modest, but still a devoted herald of your good +qualities."</p> + +<p>"Believe me, dear lady, that I shall be more +proud than ever to appear in your eyes to deserve +some small share of her maternal praise; it was +always inexpressibly dear to me for its own sake, +but now I shall endeavour doubly to deserve it. +You saw her, I suppose, at the White Sulphur +Springs?"</p> + +<p>"We did, sir; and a most fortunate circumstance +it was for me; for being an invalid, she did every +thing for me that my own mother could have +done. Oh! how I regretted that my mother did +not come, merely to have made her acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"Your mother! is your mother alive, madam?"</p> + +<p>"I hope and trust she is—and well; she was +both when we last heard from her, and that was +but a few days since; but your agitation alarms +me! you know no bad news of my mother?" laying +her hand upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"None, madam! none. I don't know what put +the foolish idea into my head, but I thought that +both your own parents were dead."</p> + +<p>"You alarmed me," said she. "I conjured up +every dreadful image—I imagined that you had +been commissioned by some of our friends here, to +break the painful intelligence to me—but you are +sure she is well?"</p> + +<p>Chevillere smiled, as he answered "You forget +that I am a total stranger to her, and she to me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>"True! true! But tell me how you left your +charming young cousin Virginia Bell, of whom I +heard your mother speak so often. She told me, I +think, that she was at some celebrated school in +North Carolina?"</p> + +<p>"At Salem. She is well, I thank you, or was +well when I came through the town: my mother +intends to take her home with her on her return."</p> + +<p>"So she told me," said the lady.</p> + +<p>"She did not tell you, I suppose, for I believe +she does not know, that I have promised the hand +of the dear girl in marriage, though she is scarcely +sixteen yet. You must know that I had in college +two dear and beloved friends—the one, Mr. Lamar, +you have seen; the other is Mr. Beverley Randolph, +of Virginia—we were both class and room-mates. +Randolph has gone on a journey through +the Southern States, as he pretends; but, I believe, +in truth, to take a sly peep at his affianced bride. +If he likes her looks, it is a bargain; and if not, he +will pass it all off for a college joke." Here he was +interrupted by the lady gasping; and on looking in +her face, he found she was as pale as marble, and +terribly agitated. She asked her father for water, +which he handed to her instantly, while Chevillere +rang violently at the bell.</p> + +<p>"It will all be over in a minute," said she; "it is +only a return of the suffering to which I am +subject."</p> + +<p>Many strange ideas flitted through Chevillere's +mind during this interruption of the conversation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +He now recollected that one of the subjects of discourse +between the vulgar fops, at the breakfast-table +the previous morning, had been some runaway +marriage—and "the fearful marriage and +more fearful death" still sounded in his ears, and +now the same subject again introduced by himself +produced like consequences,—he thought it strange +and incomprehensible; he cheered himself, however, +with the reflection, that his mother was not +likely to form an intimacy with persons against +whom there was any charge of crime; nay, more, +he felt assured that they must have been well +sustained by public opinion, or introduced to her +acquaintance by some judicious friend.</p> + +<p>"If I have unaptly said any thing offensive, I +hope Miss St. Clair will believe me, when I say +that such a design was the farthest from my +thoughts."</p> + +<p>"Rest easy on that score," said she; "I am now +well again: you said nothing that it was not proper +for you to say, and me to hear, had I not been a +poor silly-headed girl."</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Frances, I am anxious to hear your +opinion of Western Virginia."</p> + +<p>"My opinion is not worth having; but such as +it is, you are welcome to it, or rather to such observations +as a lady might make. First, then, I was +delighted with the wild mountain scenery, and the +beautiful valleys between the mountains; such are +those, you will recollect, perhaps, in which all of +those springs are situated. I doubt very much,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +whether Switzerland, or Spain, could present as +many rich and beautiful mountain-scenes, as we +have passed between Lexington and the White +Sulphur and Salt Sulphur springs. We have similar +scenes along and among the highlands of the +Hudson, it is true; perhaps they are more grand +and majestic than these; but then, there is such a +stir of busy life, such an atmosphere of steam, and +clouds of canvass, that one is perpetually called +back in spirit to the stir and bustle of a city life. +But here, among the rugged blue mountains of +'old Virginia,' as these people love to call it, there +are the silence and the solitude of nature, which +more befit such contemplations as the scenes induce. +We can seat ourselves in one of the green +forests of the mountains we have just left, and +imagine ours to be the first human footsteps, which +have ever been imprinted upon the soil; and we +can repose amid the shades and the profound and +solemn silence of those scenes, with a calmness +and a serenity, and a soothing, delightful, melancholy +feeling, which no other objects can produce. +The very atmosphere seems teeming with these +delightful impressions; primitive nature seems to +have returned upon us with all its balmy delights,—quiet +and peacefulness. The profound solitude +would become tiresome, perhaps, to those +who have no resources in unison with such scenes, +or to those who admire and feign to revel in them, +because it is fashionable just now to do so. But +to an educated mind, a natural and feeling, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +may say devout heart, they furnish inexhaustible +food for contemplation, and ever-renewing sources +of delight and improvement."</p> + +<p>"They are such scenes," replied Chevillere, "as +I love to dwell upon, even in imagination. But +come, Miss Frances, I see by the hat and mantle +upon the table, that I have interrupted some intended +promenade; shall I have the honour to be +of your party?"</p> + +<p>"Unquestionably, young gentleman—you may +take the whole journey off my hands; Frances +was only going out among the shops," said Mr. +Brumley.</p> + +<p>The plain, but tasteful apparel was soon adjusted, +and the youthful pair sallied forth upon the +promised expedition.</p> + +<p>The tide of human life seems to be ever rolling +and tossing, and ever renewing, and then rolling +on again. Pestilence, and death, and famine may +do their worst, but the tide is still renewed, and +still moves on to the great sea of eternity.</p> + +<p>Who that walks through the busy and thronged +streets of a populous city, and sees the gay plumage, +the fantastic finery, the smiling faces, and the +splendid equipages, could ever form an adequate +idea of the real suffering and wo, which constitute +the sum of one day's pains in a city life? If all the +miserable—the lame, the blind, the poor, the dumb, +the aged, and the diseased, could be poured out +along one side of the gay promenades, while +fashionables were parading along the other, a much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +truer picture of life in a city would be seen. Such +were the ideas of Victor Chevillere, as he escorted +his timid and youthful companion through the gay +throng from shop to shop.</p> + +<p>As they emerged into a part of the city less +thronged, interchange of opinions became more +practicable.</p> + +<p>"I am impatient to hear your opinion of the +Southerns," said Chevillere; "you had the finest +opportunity imaginable to see our southern aristocrats +at the springs."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I was delighted with the little society in +which I moved there," replied she; "and, but for +one unhappy, and most untoward circumstance for +me, my enjoyments would have far surpassed any +thing which I had ever laid out for myself again in +this world."</p> + +<p>"You excite my curiosity most strangely," +said he; "and, if it would not appear impertinent +or intrusive, I should like to know two things: +first, what untoward circumstance you speak of? +and next, what great bar has been placed between +you and happiness, that you should have laid off so +small a share for yourself in all time to come?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! sir, your questions are painful to me, even +to think of; how much worse then must have been +the reality of those circumstances, which could +poison the small share of happiness which is allotted +to us under the most favourable circumstances. I +would gratify your curiosity if I could, but indeed, +indeed, sir, I cannot now relate to you the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +history of my life; and nothing less could explain +to you the cruel train of circumstances by which +I am surrounded, and from which there is no +escape."</p> + +<p>"One question you can, and I am sure you will, +answer me.</p> + +<p>"Could a devoted friend, with a cool head and a +resolute hand, effect nothing in freeing you from +this persecution?"</p> + +<p>"I will answer you, sir, most plainly. You misunderstand +my allusions, in the first place; for I +am not persecuted now, nor can I say that I have +been. It may seem enigmatical to you, but it is +all that I can in prudence say. There is no person +on this side of the grave who can relieve me from +the cause of those emotions which you have unhappily +witnessed; nay, more! if those persons +were to rise from the dead, who were, unfortunately +for themselves and for me, the cause of my painful +situation, my condition would be incomparably +worse than it is now."</p> + +<p>"Painful, indeed, must those circumstances be, +and incomprehensible to me, which seem to have +been produced by the death of some one; and yet, +if that person should rise from the dead, you would +be more miserable than ever," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>During the latter part of this speech, the lady, as +was often her custom, pressed her handkerchief to +her face, as if she would by mechanical pressure +drive off disagreeable images from the mind; and +then said, "Now, sir, let us drop this subject."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One more question, and then I have done; and +believe me, it is not idly asked. Were the circumstances +you spoke of developed so recently as your +visit to the Virginia springs?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! by no means, sir; the untoward circumstance +there that I spoke of, was the frequent and +unexpected presence of one who forcibly reminded +me of all the painful particulars; and what made +it so much worse was, that wherever I moved, he +moved; he followed the same route round the watering-places, +and seemed purposely to throw himself +in my way; and even now I dread every moment +to encounter him; and the more so, as I +have heard lately that his mind is unsettled. Poor +gentleman, I pity him."</p> + +<p>By this time they had arrived in a part of the +city from which Washington's monument could be +seen, elevating its majestic column above a magnificent +grove of trees.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we extend our walk," said the gentleman, +"to yonder beautiful grove."</p> + +<p>To this the lady readily assented. They found +rude seats, constructed perhaps by some romantic +swain; or by some country-bred youths, who came +there, after the toils of the day, to refresh themselves +with the pure and invigorating breezes +which sweep the green, fresh from their dear and +longed-for homes. Here they seated themselves, +to enjoy this delightful mixture of town and +country.</p> + +<p>"This is a noble monument to the great and good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +father of our Republic; and worthy of the high-minded +and public-spirited people of Baltimore," +said Chevillere. "Give me such evidence as this +of their veneration for his memory, and none of +your new-fangled nonsense about enshrining him +in the hearts of his countrymen. Let him be enshrined +in the hearts of his countrymen as individuals; +but let cities, communities, and states +enshrine him in marble. These speak to the eyes; +and hundreds, and thousands will stand here, amid +these beautiful shades, and think of him with profound +veneration, who would never otherwise look +into any other kind of history. The effect of such +works as these is admirable; not only in showing +veneration for the great dead, but also upon the +living, in purifying the heart and ennobling its +impulses."</p> + +<p>"Baltimore, indeed, has set a noble example," +said the lady.</p> + +<p>"And richly will she be rewarded. A few years +hence, the far West will be brought to her doors; +and she will grow up to be a mighty city. Standing +on the middle ground, between the angry sectionists +of the North and the South, she will present +a haven in which the rivals may meet, and +learn to estimate each other's good qualities, and +bury or forget those errors which are inseparable +from humanity. But see! Miss St. Clair," said he, +"what a singular looking man is just emerging +from within the column!"</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" said the lady, in extreme terror,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +"that is the person! Do take me from this place! +I would not encounter him for the world!"</p> + +<p>She was too late; for already had the object of +her apprehension caught a glimpse of her person; +and no sooner had he done so, than with rapid +strides he advanced directly towards them. The +lady shook with terror and agitation. When he +had approached almost in a direct line to within +some forty or fifty feet, he riveted a long and steady +gaze upon the lady, and another of shorter duration +upon her companion, still walking onward. Victor +stood and gazed after him until he was entirely +without the enclosure.</p> + +<p>He was a well-dressed man, apparently about +fifty-five years of age, tall, and straight in his +carriage as an Indian; his hair was slightly silvered; +his countenance expressed wildness, but +was steady and consistent in the expression of +present purpose; his eye was dark and deep, +and, when you looked upon it steadily for a short +time, appeared as if you were gazing at two black +holes in his head; his complexion was sallow; +its characteristics—energy and deep determination.</p> + +<p>"And that is the maniac?" said Chevillere, in a +half-abstracted mood.</p> + +<p>"I said not so," replied the lady; "but he is, indeed, +that most unfortunate man, whose whole +business seems to be to haunt me in my travels; +otherwise our meeting has been most strangely +accidental and untoward."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If he is in ill health," said Victor, "he may have +gone to the Springs without intending to meet you; +and now, when the season is nearly over, and he is +likewise on his return, there is nothing more natural +than his visiting this monument—every stranger +does so,—do not, therefore, aggravate your distress +by supposing these meetings to have been +sought on his part. I will endeavour to find him, +and demand of him whether he seeks to annoy an +unhappy invalid by pursuing her from place to +place, and what are his motives."</p> + +<p>"Oh! sir, for Heaven's sake, do not think of such +a thing. He is a powerful and a fearful man, +when in his right mind; and even in his derangement, +might do you some harm, especially if you +went as commissioned by me. Besides, sir, if he +was undoubtedly sane and respectful, he might demand, +as a right, to see me, and converse with me +too. Nay, he might possibly have some claim to +control my actions; but you see he does not. +Let him alone, therefore, and do not involve yourself +in any of my troubles. I am inextricably entangled, +and pinioned down to a certain routine of +suffering, perhaps unexampled, and that too by no +crime of my own."</p> + +<p>"Dear lady," said Chevillere, taking her hand, as +he saw her blue eye filling with tears, and just +ready to run over; "you cannot imagine how +much I feel interested for you; and what I am +about to say, as it will risk your displeasure, is the +very best evidence that I can give of my deep in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>terest +in your future peace and contentment. Believe +me, dear lady, that though I am young, +and may be inexperienced,—I am not an indifferent +observer of the secret machinery of men's +actions. I have been a steady observer and a +thinker for myself, without regard to the opinion +of individuals or the world, when I was conscious +that I was right, and that they were wrong. Listen +to me, then, with patience, while I give you my +opinion, with regard to the difficulties which seem +to be accumulating around you. Of course, this +opinion must be a general one; as the circumstances +upon which it is founded are only such as +are of a general character. Nor do I seek for more +confidence on your part towards me; I cannot expect +that you should unfold the intimate relations +of your family and your friends to a comparative +stranger. This, then, is my (of course vague) +opinion—I have generally observed, in my intercourse +with mankind, that the most trying situations +and the deepset distress are often brought about +by a small mistake—misfortune—or crime in the +beginning. The latter of these I would defy the +most malignant misanthrope to look upon your +countenance and charge you with; one of the two +former, then, is the point upon which all your distress, +and ill health, and melancholy hangs. My +advice then is, upon this general view of the case, +that you go back to that point, and rectify it as +speedily as possible; and do it boldly and fearlessly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +as I am sure you can. Burst asunder these chains +that fetter you, whatever they may be."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the lady (tears fast stealing down +her cheeks), "that I am always destined to make +the same unhappy impression on every acquaintance, +male or female, valued or unvalued. Before +I have grown many degrees in their good opinion, +some of these unlucky things are seen to develop +themselves, and then I am subject to the greatest +misfortune to which an honourable and a sensitive +mind can be exposed; that is, to be supposed weak +or wicked, though at the same time conscious of +pure and upright motives. To be plain with you, +sir, I must tell you again, that in order for me to +be relieved of that which trammels me in some +shape or other at every step, <i>the grave must give +up its own; and the law must give up its own; and +the avaricious must annul their decrees; and the +dead of half a century must undo their work; and +the wisdom of the sage must be instilled into the mind +of a child; and the slanders, and the wild and +wicked fancies of the lunatic must be convinced by +reason or actual demonstration of the foregoing +things</i>—before the point you speak of can be +seized upon, and turned to my advantage."</p> + +<p>"Then, indeed, is it a hard case, and I will not +distress you further on the subject; I will not add +my persecution to that of others—I will not say +enemies; for one so young and so artless, so innocent +and so unfortunate, can have no enemies."</p> + +<p>"And therein consists part of my distress," re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>plied +she. "Is it not strange that I have not an +enemy living, to my knowledge, who has ever wilfully +injured me in word or deed? unless, indeed, +it be yon wretched old man, whose mind is now, +and whose heart, I fear, has always been wrong. +Now, sir, let me beg of you, in future, whenever +any of these little occurrences embarrass me during +my stay here, to take no notice of them whatever; +let me move along as quietly and as unobtrusively +as possible. I love the retirement of the country, and +to the country and retirement I will go. My mother +loves me, and knows all my actions, and their motives +too; and even my father loves me in his own +way. They will be my companions for the remainder +of a short and weary life."</p> + +<p>The colloquy was cut short by their return to +the hotel.</p> + +<p>Lamar, as has been already announced, was a +humorous gentleman, and would not lose an opportunity +of enjoying the remarks of one so new +to the busy world and its ways as Damon. He +was not long in finding out the retired quarters of +the gentleman of the west. At the bar-room he +inquired if there was such a lodger in the house.</p> + +<p>"No," said the barkeeper (so are these functionaries +called), "but he is expected every minute."</p> + +<p>Lamar seated himself near the files of morning +papers which lay strewed along a reading-desk, +and awaited the arrival of his singular new acquaintance. +In a few minutes Damon stalked in.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +A new black hat and blue frock-coat had so much +altered his appearance, that Lamar did not recognise +him until he took off his hat, wiped his dripping +brows with the handkerchief which he still +carried in it, and then, seeing Lamar for the first +time, waved it over his head.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! for old Kentuck!" was his characteristic +exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Why, Damon, you have been under the tailor's +hands," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"I believe I was in Old Sam's hands last night; +but come up-stairs, and I will tell you all about +it."</p> + +<p>They proceeded to the third story into a small +apartment, dimly lighted through a single window. +Damon, after seating Lamar, threw aside his coat, +and drawing from under the head of his bed the +one in which Lamar had first seen him, he quickly +inserted his arms through what remained of the +garment,—the lappels were torn off on each side +down to the waist, so that all the front of the coat +was gone, leaving nothing but the long straight +back, collar, and sleeves. What remained was +smeared with mud, and torn in many places. He +next proceeded to pull out of his pocket a collar, +and parts of two sleeves of a shirt, spreading them +on the bed, as a milliner would do her finery; and +holding out both his hands with the palms upward +in the manner of an orator,——</p> + +<p>"There!" said he, "that's what I call a pretty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +tolerable neat job, to shirt a stranger the first night +he comes to town."</p> + +<p>Lamar, who by this time began to see a little +into the affair, asked, "But, Damon, how did all +this happen? you seem to have been discomfited."</p> + +<p>"Now I'll be smashed if you ain't off the trail, +stranger, for you see I've only showed you half +yet."</p> + +<p>Upon which he drew from his other pocket a +pair of spectacles, bent, bloody, and broken,—then +a wig,—and, lastly, the remains of a little black +rattan with a gold head and chain broken into +inches. He displayed these on the bed as he had +done the others; only drawing his handkerchief as +a line between them. Upon this he fell, rather +than sat, back into a chair just behind him, and +burst out into a loud, long, and hearty laugh, seemingly +excited afresh at the sight of his spoils.</p> + +<p>"Well, now," said he, "I wish I may be horn +swoggled, if ever I thought to live to see the day +when I should '<i>sculp</i>' a Christian man; but there +it is, you see; I left his head as clean as a peeled +onion."</p> + +<p>"But how? and when? and who was your antagonist +in this frolic?"</p> + +<p>"Frolic!" exclaimed Damon; "well, now, it's +what I would call a regular row; I never saw a +prettier knock down and drag out in all the days +of my life, even in old Kentuck."</p> + +<p>"But do tell me," said Lamar, "was anybody +seriously hurt?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There was several chaps in the circus last +night with their heels uppermost, besides them +suple chaps on the horses; I can tell you that."</p> + +<p>"Oh! you were in the circus, were you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and there was a rip-roaring sight of +slight o'hand and tumblin work there, besides their +ground and lofty tumblin they had in the handbills."</p> + +<p>"You did some of the ground tumbling yourself +then?" asked Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No, I did the slight o'hand work, as you may +see by the skin that's gone off these four marrow-bones."</p> + +<p>"And who did the ground tumbling?" asked +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"There was a good deal done there last night; +the chaps in the ring and the chaps in the pit all +did a little at it; flummuck me if I didn't think the +heels of the whole house would be uppermost before +they were done; what an everlastin pity 'tis, these +critters elbows ain't as suple as their heels."</p> + +<p>"Then you think all the people of Baltimore a +little limber in the heels."</p> + +<p>"I can't say as to that; but I wish I may be +hackled, if there was not so much flyin up of the +heels there last night, that I was fidlin and tumblin +all night in my sleep, jumpin through hoops, and +tanglin my legs in their long red garters, which the +circus riders jumped over; and then I thought +they had my poor old horse, Pete Ironsides, jumpin +over bars, and leapin through fiery balloons, until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +at last they smashed his head right into a tar barrel, +and then maybe I didn't fly into a tear down +snortin rage! I was crammed full of fight then, +and so I got to slingin my arms about in my sleep, +till I knocked out that head-board there,—then I +woke up, and I wish I may be hanged if I didn't +think it was all a dream; till I found that the forepart +of my coat had run away from the tail, and +that I had got an odd collar among my linen. And +then on t'other hand I began to think it was all +true, and rung the bell, and sent the nigger down +to the stable to see if Pete had his head in a tar +barrel sure enough; presently the nigger came +back, grinen and giglin, and said Pete had gone to +the country two hours ago; so I run the little +nigger down stairs, and sent my old boots after +him to get blacked; and as I was dodgin through +that long entry there, I saw the bottles, and tumblers, +and lemon-skins; so ho! said I, there's the +mad dog that bit me last night."</p> + +<p>"Then you <i>began</i> in a frolic at least," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Only a small breeze or so; a few tumblers of +punch, made of that doubled and twisted Irish +whiskey; it was none of your Kentuck low wines, +run off at a singlin, for I have made many a barrel. +It was as strong as <i>pison</i>, and it raised the Irish in +me pretty quick, or rather old Kentuck, for I +jumped up and kicked the table over, and broke +things, afore I would have been cleverly primed +with the low wines."</p> + +<p>"Were you drinking all alone?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No; there was half-a-dozen milksops set down; +I believe they board here; but no sooner had I +kicked the table over, and begun to smash things a +little, than they all sneaked out one by one, until +they were all gone but one, and I rather suspicion +that he's a blackleg, for he stuck pretty close to +me till the row at the circus was over, and then +when I had got clear, he come up here with me, +and sent for the chap who furnished me with my +new hat and coat; but it wasn't all for nothin, as +he thought, for he presently proposed that we +should go down street a piece, and see some fine +fellers, he said, who were friends of his, and who +were going to have a night of it. Well, said I, 'a +little hair of the dog is good for the bite,' and down +we went to a large room up four pair of stairs in a +dark alley. And there, sure enough, there was a +merry-looking set of fellers; but you see they +overdid the job, for I soon smelt a rat; they most +all of 'em pretended to be too etarnal drunk. I +said nothin though, but 'possumed too a little; only +sipped a little wine, and that made me straight +instead of crooked. But at last they proposed a +game of cards. Well, said I, I'm not much of a +dabster at it, but if the stake ain't high, I don't care +if I do take a fling or two; so down we set to it, +and they pulled out their cards for loo. Stop! +stop! said I, we must have <i>new cards</i>; I never play +with other men's cards. They began to suspicion, +maybe, that they had got the wrong sow by the +ear, but they sent and got some new packs, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +then we took a smash or two at the game, and I'm +a Cherokee if I didn't give 'em a touch or two of +old Kentuck. I won all the money they had, but +it wasn't much, and they made me pay most of +that for the refreshments, as they said the winners +always paid for them things."</p> + +<p>"But you have not yet told me how you got +into the row," said Lamar; "I wish to know the +whole story—come, let us have it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's soon told. As I was telling you, the +black-leg chap and I went to the circus, and we +had'nt set long in the pit before there was a young +gal come in, and set on one end of the same bench. +She was'nt so ugly neither, but I took pity on her +because she looked like a country gal, and there +was no women settin near her. After a while, three +chaps come down from the boxes above, and set +right down by the gal, and began to push one +another over against her; at last the one next her, +and he was the same chap you saw in the stage yesterday +morning, only he had on them green specks—well, +he put his arm round her, and called her his +dear, and all that; well, you see, I had heard tell +of these city gals, and I thought if she was pleased +it was none of my business; but presently I heard +her sobbing and crying, with her apron up to her +eyes, and she told them they were no gentlemen, +or they would not treat a poor girl so away from +home. So the Irish whiskey, or old Kentuck, I +don't know which, began to rise in my throat. I +jumped up and raised the war-whoop. 'Old Kentuck +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +for ever!' said I; and with that, I took the +back of my hand and knocked the chap's hat off, +and his 'sculp' went with it. Call your soul your +own, said I; he jumped up and gin me a wipe +with that little black switch across the nose; it +had hardly cleverly touched me, afore I took him +a sneezer, between the two eyes, glasses and all; +he dropped over like a rabbit when you knock 'em +behind the head; I rather suspicion he thought a +two year old colt's heels had got a taste of his +cocoanut.</p> + +<p>"Then the other two took it up, and both on 'em +seized me, and swore they would carry me to the +police office; but I took 'em at cross purposes, for +while one of them held the collar of the old home-made, +I fetched the other a kick that sent him +over the benches a rip roaring, I tell you. +The other little chap was hangin on to me +like a leech to a horse's leg; I jist picked him +up and throwed him into the ring upon the sand, +for I did'nt want to hurt him: but then the real +officers come up and clamped me. I wished +myself back in old Kentuck bad enough then; +but while they held me there, like a dog that had +been killen sheep, the little gal came up to me, and +said she would go and bring her father, to try and +get me off; and then she asked me where I lived,—I +told her in old Kentuck; then she asked me +where I put up, and I put my mouth to her ear +and told her; and I could hardly get it away again +without givin her a smack, for she would pass for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +a pretty gal even in old Kentuck; well, this morning, +her and her father were here by times to thank +me, and the old man invited me to stop at his house +as I go home; it's on the same road we came down +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Did the girl go to the circus by herself?" asked +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No; the old man stopped at the door to buy a +ticket, and she went on, and lost him."