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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7472-0.txt b/7472-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..895b5d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/7472-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11429 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7472-0.txt or 7472-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/7/7472/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: April 12, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 premptory 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, renforced 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 renforced 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 rentry 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 rerected 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7472-8.txt or 7472-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/7/7472/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE + </h1> + <h2> + A ROMANCE OF SHAYS' REBELLION + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Edward Bellamy + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER FIRST </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER SECOND </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER THIRD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER FOURTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER FIFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER SIXTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER SEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER EIGHTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER NINTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER TENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER ELEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER TWELFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER THIRTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER FOURTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER FIFTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER SIXTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER NINETEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER TWENTIETH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THE MARCH OF THE MINUTE MEN + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Ye must tak keer o' Reub, Perez. He ain't so rugged 'zye be. By rights, + he orter ha stayed to hum.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I came to bid you good-bye, Perez,” says a voice behind him. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Fall in,” shouts Captain Woodbridge, for the Squire himself is their + captain. + </p> + <p> + There is a tumult of embraces and kisses all around. Reuben kissed his + mother. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Desire looked about, and saw all the women kissing their men. The air was + electric. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SECOND + </h2> + <h3> + NINE YEARS AFTER + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It'll hev more intew it fore 't hez less,” said Abner grimly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “'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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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'.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a pianner,” said Obadiah. + </p> + <p> + “I guess peeanner's nigher right,” observed Peleg critically. “My gal + hearn the Edwards gal call it peeanner.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + There was a sardonic snicker at Ezra's expense, but he returned to the + charge quite undismayed. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “They wuz wuth suthin fer a wile,” assented Abner. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “That's so,” said Ezra Phelps, “everybody knows as these tew counties be + taxed higher nor the other eend o' the state.” + </p> + <p> + “Hev yew paid up ye taxes fer las' year, Peleg?” inquired Abner. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I callate 't ain't nothin very hard tew stop a court, 'cordin tew that,” + said Peleg Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + “No, 'tain't hard, not ef the people is gen'ally agin' the settin on it,” + said Isaiah. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + During this talk, Elnathan had risen and gone feebly out. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What's abaout Reub?” asked Abner. + </p> + <p> + “He's a goin intew a decline daown to the jail.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yas, I went with Cap'n Stoddard,” replied that individual. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Jabez,” said Abner, “I hope ye don' hev no hard feelin's. Times be + changed. Let by gones be by gones.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Jabez looked from one to the other till he had sufficiently enjoyed their + discomfiture and then he continued: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THIRD + </h2> + <h3> + THE TAVERN-JAIL AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “That's it, over yonder,” said the man, jerking his thumb over his + shoulder at a nondescript building some way ahead. + </p> + <p> + “That looks more like a jail.” + </p> + <p> + “Wal, so 'tis. The jail's in the ell part o' the tavern. Cephe Bement + keeps 'em both.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a queer notion to put em under the same roof.” + </p> + <p> + “I dunno 'bout that, nuther. It's mostly by way o' the tavern that fellers + gits inter jail, I calc'late.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Times are pretty hard hereabouts, are they?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is the jail pretty full now?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you expect a good many more this week?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “The devil! Has there been a riot or a rebellion in the county? What have + they all done?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't they pay up before they get in?” queried Perez. + </p> + <p> + “Whar be ye from?” asked the landlord, staring at him. + </p> + <p> + “I'm from New York, last.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Perez, “if you won't take these, I can't pay you at all.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps these are cleaner,” said Perez, handing him another lot. “What + odds does it make?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't mean to say there's much of that sort of slavery,” ejaculated + Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Have you any debtors from Stockbridge?” asked Perez, suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “A hull slew on em,” replied Bement. “I've got one more'n I shall hev much + longer, tew.” + </p> + <p> + “Who be that?” asked Zeke. + </p> + <p> + “Wal, I callate George Fennell won't hole out much longer.” + </p> + <p> + “Fennell; George Fennell! George Fennell is not in this jail,” cried + Perez. + </p> + <p> + “Wal, naow,” said Bement, imperturbably, “perhaps ye know better'n I dew.” + </p> + <p> + “But, landlord, he's my friend, my comrade, I'd like to see him,” and the + young man's countenance expressed the liveliest concern. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it is I, George,” said the soldier, his eyes filling with + compassionate tears. “How came you in this horrible place?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez; brother Perez. Don't you know me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Reub, Reub, I didn't know you was here,” groaned Perez, as he put his arm + about his brother, and supported his feeble figure. + </p> + <p> + “How come ye here, then?” asked Reuben. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Where have ye been, Perez, all the time? I callated ye must be in jail, + somewheres, like all the rest of the soldiers.” + </p> + <p> + “I had no money to get home with. But how came you here, Reub? Who put you + here?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why didn't father help you? He ain't dead is he?” + </p> + <p> + Almost any misfortune now seemed possible to Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “How much was your debt, Reub?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + And then he pointed to the sums in charcoal, covering the walls of the + cell. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Time's up,” he said sharply. + </p> + <p> + “What, you're not going now? You're not going to leave us yet?” cried + Reuben, piteously. + </p> + <p> + Perez choked down the wrath and bitterness that was turning his heart to + iron and said, humbly. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Bement, I should like to stay a few minutes longer. This is my + brother. I did not know he was here.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOURTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE PEOPLE ASK BREAD AND RECEIVE A STONE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, of that he spoke not.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + He held up some of the court cards. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Je assed me to dew it,” whimpered Zedekiah. + </p> + <p> + “Kiah, he assed me fust,” averred Jerubbabel. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Was there any action taken in favor of the plan for the emission of + bills, which shall systematically depreciate!” inquired Squire Woodbridge. + </p> + <p> + “Such a resolution was introduced by Thomas Gold of Pittsfield, a + pestilent fellow, but we threw it out.” + </p> + <p> + “What was the action on reduction of expenses of suits at law?” inquired + Dr. Partridge. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don' ye go, Abner? Ye ain't scairt o' speakin tew Squire, be ye!” + said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don' ye go yerself, Peleg, if ye be so dretful brave!” inquired + Israel Goodrich. + </p> + <p> + “That's so, Peleg, why don' ye go?” + </p> + <p> + “I ain't no talker,” said Peleg. “Ther's Ezry, he'd orter go, he's sech a + good talker.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Please we'd like ter know what the convenshin has did?” + </p> + <p> + Sedgwick, who had his back to him, turned quickly, and seeing Laban, said + in a preëmptory tone: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Nothin? Did you say, Squire?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What d'ee say, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “What did they dew?” + </p> + <p> + “Did they 'bolish the loryers?” + </p> + <p> + “Wat did they dew baout more bills, Laban, hey?” + </p> + <p> + “What did they dew baout the taxes?” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't ye speak, man?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Squire says ez haow they didn' dew nothin.” + </p> + <p> + There was a moment's dead silence, then the clamor burst out again. + </p> + <p> + “Not dew nothin?” + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye mean, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the taxes?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the loryers?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the sheriffs' fees?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout jailin for debt?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout takin prop'ty tew a valiation, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout movin govment aout o' Bosting?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wal, I swow, I be kinder disappinted.” + </p> + <p> + There was a space of silence. + </p> + <p> + “So be I,” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + Presently Paul Hubbard's metallic voice was heard. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “He said suthin baout govment bein none o' our business an haow we'd a + better go hum an not be loafin roun'.” + </p> + <p> + “Ef govment hain't no business o' ourn I'd like tew know what in time we + fit the King fer,” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “That's so, wy didn' ye ass Squire that queschin?” said Meshech Little. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye mean?” asked Israel half timorously. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind wat I mean,” replied Abner, “on'y a wum 'll turn wen it's trod + on.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, Ezra?” he demanded sharply, seeing that Ezra wanted to + address him. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + Stopping his horse, Sedgwick replied, in a loud, clear voice. + </p> + <p> + “The convention declared that the laws shall be enforced, and all + disorderly persons punished with the stocks and with lashes on the bare + back.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that all?” faltered Ezra. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIFTH + </h2> + <h3> + THAT MEANS REBELLION! + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Perez! My boy is dying! I see it.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Sun's down! Sun's down!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I dunno noffin bout no Bill Wright,” was Sol's final dismissal of the + subject. + </p> + <p> + “Drive to Squire Woodbridge's house, Sol,” said Sedgwick, as he stepped + into the carriage. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope, sir, that I am equal to the duties of my position,” replied + Woodbridge, stiffly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Your opinion, Sir,” he replied, with undiminished affability, “tends to + relieve my apprehensions. I trust the event will justify it. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, but tell me the caitiff's name, and let me be myself your knight, + fair mistress, to redress your wrongs.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes; 'tis that all the poor want to be rich, and to hang all the + lawyers. I've heard. 'Tis a fine scheme.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt the piano is most excellent in sound.” + </p> + <p> + “It goes middling well, but already I weary me of my bargain.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you then in trade, Miss Desire?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But what'll we dew, ourselves?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But what be I a goin to dew with my little Bijah? He's all I've got, but + I can't leave him.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Perez, thar's my fist. By gosh I'm with ye.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez, this is Prudence Fennell, George Fennell's girl. She heard you had + seen her father, and came to ask you about him.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Is my father much sick, sir?” + </p> + <p> + “He is very sick,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Is he going to die?” + </p> + <p> + Perez felt a strong tugging at his heart strings, in which, for the + moment, he forgot his own personal trouble. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know, my child,” he replied, very gently. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Abner, we must manage somehow to get George out too.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Come out! Come out! Crypus! Come out, I've got news.” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” said Perez eagerly, stepping forth into the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “That wuz a pootty leetle plan o' yourn, Perez.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes.” + </p> + <p> + 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> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What the devil do you mean, Abner? not going to try it?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “The hull caounty o' Berkshire 's a gonter help us.” + </p> + <p> + Perez looked at him with horror. He was not drunk; he must be going crazy. + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean, Abner?” he said soothingly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “That means rebellion, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + “In course it doos. An it means the Lord ain't quite dead yit. That's wat + it means.” + </p> + <p> + “But what's that got to do with Reub and George?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIXTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ DEFINES HIS POSITION + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Wat did they do nex?” inquired Obadiah Weeks, as Ezra paused with the + appearance of having made an end of his narration. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You hear true,” responded the smiling Indian. “Heap go. Some stay. No + want to go.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Lessee, Perez, ye've been gone nigh onter nine year. Ye muss find some + changes in the taown.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I s'pose ye know ez haow they've set the niggers free.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye callate 's the reason?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I don' quite git yer idee. Haow dew ye make out that air 'bout poor folks + bein slaves?” said Ezra Phelps dryly. