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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5365.txt b/5365.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62078af --- /dev/null +++ b/5365.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2946 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard Carvel, Volume 1, by Winston Churchill + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 1 + +Author: Winston Churchill + +Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #5365] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 1 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +RICHARD CARVEL + +By Winston Churchill + + + +CONTENTS OF THE COMPLETE BOOK + +Volume 1. +I. Lionel Carvel, of Carvel Hall +II. Some Memories of Childhood +III. Caught by the Tide +IV. Grafton would heal an Old Breach +V. "If Ladies be but Young and Fair" +VI. I first suffer for the Cause +VII. Grafton has his Chance + +Volume 2. +VIII. Over the Wall +IX. Under False Colours +X. The Red in the Carvel Blood +XI. A Festival and a Parting +XII. News from a Far Country + +Volume 3. +XIII. Mr. Allen shows his Hand +XIV. The Volte Coupe +XV. Of which the Rector has the Worst +XVI. In which Some Things are made Clear +XVII. South River +XVIII. The Black Moll + +Volume 4. +XIX. A Man of Destiny +XX. A Sad Home-coming +XXI. The Gardener's Cottage +XXII. On the Road +XXIII. London Town +XXIV. Castle Yard +XXV. The Rescue + +Volume 5. +XXVI. The Part Horatio played +XXVII. In which I am sore tempted +XXVIII. Arlington Street +XXIX. I meet a very Great Young Man +XXX. A Conspiracy +XXXI. "Upstairs into the World" +XXXII. Lady Tankerville's Drum-major +XXXIII. Drury Lane + +Volume 6. +XXXIV. His Grace makes Advances +XXXV. In which my Lord Baltimore appears +XXXVI. A Glimpse of Mr. Garrick +XXXVII. The Serpentine +XXXVIII. In which I am roundly brought to task +XXXIX. Holland House +XL. Vauxhall +XLI. The Wilderness + +Volume 7. +XLII. My Friends are proven +XLIII. Annapolis once more +XLIV. Noblesse Oblige +XLV. The House of Memories +XLVI. Gordon's Pride +XLVII. Visitors +XLVIII. Multum in Parvo +XLIX. Liberty loses a Friend + +Volume 8. +L. Farewell to Gordon's +LI. How an Idle Prophecy came to pass +LII. How the Gardener's Son fought the Serapis +LIII. In which I make Some Discoveries +LIV. More Discoveries. +LV. The Love of a Maid for a Man +LVI. How Good came out of Evil +LVII. I come to my Own again + + + + +FOREWORD + +My sons and daughters have tried to persuade me to remodel these memoirs +of my grandfather into a latter-day romance. But I have thought it wiser +to leave them as he wrote them. Albeit they contain some details not of +interest to the general public, to my notion it is such imperfections as +these which lend to them the reality they bear. Certain it is, when +reading them, I live his life over again. + +Needless to say, Mr. Richard Carvel never intended them for publication. +His first apology would be for his Scotch, and his only defence is that +he was not a Scotchman. + +The lively capital which once reflected the wit and fashion of Europe has +fallen into decay. The silent streets no more echo with the rumble of +coaches and gay chariots, and grass grows where busy merchants trod. +Stately ball-rooms, where beauty once reigned, are cold and empty and +mildewed, and halls, where laughter rang, are silent. Time was when +every wide-throated chimney poured forth its cloud of smoke, when every +andiron held a generous log,--andirons which are now gone to decorate Mr. +Centennial's home in New York or lie with a tag in the window of some +curio shop. The mantel, carved in delicate wreaths, is boarded up, and +an unsightly stove mocks the gilded ceiling. Children romp in that room +with the silver door-knobs, where my master and his lady were wont to sit +at cards in silk and brocade, while liveried blacks entered on tiptoe. +No marble Cupids or tall Dianas fill the niches in the staircase, and the +mahogany board, round which has been gathered many a famous toast and +wit, is gone from the dining room. + +But Mr. Carvel's town house in Annapolis stands to-day, with its +neighbours, a mournful relic of a glory that is past. + +DANIEL CLAPSADDLE CARVEL. + +CALVERT HOUSE, PENNSYLVANIA, +December 21, 1876. + + + + +RICHARD CARVEL + + +CHAPTER I + +LIONEL CARVEL, OF CARVEL HALL + +Lionel Carvel, Esq., of Carvel Hall, in the county of Queen Anne, was no +inconsiderable man in his Lordship's province of Maryland, and indeed he +was not unknown in the colonial capitals from Williamsburg to Boston. +When his ships arrived out, in May or June, they made a goodly showing at +the wharves, and his captains were ever shrewd men of judgment who +sniffed a Frenchman on the horizon, so that none of the Carvel tobacco +ever went, in that way, to gladden a Gallic heart. Mr. Carvel's acres +were both rich and broad, and his house wide for the stranger who might +seek its shelter, as with God's help so it ever shall be. It has yet to +be said of the Carvels that their guests are hurried away, or that one, +by reason of his worldly goods or position, shall be more welcome than +another. + +I take no shame in the pride with which I write of my grandfather, albeit +he took the part of his Majesty and Parliament against the Colonies. He +was no palavering turncoat, like my Uncle Grafton, to cry "God save the +King!" again when an English fleet sailed up the bay. Mr. Carvel's hand +was large and his heart was large, and he was respected and even loved by +the patriots as a man above paltry subterfuge. He was born at Carvel +Hall in the year of our Lord 1696, when the house was, I am told, but a +small dwelling. It was his father, George Carvel, my great-grandsire, +reared the present house in the year 1720, of brick brought from England +as ballast for the empty ships; he added on, in the years following, the +wide wings containing the ball-room, and the banquet-hall, and the large +library at the eastern end, and the offices. But it was my grandfather +who built the great stables and the kennels where he kept his beagles and +his fleeter hounds. He dearly loved the saddle and the chase, and taught +me to love them too. Many the sharp winter day I have followed the fox +with him over two counties, and lain that night, and a week after, +forsooth, at the plantation of some kind friend who was only too glad to +receive us. Often, too, have we stood together from early morning until +dark night, waist deep, on the duck points, I with a fowling-piece I was +all but too young to carry, and brought back a hundred red-heads or +canvas-backs in our bags. He went with unfailing regularity to the races +at Annapolis or Chestertown or Marlborough, often to see his own horses +run, where the coaches of the gentry were fifty and sixty around the +course; where a negro, or a hogshead of tobacco, or a pipe of Madeira was +often staked at a single throw. Those times, my children, are not ours, +and I thought it not strange that Mr. Carvel should delight in a good +main between two cocks, or a bull-baiting, or a breaking of heads at the +Chestertown fair, where he went to show his cattle and fling a guinea +into the ring for the winner. + +But it must not be thought that Lionel Carvel, your ancestor, was wholly +unlettered because he was a sportsman, though it must be confessed that +books occupied him only when the weather compelled, or when on his back +with the gout. At times he would fain have me read to him as he lay in +his great four-post bed with the flowered counterpane, from the +Spectator, stopping me now and anon at some awakened memory of his youth. +He never forgave Mr. Addison for killing stout, old Sir Roger de +Coverley, and would never listen to the butler's account of his death. +Mr. Carvel, too, had walked in Gray's Inn Gardens and met adventure at +Fox Hall, and seen the great Marlborough himself. He had a fondness for +Mr. Congreve's Comedies, many of which he had seen acted; and was partial +to Mr. Gay's Trivia, which brought him many a recollection. He would +also listen to Pope. But of the more modern poetry I think Mr. Gray's +Elegy pleased him best. He would laugh over Swift's gall and wormwood, +and would never be brought by my mother to acknowledge the defects in the +Dean's character. Why? He had once met the Dean in a London +drawing-room, when my grandfather was a young spark at Christ Church, +Oxford. He never tired of relating that interview. The hostess was a +very great lady indeed, and actually stood waiting for a word with his +Reverence, whose whim it was rather to talk to the young provincial. He +was a forbidding figure, in his black gown and periwig, so my grandfather +said, with a piercing blue eye and shaggy brow. He made the mighty to +come to him, while young Carvel stood between laughter and fear of the +great lady's displeasure. + +"I knew of your father," said the Dean, "before he went to the colonies. +He had done better at home, sir. He was a man of parts." + +"He has done indifferently well in Maryland, sir," said Mr. Carvel, +making his bow. + +"He hath gained wealth, forsooth," says the Dean, wrathfully, "and might +have had both wealth and fame had his love for King James not turned his +head. I have heard much of the colonies, and have read that doggerel +'Sot Weed Factor' which tells of the gluttonous life of ease you lead in +your own province. You can have no men of mark from such conditions, Mr. +Carvel. Tell me," he adds contemptuously, "is genius honoured among +you?" + +"Faith, it is honoured, your Reverence," said my grandfather, "but never +encouraged." + +This answer so pleased the Dean that he bade Mr. Carvel dine with him +next day at Button's Coffee House, where they drank mulled wine and old +sack, for which young Mr. Carvel paid. On which occasion his Reverence +endeavoured to persuade the young man to remain in England, and even +went so far as to promise his influence to obtain him preferment. But +Mr. Carvel chose rather (wisely or not, who can judge?) to come back to +Carvel Hall and to the lands of which he was to be master, and to play +the country squire and provincial magnate rather than follow the varying +fortunes of a political party at home. And he was a man much looked up +to in the province before the Revolution, and sat at the council board of +his Excellency the Governor, as his father had done before him, and +represented the crown in more matters than one when the French and +savages were upon our frontiers. + +Although a lover of good cheer, Mr. Carvel was never intemperate. To the +end of his days he enjoyed his bottle after dinner, nay, could scarce get +along without it; and mixed a punch or a posset as well as any in our +colony. He chose a good London-brewed ale or porter, and his ships +brought Madeira from that island by the pipe, and sack from Spain and +Portugal, and red wine from France when there was peace. And puncheons +of rum from Jamaica and the Indies for his people, holding that no +gentleman ever drank rum in the raw, though fairly supportable as punch. + +Mr. Carvel's house stands in Marlborough Street, a dreary mansion enough. +Praised be Heaven that those who inherit it are not obliged to live there +on the memory of what was in days gone by. The heavy green shutters are +closed; the high steps, though stoutly built, are shaky after these years +of disuse; the host of faithful servants who kept its state are nearly +all laid side by side at Carvel Hall. Harvey and Chess and Scipio are no +more. The kitchen, whither a boyish hunger oft directed my eyes at +twilight, shines not with the welcoming gleam of yore. Chess no longer +prepares the dainties which astonished Mr. Carvel's guests, and which he +alone could cook. The coach still stands in the stables where Harvey +left it, a lumbering relic of those lumbering times when methinks there +was more of goodwill and less of haste in the world. The great brass +knocker, once resplendent from Scipio's careful hand, no longer +fantastically reflects the guest as he beats his tattoo, and Mr. Peale's +portrait of my grandfather is gone from the dining-room wall, adorning, +as you know, our own drawing-room at Calvert House. + +I shut my eyes, and there comes to me unbidden that dining-room in +Marlborough Street of a gray winter's afternoon, when I was but a lad. +I see my dear grandfather in his wig and silver-laced waistcoat and his +blue velvet coat, seated at the head of the table, and the precise Scipio +has put down the dumb-waiter filled with shining cut-glass at his left +hand, and his wine chest at his right, and with solemn pomp driven his +black assistants from the room. Scipio was Mr. Carvel's butler. He was +forbid to light the candles after dinner. As dark grew on, Mr. Carvel +liked the blazing logs for light, and presently sets the decanter on the +corner of the table and draws nearer the fire, his guests following. I +recall well how jolly Governor Sharpe, who was a frequent visitor with +us, was wont to display a comely calf in silk stocking; and how Captain +Daniel Clapsaddle would spread his feet with his toes out, and settle his +long pipe between his teeth. And there were besides a host of others who +sat at that fire whose names have passed into Maryland's history,--Whig +and Tory alike. And I remember a tall slip of a lad who sat listening by +the deep-recessed windows on the street, which somehow are always covered +in these pictures with a fine rain. Then a coach passes,--a mahogany +coach emblazoned with the Manners's coat of arms, and Mistress Dorothy +and her mother within. And my young lady gives me one of those demure +bows which ever set my heart agoing like a smith's hammer of a Monday. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOME MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD + +A traveller who has all but gained the last height of the great +mist-covered mountain looks back over the painful crags he has mastered +to where a light is shining on the first easy slope. That light is ever +visible, for it is Youth. + +After nigh fourscore and ten years of life that Youth is nearer to me now +than many things which befell me later. I recall as yesterday the day +Captain Clapsaddle rode to the Hall, his horse covered with sweat, and +the reluctant tidings of Captain Jack Carvel's death on his lips. And +strangely enough that day sticks in my memory as of delight rather than +sadness. When my poor mother had gone up the stairs on my grandfather's +arm the strong soldier took me on his knee, and drawing his pistol from +his holster bade me snap the lock, which I was barely able to do. And +he told me wonderful tales of the woods beyond the mountains, and of the +painted men who tracked them; much wilder and fiercer they were than +those stray Nanticokes I had seen from time to time near Carvel Hall. +And when at last he would go I clung to him, so he swung me to the back +of his great horse Ronald, and I seized the bridle in my small hands. +The noble beast, like his master, loved a child well, and he cantered off +lightly at the captain's whistle, who cried "bravo" and ran by my side +lest I should fall. Lifting me off at length he kissed me and bade me +not to annoy my mother, the tears in his eyes again. And leaping on +Ronald was away for the ferry with never so much as a look behind, +leaving me standing in the road. + +And from that time I saw more of him and loved him better than any man +save my grandfather. He gave me a pony on my next birthday, and a little +hogskin saddle made especially by Master Wythe, the London saddler in the +town, with a silver-mounted bridle. Indeed, rarely did the captain +return from one of his long journeys without something for me and a +handsome present for my mother. Mr. Carvel would have had him make his +home with us when we were in town, but this he would not do. He lodged +in Church Street, over against the Coffee House, dining at that hostelry +when not bidden out, or when not with us. He was much sought after. +I believe there was scarce a man of note in any of the colonies not +numbered among his friends. 'Twas said he loved my mother, and could +never come to care for any other woman, and he promised my father in the +forests to look after her welfare and mine. This promise, you shall see, +he faithfully kept. + +Though you have often heard from my lips the story of my mother, I must +for the sake of those who are to come after you, set it down here as +briefly as I may. My grandfather's bark 'Charming Sally', Captain +Stanwix, having set out from Bristol on the 15th of April, 1736, with a +fair wind astern and a full cargo of English goods below, near the +Madeiras fell in with foul weather, which increased as she entered the +trades. Captain Stanwix being a prudent man, shortened sail, knowing the +harbour of Funchal to be but a shallow bight in the rock, and worse than +the open sea in a southeaster. The third day he hove the Sally to; being +a stout craft and not overladen she weathered the gale with the loss of a +jib, and was about making topsails again when a full-rigged ship was +descried in the offing giving signals of distress. Night was coming on +very fast, and the sea was yet running too high for a boat to live, but +the gallant captain furled his topsails once more to await the morning. +It could be seen from her signals that the ship was living throughout the +night, but at dawn she foundered before the Sally's boats could be put in +the water; one of them was ground to pieces on the falls. Out of the +ship's company and passengers they picked up but five souls, four sailors +and a little girl of two years or thereabouts. The men knew nothing more +of her than that she had come aboard at Brest with her mother, a quiet, +delicate lady who spoke little with the other passengers. The ship was +'La Favourite du Roy', bound for the French Indies. + +Captain Stanwix's wife, who was a good, motherly person, took charge of +the little orphan, and arriving at Carvel Hall delivered her to my +grandfather, who brought her up as his own daughter. You may be sure the +emblem of Catholicism found upon her was destroyed, and she was baptized +straightway by Doctor Hilliard, my grandfather's chaplain, into the +Established Church. Her clothes were of the finest quality, and her +little handkerchief had worked into the corner of it a coronet, with the +initials "E de T" beside it. Around her neck was that locket with the +gold chain which I have so often shown you, on one side of which is the +miniature of the young officer in his most Christian Majesty's uniform, +and on the other a yellow-faded slip of paper with these words: "Elle est +la mienne, quoiqu'elle ne porte pas mou nom." "She is mine, although she +does not bear my name." + +My grandfather wrote to the owners of 'La Favourite du Roy', and likewise +directed his English agent to spare nothing in the search for some clew +to the child's identity. All that he found was that the mother had been +entered on the passenger-list as Madame la Farge, of Paris, and was bound +for Martinico. Of the father there was no trace whatever. The name "la +Farge" the agent, Mr. Dix, knew almost to a certainty was assumed, and +the coronet on the handkerchief implied that the child was of noble +parentage. The meaning conveyed by the paper in the locket, which was +plainly a clipping from a letter, was such that Mr. Carvel never showed +it to my mother, and would have destroyed it had he not felt that some +day it might aid in solving the mystery. So he kept it in his strongbox, +where he thought it safe from prying eyes. But my Uncle Grafton, ever a +deceitful lad, at length discovered the key and read the paper, and +afterwards used the knowledge he thus obtained as a reproach and a taunt +against my mother. I cannot even now write his name without repulsion. + +This new member of the household was renamed Elizabeth Carvel, though +they called her Bess, and of a course she was greatly petted and spoiled, +and ruled all those about her. As she grew from childhood to womanhood +her beauty became talked about, and afterwards, when Mistress Carvel went +to the Assembly, a dozen young sparks would crowd about the door of her +coach, and older and more serious men lost their heads on her account. + +Her devotion to Mr. Carvel was such, however, that she seemed to care but +little for the attention she received, and she continued to grace his +board and entertain his company. He fairly worshipped her. It was his +delight to surprise her with presents from England, with rich silks and +brocades for gowns, for he loved to see her bravely dressed. The spinet +he gave her, inlaid with ivory, we have still. And he caused a chariot +to be made for her in London, and she had her own horses and her groom in +the Carvel livery. + +People said it was but natural that she should fall in love with Captain +Jack, my father. He was the soldier of the family, tall and straight and +dashing. He differed from his younger brother Grafton as day from night. +Captain Jack was open and generous, though a little given to rash +enterprise and madcap adventure. He loved my mother from a child. His +friend Captain Clapsaddle loved her too, and likewise Grafton, but it +soon became evident that she would marry Captain Jack or nobody. He was +my grandfather's favourite, and though Mr. Carvel had wished him more +serious, his joy when Bess blushingly told him the news was a pleasure to +see. And Grafton turned to revenge; he went to Mr. Carvel with the paper +he had taken from the strong-box and claimed that my mother was of +spurious birth and not fit to marry a Carvel. He afterwards spread the +story secretly among the friends of the family. By good fortune little +harm arose therefrom, since all who knew my mother loved her, and were +willing to give her credit for the doubt; many, indeed, thought the story +sprang from Grafton's jealousy and hatred. Then it was that Mr. Carvel +gave to Grafton the estate in Kent County and bade him shift for himself, +saying that he washed his hands of a son who had acted such a part. + +But Captain Clapsaddle came to the wedding in the long drawing-room at +the Hall and stood by Captain Jack when he was married, and kissed the +bride heartily. And my mother cried about this afterwards, and said that +it grieved her sorely that she should have given pain to such a noble +man. + +After the blow which left her a widow, she continued to keep Mr. Carvel's +home. I recall her well, chiefly as a sad and beautiful woman, stately +save when she kissed me with passion and said that I bore my father's +look. She drooped like the flower she was, and one spring day my +grandfather led me to receive her blessing and to be folded for the last +time in those dear arms. With a smile on her lips she rose to heaven to +meet my father. And she lies buried with the rest of the Carvels at the +Hall, next to the brave captain, her husband. + +And so I grew up with my grandfather, spending the winters in town and +the long summers on the Eastern Shore. I loved the country best, and the +old house with its hundred feet of front standing on the gentle slope +rising from the river's mouth, the green vines Mr. Carvel had fetched +from England all but hiding the brick, and climbing to the angled roof; +and the velvet green lawn of silvery grass brought from England, +descending gently terrace by terrace to the waterside, where lay our +pungies and barges. There was then a tiny pillared porch framing the +front door, for our ancestors never could be got to realize the Maryland +climate, and would rarely build themselves wide verandas suitable to that +colony. At Carvel Hall we had, to be sure, the cool spring house under +the willows for sultry days, with its pool dished out for bathing; and a +trellised arbour, and octagonal summer house with seats where my mother +was wont to sit sewing while my grandfather dreamed over his pipe. On +the lawn stood the oaks and walnuts and sycamores which still cast their +shade over it, and under them of a summer's evening Mr. Carvel would have +his tea alone; save oftentimes when a barge would come swinging up the +river with ten velvet-capped blacks at the oars, and one of our friendly +neighbours--Mr. Lloyd or Mr. Bordley, or perchance little Mr. Manners +--would stop for a long evening with him. They seldom came without their +ladies and children. What romps we youngsters had about the old place +whilst our elders talked their politics. + +In childhood the season which delighted me the most was spring. I would +count the days until St. Taminas, which, as you knew, falls on the first +of May. And the old custom was for the young men to deck themselves out +as Indian bucks and sweep down on the festivities around the Maypole on +the town green, or at night to surprise the guests at a ball and force +the gentlemen to pay down a shilling, and sometimes a crown apiece, and +the host to give them a bowl of punch. Then came June. My grandfather +celebrated his Majesty's birthday in his own jolly fashion, and I had my +own birthday party on the tenth. And on the fifteenth, unless it chanced +upon a Sunday, my grandfather never failed to embark in his pinnace at +the Annapolis dock for the Hall. Once seated in the stern between Mr. +Carvel's knees, what rapture when at last we shot out into the blue +waters of the bay and I thought of the long summer of joy before me. +Scipio was generalissimo of these arrangements, and was always at the +dock punctually at ten to hand my grandfather in, a ceremony in which he +took great pride, and to look his disapproval should we be late. As he +turned over the key of the town house he would walk away with a stern +dignity to marshal the other servants in the horse-boat. + +One fifteenth of June two children sat with bated breath in the pinnace, +--Dorothy Manners and myself. Mistress Dolly was then as mischievous a +little baggage as ever she proved afterwards. She was coming to pass a +week at the Hall, her parents, whose place was next to ours, having gone +to Philadelphia on a visit. We rounded Kent Island, which lay green and +beautiful in the flashing waters, and at length caught sight of the old +windmill, with its great arms majestically turning, and the cupola of +Carvel House shining white among the trees; and of the upper spars of the +shipping, with sails neatly furled, lying at the long wharves, where the +English wares Mr. Carvel had commanded for the return trips were +unloading. Scarce was the pinnace brought into the wind before I had +leaped ashore and greeted with a shout the Hall servants drawn up in a +line on the green, grinning a welcome. Dorothy and I scampered over the +grass and into the cool, wide house, resting awhile on the easy sloping +steps within, hand in hand. And then away for that grand tour of +inspection we had been so long planning together. How well I recall that +sunny afternoon, when the shadows of the great oaks were just beginning +to lengthen. Through the greenhouses we marched, monarchs of all we +surveyed, old Porphery, the gardener, presenting Mistress Dolly with a +crown of orange blossoms, for which she thanked him with a pretty +courtesy her governess had taught her. Were we not king and queen +returned to our summer palace? And Spot and Silver and Song and Knipe, +the wolf-hound, were our train, though not as decorous as rigid etiquette +demanded, since they were forever running after the butterflies. On we +went through the stiff, box-bordered walks of the garden, past the +weather-beaten sundial and the spinning-house and the smoke-house to the +stables. Here old Harvey, who had taught me to ride Captain Daniel's +pony, is equerry, and young Harvey our personal attendant; old Harvey +smiles as we go in and out of the stalls rubbing the noses of our trusted +friends, and gives a gruff but kindly warning as to Cassandra's heels. +He recalls my father at the same age. + +Jonas Tree, the carpenter, sits sunning himself on his bench before the +shop, but mysteriously disappears when he sees us, and returns presently +with a little ship he has fashioned for me that winter, all complete with +spars and sails, for Jonas was a shipwright on the Severn in the old +country before he came as a king's passenger to the new. Dolly and I +are off directly to the backwaters of the river, where the new boat is +launched with due ceremony as the Conqueror, his Majesty's latest +ship-of-the-line. Jonas himself trims her sails, and she sets off right +gallantly across the shallows, heeling to the breeze for all the world +like a real man-o'-war. Then the King would fain cruise at once against +the French, but Queen Dorothy must needs go with him. His Majesty points +out that when fighting is to be done, a ship of war is no place for a +woman, whereat her Majesty stamps her little foot and throws her crown of +orange blossoms from her, and starts off for the milk-house in high +dudgeon, vowing she will play no more. + +And it ends as it ever will end, be the children young or old, for the +French pass from his Majesty's mind and he runs after his consort to +implore forgiveness, leaving poor Jonas to take care of the Conqueror. + +How short those summer days? All too short for the girl and boy who had +so much to do in them. The sun rising over the forest often found us +peeping through the blinds, and when he sank into the bay at night we +were still running, tired but happy, and begging patient Hester for half +an hour more. + +"Lawd, Marse Dick," I can hear her say, "you an' Miss Dolly's been on +yo' feet since de dawn. And so's I, honey." + +And so we had. We would spend whole days on the wharves, all bustle and +excitement, sometimes seated on the capstan of the Sprightly Bess or +perched in the nettings of the Oriole, of which ship old Stanwix was now +captain. He had grown gray in Mr. Carvel's service, and good Mrs. +Stanwix was long since dead. Often we would mount together on the little +horse Captain Daniel had given me, Dorothy on a pillion behind, to go +with my grandfather to inspect the farm. Mr. Starkie, the overseer, +would ride beside us, his fowling-piece slung over his shoulder and his +holster on his hip; a kind man and capable, and unlike Mr. Evans, my +Uncle Grafton's overseer, was seldom known to use his firearms or the +rawhide slung across his saddle. The negroes in their linsey-woolsey +jackets and checked trousers would stand among the hills grinning at us +children as we passed; and there was not one of them, nor of the white +servants for that matter, that I could not call by name. + +And all this time I was busily wooing Mistress Dolly; but she, little +minx, would give me no satisfaction. I see her standing among the +strawberries, her black hair waving in the wind, and her red lips redder +still from the stain. And the sound of her childish voice comes back to +me now after all these years. And this was my first proposal: + +"Dorothy, when you grow up and I grow up, you will marry me, and I shall +give you all these strawberries." + +"I will marry none but a soldier," says she, "and a great man." + +"Then will I be a soldier," I cried, "and greater than the Governor +himself." And I believed it. + +"Papa says I shall marry an earl," retorts Dorothy, with a toss of her +pretty head. + +"There are no earls among us," I exclaimed hotly, for even then I had +some of that sturdy republican spirit which prevailed among the younger +generation. "Our earls are those who have made their own way, like my +grandfather." For I had lately heard Captain Clapsaddle say this and +much more on the subject. But Dorothy turned up her nose. + +"I shall go home when I am eighteen,"--she said, "and I shall meet his +Majesty the King." + +And to such an argument I found no logical answer. + +Mr. Marmaduke Manners and his lady came to fetch Dorothy home. He was a +foppish little gentleman who thought more of the cut of his waistcoat +than of the affairs of the province, and would rather have been bidden to +lead the assembly ball than to sit in council with his Excellency the +Governor. My first recollection of him is of contempt. He must needs +have his morning punch just so, and complained whiningly of Scipio if +some perchance were spilled on the glass. He must needs be taken abroad +in a chair when it rained. And though in the course of a summer he was +often at Carvel Hall he never tarried long, and came to see Mr. Carvel's +guests rather than Mr. Carvel. He had little in common with my +grandfather, whose chief business and pleasure was to promote industry +on his farm. Mr. Marmaduke was wont to rise at noon, and knew not wheat +from barley, or good leaf from bad; his hands he kept like a lady's, +rendering them almost useless by the long lace on the sleeves, and his +chief pastime was card-playing. It was but reasonable therefore, when +the troubles with the mother country began, that he chose the King's side +alike from indolence and contempt for things republican. + +Of Mrs. Manners I shall say more by and by. + +I took a mischievous delight in giving Mr. Manners every annoyance my +boyish fancy could conceive. The evening of his arrival he and Mr. +Carvel set out for a stroll about the house, Mr. Marmaduke mincing his +steps, for it had rained that morning. And presently they came upon the +windmill with its long arms moving lazily in the light breeze, near +touching the ground as they passed, for the mill was built in the Dutch +fashion. I know not what moved me, but hearing Mr. Manners carelessly +humming a minuet while my grandfather explained the usefulness of the +mill, I seized hold of one of the long arms as it swung by, and before +the gentlemen could prevent was carried slowly upwards. Dorothy +screamed, and her father stood stock still with amazement and fear, Mr. +Carvel being the only one who kept his presence of mind. "Hold on tight, +Richard!" I heard him cry. It was dizzy riding, though the motion was +not great, and before I had reached the right angle I regretted my +rashness. I caught a glimpse of the Bay with the red sun on it, and +as I turned saw far below me the white figure of Ivie Rawlinson, the +Scotch miller, who had run out. "O haith!" he shouted. "Hand fast, +Mr. Richard!"