</p> + +<p>"But you have not told me how you came by +this scalp," said Lamar, taking up the large black +scratch with curled locks.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you see, I grabbled that in the scuffle, and +slipped it into my pocket."</p> + +<p>"How did you get away from the officers?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! that's the way I lost the old 'home-made;' +you see they began to pull me over the benches, +and I told 'em I would walk myself if they would +let me, and so they did, but they held on to my +coat. I kept pretty cool until they got outside of +the house, and then a crowd gathered round, and +they began cologueing together, until I saw my +way out a little, and then I jist slipped my foot +behind one of 'em and pushed him down, and +tumbled the other feller over him, and then I showed +them a clean pair of heels. They raised the whoop—and +I raised my tail like a blue-lick buck, for +you see I had'nt much coat to keep it down;—dash +me if it was'nt tail all the way to the collar, +and stood out straight behind like it was afraid of +my pantaloons. I made a few turns to throw 'em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +off the trail, and then with a curly whoop, and a +hurrah! for old Kentuck, I got to my own door, +where I found the black-leg chap. Now you know +the whole business, and I suppose you can tell me +whether there is any danger of their finding me +out in that little excuse for a coat that blasted +tailor, who was so stingy with his cloth, made me."</p> + +<p>"I should suppose there was none in the world. +Have no fear on that head; there is not a magistrate +in town who would not honour you in his +heart for what you did."</p> + +<p>"I should think so too, if they had any gals of +their own. The fact is, if there was a little knockin +down and draggin out once in a while among +them dandy chaps, they would take better care +how they sleeved decent men's daughters."</p> + +<p>"Well, good day, Damon," said Lamar; "send +for me or Chevillere if you get into trouble."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + + +<p>It will readily be perceived, by the reader, that +Beverley Randolph, the person to whom the following +letter was written, is one of the three southerns.</p> + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Victor Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">Baltimore, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Randolph</span>, +</p> + +<p>"Five long years have we lived under the same +roof, pursued the same studies, or rather the same +studies pursued us;—engaged in the same dissipation, +drank of the same sour wine, shed the same +vinous tears, discussed the same dinners and suppers, +enjoyed the same dances,—stag dances, I +mean,—played the same music, belonged to the +same society, and, I was going to say, fallen in love +with the same nymphs; but that brings me to the +subject of this letter. I am in for it! Yes, you +may well look surprised! It is a fact! Who is +the lady? you ask. I will tell you,—that is, if I can; +her name is St. Clair. O! she is the most lovely, +modest, weeping, melancholy, blue-eyed, fair-haired, +and mysterious little creature you ever +beheld. If you could only see her bend that white +neck, and rest her head upon that small hand, her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>eye lost in profound thought, until the lower lid +just overflows, and a tear steals gently down that +most lovely cheek; and then see her start up +stealthily to join again in the conversation, with +the most innocent consciousness of guilt imaginable;—but +what is it that brings these tears to sadden +the heart of one so youthful and so innocent? +'There's the rub,' as Hamlet says. Yourself, +Lamar, and I were unanimous, as you perhaps +remember, that men generally suffer in proportion +to their crimes, even in this world. I here renounce +that opinion, with all others founded upon +college logic. A half-taught college boy, in the +pride of his little learning and stubborn opinions, is +little better than an innocent. But, you ought to +see this fair sufferer in order fully to appreciate +the foregoing opinion. You would see child-like +innocence—intelligence—benevolence; in short, +all that is good, in her sad but lovely countenance.</p> + +<p>"But to return to college logic; what is it? +Conclusions without premises, ends without means; +and opinions adopted without any of the previous +and inevitable pains and penalties attendant upon +the acquirement of human knowledge, or, in other +words, without <i>experience</i>! I would take one of +our old break-of-day club to tell the flavour of a +ham, or the difference between a bottle of Bordeaux +and Seignette brandy, as soon as any one; but +what else did they know? or rather what else +did we know? Nothing! not literally nothing, +but truly nothing. If I now wanted a judicious +opinion upon any subject, I would go to an ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>perienced +man! one that had suffered in order to +learn; an original thinker for practical ends.</p> + +<p>"You ask me concerning my cousin, Virginia +Bell; her with whose miniature, infantile as it +was, you fell so desperately in love, and whom, yet +unseen, I promised to yourself. She flourishes, +Randolph, and is as beautiful as you could desire; +she is yet unengaged in heart or hand, so far as I +know; but <i>you</i> know, that the little sly, dear, +delightful creatures will complete a whole life-time +of love affairs, while fathers, and brothers, and guardians, +and affianced lords <i>unloved</i>, may be looking +on none the wiser. And they will look as innocent, +and as demure, and as child-like, as my dear beautiful +little enigma of the Black Mantle.</p> + +<p>"You say you 'hate Yankees;'—my dear fellow, +you forget that you and I would be considered +Yankees in London or Paris. The national denomination +we have abroad, is 'the nation of Yankees,' +or the 'universal Yankee nation.' 'Tis galling +to our southern pride, I grant you, that we +should be a mere appendage, in the eyes of a foreigner, +to a people who are totally dissimilar to +us. We must brook it until we can outdo them, +in literature at least. They are (say many) retailers +of wooden nutmegs—unfair dealers, and a +canting, snivelling, hypocritical set; tell me where +the country is, where the population is growing +dense—where means of living are scarce—land +high—trades overstocked—professions run down—and +manufactures injured by foreign competition, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +in which the little arts of trade, and 'tricks upon +travellers' do not also flourish. Let the population +of your 'old dominion' be once multiplied +by wholesome legislation, or rather let the yearly +emigrants be induced to stay in the land of their +sires, and the same cunning usages will prevail. +As to the 'canting and snivelling,' you must allow +something for the descendants of the Pilgrims. +Besides, tell me, liberal sir, if you have not, in the +very bosom of your great valley, as genuine Presbyterians +and Roundheads as ever graced the +Rump Parliament, or sung a psalm on horseback. +And to give the devil his due, these same Presbyterians +are no bad citizens of a popular government. +But there is the lady of the Black Mantle. Observe +that she was born north of the Potomac, yet I would +wager any thing that you could not look steadily +upon her face for one minute, and curse the Yankees +as I have heard you do. I know you will +say, therein lies the cause of my sudden conversion +to Yankeeism. By no means! I had begun to +find out that the Yankees had souls like other +people, before I had ever seen her.</p> + +<p>"I approve of your determination to travel, and +that even to the south, rather than not to travel at +all; but is there not some danger lest a Virginian +should become more bigoted, by travelling among +a people still more bigoted than himself. I know +your disposition; it is to hug up your dear southern +prejudices within your own bosom. Lamar and I +are becoming liberal, and then we will cast out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>devils for you. Do not forget that I shall have a +mother and cousin there by the time you arrive at +the high hills of the Santee. Lamar has taken desperately +to a six foot Kentuckian, as fine a specimen +as you could wish to see; he is what may be +called an American yeoman of the west.</p> + + +<p class="center">"Yours truly,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">Victor Chevillere</span>."</span><br /> +</p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"Salem, North Carolina, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Chevillere</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Thus far I have flown before the wind—sand, +I should have said. At any rate, here I am, in this +town of German religionists. Here dwells the first +unanimous people I have ever seen. They are +Moravians; and every thing is managed by this +little community for the common benefit. They +have one tavern, one store, one doctor, one tanner, +one potter, and so on in every trade or occupation. +Besides these, they have a church and a +flourishing female seminary. The latter is conducted +upon the utilitarian plan—each lady, in turn, +has to perform the offices of cook, laundress, and +gardener; and, I need hardly say, that it is admirably +conducted. After I had visited all these +establishments—for every respectable looking +stranger is waited upon by some one appointed for +that purpose to conduct him thither,—I returned +to the large, cool, and comfortable inn, and had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>scarcely seated myself to enjoy the comforts of +nicotiana, when a small billet was handed to me +by a handsomely dressed and polite black servant +with a glazed hat, which not a little astonished me, +you may be sure. I had not a living acquaintance +in the whole state that I knew of; except, indeed, +old Father Bagby, the master of ceremonies to the +little community. It could not be a challenge +from some Hans Von Puffenburg of these quiet +burghers: so I concluded it must be a billet-doux +from some of the beautiful creatures at the +seminary on the hill. You can easily imagine, +therefore, that I was no long time in tearing it +open; when, behold! it was, in good truth, from a +lady. Can you guess who? No. Then take the +note itself entire.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"'<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"'If, as I believe, you are the same Mr. Randolph +who was a room and class-mate of my son +Victor Chevillere, in college, I will be very glad +to see you. The servant will show you to our little +parlour.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"'<span class="smcap">M. J. Chevillere.</span>'</span><br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>"'I am the luckiest dog alive,' said I, jumping +nearly over the negro's head, 'Is your young +mistress here also.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, masta, she is just leaving school for home, +so please you.'</p> + +<p>"'Please me!' said I; 'to be sure it does please +me; I never was more pleased in all my life. For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>I was just about to forswear these eternal pine-barrens +and sand-hills, and face to the right-about. +So lead the way to your two mistresses.' Whereupon +he led the way, hat in hand, to a room in the +inn; and there, Chevillere, sat your honoured +mother. Commend me to our southern matrons +in high-life. Not that I know any thing against +your northern ladies, old or young; but there is +in our mothers a mild dignity, hospitality, and politeness, +which makes every one at home. But I +need not describe to you your own. But I will not +promise you as much of the little blushing southern +brunette, who gracefully arose on your mother's +saying, 'Mr. Randolph, my adopted daughter Virginia +Bell Chevillere.' I saw in an instant that +you had told her of our college bargain, and my +falling in love with her miniature. By-the-by, +you ought to break that slanderous miniature, or +the head of the dauber who perpetrated it. Her +beauty never could be delineated on ivory or canvass. +Can any one paint the living, breathing soul +of a very young and beautiful female? No! and +I'll tell you why. If a man had the genius to do +so, the very enthusiasm which always attends it +would throw him into very unpainter-like raptures +at the sight of such a one; and that's the true reason +why artists so seldom succeed in delineating +young females. A precious piece of logic for you. +But to return to the original of the picture; there +was a blushing consciousness about the little Bell, +as everybody calls her, which was truly charming. +Her jet black hair and eyes shone like ebony; her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>brilliant white teeth and brunette complexion were +radiant with blushing smiles at this first reception +of her long-promised husband. There was no +girlish pouting, or childish affectation, as is too +often the case when the parties have been laid off +for each other; she was at the same time modest +and self-possessed; her fairy figure glided about, +as if her little fairy foot scarcely touched the carpet. +I tell you these things, because you asked me +to do so in all plainness of speech. Your cousin is +all that a cousin of my dearest friend should be—lovely, +intelligent, and interesting.</p> + +<p>"Your mother intended to wait here for some +male friend, who has diverged a day's ride from +their route home from the Springs; but she has now +determined to leave this place to-morrow. I shall +escort them as far as the Chevilleres' proud family +seat, Belville. You will, therefore, hear no more +complaints of the dreariness of the eternal pine-barrens, +or the fever-and-ague appearance of the +poor; except, that I will say now, once for all, that +the poor of a slave-country are the most miserable +and the most wretched of all the human family. +The grades of society in this state are even farther +apart than in Virginia. Here, there is one +immense chasm from the rich to the abject poor. +In the valley of Virginia, or in the country where +you are, there are regular gradations. The very +happiest, most useful, and most industrious class of a +well-regulated community, is here wanting. Their +place is filled up by negroes; in consequence of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>which, your aristocrats are more aristocratic, and +your poor still poorer. The slaves create an immeasurable +distance between these two classes, +which can never be brought together until this +separating cause be removed. You know I am no +<i>abolitionist</i>, in the incendiary meaning of the term; +yet I cannot deny from you and myself, that they +are an incubus upon our prosperity. This we +would boldly deny, if a Yankee uttered it in our +hearing; but to ourselves, we must e'en confess it. +If I am, therefore, an abolitionist, it is not for conscience-sake, +but from policy and patriotism.</p> + +<p>"We can never rival those northern people, until +we assume the modern tactics in this provincial +warfare; that is, throw aside all useless baggage, +and concentrate our energies upon a single point +at a time. I have done with this theme for the +present, and will repair to your friends.</p> + +<p>"Your mother knows nothing of our college-treaty, +therefore she little thinks what a masked +enemy she has let into the camp. Little Bell +smiles, and enjoys our mutual understanding highly. +But there lies the mischief; she smiles too innocently, +and too calmly, and too openly, and has lost +too much of that blushing mood in which she first +received me; and I have thought several times +that the little arch gipsy was laughing at me. If +she had not been your cousin, and my affianced +bride for the last five years, I should have taken +leave. <i>You</i> know I never could stand to be exhibited; +and would prefer being shot, at any time, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>to being laughed at. I shall watch the little fairy, +and see if she is making me her butt; if so, I will +see them safe to Belville, and then—you shall hear +from me again.</p> + +<p>"You requested me to point out to you any +thing in which I should observe that the Carolinas +differed from Virginia. I must say then, with the +judges, when they are pronouncing sentence, 'however +painful may be the duty imposed upon me,' +that your country appears more miserable the +more deeply I penetrate it. Not that you lack +splendid mansions, and magnificent cotton-fields +varied with flowers, rich and tropical gardens, the +orange and the 'pride of India,' your wild and fragrant +swamp-flowers, princely hospitality, accomplished +men and women,—not that you lack any of +these. But the seeds of decay are sown at the +very point where energy—enterprise—national +pride—industry—economy—amusements—gayety—and +above all, intelligence, should grow, namely, +with your yeomanry!</p> + +<p>"I would not, if I could, have your young +men and women transformed to spinning-jennies. +Heaven forefend! I would have your lowest class +of whites elevated to the dignity of intelligent and +independent yeomen. How would I effect it? you +ask. Apply the grand lever by which all human +movement is brought about—hope! Has a poor +North Carolinian hope? See him, on some cloudless +morning, when the glorious rays of the sun +are gladdening the hearts even of the unintelligent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>creation, standing within the door of his pine-log +cabin, his hands in his pockets, his head leaning +against the door in melancholy mood. Some half-dozen +pale and swollen-faced children are sitting +on a bench against the side of the hut, endeavouring +to warm away the ague in the sunbeams. The wife +lies sick in bed. The little fields are barely marked +out with a rotten and broken-down pole-fence, +and overgrown with broom, or Bermuda-grass, +and blackberry-bushes. A miserable horse stands +beyond the fence, doubtful whether there is better +grazing within or without. A little short-cotton +and sweet-potato patch, flanked by an acre of +scrubby Indian corn; and, added to these, five +poor sheep, two goats, and a lean cow, complete +the inventory of his goods and chattels. You have +all his cause for <i>hope</i>! You have, too, his causes +for fear. He has in his pocket a summons for debt, +contracted for sugar and tea, and other needful +comforts, for his sick wife and children.</p> + +<p>"Had he any cause for hope? God knows he +had none in this world. But you will say the picture +is exaggerated. As I am a true man and a +southern, it is not.</p> + +<p>"I was benighted, and sought lodgings in the +very house I have described. 'Who lives here,' +said I, on riding to the door. 'One Fifer,' said a +white-headed, half-grown girl, so weak that she +could scarcely stand. I sat up nearly all night +with the sick woman and children. On relieving +the poor man's embarrassments in the morning, I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>received the heart-felt thanks of the wretched +family; and almost rode my horse to exhaustion, +to get away from the wretched image imprinted +on my memory.</p> + +<p>"Is this man a sample of the yeomanry of your +country? I say, in deep and profound sorrow, I +believe that he is. Where, then, does the evil lie? +This is a question which every southern must soon +ask himself, and one which Nullification cannot +answer.</p> + +<p>"<i>Here</i>, then, is a triumphant answer—an answer +in deeds, instead of words—in the happiness, the +prosperity, and the substantial wealth of these simple +and primitive Moravians. Here, where I am +writing, is an industrious, intelligent, and healthy +community, in the very heart of all the misery I +before described. Let us then improve by the lesson, +seek out the sources of their prosperity, find +the point where their plans diverge from ours, and, +my word for it (if there be no reason in the case), +we become a great, a flourishing, and a happy +people.</p> + +<p>"But I must take one small exception to the +Moravian political economy. They require all the +young gentlemen to be enrolled on one list, and all +the willing young ladies on another; and the first +gentleman on the list must marry the first lady; +so that they are drafted for marriage, as our Virginia +militia are drafted for duty. I do not know +that this is certainly true; but if it be true, that a +youth must marry the first that comes up, <i>nolens +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>volens</i>, I would put in a plump negative. This excepted, +they are worthy of all imitation, even to the +drinking of home-brewed in their pewter mugs, +and smoking long pipes around their council-table, +when their little legislature meets.</p> + +<p>"There are no slaves in this little nation, and +labour is no disgrace. In the extensive grounds, belonging +to the female seminary, I saw many pretty +little arms bared to work; not Moravian young +ladies only, but elegant and aristocratic young +ladies from all parts of the southern states, without +distinction, and of every sect and denomination; +and I never saw more beautiful complexions. +The little gipsies would come in from their work +in the morning, blooming as roses. Here is a +complete refutation of the assertion, that the whites +cannot work in a southern climate; here are as +fine lands, and as fine husbandry and horticulture, +as can be found in any country; here are the first +paved streets south of Petersburg; here the first +town, in which water is conveyed by pipes, as in +Philadelphia; here the first stone-fences and grass-plots.</p> + +<p>"Your mother and little Bell are cheerful and +happy. Indeed, the latter looks as if she had never +suffered for a moment. How happy a life is that +of a girl at a boarding-school, exempt from all the +pains and penalties of collegians—the 'hair-breadth +'scapes'—the formal trials for riding other people's +horses,—ringing church bells,—building fences +across the road,—hanging cake and beer signs at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +magistrates' and elders' doors,—burnings in effigy, +fights at country weddings and dances,—exploring +expeditions in the mountains and caverns, professedly +for geological, but really for depredating purposes,—shooting +house-dogs,—expeditions upon +the water, and skating upon the ice,—swimming, +duelling, fighting, biting, scratching,—firing crackers +and cannons in college entries,—heavy meat +suppers, with oceans of strong waters,—and then +headache, thirst, soda and congress-water in the +morning, and perhaps a visit from the doctor or +the president,—presentments by the grand jury for +playing at cards and overturning apple-carts,—personating +ghosts with winding-sheets, and getting +knocked on the head for their pains,—serenading +sweethearts, and taking linchpins out of wagons,—making +sober people drunk and drunken people +sober,—battling with watchmen, constables, and +sheriffs,—running away from the tailors and tavern-keepers,—kissing +country girls, and battling with +their beaux,—tricks upon the tutors, and shaving +the tails of the president's horses,—stealing away +the lion or the elephant at an animal show, and +pelting strolling players,—putting hencoops upon +churches, painting out signs, and carrying off platforms,—throwing +hot rolls under the table, and biscuit +at the steward's head,—playing musical seals +at prayers, and saying prayers at rows,—gambling +in study hours, and filching at recitation,—having +one face for the president and another for the fellows,—and, +finally, being sent home with a letter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>to your father, informing him that you are corrupting +the morals of your <i>teachers</i> in these pranks. +These are a few of the classical studies into which +the dear little innocents are never initiated, while +they form no small part of collegiate education in +America, as we can testify from experience.</p> + +<p>"Many a fine fellow makes the first trial of a +stump speech, with an extract from an Irish sermon +at a drunken row; his head perhaps stuck three +feet through the window of the little bar in a tavern, +and his audience sitting round on the beer-tables, +armed with sticks, stones, and staves. One, +who with drunken gravity keeps his head and stick +moving all the while, says, that he concurs fully +in opinion with the speaker; though, if asked what +the subject is, he swears it is the Greek question. +The question and the laugh go round. One avers +stoutly that it is Catholic emancipation; a third +vociferates that it is a complete justification of +Brutus for killing Cĉsar; a fourth thinks it a part +of the recitation of the day, while the most drunken +man of the company jumps down from his seat on +the table, and swears that he can see through the +fellow clearly, 'it's nothing but sleight of hand;' +with which he exclaims, as he rubs his eyes and +looks round, 'Bless my soul, boys, how drunk you +all are; come, I'll help you to your room before +matters get worse,' leading off the soberest man in +the room. The party then breaks up in a regular +row; I think I see the <i>old</i> fellows now, marching +off two and two with the true would-be sober and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>drunken gravity, every man thinking that he is +completely cheating his neighbour, by his picked +steps and exactly poised head and shoulders, like a +drunken soldier on drill. One gets into a carriage +rut; another climbs into a pig-sty, and thinks he +is getting over the college fence. A third falls +over a cow, while a fourth takes off his hat to a +blind horse, mistaking him in the dark for the president. +At length they are lodged in bed, with boots, +hats, and clubs, like soldiers expecting a surprise. +Some murder a song or two in a drunken twang, +while the rest snore in chorus.</p> + +<p>"But next comes the awful reward of transgression +in the morning; dry throats, aching limbs, +torn coats, sick stomachs, haggard countenances, +swelled heads. The trembling and moody toilet is +made; the bell rings for prayers; and a more repentant +set of sinners never assembled under its +sound. All wonder what has become of the joyous +feelings of the previous night, and think with +shame of such actions and speeches as they can +recollect. Hereupon follows a gloomy and melancholy +day. They are home-sick. Relations, +friends, and the scenes of childhood, with all their +quiet, innocent, and heartfelt pleasures, glide before +the imagination. The head becomes dizzy; the +heart palpitates; the hands tremble, and the sight +grows double. Then comes the fear of illness, +and death in a strange land. Associates of the +'row' are avoided; several chapters in the Bible +are read; repentance is promised; sleep settles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>the nervous system; and next morning they arise +gay and happy. This continues until the scene is +repeated, and so on, until one half forswear brandy +and the other half become confirmed sots.</p> + +<p>"Here is a coherent epistle for you. But if you +dislike it, send it back, and I will divide it +into—first—secondly—thirdly, +et cetera, as the old +president did his sermons.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">B. Randolph.</span>"</span><br /> +</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + + +<p>After the visit to the monument, Chevillere +daily inquired concerning the health of the interesting +invalid; and as regularly was indisposition +pleaded for her non-appearance. Late in the evening +of the third day, he was slowly pacing the +pavement in front of the hotel; now and then throwing +a wistful glance at the lighted window of the +lady, when all at once he suddenly wheeled round, +and grasping in the dark, was surprised to find +that a person whom he had supposed to be impertinently +dogging his steps, had eluded his grasp. +He grimly smiled at his own exasperation for an +imaginary cause, hastily adjusted his cloak, and +turned down the street leading most directly to +the bay.</p> + +<p>When he arrived at the quiet and deserted +wharf, and the rapid flow of his impetuous blood +was retarded by the cool invigorating breeze which +swept over the face of the water, he saw an old +yawl lying on the dock, with its broad bottom +turned to the bay. Negligently leaning his person +at full length against its weather-beaten bottom, +and drawing down his hat close over his brows, he +surrendered himself to one of those habitual reveries +which the southern well knows how to enjoy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +Had his mind and feelings been attuned to such +things at the time, the scene itself would have furnished +no uninteresting subject, with its hundred +little lights, gleaming in the intense fog and darkness, +and the numberless vessels that lay upon the +bosom of the waters, with their dark outlines dimly +visible, like slumbering monsters of their own element. +He heeded them not; yet were his feelings +insensibly impressed with the surrounding objects, +and deeply tinctured with the profound gloom +of the time and scene. The direct current of his +thoughts pointed, however, in the direction of the +invalid. Her extreme youth, beauty, and apparent +innocence,—her deep distress and profound +melancholy, naturally produced a corresponding +depression in his own otherwise elastic spirits. He +was perfectly unconscious of the time he had spent +in this way, when accidentally turning his head to +one side, he was struck with the appearance of +something intercepting the line of vision in that +direction. He was just about to approach the +cause of his surprise, when a deep voice, issuing +from the very spot, added not a little to his superstitious +mood, by the exact manner in which it +chimed in with the present subject of his meditations.</p> + +<p>"A beautiful young woman in affliction is a +very dangerous subject of meditation, under some +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"An honest heart fears no danger from any +earthly source," was the reply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Honesty is no guard against external danger +in this world, whether moral or physical," said the +figure.</p> + +<p>"Discernment may lend a hand to honesty in +such a case."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" hideously retorted the intruder; +"Discernment, said you? Man's discernment is a +mighty thing; by it he reads the past, the present, +and the future; what can withstand his mighty +vision? He can descry danger at a distance, and +bring happiness within his grasp; he can tell the +objects of his own creation, and his Creator's first +beginning; he can read the starry alphabet in +yonder heavens, and fathom the great deep; he +can laugh at the instinct of grovelling creation, and +thunder the dogmas of reason in the teeth of revelation +itself! Discernment, indeed! ha! ha! ha! +why, man is not half so well off as the brutes. +What is their instinct but God's ever present and +supporting hand; but man—he has neither perfect +reason nor instinct! He has the conscience of an +angel, and the impulses of a devil; and reason sits +between them, for an umpire, with a fool's cap +upon her head! Impulse bribes reason, and reason +laughs at conscience. Impulse leads downward, +like the power of gravity; and conscience struggles +upward like the nightmare: but reason and +discernment will traffic and bargain with impulse +for one moment, and blind or cheat conscience the +next! Turn mankind loose with all their reason +without providence, and they will butt each other's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +foolish brains out! Bribed conscience makes hypocrites,—frightened +conscience makes fanatics,—but +reason-drilled conscience makes incarnate +devils!"