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Wha' ye say, Perez, z'all right, but wha'n time be <i>yew</i> 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.” + </p> + <p> + There was a general sensation. Every mouth was opened, and every neck + craned forward to catch the reply. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “By gosh, I forgot baout Reub, I declar I did,” exclaimed Meshech, + contritely. + </p> + <p> + “Give us yer hand,” said Israel, “I forgot same ez Meshech, an I + misdoubted ye. This be Ezra Phelps, ez owns the new mill.” + </p> + <p> + “Shake agin,” said Peleg, extending his hand. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Hev ye hearn the news from Northampton, Perez?” asked Israel. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE FIRST ENCOUNTER + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Abner scratched his head. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But the confabulation was interrupted by a cry of panic from Obadiah + Weeks: + </p> + <p> + “Golly, here come the slectmen!” + </p> + <p> + “Hell!” exclaimed Hubbard, whirling on his heel, and taking in the + situation with a glance, while Abner's face was expressive of equal + consternation. + </p> + <p> + The local authorities had been so quiet the day before, that no + interference on their part had been thought of. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “You may well”—— + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Drum!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + They were about half a mile out of Stockbridge, when Abner, accompanied by + Paul Hubbard, approached Perez, and remarked: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, we're a gonter be,” replied Abner. “Ye kin depend on us in a + scrimmage, but ye muss sass the silk stockins.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHTH + </h2> + <h3> + GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Where are you going?” he asked kindly, stopping his horse. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to see father,” she said with a tremulous lip. + </p> + <p> + “Poor little lassie, were you going to walk all the way?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Perez threw himself from his horse. + </p> + <p> + “We are all going to the jail,” he said. “You shall come with us, and ride + upon my horse. Men, she shall lead us.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What be all the folks?” called out Abner to a woman who stood with a baby + in arms at an open door. + </p> + <p> + “Over tew Barrington seein the fun. Thar be great dewins,” she replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + There was a general outburst of surprise and satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + “By gosh, it looks like gineral trainin, or'n ordination.” + </p> + <p> + “Looks kinder 'z if a good many fellers b'sides us hed business with the + jestices this mornin.” + </p> + <p> + “I'd no idee courts wuz so pop'lar.” + </p> + <p> + “They ain't stocks nuff in Berkshire fer all the fellers as is out tidday, + that's one sure thing, by gol.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINTH + </h2> + <h3> + JUDGE DWIGHT'S SIGNATURE + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “They're stoning the judges!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Stand back! Stand back! What more do you want, men? The court is + stopped.” + </p> + <p> + But the people murmured. The Great Barrington men did not know Perez, and + were not ready to accept his dictation. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you want, then?” asked Perez. + </p> + <p> + “We want some sartainty baout it.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Who is this fellow who speaks for the rabble?” demanded Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “My name is Hamlin.” + </p> + <p> + “You are a disgrace to the uniform you wear. Do you know you have incurred + the penalties of high treason?” exclaimed the justice. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I shall live to see you hung, drawn and quartered for treason, you + rascal,” roared Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, sir. Do but think this man holds your life in his hands. Entreat him + civilly,” expostulated Madam Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “He means not so, sir,” she added, turning to Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Where are writing materials?” asked Justice Goodrich, nervously, as a + stone broke through one of the window panes and fell on the table. + </p> + <p> + “I will bring them,” said the young lady, Dwight's daughter. + </p> + <p> + “Do make haste, Miss,” urged Justice Barker. “The mob is even now forcing + an entrance.” + </p> + <p> + “I forbid you to bring them. Remain here,” thundered Dwight. + </p> + <p> + The girl paused, irresolute, pale and terrified. + </p> + <p> + “Go, Eliza,” said her mother. “Disobey your father and save his life.” + </p> + <p> + She went, and in a moment returned with the articles. Perez wrote two + lines, and read them. + </p> + <p> + “'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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you order us to sign?” said Barker, apparently willing to find in this + appearance of duress an excuse for yielding. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I admire your courage, sir, but I cannot answer for the consequences of + your refusal,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + “For my sake sign, sir,” urged Madam Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sign, papa. They will kill you,” cried Eliza. + </p> + <p> + “Methinks, it is but proper prudence, to seem to yield for the time + being,” said Goodrich. + </p> + <p> + “'Tis no more than the justices at Northampton have done,” added Barker. + </p> + <p> + “I need not remind your honor that a pledge given under duress, is not + binding,” said Whiting. + </p> + <p> + But Dwight waved them away, saying merely, “I know my duty.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Child, have you dared to write my name?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, father, I have not,” replied the girl. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Whar's that paper?” + </p> + <p> + “Hain't they signed?” + </p> + <p> + “We'll make ye sign, dum quick.” + </p> + <p> + “We're a gonter tie ye up an give it to ye on the bare back.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll give ye a dose o' yer own med'cin.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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, + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “We-promise-not-to-ak—under—our-c—o—m,—commishins + until-the—g—r—i—e—grievunces,”— + </p> + <p> + “Wot be them?” demanded one of the crowd. + </p> + <p> + “That means taxes, 'n loryers, 'n debts, 'n all that. I've hearn the word + afore,” exclaimed another. “G'long Pete.” + </p> + <p> + “Grievunces,” proceeded the reader, “of-wich-the-people-complain.” + </p> + <p> + “That's so.” + </p> + <p> + “That's dern good. In course we complains.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that writ so, Pete?” + </p> + <p> + “G'long, Pete, that ere's good.” + </p> + <p> + “Complains,” began the reader again. + </p> + <p> + “Go back tew the beginnin Pete, I los' the hang on't.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, go back a leetle, Pete. It be mos'z long ez a sermon.” + </p> + <p> + “Shell I begin tew the beginnin?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, begin tew the beginnin agin, so's we'll all on us git the hang.” + </p> + <p> + “We—promise—not-tew-ak—under—our-commishins, until—the—g—r—grievunces—of—wich—the—people—complain, + are—r—e—d—r—redressed.” + </p> + <p> + “Wot's redressed?” + </p> + <p> + “That's same ez 'bolished.” + </p> + <p> + “Here be the names,” pursued Pete. + </p> + <p> + “Charles Goodrich.” + </p> + <p> + “He's the feller ez loss his hat.” + </p> + <p> + “William Whiting.” + </p> + <p> + “James Barker.” + </p> + <p> + “Elijah Dwight.” + </p> + <p> + “It's false,” exclaimed Dwight, “my name's not there!” + </p> + <p> + But few, if any, heard or heeded his words, for at the moment Pete + pronounced the last name, Perez shouted: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, don't talk to me so, papa,” cried the girl sobbing. “I didn't write + your name, papa, I truly didn't.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Your name, Eliza, but he read mine.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “That will do, dear, go to your mother now. I shall see that you have + better instruction in writing.” + </p> + <p> + That was the only rebuke he ever gave her. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TENTH + </h2> + <h3> + GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON CONTINUED + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I guess I've seen yew tew meetin,” she said to Prudence. “Ain't you + Fennell's gal?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know where the jail is?” asked the girl. + </p> + <p> + “It's that ere haouse over thar. It's in with the tavern.” + </p> + <p> + “Let's go and ask the jailer if he'll let us in,” suggested Prudence. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + And so the two women went on toward the jail, and Prudence dismounted + before the door of the tavern end, and tied the horse. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye want?” demanded the latter, sharply. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Poor curtsied very low, and smiled a vague, abject smile of + propitiation. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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 <i>my</i> + husban' keeps it, an that's flat. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “Open, and be quick about it!” + </p> + <p> + “Don't do it, Cephas, the house is stout, and mebbe help'll come,” said + Mrs. Bement, although she trembled. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning, Mr. Bement,” said Perez, as coolly as if he had just + dropped in for a glass of flip. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning sir,” faintly articulated the landlord. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Knock Bement down. Then four of you swing him by his arms and legs and + break the jail door through with his head.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Giv' em the keys, Marthy. They're a killin me,” screeched Bement. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I shell keep the keys, Cephas. It's my dewty. Pray, Cephas, that I may + hev strength given me ter dew my dewty.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “One.” + </p> + <p> + The woman looked a bit more like going into hysterics, but not a whit more + like yielding. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Two,” said Abner, as they swung him again. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bement stood awaiting her, breathing hard, evidently scared, but + equally evidently, furious. + </p> + <p> + “Give em the keys, Marthy. She'll kill ye,” called out Bement, from the + back of the room. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + In another moment the jail door was thrown open, and the men were rushing + down the corridor. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER ELEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + END OF THE GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “What's your name?” “Is this Abijah Galpin?” “Are you my brother Jake?” + “Are you Sol Morris?” “Father, is it you?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I've come for you Reub, old boy, you're free.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father ain't here. Where is he?” and turned to run out. + </p> + <p> + “That's your father,” replied Perez, pointing to the sick man. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Prudy, my little girl, is it you?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father! Oh Father!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “You have brought him home to die,” she said. + </p> + <p> + But he reassured her. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I shan't want no doctor's stuff,” said Reuben, feebly. “Seein mother + round 's med'cin nuff fer me, I guess.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWELFTH + </h2> + <h3> + A FAIR SUPPLIANT + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Please, marm, father's sick, and Mis Hamlin thinks he ought to have the + doctor.” + </p> + <p> + “Your father and Mrs. Hamlin? Who is your father, pray?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Please, marm, don't mind what I said. Box my ears, marm, but please let + doctor come. Father coughs so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I can do you no good.” + </p> + <p> + “Shall I die?” asked the sick man, faintly. + </p> + <p> + “You may live a few weeks, but not longer. The disease has taken too + strong a hold.” + </p> + <p> + Fennell looked around the room. Prudence was not present. + </p> + <p> + “Don't tell Prudy,” he said. + </p> + <p> + As to Reuben, who was already looking much brighter than the preceding + night, the doctor said: + </p> + <p> + “He may get well,” and left a little medicine. + </p> + <p> + Perez, who had been in the room, followed him out of doors. + </p> + <p> + “Do you think my brother will get well?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “I think so, if he does not have to go back to jail.” + </p> + <p> + “He will not go back unless I go with him,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean I shall be hung?” + </p> + <p> + “And drawn and quartered,” amended the doctor, grimly. “That is the + penalty for treason, I believe.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + The doctor gathered up the reins. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “An ye better hurry, tew,” urged his wife anxiously. “Ye know ye didn't + dew the fuss thing all day yis'dy.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar wuz I yis'dy?” asked Meshech, in whose confused faculties the only + distinct recollection was that he had been drunk. + </p> + <p> + “Ye went daown tew Barrington 'long with the crowd.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But at this Meshech, instead of being impressed, burst into a loud haw + haw. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Another such night will kill her, won't it, doctor?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “My father fears that they will plunder the store and perhaps murder us, + unless help comes soon.” + </p> + <p> + “There is no help to come,” said the doctor. “The militia are all in the + mob.” + </p> + <p> + “But is there nothing we can do? Must we let them murder Aunty before our + eyes?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose it would be hard for him,” said the doctor, “and yet to save + your aunt's life maybe—” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Me, Desire Edwards, sue for favors of this low fellow! You forget + yourself strangely, Dr. Partridge.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “Your uncle hasn't gone out, has he?” asked Mrs. Woodbridge, feebly. + </p> + <p> + “No, Aunty, he's in his study walking to and fro as he's been all day, you + know.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't think he will go, Aunty.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think they will make that terrible noise again tonight.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I don't know. I'm afraid so, Aunt Lucy.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going out for a little while,” said Desire, “and you will go to + Aunty, if she calls, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “Do ye mean Perez?” parleyed Elnathan. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “I b'leve he's somewheres raound. He's aout doin up the chores, I callate. + Did ye wanter see him?” + </p> + <p> + “If you please.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “It's the Edwards gal,” he continued, in a feebly introductory manner, as + Desire entered. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Hush father, she'll hear,” said Perez, and opening the door came into the + kitchen. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Are you Captain Hamlin?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you remember Perez Hamlin,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I will prevent it,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + Desire dropped an almost imperceptible curtsey, raised the latch of the + door and went out. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “No. Not there, Abner,” said Perez, quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Wy not, I sh'd like ter know. His wife ain't sick, be she?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “As much as you please, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THIRTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + A PRAISE MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + After the haw-haw over Peleg's description had subsided, he added, with a + grin, + </p> + <p> + “Klector Williams he hain't thort tew call baout them taxes, sence + Tewsday, nuther. Hev any on ye seen nothin on him?