--And so I clung tightly and came down without much +inconvenience, though indifferently glad to feel the ground again. + +Mr. Marmaduke, as I expected, was in a great temper, and swore he had +not had such a fright for years. He looked for Mr. Carvel to cane me +stoutly: But Ivie laughed heartily, and said: "I wad yell gang far for +anither laddie wi' the spunk, Mr. Manners," and with a sly look at my +grandfather, "Ilka day we hae some sic whigmeleery." + +I think Mr. Carvel was not ill pleased with the feat, or with Mr. +Marmaduke's way of taking it. For afterwards I overheard him telling the +story to Colonel Lloyd, and both gentlemen laughing over Mr. Manners's +discomfiture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CAUGHT BY THE TIDE + +It is a nigh impossible task on the memory to trace those influences by +which a lad is led to form his life's opinions, and for my part I hold +that such things are bred into the bone, and that events only serve to +strengthen them. In this way only can I account for my bitterness, at a +very early age, against that King whom my seeming environment should have +made me love. For my grandfather was as stanch a royalist as ever held +a cup to majesty's health. And children are most apt before they can +reason for themselves to take the note from those of their elders who +surround them. It is true that many of Mr. Carvel's guests were of the +opposite persuasion from him: Mr. Chase and Mr. Carroll, Mr. Lloyd and +Mr. Bordley, and many others, including our friend Captain Clapsaddle. +And these gentlemen were frequently in argument, but political discussion +is Greek to a lad. + +Mr. Carvel, as I have said, was most of his life a member of the Council, +a man from whom both Governor Sharpe and Governor Eden were glad to take +advice because of his temperate judgment and deep knowledge of the people +of the province. At times, when his Council was scattered, Governor +Sharpe would consult Mr. Carvel alone, and often have I known my +grandfather to embark in haste from the Hall in response to a call from +his Excellency. + +'Twas in the latter part of August, in the year 1765, made memorable by +the Stamp Act, that I first came in touch with the deep-set feelings of +the times then beginning, and I count from that year the awakening of the +sympathy which determined my career. One sultry day I was wading in the +shallows after crabs, when the Governor's messenger came drifting in, all +impatience at the lack of wind. He ran to the house to seek Mr. Carvel, +and I after him, with all a boy's curiosity, as fast as my small legs +would carry me. My grandfather hurried out to order his barge to be got +ready at once, so that I knew something important was at hand. At first +he refused me permission to go, but afterwards relented, and about eleven +in the morning we pulled away strongly, the ten blacks bending to the +oars as if their lives were at stake. + +A wind arose before we sighted Greensbury Point, and I saw a bark sailing +in, but thought nothing of this until Mr. Carvel, who had been silent and +preoccupied, called for his glass and swept her decks. She soon +shortened sail, and went so leisurely that presently our light barge drew +alongside, and I perceived Mr. Zachariah Hood, a merchant of the town, +returning from London, hanging over her rail. Mr. Hood was very pale +in spite of his sea-voyage; he flung up his cap at our boat, but Mr. +Carvel's salute in return was colder than he looked for. As we came +in view of the dock, a fine rain was setting in, and to my astonishment +I beheld such a mass of people assembled as I had never seen, and scarce +standing-room on the wharves. We were to have gone to the Governor's +wharf in the Severn, but my grandfather changed his intention at once. +Many of the crowd greeted him as we drew near them, and, having landed, +respectfully made room for him to pass through. I followed him a-tremble +with excitement and delight over such an unwonted experience. We had +barely gone ten paces, however, before Mr. Carvel stopped abreast of Mr. +Claude, mine host of the Coffee House, who cried: + +"Hast seen his Majesty's newest representative, Mr. Carvel?" + +"Mr. Hood is on board the bark, sir," replied my grandfather. "I take it +you mean Mr. Hood." + +"Ay, that I do; Mr. Zachariah Hood, come to lick stamps for his +brother-colonists." + +"After licking his Majesty's boots," says a wag near by, which brings a +laugh from those about us. I remembered that I had heard some talk as to +how Mr. Hood had sought and obtained from King George the office of Stamp +Distributor for the province. Now, my grandfather, God rest him! was as +doughty an old gentleman as might well be, and would not listen without +protest to remarks which bordered sedition. He had little fear of things +below, and none of a mob. + +"My masters," he shouted, with a flourish of his stick, so stoutly that +people fell back from him, "know that ye are met against the law, and +endanger the peace of his Lordship's government." + +"Good enough, Mr. Carvel," said Claude, who seemed to be the spokesman. +"But how if we are stamped against law and his Lordship's government? +How then, sir? Your honour well knows we have naught against either, +and are as peaceful a mob as ever assembled." + +This brought on a great laugh, and they shouted from all sides, "How +then, Mr. Carvel?" And my grandfather, perceiving that he would lose +dignity by argument, and having done his duty by a protest, was wisely +content with that. They opened wider the lane for him to pass through, +and he made his way, erect and somewhat defiant, to Mr. Pryse's, the +coachmaker opposite, holding me by the hand. The second storey of +Pryse's shop had a little balcony standing out in front, and here we +established ourselves, that we might watch what was going forward. + +The crowd below grew strangely silent as the bark came nearer and nearer, +until Mr. Hood showed himself on the poop, when there rose a storm of +hisses, mingled with shouts of derision. "How goes it at St. James, Mr. +Hood?" and "Have you tasted his Majesty's barley?" And some asked him +if he was come as their member of Parliament. Mr. Hood dropped a bow, +though what he said was drowned. The bark came in prettily enough, men +in the crowd even catching her lines and making them fast to the piles. +A gang-plank was thrown over. "Come out, Mr. Hood," they cried; "we are +here to do you honour, and to welcome you home again." There were +leather breeches with staves a-plenty around that plank, and faces that +meant no trifling. "McNeir, the rogue," exclaimed Mr. Carvel, "and that +hulk of a tanner, Brown. And I would know those smith's shoulders in a +thousand." "Right, sir," says Pryse, "and 'twill serve them proper. +when the King's troops come among them for quartering." Pryse being the +gentry's patron, shaped his politics according to the company he was in: +he could ill be expected to seize one of his own ash spokes and join the +resistance. Just then I caught a glimpse of Captain Clapsaddle on the +skirts of the crowd, and with him Mr. Swain and some of the dissenting +gentry. And my boyish wrath burst forth against that man smirking and +smiling on the decks of the bark, so that I shouted shrilly: "Mr. Hood +will be cudgelled and tarred as he deserves," and shook my little fist at +him, so that many under us laughed and cheered me. Mr. Carvel pushed me +back into the window and out of their sight. + +The crew of the bark had assembled on the quarterdeck, stout English tars +every man of them, armed with pikes and belaying-pins; and at a word from +the mate they rushed in a body over the plank. Some were thrust off into +the water, but so fierce was their onset that others gained the wharf, +laying sharply about them in all directions, but getting full as many +knocks as they gave. For a space there was a very bedlam of cries and +broken heads, those behind in the mob surging forward to reach the +scrimmage, forcing their own comrades over the edge. McNeir had his +thigh broken by a pike, and was dragged back after the first rush was +over; and the mate of the bark was near to drowning, being rescued, +indeed, by Graham, the tanner. Mr. Hood stood white in the gangway, +dodging a missile now and then, waiting his chance, which never came. +For many of the sailors were captured and carried bodily to the "Rose and +Crown" and the "Three Blue Balls," where they became properly drunk on +Jamaica rum; others made good their escape on board. And at length the +bark cast off again, amidst jeers and threats, and one-third of her crew +missing, and drifted slowly back to the roads. + +From the dock, after all was quiet, Mr. Carvel stepped into his barge and +rowed to the Governor's, whose house was prettily situated near Hanover +Street, with ground running down to the Severn. His Excellency appeared +much relieved to see my grandfather; Mr. Daniel Dulany was with him, and +the three gentlemen at once repaired to the Governor's writing-closet for +consultation. + +Mr. Carvel's town house being closed, we stopped with his Excellency. +There were, indeed, scarce any of the gentry in town at that season save +a few of the Whig persuasion. Excitement ran very high; farmers flocked +in every day from the country round about to take part in the +demonstration against the Act. Mr. Hood's storehouse was burned to the +ground. Mr. Hood getting ashore by stealth, came, however, unmolested to +Annapolis and offered at a low price the goods he had brought out in the +bark, thinking thus to propitiate his enemies. This step but inflamed +them the more. + +My grandfather having much business to look to, I was left to my own +devices, and the devices of an impetuous lad of twelve are not always +such as his elders would choose for him. I was continually burning with +a desire to see what was proceeding in the town, and hearing one day a +great clamour and tolling of bells, I ran out of the Governor's gate and +down Northwest Street to the Circle, where a strange sight met my eyes. +A crowd like that I had seen on the dock had collected there, Mr. Swain +and Mr. Hammond and other barristers holding them in check. Mounted +on a one-horse cart was a stuffed figure of the detested Mr. Hood. +Mr. Hammond made a speech, but for the laughter and cheering I could not +catch a word of it. I pushed through the people, as a boy will, diving +between legs to get a better view, when I felt a hand upon my shoulder, +bringing me up suddenly. And I recognized Mr. Matthias Tilghman, and +with him was Mr. Samuel Chase. + +"Does your grandfather know you are here, lad?" said Mr. Tilghman. + +I paused a moment for breath before I answered: "He attended the rally +at the dock himself, sir, and I believe enjoyed it." + +Both gentlemen smiled, and Mr. Chase remarked that if all the other party +were like Mr. Carvel, troubles would soon cease. "I mean not Grafton," +says he, with a wink at Mr. Tilghman. + +"I'll warrant, Richard, your uncle would be but ill pleased to see you in +such company." + +"Nay, sir," I replied, for I never feared to speak up, "there are you +wrong. I think it would please my uncle mightily." + +"The lad hath indifferent penetration," said Mr, Tilghman, laughing, and +adding more soberly: "If you never do worse than this, Richard, Maryland +may some day be proud of you." + +Mr. Hammond having finished his speech, a paper was placed in the hand of +the effigy, and the crowd bore it shouting and singing to the hill, where +Mr. John Shaw, the city carpenter, had made a gibbet. There nine and +thirty lashes were bestowed on the unfortunate image, the people crying +out that this was the Mosaic Law. And I cried as loud as any, though I +knew not the meaning of the words. They hung Mr. Hood to the gibbet and +set fire to a tar barrel under him, and so left him. + +The town wore a holiday look that day, and I was loth to go back to +the Governor's house. Good patriots' shops were closed, their owners +parading as on Sunday in their best, pausing in knots at every corner +to discuss the affair with which the town simmered. I encountered old +Farris, the clockmaker, in his brown coat besprinkled behind with powder +from his queue. "How now, Master Richard?" says he, merrily. "This is +no place for young gentlemen of your persuasion." + +Next I came upon young Dr. Courtenay, the wit of the Tuesday Club, of +whom I shall have more to say hereafter. He was taking the air with Mr. +James Fotheringay, Will's eldest brother, but lately back from Oxford and +the Temple. + +The doctor wore five-pound ruffles and a ten-pound wig, was dressed in +cherry silk, and carried a long, clouded cane. His hat had the latest +cock, for he was our macaroni of Annapolis. + +"Egad, Richard," he cries, "you are the only other loyalist I have seen +abroad to-day." + +I remember swelling with indignation at the affront. "I call them +Tories, sir," I flashed back, "and I am none such." "No Tory!" says he, +nudging Mr. Fotheringay, who was with him; "I had as lief believe your +grandfather hated King George." I astonished them both by retorting that +Mr. Carvel might think as he pleased, that being every man's right; but +that I chose to be a Whig. "I would tell you as a friend, young man," +replied the doctor, "that thy politics are not over politic." And they +left me puzzling, laughing with much relish over some catch in the +doctor's words. As for me, I could perceive no humour in them. + +It was now near six of the clock, but instead of going direct to the +Governor's I made my way down Church Street toward the water. Near the +dock I saw many people gathered in the street in front of the "Ship" +tavern, a time-honoured resort much patronized by sailors. My curiosity +led me to halt there also. The "Ship" had stood in that place nigh on to +three-score years, it was said. Its latticed windows were swung open, +and from within came snatches of "Tom Bowling," "Rule Britannia," and +many songs scarce fit for a child to hear. Now and anon some one in the +street would throw back a taunt to these British sentiments, which went +unheeded. "They be drunk as lords," said Weld, the butcher's apprentice, +"and when they comes out we'll hev more than one broken head in this +street." The songs continuing, he cried again, "Come out, d-n ye." Weld +had had more than his own portion of rum that day. Spying me seated on +the gate-post opposite, he shouted: "So ho, Master Carvel, the streets +are not for his Majesty's supporters to-day." Other artisans who were +there bade him leave me in peace, saying that my grandfather was a good +friend of the people. The matter might have ended there had I been older +and wiser, but the excitement of the day had gone to my head like wine. +"I am as stout a patriot as you, Weld," I shouted back, and flushed at +the cheering that followed. And Weld ran up to me, and though I was a +good piece of a lad, swung me lightly onto his shoulder. "Harkee, Master +Richard," he said, "I can get nothing out of the poltroons by shouting. +Do you go in and say that Weld will fight any mother's son of them +single-handed." + +"For shame, to send a lad into a tavern," said old Bobbins, who had known +my grandfather these many years. But the desire for a row was so great +among the rest that they silenced him. Weld set me down, and I, nothing +loth, ran through the open door. + +I had never before been in the "Ship," nor, indeed, in any tavern save +that of Master Dingley, near Carvel Hall. The "Ship" was a bare place +enough, with low black beams and sanded floor, and rough tables and +chairs set about. On that September evening it was stifling hot; and +the odours from the men, and the spilled rum and tobacco smoke, well-nigh +overpowered me. The room was filled with a motley gang of sailors, +mostly from the bark Mr. Hood had come on, and some from H.M.S. Hawk, +then lying in the harbour. + +A strapping man-o'-war's-man sat near the door, his jacket thrown open +and his great chest bared, and when he perceived me he was in the act of +proposing a catch; 'twas "The Great Bell o' Lincoln," I believe; and he +held a brimming cup of bumbo in his hand. In his surprise he set it +awkwardly down again, thereby spilling full half of it. "Avast," says +he, with an oath, "what's this come among us?" and he looked me over +with a comical eye. "A d-d provincial," he went on scornfully, "but a +gentleman's son, or Jack Ball's a liar." Whereupon his companions rose +from their seats and crowded round me. More than one reeled against me. +And though I was somewhat awed by the strangeness of that dark, +ill-smelling room, and by the rough company in which I found myself, +I held my ground, and spoke up as strongly as I might. + +"Weld, the butcher's apprentice, bids me say he will fight any man among +you single-handed." + +"So ho, my little gamecock, my little schooner with a swivel," said he +who had called himself Jack Ball, "and where can this valiant butcher be +found?" + +"He waits in the street," I answered more boldly. + +"Split me fore and aft if he waits long," said Jack, draining the rest of +his rum. And picking me up as easily as did Weld he rushed out of the +door, and after him as many of his mates as could walk or stagger +thither. + +In the meantime the news had got abroad in the street that the butcher's +apprentice was to fight one of the Hawk's men, and when I emerged from +the tavern the crowd had doubled, and people were running hither in all +haste from both directions. But that fight was never to be. Big Jack +Ball had scarce set me down and shouted a loud defiance, shaking his fist +at Weld, who stood out opposite, when a soldierly man on a great horse +turned the corner and wheeled between the combatants. I knew at a glance +it was Captain Clapsaddle, and guiltily wished myself at the Governor's. +The townspeople knew him likewise, and many were slinking away even +before he spoke, as his charger stood pawing the ground. + +"What's this I hear, you villain," said he to Weld, in his deep, ringing +voice, "that you have not only provoked a row with one of the King's +sailors, but have dared send a child into that tavern with your fool's +message?" + +Weld was awkward and sullen enough, and no words came to him. + +"Your tongue, you sot," the captain went on, drawing his sword in his +anger, "is it true you have made use of a gentleman's son for your low +purposes?" + +But Weld was still silent, and not a sound came from either side until +old Robbins spoke up. + +"There are many here can say I warned him, your honour," he said. + +"Warned him!" cried the captain. "Mr. Carvel has just given you twenty +pounds for your wife, and you warned him!" + +Robbins said no more; and the butcher's apprentice, hanging his head, +as well he might before the captain, I was much moved to pity for him, +seeing that my forwardness had in some sense led him on. + +"Twas in truth my fault, captain," I cried out. The captain looked at +me, and said nothing. After that the butcher made bold to take up his +man's defence. + +"Master Carvel was indeed somewhat to blame, sir," said he, "and Weld is +in liquor." + +"And I'll have him to pay for his drunkenness," said Captain Clapsaddle, +hotly. "Get to your homes," he cried. "Ye are a lot of idle hounds, who +would make liberty the excuse for riot." He waved his sword at the pack +of them, and they scattered like sheep until none but Weld was left. +"And as for you, Weld," he continued, "you'll rue this pretty business, +or Daniel Clapsaddle never punished a cut-throat." And turning to Jack +Ball, he bade him lift me to the saddle, and so I rode with him to the +Governor's without a word; for I knew better than to talk when he was +in that mood. + +The captain was made to tarry and sup with his Excellency and my +grandfather, and I sat perforce a fourth at the table, scarce daring to +conjecture as to the outcome of my escapade. But as luck would have it, +the Governor had been that day in such worry and perplexity, and my +grandfather also, that my absence had passed unnoticed. Nor did my good +friend the captain utter a word to them of what he knew. But afterwards +he called me to him and set me upon his knee. How big, and kind, and +strong he was, and how I loved his bluff soldier's face and blunt ways. +And when at last he spoke, his words burnt deep in my memory, so that +even now I can repeat them. + +"Richard," he said, "I perceive you are like your father. I love your +spirit greatly, but you have been overrash to-day. Remember this, lad, +that you are a gentleman, the son of the bravest and truest gentleman I +have ever known, save one; and he is destined to high things." I know +now that he spoke of Colonel Washington. "And that your mother," here +his voice trembled,--"your mother was a lady, every inch of her, and too +good for this world. Remember, and seek no company, therefore, beyond +that circle in which you were born. Fear not to be kind and generous, +as I know you ever will be, but choose not intimates from the tavern." +Here the captain cleared his throat, and seemed to seek for words. +"I fear there are times coming, my lad," he went on presently, "when +every man must choose his side, and stand arrayed in his own colours. +It is not for me to shape your way of thinking. Decide in your own mind +that which is right, and when you have so decided,"--he drew his sword, +as was his habit when greatly moved, and placed his broad hand upon my +head,--"know then that God is with you, and swerve not from thy course +the width of this blade for any man." + +We sat upon a little bench in the Governor's garden, in front of us the +wide Severn merging into the bay, and glowing like molten gold in the +setting sun. And I was thrilled with a strange reverence such as I have +sometimes since felt in the presence of heroes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GRAFTON WOULD HEAL AN OLD BREACH + +Doctor Hilliard, my grandfather's chaplain, was as holy a man as ever +wore a gown, but I can remember none of his discourses which moved me +as much by half as those simple words Captain Clapsaddle had used. The +worthy doctor, who had baptized both my mother and father, died suddenly +at Carvel Hall the spring following, of a cold contracted while visiting +a poor man who dwelt across the river. He would have lacked but three +years of fourscore come Whitsuntide. He was universally loved and +respected in that district where he had lived so long and ably, by rich +and poor alike, and those of many creeds saw him to his last +resting-place. Mr. Carroll, of Carrollton, who was an ardent Catholic, +stood bareheaded beside the grave. + +Doctor Hilliard was indeed a beacon in a time when his profession among +us was all but darkness, and when many of the scandals of the community +might be laid at the door of those whose duty it was to prevent them. +The fault lay without doubt in his Lordship's charter, which gave to the +parishioners no voice in the choosing of their pastors. This matter was +left to Lord Baltimore's whim. Hence it was that he sent among us so +many fox-hunting and gaming parsons who read the service ill and preached +drowsy and illiterate sermons. Gaming and fox-hunting, did I say? These +are but charitable words to cover the real characters of those impostors +in holy orders, whose doings would often bring the blush of shame to your +cheeks. Nay, I have seen a clergyman drunk in the pulpit, and even in +those freer days their laxity and immorality were such that many flocked +to hear the parsons of the Methodists and Lutherans, whose simple and +eloquent words and simpler lives were worthy of their cloth. Small +wonder was it, when every strolling adventurer and soldier out of +employment took orders and found favour in his Lordship's eyes, and were +given the fattest livings in place of worthier men, that the Established +Church fell somewhat into disrepute. Far be it from me to say that there +were not good men and true in that Church, but the wag who writ this +verse, which became a common saying in Maryland, was not far wrong for +the great body of them:-- + + "Who is a monster of the first renown? + A lettered sot, a drunkard in a gown." + +My grandfather did not replace Dr. Hilliard at the Hall, afterwards +saying the prayers himself. The doctor had been my tutor, and in spite +of my waywardness and lack of love for the classics had taught me no +little Latin and Greek, and early instilled into my mind those principles +necessary for the soul's salvation. I have often thought with regret on +the pranks I played him. More than once at lesson-time have I gone off +with Hugo and young Harvey for a rabbit hunt, stealing two dogs from the +pack, and thus committing a double offence. You may be sure I was well +thrashed by Mr. Carvel, who thought the more of the latter misdoing, +though obliged to emphasize the former. The doctor would never raise his +hand against me. His study, where I recited my daily tasks, was that +small sunny room on the water side of the east wing; and I well recall +him as he sat behind his desk of a morning after prayers, his horn +spectacles perched on his high nose and his quill over his ear, and his +ink-powder and pewter stand beside him. His face would grow more serious +as I scanned my Virgil in a faltering voice, and as he descanted on a +passage my eye would wander out over the green trees and fields to the +glistening water. What cared I for "Arma virumque" at such a time? I +was watching Nebo a-fishing beyond the point, and as he waded ashore the +burden on his shoulders had a much keener interest for me than that +AEneas carried out of Troy. + +My Uncle Grafton came to Dr. Hilliard's funeral, choosing this +opportunity to become reconciled to my grandfather, who he feared had not +much longer to live. Albeit Mr. Carvel was as stout and hale as ever. +None of the mourners at the doctor's grave showed more sorrow than did +Grafton. A thousand remembrances of the good old man returned to him, +and I heard him telling Mr. Carroll and some other gentlemen, with much +emotion, how he had loved his reverend preceptor, from whom he had +learned nothing but what was good. "How fortunate are you, Richard," he +once said, "to have had such a spiritual and intellectual teacher in your +youth. Would that Philip might have learned from such a one. And I +trust you can say, my lad, that you have made the best of your +advantages, though I fear you are of a wild nature, as your father was +before you." And my uncle sighed and crossed his hands behind his back. +"'Tis perhaps better that poor John is in his grave," he said. Grafton +had a word and a smile for every one about the old place, but little +else, being, as he said, but a younger son and a poor man. I was near to +forgetting the shilling he gave Scipio. 'Twas not so unostentatiously +done but that Mr. Carvel and I marked it. And afterwards I made Scipio +give me the coin, replacing it with another, and flung it as far into the +river as ever I could throw. + +As was but proper to show his sorrow at the death of the old chaplain he +had loved so much, Grafton came to the Hall drest entirely in black. He +would have had his lady and Philip, a lad near my own age, clad likewise +in sombre colours. But my Aunt Caroline would none of them, holding it +to be the right of her sex to dress as became its charms. Her silks and +laces went but ill with the low estate my uncle claimed for his purse, +and Master Philip's wardrobe was twice the size of mine. And the family +travelled in a coach as grand as Mr. Carvel's own, with panels wreathed +in flowers and a footman and outrider in livery, from which my aunt +descended like a duchess. She embraced my grandfather with much warmth, +and kissed me effusively on both cheeks. + +"And this is dear Richard?" she cried. "Philip, come at once and greet +your cousin. He has not the look of the Carvels," she continued volubly, +"but more resembles his mother, as I recall her." + +"Indeed, madam," my grandfather answered somewhat testily, "he has the +Carvel nose and mouth, though his chin is more pronounced. He has +Elizabeth's eyes." + +But my aunt was a woman who flew from one subject to another, and she +had already ceased to think of me. She was in the hall. "The dear old +home?" she cries, though she had been in it but once before, regarding +lovingly each object as her eye rested upon it, nay, caressingly when she +came to the great punch-bowl and the carved mahogany dresser, and the +Peter Lely over the broad fireplace. "What memories they must bring to +your mind, my dear," she remarks to her husband. "'Tis cruel, as I once +said to dear papa, that we cannot always live under the old rafters we +loved so well as children." And the good lady brushes away a tear with +her embroidered pocket-napkin. Tears that will come in spite of us all. +But she brightens instantly and smiles at the line of servants drawn up +to welcome them. "This is Scipio, my son, who was with your grandfather +when your father was born, and before." Master Philip nods graciously in +response to Scipio's delighted bow. "And Harvey," my aunt rattles on. +"Have you any new mares to surprise us with this year, Harvey?" Harvey +not being as overcome with Mrs. Grafton's condescension as was proper, +she turns again to Mr. Carvel. + +"Ah, father, I see you are in sore need of a woman's hand about the old +house. What a difference a touch makes, to be sure." And she takes off +her gloves and attacks the morning room, setting an ornament here and +another there, and drawing back for the effect. "Such a bachelor's hall +as you are keeping!" + +"We still have Willis, Caroline," remonstrates my grandfather, gravely. +"I have no fault to find with her housekeeping." + +"Of course not, father; men never notice," Aunt Caroline replies in an +aggrieved tone. And when Willis herself comes in, auguring no good from +this visit, my aunt gives her the tips of her fingers. And I imagine I +see a spark fly between them. + +As for Grafton, he was more than willing to let bygones be bygones +between his father and himself. Aunt Caroline said with feeling that +Dr. Hilliard's death was a blessing, after all, since it brought a +long-separated father and son together once more. Grafton had been +misjudged and ill-used, and he called Heaven to witness that the quarrel +had never been of his seeking,--a statement which Mr. Carvel was at no +pains to prove perjury. How attentive was Mr. Grafton to his father's +every want. He read his Gazette to him of a Thursday, though the old +gentleman's eyes are as good as ever. If Mr. Carvel walks out of an +evening, Grafton's arm is ever ready, and my uncle and his worthy lady +are eager to take a hand at cards before supper. "Philip, my dear," says +my aunt, "thy grandfather's slippers," or, "Philip, my love, thy +grandfather's hat and cane." But it is plain that Master Philip has not +been brought up to wait on his elders. He is curled with a novel in his +grandfather's easy chair by the window. "There is Dio, mamma, who has +naught to do but serve grandpapa," says he, and gives a pull at the cord +over his head which rings the bell about the servants' ears in the hall +below. And Dio, the whites of his eyes showing, comes running into the +room. + +"It is nothing, Diomedes," says Mr. Carvel. "Master Philip will fetch +what I need.". Master Philip's papa and mamma stare at each other in a +surprise mingled with no little alarm, Master Philip being to all +appearances intent upon his book. + +"Philip," says my grandfather, gently. I had more than once heard him +speak thus, and well knew what was coming. + +"Sir," replies my cousin, without looking up. "Follow me, sir," said Mr. +Carvel, in a voice so different that Philip drops his book. They went up +the stairs together, and what occurred there I leave to the imagination. +But when next Philip was bidden to do an errand for Mr. Carvel my +grandfather said quietly: "I prefer that Richard should go, Caroline." +And though my aunt and uncle, much mortified, begged him to give Philip +another chance, he would never permit it. + +Nevertheless, a great effort was made to restore Philip to his +grandfather's good graces. At breakfast one morning, after my aunt had +poured Mr. Carvel's tea and made her customary compliment to the blue and +gold breakfast china, my Uncle Grafton spoke up. + +"Now that Dr. Hilliard is gone, father, what do you purpose concerning +Richard's schooling?" + +"He shall go to King William's school in the autumn," Mr. Carvel replied. + +"In the autumn!" cried my uncle. "I do not give Philip even the short +holiday of this visit. He has his Greek and his Virgil every day." + +"And can repeat the best passages," my aunt chimes in. "Philip, my dear, +recite that one your father so delights in." + +However unwilling Master Philip had been to disturb himself for errands, +he was nothing loth to show his knowledge, and recited glibly enough +several lines of his Virgil verbatim; thereby pleasing his fond parents +greatly and my grandfather not a little. + +"I will add a crown to your savings, Philip," says his father. + +"And here is a pistole to spend as you will," says Mr. Carvel, tossing +him the piece. + +"Nay, father, I do not encourage the lad to be a spendthrift," says +Grafton, taking the pistole himself. "I will place this token of your +appreciation in his strong-box. You know we have a prodigal strain in +the family, sir." And my uncle looks at me significantly. + +"Let it be as I say, Grafton," persists Mr. Carvel, who liked not to be +balked in any matter, and was not over-pleased at this reference to my +father. And he gave Philip forthwith another pistole, telling his father +to add the first to his saving if he would. + +"And Richard must have his chance," says my Aunt Caroline, sweetly, as +she rises to leave the room. + +"Ay, here is a crown for you, Richard," says my uncle, smiling. "Let us +hear your Latin, which should be purer than Philip's." + +My grandfather glanced uneasily at me across the table; he saw clearly +the trick Grafton had played me, I think. But for once I was equal to my +uncle, and haply remembered a line Dr. Hilliard had expounded, which +fitted the present case marvellously well. With little ceremony I tossed +back the crown, and slowly repeated those words used to warn the Trojans +against accepting the Grecian horse: + + "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." + +"Egad," cried Mr. Carvel, slapping his knee, "the lad bath beaten you on +your own ground, Grafton." And he laughed as my grandfather only could +laugh, until the dishes rattled on the table. But my uncle thought it no +matter for jesting. + +Philip was also well versed in politics for a lad of his age, and could +discuss glibly the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. He denounced +the seditious doings in Annapolis and Boston Town with an air of easy +familiarity, for Philip had the memory of a parrot, and 'twas easy to +perceive whence his knowledge sprang. But when my fine master spoke +disparagingly of the tradesmen as at the bottom of the trouble, my +grandfather's patience came to an end. + +"And what think you lies beneath the wealth and power of England, +Philip?" he asked. + +"Her nobility, sir, and the riches she draws from her colonies," retorts +Master Philip, readily enough. + +"Not so," Mr. Carvel said gravely. "She owes her greatness to her +merchants, or tradesmen, as you choose to call them. And commerce must +be at the backbone of every great nation. Tradesmen!" exclaimed my +grandfather. "Where would any of us be were it not for trade? We sell +our tobacco and our wheat, and get money in return. And your father +makes a deal here and a deal there, and so gets rich in spite of his +pittance." + +My Uncle Grafton raised his hand to protest, but Mr. Carvel continued: +"I know you, Grafton, I know you. When a lad it was your habit to lay +aside the money I gave you, and so pretend you had none." + +"And 'twas well I learned then to be careful," said my uncle, losing for +the instant his control, "for you loved the spend-thrift best, and I +should be but a beggar now without my wisdom." + +"I loved not John's carelessness with money, but other qualities in him +which you lacked," answered Mr. Carvel. + +Grafton shot a swift glance at me; and so much of malice and of hatred +was conveyed in that look that with a sense of prophecy I shuddered to +think that some day I should have to cope with such craft. For he +detested me threefold, and combined the hate he bore my dead father and +mother with the ill-will he bore me for standing in his way and Philip's +with my grandfather's property. But so deftly could he hide his feelings +that he was smiling again instantly. To see once, however, the white +belly of the shark flash on the surface of the blue water is sufficient. + +"I beg of you not to jest of me before the lads, father," said Grafton. + +"God knows there was little jest