</p> + +<p>"But," said Chevillere, involuntarily interested +by this wild rhapsody, "a tender, conscience-instructed +reason, and christianized impulses, make +an honest and a discerning man, too."</p> + +<p>"Instructed reason! who teaches man's reason, +but the inward devils of his impulses? A few +good parents may point upward, periodically, but +the impulses pull down! down! down! for ever! +no intermission. If they would let go, I myself +could plunge into the sea; but the deeper we +plunge, the harder they pull! The farther we +sink, the heavier they become. Oh! man! of +what a cursed race art thou! Think you the inhabitants +of the moon are likewise under the ban +of God's displeasure?"</p> + +<p>"I indulge in no such impracticable dreams," +said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"No! no! <i>you</i> dream of paradise; but remember +what I now tell you, your paradise will not be +without its Eve, and its serpent too!"</p> + +<p>"To whom do you allude?"</p> + +<p>"To the lady of whom you were thinking but +now."</p> + +<p>"You know not what you say," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Do I not? Perhaps you would have me speak +more plainly! Perhaps you could screw up your +resolution to the point, that I might amputate your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +hopes one by one, as a poor fellow sees the surgeon +carrying off his bloody limbs; nay, I could do it!"</p> + +<p>"Why, sir, you never saw me till within the +hour."</p> + +<p>"Have I not? perhaps not; I would to heaven +I could say as much about the lady."</p> + +<p>"To what lady do you so often allude?"</p> + +<p>"To the lady with the <i>black mantle</i>."</p> + +<p>"Hold, she is all innocence and purity."</p> + +<p>"Innocence and purity! Eve was innocent and +pure too! yea, and surpassingly beautiful! but she +fell! Alas! her daughters are like her."</p> + +<p>"Come, sir," said Chevillere, with some exasperation, +"let us put a stop to this discourse; it is +not pleasing to me, and I feel sure it is not useful +to you."</p> + +<p>"Be it so," said the intruder, drawing up his +long goat's-hair cloak, and pulling a flat cloth cap +closely over his gray locks, as they for a moment +became visible by the reflection of the long horizontal +rays of a lamp from the deck of a neighbouring +vessel; "be it so, sir; there is no convincing +a child that a <i>beautiful</i> candle will burn until it +scorches its fingers."</p> + +<p>"In God's name, then, out with it, sir! what is +it that seems to burn so upon your tongue? come, +out with it!" said Chevillere, sharply.</p> + +<p>"For what do you take me, young man? a gossip +or a stripling! I am neither one nor the other; +I am old enough to be your father; as well born +and as well educated as he ever was; and (not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>withstanding +your southern blood and aristocratic +notions) it may be as proud; farewell, sir, and the +next time I offer to pull you from the edge of a +precipice, perhaps you will listen with more respect +to one of double your age, who can have no interest +in deceiving you. Farewell, sir!"</p> + +<p>"Stay! stay! a moment,—one word more. +Did you not visit Washington's monument three +days ago, and see me there for the first time?"</p> + +<p>"I could answer either yes or no to that question. +How do you know, sir, that we have not met +before, centuries ago? Do you not sometimes +foresee a whole scene, just as it afterward takes +place? Do you not sometimes look upon a strange +face with a shudder? Does not a feature—a smile—or +an expression of them combined—sometimes +awake the slumbering memory of ages? Is it not +so? have you never communed with the dead?"</p> + +<p>"Never, sir."</p> + +<p>"I have, often! often!—and many times have I +been warned of approaching evils, by these dreamy +conversations; I never dream of seeing my father +smile upon me, that something good does not +speedily follow; nor of snakes and serpents, unattended +by bad news or bad fortune. Of these +things I usually dream the night before meeting +the lady yonder, after a long absence."</p> + +<p>"I supposed as much," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"How, sir."</p> + +<p>"I supposed that you had <i>dreamed</i> something +against that pure and unfortunate young lady."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Would to Heaven it were all a dream! Sunshine +would again break into the dark regions of +my thoughts."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I should undertake and pledge my +life to convince you that it is so."</p> + +<p>"You might convince me of your sincerity, +but not of your power. Can you raise the dead?"</p> + +<p>"No, but what has raising the dead to do with +the lady?"</p> + +<p>"More than you imagine, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I see it is useless to attempt what I proposed +and hoped to effect for the sake of the lady's +peace. Have you no friends with you in this +city?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have a dog! there sits the best friend I +ever had, save one!"</p> + +<p>"My dear sir! permit me to say I think you +far from being well."</p> + +<p>"I never felt better in health than I do at this +moment."</p> + +<p>"But we are not judges of our own ailments: +Physicians do not often prescribe for themselves."</p> + +<p>"I tell you, sir, I am well!"</p> + +<p>"Have it so, sir! but if you are the person whom +I met a few days since at the monument, I would +mildly and respectfully recommend to you to think +no more of the lady you saw there with me. You +certainly labour under some grievous error, with +regard to her, at least."</p> + +<p>"You will find, when it is too late, perhaps, that +others instead of me are labouring under <i>fatal</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +errors concerning that young lady! Farewell, +sir, farewell. When next we meet, you will listen +with a more attentive ear to what I have to say; +you will have observed many strange things yourself, +and you will naturally seek, rather than repel a +solution of the mystery." Then with a signal to +his dog, he hastily went from the wharf, leaving +Chevillere in no enviable state of mind.</p> + +<p>Youthful thoughts will not long voluntarily +dwell upon the gloomy aspect even of the circumstances +surrounding themselves; it was very +natural, therefore, that Chevillere should reflect +with much complacency upon the tendency of his +friend Lamar's laughing philosophy; nor was he +long in threading his way to the lodgings of the +Kentuckian. He had calculated with great certainty +upon finding his friend there, and on ascending +the three flights of stairs, he heard the voices +of both in full chorus of laughter, that of Lamar +indicating his most joyful mood. He rapped at +the door once or twice before he was heard. +"Come in!" shouted the backwoodsman, "what +the devil's the use of knocking with every mug of +punch." Lamar sprang to his feet at the sight of +his friend, with volumes of smoke rolling over his +head, and laying one hand on Chevillere's back +and another on his breast, cried in the true mock +heroic;—"'Be thy intents wicked or charitable, +thou com'st in such a questionable shape, that I +will speak to thee.' 'Revisit'st thou thus the +glimpses of the moon, making night hideous, and us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +fools of' liquor—'so horribly to shake our dispositions, +with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls; +say, why is this?' But, by old Shakspeare's beard, +you look like a ghost indeed! why, whence com'st +thou, man? see his cloak, too! it is covered with +sawdust!"</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for old Kentuck!" said Damon, "he's +been to the circus! I say, stranger, was there any +knockin down and draggin out there. O! black +eyes and bruises! what a rascally appetite I've +got now for a knock down; I swear I think my +hands will git as tender as a woman's, if I don't +git a little now and then jist to keep 'em in."</p> + +<p>"I may be soiled from leaning against a boat at +the dock," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"You certainly have the air of one who had +tried a few perils by land and sea," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, I do not feel well, nor in high +spirits, and I came here on purpose to see if Damon +could not brighten me up a little."</p> + +<p>"To be sure I can," said he; "but why didn't +you come sooner, and then we could all have gone +to the circus together; that's the place for my +money; you see you want something to make your +blood circulate: a small taste or two would soon +bring you round."</p> + +<p>"A taste of what?" asked Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"A small bit of a regular row, to be sure; all +in good-nature, you know; a man needn't git in a +passion, in takin a little exercise after bein cooped +up here all day, in one of these cocklofts—why, +if I sit here an hour, and go down in the street,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +by hokies, but I want to snort directly; I feel like +old Pete when he's been stabled up for a week or +two, and jist turned loose to graze a little; and I'll +tell you what it is, stranger, I'm for making a +straight coat-tail out of this place, and that in a +hurry, for I've got through all my business now, +and I'm keen to be among the Yorkers; for I've +heard tell there's smashin work there every night."</p> + +<p>"Have you any acquaintances there?" asked +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No; but I expect to find some of our Kentuck +boys there, who come round by the lakes; and if +I do, I rather reckon we'll weed a wide row."</p> + +<p>"Take care you do not run against old Hays +in your mad pranks," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"They say he's a little touched with the snappin-turtle, +but I'm thinkin he'd hardly try old Kentuck +at a fight or a foot-race."</p> + +<p>"He has had a good many fights and foot-races +in his day," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Damon, "but always with rogues; +he'd find it rather a different business at an honest +ground-scuffle, where every man had to take care +of his own ears."</p> + +<p>"You think, then, he could not be so successful +in Kentucky as he is in New-York, at his occupation," +said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"He'd be off the scent there, and I rather +think he'd soon look like the babes in the woods; +you see he has the rogues in the city like a coon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +when he's treed; an old dog's better than a young +one in such a fix."</p> + +<p>"But come, Damon, go on with your adventures +of the day which Chevillere's entrance interrupted."</p> + +<p>"Not till we have wet our whistles; come, +stranger (to Chevillere), you have'nt drank nothin +since you came into the room, nor into the city +either, for what I know."</p> + +<p>"You know," said Chevillere, "that I am a +cold water man, upon taste and principle both."</p> + +<p>"And that's what I call ra'al hard drink; well, +here's to the little gal of the circus, and the little +gal down yonder at the hotel; cold water's but a +sorry drink to pledge such warm-hearted creters—but +I see talking of them makes you look solemncholy +again, and so here goes for my day's +work; let me see—where did I leave off?"</p> + +<p>"At the commission house where you carried +the letter," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Ah, by the hokies! so it was. Well, you see, I +marched into the great store, as they had told me +it was, with my nose uppermost, like a pig in the +wind, I had an order on them for some of the eel-skins—but +I soon brought my snout down agin; +ho! ho! thought I, here's a pretty spot of work! +I'm a Turk if I aint tetotally dished."</p> + +<p>"What was the matter?" said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Why, instead of all the fine things loomin out +in the wind as I expected for such great marchants, +I found nothing but a long empty store, and no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +shelves even, and there sat two or three starched +lookin dogs, on so many old rum bar'ls; I swear +I thought in a minute about our old still-house, +and the school-master, and the miller, and the +blacksmith, and the stiller, talkin politics over +the bar'ls, and takin a swig every now and then +out of the old proof-vial."</p> + +<p>"Well! you presented your draft," said Lamar, +"and what then?"</p> + +<p>"No I did'nt—I got a straddle of a bar'l too; I +thought I would take a dish of chat, for that was +about the most I expected to get. Rat me! but I +began to feel a little particular about the gizzard +in thoughts of sellin old Pete to get home on; I +put on a long face. It's everlastin dull times for +business, said I. 'O sir, you are quite mistaken, +business is taking a look up—it's getting very brisk +indeed.' And he rubbed his hands, and looked as +glad as if he had had a drink of that hot punch. +So, thought I, I'm off the trail; but I thought I +would tree him next time. 'The best horses, said +I, will stumble sometimes.' 'Sir?' said he, I said +'the honestest men sometimes make bad speculations.' +'Oh!' said he, 'I understand you! but I +hope business is brisk and money plenty this season +in the west.' Now, thought I, he's got the boot +on the wrong leg this time; 'yes, said I, we +can't complain, but I must say I thought it looked +a little dull hereabouts.' 'O, you western men are +such driving fellows, that you can't put up with our +slow way of makin money.' He's feedin me on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +soft corn, thought I. 'We do a little now and then, +but getting the money afterward is all our trouble,' +said I. 'Why, sir, you have hit the nail upon the +head; that's the difficulty everywhere,' said he. +I thought I would run him into a stand 'fore long; +but he hoisted his tail and flung me clean off the +trail agin. 'Can't I sell you half a dozen bar'ls +of cognac brandy to-day,' said he. I snapped my +fingers and jumped up, and by the long Harry I was +near raisin the whoop; for I thought old Pete and +the money was all safe, and so it was. 'O! the +hunters of Kentucky! old Kentucky;' and he +began to sing and caper round the table.</p> + +<p>"Did he pay the money?" asked Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly; these city chaps keep their money +buried, I believe, for you never see none of it; I +reckon they're 'fraid it'll spile; howsomever, he +gave me an order on the bank for the eel-skins."</p> + +<p>"Then you took your leave," said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No; he asked me if I had ever seen an auction +of a ship's cargo; I said no, I had never seen more +nor a Kentuck vendue: he asked me to go along; +I'm your man, said I, for I expected there would +be smashin work if a whole ship-load was to be +sold, for I have seen some very clever little skrimmages +at a vendue; well, when we got there, there +was boxes and bags all laying in rows, and little +troughs laying under them, like them we catch +sugar-water in. Some had little long spoons made +on purpose to suck sugar with, and some had little +augers for boring holes; presently the crier began.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +'<i>Seven, seven, seven—eight, eight, eight cents a +pound, going, going</i>,' and smash went the little +mallet; 'how many do you take, sir? twenty, or +the hundred boxes?' said he. 'Take the hundred,' +said a man, that looked like he wasn't worth the +powder that would blow him up."</p> + +<p>"Could you always tell who bid?"</p> + +<p>"No; they mostly did it by winkin, I believe; +sometimes one fellow would grunt this side and +another that side; I kept my head bobbin after +them first one side and then the other; but whenever +I looked in their faces their eyes looked as +sleepy as a dog in fly-time, just waitin to snap a +fellow that was buzzin about his ears."</p> + +<p>"Did you find out at last who were the bidders?"</p> + +<p>"No; they shut up their faces like steel-traps. +Once or twice, maybe, I saw a dyin-away +wrinkle round a feller's mouth, like the rings in +the water when you throw a stone in; but they +soon faded away, and they looked as smooth and +deceitful as a pool of deep water itself agin."</p> + +<p>"They tasted and tried the articles, of course, +before they bought?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; some of them had their mouths daubed, +like children suckin 'lasses candy; and some of +their big noses was stuck full of Bohea tea, outside +and in, like old Pete when he's had a good feed of +chopped rye and cut straw."</p> + +<p>"And what sort of a man was the auctioneer?"</p> + +<p>"Why, his mouth went so fast when he got to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +'<i>going, going, going</i>,' that you couldn't say <i>stop</i>, if +you had had your mouth fixed; but his face I didn't +like at all."</p> + +<p>"What was there in his face objectionable?"</p> + +<p>"O! I can't tell exactly, it looked out of all sort +of nature; a good deal I don't know howish. One +thing I'll be sworn to, you would never see such a +one in old Kentuck; there every man wears his +Sunday face on week days."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean that the man was disfigured +with affectation," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"You've hit it, stranger, you've hit it; that's the +very word I wanted to be at, but I couldn't get it +out. Well, from the vendue I took a stroll round +town, to see the lads and lasses; how they carried +their heads in these parts, and maybe to see how +they carried on their <i>sparkin</i> in a big town like +this; for, to tell you the truth, that's one of the +things I never could see how they carried on +here."</p> + +<p>"How did you manage such things in the west? +Is there any thing peculiar in your method?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say we're different from other folks in +the country, but you see we have abundance of +chances to court the gals a little; for there's our +weddings."</p> + +<p>"There are weddings here, too, I hope," said +Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and a pretty business they make of 'em; +I blundered into a church the other day, and what +should be goin on there but a weddin; and smash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +my apple-cart, if there wasn't more cryin and +snifflin than I've seen at many an honest man's +funeral, and all in broad daylight, too; and when +the parson had got through his flummery, with his +long white mornin gown, they all jumped into carriages, +and off they went away into the country +somewhere, to hide themselves. I rather suspect +they had stole a march on the old folks, else they +wouldn't have run so as if the devil was at their +heels."</p> + +<p>"How do you conduct such things in the west?" +asked Lamar.</p> + +<p>"Oh! there we have quiltings, skutchings, and +sewin frolics, and makin apple butter, and all such +like; and they always wind up at the little end +with a rip-sneezin dance, and that's where we do +the sparkin; well, presently a weddin grows out +of it, and maybe then there isn't a little fun agoing, +dance all night, and play all sort of games, at least +all them sort that wind up in kissin the gals, and +that they manage to bring about by sellin pawns, +and one thing or other. For my part, I never could +see into any but the kissin part, and that you know +was the cream of the joke."</p> + +<p>"They do not often go to church to get married +then," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"No; I never saw anybody married at church +before t'other day, and I hope it'll be a long time +before their new-fangled ways travels out to old +Kentuck; there our gals and boys stands up before +the parson a few minutes, and he rolls his tobacco<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +two or three times over his teeth, and <i>chaws</i> a few +words, and it's all over before you could say 'God +save the commonwealth' three times; and what's +the use in makin three bites of a cherry?"</p> + +<p>"But you have wandered from your point," said +Lamar; "you started out on an expedition to see +how the lads and lasses carried themselves here."</p> + +<p>"O! ay, sure enough; well, one of the first +things I come across was a parcel of gals and +boys on horseback, and I'm flummucked if it +wouldn't have been a pretty tolerable show in the +land of hogs and homminy. The gals rode well +enough, considering how they were hampered with +clothes and trumpery; but the men! O smashy! +how they rode! bobbin up and down on the saddle, +with three motions to the horse's one. I'm an +Injin if old Pete Ironsides wouldn't have kicked +up his heels and squealed at the very first motion +of the rider goin ahead of him; and then the saddles +were stuck on the shoulders of the animals, +like a hump on a man's back, or a pair of <i>haims</i> to +hitch traces to. One of them chaps would ride a +saddle about twice as hard as a horse. I was +lookin evry minute for one of 'em to light behind +his saddle."</p> + +<p>"Did all the gentlemen and ladies you met carry +themselves so unnaturally?" said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"No; I met one young lady dressed in black +that I thought I had seen before somewhere, and +her spark too; but they were too busy to see me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +<i>She</i> looked more coy and shamefaced, like our +country gals, than any of them."</p> + +<p>"How did the gentleman bear himself? was he +polite and respectful in his carriage?" said Lamar, +smiling, and looking at Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! he bowed his head close down to the +bonnet of the pretty little lady, and walked that +way all through the street, as if he was afraid to +lose so much as a word; sometimes she seemed to +be just ready to cry, and looked pale and frightened. +I rather suppose her old dad's a little sour or cross, +maybe; but for all I couldn't help thinkin what a +clever nice young couple they would make to stand +up before the parson."</p> + +<p>Chevillere attempted reserve of manner, but +blushed and smiled in spite of himself, as he asked +Damon, "Not your chaw-tobacco parson, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"And why not? what if he <i>would</i> roll his chaw-tobacco +into one cheek at you, while he coupled +you up with the other? I'll be bound you'd look +at somebody else's pretty cheeks more nor you +would at the parson's chaw-tobacco; besides, what +harm is there in a parson's chawin? I know an old +one who would no more git up into his pulpit of a +Sunday without a good smart plug in his mouth, +than I would strike my own brother when he's +down. I've seen him afore now, when his wind +held out longer than his tobacco, run his finger +first into one jacket-pocket, and then into the other, +and at last he'd draw a little piece of pigtail, just up +to the top of the water (as you may say), and then +he'd let it go again."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Some virtuous shame, in view of the congregation, +I suppose," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was it; but I never heard any of the +sarmont after the old boy's ammunition run out."</p> + +<p>"Why, what had his tobacco to do with your +listening?"</p> + +<p>"A great deal; no sooner would the old feller +begin to fumble in his pockets, than my hand +always run into mine, of its own accord, and +lugged out a chunk of a twist just ready to hand +to the old man, and then when I'd find it couldn't +be, I naturally took a plug myself, and chawed for +the old boss till his wind <i>flagg'd</i>."</p> + +<p>"Or, in other words, his desire for the weed +made you desire it, to cure which you chewed for +yourself, and flattered your conscience all the while +that you were rendering him a service," said Chevillere.</p> + +<p>"Very like! very like! for I know it makes a +feller husky dry to see another famishin for a little +of the cretur."</p> + +<p>"Not so much so, perhaps, as if a dry person, as +you call him, should see another drinking, and could +get none himself."</p> + +<p>"Oh! but that's a case out of all nature, as one +may say, in these parts, anyhow, where liquor runs +down the streets, after a manner."</p> + +<p>Chevillere and Lamar, both rising, exchanged +the usual salutations, and the <i>good night! good +night!</i> went the rounds of all present.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<p>"Were you not delighted with the wild and +mountainous scenery of the country around the +Virginia Springs?" said Victor Chevillere to Miss +St. Clair, on the morning after the scene related in +the last chapter, as the lady reclined, in a pensive +mood, in the room before described.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, you forget that I was too feeble in mind +and body to enjoy the scenery around me then, or +to partake of the enthusiasm of my friends on the +subject. The rich and romantic scenery of the +White Sulphur was highly attractive to me, when +I became somewhat convalescent; yet I shall +carry with me through life a sad remembrance of +scenes, which to many others of my age and sex +will ever be associated with the gay dance, the enlivening +gallopade, the stirring music, and with +adventurous equestrian excursions among the +mountains."</p> + +<p>"I believe," said Chevillere, "that the most melancholy +reflections may be and are much softened +and mellowed in after-life, by being associated in +the mind with the profoundly poetical feelings excited +by the constant view of quiet mountain +scenery; such as the well-remembered, long, long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +line of blue peaks, stretching far away until they +reach the clouds and the horizon."</p> + +<p>"It is indeed true," said she, "that kind and +beautiful nature, in the season of green leaves and +flowers, will sometimes almost tempt us to believe +that misery is not the inevitable lot of the human +family; but when the consciousness of the one and +the beauty of the other are together present to +us, it depends entirely upon the degree, whether +the beauty softens the suffering or not."</p> + +<p>"In other words," said he, "whether the evil be +so irremediable that <i>hope</i> cannot enter the heart; +that the ravishing beauty of nature cannot excite +benevolence, devotion, and love."</p> + +<p>"That was not entirely my case," said she, "for +I am grateful for having felt some pleasing excitement +at the time, and for being able now to call up +many pleasurable remembrances, clouded as they +are for the most part with sadness."</p> + +<p>"If I have been rightly informed, you did not +visit all the other springs around the White Sulphur."</p> + +<p>"My health would not permit of our making +the entire fashionable round."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you have missed much pleasure," said +he. "There are the Sweet Springs, rising out of +the earth like a boiling caldron, with brilliant little +balloons of gas ever ascending to the top of the +water, and bursting in the sunbeams. There is +not perhaps in the world such another natural +fountain of soda-water. And there is the Salt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +Sulphur, with its high romantic hills covered with +herds, and its beautiful meadows, and its long village +of neat white cottages, and its splendid assembly-rooms, +and its sumptuous banquets of wild +game and artificial luxuries. But, above all, there +is the Warm Spring, with its clear blue crystal +baths, large enough for a troop of horse to swim +in; there, likewise, is an extensive green lawn, +flanked on the one side by the same kind of neat +white cottages, and on the other by the line of +blue mountains, rising abruptly from the plain +within gun-shot of the baths. On a clear moonlight +night, one may see the invalids sitting out on +the green in front of their doors, enjoying the placid +scenery of the valley, and the profound and solemn +monotony of the overhanging mountains,—sometimes, +indeed, interrupted by the bustle of a +new arrival, the neighing of horses, the crash of +the wheels, the hoarse voices of the coachmen as +they exchange advice upon the descent into the +valley, or by the meeting of old friends and fellow-invalids, +perhaps acquaintances of a former season, +and fellow-sufferers with the gout, bantering each +other upon their speed."</p> + +<p>"From what little I saw of them, I think they +perfectly justify the southern enthusiasm which we +found everywhere on the subject; and I should +think that there is no finer opportunity of seeing +southern fashionable society."</p> + +<p>"True; our wealthiest and most fashionable +people resort thither every season. Yet I cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +say in truth, from what I have observed myself, +that our aristocracy are seen there to the best advantage. +They are too much in their holyday suit +of manners,—too artificial,—too unnatural. I +have seen people who were agreeable at home, +become affected and disagreeable at watering-places. +I have also seen some who were reserved +at home, become quite affable there. The latter +effect, however, was by no means so common as +the former."</p> + +<p>"I did not see much affectation, or many unnatural +people at the White Sulphur," said the lady.</p> + +<p>"I cannot say that it is one of the besetting sins +of the southern fashionables; all I meant to say +was, that they show more of it there than at +home."</p> + +<p>"For my own part, I was delighted with the +generous, free, and open-hearted manner in which +I was treated by the few female acquaintances I +made; and I am almost ashamed to acknowledge +that they were far more intelligent and accomplished +than my prejudices had taught me to +expect."</p> + +<p>"You acknowledge, then, that you had some +provincial prejudices. Let me see! <i>then</i> I must +take you regularly to account, and catechise you."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the lady, as lightly as her habitual +sadness ever permitted, "I will answer truly."</p> + +<p>"I know you will speak truly whatever you do +answer; but will you speak the whole truth in answer +to whatever I shall ask?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>A sad and afflicted expression appeared upon +her countenance as she replied, "I need hardly +say to Mr. Chevillere, that those questions which +are proper for him to ask and for me to hear shall +be fully answered."</p> + +<p>"You do me but justice in supposing that I +would not discredit my new dignity, by propounding +questions which would lessen me in the eyes +of a fair witness; but, to tell you the truth, I seriously +meditated putting a few in addition to such +as were local, and perhaps in a more serious mood +than these might demand."</p> + +<p>"Proceed, sir, proceed," said the lady, somewhat +perturbed; "I must reserve the right to answer or +not. No trifling impediment, however, shall prevent +me from gratifying your curiosity."</p> + +<p>"Would you consider it a great misfortune to +reside in the southern states?"</p> + +<p>"Places and countries are to me nearly alike."</p> + +<p>"How so? You surely prefer your native land +to all others?"