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't thar be no more klectin taxes?” inquired Laban Jones. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I dunno, baout that,” said Ezra Phelps. “Thar's more'n one way ter skin a + cat.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “No. In course I wouldn't.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I hain't no objeckshun ter that,” admitted Abner, frankly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Iry mout's well give up his comishin ez depity sheriff an try ter git + inter some honest trade,” remarked Israel. + </p> + <p> + “Whar does Squire Woodbridge keep hisself these days? I hain't seen him + skurcely this week,” said Ezra Phelps. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Tell us all about it Obadiah, we wanter hear it agin,” was the general + demand. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Obadiah, “it's all jess so. Thar ain't no mistake.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar's Meshech Little, ter night?” inquired Israel Goodrich, not so much + interested as the younger men in the points of young women. + </p> + <p> + “He's been drunk all day,” said Obadiah, who always knew everything that + was going on. + </p> + <p> + “Whar'd he git the money?” asked some one. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “He hed some, he hed a shillin howsumever,” said Obadiah. “Deacon Nash + give it tew him fer pitchin rowen.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOURTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ GOES TO MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “My son,” said Squire Edwards, sternly, “why do you come to the table in + such a condition? What have you been doing?” + </p> + <p> + “I've been fighting Obadiah Weeks, sir, and I whipped him, too.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “One, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “T'was only fair, though, this time,” he continued, with his mouth full, + “for t'was on 'count o' you I got to fightin.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said she. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Jonathan, busy with eating, had not observed his sister's face during this + recital, but now he said, glancing up: + </p> + <p> + “What on earth do you s'pose put such a lie into his head?” + </p> + <p> + “It isn't all a lie, Jonathan.” + </p> + <p> + The boy laid down his knife and fork, and stared at her aghast. + </p> + <p> + “You don't mean you was over there?” he exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + Desire's face was crimson to the roots of her hair. She bowed her head. + </p> + <p> + “Wh-a-a-t!” said Jonathan, in a tone of utter disgust, tempered only by a + remnant of incredulity. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't go on my knees to him,” said Desire faintly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Was that the way?” said the boy, evidently staggered by this unexpected + plea, and seeming quite at loss what to say. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to take off some of these trowsers. They're too hot.” Desire + discreetly went out. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “That's Lucretia Nimham.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIFTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + WHAT HAPPENED AFTER MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Here he comes! Here comes Squire.” + </p> + <p> + 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 “<i>The</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + “I callate Jerushy wouldn't a been so hard on him,” jealously snickered a + young farmer sitting by the young woman who last spoke. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Guess it's gonter rain.” + </p> + <p> + “Looks a little like it,” Perez assented. + </p> + <p> + Obadiah was silent a space, and ground the heel of his bare foot into the + dirt. + </p> + <p> + “D'you know what's good fer warts?” he finally asked. Perez said he did + not. After a pause, Obadiah remarked critically: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Be ye a gonter take George Fennell 'long with ye?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIXTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + AN AUCTION SALE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + Abner's usually good humoured face was darkly flushed, and there was an + ugly gleam in his eye as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + There was a chorus of exclamations. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father, the mob is coming. Shall I shut the door?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Better not shut the door. They will tear the house down if you do. + Resistance is out of the question.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Good mornin,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning, Abner,” replied Edwards, propitiatingly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Yer gab's runnin away with yer. Git to yer p'int, Abner,” said Peleg + Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + “Lemme 'lone I'm comin 'roun,” replied Abner. “Ye wuz over't the sale + yisdy, warn't ye, Squire?” he said, addressing Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I bid it in,” said Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Edwards, making no reply save to grow rather red, Abner continued: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But—but I bought it,” stammered Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Edwards' forehead was crimson. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Sartin, Sartin. I'll git em aout, but what's the peeanner agoin fer?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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—” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar be ye goin?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you consider that an honorable course, Captain Hamlin?” The young + man's face flushed, and he answered angrily: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + The doctor for a moment found it difficult to reply to this, and Perez + went on, with increasing bitterness: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “How many men in your company could be depended on to fight the mob, if it + came to blows?” asked Woodbridge. + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid not over twenty or thirty. Three-quarters are for the mob.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “But that would give not over three score, and the mob could easily muster + four times that,” said Gleason. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You forget this Hamlin fellow will stop at nothing, and they will follow + him,” remarked Seymour. + </p> + <p> + “He is going to leave town this week, if he be not already gone,” said Dr. + Partridge. + </p> + <p> + “What?” exclaimed Woodbridge, almost with consternation. + </p> + <p> + “He is going away,” repeated the doctor. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps it would be expedient to wait till he has gone,” was Gleason's + prudent suggestion. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Why what's the matter Prudy?” he asked in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what shall we do?” exclaimed Prudence in a terrified half-whisper. + “She says the militia are coming to take you!” + </p> + <p> + “What is it all?” demanded Perez of the Indian girl, as he laid his hand + soothingly on Prudence's shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Young woman, I owe you more than if you had saved me from death.” Lu + smilingly nodded, evidently fully appreciating the point. + </p> + <p> + “Three o'clock, you said?” muttered Perez presently, half to himself, as + the others still were silent. + </p> + <p> + “Tree 'clock, Jake say. Jake an all udder man meet to Cap'n Jones' tree + 'clock to git um guns.” + </p> + <p> + “It's nine now, six hours. Time enough,” muttered Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + He smiled grimly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, there's time for me to get away, but there's no time for them, my + sirs.” + </p> + <p> + “Abe,” he added, abruptly changing his tone, “you've heard what they're + going to do? What are you going to do?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But you don't want to leave home, Abe. You don't want to leave Lu here + for Jake to get.” + </p> + <p> + Abe shook his head gloomily. + </p> + <p> + “No use stay,” he said. “If I get whip, Lu no marry me.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Her Mohegan blood was on fire at the prospect of a scrimmage, and her + lover's response, if more laconic, was quite as satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + “Me no like to run. Me stay fight. Me do what you say.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I heard voices. What is it, Perez?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “You needn't be at all afraid. We shall certainly succeed.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + LEX TALIONIS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I never,” ejaculated Prudence Fennell, who was bringing some + breakfast to Perez, and had observed all this kissing with a rather sour + expression. + </p> + <p> + Unluckily for her, Submit overheard the words. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + The girl turned on him like a flash and gave him a resounding slap on the + cheek. + </p> + <p> + “Take that, you great gumph!” she exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “A nice sorter man you be Abner, fer yer neighbors to be a trustin ter + look aout fer things,” said an old farmer, sarcastically. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But ye ain't callatin ter go arter this be ye, Perez?” said Abner. + </p> + <p> + “This makes no difference. I expect to get off to-morrow,” replied Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What be ye a gonter dew to em?” asked Abner, eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “He's a gonter whip em.” And Obadiah almost devoutly murmured, “By Gosh!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + The chuckle with which this was received, showed how fast the people were + yielding to the awful charm of the thought. + </p> + <p> + “Dew yew s'pose Cap'n really dass dew it?” asked Obadiah. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I would have word with your captain,” he said to the sentinel at the + door. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Are you the captain of the armed band without?” + </p> + <p> + “I am.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “The report is entirely true, reverend sir. I am but waiting for a certain + Hessian drummer who will wield the lash.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “That is different. They would have proceeded against you as criminals, + according to law.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” cried his mother and sister, half scared to death at his + looks. + </p> + <p> + “They're going,”—Jonathan choked. + </p> + <p> + “They're going to have father whipped,” he finally made out to articulate. + </p> + <p> + “Whipped!” echoed Desire, faintly and uncomprehendingly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” cried the boy hoarsely, “like any vagabond, stripped and whipped at + the whipping-post.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said Mrs. Edwards, as she took Jonathan by the + shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “They're going to whip father, and uncle, and all the others,” he + repeated, beginning to whimper, stout boy as he was. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Let me go mother,” said Desire, half hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “It is not your place my child. I am his wife,” replied Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINETEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ GETS HIS TITLE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Your father?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my father! What are you going to do to him?” she repeated more + insistently. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What am I going to do with your father? I am going to whip him with the + others.” + </p> + <p> + She started back, stung into sudden defiance, her eyes flashing, her bosom + tumultuously heaving. + </p> + <p> + “You will not! You dare not!” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged his shoulders and replied coldly: + </p> + <p> + “If you are so sure of that, why did you come to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but you will not! You will not!” she cried again, her terror + returning with a rush of tears. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You kissed me once. Would you like to do it now? You may if you will let + my father go.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You will release my father?” He bowed his head, unable to speak, and she + went out. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “The Lord's will be done. You have failed.” + </p> + <p> + “No, mother, I have not failed. Father will be released, but I had liefer + have borne the whipping for him.” + </p> + <p> + But that was all she said, nor did she tell any one at what price she had + delivered him. + </p> + <p> + Desire had scarcely gone when the door opened and Hubbard and Abner came + in. Perez was sitting staring at the wall in a daze. + </p> + <p> + “Little Pete's come, and the people want to know when the whipping's going + to begin. Shall I bring em out?” said Hubbard. + </p> + <p> + “I've made up my mind that it will be better to have no whipping,” replied + Perez, quietly. + </p> + <p> + “The devil, you have!” exclaimed Hubbard, in high dudgeon. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Who'd have supposed Hamlin was such a milksop as to mind a girl's + bawling?” said Hubbard, scornfully. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + There was a shout of many voices from before the house. + </p> + <p> + “Bring em out! Bring out the silk stockins.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't see that the government, as yet, has done anything,” said + Edwards. “Do they intend to leave everything to the mob?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTIETH + </h2> + <h3> + TWO CRITICAL INTERVIEWS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Captain Hamlin, will you let them kill me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What do you want, men? You ought not to break into people's houses! You + musn't disgrace the hemlock.” + </p> + <p> + “Tha's all mighty fine, Cap'n,” said Meshech Little, “but we want suthin + tew drink.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't you get it at the tavern?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I say Cap'n 'tain't fa'r fer yew ter be a interferin with all our fun,” + spoke up another. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Come in, Captain,” said Edwards, and Perez entered. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wife, I owe my property and perhaps my life, also, to Captain Hamlin.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I understand that you have served at the south, Captain Hamlin,” said + Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I thank you,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + “You were with General Green, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—that is—yes m'am.” + </p> + <p> + “How is your mother's health?” + </p> + <p> + “Very well indeed,—that is, when—when she isn't sick. She is + generally sick.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but she's pretty well otherwise. How are you?” this last, + desperately. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + At that moment there came the noise of an axe from the green, with shouts. + </p> + <p> + “What is that?” asked Mrs. Edwards of her husband, who entered from the + store at that moment. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I think I will go,” said Perez, straightening up and assuming a + resolute air. + </p> + <p> + “I beg you will not be so hasty,” said Mrs. Edwards, taking her husband's + cue, and Perez abjectly sat down again. + </p> + <p> + “You must partake of my hospitality,” said Edwards. “Jonathan, draw a + decanter of that old Jamaica. Desire, bring us tumblers.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “My daughter, what does this mean?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Desire, tell me this instant,” exclaimed Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you let him? Why didn't you cry out?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Was it for this that he released your father the other day?