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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:06:23 -0700 |
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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/36713-8.txt b/36713-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63db202 --- /dev/null +++ b/36713-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9395 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Haunted Homestead, by E. D. E. N. Southworth + +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 Haunted Homestead + A Novel + +Author: E. D. E. N. Southworth + +Release Date: July 12, 2011 [EBook #36713] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + +The Haunted Homestead + +_A NOVEL_ + +BY MRS. E. D. E. N. SOUTHWORTH + +Author of "Ishmael," "Retribution," "The Bridal Eve," "A Noble Lord," +"The Deserted Wife," "Unknown," "The Lady of the Isle," "The Bride's +Fate," "Victor's Triumph," "The Wife's Victory," etc. + +CHICAGO +M. A. DONOHUE & CO. + + + + +THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD. + + A residence for woman, child, or man, + A dwelling-place--and yet no habitation; + A house, but under some prodigious ban + Of excommunication.--HOOD. + + +In childhood I always had a fearless faith in ghosts. I desired before +all sights to see them, and threw myself in the way of meeting them +whenever and wherever there seemed the slightest possibility of so +doing. Whenever there were mysterious sounds heard in the night, I +listened with breathless interest, arose from the bed in silent +eagerness, and went stealing on tiptoe through the dark house in the +hopes of meeting the ghosts. Once I met a severe blow on the nose from +the sharp edge of an open door, and once a tom cat, who made one spring +from the top of the pantry shelves upon my head, and another thence +through a broken window pane. I would have liked to fancy him a ghostly +cat, only I knew him too well for our own "Tom," the cunningest thief +that ever run on four feet. Another time, perambulating through the +house at midnight, I surprised a burglar, who, mistaking me in the +darkness for the master of the house, the watch, or an ambush, jumped +straight over my head (or past me, I hardly knew which in my +astonishment), and made his escape at the back door. But I must say that +I never met a ghost, or even a "vestige" of a ghost until--but I think I +will begin at the beginning and tell you the whole story. + +At the Newton Academy, where I was educated, among two hundred fellow +pupils, I had but one bosom friend and confidante--quite enough in all +discretion for one individual, though you are aware that most young +ladies have at least a dozen. My female Pythias was Mathilde Legare, a +beautiful and warm-hearted Creole from New Orleans. Orestes and Pylades, +Castor and Pollux, the Siamese twins, are but faint illustrations of the +closeness of our friendship. To say that we were inseparable is nothing +to the fact--we were united, blended, consolidated; and the one "angel" +of Swedenborg formed of two congenial spirits, is the only sufficiently +expressive example of our union of hearts. It was of little use for me +to study a lesson, for though I had never looked at it, if Mathilde only +committed hers to memory I was sure, in some occult manner, to have mine +"at my fingers' ends"--or, on the other hand, if I studied, Mathilde +might play--she would recite her task just as well. Moreover, if I told +a story Mathilde would swear to it, and _vice versa_. In short, we two +were in all cases "too many" for all the rest of the school--principal, +assistant, masters and pupils--and we afforded a striking illustration +of the truth of Robert Browning's lines--though I suppose the latter +alluded to "a true marriage," and not a schoolgirl friendship: + + "If any two creatures grow into one + They should do more than the world has done, + By each apart ever so weak, + Yet vainly thro' the world should you seek, + For the knowledge and the might, + Which in such union grew their right." + +As Mathilde was rich and I was comparatively poor, this friendship +brought me many advantages, among which was the privilege of annual +travel and change of scene. About the first of every July, Mathilde's +father and mother would leave their sugar plantation in Louisiana, and +travel northward. They usually arrived at the Newton Academy about the +tenth of the month, in time to be present at the annual examination and +exhibition of the pupils. Upon these occasions, Mathilde, who possessed +quickness and vivacity, rather than depth or strength of mind, generally +achieved a brilliant success; though she often told me that her triumph +in being first at these milestones on the road to fame, was nothing more +than the success of the swift-footed, careless hare over the slow and +painstaking tortoise, who would win the race at the goal. + +However this might be, Mr. and Mrs. Legare were equally proud of their +daughter's genius and beauty, and to reward her "industry and +application," as they called it, they took her each year to spend the +long vacation of July and August, with them, in making a tour of the +Virginia Springs, which are the most frequented by Southerners, for the +convenience of bringing their servants with them. + +Upon one occasion, however--that of the vacation preceding the last year +of Mathilde's residence at school--Mr. Legare determined to vary their +usual route by going to the Northern watering places of Saratoga and +Ballstown. And, as usual, I, with the consent of my guardians, +accompanied the party as their invited guest. + +We arrived at Saratoga at the very height of the season. In all, I +suppose that there might have been several thousand visitors at the +springs. The United States Hotel, at which we stopped, was uncomfortably +crowded. And, though Mr. Legare grumbled in a very old-gentlemanly way, +and Mrs. Legare wished herself at home again, Mathilde and I enjoyed the +crowd for the crowd's sake, and experienced the truth of the popular +adage of "the more the merrier." + +At a place like that, even in the ballroom, "distinction" was almost as +impossible as it is said to be in London, where, now that the "duke" is +dead, no one is any one. Scarcely anybody was anybody at Saratoga that +season. Many a village beauty, the toast of her own little circle, and +many a city belle, the queen of her own coterie, who went thither, +reasonably expecting to make a "sensation," found herself and her claims +to notice lost in a brilliant multitude all more or less expectant or +disappointed. + +I thought Mathilde, with her tall and beautifully rounded form, stately +head, pure olive complexion, shaded by jet-black ringlets, and lighted +up by laughing black eyes, bridged over with arch and flexible black +eyebrows--would attract some attention. + +Not a bit of it! Heiress and beauty, as she was, Mathilde Legare was +merely one in the crowd. There were hundreds with equal or greater +claims to distinction. And so our beautiful Mathilde was not enthroned. +Of course she soon attracted around her a circle of old and new +acquaintances and had from them a due share of attention. + +Among the first of these new acquaintances was a young gentleman of the +name of Howard. His introduction to our party, without being romantic, +was certainly marked by singularity. It occurred the third day after our +arrival, at one of the weekly balls at the United States. It happened to +be a fine, cool evening, and the assembly upon the occasion was +unusually large. The saloon was quite crowded, leaving but little room +for the motions of the dancers. + +Mathilde was looking very beautiful that night. She wore a dress with a +three-fold skirt of very fine, transparent thale over rose-colored silk, +and which with every motion floated around her graceful form with a +mistlike softness and lightness; a bertha and falls of the finest lace +veiled her rounded arms and neck. She wore no jewels, but a wreath of +rich white heliotrope crowned her jetty ringlets, and a bouquet of the +same odoriferous flowers employed her slender fingers. + +Yes! she was looking very lovely. Nevertheless, Mathilde, as well as +myself, seemed destined to adorn the sofa as a "wall flower" all the +evening, for set after set formed until every one was complete. The +music struck up and the dancing commenced, and still no one came near +us, nor did we even so much as see, within the range of our vision, one +single person that we knew. + +Mathilde voted this "the very stupidest ball" she was ever at, and hoped +her papa would never come to Saratoga again. + +I, for my part, fell into the study of faces, and through them into the +study of character, and through that into dreaming. + +Presently a head--start not gentle reader, there was a living body +attached to it--attracted my particular attention. It was not because it +was above every other head present--though had not this been the case I +should not at that distance have seen it--nor was it because it was a +very handsome one--for there were others much handsomer; but it was a +very remarkable, characteristic, individual sort of head--a monarchical +head, with a forehead that in its commanding height and breadth seemed +the natural throne of intellectual sovereignty, with a strongly and +clearly-marked nose and mouth, with eyes full of calm power--that +surveyed the multitude below with the quiet interest of a king +inspecting his army on some festive parade day. + +"_Magnus Apollo!_" were the words that sprang alive to my lips as I laid +my hand upon the soft, white arm of Mathilde and called her attention to +this stranger. + +"Hush! he is looking this way," said my companion, blushing and casting +down her eyes. + +I knew very well, if he was "looking this way," at whom he must be +looking, and so, did not feel Mathilde's embarrassment in again raising +my eyes to the "_Magnus Apollo_." When I did so I perceived that he was +in conversation with another gentleman, whom I recognized as Mr. ----, +the proprietor of the house. I saw Mr. ---- bow and precede the +stranger, conducting him to the presence of Mr. Legare, to whom he +immediately introduced him. I saw Mr. Legare and the stranger +approaching our quarter of the room, and I thought I understood it all. + +I was not mistaken. + +Mr. Legare presented the stranger as "Mr. Howard, of Boston," first to +me, whom he favored with a bow, but certainly not with a single glance, +and next to Mathilde, whom he almost immediately petitioned to become +his partner in the next quadrille. + +Miss Legare bowed a gracious acceptance to his suit. + +The presentation over, Mr. Legare went to rejoin his wife, who could not +endure to be left alone. + +Mr. Howard remained standing before us, and soon, by the brilliancy, +variety and interest of his conversation, attracted and engaged both his +hearers. He was certainly a man of the most distinguished and commanding +presence that I had ever seen, and one for whom every hour's +acquaintance increased our esteem. + +When the new quadrille formed, with a graceful bow he extended his hand +to Mathilde and led her to the head of one of the sets. He danced as +well as he conversed. Why should I run into detail? Mathilde's fancy was +captivated. They finished the quadrille, and for the remainder of the +evening Mr. Howard's attentions, though very devoted, were marked by too +much delicacy and good taste to attract notice from any one except her +to whom they were directed. + +The impression made upon Mathilde was as yet not sufficiently deep to +render her reserved with me upon this subject. Consequently when the +ball was over, and we had reached our double-bedded chamber, my friend +broke forth in eager exclamations. + +"Did you ever see such a fine-looking person, Agnes? And then his +conversation! how brilliant! and how varied! how much he must have +traveled! and then how well he dances!" + +"Pshaw!" said I. "'Oh, what a fall was there,' 'from the sublime to the +ridiculous!'" + +"Yes, but he does dance well! and let me tell you that very few men can +do so! he strikes the nice balance between _le grand_ and _la frivole_ +in his manner! And then his name--Howard--_la crême de la crême_ of +aristocratic names. Don't you remember _Le Lion blanc_ of the house of +Howard?" + +And so she rattled on, talking incessantly of the new acquaintance until +we went to bed, and I went to sleep leaving her still talking. + +The next morning, I noticed that Mathilde spent more than usual time and +attention upon her toilette. She looked very pretty--when did she +not?--in her embroidered cambric morning dress, with no ornament but her +jetty ringlets flowing down each side her freshly-blooming face. + +When we went downstairs, there was Mr. Howard waiting in the hall, to +offer Mathilde his arm to the breakfast table. + +Afterward at the ladies bowling-alley who but Mr. Howard stood at +Mathilde's elbow to hand the balls? Who took her in to dinner? Who made +a horseblock of his knee and a stepping-stone of the palm of his hand +to lift Mathilde into her saddle? Who attended her in her afternoon +ride? In her evening walk? In the duet with the piano accompaniment at +night? + +Howard--still Howard! + +Until after several weeks of this association, at last papa opened his +eyes and inquired first of himself and next of his host: + +"Who is this Mr. Howard, who is paying such very particular attention to +my daughter?" + +"Mr. Howard, sir; Mr. Howard is a very talented young mechanic of +Boston," answered the proprietor. + +"A--what?" questioned the astonished old gentleman. + +"A very accomplished young machinist, and mathematical instrument maker, +sir, who has realized quite a handsome fortune by his patented +improvement in----" + +"The foul fiend!" exclaimed the old aristocrat, throwing up his hands in +consternation, as he trotted off. + +His daughter talking, dancing, riding, flirting with a mechanic! Oh! +horror, horror, horror! + +The result of this was, that after Mr. Legare's perturbed feelings had +become somewhat calmed he called for his bill, settled it, took four +places in the morning coach, ordered his servants to pack up, and the +next day set out for the South. + +He was very much disturbed; Mrs. Legare said nothing, but poor Mathilde +was miserable, having been made to feel that she had unwittingly brought +discredit upon herself and all her family. + +Mr. Legare left Mathilde and myself at our school, and with his wife +proceeded to Louisiana. + +I soon saw that the warm-hearted young Southern maiden really was, or +believed herself to be, the subject of a deep and unhappy attachment; +she became reserved to all, even to me, and her health suffered. As +weeks grew into months her indisposition increased. One day her emotion +broke the bounds of reserve, and throwing herself into my arms, she +exclaimed: + +"Oh, Agnes! if Frank would only write to me I should not feel so +wretched!" + +"Frank? who is Frank, my love?" I inquired in surprise, for I had never +heard this name among our acquaintances. + +She blushed deeply. "Oh! I mean Mr. Howard, you know! Frank Howard." + +"No--I did not know! Has it come to this? and do you call him Frank? And +do you, perhaps, correspond with him? Oh, Mathilde, Mathilde, my dear! +take care!" + +"Oh! no, no, I do not correspond with him! never have done so! he never +even asked me! but after pa got so high with him, he looked mournful and +dignified, and took leave of me! Oh! he might write to me." + +"Mathilde, knowing your father's sentiments, he would not, as a man of +honor, commence a correspondence with you. But tell me, dear, how far +this affair had gone?" + +"Oh! very far indeed; he was going to ask me of papa that very day we +left!" + +"Wait, Mathilde! you are so young! if this is anything more serious than +a passing fancy on both sides, he will delay until you leave school, and +then he will first seek you at your father's house. This is the only +course for a man of honor in such a case, you are aware." + +"Um-m! little hope in seeking me at my father's house, with my father's +estimate of a mechanic! But I do not the least believe that Frank Howard +is a mechanic! He does not look like one!" + +"Nonsense, my dear Mathilde! he is an intelligent Boston mechanic, who +has made a valuable invention that has brought him a fortune; that is +all about it." + +Still Mathilde's health waned, and at last the principal of our academy +wrote to her parents, who came, and finding her condition more +precarious than they had anticipated, removed her from school and +carried her home. Mathilde could not bring against her friend the same +charge that she had brought against her lover; for I requested a +frequent correspondence, and faithfully kept up my part of it. + +I remained at Newton for nearly twelve months after Mathilde had left. + +And this time, passed in so great monotony by me, was full of event for +Mathilde and those connected with her. In the first place, she +accompanied her friends on a short visit to Europe, and returning, +entered society at New Orleans with some _eclat_. + +Then followed for her father a succession of losses, one growing out of +another, until his fortune was so reduced as to make it necessary for +him to retrench and change his whole style of living. + +Under such circumstances, his pride would not permit him to remain in +that part of the country where for so many years he had lived _grand +seigneur_. + +His wife was a Virginian by birth and education, and in changing her +home preferred to return to her native State. Therefore Mr. Legare +purchased a small estate lying within a fertile gap of the Alleghanies, +to which, in the spring of the next year, he removed his family. + +Up to this time Mathilde had heard nothing directly from her Saratoga +lover, but had learned, through the newspapers, that he had been +nominated to represent his district in the National House of +Representatives. + +Hoping much from the two circumstances of her own reduction in worldly +fortune and her lover's elevation in social rank, which must bring them +nearer together in position, she had called the attention of her father +to the announcement of Mr. Howard's nomination; but her fond +expectations were soon dissipated by the old aristocrat's comment: + +"Oh, yes, my dear, I see! Any upstart can get into Congress now. Really +a private station is the seat of honor; but the comfort remains that a +patrician by birth, is still a patrician, no matter how low his worldly +fortunes; a plebeian is still a plebeian, even though accident or +caprice may constitute him a legislator." + +"And now what shall I do, Agnes?" wrote Mathilde, after recounting these +things. + +"Hope! If Mr. Howard is as constant as you appear to be, you have +everything to expect from time and change ordered by Providence," was my +written reply. + +I finally left school at the commencement of the summer vacation +following the spring in which Mr. Legare's family removed to their +mountain home in Virginia. + +It was just before the ensuing Christmas that I received an invitation +from Mathilde to come up and spend the holidays with her at her father's +new home. + +In extending this invitation, she wrote: "I do not know, dear Agnes, how +much or how little you may feel disposed to credit these modern, +so-called spiritual manifestations, these 'rappings,' 'table-tippings,' +etc., but I know your strong penchant for the supernatural and your +inveterate habit of ghost-hunting, and I do assure you, if it will be +any inducement for you to come to us, that our home contains as +inexplicable a mystery as ever frightened human habitants away, and +doomed a dwelling-place to desolation and decay, and this haunting +presence infests a house in a neighborhood, as yet innocent of +spirit-rappings, table-tippings, and 'sich like diviltries,' as it is of +railroads, steamboats and telegraph wires. But I shall say no more of +this mystery until I see you 'face to face' except this, that even my +unbelieving pa talks of selling the place unless the nuisance is +explained and removed." + +I think that it was the existence of this darkly intimated spectre that +fascinated me to the point of accepting Mathilde's invitation. +Ghost-hunting was my one weakness--perhaps I should say monomania. I +secretly hoped that there might be a haunted chamber in the old house +and that they might put me to sleep in it; furthermore, that I might be +favored with an interview with the ghost. I resolved to go. No +persuasion had power to withhold me, no obstacle to prevent me. My only +brother was expected home to spend Christmas, but I could not wait for +him. I would, on the contrary, ask Mr. Legare to invite him to follow +me. The weather was very severe, the snow covered the ground to the +depth of two feet on a level, and what it might be among the ravines of +the mountains I was going to cross, I feared to conjecture; +nevertheless, to go I was determined. + +It was a three days' and three nights' stage ride from Winchester, where +I lived with my guardian, to Wolfbrake, the home of the Legares. +Accordingly, in order to reach my journey's end on Christmas Eve, I set +out from home on the twentieth of December, and after three days and +nights of the roughest traveling, up hill and down, through the darkest +forests, along the banks of the most frightful precipices, across the +rudest and most primitive bridges thrown over the most awful chasms, +through mountain streams so deep and rapid that in fording them it was +often hard to tell whether we rode or rowed, finally, on the evening of +the twenty-fourth, I reached Frost Height, where the mules from +Wolfbrake, under the charge of Uncle Judah, already awaited me. + +Although it was getting dusky, and the road down the snow-covered +mountain path to Wolfbrake was not of the safest description, even by +daylight, and might be considered dangerous by a starless night, yet +Uncle Judah, with the hard-headedness of a favored old family servant, +insisted that I should set forth immediately, as "Marse and mis' would +be 'spectin'" me to supper. + +So, mounting my mule, and preceded by the old servant upon his jack, I +descended into the outer darkness of the downward mountain path. + +In a little while it was quite dark, and I could neither see Judah on +his jack before me, nor even the narrow path under my feet. At every +step I seemed to be plunging down into some dark abysm of shadows below +shadows. I could not guide my course, but trusted to the habits and +sure-footedness of the mountain mule that carried me. A glimmering +light, shining up from the deepest depths of the darkness below, +indicated the position of Wolfbrake Lodge. There was always a strange, +mystic interest felt in approaching a place like that, for the first +time, amid the shadows of night. The undefined, shapeless mass of +buildings, the unseen boundaries, the unknown circumstances that awaits +us, all like some strange mystery, pique curiosity. And to these general +subjects of interest was added the particular one of the haunting +presence of which Mathilde had darkly written. I was yielding +imagination up to the fascination of these dreamy speculations, when my +mule, having reached the bottom, or else an obstacle of some sort--I +could not in the deep darkness decide which--stopped short. And +immediately I heard a sweet, familiar voice say: + +"Is that you, Uncle Judah? Did Agnes come?" + +"Yes, honey," replied the old man; and: + +"I am here! where are you, dear Mathilde?" exclaimed I, in the same +instant. + +"I am in the carryall! Uncle Judah, help your Miss Agnes off, and bring +her in here with me." + +In obedience, the old man lifted me out of my saddle, and, to use his +own vernacular, "toted" me "through the slush," and set me in the +carryall beside Mathilde. I could not see her form, but I felt her arms +wound around me, and her lips against my face, searching for those other +lips that quickly met hers, and then: + +"I am so overjoyed to see you, dear Agnes! It was so good of you to +come!" she said. "I couldn't wait! I had to order the carryall, and come +to meet you at the foot of the hill." + +We were then about a half a mile from the house. Mathilde made the boy +that drove her get down and give place on the driver's seat to Uncle +Judah, and then take charge of the mules, to lead them home. And so we +proceeded through the snow-covered bottom toward the house. + +As I said, it was so dark that I could not clearly distinguish the +outline of the buildings; but there appeared to be two houses, an old +one and a new one, joined by a covered piazza, and shaded by many trees. + +We stopped before the door of the new house, from the parlor windows of +which a stream of light from the lamps within was pouring. + +We were met by Mrs. Legare, who gave me a cordial welcome, and took me +at once to an upper front chamber, comfortably furnished, where a fine +wood fire burned, and a kettle of hot water stood upon the hearth, for +the convenience of warm ablutions. + +"This is your room, my dear Agnes, where I hope you will find yourself +at home," said my kind hostess. + +I thanked her, but secretly hoped that she would leave me alone with +Mathilde, to hear the mystery of the haunted presence explained, for as +yet we had no opportunity of a _tête-à-tête_. + +But the old lady lingered with motherly solicitude, until I had washed +myself, and changed my traveling habit for a home dress; and then +directing Jacinthe or "Jet," as she was nicknamed, to restore the room +to order, she invited me down into the parlor. + +As I left the chamber, I observed Jet's eyes start out like beads, and +she made a motion to follow us; but a peremptory gesture from her +mistress repelled her, and she remained, though evidently terrified at +the idea of being left alone. + +"Can it be possible," thought I, "that the child is afraid to stay by +herself in the new house, when, of course, the supernatural inmate, if +there is one, must be a denizen of the old one?" + +And at the same time I experienced a feeling of disappointed love of +adventure in being accommodated with a chamber so shining in freshness +and so distant in character as well as location from what I fancied must +be the scene of the mystery. + +When we reached the parlor, we found a party of young people collected +to celebrate Christmas Eve. But scarcely were the introductions over, +before a servant opened the door and announced supper, and, conducted by +Mrs. Legare, we all went out by way of the hall and the covered piazza +to the dining-room in the old house, where the feast was spread. + +I cannot stop to analyze the sensation with which I crossed the +threshold of this mystery-haunted house, and entered the quaint, +old-fashioned parlor, where the supper table was set. The polished oak +floor, the oak-paneled walls, the high, narrow, deep-set windows, the +tall, black-walnut chimney-piece over the broad fireplace, flanked by a +high cupboard in one corner, and a coffinlike clock in the other--all +whispered of those who had lived and died there long years before. There +was a well-spread and cheerfully-lighted table, and a merry, youthful +company assembled around it; but even these animating influences were +not sufficiently powerful to exorcise the thoughts of the dead--for, +talkative and frolicksome though they were, their talk was still of the +supernatural, of ghosts, and ghosts' seers. I did not talk--I was too +earnestly interested in hearing. And I listened breathlessly to learn +the mystery of the house. In vain! not a single allusion was made to a +spectre in connection with Wolfbrake Lodge. They ignored the +supposition. Perhaps they were really ignorant of it. + +Supper over and cleared away, the young people returned no more that +night to the parlor in the new house, but prepared for a game of +"Snap-apple" in the old dining-room, which their romping could not hurt. + +I was so weary with my three days and nights of riding, and so eager +besides for a _tête-à-tête_ with Mathilde, that I pleaded fatigue as an +undeniable reason for retiring before the games should commence. I hoped +that Mathilde alone would attend me. Not so. Mrs. Legare, apparently +watching for my withdrawal, joined her daughter and myself as we left +the room, and accompanied us to the chamber set apart for my use in the +new house. When we had reached this apartment, Mrs. Legare said: + +"There is no one that sleeps in this house usually. We keep these +chambers principally for the use of our guests. No one will occupy any +room within it to-night except yourself, unless indeed you feel +afraid----" + +"Afraid?" repeated I, in a tone that quickly called forth an apology. + +"Oh! I know, my dear Agnes, that you are no coward; but I did not know +but that you might feel indisposed to sleep alone in a strange house." + +"What? when it is a perfectly new house, Mrs. Legare? If, indeed, it +were an old-time house, I might be afraid of the traditional ghost," +said I, watching in her countenance the effect of my words, and seeing +her, to my astonishment, turn pale, and send a quick, significant glance +to Mathilde, who averted her head. + +"Ah!" thought I, "the old house is haunted! Would they would only let me +sleep there, where there is some chance of being delightfully +frightened." + +"I was about to say, Agnes, that if you prefer, I will send one of the +negro women to sleep on a mattress in your room." + +"By no means, Mrs. Legare. I shall fall asleep as soon as I touch my +pillow, and not wake until morning--so I should not be able to +appreciate the benefit of Peggy or Dinah's society." + +"Very well, my dear, as you please. Here is a bellrope at your bed's +head--its wires run into the old house. If you should want anything, +ring." + +I smiled, and assured my hostess that I wanted nothing but sleep. +Whereupon she called Mathilde, bade me good-night, and left the room. +Turning back, however, she said to me: + +"Agnes, my dear, lock your chamber door after us." + +"Yes, madam." + +"Excuse me, my dear; but young people are forgetful--especially when +they are tired and sleepy. I think I should like to hear you lock it, +Agnes." + +There was something in her caution that struck me as very singular--but +I laughed and went to the door, and after repeating my good-night, as +desired, shut the door in their faces, and locked it. + +"There! have you heard me lock the door?" I inquired. + +"Yes, my dear--all right." + +"And is your mind at rest on that score?" + +"I am sure that you have attended to my advice. Good night, and happy +dreams." + +"Thanks, and the same good wishes! Good-night!" said I, in conclusion. + +I listened, and heard them go downstairs, enter the parlor, and fasten +the windows, and secure the safety of the fire there--go to the back +hall door, and bolt and bar it--and finally go out by the front door, +and lock it after them. + +Fastened up as I was in the house, I did not feel myself quite in +prison, because, should I, like Sterne's starling, want to "get out," I +could do so by the back door. + +Now, I never could account for it, but no sooner was I left alone in +that room, resplendent as it was with newness, than a strange feeling of +superstition came over me, that I could neither understand nor escape. +It was in vain that I turned my eyes from the shining white wall and +freshly painted windows to the cheerful pattern of the carpet and +furniture drapery, and said that in this new and freshly furnished +chamber the supernatural was out of place--there grew upon me the +impression of an unearthly presence near; and the feeling, in spite of +all probability, that this--this was the scene of the household +mystery--this was the haunted chamber! + +In this new aspect I examined it. It was the least like one that could +be imagined. It was a lofty, spacious, cheerful, double-bedded room, +with four large windows--two on the east and two on the west side--with +a fireplace in the south wall, and the heads of the beds, at some +distance apart, against the north wall. Between the two east windows was +a pretty dressing-table and glass; between the west windows was a neat +washstand with a china service; on each side of the fireplace were two +spacious clothes closets; before the fire sat two easy-chairs; in +intermediate spaces around the walls were half a dozen other chairs. + +I examined the clothes closets, and found them entirely empty, and at +the service of my dresses; then I looked under the bed; then beneath the +drapery of the dressing-table; and finding nothing that should not be +there, undressed myself, said my prayers, blew out my candle, and went +to bed. + +I could not sleep; my mind, my nerves, had for some reason become +unusually excited; and, despite of extreme fatigue, I lay awake. I +thought the room was too light; for, though the candle was extinguished, +a glowing fire burned upon the hearth, a few yards from the foot of my +bed, and the light of the now risen moon streamed into the east windows. +After turning from side to side, vainly wooing slumber, I arose and went +to close the east front windows. As I reached them with this purpose, I +stayed my hand a moment, while I looked out at the snow-clad, moon-lit +mountain landscape; below me was the bottom, bounded, not many furlongs +off, by the cedar-grown precipice, down which, that very evening, I had +come; under the shelter of that mountain, straight in the line of my +vision, lay the family graveyard of the former owner, in a copse of +evergreens, where the spectral-looking tombstones gleamed whitely among +the dark firs and cedars. Meditating upon those departed, I closed the +blinds of the front windows, and then went to the back ones. + +The latter looked straight down into the uncurtained windows of the +lighted dining-room, where the young people were still at play. Above +these windows, and directly opposite to mine, were those of Mrs. +Legare's bedroom, now dimly lighted from the fire within. + +With this proximity of the family, I felt less lonely, closed my blinds, +and returned to bed. + +Still I could not sleep. The fire on the hearth, beyond my bed's foot, +flickered up and down, casting tall, spectral shadows, that danced upon +the walls, or stretched their long arms over the ceiling. For hours I +lay watching this phantasmagoria, until the fire died down, and the +tall, dancing shadows sank into a mass of darkness, before sleep came to +my wearied senses. But scarcely had I closed my eyes upon the natural +world before a strange vision, or dream, if you prefer to call it so, +passed before me. Methought I heard the click of a turning key; I opened +my eyes, and saw the door slowly swing back upon its hinges, and a lady +of dark, majestic beauty, dressed in deep mourning, and having a pale +and care-worn face, enter the chamber! Slowly and silently she walked to +and fro, her footfall waking no echo--her progress attended by no sound, +save the slight rustle of her silken robe! I was magnetized to watch +her, as with clasped hands and wide-open, mournful eyes, she walked in +silent, measured steps up and down the room. At length she paused in the +middle of the floor, fixed her eyes upon mine with a wild and mournful +gaze, slowly raised one hand from the breast upon which both had been +tightly clasped, and with her spectral finger extended downward, pointed +to the spot beneath her feet, and then as slowly resumed her former +attitude, and passed with measured steps from the room! + +I tried to speak to her, to question her, but failed to utter a sound. +In an agony of distress I tried to call out, and in the effort to do so +awoke! awoke to find that I had been dreaming. + +But, reader! the door that I had locked so carefully the night before, +was standing wide open, as when the dark woman of my dream had passed +through it! + +Day was dawning. I shivered, both from superstitious excitement, and +from the cool draught of air blowing upon me from the open door. I drew +the cover closely around me and listened; but no sounds except the +undefined, low, pleasant murmur of awakening nature--the soft rustle of +the pines in the up-springing morning breeze, the flutter of the night +birds waking up in their branches, and the detonating echo of distant, +louder noises were heard. I arose softly and opened the east window +blinds, and then went back to bed to lie and watch the crimson light of +morning kindling up the orient. + +An hour I lay thus, watching the dawn growing brighter and brighter unto +the perfect day. And then I heard a key turned in the hall door, and +some one come in and ascend the stairs. It was the little black maid +Jet, come to make my fire. As she entered I saw her eyes grow wild, and +she inquired: + +"Miss Agnes, is yer been up, miss, to open dis yer door?" + +"I have been up this morning, Jet," said I, not wishing to let her into +my full confidence. The answer seemed to set her at rest, for her +countenance lost its wild terror, and she proceeded with cheerful +alacrity to light the fire, fill the ewers and so forth. + +Before she had got through with her task, there was a rush of many feet +into the hall, and up the stairs, and Mathilde and such of her young +friends as were already up and dressed, bounded into the room, +exclaiming: + +"A merry Christmas! A merry Christmas, Agnes!" + +Their arrival was enough to put to flight all the supernatural visitants +that Hades ever sent forth. They hurried me with my toilet; they worried +me to come down and see the Christmas tree, and get some eggnog. + +I was carried away with their gay excitement, and almost forgot my +mysterious dream or visitant, but not quite; for all through the morning +greetings of the family, the eggnog drinking, the visit to the Christmas +tree, the distributions of presents, the merry breakfast, the arrival of +invited guests, the Christmas dinner party, the afternoon sports, and +the evening dance, I was possessed with the haunting presence of that +dark, handsome woman, and her majestic woe. + +We danced in the dining-room through all the Christmas night; and it was +two o'clock in the morning before we separated. + +Again, when I was about to retire, Mrs. Legare came to accompany me. + +"I hope you rested well last night, my dear Agnes, though I have +scarcely had an opportunity of asking you to-day," she said, as we +entered my room. + +"I did not wake until dawn, ma'am," I answered, evasively, for I had +determined, since they let me into no confidence upon the subject of the +household mystery, to keep my own counsel in regard to my dream and the +open door. + +"You slept until dawn. That is well. I hope you will have as good a rest +for the few remaining hours of the night. Good-evening, my dear. Lock +your door after me," said Mrs. Legare, going out with a look of relief +and satisfaction. + +As upon the evening previous, I turned the key upon my retiring hostess, +listened until I heard her pass out and secure the hall door, then +searched my room, undressed, said my prayers, and went to bed. + +As I hinted in the beginning of this narrative, nature had made me at +once superstitious and fearless. In the supernatural I "believed without +trembling." And now alone, in this supposed-to-be haunted chamber, I lay +with an interest devoid of uneasiness, waiting the development of +events. + +It was near day, when, overcome with watching, I fell asleep, and then, +as upon the night previous, I had a vision or dream (as you please to +call it). Methought the sound of a deep sigh awoke me, when looking up, +I saw, standing in the middle of the room, the fearful woman of my +dream, her finger pointed downward to the same spot, and, still pointing +thus, she receded backward until she disappeared through the open door. + +I started up to call or stop her, and with the violence of my effort, +awoke! awoke to see the morning light shining in through the shutters +that I had neglected to close, and to hear little Jet letting herself in +at the hall door, to come up and light my fire. + +Again on entering and seeing the open door, she cast an uneasy, +suspicious, frightened look around her, and said: "Yer allus gets up an' +opens dis door when yer hears me a comin', don't yer, Miss Agnes, +ma'am?" + +"Yes, I heard you coming Jet," I replied, evasively, but the answer +satisfied my simple little maid, who went cheerfully about her tasks. + +As it was not early, I hastened to my toilet and descended to the +dining-room, not to keep my kind hostess waiting breakfast. + +They were all ready to sit down when I joined them, and we immediately +took our seats at the table. + +Upon my plate I found a letter from my brother, which I asked and +obtained permission to open and read. It was a regretful refusal of my +invitation to him to join me at Wolfbrake to spend the holidays, upon +the ground that he had brought home with him a friend whom he could not +leave. + +"Pooh! pooh! let him bring his friend along! Tell him so! Any friend of +your brother will be welcome here, Agnes!" said Mr. Legare, to whom I +communicated the contents of my letter. + +I acted upon this permission, and wrote for my brother to come and bring +his friend. After I had finished and dispatched my letter, I joined a +party who were going out to dine. The dinner was followed by a dance, +and the dance by a moonlight sleighride home. But through all the +excitements of the day the image of the dark woman haunted my mind. And +again it was very late when I retired to bed. + +As usual, Mrs. Legare and Mathilde saw me to my room, and, as before, I +locked the door behind them, and listened until I heard them leave the +house and secure the hall entrance. Then I hastened my preparations, got +into bed, and, thoroughly worn out with fatigue and loss of rest, soon +fell into a deep sleep. And a third time the dream or vision passed +before me. Methought I was awakened by a voice calling my name. I opened +my eyes, and saw--first the door stretched wide open, and then, standing +in the middle of the floor, the beautiful and majestic woman of my +former visions, but this time more sad and stern in aspect than before. +Fixing those wild, mournful eyes upon mine, and holding my gaze as it +were by a mesmeric spell, she slowly and severely pointed to the spot +beneath her feet, and saying, as it were, "Look!" passed in measured +steps from the room. + +Once more in an agony I started up to call and stay her, but with the +effort awoke. The door that I had carefully locked stood wide open as +before. It was the same hour as that of my awakening upon the two +previous mornings. The day was flushing redly up the eastern horizon +beyond the mountains, and nature was awakening everywhere. + +I could not now so readily shake off the influence of my dream. There +was something that I wished to ascertain before my little maid should +interrupt me; the reiterated gesture by the woman of my dream, +determined me to examine the spot upon which she had stood and pointed, +to see if, really, her action had any meaning. So I arose from my bed, +and, first securing the door, and turning the key straight in the lock, +that my little maid, should she come, might not spy my doings, I +removed the hearthrug took a pair of strong scissors and drew out the +tacks, turned up the carpet. + +Reader! I had an attraction to the supernatural, but a mortal antagonism +to the horrible, and nearly swooned on seeing the spot to which the dark +woman of my vision had pointed deeply marked with a sanguine-crimson +stain! The very heart in my bosom seemed frozen with horror, and I felt +myself, as it were, turning to stone, when a loud knocking at my chamber +door aroused me. It was my little maid, whose coming, I, in my deep and +fearful abstractions, had not heard. I hurriedly replaced the carpet and +the rug, and went and opened the door. + +"Yer sleeped soun' dis mornin', Miss Agnes, ma'am," said little Jet, +smiling as she entered. "I feared I scared you out'n your dream," she +added, noticing, I suppose, my horror-stricken face. + +"You certainly startled me, Jet," I said, evasively. And while she +lighted the fire, I returned to bed to try to compose my nerves. + +Between the horror I felt at the idea of sleeping another night alone in +an accursed room, where, it seemed, a crime had been committed, and my +intense desire to elucidate the mystery, I was at a loss how to act. +Only one thing I decided upon--to keep my own counsel for the present. + +"De fire is burnin' fus-rate now, Miss Agnes, so you can get up an' +dress, if you likes, as break'as' is mos' ready," said my little +attendant. And taking her hint, I arose and hastened my toilet, in order +to be punctual at the morning meal of my hostess. + +As I descended the stairs, I heard Mrs. Legare speaking to her daughter +in the parlor, where a fire was kindled every morning while there were +visitors in the house. She was saying: + +"I tell you, Mathilde, it is all a delusion. Those who have never heard +the story, never see, or hear, or fancy anything unusual. You know now +Agnes has not been disturbed, and it is because she has heard nothing. +Whereas, if you had told her this history, she would have imagined, +Heaven knows what! all sorts of horrors! that is the reason I wished her +to hear nothing of it. She has slept undisturbed in that room. Let that +be known. Others will then not object to do so, and the report will die +out." + +She spoke in a quick, low tone, and, seeing me coming, instantly changed +the subject. But my sense of hearing, always acute, was quickened by +intense interest, and I had heard more than she could have wished me to +know. She turned to me with a smile, and said: + +"I hope that you have rested well, my dear Agnes." + +I said, "As well as usual," and receiving Mathilde's morning kiss, took +her arm, and accompanied them into the breakfast-room. + +It was some hours after breakfast, that day, when I went up into my +chamber to write letters. While thus engaged, I heard Mathilde coming +up, singing, and enter a chamber corresponding to mine, but separated +from it by the front hall. + +"Are you there, Agnes?" she asked. + +"Yes, dear. Shall I come to you?" + +"_Si vous plait, mademoiselle_," she answered, gayly. + +I went into the room, where I found Mathilde directing Jet in her work +of preparing the chamber for guests. + +"I shall have to put your brother and his friend here together to sleep, +my dear Agnes, as we are so full. But, by the way, who is his friend?" + +"That is just what I cannot tell you. John, in his wild, careless way, +simply said that he had a friend with him, as a reason why he could not +at once accept your father's invitation, and Mr. Legare as carelessly +and frankly wrote back for him to bring his 'friend' along with him." + +"_Eh bien! cette l'ami inconnu_ must be content to lodge with John; we +can do no better." + +"Since your house is not so large as your heart, _chere_ Mathilde." + +Little Jet was engaged in removing the firescreen, preparatory to +lighting the fire to air the room. As she set this board down before my +eyes, I could scarcely repress the cry that arose to my lips. It was an +old, faded family portrait that had been put to this use. That was not +much; but--it was the portrait of the dark woman of my dream. + +The same midnight eyes and hair, the same proud, stern, sad brow! + +"Whose likeness is that, Mathilde?" I asked, when I had in some degree +recovered my composure. + +"Oh! I don't know; it is a portrait of some member of the family of the +former proprietors, I suppose! We found it here with other rubbish, +considered, I suppose, of too little value to remove after the Van Der +Vaughans left; I washed its face and set it up for a firescreen. 'To +such vile uses,' etc. By the way, look at it! It is a very remarkable +countenance! Such expression might have been that of Semiramis when +ordering the execution of Ninus." + +"No! I do not think so, there is no wickedness in this face! There is +strength, sternness, perhaps cruelty (if necessary)," I replied, still +studying the portrait. "Who could it have been?" + +"I know not indeed! some old, old member of the Vaughan family." + +"Nay, I do not think the portrait is of such ancient date! To be sure it +is dilapidated; but that seems to be more from abuse than from time. +And observe! the costume is modern." + +"So it is!" + +"I had not thought of that before! Well now since you said so, I begin +to surmise that this may be the portrait of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan." + +"And who was she?" I inquired, with as much indifference as I could +assume. + +"Oh! the last lineal descendant of the elder branch of the family and +the last heiress of this old estate; she married her first cousin, +Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan." + +"And what was her history and her fate?" I inquired, striving to +restrain the betrayal of the intense interest I felt. + +"Oh, her history was as painful as her fate was tragic." + +"And--well?" + +"Hush! there is some one coming! I will tell you another time!" + +It was Mrs. Legare who entered, and smiling a sort of salutation to me, +and opening a letter she held in her hand, said: + +"My dear Mathilde, we are to have more company. Your cousin Rachel +Noales is coming; she will be here this afternoon!" + +"Oh! I should be so glad if we only had room for her!" exclaimed +Mathilde, impulsively, and then she blushed deeply in having spoken thus +freely of their crowded state in the presence of a guest. + +"My dear Mathilde," said I, "as mine is a double-bedded chamber, I +should be very happy to have Miss Rachel for a roommate; that is, if it +would be agreeable to herself." + +"Thank you, Agnes, dear. Agreeable! why it would be the very thing. +Rachel Noales is the greatest coward that ever ran! and would no more +sleep in a strange room, by herself, than she would in a churchyard! If +you had not kindly offered, some of us girls would have to take her in, +although we are all sleeping double now!" + +"But are you sure, my dear Agnes, that you will not be incommoded," +kindly inquired Mrs. Legare. + +"Incommoded? Not in the least! The arrangement suits me to a nicety!" I +replied. + +And so, in truth, it did; for let me confess that while I could not +prevail upon myself to shorten my visit, and leave the house with its +great mystery unsolved, the prospect of sleeping alone in that chamber +cursed with crime appalled me, but, in company with a companion of my +own age, it would be a very different affair. + +"That horrid portrait! take it into the attic, Jet," said Mrs. Legare, +as her eyes fell upon the _ci devant_ firescreen. + +The little maid took up the picture and carried it off as commanded. + +Then there was a visit of inspection and preparation paid to my room. +Fresh sheets and more blankets were put upon the second bed, fresh +napkins laid, and then mother and daughter and little maid departed. + +Through the remainder of that day I had no further opportunity of +learning from Mathilde the history of the dark lady. + +Late that afternoon Uncle Judah was dispatched with the mules to Frost +Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring Rachel Noales to the house. +And about seven o'clock he returned, escorting the new visitor, for whom +we were waiting tea. + +As Miss Noales was to be my roommate, I examined her with much more +interest than I had bestowed upon any other among my fellow-visitors. +Rachel Noales was an orphan, and was still in deep mourning for her +father, who had been dead about nine months. She was a very pretty, +timid-looking girl, with a fair face, soft brown hair and large hazel +eyes. + +"Ah! my dear child," I thought to myself, "you are scarcely the most +proper denizen for a crime-cursed, haunted chamber." + +And I made up my mind to protect her, if possible, from the knowledge +that would only make her wretched, and perhaps drive her away from the +place. As this was the fourth evening of Christmas revelry, and we had +all been up to a very late hour upon each of the three preceding nights, +it was moved, seconded, and carried by a large majority that we should +retire early on this and the succeeding evenings of the week, so as to +recruit a little for the New Year's festivity. + +Accordingly, at ten o'clock we separated. + +Mrs. Legare and Mathilde accompanied Rachel Noales and myself to our +chamber. And when our hostess and her daughter had seen that the room +was in perfect order, the fire burning well, the beds turned down, the +ewers filled, etc., etc., they took leave, waiting, as before, until +they had heard me lock the chamber door behind them. When they had +passed down the stairs and out at the hall door and locked it after +them, I turned around to meet the surprised look of Rachel Noales. + +"Why, where have they gone?" she asked. + +"Into the old house, to bed." + +"Why!--do they sleep there?" + +"Certainly--the whole family sleep there." + +"And who sleeps here in the new house?" + +"No one but you and I!" + +"You don't mean to say that they have put us in this house to sleep +alone?" + +"Why not? It is an adjunct to the other house, which is, besides, quite +full of guests. It was so when I came." + +"And where did you sleep?" + +"Here." + +"Alone?" + +"Certainly." + +She looked at me with astonishment. And had my mind been sufficiently at +ease I should have enjoyed her naïve admiration. But it was not so; and +when I saw her draw her chair up in front of the fire, and sit down +immediately over that spot, I shuddered and spoke to her. + +"Rachel, dear, don't sit directly in front of the fire; it is injurious +to the eyes." + +She moved to one side and began to unfasten her dress preparatory to +going to bed. We were now ready. But before lying down, Rachel asked me: + +"Is the door secure?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"And the windows?" + +"Yes." + +Not quite content with my answer, Rachel went slyly around to all the +windows, and then to the door, to ascertain their security; then she +searched the closets, and finally got into bed. + +I soon followed her example, but found myself more sleepless than upon +the preceding evening. I know not exactly how long I had lain awake, +thinking of the dead proprietors, of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, and her +sad history and tragic fate (whatever they might have been), and of the +stern, dark woman of my dream, and of the blood-stained floor, and +trying to combine these materials into some coherent whole, when +suddenly I heard the lock click back, the door swing slowly open, and a +rustle, as of silken drapery, and I opened my eyes to behold the awful +woman of my dream standing in the middle of the room, and pointing +sternly to the blood-stained floor! + +And in the very same instant that I heard and saw this, Rachel had also +been awakened, and was even now asking in frightened tones: + +"Who is that?" + +But there was no answer. + +"Who is that?" again asked the girl. + +And still there was no answer. + +"Who--is--that?" she reiterated, emphatically. + +No answer. + +"Aunt Legare!--Mathilde!--Jet!