</p> + +<p>"Unhappiness soon makes us indifferent to mere +locality; situated as I am, many would prefer new +scenes."</p> + +<p>"Does not affliction enlarge the heart, and +extend the affections?"</p> + +<p>"I believe that slight sufferings make us captious—great +ones, humane and benevolent."</p> + +<p>"Is it a natural consequence, that, when benevolence +becomes universal, personal affections and +partialities wither in proportion?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Certainly not, as a consequence; but it is questionable +whether blighted hopes do not generally +precede the enlarged philanthropy spoken of."</p> + +<p>"May not much travelling and experience of the +world produce the same effect?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot speak experimentally on that point; +but I think it is very probable they do upon a masculine +mind."</p> + +<p>As Chevillere was about to continue his half-serious, +half-jesting questions, Mr. Brumley abruptly +entered, and announced to his daughter-in-law +his determination to proceed northward early +on the following morning; and almost at the same +moment, old Cato, with his stately step, profound +bow, and cap in hand, presented a letter to his +master, which he instantly knew by the superscription +to be from Randolph. Presenting his regards +to them both, he retired to peruse the epistle, +which will be found in the next chapter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.</span></p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"Belville, High Hills of the Santee, S. Carolina.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Chum</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"The deserts of Africa are not to be compared, +for loneliness, to a South Carolinian swamp. Oh! +the comforts and blessings of a corduroy turnpike! +These, you know, are made of poles laid down in +the bottom of the swamps for a road, in humble +imitation of that same most durable web. But the +swamps gone through, and myself safely landed +here—this Belville of yours is a most desirable +place. Your father must have been a man of taste, +friend Victor. The grove of Pride of India trees, +in front of the villa, stands exactly as you left it; +the vines run up and around Bell's window as +beautiful as ever; the pigeons wheel over the +garden and cotton-fields as gayly as of old. The +flowers which perfume this delightful and balmy +air, send up their sweets from the garden and the +lawn as they have done these forty years; at least +so testifies old Tombo the gardener. Your favourite +horse thrives, and is none the worse for a +trial of his speed and bottom which I made the +other day in a race with my own impetuous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>thoughts. Your mother seems happier than I have +ever seen her; and little Virginia Bell is the fairest +flower on the Chevillere estate. Will you believe +it! she introduced me to the housekeeper on my +arrival as having been her affianced bridegroom +ever since she was three months old, and then enjoyed +a school-girl laugh. By St. Benedict, that +laugh cut nearer to my heart than a funeral +sermon.</p> + +<p>"Why have you not written to her and extolled +some of my good qualities? She will never find +them out! and as to my becoming a serious, sighing +suitor, I am ten times farther from it than I was +the first day I blundered into such dangerous company. +If I were to elongate my phiz by way of +preparative for a sigh, she would split her little +sides with laughing at me. The fact is, I begin +to think myself pretty considerably of an ass among +the ladies, as your Yankees would express it. +What shall I do? shall I run for it? or shall I +stand here and die of the cold plague? If I laugh, +she laughs with me; if I look serious, she laughs at +me; if we visit, I am laughed at; if we are visited, I +am stared at; and thus it is, day after day, and week +after week. To your mother, I no doubt appear +like a more rational creature, but before Miss +Bell I am utterly at a loss and dumbfoundered.</p> + +<p>"How can I show your charming cousin that I +am not the fool she takes me for? must I shoot +somebody? That would be too bloody-minded. +Must I write a book? Sicken and become in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>teresting? +Ah! I have it! I'll get the fever and +ague (no hard matter you know here); but then +a man looks so unromantic with his teeth, and his +hands, and his feet all in motion like a negro dancing +'Juba.' A lady would as soon think of falling in +love with a culprit on the gibbet. I shall certainly +try what absence will do; but then suppose that I +am a bore, and no one entreats me to stay! Your +mother might deem it indelicate, under the circumstances, +for she certainly sees that I am a lost sinner; +then I should be blown, indeed, with all my +sins upon my head! without one redeeming quality +for the little Bell to dwell upon in my absence. +If I had rescued somebody from a watery grave—stopped +a pair of runaway horses—saved somebody's +life—shot a robber—been wounded myself—should +turn out to be some lord's heir in England—had +jumped down the Passaic or the Niagara—distinguished +myself against the Indians or the Algerines—or +even killed a mad dog—it would not be +so desperate a case for the hero of a love affair.</p> + +<p>"But here I am—a poor forlorn somebody, without +a single trait of heroism in my composition, or +a solitary past deed of the kind to boast of; unless +it may be bursting little brass bombs under the +tutor's windows in College, or shaving a horse's +tail, or one side of a drunken man's whiskers, or +laying two drunken fellows at each other's door. +Suppose I should get old Tombo, the gardener, +into the river by stratagem, merely that I might +pull him out again; as he seems to be a universal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>favourite here. But then suppose I should drown +him in these mock heroics? Ah, I see I shall have +to remain plain Beverly Randolph all my days! +Alas! the days of chivalry are gone! If I could +splinter a lance with some of these Sir Hotheads, +or Sir Blunderbys, the case might not be so desperate.</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven, however, that the age of poetry +is not gone too; for poetry, you know, is but the +shadow or reflection of chivalry—heroism—and +action! First an age of deeds, and then an age of +song—so here goes for the doggerel. But let me +see; are there not more than two ages? what +succeeds to an age of poetry? One of philosophy! +What succeeds philosophy? Cynicism or infidelity—next +a utilitarian age, and lastly we have a mongrel +compound of all—then we have revolutions, +bloodshed, sentiment, religion, and spinning-jennies. +Now you see I have hit it! we live in the +mongrel age; a hero of this era should fight—write—pray—and +spin cotton! Let's see how all +these could be united into a picture suitable for a +frontispiece to a work of the current age. First +there must be a spinning-jenny to go by steam, to +the wheel of which there must be a hand-organ. +The steam must be scattered against an enemy; +a long nosed fellow with the real nasal twang +must be seen upon his knees attending the jenny, +and singing doggerel to the music of the hand-organ—there's +a pretty coat of arms for you, and suitable +for the present age.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<p>"But seriously, my dear Chevillere, what am I +to do? I cannot get on without your assistance, +and yet I am ashamed to ask it; however, I shall +leave all these things to time—fate—and a better +acquaintance between the charming Miss Bell and +your humble servant.</p> + +<p>"I find you have more negroes here than we have +in Virginia, in proportion to the whites; and existing +under totally different circumstances, so far as +regards the distance between them and their +masters.</p> + +<p>"With us slavery is tolerable, and has something +soothing about it to the heart of the philanthropist; +the slaves are more in the condition of tenants to +their landlords—they are viewed more as rational +creatures, and with more kindly feelings; each +planter owning a smaller number than the planters +generally do here, of course the direct knowledge +of, and intercourse between each other is greater. +Every slave in Virginia knows, even if he does not +love, his master; and his master knows him, and +generally respects him according to his deserts. +<i>Here</i> slavery is intolerable; a single individual +owning a hundred or more, and often not knowing +them when he sees them. If they sicken and die, +he knows it not except through the report of those +wretched mercenaries, the overseers. The slaves +here are plantation live-stock; not domestic and +attached family servants, who have served around +the person of the master from the childhood of +both.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have known masters in Virginia to exhibit the +most intense sorrow and affliction at the death of +an old venerable household servant, who was quite +valueless in a pecuniary point of view.</p> + +<p>"Here, besides your white overseers, you have +your black <i>drivers</i>;—an odious animal, almost +peculiar to the far south. It is horrible to see one +slave following another at his work, with a cow-skin +dangling at his arm, and occasionally tying +him up and flogging him when he does not get +through his two tasks a day. These tasks I believe +are two acres of land, which they are required to +hoe without much discrimination, or regard to age, +sex, health, or condition; now I have seen stout +active fellows get through their two tasks by one +o'clock, while another poor, stunted, bilious creature +toiled the whole day at the same portion of labour. +Another abomination here, and even known in +some parts of Virginia, is that the females are required +to work in the field, and generally to do as +much as the males. This system is unworthy +even of refined slave-holders. But the hardest +part is to tell yet; they receive their provisions +but once a week, and then, each has for seven days, +either one peck of Indian corn, or three pecks of +sweet potatoes, without meat, or any thing else to +season this dry fare.</p> + +<p>"I will confess to you that, at first, I thought this +allowance much more niggardly than I now consider +it. In order to see how they lived, I went +into the thickest of the quarter, on purpose to share +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>a part of their food myself, and observe a little of +their economy; I found two or three stout fellows +standing at a large table, or frame, into which were +fixed two grindstones, or rather one was fixed and +the other revolved upon it, like two little mill-stones; +the upper stone was turned by a crank, +at which the two slaves seemed to work by turns. +The arrangements for this labour they made among +themselves. I then went into the best looking hut +of the quarter, just as they had all drawn round +a large kettle of small homminy, in the centre of +which I was pleased to see a piece of salt fat pork +about the size of a large apple. The family consisted +of six persons. They had all clubbed their +portions of food into a common stock.</p> + +<p>"'How often do you draw meat?' said I; they +informed me that they had none except at Christmas, +and that none were able to buy meat except +those who finished their two tasks early in the day, +and then cultivated their own little 'patches,' as +they are called. I then went round the huts to see +how many had meat, and was much rejoiced to +find that more than three-fourths lived substantially +well.</p> + +<p>"I was exceedingly amused at one thing in these +singular little communities, which was, that matches +of convenience are almost as common among them +as among their more fashionable masters. I suspect +it would puzzle some of your fashionable +belles to guess how these have their origin, and +what is the fortune upon which they are founded. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>I will tell you, if you have never observed it yourself. +The most active and sober hands, who are +able to finish their tasks early, and of course live +well, are always in great demand for husbands; +and a well-favoured girl is almost sure to select +one of these for her <i>helpmate</i> in the true sense of +the word. Nor is this excellence confined to the +males; many of the women are in as much demand +among the lazy fellows for their prowess in +the field, as the active men are among the women.</p> + +<p>"While the mothers are at work in the field, +their helpless offspring are all left under the care of +the superannuated women, in a large hut, or several +large huts provided for that purpose; and a more +unearthly set of wrinkled and arid witches you +never saw, unless you have more curiosity than +most of your Carolinians. These scenes, especially +if visited by moonlight, transport a man into +the centre of Africa at once; there is the dark, +sluggish stream, the dismal-looking pine-barrens, +and the palmetto, the oriental-looking cabbage-tree, +aided by the foreign gibberish, and the +unsteady light of the pine logs before the door, +now and then casting a fitful gleam of light upon +some of these natives of the shores of the Niger, +with their tattooed visages, ivory teeth, flat noses, +and yellow and blood-shot eyeballs.</p> + +<p>"I do not observe much difference between the +North and South Carolinians, except in the case of +those who inhabit the most southern portions of +the latter state. There your rich are more princely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>and aristocratic, and your poor more wretched and +degraded; but to tell you the plain truth, many of +your little slaveholders are miserably poor and +ignorant; and what must be the condition of that +negro who is a slave to one of these miserable +wretches? They are uniformly hard and cruel +masters, and the more fortune or fate frowns upon +them, the more cruel they become to their slaves. +This is a singular development of human character, +and not easily accounted for, unless we suppose +them to be revenging themselves of fate.</p> + +<p>"Most of the accomplished ladies whom I have +seen, were educated either at Salem or at the +north, and sometimes at both,—the preference being +given to New-York and Philadelphia. Therein +Virginia has the advantage; for scarcely a town +of two thousand inhabitants is without its seminary +for girls. I have myself visited those at Richmond, +Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, +Staunton, Lexington, Fincastle, &c. &c. This, +you will acknowledge, shows deep-seated wisdom +and foresight in the people; for if our wives and +mothers are intelligent, their offspring will be so +too.</p> + +<p>"Virginia Bell has just stolen into the parlour in +the south wing, where I am now writing, so there +is an end of slavery, and education, and all that +sort of thing; unless, indeed, your humble servant +may be said to have surrendered his freedom, and +to be now undergoing a new sort of schooling. +Her look is arch and knowing, as if she had read +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>every word I have written; I will finish my letter +when she goes out.</p> + +<p>"There now, I breathe more easily,—she is +gone! 'Mr. Randolph,' said she, 'I have a very +great curiosity to see the letter of a young gentleman; +I never saw one in my life.' 'Indeed!' said +I, 'then I will write you one before I leave my +seat.'</p> + +<p>"'No, no, no!' said she, blushing just perceptibly, +'you understand me very well; I mean such letters +as you write to my cousin; there would be +something worth reading in them; as for your letters +to young ladies, I have seen some of them. +O! deliver me from the side-ache, and weeping +till my eyes are red with irrepressible laughter; +if they would write naturally and simply, it would +not be so bad. There would then be only the natural +awkwardness of the subject; but to get upon +stilts, merely because the letter is to a lady, is too +bad. But you have not answered my question; +do you intend to show me that letter?'</p> + +<p>"'I will show you a better one.'</p> + +<p>"'No, no! I want to see none of your set +speeches upon paper, all so prim and formal; if +you care any thing for my good opinion, you will +show me one of your careless ones,' said she.</p> + +<p>"'Care any thing for your good opinion!' said +I, rising, and trying to seize her hand, which she +held behind her; 'I value your opinion more than +that of the whole sex besides.' She raised her +eyes in mock astonishment, and puckering up her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>beautiful little lips, whistled as if in amazement, +and then deliberately marched out of the room, +saying, as she stood at the entrance, 'Finish your +copy like a good boy, and be sure not to blot it, +and you shall have some nuts and a sweet cake;' +and I crushed the unfortunate epistle with chagrin. +She certainly takes me for a fool, and truly I begin +to think she is not very far wrong.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">B. Randolph.</span>"</span><br /> +</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"Baltimore, 18—.</span><br /></p> + +<p>"You will have learned by the previous letters<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> +of Lamar and myself, every interesting circumstance +which has occurred to us, together with our +<i>sage</i> observations upon men and things as they +were presented.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> These letters are omitted, of course, as the same information +has been already given to the reader.</p></div> + +<p>"Lamar spends more than half his time with the +Kentuckian,—he declares that he will never rest +satisfied until he persuades him to remove to the +high hills of the Santee, where he can have him +for a neighbour. He has found a new source of +amusement to-day, in the supposed discovery that +Damon is in love with the pretty country girl, on +whose account, you will recollect, he got into the +affray at the circus. Her father invited him to +pay them a visit, and Lamar has been trying to +persuade him to take advantage of it immediately, +and has even offered to accompany him. I have +no doubt he would succeed, had not the Kentuckian's +idol, Pete Ironsides, been sent into the country +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>'to board,' as he calls it. As it is, he has determined +upon accepting the invitation as he returns.</p> + +<p>"My own affairs are assuming too sombre a hue +for me to enjoy Lamar's foolery as I used to do, +when we three lived together, and when you and I +were made joint partakers of his animal spirits; <i>I</i> +in fact lived upon his stock in trade in that respect, +while you added no little to the joint concern; I +was always, I fear, but a sullen companion for +such merry fellows. But have you never observed +that the most lasting and ardent friendships are +formed of such materials? Even in married life, +you will, in nine cases out of ten, see the most opposite +qualities form the most durable and happy +connexions. This is running, I know, right in the +teeth of the romantic twaddle of the day, about +congenial sentiments, and the like; but is it not +true? Look around you, and see in every instance +if the lively woman has not chosen a serious husband; +the man of genius, a dull drone; the bigot +and fanatic, a romp; the pious lady, a libertine. +These observations, however, like most others of +the college stamp, may be destined to give place +to others of a very different character. When I +look back upon all the various revolutions of opinion +which the mind undergoes, before it arrives +even at our present state of maturity, I am dismayed, +and almost afraid to look forward.</p> + +<p>"Nor is it in matters of abstract opinion alone, +I fear, that we are destined to undergo changes. +Our hopes <i>must</i> be in some measure paralyzed, our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +hearts made colder, and our youthful friendships +broken asunder! Look what sad havoc a single +year has already made in our own catalogue. +Where now is that noble band of young and generous +spirits, who but a single twelvemonth ago +were all the world to each other? Two of them +have surrendered the bright hopes of young life +upon its very threshold, and the others are scattered +abroad over land and sea. But I have wandered +from the subject of our adventures, which +we have promised faithfully to record.</p> + +<p>"Is it not strange how fate seems to play with +us, when once we are fairly embarked upon life's +great current? I am now completely wound up +in perplexities and embarrassments, which, a week +ago, I never once thought of. The actors in this +new drama in which I am confessedly entangled, +were then perfect strangers to me; and how handsomely +has providence, or fate, or whatever you +may choose to call it, paved the way for my more +complete introduction into these new mysteries? +The lady becomes intimate with my mother, +though coming from opposite ends of the Union. +She travels home again and is taken ill on the road, +at the very time when Lamar and I strike into +the same road. It seemed, too, as if I was placed +at the table where our acquaintance commenced, +in the very position where I could not avoid making +a tender of my services; and now that I have +become almost a part of their little family here, I +find that they have been afflicted in some way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +beyond measure. They seem to be surrounded +with mysteries and strange connexions; more than +once have I gone specially to break the spell, and +clear away the trammels which render this most +strange and interesting young lady miserable. +Various methods have I devised to acquire the +secret, but they have always ended in awkwardness +and embarrassment. It is no easy matter to +initiate one's self into the midst of family secrets, +when one is comparatively a stranger; yet it +must be done, and that shortly. I feel that it is +necessary to my own peace; indeed it is necessary +in order that I may see my own way clearly, to +have these cruel doubts solved. Every hour but +adds to my entanglement, and if there is a shadow +of foundation for the phantasies of the lunatic, the +sooner I make the plunge the better. Yet how +simple I become; if I had now the decision of +character for which I once had credit in college, I +should not long suffer the dreams of a maniac to +disturb my good opinion of this most lovely and +interesting girl. You may talk of your embarrassments +and difficulties with Bell's untamable +humour; they are all child's play,—mere romping,—but +the case is not so easy of adjustment here; +the old gentleman has just announced, that he shall +resume his journey early to-morrow morning; so +that something must be effected this afternoon or +evening. If there is no other way, I will formally +seek an interview with the lady, and, however +painful it may be to her, I will ask her to explain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +her strange fear of the lunatic; of course I must +avow the reason; you shall hear the result.</p> + +<p>"P.S. <i>12 o'clock at night</i>—I have broken the +ice, my dear fellow, and no doubt you will think I +have got a cold bath for my pains.</p> + +<p>"Soon after dark I knocked at the door, and +waited some little time with throbbing pulses, to +hear that gentle and silvery voice bid me '<i>come +in!</i>' for I had seen the old gentleman go off in a +carriage, to the theatre, as I hoped. No summons +came—I repeated my knock with the same result. +I do not know what prompted me to an act so +rude, but I mechanically pushed open the door before +I had reflected a moment. I was in the presence +of the little fairy. She held in her hand an +open letter, which was wet with tears; her head +was leaning far back against the wall; her comb, +carrying with it the large rolls of her fair brown +hair, was partly lying on the window, and partly +stuck into its place; the pearl of her cheeks +was still wet with recent tears. I did not know +which was now worst, to retreat or go forward. +At first I thought she had fainted, and would have +sprung to the bell; but I soon saw that she slumbered +gently and peacefully. Randolph, there is +something heavenly in the slumbers of a young, +innocent, and beautiful female; but I will leave +my reflections for another time. I was about to +retreat, and had so far closed the door as to hide +my person, when she suddenly awoke and said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +'Come in, dear father, come in!' the lights had +not yet been brought, but I could see the crimson +mantling her neck and cheeks as she discovered +who the visiter was, and replaced her hair at the +same time.</p> + +<p>"I felt confused and ashamed, and stammered +some vague attempt at an apology. She made +light of my intrusion; but one thing attracted my +attention particularly. Just as the maid set the +lights upon the table in the centre of the room, I +thought that I recognised my mother's handwriting +in the letter which she now hastily folded up and +thrust into her reticule. As I mentioned, she had +been weeping over it. This set my imagination +to work; I could not divine on what theme my +mother could write to her; still less what subject +for grief they could have between them. I inquired +if she was well; she said 'yes, as well as usual, but +exhausted for want of sleep the previous night.' I +instantly connected her want of sleep and restlessness +with my mother's letter; and before I had +sufficiently reflected upon the import of the question, +I asked her whether her first acquaintance +with my mother had not been formed during her +late visit to the springs. She answered in the +affirmative. 'But why do you ask?' said she, +searchingly. 'For no particular reason, but the +question occurred to me, from seeing the handwriting +of the letter you have just folded up. I +thought it strange that you should receive a letter +from my mother, when I have received none,' +'This letter,' said she, 'was not received at this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +place; I was merely refreshing my memory with +its contents.' 'It is not often,' said I, 'that my +mother writes so as to bring tears into the eyes of +her friends, and if you would not consider the expression +of the wish too impertinent, and that too +when I have little expectation of its being granted, +I would say that I never before had so much curiosity +to see one of her letters.'</p> + +<p>"'Your curiosity,' said she, 'should be gratified +immediately, but this letter alludes to circumstances +which would perhaps be uninteresting to you; but +even were they otherwise, it would excite your +curiosity still more to read the letter, when I am +unable to give such explanations <i>now</i> as it requires.'</p> + +<p>"'You labour under a most grievous error,' said +I, 'if you suppose there are any circumstances +connected in any way with the present distress of +Miss Frances St. Clair, which would be uninteresting +to me. The express object of my visit to-night +was to ask that very explanation. It may seem +strange and impertinent that I should seek that +which you evidently avoid; but my excuse is, and +it is the only one that I can plead, that this is your +last evening in the city; will Miss St. Clair be +offended, if I acknowledge that upon this explanation +turns my happiness? I am fearful of giving +offence by acknowledging that any previous history +is necessary of one who carries in her countenance +a refutation of all calumnies.'</p> + +<p>"I had ventured to seize her unresisting hand,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +but as I concluded the sentence, she withdrew it, +and covered her face with her handkerchief, pressing +it hard, and breathing short. At the same +time I noticed some confusion with her distress, +though without anger. This imboldened me to +proceed.</p> + +<p>"'It may appear like double presumption in me +to ask an explanation before I can proffer a suit, +which may be instantly and indignantly rejected, +either with or without your history.'</p> + +<p>"'I will not prudishly affect to misunderstand +you, in either of the prominent points of your remarks,' +said she, her head sinking in modest guise, +'but before I reply to them, will you tell me whence +you have ever heard any thing against me.'</p> + +<p>"The question went straight to my suspicious +heart, and rankled there; insomuch that I coughed +and hemmed at it several times ineffectually; her +eyes being riveted on me all the while, like a judge's +upon a detected thief—I felt that her pure and +searching gaze was far more honest than my own, +and I should speedily have begun an explanation +if her father had not at that instant entered the +room. I thought he saw and disrelished the matter +in hand, for he seated himself in a chair, in a certain +manner, by which one understands a person +to say, 'I'll stay all night, if you have no objections.' +I will be up by daylight in the morning, lest the +old gentleman steal a march upon me.</p> + +<p class="center">"Yours truly,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.</span><br /></p> + + +<p><span class="ralign">"Savannah, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"After despatching my last letter, not knowing +exactly what else to do with myself in the present +state of affairs, I set out on horseback, telling the +family that I wished to see a little more of Carolina, +but inwardly resolved to follow the horse's +nose wherever he might lead, and continue thus to +ride and thus to be led until I might gather up my +scattered thoughts and determine what course to +pursue.</p> + +<p>"I will not deny, that on the second day in the +afternoon, about three o'clock (truth is always precise, +you know), I discovered in one corner of the +storehouse of my thoughts a secret design to try +'Bell' by a leave-taking, absence, and reappearance. +If you had been upon the ground to charge me +with the intention, I should no doubt have sworn +upon a stack of Testaments that it was not so; +and I could have done so honestly. You have +looked inwards too often not to know, that in wandering +through the dreary passages of one's own +mind, we blunder by accident upon many obscure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +motives, which, if boldly charged with them before +we set out on such a pilgrimage, we should stoutly +deny.</p> + +<p>"When the horses were brought up on the gravelled +road, and all things in readiness for my departure, +I cast a furtive glance at that too-knowing +and too-beautiful little brunette, who calls you +cousin, to see how she was about to feel on the +solemn occasion. Her looks were perfectly inexplicable. +I have thought of them ever since, but +for my life I cannot say in what feelings they had +their origin. There was neither sorrow, joy, love, +hatred, revenge, hope, despair, nor any other definable +emotion. There was a scarcely perceptible +smile, a slight shutting of the corner of one eye, +and a mock solemnity of the other unruly features, +as if one was winking to the other rebels as much +as to say, 'wait till he's out of hearing, and we will +have a rare laugh at his expense.' It was just +such a look as would make a man say, 'Zounds +and fury, madam, you'll never see me again; farewell, +for ever;' and then be laughed at for his +pains.</p> + +<p>"But what sort of a look was it? It was a +very knowing look, I am sure of that. She looked +as if she read all the inward workings of my moral +machinery. It was a serio-comic look; produced, +no doubt, by the idea that she was scanning me +thoroughly, while I imagined that I could see just +as clearly through her. In other words, as I have +somewhere else beautifully expressed it, she thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +me 'pretty considerable much of an ass,' and I am +pretty considerable much of her opinion, at least +before ladies. It is somewhat singular that this +tendency to display my weak side should have developed +itself at the very time when I most desired +to appear to advantage.