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter? What ails the girl?” said Edwards, coming in from the + store, and viewing the scene with great surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Edwards listened with profound interest, but with more evidence of + curiosity than agitation, and after thinking a few moments, said + thoughtfully: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Will you, then, give up your daughter to these lewd fellows as Lot would + have given up his daughters to save his house?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + She snatched it away, and rushing across the room, threw herself upon the + settle, with her face in the cushion. + </p> + <p> + “Pish!” said her father, peevishly, “she grudges a kiss to save her father + from disgrace and ruin. It is a sinful, proud wench!” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Did you get it?” asked the latter. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I coax him! I see him again! Oh I can't, I can't do that,” cried Desire + with an air of overwhelming repugnance. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh it doesn't seem as if I could. It doesn't seem as if I could,” cried + the girl. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Entirely taken aback, he murmured something inarticulate, about her piano. + </p> + <p> + “Would your grace like to have me play a little?” she asked, gaily. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Perez leaned forward toward the beautiful upward turning face. + </p> + <p> + “Whatever you want,” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “To the half of my dukedom, you must say.” + </p> + <p> + “To the half of my dukedom,” he repeated, in a mechanical voice, not + removing his eyes from hers. + </p> + <p> + “Do you pledge your honor?” she demanded, still retaining her position. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + A ghastly pallor overspread his face. “You're not going away,” he + stammered, rising slowly up. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THE HUSKING + </h3> + <p> + Scarcely had Perez left, when Edwards entered the parlor. + </p> + <p> + “Did you get it?” he asked of Desire. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” said Perez, in a dull voice. + </p> + <p> + “What matter with you, Cap'n? Me speake tree time. You no say nothin. You + seek?” Perez looked up at him vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “She's going away, Abe. Desire Edwards is going away,” replied Perez, + looking up at the Indian in a helpless, appealing way. + </p> + <p> + “You no like have her go, Cap'n? You like better she stay? What for let + her go then?” + </p> + <p> + “I gave her a pass, Abe. She was so beautiful I couldn't help it.” + </p> + <p> + Abe scratched his head. + </p> + <p> + “If she so preety, me s'pose you keep her all more for that. No let her + go.” + </p> + <p> + Perez did not explain this point, but presently said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “No wonder you hide your head.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + It was evident from his dazed look, that he did not follow her words. He + glanced inquiringly at Abe, who responded with lucid brevity: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “No, not again,” he replied slowly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, let me go home. Let me go home. I shall scream out if you don't let + me go,” she cried. + </p> + <p> + He rose to his feet, walked quickly across the room and back, and then + having in some measure subdued his agitation, replied: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Desire, who had sat in stolid silence, now said in much agitation: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Edwards paced to and fro with knitted brow. Finally he said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Methinks in such matters a woman is the best judge,” said the girl + naively. + </p> + <p> + “Tut, tut, Desire!” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, I meant no harm, mother,” and then with a great sigh, she said: “I + will go. Poor father feels so bad.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Don't ye sit thar,” said Israel, “that ain't nothin but a stool. Thar's a + chair furder along.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Thar,” said Israel, good-humoredly, as she seated herself in the promised + chair, “naow I guess we'll see the shucks begin to fly.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Guess yew ain't uster huskin, or yew woulden come in yer bes gaown,” said + Israel cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Fair play youngster! fair play! No interferin!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, keep me from that man.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake, some of you take the fellow away, or I shall kill him.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Good night.” + </p> + <p> + Was it Desire Edwards' voice which so kindly, almost softly, responded to + his salutations? It was she who, in astonishment, asked herself the + question. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND + </h2> + <h3> + BRACE OF PROCLAMATIONS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You don't look as if you needed to go to Pittsfield for your health now.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said, smiling. “When I found I could not go, I concluded I would + get well here.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you are very angry with me for stopping you that night, though + it was not I that did it.” + </p> + <p> + “If I were angry, I should not dare tell you, for fear of bringing down + your vengeance on me.” + </p> + <p> + “But are you angry?” he asked anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “I told you I did not dare say,” she replied, smiling at him with an + indomitable air. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Here comes the Duke,” said another. “Wat dew yew say ter this ere + proclamashin, Cap'n?” + </p> + <p> + Perez laughed. + </p> + <p> + “The more paper government wastes on proclamations, the less it'll have + left for cartridges,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What do you know about him, child?” said her father, in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a lie, a wicked lie!” cried the girl, whirling around, and + confronting her father, with blazing cheeks and eyes. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Desire, child, what's all this?” + </p> + <p> + But before the girl could speak, there was an effectual diversion. + Jonathan came rushing in from outdoors, crying: + </p> + <p> + “They're burning the governor!” + </p> + <p> + “What!” gasped his father. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + Sure enough, on the summit of Laurel Hill the light of a big bonfire shone + like a beacon. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “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.” + </pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I never hearn nothin baout that idea” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD + </h2> + <h3> + SNOW-BOUND + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>carte blanche</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + One day it chanced that Mrs. Edwards who was sitting by the window, said + abruptly: + </p> + <p> + “Here comes that Hamlin fellow.” + </p> + <p> + Desire sprang up with such an appearance of agitation that her mother + added: + </p> + <p> + “Don't be scared, child. He won't come in here. It's only into the store + he's coming.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if father hasn't got some other dimity in the store.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps. I think not, though,” replied Mrs. Edwards. Desire leaned back + in her chair, stifled a yawn and presently said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “How cold the weather is!” she said, dreamily. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, very,” replied Perez. + </p> + <p> + “I hope it will be warmer, soon, don't you?” she murmered. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “If he had not let go her hand, I should have taken him by the shoulder in + another second,” he said angrily. + </p> + <p> + “Whatever made her shake hands with him?” demanded Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE BATTLE OF WEST STOCKBRIDGE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Great God, I must see her!” + </p> + <p> + Edwards was plainly very much frightened, but he did not yield. + </p> + <p> + “You shall not,” he replied between his teeth. “Jonathan! Dr. Partridge! + Will you see him murder me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Without giving Desire a chance to reply, which indeed she was much too + confused and embarrassed to do, her mother interposed. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Run! Run!” cried Desire, speaking for the first time. + </p> + <p> + Perez glanced out at the window and saw his pursuers not ten rods off. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “He lies. Shoot him! Fire! Damn you, fire!” yelled Hubbard in a panic. + </p> + <p> + “The first man that fires hangs for murder!” thundered Sedgwick. “Throw + down your arms and you shall not be harmed.” + </p> + <p> + “Kin yew say that for sartin, Squire?” asked Laban, hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “No, he lies. Our only chance is to fight!” yelled Hubbard, frantically. + “Shoot him, I tell you.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “We're surrounded! Run for your lives!” was shouted on every side, and the + line broke in confusion. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Who'd have thought they were such a set of cowards?” said a young militia + officer, contemptuously. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Those standing around joining heartily in this tribute, Sedgwick replied + quietly: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “May I hope, Miss Edwards, not to be wholly forgotten if I should fall on + the gory field to-morrow?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Where is his lair this time?” asked Desire, carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But Miss Edwards had left the room. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH + </h2> + <h3> + A GAME OF BLUFF + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Halt!” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, all in a tremble. She had quite forgotten that the streets + were now-a-days guarded by regular lines of sentries. + </p> + <p> + “Advance and give the countersign,” said the soldier. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Edwards!” murmurs Mrs. Hamlin, as Elnathan and Reuben gape in + speechless bewilderment. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “How do you know it?” + </p> + <p> + “I was told so ten minutes since by the officers at my father's house,” + replied Desire. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Hamlin's face suddenly changed its expression, and she answered + slowly, in a tone of intense, suppressed feeling: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Reub,” he cried, starting up as he recognized his brother, “what's the + matter? Has anything happened at home?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing bad. I've brought you news. Have you got some rum? I'm pretty + tired.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Now I feel better. It was a hard road. I felt like giving out once or + twice. But I'm all right now.” + </p> + <p> + “What made you come, Reub? You're not strong yet. It might have killed + you.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What!” exclaimed Perez, his face aglow. “She brought you word? Do you + mean that?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “The news I fetched is that the army in Stockbridge is going to attack you + to-morrow at dawn.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Wal, Cap'n, wat dew ye see tew larf at in that? Derned ef I see nothin + funny.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “No, Abner,” replied Perez, “I have not thought of any plan yet. What do + you think about the business?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “That's sartin so, Cap'n,” said Abner, his anxiety for Perez' sanity + evidently diminishing. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'Will your commander and Dr. Partridge, if he be among you, ride out to + meet me? I would have a parley.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'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.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'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.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'It is private property,' said Hamlin. + </p> + <p> + “'It is forfeited to its owner by its use against the government,' replied + the General sturdily. + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'Sir, I now deliver over to you the artillery, that is if you can settle + it with Mrs. Perry. Abner stand aside.' + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE RESTORATION + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Quick, get up and dress, or you'll be murdered in bed! An army of + Shayites is in the village.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is he here?” gasped Desire, her dismay suddenly magnified into utter + panic. + </p> + <p> + “Fer sartain, my sweetheart ez sent me word 's under him,” replied Keziah. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Why didn' ye open that ar door, afore?” demanded Meshech, angrily. + </p> + <p> + “What do you want?” asked Mrs. Edwards tremblingly confronting him. + </p> + <p> + “Wat dew we want ole woman?” replied Meshech. “Wal, we want most + evrything, but I guess we kin help oursels. Hey boys?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + SOME REAL FIGHTING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Were you frightened?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she replied in a mechanical tone corresponding with her appearance. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “What is that, Desire? What do you mean about sending him warning?” cried + Mrs. Edwards amazedly. Desire made no reply but Perez did: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the girl in the same dead, mechanical voice, without turning + her eyes to her mother or even raising them. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” answered the girl. + </p> + <p> + “What?” faltered Perez, his arm involuntarily dropping from her waist. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, don't, mother, don't.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wy in time did'n yer hole ontew her, Cap'n? I'd like ter seen her git + away from me.” + </p> + <p> + “Or me nuther,” seconded the fellow next him. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What have you done with my husband?” she demanded anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to take them away for? What are you going to do to + them?” cried Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you going to murder them?” exclaimed the frantic woman. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Aroused by Abner's insistent words, Perez took Desire's hand, and said + desperately: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no! Oh, no! I don't want to,” she said, shuddering and drawing her + hand away. + </p> + <p> + Abner was silent a moment, and then he broke out vehemently: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Ef ye let her go, ye'll never set eyes on her agin, Cap'n,” said Abner. + </p> + <p> + “I can't. I can't. Have pity on me,” groaned Perez. “I can't let you go.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “You know I love you now. You believe it, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, mother, mother, I wish he'd taken me. He feels so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Where are father and Jonathan?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “My father and mother?” repeated Perez vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I must have forgotten about them,” he finally said. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What are we stopping here for, Abner?” he asked, a little peevishly. + </p> + <p> + “Wy, it's the caounty jail, ye know, an we're lettin aout the debtors. + Reub's in here, ye know.” + </p> + <p> + “So he is; I'd forgotten,” replied Perez, and then after a pause, “Why + don't he come out?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is he in there?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ye living men, come view the ground + Where ye shall shortly lie. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Perez shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “We can't kill our friends,” said an officer. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Duke of Stockbridge, by Edward Bellamy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7472-h.htm or 7472-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/7/7472/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: April 12, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** 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 preemptory 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, reenforced 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 reenforced 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 reentry 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 reerected 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7472.txt or 7472.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/7/7472/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE + </h1> + <h2> + A ROMANCE OF SHAYS' REBELLION + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Edward Bellamy + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER FIRST </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER SECOND </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER THIRD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER FOURTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER FIFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER SIXTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER SEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER EIGHTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER NINTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER TENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER ELEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER TWELFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER THIRTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER FOURTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER FIFTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER SIXTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER NINETEENTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER TWENTIETH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THE MARCH OF THE MINUTE MEN + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Ye must tak keer o' Reub, Perez. He ain't so rugged 'zye be. By rights, + he orter ha stayed to hum.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I came to bid you good-bye, Perez,” says a voice behind him. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Fall in,” shouts Captain Woodbridge, for the Squire himself is their + captain. + </p> + <p> + There is a tumult of embraces and kisses all around. Reuben kissed his + mother. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Desire looked about, and saw all the women kissing their men. The air was + electric. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SECOND + </h2> + <h3> + NINE YEARS AFTER + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It'll hev more intew it fore 't hez less,” said Abner grimly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “'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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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'.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a pianner,” said Obadiah. + </p> + <p> + “I guess peeanner's nigher right,” observed Peleg critically. “My gal + hearn the Edwards gal call it peeanner.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + There was a sardonic snicker at Ezra's expense, but he returned to the + charge quite undismayed. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “They wuz wuth suthin fer a wile,” assented Abner. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “That's so,” said Ezra Phelps, “everybody knows as these tew counties be + taxed higher nor the other eend o' the state.” + </p> + <p> + “Hev yew paid up ye taxes fer las' year, Peleg?” inquired Abner. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I callate 't ain't nothin very hard tew stop a court, 'cordin tew that,” + said Peleg Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + “No, 'tain't hard, not ef the people is gen'ally agin' the settin on it,” + said Isaiah. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + During this talk, Elnathan had risen and gone feebly out. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What's abaout Reub?” asked Abner. + </p> + <p> + “He's a goin intew a decline daown to the jail.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yas, I went with Cap'n Stoddard,” replied that individual. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Jabez,” said Abner, “I hope ye don' hev no hard feelin's. Times be + changed. Let by gones be by gones.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Jabez looked from one to the other till he had sufficiently enjoyed their + discomfiture and then he continued: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THIRD + </h2> + <h3> + THE TAVERN-JAIL AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “That's it, over yonder,” said the man, jerking his thumb over his + shoulder at a nondescript building some way ahead. + </p> + <p> + “That looks more like a jail.” + </p> + <p> + “Wal, so 'tis. The jail's in the ell part o' the tavern. Cephe Bement + keeps 'em both.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a queer notion to put em under the same roof.” + </p> + <p> + “I dunno 'bout that, nuther. It's mostly by way o' the tavern that fellers + gits inter jail, I calc'late.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Times are pretty hard hereabouts, are they?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is the jail pretty full now?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you expect a good many more this week?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “The devil! Has there been a riot or a rebellion in the county? What have + they all done?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't they pay up before they get in?” queried Perez. + </p> + <p> + “Whar be ye from?” asked the landlord, staring at him. + </p> + <p> + “I'm from New York, last.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Perez, “if you won't take these, I can't pay you at all.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps these are cleaner,” said Perez, handing him another lot. “What + odds does it make?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't mean to say there's much of that sort of slavery,” ejaculated + Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Have you any debtors from Stockbridge?” asked Perez, suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “A hull slew on em,” replied Bement. “I've got one more'n I shall hev much + longer, tew.” + </p> + <p> + “Who be that?” asked Zeke. + </p> + <p> + “Wal, I callate George Fennell won't hole out much longer.” + </p> + <p> + “Fennell; George Fennell! George Fennell is not in this jail,” cried + Perez. + </p> + <p> + “Wal, naow,” said Bement, imperturbably, “perhaps ye know better'n I dew.” + </p> + <p> + “But, landlord, he's my friend, my comrade, I'd like to see him,” and the + young man's countenance expressed the liveliest concern. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it is I, George,” said the soldier, his eyes filling with + compassionate tears. “How came you in this horrible place?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez; brother Perez. Don't you know me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Reub, Reub, I didn't know you was here,” groaned Perez, as he put his arm + about his brother, and supported his feeble figure. + </p> + <p> + “How come ye here, then?” asked Reuben. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Where have ye been, Perez, all the time? I callated ye must be in jail, + somewheres, like all the rest of the soldiers.” + </p> + <p> + “I had no money to get home with. But how came you here, Reub? Who put you + here?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why didn't father help you? He ain't dead is he?” + </p> + <p> + Almost any misfortune now seemed possible to Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “How much was your debt, Reub?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + And then he pointed to the sums in charcoal, covering the walls of the + cell. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Time's up,” he said sharply. + </p> + <p> + “What, you're not going now? You're not going to leave us yet?” cried + Reuben, piteously. + </p> + <p> + Perez choked down the wrath and bitterness that was turning his heart to + iron and said, humbly. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Bement, I should like to stay a few minutes longer. This is my + brother. I did not know he was here.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOURTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE PEOPLE ASK BREAD AND RECEIVE A STONE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, of that he spoke not.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + He held up some of the court cards. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Je assed me to dew it,” whimpered Zedekiah. + </p> + <p> + “Kiah, he assed me fust,” averred Jerubbabel. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Was there any action taken in favor of the plan for the emission of + bills, which shall systematically depreciate!” inquired Squire Woodbridge. + </p> + <p> + “Such a resolution was introduced by Thomas Gold of Pittsfield, a + pestilent fellow, but we threw it out.” + </p> + <p> + “What was the action on reduction of expenses of suits at law?” inquired + Dr. Partridge. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don' ye go, Abner? Ye ain't scairt o' speakin tew Squire, be ye!” + said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don' ye go yerself, Peleg, if ye be so dretful brave!” inquired + Israel Goodrich. + </p> + <p> + “That's so, Peleg, why don' ye go?” + </p> + <p> + “I ain't no talker,” said Peleg. “Ther's Ezry, he'd orter go, he's sech a + good talker.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Please we'd like ter know what the convenshin has did?” + </p> + <p> + Sedgwick, who had his back to him, turned quickly, and seeing Laban, said + in a preëmptory tone: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Nothin? Did you say, Squire?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What d'ee say, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “What did they dew?” + </p> + <p> + “Did they 'bolish the loryers?” + </p> + <p> + “Wat did they dew baout more bills, Laban, hey?” + </p> + <p> + “What did they dew baout the taxes?” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't ye speak, man?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Squire says ez haow they didn' dew nothin.” + </p> + <p> + There was a moment's dead silence, then the clamor burst out again. + </p> + <p> + “Not dew nothin?” + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye mean, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the taxes?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the loryers?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout the sheriffs' fees?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout jailin for debt?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout takin prop'ty tew a valiation, Laban?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin baout movin govment aout o' Bosting?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wal, I swow, I be kinder disappinted.” + </p> + <p> + There was a space of silence. + </p> + <p> + “So be I,” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + Presently Paul Hubbard's metallic voice was heard. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “He said suthin baout govment bein none o' our business an haow we'd a + better go hum an not be loafin roun'.” + </p> + <p> + “Ef govment hain't no business o' ourn I'd like tew know what in time we + fit the King fer,” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “That's so, wy didn' ye ass Squire that queschin?” said Meshech Little. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye mean?” asked Israel half timorously. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind wat I mean,” replied Abner, “on'y a wum 'll turn wen it's trod + on.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, Ezra?” he demanded sharply, seeing that Ezra wanted to + address him. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + Stopping his horse, Sedgwick replied, in a loud, clear voice. + </p> + <p> + “The convention declared that the laws shall be enforced, and all + disorderly persons punished with the stocks and with lashes on the bare + back.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that all?” faltered Ezra. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIFTH + </h2> + <h3> + THAT MEANS REBELLION! + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Perez! My boy is dying! I see it.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Sun's down! Sun's down!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I dunno noffin bout no Bill Wright,” was Sol's final dismissal of the + subject. + </p> + <p> + “Drive to Squire Woodbridge's house, Sol,” said Sedgwick, as he stepped + into the carriage. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope, sir, that I am equal to the duties of my position,” replied + Woodbridge, stiffly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Your opinion, Sir,” he replied, with undiminished affability, “tends to + relieve my apprehensions. I trust the event will justify it. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, but tell me the caitiff's name, and let me be myself your knight, + fair mistress, to redress your wrongs.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes; 'tis that all the poor want to be rich, and to hang all the + lawyers. I've heard. 'Tis a fine scheme.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt the piano is most excellent in sound.” + </p> + <p> + “It goes middling well, but already I weary me of my bargain.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you then in trade, Miss Desire?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But what'll we dew, ourselves?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But what be I a goin to dew with my little Bijah? He's all I've got, but + I can't leave him.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Perez, thar's my fist. By gosh I'm with ye.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Perez, this is Prudence Fennell, George Fennell's girl. She heard you had + seen her father, and came to ask you about him.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Is my father much sick, sir?” + </p> + <p> + “He is very sick,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Is he going to die?” + </p> + <p> + Perez felt a strong tugging at his heart strings, in which, for the + moment, he forgot his own personal trouble. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know, my child,” he replied, very gently. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Abner, we must manage somehow to get George out too.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Come out! Come out! Crypus! Come out, I've got news.” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” said Perez eagerly, stepping forth into the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “That wuz a pootty leetle plan o' yourn, Perez.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes.” + </p> + <p> + 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> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What the devil do you mean, Abner? not going to try it?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “The hull caounty o' Berkshire 's a gonter help us.” + </p> + <p> + Perez looked at him with horror. He was not drunk; he must be going crazy. + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean, Abner?” he said soothingly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “That means rebellion, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + “In course it doos. An it means the Lord ain't quite dead yit. That's wat + it means.” + </p> + <p> + “But what's that got to do with Reub and George?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIXTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ DEFINES HIS POSITION + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Wat did they do nex?” inquired Obadiah Weeks, as Ezra paused with the + appearance of having made an end of his narration. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You hear true,” responded the smiling Indian. “Heap go. Some stay. No + want to go.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Lessee, Perez, ye've been gone nigh onter nine year. Ye muss find some + changes in the taown.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I s'pose ye know ez haow they've set the niggers free.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye callate 's the reason?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I don' quite git yer idee. Haow dew ye make out that air 'bout poor folks + bein slaves?” said Ezra Phelps dryly. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Wha' ye say, Perez, z'all right, but wha'n time be <i>yew</i> 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.” + </p> + <p> + There was a general sensation. Every mouth was opened, and every neck + craned forward to catch the reply. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “By gosh, I forgot baout Reub, I declar I did,” exclaimed Meshech, + contritely. + </p> + <p> + “Give us yer hand,” said Israel, “I forgot same ez Meshech, an I + misdoubted ye. This be Ezra Phelps, ez owns the new mill.” + </p> + <p> + “Shake agin,” said Peleg, extending his hand. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Hev ye hearn the news from Northampton, Perez?” asked Israel. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE FIRST ENCOUNTER + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Abner scratched his head. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But the confabulation was interrupted by a cry of panic from Obadiah + Weeks: + </p> + <p> + “Golly, here come the slectmen!” + </p> + <p> + “Hell!” exclaimed Hubbard, whirling on his heel, and taking in the + situation with a glance, while Abner's face was expressive of equal + consternation. + </p> + <p> + The local authorities had been so quiet the day before, that no + interference on their part had been thought of. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “You may well”—— + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Drum!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + They were about half a mile out of Stockbridge, when Abner, accompanied by + Paul Hubbard, approached Perez, and remarked: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, we're a gonter be,” replied Abner. “Ye kin depend on us in a + scrimmage, but ye muss sass the silk stockins.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHTH + </h2> + <h3> + GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Where are you going?” he asked kindly, stopping his horse. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to see father,” she said with a tremulous lip. + </p> + <p> + “Poor little lassie, were you going to walk all the way?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Perez threw himself from his horse. + </p> + <p> + “We are all going to the jail,” he said. “You shall come with us, and ride + upon my horse. Men, she shall lead us.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What be all the folks?” called out Abner to a woman who stood with a baby + in arms at an open door. + </p> + <p> + “Over tew Barrington seein the fun. Thar be great dewins,” she replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + There was a general outburst of surprise and satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + “By gosh, it looks like gineral trainin, or'n ordination.” + </p> + <p> + “Looks kinder 'z if a good many fellers b'sides us hed business with the + jestices this mornin.” + </p> + <p> + “I'd no idee courts wuz so pop'lar.” + </p> + <p> + “They ain't stocks nuff in Berkshire fer all the fellers as is out tidday, + that's one sure thing, by gol.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINTH + </h2> + <h3> + JUDGE DWIGHT'S SIGNATURE + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “They're stoning the judges!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Stand back! Stand back! What more do you want, men? The court is + stopped.” + </p> + <p> + But the people murmured. The Great Barrington men did not know Perez, and + were not ready to accept his dictation. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you want, then?” asked Perez. + </p> + <p> + “We want some sartainty baout it.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Who is this fellow who speaks for the rabble?” demanded Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “My name is Hamlin.” + </p> + <p> + “You are a disgrace to the uniform you wear. Do you know you have incurred + the penalties of high treason?” exclaimed the justice. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I shall live to see you hung, drawn and quartered for treason, you + rascal,” roared Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, sir. Do but think this man holds your life in his hands. Entreat him + civilly,” expostulated Madam Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “He means not so, sir,” she added, turning to Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Where are writing materials?” asked Justice Goodrich, nervously, as a + stone broke through one of the window panes and fell on the table. + </p> + <p> + “I will bring them,” said the young lady, Dwight's daughter. + </p> + <p> + “Do make haste, Miss,” urged Justice Barker. “The mob is even now forcing + an entrance.” + </p> + <p> + “I forbid you to bring them. Remain here,” thundered Dwight. + </p> + <p> + The girl paused, irresolute, pale and terrified. + </p> + <p> + “Go, Eliza,” said her mother. “Disobey your father and save his life.” + </p> + <p> + She went, and in a moment returned with the articles. Perez wrote two + lines, and read them. + </p> + <p> + “'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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you order us to sign?” said Barker, apparently willing to find in this + appearance of duress an excuse for yielding. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I admire your courage, sir, but I cannot answer for the consequences of + your refusal,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + “For my sake sign, sir,” urged Madam Dwight. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sign, papa. They will kill you,” cried Eliza. + </p> + <p> + “Methinks, it is but proper prudence, to seem to yield for the time + being,” said Goodrich. + </p> + <p> + “'Tis no more than the justices at Northampton have done,” added Barker. + </p> + <p> + “I need not remind your honor that a pledge given under duress, is not + binding,” said Whiting. + </p> + <p> + But Dwight waved them away, saying merely, “I know my duty.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Child, have you dared to write my name?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, father, I have not,” replied the girl. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Whar's that paper?” + </p> + <p> + “Hain't they signed?” + </p> + <p> + “We'll make ye sign, dum quick.” + </p> + <p> + “We're a gonter tie ye up an give it to ye on the bare back.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll give ye a dose o' yer own med'cin.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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, + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “We-promise-not-to-ak—under—our-c—o—m,—commishins + until-the—g—r—i—e—grievunces,”— + </p> + <p> + “Wot be them?” demanded one of the crowd. + </p> + <p> + “That means taxes, 'n loryers, 'n debts, 'n all that. I've hearn the word + afore,” exclaimed another. “G'long Pete.” + </p> + <p> + “Grievunces,” proceeded the reader, “of-wich-the-people-complain.” + </p> + <p> + “That's so.” + </p> + <p> + “That's dern good. In course we complains.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that writ so, Pete?” + </p> + <p> + “G'long, Pete, that ere's good.” + </p> + <p> + “Complains,” began the reader again. + </p> + <p> + “Go back tew the beginnin Pete, I los' the hang on't.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, go back a leetle, Pete. It be mos'z long ez a sermon.” + </p> + <p> + “Shell I begin tew the beginnin?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, begin tew the beginnin agin, so's we'll all on us git the hang.” + </p> + <p> + “We—promise—not-tew-ak—under—our-commishins, until—the—g—r—grievunces—of—wich—the—people—complain, + are—r—e—d—r—redressed.” + </p> + <p> + “Wot's redressed?” + </p> + <p> + “That's same ez 'bolished.” + </p> + <p> + “Here be the names,” pursued Pete. + </p> + <p> + “Charles Goodrich.” + </p> + <p> + “He's the feller ez loss his hat.” + </p> + <p> + “William Whiting.” + </p> + <p> + “James Barker.” + </p> + <p> + “Elijah Dwight.” + </p> + <p> + “It's false,” exclaimed Dwight, “my name's not there!” + </p> + <p> + But few, if any, heard or heeded his words, for at the moment Pete + pronounced the last name, Perez shouted: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, don't talk to me so, papa,” cried the girl sobbing. “I didn't write + your name, papa, I truly didn't.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Your name, Eliza, but he read mine.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “That will do, dear, go to your mother now. I shall see that you have + better instruction in writing.” + </p> + <p> + That was the only rebuke he ever gave her. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TENTH + </h2> + <h3> + GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON CONTINUED + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I guess I've seen yew tew meetin,” she said to Prudence. “Ain't you + Fennell's gal?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know where the jail is?” asked the girl. + </p> + <p> + “It's that ere haouse over thar. It's in with the tavern.” + </p> + <p> + “Let's go and ask the jailer if he'll let us in,” suggested Prudence. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + And so the two women went on toward the jail, and Prudence dismounted + before the door of the tavern end, and tied the horse. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What dew ye want?” demanded the latter, sharply. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Poor curtsied very low, and smiled a vague, abject smile of + propitiation. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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 <i>my</i> + husban' keeps it, an that's flat. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “Open, and be quick about it!” + </p> + <p> + “Don't do it, Cephas, the house is stout, and mebbe help'll come,” said + Mrs. Bement, although she trembled. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning, Mr. Bement,” said Perez, as coolly as if he had just + dropped in for a glass of flip. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning sir,” faintly articulated the landlord. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Knock Bement down. Then four of you swing him by his arms and legs and + break the jail door through with his head.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Giv' em the keys, Marthy. They're a killin me,” screeched Bement. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I shell keep the keys, Cephas. It's my dewty. Pray, Cephas, that I may + hev strength given me ter dew my dewty.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “One.” + </p> + <p> + The woman looked a bit more like going into hysterics, but not a whit more + like yielding. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Two,” said Abner, as they swung him again. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Bement stood awaiting her, breathing hard, evidently scared, but + equally evidently, furious. + </p> + <p> + “Give em the keys, Marthy. She'll kill ye,” called out Bement, from the + back of the room. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + In another moment the jail door was thrown open, and the men were rushing + down the corridor. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER ELEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + END OF THE GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “What's your name?” “Is this Abijah Galpin?” “Are you my brother Jake?” + “Are you Sol Morris?” “Father, is it you?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I've come for you Reub, old boy, you're free.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father ain't here. Where is he?” and turned to run out. + </p> + <p> + “That's your father,” replied Perez, pointing to the sick man. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Prudy, my little girl, is it you?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father! Oh Father!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “You have brought him home to die,” she said. + </p> + <p> + But he reassured her. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I shan't want no doctor's stuff,” said Reuben, feebly. “Seein mother + round 's med'cin nuff fer me, I guess.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWELFTH + </h2> + <h3> + A FAIR SUPPLIANT + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Please, marm, father's sick, and Mis Hamlin thinks he ought to have the + doctor.” + </p> + <p> + “Your father and Mrs. Hamlin? Who is your father, pray?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Please, marm, don't mind what I said. Box my ears, marm, but please let + doctor come. Father coughs so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I can do you no good.” + </p> + <p> + “Shall I die?” asked the sick man, faintly. + </p> + <p> + “You may live a few weeks, but not longer. The disease has taken too + strong a hold.” + </p> + <p> + Fennell looked around the room. Prudence was not present. + </p> + <p> + “Don't tell Prudy,” he said. + </p> + <p> + As to Reuben, who was already looking much brighter than the preceding + night, the doctor said: + </p> + <p> + “He may get well,” and left a little medicine. + </p> + <p> + Perez, who had been in the room, followed him out of doors. + </p> + <p> + “Do you think my brother will get well?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “I think so, if he does not have to go back to jail.” + </p> + <p> + “He will not go back unless I go with him,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean I shall be hung?” + </p> + <p> + “And drawn and quartered,” amended the doctor, grimly. “That is the + penalty for treason, I believe.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + The doctor gathered up the reins. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “An ye better hurry, tew,” urged his wife anxiously. “Ye know ye didn't + dew the fuss thing all day yis'dy.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar wuz I yis'dy?” asked Meshech, in whose confused faculties the only + distinct recollection was that he had been drunk. + </p> + <p> + “Ye went daown tew Barrington 'long with the crowd.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But at this Meshech, instead of being impressed, burst into a loud haw + haw. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Another such night will kill her, won't it, doctor?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “My father fears that they will plunder the store and perhaps murder us, + unless help comes soon.” + </p> + <p> + “There is no help to come,” said the doctor. “The militia are all in the + mob.” + </p> + <p> + “But is there nothing we can do? Must we let them murder Aunty before our + eyes?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose it would be hard for him,” said the doctor, “and yet to save + your aunt's life maybe—” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Me, Desire Edwards, sue for favors of this low fellow! You forget + yourself strangely, Dr. Partridge.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “Your uncle hasn't gone out, has he?” asked Mrs. Woodbridge, feebly. + </p> + <p> + “No, Aunty, he's in his study walking to and fro as he's been all day, you + know.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't think he will go, Aunty.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think they will make that terrible noise again tonight.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I don't know. I'm afraid so, Aunt Lucy.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going out for a little while,” said Desire, “and you will go to + Aunty, if she calls, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “Do ye mean Perez?” parleyed Elnathan. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “I b'leve he's somewheres raound. He's aout doin up the chores, I callate. + Did ye wanter see him?” + </p> + <p> + “If you please.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “It's the Edwards gal,” he continued, in a feebly introductory manner, as + Desire entered. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Hush father, she'll hear,” said Perez, and opening the door came into the + kitchen. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Are you Captain Hamlin?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you remember Perez Hamlin,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I will prevent it,” said Perez. + </p> + <p> + Desire dropped an almost imperceptible curtsey, raised the latch of the + door and went out. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “No. Not there, Abner,” said Perez, quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Wy not, I sh'd like ter know. His wife ain't sick, be she?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “As much as you please, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THIRTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + A PRAISE MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + After the haw-haw over Peleg's description had subsided, he added, with a + grin, + </p> + <p> + “Klector Williams he hain't thort tew call baout them taxes, sence + Tewsday, nuther. Hev any on ye seen nothin on him?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't thar be no more klectin taxes?” inquired Laban Jones. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I dunno, baout that,” said Ezra Phelps. “Thar's more'n one way ter skin a + cat.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “No. In course I wouldn't.