--Who is it?" + +No reply. But the tall, black-robed woman standing motionless, and +pointing with spectral finger to the spot on the floor! + +"Oh! dear me! Agnes, Agnes!" + +I answered: + +"What, my dear?" + +"Have you opened the door?" + +"No, love." + +"Have you been up at all since you laid down?" + +"No, Rachel." + +"Who opened the door?" + +"I do not know." + +"Didn't you hear it open?" + +"Yes." + +"And it is open now!" + +"I see it is." + +"But how came it open?" + +"I do not know; perhaps it was not quite locked, and the catch flew +back." + +"Oh, perhaps that was it," said Rachel; and, though her teeth were +chattering with a nervous tremor, she got out of bed, and went to the +door, to close and lock it, And, reader, the black-robed woman passed +out before her, and she saw her not. + +I fell back upon my pillow, nearer swooning than ever I had been in my +life; for now I knew that this was no dream, but a vision--an apparition +to me, and to me only. + +I slept no more that night. + +And in the morning when I arose, and looked into the glass, I was +startled at the haggardness of my own face. + +When we appeared at the breakfast-table, some of the young people +remarked my paleness, and said that I had been frolicking more than was +good for me. Then one of the company inquired of Rachel Noales how she +had rested. + +"Not very well," Rachel answered; "I was frightened by the door flying +open in the middle of the night." + +I noticed a quick, intelligent look pass between Mathilde and her +mother, while Rachel continued: + +"I thought at first that it was thieves breaking in; but I know now that +it flew open because Agnes had not locked the door fast enough to hold +it." + +"No, I had not," said I. + +The arrival of the mailbag put an end to this discussion. The letters +were distributed at the table. Among them was one from my brother to Mr. +Legare, accepting his invitation for himself and his friend, whom he +begged to name as the Hon. Francis Howard, of Massachusetts, and +announcing the letter as a mere _avant courier_ of the party which would +reach Frost Height that afternoon. + +Upon hearing the name of Frank Howard as the "friend" of John and their +expected guest, Mathilde flushed and paled, and was quite unable to +conceal from the interested scrutiny of her parents the emotion these +tidings caused her. + +As for Mr. Legare, upon reading his name, he said: "Humph!" and "humph!" +very emphatically several times before he could get any further. But he +considered his hospitality implicated; nay, his honor pledged to receive +and treat with politeness the guest that he had so unconsciously +invited. He was a fine old gentleman, notwithstanding his +prejudices--was Mr. Legare. + +So, in the afternoon, once more Uncle Judah was ordered to take the +mules and go up to Frost Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring two +visitors to the house; an order so little to the old man's satisfaction +that he vented his disapprobation in the exclamation: + +"Ole masse better had set up 'Entertainment for Man and Beast' at once." + +As usual, when expecting a new arrival of visitors, Mrs. Legare put back +her tea hour, and prepared a supper of extra luxuriousness. And Mr. +Legare brewed the great ancestral punchbowl to the brim with rich, +frothy eggnog, and set it away to "mellow," against the coming of the +gentlemen. + +"My dear mother and father! they have noble hearts in spite of their +social conservatism! And you shall see that they will treat my Frank +with as much kindness and respect as if they did not consider him a sort +of wolf, prowling about after their one ewe lamb," said Mathilde, with +tears of affection brimming to her eyes. + +"And you see, my darling, it is as I foretold you it would be. He is +seeking you now in your own home. And under what favorable +circumstances--the invited guest of your father. How very providential +the whole train of events! Trust still in Divine Providence; and if your +love is a true love, it will end happily," I answered. + +And in my deep sympathy with Mathilde's joy, I almost forgot that I was +a haunted maiden, with some, as yet unknown, supernatural mission to +accomplish. + +I was resolved, if possible, before the day should be over, to hear from +Mathilde the tragic story of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, whose portrait +I had mentally identified as that of the awful visitant of my midnight +hours. The opportunity came, or rather, I made it. Mathilde had early +completed her toilet for the evening. I had done likewise. And at five +o'clock we found ourselves alone together in the drawing-room of the new +house. The lamps were not as yet lighted. The hickory fire had ceased to +blaze, and now only burned redly, showing out a strong, solid heat, in +what Uncle Judah called "solemn columns," and casting over the dark +chamber a sombre, ruddy twilight. We sat down by the fire together. +There would be no chance for the next half hour of being interrupted. + +For Mr. Legare was still engaged at his breakfast in the dining-room. +Mrs. Legare was busy in her pantry and the kitchen, and the few servants +of the now reduced establishment were in constant attendance upon their +master or mistress. + +Rachel Noales was upstairs in my chamber, dressing for the evening, and +the other young persons of the Christmas party were in the bedrooms of +the old house, similarly engaged. + +There was not the slightest possibility of an interruption. + +Mathilde commenced speaking. + +"I believe you are pleased with your chamber, Agnes?" + +"Charmed," I answered. + +Without perceiving the _double entendre_ hidden in my reply, she said: + +"And you have always slept well, then?" + +"Never better," I replied; "in that chamber," I mentally added. + +In her ignorance of this silent reservation, she was pleased with my +answer, and sat smiling quietly and studying, apparently, the glowing +coals of fire in the chimneyplace. + +I broke her reverie by saying, in a careless, off-hand way: + +"_Apropos de rien_, you have not told me the story of that mysterious +portrait yet." + +"No, I haven't! But, indeed, I am not sure that the history of Madeleine +Van Der Vaughan has anything to do with that portrait, since I am not +sure that it is hers." + +"No matter; take it for granted that it is; or at least tell the story +whether or not." + +"Very well; listen, then," said Mathilde, settling herself comfortably +in her chair, and commencing the narrative. + +"The Van Der Vaughans, as you may perceive by their name, are of +Teutonic origin, though by frequent intermarriage with other races, they +have no doubt lost, or modified, many of their national traits. Their +residence, in this part of the country, dates back to the time of the +first settlement of New York by the Dutch. + +"Why this particular family should have wandered down to the backwoods +and mountains of Virginia remains a mystery, unless they were of a +patriotic and poetical turn, and found in her wild hills and boundless +woods something to remind them of the Hartz Mountains and the Black +Forest. However that may be, they came, took up a great tract of land, +built themselves a dwelling place (the old house adjoining this), and +settled down permanently. + +"For a time they were prosperous, as others were, and then, by bad +agriculture, they grew poor, as others in this neighborhood did. If we +may believe tradition the poorer this family grew the prouder they +became, until at last, pride and poverty united, culminated in the +character and the circumstances of the last heiress of the elder branch +of the family, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan. + +"At the age of twenty-five Madeleine Van Der Vaughan was left, by the +death of her father (her mother died long before), sole heiress of a +worn-out plantation and dilapidated house. + +"Madeleine is reported to have possessed great and singular beauty--a +tall and imperial form, a fine head, with strongly marked and perfectly +regular features, a deep, rich complexion, and hair, eyes and eyebrows +all black as Erebus. Gifted and accomplished was she also, and, as I +stated, proud as Lucifer. It is said that this overweening pride +prevented her taking a husband from among her numerous visitors, none of +whom, though of the best families in the State, she deemed worthy of her +own "high alliance."" + +"Until at last her relative, Ernest Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan, made his +appearance in her train and claimed her hand; a claim that was indorsed +by her acceptance. + +"It is said that family pride had to do with this marriage much more +than love. However that might be, no sooner was the knot securely tied, +than Mr. Van Der Vaughan began to importune his wife to sell her land +and homestead that they might emigrate to the West. But in vain; for +Mrs. Van Der Vaughan would not, for an instant, entertain the idea of +alienating her patrimony. + +"On the contrary, she had one ambition concerning her inheritance--an +ambition that reached the height of a ruling passion--and that was, to +resuciate the dead soil of the plantation and to rebuild the mansion +house. + +"All Ernest Van Der Vaughan's property consisted in bank stock. All +Madeleine's estate was in worthless land and negroes. But she offered +him, as she would not have offered any other than a Van Der Vaughan, the +fee simple of her plantation, if he would only devote his money to the +restoring of the worn-out fields and the rebuilding of the homestead. + +"Ernest did not like the plan, and he told her so. He explained to her +how, at one-tenth the outlay that he should have to make for manures and +for labor to resusciate this effete soil, he could go to Iowa and +purchase a large farm of the richest land and build a comfortable +dwelling-house and all needful offices around it. + +"But it was in vain that he argued with her. She was a strong-minded, +self-willed woman, with one idea--one monomania--love for 'Old +Virginia,' and especially for her own portion of the soil. She +absolutely rejected the plan of emigration, and told Ernest, in the most +decided manner, that, go where he might, she never would desert her +birthplace. + +"She was the stronger of the two, and she prevailed. Ernest embarked +nearly all his means in the doubtful enterprise of restoring the old, +worn-out fields and rebuilding the mansion, or rather, I should say, +repairing it, and building a new house beside it. + +"Madeleine, on her part, kept her word. She executed a deed conveying +the whole property to her husband. And after he, in a fit of generous +abandonment, tore that deed and threw it in the fire, she made a second +one, caused it to be recorded, and thus rendered it irrevocable, before +she told him anything about it. + +"She went even further than this, and aided him in every possible way in +his work of restoration. To retrench expenses, so that every spare +dollar should go to that enterprise, she discharged her housekeeper, +reduced her establishment of servants, and took upon her own shoulders +the additional burdens lately borne by those whom she had discharged +from her service. She worked hard and constantly. No one knew how +severely she toiled--not even her husband, until her labors seriously +affected her health. Then Ernest Van Der Vaughan remonstrated. But she +smiled and pointed to the growing fields and to the rising mansion. + +"Yet the restoration of the lands and the elevation of the house was a +work of years. Often progress was arrested by the want of funds, and +then, though it cost the mistress many severe heart pangs, one after +another of the old family servants were sold to raise the necessary +amount, and their places in the field had to be supplied by fresh drafts +upon the small household establishment, until at last the mistress was +reduced to one maid-of-all-work about her person. + +"I do not think your citizens, Agnes, dream of how much labor devolves +upon the mistress of a large plantation in circumstances such as these. +Even when assisted by an efficient housekeeper, and many well-trained +servants, the duties are onerous, sometimes oppressive, Madeleine Van +Der Vaughan had deprived herself of nearly all help; but most willingly +she bore her self-assumed burden, only showing distress when some +financial exigency compelled her to wound humanity. She gave her heart, +her life, to one object of her ambition. Yes--literally, this was so; +for it was observable that as the carefully tended land recovered, she +lost vitality, and as the mansion arose, she sank. + +"It was in glorious autumn, when the richest wheat harvest that had ever +been reaped in the State was gathered into the barns of Wolfbrake, and +the finest corn crop that had ever grown in the valley, stood ripe in +the fields, that the house was finished. + +"So much money had been spent and so many debts remained to be paid, +that there was but little to expend upon furniture, and Mrs. Van Der +Vaughan could not appoint her house in a style so gorgeous as would +have satisfied her ambition. However, it was furnished in the manner +that you now see, which, after all, is much handsomer than anything that +was known to the grand old Van Der Vaughans in their grandest days of, +no doubt, fabulous grandeur. + +"It was about the first of November that the last of the Van Der +Vaughans removed into this house. + +"The plastering of the sleeping-rooms was not so well dried as had been +supposed. This was soon ascertained by Mr. Van Der Vaughan, who advised +and entreated his wife to delay the removal. + +"But when had Madeleine Van Der Vaughan yielded to any will but her own? +With the impatience and fever of a long desire, she hastened to take +possession of her new residence. + +"Although the weather had continued fine, with westerly or southerly +winds, up to the day of removal, yet then the wind shifted to the east, +blowing up masses of dark clouds and cold mists, followed by rain and +even sleet. + +"Alas! worn out by self-assumed, unnecessary burdens, Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan was in no condition successfully to meet a change of weather and +other circumstances. Moreover, she, so earnest in her ambition, so +zealous for ostentation, was fatally careless in regard to her own +personal comforts. There was no grate or stove in her chamber, or in any +other room in the house; all depended upon open fireplaces, which, +however handsome, cheerful and poetic they may look, are not always just +the very best things for damp houses in severe weather. + +"Mrs. Van Der Vaughan's chamber could not be properly dried and heated. +The consequence was that she took a severe cold, which fell upon her +lungs, and from which she, in her enfeebled state, had not power to +recover. She dropped into a rapid consumption, and in six weeks from +her triumphant _entrée_ into her new house, she was borne thence to the +family burial-ground, that you may see from your windows." + +"Poor lady! What room did she occupy?" + +"Yours." + +"And--she died there?" + +"Yes; she died there, a victim, I am sure, of her own impatient, +feverish ambition." + +"Do not judge her harshly." + +"I do not. This is the reputation she has left behind her." + +"Yet it may not have been her true character. Reputation is one thing, +character is another," said I, falling into thought, and then reflecting +that much yet must remain to be told, to give me a sure clew to the +household mystery. + +"Well, what else?" I inquired. + +"What else, my dear? Why, nothing else. I have told you all her story to +her death," said Mathilde, uneasily. + +"But, after all," said I, "one of the most interesting things in the +connection, is your father's purchase of this fine property." + +"Ah, true! Well, after the death of his lady, Ernest Van Der Vaughan +removed back into the old house, and closed up the new one. In the +course of a few weeks he advertised the property for sale, but months +passed, and no purchaser appeared willing to give him the price set upon +the estate. + +"A year went by, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan made the acquaintance of a +young lady, Alice Brightwell, who was, it is said, as strong a contrast +as possible to his late wife; for Alice was young, and fair and gay, +loved music, dancing and company, and had not a regret, a care, or an +ambition in the world. + +"It must have been the attraction of antagonism that united the hearts +of this dark and sombre man of thirty, and this laughing, careless girl +of nineteen, for it is said that they were greatly attached to each +other. + +"At all events, after a brief courtship, and a briefer engagement they +were married; and when Mr. Van Der Vaughan proposed to her, as he had to +his first wife, that they should emigrate to the West, she, in her gay, +adventurous love of novelty, eagerly assented, notwithstanding that to +go with him thither, she must leave her parents, brothers and sisters. + +"Once more the property came into the market, and my father, seeing the +advertisement, and desiring to remove to Virginia, opened a +correspondence with the proprietor, then made a visit of inspection, and +finally became the purchaser of the estates. + +"When the transfer was about to be made, my father, pointing to the +family graveyard, inquired of Mr. Van Der Vaughan whether he did not +feel an unwillingness to sell that piece of ground, and told him that he +might readily make an exception of that plot, and retain it in his own +right. + +"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan replied that he did not really care to own a +foot of ground on the estate. + +"My father then told him that if he would like to retain the graveyard +it should make no difference in the price of the whole already agreed +upon--for my father, you see, Alice, felt a sort of hesitation in buying +the place without exempting the bones of the old family from the +purchase. + +"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan had no scruples of the sort. + +"'No,' he said, 'Mr. Legare, if I were to retain possession of the +graveyard, I and my heirs after me, would own an acre of ground in the +very midst of your estate, which, as it stands now, might make no +difference, as I shall never return to claim it, and could make no use +of it if I did; but which might embarrass you very much should you ever +wish to sell the property.' + +"That was good reasoning enough, I suppose, and, at all events, the sale +was completed without the exception. + +"We moved into the house, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan and his bride departed +for Kansas." + +"And he really, when he might just as easily have avoided it, sold the +bones of his wife and her ancestors to a stranger!" + +"Even so, my dear Agnes, and believe me, that we all felt as much +shocked as you look." + +"But," said I, fixing my eyes upon her face, where the flickering +firelight made the shadows play, "the stranger has not been able to +retain the peaceable possession of his purchase!" + +"What--what mean you, Agnes!" exclaimed Mathilde, in alarm. + +"I mean that the late proud lady of Wolfbrake still carries the keys, +and unlocks doors at will!" + +"Heavens! do you know that?" + +"Ay! I know much more than that. I know the portrait that performed the +humiliating office of firescreen in the next room is the likeness of the +haughty Madeleine Van Der Vaughan! I know, beside----" + +"What more do you know?" + +"That our travelers have arrived!" I said, as the sound of footsteps and +voices at the hall door fell upon my ear. + +It was true. We were interrupted. + +As if "borne on the wings of love," the slow old stage-coach was so much +earlier that evening that our friends arrived an hour earlier than we +had expected them, while Mrs. Legare was still superintending the +arrangement of her supper-table, and Mr. Legare was grating nutmeg over +his huge bowl of eggnog, so there was no one to welcome the visitors +except Mathilde and myself. + +As they entered the parlor we arose and advanced to meet them. + +"Mathilde! Miss Legare! Can it be possible! This is, indeed, indeed, a +joyous surprise," exclaimed Frank Howard, as he recognized his ladylove, +and with an eager smile extended his hand; while my brother, without +ceremony, embraced me cordially. + +"I thought you knew to whom you were coming," said Mathilde, with simple +candor. + +"No! I scarcely dared to hope for such happiness!" + +"Hey-day! Hal-loe!--do you know anybody here, Frank?" exclaimed my wild +and thoughtless brother. + +But before Mr. Howard had time to answer, I pinched Jack's arm, turned +him around, and presented him to Miss Legare. + +The refined and elegant presence of Mathilde immediately brought my rude +cadet to order, and he gracefully expressed the pleasure and honor he +felt in being permitted to make her acquaintance. + +Miss Legare welcomed my brother with more cordiality than she had +bestowed upon her lover. + +And I turned to receive Frank Howard's offered hand, and responded to +his expressions of satisfaction at the present opportunity of renewing +our acquaintance. + +When these rather commonplace ceremonies were over Miss Legare invited +her guests to be seated, and we resumed our chairs. A deep blush settled +upon the beautiful face of Mathilde. + +But, whatever might have been the emotions of Mr. Howard, he suppressed +them through that regnant self-control that ever distinguished his +manners. And he was the first to perceive the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. +Legare, and to arise and advance to receive them. + +My brother presented Mr. Howard to Mr. Legare, who received him with +cordial politeness, and in his turn introduced him to Mrs. Legare, who +smilingly welcomed him to Virginia. + +Certainly Howard had nothing to complain of in his reception. There was +not the slightest lack of respect and kindness, and not the least +over-doing of ceremony, which would have been still more offensive. All +was natural and genial, as if there had not once existed a strong +hostility to Frank Howard, the machinist. I was charmed at the manner +with which my dear host and hostess completely overcame their +prejudices, or at least suppressed them, and treated Mr. Howard in all +respects as an honored and welcome guest, and did this assuredly not in +the spirit of hypocrisy, but of hospitality, as they understood its +requirements. + +Soon Rachel Noales and the other young persons of the Christmas party +came in, were introduced, seated, and conversation became general and +free. This afforded me the coveted opportunity of having a moment's talk +aside with my brother. + +"Johnny! tell me now, and tell me quickly, and truly--was there any +design on you or your friend's part to get him invited here?" + +"Design! bless you, no!" replied my brother, opening wide his great gray +eyes. + +"I thought not; for, if the truth must be told, honest Johnny was +anything but a diplomat." + +"Well, there was no conscious manoeuvring on your part, but was there +not on his?" + +"Why, bless you, no! Why should there have been?" "'Why should there +have been?' Oh, Johnny! Johnny! where are your perceptive faculties? +You will never be wideawake enough for a soldier!" + +"I don't know what you would be at." + +"I suppose not. But did you observe nothing interesting in the meeting +between Mr. Howard and Miss Legare?" + +"Oh, oh, oh, oh! Whew ew-ew-ew! Is that it?" + +"Yes." + +"That's what you meant when you pinched my arm black and blue?" + +"Yes." + +"A sorry dog. He never hinted one word about this to me." + +"He had no right to do so, nor must you speak of it." + +"Eh! why?" + +"Because--but I had better tell you all about it. They met about three +years ago for the first time. It was at Saratoga, where he was making +quite a figure. The acquaintance had ripened to friendship, and +something more when 'papa' bethought himself to inquire who this very +distinguished-looking gentleman might be at home among his own people, +and was informed that he was--a machinist by trade! Recall to mind the +passion of Desdemonia's proud patrician 'pa' on discovering that he had +a black-a-moor for a son-in-law, and you may be able remotely to +conceive the consternation of Mr. Legare. He hurried his family away +from Saratoga, and forbid the name of Howard to be mentioned in his +presence. The lovers never corresponded, and never met until this +evening! You may judge how much cause for speculation there is in this +meeting." + +"Yes--but within these three years great changes have taken place. Mr. +Howard is a distinguished man--a man of fortune, and of acknowledged +talent--one of the lawgivers of the nation. And Mr. Legare and his +family are reduced from wealth to a moderate competency." + +"Yes, I know; but that does not change the old aristocrat's manner of +regarding the affair. He contends that a gentleman born is always a +gentleman, and a peasant always a peasant, notwithstanding the +vicissitudes of fortune, that may enrich the one and impoverish the +other." + +"Or rather, he contended so--it belongs to the past tense. Look at him +now--see what deference he pays to Mr. Howard's opinions." + +"The mere politeness of the host. Take nothing for granted from that." + +"Nay, but Frank Howard is a gentleman of whom any father might be proud +as a son-in-law." + +"Very likely. But Mr. Legare is not 'any' father. However, what I wish +to know is, whether Frank Howard did not use you to procure the 'bid' +that brought him hither?" + +"No, indeed!" + +"How came it, then, you artful boy, that you took just the course, and +the only course, by which you could procure him an invitation?" + +"I don't understand you." + +"You innocent! How came it, then, that you wrote to Mr. Legare, you +would be very happy to obey his summons, and spend the holidays at +Wolfbrake, but that you had a friend with you whom you could not leave, +and whom you took care not to mention by name?" + +"Oh, because I never gave the matter a moment's thought. When I got Mr. +Legare's letter, I just sat down and answered it right off, and +mentioned my friend merely as my friend. If I had, as you seem to think, +been fishing for an invitation for him also, I certainly should have +mentioned him by name and title as the Hon. Frank Howard, of +Massachusetts, etc., etc., etc." + +"In which case you certainly would not have been invited to bring him +here." + +"Probably not, but I did not know that. What knew I of the hostility, or +even of the acquaintance, between the parties? I acted only in simple +honesty." + +"The best way to act, my dear Johnny." + +"And so blundered into helping the lovers." + +"Not so. You were providentially led." + +"Well, as soon as ever I received the invitation, I hastened to write +and give the name of my friend to our host, as I should have done at +first, if I had dreamed of his being invited to accompany me. And as for +Frank Howard, he was as innocent of design as myself. He knew nothing +about the matter until I showed him Mr. Legare's last letter, and +pressed him to go with me. He then asked me if Mr. Legare was any +relation of the Legares, of Louisiana. I said I believed he had brothers +in Louisiana, but I was not certain, as I knew very little of the +family. Then he told me that he had had the pleasure of meeting a Mr. +Legare, of Louisiana, at Saratoga, and should feel happy in making the +acquaintance of any of his family; and there the conversation stopped. +Frank was evidently as much astonished as delighted at the unexpected +meeting with his ladylove." + +"I am glad to know it," said I. + +And then, not to continue the rudeness of an aside conversation, I took +my brother to Rachel Noales, and left him with her, while I joined my +kind old host. + +Supper was soon after announced, and we were all marshaled into the +dining-room, where a sumptuous feast was spread, over which we lingered, +eating and drinking, with epicurean leisure, and talking and laughing +for more than an hour. I said we--but I should rather say they--for I +could not eat, or talk, or laugh. At last the long-drawn meal came to an +end. + +The company adjourned to the drawing-room, and an hour was passed in +pleasant conversation, and then, in consideration of the fatigue of the +newly-arrived guests, we separated for the night. + +In the hall I noticed a diminutive page, of the African race, who +rejoiced in the chivalric name of Emmanuel Philibert, which was adapted +to daily and popular use by the abbreviative of Phlit. Phlit was +standing, and solemnly holding a light in one hand and a bootjack in the +other, waiting to attend the two gentlemen to their bedroom. + +But Mr. Legare took upon himself the office of groom of the chambers, +and accompanied his latest guests to their apartment. + +Rachel Noales and myself reached ours about the same time. We heard the +voice of Mr. Legare taking leave of the gentlemen for the night; we +heard him and the little waiter Phlit, go downstairs and out at the hall +door, fastening it after them. + +"I will take care that this is secured to-night," said Rachel, going and +carefully locking our door, and then trying it to be sure that it was +fast. "That will do," she said, when she had satisfied herself of its +security. + +Then, as we were very weary, we prepared to retire. We were soon in bed. + +Rachel was soon asleep. + +Not so myself. I lay perfectly still, almost breathless, waiting the +developments of the night. And, reader, it was while lying thus wide +awake, and gazing straight out through the window to the spot where the +family tombstones gleamed white and spectral in the moonlight among the +dark firs, that my ear was struck by the click of the recoiling lock, +and, turning, I saw the door swing slowly open and my dark-robed +midnight visitant enter. Though wide awake as at this moment, I was +deprived, by excess of awe, of the power of speech or motion. Slowly +the spectre advanced and stood as before, pointing to the dark-red spot +hid beneath the carpet under her feet. I essayed once more to speak to +her, but such terror as her presence had never before inspired froze my +utterance. I listened, wondering if my companion in the other bed was +conscious of this supernatural presence in the room; but the deep and +regular breathing of Rachel assured me that she was sleeping soundly, +the deep sleep of fatigue. + +And all this while the black-robed woman stood holding my eyes with her +fixed and burning gaze, and pointing to the spot on the floor. Then, +letting her arm fall slowly to her side, she passed, in measured steps, +from the room, and through the door that swung to, gradually, and closed +behind her. Again I essayed to cry out, but the spell was still upon me, +and no sound escaped my paralyzed lips. While lying thus, I heard once +more the recoiling click of a lock, and the swing of a door upon its +hinges; but this time it was not our own but another door--that of the +opposite chamber, where my brother and his friend slept. + +"Who's there?" I heard John call out, in no pleasant voice, and seeming +evidently annoyed at the disturbance. + +There was no answer. + +"Who's there?" he repeated. + +No answer. + +"Who's there?" + +Continued silence. + +"Phlit!" + +No reply. + +"Phlit!" + +No reply. + +"Phlit!" + +Dead silence. + +"Jet! Is that you?" + +The silence of the grave continued; until at last the calling of my +brother awoke his companion in the other bed. + +"What is the matter, John?" I heard him ask. + +"Why, some one has unlocked our door and entered, and I can't make them +speak; but shoot me if I don't find them out!" said my brother, jumping +out of bed and beginning to strike a light. + +"You have been dreaming." + +"Have I? Look there, then!" + +"Well, I see the door is open; but you probably forgot to lock it." + +"I'll make sure of it now, then," said John, banging the door violently, +locking it with a resonant force and proceeding to search for the +supposed intruder. Of course the search was fruitless, and, with many +grumbles and threats, he went back to bed. + +My brother had not seen the supernatural visitant to his room, who, go +where she might, appeared only to me. + +While turning these things over in my mind, again I heard John's lock +turn and his door swing open, and almost simultaneously his voice called +out: + +"What the demon does this mean? Who are you then?" as he jumped out of +bed, relocked the door, struck a light and proceeded once more vainly to +examine the room. + +"Well, this is certainly the most inexplicable thing I ever knew in my +life!" exclaimed John, with an intonation between astonishment and +indignation. + +"Oh! I really suppose you did not lock the door properly," replied +Howard, getting up and going to ascertain the state of the case. And I +heard him unlock and lock the door several times, and finally locking it +fast, he said: + +"There! now I will guarantee that it will stay shut!" and went back to +his couch. + +I do not think that more than fifteen minutes had passed before I heard, +for the third time, their lock fly back and their door swing open. + +"By Jupiter! This is past belief!" exclaimed Mr. Howard, while my +brother, without speaking, jumped out of bed and struck a light. + +They searched the room. They came out thence and searched the hall. They +went up into the garret and searched the rooms over our heads. And, +finding no one, they returned, wondering and conjecturing to their +chamber, and for the third time that night fast locked their door. + +"Take the key out, John," said Mr. Howard. And John withdrew the key and +took it to bed with him. + +About fifteen minutes more passed and then--"click!" flew the lock, open +swung the door, and out of bed jumped John, in a state of mind between +affright and rage. + +"John, never mind! It is clear that the door will not remain closed; +leave it open; to-morrow I will look at the lock and see what is amiss," +said Mr. Howard. + +And for the fourth time that night I heard my brother muttering like +distant thunder, go back to his bed. + +But I do not think that he slept that night, and I am sure that I did +not. + +In the morning I felt weary, and certain that if this mysterious +visitation continued, I should go mad. As I was dressing before the +toilet mirror, the reflection of my own face in the glass startled and +terrified me, it looked so pale, wild and haggard, and not unlike the +awful face of the midnight spectre. When Rachel and myself were dressed +and ready to go down, I opened the door. And just at that moment my +brother and Mr. Howard came out of their chamber and bade us +"Good-morning." + +"Were you at our door last night, Agnes?" John asked me. + +"At your door, John? Certainly not." + +"Wasn't you, though?" + +"Assuredly not. What should have brought me there?" + +"Well, somebody was, that's all!" said my brother, while Mr. Howard +silently looked what he did not say. + +We all went down together to the parlor, where a fine fire was burning, +and Mathilde, in her fresh morning beauty, waited to welcome us. + +And soon our host and hostess entered, and in a few moments the +breakfast was announced, and we all adjourned to the table. + +Breakfast was served long before the usual hour, that the gentlemen of +our party might make an early start upon the fox hunt that Mr. Legare +had arranged for that day. + +While we were still at the table, Mrs. Legare bethought herself to hope +that the gentlemen had rested well; when my brusque and thoughtless +brother John said: + +"No, indeed, my dear madam! We were 'fashed wi' a bogle' all night +long." + +"Sir?" + +"He means, madam, that we could not by any means keep our door locked, +and had finally to give up the attempt," explained Mr. Howard. + +A deathly paleness overspread Mrs. Legare's face. I knew she regretted +the question that she had been tempted to ask, and now she receded from +the subject. + +Mr. Legare, who had kept his eyes averted and turned a deaf ear to the +disclosure, now adroitly changed the topic by speaking of the hunt. + +The horses were neighing with impatience in the yard, and as soon as the +gentlemen arose from the breakfast-table, they prepared themselves, +mounted and rode off to their day's sport. + +It proved a very successful chase, for they took the brush before twelve +o'clock and returned with fine appetites to the excellent dinner set +upon the table at two in the afternoon. + +The evening was passed in quiet hilarity, and we separated at a +comparatively early hour. + +But that night, reader! It passes all my powers of description. I had +always been in the habit of "saying" my prayers before retiring; but of +late, since I had been habitually haunted, I had taken to praying +devoutly before going to bed. I prayed with unusual earnestness this +night, and then I retired to my couch. So wearied out in body was I +that, despite of mental excitement, I soon fell asleep. + +I do not know how long I had slept, probably several hours, for it was +near day, when I was awakened by a strong light and a great noise. + +I opened my eyes and collected my senses to find that both proceeded +from the opposite bedroom, where Mr. Howard and John were up with a +lighted candle, looking about for the mysterious and persevering +intruder upon their slumbers. The light from their room streamed across +the hall and through the open door into ours and fell upon the tall, +dark-robed, stern-visaged haunter of my chamber, where she stood +pointing her spectral finger to the spot upon the floor. A moment she +stood thus, and then, as before, passed slowly from the room and through +the open door, that, without hands, closed behind her. + +The silvery beams of the full moon poured through the two east windows, +and in its light I now saw Rachel Noales sitting up straight, stark and +still in her bed. + +"Rachel! Rachel!" said I, "what is the matter?" + +"Heaven and earth, Agnes, we are haunted!" she gasped, rather than +spoke. + +"Have you seen anything, Rachel?" I asked, now hoping that she had, for +I felt it terrible to be alone in my spectral experiences. + +"No, no, I have not seen anything! But that door! that door! that I am +sure I fastened so carefully, was unlocked without a key, and opened +without hands! I heard and saw it, for I was laying awake!" + +"Let us hope that you were mistaken, Rachel." + +"No, no, impossible! Oh, I would not sleep another night in this house +for the wealth of the Indies!" + +While we were talking, the fruitless search proceeded in, the opposite +room, until at length it was given up and the friends retired. + +Rachel left her bed and came into mine, where she lay and trembled. + +Scarcely fifteen minutes of peace and silence passed ere the lock of +both doors flew back, and the doors swung open. + +Rachel began screaming; the occupants of the opposite chamber started +up, exclaiming in every variety of interjection. I arose and donned my +double wrapper, and put my feet in slippers, to go and procure +restoratives, for Rachel had fallen into spasms. + +"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter, Agnes?" inquired my brother, who +had put on his dressing-gown and come to the door. + +"Oh, the Lord only knows!" + +I had seized a bottle of cologne from the dressing-table and began to +deluge the face and hands of Rachel, while my brother went and brought +his candle and put it inside of our door. + +"Do go and wake up Mrs. Legare, John; I can do nothing for Rachel; I +never saw anybody in hysterics before, if this is hysterics!" said I, +feeling both frightened at the condition and angry at the weakness of my +patient. + +But, even while I spoke, Mr. Howard, who during this time had been +hastily dressing himself, went downstairs to the old house in search of +assistance. + +The family were speedily aroused. Mr. and Mrs. Legare hurried into the +new house. The lady herself entered the chamber where Rachel, as often +as her eyes opened in the haunted chamber, fell into new spasms. + +"She will not recover until she is removed from this, Mrs. Legare," I +said. + +"Perhaps not; assist me to put her wrapper on, and we will take her +down, and lay her on the parlor sofa," my hostess replied. + +And after we had dressed our patient, we carried her down stairs, where +the fire was still smoldering, and only needed replenishment. + +When the wood was brought and thrown on, and the fire blazed up +brightly, lighting and warming the whole room, and the shutters were +unclosed, and the rising sun smiled in upon us all, I felt that the +gladsome scene was enough to put to flight all the ghosts in Hades, and +all the superstitious terrors that ignorance is heir to. I almost began +to doubt that I was haunted; and would have done so, but for the sombre +and disturbed countenance of my host, who, as soon as Rachel Noales was +soothed and put to sleep on the sofa, turned to us and inquired: + +"Now, my friends, will you be so good as to explain the cause of your +disturbance?" + +"A mere trifle, sir," said my brother, brusquely; "the house is +haunted." + +"You, of course, do not speak seriously; you cannot credit such +absurdities." + +"My dear, sir, I never believed in ghosts until within the last two +nights; but now, with such evidence before me, I should be the most +unbelieving of infidels to refuse credence," said my brother, with a +mixture of gravity and banter in his tone, that made it impossible to +think him in earnest. + +"Will you be so kind, Mr. Howard, as to enlighten us?" inquired Mr. +Legare, turning toward that gentleman. + +"Since you desire me to do so, my dear sir. Well, then, for the two +nights we have passed beneath your very hospitable and delightful roof, +our rest has been somewhat disturbed----" + +"Somewhat disturbed! It has been altogether broken up!" interrupted my +brother. + +"Be silent, John," I whispered, pinching him. + +Mr. Howard went on: + +"By an inexplicable circumstance, namely, the flying open of the doors, +after we had carefully and securely locked them." + +"We haven't slept a wink since we have been in the house. We have spent +the nights in jumping up out of bed to lock the doors, and only to have +them unlocked and fly open in our faces," said John. + +"I thank you, gentlemen, for the information you have given me. Agnes, +my dear, have you been disturbed?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How?" + +"In the same manner, sir, by the unaccountable flying open of the door +after I had locked it," said I, suppressing the fact, or fancy, of the +mysterious midnight visitant. + +"My dear, you have never complained of this before." + +"No, sir." + +"Why?" + +"Because it was more an affair of interest than of complaint. I wished +first to investigate alone." + +"And have you done so?" + +"As far as was possible." + +"With what result, my dear Agnes?" + +"With no satisfactory one, sir." + +"Friends," said the old gentleman, turning toward the assembled guests, +"it is vain to deny that a mystery does exist, and for the whole term of +my residence here, if not before, has existed in this house, that has, +heretofore, defied all investigation. Many of you have heard of the +circumstances under which the transfer of property was made. You +have heard that Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, the last inheritrix +of this estate, was a high-spirited, haughty, self-willed woman, +with one idea--the regeneration of her patrimonial estate; that +everything--money, health, peace, conscience, life itself, was +sacrificed to her monomania; that at last she died a victim to her own +ruling passion; that her husband married again, sold the estate, even +unto the very graveyard where her body lay, and left the neighborhood; +that I became the purchaser; and, finally, that since I have lived in +the house not one chamber door has been secure from a seemingly +supernatural opening. + +"The superstitious among my servants, and poor, ignorant neighbors, +ascribe all these mysteries to the presence of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan's restless ghost, still haunting the scene of her toils, +ambitions and disappointments. Modern spiritualists would, without +doubt, ascribe it to the agency of spirits. I believe in none of these +absurdities. But the annoying mystery remains unexplained, and I would +give 'the half of my kingdom' to him who should elucidate it." + +The old gentleman, at the conclusion of his speech, looked around for an +answer among his audience. + +"Do you not think that there may be a defect in the locks, sir?" +inquired Mr. Howard. + +"Oh, 'I cry you, mercy,' sir! Such a possibility did not in the very +first instance escape us. The locks have been taken off and examined, +and no perceptible defect could be discovered. The half--'the half of my +kingdom' to the knight who shall rid me of this mysterious key-bearer." + +I saw, by the twinkle of Mr. Howard's eyes, that he possessed a clew to +the mystery. I saw him exchange glances with Mathilde, who had just +joined us, looking blooming as Hebe in her fresh morning toilet. + +Now, I was always a bashful girl--I mean moderately so; therefore, I +never could account for the spirit that entered and moved me to say and +do what I soon said and did. I happened to be standing beside Mr. +Legare, and his hand rested caressingly upon my head, when he repeated: + +"'The half of my kingdom' to the knight that shall deliver my castle +from this dragon." + +I answered: + +"Oh, your majesty! Never offer the half of your kingdom! None but a +mercenary wretch would undertake the enterprise for such a bribe! Offer +the hand of your princess, and a thousand lances shall be laid in rest +for such a prize!" + +I do not know whether he discovered the serious meaning under my +lightly-spoken words, for he fell into the humor of the jest, patted me +on the head, and said: + +"Agreed! the hand of my princess to the brave knight who shall deliver +me from this plague!" + +"I accept the challenge!" said Mr. Howard, "and promise that in +twenty-four hours the mysterious carrier of the keys shall be +vanquished!" + +"It is a treaty! It is a treaty!" exclaimed one after another of the +young men and maidens who were present. + +Mr. Legare looked around in some confusion at being taken up so +seriously, and then laughing, said: + +"Very well--agreed! I ratify the compact, Mr. Howard; though I don't +believe your part of it can be fulfilled. And now to breakfast!" + +We adjourned to the old house--all who were in the secret wondering in +what manner Mr. Howard would undertake to exorcise the key-demon; but +all discussion was waived for the present, while we dispatched the +necessary business of the table. + +After breakfast, Frank Howard asked for a horse and rode up to Frost +Height. + +He was absent two hours, at the end of which time he returned, bringing +with him a set of locksmith's tools, and flat piece of board, such as +show-locks are sometimes screwed upon for a sign. + +When he had brought these things into the new house he challenged Mr. +Legare and all who wished to see the mystery evolved, to accompany him +to the chambers above. + +Of course, everybody accepted the invitation. + +We all went first into the gentlemen's room, and stood around in a +semi-circle, with our faces toward the door, and our eyes fixed upon the +lock and Frank Howard. First he turned the key, and begged that we would +observe that all was fast, and watch the result. Then he came away, and +we waited with our eyes fixed upon the lock. + +In a little less than fifteen minutes we both heard and saw the catch +fly back, and the door swing open! + +I cannot tell you with what a superstitious thrill we all shuddered, +though this was in broad daylight, and in the mutually supporting +presence of a dozen persons, and, though there was a machinist on the +spot, professing himself ready to demonstrate that this was a purely +mechanical phenomenon! + +"There! ladies and gentlemen, you all see the action!" + +"We all see!" + +"No hand near the lock!" + +"None!" + +"There could have been no deception." + +"Assuredly not," we all declared. + +"Oh, certainly not--I have seen the thing twenty times," said Mr. +Legare. + +"And I indorse your declarations, sir; you were right. There was no +deception--there is none! It is a purely mechanical phenomenon! But, +listen! Spiritual powers reside in mechanical forces. Every year we live +elucidates this mystery, though none but the deepest thinkers see this +truth in all its importance. Look you! a savage thinks that there is a +diabolism in the self-action of a watch--in the reflection of a +looking-glass. We think both mysteries to be simple mechanical +combinations! Pray look at the lock before us. I observe that it is +Harmon's patent. Poor Harmon, a demented machinist, scarcely knew what +he would be at, and so undertook to make an invaluable improvement in +the common door-lock. This is one of his; its intricate machinery has +got out of order, and hence 'the fantastic tricks before high heaven' +that these rooms have witnessed! I am about to take off the lock, to +prove what I have stated, as well as to remedy the evil." + +"Oh, sir, that has been tried--I have seen it done--hope nothing from +that!" exclaimed Mr. Legare. + +"Patience, my dear sir!" said Frank Howard, taking up the tools with so +much of the air of a man accustomed to the handling of them that old Mr. +Legare winced and fidgeted. + +But Frank speedily took off the lock, and brought it to us for +inspection. + +"Here! you notice that nothing seems amiss," he said. + +"Nothing in the world--I told you that before," replied Mr. Legare. + +"Furthermore, if now I were to turn the key, it would remain turned." + +"Certainly, while the lock is off the door, it looks exactly right, and +behaves exactly right; but just put it on the door and lock it, and in +from ten to thirty minutes, more or less, it will fly open." + +"Exactly; that is what I am about to explain," said Frank Howard, taking +up a flat, smooth piece of board, and laying it upon the table; and then +he took the lock, laid it on the board, screwed it tightly, turned the +key and said: + +"It is not the circumstance of this lock being attached to the door that +has caused it to act in this manner; for I will prove to you that if the +same lock be screwed tightly to any other resisting object--as, for +instance, this board--it will act in the same irregular manner. Watch it +now, and you will see." + +We did so, and in a few minutes we saw the catch fly back, as before. + +"I will tell you the reason," said Mr. Howard, unscrewing the lock from +the board and inviting us to look on. + +"Now, though there seems to be no defect whatever in this lock, yet in +truth the whole inside machinery has started slightly outward. This does +not affect its right action while detached; but when attached, the +continued pressure of the board to which it is fastened, gradually acts +upon the spring, and causes the catch in a given time to fly back, and +unlock, and the force with which this occurs opens the door. I can well +imagine that such unexplained movements, occurring in the middle of the +night, should have rather a supernatural effect. But the evil can be +remedied in a few minutes." + +And then, while we were all dumb with astonishment, Frank Howard took up +his tools, went to work, and in about twenty minutes fixed the inside of +the lock, and replaced it on the door. + +"Now," said he, "if ever this door comes open again without hands, I +will consent to forfeit the fair reward of my triumph. And now, friends, +I will go to work and mend the other." + +And, inviting us to precede him, he passed out, locked the door, gave +the key to Mr. Legare, and begged him to take notice that the door would +remain fast until he (Mr. Legare) might choose to open it, or to give up +the key. + +We reached the other chamber door, where twenty minutes' work served to +rectify the error. Then, locking that, as he had done the other, he +called me to witness that it should remain fast until I should use, or +give up the key that he placed in my charge. + +We then went downstairs, Mr. Legare having one key safe in his pocket--I +having the other secure in mine. + +It was the last day of the old year, and company were expected in the +evening--not to dance, but to watch it out. + +Mrs. Legare went to attend to her extra housekeeping duties, and the +young ladies retired to their chambers to arrange their dresses for the +next day. + +Mr. Legare, Frank Howard, my brother John, and the other gentlemen, took +their guns and game-bags, called their dogs, and started off "birding." + +I went into the parlor where Rachel Noales still lay upon the sofa, in +the state of exhaustion that had succeeded her fright in the morning, +and told her that the mystery of the locks was discovered, and +explained, as far as I could, the process of demonstration. And Rachel +rallied from that hour. + +I had reassured her, but who should reassure me? I was still very deeply +disturbed. True, the mystery of the opening doors was satisfactorily +explained. True, that my midnight visitor might have been an optical +illusion, produced by the mysterious surroundings acting upon my +highly-susceptible temperament. And true, also, that the resemblance +between my visionary woman and the portrait of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan, might have been a mere fancy. But the spot of blood on the +floor. Who should explain that? + +From time to time, during that day, I slipped upstairs to examine the +state of the doors; they remained fast. + +The gentlemen dined out, but joined us at an early tea. Nothing was said +of the event of the morning, until, as we arose from the table, little +Phlit sidled up to his master, and asked for the keys so that he might +make fires in the bedrooms, "for de ladies an' gemlen to dress for +ebenin.'" + +"The deuce! You tell me that the doors remain fast?" demanded Mr. +Legare, turning around upon us all. + +I assured him that they did. He was too polite to doubt my statement; +but he wished to see for himself. + +We followed him, and found him in a state of admiration before Mr. +Howard's door. When he had gazed some time at that, and tried it in +various ways, he turned about and went to mine, which he proved in the +same manner. And having found that both remained fast locked, without +mistake, he extended his hand to Frank, and said: + +"Candidly, Mr. Howard, I did not believe in your success until this +moment. You have fairly vanquished the ghosts!" + +Frank Howard took the offered hand, and bowed gravely and silently, as +he again resigned it. The doors were then opened, and Phlit admitted to +do his duties. And we separated to prepare for the evening watch-party. + +It was eight o'clock when our friends from the neighborhood came in; and +after partaking of a bowl of eggnog in the dining-room, we adjourned to +the parlor, where we passed four hours in very pleasant social +intercourse, conversing, singing and reading. And as the clock neared +the stroke of twelve, Mr. Howard took a volume of Tennyson, and in an +affecting manner read his tender and beautiful "Requiem of the Dying +Year." All were moved, and as the reader finished, the tears were +running down the cheeks of Mathilde, who said: + +"Oh! I do not know how any one, even the most thoughtless, can bear to +'dance out the old year!' I could no more do it than I could dance +beside the deathbed of a dear old friend! But I must not greet the +infant New Year with tears," she exclaimed, and dashing aside the +sparkling drops that spangled the roses of her cheeks, and turning to +her parents, she said: + +"Dearest father! Dearest mother! Let me be the first to wish you a Happy +New Year, and many, ever happier returns of it!" + +"You make our anniversaries happy, best child; now tell us truly what +shall be our New Year's gift to you?" said Mr. Legare, while Mrs. Legare +silently embraced her daughter. + +Blushing deeply, Mathilde whispered one word to her father, who +repressed a rising sigh, and asked: + +"Is this so? Must this be so, my dearest child?" + +"Yes, my father." + +"Then am I doubly bound to do what I am about to do, Mr. Howard!" + +Frank Howard stepped eagerly forward. + +"Mr. Howard! I always settle outstanding debts at the first of the +year," said Mr. Legare, taking the hand of Mathilde and placing it in +that of Frank Howard, who gently pressed it, as he answered: + +"Sir, I believe that for years, I have possessed the priceless heart of +this dear maiden, but her fair hand, I would prefer to owe to her +father's approval and good-will, rather than to a mere accident." + +"Sir, there are no such things as accidents! I am sixty years old who +say it! And as for the rest, sir, 'her father's approval and good-will' +always follows his esteem and respect, and now goes with his consent! +God bless you! Be true to Mathilde!" + +"May Heaven deal with me as I with her!" said Frank Howard, earnestly. + +While this important little family aside was going on the other guests +were wishing each other a "Happy New Year," and chatting and laughing +too merrily and noisily to hear what was there passing. + +And now they asked for their cloaks and hoods, which Rachel Noales and I +flew to bring; and in less than half an hour all the evening visitors +had departed, and the returning sound of their sleighbells died away in +the distance. + +We that were left separated and retired. When we reached our chamber +Rachel and I locked the door and went to bed. + +We were sufficiently wearied out to go fast asleep, and sleep until late +in the morning, when the loud knocking of little Jet at our chamber door +aroused us. I jumped up and went and opened it. + +"De doors do stay shet fas' 'nuff now!" exclaimed my little maid, with a +broad grin, as she entered. + +"Yes, Jet; thanks to Mr. Howard." + +"Ain't him a smart gemlan, dough? Wunner if him's a wizard?" + +"I really do not know, Jet. You must ask your Miss Mathilde." + +"Law! Do she know?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Den I ax her, sure." + +And so my little maid proceeded to light the fire. + +This was a New Year's day, and a large company was expected to dinner. +And it was upon this occasion that the engagement of the Hon. Frank +Howard, of Massachusetts, and Miss Mathilde Legare, was announced. + +But little is left to be told. For the remainder of my stay I rested in +undisturbed peace, suffering no recurrence of opening doors and midnight +visitors. I was almost sorry that my ghostly mysteries had found so +commonplace a solution--a mechanical defect taking the place of the +phantom key, and an optical illusion explaining my midnight vision!--all +was accounted for except the spot of blood upon the floor! Upon the +morning of my departure, I called Mathilde into the room, and striking +an attitude like that of the woman of my vision, I silently pointed to +the hidden spot, and gazed at Mathilde, to discover consciousness in her +countenance. + +But Mathilde first looked back in innocent surprise, and then +recollecting herself, said: + +"Oh! you allude to a stain there; yes, it is a pity! The men who were +painting red lines on the doors over-turned the paint-pot and made a +deep, ugly, crimson stain; and, like the spot of blood on Bluebeard's +key, 'the more we scrub it the brighter it grows!' The next time a +carpenter happens to be at work here, mamma intends to have it planed +out." + +So much for my last hold upon the supernatural! Let me repeat--the +phantom key, a mere mechanical defect; the spot of blood, a mere stain +of paint; and the midnight spectre, an optical illusion! + +But the reader may ask, how I account for the resemblance between the +woman of my vision and the portrait of the ill-fated Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan? I answer, that at this distance of time, I regard it as the +effect of imagination only, as was the whole vision! + +It was about two months after the conclusion of my Christmas visit that +I was summoned to Wolfbrake to act as bridesmaid for Mathilde, for it +was immediately after the rising of Congress upon the fourth of March, +that Mr. Howard went up to claim the hand of his betrothed. They were +married upon the seventh. It was a wedding in the fine, old-fashioned +country style, with a ball and supper the same evening, and dinner +parties and dancing parties, given successively by the neighbors, in +honor of the bride, almost every day and night for the next two weeks. + +They have now been married several years, and have several +children--boys and girls. Frank Howard now holds a "high official" +position in the present administration. And old Mr. Legare is justly +proud of his gifted son-in-law. As Mathilde is too much of a Creole to +bear the rigor of a New England climate they divide the year, spending +the summer in Massachusetts and the winter in Virginia "with the old +folks at home." + +And year after year I have visited them there, and slept in the haunted +chamber, but never, since the locks were mended, have I been troubled by +an opening door, or a midnight ghost! + + + + +THE PRESENTIMENT. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE QUADROON. + + Oh! yet we hope that, somehow, good + Will be the final goal of ill, + To pangs of nature, sins of will, + Defects of doubt and taints of blood.