</p> + +<p>"At last the parting moment came. I had +bidden your mother farewell in the breakfast-room, +and then proceeded to the front door, where stood +Virginia Bell.</p> + +<p>"'I think it very doubtful,' said I, 'whether I +shall be enabled to take your aunt's house in my +route home.'</p> + +<p>"'You are not going to run away with cousin's +favourite horse, are you?' said she.</p> + +<p>"By the Great Mogul! in my earnestness to invent +a pathetic lie, I forgot to arrange the consistency +of the plot.</p> + +<p>"'True, true!' said I, stammering; 'then I must +indeed run my head into danger again!' saying +which I sprang upon your horse, and rode like a +country doctor who has no practice. By-the-by, +that was nearer to an avowal than I have ever +come yet; your joyous, fun-loving creatures are +the most difficult to address in the world.</p> + +<p>"Oh! if I only had such a one in love with me, +what a race I would lead her! I would punish +the whole class of unapproachable little mischievous +misses! I would make her ogle me at church; +hang on my arm to the theatre; sigh by the fire-side, +and weep when she went to bed; I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +almost break her heart before I would take the +least pity upon her.</p> + +<p>"I am curious to know what sort of wives these +same little romps make. Do they romp it through +life, or do they settle down into your miserable, +sad, melancholy drones, who greet their husbands +when they come home with a sigh, or inexpressible +look, that drives more men to the bottle than +all the good wine and good company in the +world?</p> + +<p>"You ask me, at least I know you would ask me, +what I saw, or what occurred on the road to the +place from which this letter is dated. I will tell +you what I have not seen since I entered this land +of nullification. I have not seen a clear limpid +river that could be forded on horseback. Your +water-courses are dark, deep, still, and gloomy. +The foliage on their banks is superlatively rich +and abundant, but it is occasionally interspersed +with a species of natural beauties which I don't +admire, namely, little alligators; by-the-by, I never +see alligators, lizards, or tadpoles, that I do not +think of those weary days when we read together +Ovid's Metamorphoses.</p> + +<p>"Of a southern swamp I had no proper conception. +I thought they were black, dismal holes, covered +with old black logs, and black snakes, and +frogs, and vapours; instead of which, they bear a +nearer resemblance, in the summer, to a princely +(or <i>Prince's</i>) botanical garden. The very perfume +upon the olfactories is far more delightful than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +greatest assemblage of artificial odours. Then +there are the rich and variegated flowers of all +hues, sizes, and colours, set amid the deep green +of the rich shrubbery. The soil of which these +swamps are composed is as black as tar, and pretty +much of the same consistence.</p> + +<p>"I observe, as I travel farther south, that bread +is seldom seen upon the table. What is called +here <i>small homminy</i> is used in its place, at breakfast, +dinner, and supper.</p> + +<p>"I saw no ploughs in your fields. Horses +seemed to be used only for carriages, racing, and +for the private use of gentlemen and ladies. I saw +no brick houses; your mother's and that of Col. S. +being the only two I saw in the whole state. I +saw many private mansions very tastefully built +and ornamented; some of them were splendid, +but mostly built of wood and painted white.</p> + +<p>"After three days pretty constant riding after +my horse's nose, he brought me to the banks of the +Savannah, at a little miserable-looking town, or +village, called Purysburg. Here I found a steamboat +just about to depart for Savannah. I immediately +engaged passage for myself, servant, and +two horses (one of which is yours; confound him, +I say, for betraying me). I amused myself by +shooting at the alligators, as we glided along the +water, and had kept up the sport some time, when +a mellow distant sound came along the surface of +the water, like an exquisitely played Kent bugle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +It was decidedly the most enchanting music I ever +heard, and seemed nearer and nearer until it +appeared to rise from under the very bow of the +boat. You will be surprised when I tell you that +it was made through a straight wooden tube, about +five feet long. The musician was a tall, ebony-coloured +old African, who stood up in one of your +singular-looking batteaux, amid half-a-dozen other +negroes, who seemed to be at their luncheon. It +looked much like a boat on the Niger; indeed, I +found my imagination carrying me into such distant +regions, that I instinctively bit my lip to see +whether I was awake or dreaming.</p> + +<p>"The city of Savannah became distinctly visible +at a distance of about seven miles. A brilliant +city indeed it is. You cannot imagine any thing +finer than the view from the river. It is situated +on a high bluff, and commands an extensive view +up and down the stream. In the latter direction, +on a clear day, you can see, without glasses, the +lighthouse on the island of Tybee.</p> + +<p>"By-the-by, I have been down among those +islands; they are all inhabited, and by a class of +men as much like our real old-fashioned Virginia +gentlemen as can well be imagined. This city is +nobly built, and is laid out on a magnificent scale, +having a public square, containing a grove of pride +of India trees, in the centre of every four squares, +and a row of the same along each side of every +street.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Talk of Philadelphia, and New-York, and +Boston, and Richmond, and New-Haven—Savannah +outstrips them all, both in artificial and natural +beauty. It seems the residence of the prince of +the world and his nobility.</p> + +<p class="center">"Yours, most truly,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">B. Randolph.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"Baltimore, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Though I had but two hours' sleep, I was up +betimes to catch a parting glimpse of an interesting +person who need not be named. When I descended +into the great vestibule of this extensive +establishment, I found the door of their parlour +open, and the entry nearly blocked up by bandboxes, +trunks, and all the little paraphernalia of +which you and I are as yet quite ignorant. A carriage +stood at the door; the lady and the old gentleman +sat side by side upon the sofa, the former +in her travelling habit, while the latter held in his +hand a cup of coffee, which he sipped, giving directions +from time to time to the servants. I paid +them the compliments of the morning, not in the +most bland and courtly style, for to tell you the +truth I felt a little inclined to poaching, and the +old gentleman looked <i>to me</i> not unlike a vigilant +and surly gamekeeper; however, he received me +with a welcome, perhaps it was a northern one; +but of that I will tell you more when we get fully +into the enemy's country, as your namesake of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +Roanoke would say. My presence seemed to +hurry the old gentleman's coffee down his throat, +hot as it was, and in ten minutes, before I had exchanged +ten words with the lady, all was pronounced +in readiness.</p> + +<p>"The old gentleman did not leave her for a moment. +I of course handed her to the carriage, +and took, as I supposed, a last look. I suppose I +must have appeared dolorous enough. The parting +moment came, the last pressure of the hand +was given, the door closed, whip cracked, and the +carriage had gone some time, before I found myself +standing in the middle of the street, my head turned +to one side just far enough to catch a glimpse of Lamar +in his nightgown, half-way out of a three-story +window, laughing with that complacent self-satisfaction +which is peculiar to him. 'Half-past four and a +dark stormy morning,' cried he, in true watchman +style. I pulled my hat down over my face, and +walked away from the hotel as fast as my impetuous +blood would drive me; indeed, I felt provoked +at the time. I had not walked far, before I recollected +having felt something in my hand, as if it +had found its way there by accident, while I was +exchanging adieus with my enslaver. I had mechanically, +while abstracted in the street, thrust it +into my waistcoat pocket. I now drew it forth,—it +was a small roll of paper, which you might have +put into a thimble,—I opened it very carefully, in +hope that there might be some even carelessly-scribbled +line, which I could preserve as a me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>mento. +By heavens, Randolph, there was a memento +upon it! and evidently intended for my eye +alone.</p> + +<p>"The writing was in pencil, and scarcely legible; +with some difficulty I could make out these words.</p> + +<p>"'The explanation sought by Mr. Chevillere has +not been surreptitiously avoided by me, nor will it +ever be; but if he is wise, he will forget one who +has already extended the influence of her unhappiness +too far.'</p> + +<p>"I read these lines over again and again. I +walked round Baltimore as if it had been a hamlet. +It seemed to me that every person whom I met +could read in my countenance something strange +and hurried. At length, however, I found my way +to the breakfast table. Lamar, as my bad luck +would have it, sat almost opposite to me. I do not +think I ever saw him perfectly disagreeable before; +all his remarks seemed to me <i>mal-apropos</i>, +and he is not usually so unfortunate, you know. I +made a hasty breakfast, and hurried out on purpose +to avoid him, but in vain! he was with me in an +instant. 'All settled, I suppose, Chevillere,' said he. +'Yes, all is settled for our journey to New-York,' +said I, 'except our bills, and that you may attend +to as soon as you please.' I ordered old Cato to +see the luggage on board the steamboat for Philadelphia: +Lamar did the same. 'But, Chevillere,' +said he, 'you are not going to leave the Kentuckian,' +upon which he set off to summon our new +companion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Our next epistle will in all probability be from +Philadelphia or New-York; we shall only stay a +short time in the former place, as we conceive the +other to be the true point from which to make observations.</p> + +<p class="center">"Yours truly,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.</span><br /></p> + + +<p><span class="ralign">"High Hills of the Santee, 18—.</span><br /> + + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>"From the city of Savannah, I paid my first +visit to our old heathen dad, Neptune, and if first +impressions of the sea were not as common and as +numerous as doggerel verses in a modern lady's +album, I might be tempted to become sublime for +your edification. I was rowed down from the +city, in a beautiful boat made of a single cypress, +by the hands of the gentleman who was so polite +as to give me this gentle passage. By this you +may know that they take as much pride in their +boats as the Venetians themselves. It was beautifully +painted, and rowed by eight well-formed +negroes. Inside of the seat at one end was a +marooning chest, as they called it, full of all kinds +of liquors and cold meat, with the necessary utensils +for their use. The gentleman was an islander; +and during the few hours in which we were gliding +over the seventeen miles between the city and the +ocean, he entertained me with an account of his +marooning expeditions. These are their excursions +upon the Sea Islands, for purposes of fishing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +and hunting. These islanders are a peculiar, but +delightful people; however, I must not keep you too +long in the sea-breeze; at some other time, perhaps, +I may indite you a history of these hospitable +and isolated gentlemen.</p> + +<p>"When I left Savannah, I determined to pursue +a different route from the one by which I came. +I therefore crossed the Savannah river fifteen or +sixteen miles above the city; I then crossed the +country in as straight a line as I could draw upon +the map, between the ferry and the high hills of +Santee; and in a short time found myself in as +complete solitude as ever Crusoe experienced upon +his desolate island. Nothing was to be seen but +the tall and gloomy-looking pines, stretching away +into the bosom of the atmosphere, and the interminable +sands which lay before me as far as the eye +could reach. Twilight presently came on, and +those horrible musicians, the tree-frogs, began to +chirp and sing. The dolorous note of the whippoorwill +was heard, with a horn accompaniment +from the throat of a screech-owl. Here was a +pretty serenade for a man with his heart attuned +for melody, and his stomach attuned for a slash at +a cold ham, for I had had no dinner. I struck up +an accompaniment from my own pipes, but I soon +found that the vacuum was too profound for a +due modulation in concert pitch with this sylvan +band. I wished them all at the d—l, with their +shrill pipes and full crops, and set my horse, or +rather <i>your</i> horse, at full gallop, in a vain effort to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +escape from the intended honour; but the harder +I rode, the more enthusiastic they became. I soon +made another comfortable discovery; I found that +I had been riding for the last two hours in a perfect +wilderness, in utter contempt of what two +pioneer wheels had made for a highway; nor +could I tell the north from the south, nor the east +from the west, having foolishly enough turned the +horse round and round in order to gaze at the +stars. 'Like master like man,' my servant did +the same, as if he could read in the pine tops +more than I could in the heavens. All my astronomy +had gone with my dinner; I could see nothing +in the starry regions but what is sometimes called +the <i>Frying-pan</i>. Oh! the shades of Thales of +Miletus, who first imported astronomy into Greece! +to think that a bachelor of such heavenly arts +could not look into the face of the Frying-pan +without thinking of grilled chickens and rashers +of bacon, and the crackling of fire, and the sputtering +of fat. I dismounted, and ordered Sam to do +likewise, and try to find me a piece of flint by +which to strike a light; he declared that he had +not seen a stone or a rock since he came into the +Carolinas. 'So much for geology and astronomy,' +said I. 'I rader tink they all bad fur empty +stumuck, masta,' said Sam, considering himself privileged +by the exigencies of the case. 'True enough, +Sam,' said I, 'it would be an apt scholar that could +produce bread or a stone either by his learning, in +our circumstances.'</p> + +<p>"As I mounted, Sam mounted, not a word more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +having been uttered; he seemed to be aware of the +fact, that language generally fails with the food; +a man's ideas in such a case run fast enough, but +they are all in humble life; below stairs, diving +among pots, and pans, and pantries, and receptacles +for cold victuals. As the ideas ran, so ran +the horses, until the water began to splash our legs +from a thick bushy swamp, into which we found +that we had initiated ourselves. 'Now Sam,' said +I, 'we are swamped.' Sam said nothing aloud, +but was evidently muttering something to himself, +being engaged, as I supposed, at his secret devotions, +for you must know that he would be a Puritan. +Like most of his race, however, he has +more faith in the effect of singing hymns, than devotions +of any other kind. I saw that he was +itching for a trial at his usual relief in all his +troubles. I therefore told him not to suppress it +on my account, but to give it free utterance; the +idea of it naturally excited ludicrous recollections +of old Noll and the veteran Rumpers, but Sam +saw the new vein I had so inappropriately fallen +into, and therefore resisted his inward strivings. +I must say, <i>en passant</i>, that I think him honest +and sincere in his faith, I therefore do not ridicule +him.</p> + +<p>"We waded through the black regions of this +little pandemonium for some three-quarters of a +mile, before the dry sand again greeted our hearing. +The Frying-pan still stared me in the face, +and the sylvan band still plied their pipes. We +had not proceeded far by land before we came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +directly against a fence. I was truly glad to see +it, for I was sure it must lead to some inhabited +place, and accordingly ordered Sam to let us into +the field, which we found to be an immense plain +covered with cotton,—the most beautiful of all +crops. We rode between the rows, for many a +weary foot, until at length the glimmering of many +lights greeted our longing eyes. We made directly +for them, and soon stood in the midst of an immense +negro quarter. On inquiring whether their +master's house was near at hand, we found that it +was many miles distant. The overseer's house, +they told us, was not more than half a mile off; +but to these animals I have always had an utter +aversion. I therefore bought some fodder for the +horses, and two fowls for ourselves, from the +<i>driver</i>, who had the privilege of raising them, and +employed his wife to pick and grill them upon the +coals, and a delightful and savoury prelude they +soon sent up to my famished senses; a heartier or +a sweeter meal was never made than I thus took; +a fowl seasoned with salt, and a large pot of small +homminy, served direct to my mouth from a large +wooden spoon, without the cumbrous intervention +of plates, knives, and forks. Our meal being finished,—for +you must know Sam and I dined at +the same time and from the same table, which was +none other than the ground floor, covered with +the head of a barrel,—hunger is a wonderful leveller +of distinctions,—as I was saying, our meal +being finished, a goodly number of the more aged,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +respectable, and intelligent blacks of the quarter +assembled to entertain us, or be entertained themselves, +I scarcely know which. Many of these +negroes, I found, were born in Africa, and one +poor tattooed fellow claimed to be of royal blood. +He told me that his father, the king, had a hundred +children. I asked if any of those present could +write; they replied that there was one man in the +quarter who could write in his own language, and +several of them went out and brought in a tall, +bald-headed old fellow, who seemed to come with +great reluctance. After being told what was +desired, he acknowledged to me that he could +write when he last tried, which was many years +previous. I took out my pocket-book, tore out a +blank leaf, and handing him a pen from my pocket +inkstand, requested him to give me a specimen. +He took the head of the barrel on his lap, and +began, if I recollect right, on the right side of the +page; the following is a fac simile of his performance:</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" alt="fac simile" title="fac simile" /> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The following is a liberal translation into English:—</p> + +<p>"'In the name of God the merciful! the compassionate! +God bless our Lord Mohammed his +prophet, and his descendants, and his followers, +and prosper them exceedingly. Praise be to God +the Lord of all creatures! the merciful, the compassionate +king of the day of judgment! Thee +we adore, and of thee we implore assistance! +Guide us in the right way, the way of those with +whom thou art well pleased, and not of those with +whom thou art angry, nor of those who are in +error. Amen!'</p> + +<p>"The original is written in Arabic. The old +fellow's name is Charno, which it seems he has retained, +after being enslaved, contrary to their general +custom in that respect. I became quite affected +and melancholy in talking to this venerable old +man, and you may judge from that rare circumstance +that he is no common character.</p> + +<p>"I now fixed my saddle under my head in a +cotton shed to rest for the night; but, weary as I +was, I could not directly get to sleep for thinking +of sandy deserts, old Charno, chicken suppers, +negro quarters, and Virginia Bell! You see she +is still the heroine, let my wanderings lay the scenes +where they will.</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt but you will say, on the reception +of this letter, 'Well! I thought Randolph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +would run his nose into all the out-of-the-way +places in Carolina,' I plead guilty! I have a sort +of natural instinct for unbeaten paths, and the one +by which I arrived at Belville shall be given in my +next; until then, fare thee well.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">B. Randolph</span>."</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Victor Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"At length we have arrived in this flourishing +city, not, however, without having experienced +many vicissitudes of weather, humour, and adventure, +the two latter especially; how could we help it, +when the Kentuckian formed so large a part of our +little crew, by steamboat and stage? His animal +spirits are worth a million.</p> + +<p>"You cannot conceive any thing more agreeable +to an emancipated and sombre student, than to get +a comfortable high backed leather seat in one of +these fine northern coaches, his cloak collar put up +like a mask, and the rim of his cap drawn down +to meet it, just leaving a peeping-hole sufficient to +see and enjoy every thing worth enjoying, at +the same time defying the gaze of intruding eyes.</p> + +<p>"If there should fortunately happen to be such +a reckless, yet generous spirit as Damon among +the company, the student's happiness is complete, +for you cannot imagine what a protector he is +against intruders. In our American stage-coaches +(and perhaps in all others) there are sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +men, full of brandy eloquence, which is kept so +constantly on the stretch by repeated libations; or +boisterous politicians, with their mouths so full of +the last importation of news from Washington, or +of the contents of the morning papers, that a complaisant +young man is almost compelled to make +himself ridiculous, by getting into a political controversy.</p> + +<p>"Damon took all that sort of work off our hands, +in the most generous and chivalrous spirit imaginable. +His eye was ever bright and ready; there +was no sinking into dull student-like lethargy one +moment, and flashing out into erratic folly the +next; he was ready with lance in rest, to take a +tilt against anybody's windmill; at home upon +all subjects, being exactly in such a state of refinement +as not to be ashamed to show his ignorance, +and always eager to acquire information. +Nor is his mind dull or unapt; he will rebut or +ridicule an adversary with astonishing shrewdness. +One of his peculiarities amused me much; he was +evidently more excited in the stage-coaches than +in the boats. He was never satisfied until he had +let down the front glasses, so that he could see the +horses; then he would talk fluently to his near +neighbour, and keep his neck stretched all the +while, so as to have all the horses in view, throwing +out occasional digressive remarks as to their +various powers, as thus, 'that's my little hearty, +make a straight back to it;' and then turning to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +his antagonist he would continue his remarks, as +if nothing had drawn off his attention.</p> + +<p>"But I must not take up all your time with our +comic adventures. When I get into that vein +more completely, you shall have his exploits in the +city. By-the-by, I suggested to Lamar that he +should take that part of the correspondence off my +hands, but he said, 'Randolph knows I'm not one +of the writing sort, therefore you must write for +us both; action,' said he, with a mock heroic flourish, +'is my forte.'</p> + +<p>"We are comfortably situated at the City Hotel +in Broadway. After we had selected our rooms, +I sallied out into that gay and brilliant promenade, +which intersects the city from north-east to +south-west. You may there see, on a fine sunshiny +afternoon, all the fashion and beauty of this +great city; the neat, tasteful, Parisian costume, in +close contrast with the more sober guise of London. +There you may hear intermingled the language of +the Gaul, the German, and the modern Roman. To +the right and left you see the spires of various +Christian temples; and smiling faces, and happy +hearts, will greet you at every step.</p> + +<p>"To a secluded college novice like myself, there +is something new and moving in all this life and +bustle; it irresistibly brings to my mind ideas of +gay feats, tilts, tournaments, and brilliant fairs. +Within the finished bow-windows are wealth and +splendour, and brilliancy, which we poor southerns +have not seen in our own native land; marble<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +buildings, stores with granite columns, and the +streets crowded with immense omnibuses (these +are stages to transport persons from one part of +the city to another); splendid private equipages, +<i>republican</i> liveries, and carts loaded with merchandise.</p> + +<p>"Seeing some trees and a comfortable green plat +a little farther up the street, I worked through the +crowd of persons, and carts, and stages, and found +myself in the midst of the far famed Park, and immediately +in front of that proud edifice the City Hall. +I ascended the marble platform, and surveyed the +gay throng, as they moved on in one continued and +dense current, with merry faces, miserable hearts, +and empty heads and pockets; but to talk of these +stale things, you know, in the present age, is all +stuff and sheer nonsense. I therefore put my reflections +in my portfolio to carry home with me, +and proceeded to the house-keeper's room, as I had +been directed, to obtain the good lady's pilotage, +or that of some deputy, to the governor's room, +which I readily found. There is nothing remarkable +in the two rooms which contain the paintings, +except that they command from the windows a +fine view of the park and the surrounding streets. +Yes, there are two venerable old stuffed chairs. +The one in the north wing was used by Washington +at his inauguration as first President of the +United States, and the one in the east room by +the elder Adams. There are portraits of George +Washington, George Clinton, Alexander Hamil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>ton, +Commodore Bainbridge, Monroe, Jackson, +Duane, Varick, Livingston, Clinton, Willet, Radcliff, +Captain Hull, Governor Lewis, Macomb, +Yates, Van Buren, Brown, Perry, La Fayette, +Decatur, Tompkins, Colden, Allen, Paulding, +Hone, Stuyvesant, Bolivar, Columbus, Monkton, +Williams: some of these last are only half-length. +Over the portrait of Washington is a blue flag +rolled up, with the following inscription in golden +letters:—'This standard was displayed at the inauguration +of George Washington, first President +of the United States, on the 30th day of April, 1789. +And was presented to the Corporation of New-York +by the Second Regt. of N. Y. State Artillery, +Nov. 25th, 1821.'</p> + +<p>"While I was standing at one of the front windows +again looking over the moving masses of +Broadway, I saw a lady approach on the eastern +footway of the Park, with a hurried step, until she +came nearly opposite to the Hall. Crossing Chatham, +she turned abruptly down one of the narrow +streets running at right angles to the eastern line +of the Park. There was something in the figure +and carriage of this lady which, unknown at first +to my consciousness, quickened my pulsations; +but when she approached to the nearest point in +her course, I felt morally certain that it was none +other than that mysterious charmer, who by her +father's connivance, or rather management, slipped +through my fingers at Baltimore, and that, too, +without my even having asked her address in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +city. The recollection of this latter circumstance +prompted me instantly to seize my hat and hurry +after her. Throwing the accustomed fee to my +obliging pilotess, I walked with all possible haste +to the corner of the street which I supposed she +had taken. I found that a little crowd of ragged +urchins had collected upon some occasion of their +own, and asked the most intelligent-looking among +them if he had seen a lady in black go down that +street,—pointing down the hill from Tammany +Hall; and, by way of reply, one of the most disgusting, +discordant, and ill-timed peals of laughter +that I ever heard burst upon my senses.</p> + +<p>"'Lady in black!' said the most forward fellow, +'you will find plenty of black ladies down that +street, with black eyes to boot.' I retreated in +perfect disgust with these precocious vagabonds, +not, however, before I was saluted with another +peal of laughter, accompanied by the epithets—'greenhorn,' +'young 'un,' 'bumpkin,' &c. &c.</p> + +<p>"You cannot conceive of any more thoroughly +disgusting feeling than that produced upon the +mind of a young man bred up in the country, upon +this first exhibition of the detestable forms which +vice and dissipation assume in every large city,—young +females with bloated countenances,—boys +with <i>black</i> eyes and bruised faces, with their disgusting +slang and familiar nicknames, of Sal, Bet, +Kate, Tom, Josh, Jack, or Jim, and their unmeaning +oaths, Billingsgate wit, and filthy and ragged +garments. There are certain districts of the city +in which these are always to be seen, I am in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>formed,—but +of these more anon. I turned down +the street, and pursued the course which I supposed +the lady had taken, until I got to the bottom of +what had once been a deep glen in its rural days. +I could see nothing but entrances to tanyards, and +warehouses full of leather and morocco. The +houses, too, looked at least a century and a half +behind those on the hill, in architectural taste. +Turning to a woman who was sweeping the little +narrow pavement in front of one of the houses, I +asked her what part of the city I was in.</p> + +<p>"'This is called the <i>swamp</i>, sir,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"'This,' thought I to myself, 'is a very different +affair from our swamps.' Just at that moment, +casting my eye along one of the narrow streets, I +caught a glimpse of the same figure, attended only +by her maid, entering a low, Dutch, dingy-looking +house, with the gable end to the street. I walked +as rapidly as I could in the same direction, and was +within some twenty yards of the house, when two +young men issued from the door, with the air and +dress of gentlemen. I did not immediately observe +their faces, because my mind was intently occupied +with the lady, and the probable cause of her visit +to such a strange part of the city. These reflections +were suddenly interrupted by some one slapping +me on the back, and exclaiming in my ear, +'Ha! my Chevillere! you here! how do you do? +what brought you here?' but I am resolved to +put your curiosity to a serious test; names in my +next. Yours, truly,</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere</span>."</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /> + +(In continuation.)