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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duke of Stockbridge, by Edward Bellamy
+
+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: The Duke of Stockbridge
+
+Author: Edward Bellamy
+
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7472]
+This file was first posted on May 6, 2003
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF SHAYS' REBELLION
+
+By Edward Bellamy
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST
+
+THE MARCH OF THE MINUTE MEN
+
+
+The first beams of the sun of August 17, 1777, were glancing down
+the long valley, which opening to the East, lets in the early rays of
+morning, upon the village of Stockbridge. Then, as now, the Housatonic
+crept still and darkling around the beetling base of Fisher's Nest, and
+in the meadows laughed above its pebbly shoals, embracing the verdant
+fields with many a loving curve. Then, as now, the mountains cradled the
+valley in their eternal arms, all round, from the Hill of the Wolves,
+on the north, to the peaks that guard the Ice Glen, away to the far
+south-east. Then, as now, many a lake and pond gemmed the landscape, and
+many a brook hung like a burnished silver chain upon the verdant slopes.
+But save for this changeless frame of nature, there was very little, in
+the village, which the modern dweller in Stockbridge would recognize.
+
+The main settlement is along a street lying east and west, across the
+plain which extends from the Housatonic, northerly some distance, to the
+foot of a hill. The village green or “smooth” lies rather at the western
+end of the village than at the center. At this point the main street
+intersects with the county road, leading north and south, and with
+divers other paths and lanes, leading in crooked, rambling lines to
+several points of the compass; sometimes ending at a single dwelling,
+sometimes at clusters of several buildings. On the hill, to the north,
+somewhat separated from the settlement on the plain, are quite a number
+of houses, erected there during the recent French and Indian wars, for
+the sake of being near the fort, which is now used as a parsonage by
+Reverend Stephen West, the young minister. The streets are all very wide
+and grassy, wholly without shade trees, and bordered generally by rail
+fences or stone walls. The houses, usually separated by wide intervals
+of meadow, are rarely over a story and a half in height. When painted,
+the color is usually red, brown, or yellow, the effect of which is a
+certain picturesqueness wholly outside any design on the part of the
+practical minded inhabitants.
+
+Interspersed among the houses, and occurring more thickly in the south
+and west parts of the village, are curious huts, as much like wigwams
+as houses. These are the dwellings of the Christianized and civilized
+Stockbridge Indians, the original possessors of the soil, who live
+intermingled with the whites on terms of the most utter comity, fully
+sharing the offices of church and town, and fighting the battles of the
+Commonwealth side by side with the white militia.
+
+Around the green stand the public buildings of the place. Here is the
+tavern, a low two-story building, without porch or piazza, and entered
+by a door in the middle of the longest side. Over the door swings a
+sign, on which a former likeness of King George has, by a metamorphosis
+common at this period, been transformed into a soldier of the
+revolution, in Continental uniform of buff and blue. But just at this
+time its contemplation does not afford the patriotic tipler as much
+complacency as formerly, for Burgoyne is thundering at the passes of
+the Hoosacs, only fifty miles away, and King George may get his red coat
+back again, after all. The Tories in the village say that the landlord
+keeps a pot of red paint behind the door, so that the Hessian dragoons
+may not take him by surprise when they come galloping down the valley,
+some afternoon. On the other side [of] the green is the meeting-house,
+built some thirty years ago, by a grant from government at Boston,
+and now considered rather old-fashioned and inconvenient. Hard by the
+meeting-house is the graveyard, with the sandy knoll in its south-west
+corner, set apart for the use of the Indians. The whipping-post, stocks,
+and cage, for the summary correction of such offences as come within the
+jurisdiction of Justice Jahleel Woodbridge, Esquire, adorn the middle of
+the village green, and on Saturday afternoon are generally the center of
+a crowd assembled to be edified by the execution of sentences.
+
+On the other side [of] the green from the meeting-house stands the
+store, built five years before, by Timothy Edwards, Esquire, a structure
+of a story and a half, with the unusual architectural adornment of a
+porch or piazza in front, the only thing of the kind in the village. The
+people of Stockbridge are scarcely prouder of the divinity of their
+late shepherd, the famous Dr. Jonathan Edwards, than they are of his
+son Timothy's store. Indeed, what with Dr. Edwards, so lately in their
+midst, Dr. Hopkins, down at Great Barrington, and Dr. Bellamy, just over
+the State line in Bethlehem, Connecticut, the people of Berkshire are
+decidedly more familiar with theologians than with storekeepers, for
+when Mr. Edwards built his store in 1772, it was the only one in the
+county.
+
+At such a time it may be readily inferred that a commercial occupation
+serves rather as a distinction than otherwise. Squire Edwards is
+moreover chairman of the selectmen, and furthermore most of the
+farmers are in his debt for supplies, while to these varied elements of
+influence, his theological ancestry adds a certain odor of sanctity.
+It is true that Squire Jahleel Woodbridge is even more brilliantly
+descended, counting two colonial governors and numerous divines among
+his ancestry, not to speak of a rumored kinship with the English noble
+family of Northumberland. But instead of tending to a profitless
+rivalry the respective claims of the Edwardses and the Woodbridges
+to distinction have happily been merged by the marriage of Jahleel
+Woodbridge and Lucy Edwards, the sister of Squire Timothy, so that in
+all social and political matters, the two families are closely allied.
+
+The back room of the store is, in a sense, the Council-chamber, where
+the affairs of the village are debated and settled by these magnates,
+whose decisions the common people never dream of anticipating or
+questioning. It is also a convivial center, a sort of clubroom. There,
+of an afternoon, may generally be seen Squires Woodbridge, Williams,
+Elisha Brown, Deacon Nash, Squire Edwards, and perhaps a few others,
+relaxing their gravity over generous bumpers of some choice old Jamaica,
+which Edwards had luckily laid in, just before the war stopped all
+imports.
+
+In the west half of the store building, Squire Edwards lives with his
+family, including, besides his wife and children, the remnants of his
+father's family and that of his sister, the widowed Mrs. President
+Burr. Young Aaron Burr was there, for a while after his graduation at
+Princeton, and during the intervals of his arduous theological studies
+with Dr. Bellamy at Bethlehem. Perchance there are heart-sore maidens
+in the village, who, to their sorrow, could give more particular
+information of the exploits of the seductive Aaron at this period, than
+I am able to.
+
+Such are the mountains and rivers, the streets and the houses of
+Stockbridge as the sun of this August morning in the year 1777,
+discloses them to view. But where are the people? It is seven, yes,
+nearly eight o'clock, and no human being is to be seen walking in the
+streets, or travelling in the roads, or working in the fields. Such lazy
+habits are certainly not what we have been wont to ascribe to our
+sturdy forefathers. Has the village, peradventure, been deserted by the
+population, through fear of the Hessian marauders, the threat of whose
+coming has long hung like a portentous cloud, over the Berkshire valley?
+Not at all. It is not the fear of man, but the fear of God, that has
+laid a spell upon the place. It is the Sabbath, or what we moderns call
+Sunday, and law and conscience have set their double seal on every door,
+that neither man, woman nor child, may go forth till sunset, save at the
+summons of the meeting-house bell. We may wander all the way from the
+parsonage on the hill, to Captain Konkapot's hut on the Barrington road,
+without meeting a soul, though the windows will have a scandalized face
+framed in each seven by nine pane of glass. And the distorted, uncouth
+and variously colored face and figure, which the imperfections of
+the glass give the passer-by, will doubtless appear to the horrified
+spectators, but the fit typical representation of his inward depravity.
+We shall, I say, meet no one, unless, as we pass his hut by Konkapot's
+brook, Jehoiachim Naunumpetox, the Indian tithing man, spy us, and that
+will be to our exceeding discomfiture, for straightway laying implacable
+hands upon us, he will deliver us to John Schebuck, the constable, who
+will grievously correct our flesh with stripes, for Sabbath-breaking,
+and cause us to sit in the stocks, for an ensample.
+
+But if so mild an excursion involve so dire a risk, what must be the
+desperation of this horseman who is coming at a thundering gallop along
+the county road from Pittsfield? His horse is in a foaming sweat, the
+strained nostrils are filled with blood and the congested eyes protrude
+as if they would leap from their sockets to be at their goal.
+
+It is Squire Woodbridge's two story red house before which the horseman
+pulls rein, and leaving his steed with hanging head and trembling knees
+and laboring sides, drags his own stiffened limbs up the walk and enters
+the house. Almost instantly Squire Woodbridge himself, issues from
+the door, dressed for church in a fine black coat, waistcoat, and
+knee-breeches, white silk stockings, a three-cornered black hat and
+silver buckles on his shoes, but in his hand instead of a Bible, a
+musket. As he steps out, the door of a house further east opens also,
+and another man similarly dressed, with brown woolen stockings, steps
+forth with a gun in his hand also. He seems to have interpreted the
+meaning of the horseman's message. This is Deacon Nash. Beckoning him to
+follow, Squire Woodbridge steps out to the edge of the green, raises
+his musket to his shoulder and discharges it into the air. Deacon Nash
+coming up a moment later also raises and fires his gun, and e'er the
+last echoes have reverberated from the mountains, Squire Edwards, musket
+in hand, throws open his store door and stepping out on the porch, fires
+the third gun.
+
+A moment ago hundreds of faces were smiling, hundreds of eyes were
+bright, hundreds of cheeks were flushed. Now there is not a single smile
+or a trace of brightness, or a bit of color on a face in the valley.
+Such is the woful change wrought in every household, as the successive
+reports of the heavily-charged pieces sound through the village, and
+penetrate to the farthest outlying farmhouse. The first shot may well
+be an accident, the second may possibly be, but as the third inexorably
+follows, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and sons,
+look at each other with blanched faces, and instantly a hundred scenes
+of quiet preparation for meeting, are transformed into the confusion
+of a very different kind of preparation. Catechisms are dropped for
+muskets, and Bibles fall unnoticed under foot, as men spring for their
+haversacks and powder-horns. For those three guns summon the minute men
+to be on the march for Bennington. All the afternoon before, the roar of
+cannon has faintly sounded from the northward, and the people knew that
+Stark was meeting Baum and his Hessians, on the Hoosac. One detachment
+of Stockbridge men is already with him. Does this new summons mean
+disaster? Has the dreaded foe made good his boasted invincibility? No
+one knows, not even the exhausted messenger, for he was sent off
+by Stark, while yet the issue of yesterday's battle trembled in the
+balance.
+
+“It's kinder suddin. I wuz in hopes the boys wouldn' hev to go, bein as
+they wuz a fightin yisdy,” quavered old Elnathan Hamlin, as he trotted
+about, helplessly trying to help, and only hindering Mrs. Hamlin, as
+with white face, but deft hands, and quick eyes, she was getting her two
+boys ready, filling their haversacks, sewing a button here, tightening a
+buckle there, and looking to everything.
+
+“Ye must tak keer o' Reub, Perez. He ain't so rugged 'zye be. By rights,
+he orter ha stayed to hum.”
+
+“Oh, I'm as stout as Perez. I can wrastle him. Don't fret about me,”
+ said Reuben, with attempted gayety, though his boyish lip quivered as he
+looked at his mother's face, noting how she did not meet his eye, lest
+she should lose her self-control, and not be able to do anything more.
+
+“I'll look after the boy, never fear,” said Perez, slapping his brother
+on the back. “I'll fetch him back a General, as big a man as Squire
+Woodbridge.”
+
+“I dunno what 'n time I shall dew 'bout gittin in the crops,” whimpered
+Elnathan. “I can't dew it 'lone, nohow. Seems though my rheumatiz wuz
+wuss 'n ever, this las' spell o' weather.”
+
+“There goes Abner Rathbun, and George Fennell,” cried Perez. “Time we
+were off. Good-bye mother. There! There! Don't you cry, mother. We'll be
+back all right. Got your gun, Reub? Good-bye father. Come on,” and the
+boys were off.
+
+In seeming sympathy with the sudden grief that has fallen on the
+village, the bright promise of the morning has given place in the last
+hour to one of those sudden rain storms to which a mountainous region
+is always liable, and a cold drizzle is now falling. But that does
+not hinder every one who has friends among the departing soldiers, or
+sympathy with the cause represented, from gathering on the green to
+witness the muster and march of the men. All the leading men and the
+officials of the town and parish are there, including the two Indian
+selectmen, Johannes Metoxin and Joseph Sauquesquot. Squire Edwards,
+Deacon Nash, Squire Williams and Captain Josiah Jones, brother-in-law of
+Squire Woodbridge, are going about among the tearful groups, of one of
+which each soldier is a centre, reassuring and encouraging both those
+who go, and those who stay, the ones with the promise that their wives
+and children and parents shall be looked after and cared for, the others
+with confident talk of victory and speedy reunions.
+
+Squire Edwards tells Elnathan, who with Mrs. Hamlin has come down to the
+green, that he needn't fret about the mortgage on his house, and Deacon
+Nash tells him that he'll see that his crops are saved, and George
+Fennell, who, with his wife and daughter, stands by, is assured by the
+Squire, that they shall have what they want from the store. There is
+not a plough-boy among the minute men who is not honored today with a
+cordial word or two, or at least a smile, from the magnates who never
+before have recognized his existence.
+
+And proud in her tears, to-day, is the girl who has a sweetheart among
+the soldiers. Shy girls, who for fear of being laughed at, have kept a
+secret of their inclinations, now grown suddenly bold, cry, as they talk
+with their lovers, and refuse not the parting kiss. Desire Edwards, the
+Squire's daughter, as she moves among the groups, and sees these things,
+is stirred with envy and thinks she would give anything if she, too,
+had a sweetheart to bid good-bye to. But she is only fifteen, and Squire
+Edwards' daughter, moreover, to whom no rustic swain dares pretend. Then
+she bethinks herself that one has timidly, enough, so pretended. She
+knows that Elnathan Hamlin's son, Perez, is dreadfully in love with
+her. He is better bred than the other boys, but after all he is only a
+farmer's son, and while pleased with his conquest as a testimony to her
+immature charms, she has looked down upon him as quite an inferior order
+of being to herself. But just now he appears to her in the desirable
+light of somebody to bid good-bye to, to the end that she may be on
+a par with the other girls whom she so envies. So she looks about for
+Perez.
+
+And he, on his part, is looking about for her. That she, the Squire's
+daughter, as far above him as a star, would care whether he went or
+stayed, or would come to say good-bye to him, he had scarcely dared to
+think. And yet how deeply has that thought, which he has scarcely
+dared own, tinged all his other thinking! The martial glory that has so
+dazzled his young imagination, how much of its glitter was but reflected
+from a girl's eyes. As he looks about and not seeing her, says, “She
+does not care, she will not come,” the sword loses all its sheen, and
+the nodding plume its charm, and his dreams of self-devotion all their
+exhilaration.
+
+“I came to bid you good-bye, Perez,” says a voice behind him.
+
+He wheels about, red, confused, blissful. Desire Edwards, dark and
+sparkling as a gypsy, stands before him with her hand outstretched. He
+takes it eagerly, timidly. The little white fingers press his big brown
+ones. He does not feel them there; they seem to be clasping his heart.
+He feels the ecstatic pressure there.
+
+“Fall in,” shouts Captain Woodbridge, for the Squire himself is their
+captain.
+
+There is a tumult of embraces and kisses all around. Reuben kissed his
+mother.
+
+“Will you kiss me, Desire?” said Perez, huskily, carried beyond himself,
+scarcely knowing what he said, for if he had realized he never would
+have dared.
+
+Desire looked about, and saw all the women kissing their men. The air
+was electric.
+
+“Yes,” she said, and gave him her red lips, and for a moment it seemed
+as if the earth had gone from under his feet. The next thing he knew he
+was standing in line, with Reub on one side, and George Fennell on the
+other and Abner Rathbun's six feet three towering at one end of the
+line, while Parson West was standing on the piazza of the store, praying
+for the blessing of God on the expedition.
+
+“Amen,” the parson said, and Captain Woodbridge's voice rang out again.
+The lines faced to the right, filed off the green at quick step, turned
+into the Pittsfield road, and left the women to their tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SECOND
+
+NINE YEARS AFTER
+
+
+Early one evening in the very last of August, 1786, only three years
+after the close of the Revolutionary war, a dozen or twenty men and
+boys, farmers and laborers, are gathered, according to custom, in the
+big barroom of Stockbridge tavern. The great open fireplace of course
+shows no cheery blaze of logs at this season, and the only light is the
+dim and yellow illumination diffused by two or three homemade tallow
+candles stuck about the bar, which runs along half of one side of the
+apartment. The dim glimmer of some pewter mugs standing on a shelf
+behind the bar is the only spot of reflected light in the room, whose
+time-stained, unpainted woodwork, dingy plastering, and low ceiling,
+thrown into shadows by the rude and massive crossbeams, seems capable
+of swallowing up without a sign ten times the illumination actually
+provided. The faces of four or five men, standing near the bar, or
+lounging on it, are quite plainly visible, and the forms of half a dozen
+more who are seated on a long settle placed against the opposite wall,
+are more dimly to be seen, while in the back part of the room, leaning
+against the posts or walls, or lounging in the open doorway, a dozen or
+more figures loom indistinctly out of the darkness.
+
+The tavern, it must be remembered, as a convivial resort, is the social
+antipodes of the back room of Squire Edwards' “store.” If you would
+consort with silk-stockinged, wigged, and silver shoe-buckled gentlemen,
+you must just step over there, for at the tavern are only to be found
+the hewers of wood and drawers of water, mechanics, farm-laborers, and
+farmers. Ezra Phelps and Israel Goodrich, the former the owner of the
+new gristmill at “Mill Hollow,” a mile west of the village, the other
+a substantial farmer, with their corduroy coats and knee-breeches, blue
+woolen hose and steel shoe buckles, are the most socially considerable
+and respectably attired persons present.
+
+Perhaps about half the men and boys are barefooted, according to
+the economical custom of a time when shoes in summer are regarded as
+luxuries not necessities. The costume of most is limited to shirt and
+trousers, the material for which their own hands or those of their
+women-folk have sheared, spun, woven and dyed. Some of the better
+dressed wear trousers of blue and white striped stuff, of the kind
+now-a-days exclusively used for bed-ticking. The leathern breeches which
+a few years before were universal are still worn by a few in spite of
+their discomfort in summer.
+
+Behind the bar sits Widow Bingham, the landlady, a buxom, middle-aged
+woman, whose sharp black eyes have lost none of their snap, whether she
+is entertaining a customer with a little pleasant gossip, or exploring
+the murky recesses of the room about the door, where she well knows
+sundry old customers are lurking, made cowards of by consciousness
+of long unsettled scores upon her slate. And whenever she looks with
+special fixity into the darkness there is soon a scuttling of somebody
+out of doors.
+
+She pays little or no attention to the conversation of the men around
+the bar. Being largely political, it might be expected to have the less
+interest for one of the domestic sex, and moreover it is the same old
+story she has been obliged to hear over and over every evening, with
+little variation, for a year or two past.
+
+For in those days, throughout Massachusetts, at home, at the tavern, in
+the field, on the road, in the street, as they rose up, and as they sat
+down, men talked of nothing but the hard times, the limited markets, and
+low prices for farm produce, the extortions and multiplying numbers of
+the lawyers and sheriffs, the oppressions of creditors, the enormous,
+grinding taxes, the last sheriff's sale, and who would be sold out next,
+the last batch of debtors taken to jail, and who would go next, the
+utter dearth of money of any sort, the impossibility of getting work,
+the gloomy and hopeless prospect for the coming winter, and in general
+the wretched failure of the triumph and independence of the colonies to
+bring about the public and private prosperity so confidently expected.
+
+The air of the room is thick with smoke, for most of the men are smoking
+clay or corncob pipes, but the smoke is scarcely recognizable as that of
+tobacco, so largely is that expensive weed mixed with dried sweet-fern
+and other herbs, for the sake of economy. Of the score or two persons
+present, only two, Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, are actually
+drinking anything. Not certainly that they are the only ones disposed
+to drink, as the thirsty looks that follow the mugs to their lips,
+sufficiently testify, but because they alone have credit at the bar.
+Ezra furnishes Mrs. Bingham with meal from his mill, and drinks against
+the credit thus created, while Israel furnishes the landlady with
+potatoes on the same understanding. There being practically almost
+no money in circulation, most kinds of trade are dependent on such
+arrangements of barter. Meshech Little, the carpenter, who lies
+dead-drunk on the floor, his clothing covered with the sand, which it
+has gathered up while he was being unceremoniously rolled out of the
+way, is a victim of one of these arrangements, having just taken his pay
+in rum for a little job of tinkering about the tavern.
+
+“Meshech hain't hed a steady job sence the new meetin-haouse wuz done
+las' year, an I s'pose the critter feels kinder diskerridged like,” said
+Abner Rathbun, regarding the prostrate figure sympathetically. Abner has
+grown an inch and broadened proportionally, since Squire Woodbridge made
+him file leader of the minute men by virtue of his six feet three, and
+as he stands with his back to the bar, resting his elbows on it, the
+room would not be high enough for his head, but that he stands between
+the cross-beams.
+
+“I s'pose Meshech's fam'ly 'll hev to go ontew the taown,” observed
+Israel Goodrich. “They say ez the poorhouse be twicet ez full ez't orter
+be, naow.”
+
+“It'll hev more intew it fore 't hez less,” said Abner grimly.
+
+“Got no work, Abner? I hearn ye wuz up Lenox way a lookin fer suthin
+to dew,” inquired Peleg Bidwell, a lank, loose-jointed farmer, who was
+leaning against a post in the middle of the room, just on the edge of
+the circle of candlelight.
+
+“A feller ez goes arter work goes on a fool's errant,” responded Abner,
+dejectedly. “There ain' no work nowhar, an a feller might jess ez well
+sit down to hum an wait till the sheriff comes arter him.”
+
+“The only work as pays now-a-days is pickin the bones o' the people. Why
+don't ye turn lawyer or depity sheriff, an take to that, Abner?” said
+Paul Hubbard, an undersized man with a dark face, and thin, sneering
+lips.
+
+He had been a lieutenant in the Continental army, and used rather better
+language than the country folk ordinarily, which, as well as a
+cynical wit which agreed with the embittered popular temper, gave him
+considerable influence. Since the war he had been foreman of Colonel
+William's iron-works at West Stockbridge. There was great distress among
+the workmen on account of the stoppage of the works by reason of the
+hard times, but Hubbard, as well as most of the men, still remained
+in West Stockbridge, simply because there was no encouragement to go
+elsewhere.
+
+“Wat I can't make aout is that the lawyers an sheriffs sh'd git so dern
+fat a pickin our bones, seein ez ther's sech a dern leatle meat ontew
+us,” said Abner.
+
+“There's as much meat on squirrels as bears if you have enough of em,”
+ replied Hubbard. “They pick clean, ye see, an take all we've got, an
+every little helps.”
+
+“Yas,” said Abner, “they do pick darned clean, but that ain't the wust
+on't, fer they sends our bones tew rot in jail arter they've got all the
+meat orf.”
+
+“'Twas ony yesdy Iry Seymour sole out Zadkiel Poor, ez lives long side
+o' me, an tuk Zadkiel daown tew Barrington jail fer the res' what the
+sale didn't fetch,” said Israel Goodrich. “Zadkiel he's been kinder
+ailin like fer a spell back, an his wife, she says ez haow he can't live
+a month daown tew the jail, an wen Iry tuk Zadkiel orf, she tuk on reel
+bad. I declare for't, it seemed kinder tough.”
+
+“I hearn ez they be tew new fellers a studyin law intew Squire
+Sedgwick's office,” said Obadiah Weeks, a gawky youth of perhaps twenty,
+evidently anxious to buy a standing among the adult circle of talkers by
+contributing an item of information.
+
+Abner groaned. “Great Crypus! More blood-suckers. Why, they be ten
+lawyers in Stockbridge taown a'ready, an they warn't but one wen I wuz a
+boy, an thar wuz more settlers 'n they be naow.”
+
+“Wal, I guess they'll git nuff to dew,” said Ezra Phelps. “I hearn as
+haow they's seven hundred cases on the docket o' the Common Pleas, nex'
+week, mos' on em fer debt.”
+
+“I hearn as two hundred on em be from Stockbridge an the iron-works,”
+ added Israel. “I declare for't Zadkiel 'll hev plenty o' kumpny daown
+tew jail, by the time them suits be all tried.”
+
+“By gosh, what be we a comin tew?” groaned Abner. “It doos seem zif we
+all on us mout z'well move daown tew the jail to onc't, an hev done with
+'t. We're baown to come to 't fuss or las'.”
+
+Presently Peleg Bidwell said, “My sister Keziah's son, by her fuss
+husban's been daown tew Bosting, an I hearn say ez haow he says ez the
+folks daown East mos'ly all hez furniter from Lunnon, and the women
+wears them air Leghorn hats as cos ten shillin lawful, let alone
+prunelly shoes an satin stockins, an he says as there ain't a ship goes
+out o' Bosting harbor ez don' take more'n five thousan paound o' lawful
+money outer the kentry. I callate,” pursued Peleg, “that's jess what's
+tew the bottom o' the trouble. It's all long o' the rich folks a sendin
+money out o' the kentry to git theirselves fine duds, an that's wy we
+don' git more'n tuppence a paound fer our mutton, an nex' ter nothin fer
+wheat, an don't have nothin to pay taxes with nor to settle with Squire
+Edwards, daown ter the store. That's the leak in the bar'l, an times
+won't git no better till that's plugged naow, I tell yew.”
+
+“If't comes to pluggin leaks ye kin look nigher hum nor Bosting,”
+ observed Abner. “I hearn ez Squire Woodbridge giv fifty pound lawful fer
+that sorter tune box ez he'z get fer his gal, an they doos say ez them
+cheers o' Squire Sedgwick's cos twenty pound lawful in the old kentry.”
+
+“What dew they call that air tune box?” inquired Israel Goodrich. “I've
+hearn tell but I kinder fergit. It's some Frenchified soundin name.”
+
+“It's a pianner,” said Obadiah.
+
+“I guess peeanner's nigher right,” observed Peleg critically. “My gal
+hearn the Edwards gal call it peeanner.”
+
+“They ain't nuther of ye in a mile o' right. 'Tain't pianner, an 'tain't
+peeanner; it's pianny,” said Abner, who on account of having once served
+a few weeks in connection with a detachment of the French auxiliaries,
+was conceded to be an authority on foreign pronunciation.
+
+“I hain't got no idee on't, nohow,” said Israel shaking his head. “I
+hearn it a goin ez I wuz a comin by the store. Souns like ez if it wuz
+a hailin ontew a lot o' milk pans. I never suspicioned ez I should live
+tew hear sech a n'ise.”
+
+“I guess Peleg's baout right,” said Abner. “Thar won't be no show fer
+poor folks, 'nless they is a law agin' sendin money aouter the kentry.”
+
+“I callate that would be a shuttin of the barn door arter the hoss is
+stole,” said Ezra Phelps, as he arrested a mug of flip on its way to his
+lips, to express his views. “There ain' no use o' beginnin to save arter
+all's spent. I callate guvment's got ter print a big stack o' new bills
+ef we're a goin to git holt o' no money.”
+
+“Ef it's paper bills as ye're a talkin baout,” said Abner grimly, “I've
+got quite a slew on em tew hum, mebbe a peck or tew. I got em fer pay
+in the army. They're tew greasy tew kindle a fire with, an I dunno o'
+nothin else ez they're good for. Ye're welcome to em, Ezry. My little
+Bijah assed me fer some on em tew make a kite outer thuther day, an
+I says tew him, says I, 'Bijah, I don' callate they'll do nohow fer a
+kite, for I never hearn of a Continental bill a goin up, but ef yer want
+a sinker fer yer fish line they're jess the thing.'”
+
+There was a sardonic snicker at Ezra's expense, but he returned to the
+charge quite undismayed.
+
+“That ain't nuther here nor there,” he said, turning toward Abner and
+emphasizing his words with the empty mug. “What I asses yew is, wan't
+them bills good fer suthin wen they wuz fuss printed?”
+
+“They wuz wuth suthin fer a wile,” assented Abner.
+
+“Ezackly,” said the other, “that's the nater o' bills. Allers they is
+good fer a wile and then they kinder begins to run daown, an they runs
+daown till they ain't wuth nuthin,” and Ezra illustrated the process by
+raising the mug as high as his head and bringing it slowly down to his
+knees. “Paounds an shillins runs daown tew by gittin wored off till
+they's light weight. Every kine o' money runs daown, on'y it's the nater
+o' bills to run daown a leetle quicker nor other sorts. Naow I says,
+an I ain't the ony one ez says it, that all guvment's got to dew is tew
+keep a printin new bills ez fass ez the old ones gits run daown. Times
+wuz good long in the war. A feller could git baout what he assed fer his
+crops an he could git any wages he assed. Yer see guvment wuz a printin
+money fass. Jess's quick ez a bill run daown they up and printed another
+one, so they wuz allers plenty. Soon ez the war wuz over they stopped a
+printin bills and immejetly the hard times come. Hain't that so?”
+
+“I dunno but yew be right,” said Abner, thoughtfully, “I never thort
+on't ezzackly that way,” and Isaiah Goodrich also expressed the opinion
+that there was “somethin into what Ezry says.”
+
+“What we wants,” pursued Ezra, “what we wants, is a kine o' bills
+printed as shall lose vally by reglar rule, jess so much a month, no
+more no less, cordin ez its fixed by law an printed on tew the bills
+so'z everybody'll understan an no-body'll git cheated. I hearn that's
+the idee as the Hampshire folks went fer in the convenshun daown tew
+Hatfield this week. Ye see, ez I wuz a sayin, bills is baoun tew
+come daown anyhow ony if they comes daown regler, cordin tew law,
+everybody'll know what t'expect, and nobody won' lose nothin.”
+
+“Praps the convenshun what's a sittin up tew Lenox'll rekummen them
+bills,” hopefully suggested a farmer who had been taking in Ezra's
+wisdom with open mouth.
+
+“I don' s'pose that it'll make any odds how many bills are printed as
+far's we're concerned,” said Hubbard, bitterly. “The lawyers'll make out
+to git em all pretty soon. Ye might's well try to fat a hog with a tape
+worm in him, as to make folks rich as long as there are any lawyers
+round.”
+
+“Yas, an jestices' fees, an sheriff fees is baout ez bad ez lawyer's,”
+ said Israel Goodrich, whose countenance was beginning to glow from the
+influence of his potations. “I tell you wesh'd be a dern sight better
+off 'f'all the courts wuz stopped. Most on ye is young fellers, 'cept
+you Elnathan Hamlin, thar. He'll tell ye, ez I tell ye, that this air
+caounty never seen sech good times, spite on'ts bein war times, ez long
+fur '74 to '80, arter we'd stopped the King's courts from sittin an
+afore we'd voted for the new constitution o' the state, ez we wuz durn
+fools fer doin of, ef I dew say it. In them six year thar warn't nary
+court sot nowhere in the caounty, from Boston Corner tew ole Fort
+Massachusetts, an o' course thar warn't no lawyers an no sheriffs ner
+no depity sheriffs nuther, tew make every debt twice as big with ther
+darnation fees. They warn't no sheriffs sales, nuther, a sellin of a
+feller outer house'n hum an winter comin on, an thar warn't no suein an
+no jailin of fellers fer debt. Folks wuz keerful who they trusted, ez
+they'd orter be allers, for ther warn't no klectin o' debts nohow, an
+ef that warn't allers jestice I reckin 'twas as nigh jestice as 'tis
+to klect bills swelled more'n double by lawyers' and sheriffs' and
+jestices' fees ez they doos naow. In them days ef any feller wuz put
+upon by another he'd jess got tew complain tew the slectmen or the
+committee, an they'd right him. I tell yew rich folks an poor folks
+lived together kinder neighborly in them times an 'cordin tew scripter.
+The rich folks warn't a grindin the face o' the poor, an the poor they
+wuzn't a hatin an a envyin o' the rich, nigh untew blood, ez they is
+naow, ef I dew say it. Yew rekullec them days, Elnathan, warn't it jess
+ez I say?”
+
+“Them wuz good times, Israel. Ye ain't sayin nothin more'n wuz trew,”
+ said Elnathan in a feeble treble, from his seat on the settle.
+
+“I tell you they wuz good,” reiterated Israel, as he looked around upon
+the group with scintillating eyes, and proceeded to hand his mug over
+the bar to be refilled.
+
+“I hearn ez haow the convenshun up tew Lenox is a go in tew 'bolish the
+lawyers an the courts,” said a stalwart fellow of bovine countenance,
+named Laban Jones, one of the discharged iron-works men.
+
+“The convenshun can't 'bolish nothin,” said Peleg Bidwell, gloomily. “It
+can't do nothin but rekommen the Gineral Court way daown tew Bosting.
+Bosting is too fer orf fer this caounty, nor Hampshire nuther, tew git
+no considerashin. This eend o' the state ull never git its rights till
+the guvment's moved outer Bosting tew Worcester where't uster be in war
+times.”
+
+“That's so,” said Ezra Phelps, “everybody knows as these tew counties be
+taxed higher nor the other eend o' the state.”
+
+“Hev yew paid up ye taxes fer las' year, Peleg?” inquired Abner.
+
+“No, I hain't, nor fer year afore, nuther. Gosh, I can't. I could pay
+in pertaters, but I can't pay in money. Ther ain't no money. Klector
+Williams says as haow he'd hafter sell me out, an I s'pose he's goin
+ter. It's kinder tough, but I don' see zi kin dew nothin. I callate to
+be in the jail or poorhouse, afore spring.”
+
+“I dunno o' nobody roun here, as haz paid ther taxes fer las year, yit,”
+ said Israel. “I callate that more'n half the farms in the caounty 'll be
+sole fer taxes afore spring.”
+
+“I hearn as how Squire Woodbridge says taxes is ten times what they wuz
+afore the war, an its sartain that they ain't one shillin intew folks'
+pockets tew pay em with whar they wuz ten on em in them days. It seems
+dern curis, bein as we fit agin the redcoats jest tew git rid o' taxes,”
+ said Abner.
+
+“Taxes is mosly fer payin interest ontew the money what govment borrowed
+tew kerry on the war. Naow, I says, an I ain't the on'y one in the
+caounty as says it, nuther, ez debts orter run daown same ez bills does,
+reglar, so much a month, till they ain't nuthin leff,” said Ezra Phelps,
+setting down his mug with an emphatic thud. “S'poosn I borrers money
+of yew, Abner, an built a haouse, that haouse is boun tew run daown
+in vally, I callate, 'long from year tew year. An it seems kinder
+rees'nable that the debt sh'd run daown's fass as the haouse, so's wen
+the haouse gits wored aout, the debt 'll be, tew. Them things ez govment
+bought with the money it borrered, is wore aout, an it seems kinder
+rees'nable that the debts should be run daown tew. A leetle orter a been
+took orf the debt every year, instead o' payin interes ontew it.”
+
+“I guess like's not ye hev the rights on't, Ezry. I wuzn't a thinkin
+on't that air way, ezzactly. I wuz a thinkin that if govment paid one
+kine o' debts 't orter pay t'other kine. I fetched my knapsack full o'
+govment bills hum from the war. I callate them bills wuz all on em debts
+what the govment owed tew me fur a fightin. Ef govment ain't a goin tew
+pay me them bills, an 'tain't, 'it don' seem fair tew tax me so's it kin
+pay debts it owes tew other folks. Leastways seems's though them bills
+govment owes me orter be caounted agin the taxes instead o' bein good
+fer nothin. It don't seem ez if 'twas right, nohaow.”
+
+“Leastways,” said Peleg, “if the Gineral Court hain't a goin ter print
+more bills 't orter pass a lor, seein thar ain't no money in the kentry,
+so 'z a feller's prop'ty could be tuk by a fair valiation fer what he
+owes, instead o' lettin the sheriff sell it fer nothin and sendin a
+feller tew jail fer the balince. Wen I giv Squire Edwards that air
+leetle morgidge on my farm, money wuz plenty, an I callated tew pay it
+up easy; an naow thar ain't no money, an I can't git none, if I died
+for't. It's jess zif I 'greed tew sell a load o' ice in January, an a
+thaw come an thar wan't no ice leff. Property's wuth's much 'z ever I
+callate, an't orter be good fer debts instead o' money, 'cordin to a far
+valiation.”
+
+“Mr. Goodrich, how did you go to work to stop the King's courts in '74?
+Did you hang the justices?” inquired Paul Hubbard, arousing from a fit
+of contemplation.
+
+“Nary bit,” replied Isaiah, “there warn't no need o' hangin nobody.
+'Twas a fine mornin in May, I rekullec jess zif 'twas yes'day, wen the
+court was a goin tew open daown tew Barrington, an abaout a thousan men
+on us jess went daown an filled up the court haouse, an woudn' let the
+jedges in, an wen they see 'twan't no use, they jess give in quiet's
+lambs, an we made em sign their names tew a paper agreein not tew hold
+no more courts, an the job wuz done. Ye see the war wuzn't farly begun
+an none o' the King's courts in th' uther caounties wuz stopped, but we
+callated the court mout make trouble for some o' the Sons o' Liberty, in
+the caounty if we let it set.”
+
+“I callate 't ain't nothin very hard tew stop a court, 'cordin tew
+that,” said Peleg Bidwell.
+
+“No, 'tain't hard, not ef the people is gen'ally agin' the settin on
+it,” said Isaiah.
+
+“I s'pose ef a thousan men sh'd be daown tew Barrington nex' week
+Tewsday, they could stop the jestice fr'm openin the Common Pleas, jess
+same ez yew did,” said Peleg, thoughtfully.
+
+“Sartain,” said Isaac, “sartain; leastways's long ez the militia warn't
+aout, but gosh, they ain't no sense o' talkin baout sech things! These
+hain't no sech times ez them wuz, an folks ain't what they wuz, nuther.
+They seems kinder slimpsy; hain't got no grit.”
+
+During this talk, Elnathan had risen and gone feebly out.
+
+“Elnathan seems tew take it tew heart baout leavin the ole place. I
+hearn ez how Solomon Gleason's goin ter sell him aout pooty soon,” Abner
+remarked.
+
+“I guess t'ain't so much that as 'tis the bad news he's heerd baout Reub
+daown tew Barrington jail,” said Obadiah Weeks.
+
+“What's abaout Reub?” asked Abner.
+
+“He's a goin intew a decline daown to the jail.”
+
+“I wanter know! Poor Reub!” said Abner, compassionately. “He fout side
+o' me tew Stillwater, an Perez was t'other side. Perez done me a good
+turn that day, ez I shan't furgit in a hurry. Gosh, he'd take it hard
+ef he hearn ez haow Reub wuz in jail! I never seed tew fellers set more
+store by another 'n he did by Reub.”
+
+“Wonder ef Perez ain't never a comin hum. He hain't been back sence the
+war. I hearn his folks had word a spell ago, ez he wuz a comin,” said
+Peleg.
+
+“Gosh!” exclaimed Abner, his rough features softening with a pensive
+cast, “I rekullec jess zif 'twar yes'dy, that rainy mornin wen we
+fellers set orf long with Squire Woodbridge fer Bennington. Thar wuz me,
+'n Perez, an Reub, an Abe Konkapot, 'n lessee, yew went afore, didn't
+ye, Peleg?”
+
+“Yas, I went with Cap'n Stoddard,” replied that individual.
+
+“Thar we wuz; all a stannin in line,” pursued Abner, gazing right
+through the ceiling, as if he could see just the other side of it the
+scene which he so vividly recalled, “an Parson West a prayin, an the
+wimmin a whimperin, an we nigh ontew it; fer we wuz green, an the
+mothers' milk warn't aouter us. But I bet we tho't we wuz big pertaters,
+agoin to fight fer lib'ty. Wall, we licked the redcoats, and we got
+lib'ty, I s'pose; lib'ty ter starve, that is ef we don' happin to git
+sent tew jail fus,” and Abner's voice fell, and his chin dropped on his
+breast, in a sudden reaction of dejection at the thought of the bitter
+disappointment of all the hopes which that day had made their hearts so
+strong, even in the hour of parting.
+
+“I callate we wuz a dern sight better orf every way under the King, 'n
+we be naow. The Tories wuz right, arter all, I guess. We'd better a
+let well nuff l'one, an not to a jumped aouter the fryin-pan intew the
+fire,” said Peleg, gloomily.
+
+As he ended speaking, a medium sized man, with a pasty white, freckled
+complexion, bristly red hair, a retreating forehead and small, sharp
+eyes, came forward from the dark corner near the door. His thin lips
+writhed in a mocking smile, as he stood confronting Peleg and Abner, and
+looking first at one and then at the other:
+
+“Ef I don' furgit,” he said at length, “that's 'baout the way I talked
+wen the war wuz a goin on, an if I rekullec, ye, Peleg, an ye, Abner
+Rathbun and Meshech Little, thar on the floor, tuk arter me with
+yer guns and dorgs caze ye said I wuz a dum Tory. An ye hunted me on
+Stockbridge mounting like a woodchuck, an ye'd a hed my skelp fer sartin
+ef I hadn't been a durn sight smarter 'n ye ever wuz.”
+
+“Jabez,” said Abner, “I hope ye don' hev no hard feelin's. Times be
+changed. Let by gones be by gones.”
+
+“Mos' folks ud say I hed some call to hev hard feelin's. Ye druv me ter
+hide in caves, an holes, fer the best part o' tew year. I dass'n come
+hum tew see my wife die, nor tew bury on her. Ye confiscated my house
+and tuk my crops fer yer derned army. Mos' folks ud sartingly say ez
+I hed call tew hev hard feelin's agin' ye. But gosh, I hain't, an wy
+hain't I? Gaze ye hev been yer own wust enemies; ye've hurt yerselves
+more ner ye hev me, though ye didn't go fer ter dew it. Pooty nigh
+all on ye, as fit agen the King, is beggars naow, or next door tew it.
+Everybudy hez a kick fer a soldier. Ye'll fine em mosly in the jails an
+the poorhaouses. Look at you fellers as wuz a huntin me. Ther's Meshech
+on the floor, a drunken, worthless cuss. Thar ye be, Abner, 'thout a
+shillin in the world, nor a foot o' lan', yer dad's farm gone fer taxes.
+An thar be ye, Peleg. Wal Peleg, they dew say, ez the neighbors sends ye
+in things.”
+
+Jabez looked from one to the other till he had sufficiently enjoyed
+their discomfiture and then he continued:
+
+“I ain't much better orf'n ye be, but I hain't got nothin ontew my
+conscience. An wen I looks roun' an sees the oppresshin, and the poverty
+of the people, and how they have none tew help, an the jails so full, an
+the taxes, an the plague o' lawyers, an the voice o' cryin as is goin
+up from the land, an all the consekences o' the war, I tell ye, it's
+considabul satisfacshin to feel ez I kin wash my hans on't.” And, with
+a glance of contemptuous triumph around the circle, Jabez turned on his
+heel and went out. The silence was first broken by Ezra Phelps, who said
+quietly:
+
+“Wal, Jabez ain't fur from right. It's abaout so. Some says the King is
+callatin to try to git the colonies back agin fore long. Ef he doos I
+guess he'll make aout, fur I don't bleeve ez a kumpny o' men could be
+raised in all Berkshire, tew go an fight the redcoats agin, if they wuz
+to come to-morrer.” And a general murmur of assent confirmed his words.
+
+“Wal,” said Abner, recovering speech, “live an larn. In them days wen
+I went a gunnin arter Jabez, I uster to think ez thar wuzn't no sech
+varmint ez a Tory, but I didn't know nothin bout lawyers, and sheriffs
+them times. I callate ye could cut five Tories aout o' one lawyer an
+make a dozen skunks aout o' what wuz leff over. I'm a goin hum.”
+
+This was the signal for a general break-up. Israel, who had fallen into
+a boozy slumber on the settle, was roused and sent home between his
+son and hired man, and presently the tavern was dark save for the
+soon extinguished glimmer of a candle at the upstairs window of Widow
+Bingham's apartment. Meshech was left to snore upon the barroom floor
+and grope his way outdoors as best he might, when he should return to
+his senses. For doors were not locked in Stockbridge in those days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRD
+
+THE TAVERN-JAIL AT BARRINGTON
+
+
+Peleg's information, although of a hearsay character, was correct.
+Perez Hamlin was coming home. The day following the conversation in the
+barroom of Stockbridge tavern, which I have briefly sketched in the
+last chapter, about an hour after noon, a horseman might have been seen
+approaching the village of Great Barrington, on the road from Sheffield.
+He wore the buff and blue uniform of a captain in the late Continental
+army, and strapped to the saddle was a steel hilted sword which had
+apparently experienced a good many hard knocks. The lack of any other
+baggage to speak of, as well as the frayed and stained condition of his
+uniform, indicated that however rich the rider might be in glory, he was
+tolerably destitute of more palpable forms of wealth.
+
+Poverty, in fact, had been the chief reason that had prevented Captain
+Hamlin from returning home before. The close of the war had found him
+serving under General Greene in South Carolina, and on the disbandment
+of the troops he had been left without means of support. Since then
+he had been slowly working his way homewards, stopping a few months
+wherever employment or hospitality offered. What with the lack and
+insecurity of mails, and his frequent movements, he had not heard from
+home for two or three years, though he had written. But in those days,
+when the constant exchange of bulletins of health and business between
+friends, which burdens modern mail bags, was out of the question, the
+fact perhaps developed a more robust quality of faith in the well-being
+of the absent than is known in these timid and anxious days. Certain it
+is that as the soldier rides along, the smiles that from time to time
+chase each other across his bronzed face, indicate that gay and tender
+anticipations of the meeting now only a few hours away, leave no room in
+his mind for gloomy conjectures of possible disaster. It is nine years
+since he parted with his father and mother; and his brother Reub he has
+not seen since the morning in 1778, when Perez, accepting a commission,
+had gone south with General Greene, and Reub had left for home with
+Abner and Fennell, and a lot of others whose time had expired. He smiles
+now as he thinks how he never really knew what it was to enjoy the
+fighting until he got the lad off home, so that he had not to worry
+about his being hit every time there was any shooting going on. Coming
+into Great Barrington, he asked the first man he met where the tavern
+was.
+
+“That's it, over yonder,” said the man, jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder at a nondescript building some way ahead.
+
+“That looks more like a jail.”
+
+“Wal, so 'tis. The jail's in the ell part o' the tavern. Cephe Bement
+keeps 'em both.”
+
+“It's a queer notion to put em under the same roof.”
+
+“I dunno 'bout that, nuther. It's mostly by way o' the tavern that
+fellers gits inter jail, I calc'late.”
+
+Perez laughed, and riding up to the tavern end of the jail, dismounted,
+and going into the barroom, ordered a plate of pork and beans. Feeling
+in excellent humor he fell to conversing over his modest meal with the
+landlord, a big, beefy man, who evidently liked to hear himself talk,
+and in a gross sort of way, appeared to be rather good natured.
+
+“I saw a good many red flags on farmhouses, as I was coming up from
+Sheffield, this morning,” said Perez. “You haven't got the smallpox in
+the county again, have you?”
+
+“Them wuz sheriff's sales,” said the landlord, laughing uproariously, in
+which he was joined by a seedy, red-nosed character, addressed as Zeke,
+who appeared to be a hanger-on of the barroom in the function of echo to
+the landlord's jokes.
+
+“Ye'll git uster that air red flag ef ye stay long in these parts. Ye
+ain't so fer from right arter all, though, fer I guess mos' folks'd
+baout as leeve hev the smallpox in the house ez the sheriff.”
+
+“Times are pretty hard hereabouts, are they?”
+
+“Wal, yes, they be baout ez hard ez they kin be, but ye see it's wuss
+in this ere caounty 'n 'tis 'n mos' places, cause ther warn't nary court
+here fer six or eight year, till lately, an no debts wuz klected 'n so
+they've kinder piled up. I callate they ain't but dern few fellers in
+the caounty 'cept the parsons, 'n lawyers, 'n doctors ez ain't a bein
+sued ted-day, 'specially the farmers. I tell you it makes business
+lively fer the lawyers an sheriffs. They're the ones ez rides in
+kerridges these days.”
+
+“Is the jail pretty full now?”
+
+“Chock full, hed to send a batch up ter Lenox las' week, an got em
+packed bout's thick's they'll lay naow, like codfish in a bar'l. Haow
+in time I'm a gonter make room fer the fellers the court'll send in nex'
+week, I d'now, derned if I dew. They'd orter be three new jails in the
+caounty this blamed minit.”
+
+“Do you expect a good many more this week?”
+
+“Gosh, yes. Why, man alive, the Common Pleas never had ez much business
+ez this time. I callate they's nigh onter seven hundred cases tew try.”
+
+“The devil! Has there been a riot or a rebellion in the county? What
+have they all done?”
+
+“Oh they hain't done nothin,” replied the landlord, “they ain't nothin
+but debtors. Dern debtors, I don' like to hev the jailin of em. They
+hain't got no blood intew em like Sabbath-breakers, an blasphemers,
+an rapers has. They're weakly, pulin kinder chaps, what thar ain't
+no satisfaction a lockin up an a knockin roun'. They're dreffle
+deskerridgin kind o' fellers tew. Ye see we never git rid on em. They
+never gits let aout like other fellers as is in jail. They hez tew stay
+till they pays up, an naterally they can't pay up's long ez they stays.
+Genally they goes aout feet foremost, when they goes aout at all, an
+they ain't long lived.”
+
+“Why don't they pay up before they get in?” queried Perez.
+
+“Whar be ye from?” asked the landlord, staring at him.
+
+“I'm from New York, last.”
+
+“I thort ye could't be from roun' here, nowheres, to as' sech a
+queschin. Why don' they pay their debts? Did ye hear that Zeke? Why,
+jess caze they ain' no money in the kentry tew pay em with. It don' make
+a mite o' odds haow much propty a feller's got. It don' fetch nothin tew
+a sale. The credtor buys it in fer nothin, an the feller goes to jail
+fer the balance. A man as has got a silver sixpence can amos buy a farm.
+Some folks says they orter be a law makin propty a tender fer debts on a
+far valiation. I dunno, I don' keer, I hain't no fault tew find with my
+business, leastways the jail end on't.”
+
+Finishing his dinner, Perez asked for his score, and drew a large wallet
+from his pocket, and took out a roll of about five thousand dollars in
+Continental bills.
+
+“Hain't ye got no Massachusetts bills? They ain't wuth but one shillin
+in six but that's suthin, and them Continental bills ain't wuth haouse
+room. Gosh durn it. I swow, ef I'd a known ye hadn't nothin but them,
+I wouldn't a guv ye a drop to drink nor eat nuther. Marthy say ony this
+morning, 'Cephas,' says she, 'rum 's rum an rags is rags, an don' ye
+give no more rum fer rags.'”
+
+“Well,” said Perez, “I have nothing else. Government thought they were
+good enough to pay the soldiers for their blood; they ought to pay
+landlords for their rum.”
+
+“I dunno nothin baout bein soldiers, an I dunno ez I or any other man's
+beholden to ye for't, nuther. Ye got paid all twat wuth if ye didn't git
+paid nuthin; fur's I kin reckon, we wuz a durn sight better orf under
+Ole King George 's we be naow. Ain' that baout so, Zeke?”
+
+“Well,” said Perez, “if you won't take these, I can't pay you at all.”
+
+“Well” said Bement crossly, “thar's the beans an mug o' flip. Call it a
+thousand dollars, an fork over, but by gosh, I don' git caught that way
+again. It's downright robbery, that's wot it is. I say ain't ye got no
+cleaner bills nor these?”
+
+“Perhaps these are cleaner,” said Perez, handing him another lot. “What
+odds does it make?”
+
+“Wal, ye see, ef they be middlin clean, I kin keep kaounts on the backs
+on em, and Marthy finds em handy wen she writes to her folks daown tew
+Springfield. Tain't fuss class writin paper, but it's cheaper'n other
+kinds, an that's suthin in these times.”
+
+Having satisfied the landlord's requirements, as well as possible, Perez
+walked to the door and stood looking out. The ell containing the jail,
+coming under his eye, he turned and said, “You spoke of several hundred
+debtors coming before the court next week. It don't look as if you could
+get over fifty in here.”
+
+“Oh ye can jam in a hundred. I've got nigh that naow, and thay's other
+lockups in the caounty,” replied the landlord. “But ef they wuz a gonter
+try to shet up all the debtors, they'd hev tew build a half a dozen new
+jails. But bless ye, the mos' on em won't be shet up. Ther creditors 'll
+git jedgments agin' em, an then they'll hev rings in their noses, an kin
+dew wot they likes with em caze ef they don' stan raoun' they kin shove
+em right intew jug ye see.”
+
+“You don't mean to say there's much of that sort of slavery,” ejaculated
+Perez.
+
+“I'd now baout slavery ezzackly, but thar's plenty o' that sort o' thing
+fer sartin. Credtors mosly'd ruther dew that way, caze they kin git
+suthin aout a feller, an ef they sen em tew jail it's a dead loss. They
+makes em work aout ther debt and reckons ther work tew baout wat they
+pleases. They is some queer kinder talk baout wat kind er things they
+makes em stan sometimes rather'n go ter jail. Wal, all I says is that
+a feller ez hez got a good lookin gal hed better not git a owin much
+in these ere times. I hain't said nothin, hev I, Zeke?” and that worthy
+answered his wink with a salacious chuckle.
+
+“Have you any debtors from Stockbridge?” asked Perez, suddenly.
+
+“A hull slew on em,” replied Bement. “I've got one more'n I shall hev
+much longer, tew.”
+
+“Who be that?” asked Zeke.
+
+“Wal, I callate George Fennell won't hole out much longer.”
+
+“Fennell; George Fennell! George Fennell is not in this jail,” cried
+Perez.
+
+“Wal, naow,” said Bement, imperturbably, “perhaps ye know better'n I
+dew.”
+
+“But, landlord, he's my friend, my comrade, I'd like to see him,” and
+the young man's countenance expressed the liveliest concern.
+
+The landlord seemed to hesitate. Finally he turned his head and called,
+“Marthy”, and a plump, kitten-like little woman appeared at a door,
+opening into the end of the bar, whereupon, the landlord, as he jerked
+his thumb over his shoulder to indicate their guest, remarked:
+
+“He wants ter know if 'ee kin be let ter see George Fennell. Says he's
+his fren, an uster know him to the war.”
+
+Mrs. Bement looked at the officer and said, “Wal, my husbun don'
+genally keer to hev folks a seein the pris'ners, coz it makes em kinder
+discontented like.” She hesitated a little and then added, “But I
+dunno's 'twill dew no harm Cephas, bein as Fennell won' las' much longer
+anyhow.”
+
+Thus authorized, Bement took a bundle of keys from a hook behind the
+bar, and proceeded to unlock the padlock which fastened an iron bar
+across a heavy plank door, in the middle of one of the sides of the
+room. As he threw open the door, a gust of foul stenches belched forth
+into the room, almost nauseating Perez. The smell of the prison was like
+that of a pig sty. The door had opened into a narrow corridor, dimly lit
+by a small square grated window at the further end, while along either
+side were rows of strong plank doors opening outward, and secured by
+heavy, oaken bars, slipped across them at the middle. The muggy dog-day
+had been very oppressive, even out of doors; but here in the corridor,
+it was intolerable. To breathe in the horrible concoction of smells, was
+like drinking from a sewer; the lungs, even as they involuntarily took
+it in, strove spasmodically to close their passages against it. It was
+impossible for one unaccustomed to such an atmosphere, to breathe, save
+by gasps. Bement stopped at one of the doors, and as he was raising the
+bar across it, he said:
+
+“Thar ain' on'y one feller 'sides Fennell in here. He's a Stockbridge
+feller, too. The cell ain' so big's the others. Genally thar's three or
+four together. I'll jess shet ye in, an come back for ye in a minit.”
+
+He opened the door, and as the other stepped in, it was closed and
+barred behind him. The cell was about seven feet square and as high. The
+floor was a foot lower than the corridor, and correspondingly damper.
+It must have been on or below the level of the ground, and the floor,
+as well as the lower end of the planks which formed the walls, was
+black with moisture. The cell was littered with straw and every kind
+of indescribable filth, while the walls and ceiling were mildewed and
+spotted with ghastly growths of mould, feeding on the moist and filthy
+vapors, which were even more sickening than in the corridor.
+
+Full six feet from the floor, too high to look out of, was a small
+grated window, a foot square, through which a few feeble, dog-day
+sunbeams, slanting downward, made a little yellow patch upon the lower
+part of one of the sides of the cell. Sitting upon a pile of filthy
+straw, leaning back against the wall, with his face directly in this
+spot, one of the prisoners was half-sitting, half-lying, his eyes shut
+as if asleep, and a smile of perfect happiness resting on his pale and
+weazened face. Doubtless he was dreaming of the time, when, as a boy,
+he played all day in the shining fields, or went blackberrying in the
+ardent July sun. For him the river was gleaming again, turning its
+million glittering facets to the sun, or, maybe, his eye was delighting
+in the still sheen of ponds in Indian summer, as they reflected the red
+glory of the overhanging maple or the bordering sumach thicket.
+
+The other prisoner was kneeling on the floor before the wall, with a
+piece of charcoal in his hand, mumbling to himself as he busily added
+figures to a sum with which the surface above was already covered. As
+the door of the cell closed, he looked around from his work. Like the
+man's on the floor, his face had a ghastly pallor, against which the
+dirt with which it is stained, shows with peculiarly obscene effect,
+while the beards and hair of both had grown long and matted and were
+filled with straw. So completely had their miserable condition disguised
+them, that Perez would not have known in the dim light of the cell that
+he had ever seen either before.
+
+The man who had been kneeling on the floor, after his first look of dull
+curiosity, began to stare fixedly at Perez, as if he were an apparition,
+and then rose to his feet. As he did so, Perez saw that he could not be
+Fennell, for the latter was tall, and this man was quite short. Yes,
+the reclining man must be George, and now he noted as an unmistakable
+confirmation, a scar on one of the emaciated hands lying on his breast.
+“George,” he said, stepping to his side. As he did so he passed athwart
+the bar of sunshine that was falling on the man's countenance. A peevish
+expression crossed his face, and he opened his eyes, the burning,
+glassy eyes of the consumptive. For a few seconds he looked fixedly,
+wonderingly, and then said half dreamily, half inquiringly, as if he
+were not quite certain whether it were a man or a vision, he murmured:
+
+“Perez?”
+
+“Yes, it is I, George,” said the soldier, his eyes filling with
+compassionate tears. “How came you in this horrible place?”
+
+But before Fennell could answer the other prisoner sprang to the side of
+the speaker, clutching his arm in his claw-like fingers, and crying in
+an anguished voice:
+
+“Perez; brother Perez. Don't you know me?”
+
+At the voice Perez started as if a bullet had reached his heart. Like
+lightning he turned, his face, frozen with fear, that was scarcely yet
+comprehended, his eyes like darts. From that white filthy face in its
+wild beast's mat of hair, his brother's eyes were looking into his.
+
+“Lord, God in Heaven!” It was a husky, struggling voice, scarcely more
+than a whisper in which he uttered the words. For several seconds the
+brothers stood gazing into each other's countenances, Reuben holding
+Perez' arm and he half shrinking, not from his brother, though such was
+the attitude, but from the horror of the discovery.
+
+“How long” he began to ask, and then his voice broke. The emaciated
+figure before him, the face bleached with the ghastly pallor which a
+sunless prison gives, the deep sunken eyes looking like coals of fire,
+eating their way into his brain, the tattered clothing, the long unkempt
+hair and beard, prematurely whitening, and filled with filth, the
+fingers grown claw-like and blue, with prison mould, the dull vacant
+look and the thought that this was Reuben, his brother; these things all
+filled him with such an unutterable, intolerable pity, that it seemed as
+if he should lose his head and go wild for very anguish of heart.
+
+“I 'spose I'm kinder thin and some changed, so ye didn't know me,” said
+Reuben, with a feeble smile. “Ye see I've been here a year, and am going
+into a decline. I sent word home to have father ask Deacon Nash if he
+wouldn't let me go home to be nussed up by mother. I should get rugged
+again if I could have a little o' mother's nussin. P'raps ye've come to
+take me home, Perez?” And a faint gleam of hope came into his face.
+
+“Reub, Reub, I didn't know you was here,” groaned Perez, as he put his
+arm about his brother, and supported his feeble figure.
+
+“How come ye here, then?” asked Reuben.
+
+“I was going home. I haven't been home since the war. Didn't you know? I
+heard o' George's being here, and came in to see him, but I didn't think
+o' you're being here.”
+
+“Where have ye been, Perez, all the time? I callated ye must be in jail,
+somewheres, like all the rest of the soldiers.”
+
+“I had no money to get home with. But how came you here, Reub? Who put
+you here?”
+
+“Twas Deacon Nash done it. I tried to start a farm arter the war, and
+got in debt to Deacon for seed and stock, and there wasn't no crop, and
+the hard times come. I couldn't pay, and the Deacon sued, and so I lost
+the farm and had to come here.”
+
+“Why didn't father help you? He ain't dead is he?”
+
+Almost any misfortune now seemed possible to Perez.
+
+“No, he ain't dead, but he ain't got nothin. I spose he's sold out by
+this time. Sol Gleason had a mortgage on the place.”
+
+“How much was your debt, Reub?”
+
+“Nineteen pound, seven shilling and six-pence. 'Leastways, the debt was
+nine pound, and the rest was lawyers', justices' and sheriffs' fees. I
+callate they'll find them figgers cut into my heart, when I'm dead.”
+
+And then he pointed to the sums in charcoal, covering the walls of the
+cell.
+
+“I callated the interest down to how much a minute. I allers liked
+cipherin, ye know, Perez, and I have a great deal of time here. Ye see,
+every day, the interest is a penny and twenty-six twenty-sevenths of a
+farthin. The wall round me gits that much higher and thicker every day.”
+ He stepped closer up to the wall, and pointed to a particular set of
+figures.
+
+“Here's my weight, ye see, ten stone and a fraction,” and then observing
+Perez' pitiful glance at his emaciated form, he added, “I mean when I
+come to jail. Dividin nineteen pound, seven and six, by that, it
+makes me come to thrippence happenny a pound, 'cording to the laws o'
+Massachusetts, countin bones and waste. Mutton ain't wuth but tuppence,
+and there's lots o' fellers here for sech small debts, that they don't
+come to mor'n a farthin a pound, and ye see I'm gittin dearer, Perez.
+There's the interest one way, and I'm a gittin thinner the other way,”
+ he added with a piteous smile.
+
+“Perez,” interrupted Fennell, in a feeble, whimpering voice, as he
+weakly endeavored to raise himself from the floor, “I wish you'd jess
+give me a boost on your shoulders, so I kin see out the winder. Reub
+uster to do it, but he ain't stout enough now. It's two months since
+I've seen out. Say, Perez, won't ye?”
+
+“It'll do him a sight o' good, Perez, if ye will. I never see a feller
+set sech store by trees and mountings as George does. They're jess like
+medicine to him, an he's fell off faster'n ever since I hain't been able
+to boost him up.”
+
+Perez knelt, too much moved for speech, and Reub helped to adjust upon
+his shoulders the feeble frame of the sick man, into whose face had
+come an expression of eager, excited expectation. As the soldier rose he
+fairly tottered from the unexpected lightness of his burden. He stepped
+beneath the high, grated window, and Fennell, resting his hands on the
+lintel, while Reub steadied him from behind, peered out. He made no
+sound, and finally Perez let him down to the floor.
+
+“Could you see much?” asked Reub, but the other did not answer. His gaze
+was afar off as if the prison walls were no barrier to his eyes, and a
+smile of rapturous contemplation rested on his face. Then with a deep
+breath he seemed to return to a perception of his surroundings, and in
+tones of irrepressible exultation he murmured:
+
+“I saw the mountains. They are so,” and with a waving, undulating
+gesture of the hand that was wonderfully eloquent, he indicated the bold
+sweep of the forest clad Taghcanic peaks. The door swung open, and the
+jailer stood there.
+
+“Time's up,” he said sharply.
+
+“What, you're not going now? You're not going to leave us yet?” cried
+Reuben, piteously.
+
+Perez choked down the wrath and bitterness that was turning his heart to
+iron and said, humbly.
+
+“Mr. Bement, I should like to stay a few minutes longer. This is my
+brother. I did not know he was here.”
+
+“Sorry for't,” said Bement, carelessly. “Don' see as I kin help it,
+though. S'posed like nuff he was somebuddy's brother. Mout's well be
+your'n ez anybuddy's. I dunno who ye be. All I knows is that ye've been
+here fifteen minutes and now ye must leave. Don' keep me waitin, nuther.
+Thay ain' nobuddy tendin bar.”
+
+“Don't make him mad, Perez, or else he won't let ye come again,”
+ whispered Reuben, who saw that his brother was on the point of some
+violent outburst. Perez controlled himself, and took his brother's hands
+in his coming close up to him and looking away over his shoulder so that
+he might not see the pitiful workings of his features which would have
+negatived his words of comfort.
+
+“Cheer up, Reub,” he said huskily, “I'll get you out. I'll come for
+you,” and still holding his grief-wrung face averted, that Reuben might
+not see it, he went forth, and Bement shut the door and barred it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTH
+
+THE PEOPLE ASK BREAD AND RECEIVE A STONE
+
+
+As Captain Hamlin, leaving behind him Great Barrington and its
+tavern-jail, was riding slowly on toward Stockbridge, oblivious in
+the bitter tumult of his feelings, to the glorious scenery around him,
+Stockbridge Green was the scene of a quite unusual assemblage. Squire
+Sedgwick, the town's delegate, was expected back that afternoon from the
+county convention, which had been sitting at Lenox, to devise remedies
+for the popular distress, and the farmers from the outlying country had
+generally come into the village to get the first tidings of the result
+of its deliberations.
+
+Seated on the piazza of the store, and standing around it, at a distance
+from the assemblage of the common people, suitably typifying their
+social superiority, was a group of the magnates of Stockbridge, in the
+stately dress of gentlemen of the olden time, their three-cornered hats
+resting upon powdered wigs, and long silk hose revealing the goodly
+proportions of their calves. Upon the piazza sits a short, portly
+gentleman, with bushy black eyebrows and a severe expression of
+countenance. Although a short man he has a way of holding his neck
+stiff, with the chin well out, and looking downward from beneath his
+eyelids, upon those who address him, which, with his pursed up lips,
+gives a decided impression of authority and unapproachableness. This is
+Jahleel Woodbridge, Esquire.