--TENNYSON. + + +There was an account of an execution item that met my eyes in glancing +over the columns of a newspaper. It made no more impression upon me at +the time than such paragraphs make upon you or any of us. My glance +slided over that to the next items, chronicling in order the success of +a benevolent ball, the arrival of a popular singer, etc.; and I should +have forgotten all about it had not the execution occurred near the +plantation of a dear friend, with whom I was accustomed to pass a part +of every year. From that friend I heard the story--a domestic tragedy, +which, for its inspirations of pity and terror equaled any old Greek +drama that I ever read. I know not if I can do anything like justice to +the subject by giving the story in my own words. + +Near the city of M----, on the A---- river, stood the plantation of Red +Hill. It was one of the largest cotton plantations in the South, +covering several square miles, but it was ill-cultivated and +unprofitable. + +The plantation house was situated a mile back from the river, in a +grove of trees on the brow of the hill quite out of the reach of fog and +miasma. + +At the time I speak of, it was owned by Colonel Waring, a widower, with +one son, to whom he had given his mother's family name of Oswald. The +ostensible female head of this house was the major's own mother, Madam +Waring, an old lady of French extraction, and now fallen deeply into the +vale of years and infirmities. The real head was Phædra, a female slave, +and a Mestizza[1] by birth. Phædra had one child, a boy, some two years +younger than the heir of the family. Notwithstanding the want of a lady +hostess at the head of the table, there was not a pleasanter or a more +popular mansion in the State than Colonel Waring's. Indeed, he might be +said to have kept open house, for the dwelling was half the time filled +with company, comprising old and young gentlemen, ladies and children. + +[Footnote 1: The Mestizza is half Indian, half negro.] + +Without any one habit of dissipation, Colonel Waring was a _bon-vivant_ +of the gayest order, who loved to play the host, forget care, and enjoy +himself with his friends and neighbors. He was benevolent, also; no +appeal to his heart was ever slighted. He was frequently in want of +ready money, yet, when he had cash, it was as likely to be lavished in +injudicious alms-giving, as expended upon his own debts or necessities. +I have heard of his giving a thousand dollars to set up a poor widow in +business, and at the same time put off his creditors, and go deeper into +debt for his negroes' winter clothing. In the times when the yellow +fever desolated the South, his mansion year after year became the house +of refuge to those who fled from the cities, yet were unable to bear the +expense of a watering place. His house was a place where the trammels of +conventionalism could, without offense, be cast off for a while. +Children might do as they liked; young people as they pleased; and old +folks might--dance, if they felt lively. "It was at Colonel Waring's," +was sufficient explanation of any sort of eccentricity. + +Madam Waring, in her distant chamber, was not much more than a "myth," +or, at best, a family tradition; yet her name undoubtedly gave a +sanction to the presence of ladies in a house, which, without her, they +would probably never have entered. + +The Mestizza was scarcely less of a myth. Everybody knew of her +existence, and there were few who did not understand her position as +well as that of the beautiful boy Valentine, who was the constant +companion of Oswald; but Phædra was never seen, nor was her presence to +be guessed, except in the well-ordered house, and the delicious +breakfasts, dinners and suppers, prepared under her supervision, and +sent up to the guests. + +Colonel Waring had his enemies. What man has not? And even among those +who at times sat at his board, and slept under his roof, it was said +that "justice should go before generosity;" and that Colonel Waring, by +his reckless charities and lavish hospitality, wronged both his +creditors and his heir. Others whispered that he plunged into the +excitements of company for the purpose of drowning thought or +conscience; and if a stranger came into the neighborhood, and found +himself, as he would be not unlikely to do, the guest of Colonel Waring, +he would be told by some fellow-visitor that the late Mrs. Waring, the +wife of the colonel, had died, raving mad, in a Northern lunatic asylum. + +And, among the women, it was whispered that in dying she had deeply +cursed the Mestizza and her boy. + +However that might be, it is certain that Phædra had always manifested +the most sincere attachment to the lady's son; and from the time that +Oswald was left an orphan, at the age of six months, to the time of her +death, no one could be a more devoted nurse or a greater child-spoiler +than she was to him. Phædra's nature was despotic, and every one on the +plantation had to yield to Master Oswald, or they would find rations +shortened, holidays refused, work increased, clothing neglected, and be +punished in numerous indirect ways, not by their most indulgent of +masters, but by the influence of the Mestizza. Even her own son was +scarcely an exception to the universal homage she exacted for Oswald. He +had two claims upon her--in the first place, in her eyes he was the +young master, the heir-apparent, the Crown Prince--and then he had "no +mother." + +And the boy on his side repaid his nurse's devotion by the most sincere +affection, both for her and for his foster brother, Valentine. + +Oswald "took after" his father, both in the Saxon fairness of his fresh +complexion, flaxen hair, and lively blue eyes, and in the hearty +benevolence and careless gayety of his disposition. Like his father, +also, he lacked self-esteem, and the dignity of character that it gives. +Nay, he had not half so much of that quality as had the son of the +Mestizza, whose overweening pride won for him the name of "Little +Prince." + +Valentine was an exquisitely beautiful boy; he was like his Mestizza +mother, in the clear, dark-brown skin, and regular aquiline features; +but, instead of her straight black locks, he had soft, shining, +bluish-black hair, that fell in numerous spiral ringlets all around his +neck, and when he stooped veiled his cheeks. In startling, yes, in +absolutely frightful contrast to that dark skin and raven black hair and +eyebrows, were his clear, light-blue, Saxon eyes! One who understands +scientifically, or feels intuitively, the nature of such a fearful +combination of antagonistic and never-to-be-harmonized elements of +character, fated without the saving grace of God, to become the +elements of insanity and crime, cannot look upon its external outward +signs without shuddering. + +Think of it; and wonder, if you can, at anything in his after life! +Think of a boy combining in his own nature the ardent passions and +impulsive temperament of the African negro, the tameless love of freedom +of the North American Indian, and the intellectual power and domineering +pride of the Anglo-Saxon. Place him in the condition of a pet slave; +leave him without moral and Christian instruction; alternately praise +and pamper or condemn him--not as his merit, but as your caprice +decides; let him grow up in that manner, and, as it seems to me, the +result is so sure that it might be demonstrated in advance. + +Both the boys were great favorites with the visitors who frequented the +house. Oswald, as the son of the host, and also for his bright, joyous, +frolicsome nature; and Valentine, for his beauty, wit, and piquant +sauciness. Willingly would Phædra have kept the lad away from the "white +folks," but Oswald would not suffer his playmate to be separated from +himself. Nor when the visitors had once discovered Valentine's value as +an entertainer, would they have spared him. + +The lads did not seem in the least to understand their relations as +young master and servant, but behaved in all respects toward each other +as peers--the quicker and more impulsive nature taking the lead as a +matter of course. And that nature happened to belong to the Mestizza's +son. + +Valentine had the keenest appreciation of pleasure, and the quickest +intelligence in discovering the way to it. In all their boyish +amusements, Valentine was the purveyor; in all their adventures, he was +the leader--Oswald entering into all his plans, and following all his +suggestions, with the heartiest good-will. And, in all their childish +misdemeanors, he was the tempter, and always, also, the willing +scapegoat--that is to say, when in a fit of generosity to shield Oswald, +he voluntarily assumed all the blame, he was perfectly willing to take +all the punishment; but, on the contrary, if both were discovered _in +flagrante delicto_, and he only punished, then at such injustice, he +would fly into the most ungovernable fury, that would sometimes end in +frenzy and congestion of the brain. It was these maniacal fits of +passion that procured for him the sobriquet of Little Demon, conferred +upon him by the negroes of the plantation, in opposition to that of +Little Prince, given him by the visitors at the house. + +Often, too, the boy gave evidence of reflection and of feeling, beyond +his years; as, for instance, once, when he was but nine years old, a +lady, who delighted in his childish beauty, grace, and wit, allowed him +frequently to ride in the carriage with her, and accompany her, when +making visits, or on going to places of amusement. One day, when she was +gently stroking his silky curls, he suddenly dropped his head into his +hands, and burst into tears. + +"Why, Valley! what is the matter?" she asked, again caressing his +beautiful head. But, at the gentle caress and the gentle tone, he wept +more passionately than ever. "Why, Valley! what is the matter? Have I +hurt your feelings? Have any of us hurt your feelings?" she asked, +knowing his sensitive nature, and imagining that some thoughtlessness on +her part, or on some one else's, might have wounded it. "Have any of us +hurt your feelings, Valley?" + +"Yes, you have! all of you have! and you do all the time!" + +The lady laughed, for it struck her as very droll to hear such a charge +from the spoiled and petted boy. But the boy went on to speak with +warmth and vehemence: + +"You all treat me like a little poodle dog, or like a monkey; for you +feed me, and you dress me up, and pet me, and laugh at me, and by and by +you will drive me out." + +Another time, he was sitting in the parlor with a lady, who had diverted +herself a good deal with his precocious wit and intelligence, and had +allowed him to play with the rings on her fingers, the bracelets on her +wrists, and the pearls that bound her dark tresses, and then to follow +her to the piano, and stand close by her side while she played and sang, +until suddenly down dropped his head upon his hands, and he burst into a +passion of tears. The lady broke off in astonishment, turned around, +drew him up to her, took his hands from his face, and looked kindly at +him, without saying a word. But the boy dropped upon the floor, and +crouching, wept more vehemently than before. The lady stooped and raised +his head, and laid it on her lap, and laid her hand soothingly upon his +silken curls, but spoke no word. When his passion of tears had passed, +and he had sobbed himself into something like composure, he looked up +into her face, and said: + +"You did not laugh at me, Mrs. Hewitt, and you didn't ask me what I was +crying for; but I couldn't help it, because--because I know this good +time will go away; and I shall get taller, and then you won't let me +stay and hear you talk, and hear you sing, and--and--and--I wish I never +could grow any taller. I wish I may die before I grow older." + +Ah! poor, fated boy! would indeed, that he had died before he grew +taller! before those evil days his childhood's prophet heart foretold! + +But they came on apace. + +The first trial that he suffered might seem light enough to an outside +looker-on, but it was heavy enough to Valentine. When he was eleven +years of age, and Oswald nine, Oswald was sent to school, and he +remained at home. + +Up to this time they had been playmates and companions, faring alike in +all respects, and sharing equally all pleasures, even the favors of the +visitors. + +Now, therefore, Valentine keenly felt the new state of things, which in +more than one way deeply grieved his heart; first, in the separation +from his friend and playmate whom he dearly loved; and then in the +denial of knowledge to his thirsting intellect, for there existed a +statute law against educating a slave--a law, too, that was of late very +strictly enforced, except in the case of children, who frequently +transgressed it, and always with impunity; for slaves are often taught +to read and write by their nurslings, the master's children. + +Valentine was thus far kin to us all, that he was a lineal descendant of +Eve, and inherited all her longing desire for forbidden knowledge. And, +in like manner, Oswald had received a goodly portion of that Adamic +propensity to do just precisely what he was commanded not to do. + +No grief of Valentine could long be hid from Oswald, and it followed, of +course, that when he discovered the great trouble of his playmate to be +his desire for education, all that Oswald learned at school by day was +taught to Valentine at home by night. And peace and good-will was once +more restored to the boys. + +Thus the time went on till the lads were fourteen and sixteen +respectively. + +Then Oswald was placed as a boarder at an academy in a neighboring city. +Before leaving home, Oswald had begged, prayed, and insisted upon +Valentine being permitted to accompany him, and had finally gained his +object--an almost unheard-of indulgence--but one, nevertheless, that +could not be refused by the father of his cherished son. So Valentine, +ostensibly as a servant, but really as friend and companion, accompanied +Oswald to his school. + +Here also Oswald took every opportunity to impart his acquired knowledge +to his companion. + +And now Valentine's taste in literature and art began to develop itself. +His mind was by no means an "omnium-gatherem." _Belle-lettres_, rather +than classic lore or mathematical science, was his attraction. +Astronomy, botany, poetry, rhetoric, oratory, elocution, music, +painting, and the drama--these, and other studies only in proportion as +they related to these, were his delights. An æsthetic rather than a +strong intellect distinguished him. A love of beauty, elegance, and +refinement, in all things--in art, science, and the drama, as well as in +his own person, dress, and surroundings--began to reveal itself. And +those who did not understand or like Valentine, began to sneer at him +for a _petit-maitre_ and a dandy. + +A change began to creep over the relations between the youths. Oswald +was no longer a boy, but a young man. He could no longer instruct his +companion, because he would thereby render himself obnoxious to public +opinion, as well as to the laws of the State, to which his age now made +him responsible. Neither could he bear the good-humored jests and the +ridicule of his school-fellows, who bantered him unmercifully upon his +friendship for his "man," calling them the foster-brothers, the Siamese +twins, Valentine and Orson, etc.; and Valentine was beginning to suffer +from the occasional slights, neglect, contempt, and inequality in temper +of his young master, when fortunately the scene changed. Oswald was +withdrawn from the Academy of M----, and sent to the University of +Virginia, whither Valentine, as his valet, attended him. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE MANIAC'S CURSE. + + Life is before ye! Oh, if ye would look + Into the secrets of that sealed book, + Strong as ye are in youth and hope and faith, + Ye would sink down and falter, "Give us Death!"--FANNY KEMBLE. + +Oswald Waring remained three years at the University of Virginia, and +during the whole of that period he had not returned home once. The +vacations had been spent at various Northern watering-places, to which +he went, accompanied by his inseparable companion and valet, Valentine. +His fellow-students at the university often warned him of what they +called the reckless imprudence of taking his slave with him to the +North, expressing their belief that one day the fellow would give him +the slip. But Oswald laughed, in his reckless, confiding good humor, and +declared, if the rascal could have the heart to leave him, he was +perfectly welcome to do so, at the same time expressing his belief that +the boy understood his true interests too well to do anything of the +sort. But the fact was, Valentine loved his master much too well to +leave him lightly. + +Oswald Waring never distinguished himself at the university, or anywhere +else, for anything but good nature, generosity, and reckless +extravagance. He never graduated; but at the close of his third year, +being some months past his legal majority, he left the university +finally, and went on a tour through the Northern States and Canada, +before embarking for Europe. He was accompanied, as usual, by Valentine. + +And the youth did not avail himself of that opportunity to leave his +master, perhaps from the fascination of their easy, careless, roving +life, as well as the affection that bound them together. + +Mr. Waring had reached New York, on his return from Canada, and was +making a short stay in that city, previous to embarking for his European +travels, when he received a letter from his father's attorney, Mr. +Pettigrew, announcing the death of old Madam Waring, and the extreme +illness of Colonel Waring, and pressing for the immediate return of his +son. + +Mr. Waring lost no time in commencing his homeward journey, and attended +by his favorite, in less than a fortnight from the day of leaving New +York, he reached the city near to which was his father's plantation. + +But there fatal news met him. He was too late. The virulent fever of +that latitude had quickly done its work; and Colonel Waring's funeral +had taken place the week previous. As this result had been dreaded by +Oswald, the shock of hearing of it lost half its force. There was +nothing to do but to hasten to the plantation, to examine into the +confused condition of affairs there. Leaving a note for Mr. Pettigrew to +meet him there the next day, Oswald took a carriage, and, with Valentine +by his side, drove rapidly out to the plantation. They were met by +Phædra, who had been tacitly left in sole charge of the house, and who +saluted her young master with grave respect, and greeted her long absent +son with a silent pressure of the hand, deferring all expression of +interest in or affection for Valentine, until they should be alone +together. + +The next morning Mr. Pettigrew arrived, and the examination of the +condition of the estate of the deceased began. + +The lawyer expressed his opinion that there was no will of his late +client in existence; and, further, that none had ever been made by him. + +Colonel Waring had never spoken to him, as his legal adviser, upon the +subject, as he would have been likely to have done had he contemplated +making one. Colonel Waring was a hale, sanguine man, in the prime of +life, and not likely to entertain the thought of the contingency of his +own death. And the fever that terminated his existence had been too +sudden in its attack and delirium--insensibility and death had followed +with too fatal rapidity, to admit of such a possibility as his executing +his will. However, a search for a possible one was instituted; the +library, secretaries, bureau, strong boxes--in fact, the whole house was +ransacked for a will, or some memento of one; but neither will, nor sign +of will, could be discovered. + +Perhaps the person most deeply interested in the search was Phædra. As +soon as her quick intelligence discovered that there was a doubt +relative to the existence of a will, her interest became intense. When +coming into the house to attend her young master or the lawyer, she +paused, loitered near them; and, whenever she was allowed to do so, she +assisted in the search with a zeal not equaled by either of the others. +And when at last this search was abandoned as fruitless, she looked so +unutterably wretched, as she hurried from the room, that both gentlemen +gazed after her in astonishment. + +"Why, what is the matter with Phædra?" inquired Mr. Waring, looking +interrogatively at the lawyer. + +"She is disappointed, most probably." + +"But in what respect? I do not understand." + +"She was a favorite slave, was she not?" + +"Yes--that is to say, she was a very faithful servant to my late father, +and was very well treated. But what has that to do with it?" + +"Why, that she probably expected to be left free by your father's will." + +"And that accounts for her anxiety that the will should be found." + +"I think so." + +"What a fool that woman must be! Free, indeed! Why should she want to be +free--at her age, too. What can be her object? What would she do if she +were free? How in the world came she to get such an idea into her head? +Who could have put it there, do you think?" + +"No one, I suppose." + +"But how should she ever think of such nonsense as her freedom?" + +"It is a notion they all have, I believe." + +"A notion! I should think it was a notion, and a very foolish one, on +her part; I am really half inclined to cure her of her folly by setting +her free, and letting her try her freedom on, to see how it fits. +Nothing but experience will teach ignorant creatures like herself." + +"I've noticed, in the course of my practice, a good many such instances +of folly as hers." + +"They are, the best of them, a set of the dullest and most +ungrateful----. Now, I want to know if there are not hundreds of white +women who would jump at such a situation as Phædra's?" + +"Quite likely." + +"Why, where could the fool be better off, or freer, if that's her whim? +She is mistress of the house--absolutely to all intents and purposes, +mistress of the house. All the money for domestic expenses passes +through her hands; she carries the keys, governs the maids, and arranges +everything to suit herself." + +"And her master, too, let us hope, sir." + +"Yes, yes; I do not complain of her good management or her fidelity. In +fact, I should be very unjust to do so, for she is everything that I +could desire in these respects. And to render exact justice in this +tribute, I may say that it would be difficult, and, more than that, it +would be impossible, to replace her. It is these considerations, you +see, that vex me so, when I hear of her hankering after her freedom. +Freedom from what, I should like to know? In what respect does her +position now differ from that of any respectable white woman, filling +the situation of housekeeper?" + +"Really, I wish the conversation had not arisen. Certainly, Phædra's +absurd notions were not of sufficient importance to occupy so much of +our attention. Now, then, to business." + +And the lawyer and the heir were soon deep in the papers and accounts, +which they found in such hopeless confusion as promised many weeks, if +not months, and perhaps years, of legal and financial diplomacy to +settle. + +Phædra, when she had left the room in such a state of strange +excitement, had hurried off in search of her son. + +Valentine was in his master's chamber, surrounded by the trunks and +boxes that had been sent after them from New York, and had but that day +arrived. Half of them were opened and unpacked, and a part of their +contents scattered all over the floor. They consisted of books, +pictures, statuettes, vases, and other beautiful fancies, that Valentine +had persuaded his master to collect in New York, during the visits he +had made there while residing at the University of Virginia. + +And in the midst of the picturesque and beautiful confusion, Valentine +sat, reclining in an easy chair, fascinated, spellbound by an +illustrated volume of Shakespeare's plays. It was a new purchase of his +master's, made evidently without his knowledge, for it came in a box of +books direct from the bookseller, and that was now unpacked for the +first time. + +Valentine had taken the costly book from its double wrapper of coarse +and of tissue paper, and merely meant to look at it before placing it in +the bookcase; but that single look was fatal to his resolution for +industry that morning, for he threw himself back in his master's easy +chair, and was soon deep in the spells of the magic volume. + +Hour after hour passed, and there he sat, his body in his master's +lounging-chair, surrounded by the beautiful litter of books and +pictures, statuettes and vases, flutes and eolian harps and other toys, +and his spirit enchanted and carried captive by the master magician to +attend the fortunes of King Lear. The spirit-music, of which his ear was +still conscious, came not from the eolian harp in the window, that +vibrated to the touch of the breeze, but from some old minstrel harper +at the court of King Lear; and the perfume that filled the room came not +from the magnolias of the grove outside, but from rare English flowers +tended by Cordelia, for his soul was not in America in the nineteenth +century, but in ancient Britain in the age of poetry and fable. + +He was aroused from his daydream by the entrance of Phædra, in more +excitement than he had ever seen her betray. + +Without a word spoken, she fell upon his neck, and, clasping him +closely, burst into tears; then, quickly sinking down by his side, +clasped his knees, dropped her head upon them, and wept convulsively. + +Astonished and alarmed, Valentine tried to raise her, exclaiming: + +"Mother! what is the matter? Mother! why, mother! what ails you? What +has happened?" + +But she clung around his knees, and buried her face, and wept as she had +never wept before. + +Using all his strength, the youth forcibly unclasped her arms, and got +up, and raised her, and placed her in the chair that he had vacated. + +"Now, mother, what is the matter?" he asked, bending affectionately over +her. + +"Oh, Valentine!" she said, as soon as she could speak for sobbing, "Oh, +Valentine! after all, there is no will!" + +"No will!" he repeated, in quiet perplexity, for he did not quite +comprehend the cause of her excessive emotion. "No will, did you say, +mother?" + +"No! no! no! no!" she repeated, tearing her hair, "there is no will! +although he promised--and I felt sure he'd keep his word--I never +doubted it, because he was an honorable man, after his fashion--there +was no will!" + +"Well, my dear mother, what of that, that it should distress you so?" + +"What of that? Oh, Valley! Valley! what a question!" + +"Indeed, I do not know why you should take the non-existence of a will +so much to heart, mother," he said, soothingly. + +"Oh, Valley! Valley! Master promised faithfully that he would leave you +free, and leave you money to take you to France, or to some other +foreign country. And he broke his word to me! Master broke his pledged +word to me, who served his family so faithfully so many years. I didn't +ask for freedom for myself, only for you!" + +"Mother, don't take it to heart so! don't go on so, don't." + +"Hush! hush! it is the Spanish woman's curse falling on us--me! She +cursed me, dying." + +"My own dear mother, the curse recoiled upon her own head, for she died +mad. It never reached you, who did not in any way deserve it. It was +you that was wronged, not her, I am sure." + +"Yes, yes, it was I that was wronged! It was I that was wronged! I came +to my master with his other property--with his land, and with his +negroes. I had no mother, for my mother died when I was but seven years +old. I was brought up by an old negro, named Dinah. I was but fourteen +years old when I came into the possession of my master, along with his +patrimony." + +"Don't look upon things in that light, mother; don't talk in that wild, +imbittered way," said Valentine, taking both her hands, and looking +gently and fondly on her. But she snatched her hands away, and covered +her face, and was silent for awhile--then she spoke: + +"I know it hurts you. I know it goes to your heart like a knife; but it +is true, true as--as that I might have been tempted to take your life +and my own, had I seen how this was to end!" + +"I am very glad you did not, mother, I am sure." + +"Will you always say so?" + +"As I hope to be saved, yes, mother," replied the youth, half smiling, +to raise her spirits. + +"Ah, you think so now. Will you think so in the future?" + +"Yes, mother! I will pledge you my word to think no other way forever, +if that will satisfy you." + +"Yet, oh, Valley! that Spanish woman's dying curse! It haunts me now +upon this day of the fall of all my hopes for you; it haunts me, it +hangs over me like a funeral pall! It oppresses and darkens all my +soul!" + +"My dear mother, don't be superstitious, if you do inherit a tendency in +that direction from both sides of your ancestry. Forget that violent +woman's curse; and whatever you do, don't make it fulfill itself, by +believing in it. And believe that if any evil befall us, it will not +have come from that angry woman's malediction. Why, if I thought that +the imprecations of the angry and malignant could bring down curses from +heaven upon the heads of the innocent, I should turn pagan, and worship +beasts. Besides, as I said before, it was not her, but you, who was +injured. And if any one could have had the right to utter maledictions, +it was you; yet you never did it." + +"No, Heaven forbid! I took things as a matter of course; and though my +heart was almost broken, I made no complaint, far less ventured on any +reproach; for I am sure I thought master would do no great wrong; and I +thought he acted much better than his neighbors, when he promised that +you should be free, and should go to France, and learn a profession. But +he broke that promise. Oh, he broke his pledged word and honor, and the +woman's curse is surely falling." + +"Think no more of that, mother; she had no power to curse you." + +"I never did her harm, in deed, or word, or thought. I never deserved it +from her, whatever I deserved from Heaven. It was the old Bible story of +Abraham and Sarah and Hagar acted over again on this plantation, only +this was a great deal worse, as I look upon it now, though then I +thought it was all right, hard as it was to bear. I had been keeping +house for master four years, and you were nearly a year old, when one +winter he went to New Orleans, to spend a month or two. He stayed the +whole winter. I did not know that he married there, for he never wrote +to tell me, and I never read a newspaper. How should either happen, when +I could not read nor write? Well, in the spring, instead of coming home, +he sent a message with some directions to the overseer, but no word +about his being married, only that he was going abroad for awhile. Well, +he went, and he stayed away for a year. And then he came home by way of +New Orleans, where he stopped to buy furniture, that he sent up before +him, in charge of an upholsterer, who was to fix it all up. But still no +word of his marriage. I might have guessed something, from the +refurnishing of the house; but I did not, because my heart was so taken +up with the thought that master was coming home, and how nice everything +should be for him when he should come. I afterward knew that my master +had written to Mr. Hewitt, to come over and tell me to prepare to meet +my new mistress; but Mr. Hewitt, for the sake of what he called the +joke, left me in ignorance, so that madam might find me and you when she +should come. Well, I don't want to talk any more about this. The +afternoon that master was expected to arrive, I was on the watch. I was +standing on the portico, holding you by the hand, when I saw the +carriage approach. It came up very rapidly, and my heart beat thick and +fast, as if it would suffocate me. I could not help it, Valley! When the +carriage stopped, my master got out first, and handed out a lady, and +led her up the stairs. And while the whole scene was swimming before me, +he said to the lady, 'This is your maid, madam'; and to me, 'Phædra, +attend your mistress.' I had no business to faint, I know, because I was +only master's poor housekeeper, and I might have expected this thing +that had happened; but it came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and my +heart had been beating so high only the minute before, that I could not +help it. One single glimpse of her great, black eyes, and the sight left +mine, and I fell, like a tree. You see this scar upon my forehead; it +was where my head struck the sharp edge of the stone step, when I fell +down. When I came to myself, I was in old Dinah's cabin. You were there, +too. I was very stupid from the blow I had received in falling, and +could not more than half understand old Dinah's mumbled consolations. +And I was almost as stupid the next morning, when my master paid me a +visit, and stood there, and advised me not to be a fool, and asked me +what I had expected--and told me that I had behaved very badly, very +badly indeed; that he had hoped I had had more sense, and more regard +for his comfort; but that I had acted abominably--I had spoiled his +domestic peace for he did not know how long. That I had given madam such +a shock on her first arrival, too, that he did not believe she could +ever endure to look upon my face again; that she was in strong hysterics +now; that I ought to have had more consideration for him, than to have +brought him into so much trouble. But that women are a great curse, +anyhow, with their abominable selfishness and jealousy----" + +"Stop, stop, mother!" gasped the boy, "I shall go mad, if you tell me +more." + +She raised her eyes and looked at him and grew frightened at his looks. +His face was gray, and his features haggard, with the struggle in his +bosom. His hand clutched his breast as if to grapple with some hidden +demon there. + +After awhile, Phædra resumed, softly and quietly: + +"Hush! he was not naturally cruel. I never knew him to do a cruel thing +wantonly or knowingly. But many people do not understand or make +allowance for others who have naturally more tender hearts than theirs. +He did not know how I felt----" + +"Mother! mother! for Heaven's sake!" + +"Dear Valley, let me go on and tell this story for the first and last +time. I felt that I had to tell it some day; the day is come; let me +finish--finish for my own justification, for I would be justified to +you. Well, I never entered the lady's presence again, of course, and, +from that day to this, was only my master's faithful servant, and no +more. As soon as I was able to travel, my master sent me with you into +the town to hire out. I found a good place, where we lived several +years. I never even saw my master's face all the time, but strange +reports went around, notwithstanding. People said that Colonel Waring +and his lady lived very unhappily together; that they quarreled very +often; that she was mad with jealousy of the Mestizza; that every time +the colonel came in town, there would be a dreadful scene upon his +return home. At last it is certain that my master left off visiting the +city altogether, and did all his business there by deputies. But the +lady's attacks of passion or hysterics became periodical, returning at +regular intervals, and in the course of the first year she became a +confirmed lunatic. Before the end of the second year, it became +necessary to put her under restraint. Finally, she was taken to a +Northern lunatic asylum, in the hope of cure, and there, at the end of a +few months, she died raving mad, and hurling down imprecations upon me. +It was generally reported then, as now, that jealousy had driven her +mad; but it was not true--Heaven knows that it was not true, any more +than it was true that she had a just cause for her jealousy. For if ever +I saw insanity in any creature, I saw it in her great staring eyes the +first and only time I ever set mine upon her face. No; jealousy did not +cause her madness, but her madness caused her jealousy!" + +Phædra paused, and, with her head bent upon her hand, remained silent +some moments; then she resumed: + +"When that unfortunate lady had been dead some time, and one nurse after +another had been intrusted with the care of her child, and had failed to +give satisfaction, my year at last being up with my city employer, my +master took me home, to mind Master Oswald. It was the first time I had +seen the baby, although he had come home with his mother, and was in the +carriage with his nurse at the very time that she first set foot upon +the threshold of her new home. Master Oswald was about two years old +when I first took charge of him; and if my heart had been ever so seared +and hardened, it could not but have been touched at the sight of that +motherless infant--so puny, neglected and suffering, as he looked. Well, +I took care of him--Heaven knows I did--excellent care of him, or he +would not be living now. But he doesn't remember that. How should he, +indeed, when even his father did not remember it, although many, many +times, when he saw how his heir thrived under my care, he would praise +me, and promise me such great things for my own poor boy. Well, I was +sure he would keep his word. He has not done so; and I could find it in +my heart to pray for both your death and mine!" exclaimed Phædra, with a +short, sudden sob, as if she were on the eve of another burst of violent +emotion. + +"Do not grieve, mother; Mr. Waring has not done ill by us, I am sure. I +have had as happy a life with him as my own nature will permit. I could +not have borne life with a master less good-natured and tolerant. In +truth, if our mutual relations had been reversed, I fear that I should +not have been so uniformly kind as he. In fact, barring a little +selfishness, where his habits and personal comforts are concerned, he is +one of the very kindest of men. You know how he has regarded us both, +from his boyhood----" + +"Until he left home--he changed to us from that time." + +"Only for a while, when he was at school, and his classmates laughed at +him for his attachment to me, and he grew angry and ashamed to show it; +now he is his old self again. And, mother, there is but one obstacle to +his realizing for us the hopes his father disappointed." + +"And what is that, Valentine?" + +"His affection for us both, that has in it a certain alloy of +selfishness, as, indeed, many other people's affections for others also +have. He loves us both, in a different way; and he loves his own comfort +in us. He would not like to lose his faithful, motherly housekeeper, or +his confidential, attached valet; or that either the one or the other +should have the power to leave him at will. Ah, mother, I can understand +Master Oswald better than any one else in the world can. I can read his +heart like an open book; and, moreover, I can in most things wind him +around my finger like a string. Look at these things. Why do you suppose +he collected them? He doesn't care for anything like this, but I delight +in them, and so I persuaded him to collect them to adorn his rooms. I +did not do so for my own gratification alone, but that I really did wish +to see him cultivate a refined taste. Now, we are soon going to Europe. +Why? Do you think he wished to go at first? No; he never would have +thought of it. It would have been a great deal too much trouble to take +the lead in such a plan, but I thought he ought to make the grand tour, +like other young men of fortune; besides which, I had a desire to travel +myself. So I persuaded him that a gentleman of fashion (as he desires to +be thought, you know) ought to see Europe. So we go! Why, bless his +easy, good-natured heart, I have such great power over him--may I never +abuse it! that ninety-nine days out of a hundred it is I who am master!" + +"But the hundredth day, Valentine!" + +The boy's face suddenly changed. + +"I had rather not think of that, mother," he said, in an altered voice. + +Phædra's face also changed. It was as if a thundercloud had suddenly +crossed the sun, and darkened all the room. The mother spoke first, and +her voice was deep and hollow, as she said: + +"Valentine! Valentine! you have said that in ninety-nine days of a +hundred you can govern your master. Oh, my son, pray God to give you +grace on that hundredth day to govern yourself!" + +"Mother! Mother! Why do you say that to me?" exclaimed the boy, with a +shudder. + +"I do not know why--or if I do, I dare not tell you. A heavy weight is +on my heart; I cannot shake it off. You are going away soon! I must warn +you now; I may not have another chance, or may not feel able to do it. +Oh, Valentine, learn self-control, try to keep your temper always under. +Ay! seek the grace of God; there is such a thing, though your poor +mother has not got it, and only wishes she had. Seek it, Valentine--it +is your best safety; in every time of trial and temptation, it is a +steadfast support. I know it, though I haven't got it; I know it, +because I've seen it in many others." + +Valentine was looking at her with the most intense expression of +countenance. + +"Anger is a short madness, is it not, mother? So it was with me, at +least, when I was a boy; and how those frenzies of passion, into which I +would be thrown, used to terrify me when I came to my senses! I used to +be haunted with a fear that, in some such mad and blind fury, I +might----" + +"Hush! oh, hush! Pray to God!" exclaimed Phædra, turning pale. + +"Well, but of late years I have been able to control myself, and have +also suffered less provocation." + +"Ah, yes; less provocation." + +"Well, mother, I will promise you, faithfully, at least, to exercise +habitual self-control. As for your other subject of anxiety, be at rest. +Oswald Waring has his fits of generosity, in which even his sensual love +of his own comforts is forgotten. And I shall take advantage of one of +those moods to procure our manumission--not that I am sure I shall leave +him, even after that is obtained." + +All that is necessary to record of their conversation ended here. In a +few minutes after, Phædra left the chamber to attend to her domestic +affairs. + +In the course of a few weeks, Mr. Waring hurried the completion of all +the business to which his personal attention was indispensable; and +then, attended by Valentine, he set out for his European travels, +leaving the further settlement of his estate in the hands of Mr. +Pettigrew. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BOTTLE DEMON. + + + Oh! that men should put an enemy in + Their mouths to steal away their brains; that we + Should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, + Transform ourselves into beasts! + Oh! thou invisible Spirit of wine, + If thou hast no name to be known by, + Let us call thee Devil!--SHAKESPEARE. + +After an absence of fifteen months, Oswald Waring and his inseparable +companion, Valentine, returned home. + +Not in all respects was the master or the man improved by travel, as +circumstances soon demonstrated. + +Mr. Waring brought back the same benevolent, careless, mirthful, yet +occasionally arrogant temper, that had always distinguished him; and +Valentine, the same affectionate, aspiring, quick, inflammable nature, +that made his conduct so uncertain. + +The character of Oswald might have been easily read in his personal +appearance. He was a rather handsome specimen of a pure Anglo-Saxon; he +was of medium height, of a stout and well-set form; with a round head, +smooth, white, receding forehead, shaded with thickly clustered curls of +auburn hair; prominent, clear, light-blue eyes, whose prevailing +expression was that of frank mirthfulness; a straight nose; a +well-curved, but rather sensual mouth; and a full, rounded chin, that, +altogether, made up a countenance whose chief characteristics were good +nature, sensuality and gayety. His dress was equally remarkable for the +costliness of its material and the negligence of its arrangement; and +left the point at issue, whether the costume were the more extravagant +or the more slovenly. His manners were marked by habitual cheerfulness, +good temper and love of merriment. And, though he rarely emitted a flash +of wit, he was ever the quickest to appreciate that gift in others; and +it must have been a dull jest, indeed, that his ready laugh did not +hail. And it is not unlikely that to his sincere, hearty, contagious +laughter he owed a great deal of his popularity among men, and women +too. For who does not love a good laugher? + +Valentine was in almost every respect the antipodes of his master, yet +resembled him in this, that his nature also might be easily read in his +dark but singularly beautiful face. I use the term "beautiful" instead +of the other term "handsome" advisedly, as more proper to the subject +under description. Valentine was rather below the medium height, and +slightly but elegantly formed, with a stately little head, delicate +aquiline features, a complexion dark as a Spaniard's, bluish-black hair +falling in many well-trained curls around the dark face, and light-blue +eyes so deeply veiled under their thicket of long, close lashes, that it +was only in moments of excitement, when they suddenly lightened, that +their strange, startling, almost terrible contrast to the blackness of +the hair and darkness of the skin could be noticed. In the matter of +dress, Valentine was fastidious to a degree. In other circumstances, he +might have been an exquisite and a _petit maitre_, as his master often +laughingly called him. As it was, the youth was undeniably a dandy; but +his love of dress was to be attributed fully as much to his innate love +of order, beauty, and propriety, as to his coxcombry. His fine +raven-black hair--his "favorite vanity," was carefully kept, and trained +to fall in those faultless ringlets; and it is upon record, that when +the owner was not in full dress, that "splendid head of hair" was +carefully bound down from injury by sun or dust, under a double silk +bandanna, arranged in the graceful folds and twists of a Turkish turban. +Valentine's "foppery" was a never-failing source of merriment to his +fun-loving master--though I think the boy's love of dress could scarcely +with fairness be called foppery, since he was never known to try the +effects of his most elegant toilet upon the hearts of any of the young +girls of his class, until his own heart was seriously engaged. +Valentine's deportment was characterized by habitual pensiveness and +reserve, occasionally broken by sudden unaccountable fits of excitement, +strange flights of fancy, and startling, frightful paroxysms of passion, +having many of the features of incipient insanity. These were +undoubtedly to be attributed to the antagonistic constituents of his +nature. What alchemy but the all-powerful grace of God could ever +harmonize the discordant elements of a being deriving his descent from +three races so different as the Indian, the Negro, and the Saxon, and +reconcile him to the position in which this boy was placed? + +Mr. Waring, soon after his return home, began to lead a wild, reckless +life. He kept bachelor's hall at Red Hill, in extravagant style. + +Frequent dinners, suppers, and wine parties, with cards, billiards, +dice, etc., converted the quiet old country house into a scene of wild +midnight orgies, with drinking, song-singing, and gambling, that +threatened soon to leave the young spendthrift without a house to revel +in, or a dollar to revel on. + +And almost every day, when there was not a party at the house, Valentine +would have to drive his master in the buggy to the town. Upon such +occasions, the master would go to some favorite restaurant or billiard +saloon, or perhaps to some wine or card party, to which he had been +invited, while the man would take the buggy to the livery stable, and +lounge about town until the small hours of the morning, when he would +rouse the sleepy groom at the stables, get his buggy and horse, and take +his master home. Sometimes Mr. Waring would be slightly elevated by the +wine he had drank, but never to the degree of intoxication. + +At first, and for a long while, Valentine resisted the temptations of +the life into which he was led; but, in the course of time, those +listless hours of waiting in town wore away his good habits; and it at +last happened that, while the master was gambling and drinking in some +splendid saloon, the man would be imitating him in some humbler scene of +dissipation. And when he would have to drive Mr. Waring home, it not +unfrequently happened that both were under the influence of wine. + +To poor Phædra, who happily had some time since found that grace of God +that she had so long and humbly and earnestly desired, this conduct in +her young master and her son gave the greatest distress and anxiety. +With Valentine she often and earnestly expostulated; and the impressible +boy, for boy he continued to be to the day of his death, would promise +with tears in his eyes, to amend. Even with Oswald Waring, using the +privilege of the old nurse, she ventured to reason, faithfully, +fearlessly, sorrowfully. + +But, in his thoughtless, good-humored way, he laughed in her face, +called her a well-meaning old woman, but advised her to attend to her +own concerns. + +Yet Phædra did not slacken in making what poor opposition she could to +the approach of ruin. + +It was not the least deplorable and dangerous feature in the mutual +relations of Oswald Waring and his favorite slave that their mutual +positions often seemed temporarily reversed. Valentine would, upon +occasions, seem, or really for the hour be, the leader, and Oswald the +follower. + +Unfortunately, Mr. Waring was singularly wanting in those qualities that +command habitual respect from inferiors; nay, he even lacked +self-respect and the dignity that it gives; while, more unhappily still, +his servant Valentine possessed a large share of self-esteem, that, in +his excitable nature, would, under provocation or temptation, rise to +insufferable insolence. And this frequently placed them in false and +trying attitudes toward each other. It was a baleful circumstance, too, +that when, under the effects of wine, the master fell from easy +good-nature into maudlin tenderness and sentimentality, varied by +eccentric impulses of domineering authority, all of which was extremely +distasteful and irritating to the servant, whose pride, instigated by +the like baleful spirit, would rise to an intolerable arrogance. It was +a situation full of dire bodency to both. + +It happened one evening that Valentine had driven Mr. Waring into town +to be present at a wine and card party. It was late at night, or +speaking more accurately, early in the morning, when they were returning +home. It was difficult to say which of the two was most excited. Mr. +Waring was in his most maudlin mood of familiarity, Valentine +in his most insolent humor. Each perceived the intoxication of +the other, without being conscious of his own state. Oswald broke +out in a bacchanalian song, which he sung all wrong, and by +snatches--occasionally, in a sudden fit of maudlin affection, varying +the performance by throwing his arm around his servant, and hugging him +closely. Valentine bore this once, but, the second time it was repeated, +he shook his master's arm off, exclaiming: "I am not one of your +companions." But Oswald laughed aloud, rolled himself from side to side, +and breaking out into another low song: + + "Life is all a wariorum, + And we cares not how it goes!" + +"You will frighten the horses presently. Can't you behave yourself with +common decency?" exclaimed Valentine, shaking off the hand that had been +laid upon his shoulder. + + "Let them talk about decorum, + As has characters to lose," + +sang the inebriate, chuckling and slapping the boy upon the back. + +"If you do not be quiet, I'll get out of this buggy, and leave you to +drive home as you can," said Valentine, impatiently. + +This seemed to amuse the other very much; he burst out into a peal of +laughter, falling back, and clasping his knees, and rolling with the +tipsy enjoyment of the joke. When he had laughed himself into a fit of +the hiccoughs, and hiccoughed himself into comparative calmness, he +still seemed to enjoy the drollery of the idea, and recommenced laughing +and singing by fits, and slapping Valentine upon the back. + +"I tell you, if you do not quit this, I will get out!" exclaimed the +boy, angrily. "You a gentleman!" + +This language, instead of rousing Oswald to anger, seemed to strike him +as the drollest of speeches, for he fell back into another peal of +laughter; and when he had recovered himself he began, not in +displeasure, but in a maudlin, jesting way, and with a very thick +utterance, to taunt Valentine: + +"Why, you ins'lent f'low, do you know who you're talking to? You're a +spoiled negro--that is what you are! Now, don't you know, if I wa'n't +the most forgivin' f'low in the world, that I'd have you tied up and +whipt for such language?" + +"Me?" + +It is utterly impossible to convey in words any idea of the fierce, +savage, almost demoniac glare of hatred and defiance with which that +single monosyllable was uttered. But it was lost upon the tipsy master, +who replied, nodding and chuckling: + +"Yes, you, my little fellow! and I think it will have to be done, too, +to bring you to a sense of your condition. Sit down, sir! What the devil +do you mean by standing up and looking at me in that way?" + +Valentine had risen to his feet, still unconsciously holding the reins, +but no longer guiding the horses, who went on their own way, while he +stood and glared at his master, with an almost maniacal light blazing +from those pale-gray eyes. + +"Sit down, sir, I say! What the h--ll do you mean? Sit down, I say, or, +by the Lord Harry! I'll do as I've threatened!" + +This is not a proper scene to go on with. Both were mad with wine, and +one also with rage. The master, though not angry, nor by any means +disposed to punish, grew every moment, from very wantonness, more +taunting in his manner--the man became each instant more insolent; words +rose higher between them; Valentine grew frenzied, dashed his clenched +fist with all his strength into his master's face, and sprang from the +buggy, leaving him to his fate. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AN HUMBLE WEDDING. + + Habitual evils change not on a sudden, + But many days must pass, and many sorrows; + Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt, + To curb desire, to break the stubborn will, + And work a second nature in the soul, + Ere virtue can resume the place she lost.