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I hain't no objeckshun ter that,” admitted Abner, frankly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Iry mout's well give up his comishin ez depity sheriff an try ter git + inter some honest trade,” remarked Israel. + </p> + <p> + “Whar does Squire Woodbridge keep hisself these days? I hain't seen him + skurcely this week,” said Ezra Phelps. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Tell us all about it Obadiah, we wanter hear it agin,” was the general + demand. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Obadiah, “it's all jess so. Thar ain't no mistake.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar's Meshech Little, ter night?” inquired Israel Goodrich, not so much + interested as the younger men in the points of young women. + </p> + <p> + “He's been drunk all day,” said Obadiah, who always knew everything that + was going on. + </p> + <p> + “Whar'd he git the money?” asked some one. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “He hed some, he hed a shillin howsumever,” said Obadiah. “Deacon Nash + give it tew him fer pitchin rowen.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOURTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ GOES TO MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “My son,” said Squire Edwards, sternly, “why do you come to the table in + such a condition? What have you been doing?” + </p> + <p> + “I've been fighting Obadiah Weeks, sir, and I whipped him, too.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “One, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “T'was only fair, though, this time,” he continued, with his mouth full, + “for t'was on 'count o' you I got to fightin.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said she. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Jonathan, busy with eating, had not observed his sister's face during this + recital, but now he said, glancing up: + </p> + <p> + “What on earth do you s'pose put such a lie into his head?” + </p> + <p> + “It isn't all a lie, Jonathan.” + </p> + <p> + The boy laid down his knife and fork, and stared at her aghast. + </p> + <p> + “You don't mean you was over there?” he exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + Desire's face was crimson to the roots of her hair. She bowed her head. + </p> + <p> + “Wh-a-a-t!” said Jonathan, in a tone of utter disgust, tempered only by a + remnant of incredulity. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't go on my knees to him,” said Desire faintly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Was that the way?” said the boy, evidently staggered by this unexpected + plea, and seeming quite at loss what to say. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to take off some of these trowsers. They're too hot.” Desire + discreetly went out. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “That's Lucretia Nimham.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIFTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + WHAT HAPPENED AFTER MEETING + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Here he comes! Here comes Squire.” + </p> + <p> + 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 “<i>The</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + “I callate Jerushy wouldn't a been so hard on him,” jealously snickered a + young farmer sitting by the young woman who last spoke. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Guess it's gonter rain.” + </p> + <p> + “Looks a little like it,” Perez assented. + </p> + <p> + Obadiah was silent a space, and ground the heel of his bare foot into the + dirt. + </p> + <p> + “D'you know what's good fer warts?” he finally asked. Perez said he did + not. After a pause, Obadiah remarked critically: + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Be ye a gonter take George Fennell 'long with ye?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIXTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + AN AUCTION SALE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + Abner's usually good humoured face was darkly flushed, and there was an + ugly gleam in his eye as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + There was a chorus of exclamations. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Father, the mob is coming. Shall I shut the door?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Better not shut the door. They will tear the house down if you do. + Resistance is out of the question.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Good mornin,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Good morning, Abner,” replied Edwards, propitiatingly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Yer gab's runnin away with yer. Git to yer p'int, Abner,” said Peleg + Bidwell. + </p> + <p> + “Lemme 'lone I'm comin 'roun,” replied Abner. “Ye wuz over't the sale + yisdy, warn't ye, Squire?” he said, addressing Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Abner.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I bid it in,” said Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Edwards, making no reply save to grow rather red, Abner continued: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But—but I bought it,” stammered Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Edwards' forehead was crimson. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Sartin, Sartin. I'll git em aout, but what's the peeanner agoin fer?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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—” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar be ye goin?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you consider that an honorable course, Captain Hamlin?” The young + man's face flushed, and he answered angrily: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + The doctor for a moment found it difficult to reply to this, and Perez + went on, with increasing bitterness: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “How many men in your company could be depended on to fight the mob, if it + came to blows?” asked Woodbridge. + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid not over twenty or thirty. Three-quarters are for the mob.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “But that would give not over three score, and the mob could easily muster + four times that,” said Gleason. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “You forget this Hamlin fellow will stop at nothing, and they will follow + him,” remarked Seymour. + </p> + <p> + “He is going to leave town this week, if he be not already gone,” said Dr. + Partridge. + </p> + <p> + “What?” exclaimed Woodbridge, almost with consternation. + </p> + <p> + “He is going away,” repeated the doctor. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps it would be expedient to wait till he has gone,” was Gleason's + prudent suggestion. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Why what's the matter Prudy?” he asked in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what shall we do?” exclaimed Prudence in a terrified half-whisper. + “She says the militia are coming to take you!” + </p> + <p> + “What is it all?” demanded Perez of the Indian girl, as he laid his hand + soothingly on Prudence's shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Young woman, I owe you more than if you had saved me from death.” Lu + smilingly nodded, evidently fully appreciating the point. + </p> + <p> + “Three o'clock, you said?” muttered Perez presently, half to himself, as + the others still were silent. + </p> + <p> + “Tree 'clock, Jake say. Jake an all udder man meet to Cap'n Jones' tree + 'clock to git um guns.” + </p> + <p> + “It's nine now, six hours. Time enough,” muttered Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + He smiled grimly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, there's time for me to get away, but there's no time for them, my + sirs.” + </p> + <p> + “Abe,” he added, abruptly changing his tone, “you've heard what they're + going to do? What are you going to do?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But you don't want to leave home, Abe. You don't want to leave Lu here + for Jake to get.” + </p> + <p> + Abe shook his head gloomily. + </p> + <p> + “No use stay,” he said. “If I get whip, Lu no marry me.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Her Mohegan blood was on fire at the prospect of a scrimmage, and her + lover's response, if more laconic, was quite as satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + “Me no like to run. Me stay fight. Me do what you say.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I heard voices. What is it, Perez?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “You needn't be at all afraid. We shall certainly succeed.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + LEX TALIONIS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I never,” ejaculated Prudence Fennell, who was bringing some + breakfast to Perez, and had observed all this kissing with a rather sour + expression. + </p> + <p> + Unluckily for her, Submit overheard the words. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + The girl turned on him like a flash and gave him a resounding slap on the + cheek. + </p> + <p> + “Take that, you great gumph!” she exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “A nice sorter man you be Abner, fer yer neighbors to be a trustin ter + look aout fer things,” said an old farmer, sarcastically. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “But ye ain't callatin ter go arter this be ye, Perez?” said Abner. + </p> + <p> + “This makes no difference. I expect to get off to-morrow,” replied Perez. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What be ye a gonter dew to em?” asked Abner, eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “He's a gonter whip em.” And Obadiah almost devoutly murmured, “By Gosh!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + The chuckle with which this was received, showed how fast the people were + yielding to the awful charm of the thought. + </p> + <p> + “Dew yew s'pose Cap'n really dass dew it?” asked Obadiah. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “I would have word with your captain,” he said to the sentinel at the + door. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Are you the captain of the armed band without?” + </p> + <p> + “I am.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “The report is entirely true, reverend sir. I am but waiting for a certain + Hessian drummer who will wield the lash.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “That is different. They would have proceeded against you as criminals, + according to law.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” cried his mother and sister, half scared to death at his + looks. + </p> + <p> + “They're going,”—Jonathan choked. + </p> + <p> + “They're going to have father whipped,” he finally made out to articulate. + </p> + <p> + “Whipped!” echoed Desire, faintly and uncomprehendingly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” cried the boy hoarsely, “like any vagabond, stripped and whipped at + the whipping-post.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said Mrs. Edwards, as she took Jonathan by the + shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “They're going to whip father, and uncle, and all the others,” he + repeated, beginning to whimper, stout boy as he was. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Let me go mother,” said Desire, half hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “It is not your place my child. I am his wife,” replied Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINETEENTH + </h2> + <h3> + PEREZ GETS HIS TITLE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Your father?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my father! What are you going to do to him?” she repeated more + insistently. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What am I going to do with your father? I am going to whip him with the + others.” + </p> + <p> + She started back, stung into sudden defiance, her eyes flashing, her bosom + tumultuously heaving. + </p> + <p> + “You will not! You dare not!” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged his shoulders and replied coldly: + </p> + <p> + “If you are so sure of that, why did you come to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but you will not! You will not!” she cried again, her terror + returning with a rush of tears. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You kissed me once. Would you like to do it now? You may if you will let + my father go.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You will release my father?” He bowed his head, unable to speak, and she + went out. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “The Lord's will be done. You have failed.” + </p> + <p> + “No, mother, I have not failed. Father will be released, but I had liefer + have borne the whipping for him.” + </p> + <p> + But that was all she said, nor did she tell any one at what price she had + delivered him. + </p> + <p> + Desire had scarcely gone when the door opened and Hubbard and Abner came + in. Perez was sitting staring at the wall in a daze. + </p> + <p> + “Little Pete's come, and the people want to know when the whipping's going + to begin. Shall I bring em out?” said Hubbard. + </p> + <p> + “I've made up my mind that it will be better to have no whipping,” replied + Perez, quietly. + </p> + <p> + “The devil, you have!” exclaimed Hubbard, in high dudgeon. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Who'd have supposed Hamlin was such a milksop as to mind a girl's + bawling?” said Hubbard, scornfully. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + There was a shout of many voices from before the house. + </p> + <p> + “Bring em out! Bring out the silk stockins.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't see that the government, as yet, has done anything,” said + Edwards. “Do they intend to leave everything to the mob?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTIETH + </h2> + <h3> + TWO CRITICAL INTERVIEWS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Captain Hamlin, will you let them kill me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What do you want, men? You ought not to break into people's houses! You + musn't disgrace the hemlock.” + </p> + <p> + “Tha's all mighty fine, Cap'n,” said Meshech Little, “but we want suthin + tew drink.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don't you get it at the tavern?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I say Cap'n 'tain't fa'r fer yew ter be a interferin with all our fun,” + spoke up another. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Come in, Captain,” said Edwards, and Perez entered. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wife, I owe my property and perhaps my life, also, to Captain Hamlin.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I understand that you have served at the south, Captain Hamlin,” said + Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I thank you,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + “You were with General Green, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—that is—yes m'am.” + </p> + <p> + “How is your mother's health?” + </p> + <p> + “Very well indeed,—that is, when—when she isn't sick. She is + generally sick.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but she's pretty well otherwise. How are you?” this last, + desperately. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + At that moment there came the noise of an axe from the green, with shouts. + </p> + <p> + “What is that?” asked Mrs. Edwards of her husband, who entered from the + store at that moment. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I think I will go,” said Perez, straightening up and assuming a + resolute air. + </p> + <p> + “I beg you will not be so hasty,” said Mrs. Edwards, taking her husband's + cue, and Perez abjectly sat down again. + </p> + <p> + “You must partake of my hospitality,” said Edwards. “Jonathan, draw a + decanter of that old Jamaica. Desire, bring us tumblers.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “My daughter, what does this mean?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Desire, tell me this instant,” exclaimed Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you let him? Why didn't you cry out?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Was it for this that he released your father the other day?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter? What ails the girl?” said Edwards, coming in from the + store, and viewing the scene with great surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Edwards listened with profound interest, but with more evidence of + curiosity than agitation, and after thinking a few moments, said + thoughtfully: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Will you, then, give up your daughter to these lewd fellows as Lot would + have given up his daughters to save his house?