+
+Parson West is standing on the ground in front of him, his silver headed
+cane tucked under one arm. His small person--he is not an inch over five
+feet tall--is as neatly dressed as if just taken out of a band-box,
+and his black, shining hose encase a leg and ankle which are the chaste
+admiration of the ladies of the parish, and the source, it is whispered,
+of no small complacency to the good man himself.
+
+“What think you,” he is saying to Squire Woodbridge, “will have been the
+action of the convention? Will it have emulated the demagogic tone of
+that at Hatfield, do you opine?”
+
+“Let us hope not, Reverend Sir,” responded the Squire, “but methinks
+it was inexpedient to allow the convention to meet, although Squire
+Sedgwick's mind was on that point at variance with mine. It is an easier
+matter to prevent a popular assembly than to restrain its utterances,
+when assembled.”
+
+“I trust,” said the parson, looking around upon those standing near,
+“that we have all made it a subject of prayer, that the convention might
+be Providentially led to devise remedies for the inconveniences of the
+time, for they are sore, and the popular discontent is great.”
+
+“Nay, I fear 'tis past hoping for that the people will be contented with
+anything the convention may have done, however well considered,” said
+Dr. Partridge. “They have set their hearts on some such miracle as that
+whereby Moses did refresh fainting Israel with water from the smitten
+rock. The crowd over yonder will be satisfied with nothing short of that
+from the convention,” and the doctor waved his hand toward the people
+on the green, with a smile of tolerant contempt on his clean-cut,
+sarcastic, but not unkindly face.
+
+“I much err,” said Squire Woodbridge, “if the stocks and the
+whipping-post be not the remedy their discontent calls for. I am
+told that seditious and disorderly speech is common at the tavern of
+evenings. This presumption of the people to talk concerning matters of
+government, is an evil that has greatly increased since the war, and
+calls for sharp castigation. These numskulls must be taught their place
+or t'will shortly be no country for gentlemen to live in.”
+
+“A letter that I had but a day or two ago from my brother at Hatfield,”
+ said Dr. Partridge, “speaks of the people being much stirred up in
+Hampshire, so that some even fear an attempt of the mob to obstruct
+the court at Northampton, though my brother opined that their insolence
+would not reach so far. One Daniel Shays, an army captain, is spoken of
+as a leader.”
+
+Timothy Edwards, Esquire, a tall sharp featured man, with a wrinkled
+forehead, had come to the door of his store while the doctor was
+talking. I should vainly try to describe this stately merchant of the
+olden time, if the reader were to confound him, ever so little in his
+mind's eye, with the bustling, smiling, obsequious, modern storekeeper.
+Even a royal customer would scarcely have presumed so far as to ask this
+imposing gentleman, in powdered wig, snuff-colored coat, waistcoat and
+short clothes, white silk stockings and silver-buckled shoes, to cut
+off a piece of cloth or wrap up a bundle for him. It may be taken for
+granted that commercial enterprise, as illustrated in Squire Edwards'
+store, was entirely subservient to the maintenance of the proprietor's
+personal dignity. He now addressed Dr. Partridge:
+
+“Said your brother anything of the report that the Tories and British
+emissaries are stirring up the popular discontent, to the end that
+reproach may be brought on the new government of the States, by
+revealing its weakness as compared with the King's?”
+
+“Nay, of that he spoke not.”
+
+“For my part, I do fully believe it,” resumed Edwards, “and, moreover,
+that this is but a branch of the British policy, looking toward the
+speedy reconquering of these States. It is to this end, also, that they
+are aiming to weaken us by drawing all the money out of the country,
+whereby, meanwhile, the present scarcity is caused.”
+
+“Methinks, good sir,” replied the doctor, “the great expense of the war,
+and the public and private debts made thereby, with the consequential
+taxes and suits at law, do fully explain the lamentable state of the
+country, and the disquiet of the people, though it may be that the King
+has also designs against us.”
+
+“Nay,” said the parson, in tones of gentle reproof, “these all be carnal
+reasons, whereby if we seek to explain the judgments of God, we do fail
+of the spiritual profiting we might find therein. For no doubt these
+present calamities are God's judgment upon this people for its sins,
+seeing it is well known that the bloody and cruel war now over, hath
+brought in upon us all manner of new and strange sins, even as if God
+would have us advertised how easily that liberty which we have gained
+may run into licentiousness. Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy have come in
+upon us like a flood, and the new and heinous sin of card-playing hath
+contaminated our borders, as hath been of late brought to light in the
+cases of Jerubbabel Galpin and Zedekiah Armstrong, who were taken in the
+act, and are even now in the stocks. And thereby am I reminded that I
+had purposed to improve this occasion for the reproof and admonition of
+them that stand by.”
+
+And thereupon the parson saluted the gentlemen and sedately crossed the
+green toward the stocks, around which was a noisy crowd of men and boys.
+As the parson approached, however, a respectful silence fell upon them.
+There was a general pulling off of hats and caps, and those in his path
+stood obsequiously aside, while the little children, slinking behind the
+grown folks, peeped around their legs at him. The two hobbledehoys
+in the stocks, loutish farmer's boys, had been already undergoing the
+punishment for about an hour. Their backs were bent so that their bodies
+resembled the letter U laid on its side, and their arms were strained
+as if they were pulling out of the sockets. All attempted bravado, all
+affectation of stoical indifference, all sense even of embarrassment,
+had evidently been merged in the demoralization of intense physical
+discomfort, and the manner in which they lolled their heads, first on
+one side and then on the other, was eloquent of abject and shameless
+misery. Standing directly in front of these hapless youths, and using
+them as his text, the parson began to admonish the people in this wise:
+
+“It would seem the will of God to permit the adversary to try the people
+of Stockbridge with divers new and strange temptations, not known to
+our fathers, doubtless to the end, that their graces may shine forth
+the more clearly, even as gold tried in the fire hath a more excellent
+lustre, by reason of its discipline.
+
+“I have examined myself with fasting, to see if any weakness or laxity
+in my office, as shepherd of this flock, might be the occasion of this
+license given to Satan. And it behooveth you, each in his own soul,
+and in his own household, to make inquisition lest some sin of his or
+theirs, bring this new temptation of card-playing, upon our people,
+even as the wedge of fine gold which Achan took and hid in his tent, did
+mightily discomfit the host of Israel with the plagues of the Lord. For
+even as for the sin of Adam, we are all justly chargeable, so for the
+sins of one another, doth the justice of God afflict us, so that we may
+find our account in watching over our brethren, even as over ourselves.
+
+“And you, whom Satan hath led away captive,” pursued the reverend
+orator, addressing himself to the young men in the stocks, “be ye
+thankful that ye have not been permitted to escape this temporal
+recompense of your transgression, which, if proved, may save you from
+the eternal flames of hell, Reflect, whether it be not better to endure
+for a season, the contempt and the chastisement of men, rather than to
+bear the torments and jeers of the devil and his angels forever.”
+
+“Behold,” said the minister, holding up the pack of cards taken from the
+prisoners, “with what instruments Satan doth tempt mankind, and consider
+how perverse must be the inclination which can be tempted by devices
+that do so plainly advertise their devilish origin. At times Satan doth
+so shrewdly mask his wiles that if it were possible the very elect might
+be deceived, but how evidently doth he here reveal his handiwork.”
+
+He held up some of the court cards.
+
+“Take note of these misshaped and deformed figures, heathenishly
+attired, and with no middle parts or legs, but with two heads turned
+diverse ways. These are not similitudes of man, who was made in the
+image of his Maker, but doubtless of fiends, revealed by Satan to the
+artificers who do his work in the fabrication of these instruments of
+sin. Mark these figures of diamonds and hearts, and these others,
+which I am told do signify spades and clubs. How plainly do they typify
+ill-gotten riches and bleeding hearts, violence and the grave. Wretched
+youths, which of ye tempted the other to this sin?”
+
+“Je assed me to dew it,” whimpered Zedekiah.
+
+“Kiah, he assed me fust,” averred Jerubbabel.
+
+“No doubt ye are both right,” said the minister sternly. “When two
+sin together, Satan is divided in twain, and the one half tempteth the
+other. See to it that ye sin not again on this wise, lest a worse thing
+come upon you.”
+
+Scarcely had the parson turned away, when a shout from some boys who had
+gone to the corner to watch for the coming of the Squire, announced his
+approach, and presently he appeared at the corner, riding a fine gray
+horse, and came on at an easy canter across the green. He was a tall,
+broad-shouldered, finely-proportioned man of about forty, with a refined
+face, frank and open, but rather haughty in expression, with piercing
+black eyes; a man in whose every gesture lay conscious power and
+obvious superiority. As he rode by the silent crowd, he acknowledged the
+salutations of the people with a courteous wave of the hand, but drew
+rein only when he reached the group of dignitaries about the store.
+There he dismounted and shook hands with the parson, who has rejoined
+the party, with Dr. Partridge, Squire Edwards and Squire Woodbridge.
+
+“What news bring you from the convention? I trust you have been
+Providentially guided. I have not failed to remember you in my prayers,”
+ said the parson.
+
+“For which I am deeply grateful, Reverend Sir,” replied Sedgwick. “And
+truly I think your prayers have been effectual. The blessing of God has
+been manifestly upon the convention. Berkshire has not been disgraced,
+as have been the lower counties, by a seditious and incendiary body of
+resolutions on the part of her delegates. There were not wanting plenty
+of hot-heads, but they were overruled. I am convinced such might
+also have been the issue in the other counties, had the gentlemen put
+themselves forward as delegates, instead of leaving it all in a fit of
+disgust to the people.”
+
+“Was there any action taken in favor of the plan for the emission
+of bills, which shall systematically depreciate!” inquired Squire
+Woodbridge.
+
+“Such a resolution was introduced by Thomas Gold of Pittsfield, a
+pestilent fellow, but we threw it out.”
+
+“What was the action on reduction of expenses of suits at law?” inquired
+Dr. Partridge.
+
+“Again nothing,” replied Sedgwick. “In a word, we refused to yield to
+any of the demands of the malcontents, or to hamper the Legislature with
+any specific recommendations. You know that we Berkshire people, thanks
+to our delay in recognizing the State authority, have an evil repute
+at Boston for a mobbish and ungovernable set. It seemed that this was
+a good opportunity, when the conventions of all the other counties were
+sending up seditious petitions, to make the moderation of our conduct
+such a contrast that there might be an end of such talk in the future.”
+
+Meanwhile, as it became apparent to the crowd on the green that they
+were not likely to be vouchsafed any information unless they asked for
+it, a brisk disputation, conducted in an undertone, so that it might
+not reach the ears of the gentlemen, arose as to who should be the
+spokesmen.
+
+“I jess ez leeve go 's not,” said Jabez Flint, the Tory, “only they
+wouldn' hev nothin tew say ter me ez wuz a Tory.”
+
+“Ef I were ten year younger, I'd go in a minute,” said Israel Goodrich,
+“but my jints is kinder stiff. Abner, thar, he'd orter go, by rights.”
+
+“Why don' ye go, Abner? Ye ain't scairt o' speakin tew Squire, be ye!”
+ said Peleg.
+
+“I ain't scairt o' no man, and ye know it's well's ye wanter know.
+I'd go in a jiffey, only bein a young man, I don' like tew put myself
+forrard tew speak for them as is older.”
+
+“Why don' ye go yerself, Peleg, if ye be so dretful brave!” inquired
+Israel Goodrich.
+
+“That's so, Peleg, why don' ye go?”
+
+“I ain't no talker,” said Peleg. “Ther's Ezry, he'd orter go, he's sech
+a good talker.”
+
+But Ezra swallowed the bait without taking the hook. “Tain't talkin
+ez is wanted, it's assin. Any on ye kin dew that's well's I,” he
+discriminated.
+
+The spirit of mutual deference was so strong that it is doubtful how
+long the contest of modesty might have continued, had not Laban Jones
+suddenly said:
+
+“Ef none on ye dasn't ass what the convenshin has did, I'll ass myself.
+I'm more scairt o' my hungry babbies an I be o' the face o' any man.”
+
+Raising his stalwart figure to its full height, and squaring his
+shoulders as if to draw courage from a consciousness of his thews and
+sinews, Laban strode toward the store. But though he took the first
+steps strongly and firmly, his pace grew feebler and more hesitating
+as he neared the group of gentlemen, and his courage might have ebbed
+entirely, had not the parson, glancing around and catching his eye,
+given him a friendly nod. Laban thereupon came up to within a rod or two
+of the group, and taking off his cap, said in a small voice:
+
+“Please we'd like ter know what the convenshin has did?”
+
+Sedgwick, who had his back to him, turned quickly, and seeing Laban,
+said in a preëmptory tone:
+
+“Ah! Laban, you may tell your friends that the convention very wisely
+did nothing at all,” and as he said this he turned to finish something
+that he was saying to Squire Woodbridge. Laban's jaw fell, and he
+continued to stand stock still for several moments, his dull features
+working as he tried to take in the idea. Finally, his consternation
+absorbing his timidity he said feebly:
+
+“Nothin? Did you say, Squire?”
+
+Sedgwick wheeled about with a frown, which however, changed into an
+expression of contemptuous pity as he saw the genuineness of the poor
+fellow's discomfiture.
+
+“Nothing, Laban,” he said, “except to resolve to support the courts,
+enforce the laws, and punish all disorderly persons. Don't forget that
+last, Laban, to punish all disorderly persons. Be sure to tell your
+friends that. And tell them, too, Laban, that it would be well for them
+to leave matters of government to their betters and attend to their
+farms,” and as Laban turned mechanically and walked back Sedgwick added,
+speaking to the gentlemen about him:
+
+“I like not this assembling of the people to discuss political matters.
+We must look to it, gentlemen, or we shall find that we have ridded
+ourselves of a king only to fall into the hands of a democracy, which I
+take it would be a bad exchange.”
+
+“Sir,” said Edwards, “you must be in need of refreshment, after your
+ride. Come in, sir, and come in gentlemen, all. We shall discuss the
+Providential issue of the convention more commodiously within doors,
+over a suitable provision of Jamaica.”
+
+The suggestion seemed to be timely and acceptable, and one by one the
+gentlemen, standing aside with ceremonious politeness to let one another
+precede, entered the store, Parson West leading, for it was neither
+according to the requirements of decorum, or his own private tastes,
+that the minister should decline a convivial invitation of this
+character.
+
+“What d'ee say, Laban?”
+
+“What did they dew?”
+
+“Did they 'bolish the loryers?”
+
+“Wat did they dew baout more bills, Laban, hey?”
+
+“What did they dew baout the taxes?”
+
+“Why don't ye speak, man?”
+
+“What's the matter on ye?” were some of the volley of questions with
+which the people hailed their chop-fallen deputy on his return, crowding
+forward around him, plucking his sleeves and pushing him to get
+his attention, for he regarded them with a dazed and sleep-walking
+expression. Finally he found his voice, and said:
+
+“Squire says ez haow they didn' dew nothin.”
+
+There was a moment's dead silence, then the clamor burst out again.
+
+“Not dew nothin?”
+
+“What d'ye mean, Laban?”
+
+“Nothin baout the taxes?”
+
+“Nothin baout the loryers?”
+
+“Nothin baout the sheriffs' fees?”
+
+“Nothin baout jailin for debt?”
+
+“Nothin baout takin prop'ty tew a valiation, Laban?”
+
+“Nothin baout movin govment aout o' Bosting?”
+
+“Nothin, I tells ye,” answered Laban, in the same tone of utter
+discouragement. “Squire says ez haow the convenshin hain't done nothin
+'cept tew resolve that ez courts sh'd go on an the laws sh'd be kerried
+aout an disorderly folks sh'd be punished.”
+
+The men looked from one to another of each other's faces, and each wore
+the same blank look. Finally Israel Goodrich said, nodding his head with
+an expression of utter dejection at each word:
+
+“Wal, I swow, I be kinder disappinted.”
+
+There was a space of silence.
+
+“So be I,” said Peleg.
+
+Presently Paul Hubbard's metallic voice was heard.
+
+“We were fools not to have known it. Didn't we elect a General Court
+last year a purpose to do something for us, and come to get down to
+Bosting didn't the lawyers buy em up or fool em so they didn't do
+a thing? The people won't git righted till they take hold and right
+themselves, as they did in the war.”
+
+“Is that all the Squire said, Laban, every word?” asked Israel, and as
+he did so all eyes turned on Laban with a faint gleam of hope that there
+might yet be some crumb of comfort. Laban scratched his head.
+
+“He said suthin baout govment bein none o' our business an haow we'd a
+better go hum an not be loafin roun'.”
+
+“Ef govment hain't no business o' ourn I'd like tew know what in time we
+fit the King fer,” said Peleg.
+
+“That's so, wy didn' ye ass Squire that queschin?” said Meshech Little.
+
+“By gosh,” exclaimed Abner Rathbun, with a sudden vehemence, “ef govment
+ain't no business o' ourn they made a mistake when they teached us that
+fightin was.”
+
+“What dew ye mean?” asked Israel half timorously.
+
+“Never mind wat I mean,” replied Abner, “on'y a wum 'll turn wen it's
+trod on.”
+
+“I don' bleeve but that Laban's mistook wat the Squire said. Ye ain't
+none tew clever, ye know, yerself, Laban, and I callate that ye didn'
+more'n half understan' wat Squire meant.”
+
+It was Ezra Phelps who announced this cheering view, which instantly
+found general favor, and poor Laban's limited mental powers were at once
+the topic of comments more plain spoken than flattering. Paul Hubbard,
+indeed, shook his head and smiled bitterly at this revulsion of
+hopefulness, but even Laban himself seemed eager to find ground for
+believing himself to have been, in this instance, an ass.
+
+“Ye see the hull thing's in a nutshell,” said Abner. “Either Laban's a
+fool, or else the hull caounty convenshin o' Berkshire is fools an wuss,
+an I callate it's Laban.”
+
+Perhaps the back room of the store lacked for Sedgwick, a comparatively
+recent resident of Stockbridge, those charms of familiarity it possessed
+for the other gentlemen, for even as Abner was speaking, he came out
+alone. As he saw the still waiting and undiminished crowd of people,
+he frowned angrily, and mounting his horse, rode directly toward them.
+Their sullen aspect, which might have caused another to avoid them, was
+his very reason for seeking an encounter. As he approached, his piercing
+eye rested a moment on the face of every man, and as it did so, each
+eye, impelled by a powerfull magnetism, rose deferentially to his, and
+every cap was pulled off.
+
+“What is it, Ezra?” he demanded sharply, seeing that Ezra wanted to
+address him.
+
+“If you please, Squire,” said Ezra, cap in hand, “Laban's kinder stupid,
+an we callate he muster got what ye said tuther eend to. Will ye kindly
+tell us what the convenshin did?”
+
+Stopping his horse, Sedgwick replied, in a loud, clear voice.
+
+“The convention declared that the laws shall be enforced, and all
+disorderly persons punished with the stocks and with lashes on the bare
+back.”
+
+“Is that all?” faltered Ezra.
+
+“All!” exclaimed Sedgwick, as his eye rested a moment on every face
+before him. “Let every one of you look out that he does not find it too
+much.”
+
+And now he suddenly broke off in a tone of sharp command, “Disperse and
+go to your houses on the pains and penalties of Sabbath breaking. The
+sun is down,” and he pointed to the last glimmer of the yellow orb as
+it sank below the mountains. The people stood still just long enough to
+verify the fact with a glance, that holy time had begun, and instantly
+the green was covered with men and boys swiftly seeking shelter within
+their doors from the eye of an angry Deity, while from the store hastily
+emerged Squire Woodbridge, Dr. Partridge and the parson, and made their
+several ways homeward as rapidly as dignity would permit.
+
+Perhaps ten minutes later, Captain Perez Hamlin might have been seen
+pricking his jaded horse across the deserted green. He looked around
+curiously at the new buildings and recent changes in the appearance of
+the village, and once or twice seemed a little at loss about his route.
+But finally he turned into a lane leading northerly toward the hill,
+just at the foot of which, beside the brook that skirted it, stood a
+weather-beaten house of a story and a half. As he caught sight of this,
+Perez spurred his horse to a gallop, and in a few moments the mother,
+through her tears of joy, was studying out in the stern face of the man,
+the lineaments of the boy whose soldier's belt she had buckled round him
+nine years before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTH
+
+THAT MEANS REBELLION!
+
+
+Elnathan was the only one of the family who went to church the following
+day. Mrs. Hamlin was too infirm to climb the hill to the meeting-house,
+and Perez' mood was more inclined to blood-spilling than to God's
+worship. All day he walked the house, his fists clenched, muttering
+curses through his set teeth, and looking not unlike a lion, ferociously
+pacing his cage. For his mother was tearfully relating to him the share
+of the general misery that had fallen to their lot, as a family, in the
+past nine years, how Elnathan had not been able to carry on his farm,
+without the aid of the boys, and had run behind, till now, Solomon
+Gleason the schoolmaster, had got hold of the mortgage, and was going to
+turn them into the street, that very week. But all this with the mother,
+as with the brother, was as nothing, compared with Reuben's imprisonment
+and sickness unto death.
+
+It was Mrs. Hamlin, who did most of the talking, and much of what she
+said fell unheeded on Perez' ears, as he walked unceasingly to and fro
+across the kitchen. For his mind was occupied with all the intensity of
+application, of which it was capable, with the single point,--how he was
+to get Reuben out of jail. Even the emergency, which would so soon be
+raised, by the selling out of the homestead, and the turning of the
+family into the street, was subordinated, in his mind, to this prime
+question. The picture of his brother, shaggy-haired and foul, wallowing
+in the filth of that prison sty, and breathing its fetid air, which his
+memory kept constantly before him, would have driven him distracted,
+if for a moment he had allowed himself to doubt that he should somehow
+liberate him, and soon. He had told his mother nothing of the horrible
+condition in which he had found him. Under no circumstances must she
+know of that, not even if worst came to worst, and so even while he
+shuddered at the vision before his mind's eye, he essayed to speak
+cheerfully about Reuben's surroundings, and his condition of health.
+When she told him that Deacon Nash had refused to let him come home to
+be nursed back to health, Perez had to comfort her by pretending that he
+was not so very badly off where he was, and would doubtless recover.
+
+“Nay, Perez,” she said, “my eyes are dim, come close to me, that I may
+read your eyes. You were ever tender to your old mother, and I fear me,
+you hide somewhat lest I should disquiet myself. Come here my son.” The
+brave man's eyes, that had never quailed before the belching artillery,
+had now ado indeed. Such sickness at heart behind them, such keen
+mother's instinct trying them before.
+
+“Oh, Perez! My boy is dying! I see it.”
+
+“He is not, I tell you he is not,” he cried hoarsely, breaking away from
+her. “He is well. He looks strong. Do you think I would lie to you? I
+tell you he is well and getting better.”
+
+But after that she would not be comforted. The afternoon wore on.
+Elnathan came from meeting, and at last, through the open windows of the
+house, came the cry, in children's voices.
+
+“Sun's down! Sun's down!”
+
+From the upper windows, its disc was yet visible, above the crest of the
+western mountains, and on the hilltops, it was still high Sabbath; but
+in the streets below, holy time was at an end. The doors, behind which,
+in Sabbatical decorum, the children had been pent up all day long, swung
+open with a simultaneous bang, and the boys with a whoop and halloo,
+tumbled over each other into the street, while the girls tripped gaily
+after. Innumerable games of tag, and “I spy,” were organized in a trice,
+and for the hour or two between that and bed time, the small fry of the
+village devoted themselves, without a moment's intermission, to getting
+the Sabbath stiffening out of their legs and tongues.
+
+Nor was the reawakening of the community by any means confined to the
+boys and girls. For soon the streets began to be alive with groups of
+men and women, all in their Sunday best, going to make social calls. In
+the majority of Stockbridge households, the best clothes, unless there
+chanced to be a funeral, were not put on oftener than once a week, when
+the recurrence of the Sabbath made their assumption a religious duty,
+and on this account it naturally became the custom to make the evening
+of that day the occasion of formal social intercourse. As soon, too,
+as the gathering twilight afforded some shield to their secret designs,
+sundry young men with liberally greased hair, their arms stiff in the
+sleeves of the unusual and Sunday coat, their feet, accustomed to the
+immediate contact of the soil, encased in well larded shoes, might
+have been seen gliding under the shadows of friendly fences, and along
+bypaths, with that furtive and hangdog air which, in all ages, has
+characterized the chicken-thief and the lover.
+
+In front of the door of Squire Sedgwick's house is drawn up his
+travelling carriage, with two fine horses. On the box is Sol, the
+coachman, one of the Squire's negro freedmen, whose allegiance to the
+Sedgwick family was not in the least shaken by the abolition of slavery
+in the state by the adoption of the bill of rights six years before.
+
+“I dunno noffin bout no Bill Wright,” was Sol's final dismissal of the
+subject.
+
+“Drive to Squire Woodbridge's house, Sol,” said Sedgwick, as he stepped
+into the carriage.
+
+Woodbridge was at the gate of his house, apparently about starting
+on his usual evening visit to the store, when the carriage drove up.
+Sedgwick alighted, and taking the other a little aside, said:
+
+“It is necessary for me to start tonight for Boston, where I have some
+important cases. I regret it, because I would rather be at home
+just now. The spirit among the people is unruly, and while I do not
+anticipate serious trouble, I think it is a time when gentlemen should
+make their influence felt in their communities. I have no doubt,
+however, that the interests of Stockbridge and of the government are
+entirely safe in your hands as selectman and magistrate.”
+
+“I hope, sir, that I am equal to the duties of my position,” replied
+Woodbridge, stiffly.
+
+“Allow me again to assure you that I have not the smallest doubt of it,”
+ said Sedgwick, affably, “but I thought it well to notify you of my own
+necessary departure, and to put you on your guard. The bearing of the
+people on the green last evening, of which I saw more than you did,
+was unmistakably sullen, and their disappointment at the refusal of the
+convention to lend itself to their seditious and impracticable desires,
+is very bitter.”
+
+“Undoubtedly the result of the convention has been to increase the
+popular agitation. I had the honor to represent to you before it was
+held that such would be its effect, at which time, I believe you held a
+different view. Nevertheless, I opine that you exaggerate the degree of
+the popular agitation. It would be natural, that being a comparatively
+recent resident, you should be less apt to judge the temper of the
+Stockbridge people, than we who are longer here.”
+
+A half humorous, half impatient expression on Sedgwick's face, was the
+only indication he gave that he had recognized the other's huffy and
+bristling manner.
+
+“Your opinion, Sir,” he replied, with undiminished affability, “tends to
+relieve my apprehensions. I trust the event will justify it.
+
+“And how does Miss Desire, this evening?” he added, saluting with doffed
+hat and a courtly bow, a young lady who had just come up, with the
+apparent intention of going in at the Woodbridge gate.
+
+“I do but indifferent well, Sir. As well as a damsel may do in a world
+where gentlemen keep not their promises,” she answered, with a curtsey,
+so saucily deep, that the crisp crimson silk of her skirt rustled on the
+ground.
+
+“Nay, but tell me the caitiff's name, and let me be myself your knight,
+fair mistress, to redress your wrongs.”
+
+“Nay, 'tis yourself, Sir. Did you not promise you would come and hear me
+play my piano, when it came from Boston, and I have it a week already?”
+
+“And I did not know it. Yes, now I bethink myself, Mrs. Sedgwick spoke
+thereof, but this convention has left me not a moment. But damsels are
+not political; no doubt you have heard nothing of the convention.”
+
+“Oh, yes; 'tis that all the poor want to be rich, and to hang all the
+lawyers. I've heard. 'Tis a fine scheme.”
+
+“No doubt the piano is most excellent in sound.”
+
+“It goes middling well, but already I weary me of my bargain.”
+
+“Are you then in trade, Miss Desire?”
+
+“A little. Papa said if I would not tease him to let me go to New York
+this winter, he would have me a piano. I know not what came over me that
+I consented. I shall go into a decline ere spring. The ugly dress and
+the cowlike faces of the people, make me sick at heart, and give me bad
+dreams, and the horses neigh in better English than the farmers
+talk. Alack, 'tis a dreary place for a damsel! But, no doubt, I have
+interrupted some weighty discussion. I bid you good even, Sir,” and,
+once more curtsying, the girl went up the path to the house, much to her
+uncle Jahleel's relief, who had no taste for badinage, and wanted to get
+on to the store, whither, presently he was on his way, while Sedgwick's
+carriage rolled off toward Boston.
+
+About a mile out of Stockbridge, the carriage passed two men standing by
+the roadside, earnestly talking. These men were Perez Hamlin and Abner
+Rathbun.
+
+“You remember the Ice-hole,” said Perez, referring to an extraordinary
+cleft or chasm, of great depth, and extremely difficult and perilous of
+access, situated near the top of Little Mountain, a short distance from
+Stockbridge.
+
+“Yes,” said Abner, “I rekullec it, well. I guess you an I, Perez, air
+abaout the on'y fellers in taown, ez hev been clean through it.”
+
+“My plan is this,” said Perez. “Kidnap Deacon Nash, carry him up to the
+Ice-hole, and keep him there till he makes out a release for Reub, then
+just carry down the paper to jail, get Reub out, and across the York
+State line, and send back word to Stockbridge where to find the deacon.”
+
+“But what'll we dew, ourselves?”
+
+“Of course we shall have to stay in York. Why shouldn't we? There's no
+chance for a poor man here. The chances are that we should both be in
+jail for debt before spring.”
+
+“But what be I a goin to dew with my little Bijah? He's all I've got,
+but I can't leave him.”
+
+“My father and mother will take care of him, and bring him with em to
+York State, for I'm goin to get them right over there as soon as they're
+sold out. There's a chance for poor folks west; there's no chance here.”
+
+“Perez, thar's my fist. By gosh I'm with ye.”
+
+“Abner, it's a risky business, and you haven't got the call I've got,
+being as Reub isn't your brother. I'm asking a good deal of you Abner.”
+
+“Don' ye say nothin more baout it,” said Abner, violently shaking the
+hand he still held, while he reassuringly clapped Perez on the back.
+“Dew ye rekullec that time tew Stillwater, when ye pulled them tew
+Britishers orfer me? Fer common doin's I don' callate ez two fellers is
+more'n my fair share in a scrimmage, but ye see my arm wuz busted, an if
+ye hadn't come along jess wen ye did, I callate the buryin squad would a
+cussed some on caount of my size, that evenin.
+
+“But gosh all hemlock, Perez, I dunno wat makes me speak o' that naow.
+It wouldn' make no odds ef I'd never sot eyes onter ye afore. I'd help
+eny feller, 'bout sech a job es this ere, jess fer the fun on't. Risky!
+Yes it's risky; that's the fun. I hain't hed my blood fairly flowin
+afore, sence the war. It doos me more good nor a box o' pills.
+Jerewsalem, how riled deacon'll be!”
+
+The two young men walked slowly back to the village, earnestly
+discussing the details of their daring enterprise, and turning up the
+lane, leading to the Hamlin house, paused, still conversing, at the
+gate. As they stood there, the house door opened, and a young girl came
+out, and approached them, while Mrs. Hamlin, standing in the door, said:
+
+“Perez, this is Prudence Fennell, George Fennell's girl. She heard you
+had seen her father, and came to ask you about him.”
+
+The girl came near to Perez, and looked up at him with a questioning
+face, in which anxiety was struggling with timidity. She was a rosy
+cheeked lass, of about sixteen, well grown for her age, and dressed in
+coarse woolen homespun, while beneath her short skirt, appeared a pair
+of heavy shoes, which evidently bore very little relation to the
+shape of the feet within them. Her eyes were gray and frank, and the
+childishness, which the rest of her face was outgrowing, still lingered
+in the pout of her lips.
+
+“Is my father much sick, sir?”
+
+“He is very sick,” said Perez.
+
+The pitifulness of his tone, no doubt, more than his words, betrayed
+the truth to her fearful heart, for all the color ran down out of
+her cheeks, and he seemed to see nothing of her face, save two great
+terrified eyes, which piteously beseeched a merciful reply, even while
+they demanded the uttermost truth.
+
+“Is he going to die?”
+
+Perez felt a strong tugging at his heart strings, in which, for the
+moment, he forgot his own personal trouble.
+
+“I don't know, my child,” he replied, very gently.
+
+“Oh, he's going to die. I know he's going to die,” she cried, still
+looking through her welling eyes a moment, to see if he would not
+contradict her intuition, and then, as he looked on the ground, making
+no reply, she turned away, and walked slowly down the lane sobbing as
+she went.
+
+“Abner, we must manage somehow to get George out too.”
+
+“Poor little gal, so we must Perez. We'll kidnap Schoolmaster Gleason
+'long with deacon. But it's a pootty big job, Perez, two o' them and
+on'y two o' us.”
+
+“I'm afraid we're trying more than we can do, Abner. If we try too much,
+we shall fail entirely. I don't know. I don't know. There's the whole
+jail full, and one ought to come out as well as another. All have got
+friends that feel as bad as we do.” He reflected a moment. “By the Lord,
+we'll try it, Abner. Poor little girl. It's a desperate game, anyway,
+and we might as well play for high stakes.”
+
+Abner went down the lane to the green, and Perez went into the house,
+and sat down in the dark to ponder the new difficulties with which
+the idea of also liberating Fennell complicated their first plan. Bold
+soldier as he was, practiced in the school of Marion and Sumter, in the
+surprises and strategems of partisan warfare, he was forced to admit
+that if their project had been hazardous before, this new feature made
+it almost foolhardy. In great perplexity he had finally determined to
+go to bed, hoping that the refreshment of morning would bring a clearer
+head and more sanguine mood, when there was a knock on the door. It was
+Abner looking very much excited.
+
+“Come out! Come out! Crypus! Come out, I've got news.”
+
+“What is it?” said Perez eagerly, stepping forth into the darkness.
+
+“That wuz a pootty leetle plan o' yourn, Perez.”
+
+“Yes, yes.”
+
+Abner, he knew had not come to tell him that, for his voice trembled
+with suppressed excitement, and the grip of his hand on his shoulder was
+convulsive.
+
+“P'raps we could a kerried it aout, an p'raps we should a kerflummuxed.
+Ye've got grit an I've got size,” pursued Abner. “Twuz wuth tryin on.
+I'm kinder sorry we ain't a gonter try it.”
+
+“What the devil do you mean, Abner? not going to try it?”
+
+“No, Perez, we ain't goin tew try it, leastways, not the same plan we
+callated, an we ain't a goin tew try it alone,” and he leaned over and
+hissed in Perez' ear:
+
+“The hull caounty o' Berkshire 's a gonter help us.”
+
+Perez looked at him with horror. He was not drunk; he must be going
+crazy.
+
+“What do you mean, Abner?” he said soothingly.
+
+“Ye think I don' know wat I be a talkin baout, don' ye, Perez? Wal,
+jess hole on a minit. A feller hez jess got in, a ridin 'xpress from
+Northampton, to fetch word that the people in Hampshire has riz, and
+stopped the courts. Fifteen hundred men, with Captain Dan Shays tew
+ther head, stopped em. Leastways, they sent word to the jedges that
+they kinder wisht they wouldn't hole no more courts till the laws wuz
+changed, and the jedges, they concluded that the 'dvice o' so many
+fellers with guns, wuz wuth suthin, so they 'journed.”
+
+“That means rebellion, Abner.”
+
+“In course it doos. An it means the Lord ain't quite dead yit. That's
+wat it means.”
+
+“But what's that got to do with Reub and George?”
+
+“Dew with em, why, man alive, don' ye unnerstan? Don' ye callate
+Berkshire folks haz got ez much grit ez the Hampshire fellers, an don'
+ye callate we haz ez much call to hev a grudge agin courts? Ye orter
+been daown tew the tavern tew see haow the fellers cut up wen the news
+come. T'was like a match dropping intew a powder bar'l. Tuesday's court
+day tew Barrington, an ef thar ain't more'n a thousand men on han with
+clubs an guns, tew stop that air court, wy, call me a skunk. An wen
+that air court's stopped, that air jail's a comin open, or it's a comin
+daown, one o' the tew naow.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTH
+
+PEREZ DEFINES HIS POSITION
+
+
+We who live in these days, when press and telegraph may be said to
+have almost rendered the tongue a superfluous member, quite fail to
+appreciate the rapidity with which intelligence was formerly transmitted
+from mouth to mouth. Virgil's description of hundred tongued Rumor
+appeared by no means so poetical an exaggeration to our ancestors as it
+does to us. Although the express, bearing the news of the Northampton
+uprising did not reach Stockbridge tavern a minute before half-past
+seven in the evening, there were very few families in the village or the
+outlying farmhouses, which had not heard it ere bedtime, an hour and a
+half later. And by the middle of the following forenoon there was in
+all Southern Berkshire, only here and there a family, off on a lonely
+hillside, or in a hidden valley, in which it was not the subject of
+debate.
+
+In Stockbridge, that morning, what few industries still supported a
+languishing existence in spite of the hard times, were wholly suspended.
+The farmer left his rowen to lie in the field and take the chances of
+the weather, the miller gave his mill-stream a holiday, the carpenter
+left the house half-shingled with rain threatening, and the painter his
+brush in the pot, to collect on the street corners with their neighbors
+and discuss the portentous aspect of affairs. And even where there was
+little or no discussion, to stand silently in groups was something. Thus
+merely to be in company was, to these excited men, a necessity and
+a satisfaction, for so does the electricity of a common excitement
+magnetize human beings, that they have an attraction for one another,
+and are drawn together by a force not felt at other times. There were
+not less than three hundred men, a quarter of the entire population
+of the town, on and about Stockbridge Green at ten o'clock that Monday
+morning, twice as many as had assembled to hear the news from the
+convention the Saturday preceding.
+
+The great want of the people, for the most part, tongue-tied farmers,
+seemed to be to hear talk, to have something said, and wherever a few
+brisk words gave promise of a lively dialogue, the speakers were at once
+surrounded by a dense throng of listeners. The thirsting eagerness
+with which they turned their open mouths toward each one as he began to
+speak, in the hope that he would express to themselves some one of the
+ideas formlessly astir in their own stolid minds, was pathetic
+testimony to the depth to which the iron of poverty, debt, judicial and
+governmental oppression had entered their souls. They had thought little
+and vaguely, but they had felt much and keenly, and it was evident
+the man who could voice their feelings, however partially, however
+perversely, and for his own ends, would be master of their actions.
+
+Abner was not present, having gone at an early hour over to Lenox
+furnaces, where he was acquainted, to carry the news from Northampton,
+if it should not have arrived there, and notify the workmen that there
+would be goings-on at Barrington, Tuesday, and they were expected to be
+on hand. Paul Hubbard, also, had not come down from West Stockbridge,
+although the news had reached that place last night. But from the
+disposition of the man, there could be no question that he was busily
+at work moulding his particular myrmidons, the iron-workers, into good
+insurrectionary material. There was no doubt that he would have them
+down to Barrington on time, whoever else was there.
+
+In the dearth of any further details of the Northampton uprising,
+the talk among the crowd on Stockbridge Green turned largely upon
+reminiscences and anecdotes of the disturbances at the same place,
+and at Hatfield four or five years previous. Ezra Phelps, who had
+been concerned in them, having subsequently removed from Hatfield to
+Stockbridge, enjoyed by virtue of that fact an oracular eminence, and
+as he stood under the shadow of the buttonwood tree before the tavern,
+relating his experiences, the people hung upon his lips.
+
+“Parson Ely,” he explained, “Parson Sam'l Ely wuz kinder tew the head on
+us. He wuz a nice sorter man, I tell yew. He wuz the on'y parson I ever
+seen ez hed any flesh in his heart for poor folks, 'nless it be some o'
+them ere Methody an Baptis preachers ez hez come in sence the war, an
+I callate they ain' reglar parsons nuther. Leastways, thuther parsons,
+they turned Parson Ely aout o' the min'stry daown to Somers whar he wuz,
+fer a tellin the poor folks they didn' git their rights. Times wuz hard
+four or five year ago, though they warn't so all-fired hard ez they be
+naow. Taxes wuz high 'nuff, an money wuz dretful skurce, an thar wuz
+lots o' lawin an suein o' poor folks. But gosh, ef we'd a known haow
+much wuss all them things wuz a going tew git, we sh'd a said we wuz
+well orf. But ye see we warn't so uster bein starved an cheated an
+jailed an knocked roun' then's we be sence, an so we wuz kinder desprit,
+an a slew on us come daown from Hatfield tew Northampton an stopped the
+court, wen t'wuz gonter set in the spring o' '82. I callate we went tew
+work baout the same ez Dan Shays an them fellers did las' week. Wal,
+arter we'd did the job an gone hum agin, Sheriff Porter up an nabbed the
+parson, an chucked him inter jail. He was long with us ye see, though
+he warn't no more tew blame nor any of us. Wal, ye see, we callated
+t'wouldn't be ezzackly fa'r tew let parson git intew trouble fer
+befriendin on us, an so baout 300 on us went daown tew Northampton agin,
+and broke open the jail an tuk parson aout. The sheriff didn' hev nothin
+tew say wen we wuz thar, but ez soon ez we'd gone hum, he up an took
+three o' the parson's frens as lived to Northampton an chucked em inter
+jail fer tew hold ez sorter hostiges. He callated he'd hev a ring in the
+parson's nose that ere way, so's he wouldn' dass dew nothin. Thar warn't
+no law nor no reason in sech doins, but 'twuz plantin time, leastways
+gittin on tew it, and he callated the farmers wouldn' leave ther farms,
+not fer nothin. But he mistook. Ye see we wuz fightin mad. Baout 500 on
+us tuk our guns an made tracks fer Northampton. Sheriff he'd got more'n
+a thousan milishy tew defend the jail, but the milishy didn' wanter
+fight, an we did, an that made a sight o' odds, fer wen we stopped night
+tew the taown an sent word that ef he didn' let them fellers aout o'
+jail we'd come an take em aout, he let em aout dum quick.”
+
+“Wat did they do nex?” inquired Obadiah Weeks, as Ezra paused with the
+appearance of having made an end of his narration.
+
+“That wuz the eend on't,” said Ezra. “By that time govment seen the
+people wuz in arnest, an quit foolin. Ginral Court passed a law pardnin
+all on us fer wat we'd done. They allers pardons fellers, ye see, wen
+ther's tew many on em tew lick, govment doos, an pooty soon arter they
+passed that ere tender law fer tew help poor folks ez hed debts so's
+prop'ty could be offered tew a far valiation instid o' cash.”
+
+“That air law wuz repealed sence,” said Peleg. “Ef we hed it naow, mebbe
+we could git 'long spite o' ther being no money a cirkilatin.”
+
+“In course it wuz repealed,” said Israel. “They on'y passed it caze they
+wuz scairt o' the people. The loryers an rich folks got it repealed soon
+ez ever they dasted. Gosh, govment don' keer nothin fer wat poor folks
+wants, 'nless they gits up riots. That's the on'y way they kin git laws
+changed, 's fur 's I see. Ain't that 'bout so Peleg?”
+
+“Ye ain't fur outer the way, Isr'el. We hain't got no money, an they
+don' keer wat we says, but when we takes hole, an doos sumthin they
+wakes up a leetle. We can't make em hear us, but by jocks, we kin make
+em feel us,” and Peleg pointed the sentiment with that cornerwise nod of
+the head, which is the rustic gesture of emphasis. “I callate ye've hit
+the nail on the head, Peleg,” said a grizzled farmer. “We poor folks hez
+to git our rights by our hands, same ez we gits our livin.”
+
+But at this moment, a sudden hush fell upon the group, and from the
+general direction of the eyes, it was evidently the approach of Perez
+Hamlin, as he crossed the green toward the tavern, which was the
+cause thereof. Although Perez had arrived in town only at dusk on the
+preceding Saturday, and excepting his Sunday evening stroll with Abner,
+had kept within doors, the tongue of rumor had not only notified pretty
+much the entire community of his arrival, but had adorned that bare fact
+with a profuse embroidery of conjecture, as to his recent experiences,
+present estate, and intentions for the future.
+
+An absence of nine years had, however, made him personally a stranger to
+most of the people. The young men had been mere lads when he went away,
+while of the elders, many were dead, or removed. As he approached the
+group around Ezra, he recognized but few of the faces, all of which were
+turned upon him with a common expression of curious scrutiny. There was
+Meshech Little. Him he shook hands with, and also with Peleg, and Israel
+Goodrich. Ezra had come to the village since his day.
+
+“Surely this is Abe Konkapot,” he said, extending his hand to a fine
+looking Indian. “Why Abe, I heard the Stockbridges had moved out to York
+State.”
+
+“You hear true,” responded the smiling Indian. “Heap go. Some stay. No
+want to go.”
+
+“Widder Nimham's gal Lu, could tell ye 'bout why Abe don' want ter go, I
+guess,” observed Obadiah Weeks, who directed the remark, however, not
+so much to Perez as to some of the half-grown young men, from whom it
+elicited a responsive snicker at Abe's expense.
+
+Indeed, after the exchange of the first greetings, it became apparent
+that Perez' presence was a damper on the conversation. The simple fact
+was, the people did not recognize him as one of them. It was not that
+his dress, although a uniform, was better or costlier than theirs. The
+blue stockings were threadbare, and had been often mended, and the coat,
+of the same hue, was pitiably white in the seams, while the original
+buff of the waistcoat and knee breeches had faded to a whitey brown.
+But the erect soldierly carriage of the wearer, and that neatness and
+trimness in details, which military experience renders habitual, made
+this frayed and time-stained uniform seem almost elegant, as compared
+with the clothes that hung slouchily upon the men around him. Their
+faces were rough, and unshaven, their hair unkempt, their feet bare,
+or covered with dusty shoes, and they had generally left their coats
+at home. Perez was clean shaven, his shoes, although they barely held
+together, were neatly brushed, and the steel buckles polished, while his
+hair was gathered back over his ears, and tied with a black ribbon in a
+queue behind, in the manner of gentlemen. But Israel Goodrich and Ezra
+also wore their hair in this manner, while shoes and clean shaved faces
+were occasional indulgences with every bumpkin who stood around. It was
+not then alone any details of dress, but a certain distinction in
+air and bearing about Perez, which had struck them. The discipline
+of military responsibility, and the officer's constant necessity of
+maintaining an aspect of authority and dignity, before his men, had left
+refining marks upon his face, which distinguished it as a different
+sort from the countenances about him with their expressions of pathetic
+stolidity, or boorish shrewdness. In a word, although they knew old
+Elnathan Hamlin to be one of themselves, they instinctively felt that
+this son of his had become a gentleman.
+
+At any time this consciousness would have produced constraint, and
+checked spontaneous conversation, but now, just at the moment when the
+demarcation of classes was taking the character of open hostility, it
+produced a sentiment of repulsion and enmity. His place was on the other
+side; not with the people, but with the gentlemen, the lawyers, the
+parsons, and the judges. Why did he come spying among them?
+
+Perez, without guessing the reason of it, began to be conscious of
+the unsympathetic atmosphere, and was about moving away, when Israel
+Goodrich remarked, with the air of wishing to avoid an appearance of
+churlishness.
+
+“Lessee, Perez, ye've been gone nigh onter nine year. Ye muss find some
+changes in the taown.”
+
+Israel, as a man of more considerable social importance than the most
+of those who stood around, and being moreover, old enough to be Perez'
+father, had been less affected by the impulse of class jealousy than the
+others.
+
+“I've been home only one day, Mr. Goodrich,” said Perez quietly, “but
+I've noticed some changes already. When I went away, every man in town
+had a farm of his own. As far as I've seen since I've been back, a few
+rich men have got pretty near all the farms now, and the men who used to
+own em, are glad of a chance to work on em as hired hands.”
+
+Such a sentiment, expressed by one of themselves, would have called
+forth a shower of confirmatory ejaculations, but the people stared at
+Perez in mere astonishment, the dead silence of surprise, at hearing
+such a strong statement of their grievances, from one whose appearance
+and manner seemed to identify him with the anti-popular, or gentleman's
+side. So far as this feeling of bewilderment took any more definite
+form, it evidently inclined to suspicion, rather than confidence. Was he
+mocking them? Was he trying to entrap them? Even Israel looked sharply
+at him, and his next remark, after quite a silence, was on another
+subject.
+
+“I s'pose ye know ez haow they've set the niggers free.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Perez, “I heard of that when I was away, but I didn't
+know the reason why they'd set em free, till I got home.”
+
+“What dew ye callate 's the reason?”
+
+“I see they've made slaves of the poor folks, and don't need the niggers
+any more,” replied Perez, as quietly as if he were making the most
+casual remark.
+
+But still the people stared at him and looked questioningly at each
+other, so bereft of magnetic force is language, though it express our
+inmost convictions, when we do not believe that the heart of the speaker
+beats in sympathy with what he says.
+
+“I don' quite git yer idee. Haow dew ye make out that air 'bout poor
+folks bein slaves?” said Ezra Phelps dryly.
+
+It was evident that any man who thought he was going to get at the real
+feelings of these rustics without first gaining their confidence, little
+understood the shrewd caution of the race.
+
+“I make it out this way,” replied Perez. “I find pretty much every rich
+man has a gang of debtors working for him, working out their debts. If
+they are idle, if they dispute with him, if they don't let him do what
+he pleases with them and their families, he sends them to jail with
+a word, and there they stay till he wants to let them out. No man can
+interfere between him and them. He does with em whatsoever he will. And
+that's why I call them slaves.”
+
+Now, Meshech Little was slightly intoxicated. By that mysterious
+faculty, whereby the confirmed drunkard, although absolutely
+impecunious, nevertheless manages to keep soaked, while other thirsty
+men can get nothing, he had obtained rum. And Meshech it was who,
+proceeding in that spirit of frankness engendered by the bottle, now
+brought about the solution of a misunderstanding, that was becoming
+painful.
+
+“Wha' ye say, Perez, z'all right, but wha'n time be _yew_ a sayin on it
+fer? Ye be dressed so fine, an a cap'n b'sides, that we callated ye'd
+take yer tod tew the store, long with the silk stockins, 'stid o'
+consortin with common folks like we be.”
+
+There was a general sensation. Every mouth was opened, and every neck
+craned forward to catch the reply.
+
+“Did you think so, Meshech? Well, you see you are mistaken. There's not
+a man among you has less cause to love the silk stockings, as you call
+them, than I have, and you Meshech ought to know it. Nine years ago,
+my brother Reub and I marched with the minute men. Parson and Squire
+Woodbridge, and Squire Edwards and all of em, came round us and said,
+'We'll take care of your father and mother. We'll never forget what you
+are doing to-day.' Yesterday I came home to find my father and mother
+waiting to be sold out by the sheriff, and go to the poor house; and
+Reub, I found my brother Reub, rotting to death in Barrington jail.”
+
+“By gosh, I forgot baout Reub, I declar I did,” exclaimed Meshech,
+contritely.
+
+“Give us yer hand,” said Israel, “I forgot same ez Meshech, an I
+misdoubted ye. This be Ezra Phelps, ez owns the new mill.”
+
+“Shake agin,” said Peleg, extending his hand.
+
+There was exhilaration as well as cordiality in the faces of the men,
+who now crowded around Perez, an exhilaration which had its source in
+the fact, that one whose appearance and bearing identified him with the
+gentlemen, was on their side. It filled them with more encouragement,
+than would have done the accession of a score of their own rank and
+sort. Brawn and muscle they could themselves supply, but for leadership,
+social, political and religious, they had always been accustomed to look
+to the gentlemen of the community, and from this lifelong and inherited
+habit, came the new sense of confidence and moral sanction, which they
+felt in having upon their side in the present crisis, one in whom they
+had instinctively recognized the traits of the superior caste.
+
+“Hev ye hearn the news from Northampton, Perez?” asked Israel.
+
+“Yes, and if you men are as much in earnest as I am, there'll be news
+from Barrington to-morrow,” replied Perez, glancing around.
+
+“Ef thar ain't, there'll be a lot on us disappinted, fer we be all a
+callatin tew go thar tew see,” said Israel, significantly.
+
+“We'll git yer brother aouter jail, fer ye, Perez, an ef thar's any
+fightin with the m'lishy, ye kin show us haow, I guess.”
+
+Meshech, as before intimated, was partially drunk, and spoke out of the
+fullness of his heart. But except for this one outburst, a stranger,
+especially one who did not know the New England disposition, and its
+preference for innuendo to any other mode of speech, in referring to the
+most important and exciting topics, would have failed entirely to get
+the idea that these farmers and laborers contemplated an act of armed
+rebellion on the morrow. He would, indeed, have heard frequent allusions
+to the probability there would be great goings on at Barrington, next
+morning, and intimations more or less explicit, on the part of nearly
+every man present, that he expected to be on hand to see what was done.
+But there was no intimation that they, themselves, expected to be the
+doers. Many, indeed, perhaps most, had very likely no distinct idea, of
+personally doing anything, nor was it at all necessary that they should
+have in order to ensure the expected outbreak, when the time should
+come. Given an excited crowd, all expecting something to be done which
+they desire to have done, and all the necessary elements of mob action
+are present.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTH
+
+THE FIRST ENCOUNTER
+
+
+The next morning by six o'clock, a large number of persons had gathered
+on the green at Stockbridge, in consequence of an understanding
+that those intending to witness the goings on at Barrington, should
+rendezvous at the tavern, and go down together, whereby their own hearts
+would be made stronger, and their enemies the more impressed. A good
+many had, indeed, gone on ahead, singly, or in parties. Meshech Little,
+who lived on the Barrington road, said that he hadn't had a wink
+of sleep since four o'clock, for the noise of passing teams and
+pedestrians. Those who owned horses and carts, including such men as
+Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, had preferred that mode of locomotion,
+but there were, nevertheless, as many as one hundred men and boys in the
+muster on the green. Perhaps a quarter of them had muskets, the others
+carried stout cudgels.
+
+All sorts of rumors were flying about. One story was that the militia
+had been ordered out with a dozen rounds of cartridges, to defend the
+court and jail. Some even had heard that a cannon had been placed in
+front of the court house, and trained on the Stockbridge road. On the
+other hand, it was asserted that the court would not try to sit at all.
+As now one, and now another, of these contradictory reports prevailed,
+ebullitions of courage and symptoms of panic alternated among the
+people. It was easy to see that they contemplated the undertaking, on
+which they were embarking, not without a good deal of nervousness. Abner
+was going from group to group, trying to keep up their spirits.
+
+“Hello,” he exclaimed, coming across Jabez Flint. “Look a here, boys.
+Derned ef Jabez ain't a comin long with the res' on us. Wal, Jabez, I
+swow, I never callated ez I sh'd be a fightin long side o' ye. Misry
+makes strange bedfellers, though.”
+
+“It's you ez hez changed sides, not me,” responded the Tory. “I wuz
+allers agin the state, an naow ye've come over tew my side.”
+
+Abner scratched his head.
+
+“I swan, it doos look so. Anyhow, I be glad tew see ye tidday. I see
+ye've got yer gun, Jabez. Ye muss be keerful. Loryers is so derndly like
+foxes, that ye mout hit one on em by mistake.”
+
+There was a slight snicker at this, but the atmosphere was decidedly too
+heavy for jokes. However boldly they might discourse at the tavern of an
+evening, over their mugs of flip, about taking up arms and hanging the
+lawyers, it was not without manifold misgivings, that these law-abiding
+farmers found themselves on the point of being actually arrayed against
+the public authorities in armed rebellion. The absence of Israel
+Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, who were looked up to as the most substantial
+in estate and general respectability of those who inclined to the
+popular side, was moreover unfortunate, although it was supposed that
+they would be present at Barrington.
+
+Meshech, indeed, in spite of the earliness of the hour, was full of
+pot-valor, and flourished his gun in a manner more perilous to those
+about him than to the state authorities, but his courage reeked so
+strongly of its source, that the display was rather discouraging than
+otherwise to the sober men around. Paul Hubbard, who had come down from
+the ironworks with thirty men or more, presently drew Abner aside and
+said:
+
+“See here. It won't do to wait round any longer. We must start. They're
+losing all their grit standing here and thinking it over.”
+
+But the confabulation was interrupted by a cry of panic from Obadiah
+Weeks:
+
+“Golly, here come the slectmen!”
+
+“Hell!” exclaimed Hubbard, whirling on his heel, and taking in the
+situation with a glance, while Abner's face was expressive of equal
+consternation.
+
+The local authorities had been so quiet the day before, that no
+interference on their part had been thought of.
+
+But here in a body came the five selectmen, cane in hand, headed by
+Jahleel Woodbridge, wearing his most awful frown, and looking like the
+embodied majesty of law. The actions and attitudes of the crowd were
+like those of scholars interrupted by the entrance of the master in
+the midst of a scene of uproar. Those nearest the corners of the tavern
+promptly slunk behind it. Obadiah slipped around to the further side of
+the buttonwood tree before the tavern. There was a general movement in
+the body of the crowd, caused by the effort of each individual to slip
+quietly behind somebody else, while from the edges, men began to sneak
+homewards across the green, at a rate, which, had the warning been a
+little longer, would have left no assemblage at all by the time the
+selectmen arrived on the spot. Those who could not find shelter behind
+their fellows, and could not escape save by a dead run, pulled their
+hats over their eyes and looked on the ground, slyly dropping their
+cudgels, meanwhile, in the grass. There was not a gun to be seen.
+
+With his head thrown back in the stiffest possible manner, his lips
+pursed out, and throwing glances like lashes right and left, Woodbridge,
+followed by the other selectmen, passed through the midst of the people,
+until he reached the stone step before the tavern door. He stepped up
+on this, and ere he opened his lips, swept the shame-faced assemblage
+before him with a withering glance. What with those who had pulled their
+hats over their eyes, and those who had turned their backs to him in
+anxiety to avoid identification, there was not an eye that met his.
+Abner himself, brave as a lion with his own class, was no braver than
+any one of them when it came to encountering one of the superior caste,
+to which he, and his ancestors before him, had looked up as their rulers
+and leaders by prescription. And so it must be written of even Abner,
+that he had somehow managed to get the trunk of the buttonwood tree,
+which sheltered Obadiah, between a part at least of his own enormous
+bulk, and Squire Woodbridge's eye. Paul Hubbard's bitter hatred of
+gentlemen, so far stood him in stead of courage, that it would not let
+him hide himself. He stood in plain view, but with his face half averted
+from Woodbridge, while his lip curled in bitter scorn of his own craven
+spirit. For it must be remembered that I am writing not of the American
+farmer and laborer of this democratic age, but of men who were separated
+but by a generation or two from the peasant serfs of England, and who
+under the stern and repressive rule of the untitled aristocracy of
+the colonies, had enjoyed little opportunity for outgrowing inherited
+instincts of servility.
+
+And now it was that Perez Hamlin, who had been all this while within the
+tavern, his attention attracted by the sudden silence which had fallen
+on the people without, stepped to the door, appearing on the threshold
+just above Squire Woodbridge's head and a little to one side of him. At
+a glance he saw the way things were going. Already half demoralized by
+the mere presence and glance of the magnates, a dozen threatening
+words from the opening lips of Woodbridge would suffice to send these
+incipient rebels, like whipped curs, to their homes. He thought of Reub,
+and for a moment his heart was filled with grief and terror. Then he had
+an inspiration.
+
+In the crowd was one known as Little Pete, a German drummer of
+Reidesel's Hessian corps, captured with Burgoyne's army. Brought to
+Stockbridge and quartered there as a prisoner he had continued to live
+in the town since the war. Abner had somewhere procured an old drum for
+Pete, and with this hung about his neck, the sticks in his hands, he
+now stood not ten feet away from the tavern door. He spoke but little
+English, and, being a foreigner, had none of that awe for the selectmen,
+alike in their personal and official characters, which unnerved the
+village folk. Left isolated by the falling back of the people around
+him, Pete was now staring at these dignitaries in stolid indifference.
+They did not wear uniforms, and Pete had never learned to respect or
+fear anything not in uniform.
+
+Having first brought the people before him, to the fitting preliminary
+stage of demoralization, by the power of his eye, Woodbridge said in
+stern, authoritative tones, the more effective for being low pitched,
+
+“You may well”----
+
+That was as far, however, as he got. With the first sound of his voice,
+Perez stepped down beside him. Drawing his sword, which he had put on
+that morning, he waved it with a commanding gesture, and looking at
+little Pete, said with a quick, imperious accent:
+
+“Drum!”
+
+If a man in an officer's uniform, with a shining piece of steel in his
+hand, should order Pete to jump into the mouth of a cannon, he would no
+more think of hesitating, than the cannon itself of refusing to go off
+when the linstock was pulled. Without the change of a muscle in his
+heavy face, he raised the drumsticks and brought them down on the
+sheepskin.
+
+And instantly the roll of the drum deafened the ears of the people,
+utterly drowning the imperious tones of the selectman, and growing
+louder and swifter from moment to moment, as the long unused wrists of
+the drummer recalled their former cunning.
+
+Woodbridge spoke yet a few words without being able to hear himself.
+Then, his smooth, fleshy face purple with rage, he wheeled and glared at
+Hamlin. It did not need the drum to silence him now. He was so overcome
+with amazement and passion that he could not have articulated a word.
+But if he thought to face down the man by his side, he was mistaken. At
+least a head taller than Woodbridge, Perez turned and looked down into
+the congested eyes of the other with cool, careless, defiance.
+
+And how about the people who looked on? The confident, decisive tone of
+Hamlin's order to the drummer, the bold gesture that enforced it, the
+fearless contempt for the village great man, which it implied, the
+unflinching look with which he met his wrathful gaze, and accompanying
+all these, the electrifying roll of the drum with its martial
+suggestions, had acted like magic on the crowd. Those who had slunk
+away came running back. Muskets rose to shoulders, sticks were again
+brandished, and the eyes of the people, a moment ago averted and
+downcast, rose defiantly. On every face there was a broad grin of
+delight. Even Paul Hubbard's cynical lips were wreathed with a smile of
+the keenest satisfaction, and he threw upon Perez one of the few glances
+of genuine admiration which men of his sardonic type ever have to spare
+for anybody.
+
+For a few moments Woodbridge hesitated, uncertain what to do. To remain
+standing there, was impossible, with this crowd of his former vassals on
+the broad grin at his discomfiture. To retire was to confess defeat.
+The question was settled, however, when one of his official associates,
+unable longer to endure the din of the drum, desperately clapped both
+hands over his ears. At this the crowd began to guffaw uproariously, and
+seeing that it was high time to see about saving what little dignity he
+still retained, Woodbridge led the way into the tavern, whither he was
+incontinently followed by his compeers.
+
+Instantly, at a gesture from Perez, the drum ceased, and his voice
+sounded strangely clear in the sudden and throbbing silence, as he
+directed little Pete to head the column, and gave the order to march.
+With a cheer, and a tread that shook the ground, the men set out. Perez
+remained standing before the tavern, till the last man had passed, by
+way of guarding against any new move by the selectmen, and then mounting
+his horse, rode along the column.
+
+They were about half a mile out of Stockbridge, when Abner, accompanied
+by Paul Hubbard, approached Perez, and remarked:
+
+“The fellers all on em says, ez haow ye'll hev tew be cap'n o' this ere
+kumpny. Thar's no use o' shilly-shallyin the business, we've got tew hev
+somebody ez kin speak up tew the silk stockins. Hain't that so, Paul?”
+
+Hubbard nodded, but did not speak. It was gall and wormwood to his
+jealous and ambitious spirit, to concede the leadership to another, but
+his good sense forced him to recognize the necessity of so doing in the
+present case.
+
+“Abner,” replied Perez, “you know I only want to get Reub out. That's
+why I interfered when the plan looked like falling through. I don't want
+to be captain, man, I'd no notion of that.”
+
+“Nuther had I,” said Abner, “till ye tackled the Squire, an then I see
+quick ez a flash that ye'd got ter be, an so'd all the other fellers. We
+sh'd a kerflummuxed sure's taxes, ef ye hadn't done jess what ye did. An
+naow, ye've got tew be cap'n, whether or no.”
+
+“Well,” said Perez, “If I can do anything for you, I will. We're all
+in the same boat, I suppose. But if I'm captain, you two must be
+lieutenants.”
+
+“Yes, we're a gonter be,” replied Abner. “Ye kin depend on us in a
+scrimmage, but ye muss sass the silk stockins.”
+
+Meanwhile the men, as they marched along the road in some semblance of
+military order, were eagerly discussing the recent passage between the
+dreaded Squire and their new champion. Their feeling about Perez seemed
+to be a certain odd mingling of respect, with an exultant sense of
+proprietorship in him as a representative of their own class, a
+farmer's son who had made himself as fine a gentleman as any of the silk
+stockings, and could face down the Squire himself.
+
+“Did ye see haow Squire looked at Perez wen Pete begun tew drum?”
+ observed Peleg. “I reckoned he wuz a gonter lay hans ontew him.”
+
+“Ef he had, by jimmeny, I b'leeve Cap'n would a hit him a crack ez would
+a knocked him inter the middle o' nex week,” said Meshech.
+
+“Oh, gosh, I ony wisht he hed,” cried Obadiah, quite carried away at
+the wild thought of the mighty Squire rolling on the grass with a bloody
+nose.
+
+“I allers hearn ez them Hamlin boys hed good blood intew em,” observed
+a farmer. “Mrs. Hamlin's a Hawley, one o' them air River Gods, ez they
+calls em daown Hampshire way. Her folks wuz riled wen she tuk up with
+Elnathan, I hearn.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTH
+
+GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON
+
+
+As the company from Stockbridge surmounted the crest of a hill, about
+half way to Barrington, they saw a girl in a blue tunic, a brown rush
+hat, and a short gown, of the usual butternut dye, trudging on in the
+same direction, some distance ahead. As she looked back, in evident
+amazement at the column of men marching after her, Perez thought that
+he recognized the face, and on coming up with her, she proved to be, in
+fact, no other than Prudence Fennell, the little lass who had called at
+the house Sunday evening to inquire about her father down at the jail,
+and whose piteous grief at the report Perez was obliged to give, had
+determined Abner and him to attempt the rescue of George, as well as
+Reub, at whatever additional risk.