--ROWE'S ULYSSES. + + +Valentine awoke the next morning with a heavy weight upon his heart and +a thick cloud over his brain. + +The first fact that attracted his attention was the circumstance that he +was not in his own apartment, but in his mother's bedchamber. A small +wood fire was burning in the fireplace, and a teakettle was hanging over +the blaze; the red hearth was neat and bright, and the only window was +darkened by the lowered paper blind. + +Phædra sat in her flag-bottomed elbow-chair, at the chimney corner; her +work was on her lap, but she sat with her hands clasped upon it in +idleness, and in an attitude of deepest grief. Such was the picture +immediately before him. + +He could not tell the hour, but supposed it to be near midday. He +strove, through the aching of his head and heart, to recall the latest +events of his waking consciousness, before he had fallen into the sleep +or the insensibility from which he had just recovered. And, as memory +came back in a rushing flood, bringing the hideous phantoms of the +previous night's history, overcome with shame and sorrow, he groaned +aloud, and buried his face in the pillow. Still he was in ignorance of +what had occurred after he had sprung from the buggy; and in terror for +what might have happened to Mr. Waring, whom he had left there to guide +as he could, in a state of extreme intoxication, the frightened and +rearing horses. + +Phædra arose and approached the bed. + +"Mother! tell me what has happened, for I remember nothing after getting +home," said the boy, in a voice half smothered in emotion. + +But Phædra sank down by the bedside, buried her face in the coverlid, +and sobbed. + +"Mother! tell me the worst at once. Was he thrown out? Is he dead?" +asked Valentine, in a deep, breathless, husky voice, as he raised upon +his elbow and leaned forward, his light eyes, from the tangled thicket +of his dark hair, turning upon her like coals at a white heat. + +"No, no, he is not dead. But it was a very narrow escape. Oh! Valley, +such a good Providence, my boy," she said, taking his disengaged hand +and hugging it closely to her bosom, and weeping over it, as if that +hand had been saved from some great calamity. + +"Tell me all about it, mother." + +But Phædra was sobbing and choking, and could not utter a word more +then. + +"Where is he now, mother?" asked Valentine, after a little while. + +"In his room--unable to rise, but out of danger, the doctor says." + +A few more minutes passed in silence. Phædra rose and resumed her chair +and her needlework, though the sudden sobs and deep heavings of her +bosom betrayed the storm of grief still beating. + +"Mother," said Valentine, after a few moments longer, "can you tell me +now all about it? How did I get home? How did he? What happened to the +buggy?" + +"Oh, Valentine, first of all, you came home in a state that made my +heart sick to see. I can't tell you how; but I hope never to see the +like again. I could not have got you upstairs without help, but I +managed to get you in here, and to bed, without any one seeing you." + +"Mother----" + +This single word, uttered in a tone of deepest regret, and humiliation; +and then his voice broke down, and he covered his face with his hands. + +"I had not more than got you to bed, when a violent barking of the dogs +startled me, and I went out, and found it was master that Mr. Hewitt's +niggers had brought home on a door. Dr. Carter, who was coming home from +a night call, had found him lying on the side of the road that runs +along by Mr. Hewitt's cotton field. And he had ridden up to Mr. Hewitt's +house, and roused up the old gentleman and some of the niggers; and they +took a barn door off its hinges, and spread a bed and laid him on it, +and brought him home. It was well that it happened to be Dr. Carter who +found him; for he stayed with him all night, and that has been the means +of saving his life. Oh, Valley, it was such a kind Providence that saved +him!" said Phædra, breaking off suddenly, and clasping her hands. + +"And this morning, mother?" said Valentine, anxiously. + +"Oh! This morning the horses were found near the stables, with a part of +the gearing hanging to their necks; and the buggy was found on the road, +broken all to pieces." + +"I don't mean them--I mean Mr. Waring." + +"He is out of danger this morning, as I told you before. He was stunned +and very much bruised by being thrown from the buggy, but not otherwise +injured." + +"What does he say about the accident?" + +"He says he doesn't know much about it. He says he supposes he must have +been taking too much wine, and that the horses got unruly, and he +couldn't manage them; and that was how they threw him out, and broke +the carriage." + +"Mother! I must get up and go to him now!" said Valentine, hastily. + +"Oh, stop! Stay one moment, Valentine! Lie there, and let me speak to +you! I have been praying for you all night, in my master's room, here, +wherever I have been. Reflect; have you no thanks to offer to the Lord +for his providential care, when you so little deserved it? And no +sorrow, Valentine, for what has passed, and no promises for the future? +Oh, Valentine, how is this course you and your master have begun, going +to end?" + +"Mother! for my own part, I can affirm that this is the first time I +ever was in such a state as you saw me in last night. All I feel about +it, shall be said in this one oath--I will never taste intoxicating +drink again, so help me Heaven--and shall be proved every day of my +life, in the way I keep it!" exclaimed Valentine, impetuously, +earnestly, tearfully. + +Phædra grasped his hand once more, and hugged it to her heart, and +prayed "God bless" him. + +"And now, mother, I must get up and go to him." + +Phædra brought his clothes from the closet in which she had put them, +and then left the room, while Valentine arose and dressed himself, and +went to his master's apartments. It was in painful doubt and humiliating +embarrassment that he sought Oswald Waring's presence. He got to the +door, knocked, and at the words, "Come in," he entered. + +Mr. Waring was in bed, and looking very pale and ghastly; and as +Valentine saw him, a pang shot through his heart at the thought that, +but for the merciful intervention of Providence in averting the +consequences of his own rash anger, Oswald Waring might have been lying +there--not a sick man, but a dead one! And a secret vow to forsake +intemperance, in all its forms, material and moral, was made in +Valentine's mind, and registered in heaven. + +"Is that you, Valley, old fellow? I had begun to fear that you had +suffered more than myself, when I asked after you this morning and they +told me you were sick. Were you thrown out, also?" + +"Good Heaven," thought Valentine, as a new light burst upon him; "he +does not recollect what happened. He must have been much further gone +than myself." + +"Well, old fellow, why don't you answer me? I asked you if you were +thrown out. Don't be afraid to tell me, for you see I'm a great deal +better; besides, seeing you there alive and well, I shall not be much +shocked to hear of what might have happened, you know. Come! where were +you pitched, and how much were you hurt, and who picked you up? Tell me, +for I can't get the least satisfaction out of anybody here." + +"I was not thrown out--I sprang out." + +"When the horses were rearing? A bad plan that, Val.; that is, if you +really did it as you think you did. For my part, I doubt if you know +anything more about it than I do myself; and if my soul were to have to +answer for my memory, I could not tell whether I jumped out or was +thrown out. Bad course we've been pursuing, old boy; like to have cost +us both our lives, really has cost me that beautiful buggy--that is +ruined, they tell me. Bad course; bad course, Val. Not safe for master +and man both to be glorious at the same time. Another evening, old +fellow, do you try to keep sober, when you think it likely that I shall +be--otherwise." + +"I never mean to touch another drop of intoxicating drink as long as I +live, sir, so help me Heaven!" said Valentine, fervently. + +"Oh, pooh, pooh! old fellow. Resolutions made with a bad headache, the +day after a frolic, are as worthless as the oaths sworn in wine the +night previous, both being the effects of an abnormal state of the soul +and--stomach. Now, wine is a good thing in moderation--it is only a bad +thing in excess. Don't look so dreadfully downcast, old fellow, nor make +such dismally lugubrious resolutions. 'The servant is not greater than +his master,' says the good Book; and, if I was overtaken, how could you +expect to escape? Give me your honest fist, old fellow; those who have +had such a d--d lucky escape together might shake hands upon it, I +should think," said Oswald Waring, offering his hand. + +Valentine took it and squeezed it, and then, in the warmth of his +affectionate nature, pressed it to his heart, while tears welled to his +eyes--tears, that came at the thought how nearly he had occasioned the +death of this man--this man, who, with all his faults, had, from their +boyhood, been ever kind, generous, forbearing--more like a brother than +a master. All that was unjust and galling in their mutual relations was +forgotten by Valentine at that moment; he only remembered that they had +been playmates in childhood, companions in youth, and friends always, up +to the present, and that he had narrowly escaped causing Oswald's death; +and, in the ardor and vehemence of emotion, he pressed the hand that had +been yielded up to him, to his heart, exclaiming in a broken voice: + +"It was my fault, Master Oswald, all my fault; but I will never--never +touch any sort of intoxicating liquor again--never, as the Lord hears +me." + +"Oh, tut, tut! you best fellow that ever was in the world! Who asks you +for any such promises? Only promise that when there is a wine supper or +card party in the wind, or any other signs of the times in the sky to +warn you, you will take care to keep sober, knowing that I shall be +likely to be something else. Wine is a good servant, but a bad master." + +"Not good for me, ever, Master Oswald; certainly not good for me; +probably not so for you, either." + +"Come, come; you exceed your license, Valentine. You're a pretty fellow +to preach to me, after nearly breaking my neck. However, that's +ungenerous, after once forgiving you; so we'll say no more about it +forever. But don't preach to me, whatever you do. Phædra nearly wears my +patience out." + +"Can I do anything to make you more comfortable, or help the time +along?" + +"N-o-o, I think not. Dr. Carter says I must keep quiet, and my head +begins to ache now; so you had better darken the room, and leave me to +rest." + +Valentine closed all the shutters, and let down all the curtains, and +then asked: + +"Shan't I sit here, Master Oswald, to be at hand in case you should want +anything?" + +"No! Lord, no! it must be a d--l of a bore to sit in a dark room, with +no better amusement than to watch somebody going off to sleep. No; go +and take care of yourself, old fellow. I can ring if I should want +anything," said Oswald, cheerfully. + +"Always so very considerate when he is in his right mind," thought +Valentine, as he took the tasseled end of the bellrope and put it in +reach of his master's hand, before leaving the room. + +That was the last time that Valentine saw his master in his right mind +for many weeks. The effects of his fall, acting upon a system weakened +and vitiated by dissipation, was much more serious than any one had +foreseen. Before night a brain fever, with delirium, had set in, and, +for days after, the life of Oswald Waring hung upon the feeblest chance. +For many weeks of his illness, Phædra and Valentine nursed him with the +most devoted affection. Poor Phædra prayed constantly for his recovery, +and also for his reform, and solicited every Sabbath the prayers of the +congregation of her church in his behalf. And Valentine, in deep +despair, daily accused himself of his master's death, as if he had +purposely stricken a fatal blow, and Oswald were already dead. The long +days and nights of watching by the side of the sickbed, that might at +any hour become a deathbed, were very fruitful in good to Valentine. +There he learned to hate and dread the demon anger, that had caused him +so much misery; there he came to listen with patience and reverence to +his poor mother's tearful pleadings and counsels; there he began to +pray. It was six weeks before Mr. Waring left his room, and one more +before he was fully restored to health. And this brought midsummer--a +season that camp-meetings were frequent in the neighborhood. + +This summer there was much greater excitement than ever before among the +religious revivalists. The Rev. Mr. M---- and several others, equally +eloquent and successful field preachers, were making a circuit of the +country. Their fame always preceded them as an _avant courier_, and +crowds congregated to hear them. + +There was a camp-meeting held, by permission of the owner, in a magnolia +grove where there was a fine spring, upon the grounds of Mr. Hewitt, Mr. +Waring's nearest neighbor. And it was given out that on Sunday morning +the eloquent field preacher, M----, would address the assembled +multitudes. There was a great deal of excitement and anticipation among +all classes in that quiet rural district; and when the Sabbath came, +congregations forsook their own churches, and assembled to hear M----. +Crowds after crowds gathered; some went with the avowed purpose of +getting converted; some to get revived; many to get excited; and most +from motives of idle curiosity. Poor Phædra went for the candidly +expressed purpose of being warmed and comforted. Valentine went to drive +his master, who went only to kill a dull day. + +Now, not only was Phædra praying with all her soul's strength for her +son's conversion, but naturally that desired consummation was one of the +most likely things in the world to eventuate; for Valentine's nature was +just the one to be most deeply affected and impressed by the magnetic +power of a man like M----, and he was also in the most favorable mood +for receiving such impressions. And while hundreds around him were +swayed, as by a mighty wizard's wand, under the wonderful eloquence of +the most potent preacher since the days of Wesley and Whitefield, +Valentine was deeply and almost fearfully excited. + +And from that Sabbath, during the whole time of Mr. M----'s sojourn in +the neighborhood, the boy was a regular attendant upon his ministry, and +in the end was numbered among his converts. This is not the place to +call in question the Rev. Mr. M----'s sincerity or consistency as a +Christian; those who knew him best, believed him to be perfectly sincere +in his religious enthusiasm, however inconsistent was sometimes his +conduct. And, though it may be true that some of his converts were his +only, and not God's, as they afterward demonstrated by their +backsliding, yet it is equally true that many shining lights in the +Christian Church at this day ascribe their first awakening to Christian +life, under Divine Providence, to the electric power of M----'s +eloquence. At the time that I write of, the people of that neighborhood +adored him as an angel sent from God; though some years after the same +people hunted him as a wild beast, from village to village, until old, +poor, ill and exhausted, he died alone--a fugitive from their insane +wrath. But to return. + +M---- had succeeded in reviving the religious spirit of that district; +and when he departed, he left behind him many new but zealous laborers +in that vineyard of the Lord. + +Among the most enthusiastic in the field of the colored mission of +Magnolia Grove was Valentine. His sincere, ardent, earnest soul; his +natural gift of eloquence; his sympathy with those in his own condition, +if not strictly of his own race; his better education, and even his +beauty of person, grace of manner, and sweetness of voice, all combined +to make him the most popular and effective, and best beloved of all the +class-leaders in the colored mission of Magnolia Grove. "Brother +Valentine's" class was the largest and most important in the church. If +ever Brother Valentine was announced to address the meeting upon any +given day, there was sure to be a crowded house. And if ever Phædra held +a prayer meeting in her quarter, there was sure to be a crowd to hear +Brother Valentine speak. + +Among the most zealous of the church members, and among those who never +failed to be present at Phædra's weekly prayer meetings, was a young and +pretty quadroon, named Fannie. She was a free girl and an orphan, and +was employed as shop girl in a hair dresser's and fancy store kept by a +respectable old French couple in the city of M. But though her home and +her business was in town, and there were also two or three "colored +missions" in that place, yet Fannie preferred to walk out every Sunday +morning to the little log meeting-house in Magnolia Grove. And those who +were envious of Fannie's beauty did not scruple to say that she came out +so far for the sake of hearing Brother Valentine pray or exhort, or to +let him hear her sing; for Fannie had a voice that might have made her +fortune, had she been white, and had it been cultivated. However that +might be, Phædra loved Fannie as if she had been her own daughter, and +she always took her home from meeting, to dine and spend the afternoon +at Red Hill. And after an early tea, Valentine always walked home with +Fannie to the city. + +It is also true that Valentine became a frequent customer at Leroux's, +the hair-dresser's and fancy store where Fannie was employed; and as +Valentine not only made his own but also his master's purchases, and as +he had a _carte blanche_ for the same, his custom was of no trifling +importance to the establishment. But, valuable as was this patronage, as +soon as the proprietors began to suspect the nature of the attraction to +their store, they felt it to be their duty to warn the young girl, which +they would do in something like these terms: + +"Take my advice, Fannie, and send that young fellow about his business; +he may be a very good young man, I dare say; but he is a slave, and +never will be able to do anything for you," Monsieur Leroux would say. + +"You are free, Fannie, and you are very pretty, and all that; and you +might look a great deal higher than that," would say Madam Leroux. + +"Think, _ma fille_, if you take him, you will always have yourself and +your family to support, for you never can have any help from a slave +husband"--thus Monsieur Leroux. + +"Consider, _mon enfant_, if you marry him, he may be sold away next +year, or next month, even! How would you like that?" thus Madam Leroux. + +And Fannie would blush, or smile, or pout, or drop a tear, or say to +herself: + +"Poor Valley! Maybe something may happen to set him free! Maybe I might +work hard, and save money enough to"--she could not bring herself to say +buy--"ransom him! And, anyhow, it is not his fault if he is not free. +And it must be hard enough, the dear knows, to be as he is, without my +letting him think that it makes any difference to me." + +Obstacles and objections which, to cooler-hearted and clearer-headed +people would seem very formidable, if not entirely conclusive, were but +slight impediments in the way of these humble lovers. + +Long courtships and protracted engagements are not common among +quadroons, and in this case were not favored by Valentine. He had won +little Fannie's heart and consent to speak to her employers, who, having +advised her against the match, and holding no authority to go further in +their opposition, gave a reluctant consent, with their good wishes and +blessing. + +Valentine had, all through the courtship, the hearty approbation of +Phædra; and, lastly, he had none but his master to consult. + +Mr. Waring rallied Valentine unmercifully upon his intended marriage; +swore that, seriously, it was a pity such a fine young fellow as +himself, who was such a favorite among the girls, should leave his gay +bachelor's life, to tie himself down to a wife and family; asked him +what he should do for kid gloves and perfumery, if he had to give all +his pocket money to Fannie and the children; and finally made him a +wedding present of a hundred dollars, and advised him to go out and hang +himself. + +In the following Christmas holidays, the slaves' annual Saturnalia in +the South, the marriage of Valentine and Fannie took place. A mad +marriage it was, where the bride had no dower and the bridegroom not +even the ownership of his own limbs to work for their support. An +impossible marriage it would seem, had it not really taken place, and +did we not know, for a certainty, that such marriages between the free +and the enslaved frequently took place. + +Phædra gave a serious little Methodist wedding, and invited all her +favorite brethren and sisters of the church to be present. And the young +master loaned his dining-room for the occasion, and invited himself to +do the lovers the honor of his personal attendance at the marriage +ceremony. And he gave the little bride two testimonials of his friendly +consideration--one in the form of a pretty wedding dress, that was +gratefully received; the other in the guise of a hearty embrace and +kiss, that was not quite so thankfully accepted. + +"But now, mommer," whispered little Fannie, in the course of the +evening, to Phædra, "Valley's young master has been so very kind and +generous to us all, s'pose now he was to make Valley a present of his +free papers, for a wedding gift to-night--to surprise us, you know; to +see how delighted we'd all be, and to hear what we'd say. I think he +might; 'deed, I shouldn't wonder if he did, only for the pleasure of the +thing, you know. Should you, mommer?" + +Phædra sighed; but, then, not to damp the girl's spirits, she replied: +"He may do that some day, honey." + +"Something seems to whisper to me that he is thinking of it to-night, +mommer! Ah! the Lord send he may! Wouldn't we be happy? Valley would +have a place in the same store with me; it would suit him, too; he has +so much good taste! And then we could have such a pretty little home of +our own! 'Deed, I believe he is thinking about it now. Look at him. I +shouldn't be the least surprised to see him call Valley aside, and clap +him on the shoulder, and call him 'old fellow,' and tell him he is a +free man!" + +The girl had read aright the thoughts of the master. Angels, who +saw the future, with all the phantoms of its bright or dark +possibilities--angels, who loved the goodness latent in his own abused +nature--angels were whispering to him: "Make this young couple +supremely happy--give him only the common right to himself, into which +every creature is justly born--and then rejoice in their exceeding great +joy!" + +And never had the face of Oswald Waring looked so bright, benignant and +happy, as when he, for a moment, entertained this thought. + +"But pshaw!" he said to himself, directly. "Am I Don Quixote the +younger, that I should be guilty of such a piece of extravagant +generosity? Absurd! I really must begin to learn moderation at some time +of my life. St. Paul says: 'Let your moderation be known unto all men.'" + +Now, what on earth can the angels reply, when the other party quotes +Scripture against them? Nothing, of course; and Oswald Waring had no +more generous impulses that evening. But oh! if he had only listened to +those angel whispers; if he had only realized poor little Fannie's +romance; if he had only, for once in his life, yielded to his impulse to +commit that mad, rash, extravagant piece of Quixotism, as he called the +act which, for a moment, he had dreamed of performing--from what +impending anguish, what temptations, crime, and remorse, would they not +have been redeemed! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A CLOUDED HONEYMOON. + + +It had been arranged, as the best plan for all parties, under present +circumstances, that Fannie should retain her situation as shop-woman at +Leroux's hair-dressing and fancy store, where they were anxious to keep +her as long as possible. + +With Valentine's hundred dollars, and fifty dollars that had been made +in overwork by Phædra, a room was taken in M----, and neatly furnished. + +And there Valentine and Fannie went to housekeeping, after this fashion: +Fannie, still tending Leroux's shop all day, ate and slept at home, +where Valentine visited her once a week, or oftener, whenever he could +do so. + +In the meantime, as winter advanced, Mr. Waring's health was fully +re-established; and, as many of his favorite boon companions, who had +been absent on their summer tours, returned to the neighborhood, Oswald +began to resume his former habits of extravagant and reckless +dissipation. Deer-hunting, coursing, partridge-shooting, and other field +sports, occupied the mornings; and dinner parties, oyster suppers, and +other entertainments, accompanied and followed by wine-drinking, +song-singing, card-playing, and similar orgies, at home or abroad, +filled up the afternoons and evenings. + +Again were Valentine's services brought into requisition three or four +nights of every week, to drive his master to the city at dusk, and home +again at dawn. Upon these occasions, Valentine would drive Mr. Waring +first to the clubhouse, restaurant, or billiard-saloon, that happened to +be his destination for the evening, set him down, take the carriage and +horses to the livery stable, leave them, and then go to Leroux's and +stay with Fannie until the hour of closing the store arrived, when he +would take her home. + +Valentine, from his "gentlemanly" appearance, dress, and address, as +well as from his perfectly trustworthy character, was not an unwelcome +visitor at the store, where, behind the counter and by the side of +Fannie, he made himself so useful that Monsieur Leroux would often +speculate as to the possibility of getting him for an assistant. This +also was Valentine's and Fannie's great ambition; but it was a vain +one, for his personal attendance was considered indispensable to his +master's comfort. + +Valentine's standing order, upon these occasions of their night visits +to the town, was to be in waiting with the carriage for Mr. Waring at +twelve o'clock. And the man was obliged to be punctual, though he had +often to wait two or three hours for the coming of the master. And, as a +general fact, the longer Mr. Waring remained among his boon companions, +the more intoxicated he became; and when at last he appeared, all the +old humiliations and provocations of Valentine's former days were +renewed. You know what these were. It would be vain repetition to +describe them again. + +All this was, in every respect, very trying to the poor boy. He +religiously adhered to his resolution of abstinence from all spirituous +liquors, and constantly and prayerfully struggled against the +ebullitions of his own impetuous temper. But the life he led acted +nearly fatally upon a very fragile organization; and all individuals of +antagonistically-mixed races are known to be frail. The continued loss +of rest, habitual irregularity in food and sleep, affectionate anxiety +upon account of his master, tender solicitude for his own gentle, little +wife, frequent and excessive provocation from Oswald, all combined to +wear and fret his originally excitable temperament to a state of +unnatural nervous irritability, that could scarcely sustain with +calmness the rudeness of the shocks to which, in his false position, he +was constantly exposed; and therefore he was very frequently--to use his +own expression at the "love feasts"--in great danger of falling from +grace. + +Reflecting upon this portion of the poor, doomed boy's life; +recollecting the great, the almost superhuman struggle his spirit was +making against the terrible, combined powers of evil; of his discordant +organization; his fiery, impulsive temperament; his unfortunate +education; his unhappy position, and his exasperating surroundings, all +antagonistic, false and fateful, we find his parallel nowhere in modern +times, and are forced to think of the age of antiquity, and of those +mighty but ineffectual struggles of some foredoomed mortal, like +OEdipus, in the power of the angry Fates. + +Upon poor Valentine's silent, deadly struggle, none but the pitying eye +of our Father looked. And nothing but a miracle could have averted its +final and fatal issue; and miracles are not wrought at the expense of +moral free agency. There came at last a day--an awful day--when the boy +spoke, and others heard, of that fell struggle with the powers of +darkness. + +But we anticipate. The dark and trying seasons were relieved by brighter +ones, alternating like night and day. + +The hours spent with Fannie, either in the gay, lighted shop, among a +thousand objects of taste and beauty, and occupations shared with her, +and congenial to his own æsthetic fancy, or in their little home, that, +despite of poverty, Fannie's taste had made beautiful, were seasons of +unclouded happiness, in which all care was forgotten. + +There were sunny hours, also, when Mr. Waring's better nature was in the +ascendant; when he would feel like gratifying his own benevolence, and +making Valentine happy, by fair promises of making him free; of setting +him and Fannie up in the hair-dressing and fancy business, which he +would laughingly declare to be exactly suited to Valentine; that Val +could be the barber, and Fan the ladies' hair-dresser; and that they +could have a nice little house in an eligible street, with the dwelling +above, and the shop below. Thus he would talk, indulging his good humor +at the small expense of his breath, and amusing himself with noticing +the effect of his words upon Valentine's sensitive nature, playing upon +its chords of hope and fear, as if his heart had been a harp, and his +own the experimenting hand that tried its strings. Perhaps he intended +to realize, at some future day, these expectations that he raised; at +least, at the time of speaking he wished to please the boy by infusing a +hope; but, alas! he only disturbed him, by exciting and aggravating his +old passionate aspiration after liberty. + +But, besides those happiest hours spent with Fannie, there were other +seasons of forgetfulness, and of almost unalloyed bliss. These were the +Sabbath services and the weekly meetings, where the ardent, zealous soul +of the young man found its expression in eloquence that reached the +hearts of all who heard him, either in exhortation or in prayer. + +He was very much beloved by the brethren, and especially by the sisters, +of the Magnolia Grove Mission. + +There was, however, two or three among the class-leaders who objected to +Valentine as being too much given to the vanities of this world, and who +found great stumbling blocks in Valley's shining, black ringlets, and +neat and even elegant dress. But as the fiend really did contrive to +find his way into sinless Eden, so jealousy might possibly have crept +into a "love feast" among Christian brethren and sisters; and +Valentine's beauty, grace, eloquence and consequent pre-eminence, among +the men, and popularity with the women, might have been the true ground +of offense to his less gifted brothers. + +However that might be, Valentine, perceiving only the ostensible matter +of complaint, half resolved to give up his taste in dress and sacrifice +his cherished ringlets, and seriously consulted Fannie upon the subject. + +But Fannie would not listen to such a proposition with a moment's favor, +and said that brother Portiphar and some of the others had such a grudge +against beauty that they would turn all the Lord's fair roses and lilies +into lobelia and rue, if they could. And Fannie's single opinion and +vote outweighed all the others, and Valentine's hyperion curls continued +to be an offense in Israel. + +Thus passed the winter and spring. This first half year, with all its +shadows, was yet the fairest portion of the young pair's married life. +Toward its close clouds began to gather darkly and threateningly over +their heads. + +In the early part of summer Fannie was necessitated to give up her +situation at Leroux's, and confine herself to such work as she could +perform in the privacy of her own room, such as fine sewing and fancy +work, which was not very lucrative; but even this resource in the course +of a few weeks had to be abandoned, for Fannie was unusually delicate, +and sadly needed rest and some one to take care of her for a while. And +just about this time, late in July, Mr. Waring made up his mind to go to +the North and spend the remainder of the summer in a tour among the +fashionable watering-places. Of course, he designed to take his servant +with him. In vain Valentine, hoping in the proverbial "good nature" of +his master, proffered his earnest request to be left behind, urging the +state of Fannie's health as the reason. + +"Pooh, pooh, nonsense!" Mr. Waring could not spare the servant that was +used to his ways. Fannie must do without her husband, and take her +chance, as all those of her class had to do. Surely she must have known +what she had to expect when she married a slave man. + +"And now, Valentine, don't bore me any longer with the subject. You were +a great fool to get married at all; and if you trouble me further, you +will make me regret ever having given my consent to that foolish +measure," concluded Mr. Waring. + +Valentine controlled his own rebellious emotions, and leaving Fannie as +comfortable as under the circumstances he could make her, accompanied +his master to the North. + +They visited first the Virginia Springs, then Niagara, Saratoga, Nahant, +and at the end of three months, returned home. + +In close attendance upon his master, Valentine was obliged to pass +through M---- without stopping to see his wife. + +But the next day, at his first disengaged hour, he set out for the city, +where he found Fannie the mother of a little girl of six weeks of age, +and reinstated in her former position at Leroux's. + +Fannie was very happy, and gave a cheering account of all that had +occurred. Everybody had been very kind to her; the sisters of the church +had visited her often; Phædra had been with her, and Madame Leroux had +made her many presents. + +All this relieved and delighted the youthful husband and father; and +when he pressed his infant daughter to his bosom, he wept tears of joy +at the thought that her mother's heritage of freedom would be hers. + +Some peaceful days followed this, in which Valentine, oblivious of every +cause of disquietude, enjoyed the perfection of domestic happiness. + +Then, early in November, Mr. Waring determined to go to New Orleans, to +prosecute his acquaintance with a young widow, a native and resident of +that city, whom he had met at Saratoga, and with whom he had been very +much pleased. His servant was, of course, required to attend him, and +upon this occasion Valentine obeyed without a single demur. + +On reaching New Orleans, Mr. Waring took rooms at the St. Charles Hotel. +Apparently his suit prospered, for their stay in that city was prolonged +through November and December. And Valentine had no opportunity of +visiting his girlish wife until after the new year. + +Then Mr. Waring hastily, and in the highest spirits, returned home, to +settle up certain necessary business with his lawyer appertaining to +troublesome creditors, and give some commendable directions to his +housekeeper touching the rearrangement of his disorderly bachelor's +hall. This occupied two or three weeks, during which time Valentine, +when not in close attendance upon Mr. Waring, found opportunities to +visit his beloved Fannie, and caress the infant, of whom he was dotingly +fond. + +The first of February Mr. Waring went again to New Orleans to meet his +engagement with Madam Moriere, his promised bride. + +Their marriage was arranged to take place immediately, to save the delay +of the seven weeks of Lent, just at hand, and during which no strict +Catholic, such as madam professed to be, would dare to enter into the +"holy state" of matrimony. + +Immediately after the ceremony, the newly-married couple set out on a +bridal tour. + +Mr. Waring was attended by his favorite servant, and madam by her maid, +a French _grisette_, who "made eyes" at Valentine, and otherwise +harassed him with her coquetries during the whole journey. And this +conduct of Finette first suggested to Valentine's mind the probability +that, during his own enforced, long and frequent absences from home, +some one as unprincipled as Finette might be making love to his own +pretty Fannie, unprotected and exposed as she was in that French +hair-dressing establishment. Valentine might have been sure of that; but +Fannie, with her wise and affectionate consideration for him, had never +troubled the transient happiness of his sojourn with her by any +histories of the petty vexations that disturbed her own life during his +absence. Besides, Fannie, with all her innocence, was city bred, full of +experience and the wisdom it gives, and quite capable of taking care of +herself. And Valentine never would have dreamed of the possibility of +such annoyances for her had not the behavior of Mademoiselle Finette +made the suggestion. And now the thought gave his excitable heart a +great deal of disturbance, and made him very anxious to return home. Of +course, Valentine's impatience did not expedite that desired event. + +The bridal party were absent six weeks, and finally reached home about +the middle of April--a most enchanting season in that climate, +corresponding in its advanced state of vegetation with our June, but +much more beautiful in the luxuriance and variety of its trees, shrubs, +vines, fruits and flowers, than any season in our latitude. The Red Hill +mansion was very lovely in its grove of magnolias. The internal +arrangement of the house reflected great credit upon Phædra; and madam +condescended to express much satisfaction with her new home and her good +housekeeper. + +As upon all former occasions, Valentine had been in too much +requisition, when they passed through M----, on their way home, to stop +and see Fannie; but the next morning Mr. Waring dispatched him to the +city to attend to the careful packing and sending out some baggage that +had been left, of necessity, the evening before, at the hotel. + +And Valentine availed of that opportunity to visit his small family. + +He found Fannie as pretty and as glad to see him as always, and his +little darling Coralie, now seven months old, more beautiful and +attractive than ever; but he could not linger with them; his duties to +his master obliged him, in less than an hour, to tear himself away again +and hasten with madam's trunks and boxes to Red Hill. + +The necessity of leaving his treasures so soon again after so long an +absence depressed Valentine so much that Fannie hastened to console and +cheer him. He was not, after all, more unfortunate in that respect, she +said, than sailors and soldiers, nor was she more to be pitied than +their wives. + +And she sent him off, comforted with the promise that she would get +leave from Leroux and come out the next morning with her baby to spend +the day with Phædra at Red Hill. + +Fannie kept her word, and, during her visit the next day won her way so +well into the good graces of madam that that lady expressed a kind +interest in her and her little child, made them some pretty presents, +and promised to facilitate as much as possible the frequent visits of +Valentine to his wife and child. And the lady remembered and performed +her promise so well that unusual indulgence was extended to Valentine, +who was by her intercession enabled to pass every night with his family. + +Mr. Waring, in his attachment to his bride, seemed for the time quite +won from the extravagance and dissipation of his late bachelor life. He +remained at home and addressed himself with commendable zeal to the +management of his plantation, to the improvement of his land, his stock, +his machinery, and agricultural system in general, and also, after his +own blundering fashion, to the amelioration, comfort and welfare of his +people. + +Valentine, no longer distressed for or by his master, divided his +attention between the manifold light duties that occupied him all day at +Red Hill, and the evenings spent in assisting Fannie in her business +behind the counter of Leroux's shop, and for which he now received a +regular payment, in consideration of the fact that he stood at the post +and performed the duties of Monsieur Leroux, whose age obliged him to +leave the shop at an early hour of the evening, just as the custom was +beginning to grow brisk. Thus they were enabled to add many little +comforts to their humble home, and also to lay up a trifle against the +chance of darker days. + +Every alternate Sabbath they attended meeting together at Magnolia +Grove, and afterward dined with Phædra at Red Hill, and went home at +night; and, on the intervening Sabbath, when there was no service at the +Grove Mission, Phædra would come into town and go to church with the +children at the Bethel (colored) Mission of M----, and afterward take +dinner with them, before returning home in the evening. + +Thus passed the halcyon days of spring, preceding the awful moral storm +which ended in that "household wreck." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +PROPHETIC. + + The look, the air that frets thy sight, + May be a token that below, + The soul has closed in deadly fight + With some eternal fiery foe, + Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace, + And cast thee, shuddering, on thy face. + + +Spring in the South is a season of the most enchanting beauty. Forests +of odoriferous, blossoming trees, thickets of sweet-scented shrubs, and +fields of fragrant wild flowers fill the atmosphere with their delicious +perfume; climbing vines twine around the trees and overgrow the fences, +transforming them into arbors and to hedges of flowering plants of +matchless bloom and fragrance; while myriads of bright-winged birds +enliven all the sunny air with their glad melody. It is a season and a +scene no lover of nature could look upon without rapture. + +But the summer, with its advanced luxuriance of beauty, too often brings +malaria, pestilence and death. + +The promise of the spring to one in Valentine's condition had been too +fair to last for any length of time. Clouds began to gather over his +head. First, as Mr. Waring went no longer to town to spend his evenings, +it followed as a matter of course that he frequently required +Valentine's services at that hour at home. On inquiring for his servant +upon these occasions, and receiving the answer that Valentine had gone +to town to see his wife, he would grow angry, and exclaim, with an oath: + +"I have never had any good of that boy since his foolish marriage. In +town every night! This thing is getting to be insufferable, and shall be +stopped." + +And one morning, when Valentine returned, Mr. Waring told him that he +was not to take himself off to see his wife every evening, but that in +future he must ask permission to do so. + +Now, anger was Valentine's easily besetting sin, the one dangerous +internal foe he had constantly to combat. Now, indignation rose and +swelled in his bosom. And not from fear or from policy, but from +Christian principle, he strove to quell its ragings. He answered only +with a bow, and left the room for that silent, solitary struggle with +himself that no eye but the Father's ever witnessed. He obeyed the +mandate; it was galling, but he obeyed it; and each evening presented +himself to his master with something like this style of request, which, +as a compromise between asking a permission and intimating a purpose, +was not so difficult to make: + +"I have got through all my business here for to-day, sir, and am ready +to go to town if you don't want me." + +"Very well; take yourself off; only be sure to come back early in the +morning, to be ready when I rise," would be the frequent answer. "The +proud rascal! I believe he would almost as lief die as ask leave to do +anything; but it is my own fault; I have treated that boy like a +brother, until he is so spoiled as to be quite above his condition," Mr. +Waring would add, half jesting, half in earnest. + +But sometimes, when Valentine asked, leave would not be granted him; and +this occasioned an irregularity in his nightly attendance at the shop, +that finally obliged Monsieur Leroux to say to him: + +"Valentine, my man, unless you can attend better, I shall have to +discharge you altogether, and get a full clerk, which would be better +anyway, as he could be here all the time." + +Full of trouble at this prospect, Valentine the next day mentioned this +to his master, who, happening to be in an ill-humor, answered: + +"What the fiend is all that to me, sir? Old Leroux is liable to +prosecution for hiring your services at all without a permit." + +"But it was in over-hours--in my own time," remonstrated Valentine. + +"Your own time! Pray, sir, what time is that? I have yet to learn that +you have any time of your own!" + +Valentine suppressed his indignation, but that was as much as he could +do. He dared not trust himself to reply. + +"Leave the room! The sight of you irritates me. And be very thankful +that I do not prosecute your friend, old Leroux, with his mulatto clerks +and shop-girls! These beasts of Frenchmen have not the slightest idea of +the distinctions of race." + +Silently, Valentine left the room, to retire and have another wrestle +with his pride and anger. + +That evening he was not permitted to go to see Fannie; and, from that +time the permission to visit her was less and still less frequently +granted. + +Finally, old Leroux, who had long delayed the step for poor Fannie's +sake, hired a clerk, and Valentine lost his over-hour situation, and +with it many fair though humble hopes and prospects. He was much +depressed; but Fannie bid him do right, trust in God, and cheer up; and +said that she would probably get her own salary raised, and that they +would get on very well. + +Now, whether his marriage had changed his feelings toward Valentine, or +whether it was Valentine's marriage that in time and effect grew +displeasing to him, or whether both these causes combined to produce an +estrangement between the master and the man, I know not; but certainly +their mutual relations were changing for the worse. The master grew less +considerate and indulgent, and more arrogant and exacting toward his +poor servant; and that servant had a daily struggle with his own +indignant sense of outraged manhood. Still, Fannie soothed him. + +"Govern your temper, dear Valley, and God will bless you. Never mind me +and Coralie; we shall get along well enough; and we can see each other +Sunday at church, and Thursday at prayer-meeting, anyhow," she would +say, cheerfully. + +True, Fannie had her baby always with her, and that was a great comfort +to the youthful wife and mother for the absence of her husband. They +might have looked for some aid from the intercession of Mrs. Waring; but +alas! for fair and false hopes, her romantic interest in little Fannie +that had been but a frail spring blossom of her own happy bridehood, +soon withered; and, added to that, her influence with her husband had +waned with her honeymoon. So, between her indifference and her +inability, together with her ignorance of the facts--for Valentine +seldom had sight or speech alone with his mistress, or, when he had, was +too proud and reserved to complain, and Fannie, from native modesty, +would rather endure than plead--little aid was to be expected from Mrs. +Waring's interference in behalf of the young couple. + +The gathering clouds of fate darkened and deepened over the head of the +doomed boy. His little home in the city was visited with sickness. + +First, his little Coralie was taken ill. No father in this world, +whatever his nature or degree might be, ever loved his infant with a +more passionate attachment, than poor Valentine felt toward his little +Coralie; she was the darling of his heart and eyes, the light and joy of +his present, and the hope of his future. It was for her own sake that he +wished to save money--to educate her. Daily he thanked God that she was +born free. + +Now, his bright, beautiful Coralie was pining away under a complication +of infant disorders. + +A sick and suffering child is one of the most distressing objects in +nature, especially when that child is but a babe, and cannot, as the +nurses say, "tell where its trouble is," and can only look at you with +its pleading eyes, as if imploring the relief you cannot give. You who +have ever had an ill and suffering infant, always pining and moaning +with its aching head, too heavy for the slender, attenuated neck, +dropped upon its nurse's or its mother's shoulder, yet still often +looking up with a faint little smile to greet you when you come to take +it, or piteously holding out its emaciated arms to coax you back when +you are called to leave it--you can estimate the distress of the poor +young father, living three miles distant from the sick child, that might +at any hour grow suddenly worse, and die; and only permitted to visit it +occasionally at the pleasure of others. + +Fannie's health, never strong, began to fail; loss of rest night after +night, with the sick child, joined to the fatiguing duties of her +situation, which she was still obliged to retain as a means of support, +exhausted her strength. + +The poor infant, bereft all day of both parents, and left in charge of +an old, free negress, that lived near the shop, had the sad, unnatural +grief of home-sickness added to its other suffering, and so pined and +failed day by day. + +This state of things lasted for some weeks. + +After a night of suffering to the child and sleeplessness to herself, +Fannie would rise in the morning, and, though nearly blind, giddy and +fainting from habitual loss of rest, she would set her room in order, +eat a morsel of breakfast, bathe and dress the little one, collect all +the articles it would need, and prepare its food and medicine for the +day; and, lastly, dress herself with neatness and taste, for it was very +necessary that the shop girl should look as well as possible; take her +sick babe in one arm, and its basket of necessaries in the other, lock +her door, and set out for the shop, stopping on her way to leave the +child and its basket at Aunt Peggy's hut, where there was no cradle or +rocking-chair, but, what was perhaps as well, a pallet laid in the +coolest part of the room. + +Here Fannie would sit and rest a moment, while she nursed her child, and +then she would lay it down upon the pallet and leave it, thankful if the +little creature happened to be sleeping peacefully, wretched if it +chanced to be wakeful and to be wailing after its mother. + +One morning, when Fannie had lingered beyond her hour for going to the +store, trying to put to sleep or to pacify the suffering child, she +finally laid it down upon the pallet, and, with many kisses and soothing +words and promises to come back soon, tore herself away; but, just as +she reached the door the little one struggled upon its feeble limbs, +staggered toward her, and fell, with its weak hand clasping her skirts. + +Fannie burst into tears, took the babe up in her arms, sat down upon a +chair, and, pressing the little sufferer to her bosom, caressed and +soothed it, and promised never to leave it again; and, speaking to the +old woman, said: + +"Please go over to Leroux's, Aunt Peggy, and tell monsieur that I can't +come to-day on account of poor little Coralie; and I don't know when I +can come--so he may, if he chooses, look out for somebody else to fill +my place." + +The prudent old woman expostulated, asked Fannie what she would do for a +living if she gave up her situation at Leroux's, and advised her to hold +fast, saying that the child might die, and then, there! she couldn't get +the place again so easy as she had lost it. + +But Fannie was firm. Pressing the infant closer to her bosom, she +replied: Yes; that little Coralie might die, and then the thought of how +often she had left the poor baby grieving for her mother would break her +heart; that it was no use for any one to talk; come what might, she +never would leave the sick child again. + +Aunt Peggy carried the message, and brought back the reply that Madam +Leroux had always expected this trouble to come upon Fannie; that she +had always said so; and that Fannie would find her words true, that this +was only the beginning of the troubles she would meet, for having been +so lost to her own interest as to marry a handsome slave man, whose very +hands were not his own, to help her. + +Fannie said that she would trust in God, unto death and beyond death; +for that often she thought the best way in which He could right His +children's wrongs, and comfort their afflictions, was by taking them +from this sad world to His own heaven. + +Truly, the poor young creature needed all this faith to enable her to +bear the troubles that were, and those that were to come. She carried +little Coralie back to her own poor room. She sought out what plain +sewing and clear starching she could get to do in her own home; but this +was very little, now that so many of the ladies and gentlemen among whom +she hoped to get employment had left the city for the Northern +watering-places. It brought her a very scanty income; and as, out of +this, room rent, fuel, light, food, clothing, medicine and other +incidental expenses had to be paid, and as, besides, she would not +suffer little Coralie to want any comfort, or even any luxury, that she +could procure for her by her own exertions and self-denial, it followed, +of course, that she herself went without a sufficiency of the real +necessaries of life; and so, privation being added to her other ills, +accelerated the decline of her health. + +Valentine could only come to see them once a week. He would come Sunday +morning, spend the day in nursing his darling, tear himself from her +clinging baby arms, and return, almost broken-hearted, at night. + +This was the condition of things when the yellow fever made its +appearance at M----. This was nothing new--the pestilence was no +stranger, it was an annual visitor at M----. + +But this summer the fever appeared in its most terrible aspect, with all +the malign, virulent and fatal characteristics of the plague. + +I am not about to harrow your feelings or my own with any minute details +of the misery that ensued as the pestilence advanced; of the physical +agony, from pain, fever, thirst and famine; of the wretchedness, from +bereavement, poverty and desertion; of the mental anguish, from terror, +grief, horror and despair. The pestilence brings in its dread train +almost every form of physical and moral evil; at the same time, +providentially, it calls forth to combat these the most exalted virtues +in the human character. You have only to call to mind the ravages of +the yellow fever throughout the South in the past to estimate the +horrors of the pestilence at M----. The people by hundreds fled the +city; those that remained, by thousands died. + +The population, reduced to less than one-half, consisted chiefly of the +poorer classes, who could not get away, and of those heroic souls whom a +high sense of Christian duty or simple humanity had retained in or +brought to the scene of misery. + +A dense, copper-colored cloud hung low, like a pall, over the +plague-stricken city; its air was considered deadly to the newcomer that +breathed it. + +All intercourse between M---- and the surrounding plantations was +interdicted. The greatest anxiety was felt by the planters, lest the +fever should break out in their families, or, where it would be more +likely to make its first appearance, among the slaves; the greatest +precautions were taken to avert such a dread misfortune. The masters and +their families confined themselves strictly to their own domains, and +the slaves were positively forbidden to approach the city, or even the +highways leading thitherward. As many of the neighboring negroes had +friends or relatives living in the city, and as their affections are +known to be rather obstinate and daring, to insure safety, a voluntary +police was organized by the planters, whose duty it was, in turn, to +guard the highways, and see that no negro passed without a written +permit from the master or mistress. + +Preventives of disease and disinfecting agents were diligently sought +after. Alcohol, in the form of wine, brandy and whisky, was supposed to +be a sovereign safeguard against the pestilence. I do not say that it +was laid down as a medical dogma that an habitual inebriate enjoyed +immunity from contagion; but I do say, what will probably shock my +temperance readers, that all persons were counseled by their physicians +to keep themselves always slightly under the influence of alcohol, so +long as the pestilence should last. And most people took the advice, +finding, at least, something in the half-stimulating, half-stupefying +effects of liquor to brave or dull the sense of danger. Wine and brandy +were freely used in the planter's family; whisky was freely circulated +among the negroes of the plantation. Some among them of the Methodist +persuasion and the temperance society demurred at breaking their pledge; +but even these, when made to understand that the whisky was to be taken +as medicine, by the advice of a physician, felt their consciences set at +rest upon the subject, and never was doctor's stuff swallowed with less +repugnance than their grog was taken, three times a day. + +Valentine held to his principles; he would not break his pledge. In vain +for a long time his master, and even his mistress, remonstrated with +him. + +Circumstances altered cases; times were changed; self-preservation was +the first law of nature; in view of the present danger, his pledge was +not binding; "for if he kept his pledge, he might lose his life," they +would argue. + +"That was the Lord's affair; all he had to do was to keep his pledge; +and if he should die, so much the better; life had no charms for him," +Valentine would reply. + +And in truth the wretched young man was much to be compassionated. His +wife and child alone and helpless in the midst of the plague, exposed to +the united horrors of pestilence, famine and solitary death from +desertion; himself forbidden to seek them at their utmost need. Thrice +had he escaped and sought the city, and as often had he fallen into the +hands of the voluntary police; they did not maltreat him, except +inasmuch as they would not suffer him to pass without a permit from his +master, and this permit could not be obtained. He could think of +nothing but his wife and child. Were they living, and suffering +unimagined miseries? Were they among the uncounted dead, whose rude +coffins lay one upon another, three or four feet deep, not in graves, +but in trenches? He did not even know. But all his thoughts by day, and +his fitful dreams by night, were haunted with the forms of Fannie and of +Coralie. He saw little Coralie in every phase of memory, and hope, and +fear. He saw her bright and beautiful, as she had been in the sweet +springtime; he saw her pale and pining, as he had seen her last in her +wasting sickness; and he saw her lying dead in her coffin, and woke with +a loud cry of anguish. His heart, his spirit, seemed broken. + +Seeing his haggard and despairing looks, his mistress expostulated with +him, and counseled the use of wine or brandy, saying that the depressing +effects of the atmosphere were felt by everybody, even by those living +in the country; that it affected all persons with despondency, causing +them to look only on the darkest side of all things; and that it was +only to be counteracted by the stimulating effects of alcohol. + +At last Valentine followed this counsel and took the prescribed +"medicine." Not to prevent contagion did he take it, though that purpose +would have exonerated him from the charge of a broken pledge; but to +dull the poignant sense of suffering, which was greater than he could +bear. + +Oh, fatal day that he placed again to his lips the maddening glass! All +have seen how dangerous is such a relapse. It is generally a sudden and +hopeless fall. It was so in the case of this poor fellow. He took the +first glass, and, liking its effects, took a second and a third before +stopping. If he awoke in the morning to remember his troubles, he drank +all day to forget them, and fell at night into a heavy sleep. He +zealously followed the medical prescription--nay, he quite overdid it, +and kept himself not "slightly" under the influence of alcohol. And in a +short space of time, if his master or his mistress remonstrated with +him, it was not for total abstinence from intoxicating spirits, but for +the opposite extreme of an habitual intemperance. Such was the state of +affairs at Red Hill for a few weeks, during which Valentine had no +direct or certain intelligence of Fannie and his little child. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CAIN. + + I pray thee take thy fingers from my throat: + For though I am not splenetive and rash, + Yet have I in me something dangerous, + Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!