in what I said," replied Mr. Carvell +soberly, "and I care not who hears it. Your own son will one day know +you well enough, if he does not now. Do not imagine, because I am old, +that I am grown so foolish as to believe that a black sheep can become +white save by dye. And dye will never deceive such as me. And Philip," +the shrewd old gentleman went on, turning to my cousin, "do not let thy +father or any other make thee believe there cannot be two sides to every +question. I recognize in your arguments that which smacks of his tongue, +despite what he says of your reading the public prints and of forming +your own opinions. And do not condemn the Whigs, many of whom are worthy +men and true, because they quarrel with what they deem an unjust method +of taxation." + +Grafton had given many of the old servants cause to remember him. Harvey +in particular, who had come from England early in the century with my +grandfather, spoke with bitterness of him. On the subject of my uncle, +the old coachman's taciturnity gave way to torrents of reproach. "Beware +of him as has no use for horses, Master Richard," he would say; for this +trait in Grafton in Harvey's mind lay at the bottom of all others. At my +uncle's approach he would retire into his shell like an oyster, nor could +he be got to utter more than a monosyllable in his presence. Harvey's +face would twitch, and his fingers clench of themselves as he touched his +cap. And with my Aunt Caroline he was the same. He vouchsafed but a +curt reply to all her questions, nor did her raptures over the stud +soften him in the least. She would come tripping into the stable yard, +daintily holding up her skirts, and crying, "Oh, Harvey, I have heard so +much of Tanglefoot. I must see him before I go." Tanglefoot is led out +begrudgingly enough, and Aunt Caroline goes over his points, missing the +greater part of them, and remarking on the depth of chest, which is +nothing notable in Tanglefoot. Harvey winks slyly at me the while, and +never so much as offers a word of correction. "You must take Philip to +ride, Richard, my dear," says my aunt. "His father was never as fond of +it as I could have wished. I hold that every gentleman should ride to +hounds." + +"Humph!" grunts Harvey, when she is gone to the house, + +"Master Philip to hunt, indeed! Foxes to hunt foxes!" And he gives vent +to a dry laugh over his joke, in which I cannot but join. "Horsemen +grows. Eh, Master Richard? There was Captain Jack, who jumped from the +cradle into the saddle, and I never once seen a horse get the better o' +him. And that's God's truth." And he smooths out Tanglefoot's mane, +adding reflectively, "And you be just like him. But there was scarce a +horse in the stables what wouldn't lay back his ears at Mr. Grafton, and +small blame to 'em, say I. He never dared go near 'em. Oh, Master +Philip comes by it honestly enough. She thinks old Harvey don't know a +thoroughbred when he sees one, sir. But Mrs. Grafton's no thoroughbred; +I tell 'ee that, though I'm saying nothing as to her points, mark ye. +I've seen her sort in the old country, and I've seen 'em here, and it's +the same the world over, in Injy and Chiny, too. Fine trappings don't +make the horse, and they don't take thoroughbreds from a grocer's cart. +A Philadelphy grocer," sniffs this old aristocrat. "I'd knowed her +father was a grocer had I seen her in Pall Mall with a Royal Highness, by +her gait, I may say. Thy mother was a thoroughbred, Master Richard, and +I'll tell 'ee another," he goes on with a chuckle, "Mistress Dorothy +Manners is such another; you don't mistake 'em with their high heads and +patreeshan ways, though her father be one of them accidents as will occur +in every stock. She's one to tame, sir, and I don't envy no young +gentleman the task. But this I knows," says Harvey, not heeding my red +cheeks, "that Master Philip, with all his satin small-clothes, will never +do it." + +Indeed, it was no secret that my Aunt Caroline had been a Miss Flaven, +of Philadelphia, though she would have had the fashion of our province to +believe that she belonged to the Governor's set there; and she spoke in +terms of easy familiarity of the first families of her native city, +deceiving no one save herself, poor lady. How fondly do we believe, with +the ostrich, that our body is hidden when our head is tucked under our +wing! Not a visitor in Philadelphia but knew Terence Flaven, Mrs. +Grafton Carvel's father, who not many years since sold tea and spices and +soap and glazed teapots over his own counter, and still advertised his +cargoes in the public prints. He was a broad and charitable-minded man +enough, and unassuming, but gave way at last to the pressure brought upon +him by his wife and daughter, and bought a mansion in Front Street. +Terence Flaven never could be got to stay there save to sleep, and +preferred to spend his time in his shop, which was grown greatly, +chatting with his customers, and bowing the ladies to their chariots. +I need hardly say that this worthy man was on far better terms than his +family with those personages whose society they strove so hard to attain. + +At the time of Miss Flaven's marriage to my uncle 'twas a piece of +gossip in every month that he had taken her for her dower, which was not +inconsiderable; though to hear Mr. and Mrs. Grafton talk they knew not +whence the next month's provender was to come. They went to live in Kent +County, as I have said, spending some winters in Philadelphia, where +Mr. Grafton was thought to have interests, though it never could be +discovered what his investments were. On hearing of his marriage, which +took place shortly before my father's, Mr. Carvel expressed neither +displeasure nor surprise. But he would not hear of my mother's request +to settle a portion upon his younger son. + +"He has the Kent estate, Bess," said he, "which is by far too good for +him. Never doubt but that the rogue can feather his own nest far better +than can I, as indeed he hath already done. And by the Lord," cried Mr. +Carvel, bringing his fist down upon the card-table where they sat, +"he shall never get another farthing of my money while I live, nor +afterwards, if I can help it! I would rather give it over to +Mr. Carroll to found a nunnery." + +And so that matter ended, for Mr. Carvel could not be moved from a +purpose he had once made. Nor would he make any advances whatsoever to +Grafton, or receive those hints which my uncle was forever dropping, +until at length he begged to be allowed to come to Dr. Hilliard's +funeral, a request my grandfather could not in decency refuse. 'Twas a +pathetic letter in truth, and served its purpose well, though it was not +as dust in the old gentleman's eyes. He called me into his bedroom and +told me that my Uncle Grafton was coming at last. And seeing that I +said nothing thereto, he gave me a queer look and bade me treat them +as civilly as I knew how. "I well know thy temper, Richard," said he, +"and I fear 'twill bring thee trouble enough in life. Try to control it, +my lad; take an old man's advice and try to control it." He was +in one of his gentler moods, and passed his arm about me, and together we +stood looking silently through the square panes out into the rain, at the +ducks paddling in the puddles until the darkness hid them. + +And God knows, lad that I was, I tried to be civil to them. But my +tongue rebelled at the very sight of my uncle ('twas bred into me, I +suppose), and his fairest words seemed to me to contain a hidden sting. +Once, when he spoke in his innuendo of my father, I ran from the room to +restrain some act of violence; I know not what I should have done. And +Willis found me in the deserted, study of the doctor, where my hot tears +had stained the flowered paper on the wall. She did her best to calm me, +good soul, though she had her own troubles with my Lady Caroline to think +about at the time. + +I had one experience with Master Philip before our visitors betook +themselves back to Kent, which, unfortunate as it was, I cannot but +relate here. My cousin would enter into none of those rough amusements +in which I passed my time, for fear, I took it, of spoiling his fine +broadcloths or of losing a gold buckle. He never could be got to +wrestle, though I challenged him more than once. And he was a well-built +lad, and might, with a little practice, have become skilled in that +sport. He laughed at the homespun I wore about the farm, saying it was +no costume for a gentleman's son, and begged me sneeringly to don leather +breeches. He would have none of the company of those lads with whom I +found pleasure, young Harvey, and Willis's son, who was being trained as +Mr. Starkie's assistant. Nor indeed did I disdain to join in a game with +Hugo, who had been given to me, and other negro lads. Philip saw no +sport in a wrestle or a fight between two of the boys from the quarters, +and marvelled that I could lower myself to bet with Harvey the younger. +He took not a spark of interest in the gaming cocks we raised together to +compete at the local contests and at the fair, and knew not a gaff from a +cockspur. Being one day at my wits' end to amuse my cousin, I proposed +to him a game of quoits on the green beside the spring-house, and thither +we repaired, followed by Hugo, and young Harvey come to look on. Master +Philip, not casting as well as he might, cries out suddenly to Hugo: +"Begone, you black dog! What business have you here watching a game +between gentlemen?" + +"He is my servant, cousin," I said quietly, "and no dog, if you please. +And he is under my orders, not yours." + +But Philip, having scarcely scored a point, was in a rage. "And I'll +not have him here," he shouted, giving poor Hugo a cuff which sent him +stumbling over the stake. And turning to me; continued insolently: +"Ever since we came here I have marked your manner toward us, as though +my father had no right in my grandfather's house." + +Then could I no longer contain myself. I heard young Harvey laugh, and +remark: "'Tis all up with Master Philip now." But Philip, whatever else +he may have been, was no coward, and had squared off to face me by the +time I had run the distance between the stakes. He was heavier than I, +though not so tall; and he parried my first blow and my second, and many +more; having lively work of it, however, for I hit him as often as I was +able. To speak truth, I had not looked for such resistance, and seeing +that I could not knock him down, out of hand, I grew more cool and began +to study what I was doing. + +"Take off your macaroni coat," said I. "I have no wish to ruin your +clothes." + +But he only jeered in return: "Take off thy wool-sack." And Hugo, +getting to his feet, cried out to me not to hurt Marse Philip, that he +had meant no harm. But this only enraged Philip the more, and he swore +a round oath at Hugo and another at me, and dealt a vicious blow at my +stomach, whereat Harvey called out to him to fight fair. He was more +skilful at the science of boxing than I, though I was the better fighter, +having, I am sorry to say, fought but too often before. And presently, +when I had closed one of his eyes, his skill went all to pieces, and he +made a mad rush at me. As he went by I struck him so hard that he fell +heavily and lay motionless. + +Young Harvey ran into the spring-house and filled his hat as I bent over +my cousin. I unbuttoned his waistcoat and felt his heart, and rejoiced +to find it beating; we poured cold water over his face and wrists. By +then, Hugo, who was badly frightened, had told the news in the house, and +I saw my Aunt Caroline come running over the green as fast as her tight +stays would permit, crying out that I had killed her boy, her dear +Philip. And after her came my Uncle Grafton and my grandfather, with all +the servants who had been in hearing. I was near to crying myself at the +thought that I should grieve my grandfather. And my aunt, as she knelt +over Philip, pushed me away, and bade me not touch him. But my cousin +opened one of his eyes, and raised his hand to his head. + +"Thank Heaven he is not killed!" exclaims Aunt Caroline, fervently. + +"Thank God, indeed!" echoes my uncle, and gives me a look as much as to +say that I am not to be thanked for it. "I have often warned you, sir," +he says to Mr. Carvel, "that we do not inherit from stocks and stones. +And so much has come of our charity." + +I knew, lad that I was; that he spoke of my mother; and my blood boiled +within me. + +"Have a care, sir, with your veiled insults," I cried, "or I will serve +you as I have served your son." + +Grafton threw up his hands. + +"What have we harboured, father?" says he. But Mr. Carvel seized him by +the shoulder. "Peace, Grafton, before the servants," he said, "and cease +thy crying, Caroline. The lad is not hurt." And being a tall man, six +feet in his stockings, and strong despite his age, he raised Philip from +the grass, and sternly bade him walk to the house, which he did, leaning +on his mother's arm. "As for you, Richard," my grandfather went on, "you +will go into my study." + +Into his study I went, where presently he came also, and I told him +the affair in as few words as I might. And he, knowing my hatred of +falsehood, questioned me not at all, but paced to and fro, I following +him with my eyes, and truly sorry that I had given him pain. And finally +he dismissed me, bidding me make it up with my cousin, which I was +nothing loth to do. What he said to Philip and his father I know not. +That evening we shook hands, though Philip's face was much swollen, and +my uncle smiled, and was even pleasanter than before, saying that boys +would be boys. But I think my Aunt Caroline could never wholly hide the +malice she bore me for what I had done that day. + +When at last the visitors were gone, every face on the plantation wore a +brighter look. Harvey said: "God bless their backs, which is the only +part I ever care to see of their honours." And Willis gave us a supper +fit for a king. Mr. Lloyd and his lady were with us, and Mr. Carvel told +his old stories of the time of the First George, many of which I can even +now repeat: how he and two other collegians fought half a dozen Mohocks +in Norfolk Street, and fairly beat them; and how he discovered by chance +a Jacobite refugee in Greenwich, and what came of it; nor did he forget +that oft-told episode with Dean Swift. And these he rehearsed in such +merry spirit and new guise that we scarce recognized them, and Colonel +Lloyd so choked with laughter that more than once he had to be hit +between the shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"IF LADIES BE BUT YOUNG AND FAIR" + +No boyhood could have been happier than mine, and throughout it, ever +present with me, were a shadow and a light. The shadow was my Uncle +Grafton. I know not what strange intuition of the child made me think +of him so constantly after that visit he paid us, but often I would wake +from my sleep with his name upon my lips, and a dread at my heart. The +light--need I say?--was Miss Dorothy Manners. Little Miss Dolly was +often at the Hall after that happy week we spent together; and her home, +Wilmot House, was scarce three miles across wood and field by our +plantation roads. I was a stout little fellow enough, and before I was +twelve I had learned to follow to hounds my grandfather's guests on my +pony; and Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Carvel when they shot on the duck points. +Ay, and what may surprise you, my dears, I was given a weak little toddy +off the noggin at night, while the gentlemen stretched their limbs before +the fire, or played at whist or loo Mr. Carvel would have no milksop, so +he said. But he early impressed upon me that moderation was the mark of +a true man, even as excess was that of a weak one. + +And so it was no wonder that I frequently found my way to Wilmot House +alone. There I often stayed the whole day long, romping with Dolly at +games of our own invention, and many the time I was sent home after dark +by Mrs. Manners with Jim, the groom. About once in the week Mr. and Mrs. +Manners would bring Dorothy over for dinner or tea at the Hall. She grew +quickly--so quickly that I scarce realized--into a tall slip of a girl, +who could be wilful and cruel, laughing or forgiving, shy or impudent, in +a breath. She had as many moods as the sea. I have heard her entertain +Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Bordley and the ladies, and my grandfather, by the +hour, while I sat by silent and miserable, but proud of her all the same. +Boylike, I had grown to think of her as my possession, tho' she gave me +no reason whatever. I believe I had held my hand over fire for her, at a +word. And, indeed, I did many of her biddings to make me wonder, now, +that I was not killed. It used to please her, Ivie too, to see me go the +round of the windmill, tho' she would cry out after I left the ground. +And once, when it was turning faster than common and Ivie not there to +prevent, I near lost my hold at the top, and was thrown at the bottom +with such force that I lay stunned for a full minute. I opened my eyes +to find her bending over me with such a look of fright and remorse upon +her face as I shall never forget. Again, walking out on the bowsprit of +the 'Oriole' while she stood watching me from the dock, I lost my balance +and fell into the water. On another occasion I fought Will Fotheringay, +whose parents had come for a visit, because he dared say he would marry +her. + +"She is to marry an earl," I cried, tho' I had thrashed another lad for +saying so. "Mr. Manners is to take her home when she is grown, to marry +her to an earl." + +"At least she will not marry you, Master Richard," sneered Will. And +then I hit him. + +Indeed, even at that early day the girl's beauty was enough to make her +talked about. And that foolish little fop, her father, had more than +once declared before a company in our dining room that it was high time +another title came into his family, and that he meant to take Dolly +abroad when she was sixteen. Lad that I was, I would mark with pain the +blush on Mrs. Manners's cheek, and clinch my fists as she tried to pass +this off as a joke of her husband's. But Dolly, who sat next me at a +side table, would make a wry little face at my angry one. + +"You shall call me 'my lady,' Richard. And sometimes, if you are good, +you shall ride inside my coroneted coach when you come home." + +Ah, that was the worst of it! The vixen was conscious of her beauty. +But her airs were so natural that young and old bowed before her. +Nothing but worship had she had from the cradle. I would that Mr. +Peale had painted her in her girlhood as a type of our Maryland lady of +quality. Harvey was right when he called her a thoroughbred. Her nose +was of patrician straightness, and the curves of her mouth came from +generations of proud ancestors. And she had blue eyes to conquer and +subdue; with long lashes to hide them under when she chose, and black +hair with blue gloss upon it in the slanting lights. I believe I loved +her best in the riding-habit that was the colour of the red holly in our +Maryland woods. At Christmas-tide, when we came to the eastern shore, we +would gallop together through miles of country, the farmers and servants +tipping and staring after her as she laid her silver-handled whip upon +her pony. She knew not the meaning of fear, and would take a fence or a +ditch that a man might pause at. And so I fell into the habit of leading +her the easy way round, for dread that she would be hurt. + +How those Christmas times of childhood come sweeping back on my memory! +Often, and without warning, my grandfather would say to me: "Richard, we +shall celebrate at the Hall this year." And it rarely turned out that +arrangements had not been made with the Lloyds and the Bordleys and the +Manners, and other neighbours, to go to the country for the holidays. I +have no occasion in these pages to mention my intimacy with the sons and +daughters of those good friends of the Carvels', Colonel Lloyd and Mr. +Bordley. Some of them are dead now, and the rest can thank God and +look back upon worthy and useful lives. And if any of these, my old +playmates, could read this manuscript, perchance they might feel a tingle +of recollection of Children's Day, when Maryland was a province. We +rarely had snow; sometimes a crust upon the ground that was melted into +paste by the noonday sun, but more frequently, so it seems to me, a +foggy, drizzly Christmas, with the fires crackling in saloon and lady's +chamber. And when my grandfather and the ladies and gentlemen, his +guests, came down the curving stairs, there were the broadly smiling +servants drawn up in the wide hall,--all who could gather there,--and the +rest on the lawn outside, to wish "Merry Chris'mas" to "de quality." The +redemptioners in front, headed by Ivie and Jonas Tree, tho' they had long +served their terms, and with them old Harvey and his son; next the house +blacks and the outside liveries, and then the oldest slaves from the +quarters. This line reached the door, which Scipio would throw open at +"de quality's" appearance, disclosing the rest of the field servants, in +bright-coloured gowns, and the little negroes on the green. Then Mr. +Carvel would make them a little speech of thanks and of good-will, and +white-haired Johnson of the senior quarters, who had been with my +great-grandfather, would start the carol in a quaver. How clear and +sweet the melody of those negro voices comes back to me through the +generations! And the picture of the hall, loaded with holly and mistletoe +even to the great arch that spanned it, with the generous bowls of +egg-nog and punch on the mahogany by the wall! And the ladies our +guests, in cap and apron, joining in the swelling hymn; ay, and the men, +too. And then, after the breakfast of sweet ham and venison, and hot +bread and sausage, made under Mrs. Willis, and tea and coffee and +chocolate steaming in the silver, and ale for the gentlemen if they +preferred, came the prayers and more carols in the big drawing-room. +And then music in the big house, or perhaps a ride afield to greet the +neighbours, and fiddling and dancing in the two big quarters, Hank's and +Johnson's, when the tables were cleared after the bountiful feast Mr. +Carvel was wont to give them. There was no stint, my dears,--naught but +good cheer and praising God in sheer happiness at Carvel Hall. + +At night there was always a ball, sometimes at Wilmot House, sometimes at +Colonel Lloyd's or Mr. Bordley's, and sometimes at Carvel Hall, for my +grandfather dearly loved the company of the young. He himself would lead +off the minuet,--save when once or twice his Excellency Governor Sharpe +chanced to be present,--and would draw his sword with the young gallants +that the ladies might pass under. And I have seen him join merrily in +the country dances too, to the clapping of hands of the company. That +was before Dolly and I were let upon the floor. We sat with the other +children, our mammies at our sides, in the narrow gallery with the tiny +rail that ran around the ball-room, where the sweet odour of the green +myrtleberry candles mixed with that of the powder and perfume of the +dancers. And when the beauty of the evening was led out, Dolly would +lean over the rail, and pout and smile by turns. The mischievous little +baggage could hardly wait for the conquering years to come. + +They came soon enough, alack! The season Dorothy was fourteen, we had a +ball at the Hall the last day of the year. When she was that age she had +near arrived at her growth, and was full as tall as many young ladies of +twenty. I had cantered with her that morning from Wilmot House to Mr. +Lloyd's, and thence to Carvel Hall, where she was to stay to dinner. The +sun was shining warmly, and after young Harvey had taken our horses we +strayed through the house, where the servants were busy decorating, and +out into my grandfather's old English flower garden, and took the seat +by the sundial. I remember that it gave no shadow. We sat silent for +a while, Dorothy toying with old Knipe, lying at our feet, and humming +gayly the burden of a minuet. She had been flighty on the ride, with +scarce a word to say to me, for the prospect of the dance had gone to her +head. + +"Have you a new suit to wear to-night, to see the New Year in, Master +Sober?" she asked presently, looking up. "I am to wear a brocade that +came out this autumn from London, and papa says I look like a duchess +when I have my grandmother's pearls." + +"Always the ball!" cried I, slapping my boots in a temper. "Is it, +then, such a matter of importance? I am sure you have danced before--at +my birthdays in Marlboro' Street and at your own, and Will Fotheringay's, +and I know not how many others." + +"Of course," replies Dolly, sweetly; "but never with a real man. Boys +like you and Will and the Lloyds do not count. Dr. Courtenay is at +Wilmot House, and is coming to-night; and he has asked me out. Think +of it, Richard! Dr. Courtenay!" + +"A plague upon him! He is a fop!" + +"A fop!" exclaimed Dolly, her humour bettering as mine went down. "Oh, +no; you are jealous. He is more sought after than any gentleman at the +assemblies, and Miss Dulany vows his steps are ravishing. There's for +you, my lad! He may not be able to keep pace with you in the chase, but +he has writ the most delicate verses ever printed in Maryland, and no +other man in the colony can turn a compliment with his grace. Shall I +tell you more? He sat with me for over an hour last night, until mamma +sent me off to bed, and was very angry at you because I had engaged to +ride with you to-day." + +"And I suppose you wish you had stayed with him," I flung back, hotly. +"He had spun you a score of fine speeches and a hundred empty compliments +by now." + +"He had been better company than you, sir," she laughed provokingly. +"I never heard you turn a compliment in your life, and you are now +seventeen. What headway do you expect to make at the assemblies?" + +"None," I answered, rather sadly than otherwise. For she had touched +me upon a sore spot. "But if I cannot win a woman save by compliments," +I added, flaring up, "then may I pay a bachelor's tax!" + +My lady drew her whip across my knee. + +"You must tell us we are beautiful, Richard," said she, in another tone. + +"You have but to look in a pier-glass," I retorted. "And, besides, that +is not sufficient. You will want some rhyming couplet out of a mythology +before you are content." + +She laughed again. + +"Sir," answered she, "but you have wit, if you can but be got angry." + +She leaned over the dial's face, and began to draw the Latin numerals +with her finger. So arch, withal, that I forgot my ill-humour. + +"If you would but agree to stay angry for a day," she went on, in a low +tone, "perhaps--" + +"Perhaps?" + +"Perhaps you would be better company," said Dorothy. "You would surely +be more entertaining." + +"Dorothy, I love you," I said. + +"To be sure. I know that," she replied. "I think you have said that +before." + +I admitted it sadly. "But I should be a better husband than Dr. +Courtenay." + +"La!" cried she; "I am not thinking of husbands. I shall have a good +time, sir, I promise you, before I marry. And then I should never marry +you. You are much too rough, and too masterful. And you would require +obedience. I shall never obey any man. You would be too strict a +master, sir. I can see it with your dogs and your servants. And your +friends, too. For you thrash any boy who does not agree with you. I +want no rough squire for a husband. And then, you are a Whig. I could +never marry a Whig. You behaved disgracefully at King William's School +last year. Don't deny it!" + +"Deny it!" I cried warmly; "I would as soon deny that you are an arrant +flirt, Dorothy Manners, and will be a worse one." + +"Yes, I shall have my fling," said the minx. "I shall begin to-night, +with you for an audience. I shall make the doctor look to himself. But +there is the dressing-bell." And as we went into the house, "I believe +my mother is a Whig, Richard. All the Brices are." + +"And yet you are a Tory?" + +"I am a loyalist," says my lady, tossing her head proudly; "and we are +one day to kiss her Majesty's hand, and tell her so. And if I were the +Queen," she finished in a flash, "I would teach you surly gentlemen not +to meddle." + +And she swept up the stairs so stately, that Scipio was moved to say +slyly: "Dem's de kind of ladies, Marse Richard, I jes dotes t' wait on!" + +Of the affair at King William's School I shall tell later. + +We had some dozen guests staying at the Hall for the ball. At dinner my +grandfather and the gentlemen twitted her, and laughed heartily at her +apt retorts, and even toasted her when she was gone. The ladies shook +their heads and nudged one another, and no doubt each of the mothers had +her notion of what she would do in Mrs. Manners's place. But when my +lady came down dressed for the ball in her pink brocade with the pearls +around her neck, fresh from the hands of Nester and those of her own +tremulous mammy, Mr. Carvel must needs go up to her and hold her at arm's +length in admiration, and then kiss her on both her cheeks. Whereat she +blushed right prettily. + +"Bless me!" says he; "and can this be Richard's little playmate grown? +Upon my word, Miss Dolly, you'll be the belle of the ball. Eh, Lloyd? +Bless me, bless me, you must not mind a kiss from an old man. The young +ones may have their turn after a while." He laughed as my grandfather +only could laugh, and turned to me, who had reddened to my forehead. +"And so, Richard, she has outstripped you, fair and square. You are only +an awkward lad, and she--why, i' faith, in two years she'll be beyond my +protection. Come, Miss Dolly," says he; "I'll show you the mistletoe, +that you may beware of it." + +And he led her off on his arm. "The old year and the new, gentlemen!" +he cried merrily, as he passed the door, with Dolly's mammy and Nester +simpering with pride on the landing. + +The company arrived in coach and saddle, many having come so far that +they were to stay the night. Young Mr. Beall carried his bride on a +pillion behind him, her red riding-cloak flung over her ball dress. Mr. +Bordley and family came in his barge, Mr. Marmaduke and his wife in coach +and four. With them was Dr. Courtenay, arrayed in peach-coloured coat +and waistcoat, with black satin breeches and white silk stockings, and +pinchbeck buckles a-sparkle on his shoes. How I envied him as he +descended the stairs, stroking his ruffles and greeting the company with +the indifferent ease that was then the fashion. I fancied I saw his eyes +wander among the ladies, and not marking her he crossed over to where I +stood disconsolate before the fireplace. + +"Why, Richard, my lad," says he, "you are quite grown since I saw you. +And the little girl that was your playmate,--Miss Dolly, I mean,--has +outstripped me, egad. She has become suddenly une belle demoiselle, like +a rose that blooms in a night." + +I answered nothing at all. But I had given much to know whether my +stolid manner disconcerted him. Unconsciously I sought the bluff face +above the chimney, depicted in all its ruggedness by the painter of King +Charles's day, and contrasted with the bundle of finery at my side. +Dr. Courtenay certainly caught the look. He opened his snuff-box, +took a pinch, turned on his heel, and sauntered off. + +"What did you say, Richard?" asked Mr. Lloyd, coming up to me, laughing, +for he had seen the incident. + +"I looked merely at the man of Marston Moor, sir, and said nothing." + +"Faith, 'twas a better answer than if you had used your tongue, I think," +answered my friend. But he teased me a deal that night when Dolly danced +with the doctor, and my grandfather bade me look to my honours. My young +lady flung her head higher than ever, and made a minuet as well as any +dame upon the floor, while I stood very glum at the thought of the prize +slipping from my grasp. Now and then, in the midst of a figure, she +would shoot me an arch glance, as much as to say that her pinions were +strong now. But when it came to the country dances my lady comes up to +me ever so prettily and asks the favour. + +"Tis a monstrous state, indeed, when I have to beg you for a reel!" says +she. + +And so was I made happy. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +I FIRST SUFFER FOR THE CAUSE + +In the eighteenth century the march of public events was much more +eagerly followed than now by men and women of all stations, and even +children. Each citizen was ready, nay, forward, in taking an active part +in all political movements, and the children mimicked their elders. Old +William Farris read his news of a morning before he began the mending of +his watches, and by evening had so well digested them that he was primed +for discussion with Pryse, of the opposite persuasion, at the Rose and +Crown. Sol Mogg, the sexton of St. Anne's, had his beloved Gazette in +his pocket as he tolled the church bell of a Thursday, and would hold +forth on the rights and liberties of man with the carpenter who mended +the steeple. Mrs. Willard could talk of Grenville and Townshend as +knowingly as her husband, the rich factor, and Francie Willard made many +a speech to us younger Sons of Liberty on the steps of King William's +School. We younger sons, indeed, declared bitter war against the +mother-country long before our conservative old province ever dreamed of +secession. For Maryland was well pleased with his Lordship's government. + +I fear that I got at King William's School learning of a far different +sort than pleased my grandfather. In those days the school stood upon +the Stadt House hill near School Street, not having moved to its present +larger quarters. Mr. Isaac Daaken was then Master, and had under him +some eighty scholars. After all these years, Mr. Daaken stands before me +a prominent figure of the past in an ill-fitting suit of snuff colour. +How well I recall that schoolroom of a bright morning, the sun's rays +shot hither and thither, and split violet, green, and red by the bulging +glass panes of the windows. And by a strange irony it so chanced that +where the dominie sat--and he moved not the whole morning long save to +reach for his birches--the crimson ray would often rest on the end of his +long nose, and the word "rum" be passed tittering along the benches. For +some men are born to the mill, and others to the mitre, and still others +to the sceptre; but Mr. Daaken was born to the birch. His long, lanky +legs were made for striding after culprits, and his arms for caning them. +He taught, among other things, the classics, of course, the English +language grammatically, arithmetic in all its branches, book-keeping +in the Italian manner, and the elements of algebra, geometry, and +trigonometry with their applications to surveying and navigation. +He also wrote various sorts of hands, fearful and marvellous to the +uninitiated, with which he was wont to decorate my monthly reports to my +grandfather. I can shut my eyes and see now that wonderful hyperbola in +the C in Carvel, which, after travelling around the paper, ended in +intricate curves and a flourish which surely must have broken the quill. + +The last day of every month would I fetch that scrolled note to Mr. +Carvel, and he laid it beside his plate until dinner was over. And then, +as sure as the sun rose that morning, my flogging would come before it +set. This done with, and another promised next month provided Mr. Daaken +wrote no better of me, my grandfather and I renewed our customary footing +of love and companionship. + +But Mr. Daaken, unwittingly or designedly, taught other things than those +I have mentioned above. And though I never once heard a word of politics +fall from his lips, his school shortly became known to all good Tories as +a nursery of conspiracy and sedition. There are other ways of teaching +besides preaching, and of that which the dominie taught best he spoke not +a word. He was credited, you may well believe, with calumnies against +King George, and once my Uncle Grafton and Mr. Dulany were for clapping +him in jail, avowing that he taught treason to the young. I can account +for the tone of King William's School in no other way than to say that +patriotism was in the very atmosphere, and seemed to exude in some +mysterious way from Mr. Daaken's person. And most of us became +infected with it. + +The dominie lived outside the town, in a lonely little hamlet on the +borders of the Spa. At two of the clock every afternoon he would dive +through School Street to the Coffee House, where the hostler would have +his bony mare saddled and waiting. Mr. Daaken by no chance ever entered +the tavern. I recall one bright day in April when I played truant and +had the temerity to go afishing on Spa Creek with Will Fotheringay, the +bass being plentiful there. We had royal sport of it that morning, and +two o'clock came and went with never a thought, you may be sure. And +presently I get a pull which bends my English rod near to double, and +in my excitement plunge waist deep into the water, Will crying out +directions from the shore, when suddenly the head of Mr. Daaken's mare +is thrust through the bushes, followed by Mr. Daaken himself. Will stood +stock still from fright, and I was for dropping my rod and cutting, when +I was arrested by the dominie calling out: + +"Have a care, Master Carvel; have a care, sir. You will lose him. Play +him, sir; let him run a bit." + +And down he leaps from his horse and into the water after me, and +together we landed a three-pound bass, thereby drenching his +snuff-coloured suit. When the big fish lay shining in the basket, the +dominie smiled grimly at William and me as we stood sheepishly by, and +without a word he drew his clasp knife and cut a stout switch from the +willow near, and then and there he gave us such a thrashing as we +remembered for many a day after. And we both had another when we reached +home. + +"Mr. Carvel," said Mr. Dulany to my grandfather, "I would strongly +counsel you to take Richard from that school. Pernicious doctrines, sir, +are in the air, and like diseases are early caught by the young. 