+
+Far enough were they then from dreaming that two days later would find
+them leading a battalion of armed men, by broad daylight along the high
+road, to free the captives by open force. As readily would they then
+have counted on an earthquake to open the prison doors, as on this
+sudden uprising of the people in their strength.
+
+As the men came up, Prudence stopped to let them pass by, her fresh,
+pretty face expressive of considerable dismay. As she shrunk closely
+up to the rail fence that lined the highway, she looked with timid
+recognition up at Perez, as if to claim his protection.
+
+“Where are you going?” he asked kindly, stopping his horse.
+
+“I'm going to see father,” she said with a tremulous lip.
+
+“Poor little lassie, were you going to walk all the way?”
+
+“It is nothing,” she said, “I could not wait, you know. He might die,”
+ and her bosom heaved with a sob that would fain break forth.
+
+Perez threw himself from his horse.
+
+“We are all going to the jail,” he said. “You shall come with us, and
+ride upon my horse. Men, she shall lead us.”
+
+The men, whose discipline was not as yet very rigid, had halted and
+crowded around to listen to the dialogue, and received this proposition
+with a cheer. Prudence would far rather had them go on, and leave her to
+make her own way, but she was quite too much scared to resist as Perez
+lifted her upon his saddle. He shortened one of the stirrups, to support
+her foot, and then the column took up its march under the new captain,
+Perez walking by her side and leading the horse.
+
+Had he arranged this stroke beforehand, he could not have hit on a more
+effective device for toning up the morals of the men. Those in whose
+minds the old misgivings as to their course had succeeded the sudden
+inspiration of Little Pete's drum, now felt that the child riding ahead
+lent a new and sacred sanction to their cause. They all knew her story,
+and to their eyes she seemed, at this moment, an embodiment of the
+spirit of suffering and outraged humanity, which had nerved them for
+this day's work. A more fitting emblem, a more inspiring standard, could
+not have been borne before them. But it must not be supposed that even
+this prevented, now and then, a conscience-stricken individual from
+stopping to drink at some brook crossing the road, until the column had
+passed the next bend in the road, and then slinking home cross-lots,
+taking an early opportunity after arriving to pass the store, so as to
+be seen and noted as not among the rioters. But whatever was lost in
+this way, if the defection of such material can be called a loss, was
+more than made up by the recruits which swelled the ranks from the
+farmhouses along the road. And so, by the time they entered Muddy Brook,
+a settlement just outside of Great Barrington, through which the road
+from Stockbridge then passed, they numbered full one hundred and fifty.
+
+Muddy Brook was chiefly inhabited by a poor and rather low class of
+people, who, either from actual misery or mere riotous inclination,
+might naturally be expected to join in any movement against constituted
+authority. But instead of gaining any accession of forces here, the
+Stockbridge party found the place almost deserted. Even the small boys,
+and the dogs were gone, and apparently a large part of the able-bodied
+women as well.
+
+“What be all the folks?” called out Abner to a woman who stood with a
+baby in arms at an open door.
+
+“Over tew Barrington seein the fun. Thar be great dewins,” she replied.
+
+This news imparted valor to the most faint-hearted, for it was now
+apparent that this was not a movement in which Stockbridge was alone
+engaged, not a mere local revolt, but a general, popular uprising, whose
+extent would be its justification. And yet, prepared as they thus were,
+to find a goodly number of sympathizers already on the ground, it was
+with mingled exultation and astonishment that, on topping the high hill
+which separates Muddy Brook from Great Barrington, and gaining a view of
+the latter place, they beheld the streets packed, and the green in front
+of the court house fairly black with people.
+
+There was a general outburst of surprise and satisfaction.
+
+“By gosh, it looks like gineral trainin, or'n ordination.”
+
+“Looks kinder 'z if a good many fellers b'sides us hed business with the
+jestices this mornin.”
+
+“I'd no idee courts wuz so pop'lar.”
+
+“They ain't stocks nuff in Berkshire fer all the fellers as is out
+tidday, that's one sure thing, by gol.”
+
+“No, by Jock, nor Saddleback mounting ain't big nuff pillory to hold
+em, nuther,” were some of the ejaculations which at once expressed the
+delight and astonishment of the men, and at the same time betrayed the
+nature of their previous misgivings, as to the possible consequences of
+this day's doings. Estimates of the number of the crowd in Barrington,
+which were freely offered, ranged all the way from two thousand to ten
+thousand, but Perez, practiced in such calculations, placed the number
+at about eight or nine hundred men, half as many women and boys. What
+gave him the liveliest satisfaction was the absence of any military
+force, not indeed that he would have hesitated to fight if he could not
+have otherwise forced access to the jail, but he had contemplated the
+possibility of such a bloody collision between the people and militia,
+with much concern.
+
+“There'll be no fighting to-day, boys,” he said, turning to the men,
+“you'd better let off your muskets, so there may be no accidents. Fire
+in the air,” and thus with a ringing salvo, that echoed and reechoed
+among the hills and was answered with acclamations from the multitude
+in the village, the Stockbridge battalion, with the girl riding at its
+head, entered Great Barrington, and breaking ranks, mingled with the
+crowd.
+
+“Bully, we be jess in time to see the fun,” cried Obadiah delightedly,
+as the courthouse bell rang out, thereby announcing that the justices
+had left their lodgings to proceed to the courthouse and open court.
+
+“I declar for't,” exclaimed Jabez, “I wonder ef they be gonter try tew
+hole court 'n spite o' all that crowd. Thar they be sure's rates.”
+
+And, indeed, as he spoke, the door of the residence of Justice Dwight
+opened, and High Sheriff Israel Dickinson, followed by Justice Dwight
+and the three other justices of the quorum, issued therefrom, and took
+up their march directly toward the courthouse, seemingly oblivious of
+the surging mass of a thousand men, which barred their way.
+
+The sheriff advanced with a goose step, carrying his wand of office, and
+the justices strode in Indian file behind him. They were dressed in fine
+black suits, with black silk hose, silver buckles on their shoes, fine
+white ruffled shirts, and ponderous cocked hats upon their heavily
+powdered wigs. Their chests were well thrown out, their chins were
+held in air, their lips were judicially pursed, and their eyes were
+contemplatively fixed on vacancy, as if they had never for a moment
+admitted the possibility that any impediment might be offered to their
+progress. It must be admitted that their bearing worthily represented
+the prestige of ancient authority and moral majesty of law. Nor did
+the mob fail to render the tribute of an involuntary admiration to this
+imposing and apparently invincible advance. It had evidently been taken
+for granted that the mere assemblying and riotous attitude of so great
+a multitude, bristling with muskets and bludgeons, would suffice to
+prevent the justices from making any attempt to hold court. It was
+with a certain awe, and a silence interrupted only by murmurs of
+astonishment, that the people now awaited their approach. Perhaps had
+the throng been less dense, it might have justified the serene and
+haughty confidence of the justices, by opening a path for them. But
+however disposed the first ranks might have been to give way, they could
+not by reason of the pressure from behind, and on every side.
+
+Still the sheriff continued to advance, with as much apparent confidence
+of opening a way as if his wand were the veritable rod wherewith Moses
+parted the Red Sea, until he almost trod on the toes of the shrinking
+first rank. But there he was fain to pause. Moral force cannot penetrate
+a purely physical obstacle.
+
+And when the sheriff stopped, the justices marching behind him also
+stopped. Not indeed that their honors so far forgot their dignity as to
+appear to take direct cognizance of the vulgar and irregular impediment
+before them. It was the sheriff's business to clear the way for them.
+And although Justice Dwight's face was purple with indignation, he, as
+well as his associates, continued to look away into vacancy, suffering
+not their eyes to catch any of the glances of the people before them.
+
+“Make way! Make way for the honorable justices of the Court of Common
+Pleas of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!” cried the sheriff, in loud,
+imperative tones.
+
+A dead silence of several moments followed, in which the rattling of a
+farmer's cart, far down the street, as it brought in a belated load of
+insurgents from Sheffield, was distinctly audible. Then somebody in the
+back part of the crowd, impressed with a certain ludicrousness in
+the situation, tittered. Somebody else tittered, then a number, and
+presently a hoarse haw haw of derision, growing momentarily louder, and
+soon after mingled with yells, hoots and catcalls, burst forth from a
+thousand throats. The prestige of the honorable justices of the Court of
+Common Pleas, was gone.
+
+A moment still they hesitated. Then the sheriff turned and said
+something to them in a low voice, and they forthwith faced about and
+deliberately marched back toward their lodgings. In this retrograde
+movement the sheriff acted as rear guard, and he had not gone above a
+dozen steps, before a rotten egg burst on one shoulder of his fine new
+coat, and as he wheeled around an apple took him in the stomach, and at
+the same moment the cocked hat of Justice Goodrich of Pittsfield,
+was knocked off with a stone. His honor did not apparently think it
+expedient to stop just then to pick it up, and Obadiah Weeks, leaping
+forward, made it a prey, and instantly elevated it on a pole, amid
+roars of derisive laughter. The retreat of the justices had indeed so
+emboldened the more ruffianly and irresponsible element of the crowd,
+many of whom were drunk, that it was just as well for the bodily safety
+of their honors that the distance to their lodgings was no greater. As
+it was, stones were flying fast, and the mob was close on the heels of
+the sheriff when the house was gained, and as he attempted to shut the
+door after him, there was a rush of men, bent on entering with him. He
+knocked down the first, but would have been instantly overpowered
+and trampled on, had not Perez Hamlin, followed by Abner, Peleg, Abe
+Konkapot and half a dozen other Stockbridge men, shouldered their way
+through the crowd, and come to his relief. Where then had Perez been,
+meantime?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINTH
+
+JUDGE DWIGHT'S SIGNATURE
+
+
+As soon as the Stockbridge battalion had arrived on the green at Great
+Barrington, and broken ranks, Perez had directed Abner to pass the word
+to all who had friends in the jail, and presently a party of forty or
+fifty men was following him, as he led the way toward that building,
+accompanied by Prudence, who had not dismounted. The rest of them could
+attend to the stopping of the court. His concern was with the rescue of
+his brother. But he had not traversed over half the distance when the
+cry arose:
+
+“They're stoning the judges!”
+
+Thus recalled to his responsibilities as leader of at least a part of
+the mob, he had turned, and followed by a dozen men, had hurried back to
+the rescue, arriving in the nick of time. Standing in the open door of
+the house to which the justices had retired, the rescued sheriff just
+behind him in the hall, he called out:
+
+“Stand back! Stand back! What more do you want, men? The court is
+stopped.”
+
+But the people murmured. The Great Barrington men did not know Perez,
+and were not ready to accept his dictation.
+
+“We've stopped court to-day, sartin,” said one, “but wot's to hender
+they're holden of it to-morrer, or ez soon's we be gone, an hevin every
+one on us in jail?”
+
+“What do you want, then?” asked Perez.
+
+“We want some sartainty baout it.”
+
+“They've got tew 'gree not ter hold no more courts till the laws be
+changed,” were replies that seemed to voice the sentiments of the crowd.
+
+“Leave it to me, and I'll get you what you want,” said Perez, and he
+went down the corridor to the kitchen at the back of the house, where
+the sheriff had told him he would find the justices. Although the room
+had been apparently chosen because it was the farthest removed from
+the public, the mob had already found out their retreat, and a nose
+was flattened against each pane of the windows. Tall men peered in over
+short men's shoulders, and cudgels were displayed in a way not at all
+reassuring to the inmates.
+
+Their honors by no means wore the unruffled and remotely superior aspect
+of a few minutes before. It must be frankly confessed, as regards the
+honorable Justices Goodrich of Pittsfield, Barker of Cheshire, and
+Whiting of Great Barrington, that they looked decidedly scared, as in
+fact, they had some right to be. It might have been supposed, indeed,
+that the valor of the entire quorum had gone into its fourth member,
+Justice Elijah Dwight, who, at the moment Perez entered the room,
+was being withheld by the combined strength of his agonized wife and
+daughter from sallying forth with a rusty Queen's arm to defend his
+mansion. His wig was disarranged with the struggle, and the powder
+shaken from it streaked a countenance, scholarly enough in repose no
+doubt, but just now purple with the three-fold wrath of one outraged in
+the combined characters of householder, host, and magistrate.
+
+“Your honors,” said Perez, “the people will not be satisfied without
+your written promise to hold no more courts till their grievances are
+redressed. I will do what I can to protect you, but my power is slight.”
+
+“Who is this fellow who speaks for the rabble?” demanded Dwight.
+
+“My name is Hamlin.”
+
+“You are a disgrace to the uniform you wear. Do you know you have
+incurred the penalties of high treason?” exclaimed the justice.
+
+“This is not the first time I have incurred those penalties in behalf
+of my oppressed countrymen, as that same uniform shows,” retorted the
+other. “But it is not now a question of the penalties I have incurred,
+but how are you to escape the wrath of the people,” he continued
+sharply.
+
+“I shall live to see you hung, drawn and quartered for treason, you
+rascal,” roared Dwight.
+
+“Nay, sir. Do but think this man holds your life in his hands. Entreat
+him civilly,” expostulated Madam Dwight.
+
+“He means not so, sir,” she added, turning to Perez.
+
+“The fellers wanter know why in time that ere 'greement ain't signed. We
+can't keep em back much longer,” Abner cried, rushing to the door of the
+kitchen a moment, and hurrying back to his post.
+
+“Where are writing materials?” asked Justice Goodrich, nervously, as a
+stone broke through one of the window panes and fell on the table.
+
+“I will bring them,” said the young lady, Dwight's daughter.
+
+“Do make haste, Miss,” urged Justice Barker. “The mob is even now
+forcing an entrance.”
+
+“I forbid you to bring them. Remain here,” thundered Dwight.
+
+The girl paused, irresolute, pale and terrified.
+
+“Go, Eliza,” said her mother. “Disobey your father and save his life.”
+
+She went, and in a moment returned with the articles. Perez wrote two
+lines, and read them.
+
+“'We promise not to act under our commissions until the grievances of
+which the people complain are redressed.' Now sign that, and quickly, or
+it will be too late.”
+
+“Do you order us to sign?” said Barker, apparently willing to find in
+this appearance of duress an excuse for yielding.
+
+“Not at all,” replied Perez. “If you think you can make better terms
+with the people for yourselves, you are welcome to try. I should judge
+from the racket that they're on the point of coming in.”
+
+There was a hoarse howl from without, and Justices Goodrich, Barker and
+Whiting simultaneously grabbed for the pen. Their names were affixed in
+a trice.
+
+“Will your honor sign?” said Perez to Dwight, who stood before the
+fireplace, silently regarding the proceedings. His first ebullition of
+rage had passed, and he appeared entirely calm.
+
+“My associates may do as they please,” he replied with dignity, “but
+it shall never be said that Elijah Dwight surrendered to a mob the
+commission which he received from his excellency, the governor, and
+their honors, the councillors of the Commonwealth.”
+
+“I admire your courage, sir, but I cannot answer for the consequences of
+your refusal,” said Perez.
+
+“For my sake sign, sir,” urged Madam Dwight.
+
+“Oh, sign, papa. They will kill you,” cried Eliza.
+
+“Methinks, it is but proper prudence, to seem to yield for the time
+being,” said Goodrich.
+
+“'Tis no more than the justices at Northampton have done,” added Barker.
+
+“I need not remind your honor that a pledge given under duress, is not
+binding,” said Whiting.
+
+But Dwight waved them away, saying merely, “I know my duty.”
+
+Suddenly Eliza Dwight stepped to the table and wrote something at the
+bottom of the agreement, and giving the paper to Perez said something to
+him in a low voice. But her father's keen eye had noted the act, and he
+said angrily:
+
+“Child, have you dared to write my name?”
+
+“Nay, father, I have not,” replied the girl.
+
+Even as she spoke there were confused cries, heavy falls, and a rush
+in the hall, and instantly the room was filled with men, their faces
+flushed with excitement and drink. The guard had been overpowered.
+
+“Whar's that paper?”
+
+“Hain't they signed?”
+
+“We'll make ye sign, dum quick.”
+
+“We're a gonter tie ye up an give it to ye on the bare back.”
+
+“We'll give ye a dose o' yer own med'cin.”
+
+“I don' wanter hurt ye, sis, but ye muss git aout o' the way,” said a
+burly fellow to Eliza, who, with her mother, had thrown herself between
+the mob and Justice Dwight, his undaunted aspect appearing to excite the
+special animosity of the rabble. The other three justices were huddled
+in the furthest corner.
+
+“It's all right, men, it's all right. No need of any more words. Here's
+the paper,” said Perez, authoritatively. A man caught it from his hand
+and gave it to another, saying,
+
+“Here, Pete, ye kin read. Wot does it say?” Pete took the document in
+both hands, grasping it with unnecessary firmness, as if he depended
+in some degree on physical force to overcome the difficulties of
+decipherment, and proceeded slowly and with tremendous frowns to spell
+it out.
+
+
+“We-promise-not-to-ak--under--our-c--o--m,--commishins
+until-the--g--r--i--e--grievunces,”--
+
+“Wot be them?” demanded one of the crowd.
+
+“That means taxes, 'n loryers, 'n debts, 'n all that. I've hearn the
+word afore,” exclaimed another. “G'long Pete.”
+
+“Grievunces,” proceeded the reader, “of-wich-the-people-complain.”
+
+“That's so.”
+
+“That's dern good. In course we complains.”
+
+“Is that writ so, Pete?”
+
+“G'long, Pete, that ere's good.”
+
+“Complains,” began the reader again.
+
+“Go back tew the beginnin Pete, I los' the hang on't.”
+
+“Yes, go back a leetle, Pete. It be mos'z long ez a sermon.”
+
+“Shell I begin tew the beginnin?”
+
+“Yes, begin tew the beginnin agin, so's we'll all on us git the hang.”
+
+
+“We--promise--not-tew-ak--under--our-commishins,
+until--the--g--r--grievunces--of--wich--the--people--complain,
+are--r--e--d--r--redressed.”
+
+“Wot's redressed?”
+
+“That's same ez 'bolished.”
+
+“Here be the names,” pursued Pete.
+
+“Charles Goodrich.”
+
+“He's the feller ez loss his hat.”
+
+“William Whiting.”
+
+“James Barker.”
+
+“Elijah Dwight.”
+
+“It's false,” exclaimed Dwight, “my name's not there!”
+
+But few, if any, heard or heeded his words, for at the moment Pete
+pronounced the last name, Perez shouted:
+
+“Now, men, we've done this job, let's go to the jail and let out the
+debtors, come on,” and suiting action to word he rushed out, and was
+followed pell-mell by the yelling crowd, all their truculent enthusiasm
+instantly diverted into this new channel.
+
+The four justices, and the wife and daughter of Dwight, alone remained
+in the room. Even the people who had been staring in, with their noses
+flattened against the window panes, had rushed away to the new point of
+interest. Dwight stood steadfastly looking at his daughter, with a stern
+and Rhadamanthine gaze, in which, nevertheless, grief and reproachful
+surprise, not less than indignation, were expressed. The girl shrinking
+behind her mother, seemed more in terror than when the mob had burst
+into the room.
+
+“And so my daughter has disobeyed her father, has told him a lie, and
+has disgraced him,” said the justice, slowly and calmly, but in tones
+that bore a crushing weight of reproof. “Add, sir, at least, that she
+has also saved his life,” interposed one of the other justices.
+
+“Oh, don't talk to me so, papa,” cried the girl sobbing. “I didn't write
+your name, papa, I truly didn't.”
+
+“Do not add to your sin, by denials, my daughter. Did the fellow not
+read my name?” Dwight regarded her as he said this, as if he were
+somewhat disgusted at such persistent falsehood, and the others looked a
+little as if their sympathy with the girl had received a slight shock.
+
+“But, papa, won't you believe me,” sobbed the girl, clinging to her
+mother as not daring to approach him to whom she appealed. “I only wrote
+my own name.”
+
+“Your name, Eliza, but he read mine.”
+
+“Yes, but the pen was bad, you see, and my name looks so like yours,
+when it's writ carelessly, and the 'a' is a little quirked, and I
+wrote it carelessly, papa. Please forgive me. I didn't want to have you
+killed, and I quirked the 'a' a little.”
+
+The Rhadamanthine frown on Dwight's face yielded to a very composite
+expression, a look in which chagrin, tenderness, and a barely
+perceptible trace of amusement mingled. The girl instantly had her arms
+around his neck, and was crying violently on his shoulder, though she
+knew she was forgiven. He put his hand a moment gently on her head, and
+then unloosed her arms, saying, dryly,
+
+“That will do, dear, go to your mother now. I shall see that you have
+better instruction in writing.”
+
+That was the only rebuke he ever gave her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TENTH
+
+GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON CONTINUED
+
+
+When Perez and the men who with him were in the act of advancing on the
+jail, were so suddenly recalled by the cry that the people were stoning
+the judges, Prudence had been left quite alone, sitting on Perez' horse
+in the middle of the street. She had no clear idea what all this crowd
+and commotion in the village was about, nor even what the Stockbridge
+men had come down for in such martial array. She only knew that Mrs.
+Hamlin's son, the captain with the sword, had said he would bring her
+to her father, and now that he had run off taking all the other men with
+him, she knew not what to do or which way to turn. To her, thus perched
+up on the big horse, confused and scared by the tumult, approached
+a tall, sallow, gaunt old woman, in a huge green sunbonnet, and a
+butternut gown of coarsest homespun. Her features were strongly marked,
+but their expression was not unkindly, though just now troubled and
+anxious.
+
+“I guess I've seen yew tew meetin,” she said to Prudence. “Ain't you
+Fennell's gal?”
+
+“Yes,” replied the girl, “I come daown to see father.” Prudence,
+although she had profited by having lived at service in the Woodbridge
+family, where she heard good English spoken, had frequent lapses into
+the popular dialect.
+
+“I'm Mis Poor. Zadkiel Poor's my husban'. He's in jail over thar long
+with yer dad. He's kinder ailin, an I fetched daown some roots 'n yarbs
+as uster dew him a sight o' good, w'en he was ter hum. I thort mebbe I
+mout git to see him. Him as keeps jail lets folks in sometimes, I hearn
+tell.”
+
+“Do you know where the jail is?” asked the girl.
+
+“It's that ere haouse over thar. It's in with the tavern.”
+
+“Let's go and ask the jailer if he'll let us in,” suggested Prudence.
+
+“I wuz gonter wait an' git Isr'el Goodrich tew go long an kinder speak
+fer me, ef I could,” said Mrs. Poor. “He's considabul thought on by
+folks roun' here, and he's a neighbor o' ourn, an real kind, Isr'el
+Goodrich is. But I don' see him nowhar roun', an mebbe we mout's well go
+right along, an not wait no longer.”
+
+And so the two women went on toward the jail, and Prudence dismounted
+before the door of the tavern end, and tied the horse.
+
+“I callate they muss keep the folks in that ere ell part, with the row
+o' leetle winders,” said Mrs. Poor. She spoke in a hushed voice, as
+one speaks near a tomb. The girl was quite pale, and she stared with
+a scared fascination at the wall behind which her father was shut up.
+Timidly the women entered the open door. Both Bement and his wife were
+in the barroom.
+
+“What dew ye want?” demanded the latter, sharply.
+
+Mrs. Poor curtsied very low, and smiled a vague, abject smile of
+propitiation.
+
+“If ye please, marm, I'm Mis Poor. He's in this ere jail fer debt. He's
+kinder pulin like, Zadkiel is, an I jess fetched daown some yarbs fer
+him. He's been uster takin on em, an they doos him good, specially the
+sassafras. An I thort mebbe, marm, I mout git tew see him, bein ez he
+ain't a well man, an never wuz sence I married him, twenty-five year
+agone come nex' Thanksgivin.”
+
+“And I want to see father, if you please, marm. My father's George
+Fennell. Is he very sick marm?” added Prudence eagerly, seeing that Mrs.
+Poor was forgetting her.
+
+“I don' keer who ye be, an ye needn' waste no time o' tellin me,”
+ replied Mrs. Bement, her pretty blue eyes as hard as steel. “Ye couldn't
+go intew that jail not ef ye wuz Gin'ral Washington. I ain't goin ter
+hev no women folks a bawlin an a blubberin roun' this ere jail's long's
+_my_ husban' keeps it, an that's flat.
+
+“I won't cry a bit, if you'll only let me see father,” pleaded Prudence,
+two great tears gathering in her eyes, even as she spoke, and testifying
+to the value of her promise. “And--and I'll scrub the floor for you,
+too. It needs it, and I'm a good scrubber, Mrs. Woodbridge says I am.”
+
+“I'd take it kind of ye, I would,” said Mrs. Poor, “ef ye'd let me in
+jess fer a minit. He'd set store by seein of me, an I could give him the
+yarbs. He ain't a well man, an never wuz, Zadkiel ain't. Ye needn't let
+the gal in. It don' matter 's much about her, an gals is cryin things.
+I'll scrub yer floor better'n she ever kin, an come to look it doos
+kinder need it,” and she turned her agonized eyes a moment upon the
+floor in affected critical inspection.
+
+“Cephas, see that crowd comin. What do they mean? Put them women out.
+G'long there, git out, quick! Shut the door, Cephas. Put up the bar.
+What ever's comin to us?”
+
+Well might Mrs. Bement say so, for the sight that had caught her eyes
+as she stood confronting the women and the open door, was no less an one
+than a mass of nearly a thousand men and boys, bristling with clubs and
+guns, rushing directly toward the jail.
+
+Scarcely had the women been thrust out, and the white-faced Bement
+dropped the bar into its sockets across the middle of the door, than
+there was a rushing, tramping sound before the house, like the noise
+of many waters, and a great hubbub of hoarse voices. Then came a heavy
+blow, as if with the hilt of a sword against the door, and a loud voiced
+called,
+
+“Open, and be quick about it!”
+
+“Don't do it, Cephas, the house is stout, and mebbe help'll come,” said
+Mrs. Bement, although she trembled.
+
+But Cephas, though generally like clay in the hands of his wife, was
+at this instant dominated by a terror greater than his fear of her. He
+lifted the bar from the sockets, and was instantly sent staggering back
+against the wall as the door burst open. The room was instantly filled
+to its utmost capacity with men, who dropped the butts of their muskets
+on the floor with a jar that made the bottles in the bar clink in
+concert.
+
+Bement who had managed to get behind the bar, stood there with a face
+like ashes, his flabby cheeks relaxed with terror so they hung like
+dewlaps. He evidently expected nothing better than to be butchered
+without mercy on the spot.
+
+“Good morning, Mr. Bement,” said Perez, as coolly as if he had just
+dropped in for a glass of flip.
+
+“Good morning sir,” faintly articulated the landlord.
+
+“You remember me, perhaps. I took dinner here, and visited by brother in
+the jail last Saturday. I should like to see him again. Will you be kind
+enough to hand me the keys, there behind you?” Bement stared as if dazed
+at Perez, looked around at the crowd of men, and then looked back at
+Perez again, and still stood gaping.
+
+“Did ye hear the cap'n?” shouted Abner in a voice of thunder. Bement
+gave a start of terror, and involuntarily turned to take the bunch of
+keys down from the nail. But by the time he had turned, the keys were no
+longer there.
+
+It had been easy to see from the first, that Mrs. Bement was made of
+quite different stuff from her husband. As she stood by his side behind
+the bar, although she was tremulous with excitement, the look with which
+she had faced the crowd was rather vixenish than frightened. There was
+a vicious sparkle in her eyes, and the color of her cheeks was
+concentrated in two small spots, one under each cheek bone. Just as her
+husband, succumbing to the inevitable, was turning to take the keys from
+their nail and deliver them over, she quietly reached behind him, and
+snatched them. Then, with a deft motion opening the top of her gown
+a little, she dropped them into her bosom, and looked at Perez with a
+defiant expression, as much as to say, “Now I should like to see you get
+them.”
+
+There was no doubt about the little shrew being thoroughly game, and yet
+her act was less striking as evidence of her bravery, than as testifying
+her confidence in the chivalry of the rough men before her. And, indeed,
+it was comical to see the dumbfoundered and chop-fallen expression on
+their flushed and excited faces, as they took in the meaning of this
+piece of strategy. They had taken up arms against their government, and
+but a few moments before had been restrained with difficulty from laying
+violent hands upon the august judges of the land, but not the boldest of
+them thought it possible to touch this woman. There were men here whom
+neither lines of bayonets nor walls of stone would have turned back,
+but not one of them was bold enough to lay a forcible hand upon the veil
+that covered a woman's breast. They were Americans.
+
+There was a dead silence. The men gaped at each other, and Perez himself
+looked a little foolish for a moment. Then he turned to Abner and said
+in a grimly quiet way:
+
+“Knock Bement down. Then four of you swing him by his arms and legs and
+break the jail door through with his head.”
+
+“Ye wouldn' murder me, cap'n,” gasped the hapless man. In a trice Abner
+had hauled him out from behind the bar, and tripped him up on the floor.
+Then three other men, together with Abner, seized him by the hands and
+feet, and half dragged, half carried him across the room to the door in
+the middle of one of the sides which opened into the jail corridor.
+
+“Swing the cuss three times, so's ter git kinder a goin, an then we'll
+see w'ether his head or the door's the thickest,” said Abner.
+
+“Giv' em the keys, Marthy. They're a killin me,” screeched Bement.
+
+The woman had set her teeth. Her face was a little whiter, the red spots
+under her cheek bones were a little smaller and a little redder than
+before. That was all the sign she gave. Putting her hand convulsively
+over the spot on her bosom where the desired articles were secreted, she
+replied in a shrill voice:
+
+“I shell keep the keys, Cephas. It's my dewty. Pray, Cephas, that I may
+hev strength given me ter dew my dewty.”
+
+“Ye won't see me killed 'fore yer eyes, will ye, give em the keys I tell
+ye,” shrieked Bement, as they began to swing him, and Abner said:
+
+“One.”
+
+The woman looked a bit more like going into hysterics, but not a whit
+more like yielding.
+
+“Mebbe t'wont kill ye, an they can't bust the door, nohow. Mebbe they'll
+git tuckered 'fore long. If wust comes to wust, it's a comfort ter know
+ez ye're a perfesser in good stannin.”
+
+Bement had doubtless had previous experience of a certain tenacity
+of purpose on the part of his spouse, for ceasing to address further
+adjurations to her, he began to appeal for mercy to the men.
+
+“Two,” said Abner, as they swung him again.
+
+Now, Mrs. Poor and Prudence, having been thrust out of the barroom just
+before the mob thundered up against the barred door, had been borne back
+into the room again by the rush when the door was opened, and it was
+Mrs. Poor who now made a diversion.
+
+“Look a here, Abner Rathbun,” she said. “W'at in time's the use of
+murd'rin the man? He hain't done nothin. It's the woman, as has got the
+keys. She wouldn' let me inter see Zadkiel, an I'm jess a itchin tew git
+my hands ontew her, an that's the trewth, ef I be a perfesser. You let
+the man alone. I'll git them keys, or my name ain't Resignation Ann
+Poor.”
+
+There was a general murmur of approval, and without waiting for orders
+from Perez, Abner and his helpers let Bement drop, and he scrambled to
+his feet.
+
+Mrs. Bement began to pant. She knew well enough that she had nothing
+to fear from all the men in Massachusetts, but one of her own sex was a
+more formidable enemy. And, indeed, a much more robust person than the
+jailer's little wife, might have been excused for not relishing a tussle
+with the tall, rawboned old woman, with hands brown, muscular, and
+labor hardened as a man's, who now laid her big green sunbonnet on the
+counter, and stepping to the open end of the bar, advanced toward her.
+Mrs. Poor held her hands before her about breast high, at half arm's
+length, elbows depressed, palms turned outward, the fingers curved like
+a cat's claws. There was an expression of grim satisfaction on her hard
+features.
+
+Mrs. Bement stood awaiting her, breathing hard, evidently scared, but
+equally evidently, furious.
+
+“Give em the keys, Marthy. She'll kill ye,” called out Bement, from the
+back of the room.
+
+But she paid no attention to this. Her fingers began to curve back like
+claws, and her hands assumed the same feline attitude as Mrs. Poor's.
+It was easy to see that the pluck of the little woman extorted a certain
+admiration from the very men who had fathers, sons and brothers in the
+cells beyond. She was not a bit more than half as big as her antagonist,
+but she looked game to the backbone, and the forthcoming result was not
+altogether to be predicted. You could have heard a pin drop in the room,
+as the men leaned over the counter with faces expressive of intensest
+excitement, while those behind stood on tiptoe to see. For the moment
+everything else was forgotten in the interest of the impending combat.
+Mrs. Bement seemed drawing back for a spring. Then suddenly, quick
+as lightning, she put her hand in her bosom, drew out the keys, and
+throwing them down on the counter, burst into hysterical sobs.
+
+In another moment the jail door was thrown open, and the men were
+rushing down the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVENTH
+
+END OF THE GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON
+
+
+Then, presently, the jail was full of cries of horror and indignation.
+For each cell door as it was unbarred and thrown open revealed the
+same piteous scene, the deliverers starting back, or standing quite
+transfixed before the ghastly and withered figures which rose up before
+them from dank pallets of putrid straw. The faces of these dismal
+apparitions expressed the terror and apprehension which the tumult
+and uproar about the jail had created in minds no longer capable of
+entertaining hope.
+
+Ignorant who were the occupants of particular cells it was of course
+a matter of chance whether those who opened any one of them, were the
+friends of the unfortunates who were its inmates. But for a melancholy
+reason this was a matter of indifference. So ghastly a travesty on their
+former hale and robust selves, had sickness and sunless confinement
+made almost all the prisoners, that not even brothers recognized their
+brothers, and the corridor echoed with poignant voices, calling to the
+poor creatures:
+
+“What's your name?” “Is this Abijah Galpin?” “Are you my brother Jake?”
+ “Are you Sol Morris?” “Father, is it you?”
+
+As they entered the jail with the rush of men, Perez had taken
+Prudence's hand, and remembering the location of Reuben's cell, stopped
+before it, lifted the bar, threw open the door and they went in. George
+Fennell was lying on the straw upon the floor. He had raised himself on
+one elbow, and was looking apprehensively to see what the opening of
+the door would reveal as the cause of this interruption to the usually
+sepulchral stillness of the jail. Reuben was standing in the middle of
+the floor, eagerly gazing in the same direction. Perez sprang to his
+brother's side, his face beautiful with the joy of the deliverer. If
+he had been a Frenchman, or an Italian, anything but an Anglo Saxon,
+he would have kissed him, with one of those noblest kisses of all,
+wherewith once in a lifetime, or so, men may greet each other. But he
+only supported him with one arm about the waist, and stroked his wasted
+cheek with his hand, and said:
+
+“I've come for you Reub, old boy, you're free.”
+
+Prudence had first peered anxiously into the face of Reuben, and next
+glanced at the man lying on the straw. Then she plucked Perez by the
+sleeve, and said in an anguished voice:
+
+“Father ain't here. Where is he?” and turned to run out.
+
+“That's your father,” replied Perez, pointing to the sick man.
+
+The girl sprang to his side, and kneeling down, searched with straining
+eyes in the bleached and bony face, fringed with matted hair and long
+unkempt gray beard, for some trace of the full and ruddy countenance
+which she remembered. She would still have hesitated, but her father
+said:
+
+“Prudy, my little girl, is it you?”
+
+Her eyes might not recognize the lineaments of the face, but her heart
+recalled the intonation of tenderness, though the voice was weak and
+changed. Throwing her arms around his neck, pressing her full red lips
+in sobbing kisses upon his corpse-like face, she cried:
+
+“Father! Oh Father!”
+
+Presently the throng began to pour out of the jail, bringing with them
+those they had released. The news that the jail was being broken
+open, and the prisoners set free, had spread like wildfire through the
+thronged village, and nearly two thousand people were now assembled in
+front of and about the jail, including besides the people from out
+of town, nearly every man, woman and child in Great Barrington,
+not actually bedridden, excepting of course, the families of the
+magistrates, lawyers, court officers, and the wealthier citizens, who
+sympathized with them. These were trembling behind their closed doors,
+hoping, but by no means assured, that this sudden popular whirlwind,
+might exhaust itself, before involving them in destruction. And indeed
+the cries of pity, and the hoarse deep groans of indignation with
+which the throng before the jail received the prisoners as they were
+successively brought forth, were well calculated to inspire with
+apprehension, those who knew that they were held responsible by the
+public judgment for the deeds of darkness now being brought to light. It
+was now perhaps the old mother and young wife of a prisoner, holding up
+between them the son and husband, and guiding his tottering steps,
+that set the people crying and groaning. Now it was perhaps a couple
+of sturdy sons, unused tears running down their tanned cheeks, as they
+brought forth a white-haired father, blinking with bleared eyes at the
+forgotten sun, and gazing with dazed terror at the crowd of excited
+people. Now it was Perez Hamlin, leading out Reuben, holding him up with
+his arm, and crying like a baby in spite of all that he could do. Nor
+need he have been ashamed, for there were few men who were not in like
+plight. Then came Abner, and Abe Konkapot, stepping carefully, as they
+carried in their arms George Fennell, Prudence walking by his side, and
+holding fast his hand.
+
+Nor must I forget to speak of Mrs. Poor. The big, raw-boned woman's
+hard-favored countenance was lit up with motherly solicitude, as she
+lifted, rather than assisted, Zadkiel, down the steps of the tavern.
+
+“Wy don' ye take him up in yer arms?” remarked Obadiah Weeks,
+facetiously, but it was truly more touching than amusing, to see the
+protecting tenderness of the woman, for the puny little fellow whom an
+odd freak of Providence had given her for a husband, instead of a son.
+
+Although Mrs. Poor movingly declared that “He warn't the shadder of
+hisself,” the fact was, that having been but a short time in jail,
+Zadkiel showed few marks of confinement, far enough was he, from
+comparing in this respect, with the others, many of whom had been shut
+up for years. They looked, with the dead whiteness of their faces
+and hands, rather like grewsome cellar plants, torn from their native
+darkness, only to wither in the upper light and air, than like human
+organisms just restored to their normal climate. As they moved among the
+tanned and ruddy-faced people, their abnormal complexion made them look
+like representatives of the strange race of Albinos.
+
+But saddest perhaps of all the sights were the debtors who found no
+acquaintances or relatives to welcome them as they came forth again
+helpless as at their first birth, into the world of bustle and sun
+and breeze. It was piteous to see them wandering about with feeble and
+sinewless steps, and vacant eyes, staring timidly at the noisy people,
+and shrinking dismayed from the throngs of sympathizing questioners
+which gathered round them. There were some whose names not even the
+oldest citizens could recall so long had they been shut up from the
+sight of men.
+
+Jails in those days were deemed as good places as any for insane
+persons, and in fact were the only places available, so that, besides
+those whom long confinement had brought almost to the point of
+imbecility, there were several entirely insane and idiotic individuals
+among the prisoners. One of them went around in a high state of
+excitement declaring that it was the resurrection morning. Nor was the
+delusion altogether to be marvelled at considering the suddenness with
+which its victim had exchanged the cell, which for twenty years had been
+his home, for the bright vast firmament of heaven, with its floods of
+dazzling light and its blue and bottomless dome.
+
+Another debtor, a man from Sheffield, as a prisoner of war during the
+revolution, had experienced the barbarities practiced by the British
+provost Cunningham at New York. Having barely returned home to his
+native village when he was thrust into jail as a debtor, he had not
+unnaturally run the two experiences together in his mind. It was his
+hallucination that he had been all the while a prisoner of the British
+at New York, and that the victorious Continental army had just arrived
+to deliver him and his comrades. In Perez he recognized General
+Washington.
+
+“Ye was a long time comin, Ginral, but it's all right now,” he said. “I
+knowd ye'd come at las', an I tole the boys not to git diskerridged. The
+redcoats has used us bad though, an I hope ye'll hang em, Gin'ral.”
+
+At the time of which I write, rape was practically an unknown crime in
+Berkshire, and theft extremely uncommon. But among the debtors there
+were a few criminals. These, released with the rest, were promptly
+recognized and seized by the people. The general voice was first for
+putting them back in the cells, but Abner declared that it would be
+doing them a kindness to knock them on the head rather than to send them
+back to such pigsties, and this view of the matter finding favor, the
+fellows were turned loose with a kick apiece and a warning to make
+themselves scarce.
+
+In the first outburst of indignation over the horrible condition of the
+prison and the prisoners, there was a yell for Bement, and had the men,
+in their first rage, laid hands on him, it certainly would have gone
+hard with him. But he was not to be found, and it was not till some time
+after, that in ransacking the tavern, some one found him in the garret,
+hidden under a tow mattress stuffed with dried leaves, on which the
+hired man slept nights. He was hauled downstairs by the heels pretty
+roughly, and shoved and buffeted about somewhat, but the people having
+now passed into a comparatively exhilarated and good-tempered frame of
+mind, he underwent no further punishment, that is in his person. But
+that was saved only at the expense of his pocket, for the men insisted
+on his going behind the bar and treating the crowd, a process which
+was kept up until there was not a drop of liquor in his barrels, and
+scarcely a sober man in the village. Mrs. Bement, meanwhile, had been
+caught and held by some of the women, while one of the prisoners, a
+bestial looking idiot, drivelling and gibbering, and reeking with filth,
+was made to kiss her. No other penalty could have been devised at once
+so crushing to the victim, and so fully commending itself to the popular
+sense of justice.
+
+There were about ten or fifteen of the released debtors whose homes were
+in or about Stockbridge, and as they could not walk any considerable
+distance, it was necessary to provide for their transport. Israel
+Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, as well as other Stockbridge men, had driven
+down in their carts, and these vehicles being filled with straw, the
+Stockbridge prisoners were placed in them. Israel Goodrich insisted that
+Reuben Hamlin and George Fennell, with Prudence, should go in his cart,
+and into it were also lifted three or four of the friendless prisoners,
+who had nowhere to go, and whose helpless condition had stirred old
+Israel's benevolent heart to its depths.
+
+“The poor critters shell stay with me, ef I hev tew send my chil'n tew
+the neighbours ter make room fer em,” he declared, blowing his nose with
+a blast that made his horses jump.
+
+With six or seven carts leading the way, and some seventy or eighty men
+following on foot, the Stockbridge party began the march home about two
+o'clock. Full half the men who had marched down in the morning, chose to
+remain over in Barrington till later, and a good many were too drunk on
+Bement's free rum to walk. Most of Paul Hubbard's ironworkers being in
+that condition, he stayed to look after them, and Peleg Bidwell had also
+stayed, to see that none of the Stockbridge stragglers got into trouble,
+and bring them back when he could. Abner walked at the head of the men.
+Perez rode by Israel Goodrich's cart. They went on slowly, and it was
+five o'clock when they came in plain view of Stockbridge. The same
+exclamation was on every lip. It seemed a year instead of a few hours
+only since they had left in the morning.
+
+“It's been a good day's work, Cap'n Hamlin, the best I ever hed a hand
+in,” said Israel. “I callate it was the Lord's own work, ef we dew git
+hanged for't.”
+
+As the procession passed Israel's house, he helped out his sad guests,
+and sent on his cart with its other inmates. All the way back from
+Barrington, the Stockbridge company had been meeting a string of men
+and boys, in carts and afoot, who, having heard reports of what had been
+done, were hastening to see for themselves. Many of these turned back
+with the returning procession, others keeping on. This exodus of the
+masculine element, begun in the morning, and continued all day, had left
+in Stockbridge little save women and girls and small children, always
+excepting, of course, the families of the wealthier and governing
+classes, who had no part nor lot in the matter. Accordingly, when the
+party reached the green, there was only an assemblage of women and
+children to receive them. These crowded around the carts containing the
+released prisoners, with exclamations of pity and amazement, and as the
+vehicles took different directions at the parting of the streets, each
+one was followed by a score or two, who witnessed with tearful sympathy
+each reunion of husband and wife, of brother and sister, of mother and
+son. Several persons offered to take George Fennell, who had no home
+to go to, into their houses, but Perez said that he should, for the
+present, at least, lodge with him.
+
+As Israel Goodrich's cart, containing Reuben and Fennell and Prudence,
+and followed by quite a concourse, turned up the lane to Elnathan
+Hamlin's house and stopped before the door, Elnathan and Mrs. Hamlin
+came out looking terrified. Perez, fearing some disappointment, had not
+told them plainly that he should bring Reuben home, and the report
+of the jail-breaking, although it had reached Stockbridge, had not
+penetrated to their rather isolated dwelling. So that it was with
+chilling apprehensions, rather than hope, that they saw the cart, driven
+slowly, as if it carried the dead, stop before their door, and the crowd
+of people following it.
+
+“Mother, I've brought Reub home,” said Perez, and a gaunt, wild-looking
+man was helped out of the cart, and tottered into Mrs. Hamlin's arms.
+
+There was nothing but the faint, familiar smile, and the unaltered eyes,
+to tell her that this was the stalwart son whom the sheriff led away a
+year ago. Had she learned that he was dead, it would have shocked her
+less than to receive him alive and thus. Elnathan and she led him into
+the house between them. Ready hands lifted Fennell out of the cart and
+bore him in, Prudence following. And then Perez went in and shut the
+door, and the cart drove off, the people following.
+
+Although the shock which Mrs. Hamlin had received was almost
+overwhelming, she had known, after the first moment, how to conceal it,
+and no sooner had the invalids been brought within doors and comfortably
+placed, than she began without a moment's delay, to bestir herself to
+prepare them food and drink, and make provision for their comfort. Tears
+of anguish filled her eyes whenever she turned aside, but they were
+wiped away, and her face was smiling and cheery when she looked at
+Reuben. But being with Perez a moment in a place apart, she broke down
+and cried bitterly.
+
+“You have brought him home to die,” she said.
+
+But he reassured her.
+
+“I have seen sick men,” he said, “and I don't think Reub will die. He'll
+pull through, now he has your care. I'm afraid poor George is too far
+gone, but Reub will come out all right. Never fear mother.”
+
+“Far be it from me to limit the Holy One of Israel by my want of faith,”
+ said Mrs. Hamlin. “If it be the Lord's will that Reuben live, he will
+live, and if it be not His will, yet still will I praise His name for
+His great goodness in that I am permitted to take care of him, and
+do for him to the last. Who can say but the Most High will show still
+greater mercy to his servant, and save my son alive?”
+
+As soon as the sick men were a little revived from the exhaustion of
+their journey, tubs of water were provided in the shed, and they washed
+themselves all over, Elnathan and Perez assisting in the repulsive task.
+Then, their filthy prison garments being thrown away, they were dressed
+in old clothing of Elnathan's, and their hair and matted beards were
+shorn off with scissors. Perez built a fire in the huge open fireplace
+to ward off the slight chill of evening, and the sick men were
+comfortably arranged before it upon the great settle. The elderly woman
+and the deft handed maiden, moved softly about, setting the tea table,
+and ministering to the needs of the invalids, arranging now a covering,
+now moving a stool, or maybe merely resting their cool and tender palms
+upon the fevered foreheads. Fennell had fallen peacefully asleep, but
+Reuben's face wore a smile, and in his eyes, as they languidly followed
+his mother's motions, to and fro, there was a look of unutterable
+content.
+
+“I declar for 't,” piped old Elnathan, as he sat in the chimney corner
+warming his fingers over the ruddy blaze, “I declar for 't, mother, the
+boy looks like another man a' ready. They ain't nothin like hum fer sick
+folks.”
+
+“I shan't want no doctor's stuff,” said Reuben, feebly. “Seein mother
+round 's med'cin nuff fer me, I guess.”
+
+And Perez, as he stood leaning against the chimney, and looking on the
+scene, lit by the flickering firelight, said to himself, that never
+surely, in all his fighting had he ever drawn his sword to such good and
+holy purpose as that day.
+
+Soon after nightfall the latchstring was pulled in a timid sort of way,
+and Obadiah Weeks stood on the threshold, waiting sheepishly till Mrs.
+Hamlin bade him enter. He came forward, toward the chimney, taking off
+his hat and smoothing his hair with his hand.
+
+“It looks kinder good tew see a fire,” he remarked, presently
+supplementing this by the observation that it was “kinder hot, though,”
+ and grinning vaguely around at every one in the room, with the exception
+of Prudence. He did not look at her, though he looked all around her. He
+put his hands in his pockets and took them out, rubbed one boot against
+the other, and examined a wart on one of his thumbs, as if he now
+observed it for the first time, and was quite absorbed in the discovery.
+
+Then with a suddenness that somewhat startled Perez, who had been
+observing him with some curiosity, he wheeled round so as to face
+Prudence, and simultaneously sought in his pocket for something. Not
+finding it at first, his face got very red. Finally, however, he drew
+forth a little bundle and gave it to the girl, mumbling something about
+“Sassafras, thort mebbe 'twould be good fer yer dad,” and bolted out of
+the room.
+
+Nobody said anything after Obadiah's abrupt retirement, but when a few
+moments later, Prudence looked shyly around, with cheeks a little
+rosier than usual, she saw Perez regarding her with a slight smile of
+amusement. A minute after she got up and went over to Mrs. Hamlin, and
+laid the sassafras in her lap, saying:
+
+“Don't you want this, Mrs. Hamlin? I'm sure I don't know what it's good
+for,” and went back to her seat and sat down again, with a slight toss
+of the head.
+
+Presently a medley of discordant sounds began to float up from the
+village on the gentle southerly breeze. There was a weird, unearthly
+groaning, as of a monster in pain, mingled with the beating of tin-pans.
+Perez finally went to see what it was. At the end of the lane he met
+Peleg Bidwell, and Peleg explained the matter.
+
+“Ye see the boys hev all got back from Barrington, and they're pretty
+gosh darned drunk, most on em, an so nothin would do but they must go
+an rig up a hoss-fiddle an hunt up some pans, an go an serenade the silk
+stockins. They wuz a givin it tew Squire Woodbridge, wen I come by.
+I guess he won't git much sleep ter night,” and with this information
+Perez went home again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELFTH
+
+A FAIR SUPPLIANT
+
+
+Dr. Partridge lived at this time on the hill north of the village, and
+not very far from the parsonage, which made it convenient for him to
+report promptly to Parson West, when any of his patients had
+reached that point where spiritual must be substituted for medical
+ministrations. It was about ten o'clock by the silver dialed clock in
+the living room of the doctor's house, when Prudence Fennell knocked at
+the open kitchen door.
+
+“What do you want, child?” said Mrs. Partridge, who was in the kitchen
+trying to instruct a negro girl how to use her broom of twigs so as to
+distribute the silver sand upon the floor in the complex wavy figures,
+which were the pride of the housewife of that day.
+
+“Please, marm, father's sick, and Mis Hamlin thinks he ought to have the
+doctor.”
+
+“Your father and Mrs. Hamlin? Who is your father, pray?”
+
+“I'm Prudence Fennell, marm, and father's George Fennell. He's one of
+them that were fetched from Barrington jail yesterday, and he's sick.
+He's at Mis Hamlin's, please marm.”
+
+“Surely, by that he must be one of the debtors. The sheriff is more like
+to come for them than the doctor. They will be back in jail in a few
+days, no doubt,” said Mrs. Partridge, sharply.
+
+“No one will be so cruel. Father is so sick. If you could see him, you
+would not say so. They shall not take him to jail again. If Mr. Seymour
+comes after him, I'll tear his eyes out. I'll kill him.”
+
+“What a little tiger it is!” said Mrs. Partridge, regarding with
+astonishment the child's blazing eyes and panting bosom, while peering
+over her mistress's shoulders, the negro girl was turning up the whites
+of her eyes at the display. “There, there, child, I meant nothing. If
+he is sick, maybe they will leave him. I know naught of such things. But
+this Perez Hamlin will be hung of a surety, and the rest be put in the
+stocks and well whipt.”
+
+“He will not be hung. No one will dare to touch him,” cried Prudence,
+becoming excited again. “He is the best man in the world. He fetched my
+father out of jail.”
+
+“Nay, but if you are so spunky to say 'no' to your betters, 'tis time
+you went. I know not what we are in the way to, when a chit of a maid
+shall set me right,” said Mrs. Partridge, bristling up, and turning
+disdainfully away.
+
+But her indignation, at once forgotten in terror lest the doctor might
+not come to her father, Prudence came after her and caught her sleeve,
+and said with tones of entreaty, supported by eyes full of tears:
+
+“Please, marm, don't mind what I said. Box my ears, marm, but please let
+doctor come. Father coughs so bad.”
+
+“I will tell him, and he will do as he sees fit,” said Mrs. Partridge,
+stiffly, “and now run home, and do not put me out with your sauce
+again.”
+
+An hour or two later, the doctor's chaise stopped at the Hamlins.
+Doctors, as well as other people, were plainer-spoken in those days,
+especially in dealing with the poor. Dr. Partridge was a kind-hearted
+man, but it did not occur to him as it does to his successors of our
+day, to mince matters with patients, and cheer them up with hopeful
+generalities, reserving the bitter truths to whisper in the ears of
+their friends outside the door. After a look and a few words, he said to
+Fennell:
+
+“I can do you no good.”
+
+“Shall I die?” asked the sick man, faintly.
+
+“You may live a few weeks, but not longer. The disease has taken too
+strong a hold.”
+
+Fennell looked around the room. Prudence was not present.
+
+“Don't tell Prudy,” he said.
+
+As to Reuben, who was already looking much brighter than the preceding
+night, the doctor said:
+
+“He may get well,” and left a little medicine.
+
+Perez, who had been in the room, followed him out of doors.
+
+“Do you think my brother will get well?” he asked.
+
+“I think so, if he does not have to go back to jail.”
+
+“He will not go back unless I go with him,” said Perez.
+
+“Well, I think it most likely you will,” replied the doctor dryly. “On
+the whole, I should say his prospect of long life was better than yours,
+if I am speaking to Perez Hamlin, the mob captain.”
+
+“You mean I shall be hung?”
+
+“And drawn and quartered,” amended the doctor, grimly. “That is the
+penalty for treason, I believe.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said Perez. “We shall see. There will be fighting before
+hanging. At any rate, if I'm hung, it will be as long as it's short, for
+Reub would have died if I hadn't got him out of jail.”
+
+The doctor gathered up the reins.
+
+“I want to thank you for coming,” said Perez. “You know, I s'pose, that
+we are very poor, and can't promise much pay.”
+
+“If you'll see that your mob doesn't give me such a serenade as it did
+Squire Woodbridge last night, I'll call it square,” said the doctor, and
+drove off.
+
+Now, Meshech Little, the carpenter, had gone home and to bed towering
+drunk the night before, after taking part as a leading performer in the
+aforesaid serenade to the Squire. His sleep had been exceedingly dense,
+and in the morning when it became time for him to go to his work, it was
+only after repeated callings and shakings, that Mrs. Little was able to
+elicit the first sign of wakefulness.
+
+“You must get up,” she expostulated. “Sun's half way daown the west
+post, an ye know how mad Deacon Nash'll be ef ye don' git don shinglin
+his barn tidday.” After a series of heartrending groans and yawns,
+Meshech, who had tumbled on the bed in his clothes, got up and stood
+stretching and rubbing his eyes in the middle of the floor.
+
+“By gosh, it's kinder tough,” he said, “I wuz jess a dreamin ez I wuz
+latherin deakin. I'd jess swotted him one in the snout wen ye woke me,
+an naow, by gorry, I've got tew go an work fer the critter.”
+
+“An ye better hurry, tew,” urged his wife anxiously. “Ye know ye didn't
+dew the fuss thing all day yis'dy.”
+
+“Whar wuz I yis'dy?” asked Meshech, in whose confused faculties the only
+distinct recollection was that he had been drunk.
+
+“Ye went daown tew Barrington 'long with the crowd.”
+
+Meshech was in the act of ducking his head in a bucket of water,
+standing on a bench by the door, but at his wife's words he became
+suddenly motionless as a statue, his nose close to the water. Then
+he straightened sharply up and stared at her, the working of his eyes
+showing that he was gathering up tangled skeins of recollection.
+
+“Wal, I swow,” he finally ejaculated, with an astonished drawl, “ef I
+hadn't a furgut the hull dum performance, an here I wuz a gittin up an
+goin to work jess ez if court hadn't been stopped. Gosh, Sally, I guess
+I be my own man tidday, ef I hev got a bad tas in my mouth. Gorry, it's
+lucky I thort afore I wet my hed. I couldn't a gone tew sleep agin,” and
+Meshech turned toward the bed, with apparent intention of resuming his
+slumbers.
+
+But Mrs. Little, though she knew there had been serious disturbances
+the preceding day, could by no means bring her mind to believe that the
+entire system of law and public authority had been thus suddenly and
+completely overthrown, and she yet again adjured her husband, this time
+by a more dreadful name, to betake himself to labor.
+
+“Ef ye don' go to work, Meshech, Squire Woodbridge 'll hev ye in the
+stocks fer gittin drunk. Deakin kin git ye put in any time he wants ter
+complain on ye. Ye better not rile him.”
+
+But at this Meshech, instead of being impressed, burst into a loud haw
+haw.
+
+“Yes'dy mornin ye could a scart me outer a week's growth a talkin baout
+Squire, but, gol, ye'll have ter try suthen else naow. Wy don' ye know
+we wuz a serenadin Squire with a hoss-fiddle till ten o'clock las'
+night, an he didn' das show his nose outer doors.
+
+“Gosh!” he continued, getting into bed and turning over toward the wall,
+“I'd giv considabul, ef I could dream I wuz lickin Squire. Mebbe I
+kin. Don' ye wake me up agin Sally,” and presently his regular snoring
+proclaimed that he had departed to the free hunting grounds of dreamland
+in pursuit of his desired game.
+
+Now Meshech's was merely a representative case. He was by no means the
+only workingman who that morning kept his bed warm to an unaccustomed
+hour. Except such as had farms of their own to work on, or work for
+themselves to do, there was scarcely any one in Stockbridge who went to
+work. A large part of the labor by which the industries of the community
+had been carried on, had been that of debtors working out their debts at
+such allowance for wages as their creditor-employers chose to make them.
+If they complained that it was too small, they had, indeed, their choice
+to go to jail in preference to taking it, but no third alternative was
+before them. Of these coolies, as we should call them in these days,
+only a few who were either very timid, or ignorant of the full effect of
+yesterday's doings, went to their usual tasks.
+
+Besides the coolies, there was a small number of laborers who commanded
+actual wages in produce or in money. Although there was no reason in
+yesterday's proceedings, why these should not go to work as usual, yet
+the spirit of revolt that was in the air, and the vague impression of
+impending changes that were to indefinitely better the condition of the
+poor, had so far affected them also, that the most took this day as a
+holiday, with a hazy but pleasing notion that it was the beginning of
+unlimited holidays.
+
+All this idle element naturally drifted into the streets, and collected
+in particular force on the green and about the tavern. By afternoon,
+these groups, reënforced by those who had been busy at home during the
+morning, began to assume the dimensions of a crowd. Widow Bingham,
+at the tavern, had deemed it expedient to keep the right side of the
+lawless element by a rather free extension of credit at the bar, and
+there was a good deal of hilarity, which, together with the atmosphere
+of excitement created by the recent stirring events, made it seem
+quite like a gala occasion. Women and girls were there in considerable
+numbers, the latter wearing their ribbons, and walking about in groups
+together, or listening to their sweethearts, as each explained to a
+credulous auditor, how yesterday's great events had hinged entirely on
+the narrator's individual presence and prowess.
+
+Some of the youths, the preceding night, had cut a tall sapling and set
+it in the middle of the green, in front of the tavern. On the top of
+this had been fixed the cocked hat of Justice Goodrich, brought as a
+trophy from Great Barrington. This was the center of interest, the focus
+of the crowd, a visible, palpable proof of the people's victory over
+the courts, which was the source of inextinguishable hilarity. It was
+evident, indeed, from the conversation of the children, that there
+existed in the minds of those of tender years, some confusion as to the
+previous ownership of the hat, and the circumstances connected with its
+acquisition by the people. Some said that it was Burgoyne's hat, and
+others that it was the hat of King George, himself, while the affair
+of the day before at Great Barrington, was variously represented as a
+victory over the redcoats, the Indians and the Tories. But, whatever
+might be the differences of opinion on these minor points, the children
+were uproariously agreed that there was something to be exceedingly
+joyful about.
+
+Next to the hat, two uncouth-looking machines which stood on the
+green near the stocks, were the centers of interest. They were wooden
+structures, somewhat resembling saw-horses. Beside each were several
+boards, and close inspection would have shown that both the surface of
+the horses and one side of these boards, were well smeared with rosin.
+These were the horse-fiddles, contrived for the purpose of promoting
+wakefulness by night, on the part of the silk stockings. Given plenty of
+rosin, and a dozen stout fellows to each fiddle, drawing the boards
+to and fro across the backs of the horses, pressing on hard, and the
+resulting shrieks were something only to be imagined with the fingers in
+the ears. The concert given to Squire Woodbridge the night previous,
+had been an extemporized affair, with only one horse-fiddle, and
+insufficient support from other instruments. To judge from the
+conversation of the men and boys standing around, it was intended
+to-night to give the Squire a demonstration which should quite
+compensate him for the unsatisfactory nature of the former
+entertainment, and leave him in no sort of doubt as to the sentiments
+of the people toward the magistracy and silk stockings in general, and
+himself in particular. A large collection of tin-pans had been made,
+and the pumpkin vines of the vicinity had been dismantled for the
+construction of pumpkinstalk trombones, provided with which, some
+hundreds of small boys were to be in attendance.
+
+Although the loud guffaws which from time to time were heard from the
+group of men and hobbledehoys about the horse-fiddles on the green,
+were evidence that the projected entertainment was not without comical
+features as they looked at it, the aspect of the affair as viewed by
+other eyes was decidedly tragical. Mrs. Woodbridge had long been sinking
+with consumption, and the uproar and excitement of the preceding night
+had left her in so prostrate a condition that Dr. Partridge had been
+called in. During the latter part of her aunt's sickness Desire Edwards
+had made a practice of running into her Uncle Jahleel's many times a day
+to give a sort of oversight to the housekeeping, a department in which
+she was decidedly more proficient than damsels of this day, of much less
+aristocratic pretensions, find it consistent with their dignity to be.
+The doctor and Desire were at this moment in the living-room, inspecting
+through the closed shutters the preparations on the green for the
+demonstration of the evening.
+
+“Another such night will kill her, won't it, doctor?”
+
+“I could not answer for the consequences,” replied the doctor, gravely.
+“I could scarcely hazard giving her laudanum enough to carry her through
+such a racket, and without sleep she cannot live another day.”
+
+“What shall we do? What shall we do? Oh, poor Aunty! The brutes! The
+brutes! Look at them over there laughing their great horse laughs. I
+never liked to see them whipped before, when the constable whipped them,
+but oh I shall like to after this. I should like to see them whipped
+till the blood ran down,” cried the girl, tears of mingled grief and
+anger filling her flashing eyes.
+
+“I don't know when you are likely to have the opportunity,” said the
+doctor, dryly. “At present they have the upper hand in town, and seem
+very likely to keep it. We may thank our stars if the idea of whipping
+some of us does not occur to them.”
+
+“My father fears that they will plunder the store and perhaps murder us,
+unless help comes soon.”
+
+“There is no help to come,” said the doctor. “The militia are all in the
+mob.”
+
+“But is there nothing we can do? Must we let them murder Aunty before
+our eyes?”
+
+“Perhaps,” said the doctor, “if your Uncle Jahleel were to go out to the
+mob this evening, and entreat them civilly, and beg them to desist by
+reason of your aunt's sickness, they would hear to him.”
+
+“Doctor! Doctor! you don't know my uncle,” cried Desire. “He would
+sooner have Aunt Lucy die, and die himself, and have us all killed, than
+stoop to ask a favor of the rabble.”
+
+“I suppose it would be hard for him,” said the doctor, “and yet to save
+your aunt's life maybe--”
+
+“Oh I couldn't bear to have him do it,” interrupted Desire. “Poor Uncle!
+I'd rather go out to the mob myself than have Uncle Jahleel. It would
+kill him. He is so proud.”
+
+The doctor walked across the room two or three times with knitted brow
+and then paused and looked with a certain critical admiration at the
+face of the girl to which excitement had lent an unusual brilliance.
+
+“I will tell you,” he said, “the only way I see of securing a quiet
+night to your aunt. Just go yourself and see this Hamlin who is the
+captain of the mob, and make your petition to him. I had words with him
+this morning. He is a well seeming fellow enough, and has a bold way of
+speech that liked me well i' faith, though no doubt he's a great rascal
+and well deserves a hanging.”
+
+He paused, for Desire was confronting him, with a look that was a
+peremptory interruption. Her eyes were flashing, her cheeks mantled with
+indignant color, and the delicate nostrils were distended with scorn.
+
+“Me, Desire Edwards, sue for favors of this low fellow! You forget
+yourself strangely, Dr. Partridge.”
+
+The doctor took his hat from the table and bowed low. “I beg your
+pardon, Miss Desire. Possibly your aunt may live through the night,
+after all,” and he went out of the house shrugging his shoulders.
+
+Desire was still standing in the same attitude when a faint voice caught
+her ear, and stepping to a door she opened it, and asked gently, “What
+is it, Aunty?”
+
+“Your uncle hasn't gone out, has he?” asked Mrs. Woodbridge, feebly.
+
+“No, Aunty, he's in his study walking to and fro as he's been all day,
+you know.”
+
+“He musn't go out. I was afraid he'd gone out. Tell him I beg he will
+not go out. The mob will kill him.”
+
+“I don't think he will go, Aunty.”
+
+“Do you think they will make that terrible noise again tonight.”
+
+“I--I don't know. I'm afraid so, Aunt Lucy.”
+
+“Oh dear,” sighed the invalid, with a moan of exhaustion, “it don't
+seem as if I could live through it again, I'm so weak, and so tired. You
+can't think, dear, how tired I am.”
+
+Desire went in and shook up the pillows, and soothed the sick woman with
+some little cares and then came out and shut the door. Her wide brimmed
+hat of fine leghorn straw with a blue ostrich plume curled around the
+crown, and a light cashmere shawl lay on the table. Perching the one a
+trifle sideways on her dark brown curls, which were gathered simply in
+a ribbon behind, according to the style of the day, she threw the shawl
+about her shoulders, and knocked at the door of her Uncle Jahleel's
+study, which also opened into the living-room, and was the apartment in
+which he held court, when acting as magistrate. In response to the
+knock the Squire opened the door. He looked as if he had had a fit
+of sickness, so deeply had the marks of chagrin and despite impressed
+itself on his face in the past two days.