--SHAKESPEARE. + + +One morning, near the last of August--yet, stay! Such mornings dawn +unheralded by any sign to warn us what the fated day shall bring forth +ere its close. Such mornings dawn as other mornings do--the doomed men +and women rise as other people do--as you or I arose this morning, upon +the dread day that unpremeditated crime or sudden death shall fix their +mortal doom forever. + +That morning Mr. Waring arose, feeling rather unwell and irritable, +which was no unusual circumstance of late, for he was chafing between +two conflicting interests, one of which called him away, while the other +bound him at home. He was very anxious, with his wife, to leave the +neighborhood of the infected city; but, in the present condition of +affairs he hesitated to trust the plantation and negroes to the care of +the overseer. + +Valentine arose with the same heavy heart that had marked his waking +hours for many days, yet dressed himself and combed his raven black +curls with the habitual regard to neatness and beauty that had become a +second nature. And it was curious to see how this habit of neatness and +elegance lasted through all the darkest hours of his life. + +Phædra got up and attended to the arrangement of the house and the +preparation of breakfast with her usual exactness. + +Mrs. Waring, suffering from the debilitating effects of the weather, +indulged herself in the morning, and breakfasted in bed. + +No foreboding was felt by any one; no token in sky or air, or +circumstances without, of presentiment within their hearts, warned them +of calamity, crime and sudden death at hand. That morning, after +breakfast, Valentine strolled listlessly out toward the public road +leading to the town. It was his daily habit. It had been commenced in +the hope of meeting some one from the city who might be able to give him +news of Fannie and her little child. And though he never met with +success, he still rambled thither every day, as well from force of habit +as from the faint hope that he might yet hear of them. He strolled to +the highway, met his usual ill-success, and, after lingering an hour or +two, sauntered dejectedly toward home. + +When he reached a lane that separated his master's plantation on the +right from Mr. Hewitt's on the left, his attention was arrested by the +sound of a low voice. He listened. + +"Hish-sh! Walley, come here--here to the gap." + +The voice proceeded from behind the hedge, formed by a thick growth of +Spanish daggers, that completely covered the fence on the left of the +lane. There was a small broken place in it, toward which Valentine +sauntered indifferently. He saw on the other side the huge head of a +gigantic negro, a jet-black, lumbering, awkward, good-natured monster +enough, who belonged to Mr. Hewitt, and who sported the imposing +cognomen of "governor." + +"Well, Governor, is that you? What do you want with me?" + +"Hish-sh, Walley, don't talk so loud! our oberseer ain't far off. +Brudder 'Lisha, he bin out from town." + +"Well!" exclaimed Valentine, with breathless interest, bending forward. + +"W'en you hear from Fannie las'?" + +"Not for two weeks. Why do you ask? Have you heard from her? Speak! oh, +for Heaven's sake, speak!" exclaimed Valentine, breathlessly. + +"Fannie done got de feber." + +"Oh, God!" + +"Brudder 'Lisha, he done bin 'ere dis mornin' and tell we-dem." + +"Oh, Heaven! oh, when was she taken? Who is with her? Is she----" + +"Dunno nuffin 'tall 'bout it, 'cept 'tis she's got de feber. Brudder +'Lisha, he done bin dere to her place, an' heern it." + +"Where is Elisha?" + +"Done gone right straight back to town." + +"And that is all the satisfaction you can give me," cried Valentine, +beside himself with distress. + +"Yaw, yaw! I trought how I'd watch arter you, and tell you--'long as +you'd like to hear it. Hish-sh-sh! Walley, stoop down here close, till I +whisper to you." + +"What now!" exclaimed Valentine, in new alarm, bending his ear to the +huge negro's lips. + +"Hish-sh-sh! Walley, I wish how it wur my 'ooman as had de yaller +feber!" + +"Wretch!" + +"An' wish we-dem's white nigger oberseer had it too!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"And I wish dey bofe might die long of it." + +"Wretch! I say again!" + +"Trufe, brudder! dat's me jes'! I'se de wretch! an' I wish how dis same +wretch might hab de feber long o' de oder two, an' how I might die long +of 'em, and how we might all go up to Marster's trone, and have de case +'cided whose wife dis 'ooman is for to be." + +"Governor! What! do you mean to say that the new overseer is tampering +with your wife's fidelity to you?" + +"Hish-sh! he ain't fur off. Dunno what de debbil you mean wid your big +words. But she lub fine dress, an' he gib it to her; she berry putty, +mos' white, you know, an' he sen' me way off to de furres' fiel' to +work." + +"Why don't you talk to her?" + +"'Taint no use; she 'ny eberyting." + +"Why don't you speak to your master?" + +"'Tain't no use; he won't nebber hear no 'plaints gin de oberseer." + +"I am very sorry for you, poor fellow; and I would like to give you +comfort and counsel, but I must hurry away from you, and try to get +leave to go to town, and see poor dear Fannie. If I were you, Governor, +I would speak to Major Hewitt upon this subject. He never would permit +such a wrong done you." + +"'Taint no use, I tell yer! But nebber min', Walley, listen yer; some ob +dese yere days I fixes him!" + +Valentine started at the demoniac look that, in a man usually so mild, +accompanied these vague words; and, bidding the negro a hasty +good-morning, he ran along the lane until he reached the house. + +His own heart and brain were wild with grief and alarm as he hastened to +the presence of his master, whom he did not doubt would now, in this +extremity, permit him to go to the city. + +Mr. Waring, in an irritable frame of mind, was walking up and down the +front piazza, as Valentine stepped upon the floor. + +"Well, what now?" he exclaimed, testily, at the sight of the young man's +agitated countenance. + +"My wife, sir; she has got the fever." + +"Sorry to hear it, but--how did you hear it, sir? I hope no one from +that place has had the temerity to set foot upon these premises, in face +of the prohibition?" + +"No, sir; I happened to meet with Governor, Major Hewitt's man, and he +had seen an acquaintance of ours from the city, who came from Fannie's +house this morning and brought the news." + +"I wonder Major Hewitt does not take better care of his own interests +than to permit stragglers from the city to infest his place. He will +bring the pestilence among us before we know where we are," said Mr. +Waring, angrily. + +"But, Fannie, sir--my poor wife----" + +"Well, what of her? I am sorry, of course--really sorry, Valentine. It +is a pity you ever got married; if you had not, neither you nor Fannie +would have had so much trouble. It was a very foolish piece of +business!" + +"Perhaps it was, sir; but people who love each other have a sort of +propensity to get married. It can't be helped, I suppose; it's a way +they've got." + +"And a bad way--very bad way--that I ought never to have sanctioned." + +"Nor imitated, sir!" + +"You are an impertinent fellow! But I overlook that. There is some +difference, I should judge, between you and me, and I certainly ought +never to have consented to your taking that girl." + +"It is too late to say that now, sir!" said Valentine, with a sigh so +heavy that Mr. Waring inquired, quickly: + +"So you repent it, do you?" + +"No; God Almighty knows I do not!" replied Valentine, with sorrowful +earnestness; adding, "but, oh, sir, I am losing precious time. I came +here to ask you for a permit to go to town and see my wife." + +"A permit! A permit to go to town, and to visit a woman ill with the +very pestilence we are all doing our best to guard against? A permit to +go there, and take the fever just as sure as you go, and bring back and +spread the contagion among hundreds, whom we are all doing our best to +guard from the pestilence! Impossible, Valentine! I wonder you could be +so unreasonable as to ask it!" + +"Unreasonable that I should want to go and see my suffering wife?" + +"Yes--under the circumstances. Yes, I am sorry for her, Valentine, and +sorry for you, though I cannot say that your manner is very respectful. +Still, I am very sorry for you; and if it were possible for me to do +anything for your relief, I would do it--as it is, I regret that I can +do nothing." + +"Oh, sir! Master Oswald, you could let me go to town," pleaded +Valentine. + +"At the imminent hazard of your own life, and the all but certainty of +bringing the pestilence upon this plantation." + +"All do not get the fever who are exposed to its influence; neither do +they always spread contagion into the healthy places they chance to +visit," reasoned the young man. + +"The risk is too great," replied the master, curtly. + +"Would you think it too great if your own wife were the one concerned, +sir?" argued Valentine. + +"Be more respectful, sirrah! There is some difference, I should say!" +retorted the master, angrily. + +"Yes, there is a difference!" cried Valentine; "and when I see anything +to respect----" Suddenly he stopped. Swift as lightning came the thought +that if he refrained from provoking his master now and came to him an +hour hence, when he should be in a better humor, the prayer that he now +denied he might then grant. Controlling his rising indignation, he +bowed, turned abruptly, and went off. + +"Impudent rascal! he was just about to say something that I should have +had to knock him down for; and then he thought better of it, and +stopped--it's well he did! Poor fellow, I am sorry for him, too; but it +is all his own fault! If he were not so presumptuous, he would not feel +so badly. That is the very deuce of it; for that prevents him from +seeing that there is a difference." Such were the reflections of Mr. +Waring as he continued to pace up and down the front piazza. + +Valentine has mastered his anger, but he could not control the terrible +anxiety that preyed upon his heart; Fannie suffering, Fannie dying, +deserted, alone; little Coralie perishing from neglect--these were the +torturing visions that maddened his brain. + +He went and told Phædra, who wept bitterly at the sad story; but yet +sought to comfort her son, and inspire hope, by promising to go herself +and tell Mrs. Waring, and get her to intercede with her husband for +Valentine. + +This was done, but with little success; for, though Mrs. Waring was +moved to compassion, and went to her husband and besought him to take +compassion upon Valentine and send him to seek his sick wife and trust +in Providence to avert all evil consequences, Mr. Waring was not only +firm in his refusal, but also exhibited no small degree of impatience at +her interference. Unwilling to inflict a hopeless disappointment upon +the poor fellow, Mrs. Waring tempered the report of her ill-success by +saying that, though Mr. Waring had now refused her petition, she still +hoped that he would think better of it and grant the permit. + +Yet all this time Fannie might be dying, and her child perishing for +want--every moment was precious beyond price! + +Phædra sought her master's presence, and pleaded with him--pleaded by +her long years of faithful service; by her devoted care of him in his +feeble infancy; by the days of his childhood, when he and Valentine were +playmates; by all the long years, as boys and as men, those two had +passed together, inseparable companions, until the marriage of each; by +her own devoted attachment to them; by his love for his own wife; by +every sweet affection and holy thought, to have compassion on her son, +his own foster-brother, and let him go and minister to his +sick--probably his dying wife. Phædra pleaded with more eloquence, but +with not more success, than the others. + +Some substances melt under the action of water--others, in the same +element, turn to stone. Instead of melting Mr. Waring's obduracy seemed +to ossify under the effects of tears and entreaties. He told Phædra, +firmly, that he did not mean to gratify one man at the hazard of +exposing many to contagion. And at the dinner-table, speaking partly in +justification of his own line of conduct, and partly in apology for the +manner in which he had met Mrs. Waring's intercession of the morning, he +said: + +"You emphasize this matter too much, madam; this Fannie is, after all, +but one sufferer among thousands; you also mistake in endowing these +creatures with the same acuteness of feelings that we possess; there is +a difference, madam! there is a difference! I wish I could make people +understand that there is a difference; neither Valentine nor Phædra seem +to have the slightest conception of this difference." + +"I must confess that in that respect I share their obtusity," remarked +madam, while Mr. Waring, in apparent self-satisfaction, went on with his +dinner. + +But was he really satisfied with himself? Who shall answer? + +Meantime, Valentine wandered about, consumed with sorrow and anxiety. +Doubtless, he would have run away and endeavored to reach the town, but +he knew how carefully the avenues thither were guarded, and how +desperate was the attempt that he had already thrice before made to +elude the police. It would involve a loss of several hours to make the +attempt, which, if it should fail, as it was altogether likely to do, +would entirely preclude him from all possible chance of seeing Fannie; +therefore he thought best to make another appeal to his master before +taking the last desperate step. He knew by experience that the hour +after dinner always found Oswald Waring in his best humor. + +It was then that he sought him. + +He found him--not, as before, walking in the front piazza, where the +afternoon sun was now shining, but reclining on a settee on the back +piazza that was now in the shade. He lay languidly fanning himself with +one hand, while he held a pamphlet that he was reading in the other. +Valentine had resolved not to provoke him by any hasty words, as he had +used in the morning. He resolved to govern his own spirit, to approach +his master respectfully, humbly. He did so. + +"Master Oswald!" + +Mr. Waring looked up, seemed annoyed, and hastened to exclaim: + +"Now, Valentine, if you have come again about going to see your sick +wife, and all that humbug, I tell you it is no manner of use. I have +been wearied nearly to death already with fruitless importunity, and I +want to hear no more of it." + +"Oh, sir!" + +"I tell you it is of no use to talk to me!" + +"Ah, but Master Oswald, only listen, even if you do no more!" pleaded +Valentine, in the fond hope of an ardent nature, that, judging from the +earnestness of his feelings, believes that if he gains a hearing, he +gains his cause. + +"Well, well! but I warn you it will be wasted breath." + +"Ah, sir, do not say so! I am nearly crazy with trouble, sir, when I +think of Fannie and poor little Coralie. She was very poor, sir, and the +child was very sick, even before the pestilence appeared. Now she has +the fever in that horrible place, with no one to help her or to take +care of the poor child. She may be dying, sir, even while I speak! she +may be dying, as many of the poor in that doomed city die, +deserted--alone--but for the famishing infant, whose cries add to her +own sufferings; she may have, as many of the poor have, famine and +burning thirst added to her fever, with no one near to place to her lips +a morsel of food or a drop of water! Think of it, sir! My God! do you +wonder that I am almost frantic?" cried the young man, earnestly, +beseechingly clasping his hands. + +"An imaginary picture altogether, Valentine," coolly remarked Mr. +Waring. + +"A common reality among the poor of the city, this dreadful season, sir. +You know it. You have heard it and read it. And she is very poor, sir. +She and the child often suffered, even before the pestilence came and +stopped her work with all the rest. Judge what her condition must be +now. Oh, my God!" cried the young man, in a voice of agony. + +"Your fears exaggerate the case, Valentine. There are almshouses and +hospitals, and sisters of charity and relief funds, and all those sort +of contrivances for the very poor." + +"Yet you know, for I heard you read it, that all these places are full, +that the relief fund failed to meet all the demands made upon it; and +you know, besides, that all the poor white people have to be taken care +of, before the colored people are thought of." + +"Of course, there is a difference, you know. I wish, once for all, you +would understand that fact," said Mr. Waring, replying only to the +latter proposition. Then he added: "Your fears magnify the danger; the +yellow fever cannot last forever, and she may get well." + +"Not one in ten do--I heard you say it." + +"Well, she may be that one." + +"What, sir, with all the privations of her lot?" + +"Yes, why not? You are out of sorts, Valentine. Go into +the house and take a drink; it will set you up--in the +dining-room--sideboard--left-hand corner--some fine old Otard +brandy--help yourself; it will make a man of you." + +"Thank you, Master Oswald; but that is not what I came for." + +"What the devil did you come for, then, you troublesome fellow; tell me, +and let me go to sleep," exclaimed the master, impatiently turning on +his settee. + +"I came to beg and to pray you, Master Oswald, for a permit to go to +town." + +"And you cannot have it, Valentine; so you may save your prayers. Once +for all, if you and your mother, and madam, your mistress, to back you, +were to pray from now till doomsday, you--cannot--have--it. Do you +understand?" said his master, stolidly. + +Valentine governed his own rising anger; it was as much as he could +possibly do; he could not suppress his grief, but broke forth in a voice +of agony: + +"Oh! Fannie, Fannie, Fannie, and her little child!" + +"D----n it, sir, stop your howling, or go somewhere else to howl. What +the devil is Fannie or her brat to me? If they are suffering, it is her +own fault; she had no business to marry a slave, whom she could never +expect to help her. And if their sufferings afflict you, it serves you +right; it is a just punishment for your cursed folly in marrying a free +woman, with no master to look after her or her children." + +"I will be silent! I will be silent!" thought Valentine, as he turned +from his master. + +A storm was raging in his breast; all the fierce passions of his nature +were aroused; rage, grief, terror and despair, made a hell of his bosom. +In passing through the hall, he suddenly dived into the dining-room, +poured out and drained a half tumbler of the strong brandy; then he +hurried through and out of the front door, to make ready for his flight. + +These preparations were soon made, and Valentine commenced his journey. + +The highway leading to M---- was bordered on one side by the hedge of +Spanish daggers that skirted the lower cotton-fields of Major Hewitt's +plantation, and on the other side by a causeway, that shut off an +extensive cypress swamp that formed a portion of Mr. Waring's estate. +Avoiding the middle of the road, Valentine leaped over the causeway, +and, though he waded half a leg deep in water, he made his way safely +under the shelter of the wall and the shadows of the trees. + +He had waded thus a mile, on his way toward the city, when the sound of +a voice, singing a Methodist hymn, and approaching from the opposite +direction, arrested his attention. He knew the hymn, and the voice, +that, in turn, sang and intoned it, and, by them, recognized, before +seeing, Elisha, the colored class-leader of his own congregation, the +man who had that morning brought the first news of Fannie's illness. A +new, intense anxiety seized him. Elisha came from the direction of the +city. "Might he not bring some later intelligence of Fannie?" he +inquired of himself, as he hastened to climb the wall of the causeway, +and peered through the parasitical vines that clung to the top, to +survey the scene. + +Lying between the dark-hued cypress swamp and the high hedge that shut +off the cotton-fields, the road stretched westward, one long, irregular +vista of yellow light shining in the last rays of the setting sun; and +solitary, except for the lonely figure of the old negro preacher, who, +stick and bundle slung across his shoulder, came trudging onward, and +beguiling his way with chanting the refrain of a wild, weird revival +hymn, in strange keeping with the time and circumstances: + + "Go, wake him! Go, wake him! + Judgment day is coming! + Go, wake him! Go, wake him! + Before it is too late!" + +"Hist! Elisha! Elisha!" called Valentine, in a hushed, eager voice. + +"Who dar?" exclaimed the old negro, starting back so forcibly that the +stick and bundle vibrated on his shoulder. + +"It is I, Elisha! Come here, quickly. How is Fannie, my dear, suffering +Fannie? Quickly! You have seen her since morning?" cried Valentine, in a +low, vehement tone. + +"Brudder Walley! I 'clar'; de werry man I lookin' arter!" said the old +creature, approaching the causeway. + +"Tell me! tell me! how is Fannie?" cried Valentine, impatiently. + +"Ah, chile! we-dem mus' 'mit to de will o' Marster," sighed the old +preacher. + +"For Heaven's sake, be plain! Is she--is she still living?" questioned +the youth, in an agony of anxiety. + +"Wur, when I lef' dar, chile! wur, when I lef' dar! Dat all I can say +for sartin 'bout libbin'." + +Valentine groaned deeply, asking: + +"When did you see her? Tell me everything--everything you know about +her." + +"I happen in dar, to 'quire arter her, 'bout noon. I fin' her all alone, +berry low, berry low, 'deed. Flies, like a cloud, settled on her face; +she onable to lif' her han', drive 'em 'way; lip bake wid thurst; and +she onable han' herse'f a drap o' water." + +"Oh, God! and the child--the child!" + +"'Prawlin' on de floor, kivered with flies an' dirt, cryin' low an' +weak, like, for hunder." + +"Elisha, I must hurry; I must fly! Turn back, and walk a little way with +me, while you tell me more; but if you see any one coming or going on +the road, whistle, to warn me, for I have no permit," said Valentine, +dropping behind the causeway, and plunging along through the water +toward the city. + +They could no longer see each other, and their conway. + +"How you gwine cross bridge widout 'mit, Brudder Walley?" + +"I don't know; I must try. Tell me more about Fannie." + +"Well, you know, 'out my tellin' you, how I tuk up de chile offen de +flure, an' wash it, an' dress it, and git milk, and feed it. An' how I +go for water, and wash her face, and give her drink, an' fan de flies +offen her, till she come to her min', like; an' how I'd stay 'long o' +her till dis time, ony when she come to herself, she put her two hans +togedder, so she did, de chile, and begged an' prayed me to come arter +you, her 'dear Walley,' to come an' see her once more 'fore she died, +an' take de poor baby home long o' you. An' so, dough I done travel dis +yer yode once afore to-day, I takes my staff in my han' an' I sets off; +an', franks be to de Lor', dey can't sturve me from trav'lin' de +highway, dough I daren't now-a-day put my fut offin it, or onto one o' +der plantashunes. So, now, bress de Lor', here I is; an' long as I wur +so hoped up as to fall in 'long o' you, all I got to do now is, to +'company of you back to de city." + +In a few earnest, fervent words, Valentine thanked his friend, and then, +saving all his breath, and concentrating all his energies, in silence he +toiled on, knee-deep in water and ankle-deep in mud, through the cypress +swamp toward the city. + +Old Daddy Elisha took up the burden of his hymn, and sang or intoned +various portions of that weird melody as he walked. + +Valentine, behind the causeway, in the shadow and the silence, passed +unquestioned; but Elisha was frequently hailed by some vigilant member +of the voluntary police. If personally known to the questioner, he was +allowed to pass; if not, he was required to show his papers; a light had +to be struck to examine them, and all this took up so much time, that +although Elisha had the high road to walk upon, and Valentine the swamp +to wade through, the latter far outstripped the former, and arrived +first at the bridge over the A---- River. + +To cross this bridge was the only means from this direction of reaching +the city; but the bridge was guarded at both ends by the patrol, or +voluntary police; to elude their vigilance was the only desperate part +of Valentine's undertaking. + +The river was broad, deep and strong in current; no one had ever dreamed +of the feat of swimming across it. It was bordered on this side by a +marsh so deep that, in the attempt to pass it, a man of moderate size +and strength must have been swallowed up. + +The bridge was a continuation of the road and causeway, flanked by +parapets extending across the river, and joining the road on the +opposite side. + +Valentine never thought of the impossible feat of wading the marsh and +swimming the river, neither did he dream of attempting to cross the +bridge in the very face of the patrol guard that twice before had +arrested him; but he projected a scheme almost equally wild and +hopeless. This plan was to cross the river by clambering along the water +side of this parapet--a plan involving less risk of discovery by the +patrol, certainly--but undertaken at the most imminent peril of death, +by losing hold and dropping into the river below. + +Valentine waded on through the cypress swamp, until the trees grew more +sparsely, and the mud under the water became deeper and more treacherous +as it merged into the marsh nearest the river. + +The poor fellow then clambered along, now on the broken causeway, his +eyes all on fire with vigilance, and now dropping down into the swamp, +and so in more peril and difficulty he went on, until he reached the +place where the marsh merged into the river, and the road and causeway +into the bridge and parapet. + +Here he heard the patrol guard in their little guard-house laughing and +talking over their drink, for they, too, had to keep the pestilence at +bay with alcohol. + +Here he attempted to gain the parapet, and in doing so, set in motion +some alarm bell, at whose first peals he found himself suddenly +surrounded, and in the hands of the patrol. + +"My good fellow, that feat has been tried once before, so we prepared +for the second, you understand," said one of his captors. + +They all knew Valentine; with most of them he was a great favorite, +though to others he was, for the sole reason of his natural superiority, +very obnoxious. + +While Valentine stood overwhelmed with despair, he discerned Major +Hewitt among the party; and gathering some hope from the presence of +that gentleman, he clasped his hands and appealing to him, said: + +"Oh, Major Hewitt, you know me, sir! You have known me from childhood! +Your dear lady knew me, too, and was very kind to the poor quadroon boy, +when he was a child. And you know my poor little Fannie, too! Sir, my +heart is breaking--that is nothing, but she is dying! Sir, my wife is +dying, alone--not of the fever only, but of starvation, of thirst, of +neglect, of bereavement of all aid; and she sends to me, sir--sends to +pray me to come and see her poor face for the last time, and take her +orphan baby from her dead arms, lest it die, too! You are powerful, +Major Hewitt! Speak the word, and these gentlemen will let me pass!" + +"Valentine, my poor boy, if your sorrow had not crazed you, you would +understand at once that I cannot do so! But I tell you what I can do for +you; I can persuade these gentlemen from detaining you in the +guard-house, and I can write a note of intercession to your master. +Return to him, Valentine--take my horse! There he stands; go to Mr. +Waring; tell him what you have told me! Give him my note; he will not +refuse you the permit, and when you have it, ride back hither as fast as +you please," said the major. + +He scribbled a note in haste. Valentine mounted the horse, received the +missive, and, thanking the major from the depths of his heart, rode off. +He met and hailed Elisha, told him in a few words what had passed, and +added: + +"Go on to the city, Elisha! Go to my dear Fannie! Tell her, if she can +still hear your words, that I shall be with her in two hours, or die in +the effort. No! do not tell her a word to alarm her! Say I will +certainly be with her in two hours! For I will! despite of earth and +h--ll, I will!" + +Valentine galloped swiftly toward home, reached the lawn gate, sprang +from his horse, secured the bridle, and hastened up to the house. There +was no one in front; he entered the hall, looked into the dining-room; +it was empty; he ran in, poured out a glass of brandy, drank it at a +draught, and passed through the house to the back piazza, where he found +his master, pacing up and down the floor. Mr. Waring had grown heated +and angry between the frequent potations and the irritations of the day. + +"Well, sir!" he said, turning abruptly to Valentine, "what now? How dare +you enter my presence again, after your insolent conduct of this +afternoon?" + +"Master Oswald, I am very sorry if, in my great trouble, I was surprised +into saying anything wrong. Will you read this note, sir?" said +Valentine, trying, for Fannie's dear sake, to quell the raging storm in +his bosom. + +Oswald Waring took the note with a jerk, tore it open impatiently, and, +casting his eyes over it with a scornful curl of his lip, tossed it +away, exclaiming: + +"Tush! Major Hewitt is a fool! Where did you get that, sir?" + +Valentine hesitated. + +"I ask you where you got that note, sir?" + +"From Major Hewitt's own hand, Master Oswald," replied Valentine, at +last. + +"By ----! don't prevaricate with me, sir! Where did you see Major +Hewitt, then? That is the question!" + +Again Valentine was silent. + +"What the demon do you mean, sir, by treating my questions with this +contemptuous silence?" demanded Mr. Waring, angrily. + +"Master Oswald!" began Valentine, seriously, impressively; "I will +answer your question truly; but, first, let me beg you, let me pray you, +by all your hopes of salvation, to listen to me favorably; for I swear +to you by all my faith in Heaven, that it is the very last time I will +make the appeal!" + +"I am glad to hear it, you troublesome, confoundedly spoiled rascal! For +it is the very last minute that I will bear to be trifled with!" + +"I met Major Hewitt on the bridge----" + +"On the bridge! On the bridge! Why, you insolent scoundrel; do you dare +to stand there and tell me to my face that, in direct violation of my +command, you attempted to go to town?" + +"Sir! sir! listen to me! my worst fears are confirmed! My poor Fannie is +dying, as I feared she might die--alone! deserted! dying not only of +pestilence, but of famine and thirst, and every extremity of +wretchedness! She sent a faithful messenger, praying me to come and see +her once more, but once more, to close her eyes and receive the orphan +child. Oh! could I disregard such an appeal as that? would not any man, +or, I was about to say, any beast, risk life, and more than life, if +possible, to obey such a sacred call? I would have periled my soul! Can +you blame me?" + +"They turned you back! They did right! Thank Heaven that I am disposed +to consider that sufficient punishment under the circumstances and am +ready to forget your fault. Go, leave me, sir--stop! into the house! not +out of it! you're not to be trusted, sir." + +A volcano seemed burning and raging in the young man's breast; +nevertheless, he controlled himself with wonderful strength, while he +still pleaded his cause. + +"Major Hewitt felt my position, sir! He had compassion on me, and wrote +that note. Give heed to it, sir! The time may come when, on your own +deathbed, or by the sickbed of one you love, and fear to lose, and pray +for, it may console and bless you to remember the mercy you may now show +me; the Good Being has said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall +obtain mercy.' Give me the permit, sir! let me go and comfort my dying +Fannie! Oh! I do beseech you!" + +"Will you have done worrying me? Major Hewitt is an old dotard! The +mercy you selfishly crave for yourself would be cruelty to all the other +negroes! Once more, and for the last time, I tell you, and I swear it by +all the demons, I will not give you the permit!" + +"Then, by the justice of Heaven, I will go without it!" + +"What?" + +"I will go without it! If I cannot pass the bridge, I will swim the +river! Aye, if it were a river of fire!" exclaimed Valentine, losing all +self-control, and breaking into fury. + +"Why, you audacious villain! You shall not stir from this house!" + +"Neither man on earth nor demon from h--ll shall stop me!" broke forth +the man, in a voice of thunder, striding off. + +In an instant Mr. Waring had intercepted him, holding up a light cane, +and exclaiming: + +"Stand back, you villain!" + +Valentine came on with the evident intention of attempting to pass. + +Mr. Waring met him with a sudden, sharp blow with his cane across the +face. + +And as Valentine, giddy and blinded for an instant with the blood that +streamed from the cut, staggered backward, Mr. Waring, by another heavy +stroke with the loaded end of the cane, felled him to the floor, and +proceeded to follow up his victory with several other severe blows. + +But Valentine was struggling to his feet, and at last sprang up--reeled, +righted himself, cleared the blood from his eyes, glared around; and +just as Mr. Waring had broken his cane with a final stroke over his +shoulder, Valentine saw and seized a heavy oaken stool, and, aiming one +fatal blow with all his force, struck his master in the face! The heavy +leg of the oaken stool, aimed with all the strength of madness, crushed +the eye--entered the brain, and Oswald Waring fell, never to rise again! + +But Valentine was maddened! frenzied! and showered blows upon the dying +man like one unconscious of his acts, until the agonized screams of +women brought him slightly to his senses, when he found himself seized +between Mrs. Waring, who was, amid her frantic shrieks, trying to pull +him away, and Phædra, who was crying, distractedly: "Oh! Valentine, +you've murdered him!" + +He glared from one to the other, in the amazed, bewildered manner of one +half wakened from a horrible dream; looked at the mutilated form before +him; looked at the strange weapon in his hand--the foot-stool, with its +legs clotted with blood and hair; and then, with a violent start, and an +awful change of aspect, as if, for the first time the reality, the +horror and the magnitude of his crime had burst upon his consciousness, +he stood an instant, and casting the weapon from him, broke from the +hands of the women, cleared the porch at a bound, rushed across the +yard, leaped the fence, crossed the road and plunged into the shadows of +the cypress swamp beyond. + + * * * * * + +That night, as Fannie lay on the wretched bed of her poor room, in +darkness and solitude, and in the semi-delirium of fever, suddenly an +apparition, like some ghastly phantom of her husband, gleamed out from +the surrounding shadows, stooped over, raised her in its ghostly arms, +chattered, raved wildly, incoherently, and--was lost; whether really +from the room, or only from her failing consciousness, is not +certain--and, indeed, how much of this scene was an actual occurrence, +and how much of it was the mere phantasmagoria of frenzy, the sufferer +never knew! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE APPARITION. + + Ye seem to look on me with asking eyes! + Listen! and I will tell a fearful story! + Since I remember aught about myself, + A strange heart sickness almost like to death, + A deep remorse for some unacted crime, + For some impossible, nameless wickedness, + Was on me--in its prophecy I lived; + No wretch dragg'd on to execution + E'er felt more horrid pangs than then stirr'd up + My spirit with remorseful agony.--JOHN WILSON. + + +Eighteen months had passed since the murder of Oswald Waring, and yet +the murderer had not been apprehended. Though, upon the night of that +fatal catastrophe, both the regular and volunteer police had turned out +in great numbers, and scattered themselves over the neighborhood in +pursuit of the criminal; though trained sleuth-hounds had been made to +smell his clothing, and had been set upon his scent; though, thus with +men and dogs, the authorities had hunted him throughout the State, and +had offered the largest rewards for his betrayal or apprehension, this +length of time had passed, and he had not been arrested. + +Mr. Waring having died intestate, his property, according to the laws of +that commonwealth, fell to the next of kin. + +His childless widow inherited none of her late husband's wealth, but +returned to New Orleans, and thence retired to the country, to live upon +her own reserved patrimony. + +The plantation fell into other hands, and the planter passed out of +memory. + +Valentine, with his crime and his fate, overlaid by newer excitements, +was already sinking into oblivion. He was supposed to have escaped from +the State. But there were three faithful friends who knew that, in all +this time, the miserable young man had never left the neighborhood, or +wandered five miles from the blood-stained floor of his crime. + +Phædra was set free. The quadroons and mestizzas, with all their fiery +vehemence of temperament, have perhaps less of real vital stamina than +any other race. They cannot bear up under any great mental or physical +pressure. Phædra, by the terrible blow that had fallen upon her, was +crushed into premature age and decrepitude. And, as a useless old crone, +she was suffered by her new master to retire to a lone cabin in the pine +barrens above the cypress swamp, and, without being required to work, +was supplied with rations of food and clothing upon an equal footing +with the plantation laborers. + +But this poor Naomi, in her desolation, had also her Ruth. + +Fannie had almost miraculously recovered from the yellow fever; and, in +the mental imbecility that had attended her convalescence, she had been +long shielded from the knowledge of the calamity that had fallen upon +them all; and at last so gradually did the facts of the catastrophe +enter her mind that she could never after say when or how she first +learned the sum of her misery; and thus she was spared the sudden shock +that must certainly have proved fatal to her. + +No one could look upon that fragile form and thin face, with its fair, +transparent pallor, and large, mournful eyes, and not know her heart was +breaking. + +What kept her life power going? + +Something that was not the love of her child, or of her poor, old +mother! Something that occasionally varied that look of hopeless, +incurable sorrow, with a wild and startled expression of extreme terror, +suggestive of insanity. Some people thought it was insanity, but they +were mistaken; her reason was sound, though her heart was broken. + +Fannie kept a little thread and needle shop; she owed the little shop to +the benevolence of Mrs. Waring; for, to the honor of that poor lady be +it spoken, even in the midst of her own awful sorrow, she had remembered +and succored her humble sister in adversity. Fannie's little shop +thrived moderately, and afforded herself and child a decent living, and +the means of alleviating some of the miseries and adding to the few +comforts of her poor mother. + +Early every Saturday evening Fannie would close her little shop and take +her child and walk out to Phædra's cabin, to remain until Monday +morning. And these seasons, spent in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, +and in mutual consolations, were the least unhappy in these poor +women's lives. + +Phædra's decrepitude confined her closely at home. + +But the brothers and sisters of her church did not leave her alone in +her sorrow. They came frequently, they ministered to all her +necessities, material and spiritual, as far as she had need, and they +had power. They held a weekly prayer-meeting at her house. + +And these Thursday evening meetings were sources of great comfort to the +desolate woman. + +Fannie was frequently present at them. And the old negro preacher, +Elisha, was invariable in his punctual attendance. There was also +another, a constant, though an unknown and unsuspected worshipper among +them. + +Valentine's name had long died off from every tongue, as his memory +seemed to have expired from every heart. Even in comforting Phædra her +friends never designated the nature of her grief; and, in praying for +the Lord's mercy upon their "aged sister in her sore affliction," they +never named that affliction's cause. And though the unhappy man was +remembered in their petitions, it was in silence and in secrecy. + +One Thursday evening, while the March winds were piping through the pine +barrens, Phædra was holding a prayer-meeting in her cabin. + +There were about twenty negroes, both men and women, present. + +Among them was the old preacher, Elisha, who led the devotions. + +Fannie was also present, with her child. And the look of wild anxiety +that occasionally varied the heart-broken expression of her face seemed +now fixed; her usually patient, suffering countenance was absolutely +haggard with terror, and strong shudders shook her frame. + +Phædra watched her with great uneasiness. + +Meantime the meeting went on in its services, and they sang, prayed and +exhorted in turn. It was not what is technically called a "good" +meeting. Few seemed to enjoy the privilege of prayer, or to possess the +gift of exhortation. The very singing was tame and lifeless. There +seemed to be some spell of heaviness cast over all. At last, toward the +close of the evening, an aged brother arose, and began in a strain of +such wild eloquence, as deep, earnest, fervid emotions confer upon +untutored minds, to exhort his brethren and sisters of the church upon +the subject of their apathy and lukewarmness. I can do no justice to +that wild, eyrie style of oratory. It impressed, affected and strongly +excited his hearers. He concluded with _outre_ expressions and +gesticulations: + +"And why, my brethren, is this freezing spell of spiritual cold cast +over us? Why can we not pray, or exhort, or sing, or take sweet counsel +together? Why can we not love, or fear, or feel? Why will not the Spirit +of God come down to us? Why will not the Lord inspire and accept our +prayers? Is it because there is 'some accursed thing hidden' among us? +Is there an Achan in our camp? I charge you, brother, sister, whoever +you be, repent! speak! cast the foul sin from your soul!" + +He was interrupted by a deep, hollow voice that proceeded from an +obscure corner, where a seeming old woman sat crouching, her form +enveloped in a long cloak, her head hidden in a deep sunbonnet. + +"Yes! there is 'an accursed thing hidden' in your midst! and I am the +Achan in your camp!" And the figure arose, and the cloak fell, and the +bonnet was dropped, and the stranger stood revealed. + +"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Fannie, in a voice of agony. + +He crossed quickly through the astonished group, to the spot where she +cowered. He stooped and spoke to her a few earnest words, and sat her +down where she could drop her poor, young head upon the lap of the +trembling, sorrow-stricken Phædra, while he stood up and gazed upon the +crowd, who remained, stunned with consternation into silence. + +Valentine was frightfully changed in the last eighteen months. His flesh +had wasted from his bones, until it left him almost a walking skeleton; +his skin had darkened, and his eyes had sunken, and concentrated their +fires until they burned like two imbedded stars; his voice was +cavernous. While the negroes present returned his gaze in silent awe, he +spoke: + +"A price is on my head! the Governor, or the State, will purchase and +emancipate any man here who will deliver me up to death. It is written +that 'a murderer shall hang on a tree!' It is every man's duty to +deliver, if he can, a felon up to justice! It is every man's duty here +to procure, if he can, his own freedom! Therefore, it is doubly some +man's duty to take me into custody. I have determined to die for my +deed! Doubtless, I could go at any time, and surrender to the +authorities. But in that case I should not do the little good I am now +desirous of doing. I should not in dying procure some one of you his +freedom! Therefore, I wish that one of you take me in custody, and +attend me to M----. Come, choose! elect, or cast lots for him who is to +be the freeman. Brother Portiphar----" + +Before Valentine could say another word the old preacher, Elisha, who +had been gradually getting over his astonishment, and, recovering his +self-possession climbed over stools and chairs and the crouching forms +of women and children, and made his way toward Valentine, whom he +embraced with his left arm, while he closed his lips by laying over them +his right hand. + +"Hush, Brudder Walley, hush! You don't know what you'se a-sayin' of. +You'se a prophesyin' of de ole law 'stead o' de new gospel! 'Sides +which, would you temp' any brudder here to sin an' slave his 'mortal +soul, sake o' freein' of his poor, perishin' body? Hush, Brudder Walley, +an' let me prophesy. Bredren and sisters, is der a man or a woman in de +soun' o' my voice as 'ould 'cept his free papers on de terms as Brudder +Walley offers--at de price of a brudder's life an' a sister's happiness? +Which ob yer here 'ould buy his freedom wid the price ob Walley's blood, +and Phædra's and Fannie's tears? Would you, Brudder Portiphar? or you, +Sister Deely? or you? or you? No, not one ob you. Now, brudders an' +sisters, I'se got a proposition to make. Fust, bolt dat door, Brudder +Isaac, an' see to de fastenin' o' dat winder, Sister Hera; no knowin' +who'se 'bout. Now, let's speak low. An' what I want to propose is dis +yer: dat ebery brudder makes a pledge afore he leabes dis room to be +silent as to which has happen here dis night. Let Brudder Walley no more +be lef in de power an' temptations ob de enemy; let him feel hissef free +to 'tend our prayer-meetin's here in peace an' safety, for all as is +happened of to-night. Let us pray wid him, an' try to 'lieve his poor +soul ob its load o' sin an' sorrow!" + +Elisha would have spoken longer, but here Portiphar arose, and said, in +effect, that he did not fully agree with Brother Elisha; that he doubted +whether they should be doing right to conceal Valentine, especially when +the conscience of the latter urged him to the expiation of his crime. + +Elisha could scarcely wait for the other to finish his remarks before he +arose in a hurry, and said, in effect, if not in these words, and with +some vehemence also, that he was the last to make light of the guilt +that Valentine had brought upon his own soul, but that he also knew, +and no one else knew so well, the maddening provocation that had driven +him to his crime. That he prayed the sin might be washed away by +repentance and faith in the Redeemer; that, for this reason, he wished +Valentine to feel safe in coming among them, to share their prayers, and +hymns, and exhortations, and all their other means of grace; that, +undismayed and undistracted by the worldly sorrows of imprisonment, +trial and impending execution, he might have time to work out his +salvation! That therefore he should shield his sinful brother until they +could prove to him that the gallows was a means of grace, "which I don't +believe it is," concluded old Elisha, as he sat down in quiet triumph, +for he saw that every man and woman among the warm-hearted creatures +present coincided in sentiment with himself, and that Portiphar was put +down and silenced, if not convinced. + +And Phædra and Fannie ventured once more to raise their drooping heads +and look about them. Alas, for their feeble hopes! Valentine, still +standing, and still agonized, waved his hand for silence and attention, +and then spoke. + +He told them he had already repented, if that were the word to express +the horrible remorse of blood-guiltiness that had long preyed upon his +heart, and consumed his flesh and blood, and left him what they saw him. +But did they, he asked them, suppose that he had repented only since the +fatal deed? No, no! but for years and years before that catastrophe he +had suffered with that uncommitted crime. Did they think that the act +was premeditated, then? Yes, in one sense it was premeditated, although +entirely unintentional, and so abhorrent that he would have gladly died +to escape committing it. The deed was premeditated, inasmuch as it had +long loomed up before him, a black mountain[2] in his forward path of +life, from which it was impossible to turn aside; to which every breath +and every step drew him nearer and nearer. That the first time he caught +a glimpse of this awful phantom of his future was while he and Oswald +were still boys. He had been provoked and exasperated to frenzy by his +playmate, and, in his utter madness, had struck and tried to kill him. +The reaction from that fit of passion had been terrible. The next +occasion upon which arose darkly before him this inevitable doom was +when his master and himself were youths. One night he was driving Oswald +home. Both were intoxicated; they quarreled; his master threatened him +with the lash; he lost his reason and his very eyesight, and all his +senses, in a dark tempest and whirlwind of mad and blind fury, and +struck with all his strength to destroy. By Heaven's mercy, that blow +was not fatal. But the recovery of his own senses from that frenzy of +anger was more horrible than anything he had ever before experienced. +From that time he had never been able to exorcise the haunting presence +of that black phantom, standing waiting for him at the terminus of his +earthly path, from which he could not escape; to which every breath and +every step drew him nearer and nearer! From that time he had felt in +some baleful moment of extreme exasperation, some irresponsible moment +of mad and blind passion, he should strike a fatal blow. Yet he said he +agonized in soul to escape that black crime; he struggled to conquer his +angry passions; he sought the grace of God, and hoped that he had +possessed it; he swore off from alcohol, that stimulus might not be +added to his other excitements to anger--to the inevitable provocations +arising from his temperament, position and circumstances--provocations +that were constantly exasperating his soul to madness. For years, he +said, no eye but the Lord's had seen the desperate war his spirit had +waged with the powers of evil within and around him, and waged +successfully, until one trying season, when, in the utter prostration of +sorrow and despondency, he had been tempted to place again the maddening +glass to his lips--tempted by the sophistry that prescribed the moral +poison as a medicine; then he lost the habit, and at last the power of +self-control, and one fatal day, when amazed and bewildered with +exceeding sorrow, and stung to frenzy with the sense of wrong-suffering +and cruelty, he had struck the blow that laid his master dead before +him. + +[Footnote 2: I use here the precise words of the unhappy man, as they +were repeated to me.] + +"Heaven knows I was not thinking of doing it; in my deep sorrow of the +preceding days the phantom of my predestined crime was exorcised. I had +not even that to warn me; the hour was entirely unguarded. I struck in +self-defense. He had intercepted and knocked me down, to prevent me from +going to see my sick wife. Blind and giddy, and furious, I struggled to +my feet, and seized the first weapon that offered, a three-legged stool, +and struck with all my strength; but when I saw the leg crush through +his eye and brain, one lightning thought told me that he was killed, and +thenceforth all the world was against me, and I against the world; and +then waves of blood and clouds of fire seemed to roll up around me, and +rage in a horrible tempest; reason fled utterly, and I knew nothing more +until near midnight, when I came to myself upon the floor of Fannie's +room; and even then, in my vague remorse and horror of half-conscious +blood-guiltiness, I seemed to be some other thing than myself--perhaps +some lost soul in perdition! Brother Elisha, Heaven bless him, was +bending over me. It was to him I owed the preservation of my life. It +was by his counsel and assistance that I disguised myself in poor +Fannie's clothing, which fitted me well enough for the purpose. He even +crimped my hair and tied up my head in a woman's turban. And he found +and thrust Fannie's free papers in my bosom, and then led me off to his +own home. Well, in this disguise, and by keeping very close, I contrived +to elude the vigilance of the police, until a surer place of safety was +provided for me near this cabin. For eighteen months I have eluded the +police; but think you, my brothers and sisters, that, for one moment, I +have escaped the avenger of blood? No! no! After the crime he found me +even in the first moments of my waking consciousness; his clutch has +never been relaxed from my heart; it compresses now, even to +suffocation; the death that you would save me from I die every hour of +my life; I can bear it no longer; I must die once for all, and have done +with it; I should have resigned myself into the hands of the law, and, +in the final expiation, long since found rest, but for Fannie's grief +and terror. But now, even her tears and prayers must not hinder me; even +for her peace it is better I should give myself up to die, and have it +over, for now she lives in the midst of alarms; hereafter, when all is +over, she will at least have quiet." + +"Quiet! yes, the quiet of death, for I never can outlive you, Valley!" +said Fannie, in a low tone of despair. + +He laid his hand fondly on her bowed head, but without comment resumed +his discourse. + +"I was about to surrender myself to the public authorities, when I +reflected that, by giving myself up to my brothers in the church, I +might confer the blessing of freedom upon some one among you, since that +was one of the rewards offered for my arrest. Here I am! Which of you +will make himself a free man to-night?" + +He paused a moment, looking around upon the little assembly; and then +fixing his eyes upon a handsome, intelligent-looking, young man, to whom +the gift of freedom might well seem the most desirable of goods, he +said: + +"Brother Joseph, will you take me into custody?" + +"May the enemy of souls take me in custody, and never let me go, when I +do!" promptly replied young Joe. + +"That's you, my boy! And may the same fate befall any one else who would +do the like!" exclaimed old Elisha, emphatically. + +A murmur of approbation ran around the little assembly and revealed the +fact that the feelings of the majority were with the speakers. + +"Brother Walley! you think yourself a very guilty man. But no one ever +craved freedom more than you did, and yet you know you would never o' +bought your freedom at the price o' any man's life, no matter how fur +forfeit his life might be! An' now, Brudder Walley, please don't think +us so much wus than yourself." + +When the little assembly heard this, with one voice (and one exception) +they declared that they would die before they would betray Valentine. +And Elisha, to confirm their faith, went around with the Bible in his +hand, and administered to each an oath of fidelity and silence upon the +subject of Valentine and the transactions of that night. + +But when he came to old Portiphar, the latter declared that he had a +scruple against taking an oath on the Evangelists, but readily gave his +promise to be secret. + +Valentine, with grateful but troubled looks, regarded these proceedings, +until Phædra and Fannie, taking advantage of the popular sentiment, came +to him, and, one on each side, seized his hands, besought him, for their +sakes, not to cast away his slender chance of safety. + +What was to be done? Love was almost irresistible, and life, perhaps, +even at the worst was sweet; he had come to the resolution to deliver +himself up to justice; but that could be done at any time; and for the +present it could be deferred. He embraced his mother and his wife, and +bade them rest quietly, as he would proceed no farther in the matter +now. + +The meeting soon after broke up. + +One by one the members of the little community took leave of Valentine, +promising to guard his secret, and remember him in their prayers. + +After all the others had departed old Portiphar still lingered. And when +the room was quite clear, he called Valentine to the door and said: + +"Brudder Valley, I'se a poor man, wid a fam'ly o' chillun, an' ef so be +you'se 'termin' on gibbin' o' yourself up I wouldn' min' walkin' far as +the squire's office wid you myself." + +"Thank you, Portiphar; I will inform you when I need your services. +Good-night," replied the young man, shutting the door upon him. + +Portiphar had not proceeded half a dozen steps on his way before he felt +himself seized by the shoulder, and he recognized as his assailant the +strapping negro, young Joe, who, holding him tightly, said: + +"See here, Daddy Fox! I thought what you was up to, so I stopped to give +this 'vice! Ef Valley's took up, we shall all know who slipped the +bloodhounds on him, an' then some dark night somethin' will happen to +you so sudden you won't never know what hurt you! Tain't only me, but a +great many more is a-watchin' of you!" + +And with this brief and pithy exordium Joe released Portiphar, or rather +spurned him forward, and went his own way. This threat put the old man +in a cold sweat of terror. He knew the strong fellow-feeling among his +own class; that, even in the dangerous number of twenty persons, it +would keep Valentine's secret; that he himself was suspected as a +traitor; that, if Valentine should now be arrested, his own life might +not be safe with those of the meeting who were not professing +Christians; and he resolved to guide himself accordingly. + +Several weeks passed in safety to the wretched young man. + +But, released from the awful solitude and silence of his own +heavily-burdened soul, free to come among a few of his fellow-creatures, +free to speak of the deep sorrow and remorse that consumed his heart, +among those who pitied and shrank not from him, who prayed for and with +him, Valentine's mind began to recover its healthy tone; he did not +cease to mourn his crime, but he mourned no longer as one without hope; +he was again received into the little brotherhood of the church, the +simple ceremony being performed in the lone cabin; again he became the +man of fervent prayer and eloquent exhortation; and powerful, far more +powerful, was he now, through his terrible experiences and profound +repentance, than ever he had been. + +To his confidant brother, Elisha, he was accustomed to say: + +"I know I shall not finally escape the earthly punishment of my crime. I +know that sooner or later it must come; nor do I wish to avoid it; yet +will I do nothing to hasten its arrival; but when it shall come, I will +accept it." + +To which Elisha would reply: "Our lives are in the hands of the Lord," +or words to that purpose. + +Weeks grew into months, spring ripened into summer, and summer waned +into autumn, and still Valentine lived unmolested. + +At length, however, near the last of September, a rumor got afloat that +Valentine, the murderer of Mr. Waring, was concealed somewhere in the +neighborhood of his late master's residence. How this report first got +in circulation no one seemed to be able to tell; though how the secret, +known to twenty people, had been guarded so long may be more of a +subject for conjecture to many minds. Be that as it may, the peace of +the unhappy little family was gone forever. Phædra's lonely cabin in the +pine barrens and Fannie's humble home in the city were subject to sudden +invasions and searchings by day and by night. Their weekly +prayer-meetings were surprised and broken up. But no trace of Valentine +could be discovered; as unexpectedly as he had appeared, so suddenly had +he again disappeared. The earth seemed to have swallowed him. + +But this could not last forever; and upon the third of October Valentine +was arrested under the following suspicious circumstances: + +A police officer, stationed in concealment behind a hedge of Spanish +daggers that bordered a lane crossing the highway at right angles, and +running midway between the pine ridge and cypress swamp, saw what seemed +a young negro woman coming down the lane. She was poorly and plainly +clothed, and wore a long sunbonnet. There was nothing whatever in her +manner or appearance to attract attention. Yet this police officer +watched her closely. Presently, coming up the lane from an opposite +direction, appeared the figure of an old negro. The policeman favored +him also with a share of notice. Meeting the seeming woman, the old man +laughed, held out his hand, and exclaimed, in a clear voice: + +"Ha! Brudder Walley! Good-morning! Walking out to take a little air, +eh?" + +"Hush! for Heaven's sake, don't speak so loud or call me by name. Yes, +I have stolen forth for a breath of fresh air." + +"Glad to hear it. Which way is you walking, Brudder Walley?" inquired +the other, raising his voice. + +"For the Lord's sake, I beg you will not call me by my name, or speak so +loud!" + +"No danger at all, Brudder Walley; no one in sight!" exclaimed the old +man, louder than ever. "Which way did you say you wer' goin', Brudder +Walley?" + +"I am going home." + +"Well, Brudder Walley, let me go long wid you dis time. I'd like to see +Sister Phædra," pleaded the old negro. + +"Come along, then; but be careful." + +They walked up the lane together, and then struck into the pines. The +policeman followed them, and, himself unseen, keeping them in sight, +traced them into the cabin of Phædra. + +Then having, as it were, pointed his game, he ran back as fast as +possible, sprang over the hedge, ran down the lane, crossed the highway, +sprang over a second hedge dividing the road from Major Hewitt's +plantation, hastened up to that gentleman's house, gave the alarm, +procured the assistance of the overseer and the gardener, both Irishmen, +and with this reinforcement hastened back to the scene of action. + +They found Phædra's cabin quiet enough. To the knock of the policeman +the old woman's voice responded, "Come in." + +They entered, and found no one within except Phædra and the old negro +preacher, Portiphar--no sign of Valentine. As the cabin contained but +one room, with but one door and window, and no loft or outbuildings, the +premises were easily searched. The little room was also very scantily +furnished; a rag carpet concealed the rough floor, a rude bed stood in +one corner, a cupboard in another, an oak chest in a third, a pine table +in the fourth; a couple of chairs, a few stools, etc., completed the +appointments. The cupboard was opened, the big chest ransacked, the bed +and bedstead pulled to pieces, the chimney inspected, but no trace of +the fugitive could be found. + +Phædra was questioned; but she sadly shook her head and remained dumb. + +The old negro preacher was examined, but he replied evasively, that he +had just come, and knew nothing about it, while at the same time he kept +his eyes strangely fixed upon the corner of the room occupied by +Phædra's bed. + +Yet, the policeman had pulled that bed to pieces and found nothing, and +now did not know what to make of Portiphar's pertinacious gaze. At last +a bright idea struck him. He took the poker and began sounding the +floor. He went on sounding foot by foot until he approached the bed. +Turning then, he saw Phædra's face haggard with the most frightful +expression of terror and anxiety. Dragging the bedstead away by main +force he began to sound the corner. The floor returned a hollow echo; he +was satisfied. + +It was but the work of a moment to turn up the carpet, to lift up a +loose plank and to discover the mouth of the excavation below. + +He knelt upon his knees and peered down into the cavern; the mouth only +opened in the corner of Phædra's cabin; the cavern itself extended under +and beneath the house. He peered down into the darkness for a few +moments, and then called, in a not unkindly voice: + +"Valentine, my poor fellow, you may as well come out; the game is up +with you!" + +A moment passed, and then Valentine, indeed, appeared above the opening. + +"Give me time to change my dress, Mr. Pomfret," he said, for he was +still in his woman's gown. + +This was granted. The change was soon effected, and he came forth and +gave himself up, only saying, as they took him away: + +"Mother, tell my friends that the traitor at your side betrayed me to +death!" And he regretted these words as soon as they were spoken. + +Phædra had not heard them; she seemed praying--she had really fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TRIAL. + + You few that love me, + And dare be bold to weep for such as I-- + My gentle friends and fellows, whom to leave + Is only bitter to me, only dying-- + Go with me, like good angels, to mine end, + And when the long divorce of death falls on me, + Make of your prayers one most sweet sacrifice, + And lift my soul to heaven.