<br /></p> + + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /></p> + +<p>"Who do you think it was who met me at such +an unlucky moment, just, perhaps, as I was about +to stumble upon some clew to unravel the mysteries +of this fair little breathing ignis fatuus? It +was no other than young Arthur, our old schoolfellow, +from Kentucky. He has come hither to +attend a course of medical lectures, though they +have medical lectures in his own State. Arthur +was not of our class, nor yet one of the glorious +three, but he was an old and respected friend and +schoolmate, and therefore his acquaintance could +not be cut quite so unceremoniously at the very +moment of its renewal; and even if I had made +some silly excuse to avoid him for the moment, he +would undoubtedly have seen me kicking my heels +in the street, 'like a strange dog in a crowd,' as +Damon has it; so I reluctantly wheeled about with +him. His companion was also a student of medicine, +and a native of this city; he was introduced +to me by the name of Hazlehurst. I am aware you +are anxious to know what they could be seeking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +in the identical house in which I had just blockaded +my fair fugitive. I wish, as heartily as you can do, +that I could explain that matter to our mutual satisfaction. +I pumped our inchoate doctors in vain; +they explained their own visit to the house very +satisfactorily, upon the grounds of professional +business, in the name and on behalf of their preceptor, +for it seems Arthur has been here all the +summer; but they neither saw nor heard of any +lady in the premises, and all further inquiries were +of course ended by the interpretation which Arthur +chose to put upon my inquiries concerning a fair +fugitive, so soon after my arrival. He was not a +little pleased to hear that Lamar was in the city, in +close league with a countryman of his own.</p> + +<p>"By-the-way, Arthur is a noble fellow and an +accomplished gentleman. He has all the prerequisites +of natural capacity and elementary acquirements, +for the study of his arduous profession. +I know no young gentleman who has chosen a +profession in every way better suited to his peculiarities +of mind and temperament. You will +doubtless recollect that he always had a fondness +for the natural sciences, and this, after all, is the +true 'condition precedent' for making a profound +and philosophic physician. How lamentable it is +that such minds are always thrown in the background +in our colleges! This results from that +everlasting <i>dingdong</i> hammering at languages, +before the pupil has discovered their uses, and +without any regard to his peculiarities of mind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +Those students who, like Arthur, exhibit an apt +capacity for the study of things, and their properties +and relations, are almost always dull at the +study of their representatives, or, in other words, +languages; why, then, do the instructers in these +institutions destroy the energies and the vigour of +such a mind, by making him fail at those things +for which nature has disqualified him, or, rather, +for which nature has too nobly endowed him? I +am no enemy to the study of the vehicles by which +we communicate with our fellow-men, but I am an +enemy to the uniform, monotonous drilling, which +all collegians in this country receive alike, because +I have observed in this process, that third-rate +minds invariably rank first. There are, in every +college, numbers of young gentlemen who have +parrot-like capacities, and memories that retain +little words; but who, if required to originate ideas +of their own, would soon show the native barrenness +of their understandings.</p> + +<p>"Look around you now in the world, and see +what has become of these <i>distinguished</i> linguists! +One out of a hundred, perhaps, has received a professorship +in some new institution, and the others +are all falsifying the promises of their precocious +youth; while of the thoughtful and abstract dunces, +as they were considered in college, many are building +up lasting reputations, upon the deep and solid +foundations which our hackneyed systems of education +could not develop. Necessity and the +world develop them; and these, we soon find, are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +very different from college life. Now, college +discipline should imitate the world in this respect; +it should develope every man's peculiar genius. +Neglect of this is the true reason why so many +men distinguish themselves in the world, who were +considered asses in college, and why so many who +were considered amazingly clever in college, are +found to be little better than asses in the world.</p> + +<p>"Now that I have somewhat recovered from the +chagrin of Arthur's mal-apropos appearance, I am +really glad that he is here. I must surely see +the lady again. Indeed, I am resolved to do so, if +I have to stay here twelve months; and then Arthur's +presence will much facilitate our design of +surveying the under-currents of the busy world. +You know that I am not prone to trust the surface +of things. I shall therefore follow him into many +places besides his fashionable resorts. He tells me +that a malignant epidemic is said to be prevailing +here, and that their visit to the sick person before +mentioned was with a view to ascertain whether +the patient really had malignant symptoms. They +think she had not. I was not so much interested +in the affairs of their patient during the discussion +on the subject, as I was in their possible consequences +upon others,—but of that more in my +next. Young Doctor Hazlehurst seems to be a +very fashionable personage, but gentlemanly in his +manners, and unaffected in his deportment.</p> + +<p>"They walked with me to our hotel, in order to +see Lamar, but unfortunately he was out. How<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>ever, +Arthur left college greetings for him, and +young Hazlehurst left his address, and invitations +for us both to call at his father's house, who, it +seems, lives in the city; so you see we have made +the first step towards seeing both the upper and +under-currents during our sojourn. Whatever +they bring forth shall be as faithfully chronicled as +your own adventures. Truly,</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere</span>."</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /> + +(In continuation.)<br /></p> + + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"The little coincidences of real life are of much +more frequent occurrence than is generally allowed +by our prim historians. Arthur and his companion +had not long departed, when Lamar and Damon +came in. I mentioned their visit to the former, +when, picking up the card and examining it with +evident surprise, he placed his finger upon the number +of the street, and held it across the table for +Damon to see it, who immediately exclaimed, +'Well! I'm flambergasted now! if that ain't what +I call a <i>leetle</i> particular.'</p> + +<p>"'Why, what is the matter?' said I, astonished +in my turn at their astonishment.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, nothing more,' said Lamar, 'than that +Damon and myself have but just come from the +very door upon which that name and number are +placed.'</p> + +<p>"'Are you acquainted with the family?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'No,' replied he; 'I was standing opposite to +the door in question, when a young lady alighted +from her carriage and entered the house; not,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +however, before she suddenly stopped and took a +searching look at your humble servant.'</p> + +<p>"'Had you ever seen her before?'</p> + +<p>"'If I am not mistaken she is the same young +lady whom I saw two years ago at the Virginia +springs, when I obtained leave from college to go +there on account of my health; she was then +quite young; just entering her teens, I should +suppose.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah! ha! have I caught you at last?' said I, +as Lamar began to redden under a searching +glance; 'then there was some foundation for the +stories which followed you upon that occasion.'</p> + +<p>"'Bah!' said he, 'they were all nonsense; but +come, Damon, tell Chevillere what fine stump +speeches you heard this morning at a New-York +election.'</p> + +<p>"I saw his drift in amusing me with Damon, and +I was indeed quite willing to be so amused.</p> + +<p>"'Smash me if I heard any speeches,' said Damon, +'nor saw any candidates either; they manage +them things here quite after a different fashion.'</p> + +<p>"'Why, how do they manage them, if they +have no candidates and no speeches?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'By the art of hocus pocus, I believe,' continued +Damon; 'I had whetted my appetite for a +New-York speech till I was completely on a wire +edge, by the time we got to the polls; then they +had a parcel of chaps standing behind a little counter, +with gold headed poles, like freemasons in a +cake-shop, playing at long-pole with the boys.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +Why! where's the election,' said I, to a chap outside +the counter, with one black eye too many. +'Right under your nose,' said he; 'clap down your +tickets and kiss the calf-skin, as I did just now;' +and then he cramm'd my hands full of little bits of +paper, 'H—l in the West,' said I, 'are we going +to have no speeches, no drink, no fighten?' 'O!' +said he, 'there's plenty of drink in the bar-room +next door, and you can get your stomach full of +fight, if you will walk down to the <i>Five Points</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'And how do the people know whom they vote +for?' said I to Lamar.</p> + +<p>"His answer satisfied me that Damon's account +of the business was nearly correct as to matters of +fact; and that the New-Yorkers never have what +we call 'stump speeches,' and never personally +know, or even see their representatives. These +city mobocracies, composed as they are, principally +of wild Irish, are terrible things; but I must +adhere to our bargain, to have nothing to do with +politics.</p> + +<p>"Lamar has evidently ripped up an old wound +this morning, and I am truly rejoiced thereat; we +shall take an early day to pay the visit spoken of, +at which time I shall observe the gentleman's +movements, and see if I cannot treasure up a little +ammunition for future use, wherewithal to pay off +old scores against him.</p> + +<p>"You recollect, perhaps, the old woman's comfort +in a time of great famine; 'she thanked God +her neighbours were as bad off as herself.' I find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +very little comfort in this truly philanthropic doctrine, +save from occasionally amusing myself with +anticipations of Lamar's more fashionable dilemma.</p> + +<p>"The Kentuckian's pulsations seem to be regulated +by a gigantic and equipoised animal impulse. +There is very little sinking of the heart in gloomy +anticipation, with him; he enjoys the present, uninterrupted +by the past or future. After all, are +not these hardy and free sons of the west the happiest +of all created beings? They enjoy nearly +every thing that we do, perhaps not exactly in the +same degree, but certainly with as much of the +heart, if not so much of the head; I really envy +Damon his hearty and joyous laughs, such as I +could once indulge in myself, and I have often +asked what is it that has made the change? Can +you answer the question, Randolph?</p> + +<p>"I once thought that you and Lamar would +laugh it on through life, but it seems that you have +scarcely started, each in his distinct career, before +you begin sowing the seeds of your future sorrows, +don't be frightened; it is the appointed race we +must all run, sooner or later; we cannot be joyous +and jovial college-lads all our days; but we may, +and I hope will, be calm and tranquil old <i>country +gentlemen</i>.</p> + +<p>"But pshaw! I grow old before my time; 'sufficient +for the day is the evil thereof;' lay that +flattering unction to your soul, and all will soon be +well, that is now ill with you.</p> + +<p>"The more I see of these northern states, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +more I am convinced that some great revolution +awaits our own cherished communities. Revolutions, +whether sudden or gradual, are fearful things; +we learn to feel attachments to those things which +they tear up, as a poor cripple feels attached to +the mortified limb, that must be amputated to save +his life. A line of demarkation in such a case is +distinctly drawn between the diseased and the +healthy flesh. Such a line is now drawing between +the slave and free states, I fear. God send +that the disease may be cured without amputation, +and before mortification takes place. I know that +this latter is your own belief. What think you +now, since you have seen the greater extent of the +disease? Truly,</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.</span><br /></p> + + +<p><span class="ralign">"Belville, High Hills of the Santee.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"I have heard of weeping willows, but I never +saw weeping pines and black Jacks (scrub oaks) +before I came into South Carolina; these are made +so by the moss which here grows from the trees +in long pendulous masses, which makes them look +like gigantic weeping willows.</p> + +<p>"On the day of my arrival here, I was again +benighted within a few miles of Belville, and again +found my way into Christendom by a delightful +custom which prevails among your city refugees. +You know that they have a little village erected +here among your sandhills, which is entirely owned +by wealthy residents of Charleston; to these they +retire during the sickly season, and of course they +are now full of fashionables. Before each door is +a large wooden pillar, with a hearth on the top of +it, a kind of rude imitation of our urn. On these +they kindle pine-knot fires to keep the mosquitoes +away from the premises, and the effect is doubtless +at all times brilliant; but it is doubly so when +they are the means of restoring a poor benighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +traveller to the region of hope and comfort; such +was the case with your humble servant. I had +but just begun to look out for the usual concert, and +the Frying-pan, and the swamp, when I discovered +these fires away to my right; I was not more than +a mile out of my road.</p> + +<p>"This little mushroom village was entirely deserted +when I passed through it before; I was +therefore surprised to find carriages standing by +each cabin, and fine ladies promenading along the +sandy roads with their attendant beaux.</p> + +<p>"Sounds of infantile laughter, sweet music, and +the still sweeter notes of frying-pans (very different +affairs from my assortment), saluted my delighted +ears as I cantered through the encamped throng. +I did not stop, because the distance was but short +to your own house, at which I soon arrived, and, +for once in my life, not before I was wanted.</p> + +<p>"As I briskly rode up the long sandy avenue, I +heard a strange confusion of noises and sounds +from the direction of the quarter, which you have +here dangerously near, but from benevolent views +I suppose; I next discovered Bell walking to and +fro along the little esplanade which surmounts the +front portico, wringing her hands, weeping, and +calling upon your mother's name most piteously. +I dismounted, and ran towards the nearest entrance +with all my speed, and there I met the dear girl, +just in time to catch her in my arms for fear of a +worse resting-place. As soon as she had recovered +a little from her exhaustion, the effect of her pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>vious +excitement, she exclaimed, 'Oh! Mr. Randolph, +how glad I am to see you!'</p> + +<p>"'Not more so than I am to see you, my dear +Bell; but tell me the cause of all this noise at the +quarter, and of your alarm.'</p> + +<p>"She told me, as well as she could for her +short and convulsive breathing, that the driver had +undertaken, in the absence of the overseer, to whip +a young negro who is a great favourite among his +fellows; and it seems that he had beaten him unmercifully. +Some time after, a party had assailed +his house where he had shut himself in; as I came +up, they had just succeeded in breaking down the +door; but the bird had been some time flown, out +of a back window. Your mother had gone to +drink tea with one of the refugees, a city acquaintance +of hers, at the little encampment before mentioned. +Under these circumstances, I seized a +cudgel and departed to the scene of action, not, +however, with Bell's consent. She declared that +they would murder me, and clung to my garments +until I gently disengaged myself and committed +her to her maid. It is not to be denied that I +almost blessed the rebellion, for its showing me +that I was a person to be preserved in the eyes of +your cousin.</p> + +<p>"When I arrived upon the ground, it was some +minutes before I could make the principal actors +conscious of the presence of any one not in the +number of their confederates; however, by dint +of lungs and violent gesticulations, I at length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +gained an audience, and no sooner had I done so, +than the victory was gained. I merely promised +to have the matter investigated, and the offender +punished himself, if he should prove, upon investigation, +to have whipped the favourite either without +cause, or unmercifully, with cause. This desirable +conclusion to the affair could not have been brought +about in every quarter in this neighbourhood, or at +any one where they had been less accustomed to +have their mutual wrongs redressed.</p> + +<p>"When I returned to the house, the news of the +result had preceded me, and Bell had retired to +her room; she soon, however, again made her appearance, +more beautiful, if possible, than when I +left her; she found it exceedingly difficult to amalgamate +her present evident gratitude with her former +comico-quizzico treatment of me,—and though +the latter decidedly had the advantage, the struggles +between the little devil of mischief within, +and a proper behaviour to me on the present occasion, +kept me quite amused, considering our late +excitement, until your mother, who had been sent +for, arrived with a number of gentlemen from the +sandhills. With these we formed quite a party; +your mother was less moved than I expected, +owing, I suppose, to her having so long been in the +habit of putting her energies to the test. She was +undisguisedly pleased to see me.</p> + +<p>"Among the gentlemen who returned with her, +my green eyes soon discovered a suitor of Bell's; +whether one formerly discarded, or at present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +encouraged, I could not tell; but I rather suspect +the latter, as your mother's visit was to his +sister, and Bell had excused herself from going +upon some grounds, for which he was now taking +her to task.</p> + +<p>"I was not so much surprised as I have been, +at her easy control of <i>my</i> poor generalship, when +I saw with what admirable discipline she managed +her troops, both raw militia and regulars; of course +I class myself with the latter.</p> + +<p>"I was not too much delighted to hear many +parties and excursions talked of and arranged; +what a selfish animal I must have become since I +have undertaken this southern tour! I wonder if +the northern air and manners have had the same +effect upon you and Lamar?</p> + +<p>"After our visiters had departed (you see I am +domiciliated), Bell said to me, starting up suddenly, +'Mr. Randolph, if my memory serves me, you +told me at the door, on the morning of your departure, +that indispensable business would put it entirely +out of your power to take our house in your +way home; I hope you have heard favourable +accounts from that urgent business?'</p> + +<p>"The little <i>devil</i> within was now completely +triumphant; and then, to make my intended pathos +still more ridiculous, by inventing more than half +of my speech! I had a great mind to say, 'Oh, +Mr. Randolph, how glad I am to see you!' and +almost run into her arms; but your mother's dignity, +Chevillere, though it is mild and benevolent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +keeps me always on my good behaviour in her +presence; so I only answered, 'The horse! the +horse! you forget the horse!' and then she enjoyed +a peculiarly sincere and triumphant laugh; and +the first, too, with which she has greeted my +return. I love them so much that I can almost +bear to hear her laugh at myself, provided it is at +my knavery and not at my folly.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">B. Randolph.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"I told you in my last of our surprise at the +little coincidence of the number on the card, and +that on the house where the lady alighted, with +whom Lamar had exchanged some intelligent +glances in her more girlish days; but I did not +complete the relation, which I will do presently.</p> + +<p>"In the mean time, was there ever a man of +any travel or adventure, who has not been alarmed +at these seeming accidents, or, what is more probable, +made superstitious by their frequent recurrence? +I think that I hazard nothing in saying, +that more of such strange coincidences have occurred +to me than I have ever seen in any work +of fiction; not the clap-traps, and other little contrivances, +which are intended to electrify the +blunted nerves of veteran readers; but the coincidences +of ordinary life in society, which reveal +to us occasionally the finger of Providence in the +course we vainly suppose we are chalking out for +ourselves. What is it to a man to possess the will, +when all the circumstances upon which that will +is to operate, are ready arranged to his hand? I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +do not repine at this, if it be a fact. On the contrary, +it is often a matter of consolation to me to +think, how narrow is the choice which the Creator +has given us; thereby, of course, decreasing our +means of doing wrong; nor is this all his beneficence +to us,—he has made it easier for us to do +right than wrong; often leaving us but two plain +roads to follow, the right one being the easier, +plainer, more attractive to a cultivated head and +heart, and more profitable in this world. There! +you see I never preach beyond this world; and +hard enough it is to see clearly all around us in +that.</p> + +<p>"This brings me, by a very circuitous route you +will no doubt think, to the further coincidence +spoken of.</p> + +<p>"As Damon does not take up his abode with us, +besides other reasons, he was not of our party +when we went to pay our respects to the Hazlehurst +family. On entering the parlour, we found +the young gentleman who had invited us, with +Arthur and the lady, who were sitting, at the time +of our entrance, engaged in an apparently interesting +conversation, in the recess of one of the +windows. Arthur and Lamar seemed pleased to +meet again. The lady smiled upon Lamar, and +acknowledged her recollection of his countenance. +She is elegant and lofty; not in height, indeed, for +she is not remarkably tall, but lofty in her demeanour +and bearing. There are none of the +gentle whisperings which come directly from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +heart of a certain little unhappy runaway. The +one would captivate an assembly; the other has +made terrible inroads upon the heart of a single +gentleman; and this brings me to the matter with +which I began this epistle.</p> + +<p>"Lamar, having mentioned to Arthur something +about the young lady we had met on our travels, +and having thrown many gratuitous remarks and +glances towards me, the lady seemed at length to +take some interest in the subject, and in Lamar's +description. She then appealed to me for the +name.</p> + +<p>"'Miss St. Clair!' exclaimed she, when I had +succeeded in uttering it, 'and have you really +fallen into her toils? Alas, I pity you!'</p> + +<p>"Why the plague should she pity me, Randolph? +It was evident enough that she did not mean the +mock pity, which is only another way for saying, +'how I am rejoiced!'</p> + +<p>"'But,' continued she, 'the lady is a dear and +valued friend of mine, and you shall see her.'</p> + +<p>"'But when?' said I, eagerly, awakening out of +a brown study.</p> + +<p>"All laughed; and I cannot say from my own +experience, that I like the sport any better than +yourself.</p> + +<p>"You could have amused yourself (it was no +amusement to me) with the odd looks of Lamar, +in presence of the object of a first and youthful +attachment. There is something pure and primitive +in these boyish loves, and they are too much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +out of fashion in the present age, even in this country. +It is not certainly because matches of mere +convenience have supplanted them, so much as +because it has become too much the custom to treat +very young affairs of the heart with ridicule and +contempt. People are apt to say 'Oh! it is nothing +more than puppy love!' (a refined expression +truly) and to throw derision upon all such demonstrations, +at the very time, too, when we are most +sensitive upon such subjects, and when our impressions +of the fair one are but too easily modified +by the pretended opinions of our seniors and +superiors. Opposition, direct and serious, will +indeed sometimes make the youth steady in his +course, but ridicule of the object, never!</p> + +<p>"From the little I know of the science of political +economy and human happiness, I am inclined +to run right into the teeth of the prevailing doctrines +on this subject. I have never known a +couple who married, whether young or old, upon +the strength of a first and mutual passion, who +were not contented, prosperous, and happy. There +are doubtless exceptions to this sweeping rule, but +I have not seen them.</p> + +<p>"Its enemies urge that the youthful pair are not +capable of estimating each other's qualifications. +But do age and experience qualify them? Or is +the judgment of so much avail in these matters as +is pretended? Look at the men most remarkable +for discretion and judgment; I will venture to say +you will find that most of them have trusted too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +much to their judgments, and too little to their +hearts, to be happy. The truth is, that nature has +made the heart the magnetic point of mutual attraction +in these affairs, and the head of the wisest +man is here out of its sphere.</p> + +<p>"It is too true, that many of your slow, cautious, +miserly characters, attempt to reduce the whole +business to a question in the single rule of three; +as thus: if Caroline B. with a sweet face and a +prudent turn makes a thrifty wife, what will Adeline +B. make, with a sweet face, thrifty ways, and +a heavy purse?</p> + +<p>"Thanks be to an overruling providence, they +are often carried a rule or two farther in their +mathematics than they intended; the honey-moon +winds up with doleful calculations, in the ashes of +the chimney-corner, with the end of their rattans; +such as Vulgar Fractions, Profit and Loss, Tare +and Trett, et cetera.</p> + +<p>"You must not imagine, from what I have here +said, that I am one of those dreamers who contend +that the world might again become a paradise; +if, in these things, men would always consult the +dictates of the heart.</p> + +<p>"If we look forward at the marriages which are +to come, we can discern nothing. This you may +think is too true to make a joke of, and too serious +to discuss. But look back over all the world that +you have seen, and I think you will own that +Providence or destiny has had a great design constantly +in view in their fulfilment. The human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +character has been equipoised, extremes have been +avoided, the humble elevated, the exalted humbled; +all the genius, and the wit, and the judgment, and +the virtues, have not been suffered to be concentrated +in the descendants of a single pair, but +have been as nearly as possible divided among us, +the descendants of the multitude. Opposite, or +rather diverging characters, are frequently enamoured +of each other—the brave man loves the +gentle woman; the gentle man, the gay woman; +and thus in their descendants we have the grand +compromise of nature.</p> + +<p>"There is a sermon, now for the text—'neither +is the battle to the strong nor the race to the swift.'</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /> + +(In continuation.)<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"The day being Sunday, I sent old Cato this +morning to arouse Lamar quite early, in order to +ascertain if he was disposed to walk before breakfast, +and view some of the boasted parks, groves, +and gardens of these hospitable Gothamites. Old +Cato soon returned, saying that Lamar had but +that moment fallen asleep, but that he would be +with me as soon as he could make a hasty toilet; +hasty it indeed was, for he was not many minutes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +behind Cato, in his morning-gown and slippers, +yawning and stretching his clenched fists through +the room as if he had sat in his chair all night.</p> + +<p>"'Beshrew me, Chevillere,' said he, 'but you +are an uneasy and restless spirit, to be waking a +man up at all hours of the night in this style. I +thought, at least, when I saw old Cato's grisly +head, that you had had a surfeit, or a fit of indigestion.'</p> + +<p>"I suppose then you are disappointed to find +me well; but tell me, Lamar, how you intend to +spend the day?</p> + +<p>"'Why, I have not laid it down in a regular +campaign, but I suppose, as you are too much of +a Roundhead to kill the day with me at cards, that +I shall have to submit myself to be whined to death +with nasal psalmody, at some conventicle or other. +Be that as it may, Damon shall sit on the stool of +repentance as well as myself.'</p> + +<p>"'In the mean time, suppose we walk to the +Battery and Castle Garden?'</p> + +<p>"'Agreed!' said he, 'provided you wait till I +jump into a more seemly garb.'</p> + +<p>"We were soon arm in arm, sauntering down +the southern extremity of Broadway, which terminates +in a beautiful oval grass-plot, called the +Bowling Green; surrounded by a handsome iron +railing, and containing a young and an old grove +of trees; in imitation, doubtless, of human life, the +young to supplant the aged. During the colonial +government, there stood in the centre of this beau<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>tiful +spot a painted leaden equestrian statue of +George the Third, but as soon as the revolutionary +war broke out, it was melted into bullets, and shot +at his own ships and soldiers. On the opposite +side of the right branch of Broadway, in a southwesterly +direction, is the Battery—a noble lawn, +covering some acres of the southern extremity of +Manhattan Island, and of course looking into the +Bay of New-York. What is by a misnomer called +Castle Garden, stands out in the waters of the bay +on the south-west side, and is connected with the +lawn by a wooden bridge of some thirty or forty +yards length, and not too strong to give way under +some future pressure. Castle Garden is a castellated +structure, without turrets and battlements, +built of hewn stone, and pierced with a row of +port-holes. It seems to have been built for warlike +purposes, but is now used as a public promenade, +and exhibition garden, having tiers of seats +inside, and around an extensive area, in the manner +of an amphitheatre. In the centre of the area +is a little temple or dome, supported on columns. +Surmounting the whole body of the castle is an +esplanade, protected by plain railings; from the +top of this extends high into the air a flag-staff, +from which, on national festivals, the 'star spangled +banner' proudly floats over the blue waves which +beat against its base.