+
+“I'm going out for a little while,” said Desire, “and you will go to
+Aunty, if she calls, won't you?”
+
+Her uncle nodded and resumed his walking to and fro, and Desire,
+stepping out of the house by a back way, went by a path across the
+fields, toward Elnathan Hamlin's house.
+
+The Hamlin house, like the houses of most of the poorer class of people,
+had but two rooms on the ground floor, a small bedroom and a great
+kitchen, in which the family lived, worked, cooked, ate and received
+company. There were two doors opening into the kitchen from without, the
+front door and the back door. On the former of these, there came a
+light tap. Now callers upon the Hamlins, in general, just pulled
+the latchstring and came in. Nobody tapped except the sheriff, the
+constable, the tax-collector and the parson, and the latter's calls had
+been rare since the family fortunes, never other than humble, had been
+going from bad to worse. So that it was not without some trepidation,
+which was shared by the family, that old Elnathan now rose from his seat
+by the chimney corner and went and opened the door. A clear, soft voice,
+with the effect of distinctness without preciseness, which betrays the
+cultured class, was heard by those within, asking, “Is Captain Hamlin in
+the house?”
+
+“Do ye mean Perez?” parleyed Elnathan.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I b'leve he's somewheres raound. He's aout doin up the chores, I
+callate. Did ye wanter see him?”
+
+“If you please.”
+
+“Wal, come in won't ye, an sid down, an I'll go aout arter him,” said
+Elnathan, backing in and making way for the guest to enter.
+
+“It's the Edwards gal,” he continued, in a feebly introductory manner,
+as Desire entered.
+
+Mrs. Hamlin hastily let down her sleeves, and glanced, a little
+shamefacedly, at her linsey-woolsey short gown and coarse petticoat, and
+then about the room, which was a good deal cluttered up, and small blame
+to her, considering the sudden increase of her household cares. But it
+was, nevertheless, with native dignity that she greeted her guest
+and set her a chair, not allowing herself to be put out by the rather
+fastidious way in which Desire held up her skirts.
+
+“Sid down,” said Elnathan “an be kinder neighborly. She wants to see
+Perez, mother. I dunno what baout, I'm sure. Ef he's a milkin naow I
+s'pose I kin spell him so's he kin come in an see what she's a wantin of
+him,” and the old man shuffled out the back door.
+
+Desire sat down, calm and composed outwardly, but tingling in every
+particle of her body with a revulsion of taste at the vulgarity of the
+atmosphere, which almost amounted to nausea. But it may be doubted if
+her dainty attire, her air of distinction, and the refined delicacy of
+her flower-like face, had ever appeared to more advantage than as she
+sat, inwardly fuming, on that rude chair, in that rude room, amid its
+more or less clownish inmates. Prudence was very red in the face, and
+confused. As housemaid in Mr. Woodbridge's family, she knew Desire well,
+and felt a certain sort of responsibility for her on that account. She
+did not know whether she ought to go and speak to her now, though Desire
+took no notice of her. Reuben also had risen from his chair as she came
+in, and still stood awkwardly leaning on the back of it, not seeming
+sure if he ought to sit down again or not. Fennell, too sick to care,
+was the only self-possessed person in the room. It was a relief to all
+when the noise of feet at the door indicated the return of Elnathan
+with Perez, but the running explanations of the former which his senile
+treble made quite audible through the door, were less reassuring.
+
+“Can't make aout what in time she wants on ye. Mebbe she's tuk a shine
+to ye, he, he, I dunno. Ye uster be allers arter her when ye wuz a young
+un.”
+
+“Hush father, she'll hear,” said Perez, and opening the door came into
+the kitchen.
+
+Desire arose to her feet as he did so, and their eyes met. He would have
+known her anywhere, in spite of the nine years since he had seen her.
+The small oval of the sparkling gypsy face, the fine features, so
+mobile and piquant, he instantly recognized from the portrait painted in
+undying colors upon his youthful imagination.
+
+“Are you Captain Hamlin?” she said.
+
+“I hope you remember Perez Hamlin,” he answered.
+
+“I remember the name,” she replied coldly. “I am told that you command
+the--the men”--she was going to say mob--“in the village.”
+
+“I believe so,” he answered. He was thinking that those red lips of hers
+had once kissed his, that August morning when he stood on the green,
+ready to march with the minute men.
+
+“My Aunt Woodbridge is very sick. If your men make a noise again in
+front of my uncle's house, she will die. I came to--to ask”--she had to
+say it--“you to prevent it.”
+
+“I will prevent it,” said Perez.
+
+Desire dropped an almost imperceptible curtsey, raised the latch of the
+door and went out.
+
+All through the interview, even when she had overheard Elnathan's
+confidences to Perez, at the door, her cheeks had not betrayed her by a
+trace of unusual color, but now as she hurried home across the fields,
+they burned with shame, and she fairly choked to think of the vulgar
+familiarity to which she had submitted, and the abject attitude she had
+assumed to this farmer's son. She remembered well enough that childish
+kiss, and saw in his eyes that he remembered it. This perception had
+added the last touch to her humiliation.
+
+But Perez went out and wandered into the wood-lot and sat down on a
+fallen tree, and stared a long time into vacancy with glowing eyes.
+He had dreamed of Desire a thousand times during his long absence
+from home, but since his return, so vehement had been the pressure of
+domestic troubles, so rapid the rush of events, that he had not had time
+to once think of her existence, up to the moment when she had confronted
+him there in the kitchen, in a beauty at once the same, and so much more
+rare, and rich and perfect, than that which had ruled his boyish dreams.
+
+Presently he went down to the tavern. The crowd of men and boys on the
+green received him with quite an ovation. Shaking hands right and left
+with the men, he went on to the tavern, and finding Abner smoking on the
+bench outside the door, drew him aside and asked him to see that there
+was no demonstration in front of Woodbridge's that evening. Abner
+grumbled a little.
+
+“O' course I'm sorry for the woman, if she's sick, but they never showed
+no considerashun fer our feelin's, an I don' see wy we sh'd be so durn
+tender o' theirn. I shouldn't be naow, arter they'd treated a brother o'
+mine ez they hev Reub. But ye be cap'n, Perez, an it shel be ez ye say.
+The boys kin try ther fiddles on Squire Edwards instid.”
+
+“No. Not there, Abner,” said Perez, quickly.
+
+“Wy not, I sh'd like ter know. His wife ain't sick, be she?”
+
+“No, that is I don't know,” said Perez, his face flushing a little with
+the difficulty of at once thinking of any plausible reason. “You
+see,” he finally found words to say, “the store is so near Squire
+Woodbridge's, that the noise might disturb Madam Woodbridge.”
+
+“She muss hev dum sharp ears, ef she kin hear much at that distance,”
+ observed Abner, “but it shell be as ye say, Cap'n. I s'pose ye've nothin
+agin our givin Sheriff Seymour a little mewsick.”
+
+“As much as you please, Abner.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEENTH
+
+A PRAISE MEETING
+
+
+As a fever awakes to virulent activity the germs of disease in the body,
+so revolution in the political system develops the latent elements of
+anarchy. It is a test of the condition of the system. The same political
+shock which throws an ill-constituted and unsound government into a
+condition of chaos, is felt in a politically vigorous and healthful
+commonwealth, as only a slight disturbance of the ordinary functions.
+The promptness with which the village of Stockbridge relapsed into its
+ordinary mode of life after the revolt and revolution of Tuesday, was
+striking testimony to the soundness and vitality which a democratic form
+of government and a popular sense of responsibility impart to a body
+politic. On Tuesday the armed uprising of the people had taken place;
+on Wednesday there was considerable effervescence of spirits, though
+no violence; on Thursday there was still a number of loutish fellows
+loafing about the streets, wearing, however, an appearance of being
+disappointed that there was no more excitement, and no prospect of
+anything special turning up. Friday and Saturday, apparently disgusted
+at finding rebellion such a failure in elements of recreation, these had
+gone back to their farm-work and chores, and the village had returned to
+its normal quiet without even any more serenades to the silk stockings,
+to enliven the evenings.
+
+A foreigner, who had chanced to be passing through Southern Berkshire
+at this time, would have deemed an informant practicing on his credulity
+who should have assured him that everywhere throughout these quiet
+and industrious communities, the entire governmental machinery was
+prostrate, that not a local magistrate undertook to sit, not a constable
+ventured to attempt an arrest, not a sheriff dared to serve a process or
+make an execution, or a tax-collector distrain for taxes. And yet
+such was the sober truth, for Stockbridge was in no respect peculiarly
+situated, and in many of the towns around, especially in Sheffield,
+Egremont, Great Barrington, and Sandisfield, an even larger proportion
+of the people were open sympathizers with the rebellion than in the
+former village.
+
+In these modern days, restaurants, barrooms, and saloons, and similar
+places of resort, are chiefly thronged on Saturday evening, when the
+labors of the week being ended, the worker, in whatever field, finds
+himself at once in need of convivial relaxation, and disposed thereto
+by the exhilaration of a prospective holiday. Necessarily, however,
+Saturday evening could not be thus celebrated in a community which
+regarded it in the light of holy time, and, accordingly in Stockbridge,
+as elsewhere in New England at that day, Friday and Sunday evenings
+were by way of eminence the convivial occasions of the week. One of the
+consequences of this arrangement was that a “blue Saturday” as well as
+the modern “blue Monday,” found place in the workingman's calendar. But
+the voice of the temperance lecturer was not yet heard in the land, and
+headaches were still looked upon as Providential mysteries.
+
+The Friday following the “goings on at Barrington,” the tavern was
+filled by about the same crowd which had been present the Friday evening
+preceding, and of whose conversation on that occasion, some account was
+given. But the temper of the gathering a week before had been gloomy,
+foreboding, hopeless and well-nigh desperate; to-night, it was jubilant.
+
+“It's the Lord's doin's, an marvellous in our eyes, an that's all I
+kin say about it,” declared Israel Goodrich, his rosy face beaming with
+benevolent satisfaction, beneath its crown of white hair. “Jess think
+whar we wuz a week ago, an whar we be naow. By gosh who'd a thought it?
+If one on ye had a tole me las' Friday night, what was a comin raound
+inside of a week, I should a said he wuz stark starin mad.”
+
+“We mout a knowed somethin wuz a gonter happin,” said Abner. “It's
+allers darkest jess afore dawn, an 'twas dark nuff tew cut las' Friday.”
+
+“I declar for't,” said Peleg Bidwell, “seem's though I never did feel
+quite so down-hearted like ez I did las' Friday night, wen we wuz a
+talkin it over. I'd hed a bad day on't. Sol Gleason'd been a sassin of
+me, an I dassn't say a word, fer fear he'd send me to jail, fer owin
+him, an wen I got home She wuz a cryin, fer Gleason'd been thar, an I
+dunno what he'd said tew her, and then Klector Williams he told me
+he'd hev tew sell the furnicher fer taxes, an by gosh, takin the hull
+together seemed 's though thar warn't no place fer a poor man in this
+ere world, and I didn' keer ef I lived much longer or not. An naow!
+Wal thay ain't no use o' tellin ye what ye know. I seen Gleason on the
+street yisday, an he looked like a whipped cur. He hed his tail atween
+his legs, I tell yew. I reckon he thort I wuz gonter lick him. It wuz
+'Good mornin, Peleg,' ez sweet's sugar, an he didn't hev nothing tew say
+baout what I wuz a owin him, no; nor he didn't ass me nothin baout wy I
+hedn't been tew work fer him sence Tewsday.”
+
+After the haw-haw over Peleg's description had subsided, he added, with
+a grin,
+
+“Klector Williams he hain't thort tew call baout them taxes, sence
+Tewsday, nuther. Hev any on ye seen nothin on him?”
+
+“He hain't skurcely been outer his haouse,” said Obadiah Weeks. “I on'y
+see him onct. It was arter dark, an he wuz a slippin over't the store
+arter his tod.”
+
+“I guess it muss be considabul like a funeral over't the store, nights,”
+ observed Abner, grinning. “Gosh I sh'd like ter peek in an see em a
+talkin on it over. Wal, turn about's fair play. They don' feel no wuss
+nor we did.”
+
+“Won't thar be no more klectin taxes?” inquired Laban Jones.
+
+“I guess thar won't be much more klectin roun' here 'nless the klector
+hez a couple o' rigiments o' melishy tew help him dew it,” replied
+Abner.
+
+“I dunno, baout that,” said Ezra Phelps. “Thar's more'n one way ter skin
+a cat.”
+
+“Thar ain't no way o' skinnin this ere cat 'cept with bagonets,” said
+Abner, decidedly, and a general murmur expressed the opinion that so far
+as the present company was concerned government would have to practice
+some preliminary phlebotomy on their persons before they would submit
+to any further bleeding of their purses by the tax-collector. Nothing
+pleased Ezra more than to get placed thus argumentatively at bay, with
+the entire company against him, and then discomfit them all at a stroke.
+The general expression of dissent with which his previous remark was
+received, seemed actually to please him. He stood looking at Abner for a
+moment, without speaking, a complacent smile just curving his lips,
+and the sparkle of the intellectual combatant in his eye. To persons of
+Ezra's disputatious and speculative temper, such moments, in which they
+gloat over their victim as he stands within the very jaws of the logic
+trap which they are about to spring, are no doubt, the most delightful
+of life.
+
+“Don't yew be in sech a hurry, Abner,” he finally ejaculated. “Would ye
+mind payin yer taxes ef govment giv ye the money ter pay em with?”
+
+“No. In course I wouldn't.”
+
+“Ezzackly. Course ye wouldn't. Ye'd be dum unreas'nable ef ye did. Wal,
+naow I callate that air's jess what govment's gonter dew, ez soon ez it
+gits the news from Northampton and Barrington. It's gonter print a
+stack o' bills, an git em inter cirk'lashun, an then we'll all on us
+hev suthin tew pay fer taxes, an not mind it a bit; yis, an pay all the
+debts that's a owin, tew.”
+
+“I hain't no objeckshun ter that,” admitted Abner, frankly.
+
+“Of course ye hain't,” said Ezra. “Nobody hain't. Ye see ye spoke tew
+quick, Abner. All the kentry wants is bills, a hull slew on em, lots
+on em, an then the courts kin go on, an debts an taxes kin be paid,
+an everything'll be all right. I ain't one o' them ez goes agin' payin
+debts an taxes. I says let em be paid, ev'ry shillin, on'y let govment
+print nuff bills fer folks tew pay em with.”
+
+“I callate a couple o' wagon loads o' new bills would pay orf
+ev'ry morgidge, an mos' o' the debts, in Berkshire,” said Israel,
+reflectively.
+
+“Sartinly, sartinly,” exclaimed Ezra. “That would be plenty. It don'
+cost nothin tew print em, an they'd pacify this ere caounty a dum sight
+quicker nor no two rigiments, nor no ten, nuther.”
+
+“That air's what I believe in,” said Israel, beamingly, “peaceable ways
+o' settlin the trouble; bills instid o' bagonets. The beauty on't so fer
+is that thar hain't been no sheddin o' blood, nor no vi'lence tew speak
+of, ceppin a leetle shovin daown tew Barrington, an I hope thar won't
+be.”
+
+“I don't know about that,” said Paul Hubbard. “Not that I want to see
+any killing, but there are some silk stockings in this here town that
+would look mighty well sticking through the stocks, an there are some
+white skins that ought to know how a whip feels, jist so the men that
+own em might see how the medicine tastes they've been giving us so many
+years.”
+
+There was a general murmur indicating approval of this sentiment, and
+several “that's sos” were heard, but Israel said, as he patted Hubbard
+paternally on the back:
+
+“Let bygones be bygones, Paul. Them things be all over naow, an I
+callate thar won't be no more busin of poor folks. The lyin an the
+lamb be a gonter lie down together arter this, 'cordin tew scripter. I
+declar, it seems jiss like the good ole times 'long from '74 to '80,
+wen thar warn't no courts in Berkshire. Wen I wuz a tellin ye baout them
+times 'tother night, I swow I didn't callate ye'd ever have a chance to
+see em fer yerselves, leastways, not till ye got ter Heavin, an I guess
+that's a slim chance with most on ye. Jess think on't, boys. Thar ain't
+been nary sheriff's sale, nor a man tuk ter jail this hull week.”
+
+“Iry Seymour wuz a gonter sell aout Elnathan Hamlin this week, but
+somehow he hain't got tew it,” said Abner, dryly. “I callate he heard
+some news from Barrington baout Tuesday.”
+
+“Iry mout's well give up his comishin ez depity sheriff an try ter git
+inter some honest trade,” remarked Israel.
+
+“Whar does Squire Woodbridge keep hisself these days? I hain't seen him
+skurcely this week,” said Ezra Phelps.
+
+“Yew don' genally see much of a rooster the week arter another rooster's
+gin him a darnation lickin on his own dung hill, an that's wat's the
+matter with Squire,” replied Abner. Shifting his quid of tobacco to the
+other side of the mouth and expectorating across half the room into the
+chimney place he continued, reflectively:
+
+“By gosh, I don' blame him, nuther. It muss come kinder tough fer a
+feller ez hez lorded it over Stockbridge fer nigh twenty year tew git
+put daown afore the hull village the way Perez put him daown Tuesday. Ef
+I wuz Squire, I shouldn't never wan ter show myself agin roun' here.”
+
+“I be kinder sorry fer him,” said Israel Goodrich. “I declar for't if I
+ain't. It muss be kinder tough tew git took daown so, specially fer sech
+a dreffle proud man.”
+
+“I hain't sot eyes on him on'y once sence Tewsday,” said Peleg. “He
+looked right straight through me 'z ef he didn' see nothin. He didn'
+seem ter notice nobody ez he went along the street.”
+
+“By gosh, he'd notice ye quick nuff ef he could put ye in the stocks,”
+ observed Abner, grimly. “I tell yew he ain't furgut one on us that
+went daown ter Barrington, nor one on us ez wuz a serenadin him t'other
+night. Yew jess let Squire git his grip onto this ere taown agin ez he
+uster hev it an the constable an the whippin post won't hev no rest till
+he's paid orf his grudge agin' every one on us. An ef yew dunno that,
+yew dunno Squire Woodbridge.”
+
+The silence which followed indicated that the hearers did know the
+Squire well enough to appreciate the force of Abner's remarks, and
+that the contingencies which they suggested were inducive of serious
+reflections. It was Jabez Flint, the Tory, who effected a diversion by
+observing dryly,
+
+“Yes, ef Squire gits his grip agin, some on us will git darnation sore
+backs, but he's lost it, an he ain't a gonter git it agin ez long ez we
+fellers keeps ourn. On'y 'twont dew ter hev no foolin, tain't no child's
+play we're at.”
+
+“I know one thing dum well” said Obadiah Weeks, “and that is I wouldn'
+like tew be in Cap'n Hamlin's shoes ef Squire sh'd git top agin.
+Jehosaphat, though, wouldn' he jess go fer the Cap'n. I guess he'd give
+him ten lashes ev'ry day fer a month an make him set in the stocks with
+pepper 'n salt rubbed in his back 'tween times, an then hev him hung ter
+wind up with, an he wouldn' be half sassified then.”
+
+“Warn't that the gol-darndest though, baout that Edwards gal agoin tew
+ass Perez to git the mewsic stopped? By gosh, I can't git over that,”
+ exclaimed Peleg, grinning from ear to ear. “I was a lyin awake las'
+night and I got ter thinkin bout it, an I begun snickering so's She
+waked up, and She says, 'Peleg,' seshee 'what in time be yew a snickerin
+at?' and I says I wuz a snickerin tew think o' that air stuck up leetle
+gal o' Squire Edwards daown on her knees tew Perez, a cryin an a assin
+him ef he wouldn' please hev the racket stopped. Yew sed she wuz ontew
+her knees, didn't yew, Obadiah?”
+
+“Tell us all about it Obadiah, we wanter hear it agin,” was the general
+demand.
+
+“Ye see the way on't wuz this,” said Obadiah, nothing loath. “She come
+in all a cryin an scairt like, and Perez he wuz thar an so wuz the res'
+o' the family, an the fuss thing she does, she gits down on the floor
+intew the sand with a new silk gown she hed on, and asses Perez to hev
+the hoss-fiddles stopped. An he said t'er fuss, as haow he wouldn't,
+said 'twas good nuff fur the silk stockings, and he pinted ter Reub an
+says for her tew see what they'd done ter his family. But she cried
+an tuck on, an says ez haow she wouldn't git up 'nless he'd stop the
+hoss-fiddles, an so he hed tew give in, an that's all I knows about it.”
+
+“Ye see Obadiah knows all baout it,” said Abner. “He keeps kumpny with
+the Fennell gal, as is tew the Hamlins. He got it straight's a string,
+didn't ye, Obadiah?”
+
+“Yes,” said Obadiah, “it's all jess so. Thar ain't no mistake.”
+
+No incident of the insurrection had taken such hold on the popular
+imagination as the appeal of Desire Edwards to Perez for protection.
+It was immensely flattering to the vanity of the mob, as typifying the
+state of terror to which the aristocrats had been reduced, and all the
+louts in town felt an inch the taller, by reason of it, and walked with
+an additional swagger. The demand for the details of the scene between
+Perez and Desire was insatiable and Obadiah was called on twenty times
+a day to relate to gaping, grinning audiences just how she looked, what
+she did, and said, and what Perez said. The fact that Obadiah's positive
+information on the subject was limited to a few words that Prudence had
+dropped, made it necessary for him to depend largely on his imagination
+to satisfy the demands of his auditors, which accounts for the slight
+discrepancy between the actual facts as known to the reader and the
+popular version. After everybody had haw hawed and cracked his joke over
+Obadiah's last repetition of the anecdote, Peleg observed:
+
+“I dunno's az a feller kin blame Perez fer givin intew her. The gal's
+derned hansum, though she be mos' too black complected.”
+
+“She ain't none tew black, not to my thinkin,” said Widow Bingham,
+looking up from her knitting as she sat behind the bar,--the widow
+herself was a buxom brunette--“but I never did see anybuddy kerry ther
+nose quite so high in all my born days. She don't pay no more 'tension
+to common folks 'n if they wuz dirt under her feet.”
+
+“Whar's Meshech Little, ter night?” inquired Israel Goodrich, not so
+much interested as the younger men in the points of young women.
+
+“He's been drunk all day,” said Obadiah, who always knew everything that
+was going on.
+
+“Whar'd he git the money?” asked some one.
+
+“Meshech don' need no money tew git drunk,” said Abner. “He's got a
+thirst ontew him as'll draw liquor aout a cask a rod orf, an the bung
+in, jess like the clouds draws water on a hot day. He don' need no
+money, Meshech don' tew git soaked.”
+
+“He hed some, he hed a shillin howsumever,” said Obadiah. “Deacon Nash
+give it tew him fer pitchin rowen.”
+
+“I hain't been so tickled in ten year,” said Israel, “ez I wuz wen
+Deacon come roun tidday a offerin a shillin lawful tew the fellers tew
+git in his rowen fer him. It must hev been like pullin teeth fer Deacon
+tew pay aout cash fer work seein ez he's made his debtors dew all his
+farmin fer him this five year, but he hed tew come tew 't, fer his rowen
+wuz a spilin, an nary one o' his debtors would lif a finger 'thout bein
+paid for 't.”
+
+“That air shillin o' Meshech's is the fuss money o' his'n I've seen
+fer flip in more'n a year,” said Widow Bingham, “an thar be them, not a
+thousan mile from here, nuther, ez I could say the same on, more shame
+to em, for't, an I a lone widder.”
+
+The line of remark adopted by the widow, appeared to exert a depressing
+influence on the spirits of the company, and this, together with the
+information volunteered by Obadiah, that it was “arter nine,” presently
+caused a general break-up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEENTH
+
+PEREZ GOES TO MEETING
+
+
+The very next day, as Squire Edwards and his family were sitting down to
+dinner, the eldest son Jonathan, a fine young fellow of sixteen, came in
+late with a blacked eye and torn clothes.
+
+“My son,” said Squire Edwards, sternly, “why do you come to the table in
+such a condition? What have you been doing?”
+
+“I've been fighting Obadiah Weeks, sir, and I whipped him, too.”
+
+“And I shall whip you, sir, and soundly,” said his father, with the
+Jove-like frown of the eighteenth century parent. “What have I told you
+about fighting? Go to your room, and wait for me there. You will have no
+dinner.”
+
+The boy turned on his heel without a word, and went out and up to his
+room. In the course of the afternoon, Squire Edwards was as good as his
+word. When he had come downstairs, after the discharge of his parental
+responsibilities, and gone into the store, Desire slipped up to
+Jonathan's room with a substantial luncheon under her apron. He was her
+favorite brother, and it was her habit thus surreptitiously to
+temper justice with mercy on occasions like the present. The lively
+satisfaction with which the youth hailed her appearance, gave ground to
+the suspicion that an empty stomach had been causing him more discomfort
+than a reproving conscience. As Desire was arranging the viands on the
+table she expressed a hope that the paternal correction had not been
+more painful than usual. The boy began to grin.
+
+“Don't you fret about father's lickins,” he said, “I'd just as lieve
+he'd lick me all day if he'll give me a couple o' minutes to get ready
+in. How many pair o' trowsers do you s'pose I've got on?”
+
+“One, of course.”
+
+“Four,” replied Jonathan, laying one forefinger by the side of his nose
+and winking at his sister. “I was sort of sorry for father, he got so
+tuckered trying to make me cry. Jimmeny, though, that veal pie looks
+good. I should hated to have lost that. You was real good to fetch it
+up.
+
+“T'was only fair, though, this time,” he continued, with his mouth full,
+“for t'was on 'count o' you I got to fightin.”
+
+“What do you mean?” said she.
+
+“Why, Obadiah's been tellin the biggest set o' lies about you I ever
+heard of. He's been tellin em all over town. He said you went over to
+Elnathan Hamlin's, Wednesday, and got down on your knees to that Cap'n
+Hamlin, so's to get him not to have no more o' those horse-fiddles in
+front of Uncle's and our houses. You better believe I walloped him well,
+if he is bigger than me.”
+
+Jonathan, busy with eating, had not observed his sister's face during
+this recital, but now he said, glancing up:
+
+“What on earth do you s'pose put such a lie into his head?”
+
+“It isn't all a lie, Jonathan.”
+
+The boy laid down his knife and fork, and stared at her aghast.
+
+“You don't mean you was over there?” he exclaimed.
+
+Desire's face was crimson to the roots of her hair. She bowed her head.
+
+“Wh-a-a-t!” said Jonathan, in a tone of utter disgust, tempered only by
+a remnant of incredulity.
+
+“I didn't go on my knees to him,” said Desire faintly.
+
+“Oh, you didn't, didn't you? I believe you did,” said the boy slowly,
+with an accent of ineffable scorn, rising to his feet and drawing away
+from his sister, as she seemed about to approach him.
+
+Before the lad of sixteen, his elder sister, who had carried him in her
+arms as a baby, and been his teacher as a boy, stood like a culprit,
+quite abject. Finally she said:
+
+“I didn't do it for myself. I did it for Aunt Lucy. The doctor said it
+would kill her if she was kept awake another night, and there was no
+other way to stop the mob. And so I did it.”
+
+“Was that the way?” said the boy, evidently staggered by this unexpected
+plea, and seeming quite at loss what to say.
+
+“Yes,” said Desire, rallying a little. “You might know it was. Do you
+think I'd do it any other way? I couldn't see Aunty die, could I?”
+
+“No-o, darn it. I s'pose not,” replied Jonathan slowly, as if he were
+not quite sure. His face wore a puzzled expression, the problem offered
+by this conflict of ethical obligations with caste sentiment being
+evidently too much for his boyish intellect. Evidently he had not
+inherited his grandfather's metaphysical faculty. Finally, with an air
+of being entirely posed, and losing interest in the subject, he sat down
+on the edge of his bed and abruptly closed the interview by observing:
+
+“I'm going to take off some of these trowsers. They're too hot.” Desire
+discreetly went out.
+
+The only point in the observance of Sunday by the forefathers of New
+England, which is still generally practiced in these degenerate
+days, namely, the duty of sleeping later than usual that morning, was
+transgressed in at least one Stockbridge household on the Lord's Day
+following. Captain Perez Hamlin was up betimes and busy about house and
+barns. Since he had returned home he had taken the responsibility of all
+the chores about the place from the enfeebled shoulders of his father,
+besides supplying the place of man nurse to the invalids. This morning
+he had risen earlier than usual because he wanted to do up all the work
+before time for meeting.
+
+It would have been easy for any one whose eye had followed him at his
+work, to see that his mind was preoccupied. Now he would walk about
+briskly, with head in the air, whistling as he went, or talking to
+the horse and cow, and anon bursting out laughing at his own
+absent-mindedness, as he found he had given the horse the cow's food, or
+put the meal into the water bucket. And again you would have certainly
+thought that he was fishing for the frogs at the bottom of the well
+instead of drawing water, so long did he stand leaning over the
+well-curb, before he bethought himself to loose his hold on the rope and
+let the ponderous well-sweep bring up the bucket.
+
+He had not seen Desire Edwards since the Wednesday afternoon when she
+had called, but he knew he should see her at meeting. It was she who
+was responsible for the daydreaming way in which he was going about this
+morning, and for a good deal of previous daydreaming and night dreaming,
+too, in the last few days. The analogy of the tender passion to
+the chills and fever, had been borne out in his case by the usual
+alternations of complacency and depression. He told himself, that since
+he remembered so well his boyish courtship of her, she, too, doubtless
+remembered it. A woman was even more likely than a man to remember such
+things. Doubtless, she remembered too, that kiss she had given him.
+Her coming to him to ask his protection for her aunt, if she remembered
+those passages had some significance. She must have known that he
+would also remember them, and surely that would have deterred her from
+reopening their acquaintance had she found the reminiscences in question
+disagreeable. He assured himself that had it been wholly unpleasant for
+her to meet him, she would have been shrewd enough to devise some other
+way of securing the purpose of her visit. She had remained unmarried
+all the time of his absence, although she must have had suitors.
+Perhaps--well if this conjecture sounded a little conceited, be sure it
+was alternated with others self-depreciatory enough to balance it. But I
+have no space or need to describe the familiar process of architecture,
+by which with a perhaps for a keystone, possibilities for pillars,
+and dreams for pinnacles, lovers are wont to rear in a few idle hours,
+palaces outdazzling Aladdin's. I shall more profitably give a word
+or two of explanation to another point. Those familiar with the
+aristocratic constitution of New England society at this period, will
+perhaps deem it strange that the social gulf between the poor farmer's
+son, like Perez, and the daughter of one of the most distinguished
+families in Berkshire, should not have sufficed to deter the young man
+from indulging aspirations in that direction.
+
+Perhaps, if he had grown up at home, such might have been the case,
+despite his boyish fondness for the girl. But the army of the revolution
+had been for its officers and more intelligent element, a famous school
+of democratic ideas. Perez was only one of thousands, who came home
+deeply imbued with principles of social equality; principles, which,
+despite finely phrased manifestoes and declarations of independence,
+were destined to work like a slow leaven for generations yet, ere
+they transformed the oligarchical system of colonial society, into
+the democracy of our day. It is true that, Paul Hubbard, Abner, Peleg,
+Meshech, and the rest, had been like Perez in the army, and yet the
+democratic impressions they had there received, now that they had
+returned home, served only to exasperate them against the pretensions of
+the superior class, without availing to eradicate their inbred instincts
+of servility in the presence of the very men they hated. Precisely this
+self-contemptuous recognition of his own servile feeling, operating on
+a morose temper, was the key to Hubbard's special bitterness toward the
+silk stockings. That Perez had none of this peasant's instinct, must,
+after all, be partly ascribed to the fact that his descent, by his
+mother's side, had been a gentleman's, and as Reuben had taken after
+Elnathan, so Perez was his mother's boy. He felt himself a gentleman,
+although a farmer's son. The air of dainty remoteness and distinction,
+which invested Desire in his imagination, was by virtue of her
+womanhood, solely, not as the representative of a higher class. He was
+penniless, she was rich, but to that sufficiently discouraging obstacle,
+no paralyzing sense of caste inferiority was added, in his mind.
+
+Despite the dilatory and absent-minded procedure of the young man, by
+the time Prudence came out to call him in to the breakfast of fried pork
+and johnny-cake, the chores were done, and afterwards he had only to
+concern himself with his toilet. He stood a long time gazing ruefully
+at his coat, so sadly threadbare and white in the seams. It was his only
+one, and very old, but Prudence thought, when with a sigh he finally
+drew it on, that she had never seen so fine a soldier, and, indeed, the
+coat did look much better on than off, for a gallant bearing will, to
+some extent, redeem the most dilapidated attire.
+
+Reuben had grown stronger from day to day, and though still weak, it was
+thought that he could well enough take care of George Fennell, during
+the forenoon, and allow the rest of the family to go to meeting. Perez
+had tinkered up the old cart, and contrived a harness out of ropes, by
+which his own horse could be attached to it, the farm horse having been
+long since sold off, and Mrs. Hamlin, who by reason of infirmities, had
+long been debarred from the privileges of the sanctuary, expected to be
+able by this means, to be present there this morning, to offer up
+devout thanksgiving for the mercy which had so wonderfully, in one week,
+restored her two sons to her.
+
+It was half-past nine when the air was filled with a deep musical,
+melancholy sound, which appeared to come from the hill north of the
+village, where the meeting-house stood. It lasted, perhaps, five
+seconds, beginning with a long crescendo, and quivering into silence by
+an equally prolonged diminuendo. It was certainly an astonishing sound
+but none of the family appeared in the least agitated, Elnathan merely
+remarking:
+
+“Thar's the warnin blow, Perez, I guess ye better be thinkin baout
+hitchin up.” It were a pity indeed if the people of Stockbridge had
+not by that time become familiar with the sound of the old Indian
+conch-shell which since the mission church was founded at the first
+settlement of the town had served instead of a meeting-house bell.
+It may be well believed that strong lungs were the first requisite in
+sextons of that day. When an hour later the same dreary wail filled the
+valley once more with its weird echoes, the family was on its way to
+meeting, Mrs. Hamlin and Elnathan in the cart, and Perez with Prudence
+on foot. The congregation was now rapidly arriving from every direction,
+and the road was full of people. There were men on horseback with their
+wives sitting on a pillion behind, and clasping the conjugal waistband
+for security, families in carts, and families trudging afoot, while here
+and there the more pretentious members of the congregation were seen in
+chaises.
+
+The new meeting-house on the hill had been built during Perez' absence,
+to supersede the old church on the green, with which his childish
+associations were connected. It had been erected directly after the
+close of the war and the effort in addition to the heavy taxation then
+necessary for public purposes, was such a drain on the resources of the
+town, as to have been a serious local aggravation of the distress of the
+times. According to the rule in church building religiously adhered to
+by the early New Englanders, the bleakest spot within the town limits
+had been selected for the meetinghouse. It was a white barn-shaped
+structure, fifty feet by sixty, with a steeple, the pride of the whole
+countryside, sixty-two feet high, and tipped with a brass rooster
+brought from Boston, by way of weather vane.
+
+Perez and Prudence separating at the door went to the several places
+which Puritan decorum assigned to those of the spinster and bachelor
+condition respectively, the former going into the right hand gallery,
+the other into the left, exceptions being however made in behalf of the
+owners of the square pews, who enjoyed the privilege of having their
+families with them in the house of God. Across the middle of the end
+gallery Dr. Partridge's square pew extended, so that by no means might
+the occupants of the two side galleries come within whispering distance
+of each other.
+
+Obadiah Weeks, Abe Konkapot and Abner, who was a a widower and classed
+himself with bachelors, and a large number of other younger men whom
+Perez recognized as belonging to the mob under his leadership on
+Tuesday, were already in their seats. Fidgeting in unfamiliar boots
+and shoes, and meek with plentifully greased and flatly plastered hair,
+there was very little in the subdued aspect of these young men to remind
+any one of the truculent rebels who a few days before had shaken their
+bludgeons in the faces of the Honorable the Justices of the Common
+Pleas. As Perez entered the seat with them, they recognized him with
+sheepish grins, as much as to say, “We're all in the same box,” quite as
+the occupants of a prisoner's dock might receive a fellow victim thrust
+in with them by the sheriff. Obadiah reached out his clenched first with
+something in it, and Perez putting forth his hand, received therein a
+lot of dried caraway seeds. “Thort mebbe ye hadn't got no meetin seed,”
+ whispered Obadiah.
+
+Owing to the fact that nine years absence from home had weaned him
+somewhat from native customs, Perez had, in fact, forgotten to lay in a
+supply of this inestimable simple, to the universal use of which by our
+forefathers during religious service, may probably be ascribed their
+endurance of Sabbatical and doctrinal rigors to which their descendants
+are confessedly unequal. It is well known that their knowledge of the
+medicinal uses of common herbs was far greater than ours, and it was
+doubtless the discovery of some secret virtue, some occult theological
+reaction, if I may so express myself, in the seeds of the humble
+caraway, which led to the undeviating rule of furnishing all the members
+of every family, from children to grey heads, with a small quantity to
+be chewed in the mouth and mingled with the saliva during attendance
+on the stated ordinances of the Gospel. Whatever may be thought of this
+theory, the fact will not be called in question that in the main, the
+relaxation of religious doctrine and Sabbath observance in New England,
+has proceeded side by side with the decline in the use of meetin seed.
+
+In putting all the young men together in one gallery, it may be thought
+that some risk was incurred of making that a quarter of disturbance. But
+if the tithingman, with his argus-eyes and long rod were not enough
+to insure propriety, the charming rows of maidens on the seats of the
+gallery directly opposite could have been relied on to complete the
+work. The galleries were very deep, and the distance across the meeting
+house, from the front seat of one to that of the other, was not over
+twenty-five feet. At this close range, reckoning girls' eyes to have
+been about as effective then as they are now-a-days, it may be readily
+inferred what havoc must have been wrought on the bachelors' seats in
+the course of a two hour service. After being exposed to such a fire all
+day, it was no wonder at all, quite apart from other reasons, that on
+Sunday night the young men found their ardor inflamed to a pitch at
+which an interview with the buxom enslaver became a necessity.
+
+The singers sat in the front seat of the galleries, the bass singers in
+the front seat on the bachelors' side, the treble in the front seat on
+the spinsters' side, and the alto and tenor singers in the wings of
+the end gallery, separated by Dr. Partridge's pew. For, as in most New
+England churches at this date, the “old way,” of purely congregational
+singing by “lining out,” had given place to select choirs, an innovation
+however, over which the elder part of the people still groaned and
+croaked. On the back seats of the end gallery, behind the tenors and
+altos respectively sat the negro freedmen and freedwomen, the Pomps and
+Cudjos, the Dinahs and Blossoms. Sitting by Prudence, among the treble
+singers, Perez noticed a young Indian girl of very uncommon beauty,
+and refinement of features, her dark olive complexion furnishing a most
+perfect foil to the blooming face of the white girl.
+
+“Who's that girl by Prudence Fennell?” he whispered to Abe Konkapot,
+who sat beside him. The young Indian's bronze face flushed darkly, as he
+replied:
+
+“That's Lucretia Nimham.”
+
+Perez was about to make further inquiries, when it flashed on him that
+this was the girl, whom Obadiah had jokingly alluded to as the reason
+why Abe had lingered in Stockbridge, instead of moving out to York State
+with his tribe. She certainly was a very sufficient reason for a man's
+doing or not doing almost anything.
+
+From his position in the gallery, Perez could look down on the main body
+of the congregation below, and his cheek flushed with anger as he saw
+his father and mother occupying one of the seats in the back part of
+the room, in the locality considered least in honor, according to the
+distinctions followed by the parish committee, in periodically reseating
+the congregation, or “dignifying the seats,” as the people called it.
+Considerably nearer the pulpit, and in seats of correspondingly greater
+dignity, he recognized Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, the two men
+of chiefest estate among the insurgents. Directly under and before the
+pulpit, almost beneath it, in fact, facing the people from behind a sort
+of railing, sat Deacon Nash. His brother deacon, no less an one than
+Squire Timothy Edwards, has not yet arrived.
+
+As he looked over the fast filling house, for he and Prudence had
+arrived rather early, he met many eyes fixed curiously upon him.
+Sometimes a whisper would pass along a seat, from person to person, till
+one after another, the entire row had turned and stared intently at him.
+It was fame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEENTH
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER MEETING
+
+
+There had been considerable discussion during the week as to whether
+Squire Woodbridge, in view of the public humiliation which had been put
+upon him, would expose himself to the curious gaze of the community by
+coming to meeting the present Sunday. It had been the more prevalent
+opinion that he would find in the low condition of Mrs. Woodbridge, who
+was hovering between life and death, a reason which would serve as an
+excuse for not “attending on the stated ordinances of the gospel,”
+ the present Sabbath. But now from those whose position enabled them to
+command a view of the front door of the meeting-house, rose a sibilant
+whisper, distinct above the noise of boots and shoes upon the uncarpeted
+aisles:
+
+“Here he comes! Here comes Squire.”
+
+There were several gentlemen in Stockbridge who, by virtue of a liberal
+profession or present or past official dignities, had a claim, always
+rigorously enforced and scrupulously conceded, to the title of Esquire,
+but when “_The_ Squire,” was spoken of, it was always Jahleel Woodbridge
+whom the speaker had in mind. Decidedly, those who thought he would not
+dare to appear in public had mistaken his temper. His face, always that
+of a full-blooded man, was redder than common, in fact, contrasted with
+the white powder of his wig, it seemed almost purple, but that was the
+only sign he gave that he was conscious of the people's looks. He wore a
+long-skirted, straight-cut coat of fine blue cloth with brass buttons; a
+brown waistcoat, and small clothes, satin hose with ruffled white shirt
+and cuffs. Under one arm he carried his three-cornered hat and under
+the other his gold-headed cane, and walked with his usual firm, heavy,
+full-bodied step; the step of a man who is not afraid of making a noise,
+and expects that people will look at him. There was not the slightest
+deflection from the old-time arrogance in the stiff carriage of the head
+and eyes, nor anything whatever to show that he considered himself one
+jot or tittle less the autocrat of Stockbridge, than on the Sunday a
+week ago. Walking the whole length of the meeting-house, he opened the
+door of the big square pew at the right hand of the pulpit, considered
+the first in honor, and the only part of the interior of the
+meeting-house, save the pulpit and sounding-board, which was painted.
+One by one the numerous children who called him father, passed before
+him into the pew. Then he closed the door and sat down facing the
+congregation, and slowly and deliberately looked at the people. As his
+glance traveled steadily along the lines of seats, the starers left off
+staring and looked down abashed. After he had thus reviewed the seats
+below, he turned his eyes upward and proceeded to scan the galleries
+with the same effect.
+
+So strong was the impression made by this unruffled and authoritative
+demeanor, that the people were fain to scratch their heads and look
+at one another in vacant questioning, as if doubtful if they had not
+dreamed all this, about the great man's being put down by Perez Hamlin,
+insulted by the mob, and reduced even now to such powerlessness that
+he owed the protection of his sick wife to the favor of the threadbare
+Continental captain up there in the gallery. To those conscious of
+having had a part in these doings, there was a disagreeably vivid
+suggestion of the stocks and whipping post in the Squire's haughty
+stare, against which even a sense of their numbers failed to reassure
+them. Of course the revolt had gained far too great headway to be now
+suppressed by anybody's personal prestige, by the frowns and stares
+of any number of Squire Woodbridges, but, nevertheless, the impression
+which even after the events of the last week, he was still able to make
+upon the people, by his mere manner, was striking testimony to their
+inveterate habit of awe toward him, as the embodiment of secular
+authority in their midst.
+
+Perez had been too long absent from home, and differed too much in
+habits of thought, to fully understand the sentiments of the peasants
+round him for the Squire, and in truth his attention was diverted
+from that gentleman ere he had time to fully observe the effect of his
+entrance. For he had scarcely reached his pew, when Squire and Deacon
+Timothy Edwards came up the aisle, followed by his family. Desire wore
+a blue silk skirt and close-fitting bodice, with a white lace kerchief
+tucked in about her shoulders, and the same blue plumed hat of soft
+Leghorn straw, in which we have seen her before, the wide brim falling
+lower on one side than the other, over her dark curls. As she swept up
+the aisle between the rows of farmers and farmers' wives, the contrast
+between their coarse, ill-fitting and sad-colored homespun, and her rich
+and tasteful robes, was not more striking than the difference between
+the delicate distinction of her features and their hard, rough faces,
+weather-beaten and wrinkled with toil and exposure, or sallow and hollow
+cheeked with care and trouble. She looked like one of a different order
+of beings, and indeed, it is nothing more than truth to say that such
+was exactly the opinion which Miss Desire herself entertained. The eyes
+of admiration with which the girls leaning over the gallery followed her
+up the aisle, were quite without a spark of jealousy, for they knew
+that their rustic sweethearts would no more think of loving her than of
+wasting their passion on the moon. She was meat for their betters, for
+some great gentleman from New York or Boston, all in lace and ruffles,
+some judge or senator, or, greater still, maybe some minister.
+
+To tell the whole truth, however, the admiring attention which her own
+sex accorded to Desire on Sundays, was rather owing to the ever varying
+attractions of her toilet, than to her personal charms. If any of the
+damsels of Stockbridge who went to bed without their supper Sunday
+night, because they couldn't remember the text of the sermon, had
+been allowed to substitute an account of Desire Edwards' toilet, it is
+certain they would not have missed an item. It was the chief boast of
+Mercy Scott, the Stockbridge seamstress, that Desire trusted her new
+gowns to her instead of sending to New York for them. From the glow
+of pride and importance on Miss Mercy's rather dried-up features, when
+Desire wore a new gown for the first time to church, it was perfectly
+evident that she looked upon herself as the contributor of the central
+feature of the day's services. At the quilting and apple paring bees
+held about the time of such a new gown, Miss Mercy was the center of
+interest, and no other gossip was started till she had completed her
+confidences as to the material, cost, cut and fit of the foreshadowed
+garment. It was with glistening eyes and fingers that forgot their
+needles, that these wives and daughters of poor hard-working farmers,
+drank in the details about rich eastern silks and fabrics of gorgeous
+tints and airy textures, their own coarse, butternut homespun quite
+forgotten in imagined splendors. In their rapt attention there was no
+tinge of envy, for such things were too far above their reach to be
+once thought of in connection with themselves. It was upon the fit of
+Desire's dresses, however, that Miss Mercy, with the instinct of the
+artist, grew most impassioned.
+
+“'Tain't no credit to me a fittin her,” she would sometimes protest.
+“Thar's some figgers you can't fetch cloth tew, nohow. But, deary me,
+lands sakes alive, the cloth seems tew love her, it clings to her so
+nateral. An tain't no wonder ef it doos. I never see sech a figger.
+Why her----.” But Miss Mercy's audiences at such times were exclusively
+composed of ladies. She had no inflamable masculine imaginations to
+consider.
+
+It was a very noticeable circumstance on the present Sunday, that all
+the persons in the meeting-house who looked at Desire as she walked up
+the aisle, proceeded immediately afterwards to screw around their necks
+and stare at Perez, thereby betraying that the sight of the one had
+immediately suggested the other to their minds.
+
+The Edwards seat was the second in dignity in the meeting-house,
+being the one on the left of the pulpit, and ranking with that of the
+Sedgwicks, although as between the several leading pews the distinction
+was not considered so decided as to be odious. Having ushered his family
+to their place, Squire Edwards took his own official seat as deacon,
+beside Deacon Nash, behind the railing, below the pulpit and facing the
+people.
+
+And now Parson West comes up the aisle in flowing gown and bands, his
+three-cornered hat under his arm, and climbs the steps into the lofty
+pulpit, sets the hour glass up in view, and the service begins. There
+is singing, a short prayer, and again singing, and then the entire
+congregation rises, the seats are fastened up that none may sit, and the
+long prayer begins, and goes on and on for nearly an hour. Then there is
+another psalm, and then the sermon begins. Up at Pittsfield to-day,
+you may be very sure that Parson Allen is giving his people a rousing
+discourse on the times, wherein the sin of rebellion is treated without
+gloves, and the duty of citizens to submit to the powers that be, and to
+maintain lawful authority even to the shedding of blood, are vigorously
+set forth. But Parson West is not a political parson, and there is not a
+word in his sermon which his hearers, watchful for anything of the kind,
+can construe into a reference to the existing events of the past week.
+It is his practice to keep several sermons on hand, and this might just
+as well have been prepared a thousand years before. It was upon the
+subject of the deplorable consequences of neglecting the baptism of
+infants.
+
+If a parent truly gave up a child in baptism, it would be accepted and
+saved, whether it died in infancy or lived to pass through the mental
+exercises of an adult convert. But on the other hand, if that duty was
+purposely neglected, or if baptism was unaccompanied by a proper frame
+of mind in the parent, there was no reason or hint from revelation to
+believe that the child was saved. Considering that the infant was justly
+liable to eternal suffering on account of Adam's sin, it was impossible
+for the human mind to see how God could be just and yet the justifier
+of an unbaptized infant. But it was not for the human mind to limit
+infinite mercy and wisdom, and possibly in His secret councils God had
+devised a way of salvation even for so desperate a case. So that while
+hope was not absolutely forbidden to parents who had neglected
+the baptism of their infants, confidence would be most wicked and
+presumptuous.
+
+Deacon Edwards fidgeted on his seat at the laxity of this doctrine as
+well might the son of Jonathan Edwards, and Deacon Nash, who inherited
+his Calvinism from a father who had moved from Westfield to Stockbridge
+for the express purpose of sitting under that renowned divine, seemed
+equally uncomfortable. Parson West, as a young man, had been notoriously
+affected with Arminian leanings, and although his conversion to
+Calvinism by Dr. Hopkins of Great Barrington, had been deemed a
+wonderful work of grace, a tendency to sacrifice the logical development
+of doctrines to the weak suggestions of the flesh, was constantly
+cropping out in his sermons, to the frequent grief and scandal of the
+deacons.
+
+At length the service was at an end and the hum and buzz of voices rose
+from all parts of the house, as the people passing out of their pews met
+and greeted each other in the aisles. The afternoon service came in an
+hour and a half, and only those went home who lived close at hand or
+could easily make the distances in their carriages. These took with
+them such friends and acquaintances as they might invite. Others of the
+congregation spent the brief nooning in the “noon-house,” a shed near
+by, erected for this purpose. There, or on the meeting-house steps, or
+maybe seated near by on the grass and using the stumps of felled trees,
+with which it was studded, for tables, they discussed the sermon as a
+relish to their lunches of doughnuts, cheese, pie and gingerbread. To
+converse on any other than religious subjects on the Sabbath, was a sin
+and a scandal which exposed the offender to church discipline, but in a
+public emergency like the present, when rebellion was rampant throughout
+the county, it was impossible that political affairs should not
+preoccupy the most pious minds. Talk of them the people must and did,
+of the stopping of the courts, the breaking of the jails, of Squire
+Woodbridge and Perez Hamlin, of the news from the other counties, and
+of what would next take place, but it was amusing to see the ingenious
+manner by which the speakers contrived to compound with their
+consciences and prevent scandal by giving a pious twist and a Sabbatical
+intonation to their sentences.
+
+Among the younger people, as might be expected, there was less of this
+affectation. They were all discussing with eager interest something
+which had just happened.
+
+“Wal, all I say is I don't want to be a lady if it makes folks so crewel
+an so deceitful as that,” said Submit Goodrich, a black-eyed, bright
+cheeked wench, old Israel's youngest daughter. “To think o' her
+pretendin not to know him, right afore all the folks, and she on her
+knees to him a cryin only four days ago. I don't care if she is Squire
+Edwards' gal, I hain't got no opinyun o' such doin's.”
+
+Most of the girls agreed with Submit, but some of the young men were
+inclined to laugh at Perez, saying it was good enough for him, and that
+he who was nothing more than a farmer like the rest of them was served
+right for trying to push in among the big folks.
+
+“I s'pose she's dretful riled to think it's all 'round bout her goin
+over to the Hamlins las' week an she thort she'd jess let folks see she
+was as proud as ever. Land! How red he was! I felt reel bad for him, and
+such a nice bow ez he made, jess like any gentleman!”
+
+“I callate Jerushy wouldn't a been so hard on him,” jealously snickered
+a young farmer sitting by the young woman who last spoke.
+
+“No, I wouldn't,” she said, turning sharply to him. “I s'pose ye thort
+I wasn't no judge o' hansome men, cause I let you keep kumpny with me.”
+ There was nothing more from that quarter.
+
+But what is it they are talking about anyway? Why, simply this: In
+front of the meeting-house, as they came out from the service, Perez met
+Desire face to face. All the people were standing around, talking and
+waiting to see the great folks get into their carriages to drive home.
+Naturally, everybody looked with special interest to see the meeting of
+these two whose names gossip had so constantly coupled during the
+week. Jonathan was with Desire, and looked fiercely at Perez, but his
+fierceness was quite wasted. Perez did not see him. He took off his hat
+and bowed to her with an air of the most profound respect. She gave not
+the faintest sign of recognition, even to the dropping of an eyelid. The
+people had stopped talking and were staring. The blood rushed to Perez'
+forehead.
+
+“Good day, Miss Edwards,” he said, firmly and distinctly, yet
+respectfully, his hat still in his hand. Jonathan, in his indignation,
+was as red as he, but Desire could not have appeared more unconscious
+of being addressed had she been stone deaf as well as blind. In a moment
+more she had passed on and entered the carriage, and the people were
+left with something to talk about. Now, Captain Perez Hamlin had gone
+to meeting that morning as much in love with Desire Edwards as four
+days thinking of little else save a fair face and charming form might be
+expected to leave a susceptible young man, particularly when the manly
+passion is but the resurrection of an unforgotten love of boyhood. He
+walked home somewhat more angry with the same young woman than he could
+remember ever having been with anybody. If a benevolent fairy had asked
+him his dearest wish just then, it would have been that Desire Edwards
+might be transformed into a young gentleman for about five minutes, in
+order that he might impart to him the confoundedest thrashing that a
+young gentleman ever experienced, nor did even the consciousness that no
+such transformation was possible, prevent his fingers from tingling with
+a most ungallant aspiration to box her small ears till they were as red
+as his own face had been at the moment she cut him so coolly. For he
+was a very proud man, was Captain Perez Hamlin, with a soldier's
+sensitiveness to personal affronts, and none of that mean opinion of
+himself and his position in society which helped the farmers around to
+bear with equanimity the snubs of those they regarded as their natural
+superiors.
+
+The father and mother had fortunately driven on before the scene took
+place, and so at least he was spared the added exasperation of being
+condoled with on arriving at home. Prudence had stayed to the afternoon
+service. Toward twilight, as he was walking to and fro behind the barn,
+and indulging an extremely unsanctified frame of mind, she came to him
+and blurted out, breathlessly:
+
+“All the girls think she was mean and wicked, and I'll never do any more
+work for her or Mis Woodbridge either,” and before he could answer she
+had run back into the house with burning cheeks. He had seen that her
+eyes were also full of tears. It was clear she had been struggling hard
+between the pity which prompted her to tender some form of consolation,
+and her fear of speaking to him.
+
+The dreamy habit of the mind induced by love in its first stage, often
+extends to the point of overspreading all the realities of life and
+the circumstances of the individual, with a glamour, which for the time
+being, disguises the hard and rigid outlines of fact. The painful shock
+which had so sharply ended Perez' brief delusion, that Desire might
+possibly accept his devotion, had at the same time roused him to a
+recognition of the critical position of himself and his father's family.
+What business had he or they lingering here in Stockbridge? Yesterday,
+in the vague unpractical way in which hopeful lovers do all their
+thinking he had thought they might remain indefinitely. Now he saw that
+it would be tempting Providence to postpone any further the carrying out
+of his original plan, of moving with them to New York State. The present
+insurrection might last a longer or shorter time, but there was no
+reason to think it would result in remedying the already desperate
+financial condition of the family. The house was to have been sold
+the past week, and doubtless would be as soon as affairs were a little
+quieter. Reuben was, moreover, liable to re-arrest and imprisonment on
+his old debt, and as for himself, he knew that his life was forfeit to
+the gallows for the part he had taken in the rebellion.
+
+Once across the state line, however, they would be as safe as in Europe,
+for the present Union of the states was not yet formed, and the loose
+and nerveless bond of the old Federation, then in its last stage of
+decrepitude, left the states practically foreign countries to each
+other. His idea was then to get the family over into New York without
+delay, with such remnants of the farm stock as could be got together,
+and leaving them for the winter at New Lebanon, just the other side the
+border, to go on himself, meanwhile, to the western part of the state,
+to secure a farm in the new tracts being already opened up in that rich
+region, and rapidly filling with settlers. For the populating of the
+west, and New York was then the west, has gone on by successive waves
+of emigration, set in motion by periodical epochs of financial and
+industrial distress in the Atlantic states, and the first of these
+impulses, the hard times following the Revolution, was already sending
+thousands to seek new homes toward the setting sun.
+
+Busy with preparations for the start, he kept close at home during the
+entire week following. Only once or twice did he even go down street,
+and then on some errand. Obadiah dropped around frequently and looked
+on as he worked, evidently having something on his mind. One twilight as
+Perez was cutting wood for the evening fire, the young man came into the
+back yard and opened conversation in this wise:
+
+“Guess it's gonter rain.”
+
+“Looks a little like it,” Perez assented.
+
+Obadiah was silent a space, and ground the heel of his bare foot into
+the dirt.
+
+“D'you know what's good fer warts?” he finally asked. Perez said he did
+not. After a pause, Obadiah remarked critically:
+
+“Them bricks roun' the top o' the chimly be kinder loose, bean't they?”
+ They were, and Perez freely admitted as much. Obadiah looked around for
+some other topic of conversation, but apparently finding none, he picked
+up a stone and asked with affected carelessness, as he jerked it toward
+the barn:
+
+“Be ye a gonter take George Fennell 'long with ye?”
+
+“No,” said Perez. “He will not live long, I fear, and he can't be moved.
+I suppose some of the people will take him and Prudence in, when we go.”
+
+Obadiah said nothing, but from the change which instantly came over
+his manner, it was evident that the information obtained with such
+superfluous diplomacy was a prodigious relief to his mind. The
+officiousness with which he urged a handful of chestnuts on Perez, and
+even offered to carry in the wood for him, might moreover be construed
+as indicating a desire to make amends to him for unjust suspicions
+secretly cherished. As for asking Prudence directly whether she was
+expecting to go away, that would have been a piece of hardihood of which
+the bashful youth was quite incapable. If he could not have ascertained
+her intentions otherwise than by such a desperate measure, he would
+have waited till the Hamlins set out, and then been on hand to see for
+himself whether she went or not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEENTH
+
+AN AUCTION SALE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+Squire Woodbridge had not failed to detect the first signs of decrease
+in the ebullition of the popular mind after the revolt of Tuesday, and
+when by Friday and Saturday the mob had apparently quite disappeared,
+and the village had returned to its normal condition, he assured himself
+that the rebellion was all over, and it only remained for him and his
+colleagues cautiously to get hold of the reins again, and then--then for
+the whip. For, the similitude under which the Squire oftenest thought
+of the people of Stockbridge was that of a team of horses which he was
+driving. There had been a little runaway, and he had been pitched out on
+his head. Let him once get his grip on the lines again, and the whip in
+his hand, and there should be some fine dancing among the leaders, or
+his name was not Jahleel Woodbridge, Esquire, and the whipping post on
+the green was nothing but a rosebush.
+
+He was in a hurry for two reasons to get the reins in his hands again.
+In the first place, for the very natural and obvious reason that he
+grudged every moment of immunity from punishment enjoyed by men who had
+put him to such an open shame. The other and less obvious reason was the
+expected return of Squire Sedgwick from Boston. Sedgwick had been gone
+a week. He might be absent a week or two weeks more, but he might return
+any day. One thing was evident to Jahleel Woodbridge. Before this man
+returned, of whose growing and rival influence he had already so much
+reason to be jealous, he must have put an end to anarchy in Stockbridge,
+and once more stand at the head of its government. Sedgwick had warned
+him of the explosive state of popular feeling: he had resented that
+warning, and the event had proved his rival right. The only thing now
+left him was to show Sedgwick that if he had not been able to foresee
+the rebellion, he had been able to suppress it. Nevertheless he would
+proceed cautiously.
+
+The red flag of the sheriff had for some weeks waved from the gable end
+of a small house on the main street, owned by a Baptist cobbler,
+one David Joy. There were quite a number of Baptists among the Welsh
+iron-workers at West Stockbridge, and some Methodists, but none of
+either heresy save David in Stockbridge, which, with this exception was,
+as a parish, a Congregational lamb without blemish. No wonder then that
+David was a thorn in the side to the authorities of the church, nor was
+he less despised by the common people. There was not a drunken loafer in
+town who did not pride himself upon the fact that, though he might be
+a drunkard, he was at least no Baptist, but belonged to the “Standing
+Order.” Meshech Little, himself, who believed and practiced the doctrine
+of total immersion in rum, had no charity for one who believed in total
+immersion in water.
+
+The date which had been set for the sale of David's goods and house,
+chanced to be the very Monday following the Sunday with whose religious
+services and other events the previous chapters have been concerned. It
+seemed to Squire Woodbridge that David's case would be an excellent one
+with which to inaugurate once more the reign of law. Owing to the social
+isolation and unpopularity of the man, the proceedings against him would
+be likely to excite very little sympathy or agitation of any kind, and
+having thus got the machinery of the law once more into operation,
+it would be easy enough to proceed thereafter, without fear or favor,
+against all classes of debtors and evil-doers in the good old way.
+Moreover, it had long been the intention of those having the interest
+of Zion at heart to “freeze out” David by this very process, and to that
+end considerable sanctified shrewdness had been expended in getting him
+into debt. So that by enforcing the sale in his case, two birds would,
+so to speak, be killed with one stone, and the political and spiritual
+interests of the parish be coincidently furthered, making it altogether
+an undertaking on which the blessing of Heaven might be reasonably
+looked for.
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon the sale took place. Everything worked
+as the Squire had expected. It being the general popular supposition
+that there were to be no more sheriffs' sales, there were no persons
+present at the auction save the officers of the law and the gentlemen
+who were to bid. Only here and there an astonished face peered out of a
+window at the proceedings, and a knot of loafers, who had been boozing
+away the afternoon, stood staring in the door of the tavern. That was
+all. There was no crowd, and no attempt at interruption. But the news
+that a man had been sold out for debt spread fast, and by sunset,
+when the men and boys came home from their farm-work or mechanical
+occupations, numerous groups of excited talkers had gathered in the
+streets. There was a very full meeting that night at the tavern.
+
+“I declar for't,” said Israel Goodrich, with an air of mingled
+disappointment and wrath, “I be reel put aout, an disappinted like. I
+dunno what tew make on't. I callated the trouble wuz all over, an times
+wuz gonter be good and folks live kinder neighbourly 'thout no more
+suein an jailin, an sellin aout, same ez long from '74 tew '80. I
+reckoned sure nuff them times wuz come 'round agin, an here they've gone
+an kicked the pot over, an the fat's in the fire agin, bad's ever.”
+
+“Darn em. Gosh darn em, I say,” exclaimed Abner. “Didn't they git our
+idee what we wuz arter wen we stopped the courts? Did they think we wuz
+a foolin baout it? That's what I want some feller tew tell me. Did they
+think we wuz a foolin?”
+
+Abner's usually good humoured face was darkly flushed, and there was an
+ugly gleam in his eye as he spoke.
+
+“We wuz so quiet like las' week, they callated we'd jess hed our fling
+an got over it. I guess that wuz haow it wuz,” said Peleg Bidwell.
+
+“Did they think we'd been five year a gittin our dander up an would git
+over it in a week?” demanded Abner, glaring round. “If t'wuz caze we wuz
+tew quiet, we'll make racket nuff to suit em arter this, hey, boys?
+If racket's the ony thing they kin understan, they shall hev a plenty
+on't.”
+
+“Israel thought it wuz kingdom come already,” said Paul Hubbard, who
+had hurried down from the iron-works with a gang of his myrmidons, on
+receipt of the news. “He thought the silk stockings was goin to give
+right in as sweet as sugar. Not by a darned sight. No sir. They ain't
+going to let go so easy. They ain't none o' that sort. They mean to have
+the old times back again, and they'll have em back, too, unless you wake
+up and show em you're in earnest.”
+
+“Not yit awhile, by the everlastin Jocks,” shouted Abner. “Ef thar's
+any vartue in gunpowder them times shan't come back,” and there was an
+answering yell that shook the room.
+
+“That's the talk, Abner. Give us yer paw,” said Paul, delighted to
+find the people working up to his own pitch of bitter and unrelenting
+animosity against the gentlemen. “That's the talk, but it'll take more'n
+talk. Look here men, three out of four of you have done enough already
+to get a dozen lashes on his bare back, if the silk stockings get on top
+again. It's all in a nutshell. If we don't keep them under they'll keep
+us under. We've just got to take hold and raise the devil with them.
+If we don't give them the devil, they'll give us the devil. Take your
+choice. It's one or the other.”
+
+There was a chorus of exclamations.
+
+“That's so.” “By gosh we're in for't, an we might's well go ahead.”
+ “Ye're right, Paul.” “We'll git aout the hoss-fiddles an give em some
+mewsic.” “We'll raise devil nuff fer em ter night.” “Come on fellers.”
+ “Les give em a bonfire.”
+
+There was a general movement of the men out of the barroom, all talking
+together, clamorously suggesting plans, or merely, as in the case of the
+younger men and boys, venting their excitement in hoots and catcalls.
+It was a close dark night, obscure enough to make cowards brave, and the
+crowd that surged out of the tavern were by no means cowards, but angry
+and resolute men, whose exasperation at the action of the authorities,
+was sharpened and pointed by well-founded apprehensions of the personal
+consequences to themselves which that action threatened if not resisted.
+Some one's suggestion that they should begin by putting David Joy and
+his family back into their house, was received with acclamation and they
+were forthwith fetched from a neighboring shed, under which they had
+encamped for the night, and without much ceremony thrust into their
+former residence and ordered to stay there. For though in this case
+David happened to be identified with their own cause, it went against
+their grain to help a Baptist.