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +The news of the arrest of Valentine spread rapidly over the city and +surrounding country, creating everywhere an intense excitement, and +reviving all the deep interest that had been felt two years before, at +the epoch of the crime. + +This excitement prevailed all around Fannie, yet she knew nothing of it, +or at least of its cause. There was no one found willing to carry this +sorrowful intelligence to her, whom it most concerned; and she remained +in total ignorance of the arrest of her husband until the next day, +which being Saturday, she was looking forward, as usual, to an early +closing of the shop, and a walk out into the country, to spend the night +and the Sabbath with her old mother, and to comfort Valentine, when, +unexpectedly, poor Phædra, recovered in some degree from the shock she +had received, and accompanied by Elisha, arrived at her daughter's +humble little home. + +With all possible consideration and gentleness the old negro preacher +broke the intelligence of Valentine's imprisonment to Fannie. + +But, alas! if all fateful antecedents had not led her to anticipate this +consequence, what further possible preparation could fit her to receive +such intelligence? And, indeed, in any event, what preparation would +soften such calamity? + +Poor Fannie's frame was very delicate, and her heart by many blows had +become physically feeble, and was, at best, a very imperfect instrument +of her will. Had it not been so, the poor girl might have better borne +up; as it was, she succumbed to the new blow, and a night of dangerous +illness followed. + +Yet, the next morning Fannie insisted on leaving her bed, and though +apparently more dead than alive, and having to be supported between +Phædra and old Elisha, she went to the prison to see Valentine. + +All prisons are, of course, wretched places; but the jail of M---- was +one of the most wretched of its kind. Comparatively small, shamefully +overcrowded, close, ill-ventilated and pestilential, it insured nothing +but the safe custody of the bodies of its miserable inmates. Evidently +reform had not even looked upon its outer walls, far less opened one of +its doors or windows. + +For greater security Valentine had been confined in the condemned cell. +A slight irregularity, but one of which no one had the right to +complain. Although, under circumstances less tragic it must have seemed +ludicrous to associate the graceful and almost girlish delicacy of poor +Valentine's figure with danger to the security of bolts and bars and +prison walls. + +Howbeit, in the condemned cell Valentine was placed, and there Fannie +and her companions found him. + +Valentine received them with great composure, that was only slightly +disturbed when Fannie, upon first seeing him, threw herself, with a cry +of passionate sorrow, upon his bosom. + +When the turnkey had left the cell, and locked them all in together, +Valentine addressed himself to soothing Fannie. And after a while, +favored by the exhaustion that followed her vehement emotion, he +succeeded in quieting her. + +After a little conversation, the old preacher invited all to join him in +prayer, and, kneeling down, offered up a fervent petition for the divine +mercy on the prisoner. Through the whole of the interview, all were +impressed by the perfect composure and cheerfulness of Valentine. He +seemed like a man who had cast a great weight from his breast, or in +some other way had been relieved from a heavy burden. Though his manner +was perfectly free from any charge of reprehensible levity, there was +certainly an elasticity of spirit in all he said or did, that was as +strange as it was entirely sincere and unaffected. Was this because he +felt that he had nothing further to hope or fear, and trouble had ceased +with uncertainty? Whatever was the cause, his mood happily influenced +others, and they grew quiet and cheerful in his company. + +"Dearest friends," Valentine said, afterward, to Elisha, "these things +that have occurred were obliged to happen; no power on earth could have +prevented them; and the power of Heaven never intervenes to perform +miracles, or to avert evil at the expense of moral free agency. I am +not a predestinarian, Brother Elisha, but I know that certain causes +must produce certain effects, as surely as given figures produce known +results. As I told you before, I always knew that this was to be my +fate. From the first moment that I was provoked to strike Oswald Waring, +I have seen this crime and this fate before me, like a horrible cloud. I +would try to close my eyes to it--try to forget it. In vain--for even in +my brightest moments it would fall suddenly like a funeral pall around +me, blackening all the light of life. When poor Oswald Waring lay dead +before me, I did not realize the crime more intensely than I had by +presentiment a hundred times before. And when I shall stand, as I shall +very soon do, upon the scaffold's fatal drop, with the cord around my +neck, and the cap that is about to shut out the last glimpse of this +world's sunshine from my eyes, descending over my face--even in that +supreme moment, I know I cannot feel the situation more acutely than I +have done prophetically a thousand times before! + +"This prophetic feeling was the secret horror of my whole life. I dared +not confide it to any one; therefore, it preyed upon my spirits, driving +me at times almost to insanity. Yet, friends, there was nothing occult +in this presentiment. It was but the swift and sure inference of certain +effects from certain causes. It was rather a helpless foresight, than +second sight. Well, the worst has come! I am calmer and happier now than +I have been for many long, sad years. This fate is not nearly so +horrible in reality as it seemed in anticipation. The only earthly +trouble that I have is in the thought of my little family. Comfort them, +Brother Elisha! Help them to bring all the power of religion to their +support. Time and religion cures the worst of sorrows; it will cure +theirs. Only, in the meantime--in the hour of their greatest trial, and +the first dark days that follow it--watch over them, sustain and comfort +them, and lift up their hands to God, Elisha." + +"I will--I will, indeed, Brudder Walley," promised the old preacher. + +Valentine was not left alone in his trials. The friends of the Methodist +church flocked around, and one or another was always with him. The +clergymen of every denomination took a great interest in his situation +and character. And the better Valentine was known, the deeper this +interest grew. In advance of his trial, the press took up his case, and +the papers were filled with accounts of visits that this or that +gentleman had made him; conversations that one or another clergyman had +held with him in his cell; and with descriptions of his good looks, +graceful manners, intelligence, knowledge, conversational powers and +eloquence--all "so remarkable in one of his race and station." It would +seem, indeed, as if, unhappily, the good points of the unhappy young man +had never been known or suspected, until crime had brought him +prominently before the public. If there was anything to be regretted in +the great sympathy that was felt for him, it was that the sympathizers +kept up too much fuss around him for the good of one of his excitable +temperament, and thus prevented the self-recollection and sobriety that +befited the solemnity of his situation. Through the kindness of these +friends, the best counsel that could be prevailed upon to take up his +hopeless cause was retained, to defend Valentine in the approaching +trial. + +There was one affecting circumstance that occurred just before the +sitting of the criminal court. Mrs. Waring had been subpoenaed to attend +as a witness for the prosecution. She came up from Louisiana; and, soon +after her arrival in the city, she sought out the poor, little, obscure +wife of the prisoner, and gave her what comfort she could +impart--telling her, that though she was the principal witness, her +testimony would not bear hard upon Valentine, whom she felt persuaded +was mad, and unconscious of his acts at the moment she witnessed them. +And that she hoped his life might yet be spared, for she felt convinced +that capital punishment was in no case a corrector or a preventor of +crime. And that, if the trial should terminate unfavorably, she would +petition the governor for a commutation of the sentence. And that her +petition, under the circumstances, would be the most powerful that could +be presented. These and other merciful promises and reviving hopes did +the gentle-hearted widow infuse into the poor girl's sinking heart. + +And, oh! how Fannie knelt, and covered the lady's hands with loving +kisses, and bathed them with grateful tears. And Mrs. Waring, when she +left her, went directly to the most eminent lawyer in the city--one who +had indignantly repulsed a clergyman who wished to retain him for the +prisoner--and, after telling him very much what she had told Fannie +relative to the character of her own testimony, succeeded in retaining +him to defend Valentine; for this gentleman seemed to think that the +favorable opinion and testimony of Mrs. Waring would make a very great +difference in the respectability, popularity and security of the cause +that he no longer hesitated to embrace. + +Of course, there was much diversity of opinion in regard to Mrs. +Waring's course. All wondered at her, many censured her, while a few saw +in her conduct the perfection of Christian charity. But, like all who +have thought and suffered much, and profited by such experience, Mrs. +Waring was indifferent to any earthly judgment outside the sphere of her +own affections; and so, ignorant and regardless of popular praise or +censure, the lady went calmly on her merciful course. + +The day of the sitting of the court drew near, when, one morning, a +bustle in the gallery leading to Valentine's cell attracted the +attention of the latter, and he had just concluded that the officials +were bringing in a new prisoner, when the noisy group paused before his +own door, unlocked it, and introduced Governor, Major Hewitt's big +negro. With a few parting words, the turnkey and the constable left him, +went out, and locked the door. + +Then, for the first time, Valentine recovered from his surprise, and +spoke to the newcomer. + +But Governor, standing bolt upright until his tall figure and large head +nearly reached the low ceiling, looked the image of stupor, and answered +never a word. + +Valentine knew, of course, that he was in desperate trouble, or he would +not be in that cell. Kindly taking his hand, he led him to the bed, and +made him sit down upon it. He was as docile as the gentlest child, +though seemingly more stupid than any brute. And it was hours before he +recovered sufficiently to tell Valentine the cause of his arrest. + +The story gathered from his thick and incoherent talk was this: He +himself was a huge, black, unsightly negro, painfully conscious of his +personal defects. He was married to Milly, a pretty mulatto woman, whom +he loved with the idolatrous affection that often distinguishes his +race, and who had loved him in return, for the wealth of goodness under +his rude exterior. + +And he had been very happy with his wife and two little girls, until the +new overseer came. + +This person was a young, unmarried man, and his name was Moriarty. He +took a fancy to Milly; used to stop every day at the door of her cabin, +to ask for a drink of water; then, after a while, he got into the habit +of going into her cabin to sit down and rest, and was never in a hurry +to go away. + +If there was any work to be done in the overseer's house, Milly was +always sent for to do it, and always detained a long time. Governor was +dispatched to labor upon the most remote part of the plantation; and +whenever a messenger was required to go upon a distant errand, Governor +was selected. + +Poor fellow! he was not acute enough to be suspicious, or bad enough to +be jealous. On the contrary, he was very good-natured, stupid and +confiding. And he might have gone on forever, without suspecting that +there was anything wrong, had not Milly, upon every Sunday and holiday, +appeared in finery better than any of her companions could sport, and so +excited their envy, quickened their perceptions and stimulated their +tongues. + +And rudely enough were the poor husband's eyes opened, and from that +time no more wretched man than Governor lived upon this earth. He +expostulated with Milly, who tearfully confessed to receiving presents +from the new overseer, and protested her innocence of everything but +their acceptance. And it is probable that up to this time, and for a +long time after, Milly, who sincerely loved the ugly, but good-hearted +father of her children, was innocent of everything except vanity; and +could she have been delivered from the power of the tempter, would have +remained blameless. + +But there was no such deliverance for her. And now commenced the most +troubled life that could be imagined for the husband. He felt that Milly +still loved him with undiminished fidelity, but he knew, also, the power +of temptation and of example. How many virtuous women were there on that +or any other plantation? Why, virtue was not taught them--was not +expected of them; and if they were born with the instinct, it was soon +lost among a class where licentiousness was the rule and integrity the +exception. The generality of this misfortune among his fellow-slaves did +not make it any the less painful to this poor man to see his beloved +Milly tempted from his bosom. + +And he saw, with increasing anguish, that Milly, notwithstanding her +penitence and tearful declaration that she would be faithful to Governor +forever and forever, could not prevent the daily calls of the overseer +at her cabin, and dared not disobey his commands, when he summoned her +to work in his house. + +Governor was still and ever kept at work upon the most distant parts of +the plantation, and the overseer still and ever appropriated as much as +he possibly could of Milly's time and services. There was no help for +them. + +Major Hewitt, in many respects a kind master, had, for his peace, long +closed his ears to complaints of the slaves against their overseer, and +Governor knew full well that his master would hear not one word against +Mr. Moriarty. + +Why lengthen a sad story? All the women of the plantation knew that, +sooner or later, Milly would have no right to look down from her pride +of integrity upon them. Yet it was some time--more than a year--before +she was numbered among the frail ones. + +And then, as guilt is so much more circumspect than innocence, poor +Governor was deceived into a fool's paradise of confiding love, and led +to believe that the overseer had entirely abandoned the persecution of +Milly. + +This blind confidence lasted until one day, when one of those sudden +little breaks of water, so small that its surface might be covered with +two hands, yet, withal, the herald of that terror of the Gulf planters, +a devastating "crevasse," appeared in the midst of a valuable field, +and it became necessary to arrest its progress at once. + +A party of negroes was dispatched to the spot, and Governor was sent +with them. In the course of a few hours, the crevasse had made dangerous +progress, and they had to work until very late at night. But it was +early when the overseer left them. + +It was between eleven and twelve o'clock when a young negro from the +quarters came down to the works, and, taking Governor aside, whispered +something in his ear. + +Down went the man's shovel, and away he sprang, and--all on fire with +rage and jealousy--a man no longer, but an unreasoning brute--ran and +leaped, bounding over everything that came in his way, and taking a +bee-line to his cabin, the door of which he burst open. + +A moment and the overseer lay dead, slain by the hand of the injured +husband. + +Governor did not hurt a hair of Milly's head; even in his mad and blind +rage he had spared her, still so beloved. Neither did he attempt to save +himself by flight, but lay moaning and groaning upon the cabin floor +until he was taken into custody. + +This was the substance of the story related to Valentine. + +"I'se sorry I killed him, Brudder Walley! dough I hardly knowed what I +was a doin' of. I'se sorry, dough it was all so tryin' from fuss to +las'. Yes! I is berry sorry, dough it ain't no use to say it, 'cause I +knows how, ef it wur to do ober agin', I should be sure to do it ober +agin'! so, what's de use o' pentin'?" + +Valentine pressed his hand in silence, scarcely knowing what to reply +just then, sadly thinking of the many thousands whose positions were +just as false, as trying, as maddening, as his own and Governor's had +been. + +About noon that day, Major Hewitt came into the cell to see his slave. +The Major was very much overcome at the sight of Governor, and spoke +with great feeling. + +"Oh, Governor! my heart bleeds for you, and for what you have done, my +poor fellow! Oh! Governor, why, why did you take your revenge in your +own hands, in this horrible manner? Why did you not, long ago, complain +to me? I would have seen you righted." + +"Ah, Marse Major, you never would hear no 'plaints we-dem made against +the oberseer. It's been tried often, and you never would!" + +"Yes, but my poor fellow! in such a case I would have listened to your +complaint. I would have protected your family peace at every cost. If +necessary, I would have discharged Moriarty. Yours was an exceptional +case, and I would have attended to it." + +"Ah, Marse Major, honey! I dessay you think you would now, as it has +come to dis yer! But you wouldn't o' done it, Marse Major, honey! 'deed +you wouldn't, 'cause you see it has been tried afore, an' you never +would listen to nothin' 't all 'bout de oberseer. It's on'y 'cause it's +come to dis yer you thinks different," said Governor, sadly, but +respectfully, and even affectionately. + +Major Hewitt did not reply; perhaps he felt that the slave had spoken +the truth, for he looked extremely distressed, and told him that he +would engage the best counsel to defend him; that no cost should be +spared, even to the half of his estate, to save him. + +And Major Hewitt kept his word, and hastened to secure the best legal +aid to be had for Governor. + +The day of the trial was at hand. It was known that two were to be tried +for similar offenses. But every one was interested in Valentine, and no +one, except his master, seemed to care one farthing for Governor. Those +who saw him said he was "an ill-looking fellow," and there left the +subject. + +Valentine was the first arraigned. When his case was fully investigated, +it was obvious to all minds that on the fatal encounter in which Mr. +Waring fell, Valentine had struck only in self-defense--only after his +own blood had been drawn, and he had been once felled to the floor. But +then the blow had been fatal. And though he was well and ably defended, +yet the verdict rendered against the prisoner was "Willful Murder." +Valentine heard the verdict, and afterward received his sentence +quietly, as a matter of course. At its conclusion, he bowed gravely, and +was conducted from the court-room. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE SCAFFOLD. + + Oh! judge none lost, but wait and see, + With hopeful pity, not disdain; + The depth of the abyss may be + The measure of the height of pain.--HOUSEHOLD WORDS. + + +When Valentine's little family circle received information of the +verdict that laid low their last hopes, Phædra met the misfortune with +that sad resignation which we often see in those whom either time or +sorrow has aged, and which we are apt to think owes its calmness as much +to the exhausted energies of the sufferer as to any higher cause. Fannie +heard the issue of the trial with wild grief, and a day and night of +illness intervened before she could go and see the condemned. + +The conviction of Valentine was immediately followed by the arraignment +of Governor. The trial of the latter was even shorter than that of the +former had been. He was ably defended by the counsel employed by his +master; but nothing could have saved him. And the jury, without leaving +their seats, brought in their verdict of "Guilty." His sentence followed +immediately. It was, however, pitiable to observe that the poor wretch +did not understand one-half of what had been done or said during the +whole course of his trial. And when he was conducted back to the prison, +and locked in with Valentine, he said to the latter: + +"Well, Walley, ole marse up dere on de bench put a black nightcap on his +head, an' said somethin' 'r other 'bout hangin'; but I reckon he only +did it to scare me, 'cause I saw by his face how his heart was a +softening all de time." + +After his condemnation to death, Valentine's friends were more devoted +to him than ever. Day and night, one or more of the brethren of the +church was with him. And one sister, especially, who was known by the +name of "Sister Dely," divided her attentions between him and his little +family, who equally, or more, needed comfort. Again the papers were +filled with descriptions of this "extraordinary boy," as Valentine was +called. Interviews held with him by clergymen were reported at length. +His likeness was taken in prison, and wood-cutted in a pamphlet report +of his trial. In a word, the unhappy young man became for a while a +local notoriety. And this was ascribable, not to the nature of the +catastrophe, which, unfortunately, was but too common in that section of +country, but to the individuality and character of the condemned. + +And another circumstance connected with this tragedy was so strange that +I must not omit to record it. A rumor got out that old Portiphar had +betrayed Valentine into the hands of the law, and that a number of +negroes in secret meeting had sworn the death of the traitor whenever +and wherever either one of them could take him. This matter was +carefully investigated by those most interested; but though they could +obtain no sort of satisfactory information, yet their suspicions, +instead of being dissipated, were so strongly confirmed, that it was +deemed advisable for the officers who had arrested Valentine to come out +under oath with the declaration that Portiphar had not by the remotest +hint put them upon the track, but that the discovery of the fugitive +under the disguise of female apparel had been entirely accidental. + +This declaration, duly sworn to and attested, was embodied in a short +address to be read to the negroes, printed on handbills, and posted and +distributed all over the city and surrounding country. And for some +little time this was supposed to be quite sufficient to allay excitement +and insure security. But in a day or two it became evident, in some way, +that the negroes did not believe the sworn statement of the police +officers. And as it was thought best to get rid of unsafe property, +Portiphar, who had lurked in concealment for some weeks, was sold by his +master to a New Orleans trader, and the neighborhood breathed freely +again. + +The petition to the Executive for the pardon of Valentine, got up under +the auspices of Oswald Waring's widow, failed of success, as every one +had predicted that it must. And when this last little glimmering light +of earthly hope went down, Valentine sedulously addressed himself to +preparation for eternity. + +It was piteous to observe Governor at this time. Any one, to have seen +him, must have perceived at once that he was no subject for capital +punishment. But no one, except his master and Valentine, was the least +interested in him. Alas! poor wretch, he was not even interested in +himself! When the refusal of the Executive to pardon Valentine had been +received, it was affecting to see the efforts of Governor to console +what he supposed to be the disappointment of his fellow-prisoner. + +"Don't you mind, Walley! Dey's only doin' dis to scare we! Sho! dey's no +more gwine to hang we, nor dey's gwine to heave so much money in de +fire! Sho! we's too walable. I heern de gemmen all say what fine, +walable men we was--'specially me! Sho! dere's muscle for you!" said +Governor, drawing himself up, jerking forward both arms with a strong +impetus, and then clapping his hands upon his nether limbs. + +"Sho! You think dey's gwine to let all dat here go to loss? Ef it were +only whippin' now, dey might do it! but making all dis here muscle dead? +Sho! what de use o' dead nigger? What good dat do? Sho!" + +And, with this strong expletive of contempt, Governor sat down. Strange +and sad as was the fact, this poor, stupid creature was thoroughly +persuaded that his own and Valentine's life were perfectly safe. He knew +that, living, he himself was worth at least twelve or fifteen hundred +dollars, for he had more than once heard himself so appraised; and that, +dead, he was worth just so much less than nothing as the cost of his +burial would be. And from these facts he drew the inference that he was +far too valuable to be executed. And he persisted in looking upon the +whole train of events, comprising his arrest, imprisonment, trial and +condemnation, with all the pageantry of court-room, judges, lawyers, +juries and officers, only as a solemn show, got up to frighten him and +his fellow prisoner. Nothing could disabuse him of this illusion; for, +if once any idea got fixed in his poor, thick head, it was just +impossible to dislodge it. In vain Valentine endeavored to enlighten him +as to his true position; Governor would reply, with a compassionate +look: + +"Oh, sho! you's scared, Walley! you's scared! Tell me! I knows better! +Dey's not such fools as to hang we! ca'se what would be de use, you +know! Sho!" + +The Methodist preacher exhorted and prayed with Governor, to as little +purpose. He could not be made to believe in the fact of his +fast-approaching death. + +"Oh, sho, Walley! I doesn't say nuffin' 't all afore dem, 'cause you see +'taint right to give de back answer to de ministers; but dey's league +'long o' de oders, Walley! Dey's league 'long o' de oders. Can't scare +dis chile wid no sich! Tell you, Walley, dead nigger ain't no use, but +dead expense! So what de use o' hanging of him? Sho!" + +This interjection usually finished the argument. + +The day of execution approached. Valentine divided his time between +preparation for death, interviews with his family and friends, and the +composition of an address that he wished to deliver upon the scaffold. +This address embodied a great portion of Valentine's life--experiences, +as they are already known to the reader. When it was finished in +manuscript, it was submitted to the perusal of the attendant clergymen. +Some among them warmly approved the address, and declared it to be the +most eloquent appeal they had ever met. Others reserved their opinion +for the time, and afterward asserted that it was the most powerful +sermon that they had ever seen or heard. + +The day before the execution came. And now I must inform you that it is +to "Sister Dely" I am indebted for the report of the scenes that +occurred in her presence in the condemned cell that day. Dely had +obtained leave from her mistress, Mrs. Hewitt, to go to the prison, to +take leave of her Valentine. + +It was about ten o'clock, on Thursday, the 23d of December, when she +reached the city. All the town was preparing for Christmas. When she +entered the condemned cell, she found no one there except the two +prisoners. There were two cot bedsteads at opposite sides of the cell, +and one small iron stove against the wall, between the beds, and +directly opposite the door by which she entered. + +On her right hand, as she came in, sat Governor upon his cot, watching, +with lazy interest, the employment of his fellow-prisoner, which, in +sooth, was strange enough for one of his position. + +Valentine was standing at the little table, and engaged in ironing out a +cravat, while on the cot near him lay spread out a shirt just ironed, a +satin vest, newly pressed, and a full suit of black broadcloth, well +brushed. + +And Dely knew at a glance that the poor fellow, true to his habits of +neatness to the last, was preparing to present a proper appearance upon +the scaffold. + +"Was there no one to do that for you, Valentine?" said Dely, after her +first greeting. + +"No, child, there was not. Mother and poor Fannie are in too much +trouble to think of such a thing." + +"I would have done it for you, Valentine." + +"No matter, child; it is done now," said the young man, laying the +folded cravat upon the cot, and then turning around and sitting down by +the side of Dely. + +"I wish, Delia, that you would try to open the eyes of Governor to the +realities of his position. Poor fellow! he is fully persuaded that +to-morrow, instead of being executed, we shall be set at liberty." + +Delia turned her eyes in wonder toward Governor, who sat upon the side +of his cot, smiling and shaking his head in the most incredulous manner. +Delia shrank from the task that Valentine would have imposed upon her, +and only said: + +"We will pray for him, Brother Valentine. Governor, won't you kneel down +with us, and pray for yourself?" + +Governor said that, as praying could not do anybody any harm, he +reckoned he would, to please Dely, though he did not see the use of it. + +They all knelt, and this humble handmaid of the Lord, who was peculiarly +gifted in prayer, offered up a fervent petition in behalf of the +prisoners, and especially for Governor. + +They had just risen from their knees, when the door of the cell was +opened, and the jailer entered, accompanied by another official, who +nodded to the inmates, and then, beckoning to Valentine, requested him +to step forward. + +Valentine obeyed, and the man, drawing a measuring-line from his pocket, +told him to stand up straight. Valentine drew himself up with as much +composure as ever he had shown when, in his earlier days, he was getting +himself fitted for a Sunday suit of clothes. The operator proceeded to +measure his subject across the shoulders. And when this was done, he +stopped, drew a paper and pencil from his pocket, and, leaning on +Valentine's late ironing table, put down some figures. Then he took the +line again, and carefully measured him from the crown of his head to the +heels of his shoes, and made a second note. + +Then telling Valentine that he was done with him, he beckoned to +Governor, who had been looking on with open-mouthed amazement, and who +now came forward, and braced himself up with the utmost alacrity and +cheerfulness. Indeed, he was smiling from ear to ear, as he exclaimed, +triumphantly: + +"Tell you all so! We ain't had no winter clothes guv us yet, and dey's +done sent de tailor to fit us!" + +The operator with the line, on hearing this, dropped his measure, and, +with emotions divided between astonishment and compassion, gazed at the +poor wretch, who remained smiling in delight. No one else spoke, and, +after a moment, the official picked up his line and resumed his work. + +"Wen'll de clothes be ready for me?" inquired Governor, with great +interest. + +"I am not taking your size for clothes," answered the operator, gravely. + +"No! What den?" inquired Governor, in astonishment, but without the +least suspicion of the truth. + +"Don't you know?" + +"No! I doesn't! What is it?" + +"Well, you know, at least, that you are to die to-morrow. And I am +measuring you for your coffin." + +Governor made no reply, neither did the smile pass at once from his +face. He no longer refused to believe in his approaching fate, but the +idea was very slow in penetrating his brain. + +The carpenter, having now completed his errand, left the cell in company +with the turnkey. Governor went and resumed his seat upon the side of +his cot, and remained perfectly silent, only not as cheerful as he had +been, and occasionally putting up his hand and rubbing his head, and +seeming to ponder. At last he said, dubiously, however: + +"Brother Walley, honey, I'se beginnin' to be 'fraid, arter all, dat dey +tends for to hang us, sure 'nough! Dey wouldn't carry de nonsense dis +far 'out dey did, would dey? 'Sides which, dey wouldn't go to de 'xpense +o' coffins, would dey?" + +"No, Governor," said Valentine, going over and sitting down beside him, +and taking his hand and continuing: "Governor, by this hour to-morrow +you and I will be over all our earthly troubles." + +Slowly, slowly the truth was making its way to Governor's consciousness. +His face clouded over, but he seemed to grow more stupid every instant. +To all Valentine's speeches he answered never one word, not seeming to +hear or to understand them. + +Dely could not bear this. Bursting into tears, she went and dropped upon +her knees before Governor, and took his two hands in hers, and wept over +them, and begged and prayed him, for his soul's sake, to listen to her +words. Governor was only a recent acquaintance; he was not, as Valentine +was, an old friend; yet it almost broke her gentle heart to see him +thus--so stolid, so unconscious, so insensible. + +They were interrupted again, this time by a clergyman and one other +gentleman, a member of the church. + +Dely was now obliged to return home. She took an affectionate leave of +Valentine and of Governor, telling them that she should pray for them +constantly, and that she should be on her knees, praying for them, in +their last hour of trial. + +The minister found Valentine well prepared to meet his doom. But when he +turned his attention to the other condemned man, he found, to his +dismay, that he could not make the slightest impression upon Governor. +The unhappy creature no longer doubted what his doom would be; but, as I +said before, the truth very slowly entered his mind; and, alas! as it +entered it seemed to press him down, and down, into deeper and more +hopeless apathy, until at last he sat there silent, senseless, crushed. +They could not pray with him; they could only pray for him. + +The next day, Christmas Eve, dawned brightly for almost all the +world--darkly enough for the condemned. + +An early hour of the morning had been appointed for the farewell +interview between the prisoners and their families. Such partings are +always distressing beyond conception, and I shrink from the pain of +saying much about them. + +Governor had but few friends, his fellow-slaves, who came over very +early in the morning to take leave of him, and who, finding him so +apathetic, went away comforted, with the belief "that Governor did not +seem to mind it." + +His miserable wife came alone, to drop weeping at his feet, and implore +his dying forgiveness for the part she had had in bringing him to this +awful pass. + +Governor, partially aroused from his torpor, awoke sufficiently to put +his arm around her shoulders, and say: + +"Don't cry, chile; I doesn't bear you no malice. You couldn't help it, +chile, no more 'an I could; things was too much for us bofe. Don't cry; +I loves you same as ever." + +This gentleness almost broke the penitent woman's heart, and she went +away weeping bitterly, wringing her hands and wishing most sincerely it +were possible for her, the most guilty one, to die in her husband's +stead. After this visit Governor sank into a still deeper stupor of +despair, from which nothing had power to arouse him. + +Directly after this followed the last interview between Valentine and +his little family. + +Phædra and Fannie came in, accompanied by old Elisha, who carried little +Coralie in his arms. I cannot describe the anguish of this parting. + +Phædra perhaps bore it best of all, with a strange hopeless fortitude +that reminded one of Governor's stolidity, only saying that though life +was sorrowful even at its happiest, it was, thank Heaven! short at its +longest; and that she should not be many days behind her son. + +But Fannie was wild with sorrow, and utterly inconsolable. When the +moment of final separation arrived, she fainted, and was borne from the +cell, as one dead, in the arms of the old preacher. Phædra followed, +leading little Coralie. + +The execution was to be a public one. And the authorities published a +card in the daily papers, formally inviting the masters of the city and +the surrounding country to give their slaves a holiday upon this day, to +enable the latter to attend the execution of Valentine and Governor. And +as the morning advanced toward noon so numerous was the multitude of +negroes that gathered in from all parts of the country, and so great was +the excitement that prevailed among them, that the powers saw the +mistake they had made by issuing this general invitation, and felt great +alarm as to the result. + +The marshal called upon the militia and the city guards to turn out and +muster around the scaffold to insure the safe custody of the prisoners +and the execution of the sentence. + +The scaffold was erected upon a gentle elevation, on the west suburb of +the city. A crowd of many thousands, each moment augmented, was gathered +upon the ground. But the two companies of militia made a way through +this forest of human beings, and formed around the foot of the scaffold. + +It was about eleven o'clock that the prisoners were placed in a close +van, in company with the marshal and a clergyman, and escorted by a +detachment of the city guards, were driven to the place of execution. +The presence of the guards was needed to force a passage through the +compact and highly-excited crowd. The prison van was kept carefully +closed, and the condemned with their attendants remained invisible until +the procession had passed safely through that stormy sea of human beings +and gained the security of the hollow square formed by the bayonets of +the militia around the scaffold. + +The van drew up at the foot of the steps leading to the platform. The +police officer that stood behind the vehicle jumped down and opened the +door, and handed out the prisoners, who were followed closely by the +marshal and the clergyman. + +The marshal immediately took charge of Governor, to lead him up the +stairs. + +The clergyman drew Valentine's arm within his own, to follow. + +And the police officer was joined by the deputy marshal, who brought up +the rear. + +And so the sad procession ascended those fatal stairs--Governor in a +deep stupor, or looking as if he did not understand what all this +pageant meant; Valentine with grave composure, as if he felt the awful +solemnity of the moment, and was prepared to meet it. The scaffold was +very high, and was reached by a flight of more than twenty steps. + +When the prisoners and their escort gained the platform they stood in +full view of every individual of that vast concourse of people. Their +appearance was hailed by acclamation from the multitude below, and +huzzas of encouragement or defiance, shouts of derision and cries of +sympathy were mingled in one indistinguishable _mêlée_ of noise. + +The prisoners were not prematurely clad in the habiliments of the grave, +as is usual upon such occasions, but were attired in ordinary citizen's +dress. + +Governor wore his best Sunday suit of "pepper and salt" casinet, and +looked a huge, shapeless figure of a negro, in which the sooty skin +could scarcely be distinguished from the sooty clothes. + +Valentine looked very well, though pale and worn. He wore a suit of +black broadcloth, with a white cravat and gloves, and his natural +ringlets were arranged with that habitual regard to order and neatness +which was with him a second nature. + +Valentine held in his hands the manuscript address that he wished to +make to the assembly. He had been promised by the authorities an +opportunity of delivering this address, before the parting prayers +should be said. He stood now with his copy in his hand, only waiting for +the noise to subside before his commencing. Governor stood by his side, +in stolid insensibility. + +But Valentine had been deceived to the last moment. He was not to be +permitted to deliver his address; the authorities feared too much its +exciting effect upon the tumultuous assembly below. The marshal had +received his instructions, and had given private orders to his deputy +and assistants. + +Valentine was still letting his eyes rove over the "multitudinous sea" +of heads, waiting for a calm in which he might be heard, when his eye +fell upon Major Hewitt, who had been absent all day at the capital, and +had but just returned from his last fruitless attempt to move the +Executive in behalf of the condemned, and who, without leaving his +saddle, had ridden up at once to the scene of execution. He could not +penetrate the crowd, but remained on horseback on its outskirts. At the +same moment the figure of Major Hewitt caught the eye of Governor, and +roused him from the torpor of despair into which he had fallen--roused +him to an agony of entreaty, and, stretching out his arms to his master, +he cried, with a loud voice that thrilled to the hearts of all present: + +"Oh, marster! I allus looked up to you as if you were my father and my +God! Save me now! save me from under the gallows! Oh, marster----" + +Major Hewitt turned precipitately and galloped away from the scene. + +The condemned were not aware that they stood upon the fatal trapdoor. +They did not notice, either, that, at a signal from the marshal, the +attending clergyman stepped aside and the deputy and assistants gathered +in a little group behind. Governor still had his arms extended in wild +entreaty after his flying master, and Valentine was still waiting for +silence, when suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, their arms were +bound, the cords slipped over their heads, the caps drawn over their +eyes, the spring of the bolt touched, and, without one instant's +warning, or one word of prayer or benediction, they fell, and swung +beneath sky and earth. + +"In the name of Heaven! why have you done this thing?" asked the +terribly-shocked minister, who was altogether unprepared for the +suddenness of the execution. + +"In another five minutes an attempt would have been made at rescue," +answered that official. + + * * * * * + +This tragedy spoiled the Christmas festivities of many more than were +immediately connected with the sufferers. If the reader cares to follow +the sad fortunes of the survivors, I have only to tell them that Phædra +outlived her son but one short month; and Mrs. Waring kindly took Fannie +and her child away from the scene and associations of their calamity, to +her own quiet and beautiful country home in East Feliciana. Major Hewitt +is a "sadder," and, let us hope, "a wiser man," since he no longer +closes his ears to the complaints of his suffering people. + +One word more. The tragic story in which I have endeavored to interest +you is, in all its essential features, strictly true. Not that I mean to +say that in all the scenes word followed word precisely in the order +here set down, though generally the language used has been faithful to +the letter, and always to the spirit of the facts. Valentine and +Governor lived, suffered, sinned, and finally together died, for the +causes and in the manner related. My means of minute information were +very good. The tragedy occurred but a few years ago, in a neighborhood +with which I am familiar. It excited at the time great local interest, +but never probably got beyond "mere mention" in any but the local +papers. In relating it I have delivered "a round, unvarnished tale," and +have not colored the truth with any adventitious hue of fancy. The +subject was too sacred, in its dark sorrow, for such trifling. Only, for +the sake of some survivors, a change of names and a slight change of +localities has been deemed proper. + + + + +THE SPECTRE REVELS. + + + + +TALE OF ALL HALLOW EVE. + + Black spirits and white, + Blue spirits and gray, + Mingle, mingle, mingle, + Ye that mingle may.--SHAKESPEARE. + + O'er all these hung a shadow and a fear! + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + That said as plain as whisper in the ear, + The place is haunted!--THOMAS HOOD. + + +"Did I ever see a ghost, friends? Um-m--Well! ghost is not the modern +name for such an apparition. It is called 'imagination,' 'optical +illusion,' fancy, fever, or something else--never 'ghost,' which makes +no difference in the nature of the thing, however. 