</p> + +<p>"It was here that the corporation entertained +Lafayette, a platform having been thrown over the +area, and a canvass marquee over the top; this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +ball-room is said to have been capable of containing +from six to ten thousand persons.</p> + +<p>"Lamar and I mounted the esplanade, and +seated ourselves upon the benches, just within the +railing.</p> + +<p>"We could see the ships of every nation, as +they rode triumphantly over the waters of this +magnificent bay, gliding about like 'things of life;' +marine birds screaming and diving among them, +and sometimes the porpoises in their clumsy gambols, +shooting their black masses above the water +and down again; steamers with their gay pennants, +thundering noises, and deafening bells; the rude +music and songs of the sailors, the hoarse voice of +the pilot, as he stepped on board some outward-bound +vessel, and the 'ay! ay!' of the sailor, +as the order reached his ears, through the rattling +of the shrouds, and the whistling of the breeze.</p> + +<p>"Farther out in the bay, between us and the +ocean, is a beautiful chain of islands; first Ellis's, +then Bedloe's, and lastly, next the ocean, Staten +Island.</p> + +<p>"Gay throngs of well-dressed people began now +to crowd the gravelled walks of the Battery; +maids attending on children were seen with their +little charges, gambolling over the green in their +Sunday suits; the emancipated mechanics, with +their snow-white jackets and collars; and the +happy negro, with his tawdry and cast-off finery, +as free (personally, not politically, free) as any of +the loungers. There was something in this Sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>day +scene inexpressibly soothing and delightful to +my feelings.</p> + +<p>"Every southern should visit New-York. It +would allay provincial prejudices, and calm his +excitement against his northern countrymen. The +people here are warm-hearted, generous, and +enthusiastic, in a degree scarcely inferior to our +own southerns. The multitude move as one man, +in all public-spirited, benevolent, or charitable +measures. Many of these Yorkers are above +local prejudices, and truly consider this as the commercial +metropolis of the Union, and all the people +of the land as their customers, friends, patrons, and +countrymen.</p> + +<p>"Nor is trade the only thing that flourishes. +The arts of polished and refined life, refined literature, +and the profounder studies of the schoolmen, +all have their distinguished votaries,—I say distinguished, +with reference to the standard of science +in our country.</p> + +<p>"This much I have written before going to +church. The further adventures of the day, in the +evening.</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /> + +(In continuation.)<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"10 o'clock P. M.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"About ten o'clock this morning the bells began +to ring, from Trinity to St. John's. A forest of +steeples seemed to have let loose their artillery at +once upon us tardy Christians. These gongs +seemed to take effect in about fifteen minutes, for +simultaneously the houses poured out their thronging +occupants, until the streets literally swarmed +with these church-going people.</p> + +<p>"'Whither shall we bend our steps?' said I; +'here are various routes to heaven; which do you +choose, Episcopal, Methodist, or Presbyterian?'</p> + +<p>"'Not any one of the three,' said he.</p> + +<p>"'Indeed! Perhaps Jewishly inclined?'</p> + +<p>"'No; I thought that you were aware of my +partiality for the close-communion Baptists,' said +he, with mock gravity.</p> + +<p>"'But seriously, Lamar, you accused me of +wishing to drag you to some conventicle or other; +choose for us both; indeed for <i>three</i>, for here comes +Damon.'</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said he, 'I choose the most celebrated +preacher! you will thus be most likely to see a +certain demure little runaway.'</p> + +<p>"'And there,' said I, 'you will be most likely to +see her friend, with Arthur by her side.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Damon now coming up, was asked by me +where he would choose to spend the forenoon of +the day.</p> + +<p>"'I can't tell exactly,' replied he, 'for the truth +is, I feel pretty much like a fish out of water even +of week days; but Sunday I'm completely dished; +I was thinking of walking out into the country, and +bantering somebody for a foot-race.'</p> + +<p>"I proposed that we should all go and hear Dr. +——, and forthwith led the way, my two companions +following on, much like truant boys on their +return march to school. We entered a low white +church, I don't recollect where exactly, but on the +western side of Broadway. The preacher was +already in the pulpit, and the aisles and pews on +the lower floor were crammed with hearers, insomuch +that we were compelled to seek seats in the +small gallery, where with great difficulty we found +them.</p> + +<p>"The preacher, who had already begun, was a +commanding-looking gentleman, clothed in black, +and, like most of our dissenting clergymen, without +gown or surplice; his features were large and +well-formed; his forehead lofty beyond any thing +I have ever seen, but falling back at the top until +it was lost in little short bristly curls; his attitudes +were lofty and dignified. He had, as I said +before, announced the portion of Scripture which +he was attempting to elucidate, before we entered +the church. The subject seemed to be, the practicability +and means of a direct revelation from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +God! When he spoke of the Great Spirit who +rules our destinies revealing himself, and his manner +of doing it, he was almost sublime. I must +try to recollect a few passages for your edification, +but you must remember that they are transposed +into my own language.</p> + +<p>"He painted in vivid and striking colours, the +utter incapacity of man to conceive identically of +such a being as God. 'The little puny brain of +man,' said he, 'which you may hold in the hollow +of your hand, cannot contain a true conception of +God in all his majesty! the little arteries and fibres +of our poor heads would rend and burst asunder +with such an idea.</p> + +<p>"'To form one single correct thought of so great +a Spirit, you must first conceive of those things +which surround him; as, when we view a painting +of some earthly object, there must first be a background +to relieve the eye. So when you would +conceive of that great Being truly and fully, you +must be able to realize the duration of eternity, +obliterate the little periods of time and chronology, +which require a starting and a resting-place in our +human minds,—soar out of the reach of the sickly +atmospheres which surround these little planets, and +stand erect in the broad and fathomless light of +God's own atmosphere! Could the human eye see +with such rays, and stretch its glances over the +great waves and boundless oceans of light in +which he dwells, one single ray of it would blast +your optic nerves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Even here upon earth, if we are suddenly +brought from a dark dungeon into the bright rays +of his reflected glory, our little optical machinery +quails and dances with the shock; but take that +same creature from his gloomy dungeon, and place +him in the glassy sea of light in which God dwells! +The utter horrors of such a moment, if they did +not instantly explode the soul into its elements, +would be worse than the terrors of convulsions, +and earthquakes, and the black and fathomless +chasms of the sea. And yet! some of us desire +in our hearts a direct revelation to ourselves from +this sublime Being! Know you what you desire? +You desire that God should stretch out his mighty +power, and draw away the friendly veil of the +heavens, and burst upon an astounded world in all +his fearful attributes! Before such an immediate +presence, the sun and moon would become dark +in contrast. The natural laws which he has given +us for our protection, of gravitation, electricity, +and magnetism, would burst loose from their reflected +positions, and all animate and inanimate +nature would fall before their First Great Cause! +We cannot have direct physical intercourse with +God. We are physically incompetent to encounter +him, either in his goodness or in his wrath.</p> + +<p>"You say in your hearts, that there is mystery +in this revelation of the Bible! Can mystery be +separable from sublime or profound greatness, +when viewed through human powers? Are not +height, and depth, and space, and air, all mysterious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +to your minds, when beyond the reach of the eye? +Is not darkness alone profoundly mysterious? +mysterious in its effects and in its properties! Can +any mind analyze darkness? Is it positive or negative? +Does it extend through eternal and measureless +space? or is it only a creative property +dependent upon the functions of the eye? Our +darkness is to one part of creation light, and our +light their darkness.</p> + +<p>"Is measureless space a positive creation, or a +negative nonentity! No human intellect can +fathom these subjects; not from any of their delusive +properties, but from our limited capacities! +These then are but the beginning of those things +which interpose between us and our great and +sublime Creator!</p> + +<p>"You can now, perhaps, form some idea of the +difficulties of revealing God to man!</p> + +<p>"What would you have with a more powerful +and sublime revelation than this? Would you +disorganize the minds of the whole human family, +by opening to them frightful volumes which would +craze and bewilder, rather than direct them? Do +you complain of mystery, and yet call upon God +for more?</p> + +<p>"But the greatest difficulty between us and a direct +revelation from our Creator, has yet to be +considered.</p> + +<p>"This revelation of the Bible was necessarily +conveyed to us through the medium of human +language. Now let us examine what this human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +language is. It is a system of words or signs, +which convey to our minds the ideas of things. +These words only represent such ideas as we ourselves +have formed from the things we have seen, +and their various combinations. How then can +these signs and symbols convey identical ideas of +God and his attributes? All the imperfections of +this revelation then are confessedly owing to our +imperfections, both as it regards mind and language.</p> + +<p>"I have given you but a faint outline of this +powerful and vehement speaker's discourse. During +its delivery I once or twice turned to Lamar and +the Kentuckian, to see how they were affected. +The former had insensibly risen during the fervency +of the preacher's eloquence, and stood leaning +over the balustrade, drinking in the sounds of +a voice which are truly powerful though not musical, +until he came to a pause; he then sank into +his seat, a grim smile passing over his pale sickly +features, clearly showing to those who knew him, +how intently he had listened. Damon chewed +tobacco at a prodigious rate, and the more eloquent +the speaker became, the more energetic was the action +of his jaws. His eye was wild and savage, like +that of a forest animal when it suddenly finds itself +in the midst of a settlement. He sometimes cracked +his fingers together, for the same purpose, I suppose, +that he used to crack his whip when travelling +on horseback, to give emphasis and round +his periods.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I had not long to consider these effects upon +different characters, for at this moment Lamar pointed +over the balustrade at two moving figures on the +lower floor. You already guess, if you are any thing +of a Yankee, what these were. Lamar and I simultaneously +arose to our feet and gazed at the heads +which filled up every crevice, as a veteran soldier +would have gazed at so many bristling bayonets +upon an impregnable bastion. We soon heard the +steps of a carriage let down, and then the rolling +of the wheels. Lamar bit his lip till the blood +almost started from it. Whether the pressure +was increased by his having seen that Arthur +joined the ladies near the door, I shall not undertake +to say.</p> + +<p>"The sermon now being over we had merely to +throw ourselves into the tide of human figures +which moved down stairs, to be carried safely to +the bottom.</p> + +<p>"When there, Damon drew one long and whistling +breath, and an inarticulate sound not unlike +the snort of a whale.</p> + +<p>"'I'm flambergasted! if that ain't what I call +goin the whole cretur, he'd go to Congress from +old Kentuck as easy as I could put a gin sling +under my jacket. O Christopher! what a stump +speech he could make, if he would only turn his +hand to it, instead of wasting his wind here among +the old wives!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, Lamar, what did you think of him?'</p> + +<p>"'Think of him! (rousing himself from a brown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +study), I never knew before that I had nerves in +the hairs of my head.'</p> + +<p>"'And where did you now obtain that precious +piece of anatomical news?'</p> + +<p>"'In the church, to be sure! Were not my +locks dancing all the while to the music of that +eccentric man's voice? The cold chills ran over +me, as if I had been under the influence of miasma.'</p> + +<p>"I watched Damon through an unusually long +silence, while he several times snapped his fingers +and took a fresh chew of tobacco.</p> + +<p>"'I'll tell you what it is, that's what I call a real +tear-down sneezer,' ejaculated he; 'he's a bark-well +and hold-fast too; he doesn't honey it up to +'em, and mince his words—he lets it down upon +'em hot and heavy; he knocks down and drags +out; first he gives it to 'em in one eye and then in +'tother, then in the gizzard, and at last he gits your +head under his arm, and then I reckon he feathers +it in, between the lug and the horn; he gives a +feller no more chance nor a 'coon has in a black +jack.'</p> + +<p>"'Then you give him more credit for sincerity +than you usually do men of his cloth,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, yes! there's no whippin the devil round +the stump with him; he jumps right at him, tooth +and toe-nail, and I'm flambergasted if I don't think +he rather worsted the <i>Old Boy</i> this morning; and +he's the best match I ever saw him have, he looks +so stout and soldier-like; and then his eye! Did +you see his eye, stranger? I'm shot if he didn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +look as if he could'a jumped right a-straddle of +the devil's neck, and just run his thumbs in, and +scooped out his two eyes, as easy as I would scoop +an oyster out of his shell.'</p> + +<p>"'You don't go to church often when you are at +home?'</p> + +<p>"'No; but I <i>would</i> go, if we had such a Samson +as this; he raises old Kentuck in me in a minute. +I feel full of fight, and ready for any thing +now! But our old parson! he's an entirely different +cut in the jib. He whines it out to us like an +old woman in the last of pea-time; he doesn't +thunder it down to 'em like this chap, and like old +Hickory did the grape-shot at New-Orleans.'</p> + +<p>"We had now arrived at that point of the street +where we were to separate. Damon abruptly informed +us of his intention to return soon to Baltimore. +I asked him if he was not pleased with +New-York.</p> + +<p>"'O, yes;' said he, 'it's a real Kentuck of a +place, a man can do here what he likes; they don't +look at the cut of a feller's coat, but at the cut of +his jib. I could wear my coat upside down here, +and my hat smashed all into a gin-shop, and nobody +has time to turn round and look at me. Yes, yes, +stranger, they are a whole-souled people, and I +like 'em, but I have staid long enough.'</p> + +<p>"Here we separated for the day. Lamar intends +to try and prevail upon him to accompany +us to the theatre, and the Italian opera. I have +great curiosity to see him at the latter place. Pe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>drotti, +they say, can tame a tiger with her melodious +and touching voice. As you may suppose, +I am anxious to hear it myself, and to see its effects +upon one so unschooled in the music of luxurious +and effeminate Italy.</p> + +<p>"I have written you more at length than I intended, +but I could not do otherwise in return for +your amusing, friendly, and satisfactory epistle. +We shall meet again, as in days of yore, and then +we will gather up all these scribblings, and enjoy +these scenes again. In the mean time, believe +that I wish you success in your present suit, for +the sake of three of us,—but more particularly +and selfishly that of</p> + +<p> +<span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Chum</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Events which seem to me worth recording, +crowd upon us so fast now, that it is almost impossible +to give you, according to promise, even a +profile view of our movements.</p> + +<p>"This morning, about the same hour at which +we went to church yesterday, we strolled down +Wall-street (and we seemed the only strollers +there) to see the Shylocks in their dens, if any +such could be found. I was instantly struck with +the concentrated looks, and absorbed countenances +of all the persons we met. Most of them were +running in and out of the banks, with their little +bank books in their hands, making mental calculations +of notes to be taken up, deposites where +made, and how much. Brokers were standing +behind their counters, ready to commence their +brisk, and (in this country) almost unhazardous +game. Many of them amass immense fortunes; +it is not at all uncommon for one of these houses +to loan to a state several millions at once.</p> + +<p>"We went upon 'change at the hour of twelve.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +There, in the large room of the rotunda, or circular +part of the exchange, merchants, and brokers, and +bankers, and moneyed men meet, pretty much +after the same fashion as our jockeys and racers +upon the turf. The light falls from the dome upon +these faces, and reveals the best study for a picture +I have ever seen. The seller and the sellee, the +shaver and the shavee, or diamond cut diamond, +as Damon expresses it:—bear with me but a moment +while I go over these dull details, and in return +I will tell you something more of the lady +with the black mantle.</p> + +<p>"The most predominant expression that I saw +upon 'change was <i>affectation</i>; the affectation of +business; not the silly school-boy affectation which +wears off with the improving mind, but that which +is first put on by business men, to disguise the real +operations of the mind, and which afterward +grows into a confirmed habit, and is seen deeply +set in wrinkles, long after the first exciting cause +has disappeared.</p> + +<p>"This symptom, among the moneyed men, varies +according to character and strength of mind +in the individual. One man I saw standing with +his back against a window, his thumbs stuck into +the armholes of his waistcoat, his quill toothpick +tight between his teeth,—his features large and +fleshy, his complexion between a copper and an +apoplectic dapple of blue and red,—his teeth large, +white, and flat, his eye small and gray, and his head +grizzled; he had evidently been a free, but what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +is <i>called</i> a <i>temperate</i> liver. I tried to trace back +through the wrinkles in this man's face, what the +emotions were which in his younger days he had +attempted to engrave upon it, and which long +habit had now made part of his nature; but I +should first attempt to describe <i>the</i> expression +itself. His upper lip was turned into a curl of +contempt; his eye was thrown a little down, and +the eyelid raised high, so as to show much of the +white of the eye, as when a person is in the attitude +of profound thought upon some far distant +subject. This man had, I thought, the best chosen +affectation; it expressed profound abstraction in +<i>one</i> direction, when he was no doubt really abstracted +in another.</p> + +<p>"His right-hand neighbour had not been so fortunate +in his selection of a vizor for the moneyed masquerade. +He had chosen comedy; and attempted +to hide pounds, shillings, and pence under a comic +visage. It was not well chosen. His business-laugh +was too horrid. It displayed teeth, gums, +and throat, and was too affectedly sincere. He too +frequently passed his glances quickly round from +one face to the other, to see if they enjoyed the +sport. This species of affectation had its origin in +a settled contempt for the sense of his associates, +and an exalted conception of his own, and especially +of his powers to amuse. He frequently +drew the corners of his mouth towards his ears, by +a voluntary motion, without exercising the corresponding +risible muscles; elevating his eyebrows at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +the same time in a knowing way. Do this yourself, +and you will have the expression instantly. +His only additional comic resource consisted in +sticking one thumb directly under his chin, like a +pillar. This man is celebrated on 'change for telling +what <i>he</i> considers a good story.</p> + +<p>"Another description of affectation here seen, +and by far the most common, is the affectation of +decision, firmness, stability, and concentrated +purpose.</p> + +<p>"Various methods, I saw, had been practised +through long lives to attain this safe look. Some, +to whom it was not natural to do so, pushed out +the under jaw, like a person who (to use a Southern +term) is <i>jimber</i>-jawed. Others carried the head on +one side, drew up the muscles at the outer angle +of one eye, and kept the nostrils distended. +Others clenched the teeth, looked fierce and steady, +and habitually patted one foot upon the floor, as if +in high-spirited impatience. Some looked pensive +and sad, and occasionally drew long sighs. Beware +of these, if you ever trade in the money-market.</p> + +<p>"The most ludicrous of all moneyed whims is a +desire to make others suppose that you think yourself +poor. A heartless man begging for sympathy +is, of all kinds of affectation, the most contemptible. +But the most dangerous of all others, and the +most apt to deceive a candid and upright mind, +is the affectation of being unaffected. Such is the +sin of those who affect bold, independent, and reck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>less +looks. If good fortune had not made them +brokers, bad fortune (they seem to say) might have +made them robbers.</p> + +<p>"There is yet another class to describe—the sincere +and the honest. These are easily descried. +Something like an electric intelligence passes from +the eye of one honest man to that of another. +These are usually modest, retiring, and humble. +I speak of real humility, which is best displayed in +a respect for the understanding of other men; a +desire to place one's companions at their ease; and +a tenderness and sympathy towards the failings +of the bankrupt, the vicious, and the unfortunate +generally.</p> + +<p>"Not that these indications occur only on 'change; +they may be seen in the pulpit, at the bar, at the +bedside, and behind the counter. As you read +my descriptions, try to produce the expression upon +your face; then call up some individual of your +acquaintance, who may have sat for such a picture—poor, +indeed, in its finish, but if it convey to +you the idea, my ambition is satisfied. This is a +severe test, but I think you may muster up <i>dramatis +personĉ</i> for all the characters.</p> + +<p>"As I am now upon this subject, permit me to +make one or two general remarks.</p> + +<p>"I have learned to hold no intimacy with those +men who are harsh and uncompromising towards +unfortunates and criminals. These feelings often +arise from the identical weaknesses, or faults, +which drove their victims to ruin. You have,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +doubtless, seen two slaves quarrel because one +belonged to a rich and the other to a poor +man.</p> + +<p>"As one well-fed dog is sure to be snarlish to a +poorer brother—poor human nature—this currish +principle is but too true when applied to us.</p> + +<p>"There is none who appears so virtuously indignant +at crime as the man who is a rogue in his +heart. A horse-stealer who has blundered into +better fortune is scandalized at his former craft; +and a sheep-stealer can weep in the very face of +the lamb which another has stolen.</p> + +<p>"Those ladies, the purity of whose characters is +most questionable, are uniformly the first to cease +visiting an openly suspected sister.</p> + +<p>"But I see plainly that if I go on, the subject +must become too revolting; at all events I must +give it to you in broken doses; and by the time +Arthur introduces me into the human catacombs, +where the living are <i>soul</i>-dead, you will be ready +to take another view of those dark and dismal +abodes, and attempt further observations of humanity +in its darker developments.</p> + +<p>"A malignant disease, as Arthur thinks, has +broken out in the portions of the city alluded to; +if so, I will remain with him. This is the time to +see fearful sights; and we Southerns, you know, +have looked the grim monster too often in the face +in this shape to be easily frightened from a cherished +purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Damon begins to be very uneasy under these +reports of sudden deaths, and black infections +sweeping through the air."</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /> + +(In continuation.)<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"I have seen her, Randolph, and seen her far +more captivating and beautiful than ever!</p> + +<p>"Yesterday, after I had finished the former part +of this letter, I met, on my way down to dinner, +Arthur and young Hazlehurst. The latter had +come expressly to invite Lamar and myself to +spend the evening at their house. As you may +suppose, it was not refused; we pressed them to +go in with us, as they had not yet dined, to which +they finally consented.</p> + +<p>"I find Hazlehurst an intelligent young man, +but with many erroneous opinions concerning the +south, of which he must be disabused. He imagines +us to be a generous and hospitable people, but +in a rather semi-barbarous state.</p> + +<p>"As this very subject occupied our attention in +presence of the ladies, I prefer giving you an imperfect +sketch of the discourse. I must not omit +a table lecture of Lamar's on nicotiana, however +impatient you may be to hear more of a certain +fair one.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The subject of tobacco was introduced simultaneously +with the segars, after most of the company +had retired. One having been offered to +young Hazlehurst, he declined it, saying that he +did not use tobacco in any shape.</p> + +<p>"'Not use tobacco! not smoke!' said Lamar; +'why, sir, you have yet to experience one of the +most calm, delightful, and soothing pleasures of +which human nerves are sensible.'</p> + +<p>"'I have always understood,' said the other, +'that the stimulus leaves one far more miserable +than if he had not applied it.'</p> + +<p>"'Then you labour under some mistake,' said +Lamar; 'and if you will permit, and your doctorships +will forbear laughter, I will explain to you +the effects of a fine segar upon my system, and +"suit the action to the word."</p> + +<p>"'When a man takes a genuine, dappled Havana +segar in his mouth, places his legs upon a +hair cushioned chair, his head thrown back on that +upon which he sits, or against the wall; his arms +folded upon his chest,—the following phenomena +occur:</p> + +<p>"'<i>First stage.</i> He becomes heroic and chivalrous, +or perhaps eloquent; if the last, and thinks himself +alone, you will see him wave his hand in the most +graceful and captivating style of oratory. His +eye is the soul of imaginary eloquence, his features +are all swelled out until they seem grand—gloomy—and +profound; his nostrils pant and show their +red lining, like a fiery and blooded steed. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +rolls out thick volumes of smoke, and puffs it from +him like a forty-two-pounder. He draws down +his feet, and raises his head and looks after it, as if +victory or conviction had been hurled upon its +clouds. Perhaps some one laughs at him, as you +laugh now at me.</p> + +<p>"'He replaces his legs, leans back his head +again; the <i>second stage</i> is come; he smiles, perhaps, +at the laurels just won; he closes his eyes, +delightful visions of green meadows and lawns, +fragrant flowers, meandering streams, limpid +brooks, beautiful nymphs, twilight amid tall and +venerable trees, and lengthening shadows, flit before +his imagination. His face now is towards +the heavens; his features are calm and serene; +he wafts the smoke gently upward in long continued +columns, and wreaths, and garlands; his +hands fall by his side—the diminished stump falls +from his hand.</p> + +<p>"'And now, in the <i>third stage</i>, he is in a revery. +A servant touches him three times, and tells him a +gentleman wants to see him; he kicks his shins; +servant retreats. Eyes being still closed, he draws +a long sigh or two, but full, pleasant, and satisfactory. +Servant returns; shakes him by the shoulder; +he jumps up and throws an empty bottle at +his head, as I do this one, at that grinning fellow +there (making a mock effort), and then the trance +is over.</p> + +<p>"'Now where are the bad effects, except upon +Cato's shins, if he should happen to be the man?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We all applauded Lamar for his treat, with +three hearty cheers, in a small way.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to see a little sly, stealthy, unmentionable +coldness arising between Lamar and +Arthur. I first discovered it in little acts of what +the world calls politeness, but which I call formality, +towards each other. They are unconscious +of it, as yet, for it seems to have sprung up by +irresistible mutual repulsion between them: deep +seated self appears to have warned each of a dangerous +rival in the other. These are little secret +selfishnesses of the soul, which lie deep, dark, and +still, running in an unseen current, far below the +soundings of the self-searching consciousness. +How mysterious is the mind of man! We may +draw up the flood-gates, and let loose the dammed-up +waters in order to find some secret at the bottom; +but the flood rolls by, and the secret still +lies buried as profoundly as before. At some +future day, when the thunder and the storms shall +come, these secrets may, perhaps, be washed up +to the surface, like wonders of the deep, when least +expected!</p> + +<p>"At about eight o'clock, Lamar and I sallied out +to find Mrs. Hazlehurst's house in Broadway; +amid music from clarionet, violin, and kent bugle. +These were stationed in the balconies of the different +museums. Carriages were just setting down +their company at the old Park Theatre. Little +blind and lame boys sat about the iron railing at +St. Paul's church, grinding hand-organs, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +making music little better than so many grindstones—all +for a miserable pittance which they +collect in the shape of pennies, perhaps to the +amount of a dozen a day.</p> + +<p>"Negroes were screaming 'ice-cream' at the +top of their lungs, though it is now becoming cold +in the evenings and mornings. At every corner +some old huckster sang out 'Hot corn! hot corn!' +though the regular season of 'roasting-ears,' has +long since passed by. Little tables of fruit, cakes, +and spruce-beer were strewed along the walks +and under the awnings, which often remain extended +during the night.