+
+“Now, boys, les go an see Iry Seymour,” said Abner, and with a yell, the
+crowd rushed off in the direction of the deputy sheriff's house.
+
+Their blood was up, and it was perhaps well for that official that he
+did not wait to be interviewed. As the crowd surged up before the house,
+a man's figure was seen dimly flitting across the field behind, having
+apparently emerged from the back door. There was a yell “There goes
+Iry,” and half the mob took after him, but, thanks to the darkness, the
+nimble-footed sheriff made good his escape, and his pursuers presently
+returned, breathless, but in high good humor over the novel sport,
+protesting that they laughed so hard they couldn't run.
+
+The only other important demonstration by the mob that evening, was the
+tearing up of the fence in front of Squire Woodbridge's house and the
+construction of an immense bonfire in the street out of the fragments,
+the conflagration proceeding to the accompaniment of an obligato on the
+horse-fiddles.
+
+So it came to pass that, as sometimes happens in such cases, Squire
+Woodbridge's first attempt to get the reins of the runaway team into
+his hands, had the effect of startling the horses into a more headlong
+gallop than ever.
+
+If the events of the night, superadded to the armed revolt of the
+week before, left any doubt in the most sanguine mind that the present
+disturbances were no mere local and trifling irritations, but a general
+rebellion, the news which was in the village early the following
+morning, must have dispelled it. This news was that the week before, an
+armed mob of several hundred had stopped the courts at their meeting
+in Worcester and forced an adjournment for two months; that the entire
+state, except the district close around Boston, was in a ferment; that
+the people were everywhere arming and drilling and fully determined
+that no more courts should sit till the distresses of the times had
+been remedied. As yet the state authorities had taken no action looking
+toward the suppression of the insurrection, in which, indeed, the great
+majority of the population appeared actively or sympathetically engaged.
+The messenger reported that in the lower counties a sprig of hemlock in
+the hat, had been adopted as the badge of the insurgents, and that the
+towns through which he had ridden seemed to have fairly turned green, so
+universally did men, women and children wear the hemlock. The news had
+not been an hour in Stockbridge before every person on the streets had a
+bit of hemlock in their hat or hair. I say every person upon the street,
+for those who belonged to the anti-popular or court party, took good
+care to keep within doors that morning.
+
+“I'm glad to see the hemlock, agin,” said Israel Goodrich. “The old pine
+tree flag wuz a good flag to fight under. There wuz good blood spilt
+under it in the old colony days. Thar wuz better times in this 'ere
+province o' Massachusetts Bay, under the pine tree flag, than this dum
+Continental striped rag hez ever fetched, or ever will, I reckon.”
+
+The dismay which the news of the extent and apparent irresistibleness
+of the rebellion produced among those attached to the court party in
+Stockbridge, corresponded to the exultation to which the people gave
+themselves up. Nor did the populace lose any time in giving expression
+to their bolder temper by overt acts. About nine o'clock in the morning,
+Deputy Sheriff Seymour, who had not ventured to return to his house,
+was found concealed in the corn-bin of a barn near the burying-ground.
+A crowd instantly collected and dragged the terrified man from his
+concealment. Some one yelled:
+
+“Ride him on a rail,” and the suggestion finding an echo in the popular
+breast, a three-cornered fence rail was thrust between his legs, and
+lifted on men's shoulders. Astride of this sharp-backed steed, holding
+on with his hands for dear life, lest he should fall off and break his
+neck, he was carried, through the main streets of the village, followed
+by a howling crowd, and pelted with apples by the boys, while the
+windows of the houses along the way were full of laughing women. Having
+graced the popular holiday by this involuntary exhibition of himself,
+Seymour was let go without suffering any further violence, the crowd
+appearing boisterously jocose rather than embittered in temper. Master
+Hopkins, a young man who had recently entered Squire Sedgwick's office
+to study law, was next pounced upon, having indiscreetly ventured on the
+street, and treated to a similar free ride, which was protracted until
+the youth purchased surcease by consenting to wear a sprig of hemlock in
+his hat.
+
+About the middle of the forenoon Squire Woodbridge, Deacon Nash, Dr.
+Partridge, with Squire Edwards and several other gentlemen were sitting
+in the back room of the store. It was a gloomy council. Woodbridge
+quaffed his glass of rum in short, quick unenjoying gulps, and said not
+a word. The others from time to time dropped a phrase or two expressive
+of the worst apprehensions as to what the mob might do, and entire
+discouragement as to the possibility of doing anything to restrain them.
+Suddenly, young Jonathan Edwards, who was in the outer room tending
+store, cried out:
+
+“Father, the mob is coming. Shall I shut the door?”
+
+Squire Edwards cried “Yes,” and hastily went out to assist, but Dr.
+Partridge, with more presence of mind than the others seemed to possess
+at that moment, laid his hand on the storekeeper's arm, saying:
+
+“Better not shut the door. They will tear the house down if you do.
+Resistance is out of the question.”
+
+In another moment a boisterous crowd of men, their faces flushed with
+drink, all wearing sprigs of hemlock in their hats, came pouring up
+the steps and filled the store, those who could not enter thronging the
+piazza and grinning in at the windows. Edwards and the other gentlemen
+stood at bay at the back end of the store, in front of the liquor
+hogsheads. Their bearing was that of men who expected personal violence,
+but in a justifiable agitation did not forget their personal dignity.
+But the expression on the face of Abner, who was the leader of the gang,
+was less one of exasperation than of sardonic humor.
+
+“Good mornin,” he said.
+
+“Good morning, Abner,” replied Edwards, propitiatingly.
+
+“It's a good mornin and it's good news ez is come to taown. I s'pose ye
+hearn it a' ready. I thort so. Ye look ez ef ye hed. But we didn' come
+tew talk 'baout that. Thar wuz a leetle misunderstandin yisdy 'baout
+selling aout David. He ain't nothin but a skunk of a Baptis, an ef Iry
+hed put him in the stocks or licked him 'twould a sarved him right. But
+ye see some of the boys hev got a noshin agin heven any more fellers
+sole aout fer debt, an we've been a explainin our idee to Iry this
+mornin. I callate he's got it through his head, Iry hez. Ye see ef
+neighbors be gonter live together peaceable they've jess got ter
+unnerstan each other. What do yew s'pose Iry said? He said Squire thar
+tole him to sell David aout. In course we didn' b'leeve that. Squire
+ain't no gol darned fool, ez that would make him aout ter be. He knowd
+the men ez stopped the courts las' week wouldn' be afeard o' stoppin a
+sherriff. He knows the folks be in arnest 'baout hevin an eend on sewin
+an sellin an sendin tew jail. Squire knows, an ye all know that thar'll
+be fightin fore thar's any more sellin.”
+
+Abner had grown excited as he spoke, and the peculiar twinkle in his eye
+had given place to a wrathy glare as he uttered the last words, but this
+passed, and it was with his former sardonic grin that he added:
+
+“But Iry didn' save his hide by tryin tew lay it orf ontew Squire an I
+guess he won't try no more sellin aout right away, not ef Goramity tole
+him tew.”
+
+“Yer gab's runnin away with yer. Git to yer p'int, Abner,” said Peleg
+Bidwell.
+
+“Lemme 'lone I'm comin 'roun,” replied Abner. “Ye wuz over't the sale
+yisdy, warn't ye, Squire?” he said, addressing Edwards.
+
+“Yes, Abner.”
+
+“Wal, ye see, when we come tew put back David's folks intew the haouse
+his woman missed the clock, and somebody said ez haow ye'd took et.”
+
+“I bid it in,” said Edwards.
+
+“I s'pose ye clean furgut t'wuz the on'y clock she hed,” suggested
+Abner with a bland air of accounting for the other's conduct on the most
+favorable supposition.
+
+Edwards, making no reply save to grow rather red, Abner continued:
+
+“In course ye furgut it, that's what I tole the fellers, for ye wouldn't
+go and take the on'y clock a poor man hed wen ye've got a plenty, 'nless
+ye furgut. Ye see we knowed ye'd wanter send it right back soon ez ye
+thort o' that, and so we jess called in for't, callaten tew save ye the
+trouble.”
+
+“But--but I bought it,” stammered Edwards.
+
+“Sartin, sartin,” said Abner. “Jess what I sed, ye bought it caze ye
+clean furgut it wuz David's on'y one, an he poor an yew rich. Crypus!
+Squire, ye hain't got no call tew explain it tew us. Ye see we knows
+yer ways Squire. We knows how apt ye be tew furgit jiss that way. We kin
+make allowances fer ye.”
+
+Edwards' forehead was crimson.
+
+“There's the clock,” he said, pointing to it where it lay on the
+counter. Abner took it up and put it under his arm, saying:
+
+“David 'll be 'bliged to ye, Squire, when I tell him how cheerful ye
+sent it back. Some o' the fellers,” he pursued with an affectation of a
+confidential tone, “some o' the fellers said mebbe ye wouldn't send it
+back cheerful. They said ye'd got no more compassion fer the poor than a
+flint stun. They said, them fellers did, that ye'd never in yer life
+let up on a man as owed ye, an would take a feller's last drop o' blood
+sooner'n lose a penny debt. They said, them fellers did, that yer hands,
+wite ez they looks, wuz red with the blood o' them that ye'd sent to die
+in jail.”
+
+Abner's voice had risen to a tremendous crescendo of indignation, and he
+seemed on the point of quite forgetting his ironical affectation,
+when, with an effort which added to the effect, he checked himself and
+resuming his former tone and grin, he added:
+
+“I argyed with them fellers ez said them things bout ye. I tole em haow
+it couldn't be so, caze ye wuz a deakin, an hed family prayers, and
+could pray mos' ez long ez parson. But I couldn't do nothin with em,
+they wuz so sot. Wy them fellers akchilly said ye took this ere clock a
+knowin that it wuz David's on'y one, wen ye hed a plenty o' yer own tew.
+Jess think o' that Squire. What a hoggish old hunks they took ye fer,
+didn't they, naow?” Edwards glared at his tormentor with a countenance
+red and white with speechless rage, but Abner appeared as unconscious
+of anything peculiar in his manner as he did of the snickers of the men
+behind him. Having concluded his remarks he blandly bade the gentlemen
+good morning and left the store, followed by his gang, the suppressed
+risibilities of the party finding expression in long continued and
+uproarious laughter, as soon as they reached the outer air. After
+leaving the store they called on all the gentlemen who had bidden in
+anything at yesterday's sale, one after another, and reclaimed every
+article and returned it to David.
+
+If any of the court party had flattered themselves that this mob, like
+that of the week before, would, after making an uproar for a day or
+two, disappear and leave the community in quiet, they were destined
+to disappointment. The popular exasperation and apprehension which the
+Squire's ill-starred attempt to regain authority had produced, gave to
+the elements of anarchy in the village a new cohesive force and impulse,
+while, thanks to the news of the spread and success of the rebellion
+elsewhere, the lawless were encouraged by entire confidence of impunity.
+From this day, in fact, it might be said that anarchy was organized in
+the village.
+
+There were two main elements in the mob. One, the most dangerous, and
+the real element of strength in it, was composed of a score or two of
+men whom the stoppage of the courts had come too late to help. Their
+property all gone, they had been reduced to the condition of loafers,
+without stake in the community. Having no farms of their own to work on,
+and the demand for laborers being limited, they had nothing to do
+all day but to lounge around the tavern, drinking when they could get
+drinks, sneering at the silk stockings, and debating how further to
+discomfit them. The other element of the mob, the most mischievous,
+although not so seriously formidable, was composed of boys and
+half-grown youths, who less out of malice against the court party, than
+out of mere love of frolic, availed themselves to the utmost of the
+opportunity to play off pranks on the richer class of citizens. Bands of
+them ranged the streets from twilight till midnight, robbing orchards,
+building bonfires out of fences, opening barns and letting the cows into
+the gardens, stealing the horses for midnight races, afterwards leaving
+them to find their way home as they could, tying strings across the
+streets to trip wayfarers up, stoning windows, and generally making life
+a burden for their victims by an ingenious variety of petty outrages.
+Nor were the persons even of the unpopular class always spared. In the
+daytime it was tolerably safe for one of them to go abroad, but after
+dark, let him beware of unripe apples and overripe eggs. For the most
+part the silk stockings kept their houses in the evening, as much for
+their own protection as for that of their families, and the more prudent
+of them sat in the dark until bedtime, owing to the fact that lighted
+windows were a favorite mark with the boys.
+
+The mob had dubbed itself “The Regulators,” a title well enough
+deserved, indeed, by the extent to which they undertook to reorganize
+the property interests of the community. For the theory of the
+reclamation of property carried out in the case of the goods of David
+Joy, by no means stopped there. It was presently given an ex-post facto
+application, and made to cover articles of property which had changed
+hands at Sheriff's sales not only since but also previous to the
+stoppage of the courts. Wherever, in fact, a horse or a cart, a harness,
+a yoke of oxen or a piece of furniture had passed from the ownership of
+a poor man to the possession of a rich man and one of the court party,
+the original owner now reclaimed it, if so disposed, and so effectual
+was the mob terrorism in the village that such a claim was, generally,
+with better or worse grace yielded to.
+
+Nor was the application of this doctrine of the restitution of all
+things even confined to personal property. Many of the richer class of
+citizens occupied houses acquired by harsh foreclosures since the dearth
+of circulating medium had placed debtors at the mercy of creditors.
+A few questions as to when they were thinking of moving out, with an
+intimation that the neighbors were ready to assist them, if it appeared
+necessary, was generally hint enough to secure a prompt vacating of
+the premises, though now and then when the occupants were unusually
+obstinate and refused to “take a joke” there were rather rough
+proceedings. Among those thus ejected was Solomon Gleason, the
+schoolmaster, who had been living in the house which George Fennel had
+formerly owned. In this case, however, the house remained vacant, George
+being too sick to be moved.
+
+When Friday night came round again, there was a tremendous carouse at
+the tavern, in the midst of which Widow Bingham, rendered desperate by
+the demands for rum, demands which she did not dare to refuse for fear
+of provoking the mob to gut her establishment, finally exclaimed:
+
+“Why don' ye go over't the store an let Squire Edwards stan treat
+awhile? What's the use o' making me dew it all? He's got better likker
+nor I hev an more on't, an he ain't a poor lone widder nuther, without
+noboddy ter stan up fer her,” and the widow pointed her appeal by
+beginning to cry, which, as she was a buxom well-favored woman, made a
+decided impression on the crowd.
+
+Abner, who was drunk as a king, instantly declared that “By the
+everlastin Jehu” he'd break the head o' the “fuss dum Nimshi” that
+asked for another drink, which brought the potations of the company to a
+sudden check. Presently Meshech Little observed:
+
+“Come long fellersh, lesh go t' the store. Whosh fraid? I ain't.” There
+was a chorus of thick-tongued protestations of equal valor, and the
+crowd reeled out after Meshech. Abner was left alone with the widow.
+
+“I'm reel beholden to ye Abner Rathbun, fer stannin up fer me,” said she
+warmly, “an Seliny Bingham ain't one tew ferget a favor nuther.”
+
+“I'd a smashed the snout o' the fuss one on em ez assed fer more. I'd a
+knocked his lights outer him, I don' keer who twuz,” declared Abner, his
+valor still further inflamed by the gratitude which sparkled from the
+widow's fine eyes.
+
+“Lemme mix ye a leetle rum 'n sugar, Abner. It'll dew ye good,” said the
+widow. “I hope ye didn' take none o' that to yerself what I said tew the
+res' on em. I'm sure I don' grudge ye a drop ye've ever hed, caze I know
+ye be a nice stiddy man, an I feels safer like wen ye be raoun. Thar
+naow, jess try that an see ef it's mixed right.”
+
+Abner did try that, and more subsequently and sweet smiles and honeyed
+words therewith, the upshot of all which was the tacit conclusion that
+evening of a treaty of alliance, the tacitly understood conditions being
+that Abner should stand by the widow and see she was not put upon, in
+return for which the widow would see that he was not left thirsty, and
+if this understanding was sealed with a kiss snatched by one of the
+contracting parties as the other leaned too far over the bar with the
+fourth tumbler of rum and sugar, why it was all the more likely to
+be faithfully observed. That the widow was a fine woman Abner had
+previously observed, but any natural feeling which this observation
+might have excited had been kept in check by the consciousness of a long
+unsettled score. The woman was merged in the landlady, the sex in the
+creditor. Seeing that there is no more ecstatic experience known to the
+soul than the melting of awe into a tenderer sentiment, it will not be
+wondered at that Abner lingered over his twofold inebriation till at
+nine o'clock the widow said that she must really shut up the tavern.
+
+His surprise was great on passing the store to see it still lit up, and
+a crowd of men inside, while from the apartments occupied by the Edwards
+family came the tinkling of Desire's piano. Going in, he found the store
+filled with drunken men, and the back room crowded with drinkers, whom
+young Jonathan Edwards was serving with liquor, while the Squire was
+walking about with a worn and anxious face, seeing that there was
+no stealing of his goods. As he saw Abner he said, making a pitiable
+attempt to affect a little dignity:
+
+“I've been treating the men to a little liquor, but it's rather late,
+and I should like to get them out. You have some control over them, I
+believe. May I ask you to send them out?”
+
+In the pressure of the present emergency, the poor man appeared to have
+forgotten the insults which Abner had heaped upon him a few days before,
+and Abner himself, who was in high good humor, and really felt almost
+sorry for the proud man before him, replied:
+
+“Sartin, Sartin. I'll git em aout, but what's the peeanner agoin fer?”
+
+“The men thought they would like to hear it, and my daughter was kind
+enough to play a little for them,” said Edwards, his face flushing
+again, even after the mortifications of the evening, at the necessity of
+thus confessing his powerlessness to resist the most insulting demands
+of the rabble.
+
+Abner passed through the door in the back room of the store, which
+opened into the living-room, a richly carpeted apartment, with fine
+oaken furniture imported from England. The parlor beyond was even more
+expensively furnished and decorated. Flat on his back, in the middle of
+the parlor carpet, was stretched Meshech Little, dead drunk. In nearly
+every chair was a barefooted, coatless lout, drunk and snoring with his
+hat over his eyes, and his legs stretched out, or vacantly staring with
+open mouth at Desire, who, with a face like ashes and the air of an
+automaton, was playing the piano.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH
+
+PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS
+
+
+On the day following, which was Saturday, at about three o'clock in
+the afternoon, Perez Hamlin was at work in the yard behind the house,
+shoeing his horse in preparation for the start west the next week. Horse
+shoeing was an accomplishment he had acquired in the army, and he had no
+shillings to waste in hiring others to do anything he could do himself.
+As he let the last hoof out from between his knees, and stood up, he saw
+Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps coming across the yard toward him. Ezra
+wore his working suit, sprinkled with the meal dust of his gristmill,
+and Israel had on a long blue-woolen farmer's smock, reaching to his
+knees, and carried in his hand a hickory-handled whip with a long lash,
+indicating that he had come in his cart, which he had presumably left
+hitched to the rail fence in front of the house. After breaking ground
+by a few comments on the points of Perez' horse, Israel opened the
+subject of the visit, as follows:
+
+“Ye see, Perez, I wuz over't Mill-Holler arter a grist o' buckwheat, an
+me 'n Ezry got ter talkin baout the way things wuz goin in the village.
+I s'pose ye've hearn o' the goins on.”
+
+“Very little, indeed,” said Perez. “I have scarcely been out of the yard
+this week, I've been hard at work. But I've heard considerable racket
+nights.”
+
+“Wal,” said Israel, “the long an short on't is the fellers be raisin the
+old Harry, an it's time somebody said whoa. I've been a talkin tew Abner
+baout it, an so's Ezry, but Abner ain't the same feller he wuz. He's
+tight mos' o' the time naow, an he says he don' keer a darn haow bad
+they treats the silk stockins. Turn abaout's fair play, he says, an he
+on'y larfed w'en I tole him some o' the mischief the fellers wuz up tew.
+An you said, Ezry, he talked jess so to yew.”
+
+“Sartin, he did,” said Ezra. “Ye see,” he continued to Perez, “me an
+Isr'el be men o' prop'ty, an we jined the folks agin' the courts caze we
+seen they wuz bein 'bused. Thar warn't no sense in makin folks pay debts
+w'en ther warn't no money in cirk'lashun to pay em. 'Twuz jess like
+makin them ere chil'ren of Isr'el make bricks 'thout no straw. I allers
+said, an I allers will say,” and the glitter that came into Ezra's eye
+indicated that he felt the inspiring bound of his hobby beneath him,
+“ef govment makes folks pay ther debts, govment's baoun ter see they hez
+sunthin tew pay em with. I callate that's plain ez a pike-staff. An it's
+jess so with taxes. Ef govment--”
+
+“Sartin, sartin,” interrupted Israel, quietly choking him off, “but less
+stick tew what we wuz a sayin, Ezry. Things be a goin tew fur, ye see,
+Perez. We tuk part with the poor folks w'en they wuz bein 'bused, but
+I declar' for't 't looks though we'd hefter take part with the silk
+stockins pootty soon, at the rate things be agoin. It's a reg'lar
+see-saw. Fust the rich folks eend wuz up too fur, and naow et's t'other
+way.”
+
+“They be a burnin fences ev'ry night,” said Ezra, “an they'll have the
+hull town afire one o' these days. I don' b'lieve in destroyin prop'ty.
+Thar ain't no sense in that. That air Paul Hubbard's wuss 'n Abner.
+Abner he jess larfs an don' keer, but Paul he's thet riled agin the silk
+stockins that he seems farly crazy. He's daown from the iron-works with
+his gang ev'ry night, eggin on the fellers tew burn fences, an stone
+houses, an he wuz akchilly tryin tew git the boys tew tar and feather
+Squire, t'uther night. They didn't quite dasst dew that, but thar ain't
+no tellin what they'll come tew yit.”
+
+“Ye see, Perez,” said Israel, at last getting to the point, “we callate
+yew mout dew suthin to kinder stop em ef ye'd take a holt. Abner 'l hear
+ter ye, an all on em would. I don' see's nobody else in taown kin dew
+nothin. Ezry an me wuz a talkin baout ye overt' the mill, an Ezry says,
+'Le's gwover ter see him.' I says, 'Git right inter my cart, an we'll
+go,' an so here we be.”
+
+“I can't very well mix in, you see,” replied Perez, “for I'm going to
+leave town for good the first of the week.”
+
+“Whar be ye goin?”
+
+“I'm going to take father and mother and Reuben over the York line, to
+New Lebanon, and then I'm going on to the Chenango purchase to clear a
+farm and settle with them.”
+
+“Sho! I wanter know,” exclaimed Israel, scratching his head. “Wal, I
+swow,” he added, thoughtfully, “I don't blame ye a mite, arter all. This
+ere state o' Massachusetts Bay, ain't no place fer a poor man, sence the
+war, an ye'll find lots o' Stockbridge folks outter Chenango. They's a
+lot moved out thar.”
+
+“Ef I war ten year younger I'd go long with ye,” said Ezra, “darned ef I
+wouldn't. I callate thar muss be a right good chance fer a gristmill out
+thar.”
+
+“Wal, Ezry,” said Israel, after a pause, “I don' see but wat we've hed
+our trouble fer nothin, an I declar I dunno wat's gonter be did. The
+silk stockins be a tryin tew fetch back the ole times, an the people
+be a raisin Cain, an wat's a gonter come on't Goramity on'y knows. Come
+'long, Ezry,” and the two old men went sorrowfully away.
+
+It seems that Israel and Ezra were not the only persons in Stockbridge
+whose minds turned to Perez as the only available force which could
+restrain the mob, and end the reign of lawlessness in the village.
+Scarcely had those worthies departed when Dr. Partridge rode around into
+the back yard and approached the young man.
+
+“I come to you,” he said, without any preliminary beating about the
+bush, “as the recognized leader of the people in this insurrection, to
+demand of you, as an honest fellow, that you do something to stop the
+outrages of your gang.”
+
+“If I was their leader the other day, I am so no longer,” replied Perez,
+coldly. “They are not my followers. It is none of my business what they
+do.”
+
+“Yes, it is,” said Dr. Partridge, sharply. “You can't throw off the
+responsibility that way. But for you, the rebellion here in Stockbridge
+would never have gained headway. You can't drop the business now and
+wash your hands of it.”
+
+“I don't care to wash my hands of it,” replied Perez, sternly. “I don't
+know what the men have done of late for I have stayed at home, but no
+doubt the men who suffer from their doings, deserve it all, and more
+too. Even if I were to stay in Stockbridge, I see no reason why I should
+interfere. The people have a right to avenge their wrongs. But I am
+going away the coming week. My only concern in the rebellion was the
+release of my brother, and now I propose to take him and my father and
+mother out of this accursed Commonwealth, and leave you whose oppression
+and cruelties have provoked the rebellion, to deal with it.”
+
+“Do you consider that an honorable course, Captain Hamlin?” The young
+man's face flushed, and he answered angrily:
+
+“Shall I stay here to protect men who the moment they are able will
+throw my brother into jail and send me to the gallows? Have you, sir,
+the assurance to tell me that is my duty?”
+
+The doctor for a moment found it difficult to reply to this, and Perez
+went on, with increasing bitterness:
+
+“You have sown the wind, you are reaping the whirlwind. Why should I
+interfere? You have had no pity on the poor, why should they have pity
+on you? Instead of having the face to ask me to stay here and protect
+you, rather be thankful that I am willing to go and leave unavenged the
+wrongs which my father's family has suffered at your hands. Be careful
+how you hinder my going.” The doctor, apparently inferring from the
+bitter tone of the young man, and the hard, steely gleam in his blue
+eyes, that perhaps there was something to be considered in his last
+words turned his horse's head, without a word, and went away like the
+two envoys who had preceded him.
+
+The doctor was disappointed. Without knowing much of Perez, he had
+gained a strong impression from what little he had seen of him, that
+he was of a frank, impulsive temperament, sudden and fierce in quarrel,
+perhaps, but incapable of a brooding revengefulness, and most unlikely
+to cherish continued animosity toward enemies who were at his mercy. And
+as I would not have the reader do the young man injustice in his mind, I
+hasten to say that the doctor's view of his character was not far out
+of the way. The hard complacency with which he just now regarded the
+calamities of the gentlemen of the town, had its origin in the constant
+and bitter brooding of the week past over Desire's treatment of him. The
+sense of being looked down on by her, as a fine lady, and his respectful
+passion despised, had been teaching him the past few days a bitterness
+of caste jealousy, which had never before been known to his genial
+temper. He was trying to forget his love for her, in hatred for her
+class. He was getting to feel toward the silk stockings a little as Paul
+Hubbard did.
+
+Probably one of this generation of New Englanders, who could have been
+placed in Stockbridge the day following, would have deemed it a very
+quiet Sabbath indeed. But what, by our lax modern standards seem
+very venial sins of Sabbath-breaking, if indeed any such sins be now
+recognized at all, to that generation were heinous and heaven-daring.
+The conduct of certain reckless individuals that Sabbath, did more to
+shock the public mind than perhaps anything that had hitherto occurred
+in the course of the revolt. For instance, divers young men were
+seen openly walking about the streets with their sweethearts during
+meeting-time, laughing and talking in a noisy manner, and evidently bent
+merely on pleasure. It was credibly reported that one man, without any
+attempt at concealment, rode down to Great Barrington to make a visit
+of recreation upon his friends. Several other persons, presumably for
+similar profane purposes, walked out to Lee and Lenox furnaces, to the
+prodigious scandal of the dwellers along those roads. As if this were
+not enough iniquity for one day, there were whispers that Abner Rathbun
+and Meshech Little had gone a fishing. This rumor was not, indeed, fully
+substantiated, but the mere fact that it found circulation and some to
+credit it, is in itself striking evidence of the agitated and abnormal
+condition of the public mind.
+
+Toward sunset, the news reached Stockbridge of yet another rebel victory
+in the lower counties. The Monday preceding, 300 armed farmers had
+marched into the town of Concord, and prevented the sitting of the
+courts of Middlesex county. The weakness of the government was shown by
+the fact that, although ample warning of the intentions of the rebels
+had been given, no opposition to them was attempted. The governor had,
+indeed, at first ordered the militia to arms, but through apprehension
+of their unfaithfulness had subsequently countermanded the order. The
+fact that the rebellion had manifested such strength and boldness within
+a few hours' march of Boston, the capital of the state, was an important
+element in the elation which the tidings produced among the people.
+It showed that the western counties were not alone engaged in the
+insurrection, but that the people all over the state were making common
+cause against the courts and the party that upheld them.
+
+The jubilation produced by this intelligence, combining with the usual
+reaction at sunset after the repression of the day, caused that evening
+a general pandemonium of tin-pans, bonfires, mischief of all sorts,
+and the usual concomitant of unlimited drunkenness. In the midst of
+the uproar, Mrs. Jahleel Woodbridge, Squire Edward's sister, died. The
+violence of the mob was such, however, that Edwards did not dare to
+avail himself of even this excuse for refusing to furnish liquor to the
+crowd.
+
+The funeral took place Tuesday. It was the largest and most imposing
+that had taken place in the village for a long time. The prominence of
+both the families concerned, procured the attendance of all the gentry
+of Southern Berkshire. I employ an English phrase to describe a
+class for which, in our modern democratic New England, there is no
+counterpart. The Stoddards, Littles, and Wendells, of Pittsfield, were
+represented. Colonel Ashley was there from Sheffield, Justices Dwight
+and Whiting from Great Barrington, and Barker from Lanesborough, with
+many more. The carriages, some of them bearing coats of arms upon their
+panels, made a fine array, which, not less than the richly attired dames
+and gentlemen who descended from them, impressed a temporary awe upon
+even the most seditious and democratically inclined of the staring
+populace. The six pall-bearers, adorned with scarves, and mourning
+rings, were Chief Justice Dwight, Colonel Elijah Williams of West
+Stockbridge, the founder and owner of the iron-works there, Dr. Sergeant
+of Stockbridge, Captain Solomon Stoddard, commander of the Stockbridge
+militia, Oliver Wendell of Pittsfield, and Henry W. Dwight of
+Stockbridge, the county treasurer. There were not in Stockbridge alone
+enough families to have furnished six pall-bearers of satisfactory
+social rank. For while all men of liberal education or profession, or
+such as held prominent offices were recognized as gentlemen in sharp
+distinction from the common people, yet the generality of even these
+were looked far down upon by the county families of long pedigree and
+large estate. The Partridges, Dr. Sergeant, the Dwights, the Williamses,
+the Stoddards, and of course his brother-in-law Edwards, were the only
+men in Stockbridge whom Woodbridge regarded as belonging to his own
+caste. Even Theodore Sedgwick, despite his high public offices, he
+affected to consider entitled to social equality chiefly by virtue of
+his having married a Dwight.
+
+After the funeral exercises, Squire Woodbridge managed to whisper a few
+words in the ear of a dozen or so of the gentlemen present, the tenor of
+which, to the great surprise of those addressed, was a request that they
+would call on him that evening after dark, taking care to come alone,
+and attract as little attention as possible. Each one supposed himself
+to have been alone invited, and on being met at the door by Squire
+Woodbridge and ushered into the study, was surprised to find the room
+full of gentlemen. Drs. Partridge and Sergeant and Squire Edwards
+were there, Captain Stoddard, Sheriff Seymour, Tax-collector Williams,
+Solomon Gleason, John Bacon, Esquire, General Pepoon and numerous
+other lawyers, County Treasurer Dwight, Deacon Nash, Ephraim Williams,
+Esquire, Sedgwick's law-partner, Captain Jones, the militia commissary
+of Stockbridge, at whose house the town stock of arms and ammunition was
+stored, and some other gentlemen.
+
+When all had assembled, Woodbridge, having satisfied himself there were
+no spies lurking about the garden, and that the gathering of gentlemen
+had not attracted attention to the house, proceeded to close the blinds
+of the study windows and draw the curtains. He then drew a piece of
+printed paper from his pocket, opened it, and broached the matter in
+hand to the wondering company, as follows:
+
+“The awful suggestions with which the recent visitation of God has
+invested my house for the time being, has enabled us to meet to-night
+without danger that our deliberations will be interrupted, either by the
+curiosity or the violence of the rabble. For this one night, the
+first for many weeks, they have left me in peace, and I deem it is no
+desecration of the beloved memory of my departed companion, that we
+should avail ourselves of so melancholy an opportunity to take counsel
+for the restoration of law and order in this sorely troubled community.
+I have this day received from his excellency, the governor, and the
+honorable council at Boston, a proclamation, directed to all justices,
+sheriffs, jurors, and citizens, authorizing and strictly commanding them
+to suppress, by force of arms, all riotous proceedings, and to apprehend
+the rioters. I have called you privately together, that we might arrange
+for concerted action to these ends.” In a low voice, so that no chance
+listener from without might catch its tenor, the Squire then proceeded
+to read Governor Bowdoin's proclamation, closing with that time-honored
+and impressive formula, “God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
+ Captain Stoddard was first to break the silence which followed the
+reading of the document.
+
+“I, for one, am ready to fight the mob to-morrow, but how are we to go
+about it. There are ten men for the mob to one against it. What can we
+do?”
+
+“How many men in your company could be depended on to fight the mob, if
+it came to blows?” asked Woodbridge.
+
+“I'm afraid not over twenty or thirty. Three-quarters are for the mob.”
+
+“There are a dozen of us here, and I presume at least a score more
+gentlemen in town could be depended on,” said Dr. Partridge.
+
+“But that would give not over three score, and the mob could easily
+muster four times that,” said Gleason.
+
+“They have no leaders, though,” said Bacon. “Such fellows are only
+dangerous when they have leaders. They could not stand before us, for
+methinks we are by this time become desperate men.”
+
+“You forget this Hamlin fellow will stop at nothing, and they will
+follow him,” remarked Seymour.
+
+“He is going to leave town this week, if he be not already gone,” said
+Dr. Partridge.
+
+“What?” exclaimed Woodbridge, almost with consternation.
+
+“He is going away,” repeated the doctor.
+
+“Perhaps it would be expedient to wait till he has gone,” was Gleason's
+prudent suggestion.
+
+“And let the knave escape!” exclaimed Woodbridge, looking fiercely
+at the schoolmaster. “I would not have him get away for ten thousand
+pounds. I have a little reckoning to settle with him. If he is going to
+leave, we must not delay.”
+
+“My advices state that Squire Sedgwick will be home in a few days
+to attend to his cases at the October term of the Supreme Court at
+Barrington. His co-operation would no doubt strengthen our hands,”
+ suggested Ephraim Williams.
+
+If the danger of Hamlin's escape had not been a sufficient motive in
+Woodbridge's mind for hastening matters, the possibility that his rival
+might return in time to share the credit of the undertaking would have
+been. But he merely said, coldly:
+
+“The success of our measures will scarcely depend on the co-operation of
+one man more or less, and seeing that we have broached the business,
+as little time as possible should intervene ere its execution lest some
+whisper get abroad and warn the rabble, for it is clear that it is only
+by a surprise that we can be sure of beating them.”
+
+He then proceeded to lay before them a scheme of action which was at
+once so bold and so prudent that it obtained the immediate and admiring
+approval of all present. Just before dawn, at three o'clock in the
+morning of Thursday, the next day but one, that being the hour at which
+the village was most completely wrapped in repose, the conspirators were
+secretly to rendezvous at Captain Jones' house, and such as had not
+arms and ammunition of their own were there to be supplied from the town
+stock. Issuing thence and dividing into parties the arrest of Hamlin,
+Abner Rathbun, Peleg Bidwell, Israel Goodrich, Meshech Little, and other
+men regarded as leaders of the mob, was to be simultaneously effected.
+Strong guards were then to be posted so that when the village woke up it
+would be to find itself in military possession of the legal authorities.
+The next step would be immediately to bring the prisoners before Justice
+Woodbridge to be tried, the sentences to be summarily carried out at the
+whipping-post on the green, and the prisoners then remanded to custody
+to await the further action of the law before higher tribunals. It might
+be necessary to keep up the military occupation of the village for some
+time, but it was agreed among the gentlemen that the execution of
+the above program would be sufficient to break the spirit of the mob
+entirely. The excesses of the rabble during the past week had, it
+was believed, already done something to produce a reaction of feeling
+against them among their former sympathizers, and there would doubtless
+be plenty of recruits for the party of order as soon as it had shown
+itself the stronger. The intervening day, Wednesday, was to be devoted
+by those present to secretly warning such as were counted on to assist
+in the project. It was estimated that including all the able-bodied
+gentlemen in town as well as some of the people known to be disaffected
+to the mob, about seventy-five sure men could be secured for the work in
+hand.
+
+Now Lu Nimham, the beautiful Indian girl whom Perez had noticed in
+meeting sitting beside Prudence Fennell, had another lover besides Abe
+Konkapot, no other in fact than Abe's own brother Jake. Abe had been
+to the war and Jake had not, and Lu, as might have been expected from
+a girl whose father and brother had fallen at White Plains in the
+Continental uniform, preferred the soldier lover to the other. But not
+so the widow Nimham, her mother, in whose eyes Jake's slightly better
+worldly prospects gave him the advantage. It so happened that soon after
+dusk, Wednesday evening, Abe, drawn by a tender inward stress betook
+himself to the lonely dell in the extreme west part of the village,
+now called Glendale, where the hut of the Nimham family stood. His
+discomfiture was great on finding Jake already comfortably installed in
+the kitchen and basking in Lu's society. He did not linger. The widow
+did not invite him to stop; in fact, not to put too fine a point upon
+it, she intimated that it would be just as well if he were to finish
+his call some other time. Lu indeed threw sundry tender commiserating
+glances in his direction, but her mother watched her like a cat, and
+mothers in those times were a good deal more in the way than they are
+nowadays.
+
+How little do we know what is good for us! As he beat an ignominious
+retreat, pursued by the scornful laughter of his brother, Abe certainly
+had apparent reason to be down on his luck. Nevertheless the fact that
+he was cut out that particular evening proved to be one of the clearest
+streaks of luck that had ever occurred in his career, and a good many
+others besides he had equal reason ere morning dawned to be thankful for
+it. The matter fell out on this wise:
+
+A couple of hours later, a little after nine in fact, the Hamlin
+household was about going to bed. Elnathan and Mrs. Hamlin had already
+retired to the small bedroom opening out of the kitchen. Reuben, George
+Fennell and Perez slept in the kitchen, and Prudence in the loft above.
+The two invalids were already abed, and the girl was just giving the
+last attentions for the night to her father before climbing to her
+pallet. Perez sat at the other end of the great room before the open
+chimney, gazing into the embers of the fire. The family was to start for
+New York the next morning, and as this last night in the old homestead
+was closing in the young man had enough sad matter to occupy his
+thoughts. Her loving cares completed, Prudence came and stood silently
+by his side. Taking note of her friendly presence, after awhile he put
+out his hand without looking up and took hers as it hung by her side.
+He had taken quite a liking to the sweet-tempered little lassie, and had
+felt particularly kindly towards her since her well-meaning, if rather
+inadequate effort to console him that Sunday behind the barn.
+
+“You're a good little girl, Prudy,” he said, “and I know you will take
+good care of your father. You can stay here if you want, you know, after
+we're gone. I don't think Solomon Gleason or the sheriff will trouble
+you. Or you can go to your father's old house. Obadiah says Gleason
+has left it. Obadiah will look after you and do any chores you may want
+about the house. He'll be very glad to. He thinks a good deal of you,
+Obadiah does. I s'pose he'll be wanting you to keep house for him when
+you get a little older,” and he looked cheerily up at her. But evidently
+his little jest had struck her mind amiss. Her eyes were full of tears
+and the childish mouth quivered.
+
+“Why what's the matter Prudy?” he asked in surprise.
+
+“I wish you wouldn't talk so to me, now,” she said, “as if I didn't
+care anything when you're all going away and have been so good to me and
+father. And I don't care about Obadiah either, and you needn't say so.
+He's just a great gumph.”
+
+At this point, the conversation was abruptly broken off by the noise of
+the latchstring being pulled. Both turned. Lu Nimham was standing in the
+doorway, her great black eyes shining in the dusk like those of a deer
+fascinated by the night-hunter's torch. Prudence, with a low exclamation
+of surprise, crossed the room to her, and Lu whispering something drew
+her out. Immediately, however, the white girl reappeared in the doorway,
+her rosy face pale, her eyes dilated, and beckoned to Perez, who in a
+good deal of wonderment at once obeyed the gesture. The two girls were
+standing by a corner of the house, out of earshot from the window of
+Elnathan's bedroom. Both looked very much excited, but the Indian girl
+was smiling as if the stimulus affected her nerves agreeably rather than
+otherwise. Abe Konkapot, looking rather sober, stood near by.
+
+“Oh, what shall we do?” exclaimed Prudence in a terrified half-whisper.
+“She says the militia are coming to take you!”
+
+“What is it all?” demanded Perez of the Indian girl, as he laid his hand
+soothingly on Prudence's shoulder.
+
+“Jake Konkapot, he come see me tonight,” said Lu, still smiling. “Jake
+no like Abe, cause Abe like me too. Jake he ask me if I like Abe any
+more after he git whip on back by constable man. I say no. Indian gal,
+no like marry man what been whip. Jake laugh and say I no marry Abe sure
+nuff, cause Abe git whip to-morrow. He no tell me what he mean till I
+say I give him kiss. Man all like kiss. Jake he says yes, an I give him
+kiss. Ugh! Arter that he say Squire an Deacon Edwards, and Deacon Nash,
+an Cap'n Stoddard an heap more, an Jake he go too, gonter git up arly,
+at tree o'clock to-morrer, with guns; make no noise go roun creepy,
+creepy, creepy.” Here she expressed by pantomime the way a cat
+stealthily approaches its prey, culminating by a sudden clutch on Perez'
+arm that startled him, as she added explosively, “Catch you so, all
+abed, an Abe an Abner an heap more! Then when mornin come they whip
+all on yer to the whippin-post. When Jake go home I wait till mammy go
+sleep, slip out winder an go tell Abe so he no git whip. Then I tink
+come here tell Prudence, for I tink she no like you git whip.”
+
+Perez had listened with an intense interest that lost not a syllable. As
+the girl described the disgrace which his enemies had planned to inflict
+on him, if their plan succeeded, his cheek paled and his lips drew
+tense across his set teeth. As Prudence looked up at him there was a
+suppressed intensity of rage in his face which checked the ejaculations
+upon her lips. There was a silence of several seconds, and then he said
+in a low suppressed voice, hard and unnatural in tone:
+
+“Young woman, I owe you more than if you had saved me from death.” Lu
+smilingly nodded, evidently fully appreciating the point.
+
+“Three o'clock, you said?” muttered Perez presently, half to himself, as
+the others still were silent.
+
+“Tree 'clock, Jake say. Jake an all udder man meet to Cap'n Jones' tree
+'clock to git um guns.”
+
+“It's nine now, six hours. Time enough,” muttered Perez.
+
+“Yes, there's time for you to get away,” said Prudence eagerly. “You
+can get to York State by three o'clock, if you hurry. Oh, don't wait a
+minute. If they should catch you!”
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+“Yes, there's time for me to get away, but there's no time for them, my
+sirs.”
+
+“Abe,” he added, abruptly changing his tone, “you've heard what they're
+going to do? What are you going to do?”
+
+“I tink me go woke up fellers. Heap time, run clean 'way 'fore tree
+'clock,” said the Indian. “Mlishy come tree 'clock, no find us. 'Fraid
+have to leave Abner. Abner heap drunk to-night. No can walk. Too big for
+carry. Heap sorry, but no can help it.”
+
+“But you don't want to leave home, Abe. You don't want to leave Lu here
+for Jake to get.”
+
+Abe shook his head gloomily.
+
+“No use stay,” he said. “If I get whip, Lu no marry me.”
+
+“Abe,” said Perez, stepping up to the disconsolate Indian and clapping
+him sharply on the shoulder, “you were in the army. You're not afraid of
+fighting. We'll stay and beat these fine gentlemen at their own game. By
+three o'clock we'll have every one of them under guard, and, by the Lord
+God of Israel, by noon to-morrow, every man of them shall get ten
+lashes on his bare back with all Stockbridge looking on. We'll see who's
+whipped.”
+
+“Ha! you no run. You stay fight em. What heap more better as run. You,
+great brave, ha! ha!” cried Lu dancing in front of Perez and clapping
+her hands in noiseless ecstasy, while her splendid eyes rested on him
+with an admiration of which Abe might have been excusably jealous.
+
+Her Mohegan blood was on fire at the prospect of a scrimmage, and her
+lover's response, if more laconic, was quite as satisfactory.
+
+“Me no like to run. Me stay fight. Me do what you say.”
+
+“Wait here till I get my sword and pistols. We've plenty of time, but
+none to lose,” and Perez went into the house, followed by Prudence. Mrs.
+Hamlin, with something hastily thrown over her nightdress, had come out
+of her bedroom.
+
+“I heard voices. What is it, Perez?” she said.
+
+“Abe has come to get me to go off on a coon hunt. He thinks he's treed
+several,” replied Perez, strapping on his accoutrements. He had no
+notion of leaving his mother a prey to sleepless anxiety during his
+absence.
+
+“You're not telling me the truth, Perez. Look at Prudence.” The girl's
+face, pale as ashes and her eyes full of fear and excitement, had
+betrayed him, and so he had to tell her in a few words what he was going
+to do. The door stood open. On the threshold, as he was going out, he
+turned his head, and said in confident, ringing tones:
+
+“You needn't be at all afraid. We shall certainly succeed.”
+
+No wonder the breath of the night had inspired him with such confidence.
+It was the night of all nights in the year which a man would choose if
+he were to stake his life and all on the issue of some daring stake,
+assured that then, if ever, he could depend to the uttermost on
+every atom of nerve and muscle in his body. The bare mountain peaks
+overhanging the village were tipped with silver by the moon, and under
+its light the dense forests that clothed their sides, wore the sheen of
+thick and glossy fur. The air was tingling with that electric stimulus
+which characterizes autumn evenings in New England about the time of the
+first frosts. A faint, sweet smell of aromatic smoke from burning pine
+woods somewhere off in the mountains, could barely be detected. The
+intense vitality of the atmosphere communicated itself to the nerves,
+stringing them like steel chords, and setting them vibrating with lust
+for action, reckless, daring emprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH
+
+LEX TALIONIS
+
+
+The plan which Perez had formed for forestalling his adversaries and
+visiting upon their own heads the fate they had prepared for him, was
+very simple. He proposed to go down into the village with Abe and Lu
+and with their assistance, to call up, without waking anybody else, some
+forty or fifty of the most determined fellows of the rebel party. With
+the aid of these, he intended as noiselessly as possible, to enter the
+houses of Woodbridge, Edwards, Deacon Nash, Captain Stoddard and others,
+and arrest them in their beds, simultaneously seizing the town stock of
+muskets and powder, and conveying it to a guarded place, so that when
+the conspirators' party assembled at three o'clock, they might find
+themselves at once without arms or officers, their leaders hostages
+in the hands of the enemy, and their design completely set at naught.
+Thanks to the excesses of the past week or two, there were many more
+than forty men in the village who, knowing that the restoration of law
+and order meant a sharp reckoning for them, would stop at nothing to
+prevent it, and Perez could thus command precisely the sort of followers
+he wanted for his present undertaking.
+
+For generations after, in certain Stockbridge households, the story
+in grandmother's repertoire most eagerly called by the young folks on
+winter evenings, was about how the “Regulators” came for grandpa; how
+at dead of night the heavy tramp of men and the sound of rough voices
+in the rooms below, awoke the children sleeping overhead and froze their
+young blood with fear of Indians; how at last mustering courage, they
+crept downstairs, and peeking into the living-room saw it full of fierce
+men, with green boughs in their hats, the flaring candles gleaming upon
+their muskets and bayonets, and the drawn sword of their captain;
+while in the midst, half-dressed and in his nightcap, grandpa was being
+hustled about.
+
+Leaving these details to the imagination, suffice it to say that Perez'
+plan, clearly-conceived and executed with prompt, relentless vigor, was
+perfectly successful, and so noiselessly carried out, that excepting
+those families whose heads were arrested by the soldiers, the village
+as a whole, had no suspicion that anything in particular was going on,
+until waking up the next morning, the people found squads of armed men
+on guard at the street corners, and sentinels pacing up and down before
+the Fennell house, that building left vacant by Gleason's ejection,
+having been selected by Perez for the storage of his prisoners and the
+stores he had confiscated. As the people ran together on the green, to
+learn the reason of these strange appearances, and the story passed
+from lip to lip what had been the plot against their newly-acquired
+liberties, and the persons of their leaders, and by what a narrow
+chance, and by whose bold action the trouble had been averted, the
+sensation was prodigious. The tendency of public opinion which had been
+inclining to sympathize a little with the abuse the silk stockings had
+been undergoing the past week, was instantly reversed, now that the so
+near success of their plot once more made them objects of terror. The
+exasperation was far more general and profound than had been excited by
+the previous attempt to restore the old order of things, in the case of
+the sale of David Joy's house. This was more serious business. Every man
+who had been connected with the rebellion, felt in imagination the lash
+on his back, and white faces were plenty among the stoutest of them. And
+what they felt for themselves, you may be sure their wives and children
+and friends felt for them, with even greater intensity. As now and
+then the wife or child of one of the prisoners in the guard house, with
+anxious face, timidly passed through the throng, on the way to make
+inquiries concerning the welfare of the husband or father, black looks
+and muttered curses followed them, and the rude gibes with which
+the sentinels responded to their anxious, tearful questionings, were
+received with hoarse laughter by the crowd.
+
+As Perez, coming forth for some purpose, appeared at the door of the
+Fennell house, there was a great shout of acclamation, the popular
+ratification of the night's work. But an even more convincing
+demonstration of approval awaited him. As he began to make his way
+through the throng, Submit Goodrich, Old Israel's buxom, black-eyed
+daughter, confronted him, saying:
+
+“My old daddy'd a been in the stocks by this time if it hadn't been for
+you, so there,” and throwing her arms around his neck she gave him a
+resounding smack on the lips. Meshech Little's wife followed suit, and
+then Peleg Bidwell's and a lot of other women of the people, amid the
+uproarious plaudits of the crowd, which became deafening as Resignation
+Ann Poor, Zadkiel's wife, elbowed her way through the pack and clasping
+the helpless Perez against her bony breast in a genuine bear's hug, gave
+him a kiss like a file.
+
+“Well, I never,” ejaculated Prudence Fennell, who was bringing some
+breakfast to Perez, and had observed all this kissing with a rather sour
+expression.
+
+Unluckily for her, Submit overheard the words.
+
+“You never, didn't you? an livin in the same haouse long with him too?
+Wal it's time you did,” she exclaimed loudly, and seizing the struggling
+girl she thrust her before Perez, holding down her hands so that she
+could not cover her furiously blushing face, and amid the boisterous
+laughter of the bystanders she was kissed also, a proceeding which
+evidently pleased Obadiah Weeks, who stood near, as little as the other
+part had pleased Prudence. As Submit released her and she rushed away,
+Obadiah followed her.
+
+“Haow'd ye like it?” he said, with a sickly grin of jealous irony. “I
+see ye didn' cover yer face very tight, he! he! Took keer to leave a
+hole, he! he!”
+
+The girl turned on him like a flash and gave him a resounding slap on
+the cheek.
+
+“Take that, you great gumph!” she exclaimed.
+
+“Wha'd ye wanter hit a feller fer?” whined Obadiah, rubbing the smitten
+locality. “Gol darn it, I hain't done nothin to ye. Ye didn' slap him
+wen he kissed ye, darn him. Guess t'ain't the fuss time he's done it,
+nuther.”
+
+Prudence turned her back to him and walked off, but Obadiah, his
+bashfulness for the moment quite forgotten in his jealous rage, followed
+her long enough to add:
+
+“Oh ye needn' think I hain't seen ye settin yer cap fer him all 'long,
+an he ole nuff tew be yer dad. S'pose ye thort ye'd git him, bein in the
+same haouse long with him, but ye hain't made aout. He's goin tew York
+an he don' keer no more baout yew nor the dirt unner his feet. He ez
+good's tole me so.”
+
+“Thar comes Abner Rathbun,” said some one in the group around Perez.
+With heavy eyes, testifying to his debauch over night, and a generally
+crestfallen appearance, the giant was approaching from the tavern, where
+he had presumably been bracing up with a little morning flip.
+
+“A nice sorter man you be Abner, fer yer neighbors to be a trustin ter
+look aout fer things,” said an old farmer, sarcastically.
+
+“Ef 't hadn't been fer Cap'n Hamlin thar, the constable would 'a waked
+ye up this mornin with the eend of a gad,” said another.
+
+“You'll have to take in your horns a little, after this, Abner. It won't
+do to be putting on any more airs,” remarked a third.
+
+“Go ahead,” said Abner, ruefully, “I hain't got nothin ter say. Ye kin
+sass me all ye wanter. Every one on ye kin take yer hack at me. I'm
+kinder sorry thar ain't any on ye big nuff ter kick me, fer I orter be
+kicked.”
+
+“Never mind, Abner,” said Perez, pitying his humiliated condition.
+“Anybody may get too much flip now and then. We missed you, but we
+managed to get through with the job all right.”
+
+“Cap'n,” said Abner, “I was bleeged ter ye w'en ye pulled them two
+Britshers or'fer me tew Stillwater, but that ain't a sarcumstance to
+the way I be bleeged to ye this mornin, fer it's all your doins, and no
+thanks ter me, that I ain't gittin ten lashes this very minute, with all
+the women a snickerin at the size o' my back. I hev been kinder cocky,
+an I hev put on some airs, ez these fellers says, fer I callated ye'd
+kinder washed yer hands o' this business, an leff me tew be capin, but
+arter this ye'll fine Abner Rathbun knows his place.”
+
+“You were quite right about it, Abner. I have washed my hands of the
+business. I am going to take my folks out to York State. I meant to
+start this morning. If the silk stockings had waited till to-night they
+wouldn't have found me in their way.”
+
+“I callate twuz Providenshil they did'n wait, fer we'd 'a been gone
+suckers sure ez ye hedn't been on hand to dew wat ye did,” said one of
+the men. “Thar ain't another man in town ez could a did it, or would
+dast try.”
+
+“But ye ain't callatin ter go arter this be ye, Perez?” said Abner.
+
+“This makes no difference. I expect to get off to-morrow,” replied
+Perez.
+
+“Ye shan't go, not ef I hold ye,” cried Mrs. Poor, edging up to him as
+if about to secure his person on the spot.
+
+“Ef ye go the res' on us mout 's well go with ye, fer the silk stockins
+'ll hev it all ther own way then,” remarked a farmer, gloomily.
+
+“I don't think the silk stockings will try any more tricks right off,”
+ said Perez, grimly. “I propose to give em a lesson this morning, which
+they'll be likely to remember for one while.”
+
+“What be ye a gonter dew to em?” asked Abner, eagerly.
+
+“Well,” said Perez, deliberately, as every eye rested on him. “You see
+they had set their minds on havin some whipping done this morning, and
+I don't propose to have em disappointed. I'm going to do to them as they
+would have done to us. The whipping will come off as soon as Abe can
+find Little Pete to handle the gad. I sent him off some time ago. I don'
+see what's keeping him.”
+
+His manner was as quiet and matter-of-course as if he were proposing the
+most ordinary sort of forenoon occupation, and when he finished speaking
+he walked away without so much as a glance around to see how the people
+took it. It was nevertheless quite worth observing, the fascinated stare
+with which they looked after him, and then turned to fix on each other.
+It was Abner who, after several moments of dead silence, said in an awed
+voice, like a loud whisper:
+
+“He's a gonter whip em.” And Obadiah almost devoutly murmured, “By
+Gosh!”
+
+The men who stood around, were intensely angry with the prisoners, for
+their plot to arrest and whip them, but the idea of retaliating in kind,
+by whipping the prisoners themselves, had not for an instant occurred
+to the boldest. The prisoners were gentlemen, and the idea of whipping
+a gentleman just as if he were one of themselves, was something the most
+lawless of them had never entertained. Education, precedent, and innate
+caste sentiment had alike precluded the idea. But after the first
+sensation of bewilderment had passed, it was evident that the shock
+which the popular mind had received from Perez' words, was not wholly
+disagreeable, but rather suggestive of a certain shuddering delight.
+The introspective gleam which shone in everybody's eye, betrayed the
+half-scared pleasure with which each in his own mind was turning over
+the daring imagination.
+
+“Wy not, arter all?” said Meshech Little, hesitatingly, as if his logic
+didn't convince himself. “They wuz gonter lick us. They'd a had us
+licked by this time. It's tit for tat.”
+
+“I s'pose Goramity made our backs as well as theirn,” observed Abner.
+“The on'y odds is in the kind o' coats we wears. Ourn ain't so fine ez
+theirn, but it's the back an not the coat that gits licked. Arter Pete
+has tuk orf ther coats thar won't be no odds.”
+
+The chuckle with which this was received, showed how fast the people
+were yielding to the awful charm of the thought.
+
+“Dew yew s'pose Cap'n really dass dew it?” asked Obadiah.
+
+“Dew it? Yes he'll dew it, you better b'lieve. Did yer see the set of
+his jaw w'en he wuz talkin so quiet-like baout lickin em? I wuz in the
+army with Perez, an I know his ways. W'en he sets his jaw that air way
+I don' keer to git in his way, big ez I be. He'll dew it ef he doos it
+with his own hands. He's pison proud, Perez is, an I guess the idee they
+wuz callatin tew hev him licked, hez kinder riled him.”
+
+As the people talked, their hearts began to burn. The more they thought
+of it, the more the idea fascinated them. Jests and hilarious comments,
+which betrayed a temper of delighted expectancy, soon began to be
+bandied about.
+
+In ten minutes more, this very crowd which had received in shocked
+silence the first suggestion of whipping the gentlemen, had so set their
+fancy on that diversion that it would have been hard balking them.
+It must be remembered that this was a hundred years ago. The weekly
+spectacle of the cruel punishment of the lash, and the scarcely less
+painful and disgraceful infliction of the stocks and the pillory left
+in their minds no possibility for any revolt of mere humane sentiment
+against the proposed doings, such as a modern assembly would experience.
+To men and women who had learned from childhood to find a certain
+brutish titillation in beholding the public humiliation and physical
+anguish of their acquaintances and fellow-townsmen, the prospect of
+seeing the scourge actually applied to the backs of envied and hated
+social superiors, could not be otherwise than delightfully agitating.
+
+Nor were there lacking supplies of Dutch courage for the timid. Among
+the town stores seized and conveyed to the Fennell house the night
+before, had been several casks of rum. One of these had been secretly
+sequestrated by some of the men and hidden in a neighboring barn. The
+secret of its whereabouts had been, in drunken confidence, conveyed from
+one man to another, with the consequence that pretty much all the men
+were rapidly getting drunk. Shortly after Perez had communicated his
+intention to the people, Paul Hubbard, with thirty or forty of the
+iron-workers, armed with bludgeons, arrived from West Stockbridge. Some
+rumor of the doings of the previous night had reached there, and he had
+hastily rallied his myrmidons and come down, not knowing but there might
+be some fighting to be done.
+
+“Paul 'll be nigh tickled to death to hear of the whippin,” said Abner,
+seeing him coming. “If he had his way he'd skin the silk stockins, an
+make whips out o' their own hides to whip em with. He don't seem to love
+em somehow 'nuther, wuth a darn.” Nor was Paul's satisfaction at the
+news any less than Abner had anticipated. Presently he burst into the
+room in the Fennell house, which Perez had appropriated as a sort of
+headquarters, and wrung his rather indifferent hand with an almost
+tremulous delight.
+
+“Bully for you, Hamlin, bully for you, by the Lord I didn't s'pose you
+had the mettle to do it. Little Pete is just the man for the business,
+but if he don't come, you can have one of my Welshmen. I s'pose most of
+the Stockbridge men wouldn't quite dare, but just wait till after the
+whipping. They won't be afraid of the bigwigs any longer. That'll break
+the charm. Little Pete's whip will do more to make us free and equal
+than all the swords and guns in Berkhire.” And Hubbard went out
+exultant.
+
+As he was leaving, he met no less an one than Parson West coming in, and
+wearing rather a discomfited countenance. The parson had been used, as
+parsons were in those days, to a good deal of deference from his flock,
+and the lowering looks and covered heads of the crowd about the door
+were disagreeable novelties. No institution in the New England of
+that day was, in fact, more strictly aristocratic than the pulpit. Its
+affiliations were wholly with the governing and wealthy classes, and its
+tone with the common people as arrogant and domineering as that of
+the magistracy itself. And though Parson West was personally a man of
+unusual affability toward the poor and lowly, it was impossible in
+a time like this that one of his class should not be regarded with
+suspicion and aversion by the popular party.
+
+“I would have word with your captain,” he said to the sentinel at the
+door.
+
+“He's in thar,” said the soldier, pointing to the door of the
+headquarters' room. Perez, who was walking to and fro, turned at the
+opening door and respectfully greeted the parson.
+
+“Are you the captain of the armed band without?”
+
+“I am.”
+
+“You have certain gentlemen in confinement, I have heard. I came to see
+you on account of an extraordinary report that you had threatened to
+inflict a disgraceful public chastisement upon their persons. No doubt
+the report is erroneous. You surely could not contemplate so cruel and
+scandalous a proceeding?”
+
+“The report is entirely true, reverend sir. I am but waiting for a
+certain Hessian drummer who will wield the lash.”
+
+“But man,” exclaimed the parson, “you have forgotten that these are the
+first men in the county. They are gentlemen of distinguished birth and
+official station. You would not whip them like common offenders. It is
+impossible. You are beside yourself. Such a thing was never heard of. It
+is most criminal, most wicked. As a minister of the gospel I protest! I
+forbid such a thing,” and the little parson fairly choked with righteous
+indignation.
+
+“These men, if they had succeeded in their plan last night, would have
+whipped me, and a score of others to-day. Would you have protested
+against that?”
+
+“That is different. They would have proceeded against you as criminals,
+according to law.”
+
+“No doubt they would have proceeded according to law,” replied Perez,
+with a bitter sneer. “They have been proceeding according to law for
+the past six years here in Berkshire, and that's why the people are in
+rebellion. I'm no lawyer, but I know that Perez Hamlin is as good as
+Jahleel Woodbridge, whatever the parson may think, and what he would
+have done to me, shall be done to him.”
+
+“That is not the rule of the gospel,” said the minister, taking another
+tack. “Christ said if any man smite you on the right cheek, turn to him
+the other also.”
+
+“If that is your counsel, take it to those who are likely to need it.
+I am going to do the smiting this time, and it's their time to do the
+turning. They need not trouble themselves, however. Pete will see that
+they get it on both sides.”
+
+“And now sir,” he added, “if you would like to see the prisoners to
+prepare them for what's coming, you are welcome to,” and opening the
+door of the room he told the sentinel in the corridor to let the
+parson into the guard room, and the silenced and horrified man of God
+mechanically acting upon the hint went out and left him alone.
+
+The imagination of the reader will readily depict the state of mind
+in which the families of the arrested gentlemen were left after the
+midnight visit of Perez' band. That there was no more sleep in those
+households that night will be easily understood. In the Edwards family
+the long hours till morning passed in praying and weeping by Mrs.
+Edwards and Desire, and the younger children. They scarcely dared to
+doubt that the husband and father was destined to violence or death
+at the hands of these bloody and cruel men. At dawn Jonathan, who, on
+trying to follow his father when first arrested, had been driven back
+with blows, went out again, and the tidings which he brought back,
+that the prisoners were confined in the Fennell house and as yet had
+undergone no abuse, somewhat restored their agitated spirits. An hour or
+two later the boy came tearing into the house, with white face, clenched
+fists and blazing eyes.
+
+“What is it?” cried his mother and sister, half scared to death at his
+looks.
+
+“They're going,”--Jonathan choked.
+
+“They're going to have father whipped,” he finally made out to
+articulate.
+
+“Whipped!” echoed Desire, faintly and uncomprehendingly.
+
+“Yes!” cried the boy hoarsely, “like any vagabond, stripped and whipped
+at the whipping-post.”
+
+“What do you mean?” said Mrs. Edwards, as she took Jonathan by the
+shoulder.
+
+“They're going to whip father, and uncle, and all the others,” he
+repeated, beginning to whimper, stout boy as he was.
+
+“Whip father? You're crazy, Jonathan, you didn't hear right. They'd
+never dare! It can't be! Run and find out,” cried Desire, wildly.
+
+“There ain't any use. I heard the Hamlin fellow say so himself. They're
+going to do it. They said it's no worse than whipping one of them, as if
+they were gentlemen,” blubbered Jonathan.
+
+“Oh no! no! They can't, they won't,” cried the girl in an anguished
+voice, her eyes glazed with tears as she looked appealingly from
+Jonathan to her mother, in whose faces there was little enough to
+reassure her.
+
+“Don't, mother, you hurt,” said Jonathan, trying to twist away from
+the clasp which his mother had retained upon his arm, unconsciously
+tightening it till it was like a vise.
+
+“Whip my husband!” said she, slowly, in a hollow tone. “Whip him!” she
+repeated. “Such a thing was never heard of. There must be some mistake.”
+
+“There must be. There must be,” exclaimed Desire again. “It can never
+be. They are not so wicked. That Hamlin fellow is bad enough, but oh he
+isn't bad enough for that. They would not dare. God would not permit it.
+Some one will stop them.”
+
+“There is no one to stop them. The people are all against us. They are
+glad of it. They are laughing. Oh! how I hate them. Why don't God kill
+them?” and with a prolonged, inarticulate roar of impotent grief and
+indignation, the boy threw himself flat on the floor, and burying his
+face in his arms sobbed and rolled, and rolled and sobbed, like one in a
+fit.
+
+“I will go and have speech with this Son of Belial, Hamlin. It may be
+the Lord will give me strength to prevail with him,” said Mrs. Edwards.
+“And if not, they shall not put me from my husband. I will bear the
+stripes with him, that he may never be ashamed before the wife of his
+bosom,” and with a calm and self-controlled demeanor, she bestirred
+herself to make ready to go out.
+
+“Let me go mother,” said Desire, half hesitatingly.
+
+“It is not your place my child. I am his wife,” replied Mrs. Edwards.
+
+“Yes mother, but Desire's so pretty, and this Hamlin fellow stopped the
+horse-fiddles just to please her, the other time,” whimpered Jonathan.