'Twas +but yesterday I saw Richard at the head of a rabble of the sons of +riff-raff, in Green Street, and their treatment of Mr. Fairbrother hath +set the whole town by the ears." + +What Mr. Dulany had said was true. The lads of Mr. Fairbrother's school +being mostly of the unpopular party, we of King William's had organized +our cohorts and led them on to a signal victory. We fell upon the enemy +even as they were emerging from their stronghold, the schoolhouse, and +smote them hip and thigh, with the sheriff of Anne Arundel County a +laughing spectator. Some of the Tories (for such we were pleased to call +them) took refuge behind Mr. Fairbrother's skirts, who shook his cane +angrily enough, but without avail. Others of the Tory brood fought +stoutly, calling out: "God save the King!" and "Down with the traitors!" +On our side Francie Willard fell, and Archie Dennison raised a lump on my +head the size of a goose egg. But we fairly beat them, and afterwards +must needs attack the Tory dominie himself. He cried out lustily to the +sheriff and spectators, of whom there were many by this time, for help, +but got little but laughter for his effort. Young Lloyd and I, being +large lads for our age, fairly pinioned the screeching master, who cried +out that he was being murdered, and keeping his cane for a trophy, thrust +him bodily into his house of learning, turned the great key upon him, and +so left him. He made his escape by a window and sought my grandfather in +the Duke of Marlboro' Street as fast as ever his indignant legs would +carry him. + +Of his interview with Mr. Carvel I know nothing save that Scipio was +requested presently to show him the door, and conclude therefrom that his +language was but ill-chosen. Scipio's patrician blood was wont to rise +in the presence of those whom he deemed outside the pale of good society, +and I fear he ushered Mr. Fairbrother to the street with little of that +superior manner he used to the first families. As for Mr. Daaken, I feel +sure he was not ill-pleased at the discomfiture of his rival, though it +cost him five of his scholars. + +Our schoolboy battle, though lightly undertaken, was fraught with no +inconsiderable consequences for me. I was duly chided and soundly +whipped by my grandfather for the part I had played; but he was inclined +to pass the matter after that, and set it down to the desire for fighting +common to most boyish natures. And he would have gone no farther than +this had it not been that Mr. Green, of the Maryland Gazette, could not +refrain from printing the story in his paper. That gentleman, being a +stout Whig, took great delight in pointing out that a grandson of Mr. +Carvel was a ringleader in the affair. The story was indeed laughable +enough, and many a barrister's wig nodded over it at the Coffee House +that day. When I came home from school I found Scipio beside my +grandfather's empty seat in the dining-room, and I learned that Mr. +Carvel was in the garden with my Uncle Grafton and the Reverend Bennett +Allen, rector of St. Anne's. I well knew that something out of the +common was in the wind to disturb my grandfather's dinner. Into the +garden I went, and under the black walnut tree I beheld Mr. Carvel pacing +up and down in great unrest, his Gazette in his hand, while on the bench +sat my uncle and the rector of St. Anne's. So occupied was each in his +own thought that my coming was unperceived; and I paused in my steps, +seized suddenly by an instinctive dread, I know not of what. The fear of +Mr. Carvel's displeasure passed from my mind so that I cared not how +soundly he thrashed me, and my heart filled with a yearning, born of the +instant, for that simple and brave old gentleman. For the lad is nearer +to nature than the man, and the animal oft scents a danger the master +cannot see. I read plainly in Mr. Allen's handsome face, flushed red +with wine as it ever was, and in my Uncle Grafton's looks a snare to +which I knew my grandfather was blind. I never rightly understood how +it was that Mr. Carvel was deceived in Mr. Allen; perchance the secret +lay in his bold manner and in the appearance of dignity and piety he wore +as a cloak when on his guard. I caught my breath sharply and took my way +toward them, resolved to make as brave a front as I might. It was my +uncle, whose ear was ever open, that first heard my footstep and turned +upon me. + +"Here is Richard, now, father," he said. + +I gave him so square a look that he bent his head to the ground. My +grandfather stopped in his pacing and his eye rested upon me, in sorrow +rather than in anger, I thought. + +"Richard," he began, and paused. For the first time in my life I saw him +irresolute. He looked appealingly at the rector, who rose. Mr. Allen +was a man of good height and broad shoulders, with piercing black eyes, +reminding one more of the smallsword than aught else I can think of. And +he spoke solemnly, in a deep voice, as though from the pulpit. + +"I fear it is my duty, Richard, to say what Mr. Carvel cannot. It +grieves me to tell you, sir, that young as you are you have been guilty +of treason against the King, and of grave offence against his Lordship's +government. I cannot mitigate my words, sir. By your rashness, Richard, +and I pray it is such, you have brought grief to your grandfather in his +age, and ridicule and reproach upon a family whose loyalty has hitherto +been unstained." + +I scarce waited for him to finish. His pompous words stung me like the +lash of a whip, and I gave no heed to his cloth as I answered: + +"If I have grieved my grandfather, sir, I am heartily sorry, and will +answer to him for what I have done. And I would have you know, Mr. +Allen, that I am as able as any to care for the Carvel honour." + +I spoke with a vehemence, for the thought carried me beyond myself, +that this upstart parson his Lordship had but a year since sent among +us should question our family reputation. + +"Remember that Mr. Allen is of the Church, Richard," said my grandfather, +severely. + +"I fear he has little respect for Church or State, sir," Grafton put in. +"You are now reaping the fruits of your indulgence." + +I turned to my grandfather. + +"You are my protector, sir," I cried. "And if it please you to tell me +what I now stand accused of, I submit most dutifully to your +chastisement." + +"Very fair words, indeed, nephew Richard," said my uncle, "and I +draw from them that you have yet to hear of your beating an honest +schoolmaster without other provocation than that he was a loyal servant +to the King, and wantonly injuring the children of his school." He drew +from his pocket a copy of that Gazette Mr. Carvel held in his hand, and +added ironically: "Here, then, are news which will doubtless surprise +you, sir. And knowing you for a peaceful lad, never having entertained +such heresies as those with which it pleases Mr. Green to credit you, +I dare swear he has drawn on his imagination." + +I took the paper in amaze, not knowing why my grandfather, who had ever +been so jealous of others taking me to task, should permit the rector and +my uncle to chide me in his presence. The account was in the main true +enough, and made sad sport of Mr. Fairbrother. + +"Have I not been caned for this, sir?" said I to my grandfather. + +These words seemed to touch Mr. Carvel, and I saw a tear glisten in his +eye as he answered: + +"You have, Richard, and stoutly. But your uncle and Mr. Allen seem to +think that your offence warrants more than a caning, and to deem that you +have been actuated by bad principles rather than by boyish spirits." He +paused to steady his voice, and I realized then for the first time how +sacred he held allegiance to the King. "Tell me, my lad," said he, "tell +me, as you love God and the truth, whether they are right." + +For the moment I shrank from speaking, perceiving what a sad blow to +Mr. Carvel my words must be. And then I spoke up boldly, catching the +exulting sneer on my Uncle Grafton's face and the note of triumph +reflected in Mr. Allen's. + +"I have never deceived you, sir," I said, "and will not now hide from you +that I believe the colonies to have a just cause against his Majesty and +Parliament." The words came ready to my lips: "We are none the less +Englishmen because we claim the rights of Englishmen, and, saving your +presence, sir, are as loyal as those who do not. And if these principles +be bad," I added to my uncle, "then should we think with shame upon the +Magna Charta." + +My grandfather stood astonished at such a speech from me, whom he had +thought a lad yet without a formed knowledge of public affairs. But I +was, in fact, supersaturated with that of which I spoke, and could have +given my hearers many able Whig arguments to surprise them had the season +befitted. There was silence for a space after I had finished, and then +Mr. Carvel sank right heavily upon the bench. + +"A Carvel against the King!" was all he said. + +Had I been alone with him I should have cast myself at his feet, for it +hurt me sorely to see him so. As it was, I held my head high. + +"The Carvels ever did what they believed right, sir," I answered. "You +would not have me to go against my conscience?" + +To this he replied nothing. + +"The evil has been done, as I feared, father," said Grafton, presently; +"we must now seek for the remedy." + +"Let me question the lad," Mr. Allen softly interposed. "Tell me, +Richard, who has influenced you to this way of thinking?" + +I saw his ruse, and was not to be duped by it. + +"Men who have not feared to act bravely against oppression, sir," I said. + +"Thank God," exclaimed my uncle, with fervour, "that I have been more +careful of Philip's associations, and that he has not caught in the +streets and taverns this noxious creed!" + +"There is no danger from Philip; he remembers his family name," said the +rector. + +"No," quoth Mr. Carvel, bitterly, "there is no danger from Philip. Like +his father, he will ever believe that which best serves him." + +Grafton, needless to say, did not pursue such an argument, but rising, +remarked that this deplorable affair had kept him long past his dinner +hour, and that his services were as ever at his father's disposal. He +refused to stay, though my grandfather pressed him of course, and with a +low bow of filial respect and duty and a single glance at the rector, my +uncle was gone. And then we walked slowly to the house and into the +dining room, Mr. Carvel leading the procession, and I an unwilling rear, +knowing that my fate would be decided between them. I thought Mr. +Allen's grace would never end, and the meal likewise; I ate but little, +while the two gentlemen discussed parish matters. And when at last +Scipio had retired, and the rector of St. Anne's sat sipping the old +Madeira, his countenance all gravity, but with a relish he could not +hide, my grandfather spoke up. And though he addressed himself to the +guest, I knew full well what he said was meant for me. + +"As you see, sir," said he, "I am sore perplexed and troubled. We +Carvels, Mr. Allen, have ever been stanch to Church and King. My +great-grandsire fought at Naseby and Marston Moor for Charles, and +suffered exile in his name. 'Twas love for King James that sent my +father hither, though he swore allegiance to Anne and the First George. +I can say with pride that he was no indifferent servant to either, +refusing honours from the Pretender in '15, when he chanced to be at +home. An oath is an oath, sir, and we have yet to be false to ours. And +the King, say I, should, next to God, be loved and loyally served by his +subjects. And so I have served this George, and his grandfather before +him, according to the talents which were given me." + +"And ably, sir, permit me to say," echoed the rector, heartily. Too +heartily, methought. And he carefully filled his pipe with choice leaf +out of Mr. Carvel's inlaid box. + +"Be that as it may, I have done my best, as we must all do. Pardon me, +sir, for speaking of myself. But I have brought up this lad from a +child, Mr. Allen," said Mr. Carvel, his words coming slowly, as if each +gave him pain, "and have striven to be an example to him in all things. +He has few of those faults which I most fear; God be thanked that he +loves the truth, for there is yet a chance of his correction. A chance, +said I?" he cried, his speech coming more rapid, "nay, he shall be +cured! I little thought, fool that I was, that he would get this pox. +His father fought and died for the King; and should trouble come, which +God forbid, to know that Richard stood against his Majesty would kill +me." + +"And well it might, Mr. Carvel," said the divine. He was for the +moment sobered, as weak men must be in the presence of those of strong +convictions. My grandfather had half risen in his chair, and the lines +of his smooth-shaven face deepened visibly with the pain of the feelings +to which he gave utterance. As for me, I was well-nigh swept away by a +bigness within me, and torn between love and duty, between pity and the +reason left me, and sadly tried to know whether my dear parent's life and +happiness should be weighed against what I felt to be right. I strove to +speak, but could say nothing. + +"He must be removed from the influences," the rector ventured, after a +halt. + +"That he must indeed," said my grandfather. "Why did I not send him to +Eton last fall? But it is hard, Mr. Allen, to part with the child of our +old age. I would take passage and go myself with him to-morrow were it +not for my duties in the Council." + +"Eton! I would have sooner, I believe, wrought by the side of any +rascally redemptioner in the iron mines of the Patapsco than have gone to +Eton. + +"But for the present, sir, I would counsel you to put the lad's studies +in the charge of some able and learned man, that his mind may be turned +from the disease which has fed upon it. Some one whose loyalty is beyond +question." + +"And who so fit as yourself, Mr. Allen?" returned my grandfather, relief +plain in his voice. "You have his Lordship's friendship and confidence, +and never has rector of St. Anne's or of any other parish brought letters +to his Excellency to compare with yours. And so I crave your help in +this time of need." + +Mr. Allen showed becoming hesitation. + +"I fear you do me greater honour than I deserve, Mr. Carvel," he +answered, a strain of the pomp coming back, "though my gracious patron +is disposed to think well of me, and I shall strive to hold his good +opinion. But I have duties of parish and glebe to attend, and Master +Philip Carvel likewise in my charge." + +I held my breath for my grandfather's reply. The rector, however, had +read him, and well knew that a show of reluctance would but inflame him +the more. + +"How now, sir?" he exclaimed. "Surely, as you love the King, you will +not refuse me in this strait." + +Mr. Allen rose and grasped him by the hand. + +"Nay, sir," said he, "and you put it thus, I cannot refuse you." + +The thought of it was too much. I ran to my grandfather crying: "Not Mr. +Allen, sir, not Mr. Allen. Any one else you please,--Mr. Fairbrother +even." + +The rector drew back haughtily. "It is clear, Mr. Carvel," he said, +"that Richard has other preferences." + +"And be damned to them!" shouted my grandfather. "Am I to be ruled by +this headstrong boy? He has beat Mr. Fairbrother, and shall have no +skimmed-milk supervision if I can help it." + +And so it was settled that I should be tutored by the rector of St. +Anne's, and I took my seat beside my cousin Philip in his study the very +next day. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GRAFTON HAS HIS CHANCE + +To add to my troubles my grandfather was shortly taken very ill with the +first severe sickness he had ever in his life endured. Dr. Leiden came +and went sometimes thrice daily, and for a week he bore a look so grave +as to frighten me. Dr. Evarts arrived by horse from Philadelphia, and +the two physicians held long conversations in the morning room, while I +listened at the door and comprehended not a word of their talk save when +they spoke of bleeding. And after a very few consultations, as is often +the way in their profession, they disagreed and quarrelled, and Dr. +Evarts packed himself back to Philadelphia in high dudgeon. Then Mr. +Carvel began to mend. + +There were many who came regularly to inquire of him, and each afternoon +I would see the broad shoulders and genial face of Governor Sharpe in the +gateway, completing his walk by way of Marlboro' Street. I loved and +admired him, for he had been a soldier himself before he came out to us, +and had known and esteemed my father. His Excellency should surely have +been knighted for his services in the French war. Once he spied me at +the window and shook his cane pleasantly, and in he walks to the room +where I sat reading of the victories of Blenheim and Malplaquet, for +chronicles of this sort I delighted in. + +"Aha, Richard," says he, taking up the book, "'tis plain whither your +tastes lead you. Marlboro was a great general, and as sorry a scoundrel +as ever led troops to battle. Truly," says he, musing, "the Lord often +makes queer choice in his instruments for good." And he lowered himself +into the easy chair and crossed his legs, regarding me very comically. +"What's this I hear of your joining the burghers and barristers, and +trouncing poor Mr. Fairbrother and his flock, and crying 'Liberty +forever!' in the very ears of the law?" he asks. "His Majesty will have +need of such lads as you, I make no doubt, and should such proceedings +come to his ears I would not give a pipe for your chances." + +I could not but laugh, confused as I was, at his Excellency's rally. +And this I may say, that had it pleased Providence to give me dealing +with such men of the King's side as he, perchance my fortunes had been +altered. + +"And in any good cause, sir," I replied, "I would willingly give my life +to his Majesty." + +"So," said his Excellency, raising his eyebrows, "I see clearly you are +of the rascals. But a lad must have his fancies, and when your age I was +hot for the exiled Prince. I acquired more sense as I grew older. And +better an active mind, say I, than a sluggard partisan." + +At this stage of our talk came in my Uncle Grafton, and bowing low to the +Governor made apology that some of the elders of the family had not been +there to entertain him. He told his Excellency that he had never left +the house save for necessary business, which was true for once, my uncle +having taken up his abode with us during that week. But now, thanking +Heaven and Dr. Leiden and his own poor effort, he could report his dear +father to be out of danger. + +Governor Sharpe answered shortly that he had been happy to hear the good +news from Scipio. "Faith," says he, "I was well enough entertained, for +I have a liking for this lad, and to speak truth I saw him here as I came +up the walk." + +My uncle smiled deprecatingly, and hid any vexation he might have had +from this remark. + +"I fear that Richard lacks wisdom as yet, your Excellency," said he, "and +has many of his father's headstrong qualities." + +"Which you most providentially escaped," his Excellency put in. + +Grafton bit his lip. "Necessity makes us all careful, sir," said he. + +"Necessity does more than that, Mr. Carvel," returned the Governor, who +was something of a wit; "necessity often makes us fools, if we be not +careful. But give me ever a wanton fool rather than him of necessity's +handiwork. And as for the lad," says he, "let him not trouble you. Such +as he, if twisted a little in the growth, come out straight enough in the +end." + +I think the Governor little knew what wormwood was this to my uncle. + +"'Tis heartily to be hoped, sir," he said, "for his folly has brought +trouble enough behind it to those who have his education and his welfare +in hand, and I make no doubt is at the bottom of my father's illness." + +At this injustice I could not but cry out, for all the town knew, and +my grandfather himself best of all, that the trouble from which he now +suffered sprang from his gout. And yet my heart was smitten at the +thought that I might have hastened or aggravated the attack. The +Governor rose. He seized his stick aggressively and looked sharply at +Grafton. + +"Nonsense," he exclaimed; "my friend Mr. Carvel is far too wise to be +upset by a boyish prank which deserves no notice save a caning. And +that, my lad," he added lightly, "I dare swear you got with interest." +And he called for a glass of the old Madeira when Scipio came with the +tray, and departed with a polite inquiry after my Aunt Caroline's health, +and a prophecy that Mr. Carvel would soon be taking the air again. + +There had been high doings indeed in Marlboro' Street that miserable +week. My grandfather took to his bed of a Saturday afternoon, and bade +me go down to Mr. Aikman's, the bookseller, and fetch him the latest +books and plays. That night I became so alarmed that I sent Diomedes for +Dr. Leiden, who remained the night through. Sunday was well gone before +the news reached York Street, when my Aunt Caroline came hurrying over in +her chair, and my uncle on foot. They brushed past Scipio at the door, +and were pushing up the long flight when they were stopped on the landing +by Dr. Leiden. + +"How is my father, sir?" Grafton cried, "and why was I not informed at +once of his illness? I must see him." + +"Your vater can see no one, Mr. Carvel," said the doctor, quietly. + +"What," says my uncle, "you dare to refuse me?" + +"Not so lout, I bray you," says the doctor; "I tare any ting vere life is +concerned." + +"But I will see him," says Grafton, in a sort of helpless rage, for the +doctor's manner baffled him. "I will see him before he dies, and no man +alive shall say me nay." + +Then my Aunt Caroline gathered up her skirt, and made shift to pass the +doctor. + +"I have come to nurse him," said she, imperiously, and, turning to where +I stood near, she added: "Bid a servant fetch from York Street what I +shall have need of." + +The doctor smiled, but stood firm. He cared little for aught in heaven +or earth, did Dr. Leiden, and nothing whatever for Mr. and Mrs. Grafton +Carvel. + +"I peg you, matam, do not disturp yourself," said he. "Mr. Carvel is +aply attended by an excellent voman, Mrs. Villis, and he has no neet of +you." + +"What," cried my aunt; "this is too much, sir, that I am thrust out of my +father-in-law's house, and my place taken by a menial. That woman able!" +she fumed, dropping suddenly her cloak of dignity; "Mr. Carvel's charity +is all that keeps her here." + +Then my uncle drew himself up. "Dr. Leiden," says he, "kindly oblige me +by leaving my father's house, and consider your services here at an end. +And Richard," he goes on to me, "send my compliments to Dr. Drake, and +request him to come at once." + +I was stepping forward to say that I would do nothing of the kind, when +the doctor stopped me by a signal, as much as to say that the quarrel was +wide enough without me. He stood with his back against the great arched +window flooded with the yellow light of the setting sun, a little black +figure in high relief, with a face of parchment. And he took a pinch of +snuff before he spoke. + +"I am here py Mr. Carvel's orters, sir," said he, "and py tose alone vill +I leaf." + +And this is how the Chippendale piece was broke, which you, my children, +and especially Bess, admire so extravagantly. It stood that day behind +the doctor, and my uncle, making a violent move to get by, struck it, and +so it fell with a great crash lengthwise on the landing; and the +wonderful vases Mr. Carroll had given my grandfather rolled down the +stairs and lay crushed at the bottom. Withal he had spoken so quietly, +Dr. Leiden possessed a temper drawn from his Teutonic ancestors. With +his little face all puckered, he swore so roundly at my uncle in some +lingo he had got from his father,--High German or Low German,--I know not +what, that Grafton and his wife were glad enough to pick their way +amongst the broken bits of glass and china, to the hall again. Dr. +Leiden shook his fist at their retreating persons, saying that the +Sabbath was no day to do murder. + +I followed them with the pretence of picking up what was left of the +ornaments. What between anger against the doctor and Mrs. Willis, and +fright and chagrin at the fall of the Chippendale piece, my aunt was in +such a state of nervous flurry that she bade the ashy Scipio call her +chairmen, and vowed, in a trembling voice, she would never again enter a +house where that low-bred German was to be found. But my Uncle Grafton +was of a different nature. He deemed defeat but a postponement of the +object he wished to gain, and settled himself in the library with a copy +of "Miller on the Distinction of Ranks in Society." He appeared at +supper suave as ever, gravely concerned as to his father's health, which +formed the chief topic between us. He gave me to understand that he +would take the green room until the old gentleman was past danger. Not a +word, mind you, of Dr. Leiden, nor did my uncle express a wish to go into +the sick-room, from which even I was forbid. Nay, the next morning he +met the doctor in the hall and conversed with him at some length over the +case as though nothing had occurred between them. + +While my Uncle Grafton was in the house I had opportunity of marking the +intimacy which existed between him and the rector of St. Anne's. The +latter swung each evening the muffled knocker, and was ushered on tiptoe +across the polished floor to the library where my uncle sat in state. It +was often after supper before the rector left, and coming in upon them +once I found wine between them and empty decanters on the board, and they +fell silent as I passed the doorway. + +Our dear friend Captain Clapsaddle was away when my grandfather fell +sick, having been North for three months or more on some business known +to few. 'Twas generally supposed he went to Massachusetts to confer with +the patriots of that colony. Hearing the news as he rode into town, he +came booted and spurred to Marlboro' Street before going to his lodgings. +I ran out to meet him, and he threw his arms about me on the street so +that those who were passing smiled, for all knew the captain. And +Harvey, who always came to take the captain's horse, swore that he was +glad to see a friend of the family once again. I told the captain very +freely of my doings, and showed him the clipping from the Gazette, which +made him laugh heartily. But a shade came upon his face when I rehearsed +the scene we had with my uncle and Mr. Allen in the garden. + +"What," says he, "Mr. Carvel hath sent you to Mr. Allen on your uncle's +advice?" + +"No," I answered, "to do my uncle justice, he said not a word to Mr. +Carvel about it." + +The captain turned the subject. He asked me much concerning the rector +and what he taught me, and appeared but ill-pleased at that I had to tell +him. But he left me without so much as a word of comment or counsel. +For it was a principle with Captain Clapsaddle not to influence in any +way the minds of the young, and he would have deemed it unfair to Mr. +Carvel had he attempted to win my sympathies to his. Captain Daniel was +the first the old gentleman asked to see when visitors were permitted +him, and you may be sure the faithful soldier was below stairs waiting +for the summons. + +I was some three weeks with my new tutor, the rector, before my +grandfather's illness, and went back again as soon as he began to mend. +I was not altogether unhappy, owing to a certain grim pleasure I had in +debating with him, which I shall presently relate. There was much to +annoy and anger me, too. My cousin Philip was forever carping and +criticising my Greek and Latin, and it was impossible not to feel his +sneer at my back when I construed. He had pat replies ready to correct +me when called upon, and 'twas only out of consideration for Mr. Carvel +that I kept my hands from him when we were dismissed. + +I think the rector disliked Philip in his way as much as did I in mine. +The Reverend Bennett Allen, indeed, might have been a very good fellow +had Providence placed him in a different setting; he was one of those +whom his Excellency dubbed "fools from necessity." He should have been +born with a fortune, though I can think of none he would not have run +through in a year or so. But nature had given him aristocratic tastes, +with no other means toward their gratification than good looks, +convincing ways, and a certain bold, half-defiant manner, which went far +with his Lordship and those like him, who thought Mr. Allen excellent +good company. With the rector, as with too many others, holy orders were +but a means to an end. It was a sealed story what he had been before he +came to Governor Sharpe with Baltimore's directions to give him the best +in the colony. But our rakes and wits, and even our solid men, like my +grandfather, received him with open arms. He had ever a tale on his +tongue's end tempered to the ear of his listener. + +Who had most influenced my way of thinking, Mr. Allen had well demanded. +The gentleman was none other than Mr. Henry Swain, Patty's father. Of +her I shall speak later. He was a rising barrister and man of note among +our patriots, and member of the Lower House; a diffident man in public, +with dark, soulful eyes, and a wide, white brow, who had declined a +nomination to the Congress of '65. At his fireside, unknown to my +grandfather and to Mr. Allen, I had learned the true principles of +government. Before the House Mr. Swain spoke only under extraordinary +emotion, and then he gained every ear. He had been my friend since +childhood, but I never knew the meaning and the fire of oratory until +curiosity brought me to the gallery of the Assembly chamber in the Stadt +House, where the barrister was on his feet at the time. I well remember +the tingle in my chest as I looked and listened. And I went again and +again, until the House sat behind closed doors. + +And so, when Mr. Allen brought forth for my benefit those arguments of +the King's party which were deemed their strength, I would confront him +with Mr. Swain's logic. He had in me a tough subject for conversion. +I was put to very small pains to rout my instructor out of all his +positions, because indolence, and lack of interest in the question, and +contempt for the Americans, had made him neglect the study of it. And +Philip, who entered at first glibly enough at the rector's side, was +soon drawn into depths far beyond him. Many a time was Mr. Allen fain +to laugh at his blunders. I doubt not my cousin had the facts straight +enough when he rose from the breakfast table at home; but by the time he +reached the rectory they were shaken up like so many parts of a puzzle in +a bag, and past all straightening. + +The rector was especially bitter toward the good people of Boston Town, +whom he dubbed Puritan fanatics. To him Mr. Otis was but a meddling +fool, and Mr. Adams a traitor whose head only remained on his shoulders +by grace of the extreme clemency of his Majesty, which Mr. Allen was at +a loss to understand. When beaten in argument, he would laugh out some +sneer that would set my blood simmering. One morning he came in late for +the lesson, smelling strongly of wine, and bade us bring our books out +under the fruit trees in the garden. He threw back his gown and tilted +his cap, and lighting his pipe began to speak of that act of Townshend's, +passed but the year before, which afterwards proved the King's folly and +England's ruin. + +"Principle!" exclaimed my fine clergyman at length, blowing a great whiff +among the white blossoms. "Oons! your Americans worship his Majesty +stamped upon a golden coin. And though he saved their tills from plunder +from the French, the miserly rogues are loth to pay for the service." + +I rose, and taking a guinea-piece from my pocket, held it up before him. + +"They care this much for gold, sir, and less for his Majesty, who cares +nothing for them," I said. And walking to the well near by, I dropped +the piece carelessly into the clear water. He was beside me before it +left my hand, and Philip also, in time to see the yellow coin edging this +way and that toward the bottom. The rector turned to me with a smile of +cynical amusement playing over his features. + +"Such a spirit has brought more than one brave fellow to Tyburn, Master +Carvel," he said. And then he added reflectively, "But if there were +more like you, we might well have cause for alarm." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Richard Carvel, Volume 1, by Winston Churchill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 5365.txt or 5365.