</p> + +<p>"We at length found the house, and entered +with palpitating hearts. I had a sort of presentiment +that I was to meet Miss St. Clair, from what +the lively Isabel had said.</p> + +<p>"When we entered the saloon she was nowhere +to be seen! my disappointment was no doubt visible, +for I saw an arch smile upon Isabel's countenance, +and, I must say, a very singular one upon +that of her brother. The idea first struck me that +he is either now, or has been, a suitor of the absent +lady! Was there a lurking jealousy at the bottom +of my own heart, at the very time that I was fishing +up green monsters from Lamar's mental pandemonium? +Randolph, Oh! the human heart is +deceitful above all things; and it oftener deceives +ourselves than others. We have radiated rays of +light for our mental vision outwards which we may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +extend <i>ad infinitum</i>, but once turn our observations +inwards, and it is like inverting the telescope.</p> + +<p>"We were presented to the lady of the mansion +immediately upon our entrance. She is benignant +and bland, yet aristocratic withal. She discovers +a warm heart towards the South, probably from +an idea of a kindred aristocratic feeling in us. +The two are, however, very different in their developments. +It is necessary here to have many +more bulwarks between this class and those below +them than is needful with us; as there is here a +regular gradation in the divisions of society. The +end of one and the beginning of the next are so +merged, that it would be impossible to separate +them without these barriers. What are they? you +would ask. They consist in little formalities,—rigid +adherence to fashion in its higher flights,—exhibition +of European and Oriental luxuries, et +cetera, et cetera.</p> + +<p>"We were presented to the company in general; +most of the fashionable ladies were sitting +or standing around a fine-toned upright piano-forte, +at which two of the party were executing, in a +very finished style of fashionable elegance, some +of Rossini's compositions, accompanied by a gentleman +on the flute. And in good truth, they produced +scientific and fashionable music; but, Randolph, +it was not to my taste. You know that I +have cultivated music as a science, from my earliest +youth; that I am an enthusiast here, and not +altogether a bungler in my own execution. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +now discovered either that I lack taste, or that the +fashionable world is therein deficient. You shall +decide between us at another time.</p> + +<p>"Lamar very soon contrived (how, heaven only +knows) to throw me completely in the shade; but +the first evidence I had of it was his sitting bolt +upright between the gay Isabel and her mother. +He had already betrayed them into laughter,—not +fashionable laughter, for I saw the old lady wiping +the tears from her eyes. It is almost impossible +for any one to adhere long to conventional forms, +when he is of the party,—so manly, generous, and +sincere is he. My chagrin at not finding myself +situated equally to my heart's content did not +escape him, and he perhaps discovered my awkwardness, +for he attempted to draw me into a discussion +concerning the provincial rivalry of the +North and South. I evaded his friendly hand, but +soon the younger lady renewed the attack.</p> + +<p>"'Come, Mr. Chevillere, you will tell us what +peculiarities you have observed, as existing between +the northern and southern ladies as to polish,—fashion,—education,—any +thing! This gentleman +is so wonderfully free from prejudices and +rivalry, that he declares the instant he beholds a +beautiful woman, he forgets that she has a local +habitation upon earth. You, sir, I hope, are not so +catholic an admirer of beauty?'</p> + +<p>"'I too, madam, am always disarmed of local +prejudices when I see a beautiful northern lady; +but that is not what you wish me to answer. If I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +understood you right, I suppose you wish to know +whether any peculiarity in fashion, habits, or manners +strikes us at first sight disagreeably.'</p> + +<p>"'Precisely. Your general opinion of us.'</p> + +<p>"'I am glad to be able to say, then, that with +regard to this city I am a perfect enthusiast. Every +thing is arranged as I would have it. Nature appears +to be the criterion here in matters of taste; +utility and improvement seem to prompt the efforts +of your men of talents, and that delightful politeness +to prevail, which consists in placing all well-meaning +persons at their ease, without useless +conventional forms.'</p> + +<p>"I hate this formal speech-making, Randolph, +across a room <i>at</i> people, so I thought I would be +myself at once. I therefore continued my remarks +for the remainder of the evening rather more in a +nonchalant way, and as an introduction to a more +free and easy tone to the company. I asked Lamar +to repeat his lecture of the day, on smoking. +Hazlehurst, as soon as he heard the subject mentioned, +began to describe it to a party of young +ladies who stood round the piano. Their curiosity +was excited immediately; and though Lamar +frowned at me, the ladies entreated until he was +forced to comply.</p> + +<p>"He set the room in a perfect roar of laughter, +and then a delightful confusion prevailed. Lamar +did not repeat exactly the same things which he +had treated us with at the dinner-table, but he +preserved the stages, dwelling a much shorter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +time on the heroic, and much longer on the two +latter.</p> + +<p>"He introduced a heroine into his shades and +bowers, and painted Isabel as he saw her at the +Springs; so, at least, I suspect from a certain +mantling of the colour into her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said he, speaking of the third stage, +'his hands fall by his side, his eyes are closed, he +sighs profoundly, but comfortably and <i>somnolently</i>; +perhaps he is married; his wife steals gently up +and kisses him. 'My dear, the milliner's bill has +come.'—'O <i>dam</i> the miller!' In a short time she +returns—'My dear, my pin money is out: come +now, you are not asleep, I know: and that is +not all—the carriage wants painting; the house +wants repairs; the children want toys; servants +want wages.' He rolls his head over on one +shoulder, opens his eyes, and fixes them in a deliberate +stare, as I do now, upon Miss Isabel.' +This last idea became either too sentimental or too +ludicrous for Lamar; and he jumped up in an unsuppressed +fit of laughter. You know Lamar, +therefore I need not tell you that this is a very imperfect +sketch of the manner in which he acted the +ludicrous and careless, but <i>hen-pecked</i>, husband. I +do not wonder that he laughed, when he looked at +Isabel, for her face was indescribably arch and +sanctimonious.</p> + +<p>"Hilarity and glee seemed now to be the order +of the evening with all except poor Arthur. I +thought that Lamar would actually sow the seeds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +of a future quarrel, while discussing something relating +to the West. How introduced I do not +know, unless Lamar was talking of Damon. However, +Arthur stated one fact which surprised us all, +and of which we had been all equally ignorant. +He stated that Kentucky had one more college +than any other State in the Union; half as many +as all New-England; and more than North Carolina, +South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, +united.</p> + +<p>"While these things were going on, I heard a +gentle and scarcely perceptible step behind me, on +the carpet; and seeing the other gentlemen rise, I +mechanically rose also—to be electrified by the +vision of Miss St. Clair. She was pale and trembling, +but far more beautiful than I had ever seen +her. It was not the beauty of the waxen figure, +or the picture; it was the beauty of feeling, sensibility, +and tenderness. You have seen that little +plant which shrinks at the rude touch of man, Randolph; +that should be her emblem.</p> + +<p>"She glided into a rather darkened recess of the +room, near where I stood, and seated herself alone, +as if to be out of the reach of observation; yet by +some means I was seated by her side, almost as +dumb as a statue. I even longed for more of Lamar's +delineations, if for nothing else but to see her +smile again, and light up those features which nature +evidently made to smile. Her hair was still +parted over the forehead in the Grecian manner; +a single ringlet stole down behind her ear. Her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +dress was simplicity itself, exceedingly plain and +tasteful.</p> + +<p>"I need not tell Miss St. Clair how much gratified +I am at again meeting her in a circle composed +almost entirely of my friends and my friends' +friends; but, if I have been rightly informed, we +are more indebted to accident than to any benevolent +designs on her part for this meeting.</p> + +<p>"'A strange accident indeed, my being here. +Not less so than your own. But <i>you</i> are not a believer +in accidents.'</p> + +<p>"How beautiful a little act sometimes appears, +Randolph, when it sits upon the countenance of +one so artless by nature that you can see all the +machinery which she imagines is so completely +hidden, as a child often hides its eyes and vainly +supposes itself unseen. This <i>ruse</i>, intended to +draw me into some argument about accidents, and +to avoid the real case at issue, really amused me; +I was willing, however, to follow her lead for a +time. 'Accidents,' said I, 'seem to us, at first +sight, to be without the usual train of cause and +effect; but, if they were all placed in my hands, I +think I could govern the destinies of the world, so +long as I could control my own destiny.'</p> + +<p>"'I do not understand you, sir,' said she, with +the simplest cunning imaginable; feigning deep interest, +though her countenance would not join in +the plot.</p> + +<p>"'The condition,' I continued, 'and the present +circumstances of every individual now in this room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +might be traced back to some accident which has +happened—to the person, his father, or his grandfather; +the death of one friend, the marriage of another, +may affect the destinies of the persons themselves +and all connected with them.'</p> + +<p>"Ah, Randolph! there was a tender chord +touched. Did you ever see a person shot through +and through? The countenance expresses a whole +age of misery in an instant. The soul is conscious +of it before the body. One will even ask whether +he is shot—while his countenance proclaims death +more forcibly than a hundred tongues could utter it. +There is a writhing, convulsive, retreating misery; +part of which I saw I had inflicted upon this gentle +being. This mystery must be solved. The system +on which she is treated by those around her is +false.</p> + +<p>"You have, perhaps, seen a whole family after +the death of one of its members, religiously observe +profound silence on the subject. Should any one +rudely or even gently mention the deceased, all are +instantly horrified. Each fears that the feelings of +all the rest have been shocked. At this moment, a +calm and judicious friend, when the ice is once +broken, may cure all this amiable weakness by +steadily and tenderly persevering. I was determined +to try the experiment in this case. A bold +measure, when you consider the person and the +circumstances.</p> + +<p>"'Miss St. Clair,' said I, after she had recovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +her composure; 'allow me to ask whether your +family is related to that of General St. Clair?'</p> + +<p>"'I believe not,' she composedly answered.</p> + +<p>"'Has your father been long dead?'</p> + +<p>"'Not a very long time: and the loss is the +greater, as I have never known the value of a +brother or a sister.'</p> + +<p>"'You do not seem to labour under the usual +disadvantages of step-daughters.'</p> + +<p>"'Never was step-father more devoted and +affectionate than mine, in his own peculiar way; +and with that I am quite contented.'</p> + +<p>"Now, Randolph, you know that impertinence +had no share in dictating these questions, but could +impertinence have gone farther? what ramification +could I next attempt? Here was nearly the +whole genealogical tree, but farther down there +was no hope of touching the true branch.</p> + +<p>"Her own gentle heart alone remained to be +suspected. How could I suspect it, Randolph? +so young, so pure, so gentle, so beautiful! Alas! +that is but a poor protection against suitors. Besides, +she is said to be rich. Must the question be +asked? I resolved upon it! Was I not justifiable +in doing so? Am I not an avowed suitor? at +least have I not shown myself ready to become so? +The opportunity was good; the company were all +engaged in little coteries around the saloon. My +previous questions seemed rather to have tranquillized +her than otherwise; it was a trying moment!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +but no other step could be gained until this obstacle +was surmounted. I therefore proceeded to make +one or two anxious inquiries, critical as it regards +my happiness, but which a lover cannot confide +even to the ear of Randolph.</p> + +<p>"My object was to know whether I had aught +to fear from rivalry. Her lips moved, but no sound +issued from them. I resumed; 'Believe me, that +this pain would not have been inflicted, if my supposed +relation to yourself had not imboldened me +to ask whether any other man were so happy as +to render me miserable.'</p> + +<p>"'I see no impropriety in answering your question, +though it can avail nothing; my <i>affections</i> are +now as they have always been—disengaged.'</p> + +<p>"These words were wafted along the vestibule +of my ear, like some gentle breathings of magic; +you have heard the soft vibrations of the Ĉolian +harp, as a gentle summer breeze bore them along +the air, redolent of the rich perfumes of summer +flowers, and attuned to the wild music of songsters +without.</p> + +<p>"Sweeter, far sweeter, was her voice; a silvery +voice is at all times the organ of the heart, but +when it dies away in a thrilling whisper from the +profoundness of the internal struggle, the ardent +sympathy of the hearer is involuntary. Tragedians +understand this language of the heart, insomuch +that custom has now established the imitation, +in deep-toned pathos.</p> + +<p>"She placed emphasis on the word <i>affections</i>;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +why was this, unless her hand is engaged without +them? This idea flashed upon me with electric +force; you can well imagine how suddenly it broke +asunder the links of the delicious revery of which +I have attempted to give you a glimpse. Another +more painful question than any of the former now +became absolutely necessary; consequently I resumed: +'I think that I know Miss St. Clair sufficiently +well to presume with a good deal of certainty +that her hand is not pledged where her heart +cannot accompany it?'</p> + +<p>"'My hand, sir, is like my affections.'</p> + +<p>"Her head now hung down a little, and her eye +sought the carpet; my own expressive glances, +sanguine as they perhaps had occasionally been, +were themselves much softened and humbled; but +again I summoned my scattered thoughts to the +charge.</p> + +<p>"'Will Miss St. Clair grant me an interview on +the morrow, or some other day more convenient +to herself?'</p> + +<p>"The words had hardly escaped my mouth, +when Isabel stood before us. Lamar was soon by +her side. I also arose.</p> + +<p>"'My dear Frances,' said she, taking my seat, +and locking her hand where I would have given +kingdoms to have had mine; 'we are talking of +making up a little equestrian party to the Passaic +Falls. Will you be of the company? Pray join +us, like a dear girl; it is only fifteen miles.'</p> + +<p>"The lady addressed shook her head gravely.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +Isabel arose, and turning to me, 'I leave the case +in your hands, sir, and you are a poor diplomatist +for a southern, if you do not succeed in persuading +her to go.'</p> + +<p>"I was much alarmed to hear many ladies calling +for shawls and bonnets. I was not long, therefore, +in urging the case, for it was emphatically <i>my</i> +case.</p> + +<p>"'I cannot go,' said she; 'in the first place, I +have not been on horseback since my boarding-school +days; and in the next place, I could not +undergo the fatigue.'</p> + +<p>"'But if all these objections could be obviated?' +I eagerly inquired.</p> + +<p>"'Then I should certainly be pleased to go, and +still more pleased to gratify others by going.'</p> + +<p>"To make the story a short one, as my letter +has already become too long, she finally consented +that I should drive her in a cabriolet, provided her +father, who was not present, thought it proper for +her to go.</p> + +<p>"I reported progress to Isabel, who looked sly +and arch; her brother was as solemn as a tombstone. +I do not say this in triumph, Randolph, for +God knows I have little cause as yet. I merely +state the fact in all plainness and honesty, that you +may have the whole case before you.</p> + +<p>"'This augurs well for you, Mr. Chevillere,' +whispered the lively girl.</p> + +<p>"'I am not so certain of that,' said I.</p> + +<p>"Finally, we agreed to go, 'weather permitting,' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +as they say at country sales, on the day after to-morrow.</p> + +<p>"I did not urge this interview any farther, for a +reason which you will easily perceive. What has +become of you? I write two pages to your one +now. Is the North more prolific than the South +in incidents?</p> + +<p class="center">"Your Friend and Chum,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + + +<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.</span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"New-York, 18—.</span><br /> + +"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Certainly I must be one of the most unfortunate +fellows that ever lived. And none the less +so because the bitter strokes come upon me in the +midst of apparent prosperity; but before I tell +you of one disappointment, I must tell you of the +things which preceded it, in the order of their +occurrence.</p> + +<p>"On the evening after the assemblage of our +little party at Hazlehurst's, Lamar, Damon, and +myself went to the Italian Opera; and to please +Lamar no less than Damon, we took seats in the +pit.</p> + +<p>"The assemblage was brilliant beyond any thing +I have seen, in the two lower tiers of boxes. All +the fashion, and wealth, and beauty of this fair +city seemed to be assembled around us, with their +gay plumage and foreign head-attire, and opera-glasses. +As a shading to this gay picture, there +were the gentlemen, with enormous whiskers and +mustaches curling sentimentally and greasily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +over the upper lip; their teeth glistening through +the bristles, ghastly as Peale's mummy itself.</p> + +<p>"The passion for hairy visages is a singular +characteristic of this phrenological age. Large and +frizzled locks puffed out on each side of the head +to hide the absence of development are easily +enough accounted for; but this supererogatory disfiguration +of ugly faces is altogether unaccountable +on the same principles.</p> + +<p>"'I'll be dad shamed if it ain't all cowardice, +and I hate to see it practised,' said Damon.</p> + +<p>"There is, perhaps, more truth in this remark +than you would at first suppose. No man is so +desirous to appear fierce, courageous, and even +piratical as he that is a dastard in his heart. Indeed +most men are fond of making a parade of +those qualifications with which they are least endowed +by nature.</p> + +<p>"There is one bewhiskered class, however, from +whom we ought to expect better things; I mean +young and thoughtless men, who are led away by +fashion; many of whom have rubbed through the +walls, if not through the studies, of college; and +whose taste ought to have been more refined by +associating with gentlemen, however great their +stolidity or idleness.</p> + +<p>"Finally, as to whiskers, I have seen most of +the American naval and military heroes; and I +cannot now recall a single one of them who ever +wore remarkable whiskers, or bristles on the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +lip. Nor have I ever seen a polished southern +gentleman remarkable for either. There is one +fact which, if generally known, would root out the +evil at its source; and that is, that men who flourish +large whiskers are very apt to become <i>bald</i>!</p> + +<p>"'O! corn-stalks and jews-harps!' said Damon, +after worrying on his seat during the performance +of the overture by the orchestra; 'will they tune +their banjoes all night, and never get to playin?'</p> + +<p>"'That is called fine Italian music,' said Lamar.</p> + +<p>"'Yes! yes!' replied he, 'there's 'four-and-twenty +fiddlers' sure enough! but I rather suspicion +that it would puzzle some of our Kentuck gals +to dance a reel to that music. O my grandmother! +what jaunty heels they would have to sling after +such elbow-greese as that. But you are stuffing +me with soft corn—I see you are by your laughing. +They know better than to pass that for +music; no, no, catch a weasel asleep!'</p> + +<p>"The opera now commenced, and I must own +that I saw more of Damon than I did of the play. +He was struck dumb with astonishment; seemed +scarcely to believe his own senses, but looking +round the house after an unusual silence, and seeing +the audience serious and apparently attentive, he +burst into a cachinnation.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said he, with a long breath, 'I wish I +may be tetotally smashed in a cider-mill, if that +don't out-Cherokee old Kentuck; why that ain't +a chaw-tobacco better nor Cherokee! Just wait a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +minute, and they'll raise the whoop, it's likely; +and if they do, if I don't give them a touch of Kentuck +pipes that'll make them think somebody's +busted their biler. Look! some of the men have +got rings in their ears too; and leather skinned. +Now I'm snagged if I was to meet that feller in a +Mississip cane-brake, and my rifle on my arm, if I +wouldn't be apt to let the wind through his whistle +cross-ways.'</p> + +<p>"'Not if he was to speak to you, and tell you he +was a Christian like yourself?'</p> + +<p>"'Speak to me! he would do a devilish sight +better to play dummy: for sure as he spoke, I should +let fly at him, because I wouldn't know but he belonged +to some of those far away tribes of Black-feet, +or the likes of that.'</p> + +<p>"'But you do not really think that they look +and speak any thing like the western savages, +Damon?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'I'm smashed if I don't bet that I can put +blankets and leggins on the whole tribe, and pass +them through the Cherokee nation for friendly +Black-feet.'</p> + +<p>"The incomparable Prima Donna (as she is +called here) now made her first appearance; her +voice is exquisite, Randolph, and her execution +beyond the conception of an unsophisticated student.</p> + +<p>"The music is pleasing to the ear, and may +touch an Italian heart, but it found no response +from mine. I tell this to you in all sincerity and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +confidence, but it would lower a man, I fear, to +say so in the fashionable circles.</p> + +<p>"'Well, Damon, would the Italian ladies pass for +squaws?'</p> + +<p>"'No, no; they are better than the men, and +they are right pretty too, if they didn't talk such +outlandish gibberish; but that dark skinn'd man +there, I swear Pete Ironsides would kick him if he +was to go in my stable; for he hates an Injin, as +I do an allegator; poor Pete! I reckon he thinks +I'm skulped.'</p> + +<p>"'Pete is well cared for, I will guaranty,' said +Lamar, very pathetically.</p> + +<p>"'Look! look!' exclaimed Damon; 'what's +that under the green umbrella there, at the front of +the stage among the lights?'</p> + +<p>"'That is the prompter, to put them right when +they go wrong.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, yes! I see, I see!' continued he; 'he +gives them a wink every now and then.'</p> + +<p>"In the operas it is very frequently the case that +one of the subordinate characters comes to the +front of the stage after the principals have made +their exit, and explains what rare sport is coming.</p> + +<p>"'What does that fellow slip out here every +now and then like a dropped stitch for?'</p> + +<p>"We explained to him the meaning of it, as well +as we understood it ourselves.</p> + +<p>"'Ay, ay! I see it now; he is the Nota Bene!'</p> + +<p>"We found great difficulty in getting Damon to +understand, with his shrewd natural view of things,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +that an opera was nothing more than a common +play; the parts being sung, instead of spoken.</p> + +<p>"'Now I wish my head may be knocked into a +cocked-hat, if a man had told this to me of the +Yorkers in old Kentuck, if I wouldn't have thought +he was spinnin long yarns; there is no sense in it, +nor there's no fun in it, as they all take it up there +in the pews; if so moutbe now that they were all +of my way of thinking, and would only join in a +<i>leetle</i> touch of the warwhoop, why we might show +them fellers a little of the real Cherokee, that I +rather suspicion they haven't seen.'</p> + +<p>"'Why, what would you do, Damon?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>Jist</i> set them four-and-twenty fiddlers to +playin of something like Christian reels; hand the +gals down on the floor; then I reckon there would +be a little sort of a regular hand-round! Confound +their jimmy simequivers, and their supple elbows! +Smash me, if they don't think the whole cream of +the ball lies in rattlin the bones of their elbows. +Give me your long sweeping bow hands, that +saws the music right in under your ribs, and sets +your legs to dancin, whether they will or not. Do +you think them fellers ever made anybody feel in +the humour for a hand-round?'</p> + +<p>"'I can't say that I think they ever did.'</p> + +<p>"'No, nor they never will! they may set people's +teeth on a wire edge, or make their flesh crawl, or +set them into an ague fit with their shakin, and +grindin, and squawkin. And now I think of it, +the whole business sounds more like grinding ram<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>rods +in an armory, than any thing I ever come +across; there's the squeakin of the wheels, that +would go for them goose guzzles them fellers are +pipin on. The ramrods on the grindstones will go +for the fiddles,—only I don't see any fire flyin out +of the catgut, but I've been watchin sharp for it +some time. Then there's the old leather bellows +groanin and gruntin away, jist like those two fellers +seesawin there, on them two big-bellied fiddles, +and the leather bands flappin every time they +come round, keeps the time for the whole concern.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, have you seen any fire yet?' after a +long pause.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, plenty of it! they make it fly out of my +eyes, if they don't out of the catguts; confound +them, I say, they keep me all the time drawin +down first one eye and then another, first one corner +of my mouth and then another, jist as if a +horse was on a dead strain, and you were bowing +your neck and stickin your leg straight in the +ground, and then strainin with all your might as if +you could help him; but this is worse! a confounded +sight worse! for every now and then all +the fiddlers and trumpeters comes rattlin down +their tinklin quivers, like a four-horse load of +china, goin to the devil down a steep hill at the +rate of ten knots an hour; and then it all dies +away agin, as if horses, wagon, and chinaware +had all gone over a bank as high as a church +steeple. Then! I begin to draw a long breath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +agin, and feel a little comfortable. But here's a +dyin away sound! hop and come agin, rising and +whooping, until the whole team's going full tilt, +pull dick, pull devil, here they go again! old Nick +take the hindmost. See their elbows now, how they +move out and in, out and in, like spinning jinnies. +And see that feller that sets at the top of the +mob, on the high chair in the middle, how his head +goes. See how he looks at that book before him, +as if that stuff could be put down there in black +and white.'</p> + +<p>"'It <i>is</i> all down there, Damon.'</p> + +<p>"'Come, come, now, strangers, you have stuffed +me enough! I can't swallow that exactly neither! +All the lawyers in Philadelphia couldn't write down +half the wriggle-ma-rees one of them chaps has +made since I set here! Smash my apple-cart, if +I wouldn't like jist to see a goosequill goin at the +rate of one of them elbows. Ink would fly like +mud at a scrub-race, and when it was done it +would look like my copy-book used to do at school; +more stops than words.'</p> + +<p>"'But you keep your eye on the orchestra all +the while; why not look on the stage?'</p> + +<p>"'I do, I do; and that puzzles me the blamedest,—how +they all come out square at the stops, +fiddlers and all. Every now and then they seem +to git into a fair race, and one feller's eye is poppin +out of his head, and the veins on the woman's neck +is ready to burst, and the fiddlers and the pipers +and the trumpeters are all puffin and blowin, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +our Kentuck jockeys at a pony sweepstakes; and +then all at once, jist as there begins to be a little +sport, to see who has the wind and the bottom, their +heads begin to move first one side and then the +other all so kind, and ready to make a draw game +of it, blabbering all the time; till the trumpeter +sees they're pretty well blown, then he begins to +come down a little with his toot! toot! toot! +That's to call all hands off, you see, and they slip +down as easy and as quiet as if it had all been in +fun. Then they all clear out but one, and he +watches his chance till they're all gone. Then he +comes here to the front, and flaps his wings and +crows over them, as if he had done some great +things, if we hadn't been here to show fair play.'</p> + +<p>"I am sure, Randolph, that I give you but a +poor idea of the reality, but you must supply the +deficiencies by your imagination. Damon talked +incessantly, and I enjoyed it far more than I could +have done the opera, even if I had been a perfect +Italian scholar. I find that I must defer the +account of our disappointment till another time, +when I will tell you some matters of interest.</p> + +<p class="center">"Truly yours,<br /></p> + +<p><span class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">V. Chevillere.</span>"</span><br /> +</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="title">END OF VOL. I.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><b>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE</b></p> + +<blockquote><p>Alternate, archaic, and inconsistently spelled words have been retained.</p> + +<p>Punctuation has been made consistent including the use of quotation +marks.</p> + +<p>page 36: "faintin" changed to "faintin'" (a faintin' spell)</p> + +<p>page 57: "ear" changed to "dear" (Believe me, dear lady,)</p> + +<p>page 114: "doggrel" changed to "doggerel" so as to be consistent with +other places this word is used (and singing doggerel to the music)</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KENTUCKIAN IN NEW-YORK, VOLUME I (OF 2)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 36613-h.txt or 36613-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/6/1/36613">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/6/1/36613</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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