+“Perhaps he'd let father off if she went. Do let her go mother.”
+
+The allusion to the stopping of the horse-fiddle was Greek to Mrs.
+Edwards, to whose ears the story had never come. But the present was not
+a time for general inquiries. It sufficed that she saw the main point,
+the persuasive power of beauty over mankind.
+
+“It may be that you had better go,” she said. “If you fail I will go
+myself to my husband, and meantime I shall be in prayer, that this cup
+may pass from us.”
+
+Hastily the girl gathered her beautiful disheveled hair into a ribbon
+behind, removed the traces of tears from her wild and terror-stricken
+eyes, and not stopping even for her hat, in her fear that she might be
+too late, left the house and made her way through the throng before the
+Fennell house. At sight of her pallid cheeks and set lips, the ribald
+jeer died on the lips even of the drunken, and the people made way
+for her in silence. It was not that they had ever liked her, or now
+sympathized with her. She had always held herself too daintily aloof
+from speech or contact with them for that, but they guessed her errand,
+and had a certain rude sense of the pathos of such a humiliation for the
+haughty Desire Edwards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEENTH
+
+PEREZ GETS HIS TITLE
+
+
+As Desire entered the headquarters room, which Parson West had barely
+left, Perez was sitting at a table with his back to the door. He turned
+at the noise of her entrance and seeing who it was gave a great start.
+Then he rose slowly to his feet and confronted her. It was the first
+time he had seen her since that Sunday when she cut him dead before all
+the people, coming out of meeting. For a moment the two stood motionless
+gazing at each other. Then she came quickly up to him and laid her hand
+upon his arm. Her dark eyes were full of terrified appeal.
+
+“What are you going to do to my father?” she cried in poignant tones.
+After a pause he repeated stammeringly, as if he had not quite taken in
+the idea.
+
+“Your father?”
+
+“Yes, my father! What are you going to do to him?” she repeated more
+insistently.
+
+His vacant answer had been no affectation. Her beauty, her distress, the
+touch of her hand on his arm, her warm breath on his cheek, her face
+so near to his, left him capable in that moment of but one thought, and
+that was that he loved her wildly, with a love which it had been madness
+for him to think he could ever overcome or forget. But it was not with
+soft and melting emotions, but rather in great bitterness, that he owned
+the mastery of the passion which he had tried so hard to throw off. He
+knew that if she despised him before, she must hate and loathe him now.
+Knowing this it gave him a cruel pleasure to crush her, and to make
+her tears flow, and even while his glowing eyes devoured her face he
+answered her in a hard, relentless voice.
+
+“What am I going to do with your father? I am going to whip him with the
+others.”
+
+She started back, stung into sudden defiance, her eyes flashing, her
+bosom tumultuously heaving.
+
+“You will not! You dare not!”
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and replied coldly:
+
+“If you are so sure of that, why did you come to me?”
+
+“Oh, but you will not! You will not!” she cried again, her terror
+returning with a rush of tears.
+
+Weeping she was even more beautiful than before. But conscious of
+her loathing her beauty only caused him an intolerable ache. In the
+self-despite of an embittered hopeless love he gloated over her despair,
+even while every nerve thrilled with wildering passion. She caught that
+look, at once so passionate and so bitter, and perhaps by her woman's
+instinct interpreting it aright, turned away as in despair, and with her
+head bent in hopeless grief walked slowly across the room, laid her
+hand on the latch and there paused. After a moment she turned her head
+quickly and looked at him, as he stood gazing after her, and
+shuddered perceptibly. Her left hand, which hung at her side, clenched
+convulsively. Then after another moment she removed her hand from the
+latch and came back a few steps toward him and said:
+
+“You kissed me once. Would you like to do it now? You may if you will
+let my father go.”
+
+His gaze, before so glowing, actually dropped in confession before her
+cold, hard eyes, and for a moment it seemed as if such supreme and icy
+indifference had been able quite to chill his ardor. But as he
+lifted his eyes again, and looked upon her, the temptation of so much
+submissive beauty proved too great. He snatched her in his arms and
+covered her lips and cheeks and temples with burning kisses, for one
+alone of which he would have deemed it cheap to give his life if he
+could not have won it otherwise. He kissed her, passive and unresisting
+as a statue, till in very pity he was fain to let her go. Even then she
+did not start away, but standing there before him, pallid, rigid, with
+compressed lips and clenched hands, said faintly:
+
+“You will release my father?” He bowed his head, unable to speak, and
+she went out.
+
+The people whispered to each other as she passed through the crowd, that
+she had failed in her mission, she looked so white and anguish-stricken.
+And when she reached home and throwing herself into a chair, covered her
+face with her hands, her mother said:
+
+“The Lord's will be done. You have failed.”
+
+“No, mother, I have not failed. Father will be released, but I had
+liefer have borne the whipping for him.”
+
+But that was all she said, nor did she tell any one at what price she
+had delivered him.
+
+Desire had scarcely gone when the door opened and Hubbard and Abner came
+in. Perez was sitting staring at the wall in a daze.
+
+“Little Pete's come, and the people want to know when the whipping's
+going to begin. Shall I bring em out?” said Hubbard.
+
+“I've made up my mind that it will be better to have no whipping,”
+ replied Perez, quietly.
+
+“The devil, you have!” exclaimed Hubbard, in high dudgeon.
+
+“I knowd haow 'twoud be w'en I see that air Edwards gal goin in. Ef I'd
+been on guard, she'd never a got in,” said Abner, gloomily.
+
+“Who'd have supposed Hamlin was such a milksop as to mind a girl's
+bawling?” said Hubbard, scornfully.
+
+“The fellers is kinder sot on seein the silk stockins licked, now ye've
+got em inter the noshin on't, an I dunno haow they'll take it ter be
+disappointed,” continued Abner.
+
+There was a shout of many voices from before the house.
+
+“Bring em out! Bring out the silk stockins.”
+
+“Do you hear that?” demanded Hubbard, triumphantly. “I tell you,
+Hamlin,” he went on in a bolder tone, “you can't stop this thing,
+whether you want to, or not, and if you know what's best for you, you
+won't try. I tell you that crowd won't stand any fooling. They're mad,
+and they're drunk, and they're bound to see a silk stocking whipped for
+once in their lives, and by God they shall see it, too, for all you or
+any other man. If you won't order em brought out, I will,” and he went
+out.
+
+Without a word, Perez took his pistols from the table, and followed him,
+and Abner, who seemed irresolute and demoralized, came slowly after. The
+report that Perez, in a sudden whim, now proposed to deprive them of
+the treat he had promised them, had produced on the drunken and excited
+crowd, all the effect which Hubbard had counted on, and as Perez reached
+the front door of the house, a mass of men with brandished clubs and
+muskets, were pressing around it, and the sentinel, hesitating and
+frightened, in another moment would have given way and let them into the
+building. As Perez, a pistol in either hand, appeared on the threshold,
+the crowd recoiled a little.
+
+“Stand back,” he said. “If any one of you tries to enter, I'll blow his
+brains out. The men in here, are my prisoners, not yours. I took them
+when most of you were snoring in bed, and I'll do what I please with
+them. As for Hubbard and these West Stockbridge men, who make so much
+noise, this is none of their business, anyway. If they don't like the
+way we manage here in Stockbridge, let them go home.”
+
+As he finished speaking, Abner shouldered his way by him, from within,
+and stepped out between him and the crowd. Deliberately taking off his
+coat and laying it down, and pitching his hat after it, he drawlingly
+observed:
+
+“Look a here, fellers. I be ez disapp'inted ez any on ye, not ter see
+them fellers licked. But ye see, 'twuz the Cap'n that saved my back, an
+it don't nohow lie in my mouth no more'n doos yourn to call names naow
+he's tuk a noshin tew save theirn. So naow, Cap'n,” he continued, as
+he drew his immense bulk squarely up, “I guess you won't need them
+shooters. I'll break ther necks ez fass ez they come on.”
+
+But they didn't come on. Perez' determined attitude and words,
+especially his appeal to local prejudice, perhaps the most universal and
+virulent of all human instincts, would have of themselves suffered to
+check and divide the onset, and Abner's business-like proposal quite
+ended the demonstration.
+
+A couple of hours later, when the people had largely gone home to
+dinner, the prisoners were quietly set free, and went to their homes
+without attracting special attention. About twilight a carriage
+rolled away from before Squire Woodbridge's door, and took the road
+to Pittsfield. The next day it was known all over the village that
+the Squire had left town, without giving out definitely when he would
+return.
+
+“Squire's kinder obstinit, but arter all he knows w'en he's licked,”
+ observed Abner, which was substantially the view generally taken of the
+magnate's retirement from the field.
+
+That night, Perez set a guard of a dozen men at the Fennell house, to
+secure the town military stores against any possibility of recapture
+by another silk stocking conspiracy, and to still further protect the
+community against any violent enterprise, he organized a regular patrol
+for the night. If any of the disaffected party were desperate enough
+still to cherish the hope of restoring their fortunes by force, it must
+needs have died in their breasts, as looking forth from their bedroom
+windows, that night, they caught the gleam of the moonlight upon
+the bayonet of the passing sentinel. But there was no need of such a
+reminder. Decidedly, the spirit of the court party was broken. Had their
+leaders actually undergone the whipping they had so narrowly escaped,
+they would have scarcely been more impressed with the abject and
+powerless situation in which they were left by the miscarriage of their
+plot. The quasi military occupation of the town, the night after the
+attempted revolution, was indeed welcomed by them and their terrified
+families as some guarantee of order. So entirely had the revolution of
+the past twenty-four hours changed their attitude toward Perez, that
+they now looked on him as their saviour from the mob, and only possible
+protector against indefinite lengths of lawlessness. It was among them,
+rather than among the people, that the knowledge of his intended speedy
+departure for New York, now produced the liveliest apprehensions. And
+the most timid of the popular party were not more relieved than they,
+when the next day it became known that he had declared his resolve to
+give up going west, and remain in Stockbridge for the present.
+
+It would sound much better if I could make out that this abrupt change
+in his plans was on account of concern for the welfare of the community,
+but such was not the case. His motive was wholly selfish. The key to it
+was the discovery that as responsible chief of the mob, holding the
+fate and fortunes of her friends in his power, he had a hold on Desire.
+Unwilling brides were not the most unhappy wives. Yes, even to that
+height had his hopes suddenly risen from the very dust in which they had
+lain quite dead a few hours ago. As the poor ex-captain and farmer
+she had held him afar off in supercilious scoorn; as the chief of the
+insurgents she had come to him in tears and entreaty, had laid her
+hand on his arm, had even given him her lips. With that scene in the
+guardhouse to look back on, what might he not dare to hope.
+
+His fate was in his own hands. Who could foresee the end of the epoch of
+revolution and anarchy upon which the state now seemed entering. These
+were times when the sword carved out fortunes and the soldier might
+command the most brilliant rewards.
+
+No sooner then had he resolved to stay in Stockbridge, than he set about
+strengthening his hold on his followers, and imparting a more regular
+military organization to the insurgent element in the town. The Fennell
+house was adopted as a regular headquarters, and a young hemlock
+tree, by way of rebel standard, planted before the door. Night and day
+patrols, with regular officers of the day, were organized, and about
+a hundred men formed into a company and drilled daily on the green. A
+large proportion of them having served in the revolution, they made a
+very creditable appearance after a little practice. In their hats they
+wore jauntily hemlock plumes, and old Continental uniforms being still
+quite plentiful, with a little swapping and borrowing, enough army coats
+were picked up to clothe pretty much the entire force.
+
+One afternoon, as the drill was going on, a traveling carriage turned in
+from the Boston road, drove across the green in front of the embattled
+line, and turning down toward the Housatonic, stopped before the
+Sedgwick house, and Theodore Sedgwick descended. The next day, as Perez
+was walking along the street, he saw Dr. Partridge, Squire Edwards,
+and a gentleman to him unknown, conversing. As he approached them, the
+doctor said, in the good-humored, yet half-mocking tone characteristic
+of him:
+
+“Squire Sedgwick, let me introduce to you the Duke of Stockbridge,
+Captain Perez Hamlin, to whose gracious protection we of the court
+party, owe our lives and liberties at present.”
+
+Sedgwick scanned Perez with evident curiosity, but merely bowed without
+speaking, and the other passed on. Either somebody overheard the remark,
+or the doctor repeated it elsewhere, for within a day or two it was all
+over town, and henceforth, by general consent, half in jest, half in
+recognition of the aptness of the title under the circumstances, Perez
+was dubbed Duke of Stockbridge, or more briefly referred to as “The
+Duke.”
+
+The conversation which his passing had momentarily interrupted, was a
+very grave one. Sedgwick had passed through Springfield in his carriage
+on the twenty-seventh of September, and reported that he had found the
+town full of armed men. The Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth
+was to have met on the twenty-sixth, but 1200 insurgents, under Captain
+Daniel Shays himself, were on hand to prevent it, and were confronted by
+800 militia under General Shepard, who held the courthouse. The town was
+divided into hostile camps, with regular lines of sentinels. At the time
+Sedgwick had passed through, no actual collision had yet taken place,
+but should the justices persist in their intention to hold court, there
+would certainly be fighting, for it was justly apprehended by Shays
+and his lieutenants that the court intended to proceed against them for
+treason, and they would stop at nothing to prevent that. It was this
+news which Sedgwick was imparting to the two gentlemen.
+
+“We have a big business on our hands,” he said gravely, “a very big and
+a very delicate business. A little bungling will be enough to turn it
+into a civil war, with the chances all against the government.”
+
+“I don't see that the government, as yet, has done anything,” said
+Edwards. “Do they intend to leave everything to the mob?”
+
+“Between us, there is really nothing that can be done just now,”
+ replied Sedgwick. “The passiveness of the government results from their
+knowledge that the militia are not to be depended on. Why, as I passed
+through Springfield, I saw whole companies of militia that had been
+called out by the sheriff to protect the court, march, with drums
+beating, over to the insurgents. No, gentlemen, there is actually
+no force that could be confidently counted on against the mob save a
+regiment or two in Boston. Weakness leaves the government no choice but
+to adopt a policy of conciliation with the rascals, for the present, at
+least. His Excellency has called the Legislature in extra session
+the twenty-sixth, and a number of measures will at once be passed for
+relief. If these do not put an end to the mobs, they will, it is hoped,
+at least so far improve the public temper that a part of the militia
+will be available.
+
+“It is a mysterious Providence, indeed,” he continued, “that our state,
+in the infancy of its independence, is left to undergo so fearful a
+trial. Already there are many of the Tories who wag the head and say
+'Aha, so would we have it,' averring that this insurrection is but the
+first fruits of our liberty, and that the rest will be like unto it.”
+
+“God grant that we may not have erred in throwing off the yoke of
+the King,” said Edwards, gloomily. “I do confess that I have had much
+exercise of mind upon that point during the trials of the past weeks.”
+
+“I beg of you, sir, not to give way to such a frame,” said Sedgwick
+earnestly, “for it is to gentlemen of your degree that the well disposed
+look for guidance and encouragement in these times. And yet I am
+constrained to admit that in Boston at no time in the late war, no, not
+when our fortunes were at the lowest ebb, has there been such gloom as
+now. And verily I could not choose but to share it, but for my belief
+that the convention, which is shortly to sit in Philadelphia to devise
+a more perfect union for the thirteen states, will pave the way for a
+stronger government of the continent, and one that will guarantee us
+not only against foreign invasion but domestic violence and insurrection
+also.”
+
+“We had best separate now,” said Partridge in a low voice. “If the
+populace see but two or three of us having our heads together, they
+straightway imagine that we are plotting against them, and I see those
+fellows yonder are sending black looks this way already.
+
+“I shall do myself the honor,” he added, to Sedgwick, “to call upon you
+at your house for further consultation, since under the pretext of a
+physician's duty, I am allowed by their high mightinesses, the rabble,
+to go about more freely than is prudent for other gentlemen.”
+
+The next day the news from Springfield, which Sedgwick had privately
+brought, reached the village from other sources, together with the
+developments since his passage through the town. It seemed that there
+had indeed been no collision between the militia and the rebel force,
+but it was because the Supreme Court had, after demurring for two days,
+finally yielded to the orders of Captain Shays and adjourned, after
+which the rebels took triumphant possession of the courthouse. The
+elation which the news produced among the people was prodigious. Perez
+doubled the patrols, and even then had to wink at a good many acts of
+lawlessness at the expense of the friends of the courts. Nothing but his
+personal interposition prevented a drunken gang from giving Sedgwick
+a tin-pan serenade. As for Squire Edwards, he was glad to purchase
+immunity at the expense of indiscriminate treating of the crowd.
+
+Whether the Supreme Court would attempt to hold its regular session the
+first week in October, at Great Barrington, was a point on which there
+was a diversity of opinion. Before adjourning at Springfield, it had
+indeed passed resolutions that it would not be expedient to go to
+Berkshire, but it was loudly declared by many that this was a mere trick
+to put the people off their guard, and prevent their assembling in arms
+to stop the proceedings. Accordingly, when the time came, although the
+justices did not put in an appearance, a mob of several hundred men did,
+and a very ugly mob it turned out to be, in fact the worst hitherto in
+the entire course of the insurrection. Finding no court to stop, and
+the empty jail affording no opportunity for another jail delivery, the
+crowd, after loafing around town for a while and getting thirsty, began
+to break into houses to get liquor. A beginning once made, this was
+found to be such an amusing recreation that it was gone into generally,
+and when liquor could not be found the men contented themselves with
+appropriating other articles. The fun growing fast and furious, they
+next began to hustle and stone prominent citizens known to be friendly
+to the courts, as well as such as objected to having their houses
+entered and gutted. When their victims broke away from them and fled,
+being too drunk to overtake them it was quite natural that they should
+fire their muskets after them, and if the bullets did not generally
+hit their marks it was merely because the hands of the marksmen were
+as unsteady as their legs. Some of the most prominent citizens of Great
+Barrington passed the day hid in outhouses and garrets, while others,
+mounted on fleet steeds, escaped amid a peltering of bullets, and took
+refuge in neighboring towns, some going as far as Pittsfield before they
+halted.
+
+Squire Sedgwick chanced to be at Great Barrington, that day, at the
+house of his brother-in-law, Justice Dwight. As a lawyer, an aristocrat,
+and a member of the detested State Senate, he not only shared the
+general unpopularity of those classes, but as prosecuting attorney for
+the county, was in particularly evil odor with the lewd fellows of the
+baser sort, who were to-day on the rampage. When the uproar was at its
+height, word got around that he was in town, and immediately the mob
+dropped whatever was in hand, and rushed in a body toward Dwight's
+house. As they came in sight of the house a servant was holding
+Sedgwick's gray by the bridle before the gate. Fearing that their prey
+might yet escape them, the crowd burst into a run, brandishing cudgels,
+guns and pitchforks, and yelling, “Kill him,” “Hang him,” “Shoot him.”
+ They were not fifty yards away when Sedgwick came out and deliberately
+mounted his horse. The beast was a good one, and the distance was enough
+to make his rider's escape perfectly secure. But instead of galloping
+off, Sedgwick turned his horse's head toward the onrushing, hooting
+multitude, and rode at a gentle trot directly toward them. It seemed
+like madness, but the effect fully justified the cool daring that had
+prompted the action. With the first forward step of the animal, the
+moment the rider's intention became evident, the mob stopped dead,
+and the uproar of execrations gave place to a silence of perfect
+astonishment, in which you could have heard the swish of a bird's wing.
+As the horse's head touched the line of men, they slunk aside as if they
+knew not what they did, their eyes falling abashed before Sedgwick's
+quiet glance and air, as devoid of a trace of fear as it was of
+ostentatious defiance. The calm, unquestioning assumption that no one
+would presume to stop him, was a moral force which paralyzed the arm of
+the most reckless ruffian in the crowd. And so, checking his horse
+when he would have gone faster, his features as composed as if he were
+sitting in the Senate, and his bearing as cool and matter of course as
+if he were on a promenade, he rode through the mob, and had passed out
+of musket shot by the time the demoralized ruffians had begun to accuse
+each other of cowardice, and each one to explain what he would have done
+if he had been in somebody else's place, or would do again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTIETH
+
+TWO CRITICAL INTERVIEWS
+
+
+The news of the riot at Great Barrington, brought by Sedgwick, excited
+a ferment of terror among the gentlemen's families in Stockbridge. Later
+in the day when the report got around that the mob intended to visit the
+latter place, and treat it in like manner, there was little less than a
+panic. The real facts of the Great Barrington outrages, quite bad
+enough in themselves, had been exaggerated ten-fold by rumor, and it was
+believed that the town was in flames and the streets full of murder and
+rapine. Some already began to barricade their doors, in preparation for
+the worst, while others who had horses and vehicles prepared to convey a
+part at least of their families and goods out of reach of the marauders.
+There were some in Stockbridge who well remembered the alarm, “The
+Indians are coming,” that summer Sunday, when the Schaghticokes came
+down on the infant settlement, one and thirty years before. There
+was scarcely wilder terror then, but one point of difference sadly
+illustrated the distinction between a foreign invasion and a civil
+war. Then all the people were in the same fright, but now the panic
+was confined to the well-to-do families and those conscious of being
+considered friendly to the courts. The poorer people looked on their
+agitation with indifference, while some even jeered at it.
+
+The afternoon wore away, however, and the expected mob failed to make
+its appearance, whereupon the people gradually took heart again. Those
+who had put their furniture into carts unloaded it, and those who had
+buried their silver in their cellars dug it up to use on the tea table.
+Nevertheless, along about dusk, a good many men living in Stockbridge,
+who had been down to Great Barrington all day, came home drunk and
+flushed with victory and these, with the aid of some of the same kidney
+in the village, kept up a lively racket all the evening, varied with
+petty outrages which Perez thought best to ignore, knowing too well the
+precarious tenure of his authority, to endanger it by overstrictness.
+Perhaps, indeed, he was not wholly averse to such occasional displays
+by the mob, as would keep before the gentlemen of the town a
+vivid impression of what would be in store for them if but for his
+guardianship.
+
+It was about eight o'clock in the evening that, coming in sight of the
+store, he saw it besieged by a gang of men, whom Squire Edwards, visible
+against the background of the lighted doorway, was expostulating with.
+The men were drunk and reckless. They wanted rum and were bound to have
+it, and on the other hand the Squire had evidently made up his mind that
+if they got into his store in their present mood, they would be likely
+to plunder him of whatever he had, and drawing valor from desperation,
+was opposing, a resistance which involved no small personal peril. The
+crowd, besides being drunk, was composed of the very men who had grudged
+him his escape from the whipping-post a few days previous, and was by
+no means disposed to stand on ceremony with him. Already he was being
+hustled, his wig had been displaced, and his cane struck out of his
+hand, and in another minute he would have been knocked down and the
+store thronged. The light of a blazing bonfire on the green, threw
+glimmering reflections upon the crowd before the store, and Edwards
+catching sight of Perez' three-cornered hat cried in desperation:
+
+“Captain Hamlin, will you let them kill me?”
+
+In another moment Perez was up on the piazza in full view of the crowd,
+which abashed a little by his presence, for a moment drew back a little.
+
+“What do you want, men? You ought not to break into people's houses! You
+musn't disgrace the hemlock.”
+
+“Tha's all mighty fine, Cap'n,” said Meshech Little, “but we want suthin
+tew drink.”
+
+“Why don't you get it at the tavern?”
+
+“The widder won't treat no more, an she's kinder got Abner bewitched
+like, so's he backs her up, an we can't git nothin thar 'thout fightin
+Abner, darn him.”
+
+“I say Cap'n 'tain't fa'r fer yew ter be a interferin with all our fun,”
+ spoke up another.
+
+“That's so,” said others. “Cap'n,” remarked Meshech, “yew jess let us
+'lone, we hain't a techin yew, an we're baoun tew hev a time ter night.”
+
+Perez knew well enough that to attempt to wholly thwart the intentions
+of this excited and drunken crowd, would be beyond his power, or at
+least involve a bloody riot, and so he replied, good-naturedly:
+
+“That's all right, boys, you shall have your time, but it won't do to
+break into houses. Go over to the guardhouse and tell Abe Konkapot that
+I say you may have a couple of gallons of the town rum we seized the
+other night.” This compromise was tumultuously accepted, the entire
+crowd starting on a run toward the Fennell house, each hoping to get the
+first advantage of the largess.
+
+“Come in, Captain,” said Edwards, and Perez entered.
+
+Mrs. Edwards, Desire and Jonathan were in the store, having hurried
+thither from the inner living-rooms at the noise of the crowd, to share
+if they could not repel, the danger which threatened the head of the
+house. As Jonathan quickly closed and barred the door, Edwards said:
+
+“Wife, I owe my property and perhaps my life, also, to Captain Hamlin.”
+
+Mrs. Edwards dropped a stately curtsey, and said with a grand air which
+made Perez feel as if her acknowledgments were a condescension quite
+dwarfing his performance:
+
+“I truly thank you for your succor.” He mumbled something, he could
+not have said what, and then his eyes sought Desire, who stood a little
+aside. As he met her eye, he found himself blushing with embarrassment
+at thought of their last interview. He had supposed that it would be she
+who would be confused and self-conscious when they met, but it was all
+on his side. She looked cool, dignified and perfectly composed, quite as
+if he were a stock or a stone. He could but wonder if he had remembered
+the incidents correctly. What with Mrs. Edwards' grand air of
+condescending politeness, and Desire's icy composure, he began to
+feel that he needed to get outdoors again, where he could review the
+situation and recover his equanimity. But on his making a movement in
+that direction, Squire Edwards, who had no notion of parting with the
+protection of his presence just at present, insisted that he should
+first go into the parlor, and Mrs. Edwards dutifully and crushingly
+seconding the invitation, he found himself without choice. The education
+of the camp, while it may adapt a man to command other men, does not
+necessarily fit him to shine in the salon. Perez stepped on his toes
+once or twice in passing through the store, and in the parlor doorway,
+to his intense mortification, jostled, heavily against Desire. He
+plumped down in the easiest chair in the room, before being invited to
+sit at all, and changing hastily from that to a stool too small for him,
+at the third attempt settled in a chair of the right size. It was then
+that he remembered to take off his hat, and having crossed and uncrossed
+his legs several times, and tried numerous postures, finally sat bolt
+upright, gripping the lapels of his coat with his hands. As for any
+tender emotions on account of the girl who sat near him, he was scarcely
+conscious of her presence, save as an element of embarrassment.
+
+“I understand that you have served at the south, Captain Hamlin,” said
+Mrs. Edwards.
+
+“Yes, I thank you,” he replied.
+
+“You were with General Green, perhaps?”
+
+“Yes--that is--yes m'am.”
+
+“How is your mother's health?”
+
+“Very well indeed,--that is, when--when she isn't sick. She is generally
+sick.”
+
+“Indeed.”
+
+“Yes, but she's pretty well otherwise. How are you?” this last,
+desperately.
+
+“Oh, thanks, I'm quite well,” Mrs. Edwards replied, with a slight
+elevation of the eyebrows. Somehow he felt that he ought not to have
+asked that, and then he made another desperate resolution to go home.
+
+“I think they'll be looking for me at home,” he said, tentatively rising
+halfway from his chair. “Father isn't well, you see.” He had a vague
+feeling that he could not go unless they formally admitted the adequacy
+of his excuse.
+
+At that moment there came the noise of an axe from the green, with
+shouts.
+
+“What is that?” asked Mrs. Edwards of her husband, who entered from the
+store at that moment.
+
+“The rascals--that is--” he corrected himself with a glance at Perez,
+“the men are chopping down the whippingpost to put on the bonfire.
+You were not thinking of going so soon, Captain Hamlin?” he added with
+evident concern.
+
+“Yes, I think I will go,” said Perez, straightening up and assuming a
+resolute air.
+
+“I beg you will not be so hasty,” said Mrs. Edwards, taking her
+husband's cue, and Perez abjectly sat down again.
+
+“You must partake of my hospitality,” said Edwards. “Jonathan, draw a
+decanter of that old Jamaica. Desire, bring us tumblers.”
+
+The only thought of Perez was that the liquor would, perhaps, brace him
+up a little, and to that end he filled his tumbler well up and did not
+refuse a second invitation. The result answered his expectations. In a
+very few moments he began to feel much more at ease. The incubus upon
+his faculties seemed lifted. His muscles relaxed. He recovered the free
+control of his tongue and his eyes. Whereas he had previously been only
+conscious of Mrs. Edwards, and but vaguely of the room in which they
+were and its other inmates, he now began to look around, and take
+cognizance of persons and things and even found himself complimenting
+his host on the quality of the rum with an ease at which he was
+surprised. He could readily have mustered courage enough now to take
+his leave, but he no longer felt in haste. As I observed above, he had
+heretofore but vaguely taken notice of Desire, as she had sat silently
+near by. Now he became conscious of her. He observed her closely. He had
+never seen her dressed as she was now, in a low-necked, white dress with
+short sleeves. As he was a few moments before, such new revelations
+of her beauty would have daunted him, would have actually added to his
+demoralization, but now he contemplated her with an intense, elated
+complacency. It was easier talking with Mr. Edwards than with Madam,
+and half an hour had passed, when Perez rose and said, this time without
+trying to excuse himself, that he must go. Mrs. Edwards had some time
+before excused herself from the room. Jonathan had also gone. Desire
+bade him good evening, and Squire Edwards led the way into the store to
+show him out. But Perez, after starting to follow him, abruptly turned
+back, and crossing the room to where Desire stood, held out his hand.
+She hesitated, and then put hers in it. He raised it to his lips,
+although she tried to snatch it away, and then, as if the touch had
+maddened him, he audaciously drew her to him and kissed her lips. She
+broke away, shivering and speechless. Then he saw her face crimson to
+the roots of her hair. She had seen her mother standing in the doorway,
+looking at her. But Perez, as he turned and went out through the
+store, did not perceive this. Had he turned to look back, he would have
+witnessed a striking tableau.
+
+Desire had thrown herself into a chair and buried her face in her arms,
+against whose rounded whiteness the crimsoned ear tips and temples
+testified to the shameful glow upon the hidden face while her mother
+stood gazing at her, amazement and indignation pictured on her face. For
+a full half minute she stood thus, and then said:
+
+“My daughter, what does this mean?”
+
+There was no answer, save that, at the voice of her mother, a warm glow
+appeared upon the nape of the girl's neck, and even spread over the
+glistening shoulders, while her form shook with a single convulsive sob.
+
+“Desire, tell me this instant,” exclaimed Mrs. Edwards.
+
+The girl threw up her head and faced her mother, her eyes blazing with
+indignant shame and glistening with tears, which were quite dried up by
+her hot cheeks ere they had run half their course.
+
+“You saw,” she said in a low, hard, fierce tone, “the fellow kissed me.
+He does it when he pleases. I have no one to protect me.”
+
+“Why do you let him? Why didn't you cry out?”
+
+“And let father be whipped, let him be killed! Don't you know why
+I didn't?” cried the girl in a voice hoarse with excitement and
+overwhelming exasperation that the motive of the sacrifice should not be
+understood, even for a moment. She had sprung to her feet and was facing
+her mother.
+
+“Was it for this that he released your father the other day?”
+
+Desire looked at her mother without a word, in a way that was an answer.
+Mrs. Edwards seemed completely overcome, while Desire met her horrified
+gaze with a species of desperate hardihood.
+
+“Yes, it is I,” she said, in a shrill, nervously excited tone. “It is
+your daughter, Desire Edwards, whom this fellow has for a sweetheart.
+Oh, yes. He kisses me where he chooses, and I do not cry out. Isn't it
+fine, ha! ha!” and then her overstrained feelings finding expression in
+a burst of hysterical laughter, she threw herself back into her chair,
+and buried her face in her arms on the table as at first.
+
+“What's the matter? What ails the girl?” said Edwards, coming in from
+the store, and viewing the scene with great surprise.
+
+“The matter?” replied Mrs. Edwards slowly. “The matter is this: as that
+fellow was leaving, and your back was turned, he took our girl here and
+hugged and kissed her, and though she resisted what she could, she did
+not cry out. I stood in that door and saw it with my own eyes. When I
+called her to account for this scandal, she began vehemently to weep,
+and protested that she dared not anger him by outcry, fearing for your
+life if he were offended. And she further hinted that it was not the
+first time he had had the kissing of her. Nay, she as good as said it
+was with kisses that she ransomed you out of his hands the other day.”
+
+Edwards listened with profound interest, but with more evidence of
+curiosity than agitation, and after thinking a few moments, said
+thoughtfully:
+
+“I have marvelled much by what manner of argument she compassed our
+deliverance, after the parson, a man mighty in persuasion and rebuke,
+had wholly failed therein. Verily, the devices of Providence for the
+protection of his saints in troublous times are past understanding. To
+this very intent doubtless, was the gift of comeliness bestowed on the
+maiden, a matter wherefore I have often, in much perplexity, inquired
+of the Lord, seeing that it is a gift that often brings the soul into
+jeopardy through vain thoughts. But now is the matter made plain to my
+eyes.”
+
+It was no light thing in those days for a wife to reproach her lord, but
+Mrs. Edwards' eyes fairly lightened as she demanded with a forced calm:
+
+“Will you, then, give up your daughter to these lewd fellows as Lot
+would have given up his daughters to save his house?”
+
+“Tut! tut!” said Edwards, frowning. “Your speech is unbridled and
+unseemly. I am not worthy to be likened to that holy man of old, for
+whose sake the Lord well nigh saved Sodom, nor am I placed in so sore
+a strait. You spoke of nothing worse than kissing. The girl will not be
+the worse, I trow, for a buss or two. Women are not so mighty tender. So
+long as girls like not the kissing, be sure t'will do them no harm, eh,
+Desire?” and he pinched her arm.
+
+She snatched it away, and rushing across the room, threw herself upon
+the settle, with her face in the cushion.
+
+“Pish!” said her father, peevishly, “she grudges a kiss to save her
+father from disgrace and ruin. It is a sinful, proud wench!”
+
+“Proud!” echoed the girl, raising her tear-stained face from the cushion
+and sitting up. “I was proud, but I'm not any more. All the rabble are
+welcome to kiss me, seeing my father thinks it no matter.”
+
+“Pshaw, child, what a coil about a kiss or two, just because the fellow
+smells a little, maybe, of the barn! Can't you wash your face after?
+Take soap to 't, and save your tears. Bless me! you shall hide in the
+garret after this, but for my part, I shall still treat the fellow
+civilly, for he holds us, as it were, in the hollow of his hand,” and he
+went into the store in a pet.
+
+There was one redeeming feature about the disturbances in Stockbridge.
+The early bedtime habits of the people were too deeply fixed to be
+affected by any political revolution, and however noisy the streets
+might be soon after dusk, by half past nine or ten all was quiet. As
+Perez crossed the green, after leaving the store, the only sound that
+broke the stillness of the night, was the rumble of wheels on the Boston
+road. It was Sedgwick's carriage, bearing him back to the capital, to
+take his seat in the already convened State Senate. If his flying visit
+home had been a failure so far as his law business before the Supreme
+Court was concerned, it had at least enabled him to gain a vivid
+conception of the extent and virulence of the insurrection.
+
+There was really a good deal more than a joke in calling Perez, Duke
+of Stockbridge. The antechamber of the headquarters room, at the
+guardhouse, was often half full of a morning with gentlemen, and those
+of lower degree as well, waiting to see him with requests. Some wanted
+passes, or authority to go out of town, or carry goods away. Others had
+complaints of orchards robbed, property stolen, or other injuries from
+the lawless, with petitions for redress. The varieties of cases in which
+Perez' intervention as the only substitute for law in the village was
+being constantly demanded, it would quite exceed my space to enumerate.
+In addition to this, he had the military affairs of the insurgent
+train-band to order, besides transacting business with the agents of
+neighboring towns, and even with messengers from Shays, who already
+had begun to call on the Berkshire towns for quotas to swell the
+rebel forces, of which a regular military organization was now being
+attempted.
+
+An informal sort of constitutional convention at the tavern had
+committed the general government of the town, pending the present
+troubles, to a Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety,
+consisting of Perez, Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, but the two latter
+practically left everything to Perez. There was not in this improvised
+form of town government, singular as it strikes us, anything very novel
+or startling to the people of the village, accustomed as they were
+all through the war to the discretionary and almost despotic sway
+in internal as well as external affairs, of the town revolutionary
+committees of the same name. These, at first irregular, were
+subsequently recognized alike by the Continental and state authorities,
+and on them the work of carrying the people through the war practically
+and chiefly fell. In Berkshire, indeed, the offices of the revolutionary
+committees had been even more multifarious and extensive than in the
+other counties, for owing to the course of Berkshire in refusing to
+acknowledge the authority of the state government from 1775 to 1780, and
+the consequent suppression of courts during that period, even judicial
+functions had often devolved upon the committees, and suits at law had
+been heard and determined, and the verdicts enforced by them. To the
+town meeting alone did the revolutionary committees hold themselves
+responsible. The effect of the outbreak of the revolutionary war had
+been, indeed, to reduce democracy to its simplest terms. The Continental
+Congress had no power, and only pretended to recommend and advise. The
+state government, by sundering its relations with the crown, lost its
+legal title, and for some time after the war began, and as regards
+Berkshire, until the county voted to accept the new state constitution
+in 1780, its authority was not recognized. During that period it may be
+properly said that, while the Continental Congress advised and the state
+convention recommended, the town meeting was the only body of actual
+legislative powers in the Commonwealth. The reader must excuse this
+brief array of dry historical details, because only by bearing in mind
+that such had been the peculiar political education of the people of
+Berkshire, will it appear fully credible that revolt should so readily
+become organized, and anarchy assume the forms of law and order.
+
+From the extent of his property interests and the popular animosity
+which endangered them, no gentleman in Stockbridge had more necessity to
+keep the right side of Perez Hamlin than Squire Edwards, and it was not
+the storekeeper's fault if he did not. Comparatively few days passed in
+which Perez did not find himself invited to take a glass of something,
+as he passed the store, and without touching the point either of
+servility or hypocrisy Edwards knew how to make himself so affable that
+Perez began actually to think that perhaps he liked him for his own
+sake, and even cherished the wild idea of taking him into confidence
+concerning his passion and hope as to Desire. Had he done so Edwards
+would certainly have found himself in a very awkward predicament.
+Meanwhile, day after day and even week after week passed, and save for
+an occasional glimpse of her passing a window, or the shadow on her
+bedroom curtain with which his long night watches were sometimes
+rewarded, he saw nothing of Desire. She never went on the street, and
+for two Sundays had stayed at home from meeting. He could not muster
+courage to ask Edwards about her, feeling that it must be that she kept
+within doors merely to avoid him. One evening, however, late in October,
+as he was sitting over some rum with the storekeeper, the latter
+remarked, in a casual way, that the doctor had advised that his daughter
+Desire, who had not been well of late, should take a trip to Pittsfield
+for her health, and as if it were something quite casual, asked Perez to
+have the kindness to make out a pass for her to go the next day. As
+the Squire made this request, speaking as if it were a mere matter of
+course, Perez was in the act of raising a glass of liquor to his lips.
+He gave Edwards one glance, very slowly set down the untasted beverage,
+and without a word of reply or of parting salutation, got up and went
+out. The moment he was gone the door connecting the living-rooms with
+the back of the store, softly opened, and Mrs. Edwards and Desire
+entered.
+
+“Did you get it?” asked the latter.
+
+“Get it,” replied Edwards in disgust, “I should think not. He looked at
+me like a wolf when I spoke of it. I had some notion that he would stick
+his hanger through my stomach, but he thought better of that and got
+up and stalked out without so much as winking at me. He's a terrible
+fellow. I doubt if he does not some outrage to us for this.”
+
+“Dear! Dear! What shall I do?” cried Desire, wringing her hands. “I
+must go. I can't stay here, shut up like a prisoner, I shall be sick and
+die.”
+
+“Who knows,” said Mrs. Edwards, “what this ruffian may do next? He will
+stop at nothing. He will not much longer respect our house. He may
+force himself in any day. She is not safe here. I dare not have her stay
+another day.”
+
+“I don't know what can be done, she can't get away without a pass,”
+ replied Edwards. “It would do no good for me to ask him again. Perhaps
+the girl herself might coax a pass out of him. It's the only chance.”
+
+“I coax him! I see him again! Oh I can't, I can't do that,” cried Desire
+with an air of overwhelming repugnance.
+
+“I could leave the door ajar you know, Desire, and be ready to come into
+the room if he were unmannerly,” said her mother. “I think he's rather
+afraid of me. I'm afraid it's the only chance, as your father says, if
+you could but bring yourself to it.”
+
+“Oh it doesn't seem as if I could. It doesn't seem as if I could,” cried
+the girl.
+
+Perez did not come near the store for some days and it was on the street
+that Edwards next met him. The storekeeper was very cordial and made no
+further allusion to the pass. In the course of conversation he managed
+to make some reference to Desire's piano, and the curiosity the people
+seemed to feel about the novel instrument. He asked Perez if he had ever
+seen it, and Perez saying no, invited him to drop in that evening and
+hear Desire play a little. It is needless to say that the young man's
+surprise at the invitation did not prevent his accepting it. It would
+have melted the heart of his worst enemy to have seen how long he toiled
+that afternoon trying to refurbish his threadbare coat so white in the
+seams, and the rueful face with which he contemplated the result. On
+presenting himself at the store soon after dusk, Edwards at once ushered
+him into the parlor, and withdrew, saying that he must see to his
+business.
+
+Desire sat at the piano, no one else being in the room. She looked
+rather pallid and thinner than when he had seen her last, but all the
+more interesting for this delicacy. There was, however, a far more
+striking alteration in her manner, for to his surprise she rose at
+his entrance, and came forward with a smile to greet him. He was
+delightfully bewildered.
+
+“I scarcely know how to greet a Duke, for such I hear you are become,”
+ said Desire with a profound curtsy and a bewitching tone of badinage.
+
+Entirely taken aback, he murmured something inarticulate, about her
+piano.
+
+“Would your grace like to have me play a little?” she asked, gaily.
+
+He intimated that he would, and she at once sat down before the little
+instrument. It was scarcely more to be compared with the magnificent
+machines of our day than the flageolets of Virgil's shepherds with the
+cornet-a-piston of the modern star performer, but Mozart, Haydn, Handel,
+or Beethoven never lived to see a better. It was only about two feet
+across by four and a half in width, with a small square sounding board
+at the end. The almost threadlike wires, strung on a wooden frame, gave
+forth a thin and tinny sound which would instantaneously bring the hands
+of a modern audience to its ears. But to Perez it seemed divine, and
+when, too, Desire opened her mouth and sang, tears of genuine emotion
+filled his eyes. She was more richly dressed than he had ever seen her
+before, wearing a cherry colored silk bodice, low necked, and with bell
+mouthed sleeves reaching to her elbows only, while the rounded white
+arms were set off with coral bracelets, a necklace of the same material
+encircling her throat. Upon one cheek, a little below the outside corner
+of the eye she wore a small black patch, according to a fashion of the
+time, by way of heightening by contrast the delicacy of her complexion.
+The faint perfume with which she had completed her toilet, seemed less
+a perfume than the very breath of her beauty, the voluptuous effluence
+which it exhaled. Having played and sung for some time she let her hands
+drop by her side and raising her eyes to meet Perez' fascinated gaze,
+said lightly:
+
+“Do you like it?” The most exacting performer would have been satisfied
+with the manner in which after a husky attempt to say something in
+reply, he bowed his head in silence.
+
+“I'm glad you came in tonight,” she said, “for I want to ask something
+of you. Since you are Duke of Stockbridge we all have to ask favors of
+you, you see.”
+
+“What is it?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, dear me,” she said, laughing. “That's not the way people ask favors
+of kings and dukes. They make em promise to grant the favor first,
+and then tell em what it is. This is the way,” and with the words she
+dropped lightly on one knee before Perez, and with her clasped hands
+pressed against her bosom, raised her face up toward his, her eyes
+eloquent, of intoxicating submissiveness.
+
+“If thine handmaiden has found grace in the sight of my lord, the duke,
+let my request be done even according to the prayer of my lips.”
+
+Perez leaned forward toward the beautiful upward turning face.
+
+“Whatever you want,” he murmured.
+
+“To the half of my dukedom, you must say.”
+
+“To the half of my dukedom,” he repeated, in a mechanical voice, not
+removing his eyes from hers.
+
+“Do you pledge your honor?” she demanded, still retaining her position.
+
+If he had known that she intended asking him to blow his own brains out
+the next moment, and had expected to keep his promise, he must needs,
+with her kneeling so before him, have answered “yes,” and so he did in
+fact reply.
+
+“Thanks,” she said, rising lightly to her feet, “you make a very good
+duke indeed, and to reward you I shall not ask for anything like half
+your dukedom, but only for a scrap of paper. Here is ink and paper and
+a pen. Please write me a pass to go to Pittsfield. Dr. Partridge says
+I must have change of air, and I don't want to be stopped by your
+soldiers.”
+
+A ghastly pallor overspread his face. “You're not going away,” he
+stammered, rising slowly up.
+
+“To be sure I am. What else should I want of the pass? Come, you're not
+going to make me do all that asking over again. Please sit right down
+again and write it. You know you promised on your word of honor.”
+
+She even put her hand smilingly on his shoulder, as if to push him down,
+and as he yielded to the light but irresistible pressure, she put a pen
+in his nerveless fingers, saying gayly:
+
+“Just your name at the bottom, that's all. Father wrote the rest to
+save you trouble. Now, please.” Powerless against an imperious magnetism
+which would have compelled him to sign his own death-warrant, he
+scrawled the words. As she took up the precious scrap of paper, and hid
+it in her bosom, the door opened, and Mrs. Edwards entered with
+stately formality, and the next moment Perez found himself blunderingly
+answering questions about his mother's state of health, not having the
+faintest idea what he was saying. The next thing he was conscious of was
+the cold frosty air on his face as he walked across the green from the
+store to the guardhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST
+
+THE HUSKING
+
+
+Scarcely had Perez left, when Edwards entered the parlor.
+
+“Did you get it?” he asked of Desire.
+
+“Yes, yes,” cried the girl. “Oh, that horrible, horrible fellow! I am
+sick with shame all through, sick! sick! But if I can only get away out
+of his reach, I shall not mind. Do let Cephas harness the horse into the
+chaise at once. He may change his mind. Oh, hurry, father, do; don't,
+oh, don't lose a minute.”
+
+Half an hour later, Cephas, an old freedman of Edwards, drove the chaise
+up to the side door, and a few bundles having been put into the vehicle,
+Desire herself entered, and was driven hastily away toward Pittsfield.
+
+To go back to Perez, on reaching the guardhouse, coming from the
+store, he went in and sat down in the headquarters room. Presently, Abe
+Konkapot, who was officer of the day, entered and spoke to him. Perez
+making no reply, the Indian spoke again, and then went up to him and
+laid his hand on his shoulder.
+
+“What is it?” said Perez, in a dull voice.
+
+“What matter with you, Cap'n? Me speake tree time. You no say nothin.
+You seek?” Perez looked up at him vacantly.
+
+“He no drunk?” pursued Abe, changing from the second to the third person
+in his mode of speech, as he saw the other paid no attention. “Seem
+like was heap drunk, but no smell rum,” and he scratched his head in
+perplexity. Then he shook Perez' shoulder again. “Say, Cap'n, what ails
+yer?”
+
+“She's going away, Abe. Desire Edwards is going away,” replied Perez,
+looking up at the Indian in a helpless, appealing way.
+
+“You no like have her go, Cap'n? You like better she stay? What for let
+her go then?”
+
+“I gave her a pass, Abe. She was so beautiful I couldn't help it.”
+
+Abe scratched his head.
+
+“If she so preety, me s'pose you keep her all more for that. No let her
+go.”
+
+Perez did not explain this point, but presently said:
+
+“Abe, you may let the men go home, if you want. It's nothing to me any
+more what happens here in Stockbridge. The silk stockings are welcome
+to come and hang me as soon as they please,” and his head dropped on his
+breast like one whose life has suddenly lost its spring and motive.
+
+“Look a here, Cap'n,” said Abe, “you say to me, Abe, stop that air gal,
+fetch her back. Good. Me do it quick. Cap'n feel all right again.”
+
+“I can't, Abe, I can't. I promised. I gave her my word. I can't. I wish
+she had asked me to cut my throat instead,” and he despairingly shook
+his head.
+
+Abe regarded him with evident perplexity for some moments, and then with
+an abrupt nod of the head turned and glided out of the room. Perez,
+in his gloomy preoccupation did not even note his going. His head sunk
+lower on his breast, and he murmured to himself wild words of passion
+and despair.
+
+“If she only knew. If she knew how I loved her. But she would not care.
+She hates me. She will never come back. Oh, no, never. I shall never see
+her again. This is the end. It is the end. How beautiful she was!” and
+he buried his face in his arms on the table and wept miserable tears.
+
+There were voices and noises about and within the guardhouse, but he
+took no note of them. Some one came into the room, but he did not look
+up, and for a moment Desire Edwards, for she it was, in hat and cloak,
+stood looking down on him. Then she said, in a voice whose first accent
+brought him to his feet as if electrified:
+
+“No wonder you hide your head.”
+
+There was a red spot as big as a cherry in either cheek, and her eyes
+scintillated with concentrated scorn and anger. Over her shoulder
+was visible Abe Konkapot's swarthy face, wearing a smile of great
+self-satisfaction.
+
+“I was foolish enough to think even a rebel might keep his word,” Desire
+went on, in a voice trembling with indignation. “I did not suppose even
+you would give me a pass and then send your footpads to stop me.”
+
+It was evident from his dazed look, that he did not follow her words. He
+glanced inquiringly at Abe, who responded with lucid brevity:
+
+“Look a' here, Cap'n, me see you feel heap bad cause gal go away. You
+make fool promise; no can stop her. Me no make promise. Gal come long
+in cart. Show pass. Pass good, but no good for gal to go. Tear up pass;
+fetch gal back. Cap'n no break no promise, cause no stop gal. Abe no
+break promise, cause no make none. Cap'n be leetle mad with Abe for
+tear up pass, but heap more glad for git gal back,” and having thus
+succinctly stated the matter the Indian retired.
+
+“I beg your pardon, Captain Hamlin,” said Desire, with an engaging
+smile. “I was too hasty. I suppose I was angry. I see you were not
+to blame. If you will now please tell your men that I am not to be
+interfered with again, I will make another start for Pittsfield.”
+
+“No, not again,” he replied slowly.
+
+“But you promised me,” she said, with rising apprehension, nervously
+clasping the edge of her cloak with her fingers as she spoke. “You
+promised me on the word of a duke you know,” and she made another feeble
+attempt at a smile.
+
+“I promised you,” replied he, “I don't know why I was so mad. I was
+bewitched. I did not break the promise, but I will not make it again.
+God had pity on me, and brought you back. What have I suffered the last
+hour, and shall I let you go again? Never! never! None shall pluck you
+out of my hand.
+
+“Don't let me terrify you, my darling,” he went on passionately, in a
+softened voice, as she changed countenance and recoiled before him in
+evident fright. “I will not hurt you. I would die sooner than hurt a
+hair of your head.” He tried to take her hand, and then as she snatched
+it away, he caught the hem of her cloak, and kneeling quickly, raised it
+with a gesture of boundless tenderness and reverence, to his lips.
+She had shrunk back to the wall, and looked down on him in wide-eyed,
+speechless terror, evidently no longer thinking of anything but escape.
+
+“Oh, let me go home. Let me go home. I shall scream out if you don't let
+me go,” she cried.
+
+He rose to his feet, walked quickly across the room and back, and then
+having in some measure subdued his agitation, replied:
+
+“Certainly, you shall go home. It is dark; I will go with you,” and they
+walked together across to the store without speaking. Returning, Perez
+met Abe, and taking him by the hand, gave it a tremendous grip, but said
+nothing.
+
+Whatever resentment Squire Edwards cherished against Perez on account
+of Desire's recapture and return, he was far too shrewd to allow it to
+appear. He simply ignored the whole episode and was more affable than
+ever. Whenever he met the young man, he had something pleasant to
+say, and was always inviting him into the store to take a drop when
+he passed. Meanwhile, however, so far as the latter's opportunities of
+seeing or talking with Desire were concerned, she might just as well
+have been in Pittsfield, so strictly did she keep the house. A week or
+ten days passed thus, every day adding fuel to his impatience, and he
+had already begun to entertain plans worthy of a brigand or a kidnapper,
+when circumstances presented an opportunity of which he made shrewd
+profit.
+
+During the Revolutionary war it had been a frequent policy with the
+town authorities to attempt to correct the high and capricious prices
+of goods, always incident to war times, by establishing fixed rates per
+pound, bushel, yard or quart, by which all persons should be compelled
+to sell or barter their merchandise and produce. It had been suggested
+in the Stockbridge Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety
+that the adoption of such a tariff would tend to relieve the present
+distress and promote trade. Ezra Phelps proposed the plan, Israel
+Goodrich was inclined to favor it, and Perez' assent would have settled
+the matter. He, it was, whom Squire Edwards approached with vehement
+protestations. He might well be somewhat agitated, for being the only
+merchant in town, the proposed measure was little more than a personal
+discrimination against his profits, which, it must be admitted, had been
+of late years pretty liberal, thanks to a dearth of money that had made
+it necessary for farmers to barter produce for tools and supplies, at
+rates virtually at the merchant's discretion. If the storekeeper had
+been compelled to trade at the committee's prices for awhile, it would
+perhaps have been little more than a rough sort of justice; but he did
+not take that view. It is said that all is fair in love and war, and
+this was the manner in which Perez proceeded selfishly to avail himself
+of the Squire's emergency. He listened to his protestations with a
+sympathetic rather than a hopeful air, admitting that he himself would
+be inclined to oppose the new policy, but remarking that the farmers and
+some of the committee were so set on it that he doubted his ability to
+balk them. He finally remarked, however, he might possibly do something,
+if Edwards, himself, would meantime take a course calculated to placate
+the insurgents and disarm their resentment. Being rather anxiously
+inquired of by the storekeeper as to what he could consistently do,
+Perez finally suggested that Israel Goodrich was going to have a husking
+in his barn the following night, if the warm weather held; and if Desire
+Edwards should attend, it would not only please the people generally,
+but possibly gain over Israel, a member of the committee. Edwards made
+no reply, and Perez left him to think the matter over, pretty confident
+of the result.
+
+That evening in the family circle, after a gloomy account of the
+disaster threatening to engulf the family fortunes if the proposed
+policy of fixing prices were carried out, Edwards spoke of Hamlin's
+disposition to come to his aid, and his suggestion concerning Desire's
+presence at the husking.
+
+“These huskings are but low bussing-matches,” said Mrs. Edwards with
+much disgust. “Desire has never set a foot in such a place. I suspect it
+is a trick of this fellow to get her in his reach.”
+
+“It may be so,” said her husband, gloomily. “I thought of that myself,
+but what shall we do? Shall we submit to the spoiling of our goods? We
+are fallen upon evil times, and the most we can do is to choose between
+evils.”
+
+Desire, who had sat in stolid silence, now said in much agitation:
+
+“I don't want to go. Please don't make me go, father. I'd rather not.
+I'm afraid of him. Since that last time I'm afraid. I'd rather not.”
+
+“The child is well nigh sick with it all,” said Mrs. Edwards, sitting
+down by her and soothingly drawing the head of the agitated girl to her
+shoulder, which set her to sobbing. It was evident that the constant
+apprehensions of the past several weeks as well as her virtual
+imprisonment within doors, had not only whitened her cheek but affected
+her nervous tone.
+
+Edwards paced to and fro with knitted brow. Finally he said:
+
+“I will by no means constrain your will in this matter, Desire. I do
+not understand all your woman's megrims, but your mother shall not
+again reproach me with willingness to secure protection to my temporal
+interests at the cost of your peace and quiet. You need not go to this
+husking. No doubt I shall be able to bear whatever the Lord sends,” and
+he went out.
+
+Soon after, Desire ceased sobbing and raised her head from her mother's
+shoulder. “Mother,” she said, “did you ever hear of a maiden placed in
+such a case as mine?”
+
+“No, my child. It is a new sort of affliction, and of a strange nature.
+I scarcely have confidence to advise you as to your duty. You had best
+seek the counsel of the Lord in prayer.”
+
+“Methinks in such matters a woman is the best judge,” said the girl
+naively.
+
+“Tut, tut, Desire!”
+
+“Nay, I meant no harm, mother,” and then with a great sigh, she said: “I
+will go. Poor father feels so bad.”
+
+The next evening when, dressed for the husking, she took a last look
+in her mirror she was fairly scared to see how pretty she was. And
+yet despite the dismay and sinking of heart with which she apprehended
+Perez' attentions, she did not brush down the dark ringlets that
+shadowed her temples so bewitchingly, or choose a less becoming ribbon
+for her neck. That is not a woman's way. It was about seven o'clock
+when she and Jonathan, who went as her escort, reached Israel Goodrich's
+great barn, guided thither by the light which streamed from the open
+door.
+
+The husking was already in full blast. A dozen tallow dips, and half
+as many lanterns, consisting of peaked cylinders of tin, with holes
+plentifully punched in their sides for the light of the candle to
+trickle through, illumined the scene. In the middle of the floor was a
+pile of full a hundred bushels of ears of corn in the husk, and close
+around this, their knees well thrust into the mass, sat full two-score
+young men and maidens, for the most part duly paired off, save where
+here and there two or three bashful youths sat together. The young men
+had their coats off, and the round white arms of the girls twinkled
+distractingly as with swift deft motions they freed the shining yellow
+ears from their incasements and tossed them into the baskets. The
+noisy rustling of the dry husks, the chatter and laughter of the merry
+workers, ever and anon swelling into uproarious mirth as some protesting
+maiden redeemed a red ear with a pair of red lips, made altogether a
+merry medley that caused the cows and horses munching their suppers in
+the neighboring stalls to turn and stare in wonder.
+
+Some of the huskers, looking up, caught sight of Desire and Jonathan
+at the door, and by a telegraphic system of whispers and nudges, the
+information was presently carried to Israel Goodrich.
+
+“Glad to see ye. Come right in,” he shouted in a broad, cheery voice.
+“More the merrier's, the sayin is. Glad to see ye. Glad to see ye.
+Look's kinder neighborly.”
+
+As Desire entered the barn, some of the girls rose and curtsied, the
+most merely looking bashful and avoiding her eye, as the rural mode of
+greeting continues to be to this day. Perez was the first person whom
+Desire had seen on entering the barn. Her eyes had been drawn to him by
+a sort of fascination, certainly not a pleasant sort, the result of
+her having thought so much about him. Nor was this fascination without
+another evidence. There was a vacant stool by Perez, and as she passed
+it, and he rose and bowed, she made as if she would seat herself there.
+
+“Don't ye sit thar,” said Israel, “that ain't nothin but a stool. Thar's
+a chair furder along.”
+
+The offer to sit by Perez was almost involuntary on her part, merely a
+sign of her sense of powerlessness against him. She had had the thought
+that he meant to have her sit there, and in her nervously abject mood
+she had not thought of resisting. Her coming to the husking at all
+had been a surrender to his will, and this seemed but an incident and
+consequence of that. At Israel's words she blushed faintly, but not in a
+way to be compared with the red flush that swept over Perez' face.
+
+“Thar,” said Israel, good-humoredly, as she seated herself in the
+promised chair, “naow I guess we'll see the shucks begin to fly.”
+
+“For the land sakes, Miss Edwards, you ain't a gonter go ter shuckin
+with them ere white hands o' yourn,” exclaimed Submit Goodrich. “Lemme
+git yer some mittins, an an apron tew. Deary me, yew mustn't dew the
+fuss thing till yew've got an apron.”
+
+“Guess yew ain't uster huskin, or yew woulden come in yer bes gaown,”
+ said Israel cheerfully.
+
+“Come naow, father,” Submit expostulated, “tain't likely she's got
+nothin poor nuff fer sech doins. Ez if this ere wuz Miss Edwards' bes
+gaown. Yew've got a sight better'n this, hain't yew?”
+
+Desire smiled vaguely. Meanwhile the husking had been pretty much
+suspended, the huskers either staring in vacant, open mouthedness at
+Desire, or communicating whispered comments to each other. And even
+after she had been duly provided with mittens and apron, and begun on
+the corn, the chatter and boisterous merriment which her arrival had
+interrupted, did not at once resume its course. Perhaps in a more modern
+assembly the constraint might have been lasting, but our forefathers did
+not depend so exclusively as we upon capricious and uncompellable
+moods, which, like the winds, blow whence and when they list, for the
+generation of vivacity in social gatherings. For that same end they used
+most commonly a force as certain as steam in its action; an influence
+kept in a jug.
+
+Submit whispered to her father, and the old man merely poured a double
+portion of rum into the cider flip, with which the huskers were being
+regaled, and soon all went prosperously again. For rum in those good old
+days was recognized as equally the accompaniment of toil and recreation,
+and therefore had a double claim to the attention of huskers. From a
+sale of meeting-house pews or an ordination, to a ball or a general
+training, rum was the touch of nature that made the whole world of
+our forefathers kin. And if Desire did but wet her lips with the flip
+to-night, it was because the company rather than the beverage offended
+her taste. For even at risk of alienating the sympathies of my teetotal
+readers, I must refrain from claiming for the maiden a virtue which had
+not then been invented.
+
+The appearance of Uncle Sim's black and smiling countenance, as he
+entered bowing and grinning, his fiddle under his arm, was hailed with
+uproar and caused a prodigious accession of activity among the huskers,
+the completion of whose task would be the signal for the dancing to
+begin. The red ears turned up so rapidly as to suggest the theory that
+some of the youths had stuffed their pockets with a selected lot from
+the domestic corn bin before coming. But though this opinion was loudly
+expressed by the girls, it did not seem to excite that indignation in
+their bosoms which such unblushing duplicity should have aroused. Half
+a dozen lively tussles for kisses were constantly going on in various
+parts of the floor and the uproar was prodigious.
+
+In the midst of the hurly-burly, Desire sat bending over the task of
+which her unused fingers made slow work, replying now and then with
+little forced smiles to Submit's good natured efforts to entertain her,
+and paying no attention to the hilarious confusion around. She looked
+for all the world to Perez like a captive queen among rude barbarian
+conquerors, owing to her very humiliation, a certain touching dignity.
+It repented him that he had been the means of bringing her to the place.
+He could not even take any pleasure in looking at her, because he was so
+angry to see the coarse stares of admiration which the bumpkins around
+fixed on her. Paul Hubbard, who sat opposite him had been particularly
+free with his eyes in that direction, and all the more so after he
+perceived the discomfort it occasioned Perez, toward whom since their
+collision concerning the disposition to be made of the prisoners, he had
+cherished a bitter animosity. The last husks were being stripped off,
+and Sim was already tuning his fiddle, when Hubbard sprang to his feet
+with a red ear in his hand. He threw a mocking glance toward Perez, and
+advanced behind the row of huskers toward Desire. Bending over her lap,
+with downcast face, she did not observe him till he laid his hand on the
+rich kerchief of India silk that covered her shoulders. Looking up and
+catching sight of the dark, malicious face above her, its sensual leer
+interpreted by the red ear brandished before her eyes, she sprang away
+with a gasp. There was not one of the girls in the room who would have
+thought twice about a kiss, or a dozen of them. One of their own number
+who had made a fuss about such a trifle would have been laughed at.
+But somehow they did not feel inclined to laugh at Desire's terror and
+repugnance. They felt that she was different from them, and the least
+squeamish hoyden of the lot experienced a thrill of sympathy, and had
+a sense of something tragic. And yet no one interfered. Hubbard was
+but using his rights according to the ancient rules of the game. A girl
+might defend herself with fists and nails from an unwelcome suitor, but
+no third party could interfere. As Jonathan, who sat some way from his
+sister was about to run to her aid, a stout farmer caught him around the
+waist crying, good naturedly:
+
+“Fair play youngster! fair play! No interferin!”
+
+Perez had sprung up, looking very white, his eyes congested, his fists
+clenched. As Desire threw an agonized look of appeal around the circle,
+she caught sight of him. With a sudden impulse she darted to him crying:
+
+“Oh, keep me from that man.”
+
+“Get out of the way, Hamlin,” said Hubbard, rushing after his prey. “God
+damn you, get out of my way. What do you mean by interfering?”
+
+Perez scarcely looked at him, but he threw a glance around upon the
+others, a glance of appeal, and said in a peculiar voice of suppressed
+emotion:
+
+“For God's sake, some of you take the fellow away, or I shall kill him.”
+
+Instantly Israel Goodrich and half a dozen more had rushed between the
+two. The twitching muscles of Perez' face and that strange tone as of a
+man appealing to be saved from himself, had suddenly roused all around
+from mirthful or curious contemplation of the scene to a perception that
+a terrible tragedy had barely been averted.
+
+Meanwhile the floor was being cleared of the husks and soon the merry
+notes of the fiddle speedily dissipated the sobering influence of the
+recent fracas. Desire danced once with her brother and once with old
+Israel, who positively beamed with pleasure. But Hubbard, who was now
+pretty drunk, followed her about, every now and then taking the red ear
+out of his pocket and shaking it at her, so that between the dances and
+after them, she took care not to be far from Perez, though she pretended
+not to notice her pursuer. As for Perez, he was far enough from taking
+advantage of the situation. Though his eyes followed her everywhere,
+he did not approach her, and seemed very ill at ease and dissatisfied.
+Finally he called Jonathan aside and told him that the last end of a
+husking was often rather uproarious, and Desire perhaps would prefer
+to go home early. He would, himself, see that they reached home without
+molestation. Desire was glad enough to take the hint, and glad enough,
+too, in view of Hubbard's demonstration, to accept the offered escort.
+As the three were on the way home, Perez finally broke the rather
+stiff silence by expressing with evident distress his chagrin at the
+unpleasant events of the evening; and Desire found herself replying
+quite as if she felt for, and wished to lessen, his self-reproach. Then
+they kept silent again till just before the store was reached, when he
+said:
+
+“I see that you do not go out doors at all. I suppose you are afraid
+of me. If that is the reason, I hope you will not stay in after this. I
+give you my word you shall not be annoyed, and I hope you'll believe me.
+Good night.”
+
+“Good night.”