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/6/5365/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 1. + +Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill) + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5365] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 24, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V1, BY CHURCHILL *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +RICHARD CARVEL + +By Winston Churchill + +Volume 1. + + +CONTENTS + +Volume 1. +I. Lionel Carvel, of Carvel Hall +II. Some Memories of Childhood +III. Caught by the Tide +IV. Grafton would heal an Old Breach +V. "If Ladies be but Young and Fair" +VI. I first suffer for the Cause +VII. Grafton has his Chance + +Volume 2. +VIII. Over the Wall +IX. Under False Colours +X. The Red in the Carvel Blood +XI. A Festival and a Parting +XII. News from a Far Country + +Volume 3. +XIII. Mr. Allen shows his Hand +XIV. The Volte Coupe +XV. Of which the Rector has the Worst +XVI. In which Some Things are made Clear +XVII. South River +XVIII. The Black Moll + +Volume 4. +XIX. A Man of Destiny +XX. A Sad Home-coming +XXI. The Gardener's Cottage +XXII. On the Road +XXIII. London Town +XXIV. Castle Yard +XXV. The Rescue + +Volume 5. +XXVI. The Part Horatio played +XXVII. In which I am sore tempted +XXVIII. Arlington Street +XXIX. I meet a very Great Young Man +XXX. A Conspiracy +XXXI. "Upstairs into the World" +XXXII. Lady Tankerville's Drum-major +XXXIII. Drury Lane + +Volume 6. +XXXIV. His Grace makes Advances +XXXV. In which my Lord Baltimore appears . +XXXVI. A Glimpse of Mr. Garrick +XXXVII. The Serpentine +XXXVIII. In which I am roundly brought to task +XXXIX. Holland House +XL. Vauxhall +XLI. The Wilderness + +Volume 7. +XLII. My Friends are proven +XLIII. Annapolis once more +XLIV. Noblesse Oblige +XLV. The House of Memories +XLVI. Gordon's Pride +XLVII. Visitors +XLVIII. Multum in Parvo +XLIX. Liberty loses a Friend + +Volume 8. +L. Farewell to Gordon's +LI. How an Idle Prophecy came to pass +LII. How the Gardener's Son fought the Serapis +LIII. In which I make Some Discoveries +LIV. More Discoveries. +LV. The Love of a Maid for a Man +LVI. How Good came out of Evil +LVII. I come to my Own again + + + + +FOREWORD + +My sons and daughters have tried to persuade me to remodel these memoirs +of my grandfather into a latter-day romance. But I have thought it wiser +to leave them as he wrote them. Albeit they contain some details not of +interest to the general public, to my notion it is such imperfections as +these which lend to them the reality they bear. Certain it is, when +reading them, I live his life over again. + +Needless to say, Mr. Richard Carvel never intended them for publication. +His first apology would be for his Scotch, and his only defence is that +he was not a Scotchman. + +The lively capital which once reflected the wit and fashion of Europe has +fallen into decay. The silent streets no more echo with the rumble of +coaches and gay chariots, and grass grows where busy merchants trod. +Stately ball-rooms, where beauty once reigned, are cold and empty and +mildewed, and halls, where laughter rang, are silent. Time was when +every wide-throated chimney poured forth its cloud of smoke, when every +andiron held a generous log,--andirons which are now gone to decorate Mr. +Centennial's home in New York or lie with a tag in the window of some +curio shop. The mantel, carved in delicate wreaths, is boarded up, and +an unsightly stove mocks the gilded ceiling. Children romp in that room +with the silver door-knobs, where my master and his lady were wont to sit +at cards in silk and brocade, while liveried blacks entered on tiptoe. +No marble Cupids or tall Dianas fill the niches in the staircase, and the +mahogany board, round which has been gathered many a famous toast and +wit, is gone from the dining room. + +But Mr. Carvel's town house in Annapolis stands to-day, with its +neighbours, a mournful relic of a glory that is past. + +DANIEL CLAPSADDLE CARVEL. + +CALVERT HOUSE, PENNSYLVANIA, +December 21, 1876. + + + + +RICHARD CARVEL + + +CHAPTER I + +LIONEL CARVEL, OF CARVEL HALL + +Lionel Carvel, Esq., of Carvel Hall, in the county of Queen Anne, was no +inconsiderable man in his Lordship's province of Maryland, and indeed he +was not unknown in the colonial capitals from Williamsburg to Boston. +When his ships arrived out, in May or June, they made a goodly showing at +the wharves, and his captains were ever shrewd men of judgment who +sniffed a Frenchman on the horizon, so that none of the Carvel tobacco +ever went, in that way, to gladden a Gallic heart. Mr. Carvel's acres +were both rich and broad, and his house wide for the stranger who might +seek its shelter, as with God's help so it ever shall be. It has yet to +be said of the Carvels that their guests are hurried away, or that one, +by reason of his worldly goods or position, shall be more welcome than +another. + +I take no shame in the pride with which I write of my grandfather, albeit +he took the part of his Majesty and Parliament against the Colonies. He +was no palavering turncoat, like my Uncle Grafton, to cry "God save the +King!" again when an English fleet sailed up the bay. Mr. Carvel's hand +was large and his heart was large, and he was respected and even loved by +the patriots as a man above paltry subterfuge. He was born at Carvel +Hall in the year of our Lord 1696, when the house was, I am told, but a +small dwelling. It was his father, George Carvel, my great-grandsire, +reared the present house in the year 1720, of brick brought from England +as ballast for the empty ships; he added on, in the years following, the +wide wings containing the ball-room, and the banquet-hall, and the large +library at the eastern end, and the offices. But it was my grandfather +who built the great stables and the kennels where he kept his beagles and +his fleeter hounds. He dearly loved the saddle and the chase, and taught +me to love them too. Many the sharp winter day I have followed the fox +with him over two counties, and lain that night, and a week after, +forsooth, at the plantation of some kind friend who was only too glad to +receive us. Often, too, have we stood together from early morning until +dark night, waist deep, on the duck points, I with a fowling-piece I was +all but too young to carry, and brought back a hundred red-heads or +canvas-backs in our bags. He went with unfailing regularity to the races +at Annapolis or Chestertown or Marlborough, often to see his own horses +run, where the coaches of the gentry were fifty and sixty around the +course; where a negro, or a hogshead of tobacco, or a pipe of Madeira was +often staked at a single throw. Those times, my children, are not ours, +and I thought it not strange that Mr. Carvel should delight in a good +main between two cocks, or a bull-baiting, or a breaking of heads at the +Chestertown fair, where he went to show his cattle and fling a guinea +into the ring for the winner. + +But it must not be thought that Lionel Carvel, your ancestor, was wholly +unlettered because he was a sportsman, though it must be confessed that +books occupied him only when the weather compelled, or when on his back +with the gout. At times he would fain have me read to him as he lay in +his great four-post bed with the flowered counterpane, from the +Spectator, stopping me now and anon at some awakened memory of his youth. +He never forgave Mr. Addison for killing stout, old Sir Roger de +Coverley, and would never listen to the butler's account of his death. +Mr. Carvel, too, had walked in Gray's Inn Gardens and met adventure at +Fox Hall, and seen the great Marlborough himself. He had a fondness for +Mr. Congreve's Comedies, many of which he had seen acted; and was partial +to Mr. Gay's Trivia, which brought him many a recollection. He would +also listen to Pope. But of the more modern poetry I think Mr. Gray's +Elegy pleased him best. He would laugh over Swift's gall and wormwood, +and would never be brought by my mother to acknowledge the defects in the +Dean's character. Why? He had once met the Dean in a London drawing- +room, when my grandfather was a young spark at Christ Church, Oxford. +He never tired of relating that interview. The hostess was a very great +lady indeed, and actually stood waiting for a word with his Reverence, +whose whim it was rather to talk to the young provincial. He was a +forbidding figure, in his black gown and periwig, so my grandfather said, +with a piercing blue eye and shaggy brow. He made the mighty to come to +him, while young Carvel stood between laughter and fear of the great +lady's displeasure. + +"I knew of your father," said the Dean, "before he went to the colonies. +He had done better at home, sir. He was a man of parts." + +"He has done indifferently well in Maryland, sir," said Mr. Carvel, +making his bow. + +"He hath gained wealth, forsooth," says the Dean, wrathfully, "and might +have had both wealth and fame had his love for King James not turned his +head. I have heard much of the colonies, and have read that doggerel +'Sot Weed Factor' which tells of the gluttonous life of ease you lead in +your own province. You can have no men of mark from such conditions, Mr. +Carvel. Tell me," he adds contemptuously, "is genius honoured among +you?" + +"Faith, it is honoured, your Reverence," said my grandfather, "but never +encouraged." + +This answer so pleased the Dean that he bade Mr. Carvel dine with him +next day at Button's Coffee House, where they drank mulled wine and old +sack, for which young Mr. Carvel paid. On which occasion his Reverence +endeavoured to persuade the young man to remain in England, and even +went so far as to promise his influence to obtain him preferment. But +Mr. Carvel chose rather (wisely or not, who can judge?) to come back to +Carvel Hall and to the lands of which he was to be master, and to play +the country squire and provincial magnate rather than follow the varying +fortunes of a political party at home. And he was a man much looked up +to in the province before the Revolution, and sat at the council board of +his Excellency the Governor, as his father had done before him, and +represented the crown in more matters than one when the French and +savages were upon our frontiers. + +Although a lover of good cheer, Mr. Carvel was never intemperate. To the +end of his days he enjoyed his bottle after dinner, nay, could scarce get +along without it; and mixed a punch or a posset as well as any in our +colony. He chose a good London-brewed ale or porter, and his ships +brought Madeira from that island by the pipe, and sack from Spain and +Portugal, and red wine from France when there was peace. And puncheons +of rum from Jamaica and the Indies for his people, holding that no +gentleman ever drank rum in the raw, though fairly supportable as punch. + +Mr. Carvel's house stands in Marlborough Street, a dreary mansion enough. +Praised be Heaven that those who inherit it are not obliged to live there +on the memory of what was in days gone by. The heavy green shutters are +closed; the high steps, though stoutly built, are shaky after these years +of disuse; the host of faithful servants who kept its state are nearly +all laid side by side at Carvel Hall. Harvey and Chess and Scipio are no +more. The kitchen, whither a boyish hunger oft directed my eyes at +twilight, shines not with the welcoming gleam of yore. Chess no longer +prepares the dainties which astonished Mr. Carvel's guests, and which he +alone could cook. The coach still stands in the stables where Harvey +left it, a lumbering relic of those lumbering times when methinks there +was more of goodwill and less of haste in the world. The great brass +knocker, once resplendent from Scipio's careful hand, no longer +fantastically reflects the guest as he beats his tattoo, and Mr. Peale's +portrait of my grandfather is gone from the dining-room wall, adorning, +as you know, our own drawing-room at Calvert House. + +I shut my eyes, and there comes to me unbidden that dining-room in +Marlborough Street of a gray winter's afternoon, when I was but a lad. +I see my dear grandfather in his wig and silver-laced waistcoat and his +blue velvet coat, seated at the head of the table, and the precise Scipio +has put down the dumb-waiter filled with shining cut-glass at his left +hand, and his wine chest at his right, and with solemn pomp driven his +black assistants from the room. Scipio was Mr. Carvel's butler. He was +forbid to light the candles after dinner. As dark grew on, Mr. Carvel +liked the blazing logs for light, and presently sets the decanter on the +corner of the table and draws nearer the fire, his guests following. I +recall well how jolly Governor Sharpe, who was a frequent visitor with +us, was wont to display a comely calf in silk stocking; and how Captain +Daniel Clapsaddle would spread his feet with his toes out, and settle his +long pipe between his teeth. And there were besides a host of others who +sat at that fire whose names have passed into Maryland's history,--Whig +and Tory alike. And I remember a tall slip of a lad who sat listening by +the deep-recessed windows on the street, which somehow are always covered +in these pictures with a fine rain. Then a coach passes,--a mahogany +coach emblazoned with the Manners's coat of arms, and Mistress Dorothy +and her mother within. And my young lady gives me one of those demure +bows which ever set my heart agoing like a smith's hammer of a Monday. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOME MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD + +A traveller who has all but gained the last height of the great mist- +covered mountain looks back over the painful crags he has mastered to +where a light is shining on the first easy slope. That light is ever +visible, for it is Youth. + +After nigh fourscore and ten years of life that Youth is nearer to me now +than many things which befell me later. I recall as yesterday the day +Captain Clapsaddle rode to the Hall, his horse covered with sweat, and +the reluctant tidings of Captain Jack Carvel's death on his lips. And +strangely enough that day sticks in my memory as of delight rather than +sadness. When my poor mother had gone up the stairs on my grandfather's +arm the strong soldier took me on his knee, and drawing his pistol from +his holster bade me snap the lock, which I was barely able to do. And +he told me wonderful tales of the woods beyond the mountains, and of the +painted men who tracked them; much wilder and fiercer they were than +those stray Nanticokes I had seen from time to time near Carvel Hall. +And when at last he would go I clung to him, so he swung me to the back +of his great horse Ronald, and I seized the bridle in my small hands. +The noble beast, like his master, loved a child well, and he cantered off +lightly at the captain's whistle, who cried "bravo" and ran by my side +lest I should fall. Lifting me off at length he kissed me and bade me +not to annoy my mother, the tears in his eyes again. And leaping on +Ronald was away for the ferry with never so much as a look behind, +leaving me standing in the road. + +And from that time I saw more of him and loved him better than any man +save my grandfather. He gave me a pony on my next birthday, and a little +hogskin saddle made especially by Master Wythe, the London saddler in the +town, with a silver-mounted bridle. Indeed, rarely did the captain +return from one of his long journeys without something for me and a +handsome present for my mother. Mr. Carvel would have had him make his +home with us when we were in town, but this he would not do. He lodged +in Church Street, over against the Coffee House, dining at that hostelry +when not bidden out, or when not with us. He was much sought after. +I believe there was scarce a man of note in any of the colonies not +numbered among his friends. 'Twas said he loved my mother, and could +never come to care for any other woman, and he promised my father in the +forests to look after her welfare and mine. This promise, you shall see, +he faithfully kept. + +Though you have often heard from my lips the story of my mother, I must +for the sake of those who are to come after you, set it down here as +briefly as I may. My grandfather's bark 'Charming Sally', Captain +Stanwix, having set out from Bristol on the 15th of April, 1736, with a +fair wind astern and a full cargo of English goods below, near the +Madeiras fell in with foul weather, which increased as she entered the +trades. Captain Stanwix being a prudent man, shortened sail, knowing the +harbour of Funchal to be but a shallow bight in the rock, and worse than +the open sea in a southeaster. The third day he hove the Sally to; being +a stout craft and not overladen she weathered the gale with the loss of a +jib, and was about making topsails again when a full-rigged ship was +descried in the offing giving signals of distress. Night was coming on +very fast, and the sea was yet running too high for a boat to live, but +the gallant captain furled his topsails once more to await the morning. +It could be seen from her signals that the ship was living throughout the +night, but at dawn she foundered before the Sally's boats could be put in +the water; one of them was ground to pieces on the falls. Out of the +ship's company and passengers they picked up but five souls, four sailors +and a little girl of two years or thereabouts. The men knew nothing more +of her than that she had come aboard at Brest with her mother, a quiet, +delicate lady who spoke little with the other passengers. The ship was +'La Favourite du Roy', bound for the French Indies. + +Captain Stanwix's wife, who was a good, motherly person, took charge of +the little orphan, and arriving at Carvel Hall delivered her to my +grandfather, who brought her up as his own daughter. You may be sure the +emblem of Catholicism found upon her was destroyed, and she was baptized +straightway by Doctor Hilliard, my grandfather's chaplain, into the +Established Church. Her clothes were of the finest quality, and her +little handkerchief had worked into the corner of it a coronet, with the +initials "E de T" beside it. Around her neck was that locket with the +gold chain which I have so often shown you, on one side of which is the +miniature of the young officer in his most Christian Majesty's uniform, +and on the other a yellow-faded slip of paper with these words: "Elle est +la mienne, quoiqu'elle ne porte pas mou nom." "She is mine, although she +does not bear my name." + +My grandfather wrote to the owners of 'La Favourite du Roy', and likewise +directed his English agent to spare nothing in the search for some clew +to the child's identity. All that he found was that the mother had been +entered on the passenger-list as Madame la Farge, of Paris, and was bound +for Martinico. Of the father there was no trace whatever. The name "la +Farge" the agent, Mr. Dix, knew almost to a certainty was assumed, and +the coronet on the handkerchief implied that the child was of noble +parentage. The meaning conveyed by the paper in the locket, which was +plainly a clipping from a letter, was such that Mr. Carvel never showed +it to my mother, and would have destroyed it had he not felt that some +day it might aid in solving the mystery. So he kept it in his strongbox, +where he thought it safe from prying eyes. But my Uncle Grafton, ever a +deceitful lad, at length discovered the key and read the paper, and +afterwards used the knowledge he thus obtained as a reproach and a taunt +against my mother. I cannot even now write his name without repulsion. + +This new member of the household was renamed Elizabeth Carvel, though +they called her Bess, and of a course she was greatly petted and spoiled, +and ruled all those about her. As she grew from childhood to womanhood +her beauty became talked about, and afterwards, when Mistress Carvel went +to the Assembly, a dozen young sparks would crowd about the door of her +coach, and older and more serious men lost their heads on her account. + +Her devotion to Mr. Carvel was such, however, that she seemed to care but +little for the attention she received, and she continued to grace his +board and entertain his company. He fairly worshipped her. It was his +delight to surprise her with presents from England, with rich silks and +brocades for gowns, for he loved to see her bravely dressed. The spinet +he gave her, inlaid with ivory, we have still. And he caused a chariot +to be made for her in London, and she had her own horses and her groom in +the Carvel livery. + +People said it was but natural that she should fall in love with Captain +Jack, my father. He was the soldier of the family, tall and straight and +dashing. He differed from his younger brother Grafton as day from night. +Captain Jack was open and generous, though a little given to rash +enterprise and madcap adventure. He loved my mother from a child. His +friend Captain Clapsaddle loved her too, and likewise Grafton, but it +soon became evident that she would marry Captain Jack or nobody. He was +my grandfather's favourite, and though Mr. Carvel had wished him more +serious, his joy when Bess blushingly told him the news was a pleasure to +see. And Grafton turned to revenge; he went to Mr. Carvel with the paper +he had taken from the strong-box and claimed that my mother was of +spurious birth and not fit to marry a Carvel. He afterwards spread the +story secretly among the friends of the family. By good fortune little +harm arose therefrom, since all who knew my mother loved her, and were +willing to give her credit for the doubt; many, indeed, thought the story +sprang from Grafton's jealousy and hatred. Then it was that Mr. Carvel +gave to Grafton the estate in Kent County and bade him shift for himself, +saying that he washed his hands of a son who had acted such a part. + +But Captain Clapsaddle came to the wedding in the long drawing-room at +the Hall and stood by Captain Jack when he was married, and kissed the +bride heartily. And my mother cried about this afterwards, and said that +it grieved her sorely that she should have given pain to such a noble +man. + +After the blow which left her a widow, she continued to keep Mr. Carvel's +home. I recall her well, chiefly as a sad and beautiful woman, stately +save when she kissed me with passion and said that I bore my father's +look. She drooped like the flower she was, and one spring day my +grandfather led me to receive her blessing and to be folded for the last +time in those dear arms. With a smile on her lips she rose to heaven to +meet my father. And she lies buried with the rest of the Carvels at the +Hall, next to the brave captain, her husband. + +And so I grew up with my grandfather, spending the winters in town and +the long summers on the Eastern Shore. I loved the country best, and the +old house with its hundred feet of front standing on the gentle slope +rising from the river's mouth, the green vines Mr. Carvel had fetched +from England all but hiding the brick, and climbing to the angled roof; +and the velvet green lawn of silvery grass brought from England, +descending gently terrace by terrace to the waterside, where lay our +pungies and barges. There was then a tiny pillared porch framing the +front door, for our ancestors never could be got to realize the Maryland +climate, and would rarely build themselves wide verandas suitable to that +colony. At Carvel Hall we had, to be sure, the cool spring house under +the willows for sultry days, with its pool dished out for bathing; and a +trellised arbour, and octagonal summer house with seats where my mother +was wont to sit sewing while my grandfather dreamed over his pipe. On +the lawn stood the oaks and walnuts and sycamores which still cast their +shade over it, and under them of a summer's evening Mr. Carvel would have +his tea alone; save oftentimes when a barge would come swinging up the +river with ten velvet-capped blacks at the oars, and one of our friendly +neighbours--Mr. Lloyd or Mr. Bordley, or perchance little Mr. Manners-- +would stop for a long evening with him. They seldom came without their +ladies and children. What romps we youngsters had about the old place +whilst our elders talked their politics. + +In childhood the season which delighted me the most was spring. I would +count the days until St. Taminas, which, as you knew, falls on the first +of May. And the old custom was for the young men to deck themselves out +as Indian bucks and sweep down on the festivities around the Maypole on +the town green, or at night to surprise the guests at a ball and force +the gentlemen to pay down a shilling, and sometimes a crown apiece, and +the host to give them a bowl of punch. Then came June. My grandfather +celebrated his Majesty's birthday in his own jolly fashion, and I had my +own birthday party on the tenth. And on the fifteenth, unless it chanced +upon a Sunday, my grandfather never failed to embark in his pinnace at +the Annapolis dock for the Hall. Once seated in the stern between Mr. +Carvel's knees, what rapture when at last we shot out into the blue +waters of the bay and I thought of the long summer of joy before me. +Scipio was generalissimo of these arrangements, and was always at the +dock punctually at ten to hand my grandfather in, a ceremony in which he +took great pride, and to look his disapproval should we be late. As he +turned over the key of the town house he would walk away with a stern +dignity to marshal the other servants in the horse-boat. + +One fifteenth of June two children sat with bated breath in the pinnace, +--Dorothy Manners and myself. Mistress Dolly was then as mischievous a +little baggage as ever she proved afterwards. She was coming to pass a +week at the Hall, her parents, whose place was next to ours, having gone +to Philadelphia on a visit. We rounded Kent Island, which lay green and +beautiful in the flashing waters, and at length caught sight of the old +windmill, with its great arms majestically turning, and the cupola of +Carvel House shining white among the trees; and of the upper spars of the +shipping, with sails neatly furled, lying at the long wharves, where the +English wares Mr. Carvel had commanded for the return trips were +unloading. Scarce was the pinnace brought into the wind before I had +leaped ashore and greeted with a shout the Hall servants drawn up in a +line on the green, grinning a welcome. Dorothy and I scampered over the +grass and into the cool, wide house, resting awhile on the easy sloping +steps within, hand in hand. And then away for that grand tour of +inspection we had been so long planning together. How well I recall that +sunny afternoon, when the shadows of the great oaks were just beginning +to lengthen. Through the greenhouses we marched, monarchs of all we +surveyed, old Porphery, the gardener, presenting Mistress Dolly with a +crown of orange blossoms, for which she thanked him with a pretty +courtesy her governess had taught her. Were we not king and queen +returned to our summer palace? And Spot and Silver and Song and Knipe, +the wolf-hound, were our train, though not as decorous as rigid etiquette +demanded, since they were forever running after the butterflies. On we +went through the stiff, box-bordered walks of the garden, past the +weather-beaten sundial and the spinning-house and the smoke-house to the +stables. Here old Harvey, who had taught me to ride Captain Daniel's +pony, is equerry, and young Harvey our personal attendant; old Harvey +smiles as we go in and out of the stalls rubbing the noses of our trusted +friends, and gives a gruff but kindly warning as to Cassandra's heels. +He recalls my father at the same age. + +Jonas Tree, the carpenter, sits sunning himself on his bench before the +shop, but mysteriously disappears when he sees us, and returns presently +with a little ship he has fashioned for me that winter, all complete with +spars and sails, for Jonas was a shipwright on the Severn in the old +country before he came as a king's passenger to the new. Dolly and I +are off directly to the backwaters of the river, where the new boat is +launched with due ceremony as the Conqueror, his Majesty's latest ship- +of-the-line. Jonas himself trims her sails, and she sets off right +gallantly across the shallows, heeling to the breeze for all the world +like a real man-o'-war. Then the King would fain cruise at once against +the French, but Queen Dorothy must needs go with him. His Majesty points +out that when fighting is to be done, a ship of war is no place for a +woman, whereat her Majesty stamps her little foot and throws her crown of +orange blossoms from her, and starts off for the milk-house in high +dudgeon, vowing she will play no more. + +And it ends as it ever will end, be the children young or old, for the +French pass from his Majesty's mind and he runs after his consort to +implore forgiveness, leaving poor Jonas to take care of the Conqueror. + +How short those summer days? All too short for the girl and boy who had +so much to do in them. The sun rising over the forest often found us +peeping through the blinds, and when he sank into the bay at night we +were still running, tired but happy, and begging patient Hester for half +an hour more. + +"Lawd, Marse Dick," I can hear her say, "you an' Miss Dolly's been on +yo' feet since de dawn. And so's I, honey." + +And so we had. We would spend whole days on the wharves, all bustle and +excitement, sometimes seated on the capstan of the Sprightly Bess or +perched in the nettings of the Oriole, of which ship old Stanwix was now +captain. He had grown gray in Mr. Carvel's service, and good Mrs. +Stanwix was long since dead. Often we would mount together on the little +horse Captain Daniel had given me, Dorothy on a pillion behind, to go +with my grandfather to inspect the farm. Mr. Starkie, the overseer, +would ride beside us, his fowling-piece slung over his shoulder and his +holster on his hip; a kind man and capable, and unlike Mr. Evans, my +Uncle Grafton's overseer, was seldom known to use his firearms or the +rawhide slung across his saddle. The negroes in their linsey-woolsey +jackets and checked trousers would stand among the hills grinning at us +children as we passed; and there was not one of them, nor of the white +servants for that matter, that I could not call by name. + +And all this time I was busily wooing Mistress Dolly; but she, little +minx, would give me no satisfaction. I see her standing among the +strawberries, her black hair waving in the wind, and her red lips redder +still from the stain. And the sound of her childish voice comes back to +me now after all these years. And this was my first proposal: + +"Dorothy, when you grow up and I grow up, you will marry me, and I shall +give you all these strawberries." + +"I will marry none but a soldier," says she, "and a great man." + +"Then will I be a soldier," I cried, "and greater than the Governor +himself." And I believed it. + +"Papa says I shall marry an earl," retorts Dorothy, with a toss of her +pretty head. + +"There are no earls among us," I exclaimed hotly, for even then I had +some of that sturdy republican spirit which prevailed among the younger +generation. "Our earls are those who have made their own way, like my +grandfather." For I had lately heard Captain Clapsaddle say this and +much more on the subject. But Dorothy turned up her nose. + +"I shall go home when I am eighteen,"--she said, "and I shall meet his +Majesty the King." + +And to such an argument I found no logical answer. + +Mr. Marmaduke Manners and his lady came to fetch Dorothy home. He was a +foppish little gentleman who thought more of the cut of his waistcoat +than of the affairs of the province, and would rather have been bidden to +lead the assembly ball than to sit in council with his Excellency the +Governor. My first recollection of him is of contempt. He must needs +have his morning punch just so, and complained whiningly of Scipio if +some perchance were spilled on the glass. He must needs be taken abroad +in a chair when it rained. And though in the course of a summer he was +often at Carvel Hall he never tarried long, and came to see Mr. Carvel's +guests rather than Mr. Carvel. He had little in common with my +grandfather, whose chief business and pleasure was to promote industry +on his farm. Mr. Marmaduke was wont to rise at noon, and knew not wheat +from barley, or good leaf from bad; his hands he kept like a lady's, +rendering them almost useless by the long lace on the sleeves, and his +chief pastime was card-playing. It was but reasonable therefore, when +the troubles with the mother country began, that he chose the King's side +alike from indolence and contempt for things republican. + +Of Mrs. Manners I shall say more by and by. + +I took a mischievous delight in giving Mr. Manners every annoyance my +boyish fancy could conceive. The evening of his arrival he and Mr. +Carvel set out for a stroll about the house, Mr. Marmaduke mincing his +steps, for it had rained that morning. And presently they came upon the +windmill with its long arms moving lazily in the light breeze, near +touching the ground as they passed, for the mill was built in the Dutch +fashion. I know not what moved me, but hearing Mr. Manners carelessly +humming a minuet while my grandfather explained the usefulness of the +mill, I seized hold of one of the long arms as it swung by, and before +the gentlemen could prevent was carried slowly upwards. Dorothy +screamed, and her father stood stock still with amazement and fear, Mr. +Carvel being the only one who kept his presence of mind. "Hold on tight, +Richard!" I heard him cry. It was dizzy riding, though the motion was +not great, and before I had reached the right angle I regretted my +rashness. I caught a glimpse of the Bay with the red sun on it, and +as I turned saw far below me the white figure of Ivie Rawlinson, the +Scotch miller, who had run out. "O haith!" he shouted. "Hand fast, +Mr. Richard!"