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + She snatched it away, and rushing across the room, threw herself upon the + settle, with her face in the cushion. + </p> + <p> + “Pish!” said her father, peevishly, “she grudges a kiss to save her father + from disgrace and ruin. It is a sinful, proud wench!” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Did you get it?” asked the latter. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I coax him! I see him again! Oh I can't, I can't do that,” cried Desire + with an air of overwhelming repugnance. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh it doesn't seem as if I could. It doesn't seem as if I could,” cried + the girl. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Entirely taken aback, he murmured something inarticulate, about her piano. + </p> + <p> + “Would your grace like to have me play a little?” she asked, gaily. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Perez leaned forward toward the beautiful upward turning face. + </p> + <p> + “Whatever you want,” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “To the half of my dukedom, you must say.” + </p> + <p> + “To the half of my dukedom,” he repeated, in a mechanical voice, not + removing his eyes from hers. + </p> + <p> + “Do you pledge your honor?” she demanded, still retaining her position. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + A ghastly pallor overspread his face. “You're not going away,” he + stammered, rising slowly up. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THE HUSKING + </h3> + <p> + Scarcely had Perez left, when Edwards entered the parlor. + </p> + <p> + “Did you get it?” he asked of Desire. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” said Perez, in a dull voice. + </p> + <p> + “What matter with you, Cap'n? Me speake tree time. You no say nothin. You + seek?” Perez looked up at him vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “She's going away, Abe. Desire Edwards is going away,” replied Perez, + looking up at the Indian in a helpless, appealing way. + </p> + <p> + “You no like have her go, Cap'n? You like better she stay? What for let + her go then?” + </p> + <p> + “I gave her a pass, Abe. She was so beautiful I couldn't help it.” + </p> + <p> + Abe scratched his head. + </p> + <p> + “If she so preety, me s'pose you keep her all more for that. No let her + go.” + </p> + <p> + Perez did not explain this point, but presently said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “No wonder you hide your head.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + It was evident from his dazed look, that he did not follow her words. He + glanced inquiringly at Abe, who responded with lucid brevity: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “No, not again,” he replied slowly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, let me go home. Let me go home. I shall scream out if you don't let + me go,” she cried. + </p> + <p> + He rose to his feet, walked quickly across the room and back, and then + having in some measure subdued his agitation, replied: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Desire, who had sat in stolid silence, now said in much agitation: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Edwards paced to and fro with knitted brow. Finally he said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Methinks in such matters a woman is the best judge,” said the girl + naively. + </p> + <p> + “Tut, tut, Desire!” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, I meant no harm, mother,” and then with a great sigh, she said: “I + will go. Poor father feels so bad.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Don't ye sit thar,” said Israel, “that ain't nothin but a stool. Thar's a + chair furder along.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Thar,” said Israel, good-humoredly, as she seated herself in the promised + chair, “naow I guess we'll see the shucks begin to fly.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Guess yew ain't uster huskin, or yew woulden come in yer bes gaown,” said + Israel cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Fair play youngster! fair play! No interferin!” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, keep me from that man.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake, some of you take the fellow away, or I shall kill him.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Good night.” + </p> + <p> + Was it Desire Edwards' voice which so kindly, almost softly, responded to + his salutations? It was she who, in astonishment, asked herself the + question. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND + </h2> + <h3> + BRACE OF PROCLAMATIONS + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “You don't look as if you needed to go to Pittsfield for your health now.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said, smiling. “When I found I could not go, I concluded I would + get well here.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you are very angry with me for stopping you that night, though + it was not I that did it.” + </p> + <p> + “If I were angry, I should not dare tell you, for fear of bringing down + your vengeance on me.” + </p> + <p> + “But are you angry?” he asked anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “I told you I did not dare say,” she replied, smiling at him with an + indomitable air. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Here comes the Duke,” said another. “Wat dew yew say ter this ere + proclamashin, Cap'n?” + </p> + <p> + Perez laughed. + </p> + <p> + “The more paper government wastes on proclamations, the less it'll have + left for cartridges,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What do you know about him, child?” said her father, in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a lie, a wicked lie!” cried the girl, whirling around, and + confronting her father, with blazing cheeks and eyes. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Desire, child, what's all this?” + </p> + <p> + But before the girl could speak, there was an effectual diversion. + Jonathan came rushing in from outdoors, crying: + </p> + <p> + “They're burning the governor!” + </p> + <p> + “What!” gasped his father. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + Sure enough, on the summit of Laurel Hill the light of a big bonfire shone + like a beacon. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “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.” + </pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “I never hearn nothin baout that idea” said Peleg. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD + </h2> + <h3> + SNOW-BOUND + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 <i>carte blanche</i> 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. + </p> + <p> + One day it chanced that Mrs. Edwards who was sitting by the window, said + abruptly: + </p> + <p> + “Here comes that Hamlin fellow.” + </p> + <p> + Desire sprang up with such an appearance of agitation that her mother + added: + </p> + <p> + “Don't be scared, child. He won't come in here. It's only into the store + he's coming.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if father hasn't got some other dimity in the store.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps. I think not, though,” replied Mrs. Edwards. Desire leaned back + in her chair, stifled a yawn and presently said: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “How cold the weather is!” she said, dreamily. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, very,” replied Perez. + </p> + <p> + “I hope it will be warmer, soon, don't you?” she murmered. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “If he had not let go her hand, I should have taken him by the shoulder in + another second,” he said angrily. + </p> + <p> + “Whatever made her shake hands with him?” demanded Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE BATTLE OF WEST STOCKBRIDGE + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Great God, I must see her!” + </p> + <p> + Edwards was plainly very much frightened, but he did not yield. + </p> + <p> + “You shall not,” he replied between his teeth. “Jonathan! Dr. Partridge! + Will you see him murder me?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Without giving Desire a chance to reply, which indeed she was much too + confused and embarrassed to do, her mother interposed. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Run! Run!” cried Desire, speaking for the first time. + </p> + <p> + Perez glanced out at the window and saw his pursuers not ten rods off. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “He lies. Shoot him! Fire! Damn you, fire!” yelled Hubbard in a panic. + </p> + <p> + “The first man that fires hangs for murder!” thundered Sedgwick. “Throw + down your arms and you shall not be harmed.” + </p> + <p> + “Kin yew say that for sartin, Squire?” asked Laban, hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “No, he lies. Our only chance is to fight!” yelled Hubbard, frantically. + “Shoot him, I tell you.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “We're surrounded! Run for your lives!” was shouted on every side, and the + line broke in confusion. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Who'd have thought they were such a set of cowards?” said a young militia + officer, contemptuously. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Those standing around joining heartily in this tribute, Sedgwick replied + quietly: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “May I hope, Miss Edwards, not to be wholly forgotten if I should fall on + the gory field to-morrow?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Where is his lair this time?” asked Desire, carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + But Miss Edwards had left the room. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH + </h2> + <h3> + A GAME OF BLUFF + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Halt!” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, all in a tremble. She had quite forgotten that the streets + were now-a-days guarded by regular lines of sentries. + </p> + <p> + “Advance and give the countersign,” said the soldier. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Edwards!” murmurs Mrs. Hamlin, as Elnathan and Reuben gape in + speechless bewilderment. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “How do you know it?” + </p> + <p> + “I was told so ten minutes since by the officers at my father's house,” + replied Desire. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.'” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Hamlin's face suddenly changed its expression, and she answered + slowly, in a tone of intense, suppressed feeling: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Reub,” he cried, starting up as he recognized his brother, “what's the + matter? Has anything happened at home?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing bad. I've brought you news. Have you got some rum? I'm pretty + tired.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Now I feel better. It was a hard road. I felt like giving out once or + twice. But I'm all right now.” + </p> + <p> + “What made you come, Reub? You're not strong yet. It might have killed + you.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “What!” exclaimed Perez, his face aglow. “She brought you word? Do you + mean that?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “The news I fetched is that the army in Stockbridge is going to attack you + to-morrow at dawn.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Wal, Cap'n, wat dew ye see tew larf at in that? Derned ef I see nothin + funny.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “No, Abner,” replied Perez, “I have not thought of any plan yet. What do + you think about the business?” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “That's sartin so, Cap'n,” said Abner, his anxiety for Perez' sanity + evidently diminishing. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'Will your commander and Dr. Partridge, if he be among you, ride out to + meet me? I would have a parley.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'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.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'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.' + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “'It is private property,' said Hamlin. + </p> + <p> + “'It is forfeited to its owner by its use against the government,' replied + the General sturdily. + </p> + <p> + “'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. + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “'Sir, I now deliver over to you the artillery, that is if you can settle + it with Mrs. Perry. Abner stand aside.' + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH + </h2> + <h3> + THE RESTORATION + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Quick, get up and dress, or you'll be murdered in bed! An army of + Shayites is in the village.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is he here?” gasped Desire, her dismay suddenly magnified into utter + panic. + </p> + <p> + “Fer sartain, my sweetheart ez sent me word 's under him,” replied Keziah. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “Why didn' ye open that ar door, afore?” demanded Meshech, angrily. + </p> + <p> + “What do you want?” asked Mrs. Edwards tremblingly confronting him. + </p> + <p> + “Wat dew we want ole woman?” replied Meshech. “Wal, we want most + evrything, but I guess we kin help oursels. Hey boys?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH + </h2> + <h3> + SOME REAL FIGHTING + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Were you frightened?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she replied in a mechanical tone corresponding with her appearance. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “What is that, Desire? What do you mean about sending him warning?” cried + Mrs. Edwards amazedly. Desire made no reply but Perez did: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the girl in the same dead, mechanical voice, without turning + her eyes to her mother or even raising them. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” answered the girl. + </p> + <p> + “What?” faltered Perez, his arm involuntarily dropping from her waist. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, don't, mother, don't.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “Wy in time did'n yer hole ontew her, Cap'n? I'd like ter seen her git + away from me.” + </p> + <p> + “Or me nuther,” seconded the fellow next him. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What have you done with my husband?” she demanded anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to take them away for? What are you going to do to + them?” cried Mrs. Edwards. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you going to murder them?” exclaimed the frantic woman. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + Aroused by Abner's insistent words, Perez took Desire's hand, and said + desperately: + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no! Oh, no! I don't want to,” she said, shuddering and drawing her + hand away. + </p> + <p> + Abner was silent a moment, and then he broke out vehemently: + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Ef ye let her go, ye'll never set eyes on her agin, Cap'n,” said Abner. + </p> + <p> + “I can't. I can't. Have pity on me,” groaned Perez. “I can't let you go.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “You know I love you now. You believe it, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, mother, mother, I wish he'd taken me. He feels so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “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: + </p> + <p> + “Where are father and Jonathan?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “My father and mother?” repeated Perez vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “I must have forgotten about them,” he finally said. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “What are we stopping here for, Abner?” he asked, a little peevishly. + </p> + <p> + “Wy, it's the caounty jail, ye know, an we're lettin aout the debtors. + Reub's in here, ye know.” + </p> + <p> + “So he is; I'd forgotten,” replied Perez, and then after a pause, “Why + don't he come out?” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “Is he in there?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ye living men, come view the ground + Where ye shall shortly lie. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Perez shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “We can't kill our friends,” said an officer. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Duke of Stockbridge, by Edward Bellamy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE OF STOCKBRIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7472-h.htm or 7472-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/7/7472/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred, Robert Shimmin and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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