+
+Was it Desire Edwards' voice which so kindly, almost softly, responded
+to his salutations? It was she who, in astonishment, asked herself the
+question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND
+
+BRACE OF PROCLAMATIONS
+
+
+Perez profited by the fact that, however a man may have abused a woman,
+that is all forgotten the moment he protects her against another man,
+perhaps no worse than himself. Ever so little gratitude is fatal to
+resentment, and the instinct of her sex to repay protection with esteem
+is so deep, that it is no wonder Desire found her feelings toward Perez
+oddly revolutionized by that scene at the husking. Try as she might to
+resume her former resentment, terror, and disgust toward the young man,
+the effort always ended in recalling with emotions of the liveliest
+thankfulness how he had stood between her and that hateful fellow, whom
+otherwise she could not have escaped. All that night she was constantly
+dreaming of being pursued by ruffians and rescued by him. And the
+grateful sense of safety and protection which, in her dreams, she
+associated with him, lingered in her mind after she awoke in the
+morning, and refused to be banished. She was half ashamed, she would not
+have had anybody know it, and yet she had to own that after these weeks
+of constant depression and apprehension, the change of mood was not
+wholly disagreeable.
+
+She had quite a debate with herself as to whether it would be consistent
+with her dignity to accept Perez' assurance that she would not be
+annoyed, and go out to walk. Without fully determining the question,
+she concluded to go anyway, and a beginning having been thus made,
+she thereafter resumed her old habit of long daily walks, to the rapid
+improvement of her health and spirits. For some days she did not chance
+to meet Perez at all, and it annoyed the high-spirited girl to find that
+she kept thinking of him, and wondering where she would meet him, and
+what he would say or do, and how she ought to appear. And yet it
+was perfectly natural that such should be the case. Thanks to his
+persecution, he had preoccupied her mind with his personality for so
+long a time that it was impossible the new phase of her relations toward
+him should not strongly affect her fancy. The first time they actually
+did meet, she found herself quite agitated. Her heart beat oddly when
+she saw him coming, and if possible she would have turned aside to avoid
+him. But he merely bowed and passed on with a word of greeting. After
+that he met her oftener, but never presumed to stop--or say more than
+“Good morning,” or “Good afternoon,” the result of which was that, after
+having at first welcomed this formality as a relief, after awhile she
+came to think it a little overstrained. It looked as if he thought that
+she was childishly afraid of him. That seemed absurd. One day, as they
+met, and with his usual courteously curt salutation he was passing by,
+she observed that it was delightful weather. As her eye caught his start
+of surprise, and the expression of almost overpowering pleasure that
+passed over his face at her words, she blushed. She unquestionably
+blushed and hurried on, scarcely waiting for his reply. Some days later,
+as she was taking a favorite walk over a path among the thickets on the
+slope of Laurel Hill, whence the hazy Indian Summer landscape could be
+seen to perfection beneath the thin but wonderfully bland sunshine of
+November, she again met him face to face. Perhaps it was the color in
+her cheeks which reminded him to say:
+
+“You don't look as if you needed to go to Pittsfield for your health
+now.”
+
+“No,” she said, smiling. “When I found I could not go, I concluded I
+would get well here.”
+
+“I suppose you are very angry with me for stopping you that night,
+though it was not I that did it.”
+
+“If I were angry, I should not dare tell you, for fear of bringing down
+your vengeance on me.”
+
+“But are you angry?” he asked anxiously.
+
+“I told you I did not dare say,” she replied, smiling at him with an
+indomitable air.
+
+“Please forgive me for it,” he said, not jestingly or lightly, but in
+deepest earnest, with a look almost of tears in his eyes. She wondered
+she had never before noticed what beautiful blue eyes they were. She
+rather liked the sensation of having him look at her so.
+
+“Won't you stop me if I try to go again?” she demanded, with an
+audacious impulse. But she repented her boldness as the passion leaped
+back into his eyes, and hers fell before it.
+
+“I can't say that,” he said. “God knows I will stop you so long as
+I have power, and when I can no longer stop you, the wheels of your
+carriage shall pass over my body. I will not let you go.”
+
+It was strange that the desperate resolution and the inexorable set of
+his jaws, which, as he had made a similar declaration on the night of
+her recapture, had caused her heart to sink, now produced a sensation of
+rather pleasant excitement. Instead of blanching with fear or revolting
+in defiance, she replied, with a bewitching air of mock terror:
+
+“Dear me, what a terrible fellow!” and, with a toss of the head, went
+on her way, leaving him puzzling his heavy masculine wits over the fact
+that she no longer seemed a particle afraid of him.
+
+The Laurel Hill walk, as I observed before, was an old favorite with
+Desire, and in her present frame of mind it seemed no sufficient reason
+to forsake it, that after this she often met Perez there. It is a
+pleasant excitement, playing with lions or other formidable things.
+Especially when one has long been in terror of them, the newly gained
+sense of fearlessness is highly exhilarating. Desire enjoyed playing
+with her lion, calming and exciting him, making his eyes now half fill
+with tears, and now flash with passion. The romantic novelty of the
+situation, which might have terrified a more timid maiden, began to
+be its most attractive feature to her. Besides, he was really very
+good-looking, come to observe him closely. How foolish it had been of
+her to be so frightened of him at first! The recollection of her former
+terror actually amused her; as if it were not easy enough to manage such
+a fellow. She had not been in such high spirits for a long time. She
+began to think that instead of being a hateful, terrible, revolting
+tragedy, the rebellion was rather jolly, providentially adapted,
+apparently, for the amusement of young ladies doomed to pass the winter
+in dismal country towns. One day her mother, commenting on the fact that
+the patrol and pass system of the insurgents had been somewhat relaxed,
+suggested that Desire might go to Pittsfield. But she said she did not
+care to go now. The fact was she preferred to play with her lion, though
+she did not mention that reason to her mother. When from time to time
+she heard of the fear and apprehension with which the gentlemen's
+families in town regarded Perez, she even owned to being a little
+complacent over the fact that this lawless dictator was her humble
+adorer. She finally went so far as occasionally to ask him as a favor to
+have this or that done about the village. It was such fun to feel that
+through him she could govern the community. One afternoon, being in
+a particularly gracious mood, she took a pink ribbon from her neck,
+knotted it about the hilt of his sword as an ornament.
+
+The hillside path among the laurel thickets where they so often
+chanced to meet, was a lonely spot, beyond the reach of spectators or
+eavesdroppers; but, while their meetings were thus secret, nothing could
+be more discreet than the way she managed them. She kept him so well in
+hand that he did not even dare to speak of the love of which his whole
+manner was eloquent. Since she had ceased to fear him, he had ceased
+to be at all fear-inspiring. The rude lover whose lawless attempts
+had formerly put her in such fear, was now respectful to the point of
+reverence, and almost timid in his fear of offending her. The least
+sign of anything like tenderness on her part sufficed to stir him with a
+passion of humility which in turn touched her more deeply sometimes than
+she would have liked to admit. Now that she had come to see how the poor
+fellow loved her, she could not cherish the least anger with him for
+what he had done to her.
+
+Sometimes she led him on to speak of himself and his present position,
+and he would tell her of his dream and hope, in this present period of
+anarchy to make himself a name. She was somewhat impressed by his
+talk, though she would not tell him so. She had heard enough political
+discussion at her father's and uncle's tables to know that the future
+political constitution and government of the colonies were wholly
+unsettled, and that even a royal and aristocratic form, with Washington,
+or some foreign princeling, at the head, was advocated by many.
+Especially here in Massachusetts, just now, almost anything was
+possible. And so when he said one day, “They call me Duke of Stockbridge
+in jest, but it may be in earnest yet,” she did not laugh, but owned to
+herself that the tall, handsome fellow would look every inch a duke, if
+he only had some better clothes. She did not let him tell her in so many
+words that the motive of his ambition was to win her, but she knew it
+well enough, and the thought did not excite her indignation, though she
+knew it ought to.
+
+The nearest she would let him come to talking love to her, was to talk
+of their childhood and how he had adored her then. Her own remembrance
+of those days of budding girlhood was dim, but he seemed to remember
+everything about her, and she could but be touched as he reminded her of
+scores of little incidents and scenes and words which had quite escaped
+her memory. The doting tenderness which his tone sometimes took on as
+he dwelt on these reminiscences, made her heart beat rather fast, and in
+her embarrassment she had some ado to make light of the subject.
+
+But now Indian Summer, by whose grace the warm weather had been extended
+nearly through November, came abruptly to a close. New England weather
+was as barbarous in its sudden changes then as now. One day was warm and
+pleasant, the next a foot of snow covered the ground and the next after
+that the thermometer, had there been one at that date in Berkshire,
+would have recorded zero. The Sunday before Thanksgiving was bitterly
+cold, “tejus weather” in the farmer's phrase. There was of course no
+stove or other heater in the meeting-house and the temperature within
+differed very slightly from that without, a circumstance aggravated by
+the fact that furs were as yet almost unknown in the wardrobes even
+of the wealthiest of the people. A small tippet of Desire's, sent from
+England, was the only thing of the kind in Stockbridge. Parson West wore
+his gown and bands outside an overcoat and turned his notes with thick
+woolen mittens, now and then giving a brisk rub to his ears. Like so
+many clouds of incense rose the breath of the auditors, as they shivered
+on their hard board seats. The wintry wind blew in gusts through the
+plentifully broken window panes--for glass was as brittle then as now
+and costlier to replace,--and every now and then sifted a whiff of
+snow down the backs of the sitters in the gallery. Fathers and mothers
+essayed to still their little one's chattering teeth by taking them in
+their laps and holding them tight, and where a woman was provided with
+the luxury of a foot-stove or hot-stone, children were squatted round
+it in the bottom of the pew quarreling with each other to get their
+tingling toes upon it. A dreadful sound of coughing rose from the
+audience, mingled with sneezing from such as were now first taking their
+all-winter colds and diversified from time to time by the wail of some
+child too miserable and desperate to have any fear of the parental
+knuckles before its face.
+
+Struggling with these noises and sometimes wholly lost to those in the
+back part of the house, when some tremendous gust of wind shook and
+strained the building, the voice of Parson West flowed on and on. He
+was demonstrating that seeing it was evident some souls would be lost
+it must be for the glory of God that they should be lost, and such being
+the case all true saints must and should rejoice in the fact, and praise
+God for it. But in order that their approval of the Divine decree
+in this matter should be genuine and sincere it must be purely
+disinterested, and therefore they must be willing, if God in his
+inscrutable wisdom should so will, to be themselves among the lost and
+forever to hate and blaspheme him in hell, because thus would his glory
+be served. The parson warmly urged that all who believed themselves
+to have been born again, should constantly inquire of their own souls
+whether they were so resigned, for if they did not feel that they were,
+it was to be feared they were still dead in trespasses and sins.
+
+The sermon ended, the parson proceeded to read the annual Thanksgiving
+Day proclamation of the governor. To this magic formula, which annually
+evoked from the great brick oven stuffed turkey, chicken pie, mince pie
+and plum pudding galore, the children listened with faces of mingled awe
+and delight, forgetful of their aching toes. The mothers smiled at the
+children, while the sheepish grins and glances exchanged between the
+youth and maidens in their opposite galleries, showed them not unmindful
+of the usual Thanksgiving ball, and, generally speaking, it is to be
+feared the thoughts of the congregation were quite diverted, for the
+time being, from the spiritual exercise suggested by the parson. But
+now the people lift faces of surprise to the pulpit, for instead of the
+benediction the parson begins to read yet another proclamation. It is
+no less than an offer by His Excellency, the Governor and the honorable
+Council, of pardon to those concerned in the late risings against the
+courts provided they take the oath of allegiance to the state before the
+first of January, with the warning that all not availing themselves
+in time of this offer will be subject to arrest without bail at the
+governor's discretion, under the recent act suspending the Habeas
+corpus. Added to which is a recital of the special act of the
+Legislature, that all persons who do not at once disperse upon reading
+of the riot act are to receive thirty-nine lashes and one year's
+imprisonment, with thirty-nine more lashes at the end of each three
+months of that period.
+
+There was little enough Thanksgiving look on the people's faces by the
+time the parson had made an end, and it is to be feared that in many a
+heart the echo of the closing formula, “God save the Commonwealth,” was
+something like “May the devil take it.”
+
+“Pardon fer wot I sh'd like ter know,” blurted out Abner on the
+meeting-house steps. “I dunno nothin baout the res' on ye, but I hain't
+done nothin I'm shamed on.”
+
+And Israel Goodrich, too, said: “Ef he's gonter go ter pardinin us for
+lettin them poor dyin critters outer jail tew Barrington t'other day,
+he's jess got the shoe onter the wrong foot. It's them as put em in
+needs the pardinin cordin tew my noshin.”
+
+“An I guess we don' want no pardon fer stoppin courts nuther. Ef the
+Lord pardons us fer not hangin the jedges an lawyers, it'll be more'n I
+look fer,” observed Peleg Bidwell.
+
+“Here comes the Duke,” said another. “Wat dew yew say ter this ere
+proclamashin, Cap'n?”
+
+Perez laughed.
+
+“The more paper government wastes on proclamations, the less it'll have
+left for cartridges,” he replied.
+
+There was a laugh at this, but it was rather grim sort of talk, and a
+good many of the farmers got into their sleighs and drove away with very
+sober faces.
+
+“It is the beginning of the end,” said Squire Edwards, in high good
+humor, as he sat in his parlor that evening. “From my seat I could see
+the people. They were like frightened sheep. The rebellion is knocked
+on the head. The governor won't have to call out a soldier. You see the
+scoundrels have bad consciences, and that makes cowards of them. This
+Hamlin here will be running away to save his neck in a week, mark my
+words.”
+
+“I don't believe he is a coward, father, I don't believe he'll run
+away,” said Desire, explosively, and then quickly rose from the chair
+and turned her back, and looked out the window into the darkness.
+
+“What do you know about him, child?” said her father, in surprise.
+
+“I don't think he seems like one,” said Desire, still with her back
+turned. And then she added, more quietly: “You know he was a captain in
+the army, and was in battles.”
+
+“I don't know it; nobody knows it. He says so, that's all,” replied
+Edwards, laughing contemptuously. “All we know about it is, he wears
+an old uniform. He might have picked it up in a gutter, or stolen it
+anywhere. General Pepoon thinks he stole it, and I shouldn't wonder.”
+
+“It's a lie, a wicked lie!” cried the girl, whirling around, and
+confronting her father, with blazing cheeks and eyes.
+
+She had been in a ferment ever since she had heard the proclamation read
+that afternoon at meeting, and her father's words had added the last
+aggravation to the already explosive state of her nerves. Squire Edwards
+looked dumbfounded, and Mrs. Edwards cried in astonishment:
+
+“Desire, child, what's all this?”
+
+But before the girl could speak, there was an effectual diversion.
+Jonathan came rushing in from outdoors, crying:
+
+“They're burning the governor!”
+
+“What!” gasped his father.
+
+“They've stuffed some clothes with straw, so's to look like a man, and
+put that hat of Justice Goodrich they fetched back from Barrington, on
+top and they're burning it for Governor Bowdoin, on the hill,” cried
+Jonathan. “See there! You can see it from the window. See the light!”
+
+Sure enough, on the summit of Laurel Hill the light of a big bonfire
+shone like a beacon.
+
+“It's just where they burned Benedict Arnold's effigy in the war,”
+ continued Jonathan. “There's more'n a hundred men up there. They're
+awful mad with the governor. There was some powder put in the straw, and
+when the fire came to't, it blew up, and the people laughed. But Cap'n
+Hamlin said 'twas a pity to waste the powder. They might need it all
+before this business was through with. And then they cheered again. He
+meant there'd be fighting, father.”
+
+In the new excitement there was no thought of resuming the conversation
+which Jonathan's advent had broken off so opportunely for Desire, and
+the latter was able without further challenge to escape to her own room.
+Scarcely had she reached it when there was a sound of fife and drum, and
+presently a hundred men or more with hemlock in their hats came marching
+by on their way from Laurel Hill, and Perez Hamlin was riding ahead.
+They were singing in rude chorus one of the popular songs of the late
+war, or rather of the stamp act agitation preceding it:
+
+   “With the beasts of the wood, we will ramble for food,
+    And lodge in wild deserts and caves;
+    And live as poor Job on the skirts of the globe,
+    Before we'll submit to be slaves, brave boys,
+    Before we'll submit to be slaves.”
+
+Such was the rebels' response to the governor's proclamation of mingled
+mercy and threats. Desire had thrown open her window at the sound of the
+music, and, carried away with excitement, as Perez looked up and bowed,
+she waved her handkerchief to him. Yes, Desire Edwards actually waved
+her handkerchief to the captain of the mob. In the shining winter
+night her act was plainly seen by the passing men, and her parents and
+brother, who having first blown out the candle, were looking out from
+the lower windows, were astonished beyond measure to hear the ringing
+cheer which the passing throng sent up. Then Desire cried a little and
+went to bed feeling very reckless.
+
+Squire Edwards had clearly been mistaken in thinking that the
+proclamation had made an end of the rebellion. Its first effect had been
+rather intimidating, no doubt, but upon reflection the insurgents found
+that they were more mad than scared. It was indeed just opposition
+enough to exasperate those who were fully committed and stimulate to
+more vigorous demonstrations; and an express from Shays having summoned
+a Berkshire contingent to join in a big military demonstration at
+Worcester, fifty armed men under Abner marched from Stockbridge
+Thanksgiving Day amid an excitement scarcely equalled since the day when
+Jahleel Woodbridge's minute men had left for Bennington. But the
+return of the party about the middle of December, threw a damper on the
+enthusiasm. The demonstration at Worcester had been indeed a brilliant
+success in some respects. One thousand well armed men headed by Shays
+himself with a full staff of officers and a band of music had held
+the town for several days in full military occupation, overawing the
+militia, preventing the sitting of the courts, and even threatening to
+march on Boston. But on the other hand the temper of the population
+had been lukewarm and often hostile. The soldiers had been half starved
+through the refusal to supply provisions and nearly frozen. Some indeed
+had died. In coming back a number of the Berkshire men had been arrested
+and maltreated in Northampton. Formidable military preparations were
+being made by the government, and parties of Boston cavalry were
+scouring the eastern counties and had taken several insurgent leaders
+prisoners, who would probably be hung. The men had been demoralized
+by the spread of a well substantiated report that Shays had offered to
+desert to the other side if he could be assured of pardon. In the lower
+counties indeed all the talk was of pardon and terms of submission. The
+white paper cockade which had been adopted in contradistinction to the
+hemlock as the badge of the government party, predominated in many of
+the towns through which Abner's party had passed.
+
+“That air proclamashin 's kinder skeert em more'n did us Berkshire
+folks.” Abner explained to a crowd at the tavern. “They all wanter be
+on the hangman's side wen it comes tew the hangin. They hain't got the
+pluck of a weasel, them fellers daown east hain't. This ere war'll hev
+tew be fit aout in this ere caounty, I guess, ef wuss comes to wuss.”
+
+“They've got a slew o' men daown Bosting way,” said a farmer. “I callate
+we couldn' hole aout agin' em long ef it come tew fightin, an they
+should reely tackle us.”
+
+“I dunno baout that nuther,” declared Abner with a cornerwise nod of the
+head. “Thar be plenty o' pesky places long the road wen it gits up intew
+the mountings an is narrer and windin like. I wouldn' ass fer more'n
+a kumpny tew stop a regiment in them places. I wuz talkin tew the Duke
+baout that tidday. He says the hull caounty's a reglar fort, an ef the
+folks 'll hang tewgether it can't be tuk by the hull res' o' the state.
+We kin hole aout jist like the Green Mounting boys did agin the Yorkers
+an licked em tew, and got shet of em an be indypendent tidday, by gol,
+same ez Berkshire orter be.”
+
+“Trew's Gospel Abner,” averred Israel Goodrich, “thar ain't no use o'
+the two eends o' the state tryin tew git on tewgether. They hain't never
+made aout tew gree, an I guess they never would nuther ef they tried it
+a hundred year more. Darn it, the folks is differn folks daown east o'
+Worcester. River folks is more like us but git daown east o' Worcester,
+an I hain't no opinyun on em.”
+
+“Yer right thar Isr'el,” said Abner with heartiness, “I can't bear
+Bosting fellers no more'n I kin a skunk, and I kin tell em baout ez fer
+orf. I dunno wat tiz baout em, but I can't git up no more feller feelin
+fer em nor I kin fer Britishers. Seems though they wern't ezzackly
+human, though I s'pose they be, but darn em anyhaow.”
+
+“I callate thar's suthin in the mountain air changes men,” said Peleg,
+“fer it's sartain we be more like the Green Mounting boys in aour
+noshins an ways an we be like the Bosting chaps.”
+
+“I'd be in favor o' jinin onter Vairmount, an mebbe that'll be the
+upshot on't all,” observed Ezra Phelps. “Ye see Vairmount hain't a
+belongin tew the cussed Continental federashin, an it hain't got none o'
+them big debts ez is hangin round the necks o' the thirteen states,
+and so we sh'd git rid o' the biggis part o' our taxes all kerslap.
+Vairmount is an indypendent kentry, an I callate we'd better jine. Ef
+they'd a made aout with that air noshin folks hed a spell ago, baout
+raisin up a new state, made aout o' Hampshire caounty an a track o' land
+tew the northard, 'twould a been jess the sorter thing fer us Berkshire
+fellers to a hitched on tew.”
+
+“I never hearn nothin baout that idea” said Peleg.
+
+“I s'pose ye hain't,” replied Ezra. “I wuz livin in Hampshire them
+times, an so I wuz right in the way o' the talk. They wuz gonter call
+the state New Connecticut. But the idee never come ter nothin. The war
+come on an folks hed other fish ter fry.”
+
+But Israel declared that he was not in favor of joining on to anything.
+Berkshire was big enough state for him, and he did not want to see any
+better times than along from '74 to '80, when Berkshire would take no
+orders from Boston.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD
+
+SNOW-BOUND
+
+
+All through the first half of December one heavy snow storm had followed
+another. The roads about Stockbridge were often blocked for days
+together. In the village the work of digging paths along the sidewalks,
+between the widely-parted houses, was quite too great to be so much as
+thought of, and the only way of getting about was in sleighs, or wading
+mid-leg deep. Of course, for the women, this meant virtual imprisonment
+to the house, save on the occasion of the Sunday drive to meeting. In
+these days, even the disciplinary tedium of a convict's imprisonment is
+relieved by supplies of reading matter gathered by benevolent societies.
+But for the imprisoned women of whom I write there was not even this
+recreation. Printing had, indeed, been invented some hundreds of years,
+but it can scarcely be said that books had been as yet, and especially
+the kinds of books that ladies care to read. A bible, concordance, and
+perhaps a commentary, with maybe three or four other grave volumes,
+formed the limit of the average library in wealthy Berkshire families of
+that day.
+
+It is needless to say then, that Desire's time hung very heavy on her
+hands, despite the utmost alleviations which embroidery, piano-playing,
+and cakemaking could afford. For her, isolated by social superiority,
+and just now, more than ever, separated from intercourse with the lower
+classes by reason of the present political animosities, there was
+no participation in the sports which made the season lively for the
+farmers' daughters. The moonlight sledding and skating expeditions, the
+promiscuously packed and uproarious sleighing-parties, the candy-pulls
+and “bees” of one sort and another, and all the other robust and not
+over-decorous social recreations in which the rural youth and maidens of
+that day delighted, were not for the storekeeper's fastidious daughter.
+The gentlemen's families in town did, indeed, afford a more refined
+and correspondingly duller social circle, but naturally enough in the
+present state of politics, there was very little thought of jollity in
+that quarter.
+
+And so, as I said, it was very dull for Desire, in fact terribly dull.
+The only outside distraction all through the livelong day was the
+occasional passage of a team in the road, and her mother, too, usually
+occupied the chair at the only window commanding the road. And when the
+aching dullness of the day was over, and the candles were lit for the
+evening, and the little ones had been sent to bed, there was nothing for
+her but to sit in the chimney corner, and look at the blazing logs and
+brood and brood, till, at bedtime her father and Jonathan came in from
+the store. Then her mother woke up, and there was a little talk, but
+after that yawned the long dead night--sleep, sleep, nothing but sleep
+for a heart and brain that cried out for occupation.
+
+Up to the time when the sudden coming of the winter put an abrupt end
+to her meeting with Perez, she was merely playing, or in more modern
+parlance, “flirting” with him, as a princess might flirt with a
+servitor. She had merely allowed his devotion to amuse her idleness. But
+now, thanks to the tedium which made any mental distraction welcome, the
+complexion of her thoughts concerning the young man suffered a gradual
+change. Having no other resource, she gave her fancy _carte blanche_
+to amuse her, and what materials could fancy find so effective as the
+exciting experiences of the last Autumn? Sitting before the great open
+fireplace in the evenings, while her mother dozed in the chimney corner,
+and the silence was only broken by the purring of the cat, the crackling
+of the fire, the ticking of the clock, and the low noise heard through
+the partition, of men talking over their cups with her father in the
+back room of the store, she fell into reveries from which she would be
+roused by the thick, hot beating of her heart, or wake with cheeks
+dyed in blushes at the voice of her mother. And then the long, dreamful
+nights. Almost two-thirds of each twenty-four hours in this dark season
+belonged to the domain of dreams. What wonder that discretion should
+find itself all unable to hold its own against fancy in such a world of
+shadows. What wonder that when, after meeting on Sundays she met Perez
+as she was stepping into her father's sleigh at the meeting-house door,
+she should feel too confused fairly to look him in the face, much as she
+had thought all through the week before of that opportunity of meeting
+him.
+
+One day it chanced that Mrs. Edwards who was sitting by the window, said
+abruptly:
+
+“Here comes that Hamlin fellow.”
+
+Desire sprang up with such an appearance of agitation that her mother
+added:
+
+“Don't be scared, child. He won't come in here. It's only into the store
+he's coming.”
+
+She naturally presumed that it was terror which occasioned her
+daughter's perturbation. What would have been her astonishment if she
+could have followed the girl as she presently went up to her room, and
+seen her cowering there by the window in the cold for a full half-hour,
+so that she might through a rent in the curtain have a glimpse of Perez
+as he left the store! I am not sure that I even do right in telling the
+reader of this. Indeed her own pride did so revolt against her weakness
+that she tingled scarcely less with shame than with cold as she knelt
+there. Once or twice she did actually rise up and leave the window, and
+start to go downstairs, saying that she was glad she had not seen him
+yet, for she could still draw back with some self-respect. But even as
+she was thus in the act of retiring, some noise of boots in the store
+below suggesting that now he might be going out, brought her hurriedly
+back to the window. And when at last he did go, in her eagerness to see
+him, she forgot all about her scruples. Her heart sprang into her throat
+as she caught sight of him. She could have cried at a fleck in the
+miserable glass which spoiled her view. Then when he turned and looked
+up, a wave of color rushed all over her face, and she jumped back in
+such fear at the thought he might see her, although she was well hidden,
+that he had passed out of sight ere she dared look out again. But that
+upward glance and the eager look in his eyes consoled her for the loss.
+Had he not looked up, she would no doubt have yielded to a revulsion of
+self-contempt for her weakness, which would have been a damper on her
+growing infatuation. But that glance had made her foolishly, glowingly
+elated, and disposed to make light of the reproaches of her pride.
+
+“I suppose you were waiting for that Hamlin fellow to go away, before
+coming down,” said her mother as Desire re-entered the living-room. The
+girl started and averted her face with a guilty terror, saying faintly,
+“What?” How did her mother know? Her fears were relieved, though not her
+embarrassment, as her mother added:
+
+“You needn't have been so much frightened, although I really can't blame
+you for it, after all you've been through at his hands. Still he would
+scarcely dare, with all his impudence, to try to force a way in here.
+You would have been quite safe, had you staid downstairs.”
+
+The good lady could not understand why, in spite of this reassurance,
+Desire should thereafter persist, as she did, in retiring to her own
+room whenever Hamlin came into the store. As the better informed reader
+will infer from this fact the girl's infatuation was on the increase.
+She had become quite shameless and hardened about using her point of
+espionage to see, without being seen, the lover who so occupied her
+thoughts. The only events of the slow, dull days for her were now his
+visits to the store. She no longer started back when, in going, his
+eager glance rose to her window, but panting, yet secure behind her
+covert, looked into his eyes and scanned his expression. Sometimes a
+quick rush of tears would rob her of her vision as she read in the sad
+hunger of those eyes how he longed for a glimpse of her face. But for
+very shame's sake she would have pulled the curtains up. It was so
+unfair of her, she thought self-reproachfully, to sate her own eyes
+while cheating his. She knew well enough that all which brought him to
+the store so often was the hope of seeing and speaking with her. And
+finally, about the middle of January, she made a desperate resolution
+that he should. For several days she managed to occupy her mother's
+usual seat by the window commanding the approach to the store, and
+finally was rewarded by seeing Hamlin go in. She said nothing at first,
+but soon remarked carelessly:
+
+“I wonder if father hasn't got some other dimity in the store.”
+
+“Perhaps. I think not, though,” replied Mrs. Edwards. Desire leaned back
+in her chair, stifled a yawn and presently said:
+
+“I believe I'll just run in and ask him before I get any further
+on this.” She rose up leisurely, stole a glance at the mirror in
+passing--how pale she was--opened the connecting door and went into the
+store.
+
+She saw Perez, out of the corner of her eye, the instant she opened the
+door. But not taking any notice of him, in fact holding her head very
+stiffly, and walking unusually fast, she went across to her father
+and asked him about the dimity. Receiving his reply she turned, still
+without looking at Perez, and began mechanically to go back. So nervous
+and cowardly had she been made by the excessive preoccupation of her
+mind with him, that she actually had not the self-possession to carry
+out her boldly begun project of speaking to him, now that he was so
+near. It seemed as if she were actually afraid of looking at him. But
+when he said in a rather hurt tone, “Good afternoon, Miss Edwards,” she
+stopped, and turned abruptly toward him and without speaking held out
+her hand. He had not ventured to offer his, but he now took hers. Her
+face was red enough now, and what he saw in her eyes made him forget
+everything else. They stood for several seconds in this intensely
+awkward way, speechless, for she had not even answered his greeting.
+Squire Edwards, in the act of putting back the roll of dimity on the
+shelf, was staring over his shoulder at them, astounded. She knew her
+father was looking at them, but she did not care. She felt at that
+moment that she did not care who looked on or what happened.
+
+“How cold the weather is!” she said, dreamily.
+
+“Yes, very,” replied Perez.
+
+“I hope it will be warmer, soon, don't you?” she murmered.
+
+Then she seemed to come to herself, slowly withdrew her hand from his,
+and walked slowly into the living-room and shut the door, and went
+upstairs to her chamber. As soon as Hamlin had gone Edwards came in and
+spoke with some indignation of his presumption.
+
+“If he had not let go her hand, I should have taken him by the shoulder
+in another second,” he said angrily.
+
+“Whatever made her shake hands with him?” demanded Mrs. Edwards.
+
+“I suppose she thought she had to, or he would be murdering us all. The
+girl acted very properly, and would not have noticed him if he had not
+stopped her. But by the Providence of God matters now wear a better
+look. This fellow is no longer to be greatly feared. The rebels lose
+ground daily in town as well as in the county and state, and this Hamlin
+is losing control even over his own sort. If he does not leave the
+village he will be arrested soon. There is no need that we should humble
+ourselves before him any longer.”
+
+All of which was quite true. For while we have been following the dreams
+of a fancy-fevered girl, secluded in her snow-bound home among the hills
+of Berkshire, the scenes have shifted swiftly in the great drama of the
+rebellion, and a total change has come over the condition and prospects
+of the revolt. The policy of conciliation pursued by the state
+government had borne its fruit, better and more speedy fruit than any
+other policy could have borne. Any other would have plunged the state
+into bloody war and been of doubtful final issue. The credit for its
+adoption is due primarily to the popular form of the government which
+made it impossible for the authorities to act save in accordance with
+popular sentiment. There was no force save the militia, and for their
+use the approval of the two houses of the Legislature was needful. The
+conservative and aristocratic Senate might alone have favored a
+harsh course, but it could do nothing without the House, which fully
+sympathized with the people. The result was a compromise by which the
+Legislature at its extra session, ending the middle of November,
+passed laws giving the people the most of what they demanded, and then
+threatened them with the heavy arm of the law if they did not thereafter
+conduct themselves peaceably.
+
+To alleviate the distress from the lack of circulating medium, the
+payment of back taxes in certain specified articles other than money
+was authorized, and real and personal estate at appraised value was made
+legal tender in actions for debt and in satisfaction for executions.
+An act was also passed and others were promised reducing the justly
+complained of costs of legal processes, and the fee tables of attorneys,
+sheriffs, clerks of courts and justices, for, according to the system
+then in vogue, most classes of judges were paid by fees from litigating
+parties instead of by salary. The complaint against the appropriation
+of so large a part of the income from the import and excise taxes to the
+payment of interest on the state debt was met by the appropriation
+of one-third of those taxes to government expenses. To be sure the
+Legislature had refused to provide for the emission of any more paper
+money, and this, in the opinion of many, was unpardonable but it had
+shown a disposition to make up in some degree for this failure
+by passing a law to establish a mint in Boston. These concessions
+practically cut the ground out from under the rebellion, and the
+practical minded people of the state, reckoning up what they had gained,
+wisely concluded that it would not be worth while to go to blows for the
+residue, especially as there was every reason to think the Legislature
+at the next sitting would complete the work of reform it had so well
+begun. A convention of the Hampshire County people at Hadley, on the
+second of January, gave formal expression to these views in a resolution
+advising all persons to lay aside arms and trust to peaceable petition
+for the redress of such grievances as still remained.
+
+Indeed, even if the mass of the people had been less satisfied than
+they had reason to be with the Legislature's action, they had had
+quite enough of anarchy. The original stopping of the courts and jail
+deliveries, had been with their entire approval. But, as might be
+expected, the mobs which had done the business had been chiefly
+recruited from the idle and shiftless. Each village had furnished its
+contingent of tavern loafers, neerdowells, and returned soldiers with
+a distaste for industry. These fellows were all prompt to feel their
+importance and responsibility as champions of the people, and to a large
+extent had taken the domestic police as well as military affairs into
+their own hands. Of course it was not long before these self-elected
+dictators, began to indulge themselves in unwarrantable liberties with
+persons and property, while the vicious and criminal classes generally,
+taking advantage of the suspension of law, zealously made their hay
+while the sun shone. In fact, whatever course the government had taken,
+this state of things had grown so unbearable in many places that an
+insurrection within the insurrection, a revolt of the people against the
+rebels, must presently have taken place. But as may readily be supposed
+these rebel bands, both privates and officers, were by no means in
+favor of laying down their arms and thereby relapsing from their present
+position of importance and authority to their former state of social
+trash, despised by the solid citizens whom now they lorded it over.
+Peace, and the social insignificance it involved had no charms for them.
+Property for the most part they had none to lose. Largely veterans
+of the Revolution, for eight years more used to camp than house, the
+vagabond military state was congenial to them and its license sufficient
+reward. The course of the Shays' rebellion will not be readily
+comprehensible to any who leave out of sight this great multitude of
+returned soldiers with which the state was at the time filled, men
+generally destitute, unemployed and averse to labor, but inured to war,
+eager for its excitements, and moreover feeling themselves aggrieved by
+a neglectful and thankless country. And so though the mass of the
+people by the early part of winter had grown to be indifferent to
+the rebellion, if not actually in sympathy with the government, the
+insurgent soldiery still held together wonderfully and in a manner
+that would be impossible to understand without taking into account the
+peculiar material that composed it. Not a man of the lot took advantage
+of the governor's proclamation offering pardon, and instead of being
+intimidated by the crushing military force sent against them in January,
+the rebel army at the Battle of Springfield the last day of that month
+was the largest body of insurgents that had been assembled at any time.
+
+The causes described which had been at work in the lower counties, to
+weaken popular sympathy with the insurgents, had simultaneously operated
+in Berkshire. The report brought back from Worcester by Abner's men,
+with the subsequent action of the Hadley convention in advising the
+laying aside of arms, had strengthened the hands of the conservatives
+in Stockbridge. The gentlemen of the village who had been so quiet since
+Perez' relentless suppression of the Woodbridge rising in September,
+found their voices again, and cautiously at first, but more boldly as
+they saw the favorable change of popular feeling, began to talk and
+reason with their fellow-citizens. If the insurrection had had no other
+effect, it had at least taught these somewhat haughty aristocrats the
+necessity of a conciliatory tone with the lower classes. The return
+home of Theodore Sedgwick in the latter part of December, gave a marked
+impulse to the government party, of whom he was at once recognized as
+the leader. He had the iron hand of Woodbridge, with a velvet glove of
+suavity, which the other lacked. To command seemed natural to him, but
+he could persuade with as much dignity as he could command, a gift at
+once rare and most needful in the present emergency. He it was who
+wore into the village the first white paper cockade which had been
+seen there, though within a week after, they were full as plenty as the
+hemlock sprigs. The news which came in the early part of January, that
+the government had ordered 4,400 militia under General Lincoln to march
+into the disaffected counties, and put down the rebellion, produced a
+strong impression. People who had thought stopping a court or two no
+great matter, and indeed quite an old fashion in Berkshire, were by
+no means ready to go to actually fighting the government. But still it
+should be noted that the majority of those who took off the green did
+not put on the white. The active furtherance of the government interests
+was left to a comparatively small party. The mass of the people
+contented themselves with withdrawing from open sympathy with the
+insurrection, and maintaining a surly neutrality. They were tired of the
+rebellion, without being warmly disposed toward the government. Neither
+the friends of government nor the insurgents who still withstood them,
+could presume too much on the support of this great neutral body, a fact
+which prevented them from immediately proceeding to extremities against
+each other.
+
+It was fortunate that there was some such check on the animosity of the
+two factions. For the bitterness of the still unreconciled insurgents
+against the friends of the government was intense. They derided the
+white cockade as “the white feather,” denounced its wearers as “Tories,”
+ every whit as bad as those who took King George's part against the
+people, and deserving nothing better than confiscation and hanging.
+Outrages committed upon the persons and families of government
+sympathizers in outlying settlements were daily reported. Against
+Sedgwick especial animosity was felt, but though he was constantly
+riding about the county to organize and encourage the government party,
+his reputation for indomitable courage, protected him from personal
+molestation under circumstances where another man would have been
+mobbed. In Stockbridge itself, there were no violent collisions of the
+two parties save in the case of the children, terrific snowball fights
+raging daily in the streets between the “Shayites” and the “Boston
+Army.” Had Perez listened to the counsels of his followers, the exchange
+of hard knocks in the village would have been by no means confined to
+the children. But he well knew that the change in public opinion which
+was undermining the insurrection would only be precipitated by any
+violence towards the government party. Many of the men would not hear
+reason, however, and his attitude on this point produced angry murmurs.
+The men called up his failure to whip the silk stockings in September,
+his care for Squire Edwards' interests, and his veto of the plan for
+fixing prices on the goods at the store. It was declared that he was
+lukewarm to the cause, no better than a silk stocking himself, and that
+it would have been better to have had Hubbard for captain. Even Abner
+Rathbun, as well as Meshech Little, joined in this schism, which ended
+in the desertion of the most of the members of the company Perez had
+organized, to join Hubbard up at the iron-works. About the same time,
+Israel Goodrich withdrew from the committee of safety. He told Perez
+he was sorry to leave him, but the jig was plainly up, and he had his
+family to consider. If his farm was confiscated, they'd have to go on
+the town. “Arter all, Perez, we've made somethin by't. I hain't sorry I
+gone intew it. Them new laws ull be somethin of a lift; an harf a loaf
+be considabul better nor no bread.” He advised Perez to get out of the
+business as quick as possible. “'Tain't no use kickin agin' the pricks,”
+ he said. Ezra, who was disgusted at the failure of the Legislature to
+print more bills, stuck awhile longer, and then he too withdrew. Peleg
+Bidwell and other men who had families or a little property at stake,
+rapidly dropped off. They owed it to their wives and children not to get
+into trouble, they said, and Perez could not blame them. And so day by
+day all through the month of January he saw his power melting away by
+a process as silent, irresistible and inevitable as the dissolving of a
+snow bank in spring; and he knew that if he lingered much longer in
+the village, the constable would come some morning and drag him
+ignominiously away to the lockup. It was a desperate position, and yet
+he was foolishly, wildly happy. Desire was not indifferent to him. That
+awkward meeting in the store, those moments of silent hand-clasp, with
+her eyes looking with such bold confession into his, had told him that
+the sole end and object of his strange role here in Stockbridge was
+gained. She loved him. Little indeed would he have recked that the role
+was now at an end; little would he have cared to linger an hour longer
+on this scene of his former fantastic fortunes, if but he could have
+borne her with him on his flight. How gayly he would have laughed at
+his enemies then. If he could but see her now, could but plead with her.
+Perhaps he might persuade her. But there was no opportunity. Even as
+far back as December, as soon as the rebellion began evidently to wane,
+Edwards had began to turn the cold shoulder to him on his visits to the
+store. He had put up with insults which had made his cheek burn, merely
+because at the store was his only chance of seeing Desire. But Edwards'
+tone to him after that meeting with her, had been such that he knew
+it was only by violence that he could again force an entrance over the
+storekeeper's threshold. The fact was, Edwards, now that the danger was
+over, blamed himself for an unnecessary subservience to the insurgent
+leader, and his mortified pride expressed itself in a special virulence
+toward him. There was then no chance of seeing Desire. She loved him,
+but he must fly and leave her. One moment he said to himself that he was
+the happiest of men. In the next he cursed himself as the most wretched.
+And so alternately smiling and cursing, he wandered about the village
+during those last days of January like one daft, too much absorbed in
+the inward struggle to be more than half conscious of his danger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH
+
+THE BATTLE OF WEST STOCKBRIDGE
+
+
+One day, three days before the end of January, as Perez, returning from
+a walk, approached the guardhouse, he saw that it was in possession of
+Deputy Sheriff Seymour and a posse. The rebel garrison of three or four
+men only, having made no resistance, had been disarmed and let go.
+Perez turned on his heel and went home. That same afternoon about three
+o'clock, as he was sitting in the house, his brother Reuben, who
+had been on the watch, came in and said that a party of militia were
+approaching.
+
+“I've saddled your horse, Perez, and hitched him to the fence. You've
+got a good start, but it won't do to wait a minute.” Then Perez rose
+up, bade his father and mother and brother good-bye, and went out and
+mounted his horse. The militia were visible descending the hill at the
+north of the village, several furlongs off. Perez turned his horse in
+the opposite direction, and galloped down to the green. He rode up in
+front of the store, flung himself from his horse, ran up the steps and
+went in. Dr. Partridge was in the store talking to Edwards, and Jonathan
+was also there. As Perez burst in, pale, excited, yet determined, the
+two gentlemen sprang to their feet and Jonathan edged toward a gun that
+stood in the corner. Edwards, as if apprehending his visitor's purpose,
+stepped between him and the door of the living-rooms. But Perez' air was
+beseeching, not threatening, almost abject, indeed.
+
+“I am flying from the town,” he said. “The hue and cry is out after me.
+I beg you to let me have a moment's speech with Miss Desire.”
+
+“You impudent rascal,” cried Edwards. “What do you mean by this. If
+you do not instantly go, I will arrest you myself. See my daughter,
+forsooth! Get out of here, fellow!” and he made a threatening step
+forward, and then fell back again, for though Perez' attitude of appeal
+was unchanged, he looked terribly excited and pertinacious.
+
+“Only a word,” he cried, his pleading eyes fixed on the storekeeper's
+angry ones. “A sight of her, that's all I ask, sir. You shall stand
+between us. Do you think I would harm her? Think, sir, I did not treat
+you ill when I was master. I did not deny you what you asked.”
+
+There was something more terrifying in the almost whining appeal of
+Perez' voice than the most violent threat could be, so intense was the
+repressed emotion it indicated. But as Edwards' forbidding and angry
+face plainly indicated that his words were having no effect, this accent
+of abjectness suddenly broke off in a tremendous cry:
+
+“Great God, I must see her!”
+
+Edwards was plainly very much frightened, but he did not yield.
+
+“You shall not,” he replied between his teeth. “Jonathan! Dr. Partridge!
+Will you see him murder me?”
+
+Jonathan, gun in hand, pluckily rallied behind his father, while the
+doctor laid his hand soothingly on Perez' shoulder, who did not notice
+him. But at that moment the door into the living-rooms was flung
+open, and Desire and her mother came in. The loud voices had evidently
+attracted their attention and excited their apprehensions, but from the
+start which Desire gave as she saw Perez, it was evident she had not
+guessed he was there. At sight of her, his tense attitude and expression
+instantly softened, and it was plain that he no longer saw or took
+account of any one in the room but the girl.
+
+“Desire,” he said, “I came to see you. The militia are out after me
+at last, and I am flying for my life. I couldn't go without seeing you
+again.”
+
+Without giving Desire a chance to reply, which indeed she was much too
+confused and embarrassed to do, her mother interposed.
+
+“Mr. Edwards,” she exclaimed indignantly, “can't you put the fellow out?
+I'm sure you'll help, Doctor. This is an outrage. I never heard of such
+a thing. Are we not safe in our own house from this impudent loafer?”
+ Perez had not minded the men, but even in his desperation, Mrs. Edwards
+somewhat intimidated him, and he fell back a step, and his eye became
+unsteady. Dr. Partridge walked to the window, looked out, and then
+turning around, said coolly:
+
+“I suppose it is our duty to arrest you, Hamlin, and hand you over to
+the militia, but hang me if I wish you any harm. The militia are just
+turning into the green, and if you expect to get away, you have not a
+second to lose.”
+
+“Run! Run!” cried Desire, speaking for the first time.
+
+Perez glanced out at the window and saw his pursuers not ten rods off.
+
+“I will go,” he said, looking at Desire. “I will escape, since you tell
+me to, but I will come again some day,” and opening the door and rushing
+out, he leaped on his horse and galloped away on the road to Lee, the
+baffled militiamen satisfying themselves with yelling and firing one or
+two vain shots after him.
+
+Sedgwick, aware that in the ticklish state of public opinion, the
+government party could not afford to provide the malcontents with any
+martyrs, had postponed the attempt to arrest Perez until affairs were
+fully ripe for it. The militia company of Captain Stoddard had been
+quietly reorganized, so that the very night of Perez' flight, patrols
+were established, and a regular military occupation of the town began.
+The larger part of the old company having gone over to the insurgents,
+the depleted ranks had been filled out by the enlistment as privates
+of the gentlemen of the village. The two Dwights, Drs. Sergeant and
+Partridge, Deacons Nash and Edwards, and many other silk stockinged
+magnates carried muskets, and a dozen gentlemen besides had organized
+themselves into a party of cavalry, with Sedgwick himself as captain.
+Even then the difficulty in finding men enough to fill out the company
+was so great that lads of sixteen and seventeen, gentlemen's sons, were
+placed in line with the gray fathers of the settlement. There was
+need indeed of every musket that could be mustered, for up at West
+Stockbridge, only an hour's march away, Paul Hubbard had a hundred and
+fifty men about him, from whom a raid might at any moment be expected.
+
+But Stockbridge was now to become the center of military operations, not
+only for its own protection, but for that of the surrounding country.
+Hampshire County, as well as the eastern counties, had been called
+on for quotas to swell General Lincoln's army, but upon Berkshire no
+requisition had been made. The peculiar reputation of that county for
+an independent and insubordinate temper, afforded little reason to hope
+such a requisition would be regarded if made. And indeed the county
+promptly showed itself quite equal to the independent role which the
+Governor's course conceded to it. An effective plan for the suppression
+of the rebellion in the county had been concerted between Sedgwick and
+the leading men of the other towns. It had been agreed upon to raise
+five hundred men, and concentrate them at Stockbridge, using that town
+as a base of operations against the rebel bands in Southern Berkshire.
+Captain Stoddard's company had scarcely taken military possession of
+Stockbridge, when it was reënforced by companies from Pittsfield, Great
+Barrington, Sheffield, Lanesboro, Lee and Lenox. It was under escort of
+the Pittsfield company, that Jahleel Woodbridge returned to Stockbridge,
+after an absence of nearly four months. General Patterson, one of the
+major-generals of militia in the county, and an officer of revolutionary
+service, assumed command of the battalion, and promptly gave it
+something to do.
+
+Far from appearing daunted by the presence of so large a body of militia
+in Stockbridge, Hubbard's force at the ironworks had increased to two
+hundred men who boldly threatened to come down and clean out Patterson's
+“Tories,” a feat to which, if joined by some of the smaller insurgent
+bands in the neighborhood, they might ere long be equal. For this
+Patterson wisely decided not to wait. And so at noon of one of the first
+days of February, about three hundred of the government troops, with
+half a dozen rounds of cartridges per man, set out to attack Hubbard's
+camp.
+
+There had been tearful farewells in the gentlemen's households that
+morning. Most had sent forth father and sons together to the fray and
+some families there were which had three generations in the ranks. For
+this was the gentlemen's war. The mass of the people held sullenly aloof
+and left them to fight it out. It was all that could be expected of
+themselves if they did not actively join the other side. There were more
+friends of theirs with Hubbard than with Patterson, and the temper in
+which they viewed the preparations to march against the rebels was so
+unmistakably ugly that as a protection to the families and property in
+the village one company had to be left behind in Stockbridge. It was a
+muggy overcast day, a poor day to give men stomach for fighting; drum
+and fife were silent that the enemy might have no unnecessary warning
+of their coming; and so with an ill-wishing community behind their
+backs and the foe in front, the troops set out under circumstances as
+depressing as could well occur. And as they went, mothers and daughters
+and wives climbed to upper windows and looked out toward the western
+mountain up whose face the column stretched, straining their ears for
+the sound of shots with a more quaking apprehension than if their own
+bosoms had been their marks. It is bad enough to send friends to far-off
+wars, sad enough waiting for the slow tidings, but there is something
+yet more poignant in seeing loved ones go out to battle almost within
+sight of home.
+
+The word was that Hubbard was encamped at a point where the road running
+directly west over the mountain to West Stockbridge met two other roads
+coming in from northerly and southerly directions. Accordingly, in
+the hope of catching the insurgents in a trap the government force was
+divided into three companies. One pushed straight up the mountain by
+the direct road, while the others made respectively a northern and a
+southern detour around the mountain intending to strike the other two
+roads and thus come in on Hubbard's flanks while he was engaged in
+front. The center company did not set out till a little after the other
+two, so as to give them a start. When it finally began to climb the
+mountain Sedgwick with his cavalry rode ahead. A few rods behind them
+came a score or two of infantry as a sort of advance guard, the rest
+of the company being some distance in the rear. The gentlemen in that
+little party of horsemen had nearly all seen service in the late war
+and knew what fighting meant, but that was a war against their
+country's foes, invaders from over the sea, not like this, against their
+neighbors. They had no taste for the job before them, resolute as they
+were to perform it. The men they were going to meet had most of them
+smelled powder, and knew how to fight. They were angry and desperate
+and the conflict would be bloody and of no certain issue. So far as they
+knew, it would be the first actual collision of the insurrection, for
+the news of the battle at Springfield had not yet reached them. No
+wonder they should ride along soberly and engrossed in thought.
+
+Suddenly a man stepped out from the woods into the road and firing his
+musket at them turned and ran. Thinking to capture him the gentlemen
+spurred their horses forward at a gallop. Other shots were fired around
+them, indicating clearly that they had come upon the picket line of
+the enemy. But their blood was up and they rode on pell-mell after the
+fugitive sentry. There was a turn in the road a short distance ahead.
+As they dashed around it, now close behind the flying man, they found
+themselves in the clearing at the crossing of the roads. Why do they
+rein in their plunging steeds so suddenly? Well they may! Not six rods
+off the entire rebel line of two hundred men is drawn up. They hear
+Hubbard give the order “Present!” and the muskets of the men rise to
+their cheeks.
+
+“We're dead men. God help my wife!” says Colonel Elijah Williams, who
+rides at Sedgwick's side. Advance or retreat is alike impossible and the
+forthcoming volley can not fail to annihilate them.
+
+“Leave it to me,” says Sedgwick, quietly, and the next instant he is
+galloping quite alone toward the line of levelled guns. Seeing but one
+man coming the rebels withhold their fire. Reining up his horse within a
+yard of the muzzles of the guns he says in a loud, clear, authoritative
+voice:
+
+“What are you doing here, men? Laban Jones, Abner Rathbun, Meshech
+Little, do you want to hang for murder? Throw down your arms. You're
+surrounded on three sides. You can't escape. Throw down your arms and
+I'll see you're not harmed. Throw away your guns. If one of them
+should go off by accident in your hands, you couldn't be saved from the
+gallows.”
+
+His air, evincing not the slightest perturbation or anxiety on his own
+part, but carrying it as if they only were in peril, startled and filled
+them with inquietude. His evident conviction that there was more peril
+at their end of the guns than at his, impressed them. They lowered their
+muskets, some threw them down. The line wavered.
+
+“He lies. Shoot him! Fire! Damn you, fire!” yelled Hubbard in a panic.
+
+“The first man that fires hangs for murder!” thundered Sedgwick. “Throw
+down your arms and you shall not be harmed.”
+
+“Kin yew say that for sartin, Squire?” asked Laban, hesitatingly.
+
+“No, he lies. Our only chance is to fight!” yelled Hubbard, frantically.
+“Shoot him, I tell you.”
+
+But at this critical moment when the result of Sedgwick's daring
+experiment was still in doubt, the issue was determined by the
+appearance of the laggard infantry at the mouth of the Stockbridge road,
+while simultaneously shots resounding from the north and south showed
+that the flanking companies were closing in.
+
+“We're surrounded! Run for your lives!” was shouted on every side, and
+the line broke in confusion.
+
+“Arrest that man!” said Sedgwick, pointing to Hubbard, and instantly
+Laban Jones and others of his former followers had seized him. Many,
+throwing down their arms, thronged around Sedgwick as if for protection,
+while the rest fled in confusion, plunging into the woods to avoid the
+troops who were now advancing in plain sight on all three roads. A few
+scattered shots were exchanged between the fugitives and the militia,
+and the almost bloodless conflict was over.
+
+“Who'd have thought they were such a set of cowards?” said a young
+militia officer, contemptuously.
+
+“They are not cowards,” replied Sedgwick reprovingly. “They're the same
+men who fought at Bennington, but it takes away their courage to feel
+they're arrayed against their own neighbors and the law of the land.”
+
+“You'd have had your stomach full of fighting, young man,” added
+Colonel Williams, “if Squire Sedgwick had not taken them just as he did.
+Squire,” he added, “my wife shall thank you that she's not a widow, when
+we get back to Stockbridge. I honor your courage, sir. The credit of
+this day is yours.”
+
+Those standing around joining heartily in this tribute, Sedgwick replied
+quietly:
+
+“You magnify the matter over much, gentlemen. I knew the men I was
+dealing with. If I could get near enough to fix them with my eye before
+they began to shoot I knew it would be easy to turn their minds.”
+
+The reëntry of the militia into Stockbridge was made with screaming
+fifes, and resounding drums, while nearly one hundred prisoners graced
+the triumph of the victors. The poor fellows looked glum enough, as they
+had reason to do. They had scorned the clemency of the government and
+been taken with arms in their hands. Imprisonment and stripes was the
+least they could expect, while the leaders were in imminent danger
+of the gallows. But considerations other than those of strict justice
+according to law determined their fate, and made their suspense of short
+duration. It was well enough to use threats to intimidate rebels, but
+in an insurrection with which so large a proportion of the people
+sympathized partly or fully, severity to the conquered would have been a
+fatal policy. As a merely practical point, moreover, there was not jail
+room in Stockbridge for the prisoners. They must be either forthwith
+killed or set free. The upshot of it was that excepting Hubbard and two
+or three more they were offered release that very afternoon, upon taking
+the oath of allegiance to the state. The poor fellows eagerly accepted
+the terms. A line of them being formed they passed one by one before
+Justice Woodbridge, with uplifted hand took the oath, slunk away home,
+free men, but very much crestfallen. As if to add a climax to the
+exultation of the government party, news was received, during the
+evening, of the rout of the rebels under Shays at Springfield, in their
+attack on the militia defending the arsenal there, the last day of
+January.
+
+Now it must be understood that not alone in Captain Stoddard's
+Stockbridge company had gentlemen filled up the places of the
+disaffected farmers in the ranks, but such was equally the case with
+the companies which had come in from the other towns, the consequence of
+which was that the present muster represented the wealth, the culture,
+and aristocracy of all Berkshire. There are far more people in Berkshire
+now than then; far more aggregate wealth, and far more aggregate
+culture, but with the decay of the aristocratic form of society which
+prevailed in the day of which I write, passed away the elements of
+such a gathering as this, which stands unique in the social history of
+Stockbridge. The families of the county gentry here represented, though
+generally living at a day or two's journey apart, were more intimate
+with each other than with the farmer folk, directly surrounded by whom,
+they lived. They met now like members of one family, the sense of unity
+heightened by the present necessity of defending the interests of their
+order, sword in hand, against the rabble. The gentlemen's families of
+Stockbridge had opened wide their doors to these gallant and genial
+defenders, whose presence in their households, far from being regarded
+as a burden, required by the public necessity, was rather a social treat
+of rare and welcome character; and, unless tradition deceives, more than
+one happy match was the issue of the intimacies formed between the fair
+daughters of Stockbridge and the knights who had come to their rescue.
+
+Previous to the conflict at West Stockbridge and the news of the battle
+at Springfield, the seriousness of the situation availed indeed to put
+some check upon the spirits of the young people. But no sooner had it
+become apparent that the suppression of the rebellion was not likely to
+involve serious bloodshed than there was such a general ebullition of
+fun and amusement as might be expected from the collection of such
+a band of spirited youths. Not to speak of dances, teas, and indoor
+entertainments, gay sleighing parties, out to the scene of “battle” of
+West Stockbridge, as it was jokingly called, were of daily occurrence,
+and every evening Mahkeenac's shining face was covered with bands
+of merry skaters, and screaming, laughing sledge-loads of youths and
+damsels went whizzing down Long Hill to the no small jeopardy of their
+own lives and limbs, to say nothing of such luckless wayfarers as might
+be in their path. To provide partners for so many gentlemen the cradle
+was almost robbed, and many a farmer's daughter of Shayite proclivities
+found herself, not unwillingly, conscripted to supply the dearth of
+gentlemen's daughters, and provided with an opportunity for contrasting
+the merits of silk-stockinged and worsted-stockinged adorers, an
+experience possibly not redounding to their after contentment in the
+station to which Providence had called them.
+
+But even with these conscripts there was still such an excess of beaux
+that every girl had half a dozen. As for Desire Edwards, she had the
+whole army. If I have hitherto spoken of her in a manner as if she
+were the only “young lady” in Stockbridge, that is no more than the
+impression which she gave. Although there were several families in the
+village which had a claim to equal gentility, their daughters somehow
+felt that they failed to make good that claim in Desire's presence. They
+owned, though they found less flattering terms in which to express it,
+the same air of distinction and dainty aloofness about her, which the
+farmers' daughters, too humble for jealousy, so admiringly admitted. The
+young militia officers and gentlemen privates found her adorable, and
+the three or four young men whom Squire Edwards took into his house,
+as his share in quartering the troops, were the objects of the most
+rancorous envy of the entire army. These favored youths had too much
+appreciation of their fortune to be absent from their quarters save when
+military duty required, and what with the obligation of entertaining and
+being entertained by them, and keeping in play the numerous callers who
+dropped in from other quarters in the evening, Desire had mighty
+little time to herself. It was of course very exciting for her and very
+agreeable to be the sole queen of so gallant and devoted a court. She
+enjoyed it as any sprightly, beautiful girl fond of society and well
+nigh starved for it might be expected to. Provided here so unexpectedly
+in remote winter-bound Stockbridge, it was like a table spread in the
+wilderness, whereof the Psalmist speaks.
+
+And in this whirl of gayety, did she quite forget Perez, did she so soon
+forget the secret flame she had cherished for the Shayite captain? Be
+sure she had not forgotten, but she would have been willing to give
+anything in the world if she could.
+
+After the conventual seclusion and mental vacancy of the preceding
+months, the sudden, almost instantaneous change in her surroundings,
+had been like a burst of air and sunlight which dissipates the soporific
+atmosphere of a sleeping-room. It had brought back her thoughts and
+feelings all at once to their normal standards, making her recollection
+of that infatuation seem like a fantastic, grotesque dream; unreal,
+impossible, yet shamefully real. Every time she entered her chamber, and
+her eye caught sight of the little hole in the curtain whence she had
+spied upon Perez, shame and self-contempt overcame her like a flood. How
+could she, how ever could she be left to do such a thing! What would the
+obsequious, admiring gallants she had left in her parlor say if they but
+knew what that little pin-hole in her curtain reminded her of? She could
+not believe it possible herself that the girl whose fine-cut haughty
+beauty confronted her gaze from the mirror could have so lost her
+self-respect, could have actually--Oh! and tears of self-despite would
+rush into her eyes as her remorseless memory set before her those
+scenes. And had she been utterly beside herself that day in the store,
+when she gave him that look and that hand-clasp? But for that the only
+fruit of her folly would have been the loss of her own self-respect, but
+now she was guilty toward him. This wretched business was dead
+earnest to him, if not to her. With what a pang of self-contemptuous
+self-reproach she recalled his white, anguished face as he rushed into
+the store to bid her farewell when the soldiers were coming to take him.
+If he at first, by his persecution of her, had left her with a right to
+complain, she had given him such a right by that glance. She writhed as
+she admitted to herself that by that she had given him a sort of claim
+on her.
+
+The village gossip about Perez' infatuation for her, although of her own
+weakness none guessed, had naturally come to the ears of the visitors,
+and some of the young men at Edwards' good naturedly chaffed her about
+it, speaking of it as an amusing joke. She had to bear this without
+wincing, and worse still, she had to play the hypocrite so far as to
+reply in the same jesting tone, joining in turning the laugh on the
+poor, shabby mob captain, when she knew in her heart it ought to be
+turned against her.
+
+There was nothing else she could do, of course. She could not confess to
+these gay bantering young gentlemen the incredible weakness of which she
+had been guilty. But if the self-contempt of the doer can avenge a wrong
+done to another, Perez was amply avenged for this. And the worst of
+it was that the thought that she had wronged him here also, and meanly
+taken advantage of him, added to that horrid sense of his claim on her.
+He began to occupy her mind to a morbid and most painful extent, really
+much affecting her enjoyment. His sad and shabby figure, with its
+mutely reproachful face, haunted her. All that might have been to his
+disadvantage compared with the refined and cultivated circle about her,
+was overcome by the pathos and dignity with which her sense of having
+done him wrong invested him. Such was her unenviable state of mind, when
+one evening, a week or ten days after the affair at West Stockbridge,
+one of the young men at the house said to her gayly:
+
+“May I hope, Miss Edwards, not to be wholly forgotten if I should fall
+on the gory field to-morrow?”
+
+“What do you mean?” she asked.
+
+“What, didn't you know? General Patterson is fearful the Capuan delights
+of Stockbridge will sap our martial vigor, and is going to lead us
+against the foe in his lair at dawn to-morrow.”
+
+“Where is his lair this time?” asked Desire, carelessly.
+
+“We've heard that two or three hundred of the rascals have collected out
+here at Lee to stop a petty court, and we're going to capture them.”
+
+“By the way, too, Miss Edwards,” broke in another, “your admirer,
+Hamlin, is at the head of them, and I've no doubt his real design is
+to make a dash on Stockbridge, and carry you off from the midst of
+your faithful knights. He'll have a chance to repent of his presumption
+to-morrow. Squire Woodbridge told me this afternoon that if he does not
+have him triced up to the whipping-post in two hours after we bring him
+in, it will be because he is no justice of the quorum. It's plain the
+Squire has no liking for the fellow.”
+
+“I hope there'll be a little more fun this time than there was last
+week. I'm sick of these battles without any fighting,” doughtily
+remarked a very young man.
+
+“I'm afraid your blood-thirstiness won't be gratified this time,”
+ answered the first speaker. “The General means to surprise them and take
+every man-jack of them prisoner before they're fairly waked up. We shall
+be back to breakfast to receive your congratulations, Miss Edwards.”
+
+But Miss Edwards had left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH
+
+A GAME OF BLUFF
+
+
+Had Perez Hamlin been her sweetheart, her brother, her dearest friend,
+the announcement that he was to be captured and brought to Stockbridge
+for punishment would not have come upon her with a greater effect of
+consternation. After hearing that news it would have been impossible for
+her to have retained her composure sufficiently to have avoided remark
+had she remained in the parlor. But there were other reasons why she had
+fled to the seclusion of her chamber. It was necessary that she should
+think of some plan to evade the humiliation of being confronted by him,
+of being reminded by his presence, by his looks, and maybe his words
+even, of the weak folly of which she was so cruelly ashamed, and which
+she was trying to forget about. Desperately, she resolved to make some
+excuse to fly to Pittsfield, to be away from home when Perez was brought
+in. But no, she could think of no excuse, not even the wildest pretense
+for thus precipitately leaving a house full of guests, and taking a
+journey by dangerous roads to make an uninvited visit. Perez must be
+warned, he must escape, he must not be captured. Thus only could she
+see any way to evade meeting him. But how could word be got to him?
+They marched at dawn. There were but a few hours. There was his family.
+Surely, if they were warned, they would find a way of communicating with
+him. She had heard that he had a brother. Whatever she did she must do
+quickly, before she was missed from the parlor and her mother came to
+her door to ask if she were sick. There was no time to change her dress,
+or even her shoes. Throwing a big shawl over her head, which quite
+concealed her figure, she noiselessly made her way downstairs, and out
+into the snowy street, passing, as she went, close under the lighted
+windows of the parlor, whence came the sound of the voices and laughter
+of guests who, no doubt, were already wondering at her absence.
+
+Thanks to the amount of travel of late weeks, the snow in the street had
+been trodden to a passable condition. But blinded by the darkness every
+now and then, with a gasp and a flounder, she would step out of the
+path into the deep snow on either side, and once hearing a sleigh coming
+along, she had to plunge into a drift nearly as high as her waist, and
+stand there till the vehicle had passed, with the snow freezing her
+ankles, and also ruining, as she well knew, her lovely morocco shoes.