--And so I clung tightly and came down without much +inconvenience, though indifferently glad to feel the ground again. + +Mr. Marmaduke, as I expected, was in a great temper, and swore he had +not had such a fright for years. He looked for Mr. Carvel to cane me +stoutly: But Ivie laughed heartily, and said: "I wad yell gang far for +anither laddie wi' the spunk, Mr. Manners," and with a sly look at my +grandfather, "Ilka day we hae some sic whigmeleery." + +I think Mr. Carvel was not ill pleased with the feat, or with Mr. +Marmaduke's way of taking it. For afterwards I overheard him telling the +story to Colonel Lloyd, and both gentlemen laughing over Mr. Manners's +discomfiture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CAUGHT BY THE TIDE + +It is a nigh impossible task on the memory to trace those influences by +which a lad is led to form his life's opinions, and for my part I hold +that such things are bred into the bone, and that events only serve to +strengthen them. In this way only can I account for my bitterness, at a +very early age, against that King whom my seeming environment should have +made me love. For my grandfather was as stanch a royalist as ever held +a cup to majesty's health. And children are most apt before they can +reason for themselves to take the note from those of their elders who +surround them. It is true that many of Mr. Carvel's guests were of the +opposite persuasion from him: Mr. Chase and Mr. Carroll, Mr. Lloyd and +Mr. Bordley, and many others, including our friend Captain Clapsaddle. +And these gentlemen were frequently in argument, but political discussion +is Greek to a lad. + +Mr. Carvel, as I have said, was most of his life a member of the Council, +a man from whom both Governor Sharpe and Governor Eden were glad to take +advice because of his temperate judgment and deep knowledge of the people +of the province. At times, when his Council was scattered, Governor +Sharpe would consult Mr. Carvel alone, and often have I known my +grandfather to embark in haste from the Hall in response to a call from +his Excellency. + +'Twas in the latter part of August, in the year 1765, made memorable by +the Stamp Act, that I first came in touch with the deep-set feelings of +the times then beginning, and I count from that year the awakening of the +sympathy which determined my career. One sultry day I was wading in the +shallows after crabs, when the Governor's messenger came drifting in, all +impatience at the lack of wind. He ran to the house to seek Mr. Carvel, +and I after him, with all a boy's curiosity, as fast as my small legs +would carry me. My grandfather hurried out to order his barge to be got +ready at once, so that I knew something important was at hand. At first +he refused me permission to go, but afterwards relented, and about eleven +in the morning we pulled away strongly, the ten blacks bending to the +oars as if their lives were at stake. + +A wind arose before we sighted Greensbury Point, and I saw a bark sailing +in, but thought nothing of this until Mr. Carvel, who had been silent and +preoccupied, called for his glass and swept her decks. She soon +shortened sail, and went so leisurely that presently our light barge drew +alongside, and I perceived Mr. Zachariah Hood, a merchant of the town, +returning from London, hanging over her rail. Mr. Hood was very pale +in spite of his sea-voyage; he flung up his cap at our boat, but Mr. +Carvel's salute in return was colder than he looked for. As we came +in view of the dock, a fine rain was setting in, and to my astonishment +I beheld such a mass of people assembled as I had never seen, and scarce +standing-room on the wharves. We were to have gone to the Governor's +wharf in the Severn, but my grandfather changed his intention at once. +Many of the crowd greeted him as we drew near them, and, having landed, +respectfully made room for him to pass through. I followed him a-tremble +with excitement and delight over such an unwonted experience. We had +barely gone ten paces, however, before Mr. Carvel stopped abreast of Mr. +Claude, mine host of the Coffee House, who cried: + +"Hast seen his Majesty's newest representative, Mr. Carvel?" + +"Mr. Hood is on board the bark, sir," replied my grandfather. "I take it +you mean Mr. Hood." + +"Ay, that I do; Mr. Zachariah Hood, come to lick stamps for his brother- +colonists." + +"After licking his Majesty's boots," says a wag near by, which brings a +laugh from those about us. I remembered that I had heard some talk as to +how Mr. Hood had sought and obtained from King George the office of Stamp +Distributor for the province. Now, my grandfather, God rest him! was as +doughty an old gentleman as might well be, and would not listen without +protest to remarks which bordered sedition. He had little fear of things +below, and none of a mob. + +"My masters," he shouted, with a flourish of his stick, so stoutly that +people fell back from him, "know that ye are met against the law, and +endanger the peace of his Lordship's government." + +"Good enough, Mr. Carvel," said Claude, who seemed to be the spokesman. +"But how if we are stamped against law and his Lordship's government? +How then, sir? Your honour well knows we have naught against either, +and are as peaceful a mob as ever assembled." + +This brought on a great laugh, and they shouted from all sides, "How +then, Mr. Carvel?" And my grandfather, perceiving that he would lose +dignity by argument, and having done his duty by a protest, was wisely +content with that. They opened wider the lane for him to pass through, +and he made his way, erect and somewhat defiant, to Mr. Pryse's, the +coachmaker opposite, holding me by the hand. The second storey of +Pryse's shop had a little balcony standing out in front, and here we +established ourselves, that we might watch what was going forward. + +The crowd below grew strangely silent as the bark came nearer and nearer, +until Mr. Hood showed himself on the poop, when there rose a storm of +hisses, mingled with shouts of derision. "How goes it at St. James, Mr. +Hood?" and "Have you tasted his Majesty's barley?" And some asked him +if he was come as their member of Parliament. Mr. Hood dropped a bow, +though what he said was drowned. The bark came in prettily enough, men +in the crowd even catching her lines and making them fast to the piles. +A gang-plank was thrown over. "Come out, Mr. Hood," they cried; "we are +here to do you honour, and to welcome you home again." There were +leather breeches with staves a-plenty around that plank, and faces that +meant no trifling. "McNeir, the rogue," exclaimed Mr. Carvel, "and that +hulk of a tanner, Brown. And I would know those smith's shoulders in a +thousand." "Right, sir," says Pryse, "and 'twill serve them proper. +when the King's troops come among them for quartering." Pryse being the +gentry's patron, shaped his politics according to the company he was in: +he could ill be expected to seize one of his own ash spokes and join the +resistance. Just then I caught a glimpse of Captain Clapsaddle on the +skirts of the crowd, and with him Mr. Swain and some of the dissenting +gentry. And my boyish wrath burst forth against that man smirking and +smiling on the decks of the bark, so that I shouted shrilly: "Mr. Hood +will be cudgelled and tarred as he deserves," and shook my little fist at +him, so that many under us laughed and cheered me. Mr. Carvel pushed me +back into the window and out of their sight. + +The crew of the bark had assembled on the quarterdeck, stout English tars +every man of them, armed with pikes and belaying-pins; and at a word from +the mate they rushed in a body over the plank. Some were thrust off into +the water, but so fierce was their onset that others gained the wharf, +laying sharply about them in all directions, but getting full as many +knocks as they gave. For a space there was a very bedlam of cries and +broken heads, those behind in the mob surging forward to reach the +scrimmage, forcing their own comrades over the edge. McNeir had his +thigh broken by a pike, and was dragged back after the first rush was +over; and the mate of the bark was near to drowning, being rescued, +indeed, by Graham, the tanner. Mr. Hood stood white in the gangway, +dodging a missile now and then, waiting his chance, which never came. +For many of the sailors were captured and carried bodily to the "Rose and +Crown" and the "Three Blue Balls," where they became properly drunk on +Jamaica rum; others made good their escape on board. And at length the +bark cast off again, amidst jeers and threats, and one-third of her crew +missing, and drifted slowly back to the roads. + +From the dock, after all was quiet, Mr. Carvel stepped into his barge and +rowed to the Governor's, whose house was prettily situated near Hanover +Street, with ground running down to the Severn. His Excellency appeared +much relieved to see my grandfather; Mr. Daniel Dulany was with him, and +the three gentlemen at once repaired to the Governor's writing-closet for +consultation. + +Mr. Carvel's town house being closed, we stopped with his Excellency. +There were, indeed, scarce any of the gentry in town at that season save +a few of the Whig persuasion. Excitement ran very high; farmers flocked +in every day from the country round about to take part in the +demonstration against the Act. Mr. Hood's storehouse was burned to the +ground. Mr. Hood getting ashore by stealth, came, however, unmolested to +Annapolis and offered at a low price the goods he had brought out in the +bark, thinking thus to propitiate his enemies. This step but inflamed +them the more. + +My grandfather having much business to look to, I was left to my own +devices, and the devices of an impetuous lad of twelve are not always +such as his elders would choose for him. I was continually burning with +a desire to see what was proceeding in the town, and hearing one day a +great clamour and tolling of bells, I ran out of the Governor's gate and +down Northwest Street to the Circle, where a strange sight met my eyes. +A crowd like that I had seen on the dock had collected there, Mr. Swain +and Mr. Hammond and other barristers holding them in check. Mounted +on a one-horse cart was a stuffed figure of the detested Mr. Hood. +Mr. Hammond made a speech, but for the laughter and cheering I could not +catch a word of it. I pushed through the people, as a boy will, diving +between legs to get a better view, when I felt a hand upon my shoulder, +bringing me up suddenly. And I recognized Mr. Matthias Tilghman, and +with him was Mr. Samuel Chase. + +"Does your grandfather know you are here, lad?" said Mr. Tilghman. + +I paused a moment for breath before I answered: "He attended the rally +at the dock himself, sir, and I believe enjoyed it." + +Both gentlemen smiled, and Mr. Chase remarked that if all the other party +were like Mr. Carvel, troubles would soon cease. "I mean not Grafton," +says he, with a wink at Mr. Tilghman. + +"I'll warrant, Richard, your uncle would be but ill pleased to see you in +such company." + +"Nay, sir," I replied, for I never feared to speak up, "there are you +wrong. I think it would please my uncle mightily." + +"The lad hath indifferent penetration," said Mr, Tilghman, laughing, and +adding more soberly: "If you never do worse than this, Richard, Maryland +may some day be proud of you." + +Mr. Hammond having finished his speech, a paper was placed in the hand of +the effigy, and the crowd bore it shouting and singing to the hill, where +Mr. John Shaw, the city carpenter, had made a gibbet. There nine and +thirty lashes were bestowed on the unfortunate image, the people crying +out that this was the Mosaic Law. And I cried as loud as any, though I +knew not the meaning of the words. They hung Mr. Hood to the gibbet and +set fire to a tar barrel under him, and so left him. + +The town wore a holiday look that day, and I was loth to go back to +the Governor's house. Good patriots' shops were closed, their owners +parading as on Sunday in their best, pausing in knots at every corner +to discuss the affair with which the town simmered. I encountered old +Farris, the clockmaker, in his brown coat besprinkled behind with powder +from his queue. "How now, Master Richard?" says he, merrily. "This is +no place for young gentlemen of your persuasion." + +Next I came upon young Dr. Courtenay, the wit of the Tuesday Club, of +whom I shall have more to say hereafter. He was taking the air with Mr. +James Fotheringay, Will's eldest brother, but lately back from Oxford and +the Temple. + +The doctor wore five-pound ruffles and a ten-pound wig, was dressed in +cherry silk, and carried a long, clouded cane. His hat had the latest +cock, for he was our macaroni of Annapolis. + +"Egad, Richard," he cries, "you are the only other loyalist I have seen +abroad to-day." + +I remember swelling with indignation at the affront. "I call them +Tories, sir," I flashed back, "and I am none such." "No Tory!" says he, +nudging Mr. Fotheringay, who was with him; "I had as lief believe your +grandfather hated King George." I astonished them both by retorting that +Mr. Carvel might think as he pleased, that being every man's right; but +that I chose to be a Whig. "I would tell you as a friend, young man," +replied the doctor, "that thy politics are not over politic." And they +left me puzzling, laughing with much relish over some catch in the +doctor's words. As for me, I could perceive no humour in them. + +It was now near six of the clock, but instead of going direct to the +Governor's I made my way down Church Street toward the water. Near the +dock I saw many people gathered in the street in front of the "Ship" +tavern, a time-honoured resort much patronized by sailors. My curiosity +led me to halt there also. The "Ship" had stood in that place nigh on to +three-score years, it was said. Its latticed windows were swung open, +and from within came snatches of "Tom Bowling," "Rule Britannia," and +many songs scarce fit for a child to hear. Now and anon some one in the +street would throw back a taunt to these British sentiments, which went +unheeded. "They be drunk as lords," said Weld, the butcher's apprentice, +"and when they comes out we'll hev more than one broken head in this +street." The songs continuing, he cried again, "Come out, d-n ye." Weld +had had more than his own portion of rum that day. Spying me seated on +the gate-post opposite, he shouted: "So ho, Master Carvel, the streets +are not for his Majesty's supporters to-day." Other artisans who were +there bade him leave me in peace, saying that my grandfather was a good +friend of the people. The matter might have ended there had I been older +and wiser, but the excitement of the day had gone to my head like wine. +"I am as stout a patriot as you, Weld," I shouted back, and flushed at +the cheering that followed. And Weld ran up to me, and though I was a +good piece of a lad, swung me lightly onto his shoulder. "Harkee, Master +Richard," he said, "I can get nothing out of the poltroons by shouting. +Do you go in and say that Weld will fight any mother's son of them +single-handed." + +"For shame, to send a lad into a tavern," said old Bobbins, who had known +my grandfather these many years. But the desire for a row was so great +among the rest that they silenced him. Weld set me down, and I, nothing +loth, ran through the open door. + +I had never before been in the "Ship," nor, indeed, in any tavern save +that of Master Dingley, near Carvel Hall. The "Ship" was a bare place +enough, with low black beams and sanded floor, and rough tables and +chairs set about. On that September evening it was stifling hot; and +the odours from the men, and the spilled rum and tobacco smoke, well-nigh +overpowered me. The room was filled with a motley gang of sailors, +mostly from the bark Mr. Hood had come on, and some from H.M.S. Hawk, +then lying in the harbour. + +A strapping man-o'-war's-man sat near the door, his jacket thrown open +and his great chest bared, and when he perceived me he was in the act of +proposing a catch; 'twas "The Great Bell o' Lincoln," I believe; and he +held a brimming cup of bumbo in his hand. In his surprise he set it +awkwardly down again, thereby spilling full half of it. "Avast," says +he, with an oath, "what's this come among us?" and he looked me over +with a comical eye. "A d-d provincial," he went on scornfully, "but a +gentleman's son, or Jack Ball's a liar." Whereupon his companions rose +from their seats and crowded round me. More than one reeled against me. +And though I was somewhat awed by the strangeness of that dark, ill- +smelling room, and by the rough company in which I found myself, I held +my ground, and spoke up as strongly as I might. + +"Weld, the butcher's apprentice, bids me say he will fight any man among +you single-handed." + +"So ho, my little gamecock, my little schooner with a swivel," said he +who had called himself Jack Ball, "and where can this valiant butcher be +found?" + +"He waits in the street," I answered more boldly. + +"Split me fore and aft if he waits long," said Jack, draining the rest of +his rum. And picking me up as easily as did Weld he rushed out of the +door, and after him as many of his mates as could walk or stagger +thither. + +In the meantime the news had got abroad in the street that the butcher's +apprentice was to fight one of the Hawk's men, and when I emerged from +the tavern the crowd had doubled, and people were running hither in all +haste from both directions. But that fight was never to be. Big Jack +Ball had scarce set me down and shouted a loud defiance, shaking his fist +at Weld, who stood out opposite, when a soldierly man on a great horse +turned the corner and wheeled between the combatants. I knew at a glance +it was Captain Clapsaddle, and guiltily wished myself at the Governor's. +The townspeople knew him likewise, and many were slinking away even +before he spoke, as his charger stood pawing the ground. + +"What's this I hear, you villain," said he to Weld, in his deep, ringing +voice, "that you have not only provoked a row with one of the King's +sailors, but have dared send a child into that tavern with your fool's +message?" + +Weld was awkward and sullen enough, and no words came to him. + +"Your tongue, you sot," the captain went on, drawing his sword in his +anger, "is it true you have made use of a gentleman's son for your low +purposes?" + +But Weld was still silent, and not a sound came from either side until +old Robbins spoke up. + +"There are many here can say I warned him, your honour," he said. + +"Warned him!" cried the captain. "Mr. Carvel has just given you twenty +pounds for your wife, and you warned him!" + +Robbins said no more; and the butcher's apprentice, hanging his head, +as well he might before the captain, I was much moved to pity for him, +seeing that my forwardness had in some sense led him on. + +"Twas in truth my fault, captain," I cried out. The captain looked at +me, and said nothing. After that the butcher made bold to take up his +man's defence. + +"Master Carvel was indeed somewhat to blame, sir," said he, "and Weld is +in liquor." + +"And I'll have him to pay for his drunkenness," said Captain Clapsaddle, +hotly. "Get to your homes," he cried. "Ye are a lot of idle hounds, who +would make liberty the excuse for riot." He waved his sword at the pack +of them, and they scattered like sheep until none but Weld was left. +"And as for you, Weld," he continued, "you'll rue this pretty business, +or Daniel Clapsaddle never punished a cut-throat." And turning to Jack +Ball, he bade him lift me to the saddle, and so I rode with him to the +Governor's without a word; for I knew better than to talk when he was +in that mood. + +The captain was made to tarry and sup with his Excellency and my +grandfather, and I sat perforce a fourth at the table, scarce daring to +conjecture as to the outcome of my escapade. But as luck would have it, +the Governor had been that day in such worry and perplexity, and my +grandfather also, that my absence had passed unnoticed. Nor did my good +friend the captain utter a word to them of what he knew. But afterwards +he called me to him and set me upon his knee. How big, and kind, and +strong he was, and how I loved his bluff soldier's face and blunt ways. +And when at last he spoke, his words burnt deep in my memory, so that +even now I can repeat them. + +"Richard," he said, "I perceive you are like your father. I love your +spirit greatly, but you have been overrash to-day. Remember this, lad, +that you are a gentleman, the son of the bravest and truest gentleman I +have ever known, save one; and he is destined to high things." I know +now that he spoke of Colonel Washington. "And that your mother," here +his voice trembled,--"your mother was a lady, every inch of her, and too +good for this world. Remember, and seek no company, therefore, beyond +that circle in which you were born. Fear not to be kind and generous, +as I know you ever will be, but choose not intimates from the tavern." +Here the captain cleared his throat, and seemed to seek for words. +"I fear there are times coming, my lad," he went on presently, "when +every man must choose his side, and stand arrayed in his own colours. +It is not for me to shape your way of thinking. Decide in your own mind +that which is right, and when you have so decided,"--he drew his sword, +as was his habit when greatly moved, and placed his broad hand upon my +head,--"know then that God is with you, and swerve not from thy course +the width of this blade for any man." + +We sat upon a little bench in the Governor's garden, in front of us the +wide Severn merging into the bay, and glowing like molten gold in the +setting sun. And I was thrilled with a strange reverence such as I have +sometimes since felt in the presence of heroes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GRAFTON WOULD HEAL AN OLD BREACH + +Doctor Hilliard, my grandfather's chaplain, was as holy a man as ever +wore a gown, but I can remember none of his discourses which moved me +as much by half as those simple words Captain Clapsaddle had used. The +worthy doctor, who had baptized both my mother and father, died suddenly +at Carvel Hall the spring following, of a cold contracted while visiting +a poor man who dwelt across the river. He would have lacked but three +years of fourscore come Whitsuntide. He was universally loved and +respected in that district where he had lived so long and ably, by rich +and poor alike, and those of many creeds saw him to his last resting- +place. Mr. Carroll, of Carrollton, who was an ardent Catholic, stood +bareheaded beside the grave. + +Doctor Hilliard was indeed a beacon in a time when his profession among +us was all but darkness, and when many of the scandals of the community +might be laid at the door of those whose duty it was to prevent them. +The fault lay without doubt in his Lordship's charter, which gave to the +parishioners no voice in the choosing of their pastors. This matter was +left to Lord Baltimore's whim. Hence it was that he sent among us so +many fox-hunting and gaming parsons who read the service ill and preached +drowsy and illiterate sermons. Gaming and fox-hunting, did I say? These +are but charitable words to cover the real characters of those impostors +in holy orders, whose doings would often bring the blush of shame to your +cheeks. Nay, I have seen a clergyman drunk in the pulpit, and even in +those freer days their laxity and immorality were such that many flocked +to hear the parsons of the Methodists and Lutherans, whose simple and +eloquent words and simpler lives were worthy of their cloth. Small +wonder was it, when every strolling adventurer and soldier out of +employment took orders and found favour in his Lordship's eyes, and were +given the fattest livings in place of worthier men, that the Established +Church fell somewhat into disrepute. Far be it from me to say that there +were not good men and true in that Church, but the wag who writ this +verse, which became a common saying in Maryland, was not far wrong for +the great body of them:-- + + "Who is a monster of the first renown? + A lettered sot, a drunkard in a gown." + +My grandfather did not replace Dr. Hilliard at the Hall, afterwards +saying the prayers himself. The doctor had been my tutor, and in spite +of my waywardness and lack of love for the classics had taught me no +little Latin and Greek, and early instilled into my mind those principles +necessary for the soul's salvation. I have often thought with regret on +the pranks I played him. More than once at lesson-time have I gone off +with Hugo and young Harvey for a rabbit hunt, stealing two dogs from the +pack, and thus committing a double offence. You may be sure I was well +thrashed by Mr. Carvel, who thought the more of the latter misdoing, +though obliged to emphasize the former. The doctor would never raise his +hand against me. His study, where I recited my daily tasks, was that +small sunny room on the water side of the east wing; and I well recall +him as he sat behind his desk of a morning after prayers, his horn +spectacles perched on his high nose and his quill over his ear, and his +ink-powder and pewter stand beside him. His face would grow more serious +as I scanned my Virgil in a faltering voice, and as he descanted on a +passage my eye would wander out over the green trees and fields to the +glistening water. What cared I for "Arma virumque" at such a time? I +was watching Nebo a-fishing beyond the point, and as he waded ashore the +burden on his shoulders had a much keener interest for me than that +AEneas carried out of Troy. + +My Uncle Grafton came to Dr. Hilliard's funeral, choosing this +opportunity to become reconciled to my grandfather, who he feared had not +much longer to live. Albeit Mr. Carvel was as stout and hale as ever. +None of the mourners at the doctor's grave showed more sorrow than did +Grafton. A thousand remembrances of the good old man returned to him, +and I heard him telling Mr. Carroll and some other gentlemen, with much +emotion, how he had loved his reverend preceptor, from whom he had +learned nothing but what was good. "How fortunate are you, Richard," he +once said, "to have had such a spiritual and intellectual teacher in your +youth. Would that Philip might have learned from such a one. And I +trust you can say, my lad, that you have made the best of your +advantages, though I fear you are of a wild nature, as your father was +before you." And my uncle sighed and crossed his hands behind his back. +"'Tis perhaps better that poor John is in his grave," he said. Grafton +had a word and a smile for every one about the old place, but little +else, being, as he said, but a younger son and a poor man. I was near to +forgetting the shilling he gave Scipio. 'Twas not so unostentatiously +done but that Mr. Carvel and I marked it. And afterwards I made Scipio +give me the coin, replacing it with another, and flung it as far into the +river as ever I could throw. + +As was but proper to show his sorrow at the death of the old chaplain he +had loved so much, Grafton came to the Hall drest entirely in black. He +would have had his lady and Philip, a lad near my own age, clad likewise +in sombre colours. But my Aunt Caroline would none of them, holding it +to be the right of her sex to dress as became its charms. Her silks and +laces went but ill with the low estate my uncle claimed for his purse, +and Master Philip's wardrobe was twice the size of mine. And the family +travelled in a coach as grand as Mr. Carvel's own, with panels wreathed +in flowers and a footman and outrider in livery, from which my aunt +descended like a duchess. She embraced my grandfather with much warmth, +and kissed me effusively on both cheeks. + +"And this is dear Richard?" she cried. "Philip, come at once and greet +your cousin. He has not the look of the Carvels," she continued volubly, +"but more resembles his mother, as I recall her." + +"Indeed, madam," my grandfather answered somewhat testily, "he has the +Carvel nose and mouth, though his chin is more pronounced. He has +Elizabeth's eyes." + +But my aunt was a woman who flew from one subject to another, and she +had already ceased to think of me. She was in the hall. "The dear old +home?" she cries, though she had been in it but once before, regarding +lovingly each object as her eye rested upon it, nay, caressingly when she +came to the great punch-bowl and the carved mahogany dresser, and the +Peter Lely over the broad fireplace. "What memories they must bring to +your mind, my dear," she remarks to her husband. "'Tis cruel, as I once +said to dear papa, that we cannot always live under the old rafters we +loved so well as children." And the good lady brushes away a tear with +her embroidered pocket-napkin. Tears that will come in spite of us all. +But she brightens instantly and smiles at the line of servants drawn up +to welcome them. "This is Scipio, my son, who was with your grandfather +when your father was born, and before." Master Philip nods graciously in +response to Scipio's delighted bow. "And Harvey," my aunt rattles on. +"Have you any new mares to surprise us with this year, Harvey?" Harvey +not being as overcome with Mrs. Grafton's condescension as was proper, +she turns again to Mr. Carvel. + +"Ah, father, I see you are in sore need of a woman's hand about the old +house. What a difference a touch makes, to be sure." And she takes off +her gloves and attacks the morning room, setting an ornament here and +another there, and drawing back for the effect. "Such a bachelor's hall +as you are keeping!" + +"We still have Willis, Caroline," remonstrates my grandfather, gravely. +"I have no fault to find with her housekeeping." + +"Of course not, father; men never notice," Aunt Caroline replies in an +aggrieved tone. And when Willis herself comes in, auguring no good from +this visit, my aunt gives her the tips of her fingers. And I imagine I +see a spark fly between them. + +As for Grafton, he was more than willing to let bygones be bygones +between his father and himself. Aunt Caroline said with feeling that +Dr. Hilliard's death was a blessing, after all, since it brought a long- +separated father and son together once more. Grafton had been misjudged +and ill-used, and he called Heaven to witness that the quarrel had never +been of his seeking,--a statement which Mr. Carvel was at no pains to +prove perjury. How attentive was Mr. Grafton to his father's every want. +He read his Gazette to him of a Thursday, though the old gentleman's eyes +are as good as ever. If Mr. Carvel walks out of an evening, Grafton's +arm is ever ready, and my uncle and his worthy lady are eager to take a +hand at cards before supper. "Philip, my dear," says my aunt, "thy +grandfather's slippers," or, "Philip, my love, thy grandfather's hat and +cane." But it is plain that Master Philip has not been brought up to +wait on his elders. He is curled with a novel in his grandfather's easy +chair by the window. "There is Dio, mamma, who has naught to do but +serve grandpapa," says he, and gives a pull at the cord over his head +which rings the bell about the servants' ears in the hall below. And +Dio, the whites of his eyes showing, comes running into the room. + +"It is nothing, Diomedes," says Mr. Carvel. "Master Philip will fetch +what I need.". Master Philip's papa and mamma stare at each other in a +surprise mingled with no little alarm, Master Philip being to all +appearances intent upon his book. + +"Philip," says my grandfather, gently. I had more than once heard him +speak thus, and well knew what was coming. + +"Sir," replies my cousin, without looking up. "Follow me, sir," said Mr. +Carvel, in a voice so different that Philip drops his book. They went up +the stairs together, and what occurred there I leave to the imagination. +But when next Philip was bidden to do an errand for Mr. Carvel my +grandfather said quietly: "I prefer that Richard should go, Caroline." +And though my aunt and uncle, much mortified, begged him to give Philip +another chance, he would never permit it. + +Nevertheless, a great effort was made to restore Philip to his +grandfather's good graces. At breakfast one morning, after my aunt had +poured Mr. Carvel's tea and made her customary compliment to the blue and +gold breakfast china, my Uncle Grafton spoke up. + +"Now that Dr. Hilliard is gone, father, what do you purpose concerning +Richard's schooling?" + +"He shall go to King William's school in the autumn," Mr. Carvel replied. + +"In the autumn!" cried my uncle. "I do not give Philip even the short +holiday of this visit. He has his Greek and his Virgil every day." + +"And can repeat the best passages," my aunt chimes in. "Philip, my dear, +recite that one your father so delights in." + +However unwilling Master Philip had been to disturb himself for errands, +he was nothing loth to show his knowledge, and recited glibly enough +several lines of his Virgil verbatim; thereby pleasing his fond parents +greatly and my grandfather not a little. + +"I will add a crown to your savings, Philip," says his father. + +"And here is a pistole to spend as you will," says Mr. Carvel, tossing +him the piece. + +"Nay, father, I do not encourage the lad to be a spendthrift," says +Grafton, taking the pistole himself. "I will place this token of your +appreciation in his strong-box. You know we have a prodigal strain in +the family, sir." And my uncle looks at me significantly. + +"Let it be as I say, Grafton," persists Mr. Carvel, who liked not to be +balked in any matter, and was not over-pleased at this reference to my +father. And he gave Philip forthwith another pistole, telling his father +to add the first to his saving if he would. + +"And Richard must have his chance," says my Aunt Caroline, sweetly, as +she rises to leave the room. + +"Ay, here is a crown for you, Richard," says my uncle, smiling. "Let us +hear your Latin, which should be purer than Philip's." + +My grandfather glanced uneasily at me across the table; he saw clearly +the trick Grafton had played me, I think. But for once I was equal to my +uncle, and haply remembered a line Dr. Hilliard had expounded, which +fitted the present case marvellously well. With little ceremony I tossed +back the crown, and slowly repeated those words used to warn the Trojans +against accepting the Grecian horse: + + "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." + +"Egad," cried Mr. Carvel, slapping his knee, "the lad bath beaten you on +your own ground, Grafton." And he laughed as my grandfather only could +laugh, until the dishes rattled on the table. But my uncle thought it no +matter for jesting. + +Philip was also well versed in politics for a lad of his age, and could +discuss glibly the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. He denounced +the seditious doings in Annapolis and Boston Town with an air of easy +familiarity, for Philip had the memory of a parrot, and 'twas easy to +perceive whence his knowledge sprang. But when my fine master spoke +disparagingly of the tradesmen as at the bottom of the trouble, my +grandfather's patience came to an end. + +"And what think you lies beneath the wealth and power of England, +Philip?" he asked. + +"Her nobility, sir, and the riches she draws from her colonies," retorts +Master Philip, readily enough. + +"Not so," Mr. Carvel said gravely. "She owes her greatness to her +merchants, or tradesmen, as you choose to call them. And commerce must +be at the backbone of every great nation. Tradesmen!" exclaimed my +grandfather. "Where would any of us be were it not for trade? We sell +our tobacco and our wheat, and get money in return. And your father +makes a deal here and a deal there, and so gets rich in spite of his +pittance." + +My Uncle Grafton raised his hand to protest, but Mr. Carvel continued: +"I know you, Grafton, I know you. When a lad it was your habit to lay +aside the money I gave you, and so pretend you had none." + +"And 'twas well I learned then to be careful," said my uncle, losing for +the instant his control, "for you loved the spend-thrift best, and I +should be but a beggar now without my wisdom." + +"I loved not John's carelessness with money, but other qualities in him +which you lacked," answered Mr. Carvel. + +Grafton shot a swift glance at me; and so much of malice and of hatred +was conveyed in that look that with a sense of prophecy I shuddered to +think that some day I should have to cope with such craft. For he +detested me threefold, and combined the hate he bore my dead father and +mother with the ill-will he bore me for standing in his way and Philip's +with my grandfather's property. But so deftly could he hide his feelings +that he was smiling again instantly. To see once, however, the white +belly of the shark flash on the surface of the blue water is sufficient. + +"I beg of you not to jest of me before the lads, father," said Grafton. + +"God knows there was little jest in what I said," replied Mr. Carvell +soberly, "and I care not who hears it. Your own son will one day know +you well enough, if he does not now. Do not imagine, because I am old, +that I am grown so foolish as to believe that a black sheep can become +white save by dye. And dye will never deceive such as me. And Philip," +the shrewd old gentleman went on, turning to my cousin, "do not let thy +father or any other make thee believe there cannot be two sides to every +question. I recognize in your arguments that which smacks of his tongue, +despite what he says of your reading the public prints and of forming +your own opinions. And do not condemn the Whigs, many of whom are worthy +men and true, because they quarrel with what they deem an unjust method +of taxation." + +Grafton had given many of the old servants cause to remember him. Harvey +in particular, who had come from England early in the century with my +grandfather, spoke with bitterness of him. On the subject of my uncle, +the old coachman's taciturnity gave way to torrents of reproach. "Beware +of him as has no use for horses, Master Richard," he would say; for this +trait in Grafton in Harvey's mind lay at the bottom of all others. At my +uncle's approach he would retire into his shell like an oyster, nor could +he be got to utter more than a monosyllable in his presence. Harvey's +face would twitch, and his fingers clench of themselves as he touched his +cap. And with my Aunt Caroline he was the same. He vouchsafed but a +curt reply to all her questions, nor did her raptures over the stud +soften him in the least. She would come tripping into the stable yard, +daintily holding up her skirts, and crying, "Oh, Harvey, I have heard so +much of Tanglefoot. I must see him before I go." Tanglefoot is led out +begrudgingly enough, and Aunt Caroline goes over his points, missing the +greater part of them, and remarking on the depth of chest, which is +nothing notable in Tanglefoot. Harvey winks slyly at me the while, and +never so much as offers a word of correction. "You must take Philip to +ride, Richard, my dear," says my aunt. "His father was never as fond of +it as I could have wished. I hold that every gentleman should ride to +hounds." + +"Humph!" grunts Harvey, when she is gone to the house, + +"Master Philip to hunt, indeed! Foxes to hunt foxes!" And he gives vent +to a dry laugh over his joke, in which I cannot but join. "Horsemen +grows. Eh, Master Richard? There was Captain Jack, who jumped from the +cradle into the saddle, and I never once seen a horse get the better o' +him. And that's God's truth." And he smooths out Tanglefoot's mane, +adding reflectively, "And you be just like him. But there was scarce a +horse in the stables what wouldn't lay back his ears at Mr. Grafton, and +small blame to 'em, say I. He never dared go near 'em. Oh, Master +Philip comes by it honestly enough. She thinks old Harvey don't know a +thoroughbred when he sees one, sir. But Mrs. Grafton's no thoroughbred; +I tell 'ee that, though I'm saying nothing as to her points, mark ye. +I've seen her sort in the old country, and I've seen 'em here, and it's +the same the world over, in Injy and Chiny, too. Fine trappings don't +make the horse, and they don't take thoroughbreds from a grocer's cart. +A Philadelphy grocer," sniffs this old aristocrat. "I'd knowed her +father was a grocer had I seen her in Pall Mall with a Royal Highness, by +her gait, I may say. Thy mother was a thoroughbred, Master Richard, and +I'll tell 'ee another," he goes on with a chuckle, "Mistress Dorothy +Manners is such another; you don't mistake 'em with their high heads and +patreeshan ways, though her father be one of them accidents as will occur +in every stock. She's one to tame, sir, and I don't envy no young +gentleman the task. But this I knows," says Harvey, not heeding my red +cheeks, "that Master Philip, with all his satin small-clothes, will never +do it." + +Indeed, it was no secret that my Aunt Caroline had been a Miss Flaven, +of Philadelphia, though she would have had the fashion of our province to +believe that she belonged to the Governor's set there; and she spoke in +terms of easy familiarity of the first families of her native city, +deceiving no one save herself, poor lady. How fondly do we believe, with +the ostrich, that our body is hidden when our head is tucked under our +wing! Not a visitor in Philadelphia but knew Terence Flaven, Mrs. +Grafton Carvel's father, who not many years since sold tea and spices and +soap and glazed teapots over his own counter, and still advertised his +cargoes in the public prints. He was a broad and charitable-minded man +enough, and unassuming, but gave way at last to the pressure brought upon +him by his wife and daughter, and bought a mansion in Front Street. +Terence Flaven never could be got to stay there save to sleep, and +preferred to spend his time in his shop, which was grown greatly, +chatting with his customers, and bowing the ladies to their chariots. +I need hardly say that this worthy man was on far better terms than his +family with those personages whose society they strove so hard to attain. + +At the time of Miss Flaven's marriage to my uncle 'twas a piece of +gossip in every month that he had taken her for her dower, which was not +inconsiderable; though to hear Mr. and Mrs. Grafton talk they knew not +whence the next month's provender was to come. They went to live in Kent +County, as I have said, spending some winters in Philadelphia, where +Mr. Grafton was thought to have interests, though it never could be +discovered what his investments were. On hearing of his marriage, which +took place shortly before my father's, Mr. Carvel expressed neither +displeasure nor surprise. But he would not hear of my mother's request +to settle a portion upon his younger son. + +"He has the Kent estate, Bess," said he, "which is by far too good for +him. Never doubt but that the rogue can feather his own nest far better +than can I, as indeed he hath already done. And by the Lord," cried Mr. +Carvel, bringing his fist down upon the card-table where they sat, +"he shall never get another farthing of my money while I live, nor +afterwards, if I can help it! I would rather give it over to +Mr. Carroll to found a nunnery." + +And so that matter ended, for Mr. Carvel could not be moved from a +purpose he had once made. Nor would he make any advances whatsoever to +Grafton, or receive those hints which my uncle was forever dropping, +until at length he begged to be allowed to come to Dr. Hilliard's +funeral, a request my grandfather could not in decency refuse. 'Twas a +pathetic letter in truth, and served its purpose well, though it was not +as dust in the old gentleman's eyes. He called me into his bedroom and +told me that my Uncle Grafton was coming at last. And seeing that I +said nothing thereto, he gave me a queer look and bade me treat them +as civilly as I knew how. "I well know thy temper, Richard," said he, +"and I fear 'twill bring thee trouble enough in life. Try to control it, +my lad; take an old man's advice and try to control it." He was +in one of his gentler moods, and passed his arm about me, and together we +stood looking silently through the square panes out into the rain, at the +ducks paddling in the puddles until the darkness hid them. + +And God knows, lad that I was, I tried to be civil to them. But my +tongue rebelled at the very sight of my uncle ('twas bred into me, I +suppose), and his fairest words seemed to me to contain a hidden sting. +Once, when he spoke in his innuendo of my father, I ran from the room to +restrain some act of violence; I know not what I should have done. And +Willis found me in the deserted, study of the doctor, where my hot tears +had stained the flowered paper on the wall. She did her best to calm me, +good soul, though she had her own troubles with my Lady Caroline to think +about at the time. + +I had one experience with Master Philip before our visitors betook +themselves back to Kent, which, unfortunate as it was, I cannot but +relate here. My cousin would enter into none of those rough amusements +in which I passed my time, for fear, I took it, of spoiling his fine +broadcloths or of losing a gold buckle. He never could be got to +wrestle, though I challenged him more than once. And he was a well-built +lad, and might, with a little practice, have become skilled in that +sport. He laughed at the homespun I wore about the farm, saying it was +no costume for a gentleman's son, and begged me sneeringly to don leather +breeches. He would have none of the company of those lads with whom I +found pleasure, young Harvey, and Willis's son, who was being trained as +Mr. Starkie's assistant. Nor indeed did I disdain to join in a game with +Hugo, who had been given to me, and other negro lads. Philip saw no +sport in a wrestle or a fight between two of the boys from the quarters, +and marvelled that I could lower myself to bet with Harvey the younger. +He took not a spark of interest in the gaming cocks we raised together to +compete at the local contests and at the fair, and knew not a gaff from a +cockspur. Being one day at my wits' end to amuse my cousin, I proposed +to him a game of quoits on the green beside the spring-house, and thither +we repaired, followed by Hugo, and young Harvey come to look on. Master +Philip, not casting as well as he might, cries out suddenly to Hugo: +"Begone, you black dog! What business have you here watching a game +between gentlemen?" + +"He is my servant, cousin," I said quietly, "and no dog, if you please. +And he is under my orders, not yours." + +But Philip, having scarcely scored a point, was in a rage. "And I'll +not have him here," he shouted, giving poor Hugo a cuff which sent him +stumbling over the stake. And turning to me; continued insolently: +"Ever since we came here I have marked your manner toward us, as though +my father had no right in my grandfather's house." + +Then could I no longer contain myself. I heard young Harvey laugh, and +remark: "'Tis all up with Master Philip now." But Philip, whatever else +he may have been, was no coward, and had squared off to face me by the +time I had run the distance between the stakes. He was heavier than I, +though not so tall; and he parried my first blow and my second, and many +more; having lively work of it, however, for I hit him as often as I was +able. To speak truth, I had not looked for such resistance, and seeing +that I could not knock him down, out of hand, I grew more cool and began +to study what I was doing. + +"Take off your macaroni coat," said I. "I have no wish to ruin your +clothes." + +But he only jeered in return: "Take off thy wool-sack." And Hugo, +getting to his feet, cried out to me not to hurt Marse Philip, that he +had meant no harm. But this only enraged Philip the more, and he swore +a round oath at Hugo and another at me, and dealt a vicious blow at my +stomach, whereat Harvey called out to him to fight fair. He was more +skilful at the science of boxing than I, though I was the better fighter, +having, I am sorry to say, fought but too often before. And presently, +when I had closed one of his eyes, his skill went all to pieces, and he +made a mad rush at me. As he went by I struck him so hard that he fell +heavily and lay motionless. + +Young Harvey ran into the spring-house and filled his hat as I bent over +my cousin. I unbuttoned his waistcoat and felt his heart, and rejoiced +to find it beating; we poured cold water over his face and wrists. By +then, Hugo, who was badly frightened, had told the news in the house, and +I saw my Aunt Caroline come running over the green as fast as her tight +stays would permit, crying out that I had killed her boy, her dear +Philip. And after her came my Uncle Grafton and my grandfather, with all +the servants who had been in hearing. I was near to crying myself at the +thought that I should grieve my grandfather. And my aunt, as she knelt +over Philip, pushed me away, and bade me not touch him. But my cousin +opened one of his eyes, and raised his hand to his head. + +"Thank Heaven he is not killed!" exclaims Aunt Caroline, fervently. + +"Thank God, indeed!" echoes my uncle, and gives me a look as much as to +say that I am not to be thanked for it. "I have often warned you, sir," +he says to Mr. Carvel, "that we do not inherit from stocks and stones. +And so much has come of our charity." + +I knew, lad that I was; that he spoke of my mother; and my blood boiled +within me. + +"Have a care, sir, with your veiled insults," I cried, "or I will serve +you as I have served your son." + +Grafton threw up his hands. + +"What have we harboured, father?" says he. But Mr. Carvel seized him by +the shoulder. "Peace, Grafton, before the servants," he said, "and cease +thy crying, Caroline. The lad is not hurt." And being a tall man, six +feet in his stockings, and strong despite his age, he raised Philip from +the grass, and sternly bade him walk to the house, which he did, leaning +on his mother's arm. "As for you, Richard," my grandfather went on, "you +will go into my study." + +Into his study I went, where presently he came also, and I told him +the affair in as few words as I might. And he, knowing my hatred of +falsehood, questioned me not at all, but paced to and fro, I following +him with my eyes, and truly sorry that I had given him pain. And finally +he dismissed me, bidding me make it up with my cousin, which I was +nothing loth to do. What he said to Philip and his father I know not. +That evening we shook hands, though Philip's face was much swollen, and +my uncle smiled, and was even pleasanter than before, saying that boys +would be boys. But I think my Aunt Caroline could never wholly hide the +malice she bore me for what I had done that day. + +When at last the visitors were gone, every face on the plantation wore a +brighter look. Harvey said: "God bless their backs, which is the only +part I ever care to see of their honours." And Willis gave us a supper +fit for a king. Mr. Lloyd and his lady were with us, and Mr. Carvel told +his old stories of the time of the First George, many of which I can even +now repeat: how he and two other collegians fought half a dozen Mohocks +in Norfolk Street, and fairly beat them; and how he discovered by chance +a Jacobite refugee in Greenwich, and what came of it; nor did he forget +that oft-told episode with Dean Swift. And these he rehearsed in such +merry spirit and new guise that we scarce recognized them, and Colonel +Lloyd so choked with laughter that more than once he had to be hit +between the shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"IF LADIES BE BUT YOUNG AND FAIR" + +No boyhood could have been happier than mine, and throughout it, ever +present with me, were a shadow and a light. The shadow was my Uncle +Grafton. I know not what strange intuition of the child made me think +of him so constantly after that visit he paid us, but often I would wake +from my sleep with his name upon my lips, and a dread at my heart. The +light--need I say?--was Miss Dorothy Manners. Little Miss Dolly was +often at the Hall after that happy week we spent together; and her home, +Wilmot House, was scarce three miles across wood and field by our +plantation roads. I was a stout little fellow enough, and before I was +twelve I had learned to follow to hounds my grandfather's guests on my +pony; and Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Carvel when they shot on the duck points. +Ay, and what may surprise you, my dears, I was given a weak little toddy +off the noggin at night, while the gentlemen stretched their limbs before +the fire, or played at whist or loo Mr. Carvel would have no milksop, so +he said. But he early impressed upon me that moderation was the mark of +a true man, even as excess was that of a weak one. + +And so it was no wonder that I frequently found my way to Wilmot House +alone. There I often stayed the whole day long, romping with Dolly at +games of our own invention, and many the time I was sent home after dark +by Mrs. Manners with Jim, the groom. About once in the week Mr. and Mrs. +Manners would bring Dorothy over for dinner or tea at the Hall. She grew +quickly--so quickly that I scarce realized--into a tall slip of a girl, +who could be wilful and cruel, laughing or forgiving, shy or impudent, in +a breath. She had as many moods as the sea. I have heard her entertain +Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Bordley and the ladies, and my grandfather, by the +hour, while I sat by silent and miserable, but proud of her all the same. +Boylike, I had grown to think of her as my possession, tho' she gave me +no reason whatever. I believe I had held my hand over fire for her, at a +word. And, indeed, I did many of her biddings to make me wonder, now, +that I was not killed. It used to please her, Ivie too, to see me go the +round of the windmill, tho' she would cry out after I left the ground. +And once, when it was turning faster than common and Ivie not there to +prevent, I near lost my hold at the top, and was thrown at the bottom +with such force that I lay stunned for a full minute. I opened my eyes +to find her bending over me with such a look of fright and remorse upon +her face as I shall never forget. Again, walking out on the bowsprit of +the 'Oriole' while she stood watching me from the dock, I lost my balance +and fell into the water. On another occasion I fought Will Fotheringay, +whose parents had come for a visit, because he dared say he would marry +her. + +"She is to marry an earl," I cried, tho' I had thrashed another lad for +saying so. "Mr. Manners is to take her home when she is grown, to marry +her to an earl." + +"At least she will not marry you, Master Richard," sneered Will. And +then I hit him. + +Indeed, even at that early day the girl's beauty was enough to make her +talked about. And that foolish little fop, her father, had more than +once declared before a company in our dining room that it was high time +another title came into his family, and that he meant to take Dolly +abroad when she was sixteen. Lad that I was, I would mark with pain the +blush on Mrs. Manners's cheek, and clinch my fists as she tried to pass +this off as a joke of her husband's. But Dolly, who sat next me at a +side table, would make a wry little face at my angry one. + +"You shall call me 'my lady,' Richard. And sometimes, if you are good, +you shall ride inside my coroneted coach when you come home." + +Ah, that was the worst of it! The vixen was conscious of her beauty. +But her airs were so natural that young and old bowed before her. +Nothing but worship had she had from the cradle. I would that Mr. +Peale had painted her in her girlhood as a type of our Maryland lady of +quality. Harvey was right when he called her a thoroughbred. Her nose +was of patrician straightness, and the curves of her mouth came from +generations of proud ancestors. And she had blue eyes to conquer and +subdue; with long lashes to hide them under when she chose, and black +hair with blue gloss upon it in the slanting lights. I believe I loved +her best in the riding-habit that was the colour of the red holly in our +Maryland woods. At Christmas-tide, when we came to the eastern shore, we +would gallop together through miles of country, the farmers and servants +tipping and staring after her as she laid her silver-handled whip upon +her pony. She knew not the meaning of fear, and would take a fence or a +ditch that a man might pause at. And so I fell into the habit of leading +her the easy way round, for dread that she would be hurt. + +How those Christmas times of childhood come sweeping back on my memory! +Often, and without warning, my grandfather would say to me: "Richard, we +shall celebrate at the Hall this year." And it rarely turned out that +arrangements had not been made with the Lloyds and the Bordleys and the +Manners, and other neighbours, to go to the country for the holidays. I +have no occasion in these pages to mention my intimacy with the sons and +daughters of those good friends of the Carvels', Colonel Lloyd and Mr. +Bordley. Some of them are dead now, and the rest can thank God and +look back upon worthy and useful lives. And if any of these, my old +playmates, could read this manuscript, perchance they might feel a tingle +of recollection of Children's Day, when Maryland was a province. We +rarely had snow; sometimes a crust upon the ground that was melted into +paste by the noonday sun, but more frequently, so it seems to me, a +foggy, drizzly Christmas, with the fires crackling in saloon and lady's +chamber. And when my grandfather and the ladies and gentlemen, his +guests, came down the curving stairs, there were the broadly smiling +servants drawn up in the wide hall,--all who could gather there,--and the +rest on the lawn outside, to wish "Merry Chris'mas" to "de quality." The +redemptioners in front, headed by Ivie and Jonas Tree, tho' they had long +served their terms, and with them old Harvey and his son; next the house +blacks and the outside liveries, and then the oldest slaves from the +quarters. This line reached the door, which Scipio would throw open at +"de quality's" appearance, disclosing the rest of the field servants, in +bright-coloured gowns, and the little negroes on the green. Then Mr. +Carvel would make them a little speech of thanks and of good-will, and +white-haired Johnson of the senior quarters, who had been with my great- +grandfather, would start the carol in a quaver. How clear and sweet the +melody of those negro voices comes back to me through the generations! +And the picture of the hall, loaded with holly and mistletoe even to the +great arch that spanned it, with the generous bowls of egg-nog and punch +on the mahogany by the wall! And the ladies our guests, in cap and +apron, joining in the swelling hymn; ay, and the men, too. And then, +after the breakfast of sweet ham and venison, and hot bread and sausage, +made under Mrs. Willis, and tea and coffee and chocolate steaming in the +silver, and ale for the gentlemen if they preferred, came the prayers and +more carols in the big drawing-room. And then music in the big house, or +perhaps a ride afield to greet the neighbours, and fiddling and dancing +in the two big quarters, Hank's and Johnson's, when the tables were +cleared after the bountiful feast Mr. Carvel was wont to give them. +There was no stint, my dears,--naught but good cheer and praising God +in sheer happiness at Carvel Hall. + +At night there was always a ball, sometimes at Wilmot House, sometimes at +Colonel Lloyd's or Mr. Bordley's, and sometimes at Carvel Hall, for my +grandfather dearly loved the company of the young. He himself would lead +off the minuet,--save when once or twice his Excellency Governor Sharpe +chanced to be present,--and would draw his sword with the young gallants +that the ladies might pass under. And I have seen him join merrily in +the country dances too, to the clapping of hands of the company. That +was before Dolly and I were let upon the floor. We sat with the other +children, our mammies at our sides, in the narrow gallery with the tiny +rail that ran around the ball-room, where the sweet odour of the green +myrtleberry candles mixed with that of the powder and perfume of the +dancers. And when the beauty of the evening was led out, Dolly would +lean over the rail, and pout and smile by turns. The mischievous little +baggage could hardly wait for the conquering years to come. + +They came soon enough, alack! The season Dorothy was fourteen, we had a +ball at the Hall the last day of the year. When she was that age she had +near arrived at her growth, and was full as tall as many young ladies of +twenty. I had cantered with her that morning from Wilmot House to Mr. +Lloyd's, and thence to Carvel Hall, where she was to stay to dinner. The +sun was shining warmly, and after young Harvey had taken our horses we +strayed through the house, where the servants were busy decorating, and +out into my grandfather's old English flower garden, and took the seat +by the sundial. I remember that it gave no shadow. We sat silent for +a while, Dorothy toying with old Knipe, lying at our feet, and humming +gayly the burden of a minuet. She had been flighty on the ride, with +scarce a word to say to me, for the prospect of the dance had gone to her +head. + +"Have you a new suit to wear to-night, to see the New Year in, Master +Sober?" she asked presently, looking up. "I am to wear a brocade that +came out this autumn from London, and papa says I look like a duchess +when I have my grandmother's pearls." + +"Always the ball!" cried I, slapping my boots in a temper. "Is it, +then, such a matter of importance? I am sure you have danced before--at +my birthdays in Marlboro' Street and at your own, and Will Fotheringay's, +and I know not how many others." + +"Of course," replies Dolly, sweetly; "but never with a real man. Boys +like you and Will and the Lloyds do not count. Dr. Courtenay is at +Wilmot House, and is coming to-night; and he has asked me out. Think +of it, Richard! Dr. Courtenay!" + +"A plague upon him! He is a fop!" + +"A fop!" exclaimed Dolly, her humour bettering as mine went down. "Oh, +no; you are jealous. He is more sought after than any gentleman at the +assemblies, and Miss Dulany vows his steps are ravishing. There's for +you, my lad! He may not be able to keep pace with you in the chase, but +he has writ the most delicate verses ever printed in Maryland, and no +other man in the colony can turn a compliment with his grace. Shall I +tell you more? He sat with me for over an hour last night, until mamma +sent me off to bed, and was very angry at you because I had engaged to +ride with you to-day." + +"And I suppose you wish you had stayed with him," I flung back, hotly. +"He had spun you a score of fine speeches and a hundred empty compliments +by now." + +"He had been better company than you, sir," she laughed provokingly. +"I never heard you turn a compliment in your life, and you are now +seventeen. What headway do you expect to make at the assemblies?" + +"None," I answered, rather sadly than otherwise. For she had touched +me upon a sore spot. "But if I cannot win a woman save by compliments," +I added, flaring up, "then may I pay a bachelor's tax!" + +My lady drew her whip across my knee. + +"You must tell us we are beautiful, Richard," said she, in another tone. + +"You have but to look in a pier-glass," I retorted. "And, besides, that +is not sufficient. You will want some rhyming couplet out of a mythology +before you are content." + +She laughed again. + +"Sir," answered she, "but you have wit, if you can but be got angry." + +She leaned over the dial's face, and began to draw the Latin numerals +with her finger. So arch, withal, that I forgot my ill-humour. + +"If you would but agree to stay angry for a day," she went on, in a low +tone, "perhaps--" + +"Perhaps?" + +"Perhaps you would be better company," said Dorothy. "You would surely +be more entertaining." + +"Dorothy, I love you," I said. + +"To be sure. I know that," she replied. "I think you have said that +before." + +I admitted it sadly. "But I should be a better husband than Dr. +Courtenay." + +"La!" cried she; "I am not thinking of husbands. I shall have a good +time, sir, I promise you, before I marry. And then I should never marry +you. You are much too rough, and too masterful. And you would require +obedience. I shall never obey any man. You would be too strict a +master, sir. I can see it with your dogs and your servants. And your +friends, too. For you thrash any boy who does not agree with you. I +want no rough squire for a husband. And then, you are a Whig. I could +never marry a Whig. You behaved disgracefully at King William's School +last year. Don't deny it!" + +"Deny it!" I cried warmly; "I would as soon deny that you are an arrant +flirt, Dorothy Manners, and will be a worse one." + +"Yes, I shall have my fling," said the minx. "I shall begin to-night, +with you for an audience. I shall make the doctor look to himself. But +there is the dressing-bell." And as we went into the house, "I believe +my mother is a Whig, Richard. All the Brices are." + +"And yet you are a Tory?" + +"I am a loyalist," says my lady, tossing her head proudly; "and we are +one day to kiss her Majesty's hand, and tell her so. And if I were the +Queen," she finished in a flash, "I would teach you surly gentlemen not +to meddle." + +And she swept up the stairs so stately, that Scipio was moved to say +slyly: "Dem's de kind of ladies, Marse Richard, I jes dotes t' wait on!" + +Of the affair at King William's School I shall tell later. + +We had some dozen guests staying at the Hall for the ball. At dinner my +grandfather and the gentlemen twitted her, and laughed heartily at her +apt retorts, and even toasted her when she was gone. The ladies shook +their heads and nudged one another, and no doubt each of the mothers had +her notion of what she would do in Mrs. Manners's place. But when my +lady came down dressed for the ball in her pink brocade with the pearls +around her neck, fresh from the hands of Nester and those of her own +tremulous mammy, Mr. Carvel must needs go up to her and hold her at arm's +length in admiration, and then kiss her on both her cheeks. Whereat she +blushed right prettily. + +"Bless me!" says he; "and can this be Richard's little playmate grown? +Upon my word, Miss Dolly, you'll be the belle of the ball. Eh, Lloyd? +Bless me, bless me, you must not mind a kiss from an old man. The young +ones may have their turn after a while." He laughed as my grandfather +only could laugh, and turned to me, who had reddened to my forehead. +"And so, Richard, she has outstripped you, fair and square. You are only +an awkward lad, and she--why, i' faith, in two years she'll be beyond my +protection. Come, Miss Dolly," says he; "I'll show you the mistletoe, +that you may beware of it." + +And he led her off on his arm. "The old year and the new, gentlemen!" +he cried merrily, as he passed the door, with Dolly's mammy and Nester +simpering with pride on the landing. + +The company arrived in coach and saddle, many having come so far that +they were to stay the night. Young Mr. Beall carried his bride on a +pillion behind him, her red riding-cloak flung over her ball dress. Mr. +Bordley and family came in his barge, Mr. Marmaduke and his wife in coach +and four. With them was Dr. Courtenay, arrayed in peach-coloured coat +and waistcoat, with black satin breeches and white silk stockings, and +pinchbeck buckles a-sparkle on his shoes. How I envied him as he +descended the stairs, stroking his ruffles and greeting the company with +the indifferent ease that was then the fashion. I fancied I saw his eyes +wander among the ladies, and not marking her he crossed over to where I +stood disconsolate before the fireplace. + +"Why, Richard, my lad," says he, "you are quite grown since I saw you. +And the little girl that was your playmate,--Miss Dolly, I mean,--has +outstripped me, egad. She has become suddenly une belle demoiselle, like +a rose that blooms in a night." + +I answered nothing at all. But I had given much to know whether my +stolid manner disconcerted him. Unconsciously I sought the bluff face +above the chimney, depicted in all its ruggedness by the painter of King +Charles's day, and contrasted with the bundle of finery at my side. +Dr. Courtenay certainly caught the look. He opened his snuff-box, +took a pinch, turned on his heel, and sauntered off. + +"What did you say, Richard?" asked Mr. Lloyd, coming up to me, laughing, +for he had seen the incident. + +"I looked merely at the man of Marston Moor, sir, and said nothing." + +"Faith, 'twas a better answer than if you had used your tongue, I think," +answered my friend. But he teased me a deal that night when Dolly danced +with the doctor, and my grandfather bade me look to my honours. My young +lady flung her head higher than ever, and made a minuet as well as any +dame upon the floor, while I stood very glum at the thought of the prize +slipping from my grasp. Now and then, in the midst of a figure, she +would shoot me an arch glance, as much as to say that her pinions were +strong now. But when it came to the country dances my lady comes up to +me ever so prettily and asks the favour. + +"Tis a monstrous state, indeed, when I have to beg you for a reel!" says +she. + +And so was I made happy. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +I FIRST SUFFER FOR THE CAUSE + +In the eighteenth century the march of public events was much more +eagerly followed than now by men and women of all stations, and even +children. Each citizen was ready, nay, forward, in taking an active part +in all political movements, and the children mimicked their elders. Old +William Farris read his news of a morning before he began the mending of +his watches, and by evening had so well digested them that he was primed +for discussion with Pryse, of the opposite persuasion, at the Rose and +Crown. Sol Mogg, the sexton of St. Anne's, had his beloved Gazette in +his pocket as he tolled the church bell of a Thursday, and would hold +forth on the rights and liberties of man with the carpenter who mended +the steeple. Mrs. Willard could talk of Grenville and Townshend as +knowingly as her husband, the rich factor, and Francie Willard made many +a speech to us younger Sons of Liberty on the steps of King William's +School. We younger sons, indeed, declared bitter war against the +mother-country long before our conservative old province ever dreamed of +secession. For Maryland was well pleased with his Lordship's government. + +I fear that I got at King William's School learning of a far different +sort than pleased my grandfather. In those days the school stood upon +the Stadt House hill near School Street, not having moved to its present +larger quarters. Mr. Isaac Daaken was then Master, and had under him +some eighty scholars. After all these years, Mr. Daaken stands before me +a prominent figure of the past in an ill-fitting suit of snuff colour. +How well I recall that schoolroom of a bright morning, the sun's rays +shot hither and thither, and split violet, green, and red by the bulging +glass panes of the windows. And by a strange irony it so chanced that +where the dominie sat--and he moved not the whole morning long save to +reach for his birches--the crimson ray would often rest on the end of his +long nose, and the word "rum" be passed tittering along the benches. For +some men are born to the mill, and others to the mitre, and still others +to the sceptre; but Mr. Daaken was born to the birch. His long, lanky +legs were made for striding after culprits, and his arms for caning them. +He taught, among other things, the classics, of course, the English +language grammatically, arithmetic in all its branches, book-keeping +in the Italian manner, and the elements of algebra, geometry, and +trigonometry with their applications to surveying and navigation. +He also wrote various sorts of hands, fearful and marvellous to the +uninitiated, with which he was wont to decorate my monthly reports to my +grandfather. I can shut my eyes and see now that wonderful hyperbola in +the C in Carvel, which, after travelling around the paper, ended in +intricate curves and a flourish which surely must have broken the quill. + +The last day of every month would I fetch that scrolled note to Mr. +Carvel, and he laid it beside his plate until dinner was over. And then, +as sure as the sun rose that morning, my flogging would come before it +set. This done with, and another promised next month provided Mr. Daaken +wrote no better of me, my grandfather and I renewed our customary footing +of love and companionship. + +But Mr. Daaken, unwittingly or designedly, taught other things than those +I have mentioned above. And though I never once heard a word of politics +fall from his lips, his school shortly became known to all good Tories as +a nursery of conspiracy and sedition. There are other ways of teaching +besides preaching, and of that which the dominie taught best he spoke not +a word. He was credited, you may well believe, with calumnies against +King George, and once my Uncle Grafton and Mr. Dulany were for clapping +him in jail, avowing that he taught treason to the young. I can account +for the tone of King William's School in no other way than to say that +patriotism was in the very atmosphere, and seemed to exude in some +mysterious way from Mr. Daaken's person. And most of us became +infected with it. + +The dominie lived outside the town, in a lonely little hamlet on the +borders of the Spa. At two of the clock every afternoon he would dive +through School Street to the Coffee House, where the hostler would have +his bony mare saddled and waiting. Mr. Daaken by no chance ever entered +the tavern. I recall one bright day in April when I played truant and +had the temerity to go afishing on Spa Creek with Will Fotheringay, the +bass being plentiful there. We had royal sport of it that morning, and +two o'clock came and went with never a thought, you may be sure. And +presently I get a pull which bends my English rod near to double, and +in my excitement plunge waist deep into the water, Will crying out +directions from the shore, when suddenly the head of Mr. Daaken's mare +is thrust through the bushes, followed by Mr. Daaken himself. Will stood +stock still from fright, and I was for dropping my rod and cutting, when +I was arrested by the dominie calling out: + +"Have a care, Master Carvel; have a care, sir. You will lose him. Play +him, sir; let him run a bit." + +And down he leaps from his horse and into the water after me, and +together we landed a three-pound bass, thereby drenching his snuff- +coloured suit. When the big fish lay shining in the basket, the dominie +smiled grimly at William and me as we stood sheepishly by, and without a +word he drew his clasp knife and cut a stout switch from the willow near, +and then and there he gave us such a thrashing as we remembered for many +a day after. And we both had another when we reached home. + +"Mr. Carvel," said Mr. Dulany to my grandfather, "I would strongly +counsel you to take Richard from that school. Pernicious doctrines, sir, +are in the air, and like diseases are early caught by the young. 