+Suddenly a tall figure loomed up close before her, there was a rattle of
+accoutrements, and a rough voice said sharply:
+
+“Halt!”
+
+She stopped, all in a tremble. She had quite forgotten that the streets
+were now-a-days guarded by regular lines of sentries.
+
+“Advance and give the countersign,” said the soldier.
+
+At first she gave herself quite up for lost. Then she remembered that by
+the merest chance in the world she knew the countersign for that night.
+The officer of the day had playfully asked her to name it, and in honor
+of the patriotic citizens of the capital who had lent to the empty
+treasury the money needed to equip and supply the force of militia
+the governor had ordered out, she had given “The Merchants of Boston.”
+ Scarcely believing that so simple a formula could remove this formidable
+obstacle from her path, she repeated it in a tremulous voice. “Pass
+on,” said the sentry, and the way was clear. Now turning out of the
+main street, she made her way slowly and pantingly, rather wading than
+walking up the less trodden lane leading to the Hamlins' house, through
+whose windows shines the flickering light of the fire on the hearth
+within, the only species of evening illumination afforded in those days
+save in the households of the rich.
+
+She pulls the latchstring and enters. The miserable fittings of the
+great kitchen denote extreme poverty, but the great fire of logs in the
+chimney is such as the richest, in these days of wasted forests, cannot
+afford, and the ruddy light illumines the room as all the candles in
+Stockbridge scarcely could do. Before it sit Elnathan and his wife and
+Reuben. The shawl which Desire wears is thickly flecked with the snow,
+through which she has stumbled, and instinctively her first motion on
+entering the room is to open and shake it, thereby revealing to the eyes
+of the astonished family the toilet of a fashionable beauty. Her hair
+is built up over a toupee with a charming effect of stateliness, the
+dusting of powder upon the dark strands bringing out the rich bloom of
+her brunette complexion. The shoulders gleam through the meshes of the
+square of ancient yellow lace that covers them, while the curves of the
+full young figure and the white roundness of the arms, left bare by the
+elbow sleeves, are set off in charming contrast by the stiff folds of
+the figured crimson brocade.
+
+“Miss Edwards!” murmurs Mrs. Hamlin, as Elnathan and Reuben gape in
+speechless bewilderment.
+
+“Yes, it is I,” replied Desire, coming forward a few steps, but still
+keeping in the back of the room. “I came to tell you that the army is
+going to march at dawn to-morrow to Lee, to take your son, and all who
+are with him prisoners, and bring them back here to be punished.” There
+was a moment's silence, then Mrs. Hamlin said:
+
+“How do you know it?”
+
+“I was told so ten minutes since by the officers at my father's house,”
+ replied Desire.
+
+“And why do you tell us?” asked Mrs. Hamlin again, regarding her keenly
+from beneath her bushy grey eyebrows, and speaking with a certain slight
+hardness of tone, as if half suspicious of a warning from such a source.
+
+“I thought if I told you in time, you might get some word to him so he
+could get away. The countersign is 'The Merchants of Boston.'”
+
+Mrs. Hamlin's face suddenly changed its expression, and she answered
+slowly, in a tone of intense, suppressed feeling:
+
+“And so you left them gay gentlemen, and waded through the snow all
+alone half a mile way out here, all in your pretty clothes, so that no
+harm might come to my boy. God bless you, my child! God bless you with
+his choicest blessings, my sweet young lady! My son does well to worship
+the ground you walk on.”
+
+It was an odd sensation, but as the gray-haired woman was speaking, her
+face aglow with tenderness, and her eyes wet with a mother's gratitude,
+Desire could not help half wishing she had deserved the words, even
+though that wish implied her being really in love with this woman's son.
+It was not without emotion, and eyes to which a responsive wetness had
+sprung that she exclaimed, with a gesture of deprecation:
+
+“No, no, do not thank me. If you knew all, you would not thank me. I am
+not so good as you think,” and, throwing the door open she sprang out
+into the snow.
+
+When she reentered the parlor at home, the silver-dialed clock, high
+upon the wall, accused her of only an hour's absence, and since nobody
+but herself knew that her feet were quite wet through, there were no
+explanations to make. But for the first time she wearied a little of her
+courtiers. She found their compliments insipid and her repartees
+were slow. Her thoughts were wandering to that poor home where all
+undeservedly she had been received as an angel of light; and her
+anxieties were with the messenger stumbling along the half broken road
+to Lee to carry the warning. When, at last, Squire Edwards proposed
+that all should fill their punch-glasses and drain to the success of
+the morrow's expedition, she set down hers untasted, passing off her
+omission with some excuse. That night toward morning, though it was yet
+pitch dark, she was awakened by the noise of opening doors and men's
+boots, and loud talk; and afterwards hearing a heavy, jarring sound,
+she looked out the window and descried in the road, a long black column
+moving rapidly along, noiseless save for now and then a hoarse word of
+command. It was the expedition setting out for Lee. The impressiveness
+of this silent, formidable departure gave her a new sense of the
+responsibility she had taken on herself in frustrating the design of
+so many grave and weighty men, and interfering with issues of life and
+death. And then for the first time a dreadful thought occurred to her.
+What if after all there should be a battle? She had only thought of
+giving Perez warning, so he might fly with his men, but what if he
+should take advantage of it to prepare an ambush and fight? She had not
+thought of that. Jonathan was with the expedition. What if she should
+prove to be the murderer of her brother? What had she done? Sick at
+heart, she lay awake trembling till dawn. Then she got up and dressed,
+and waited about miserably, till toward eight o'clock the news of the
+result came. Then she laughed till she cried and ended by saying that
+she would go to bed, for she thought she was going to be sick. And she
+was right. Her mother wondered how she could have taken such a terrible
+cold.
+
+But leaving Dr. Partridge to cure her cold with calomel and laudanum,
+after the manner of the day, let us inquire in a historical spirit what
+it was in the news of the result at Lee which should cause a young woman
+to laugh so immoderately.
+
+It had been nearly midnight of the preceding evening, when Reuben
+wearily and slowly making his way along the dark and difficult road,
+reached Lee, and was directed at the rebel outposts to the house of Mrs.
+Perry as the place which Perez occupied as a headquarters. Although
+it was so late, the rebel commander, too full of anxious and brooding
+thoughts to sleep, was still sitting before the smouldering fire in the
+kitchen chimney when Reuben staggered in.
+
+“Reub,” he cried, starting up as he recognized his brother, “what's the
+matter? Has anything happened at home?”
+
+“Nothing bad. I've brought you news. Have you got some rum? I'm pretty
+tired.”
+
+Perez found a demijohn, poured out a mug, and watched his brother with
+anxious eyes as he gulped it down. Presently, a little color came back
+to his white face, and he said:
+
+“Now I feel better. It was a hard road. I felt like giving out once or
+twice. But I'm all right now.”
+
+“What made you come, Reub? You're not strong yet. It might have killed
+you.”
+
+“I had to, Perez. It was life or death for you. The army at Stockbridge
+are going to surprise you at sunrise. I came to warn you. Desire Edwards
+brought us word.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Perez, his face aglow. “She brought you word? Do you
+mean that?”
+
+“Jess hole on, and I'll tell you how it was,” said Reub, with a manner
+almost as full of enthusiasm as his brother's. “It was nigh bedtime, and
+we were setting afore the fire a talking 'bout you, and a hopin you'd
+get over the line into York; when the door opened, an in come Desire
+Edwards, all dressed up in a shiny gaown, an her hair fixed, an
+everything like as to a weddin. I tell yew, Perez, my eyes stood out
+some. An afore we could say nothing, we wuz so flustered, she up an
+says as haow she hearn them ossifers tew her haouse tellin haow they wuz
+gonter s'prise ye in the mornin, an so she come ter tell us, thinkin we
+mout git word ter ye.”
+
+“Did she say that, Reub? Did she say those words? Did she say that about
+me? Are you sure?” interrupted Perez, in a hushed tone of incredulous
+ecstasy, as he nervously gripped his brother's shoulder.
+
+“Them wuz her words, nigh es I kin reckullec,” replied Reub, “an that
+'bout yew she said for sartin. She said we wuz ter sen' word ter ye,
+so's ye mout git away, an then she guv me the countersign for ter say
+tew the sentries, so's I could git by ter fetch ye word.”
+
+“To think of her doing all that for me, Reub. I can't believe it. It's
+too much. Because you see, Reub, if she'd take all that trouble for me,
+it shows--it shows--I think it must be she”--he hesitated, and finally
+gulped out--“cares for me, Reub,” and his eyes filled with tears.
+
+“Ye may say so, for sartin, Perez,” replied his brother with sympathetic
+enthusiasm. “A gal wouldn' dew what she did for no feller, unless she
+sat store by him, naow. It's a sign fer sure.”
+
+“Reub,” said Perez, in a voice uneven with suppressed emotion, “now I
+know she cares for me that much, I don't mind a snap of the finger what
+happens to me. If they came to hang me this minute, I should laugh in
+their faces,” and he sprang up and paced to and fro, with fixed eyes
+and a set smile, and then, still wearing the same look came back and sat
+down by his brother, and said: “I sort of hoped she cared for me before,
+but it seemed most too much to believe. You don't know how I feel, Reub.
+You can't think, nohow.”
+
+“Yes I can,” said Reuben, quietly; “I guess ye feel suthin ez I uster
+baout Jemimy, sorter light inside an so pleased like ye don't keer a
+copper ef ye live or die. Yes, I know mor'n ye think I dew baout the
+feelin's a feller hez long o' women, on'y ye see it didn't come ter
+nothin with Jemimy, fer wen my fust crop failed, an I was tuk for debt,
+Peleg got her arter all.”
+
+“I didn't think 'bout Jemimy, Reub,” said Perez, softly. In the
+affluence of his own happiness, he was overwhelmed with compassion for
+his brother. He was stricken by the patient look upon his pale face.
+“Never mind, Reub,” he said. “Don't be downhearted. You and me 'll stand
+by each other, an mebbe it'll be made up to ye some time,” and he laid
+his arm tenderly on the other's shoulder.
+
+“I on'y spoke on't 'cause o' what ye said 'bout my not under-standin,”
+ said Reuben, excusing himself for having made a demand on the other's
+compassion. “She never guv me no sech reasin ter think she set store by
+me ez ye've hed ter night 'long o' Desire Edwards. I wuzn't a comparin
+on us, nohow.”
+
+There was a space of silence finally disturbed by a noise of boots in
+an adjoining room and presently Abner Rathbun stumped out. Abner had
+escaped at the West Stockbridge rout and having made his way to Perez,
+at Lee, had been forgiven his desertion by the latter and made his chief
+lieutenant and adviser.
+
+“Hello, Reub,” he exclaimed. “Whar'd ye drop from? Heard so much talkin,
+callated suthin must a happened, an turned out ter see what it wuz.
+Fetched any news, hev ye Reub? Spit it aout. Guess it muss be pooty
+good, or the cap'n would'n be lookin so darned pleased.”
+
+“The news I fetched is that the army in Stockbridge is going to attack
+you to-morrow at dawn.”
+
+Abner's jaw fell. He looked from Reuben to Perez, whose face as he
+gazed absently at the coals on the hearth still wore the smile which
+had attracted his attention. This seemed to decide him, for as he turned
+again to Reub, he said, shrewdly:
+
+“Yew can't fool me with no gum-game o' that sort. I guess Perez wouldn't
+be grinnin that ar way ef he callated we wuz gonter be all chawed up
+afore mornin.”
+
+“Reuben tells the truth. They are going to attack us in the morning,”
+ said Perez, looking up. Abner stared at him a moment, and then demanded
+half-sullen, half-puzzled:
+
+“Wal, Cap'n, wat dew ye see tew larf at in that? Derned ef I see nothin
+funny.”
+
+“Your glum mug would be enough to laugh at if there was nothing else
+Abner,” said Perez, getting up and gayly slapping the giant on the
+shoulder.
+
+“I s'pose ye must hev got some plan in yer head fer gittin the best on
+em,” suggested Abner, at last, evidently racking his brains to suggest a
+hypothesis to explain his commander's untimely levity.
+
+“No, Abner,” replied Perez, “I have not thought of any plan yet. What do
+you think about the business?”
+
+“I'm afeard thar ain't no dependin on the men fer a scrimmage. I callate
+they'll scatter ez soon's the news gits raound that the white feathers
+be comin, 'thout even waitin fer em tew git in sight,” was Abner's
+gloomy response.
+
+“I shouldn't be at all surprised if they did. I don't believe there's a
+dozen in the lot we could depend on,” said Perez cheerfully.
+
+“Wat's the matter with ye, Cap'n,” burst out Abner, in desperation. “I
+can't make aout wat's come over ye. Ye talk 's though ye didn' keer a
+Bungtaown copper wether we fit or run, or stayed an got hung, but jess
+set thar a grinnin tew yerself ez if ye'd loss yer wits.”
+
+Perez laughed again, but checking himself, replied: “I s'pose I do seem
+a little queer, Abner, but you mustn't mind that. I hope I haven't lost
+my wits quite. Let's see, now,” he went on in a businesslike tone, with
+the air of one abruptly enforcing a new direction upon his thoughts.
+“We could get up the men and retreat to the mountains by morning, but
+two-thirds would desert before we'd marched two miles, and slink away
+home, and the worst of it is the poor chaps would be arrested and abused
+when they got home.”
+
+“That's sartin so, Cap'n,” said Abner, his anxiety for Perez' sanity
+evidently diminishing.
+
+“It's a shame to retreat, too, with such a position to defend. Why,
+Abner, just look at it. The snow is three to four feet deep in the
+fields and woods, and the enemy can only come in on the road. That road
+is just like a causeway through a swamp or a bridge. They can't go off
+it without snowshoes. With half a company that I could depend on, I'd
+defend it against a regiment. If I wanted breastworks all I've got to
+do is to dig paths in the snow. I could hold Lee till the snow melts
+or till they took it by zig-zags and parallels through the drifts. But
+there's no use talking about any such thing, for there's no fight left
+in the men, not a bit. If they had ever so little grit left, we might
+hold out long enough at least to get some sort of fair terms, but, Lord
+they haven't. They'll just run like sheep.”
+
+“Ef we on'y hed a cannon naow, ef 'twan't but a three-pounder!” said
+Abner, pathetically. “We could jess sot it in the middle of the road,
+and all creation couldn't get intew Lee. Yew an I could stop em alone
+then. Gosh naow wat wouldn't I give fer a cannon the size o' Mis Perry's
+yarn-beam thar. Ef the white feathers seen a gun the size o' that
+p'inted at em an a feller behind it with a hot coal, I callate they'd be
+durn glad tew 'gree tew a fa'r settlement. But Lordomassy, gosh knows we
+hain't got no cannon, and we can't make one.”
+
+“I don't know about that, Abner,” replied Perez, deliberately. His
+glance had followed Abner's to the loom standing in the back of the
+kitchen, and as he answered his lieutenant he was fixedly regarding the
+very yarn-beam to which the other had alluded, a round, smooth, dark
+colored wooden roller, five or six feet long and eight or ten inches
+through.
+
+But perhaps it will be better to let Dr. Partridge tell the rest of the
+story as he related it nearly three weeks later for the amusement of
+Desire during her convalescence from the cold and fever through which he
+had brought her.
+
+“It was pitch dark when we left Stockbridge,” said the doctor, “and
+allowing a good hour for the march owing to the state of the road, the
+General calculated we should reach Lee about dawn and catch the rascals
+taking their beauty sleep. It was excessively cold and our fingers began
+to grow numb very soon, and if anybody touched the iron part of his gun
+without the mittens he would leave a piece of skin behind. But you see
+we had just heard of General Lincoln's thirty-mile night march from
+Hadley to Petersham in even worse weather, and for the credit of
+Berkshire, we had to keep on if we froze to death. We met nobody until
+we were within half a mile of Lee. Then we overhauled one of the rebel
+sentries, and captured him, though not till he had let off his gun. Then
+we heard the drum beating in the town. There was nothing to do but to
+hurry on as fast as we could. And so we did for about ten minutes more
+when somebody said, 'There they are.' Sure enough, about twenty rods
+off, where the road enters the village was a black mass of men occupying
+its entire breadth with a man on horseback in front whom I took for
+Hamlin. We kept on a little longer and then the General ordered us to
+halt, and Squire Woodbridge rode forward within easy speaking distance
+of the rebels and began to read the riot act. But he had no sooner
+begun than Hamlin made a gesture, and a drum struck up lustily among the
+rebels, drowning the Squire's voice. Nevertheless he made an end of
+the reading so that we might proceed legally and thereupon the General
+ordered the men to fix bayonets and gave the order to march. Then it
+seemed that the rebels were about to retire, for their line fell back a
+little and already our men had given a cheer when a sharp-eyed fellow in
+the front rank sang out:
+
+“'They've got a cannon!' And when we looked, sure enough the slight
+falling back of the rebels we had noted, had only been to uncover a
+piece of artillery which was planted squarely in the middle of the road,
+pointing directly at us. A man with a smoking brazier of coals stood by
+the breech, and another, whom by his size I took to be Abner Rathbun,
+with a pair of tongs held a bright coal which he had taken from it. It
+being yet rather dark, though close on sunrise, we could plainly see the
+redness of the coal the fellow held in the tongs above the touchhole
+of the gun, and ticklish near, it seemed, I can say. I know not to this
+day, and others say the same, whether any one gave the order to halt or
+not, but it is certain we stopped square, nor were those behind at all
+disposed to push forward such as were in front, for there is this about
+cannon balls that is different from musket balls. The front rank serves
+the rear rank as a shield from the bullets, but the cannon ball plows
+the whole length of the file and kills those behind as readily as those
+before. And, moreover, we had as soon expected to see the devil in horns
+and tail leading the rebels, as this cannon, for no one supposed there
+was a piece of artillery in all Berkshire. You must know the place we
+were in, was, moreover, as bad as could be; for we could only march
+by the road, by reason of the deep snow on either hand, which was like
+walls shutting us in, and leaving room for no more than eight men to
+go abreast. If the cannon were loaded with a ball, it must needs cut
+a swathe like a scythe from the first man to the last, and if it were
+loaded with small balls, all of us who were near the front must needs go
+down at once. The General asked counsel of us who were riding with him
+at the front what had best be done, whereupon Squire Sedgwick advised
+that half a dozen of us with horses should put spurs to them and dash
+suddenly upon the cannon and take it. 'Ten to one,' he said, 'the rascal
+with the tongs will not dare touch off the gun, and if he does, why,
+'tis but one shot.' But this seemed to us all a foolhardy thing; for,
+though there were but one shot, who could tell whom it might hit? It
+might be one of us as well as another. Your uncle Jahleel, as it seemed,
+lest any should deem Squire Sedgwick braver than he, declared that he
+was ready, but the others of us, by no means fell in with the notion and
+General Patterson said flatly that he was responsible for all our lives
+and would permit no such madness. And then, as no one had any other plan
+to propose, we were in a quandary, and I noted that each one had his
+eyes, as it were, fastened immovably upon the cannon and the glowing
+coal which the fellow held in the tongs. For, in order to keep it clear
+of ash, he kept waving it to and fro, and once or twice when he brought
+it perilously close to the touchhole, I give you my word I began
+to think in a moment of all the things I had done in my life. And I
+remember, too, that if one of us was speaking when the fellow made as if
+he would touch off the gun, there was an interruption of a moment in his
+speech, ere he went on again. It must be that not only civilians like
+myself, but men of war also do find a certain discomposing effect in
+the stare of a cannon. Meanwhile the wind drew through the narrow path
+wherein we stood, with vehemence, and, whereas we had barely kept our
+blood in motion by our laboring through the snow, now that we stood
+still, we seemed freezing. Our horses shivered and set their ears back
+with the cold, but it was notable how quietly the men stood packed in
+the road behind us, though they must have been well nigh frost-bitten.
+No doubt they were absorbed in watching the fellow swinging the coal as
+we were. But if we did not advance, we must retreat, that was plain.
+We could not stay where we were. It was, I fancy, because no one could
+bring himself to propose such an ignoble issue to our enterprise, that
+we were for a little space all dumb.
+
+“Then it was when the General could no longer have put off giving the
+order to right about march, that Hamlin tied a white rag to his sword
+and rode toward us holding it aloft. When he had come about half way, he
+cried out:
+
+“'Will your commander and Dr. Partridge, if he be among you, ride out to
+meet me? I would have a parley.'
+
+“Why he pitched on me I know not, save that, wanting a witness, he chose
+me as being a little more friendly to him than most of the Stockbridge
+gentlemen. When we had ridden forward, he saluted us with great
+cordiality and good humor, as if forsooth, instead of being within an
+ace of murdering us all, he had but been trying us with a jest.
+
+“'I see,' said he to the general, 'that your fellows like not the look
+of my artillery, and I blame them not, for it will be a nasty business
+in that narrow lane if we have to let drive, as assuredly we shall do
+if you come another foot further. But it may be we can settle our
+difference without bloodshed. My men have fled together to me to be
+protected from arrest and prosecution, for what they have heretofore
+done, not because they intend further to attack the government. I will
+agree that they shall disperse and go quietly to their homes, provided
+you give me your word that they shall not be arrested or injured by your
+men, and will promise to use your utmost influence to secure them from
+any arrest hereafter, and that at any rate they shall have trial before
+a jury of their neighbors.'
+
+“The General is a shrewd bargainer, I make no doubt, for though I knew
+he was delighted out of measure to find any honorable escape from the
+predicament in which we were, he pulled a long face, and after some
+thought, said that he would grant the conditions, provided the rebels
+also surrendered their arms, and took the oath of allegiance to the
+state. At this Hamlin laughed a little.
+
+“'I see, sir, we are but wasting time,' he said, with a mighty
+indifferent air. 'You have got the boot on the wrong foot. It is we who
+are granting you terms, not you us. You may thank your stars I don't
+require your men to surrender their arms. Look you, sir, my men will not
+give up their guns, or take any oath but go as free as yours, with your
+promise of protection hereafter. If you agree to those terms, you may
+come into Lee, and we will disperse. If not let us lose no more time
+waiting, but have at it.'
+
+“It was something to make one's blood run cold, to hear the fellow talk
+so quietly about murdering us. The General hemmed and hawed a little,
+and made a show of talking aside with me, and presently said that to
+avoid shedding the blood of the misguided men on the other side, he
+would consent to the terms, but he added, the artillery must at any rate
+be surrendered.
+
+“'It is private property,' said Hamlin.
+
+“'It is forfeited to its owner by its use against the government,'
+replied the General sturdily.
+
+“'I will not stickle for the gun,' said Hamlin, 'but will leave you to
+settle that with the owner,' and, as he spoke, he looked as if he were
+inwardly amused over something.
+
+“Thereupon we separated. The announcement of the terms was received by
+our men with a cheer, for they had made up their minds that there was
+nothing before them but a march back to Stockbridge in the face of the
+wind and to meet the ridicule of the populace. As we now approached the
+cannon at quick-step Abner Rathbun came around and stood in front of it,
+so we did not see it till we were close upon it. He was grinning from
+ear to ear. The road just behind was packed with rebels all likewise on
+the broad grin, as if at some prodigious jest. As we came up Hamlin said
+to the General:
+
+“'Sir, I now deliver over to you the artillery, that is if you can
+settle it with Mrs. Perry. Abner stand aside.'
+
+“Rathbun did so and what we saw was a yarn-beam mounted on a pair of
+oxcart wheels with the tongue of the cart resting on the ground behind.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH
+
+THE RESTORATION
+
+
+As was remarked in the last chapter, it was some three weeks after
+the famous encounter at Lee that Dr. Partridge entertained Desire one
+afternoon with the account of the affair which I have transcribed for
+the information of my readers. The interval between the night before the
+Lee expedition, when she had taken her sickness, and the sunny afternoon
+of expiring February, when she sat listening to the doctor's story, had
+for her been only a blank of sickness, but in the community around, it
+had been a time of anxiety, of embitterment, and of critical change. The
+gay and brilliant court, of which she had for a brief period been the
+center, had long ago vanished. Hamlin's band at Lee had been the last
+considerable force of rebels embodied in Southern Berkshire, and a few
+days after its dispersal the companies from other towns left Stockbridge
+to return home, leaving the protection of the village to the home
+company. Close on this followed the arrival at Pittsfield of General
+Lincoln with a body of troops called into Berkshire by the invitation
+of General Patterson, to the disgust of some gentlemen who thought the
+county quite capable of attending to its own affairs. These forces
+had completed the pacification of Northern Berkshire, where, among the
+mountain fastnesses rebel bands had till then maintained themselves, so
+that now the entire county was subdued and the insurrection, so far
+as concerned any overt manifestation, was at an end. In Stockbridge
+Tax-collector Williams once more went his rounds. Deputy Sheriff
+Seymour's red flag floated again from the gable ends of the houses
+whence the mob had torn it last September, foreclosure sales were made,
+processes were served, debtors taken to jail, and the almost forgotten
+sound of the lash was once more heard on the green of Saturday
+afternoons as the constable executed Squire Woodbridge's sentences at
+the reërected whipping-post and stocks. Sedgwick's return to Boston to
+his seat in the Legislature early in February, had left Woodbridge to
+resume unimpeded his ancient autocracy in the village, and with as many
+grudges as that gentleman had to pay off, it may well be supposed
+the constable had no sinecure. The victims of justice were almost
+exclusively those who had been concerned in the late rebellion. For
+although the various amnesties, as well as the express stipulations
+under which a large number had surrendered, protected most of the
+insurgents from penalties for their political crimes, still misdemeanors
+and petty offenses against property and persons during the late
+disturbances were chargeable against most of them, and tried before a
+magistrate whom, like Woodbridge, they had mobbed. A charge was as good
+as a proof.
+
+Nor if they appealed to a jury, was their chance much better, for the
+Legislature coming together again in February, had excluded former
+rebels from the jury box for three years, binding them to keep the peace
+for the same time, and depriving them of the elective franchise in all
+forms for a year, while on the other hand complete indemnity was granted
+to the friends of government for all offences against property or
+persons, which they might have committed in suppressing the rebellion.
+Without here controverting the necessity of these measures, it is easy
+to realize the state of hopeless discouragement to which they reduced
+the class exposed to their effect. Originally driven into the rebellion
+by the pressure of a poverty which made them the virtual serfs of the
+gentlemen, they now found themselves not only forced to resume their
+former position in that respect, but were in addition, deprived of the
+ordinary civil rights and guarantees of citizens. In desperation many
+fled over the border into New York and Connecticut, and joined bands of
+similar refugees which were camped there. Others, weaker spirited,
+or bound by ties they could not or would not break, remained at home,
+seeking to propitiate their masters by a contrite and circumspect
+demeanor, or sullenly enduring whatever was put upon them. A large
+number prepared to emigrate to homes in the West as soon as spring
+opened the roads.
+
+Of the chief abettors of Perez, the fortunes may be briefly told. Jabez
+Flint had sold all he had and escaped to Nova Scotia to join one of the
+numerous colonies of deported Tories which had been formed there. Jabez
+was down on his luck.
+
+“I've hed enough o' rebellin,” he declared. “I've tried both sides on't.
+In the fust rebellion I wuz agin' the rebels, an the rebels licked. This
+ere time I tuk sides agin' the govment, an the govment hez licked. I'm
+like a feller ez is fust kicked behind an then in the stummick. I be
+done on both sides, like a pancake.”
+
+Israel Goodrich and Ezra Phelps, being excepted from the amnesties as
+members of the rebel committee, had only escaped jailing because, as men
+of some substance they had been able to give large bonds to await the
+further disposition of the Boston government.
+
+“I didn' mind so much 'bout that,” said Israel, “but what come kinder
+tough on me wuz a seein them poor white-livered pulin chaps tew my house
+tuk back ter jail.”
+
+For the debtors whom the mob had released from Great Barrington jail,
+including those to whom Israel had given asylum, had now been recaptured
+and returned to the charge of Cephas Bement and his pretty wife. Reuben
+Hamlin had been taken with the rest, though his stay in jail this
+time did not promise to be a long one, for he had overdone his feeble
+strength in that night walk through the snow to Lee, and since then had
+declined rapidly. He was so far gone that it would scarcely have been
+thought worth while to take him to jail if he could have remained at
+home. But as the sheriff had now sold the Hamlin house at auction, and
+Elnathan and his wife had been separated and boarded out as paupers,
+this was out of the question.
+
+There was one man in Stockbridge, however, who was more to be pitied
+than Reuben. Peleg Bidwell found himself at the end of the rebellion
+as at the opening of it, the debtor and thrall of Solomon Gleason, save
+that his debt was greater, his means of paying it even less, while by
+his insolent bearing toward Solomon during the rebellion, he had made
+him not only his creditor but his enemy. The jail yawned before Peleg,
+and of the jail he, as well as the people generally, had acquired a new
+horror since the day when the mob had brought to light the secrets of
+that habitation of cruelty. He felt that, come what might, he could not
+go to a jail. And he did not. But his pretty wife stayed at home and
+avoided her former acquaintances, and those who saw her said she was
+pale and acted queer, and Peleg went about with a hangdog look, and
+Solomon Gleason was a frequent caller, and the women of the neighborhood
+whispered together.
+
+Abner Rathbun and Meshech Little had fled across the border, and Abe
+Konkapot would have done so but for the fact that he could not leave his
+sweetheart Lu to be secured by his rival and brother, Jake. Jake, having
+out of enmity to his brother sided with the government party, was now
+in favor with the powers that were, and more preferred than ever by Lu's
+mother. But Abe knew the girl liked him rather the better, and did not
+let himself be discouraged. Jake, observing that he made little progress
+in spite of his advantages, laid a plot against his brother. The latter
+had acquired in the army a tendency to use profane language in moments
+of excitement, and it was of this weakness that Jake took advantage.
+Picking an opportunity when there were witnesses, he provoked Abe to
+wrath, and having made him swear profusely, went straightway to Squire
+Woodbridge and complained of him for blasphemy. Abe was promptly
+arrested and brought before the magistrate. The Squire, not unwilling to
+get a handle against so bad a rebel, observed that it was high time for
+the authorities to make a head against the tide of blasphemy which had
+swept over the state since the war, and to advertise to the rabble
+that the statute against profanity was not a dead letter and thereupon
+sentenced Abe to ten lashes at the whipping-post, to be at once laid on,
+it chancing to be a Saturday afternoon. While Abe, frantic with rage,
+was struggling with the constable and his assistants, Jake ran away to
+the Widow Nimham's cottage and asking Lu to go to walk, managed to bring
+her across the green in time to see the sentence carried into execution.
+Jake had understood what he was about. There were no doubt white
+girls in Stockbridge who might have married a lover whom they had seen
+publicly whipped, but for Lu, with an Indian's intense sensitiveness to
+a personal indignity, it would have been impossible. Abe needed no one
+to tell him that. As he was unbound and walked away from the post, his
+blood-shotten eyes had taken her in standing there with Jake. He did
+not even make an effort to see her afterwards and next Sunday Jake's and
+Lu's banns were called in meeting. Abe had been drunk pretty much all
+the time since, lying about the tavern floor. Widow Bingham said she
+hadn't a heart to refuse him rum, and in truth the poor fellow's
+manhood was so completely broken down, that he must have been a resolute
+teetotaler, indeed, who would not have deemed it an act of common
+humanity to help him temporarily to forget himself.
+
+Such then are the events that were taking place in the community
+about her while Desire was lying on her sick bed, or making her first
+appearances as a convalescent downstairs. Only faint and occasional
+echoes of them had reached her ears. She had been told, indeed, that
+the rebellion was now all over and peace and order restored, but of the
+details and incidents of the process she knew nothing. To be precise it
+was during the latter part of the afternoon of the twenty-sixth day of
+February, that Dr. Partridge was entertaining her as aforesaid with his
+humorous version of the Lee affair. The Dr. and Mrs. Partridge had
+come to tea, and to spend the evening, and just here, lest any modern
+housewife should object that it is not a New England country practice
+to invite company on washing-day, I would mention that in those days
+of inexhaustible stores of linen, washing-day rarely came over once a
+fortnight. After tea in the evening the Doctor and Squire Edwards sat
+talking politics over their snuff-boxes, while Mrs. Partridge and Mrs.
+Edwards discussed the difficulty of getting good help, now that the
+negroes were beginning to feel the oats of their new liberty, and
+the farmers' daughters, since the war and the talk about liberty and
+equality, thought themselves as good as their betters. Now that the
+insurrection had still further stirred up their jealousy of gentlefolk,
+it was to be expected that they would be quite past getting on with at
+all, and for all Mrs. Edwards could see, ladies must make up their minds
+to do their own work pretty soon.
+
+Desire sat in an armchair, her hands folded in her lap, musingly gazing
+into the glowing bed of coals upon the hearth, and listening half
+absently to the talk about her. She had been twice to meeting the
+day before, and considered herself as now quite well, but she had not
+disused the invalid's privilege of sitting silent in company.
+
+“I marvel,” said Squire Edwards, contemplatively tapping his snuff-box,
+“at the working of Providence, when I consider that so lately the
+Commonwealth, and especially this county, was in turmoil, the rebels
+having everything their own way, and we scarcely daring to call our
+souls our own, and behold them now scattered, fled over the border,
+in prison, or disarmed and trembling, and the authority of law and the
+courts everywhere established.”
+
+“Yes,” replied the Doctor, “we have reason to be thankful indeed, and
+yet I cannot help compassionating the honester among the rebels. It is
+the pity of an uprising like this, that while one must needs sympathize
+with the want and suffering of the rebels, it is impossible to condemn
+too strongly the mad plans they urge as remedies. Ezra Phelps was
+telling me the other day, that their idea, had they succeeded, was to
+cause so many bills to be printed and scattered abroad, that the
+poorest could get enough to pay all their debts and taxes. Some were for
+repudiating public and private debts altogether, but Ezra said that
+this would not be honest. He was in favor of printing bills enough
+so everything could be paid. I tried to show him that one plan was as
+dishonest as the other; that they might just as well refuse payment, as
+pay in worthless bits of printed paper, and that the morality of the two
+schemes being the same, that of refusing outright the payment of dues,
+was preferable practically, because at least, it would not further
+derange trade by putting a debased and valueless currency in
+circulation. But I fear he did not see it at all, if he even gave me
+credit for sincerity, and yet he is an honest, well-meaning chap, and
+more intelligent than the common run of the rebels.”
+
+“That is the trouble nowadays,” said Edwards, “these numskulls must
+needs have matters of government explained to them, and pass their own
+judgment on public affairs. And when they cannot understand them, then
+forsooth comes a rebellion. I think none can deny seeing in these
+late troubles the first fruits of those pestilent notions of equality,
+whereof we heard so much from certain quarters, during the late war of
+independence. I would that Mr. Jefferson and some of the other writers
+of pestilent democratic rhetoric might have been here in the state the
+past winter, to see the outcome of their preaching.”
+
+“It may yet prove,” said Dr. Partridge, “that these troubles are to work
+providentially to incline the people of this state to favor a closer
+union with the rest of the continent for mutual protection, if the
+forthcoming convention at Philadelphia shall devise a practicable
+scheme. By reason of the preponderant strength of our Commonwealth we
+have deemed ourselves less in need of such a union than are our sister
+colonies, but this recent experience must teach us that even we are not
+strong enough to stand alone.”
+
+“You are right there, sir,” said Edwards. “It is plain that if we keep
+on as we are, Massachusetts will ere long split into as many states as
+we have counties, or at least into several. What have these troubles
+been but a revolt of the western counties against the eastern, and had
+we gentlemen gone with the rebels, the state would have been by
+this time divided, and you know well,” here Edwards' voice became
+confidential, “we have in the main, no great cause to be beholden to
+the Bostonians. They treat our western counties as if they were but
+provinces.”
+
+Desire's attention had lapsed as the gentlemen's talk got into the
+political depths, but some time after it was again aroused by hearing
+the mention of Perez Hamlin's name. The doctor was saying:
+
+“They say he is lurking just over the York border at Lebanon. There are
+four or five score ruffians with him, who breathe out threatenings and
+slaughter against us Stockbridge people but I think we need lose no
+sleep on that account for the knaves will scarcely care to risk their
+necks on Massachusetts soil.”
+
+“It is possible,” said Edwards, “that they may make some descents on
+Egremont or Sheffield or other points just across the line, but they
+will never venture so far inland as Stockbridge for fear of being cut
+off, and if they do our militia is quite able for them. What mischief
+they can do safely they will do, but nothing else for they are arrant
+cowards when all's said.”
+
+The talk of the gentlemen branched off upon other topics, but Desire did
+not follow it further, finding in what had just been said quite enough
+to engross her thoughts. Of course there could be no real danger that
+Hamlin would venture a visit to Stockbridge, since both her father and
+the doctor scouted the idea; but there was in the mere suggestion enough
+to be very agitating. To avoid the possibility of a meeting with
+Hamlin, as well as to acquit her conscience of a goading conviction of
+unfairness to him, she had already once risked compromising herself
+by sending that midnight warning to Lee, nor did she grudge the three
+weeks' sickness it cost her, seeing it had succeeded. Nor was the idea
+of meeting him any less terrifying now. The result of her experiences
+in the last few months had been that all her old self-reliance was gone.
+When she recalled what she had done and felt, and imagined what she
+might have gone on to do, she owned in all humility that she could no
+longer take care of herself or answer for herself. Desire Edwards was
+after all capable of being as big a fool as any other girl. Especially
+at the thought of meeting Hamlin again, this sense of insecurity
+became actual panic. It was not that she feared her heart. She was not
+conscious of loving him but of dreading him. Her imagination invested
+him with some strange, irrestible magnetic power over her, the magnetism
+of a tremendous passion, against which, demoralized by the memory of
+her former weakness, she could not guarantee herself. And the upshot was
+that just because she chanced to overhear that reference to Perez in the
+gentlemen's talk, she lay awake nervous and miserable for several hours
+after going to bed that night. In fact she had finally to take herself
+seriously to task about the folly of scaring herself to death about such
+a purely fanciful danger, before she could go to sleep.
+
+She woke hours after with a stifled scream, for her mother was standing
+in the door of the room, half dressed, the candle she held revealing a
+pale and frightened face, while the words Desire heard were:
+
+“Quick, get up and dress, or you'll be murdered in bed! An army of
+Shayites is in the village.”
+
+“Four o'clock in the morning courage,” that steadiness of nerve which is
+not shaken when, suddenly roused from the relaxation and soft languor of
+sleep, one is called to face pressing, deadly, and undreamed of peril in
+the weird and chilling hour before dawn, was described by Napoleon as a
+most rare quality among soldiers, and such being the case it is hardly
+to be looked for among women. With chattering teeth and random motions,
+half-distraught with incoherent terrors, Desire made a hasty, incomplete
+toilet in the dark of her freezing bedroom, and ran downstairs. In the
+living-room she found her mother and the smaller children with the negro
+servants and Keziah Pixley, the white domestic. Downstairs in the
+cellar her father and Jonathan were at work burying the silver and other
+valuables, that having been the first thought when a fugitive from the
+tavern where the rebels had first halted, brought the alarm. There
+were no candles lit in the living-room lest their light should attract
+marauders, and the faint light of the just breaking dawn made the faces
+seem yet paler and ghastlier with fear than they were. From the street
+without could be heard the noise of a drum, shouts, and now and then
+musket shots, and having scraped away the thick frost from one of the
+panes, Desire could see parties of men with muskets going about and
+persons running across the green as if for their lives. As she looked
+she saw a party fire their muskets after one of these fugitives, who
+straightway came back and gave himself up. In the room it was bitterly
+cold, for though the ashes had been raked off the coals no wood had been
+put on lest the smoke from the chimney should draw attention.
+
+The colored servants were in a state of abject terror, but the white
+“help” made no attempt to conceal her exultation. They were her friends
+the Shayites, and her sweetheart she declared was among them. He'd sent
+her a hint that they were coming, she volubly declared, and yesterday
+when Mrs. Edwards was “so high 'n mighty with her a makin her sweep the
+kitchen twicet over she was goodamiter tell her ez haow she'd see the
+time she'd wisht she'd a kep the right side on her.”
+
+“I've always tried to do right by you Keziah. I don't think you have any
+call to be revengeful,” said the poor lady, trembling.
+
+“Mebbe I hain't and mebbe I hev,” shrilled Keziah, tossing her head
+disdainfully. “I guess I know them ez loves me from them ez don't. I
+s'pose ye think I dunno wat yer husbun an Jonathan be a buryin daown
+stairs.”
+
+“I'm sure you won't betray us, Keziah,” said Mrs. Edwards. “You've had a
+good place with us, Keziah. And there's that dimity dress of mine. It's
+quite good yet. You could have it made over for you.”
+
+“Oh yes,” replied Keziah, scornfully. “It's all well nuff ter talk bout
+givin some o' yer things away wen yer likely to lose em all.”
+
+With that, turning her back upon her terrified mistress, with the air of
+a queen refusing a petition, she patronizingly assured Desire that
+she had met with more favor in her eyes than her mother, and she would
+accordingly protect her. “Though,” she added, “I guess ye won't need my
+helpin for Cap'n Hamlin 'll see nobuddy teches ye cept hisself.”
+
+“Is he here?” gasped Desire, her dismay suddenly magnified into utter
+panic.
+
+“Fer sartain, my sweetheart ez sent me word 's under him,” replied
+Keziah.
+
+A noise of voices and tramp of feet at the outside door interrupted her.
+The marauders had come. The door was barred and this having been tested,
+there was a hail of gunstock blows upon it with orders to open and
+blasphemous threats as to the consequences of refusal. There was a dead
+silence within, but for Mrs. Edwards' hollow whisper, “Don't open.” With
+staring eyes and mouths apart the terrified women and children looked at
+one another motionless, barely daring to breathe. But as the volley of
+blows and threats was renewed with access of violence, Keziah exclaimed:
+
+“Ef they hain't yeur frens they be mine, an I hain't gonter see em kep
+aout in the cold no longer fer nobuddy,” and she went to the door and
+took hold of the bar.
+
+“Don't you do it,” gasped Mrs. Edwards springing forward to arrest her.
+But she had done it, and instantly Meshech Little with three or four
+followers burst into the room, wearing the green insignia of rebellion
+in their caps and carrying muskets with bayonets fixed.
+
+“Why didn' ye open that ar door, afore?” demanded Meshech, angrily.
+
+“What do you want?” asked Mrs. Edwards tremblingly confronting him.
+
+“Wat dew we want ole woman?” replied Meshech. “Wal, we want most
+evrything, but I guess we kin help oursels. Hey boys?”
+
+“Callate we kin make aout tew,” echoed one of his followers, not a
+Stockbridge man, and then as his eye caught Desire, as she stood pale
+and beautiful, with wild eyes and disheveled hair, by her mother, he
+made a dive at her saying: “Guess I'll take a kiss tew begin with.”
+
+“Let the gal 'lone,” said Meshech, catching him by the shoulder. “Hands
+orfen her. She's the Duke's doxy, an he'll run ye through the body ef ye
+tech her.”
+
+“Gosh, she hain't, though, is she?” said the fellow, refraining from
+further demonstration but regarding her admiringly. “I hearn baout she.
+Likely lookin gal, tew, hain't she? On'y leetle tew black, mebbe.”
+
+“Did'n ye know, ye dern fool, it's along o' her the Duke sent us here,
+tew see nobuddy took nothin till he could come raoun?” said Meshech.
+“But I callate the on'y way to keep other fellers from takin anything
+tidday is ter take it yerself. We'll hev suthin tew drink, anyhaow.
+Hello, ole cock,” he added as Edwards, coming up from down cellar,
+entered the room. “Ye be jess'n time. Come on, give us some rum,” and
+neither daring nor able to make resistance, the storekeeper was hustled
+into the store. Keziah's sweetheart had remained behind. In the midst
+of their mutual endearments, she had found opportunity to whisper to him
+something, of which Mrs. Edwards caught the words, “cellar, nuff tew buy
+us a farm an a haouse,” and guessed the drift. As Keziah and her young
+man, who responded to her suggestion with alacrity, were moving toward
+the cellar door, Mrs. Edwards barred their way. The fellow was about to
+lay hands on her, when one of the drinkers, coming back from the store,
+yelled: “Look out, thar's the cap'n,” and Perez entered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH
+
+SOME REAL FIGHTING
+
+
+At sight of his commander the soldier who had been about to lay hands
+on Mrs. Edwards to thrust her out of his path to the cellar, giving over
+his design, slunk into the store to join his comrades there, and was
+followed by the faithful Keziah. Mrs. Edwards, who had faced the ruffian
+only in the courage of desperation, sank trembling upon a settle, and
+the children throwing themselves upon her, bawled in concert. Without
+bestowing so much as a glance on any other object in the room Perez
+crossed it to where Desire stood, and taking her nerveless hand in both
+his, devoured her face with glowing eyes. She did not flush or show any
+confusion; neither did she try to get away. She stood as if fascinated,
+unresponsive but unresisting.
+
+“Were you frightened?” he asked.
+
+“Yes,” she replied in a mechanical tone corresponding with her
+appearance.
+
+“Didn't you know I was here? I told you I would come back for you, and I
+have come. You have been sick. I heard of it. Are you well now?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Reuben told me you came on foot through the snow to bring word so he
+might warn me the night before the Lee battle. Was it that made you
+sick?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“What is that, Desire? What do you mean about sending him warning?”
+ cried Mrs. Edwards amazedly. Desire made no reply but Perez did:
+
+“It is thanks to her I was not caught in my bed by your men that
+morning. It is thanks to her I am not in jail today, disgraced by the
+lash and waiting for the hangman. Oh my dear, how glad I am to owe it
+to you,” and he caught the end of one of the long strands of jetty hair
+that fell down her neck and touched it to his lips.
+
+“You are crazy, fellow!” cried Mrs. Edwards, and starting forward and
+grasping Desire by the arm she demanded, “What does this wild talk mean?
+There is no truth in it, is there?”
+
+“Yes,” said the girl in the same dead, mechanical voice, without turning
+her eyes to her mother or even raising them.
+
+Mrs. Edwards opened her mouth, but no sound came forth. Her astonishment
+was too utter. Meanwhile Perez had passed his arm about Desire's waist
+as if to claim her on her own acknowledgement. Stung by the sight of her
+daughter in the very arms of the rebel captain, Mrs. Edwards found her
+voice once more, righteous indignation overcoming her first unmingled
+consternation.
+
+“Out upon you for a shameless hussy. Oh, that a daughter of mine should
+come to this! Do you dare tell me you love this scoundrel?”
+
+“No,” answered the girl.
+
+“What?” faltered Perez, his arm involuntarily dropping from her waist.
+
+For all reply she rushed to her mother and threw herself on her bosom,
+sobbing hysterically. For once at least in their lives Mrs. Edwards'
+and Perez Hamlin's eyes met with an expression of perfect sympathy, the
+sympathy of a common bewilderment. Then Mrs. Edwards tried to loosen
+Desire's convulsive clasp about her neck, but the girl held her tightly,
+crying:
+
+“Oh, don't, mother, don't.”
+
+For several moments Perez stood motionless just where Desire had left
+him, looking after her stupefied. The pupils of his eyes alternately
+dilated and contracted, his mouth opened and closed; he passed his hand
+over his forehead. Then he went up to her and stood over her as she
+clung to her mother, but seemed no more decided as to what he could do
+or say further.
+
+But just then there was a diversion. Meshech and his followers who had
+passed through from the living-room into the store in search of rum had
+thrown open the outside door, and a gang of their comrades had poured in
+to assist in the onset upon the liquor barrels. The spigots had all been
+set running, or knocked out entirely, and yet comparatively little of
+the fiery fluid was wasted, so many mugs, hats, caps, and all sorts of
+receptacles were extended to catch the flow. Some who could not find
+any sort of a vessel, actually lay under the stream and let it pour
+into their mouths, or lapped it up as it ran on the floor. Meanwhile
+the store was being depleted of other than the drinkable property. The
+contents of the shelves and boxes were littered on the floor, and the
+rebels were busy swapping their old hats, boots and mittens for new
+ones, or filling their pockets with tobacco, tea or sugar, while some of
+the more foresighted were making piles of selected goods to carry away.
+But whatever might be the momentary occupation of the marauders, all
+were drunk, excessively yet buoyantly drunk, drunk with that peculiarly
+penetrating and tenacious intoxication which results from drinking in
+the morning on an empty stomach, a time when liquor seems to pervade all
+the interstices of the system and lap each particular fibre and tissue
+in a special and independent intoxication on its own account. Several
+fellows, including Meshech, had been standing for a few moments in the
+door leading from the store into the living-room, grinningly observing
+the little drama which the reader has been following. As Desire broke
+away from Perez and rushed to her mother, Meshech exclaimed:
+
+“Wy in time did'n yer hole ontew her, Cap'n? I'd like ter seen her git
+away from me.”
+
+“Or me nuther,” seconded the fellow next him.
+
+Perez paid no heed to this remonstrance, and probably did not hear it at
+all, but Mrs. Edwards looked up. In her bewilderment and distress over
+Desire the thought of her husband and Jonathan had been driven from her
+mind. The sight of Meshech recalled it.
+
+“What have you done with my husband?” she demanded anxiously.
+
+“He's all right. He an the young cub be jess a gonter take a leetle walk
+with us fellers 'cross the border,” replied Meschech jocularly.
+
+“What are you going to take them away for? What are you going to do to
+them?” cried Mrs. Edwards.
+
+“Oh, ye need'n be skeert,” Meshech reassured her. “He'll hev good
+kumpny. Squire Woodbridge an Ginral Ashley an Doctor Sergeant, Cap'n
+Jones an schoolmaster Gleason, an a slew more o' the silk stockins be a
+goin' tew.”
+
+“Are you going to murder them?” exclaimed the frantic woman.
+
+“Wal,” drawled Meshech, “that depends. Ef govment hangs any o' our
+fellers wat they've got in jail, we're gonter hang yewr husban' an the
+res' on em, sure's taxes. Ef none o' aourn ain't hurt, we shan't hurt
+none o' yourn. We take em fer kinder hostiges, ye see, ole lady.”
+
+“Where have you got my husband? I must go to him. God help us!”
+ ejaculated Mrs. Edwards; and loosing herself from her daughter, now in
+turn forgotten in anxiety for husband and son, the poor woman hurried
+past Meshech through the confused store and so out of the house.
+
+At the same moment the drum at the tavern began to beat the recall to
+the plundering parties of insurgents scattered over the village, and the
+men poured out of the store.
+
+Save for the presence of the smaller children and the negro servants
+cowering in a corner, Desire and Perez were left alone in the room.
+With no refuge to fly to, she stood where her mother had left her, just
+before Perez, with face averted, trembling, motionless, like a timid
+bird which seeing no escape struggles no longer, but waits for its
+captor's hand to close upon it. But in his nonplused, piteously
+perplexed face, you would have vainly looked for the hardened and
+remorseless expression appropriate to his part. The roll of the rebel
+drum kept on.
+
+“See here, Cap'n,” said Abner Rathbun, suddenly appearing at the outside
+door of the living-room, “we've got the hostiges together, an we'd
+better be a gittin along, for the 'larm's gone ter Pittsfield an all
+roun' an we'll hev the milishy ontew us in no time. An besides that the
+fellers tew the tavern be a gittin so drunk, some on em can't walk a'
+ready.”
+
+Aroused by Abner's insistent words, Perez took Desire's hand, and said
+desperately:
+
+“Won't you come, my darling? You shall have a woman to go with you, and
+we'll be married as soon as we're over the border. I know it's sudden,
+but you see I can't wait, and I thought you liked me a little. Won't you
+come, now?”
+
+“Oh, no! Oh, no! I don't want to,” she said, shuddering and drawing her
+hand away.
+
+Abner was silent a moment, and then he broke out vehemently:
+
+“Look a' here, Cap'n, we hain't got no time fer soft sawder naow, with
+the milishy a comin daown on us. I kin hear em a drummin up ter Lee
+a'ready, an every jiffey we stay means a man's life an hangin fer them
+as is tuk. Ye've hed fuss nuff 'long o' that gal fust and last, an this
+ain't no time fer ye ter put up with any more o' her tantrums.”
+
+“She don't want to come, Abner. She don't like me and I thought she
+did,” said Perez, turning his eyes from the girl to Abner, with an
+expression of despairing, appealing helplessness, almost childlike.
+
+“Nonsense,” replied Abner, with contemptuous impatience. “She likes ye,
+or she'd never a sent ye that warnin. Akshins speaks louder'n words.
+She's kinder flustered an dunno her own mind, that's all. Gals don't,
+genally. Ye'd be a darnation fool ter let her slip through yer fingers
+naow, arter riskin yer neck an all aour necks in this ere job jess ter
+git a holt of her, an a settin sech store by her ez ye allers hev.
+Take a fool's advice, Cap'n. Don' waste no more talk, but jess grab her
+kinder soft like, an fetch her aout ter the sleigh, willy nilly. She'll
+come roun' in less 'n an hour, an thank ye for't. Gals allers does. They
+likes a masterful man. There, that's the talk. Fetch her right along.”
+
+As the last words indicated, Perez, apparently decided by Abner's words,
+had thrown his arm about Desire's waist and drawing her to him and half
+lifting her from her feet had begun with gentle force to bear her away.
+She made no violent resistance which indeed would have been quite vain
+in his powerful clasp, but burst into tears, crying poignantly:
+
+“Oh, don't! Please! Please don't! Don't! Oh, don't!” Had there been a
+trace of defiance or of indignant pride in her tone, it would have been
+easy for him to carry out his attempt. But of the proud, high-spirited
+Desire Edwards there was no hint in the tear-glazed eyes turned up to
+his in wild dismay. She was but a frightened girl quite broken up with
+terror.
+
+And yet if the thought of leaving her had been dreadful before, now the
+pressure of his arm upon her pliant waist, the delicious sensation
+of her weight, made it maddening, and thrilled him with all sorts of
+reckless impulses. Still clasping her, he whispered hoarsely, “I love
+you, I love you,” as if that mighty word left nothing further needed as
+excuse or explanation for his conduct. “Let me go, then, if you love me.
+Let me go,” she cried, frantically, catching at his plea and turning it
+against him.
+
+“Ef ye let her go, ye'll never set eyes on her agin, Cap'n,” said Abner.
+
+“I can't. I can't. Have pity on me,” groaned Perez. “I can't let you
+go.”
+
+“Oh, for pity's sake, do! If you loved me, you would. Oh, you would,”
+ she cried again. He took her by the shoulders and held her away from
+him, and looked long at her. There was something in his eyes which awed
+her so that she quite forgot her former terror. Then he dropped his
+hands to his side, and turned away as if he would leave her without
+another word. But half way to the door he turned again and said huskily:
+
+“You know I love you now. You believe it, don't you?”
+
+“Yes,” she answered in a small, scared voice, and without another word
+he went out. As he went out, Mrs. Edwards, who had been standing in the
+open doorway of the store a silent spectator of the last scene, came
+forward, and at sight of her Desire started from the motionless attitude
+in which she had remained, and cried out, pressing her hands to her
+bosom:
+
+“Oh, mother, mother, I wish he'd taken me. He feels so bad.”
+
+“Nonsense, child,” said Mrs. Edwards, in a soothing, sensible voice.
+“That would have been a pretty piece of business indeed. You're all
+upset, and don't know what you're saying, and no wonder, either, with
+no breakfast and all this coil. There, there, mother's little girl,” and
+she drew her daughter's head down on her shoulder and stroked her hair
+till the nervous trembling and sobbing ceased, and raising her head she
+asked:
+
+“Where are father and Jonathan?”
+
+“Hush! I gave one of the rebels my silver shoe-buckles, and he turned
+his back while Mrs. Bingham hid them in the closet behind the chimney at
+the tavern. They're safe.”
+
+The rebel column having only awaited the arrival of Perez and Abner,
+at once set off at quick step on the road to Great Barrington, the
+prisoners, thirty or forty in number, marching in the center. Perez rode
+behind, looking neither to the right hand or the left, and taking heed
+of nothing, and Abner seeing his condition, tacitly assumed command.
+Two or three fellows, too utterly drunk to walk, had been perforce left
+behind on the tavern floor, destined to be ignominiously dragged off
+to the lockup by the citizens before the rebel force was fairly out
+of sight. Two or three others nearly as drunk as those who were left
+behind, but more fortunate in having friends, by dint of leaning heavily
+upon a man on either side, were enabled to march. But the pace was
+rapid, and at the first or second steep hill these wretches had to be
+left behind unless their friends were to be sacrificed with them. There
+was no danger of their freezing to death by the wayside. The pursuing
+militia would come along soon enough to prevent that, never fear.
+
+Nor were these poor chaps the only sort of burdens that were speedily
+rejected by their bearers. As the rebels marched out of Stockbridge,
+nearly every man was loaded with miscellaneous plunder. Some carried
+bags of flour, or flitches of bacon, some an armful of muskets, others
+bundles of cloth or clothing, hanks of yarn, a string of boots and
+shoes, a churn, an iron pot, a pair of bellows, a pair of brass
+andirons, while one even led a calf by a halter. Some, luckier than
+their fellows, carried bags from which was audible the clink of
+silverware. Squire Woodbridge, lagging a little, was poked in the back
+by his own gold-headed cane to remind him to mend his pace, while Dr.
+Sergeant, as a special favor from one of the rebels whose wife he had
+once attended, was permitted to take a drink out of his own demijohn
+of rum. In their eagerness to carry away all they could, the rebels
+had forgotten that loads which they could barely hold up when standing
+still, would prove quite too heavy to march under, and accordingly
+before the band had got out of the village the road began to be littered
+with the more bulky articles of property. At the foot of the first
+hill there was a big pile of them, and two miles out of Stockbridge
+the rebels were reduced once more to light marching order, and not much
+richer than when they entered the village an hour or two before. Besides
+the hostages, they had under their escort several sleighs containing
+old men, women and children, the families of members of the band, or
+of sympathizers with the rebellion, who were taking this opportunity
+to elude their creditors and escape out of bondage across the New York
+border. As the rebels crossed Muddy Brook, just before entering Great
+Barrington, Abner Rathbun came up to Perez and said: “I don' see yer
+father'n mother nowhar in the sleighs.”
+
+“My father and mother?” repeated Perez vacantly.
+
+“Yes,” rejoined Abner. “Ye know ye wuz a gonter bring em back ter York
+with ye, but I don' see em nowhar.” Perez stared at Abner, and then
+glanced vaguely at the row of sleighs in the line.
+
+“I must have forgotten about them,” he finally said.
+
+As the rebels entered Great Barrington, a company of militia was drawn
+up as if to defend the tavern-jail, but upon the approach of the rebels,
+who were decidedly more numerous, they retired rapidly on the road to
+Sheffield. Halting in front of the building, a guard was left with the
+prisoners, and then the rebels swarmed into the tavern, with the double
+purpose of emptying the jail of debtors, and filling themselves with
+Cephas Bement's rum, for the hard tramp from Stockbridge had sobered
+them and given them fresh thirst. Perez did not go in, but sat on his
+horse in the road. Presently Abner came out with a very sober face and
+slowly approached him. He looked around.
+
+“What are we stopping here for, Abner?” he asked, a little peevishly.
+
+“Wy, it's the caounty jail, ye know, an we're lettin aout the debtors.
+Reub's in here, ye know.”
+
+“So he is; I'd forgotten,” replied Perez, and then after a pause, “Why
+don't he come out?”
+
+“Cap'n,” said Abner, taking off his cap and looking at it, as he
+fingered it. “I've got kinder tough news fer ye. Reub's dead. He died
+this mornin. I thort mebbe ye'd like ter see him.”
+
+“Is he in there?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+Perez got off his horse, and went in at the door, Abner leading the way.
+In the barroom of the tavern there was a crowd of drinking, carousing
+men, and among them a number of the white-faced debtors, already drunk
+with the bumpers their deliverers were pouring down their throats.
+Bement was not visible, but as Abner and Perez entered the jail, they
+saw Mrs. Bement in the corridor. She was not making any fuss or
+trouble at all over the breaking of the jail this time. With apparent
+complaisance she was promptly opening cells, or answering questions in
+response to the demands of Meshech Little and some companions. But there
+was a vicious glint in her pretty blue eyes, and she was softly singing
+the lugubrious hymn, beginning with the significant words,
+
+    Ye living men, come view the ground
+    Where ye shall shortly lie.
+
+Abner pushed open the door of one of the cells that had been already
+opened, and went in, Perez following. He knelt by the body of his
+brother, and Abner turned his back. It was the same cell in which Perez
+had found Reuben and George Fennell, six months before. Several minutes
+passed, and neither moved. The drum began to beat without, summoning the
+men to resume their march.
+
+“Cap'n,” said Abner, “we'll hev ter go. We can't do the poor chap no
+good by stayin, an they can't do him no more harm.”
+
+Then Perez rose up, and leaned on Abner's shoulder, looking down on
+the patient face of the dead. The first tears gathered in his eyes, and
+trickled down, and he said: “I never was fair to Reub. I never allowed
+enough for his losin Jemima. I was harder on him than I should have
+been.”
+
+“Ye warn't noways hard on him, Perez. Ye wuz a good brother tew him.
+I never hearn o' no feller hevin a better brother nor he hed in yew,”
+ protested Abner, in much distress.
+
+Perez shook his head.
+
+“I was hard on him. I never allowed as I'd ought for his losin his girl.
+I'd a been kinder to him if I'd known. Ye must a thought I was hard
+an unfeelin, Reub, dear, often's the time, but I didn't know, I didn't
+know. We'll go now, if you want, Abner.”
+
+The rebels had not left Stockbridge a moment too soon. Captain Stoddard
+was rallying his company before they had got out of the village, and
+messengers had been sent to Lee, Lenox, Pittsfield, Great Barrington,
+Egremont and Sheffield, to rouse the people. Within an hour or two after
+the rebels had marched south, the Stockbridge and Lenox companies were
+in pursuit. Among the messengers to Great Barrington, was Peleg Bidwell.
+For Peleg, since he had bought his safety by such a shameful surrender,
+was embittered above all against those of his former comrades who had
+been too brave to yield. And having brought word to Great Barrington, he
+took his place in the ranks of the militia of that town, and though the
+men among whom he stood, eyed him askance, knowing his record, not one
+of them was really so eager to empty his gun into the bosom of the rebel
+band as Peleg Bidwell.
+
+As previously stated, the Great Barrington company, in which Peleg
+carried a musket, had retired toward Sheffield, when the rebels entered
+the former town. At Sheffield they were joined by the large company of
+that populous settlement, and Colonel Ashley of the same village, taking
+command of the combined forces, ordered a march on Great Barrington, to
+meet the rebels. Now Great Barrington is but four or five miles from
+the New York border, while Sheffield is about six, and as many south of
+Great Barrington, the road between the two towns running nearly parallel
+to the state line. There was nothing to hinder the rebels, after they
+had gained their main objects, the capture of hostages and the release
+of the debtors, from turning west from Great Barrington, and placing
+themselves in an hour's march across the town of Egremont, beyond the
+reach of the militia, in neutral territory. Becoming apprehensive that
+this would be their course, Colonel Ashley, instead of keeping on the
+road from Sheffield to Great Barrington, presently left it and marched
+his men along a back road running northwest toward the state line in a
+direction that would intercept the rebels if they struck across Egremont
+to New York.
+
+He adopted, however, the precaution of leaving a party at the junction
+of the main road with the road he took, so that if after all instead
+of retreating westward the rebels had boldly kept on the main road to
+Sheffield word might be sent after him. It so happened that this was
+just what the rebels had done. Not having the fear of the Sheffield
+company before their eyes, instead of trying to escape to New York by
+the shortest cut, they had kept on toward Sheffield, marching south by
+the main road. And not only this, but when they came to the junction of
+the main road with that which Colonel Ashley had taken, and learned by
+capturing the guard what plan the Colonel had devised, they became so
+enraged that instead of keeping on to Sheffield and leaving the militia
+to finish their wild goose chase, they turned into the back road after
+them, and so the hunters became the hunted. In this way it happened that
+while the militia were pressing on at full speed, breathlessly debating
+their chances of heading off the flying rebels, “bang,” “bang,” came a
+volley in their rear, and from the stragglers who had been fired upon
+arose a cry, “The Shayites are after us.”
+
+It is greatly to the credit of the militia officers that the result of
+this surprise was not a hopeless panic among their men. As it was, for
+several minutes utter confusion reigned. Then one of the companies took
+to the woods on the right, the other entering the woods on the left,
+and marching back they presently came in sight of their pursuers, still
+pushing on pell-mell in the road. The militia now had every advantage,
+and Colonel Ashley ordered them to open fire. But the men hesitated.
+There, intermingled with the rebels, their very lineaments plainly to be
+seen, were the prisoners, the first gentlemen of Stockbridge and of the
+county. To pour a volley in upon the rebels would endanger the lives
+of the prisoners as much as those of the enemy. Meanwhile the rebels
+themselves were rapidly deploying and opening fire. The militia were in
+danger of losing all their advantage, of being shot down defenseless,
+of perhaps losing the day, all owing to the presence of the prisoners
+in the enemy's ranks. Again Colonel Ashley gave the order to fire. Again
+not a man obeyed.
+
+“We can't kill our friends,” said an officer.
+
+“God have mercy on their souls, but pour in your fire!” roared the
+commander, and the volley was given. The prisoners broke from the ranks
+of the enemy and ran; the firing became general. For five or ten minutes
+a brisk engagement was kept up, and then the rebels broke and fled
+in every direction. The Stockbridge and Lenox companies after having
+followed the rebels through Great Barrington and on toward Sheffield had
+also turned in after them on the back road, and coming up behind in the
+nick of time had attacked their rear and caused their panic.
+
+Only two of the militia had been wounded, one mortally. One also of the
+prisoners had proved in need of Colonel Ashley's invocation. Solomon
+Gleason had fallen dead at the first volley from his friends. It was
+generally supposed that his death was the result of a chance shot, but
+Peleg Bidwell was never heard to express any opinion on the subject, and
+Peleg was a very good marksman.
+
+As the smoke of the last shot floated up among the tops of the gloomy
+pines along the road, some thirty killed and wounded rebels lay on
+the trampled and blood-stained snow. Abner Rathbun, mortally wounded,
+writhed at the foot of a tree, and near by lay Perez Hamlin quite dead.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Duke of Stockbridge, by Edward Bellamy
+
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