'Twas +but yesterday I saw Richard at the head of a rabble of the sons of riff- +raff, in Green Street, and their treatment of Mr. Fairbrother hath set +the whole town by the ears." + +What Mr. Dulany had said was true. The lads of Mr. Fairbrother's school +being mostly of the unpopular party, we of King William's had organized +our cohorts and led them on to a signal victory. We fell upon the enemy +even as they were emerging from their stronghold, the schoolhouse, and +smote them hip and thigh, with the sheriff of Anne Arundel County a +laughing spectator. Some of the Tories (for such we were pleased to call +them) took refuge behind Mr. Fairbrother's skirts, who shook his cane +angrily enough, but without avail. Others of the Tory brood fought +stoutly, calling out: "God save the King!" and "Down with the traitors!" +On our side Francie Willard fell, and Archie Dennison raised a lump on my +head the size of a goose egg. But we fairly beat them, and afterwards +must needs attack the Tory dominie himself. He cried out lustily to the +sheriff and spectators, of whom there were many by this time, for help, +but got little but laughter for his effort. Young Lloyd and I, being +large lads for our age, fairly pinioned the screeching master, who cried +out that he was being murdered, and keeping his cane for a trophy, thrust +him bodily into his house of learning, turned the great key upon him, and +so left him. He made his escape by a window and sought my grandfather in +the Duke of Marlboro' Street as fast as ever his indignant legs would +carry him. + +Of his interview with Mr. Carvel I know nothing save that Scipio was +requested presently to show him the door, and conclude therefrom that his +language was but ill-chosen. Scipio's patrician blood was wont to rise +in the presence of those whom he deemed outside the pale of good society, +and I fear he ushered Mr. Fairbrother to the street with little of that +superior manner he used to the first families. As for Mr. Daaken, I feel +sure he was not ill-pleased at the discomfiture of his rival, though it +cost him five of his scholars. + +Our schoolboy battle, though lightly undertaken, was fraught with no +inconsiderable consequences for me. I was duly chided and soundly +whipped by my grandfather for the part I had played; but he was inclined +to pass the matter after that, and set it down to the desire for fighting +common to most boyish natures. And he would have gone no farther than +this had it not been that Mr. Green, of the Maryland Gazette, could not +refrain from printing the story in his paper. That gentleman, being a +stout Whig, took great delight in pointing out that a grandson of Mr. +Carvel was a ringleader in the affair. The story was indeed laughable +enough, and many a barrister's wig nodded over it at the Coffee House +that day. When I came home from school I found Scipio beside my +grandfather's empty seat in the dining-room, and I learned that Mr. +Carvel was in the garden with my Uncle Grafton and the Reverend Bennett +Allen, rector of St. Anne's. I well knew that something out of the +common was in the wind to disturb my grandfather's dinner. Into the +garden I went, and under the black walnut tree I beheld Mr. Carvel pacing +up and down in great unrest, his Gazette in his hand, while on the bench +sat my uncle and the rector of St. Anne's. So occupied was each in his +own thought that my coming was unperceived; and I paused in my steps, +seized suddenly by an instinctive dread, I know not of what. The fear of +Mr. Carvel's displeasure passed from my mind so that I cared not how +soundly he thrashed me, and my heart filled with a yearning, born of the +instant, for that simple and brave old gentleman. For the lad is nearer +to nature than the man, and the animal oft scents a danger the master +cannot see. I read plainly in Mr. Allen's handsome face, flushed red +with wine as it ever was, and in my Uncle Grafton's looks a snare to +which I knew my grandfather was blind. I never rightly understood how +it was that Mr. Carvel was deceived in Mr. Allen; perchance the secret +lay in his bold manner and in the appearance of dignity and piety he wore +as a cloak when on his guard. I caught my breath sharply and took my way +toward them, resolved to make as brave a front as I might. It was my +uncle, whose ear was ever open, that first heard my footstep and turned +upon me. + +"Here is Richard, now, father," he said. + +I gave him so square a look that he bent his head to the ground. My +grandfather stopped in his pacing and his eye rested upon me, in sorrow +rather than in anger, I thought. + +"Richard," he began, and paused. For the first time in my life I saw him +irresolute. He looked appealingly at the rector, who rose. Mr. Allen +was a man of good height and broad shoulders, with piercing black eyes, +reminding one more of the smallsword than aught else I can think of. And +he spoke solemnly, in a deep voice, as though from the pulpit. + +"I fear it is my duty, Richard, to say what Mr. Carvel cannot. It +grieves me to tell you, sir, that young as you are you have been guilty +of treason against the King, and of grave offence against his Lordship's +government. I cannot mitigate my words, sir. By your rashness, Richard, +and I pray it is such, you have brought grief to your grandfather in his +age, and ridicule and reproach upon a family whose loyalty has hitherto +been unstained." + +I scarce waited for him to finish. His pompous words stung me like the +lash of a whip, and I gave no heed to his cloth as I answered: + +"If I have grieved my grandfather, sir, I am heartily sorry, and will +answer to him for what I have done. And I would have you know, Mr. +Allen, that I am as able as any to care for the Carvel honour." + +I spoke with a vehemence, for the thought carried me beyond myself, +that this upstart parson his Lordship had but a year since sent among +us should question our family reputation. + +"Remember that Mr. Allen is of the Church, Richard," said my grandfather, +severely. + +"I fear he has little respect for Church or State, sir," Grafton put in. +"You are now reaping the fruits of your indulgence." + +I turned to my grandfather. + +"You are my protector, sir," I cried. "And if it please you to tell me +what I now stand accused of, I submit most dutifully to your +chastisement." + +"Very fair words, indeed, nephew Richard," said my uncle, "and I +draw from them that you have yet to hear of your beating an honest +schoolmaster without other provocation than that he was a loyal servant +to the King, and wantonly injuring the children of his school." He drew +from his pocket a copy of that Gazette Mr. Carvel held in his hand, and +added ironically: "Here, then, are news which will doubtless surprise +you, sir. And knowing you for a peaceful lad, never having entertained +such heresies as those with which it pleases Mr. Green to credit you, +I dare swear he has drawn on his imagination." + +I took the paper in amaze, not knowing why my grandfather, who had ever +been so jealous of others taking me to task, should permit the rector and +my uncle to chide me in his presence. The account was in the main true +enough, and made sad sport of Mr. Fairbrother. + +"Have I not been caned for this, sir?" said I to my grandfather. + +These words seemed to touch Mr. Carvel, and I saw a tear glisten in his +eye as he answered: + +"You have, Richard, and stoutly. But your uncle and Mr. Allen seem to +think that your offence warrants more than a caning, and to deem that you +have been actuated by bad principles rather than by boyish spirits." He +paused to steady his voice, and I realized then for the first time how +sacred he held allegiance to the King. "Tell me, my lad," said he, "tell +me, as you love God and the truth, whether they are right." + +For the moment I shrank from speaking, perceiving what a sad blow to +Mr. Carvel my words must be. And then I spoke up boldly, catching the +exulting sneer on my Uncle Grafton's face and the note of triumph +reflected in Mr. Allen's. + +"I have never deceived you, sir," I said, "and will not now hide from you +that I believe the colonies to have a just cause against his Majesty and +Parliament." The words came ready to my lips: "We are none the less +Englishmen because we claim the rights of Englishmen, and, saving your +presence, sir, are as loyal as those who do not. And if these principles +be bad," I added to my uncle, "then should we think with shame upon the +Magna Charta." + +My grandfather stood astonished at such a speech from me, whom he had +thought a lad yet without a formed knowledge of public affairs. But I +was, in fact, supersaturated with that of which I spoke, and could have +given my hearers many able Whig arguments to surprise them had the season +befitted. There was silence for a space after I had finished, and then +Mr. Carvel sank right heavily upon the bench. + +"A Carvel against the King!" was all he said. + +Had I been alone with him I should have cast myself at his feet, for it +hurt me sorely to see him so. As it was, I held my head high. + +"The Carvels ever did what they believed right, sir," I answered. "You +would not have me to go against my conscience?" + +To this he replied nothing. + +"The evil has been done, as I feared, father," said Grafton, presently; +"we must now seek for the remedy." + +"Let me question the lad," Mr. Allen softly interposed. "Tell me, +Richard, who has influenced you to this way of thinking?" + +I saw his ruse, and was not to be duped by it. + +"Men who have not feared to act bravely against oppression, sir," I said. + +"Thank God," exclaimed my uncle, with fervour, "that I have been more +careful of Philip's associations, and that he has not caught in the +streets and taverns this noxious creed!" + +"There is no danger from Philip; he remembers his family name," said the +rector. + +"No," quoth Mr. Carvel, bitterly, "there is no danger from Philip. Like +his father, he will ever believe that which best serves him." + +Grafton, needless to say, did not pursue such an argument, but rising, +remarked that this deplorable affair had kept him long past his dinner +hour, and that his services were as ever at his father's disposal. He +refused to stay, though my grandfather pressed him of course, and with a +low bow of filial respect and duty and a single glance at the rector, my +uncle was gone. And then we walked slowly to the house and into the +dining room, Mr. Carvel leading the procession, and I an unwilling rear, +knowing that my fate would be decided between them. I thought Mr. +Allen's grace would never end, and the meal likewise; I ate but little, +while the two gentlemen discussed parish matters. And when at last +Scipio had retired, and the rector of St. Anne's sat sipping the old +Madeira, his countenance all gravity, but with a relish he could not +hide, my grandfather spoke up. And though he addressed himself to the +guest, I knew full well what he said was meant for me. + +"As you see, sir," said he, "I am sore perplexed and troubled. We +Carvels, Mr. Allen, have ever been stanch to Church and King. My great- +grandsire fought at Naseby and Marston Moor for Charles, and suffered +exile in his name. 'Twas love for King James that sent my father hither, +though he swore allegiance to Anne and the First George. I can say with +pride that he was no indifferent servant to either, refusing honours from +the Pretender in '15, when he chanced to be at home. An oath is an oath, +sir, and we have yet to be false to ours. And the King, say I, should, +next to God, be loved and loyally served by his subjects. And so I have +served this George, and his grandfather before him, according to the +talents which were given me." + +"And ably, sir, permit me to say," echoed the rector, heartily. Too +heartily, methought. And he carefully filled his pipe with choice leaf +out of Mr. Carvel's inlaid box. + +"Be that as it may, I have done my best, as we must all do. Pardon me, +sir, for speaking of myself. But I have brought up this lad from a +child, Mr. Allen," said Mr. Carvel, his words coming slowly, as if each +gave him pain, "and have striven to be an example to him in all things. +He has few of those faults which I most fear; God be thanked that he +loves the truth, for there is yet a chance of his correction. A chance, +said I?" he cried, his speech coming more rapid, "nay, he shall be +cured! I little thought, fool that I was, that he would get this pox. +His father fought and died for the King; and should trouble come, which +God forbid, to know that Richard stood against his Majesty would kill +me." + +"And well it might, Mr. Carvel," said the divine. He was for the +moment sobered, as weak men must be in the presence of those of strong +convictions. My grandfather had half risen in his chair, and the lines +of his smooth-shaven face deepened visibly with the pain of the feelings +to which he gave utterance. As for me, I was well-nigh swept away by a +bigness within me, and torn between love and duty, between pity and the +reason left me, and sadly tried to know whether my dear parent's life and +happiness should be weighed against what I felt to be right. I strove to +speak, but could say nothing. + +"He must be removed from the influences," the rector ventured, after a +halt. + +"That he must indeed," said my grandfather. "Why did I not send him to +Eton last fall? But it is hard, Mr. Allen, to part with the child of our +old age. I would take passage and go myself with him to-morrow were it +not for my duties in the Council." + +"Eton! I would have sooner, I believe, wrought by the side of any +rascally redemptioner in the iron mines of the Patapsco than have gone to +Eton. + +"But for the present, sir, I would counsel you to put the lad's studies +in the charge of some able and learned man, that his mind may be turned +from the disease which has fed upon it. Some one whose loyalty is beyond +question." + +"And who so fit as yourself, Mr. Allen? "returned my grandfather, relief +plain in his voice. "You have his Lordship's friendship and confidence, +and never has rector of St. Anne's or of any other parish brought letters +to his Excellency to compare with yours. And so I crave your help in +this time of need." + +Mr. Allen showed becoming hesitation. + +"I fear you do me greater honour than I deserve, Mr. Carvel," he +answered, a strain of the pomp coming back, "though my gracious patron +is disposed to think well of me, and I shall strive to hold his good +opinion. But I have duties of parish and glebe to attend, and Master +Philip Carvel likewise in my charge." + +I held my breath for my grandfather's reply. The rector, however, had +read him, and well knew that a show of reluctance would but inflame him +the more. + +"How now, sir?" he exclaimed. "Surely, as you love the King, you will +not refuse me in this strait." + +Mr. Allen rose and grasped him by the hand. + +"Nay, sir," said he, "and you put it thus, I cannot refuse you." + +The thought of it was too much. I ran to my grandfather crying: "Not Mr. +Allen, sir, not Mr. Allen. Any one else you please,--Mr. Fairbrother +even." + +The rector drew back haughtily. "It is clear, Mr. Carvel," he said, +"that Richard has other preferences." + +"And be damned to them!" shouted my grandfather. "Am I to be ruled by +this headstrong boy? He has beat Mr. Fairbrother, and shall have no +skimmed-milk supervision if I can help it." + +And so it was settled that I should be tutored by the rector of St. +Anne's, and I took my seat beside my cousin Philip in his study the very +next day. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GRAFTON HAS HIS CHANCE + +To add to my troubles my grandfather was shortly taken very ill with the +first severe sickness he had ever in his life endured. Dr. Leiden came +and went sometimes thrice daily, and for a week he bore a look so grave +as to frighten me. Dr. Evarts arrived by horse from Philadelphia, and +the two physicians held long conversations in the morning room, while I +listened at the door and comprehended not a word of their talk save when +they spoke of bleeding. And after a very few consultations, as is often +the way in their profession, they disagreed and quarrelled, and Dr. +Evarts packed himself back to Philadelphia in high dudgeon. Then Mr. +Carvel began to mend. + +There were many who came regularly to inquire of him, and each afternoon +I would see the broad shoulders and genial face of Governor Sharpe in the +gateway, completing his walk by way of Marlboro' Street. I loved and +admired him, for he had been a soldier himself before he came out to us, +and had known and esteemed my father. His Excellency should surely have +been knighted for his services in the French war. Once he spied me at +the window and shook his cane pleasantly, and in he walks to the room +where I sat reading of the victories of Blenheim and Malplaquet, for +chronicles of this sort I delighted in. + +"Aha, Richard," says he, taking up the book, "'tis plain whither your +tastes lead you. Marlboro was a great general, and as sorry a scoundrel +as ever led troops to battle. Truly," says he, musing, "the Lord often +makes queer choice in his instruments for good." And he lowered himself +into the easy chair and crossed his legs, regarding me very comically. +"What's this I hear of your joining the burghers and barristers, and +trouncing poor Mr. Fairbrother and his flock, and crying 'Liberty +forever!' in the very ears of the law?" he asks. "His Majesty will have +need of such lads as you, I make no doubt, and should such proceedings +come to his ears I would not give a pipe for your chances." + +I could not but laugh, confused as I was, at his Excellency's rally. +And this I may say, that had it pleased Providence to give me dealing +with such men of the King's side as he, perchance my fortunes had been +altered. + +"And in any good cause, sir," I replied, "I would willingly give my life +to his Majesty." + +"So," said his Excellency, raising his eyebrows, "I see clearly you are +of the rascals. But a lad must have his fancies, and when your age I was +hot for the exiled Prince. I acquired more sense as I grew older. And +better an active mind, say I, than a sluggard partisan." + +At this stage of our talk came in my Uncle Grafton, and bowing low to the +Governor made apology that some of the elders of the family had not been +there to entertain him. He told his Excellency that he had never left +the house save for necessary business, which was true for once, my uncle +having taken up his abode with us during that week. But now, thanking +Heaven and Dr. Leiden and his own poor effort, he could report his dear +father to be out of danger. + +Governor Sharpe answered shortly that he had been happy to hear the good +news from Scipio. "Faith," says he, "I was well enough entertained, for +I have a liking for this lad, and to speak truth I saw him here as I came +up the walk." + +My uncle smiled deprecatingly, and hid any vexation he might have had +from this remark. + +"I fear that Richard lacks wisdom as yet, your Excellency," said he, "and +has many of his father's headstrong qualities." + +"Which you most providentially escaped," his Excellency put in. + +Grafton bit his lip. "Necessity makes us all careful, sir," said he. + +"Necessity does more than that, Mr. Carvel," returned the Governor, who +was something of a wit; "necessity often makes us fools, if we be not +careful. But give me ever a wanton fool rather than him of necessity's +handiwork. And as for the lad," says he, "let him not trouble you. Such +as he, if twisted a little in the growth, come out straight enough in the +end." + +I think the Governor little knew what wormwood was this to my uncle. + +"'Tis heartily to be hoped, sir," he said, "for his folly has brought +trouble enough behind it to those who have his education and his welfare +in hand, and I make no doubt is at the bottom of my father's illness." + +At this injustice I could not but cry out, for all the town knew, and +my grandfather himself best of all, that the trouble from which he now +suffered sprang from his gout. And yet my heart was smitten at the +thought that I might have hastened or aggravated the attack. The +Governor rose. He seized his stick aggressively and looked sharply at +Grafton. + +"Nonsense," he exclaimed; "my friend Mr. Carvel is far too wise to be +upset by a boyish prank which deserves no notice save a caning. And +that, my lad," he added lightly, "I dare swear you got with interest." +And he called for a glass of the old Madeira when Scipio came with the +tray, and departed with a polite inquiry after my Aunt Caroline's health, +and a prophecy that Mr. Carvel would soon be taking the air again. + +There had been high doings indeed in Marlboro' Street that miserable +week. My grandfather took to his bed of a Saturday afternoon, and bade +me go down to Mr. Aikman's, the bookseller, and fetch him the latest +books and plays. That night I became so alarmed that I sent Diomedes for +Dr. Leiden, who remained the night through. Sunday was well gone before +the news reached York Street, when my Aunt Caroline came hurrying over in +her chair, and my uncle on foot. They brushed past Scipio at the door, +and were pushing up the long flight when they were stopped on the landing +by Dr. Leiden. + +"How is my father, sir?" Grafton cried, "and why was I not informed at +once of his illness? I must see him." + +"Your vater can see no one, Mr. Carvel," said the doctor, quietly. + +"What," says my uncle, "you dare to refuse me?" + +"Not so lout, I bray you," says the doctor; "I tare any ting vere life is +concerned." + +"But I will see him," says Grafton, in a sort of helpless rage, for the +doctor's manner baffled him. "I will see him before he dies, and no man +alive shall say me nay." + +Then my Aunt Caroline gathered up her skirt, and made shift to pass the +doctor. + +"I have come to nurse him," said she, imperiously, and, turning to where +I stood near, she added: "Bid a servant fetch from York Street what I +shall have need of." + +The doctor smiled, but stood firm. He cared little for aught in heaven +or earth, did Dr. Leiden, and nothing whatever for Mr. and Mrs. Grafton +Carvel. + +"I peg you, matam, do not disturp yourself," said he. "Mr. Carvel is +aply attended by an excellent voman, Mrs. Villis, and be has no neet of +you." + +"What," cried my aunt; "this is too much, sir, that I am thrust out of my +father-in-law's house, and my place taken by a menial. That woman able!" +she fumed, dropping suddenly her cloak of dignity; "Mr. Carvel's charity +is all that keeps her here." + +Then my uncle drew himself up. "Dr. Leiden," says he, "kindly oblige me +by leaving my father's house, and consider your services here at an end. +And Richard," he goes on to me, "send my compliments to Dr. Drake, and +request him to come at once." + +I was stepping forward to say that I would do nothing of the kind, when +the doctor stopped me by a signal, as much as to say that the quarrel was +wide enough without me. He stood with his back against the great arched +window flooded with the yellow light of the setting sun, a little black +figure in high relief, with a face of parchment. And he took a pinch of +snuff before he spoke. + +"I am here py Mr. Carvel's orters, sir," said he, "and py tose alone vill +I leaf." + +And this is how the Chippendale piece was broke, which you, my children, +and especially Bess, admire so extravagantly. It stood that day behind +the doctor, and my uncle, making a violent move to get by, struck it, and +so it fell with a great crash lengthwise on the landing; and the +wonderful vases Mr. Carroll had given my grandfather rolled down the +stairs and lay crushed at the bottom. Withal he had spoken so quietly, +Dr. Leiden possessed a temper drawn from his Teutonic ancestors. With +his little face all puckered, he swore so roundly at my uncle in some +lingo he had got from his father,--High German or Low German,--I know not +what, that Grafton and his wife were glad enough to pick their way +amongst the broken bits of glass and china, to the hall again. Dr. +Leiden shook his fist at their retreating persons, saying that the +Sabbath was no day to do murder. + +I followed them with the pretence of picking up what was left of the +ornaments. What between anger against the doctor and Mrs. Willis, and +fright and chagrin at the fall of the Chippendale piece, my aunt was in +such a state of nervous flurry that she bade the ashy Scipio call her +chairmen, and vowed, in a trembling voice, she would never again enter a +house where that low-bred German was to be found. But my Uncle Grafton +was of a different nature. He deemed defeat but a postponement of the +object he wished to gain, and settled himself in the library with a copy +of "Miller on the Distinction of Ranks in Society." He appeared at +supper suave as ever, gravely concerned as to his father's health, which +formed the chief topic between us. He gave me to understand that he +would take the green room until the old gentleman was past danger. Not a +word, mind you, of Dr. Leiden, nor did my uncle express a wish to go into +the sick-room, from which even I was forbid. Nay, the next morning he +met the doctor in the hall and conversed with him at some length over the +case as though nothing had occurred between them. + +While my Uncle Grafton was in the house I had opportunity of marking the +intimacy which existed between him and the rector of St. Anne's. The +latter swung each evening the muffled knocker, and was ushered on tiptoe +across the polished floor to the library where my uncle sat in state. It +was often after supper before the rector left, and coming in upon them +once I found wine between them and empty decanters on the board, and they +fell silent as I passed the doorway. + +Our dear friend Captain Clapsaddle was away when my grandfather fell +sick, having been North for three months or more on some business known +to few. 'Twas generally supposed he went to Massachusetts to confer with +the patriots of that colony. Hearing the news as he rode into town, he +came booted and spurred to Marlboro' Street before going to his lodgings. +I ran out to meet him, and he threw his arms about me on the street so +that those who were passing smiled, for all knew the captain. And +Harvey, who always came to take the captain's horse, swore that he was +glad to see a friend of the family once again. I told the captain very +freely of my doings, and showed him the clipping from the Gazette, which +made him laugh heartily. But a shade came upon his face when I rehearsed +the scene we had with my uncle and Mr. Allen in the garden. + +"What," says he, "Mr. Carvel hath sent you to Mr. Allen on your uncle's +advice?" + +"No," I answered, "to do my uncle justice, he said not a word to Mr. +Carvel about it." + +The captain turned the subject. He asked me much concerning the rector +and what he taught me, and appeared but ill-pleased at that I had to tell +him. But he left me without so much as a word of comment or counsel. +For it was a principle with Captain Clapsaddle not to influence in any +way the minds of the young, and he would have deemed it unfair to Mr. +Carvel had he attempted to win my sympathies to his. Captain Daniel was +the first the old gentleman asked to see when visitors were permitted +him, and you may be sure the faithful soldier was below stairs waiting +for the summons. + +I was some three weeks with my new tutor, the rector, before my +grandfather's illness, and went back again as soon as he began to mend. +I was not altogether unhappy, owing to a certain grim pleasure I had in +debating with him, which I shall presently relate. There was much to +annoy and anger me, too. My cousin Philip was forever carping and +criticising my Greek and Latin, and it was impossible not to feel his +sneer at my back when I construed. He had pat replies ready to correct +me when called upon, and 'twas only out of consideration for Mr. Carvel +that I kept my hands from him when we were dismissed. + +I think the rector disliked Philip in his way as much as did I in mine. +The Reverend Bennett Allen, indeed, might have been a very good fellow +had Providence placed him in a different setting; he was one of those +whom his Excellency dubbed "fools from necessity." He should have been +born with a fortune, though I can think of none he would not have run +through in a year or so. But nature had given him aristocratic tastes, +with no other means toward their gratification than good looks, +convincing ways, and a certain bold, half-defiant manner, which went far +with his Lordship and those like him, who thought Mr. Allen excellent +good company. With the rector, as with too many others, holy orders were +but a means to an end. It was a sealed story what he had been before he +came to Governor Sharpe with Baltimore's directions to give him the best +in the colony. But our rakes and wits, and even our solid men, like my +grandfather, received him with open arms. He had ever a tale on his +tongue's end tempered to the ear of his listener. + +Who had most influenced my way of thinking, Mr. Allen had well demanded. +The gentleman was none other than Mr. Henry Swain, Patty's father. Of +her I shall speak later. He was a rising barrister and man of note among +our patriots, and member of the Lower House; a diffident man in public, +with dark, soulful eyes, and a wide, white brow, who had declined a +nomination to the Congress of '65. At his fireside, unknown to my +grandfather and to Mr. Allen, I had learned the true principles of +government. Before the House Mr. Swain spoke only under extraordinary +emotion, and then he gained every ear. He had been my friend since +childhood, but I never knew the meaning and the fire of oratory until +curiosity brought me to the gallery of the Assembly chamber in the Stadt +House, where the barrister was on his feet at the time. I well remember +the tingle in my chest as I looked and listened. And I went again and +again, until the House sat behind closed doors. + +And so, when Mr. Allen brought forth for my benefit those arguments of +the King's party which were deemed their strength, I would confront him +with Mr. Swain's logic. He had in me a tough subject for conversion. +I was put to very small pains to rout my instructor out of all his +positions, because indolence, and lack of interest in the question, and +contempt for the Americans, had made him neglect the study of it. And +Philip, who entered at first glibly enough at the rector's side, was +soon drawn into depths far beyond him. Many a time was Mr. Allen fain +to laugh at his blunders. I doubt not my cousin had the facts straight +enough when he rose from the breakfast table at home; but by the time he +reached the rectory they were shaken up like so many parts of a puzzle in +a bag, and past all straightening. + +The rector was especially bitter toward the good people of Boston Town, +whom he dubbed Puritan fanatics. To him Mr. Otis was but a meddling +fool, and Mr. Adams a traitor whose head only remained on his shoulders +by grace of the extreme clemency of his Majesty, which Mr. Allen was at +a loss to understand. When beaten in argument, he would laugh out some +sneer that would set my blood simmering. One morning he came in late for +the lesson, smelling strongly of wine, and bade us bring our books out +under the fruit trees in the garden. He threw back his gown and tilted +his cap, and lighting his pipe began to speak of that act of Townshend's, +passed but the year before, which afterwards proved the King's folly and +England's ruin. + +"Principle!" exclaimed my fine clergyman at length, blowing a great whiff +among the white blossoms. "Oons! your Americans worship his Majesty +stamped upon a golden coin. And though he saved their tills from plunder +from the French, the miserly rogues are loth to pay for the service." + +I rose, and taking a guinea-piece from my pocket, held it up before him. + +"They care this much for gold, sir, and less for his Majesty, who cares +nothing for them," I said. And walking to the well near by, I dropped +the piece carelessly into the clear water. He was beside me before it +left my hand, and Philip also, in time to see the yellow coin edging this +way and that toward the bottom. The rector turned to me with a smile of +cynical amusement playing over his features. + +"Such a spirit has brought more than one brave fellow to Tyburn, Master +Carvel," he said. And then he added reflectively, "But if there were +more like you, we might well have cause for alarm." + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Genius honored but never encouraged +God bless their backs, which is the only part I ever care to see +He was our macaroni of Annapolis +Shaped his politics according to the company he was in +Thy politics are not over politic + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, V1, BY CHURCHILL *** + +********** This file should be named wc28w10.txt or wc28w10.zip *********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, wc28w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wc28w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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