'A rose by any other +name would smell as sweet.' Yes! I have--I have gone through more than +seeing them--I have known them!" + +"Ghosts?" + +"No, I repeat to you the term is obsolete--optical illusions. Though to +be sure the ghostly experience that has left the deepest impression upon +my mind--and that this anniversary especially recalls, was no optical +illusion." + +"What! was it a real ghost story, though? and did it happen to you?" + +"You shall hear." + +It was the thirty-first of October, All Hallow's Eve, a ghostly season, +as every one properly posted in ghostly lore knows very well. A dreary +storm of rain and wind was beating against the windows; but the fire on +the old sitting-room hearth was burning warmly, the candles were not yet +lighted, our father, the pastor, had not returned from a sick call, and +with a delightful show of expectation we all gathered around the fire to +hear Aunt Madeleine's ghost story. + +It is now more years than I care to remember, she began, since we moved +from the old forest of St. Mary's, up to the town of W. + +Our family then consisted of our grandmother, Mrs. Hawkins, my sister +Alice (your mother, dears), and two old family servants, Hector and his +wife Cassandra. + +That removal was the first great memorable epoch in my own and my +sister's lives. We had never seen anything approaching nearer to a town +than the little hamlet of St. Inigoes, and though W. was just exactly +the drowsiest old city that ever slept through centuries and slept +itself to death, yet to us, coming from the forest farm, it seemed a +very miracle of life, enterprise and excitement. + +We reached our home in Church street just about the last of October. + +At first the change was delightful to us. We were never weary of +exploring the streets and reading the signs, and--as we gained +confidence and ventured into the shops--of examining the marvelous +treasures of silks and satins and laces and jewelry and china, and "all +that's bought and sold in city marts." + +I recall the first six months of our residence in W., while the novelty +still lasted and all was beautiful illusion, and think that no mere +worldly event can ever give me such true pleasure again. + +Ally and I told each other over and over again that "the city was the +true Arcadia!" that there all poetry, romance and adventure was to be +found, and that it was like scenes in the "Arabian Nights." + +We were never weary of exploring new quarters--even the narrow, squalid +lanes and alleys with their dilapidated houses and ragged denizens, had +a grotesque attraction for us--and often we would stand gazing at some +wretched tenement, with falling timbers and stuffed windows, and +speculate about the life of the people within. + +And besides the wonders of treasures and pleasures--there was the daily +recurring astonishment at the convenience of the place. + +We could scarcely get used to the idea that when we wanted a skein of +silk or a paper of needles, it was only necessary to go across the +street, or around the corner to get them, instead of putting the mare to +the gig and riding seven miles to the nearest store; or that when we +went out to tea, we had only to walk a square or so, instead of driving +from three to ten miles; or that we might stay out until bedtime, +instead of ordering the horses to start for home at sunset. + +And then the comfort of being able to walk out dry shod over the clean +pavement, in all weathers, instead of in the winter being obliged to +ride in a carriage, plunging axletree deep through lanes of mud and +water, or worse still, being weather-bound by the state of the roads. + +In fact, so charmed were we all with this walking with impunity at +unaccustomed times and seasons, that the old carryall gathered dust in +the coach house, and Jenny, the mare, accumulated fat in the stable. + +But if the autumn in the city seemed so delightful to us rustics, what +shall I say of the winter, when the lecture rooms and concert halls were +thrown open, and when evening parties were given? There seemed to us no +end of enchantments. + +I should have told you that when we first went to town we had but one +acquaintance there. It was with the family of our Uncle and Aunt +Rackaway. They had a large family of growing sons and daughters, of +which our dear Cousin Will (your own respected father, girls), was the +eldest, the handsomest, the wildest, and the best beloved. Will Rackaway +soon initiated us into all the innocent amusements of the season--took +us to evening meetings, lectures, concerts, exhibitions of every sort, +except the theatre, which our grandmother could not be persuaded to +regard as an innocent amusement. + +We were a social family, and soon collected around us a very agreeable +neighborhood circle, some one or two of whom would drop in upon us every +evening when we were at home, or else invite us out. Ally and I extended +our acquaintance among young people whose parents occasionally gave +dancing parties, at which we were always present, and which, therefore, +our good grandmother felt bound to sometimes reciprocate. You are not to +suppose that our days passed in a round of fashionable dissipation. +Nonsense! nothing of the sort. We were rather a staid, domestic +family--but upon the whole what a contrast this to the long, monotonous +evenings in the farm house! + +Well, so passed that winter, so full of future consequences--that winter +in which Ally's gentle spirit first won the heart of her wild Cousin +Will. All pleasures pall! Before the season was over, the streets, the +shops, the shows--all the wonders and glories of the city had lost their +attraction with their novelty. + +When the spring came, we had grown just a little weary of city life. +With April, a spring fever for sowing, and planting, and pruning, and +training came upon us. But, alas! there was nowhere to sow or plant--our +back yard was flagged, and our front one paved. And there was nothing to +prune or train--four forlorn trees, trimmed by city authorities into the +shape of upright mops, standing upon the hard pavement before our door, +were the only apologies for vegetation near us, and they looked as +exiled and homesick as ourselves. Mrs. Hawkins also missed her chickens +and turkeys, and we all felt the loss of the cows. + +"Ah, if we could only get a house away to ourselves, a house in the +suburbs, with ground around it, where we could be private, and have +shade trees and a garden, and cows and poultry, and all that, within +easy walk to the city, how happy I should be," said grandmother, +sighing. + +"Ah, yes! if we only could! then we should enjoy the pleasures of both +city and country life," said I. + +"'Oh, that would be joyful, joyful, joyful, joyful!'" exclaimed Ally, +quoting the chorus of a popular hymn. + +"Ah! well, we must keep our eyes open, and see what we can find," said +our grandmother. + +The street upon which we lived was narrow and closely built up. It led +down half a mile to a long bridge that crossed the river. Consequently +this street was the great thoroughfare of country people coming into +town, to market, or to shop, or upon any other errand. + +Among those who came every day was one old man, who was quite an +eccentric character, and who is still remembered by the aged inhabitants +of W----. Dr. H---- always wore a cocked hat, a powdered wig, a black +velvet coat, double waistcoat, ruffled shirt, knee breeches, long hose +and silver buckles, and carried a gold-headed cane, keeping up in his +age the style and costume of his youth. + +He came in town every morning in a gig driven by a servant as old and as +quaint as himself. + +He returned every evening. + +The doctor was a never-failing object of interest to us. The little +information we could get respecting him only whetted our curiosity to a +keener edge. We learned from Cousin Will that he had no family and no +society; that he lived alone in a secluded country house, called the +Willow Cottage, with no companion except the aged servant seen always +with him; that he had a traditional reputation of having possessed great +skill in his profession, and that he now followed a limited practice +among his old contemporaries in the city. + +So much of authentic facts. + +Besides these it was rumored that, years before, he had married a lovely +young girl, who had been persuaded or forced to sacrifice her youth and +beauty and a prior attachment, to his wealth and age and infirmities; +whose short life had been embittered by his jealousies, and whose sudden +death, under suspicious circumstances, had not left him free from +imputations of the gravest character. + +This was all we could learn of the doctor; and you may depend that our +interest in him was deepened and darkened. We watched him with closer +attention. His hard, sharp features, his deep-set eyes, whitened hair, +and thin, bent figure, took on a sinister appearance, or we fancied so. + +However that might be, we felt more shocked than grieved when one +morning the news came that the doctor was found at daybreak dead in his +bed, with dark marks upon his neck as from the pressure of a thumb and +finger! + +The news spread like wildfire. The long-closed doors of the Willow +Cottage flew open to the public, and its darkened chambers to the +sunlight. Crowds flocked thither; the old servant was examined and +discharged, no suspicion attaching to him; the coroner's inquest met, +and, after a session of twelve hours, rendered its sapient verdict: +"Found dead," which, of course, greatly enlightened the public mind. The +old servant obtained a home in the almshouse, and the Willow Cottage +passed to the next of kin. + +These events occurred in the month of May. About the middle of June the +weather became so hot, the streets so dusty, that the city grew +intolerable to us. During winter the town of W---- had afforded a +pleasant contrast to the country; during summer it was quite the +opposite. In the height of our discontent one morning Will Rackaway came +in. + +"The Willow Cottage is for rent! Here is a chance for you!" + +"The Willow Cottage for rent! Oh, that is delightful," said Ally and I +in a breath. + +"Who has the renting of it?" inquired grandmother. + +"Well, the agent is out of town; but I got the key from his clerk, and +if you'll order Jenny put to the carryall, I'll drive you out there to +look at it. I think it will be let cheap, for the associations of the +place are so gloomy that none but a strong-minded woman like Aunt----" + +"A Christian woman, you mean, Will." + +"Well, yes, a Christian woman, like Aunt, would venture to live in it." + +Mrs. Hawkins had in the meantime put her hand to the bell, summoned +Hector, and given him an order to get the carryall ready for a drive. We +were soon in the carriage, and half an hour's drive took us down the +street, across the long bridge to the other side of the river, and to +the Willow Cottage. + +There is, as I have noticed always, a remarkable fitness in the names +given to country houses. This was certainly the case with the present +one. There was not a willow near the place. + +A few yards from the end of the bridge, and to the right hand of the +highway, a disused, grass-grown road led through a close thicket of +evergreens, some quarter of a mile on to an open level area, of about a +hundred acres of exhausted land, grown up in broom sedge and completely +surrounded by the pine forest. + +In the midst of this area stood a red stone cottage, consisting of a +central building of two stories, flanked each side by wings of one story +in height. The central building was finished by a gable roof front, with +a large single fan-shaped window just above the front portico. + +The cottage stood in the midst of a garden of about one acre, shaded +with many trees and surrounded by a substantial stone wall, parallel to +which, on the inside, was a hedge of evergreens, and on the outside +another hedge of climbing and intertwining wild rose, eglantine and +blackberry vines. + +An iron gate, very rusty and dilapidated, admitted us to the grass-grown +walk that led between two rows of black-oak trees to the front portico +of the central building. + +We entered a small front hall, behind which was a large, square parlor, +in the rear of which was a long dining-room. The wings on the right and +left consisted each of a bedchamber, entered from the front hall. There +was but one room above stairs, a large chamber immediately over the +parlor in the central building, and lighted by the fan-light in the +front gable. + +The kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms were in another building in the +rear of the cottage; they were not joined together, but stood, as it +were, back to back, presenting to each other a dead wall without door or +window, and about two feet apart, thus forming a blind alley. + +I have been thus particular in describing the house, that you may better +understand the story that follows. + +"The builder who designed this was certainly demented," said one of the +party, pointing to the blind alley, with its waste of wall. + +Will laughed. + +"I have noticed, Madeleine, that quite as much of character is shown in +the construction of houses as in the cut of physiognomies." + +"But, upon the whole, I like it," said the other. + +And so said every one. + +There was a stable, a coachhouse, a henhouse, a smokehouse, and, in +fact, every possible accommodation for the household. The fruit trees +and vines were teeming with fruit, which also lay ripening or decaying +in great quantities upon the ground. The rose bushes had spread the +grass with a warmer hue and sweeter covering. + +We filled our old carryall with fruit and our hands with flowers and +prepared to return home. Ally was in ecstacies. So was Cousin Will. So +was our grandmother, as much as a self-possessed and dignified matron of +the old school could be said to be. As for myself, I could not sleep +that night for thinking of our removal to the fine old place. We had +unanimously resolved to take it. + +Alas! we had reckoned without our landlord. Upon inquiry of the agent +next day we learned that the place was already let to a man who intended +to make it a house of summer resort, for which its convenient distance +from the city, its cool and shady and secluded site, and its extensive +grounds, numerous shade trees and fine fruit, and many other good +points, peculiarly adapted it. + +We were very much disappointed, but our regret was somewhat modified +when we ascertained that it was let at a preposterous rate of rent, that +a prudent woman like our grandmother never would have undertaken to pay. +So we resigned ourselves to the inevitable. + +However, in a week or two we were so fortunate as to rent a small, neat +house on the opposite side of the road from the Willow Cottage, and +nearer to the bridge. We immediately moved into our new home; and +grandmother sent Hector down into the country to bring up her poultry, +and drive up her cows--a business that he took but three days to +accomplish. + +We were thus settled in our suburban residence, with which, by the way, +we were not quite content. It was too small, too exposed to the rays of +the sun, the dust of the road and the eyes of the passengers; it was too +new also, and the shrubs and flowers had not had time to grow, and +then--we had been disappointed of Willow Cottage. + +In addition to these drawbacks, and even worse than these, was the fact +that we were annoyed all day long and every day by the troops of +visitors, on foot and on horseback, in sulkies and buggies, all bound +for the Willow Cottage. + +And, worst of all, we were disturbed all night by the noisy passage of +these revelers returning home. + +On Sundays and Sunday nights this was insufferable. It seemed as if ten +times as many revelers went out in the day and came back ten times as +much intoxicated and as noisy in the night! Our poor old Cassandra vowed +that when we changed the farm for the city house it was bad enough, but +when we changed the city house for the suburban cottage, "we jest did +it--jumped right out'n de fryin' pan inter de fire!" + +However, a terrible event soon occurred at the Willow Cottage that +crowded everything else out of our heads. + +It was the night of the Fourth of July. All day long crowd after crowd +had passed our house on their way out there. From early in the morning +until late at night the road was kept clouded with the dust, that +settled upon everything in and around our house. We were glad when, late +at night, the revelry seemed to cease, and we were permitted to be at +peace. + +We retired, and, exhausted by the exciting annoyances of the day, I fell +asleep. I know not how long I had slept, when I was suddenly aroused by +the noise of many persons hurrying past the house in apparently a state +of great excitement. In another moment I perceived that all the family +had been aroused as well as myself. They hurried into my room, which was +the front chamber of the second floor, and thus from a secure point +commanded the street. We all crowded to the two windows, left the +candles unlighted that we might not be seen, and remained as mute as +mice that we might not be heard. + +The stars were very bright, and we could distinctly see the hurrying +crowd in the road below. Some were running in the direction of the +Willow Cottage, while others were hastening thence. These opposite +parties, meeting, would exchange a few vehement words and gestures, and +then speed upon their several ways. + +At last a man, running against another immediately under the window, +inquired: + +"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter at the Willow Cottage?" + +"Don't stop me, for the Lord's sake! O'Donnegan, the landlord, has +killed young Keats, the only son of Colonel Keats! I am running to fetch +his father!" + +"Heavens and earth! another murder within that accursed house! That is +the third!" exclaimed the questioner, in a voice of horror. + +The men separated in opposite directions, the one running toward the +town, the other toward the scene of the outrage. The same questions and +the same answers were quietly heard between other meeting parties, who +separated, running in opposite ways, as the first had done. The dreadful +news was thus confirmed. + +We drew back our heads and looked each other in the face in +consternation. We knew none of the parties concerned, yet we could not +compose ourselves to sleep that night. + +The next day was a terrible one to the friends of the murdered and the +murderer. + +Once more--the third time--a coroner's inquest sat upon a dead body at +the Willow Cottage. But this time their verdict, made up after a careful +investigation and patient deliberation, was of a more fatal character. +It was that "The deceased came to his death by blows upon the head from +a bludgeon in the hands of Patrick O'Donnegan." + +O'Donnegan, who was under arrest, awaiting the verdict, was then fully +committed to stand his trial at the approaching session of the criminal +court. + +The establishment at the Willow Cottage was broken up, the furniture +sold, the house closed, and the premises once more advertised for rent. +But now with the bad odor hanging around the place, no one wished to +take it, and the house remained idle upon the proprietor's hands. + +Meantime the trial of O'Donnegan approached. He was arraigned, convicted +and sentenced, in a shorter space of time than I ever heard of in the +trial of any criminal. Many people thought that the prosecution was +conducted in a vindictive spirit, and that the friends of the deceased +exerted every faculty, sparing neither influence nor expense in the +pursuit of a conviction. They retained the best counsel in the country +to assist the State's attorney, while on the other hand the poor wretch +of a prisoner had no defense except that appointed for him by the court. +However that might be, in the short space of one month from the time of +committing the homicide, he was sentenced to die, and in six weeks from +his conviction he expiated his crime upon the scaffold. + +It was about the middle of September, of that eventful year, when a +rumor arose--as all rumors arise, mysteriously--that the Willow Cottage +was haunted; that ghostly lights flitted through its chambers; that +ghostly revelers held midnight orgies in its deserted halls; and that +the murderer and the murdered still played their game at ninepins, or +waged their last war along its lonely corridors. + +While these reports were rife in the neighborhood, our Grandmother +Hawkins turned a deaf ear, or threw in a good-humored, sarcastic word to +the marvel-mongers--upon one occasion launching at them and us the +time-honored proverb: + +"You will never see anything worse than yourselves, my dears." + +"I believe you, mistress, honey! for long as I lib on dis yeth, and +feared as I is o' ghoses, I nebber see nothin' worse nor myse'f +yet--dough, the Lord betune me an' harm, I sartinly saw de debbil +once--I did," observed old Cassy, sapiently. + +"If no one else takes the Willow Cottage beforehand, just wait until my +term is up here, and then if Mr. Buzzard will let it to a small, quiet +family on anything like reasonable terms, you'll see how we meet +spectres," said our grandmother. + +"Too late, Aunt Rachel! The Willow Cottage is let," exclaimed Will +Rackaway, who had a few minutes previously joined our party. + +"Let, is it? Ah! well, I hope it is not to another rum-seller!" + +"No, indeed! to another guess tenant! to Colonel Manly, of the ---- +regiment, who is now ordered to join General Armistead, in Florida, and +who takes the cottage as a pleasant country home for his wife and +children during his absence." + +"Hum-m me! then we shall have neighbors. I am very well reconciled," +said Mrs. Hawkins. + +A few weeks after this conversation the new tenants were settled in the +Willow Cottage, and the colonel embarked for Florida. + +Grandmother Hawkins was rather slow and ceremonious in all her dealings +with society. Therefore she "took her time" in calling upon Mrs. Manly. +Consequently, upon the very morning that she set out to pay that lady a +visit she met a train of furniture drays proceeding from the premises, +and heard to her great astonishment that the family were moving away. + +"And they have been only here a week!" exclaimed the old lady, by +unmitigated astonishment thrown for a moment off her guard. + +Significant looks and mysterious gestures were the only comments made by +the servants upon the subject. + +And Mrs. Hawkins, thinking it improper to push inquiries in that +quarter, sent in her respects and good wishes to Mrs. Manly, and then, +without having alighted from her carryall, gave the order to turn the +horse's head homeward. + +You may judge the surprise with which we heard the news of this +flitting; but as our grandmother had asked no questions, she could give +us no information. + +Others, however, were not so discreet. Inquiries were made and +answered, and soon the news flew all over the country that Mrs. Manly, +upon account of the mysterious noises that nightly disturbed her rest, +found it impossible to live in the house. + +The cottage remained idle for some weeks, and then was taken by another +family, who stayed ten days, then vanished--whispering the same cause +for their abandonment of the premises. + +The excitement of the neighborhood increased. There was nothing talked +of but the haunted house. Large parties visited the spot during +daylight, who, after the most curious investigation, found nothing +unusual about the looks of the place. But no tenant could be induced to +take it, and it remained idle for several weeks, at the end of which +time a family from down the country moved up, and reading of this fine +place to let, and not knowing its "haunted" reputation, engaged it at +once. The name of the newcomers was Ferguson. The neighborhood waited +the event in deep interest. + +Upon the day after their settlement at the cottage, as we were just +about to sit down to our very early breakfast, there was a knock at the +door, followed by the entrance of a good-looking, motherly, colored +woman, who announced herself as "Aunt Hannah, ole Marse Josh Ferguson's +'oman," and stood waiting. + +"Well, Hannah, you look tired--sit down on that stool and let us know +how we can do you good," said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Thanky, mist'ess--no time to sit, honey; 'deed I hasn't--I come to see +if you would 'form me where I could buy a little drap o' cream, for ole +marse coffee. Our cows; hasn't riv' from below yet." + +"You cannot buy cream at all in this neighborhood, but I will supply +your master, with great pleasure, until his cows come home." + +"Thanky, mist'ess! thanky, honey! I 'cepts of it wid all de comfort in +life! An' if so be you-dem wants any plums, or pears, or squinches, for +'serves, we'd s'ply you in like manner." + +After this Aunt Hannah came every morning for her pitcher of cream. One +morning I overheard her talking with Cassy in the kitchen. + +"How you dew likes your new place?" inquired Cassy. + +"Hush, honey!" exclaimed the other, with an air of deep mystery. + +"Lord! 'deed, now?" whispered Cassy. + +"Trufe I'm telling you!" replied Hannah. + +"Do any one sturve you o' nights?" + +"Hush, honey!" + +"Who?" + +"Dead people." + +"The Lord betune us and harm!" + +"Hush, honey! Don't let on! We's gwine 'way; but de family don't want it +should be known as dey leave for sich a cause." + +"I unnerstans! The saints betune us an' sin!" + +A few days after this conversation Mr. Ferguson's family left the Willow +Cottage; and the excitement of the neighborhood upon the subject of the +haunted homestead received a tremendous impetus. As it had been once +visited from motives of incredulous curiosity, it was now avoided in the +spirit of superstitious dread. It was believed to be unlucky to the +visitor. All the worst rumors about the former proprietors were revived +and credited. It was said that a curse rested upon the house where +marriage faith and friendship's trust and hospitality's laws had each in +succession been basely betrayed--upon the house of three reputed +murders! + +Only Mrs. Hawkins stoutly stood up for the defense of the Willow +Cottage. + +"Three murders! nonsense! three stage plays! The doctor's young wife +fretted herself into illness, and died of heart disease, poor thing. She +was not, therefore, murdered. The old doctor himself lived to a good age +and died in a fit. Was he murdered? I guess the coroner's jury knew! The +unhappy young man Keats lost his life in a sinful revel--a warning to +all youth. What guilt, then, rests upon the comfortable home and +beautiful garden? Did they suggest wine-bibbing and brawling? Pshaw! I +am ashamed of people's want of logic. Only wait until my term is up +here, and then see if I do not move into the house, and stay in it, +too!" + +This decision of Mrs. Hawkins produced different effects upon each of +her family. I for my own part had a natural turn for melodramatic +heroism--admired Joan of Arc, Margaret of Norway, Philippa of Hainault, +and all the lion-hearted, eagle-eyed, battle-ax heroines--and wished for +the opportunity of imitating them. I had an aspiring, courageous spirit, +but weak nerves; and so I stoutly seconded the move to move, though my +heart quailed at the idea of our living alone in the haunted house. + +Ally's trust in her grandmother was so perfect that she resigned herself +in confidence to her decision. + +The old negroes were possessed with the direst fore-bodings, but feeling +that it would be vain to remonstrate, only shook their heads and +muttered something to the effect that "old mist'ess'" confidence in +herself would be sure to have a check some day. + +Mrs. Hawkins was as good as her word. She began in her steady, energetic +way to tie up parcels and pack boxes of such things as were not in daily +use, in anticipation of moving. There was no competition for the +possession of the deserted mansion. Mrs. Hawkins engaged it at a very +moderate rate of rent. + +And upon the 31st of October--the ghostly anniversary of Hallow E'en--a +day ever to be remembered, we began our removal to the haunted house. + +It was a dark, overcast day. + +Mrs. Hawkins, who seldom stopped for weather, was anxious to get all her +effects safely housed before the rain, or at least before night. So, +very early in the morning, accompanied by Alice and attended by old +Hector, she drove over to Willow Cottage to have fires lighted in the +damp house, and to receive and dispose of the furniture as it should +arrive. + +Myself and Will Rackaway, who came to help me and old Cassy, remained in +charge of the house to dispatch the furniture. It was a hard day's work, +I assure you. And as the twilight hours passed the sky grew darker, and +the air damper and colder. A gloomier and more depressing day could +scarcely be imagined. + +It was nearly night when at length we dispatched the last cartload of +effects, locked up the house, and got into the old carryall that had +returned for us. Old Cassy sat with me on the back seat, and old Hector, +who drove for us, sat beside Will Rackaway, in front. The rain was now +falling in a fine, slow drizzle. Perhaps it was the dark and heavy +atmosphere, fatigue, and the approach of night, that so oppressed my +spirits, but I well remember the feeling of gloom and terror with which +I crossed the highway and entered upon the grass-grown and shadowy road, +through the thicket that led to Willow Cottage. It was a very dark and +silent scene--no sight but the trees, that, like lower and heavier +clouds, met and hung over our heads; no sound but the stealthy, muffled +turn of the wheels over the wet and fallen leaves. + +"The road to the haunted house is a very ghostly one! I think, for my +part, Mark Tapley would have found this a fine place to get jolly in," +said Will, twisting his head around to look at me. + +But he had quickly to recall his attention, for his first words had so +upset the equanimity of our driver that he had allowed his horse to run +full tilt into the trees. Will seized the reins from the shaking hands +of old Hector and soon righted the carryall. + +At last we emerged from the thicket, and saw dimly the great open area +girdled with its pine forest, of which I have already spoken. + +Only like a denser group of shadow was the old Willow Cottage, in the +midst of its ancient trees, in the center of that open space. + +We followed the road through the broom sedge across the field until we +drew up at the rusty iron gate of the cottage. + +There we alighted, and, leaving old Hector to drive the carryall around +to the stable door, we entered and went up the long grass-grown walk +between the black oaks, until we reached the house. + +The doors and window blinds were all closed, and the faint light within +gleamed fitfully through the chinks where the framework was warped. + +The front door was not locked, and we entered at once into the hall that +ran parallel with the front of the house, and formed, in fact, a sort of +anteroom to the large parlor that lay behind it. From this hall, besides +the central door before us that led into the parlor, there was a door on +the right hand and one on the left, leading into the side bedchambers in +the wings; and by the side of the right-hand door, nearer the front +wall, was the staircase leading up to the large chamber in the gable +end, that was lighted and ventilated by that fan-shaped window seen in +the front of the house over the portico. + +We passed through the hall, and through the large, empty parlor behind +it, and entered the long dining-room in the rear. + +There we found Mrs. Hawkins and Alice awaiting us among the piled-up +furniture. + +"You look tired and out of spirits, Madeleine. You must have worked +harder than we did." + +"How have you got on?" I inquired. + +"Why, we have arranged the bedchambers and the kitchen--that is all. We +have left the dining-room and parlor and hall to be put to rights +to-morrow. But Hector has got the supper ready, and set the table in the +kitchen; let us go in there; it is warmer. Come, girls--come, Will." + +As I before mentioned, the kitchen, pantry, laundry and servants' rooms +were in a building behind the dwelling-house, not joined to it, but +standing back to back with it at a distance of three feet. So we had to +go out of doors to enter the kitchen. + +I remember even now the sense of comfort I experienced on entering that +cozy room. It was a stone room, with a great fireplace, in which blazed +a fine fire, a wide, high dresser, upon which shone, tier upon tier, +rows of bright metal and clean crockeryware; in the middle of the floor +was an inviting table, upon which smoked an abundant supper. + +"Ah!" said Will, with an appreciating glance at the board; "thus +fortified, we can meet the enemy!" + +"Can you spend the night with us, Will?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh, no! must return; mother doesn't know I'm out!" replied the youth. + +Accordingly, after supper Will prepared to take his leave of us. + +"Before you go, Will, I wish you to take Hector and the lantern and go +over every foot of the grounds, and all along the walks, to see that +everything is safe here," said our grandmother. + +"Of course, of course, noble lady! Order the seneschal and the luminary, +and I will reconnoitre the state of the fortifications!" said Will, as +he buttoned up his coat. + +By the time he had drawn on his gloves Hector appeared at the door with +the lantern, and they sallied forth. I looked through an end window, and +found strange amusement in watching the progress of that lantern up one +shadowy walk and down another, and along the hedged wall, until at last +it approached the house. Will entered, speaking gayly. + +"Well, Lady Hawkins, I have reconnoitred the defenses, and found them in +an excellent condition! The wall is strong, the hedge on the inside is +high, and that upon the outerside sharp. The enemy could not attempt to +scale without such damage to cuticle from the one, and bone from the +others, as no enemy endowed with 'the better part of valor' would risk. +All is quiet within the garrison; and if you will send the warden to +lock the gate after me, I think the castle will be impregnable for the +night." + +Hector once more received orders to attend the young master, who now +bade us good-night and left the house. + +Meanwhile, Cassy had washed up the supper service and restored the +kitchen to order. So that when old Hector returned from his errand, +bearing the key of the gate, nothing remained for us to do but examine +and close the house, offer up our evening worship, and go to bed, which, +as it was very late and we were very tired, we prepared to do at once. +After every room was visited, and every door and window firmly secured, +we went to the dining-room for family prayer, and then let Cassy and +Hector out, and gave them the key to lock the door on the outside, so +that they might be able to let themselves in in the morning to light +the fires without disturbing us. After having thus dismissed them, +closed the door, and heard it locked, we turned to seek our rest. + +"I do not consider these lower bedrooms quite dry and safe just at +present, girls; so I have had two beds made up in the room overhead, +which is large and well ventilated. Alice can sleep with me in the large +bed, and you, Madeleine, can occupy the other," said our grandmother, as +she led the way upstairs. + +I did not quite like the arrangement, but could not resist Mrs. Hawkins. + +The upper room, notwithstanding the fact of its being in the roof, was +amply high and large enough for a healthful, double-bedded chamber. Our +beds stood parallel, but sufficiently far apart, with their heads +against the north, or back wall, and their feet toward the front gable, +lighted by the fan-shaped window aforesaid. As it was very damp and +chill, and we were very much exhausted, we did not linger long over our +final preparations, but went speedily to bed. + +Our grandmother and Alice seemed scarcely to have settled themselves +under their blankets and given me a drowsy good-night when they slid off +into the land of dreams. + +I could not sleep! I seldom can the first night in a strange house, and +this was--such a house! I felt quite alone--as much alone as if the +heavy sleepers in the next bed were a thousand miles away, for farther +still in spirit were they. I thought of the isolated situation of the +house we were in; of the crimes, real or reputed, that had stained its +hearthstone; of the superstitious terror attaching to the haunted place; +of the hard facts that three several families, not reputed less wise or +brave than their neighbors, had been driven from the spot by +supernatural disturbance as yet unexplained; of the coincidence that +this dreary night was the ghostly Hallow E'en; then of the superstition +that spirits, when they wish to appear to only one in a room, have the +power of casting all others into a profound sleep, from which the +haunted one cannot awake them; and of isolating their victim from all +the natural world--even from the very bedfellow by their side. The room +was very dark and still--solid blackness and dead silence. It oppressed +me like a nightmare. At last, when my senses grew accustomed to the +scenes by straining my eyes, I could dimly perceive beyond the foot of +the bed the segment of a circle formed by the fan-light window, that now +only seemed a thinner darkness; and, by straining my ears, I could +faintly hear the stealthy fall of the drizzling rain. It was almost +worse than the first total silence and darkness; for it kept my nerves +on a strange _qui vive_ of attention. Presently this was over, too. The +muffled sound of the drizzling ceased. Yet darker clouds must have +lowered over the earth, for the faint outline of the fan-light window +was no longer visible. All was once more black darkness and intense +silence, and again I felt oppressed almost to suffocation. Welcome now +would have been the faint fall of the fine rain or the dim outline of +the window. I strained my senses in vain; no sight or sound responded. I +felt the silence and the darkness settling like the clods of the ground +upon my breast. + +Hoo-oo-o!--went something. + +Hark! what was that? I thought, starting. + +Hoo-oo-o----! + +Oh! the wailing voice of some low, wandering wind, I concluded. + +Whirirr-rr-r-r----! + +Yes! the wind is rising, but how like a lost spirit it wails. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r----! + +My Lord! it's not the wind! What is it? Great Heavens! + +Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r! + +I started up in a sitting posture, and, bathed in a cold perspiration, +remained listening, my hair bristling with terror. + +Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha--ha--ha!" + +I could bear no more! Springing out, I called: + +"Grandmother! Grandmother!" + +"What's the matter? Why, what ails the child?" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! listen! listen!" + +"Listen at what? You are dreaming!" + +"Dreaming, am I? Oh! wait! Listen----" + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha!--ha!--ha!" + +It was, as plainly as I ever heard, the sound of the rolling of a ball, +followed by a peal of demoniac laughter. + +I turned on Mrs. Hawkins an appalled look. + +She was surprised, but self-possessed, and evidently bent on calmly +listening and investigating. She sat straight up in bed with a strong, +concentrated attention to the sounds. They came again: + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-e--rattle-te-bang!--"A ten-strike at last!--O's a dead +shot!" + +"A dead shot." + +"A dead shot," was echoed all around. + +Grandmother calmly threw the quilts off her, stepped out of bed, and +began to dress herself. + +"Strike a light, Madeleine," she said. + +"What are you going to do, grandmother?" + +"Dress myself and examine the premises." + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha! ha! ha!" sounded once more the demoniac noise +and laughter. + +The matchbox nearly dropped from my shaking hands, but I struck the +light. + +The sudden flash awoke Alice just as another sonorous roll of the ball, +and fall of the pins, and peal of demon laughter, sounded hollowly +around us. + +"Heaven and earth! what is that?" she exclaimed, starting up. + +"What do you think it is, Alice?" said I. + +"My Lord! my Lord!--it is the phantoms of the murderer and the murdered +playing over again their last game!" cried the girl, in an agony of +terror. + +Just at this moment a distinct knocking was heard at the little door at +the foot of the staircase. + +Alice screamed. + +I held my breath. + +The knocking was repeated. + +"Who is there?" said Mrs. Hawkins, going to the head of the stairs. + +No answer; but the knocking was repeated; and then a frightened, +plaintive voice, crying: + +"Ole mist'ess--ole mist'ess--oh! do, for the Lord sake, let me in, +chile! the hair's almos' turn gray on my head." + +"Is that you, Cassy?" + +"Yes, honey--yes, what the ghoses has left o' me," replied the poor +creature, in a dying voice. + +Grandmother went down the stairs and opened the door at the foot, and +Cassy came tumbling up into the room after her. She was absolutely ashen +gray with terror, and her limbs shook so that she could scarcely stand. + +"Oh! did you hear--did you hear all the ghoses and devils playing +ninepins together in our very house?" she gasped, dropping into a chair. + +As if in answer to her question, once more the phantom ball rolled in +detonating thunder, the pins fell with a loud, rattling sound, followed +by a hollow shout of triumph! + +Cassy fell on her knees and crossed herself devoutly. + +Alice clung in terror to her grandmother. + +I felt that the time to play the heroine was come, and strove to exhibit +self-possession and courage. + +"Take up the candle, Cassy, and lead the way downstairs. We must go and +search the house," said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! for the Lord's sake, don't! don't! old mist'ess, honey! Don't be a +temptin' o' Providence! Leave the ghoses alone and stay here, and fasten +the door." + +"I shall search the house and grounds," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a +peremptory voice. "Therefore, take up the light and go before me." + +"Oh! for de Lord's love, ole mis'tess! ef we mus' go, you go first, you +go first; I dar'n't; I's such a sinner, I is!" cried Cassy, wringing her +hands in an agony of terror. + +Urr-rrr-rr-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang! + +"A ten-strike! Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" again sounded the revels. + +"Hooley St. Bridget, pray for us! Hail Mary, full of grace! Don't go, +ole mist'ess, honey! Oh, stay where you is in safety!" pleaded the old +woman, clasping her hands. + +"Nonsense! Hold your tongue, Cassy. If ever there was a woman plagued +with a set of cowardly simpletons, it is myself. Let go my skirts this +moment, Alice! Be silent, every one of you, and follow me as softly as +possible," said my grandmother, in a low, stern voice, as she took up +the candle and led the way downstairs. We followed at this order--Cassy +holding on to her mistress' skirts, Alice holding to Cassy's, and I +bringing up the rear, with carnal weapons in one hand and spiritual ones +in the other--that is to say, with a big ruler and a prayerbook. + +A chill, damp air met us at the foot of the stairs--nothing else. + +The front hall was empty and bleak. We tried the doors, and found them +as secure as we had left them, with the exception of the parlor door, by +which Cassy had entered, and which was on the latch. Mrs. Hawkins pulled +it to and locked it, saying, in a low voice, that she wished, while +examining each room, to keep all the rest locked, that there might be no +escape for any one concealed in the house. + +First we went into the right-hand bedroom, opening from the hall. It was +secure, vacant and bleak. We locked the door and drew out the key. + +Next we looked into the left-hand bedroom; it was in precisely the same +condition. We made it fast in the same manner. + +Then we opened and entered the parlor. This was the bleakest room of +any--large, square, lofty, totally bare, cold and damp. + +"Nothing here," said Mrs. Hawkins, looking around. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang-ang! the phantom ball rolled, and +scattered the ninepins. + +"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" shouted the hollow, ghostly voices. + +They seemed to be in the very room with us, reverberating in the very +air we breathed, echoing from the four walls around, and from the +ceiling above us! + +"Jesu, Mary!" cried Cassy, dropping on her knees. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" gasped Alice, clinging to me. + +"This is very unaccountable," said our grandmother, looking all around +the room, where nothing but bare walls and bare boards met the view. + +We looked at each other in silence for a few moments, and then Mrs. +Hawkins said: + +"Come! let us look into the dining-room, and then call up Hector to +assist us in searching the grounds." + +We passed on into the next room and locked the door behind us, as we had +locked every one in our tour through the house. That room was closely +packed with furniture, over which we had to clamber our passage. + +While we were doing so, once again sounded the detonating roll of the +ball, the rattling, scattering of the pins, and the hollow peals of +laughter, all echoing around and around us, as it were, in the same +rooms. + +Alice again seized her grandmother. + +Cassy fell over a stack of washtubs, and called on all the saints to +help her. + +Mrs. Hawkins ordered Alice to let her go, and Cassy to get up, and me to +move on. + +She was obeyed. A great general was our grandmother, and we all knew it! + +We left the dining-room, locking the last door behind us. We dodged the +dark, blind alley, sheltered the candle from the drizzling mist, and +went around into the kitchen and called Hector from above. + +The old man answered, and soon came toddling down the narrow stairs. + +"Hector, have you heard those noises?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins. + +"The Lord between us and evil! I've heern, mist'ess! I've heern!" + +"What do you suppose it is?" + +A dubious, solemn shake of the head was the old man's only reply. + +"Can't you speak, Hector? How do you account for these noises? Come! no +mysteries; answer if you can; what are they?" + +"Dead people!" groaned the old man, with a shudder. + +"Pooh!" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins. + +But I could see that even she was paler than usual. + +"Come, Hector! There is no one in the house--that is certain. And no one +can get into it while we are gone, because it is locked up. Now fasten +up the kitchen, and let us go and search the grounds, and unkennel any +interlopers that may be lurking there." + +We came out and secured the kitchen door, and began our tour of the +garden. + +As we left the door, our watchdog ran out to join us. + +This circumstance, while it greatly assisted us in our search, very much +increased the perplexity of our minds. Had the dog heard the noises that +had disturbed us, and if so, why had he not given the alarm?--or, on the +other hand, were dogs insensible to supernatural sights and sounds? We +could not tell; but we were glad to have Fidelle snuffing and trotting +along before us, confident that if there were a human being lurking +anywhere in the garden, he would smell him out. So we went up one +grass-grown walk and down another, between rows of gooseberry bushes, +currant bushes, and raspberry bushes, all damp and dripping with mist, +and through alleys of dwarf plum trees, and all along the hedges of +evergreen inside the brick wall, and past the iron gate, which was still +chained, as it had been left, and then around in the stable, coachhouse, +henhouse and smokehouse, each of which we found securely locked, and, +when opened, damp, musty and vacant; and so we looked over every foot of +ground, and into every outbuilding, finding all safe and leaving all +safe; and at last, without having discovered anything, we arrived again +at the dining-room door. + +We all entered, locked the door after us, clambered over the piles of +furniture, and passed on into the parlor. + +The parlor, as I have said, was as yet unfurnished, damp and cold. Yet +there we paused for a little while to take breath. + +"There is nothing concealed in the garden, and nothing in the house; +that is demonstrated. These strange manifestations must admit of a +natural explanation; but I confess myself at a loss to explain them," +said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! ole mist'ess; 'fess it's de ghoses, honey! 'fess it's de ghoses! +Memorize how nobody was ever able to lib in dis cussed house!" pleaded +Cassy. + +"Oh, yes, grandmother, do let's sit up here all night to-night, and move +out early to-morrow morning," entreated Ally. + +"What do you say, Madeleine?" inquired my grandmother. + +"I say, brave it out!" + +"So do I, my girl!" replied Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh, for de love o' de Lord, don't ole mist'ess! don't, Miss Maddy! +don't! It's a temptin' o' Providence! Leave de 'fernel ole place to de +ghoses, as has de bes' right to it!" prayed Cassy. + +"We'll see about that!" said our grandmother. "But come! all seems quiet +now; we will go to bed, and investigate further to-morrow." + +"Yes, ole mist'ess, honey, I knows all is quiet jest now, but----" + +"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!--Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" burst a peal +of demoniac laughter, resounding through and through the room, and close +into our ears. + +"The Lord between us and Satan!" cried Cassy, dropping the candle, which +immediately went out and left us in darkness. + +While, peal on peal, sounded the demoniac laughter around us. + +Cassy fell on her knees and began praying: + +"St. Mary, pray for us! St. Martha pray for us! all ye hooly vargins and +widders, pray for us lone women! St. Peter, pray for us! St. Powl pray +for us! All hooly 'postles and 'vangellers, pray for us poor +sinners!--Saint--Saint--Saint--oh! for de Lor's sake, Miss Ally, honey, +tell me de name o' that hooly saint as met a ghose riding on Balaam's +ass and knows hows--how it feels!" + +"It was Saul or Samuel, or the Witch of Endor, I forget which," said +Alice, whose knowledge of the Old Testament, never very precise, was +frightened out of her. + +"St. Saul, St. Samuel, St. Witchywinder, pray for us, as met a ghost +yourself and knows how it feels." + +And still, while Cassy prayed her frantic prayers, and poor old Hector +told his beads, and Alice trembled and clung to me, the demon laughter +resounded around and around us. We were in such total darkness that I +had not seen Mrs. Hawkins withdraw herself from the group, nor suspected +her absence until we heard her firm, cheery voice outside near the +dining-room door, saying: + +"What can any one think of this? Come here, Hector! Come here, +children!" + +We all went--expecting some _denouement_. + +Mrs. Hawkins telegraphed to us to be perfectly silent, and to step +lightly. She turned the angle of the house and walked up the blind alley +between the back of the house and the back of the kitchen; when she had +got about midway of the walk, she stopped, and silently pointed to the +rank weeds and bushes that grew closely under the wall of the house. + +"There! what do you think of that?" she said, in a low voice. + +We looked, and at first could see nothing; but, on a closer inspection, +we perceived a very faint glimmer, a mere thread of red light, low down +among the bushes. + +We looked up at Mrs. Hawkins for explanation. + +"After the candle fell and went out," she said, "I slipped out, with the +intention of exploring again, and this time alone, and in darkness. I +came up this blind alley, and, looking sharply, descried that glimmer of +light. And now I am convinced that the revelers, human or ghostly, are +below there, in that old, disused cellar that we were made to believe +was nearly full of water, and required to be drained. Don't be agitated, +children! take it coolly," concluded Mrs. Hawkins, stooping down to put +aside the weeds and bushes. + +Just at this moment another detonating roll of the ball, and scattering +fall of the pins, and peal of hollow laughter, resounded from below. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-rattle bang-ang-ang! "Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! +ho! A dead shot!" + +"Too late, young gentlemen! Your fun is all over! Your game is up! You +are discovered! Come forth!" said Mrs. Hawkins, who, down upon her +knees, pulled away the bushes, turned up the old, broken and mouldy +cellar door, and discovered the scene below. + +A rudely fitted-up bowling alley, occupying the further end of the room, +and some eight or ten youths, no longer engaged in rolling balls, but, +on the contrary, standing in various attitudes of detected culpability. + +"Come! come forth!" commanded Mrs. Hawkins. + +And they came, climbing up the rotten and moldering steps, and the very +first who put his impudent head up through the door into the open air +was Will Rackaway! + +"Oh! Will," exclaimed Alice, reproachfully. + +"You! Will?" questioned Mrs. Hawkins, in scandalized astonishment. + +"No! the ghost of O'Donnegan," replied the youth, in a sepulchral voice. + +"Reprobate!" exclaimed our grandmother. + +"Now, indeed, indeed, I was only taking the liberty of entertaining my +friends in my kind Aunt Hawkins' cellar. Quite right, you know! Only +don't tell father, and I'll never do so no more!" pleaded Will, with +mock humility. + +"Dismiss your comrades, sir! and come into the house! I shall send for +your father to-morrow morning," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a stern voice. + +There was no need to dismiss the intruders; they were climbing up the +dilapidated steps as fast as they could come, and slinking away with +averted heads, trying to conceal their faces, which Mrs. Hawkins did not +insist upon discovering. When they were all gone, Will followed us into +the house. + +"Now, then, sir, explain your conduct," ordered Mrs. Hawkins. + +And Will, with an air of mock humility and deprecation, obeyed. + +The account he gave was briefly this: Himself and several other youths, +sons of very strict parents, who proscribed ninepins with other games, +had, out of some old timber and furniture left of O'Donnegan's old +ninepin alley, that had been taken down and carried away, fitted up the +old, disused cellar for their games. They had played there recently +every night, with no other intention than that of amusing themselves, +and of keeping their game concealed--with no thought of enacting a +ghostly drama, until, to their astonishment, they gradually learned that +these revels were mistaken for ghostly orgies, and had given the house +its unenviable reputation of being haunted--a joke much too good for +human nature, and especially for boys' human nature, not to carry out. +Everything favored their concealment. The cellar was reputed to be half +full of water, and was long disused, and every cellar window, except the +narrow, hidden one that they had turned into a door, was nailed up. +Besides, the front division of the cellar was really two feet deep in +water, and when there was any great risk of discovery they had a means +of letting it in to overflow the back division, so that their fixtures +were all covered. Thus for months they had played the double game of +ninepins and of a ghostly drama! + +Need I say more? Will was let off with a lengthy lecture, which I have +reason to believe did him a vast deal of good, as he is now the staid +father of a family, and pastor of a church. Mrs. Hawkins was for the +next nine days the wonder of the neighborhood for having so valiantly +exorcised the ghosts. And we settled down in perfect content in the fine +old house, to which we possessed the double right of rental and of +conquest. + + +THE END. + + + + +THE GILBERTS; + +OR, + +RICE CORNER NUMBER TWO. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE GILBERTS. + + +The spring following Carrie Howard's death Rice Corner was thrown into a +commotion by the astounding fact that Captain Howard was going out West, +and had sold his farm to a gentleman from the city, whose wife "kept six +servants, wore silk all the time, never went inside of the kitchen, +never saw a churn, breakfasted at ten, dined at three, and had supper +the next day!" + +Such was the story which Mercy Jenkins detailed to us early one Monday +morning, and then, eager to communicate so desirable a piece of news to +others of her acquaintance, she started off, stopping for a moment as +she passed the wash-room to see if Sally's clothes "wan't kinder dingy +and yaller." As soon as she was gone the astonishment of our household +broke forth, grandma wondering why Captain Howard wanted to go to the +ends of the earth, as she designated Chicago, their place of +destination, and what she should do without Aunt Eunice, who, having +been born on grandma's wedding-day, was very dear to her, and then her +age was so easy to keep. But the best of friends must part, and when at +Mrs. Howard's last tea-drinking with us I saw how badly they all felt, +and how many tears were shed, I firmly resolved never to like anybody +but my own folks, unless, indeed, I made an exception in favor of Tom +Jenkins, who so often drew me to school on his sled, and who made such +comical looking jack-o'-lanterns out of the big yellow pumpkins. + +In reply to the numerous questions concerning Mr. Gilbert, the purchaser +of their farm, Mrs. Howard could only reply that he was very wealthy and +had got tired of living in the city; adding, further, that he wore a +"monstrous pair of musquitoes," had an evil-looking eye, four children, +smoked cigars, and was a lawyer by profession. This last was all grandma +wanted to know about him--"that told the whole story," for there never +was but _one_ decent lawyer, and that was Mr. Evelyn, Cousin Emma's +husband. Dear old lady! when a few years ago, she heard that I, her +favorite grandchild, was to marry one of the craft, she made another +exception in his favor, saying that "if he wasn't all straight, Mary +would soon make him so!" + +Within a short time after Aunt Eunice's visit she left Rice Corner, and +on the same day wagon-load after wagon-load of Mr. Gilbert's furniture +passed our house, until Sally declared "there was enough to keep a +tavern, and she didn't see nothin' where theys' goin' to put it," at the +same time announcing her intention of "running down there after dinner, +to see what was going on." + +It will be remembered that Sally was now a married woman--"Mrs. Michael +Welsh;" consequently, mother, who lived with her, instead of her living +with mother, did not presume to interfere with her much, though she +hinted pretty strongly that she "always liked to see people mind their +own affairs." But Sally was incorrigible. The dinner dishes were washed +with a whew, I was coaxed into sweeping the back room--which I did, +leaving the dirt under the broom behind the door--while Mrs. Welsh, +donning a pink calico, blue shawl, and bonnet trimmed with dark green, +started off on her prying excursion, stopping by the roadside where Mike +was making fence, and keeping him, as grandma said, "full half an hour +by the clock from his work." + +Not long after Sally's departure a handsome carriage, drawn by two fine +bay horses, passed our house; and as the windows were down we could +plainly discern a pale, delicate-looking lady, wrapped in shawls, a +tall, stylish-looking girl, another one about my own age, and two +beautiful little boys. + +"That's the Gilberts, I know," said Anna. "Oh, I'm so glad Sally's gone, +for now we shall have the full particulars;" and again we waited as +impatiently for Sally's return as we had once done before for grandma. + +At last, to our great relief, the green ribbons and blue shawl were +descried in the distance, and ere long Sally was with us, ejaculating, +"Oh, my--mercy me!" etc., thus giving us an inkling of what was to +follow. "Of all the sights that ever I have seen," said she, folding up +the blue shawl, and smoothing down the pink calico. "There's carpeting +enough to cover every crack and crevice--all pure bristles, too!" + +Here I tittered, whereupon Sally angrily retorted, that "she guessed she +knew how to talk proper, if she hadn't studied grammar." + +"Never mind," said Anna, "go on; brussels carpeting and what else?" + +"Mercy knows what else," answered Sally. "I can't begin to guess the +names of half the things. There's mahogany, and rosewood, and marble +fixin's--and in Miss Gilbert's room there's lace curtains and silk +damson ones"-- + +A look from Anna restrained me this time, and Sally continued. + +"Mercy Jenkins is there, helpin', and she says Mr. Gilbert told 'em, his +wife never et a piece of salt pork in her life, and knew no more how +bread was made than a child two years old." + +"What a simple critter she must be," said grandma, while Anna asked if +she saw Mrs. Gilbert, and if that tall girl was her daughter. + +"Yes, I seen her," answered Sally, "and I guess she's weakly, for the +minit she got into the house she lay down on the sofa, which Mr. Gilbert +says cost seventy-five dollars. That tall, proud-lookin' thing they call +Miss Adaline, but I'll warrant you don't catch me puttin' on the miss. I +called her Adaline, and you had orto seen how her big eyes looked at me. +Says she, at last, 'Are you one of pa's new servants?' + +"'Servants!' says I, 'no, indeed; I'm Mrs. Michael Welsh, one of your +nighest neighbors.' + +"Then I told her that there were two nice girls lived in the house with +me, and she'd better get acquainted with 'em right away; and then with +the hatefulest of all hateful laughs, she asked if 'they wore glass +beads and went barefoot.'" + +I fancied that neither Juliet nor Anna were greatly pleased at being +introduced by Sally, the housemaid, to the elegant Adaline Gilbert, who +had come to the country with anything but a favorable impression of its +inhabitants. The second daughter, the one about my own age, Sally said +they called Nellie; "and a nice, clever creature she is, too--not a bit +stuck up like t'other one. Why, I do believe she'd walked every big +beast in the barn before she'd been there half an hour, and the last I +saw of her she was coaxing a cow to lie still while she got upon her +back!" + +How my heart warmed toward the romping Nellie, and how I wondered if +after that beam-walking exploit her hooks and eyes were all in their +places! The two little boys, Sally said, were twins, Edward and Egbert, +or, as they were familiarly called, Bert and Eddie. This was nearly all +she had learned, if we except the fact that the family ate with silver +forks, and drank wine after dinner. This last, mother pronounced +heterodox, while I, who dearly loved the juice of the grape, and +sometimes left finger marks on the top shelf, whither I had climbed for +a sip from grandma's decanter, secretly hoped I should some day dine +with Nellie Gilbert, and drink all the wine I wanted, thinking how many +times I'd rinse my mouth so mother shouldn't smell my breath! + +In the course of a few weeks the affairs of the Gilbert family were +pretty generally canvassed in Rice Corner, Mercy Jenkins giving it as +her opinion that "Miss Gilbert was much the likeliest of the two, and +that Mr. Gilbert was cross, overbearing, and big feeling." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NELLIE. + + +As yet I had only seen Nellie in the distance, and was about despairing +of making her acquaintance when accident threw her in my way. Directly +opposite our house, and just across a long green meadow, was a piece of +woods which belonged to Mr. Gilbert, and there, one afternoon early in +May, I saw Nellie. I had seen her there before, but never dared approach +her; and now I divided my time between watching her and a dense black +cloud which had appeared in the west, and was fast approaching the +zenith. I was just thinking how nice it would be if the rain should +drive her to our house for shelter, when patter, patter came the large +drops in my face; thicker and faster they fell, until it seemed like a +perfect deluge; and through the almost blinding sheet of rain I descried +Nellie coming toward me at a furious rate. With the agility of a fawn +she bounded over the gate, and with the exclamation of, "Ain't I wetter +than a drownded rat?" we were perfectly well acquainted. + +It took but a short time to divest her of her dripping garments, and +array her in some of mine, which Sally said "fitted her to a T," though +I fancied she looked sadly out of place in my linen pantalets and +long-sleeved dress. She was a great lover of fun and frolic, and in less +than half an hour had "ridden to Boston" on Joe's rocking-horse, turned +the little wheel faster than even I dared to turn it, tried on grandma's +stays, and then, as a crowning feat, tried the rather dangerous +experiment of riding down the garret stairs on a board! The clatter +brought up grandma, and I felt some doubts about her relishing a kind of +play which savored so much of what she called "a racket," but the soft +brown eyes which looked at her so pleadingly were too full of love, +gentleness, and mischief to be resisted, and permission for "one more +ride" was given, "provided she'd promise not to break her neck." + +Oh, what fun we had that afternoon! What a big rent she tore in my +gingham frock, and what a "dear, delightful old haunted castle of a +thing" she pronounced our house to be. Darling, darling Nellie! I shut +my eyes and she comes before me again, the same bright, beautiful +creature she was when I saw her first, as she was when I saw her for the +last, last time. + +It rained until dark, and Nellie, who confidently expected to stay all +night, had whispered to me her intention of "tying our toes together," +when there came a tremendous rap upon the door, and without waiting to +be bidden in walked Mr. Gilbert, puffing and swelling, and making +himself perfectly at home, in a kind of off-hand manner, which had in it +so much of condescension that I was disgusted, and when sure Nellie +would not see me I made at him a wry face, thereby feeling greatly +relieved! + +After managing to let mother know how expensive his family was, how much +he paid yearly for wines and cigars, and how much Adaline's education +and piano had cost, he arose to go, saying to his daughter. "Come, puss, +take off those--ahem--those habiliments, and let's be off!" + +Nellie obeyed, and just before she was ready to start, she asked when I +would come and spend the day with her. + +I looked at mother, mother looked at Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert looked at +me, and after surveying me from head to foot said, spitting between +every other word, "Ye-es, ye-es, we've come to live in the country, and +I suppose" (here he spit three successive times), "and I suppose we may +as well be on friendly terms as any other; so, madam" (turning to +mother), "I am willing to have your little daughter visit us +occasionally." Then adding that "he would extend the same invitation to +her, were it not that his wife was an invalid and saw no company," he +departed. + +One morning, several days afterward, a servant brought to our house a +neat little note from Mrs. Gilbert, asking mother to let me spend the +day with Nellie. After some consultation between mother and grandma, it +was decided that I might go, and in less than an hour I was dressed and +on the road, my hair braided so tightly in my neck that the little red +bumps of flesh set up here and there, like currants on a brown earthen +platter. + +Nellie did not wait to receive me formally, but came running down the +road, telling me that Robin had made a swing in the barn, and that we +would play there most all day, as her mother was sick, and Adaline, who +occupied two-thirds of the house, wouldn't let us come near her. This +Adaline was to me a very formidable personage. Hitherto I had only +caught glimpses of her, as with long skirts and waving plumes she +sometimes dashed past our house on horseback, and it was with great +trepidation that I now followed Nellie into the parlor, where she told +me her sister was. + +"Adaline, this is my little friend," said she; and Adaline replied: + +"How do you do, little friend?" + +My cheeks tingled, and for the first time raising my eyes I found myself +face to face with the haughty belle. She was very tall and queenlike in +her figure, and though she could hardly be called handsome, there was +about her an air of elegance and refinement which partially compensated +for the absence of beauty. That she was proud one could see from the +glance of her large black eyes and the curl of her lip. Coolly surveying +me for a moment, as she would any other curious specimen, she resumed +her book, never speaking to me again, except to ask, when she saw me +gazing wonderingly around the splendidly-furnished room, "if I supposed +I could remember every article of furniture, and give a faithful +report." + +I thought I was insulted when she called me "little friend," and now, +feeling sure of it, I tartly replied that "if I couldn't she perhaps +might lend me paper and pencil, with which to write them down." + +"Original, truly," said she, again poring over her book. + +Nellie, who had left me for a moment, now returned, bidding me come and +see her mother, and passing through the long hall, I was soon in Mrs. +Gilbert's room, which was as tastefully, though perhaps not quite so +richly, furnished as the parlor. Mrs. Gilbert was lying upon a sofa, and +the moment I looked upon her, the love which I had so freely given the +daughter was shared with the mother, in whose pale sweet face, and soft +brown eyes, I saw a strong resemblance to Nellie. She was attired in a +rose-colored morning-gown, which flowed open in front, disclosing to +view a larger quantity of rich French embroidery than I had ever before +seen. + +Many times during the day, and many times since, have I wondered what +made her marry, and if she really loved the bearish-looking man who +occasionally stalked into the room, smoking cigars and talking very +loudly, when he knew how her head was throbbing with pain. + +I had eaten but little breakfast that morning, and verily I thought I +should famish before their dinner hour arrived; and when at last it +came, and I saw the table glittering with silver, I felt many misgivings +as to my ability to acquit myself creditably. But by dint of watching +Nellie, doing just what she did, and refusing just what she refused, I +managed to get through with it tolerably well. For once, too, in my life +I drank all the wine I wanted; the result of which was that long before +sunset I went home, crying and vomiting with the sick headache, which +Sally said "served me right;" at the same time hinting her belief that I +was slightly intoxicated! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HAUNTED HOUSE. + + +Down our long, green lane, and at the further extremity of the narrow +footpath which led to the "old mine," was another path or wagon road +which wound along among the fern bushes, under the chestnut trees, +across the hemlock swamp, and up to a grassy ridge which overlooked a +small pond, said, of course, to have no bottom. Fully crediting this +story, and knowing, moreover, that China was opposite to us, I had often +taken down my atlas and hunted through that ancient empire, in hopes of +finding a corresponding sheet of water. Failing to do so I had made one +with my pencil, writing against it, "Cranberry Pond," that being the +name of its American brother. + +Just above the pond on the grassy ridge stood an old dilapidated +building which had long borne the name of the "haunted house," I never +knew whether this title was given it on account of its proximity to the +"old mine," or because it stood near the very spot where, years and +years ago, the "bloody Indians" pushed those cart-loads of burning hemp +against the doors "of the only remaining house in Quaboag"--for which +see Goodrich's Child's History, page --, somewhere toward the +commencement. I only know that 'twas called the "haunted house," and +that for a long time no one would live there, on account of the rapping, +dancing, and cutting-up generally which was said to prevail there, +particularly in the west room, the one overhung with ivy and grapevines. + +Three or four years before our story opens a widow lady, Mrs. Hudson, +with her only daughter, Mabel, appeared in our neighborhood, hiring the +"haunted house," and, in spite of the neighbors' predictions to the +contrary, living there quietly and peaceably, unharmed by ghost or +goblin. At first Mrs. Hudson was looked upon with distrust, and even a +league with a certain old fellow was hinted at; but as she seemed to be +well disposed, kind, and affable toward all, this feeling gradually wore +away, and now she was universally liked, while Mabel, her daughter, was +a general favorite. For two years past, Mabel had worked in the Fiskdale +factory a portion of the time, going to school the remainder of the +year. She was fitting herself for a teacher, and as the school in our +district was small, the trustees had this summer kindly offered it to +her. This arrangement delighted me; for, next to Nellie Gilbert, I loved +Mabel Hudson best of anybody; and I fancied, too, that they looked +alike, but of course it was all fancy. + +Mrs. Hudson was a tailoress, and the day following my visit to Mr. +Gilbert's I was sent by mother to take her some work. I found her in the +little porch, her white cap-border falling over her placid face, and her +wide checked apron coming nearly to the bottom of her dress. Mabel was +there, too, and as she rose to receive me something about her reminded +me of Adaline Gilbert. I could not tell what it was, for Mabel was very +beautiful, and beside her Adaline would be plain; still there was a +resemblance, either in voice or manner, and this it was, perhaps, which +made me so soon mention the Gilberts and my visit to them the day +previous. + +Instantly Mrs. Hudson and Mabel exchanged glances, and I thought the +face of the former grew a shade paler; still I may have been mistaken, +for in her usual tone of voice she began to ask me numberless questions +concerning the family, which seemed singular, as she was not remarkable +for curiosity. But it suited me. I loved to talk then not less than I do +now, and in a few minutes I had told all I knew--and more, too, most +likely. + +At last Mrs. Hudson asked about Mr. Gilbert, and how I liked him. + +"Not a bit," said I. "He's the hatefulest, crossest, big-feelingest man +I ever saw, and Adaline is just like him!" + +Had I been a little older I might, perhaps, have wondered at the crimson +flush which my hasty words brought to Mrs. Hudson's cheek, but I did not +notice it then, and thinking she was, of course, highly entertained, I +continued to talk about Mr. Gilbert and Adaline, in the last of whom +Mabel seemed the most interested. Of Nellie I spoke with the utmost +affection, and when Mrs. Hudson expressed a wish to see her, I promised, +if possible, to bring her there; then, as I had already outstaid the +time for which permission had been given, I tied on my sunbonnet and +started for home, revolving the ways and means by which I should keep my +promise. + +This proved to be a very easy matter; for within a few days Nellie came +to return my visit, and as mother had other company she the more readily +gave us permission to go where we pleased. Nellie had a perfect passion +for ghost and witch stories, saying though that "she never liked to have +them explained--she'd rather they'd be left in solemn mystery;" so when +I told her of the "old mine" and the "haunted house" she immediately +expressed a desire to see them. Hiding our bonnets under our aprons the +better to conceal our intentions from sister Lizzie, who, we fancied, +had serious thoughts of _tagging_, we sent her upstairs in quest of +something which we knew was not there, and then away we scampered down +the green lane and across the pasture, dropping once into some alders as +Lizzie's yellow hair became visible on the fence at the foot of the +lane. Our consciences smote us a little, but we kept still until she +returned to the house; then, continuing our way, we soon came in sight +of the mine, which Nellie determined to explore. + +It was in vain that I tried to dissuade her from the attempt. She was +resolved, and stationing myself at a safe distance I waited while she +scrambled over stones, sticks, logs, and bushes, until she finally +disappeared in the cave. Ere long, however, she returned with soiled +pantelets, torn apron, and scratched face, saying that "the mine was +nothing in the world but a hole in the ground, and a mighty little one +at that." After this I didn't know but I would sometime venture in, but +for fear of what might happen I concluded to choose a time when I hadn't +run away from Liz! + +When I presented Nellie to Mrs. Hudson she took both her hands in hers, +and, greatly to my surprise, kissed her on both cheeks. Then she walked +hastily into the next room, but not until I saw something fall from her +eyes, which I am sure were tears. + +"Funny, isn't it?" said Nellie, looking wonderingly at me. "I don't know +whether to laugh or what." + +Mabel now came in, and though she manifested no particular emotion, she +was exceedingly kind to Nellie, asking her many questions, and sometimes +smoothing her brown curls. When Mrs. Hudson again appeared she was very +calm, but I noticed that her eyes constantly rested upon Nellie, who, +with Mabel's grey kitten in her lap, was seated upon the doorstep, the +very image of childish innocence and beauty. Mrs. Hudson urged us to +stay to tea, but I declined, knowing that there was company at home, +with three kinds of cake, besides cookies, for supper. So bidding her +good-bye, and promising to come again, we started homeward, where we +found the ladies discussing their green tea and making large inroads +upon the three kinds of cake. + +One of them, a Mrs. Thompson, was gifted with the art of +fortune-telling, by means of tea-grounds, and when Nellie and I took our +seats at the table she kindly offered to see what was in store for us. +She had frequently told my fortune, each time managing to fish up a +freckle-faced boy so nearly resembling her grandson, my particular +aversion, that I didn't care to hear it again. But with Nellie 'twas all +new, and after a great whirling of tea-grounds and staining of mother's +best table-cloth, she passed her cup to Mrs. Thompson, confidently +whispering to me that she guessed she'd tell her something about Willie +Raymond, who lived in the city, and who gave her the little cornelian +ring which she wore. With the utmost gravity Mrs. Thompson read off the +past and present, and then peering far into the future she suddenly +exclaimed, "Oh, my! there's a gulf, or something, before you, and you +are going to tumble into it headlong; don't ask me anything more." + +I never did and never shall believe in fortune-telling, much less in +Granny Thompson's "turned-up cups," but years after I thought of her +prediction with regard to Nellie. Poor, poor Nellie! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +JEALOUSY. + + +On the first Monday in June our school commenced, and long before +breakfast Lizzie and I were dressed and had turned inside out the little +cupboard over the fireplace where our books were kept during vacation. +Breakfast being over we deposited in our dinner-basket the whole of a +custard pie, and were about starting off when mother said, "we shouldn't +go a step until half-past eight," adding further, that "we must put that +pie back, for 'twas one she'd saved for their own dinner." + +Lizzie pouted, while I cried, and taking my bonnet I repaired to the +"great rock," where the sassafras, blackberries, and blacksnakes grew. +Here I sat for a long time, thinking if I ever did grow up and get +married (I was sure of the latter), I'd have all the custard pie I could +eat for once! In the midst of my reverie a footstep sounded near, and +looking up I saw before me Nellie Gilbert, with her satchel of books on +her arm, and her sunbonnet hanging down her back, after the fashion in +which I usually wore mine. In reply to my look of inquiry she said her +father had concluded to let her go to the district school, though he +didn't expect her to learn anything but "slang terms and ill manners." + +By this time it was half-past eight, and together with Lizzie we +repaired to the schoolhouse, where we found assembled a dozen girls and +as many boys, among whom was Tom Jenkins. Tom was a great admirer of +beauty, and hence I could never account for the preference he had +hitherto shown for me, who my brothers called "bung-eyed" and Sally +"raw-boned." He, however, didn't think so. My eyes, he said, were none +too large, and many a night had he carried home my books for me, and +many a morning had he brought me nuts and raisins, to say nothing of the +time when I found in my desk a little note, which said--But everybody +who's been to school, knows what it said! + +Taking it all round we were as good as engaged; so you can judge what +my feelings were when, before the night of Nellie's first day at school, +I saw Tom Jenkins giving her an orange which I had every reason to think +was originally intended for me! I knew very well that Nellie's brown +curls and eyes had done the mischief; and though I did not love her the +less, I blamed him the more for his fickleness, for only a week before +he had praised my eyes, calling them a "beautiful indigo blue," and all +that. I was highly incensed, and when on our way from school he tried to +speak good-humoredly, I said, "I'd thank you to let me alone! I don't +like you, and never did!" + +He looked sorry for a minute, but soon forgot it all in talking to +Nellie, who after he had left us said "he was a cleverish kind of boy, +though he couldn't begin with William Raymond." After that I was very +cool toward Tom, who attached himself more and more to Nellie, saying +"she had the handsomest eyes he ever saw"; and, indeed, I think it +chiefly owing to those soft, brown, dreamy eyes that I am not now "Mrs. +Tom Jenkins of Jenkinsville," a place way out West, whither Tom and his +mother have migrated. + +One day Nellie was later at school than usual, giving as a reason that +their folks had company--a Mr. Sherwood and his mother, from Hartford; +and adding that if I'd never tell anybody as long as I lived and +breathed she'd tell me something. + +Of course I promised, and Nellie told me how she guessed that Mr. +Sherwood, who was rich and handsome, liked Adaline. "Anyway, Adaline +likes him," said she, "and oh, she's so nice and good when he's around. +I ain't 'Nell, you hateful thing' then, but I'm 'Sister Nellie.' They +are going to ride this morning, and perhaps they'll go by here. There +they are, now!" and looking toward the road I saw Mr. Sherwood and +Adaline Gilbert on horseback, riding leisurely past the schoolhouse. She +was nodding to Nellie, but he was looking intently at Mabel, who was +sitting near the window. I know he asked Adaline something about her, +for I distinctly heard a part of her reply--"a poor factory girl," and +Adaline's head tossed scornfully, as if that were a sufficient reason +why Mabel should be despised. + +Mr. Sherwood evidently did not think so, for the next day he walked by +alone--and the next day he did the same, this time bringing with him a +book, and seating himself in the shadow of a chestnut tree not far from +the schoolhouse. The moment school was out, he arose and came forward, +inquiring for Nellie, who, of course, introduced him to Mabel. The +three then walked on together, while Tom Jenkins stayed in the rear with +me, wondering what I wanted to act so for; "couldn't a feller like more +than one girl if he wanted to?" + +"Yes, I s'posed a feller could, though I didn't know, nor care!" + +Tom made no reply, but whittled away upon a bit of shingle, which +finally assumed the shape of a heart, and which I afterward found in his +desk with the letter "N" written upon it, and then scratched out. When +at last we reached our house Mr. Sherwood asked Nellie "where that old +mine and sawmill were, of which she had told him so much." + +"Right on Miss Hudson's way home," said Nellie. "Let's walk along with +her;" and the next moment Mr. Sherwood, Mabel, and Nellie were in the +long, green lane which led down to the sawmill. + +Oh, how Adaline stormed when she heard of it, and how sneeringly she +spoke to Mr. Sherwood of the "factory girl," insinuating that the bloom +on her cheek was paint, and the lily on her brow powder! But he probably +did not believe it, for almost every day he passed the schoolhouse, +generally managing to speak with Mabel; and once he went all the way +home with her, staying ever so long, too, for I watched until 'twas +pitch dark, and he hadn't got back yet! + +In a day or two he went home, and I thought no more about him, until +Tom, who had been to the post office, brought Mabel a letter, which made +her turn red and white alternately, until at last she cried. She was +very absent-minded the remainder of that day, letting us do as we +pleased, and never in my life did I have a better time "carrying on" +than I did that afternoon when Mabel received her first letter from Mr. +Sherwood. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NEW RELATIONS. + + +About six weeks after the close of Mabel's school we were one day +startled with the intelligence that she was going to be married, and to +Mr. Sherwood, too. He had become tired of the fashionable ladies of his +acquaintance, and when he saw how pure and artless Mabel was, he +immediately became interested in her; and at last, overcoming all +feelings of pride, he had offered her his hand, and had been accepted. +At first we could hardly credit the story; but when Mrs. Hudson herself +confirmed it we gave it up, and again I wondered if I should be invited. +All the nicest and best chestnuts which I could find, to say nothing of +the apples and butternuts, I carried to her, not without my reward +either, for when invitations came to us I was included with the rest. +Our family were the only invited guests, and I felt no fears this time +of being hidden by the crowd. + +Just before the ceremony commenced there was the sound of a heavy +footstep upon the outer porch, a loud knock at the door, and then into +the room came Mr. Gilbert! He seemed slightly agitated, but not one-half +so much as Mrs. Hudson, who exclaimed, "William, my son, why are you +here?" + +"I came to witness my sister's bridal," was the answer; and turning +toward the clergyman, he said, somewhat authoritatively, "Do not delay +for me, sir. Go on." + +There was a movement in the next room, and then the bridal party +entered, both starting with surprise as they saw Mr. Gilbert. Very +beautiful did Mabel look as she stood up to take upon herself the +marriage vow, not a syllable of which did one of us hear. We were +thinking of Mr. Gilbert, and the strange words, "my son" and "my +sister." + +When it was over, and Mabel was Mrs. Sherwood, Mr. Gilbert approached +Mrs. Hudson, saying, "Come, mother, let me lead you to the bride." + +With an impatient gesture she waved him off, and going alone to her +daughter, threw her arms around her neck, sobbing convulsively. There +was an awkward silence, and then Mr. Gilbert, thinking he was called +upon for an explanation, arose, and addressing himself mostly to Mr. +Sherwood, said, "I suppose what has transpired here to-night seems +rather strange, and will undoubtedly furnish the neighborhood with +gossip for more than a week, but they are welcome to canvass whatever I +do. I can't help it if I was born with an unusual degree of pride, +neither can I help feeling mortified, as I many times did, at my family, +particularly after she," glancing at his mother, "married the man whose +name she bears." + +Here Mrs. Hudson lifted up her head, and coming to Mr. Gilbert's side, +stood proudly erect, while he continued: "She would tell you he was a +good man, but I hated him, and swore never to enter the house while he +lived. I went away, took care of myself, grew rich, married into one of +the first families in Hartford, and--and"-- + +Here he paused, and his mother, continuing the sentence, added, "and +grew ashamed of your own mother, who many a time went without the +comforts of life that you might be educated. You were always a proud, +wayward boy, William, but never did I think you would do as you have +done. You have treated me with utter neglect, never allowing your wife +to see me, and when I once proposed visiting you in Hartford you asked +your brother, now dead, to dissuade me from it, if possible, for you +could not introduce me to your acquaintances as your mother. Never do +you speak of me to your children, who, if they know they have a +grandmother, little dream that she lives within a mile of their father's +dwelling. One of them I have seen, and my heart yearned toward her as it +did toward you when first I took you in my arms, my firstborn baby; and +yet, William, I thank Heaven there is in her sweet face no trace of her +father's features. This may sound harsh, unmotherly, but greatly have I +been sinned against, and now, just as a brighter day is dawning upon me, +why have you come here? Say, William, why?" + +By the time Mrs. Hudson had finished, nearly all in the room were +weeping. Mr. Gilbert, however, seemed perfectly indifferent, and with +the most provoking coolness, replied, "I came to see my fair sister +married--to congratulate her upon an alliance which will bring us upon a +more equal footing." + +"You greatly mistake me, sir," said Mr. Sherwood, turning haughtily +toward Mr. Gilbert, at the same time drawing Mabel nearer to him; "you +greatly mistake me, if, after what I have heard, you think I would wish +for your acquaintance. If my wife, when poor and obscure, was not worthy +of your attention, _you_ certainly are not now worthy of hers, and it is +my request that our intercourse should end here." + +Mr. Gilbert muttered something about "extenuating circumstances," and +"the whole not being told," but no one paid him any attention; and at +last, snatching up his hat, he precipitately left the house, I sending +after him a hearty good riddance, and mentally hoping he would measure +his length in the ditch which he must pass on his way across Hemlock +Swamp. + +The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood departed on their bridal tour, +intending on their return to take their mother with them to the city. +Several times during their absence I saw Mr. Gilbert, either going to +or returning from the "haunted house," and I readily guessed he was +trying to talk his mother over, for nothing could be more mortifying +than to be cut by the Sherwoods, who were among the first in Hartford. +Afterward, greatly to my satisfaction, I heard that though, motherlike, +Mrs. Hudson had forgiven her son, Mr. Sherwood ever treated him with a +cool haughtiness which effectually kept him at a distance. + +Once, indeed, at Mabel's earnest request, Mrs. Gilbert and Nellie were +invited to visit her, and as the former was too feeble to accomplish the +journey, Nellie went alone, staying a long time, and torturing her +sister on her return with a glowing account of the elegantly-furnished +house, of which Adaline had once hoped to be the proud mistress. + +For several years after Mabel's departure from Rice Corner nothing +especial occurred in the Gilbert family, except the marriage of Adaline +with a rich bachelor, who must have been many years older than her +father, for he colored his whiskers, wore false teeth and a wig, besides +having, as Nellie declared, a wooden leg! For the truth of this last I +will not vouch, as Nellie's assertion was only founded upon the fact of +her having once looked through the keyhole of his door and espied, +standing by his bed, something which looked like a cork leg, but which +might have been a boot! What Adaline saw in him to like I could never +guess. I suppose, however, that she only looked at his rich gilding, +which covered a multitude of defects. + +Immediately after the wedding the happy pair started for a two-years +tour in Europe, where the youthful bride so enraged her baldheaded lord +by flirting with a mustached Frenchman that in a fit of anger the old +man picked up his goods, chattels, and wife, and returned to New York +within three months of his leaving it! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +POOR, POOR NELLIE. + + +And now, in the closing chapter of this brief sketch of the Gilberts, I +come to the saddest part--the fate of poor Nellie, the dearest playmate +my childhood knew, she whom the lapse of years ripened into a graceful, +beautiful girl, loved by everybody, even by Tom Jenkins, whose boyish +affection had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength. + +And now Nellie was the affianced bride of William Raymond, who had +replaced the little cornelian with the engagement ring. At last the +rumor reached Tom Jenkins, awaking him from the sweetest dream he had +ever known. He could not ask Nellie if it were true, so he came to me; +and when I saw how he grew pale and trembled, I felt that Nellie was not +altogether blameless. But he breathed no word of censure against her; +and when, a year or two afterward, I saw her given to William Raymond, I +knew that the love of two hearts was hers; the one to cherish and watch +over her, the other to love and worship, silently, secretly, as a miser +worships his hidden treasure. + + * * * * * + +The bridal was over. The farewells were over, and Nellie had gone--gone +from the home whose sunlight she had made, and which she had left +forever. Sadly the pale, sick mother wept, and mourned her absence, +listening in vain for the light footfall and soft, ringing voice she +would never hear again. + +Three weeks had passed away, and then, far and near the papers teemed +with accounts of the horrible Norwalk catastrophe, which desolated many +a home, and wrung from many a heart its choicest treasure. Side by side +they found them--Nellie and her husband--the light of her brown eyes +quenched forever, and the pulses of his heart still in death! + +I was present when they told the poor invalid of her loss, and even now +I seem to hear the bitter, wailing cry which broke from her white lips, +as she begged them to unsay what they had said, and tell her Nellie was +not dead--that she would come back again. + +It could not be. Nellie would never return; and in six weeks' time the +broken-hearted mother was at rest with her child. + + +THE END. + + + + +Charles Garvice + +Is now the most widely read author living. The following books from his +facile pen are now ready in the MODERN AUTHORS' LIBRARY + + A MARTYRED LOVE + LOVE'S DILEMMA; or, Kate Meddon's Lover + SO NEARLY LOST; or, Springtime of Love + JEANNE; or, Barriers Between + A WOMAN'S SOUL + WOUNDED HEART; or, Sweet as a Rose + THE USURPER; or, Her Humble Lover + LUCILLE, THE LADY OF DARRACOURT; or, Love's Conquest + THE EARL'S HEIR + OLIVIA + SO FAIR, SO FALSE; or, The Beauty of the Season + THE MARQUIS + A WASTED LOVE; or, on Love's Altar + LESLIE'S LOYALTY; or, His Love So True + LORRIE; or, Hollow Gold + SHE LOVED HIM; or, Bessie Harewood's Triumph + ONLY A GIRL'S LOVE + LEOLA DALE'S FORTUNE + ONLY ONE LOVE; or, Who Was The Heir + HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL + ELAINE; or, Lady Nairne's Fortune + CLAIRE; or, The Mistakes of Court Regna + HER HEART'S DESIRE; or An Innocent Girl + HER RANSOM; or, Paid For + + * * * * * + +THE Sweet Clover Stories + +FOR GIRLS + +BY MRS. CARRIE L. 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Shows how to increase their earning capacity as layers. +Points the way to get more money for them in the market. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Haunted Homestead, by E. D. E. N. 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Southworth. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Haunted Homestead, by E. D. E. N. Southworth + +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 Haunted Homestead + A Novel + +Author: E. D. E. N. Southworth + +Release Date: July 12, 2011 [EBook #36713] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>The Haunted Homestead</h1> + +<h3><i>A NOVEL</i></h3> + +<h2>BY MRS. E. D. E. N. SOUTHWORTH</h2> + +<h3>Author of "Ishmael," "Retribution," "The Bridal Eve," "A Noble Lord," +"The Deserted Wife," "Unknown," "The Lady of the Isle," "The Bride's +Fate," "Victor's Triumph," "The Wife's Victory," etc.</h3> + +<h3>CHICAGO<br /> +M. A. DONOHUE & CO.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#THE_HAUNTED_HOMESTEAD">THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_PRESENTIMENT">THE PRESENTIMENT.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. THE QUADROON.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. THE MANIAC'S CURSE.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. THE BOTTLE DEMON.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. AN HUMBLE WEDDING.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. A CLOUDED HONEYMOON.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. PROPHETIC.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. CAIN.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. THE APPARITION.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. THE TRIAL.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. THE SCAFFOLD.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_SPECTRE_REVELS">THE SPECTRE REVELS.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_GILBERTS">THE GILBERTS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IA">CHAPTER I. THE GILBERTS.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IIA">CHAPTER II. NELLIE.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IIIA">CHAPTER III. THE HAUNTED HOUSE.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IVA">CHAPTER IV. JEALOUSY.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VA">CHAPTER V. NEW RELATIONS.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIA">CHAPTER VI. POOR, POOR NELLIE.</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#Other_Fiction">Other Fiction</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HAUNTED_HOMESTEAD" id="THE_HAUNTED_HOMESTEAD"></a>THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A residence for woman, child, or man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A dwelling-place—and yet no habitation;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A house, but under some prodigious ban<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of excommunication.—<span class="smcap">Hood.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>In childhood I always had a fearless faith in ghosts. I desired before +all sights to see them, and threw myself in the way of meeting them +whenever and wherever there seemed the slightest possibility of so +doing. Whenever there were mysterious sounds heard in the night, I +listened with breathless interest, arose from the bed in silent +eagerness, and went stealing on tiptoe through the dark house in the +hopes of meeting the ghosts. Once I met a severe blow on the nose from +the sharp edge of an open door, and once a tom cat, who made one spring +from the top of the pantry shelves upon my head, and another thence +through a broken window pane. I would have liked to fancy him a ghostly +cat, only I knew him too well for our own "Tom," the cunningest thief +that ever run on four feet. Another time, perambulating through the +house at midnight, I surprised a burglar, who, mistaking me in the +darkness for the master of the house, the watch, or an ambush, jumped +straight over my head (or past me, I hardly knew which in my +astonishment), and made his escape at the back door. But I must say that +I never met a ghost, or even a "vestige" of a ghost until—but I think I +will begin at the beginning and tell you the whole story.</p> + +<p>At the Newton Academy, where I was educated, among two hundred fellow +pupils, I had but one bosom friend and confidante—quite enough in all +discretion for one individual, though you are aware that most young +ladies have at least a dozen. My female Pythias was Mathilde Legare, a +beautiful and warm-hearted Creole from New Orleans. Orestes and Pylades, +Castor and Pollux, the Siamese twins, are but faint illustrations of the +closeness of our friendship. To say that we were inseparable is nothing +to the fact—we were united, blended, consolidated; and the one "angel" +of Swedenborg formed of two congenial spirits, is the only sufficiently +expressive example of our union of hearts. It was of little use for me +to study a lesson, for though I had never looked at it, if Mathilde only +committed hers to memory I was sure, in some occult manner, to have mine +"at my fingers' ends"—or, on the other hand, if I studied, Mathilde +might play—she would recite her task just as well. Moreover, if I told +a story Mathilde would swear to it, and <i>vice versa</i>. In short, we two +were in all cases "too many" for all the rest of the school—principal, +assistant, masters and pupils—and we afforded a striking illustration +of the truth of Robert Browning's lines—though I suppose the latter +alluded to "a true marriage," and not a schoolgirl friendship:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If any two creatures grow into one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They should do more than the world has done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By each apart ever so weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet vainly thro' the world should you seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the knowledge and the might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which in such union grew their right."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As Mathilde was rich and I was comparatively poor, this friendship +brought me many advantages, among which was the privilege of annual +travel and change of scene. About the first of every July, Mathilde's +father and mother would leave their sugar plantation in Louisiana, and +travel northward. They usually arrived at the Newton Academy about the +tenth of the month, in time to be present at the annual examination and +exhibition of the pupils. Upon these occasions, Mathilde, who possessed +quickness and vivacity, rather than depth or strength of mind, generally +achieved a brilliant success; though she often told me that her triumph +in being first at these milestones on the road to fame, was nothing more +than the success of the swift-footed, careless hare over the slow and +painstaking tortoise, who would win the race at the goal.</p> + +<p>However this might be, Mr. and Mrs. Legare were equally proud of their +daughter's genius and beauty, and to reward her "industry and +application," as they called it, they took her each year to spend the +long vacation of July and August, with them, in making a tour of the +Virginia Springs, which are the most frequented by Southerners, for the +convenience of bringing their servants with them.</p> + +<p>Upon one occasion, however—that of the vacation preceding the last year +of Mathilde's residence at school—Mr. Legare determined to vary their +usual route by going to the Northern watering places of Saratoga and +Ballstown. And, as usual, I, with the consent of my guardians, +accompanied the party as their invited guest.</p> + +<p>We arrived at Saratoga at the very height of the season. In all, I +suppose that there might have been several thousand visitors at the +springs. The United States Hotel, at which we stopped, was uncomfortably +crowded. And, though Mr. Legare grumbled in a very old-gentlemanly way, +and Mrs. Legare wished herself at home again, Mathilde and I enjoyed the +crowd for the crowd's sake, and experienced the truth of the popular +adage of "the more the merrier."</p> + +<p>At a place like that, even in the ballroom, "distinction" was almost as +impossible as it is said to be in London, where, now that the "duke" is +dead, no one is any one. Scarcely anybody was anybody at Saratoga that +season. Many a village beauty, the toast of her own little circle, and +many a city belle, the queen of her own coterie, who went thither, +reasonably expecting to make a "sensation," found herself and her claims +to notice lost in a brilliant multitude all more or less expectant or +disappointed.</p> + +<p>I thought Mathilde, with her tall and beautifully rounded form, stately +head, pure olive complexion, shaded by jet-black ringlets, and lighted +up by laughing black eyes, bridged over with arch and flexible black +eyebrows—would attract some attention.</p> + +<p>Not a bit of it! Heiress and beauty, as she was, Mathilde Legare was +merely one in the crowd. There were hundreds with equal or greater +claims to distinction. And so our beautiful Mathilde was not enthroned. +Of course she soon attracted around her a circle of old and new +acquaintances and had from them a due share of attention.</p> + +<p>Among the first of these new acquaintances was a young gentleman of the +name of Howard. His introduction to our party, without being romantic, +was certainly marked by singularity. It occurred the third day after our +arrival, at one of the weekly balls at the United States. It happened to +be a fine, cool evening, and the assembly upon the occasion was +unusually large. The saloon was quite crowded, leaving but little room +for the motions of the dancers.</p> + +<p>Mathilde was looking very beautiful that night. She wore a dress with a +three-fold skirt of very fine, transparent thale over rose-colored silk, +and which with every motion floated around her graceful form with a +mistlike softness and lightness; a bertha and falls of the finest lace +veiled her rounded arms and neck. She wore no jewels, but a wreath of +rich white heliotrope crowned her jetty ringlets, and a bouquet of the +same odoriferous flowers employed her slender fingers.</p> + +<p>Yes! she was looking very lovely. Nevertheless, Mathilde, as well as +myself, seemed destined to adorn the sofa as a "wall flower" all the +evening, for set after set formed until every one was complete. The +music struck up and the dancing commenced, and still no one came near +us, nor did we even so much as see, within the range of our vision, one +single person that we knew.</p> + +<p>Mathilde voted this "the very stupidest ball" she was ever at, and hoped +her papa would never come to Saratoga again.</p> + +<p>I, for my part, fell into the study of faces, and through them into the +study of character, and through that into dreaming.</p> + +<p>Presently a head—start not gentle reader, there was a living body +attached to it—attracted my particular attention. It was not because it +was above every other head present—though had not this been the case I +should not at that distance have seen it—nor was it because it was a +very handsome one—for there were others much handsomer; but it was a +very remarkable, characteristic, individual sort of head—a monarchical +head, with a forehead that in its commanding height and breadth seemed +the natural throne of intellectual sovereignty, with a strongly and +clearly-marked nose and mouth, with eyes full of calm power—that +surveyed the multitude below with the quiet interest of a king +inspecting his army on some festive parade day.</p> + +<p>"<i>Magnus Apollo!</i>" were the words that sprang alive to my lips as I laid +my hand upon the soft, white arm of Mathilde and called her attention to +this stranger.</p> + +<p>"Hush! he is looking this way," said my companion, blushing and casting +down her eyes.</p> + +<p>I knew very well, if he was "looking this way," at whom he must be +looking, and so, did not feel Mathilde's embarrassment in again raising +my eyes to the "<i>Magnus Apollo</i>." When I did so I perceived that he was +in conversation with another gentleman, whom I recognized as Mr. ——, +the proprietor of the house. I saw Mr. —— bow and precede the +stranger, conducting him to the presence of Mr. Legare, to whom he +immediately introduced him. I saw Mr. Legare and the stranger +approaching our quarter of the room, and I thought I understood it all.</p> + +<p>I was not mistaken.</p> + +<p>Mr. Legare presented the stranger as "Mr. Howard, of Boston," first to +me, whom he favored with a bow, but certainly not with a single glance, +and next to Mathilde, whom he almost immediately petitioned to become +his partner in the next quadrille.</p> + +<p>Miss Legare bowed a gracious acceptance to his suit.</p> + +<p>The presentation over, Mr. Legare went to rejoin his wife, who could not +endure to be left alone.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howard remained standing before us, and soon, by the brilliancy, +variety and interest of his conversation, attracted and engaged both his +hearers. He was certainly a man of the most distinguished and commanding +presence that I had ever seen, and one for whom every hour's +acquaintance increased our esteem.</p> + +<p>When the new quadrille formed, with a graceful bow he extended his hand +to Mathilde and led her to the head of one of the sets. He danced as +well as he conversed. Why should I run into detail? Mathilde's fancy was +captivated. They finished the quadrille, and for the remainder of the +evening Mr. Howard's attentions, though very devoted, were marked by too +much delicacy and good taste to attract notice from any one except her +to whom they were directed.</p> + +<p>The impression made upon Mathilde was as yet not sufficiently deep to +render her reserved with me upon this subject. Consequently when the +ball was over, and we had reached our double-bedded chamber, my friend +broke forth in eager exclamations.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see such a fine-looking person, Agnes? And then his +conversation! how brilliant! and how varied! how much he must have +traveled! and then how well he dances!"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" said I. "'Oh, what a fall was there,' 'from the sublime to the +ridiculous!'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he does dance well! and let me tell you that very few men can +do so! he strikes the nice balance between <i>le grand</i> and <i>la frivole</i> +in his manner! And then his name—Howard—<i>la crême de la crême</i> of +aristocratic names. Don't you remember <i>Le Lion blanc</i> of the house of +Howard?"</p> + +<p>And so she rattled on, talking incessantly of the new acquaintance until +we went to bed, and I went to sleep leaving her still talking.</p> + +<p>The next morning, I noticed that Mathilde spent more than usual time and +attention upon her toilette. She looked very pretty—when did she +not?—in her embroidered cambric morning dress, with no ornament but her +jetty ringlets flowing down each side her freshly-blooming face.</p> + +<p>When we went downstairs, there was Mr. Howard waiting in the hall, to +offer Mathilde his arm to the breakfast table.</p> + +<p>Afterward at the ladies bowling-alley who but Mr. Howard stood at +Mathilde's elbow to hand the balls? Who took her in to dinner? Who made +a horseblock of his knee and a stepping-stone of the palm of his hand +to lift Mathilde into her saddle? Who attended her in her afternoon +ride? In her evening walk? In the duet with the piano accompaniment at +night?</p> + +<p>Howard—still Howard!</p> + +<p>Until after several weeks of this association, at last papa opened his +eyes and inquired first of himself and next of his host:</p> + +<p>"Who is this Mr. Howard, who is paying such very particular attention to +my daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Howard, sir; Mr. Howard is a very talented young mechanic of +Boston," answered the proprietor.</p> + +<p>"A—what?" questioned the astonished old gentleman.</p> + +<p>"A very accomplished young machinist, and mathematical instrument maker, +sir, who has realized quite a handsome fortune by his patented +improvement in——"</p> + +<p>"The foul fiend!" exclaimed the old aristocrat, throwing up his hands in +consternation, as he trotted off.</p> + +<p>His daughter talking, dancing, riding, flirting with a mechanic! Oh! +horror, horror, horror!</p> + +<p>The result of this was, that after Mr. Legare's perturbed feelings had +become somewhat calmed he called for his bill, settled it, took four +places in the morning coach, ordered his servants to pack up, and the +next day set out for the South.</p> + +<p>He was very much disturbed; Mrs. Legare said nothing, but poor Mathilde +was miserable, having been made to feel that she had unwittingly brought +discredit upon herself and all her family.</p> + +<p>Mr. Legare left Mathilde and myself at our school, and with his wife +proceeded to Louisiana.</p> + +<p>I soon saw that the warm-hearted young Southern maiden really was, or +believed herself to be, the subject of a deep and unhappy attachment; +she became reserved to all, even to me, and her health suffered. As +weeks grew into months her indisposition increased. One day her emotion +broke the bounds of reserve, and throwing herself into my arms, she +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Agnes! if Frank would only write to me I should not feel so +wretched!"</p> + +<p>"Frank? who is Frank, my love?" I inquired in surprise, for I had never +heard this name among our acquaintances.</p> + +<p>She blushed deeply. "Oh! I mean Mr. Howard, you know! Frank Howard."</p> + +<p>"No—I did not know! Has it come to this? and do you call him Frank? And +do you, perhaps, correspond with him? Oh, Mathilde, Mathilde, my dear! +take care!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! no, no, I do not correspond with him! never have done so! he never +even asked me! but after pa got so high with him, he looked mournful and +dignified, and took leave of me! Oh! he might write to me."</p> + +<p>"Mathilde, knowing your father's sentiments, he would not, as a man of +honor, commence a correspondence with you. But tell me, dear, how far +this affair had gone?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! very far indeed; he was going to ask me of papa that very day we +left!"</p> + +<p>"Wait, Mathilde! you are so young! if this is anything more serious than +a passing fancy on both sides, he will delay until you leave school, and +then he will first seek you at your father's house. This is the only +course for a man of honor in such a case, you are aware."</p> + +<p>"Um-m! little hope in seeking me at my father's house, with my father's +estimate of a mechanic! But I do not the least believe that Frank Howard +is a mechanic! He does not look like one!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my dear Mathilde! he is an intelligent Boston mechanic, who +has made a valuable invention that has brought him a fortune; that is +all about it."</p> + +<p>Still Mathilde's health waned, and at last the principal of our academy +wrote to her parents, who came, and finding her condition more +precarious than they had anticipated, removed her from school and +carried her home. Mathilde could not bring against her friend the same +charge that she had brought against her lover; for I requested a +frequent correspondence, and faithfully kept up my part of it.</p> + +<p>I remained at Newton for nearly twelve months after Mathilde had left.</p> + +<p>And this time, passed in so great monotony by me, was full of event for +Mathilde and those connected with her. In the first place, she +accompanied her friends on a short visit to Europe, and returning, +entered society at New Orleans with some <i>eclat</i>.</p> + +<p>Then followed for her father a succession of losses, one growing out of +another, until his fortune was so reduced as to make it necessary for +him to retrench and change his whole style of living.</p> + +<p>Under such circumstances, his pride would not permit him to remain in +that part of the country where for so many years he had lived <i>grand +seigneur</i>.</p> + +<p>His wife was a Virginian by birth and education, and in changing her +home preferred to return to her native State. Therefore Mr. Legare +purchased a small estate lying within a fertile gap of the Alleghanies, +to which, in the spring of the next year, he removed his family.</p> + +<p>Up to this time Mathilde had heard nothing directly from her Saratoga +lover, but had learned, through the newspapers, that he had been +nominated to represent his district in the National House of +Representatives.</p> + +<p>Hoping much from the two circumstances of her own reduction in worldly +fortune and her lover's elevation in social rank, which must bring them +nearer together in position, she had called the attention of her father +to the announcement of Mr. Howard's nomination; but her fond +expectations were soon dissipated by the old aristocrat's comment:</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, my dear, I see! Any upstart can get into Congress now. Really +a private station is the seat of honor; but the comfort remains that a +patrician by birth, is still a patrician, no matter how low his worldly +fortunes; a plebeian is still a plebeian, even though accident or +caprice may constitute him a legislator."</p> + +<p>"And now what shall I do, Agnes?" wrote Mathilde, after recounting these +things.</p> + +<p>"Hope! If Mr. Howard is as constant as you appear to be, you have +everything to expect from time and change ordered by Providence," was my +written reply.</p> + +<p>I finally left school at the commencement of the summer vacation +following the spring in which Mr. Legare's family removed to their +mountain home in Virginia.</p> + +<p>It was just before the ensuing Christmas that I received an invitation +from Mathilde to come up and spend the holidays with her at her father's +new home.</p> + +<p>In extending this invitation, she wrote: "I do not know, dear Agnes, how +much or how little you may feel disposed to credit these modern, +so-called spiritual manifestations, these 'rappings,' 'table-tippings,' +etc., but I know your strong penchant for the supernatural and your +inveterate habit of ghost-hunting, and I do assure you, if it will be +any inducement for you to come to us, that our home contains as +inexplicable a mystery as ever frightened human habitants away, and +doomed a dwelling-place to desolation and decay, and this haunting +presence infests a house in a neighborhood, as yet innocent of +spirit-rappings, table-tippings, and 'sich like diviltries,' as it is of +railroads, steamboats and telegraph wires. But I shall say no more of +this mystery until I see you 'face to face' except this, that even my +unbelieving pa talks of selling the place unless the nuisance is +explained and removed."</p> + +<p>I think that it was the existence of this darkly intimated spectre that +fascinated me to the point of accepting Mathilde's invitation. +Ghost-hunting was my one weakness—perhaps I should say monomania. I +secretly hoped that there might be a haunted chamber in the old house +and that they might put me to sleep in it; furthermore, that I might be +favored with an interview with the ghost. I resolved to go. No +persuasion had power to withhold me, no obstacle to prevent me. My only +brother was expected home to spend Christmas, but I could not wait for +him. I would, on the contrary, ask Mr. Legare to invite him to follow +me. The weather was very severe, the snow covered the ground to the +depth of two feet on a level, and what it might be among the ravines of +the mountains I was going to cross, I feared to conjecture; +nevertheless, to go I was determined.</p> + +<p>It was a three days' and three nights' stage ride from Winchester, where +I lived with my guardian, to Wolfbrake, the home of the Legares. +Accordingly, in order to reach my journey's end on Christmas Eve, I set +out from home on the twentieth of December, and after three days and +nights of the roughest traveling, up hill and down, through the darkest +forests, along the banks of the most frightful precipices, across the +rudest and most primitive bridges thrown over the most awful chasms, +through mountain streams so deep and rapid that in fording them it was +often hard to tell whether we rode or rowed, finally, on the evening of +the twenty-fourth, I reached Frost Height, where the mules from +Wolfbrake, under the charge of Uncle Judah, already awaited me.</p> + +<p>Although it was getting dusky, and the road down the snow-covered +mountain path to Wolfbrake was not of the safest description, even by +daylight, and might be considered dangerous by a starless night, yet +Uncle Judah, with the hard-headedness of a favored old family servant, +insisted that I should set forth immediately, as "Marse and mis' would +be 'spectin'" me to supper.</p> + +<p>So, mounting my mule, and preceded by the old servant upon his jack, I +descended into the outer darkness of the downward mountain path.</p> + +<p>In a little while it was quite dark, and I could neither see Judah on +his jack before me, nor even the narrow path under my feet. At every +step I seemed to be plunging down into some dark abysm of shadows below +shadows. I could not guide my course, but trusted to the habits and +sure-footedness of the mountain mule that carried me. A glimmering +light, shining up from the deepest depths of the darkness below, +indicated the position of Wolfbrake Lodge. There was always a strange, +mystic interest felt in approaching a place like that, for the first +time, amid the shadows of night. The undefined, shapeless mass of +buildings, the unseen boundaries, the unknown circumstances that awaits +us, all like some strange mystery, pique curiosity. And to these general +subjects of interest was added the particular one of the haunting +presence of which Mathilde had darkly written. I was yielding +imagination up to the fascination of these dreamy speculations, when my +mule, having reached the bottom, or else an obstacle of some sort—I +could not in the deep darkness decide which—stopped short. And +immediately I heard a sweet, familiar voice say:</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Uncle Judah? Did Agnes come?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, honey," replied the old man; and:</p> + +<p>"I am here! where are you, dear Mathilde?" exclaimed I, in the same +instant.</p> + +<p>"I am in the carryall! Uncle Judah, help your Miss Agnes off, and bring +her in here with me."</p> + +<p>In obedience, the old man lifted me out of my saddle, and, to use his +own vernacular, "toted" me "through the slush," and set me in the +carryall beside Mathilde. I could not see her form, but I felt her arms +wound around me, and her lips against my face, searching for those other +lips that quickly met hers, and then:</p> + +<p>"I am so overjoyed to see you, dear Agnes! It was so good of you to +come!" she said. "I couldn't wait! I had to order the carryall, and come +to meet you at the foot of the hill."</p> + +<p>We were then about a half a mile from the house. Mathilde made the boy +that drove her get down and give place on the driver's seat to Uncle +Judah, and then take charge of the mules, to lead them home. And so we +proceeded through the snow-covered bottom toward the house.</p> + +<p>As I said, it was so dark that I could not clearly distinguish the +outline of the buildings; but there appeared to be two houses, an old +one and a new one, joined by a covered piazza, and shaded by many trees.</p> + +<p>We stopped before the door of the new house, from the parlor windows of +which a stream of light from the lamps within was pouring.</p> + +<p>We were met by Mrs. Legare, who gave me a cordial welcome, and took me +at once to an upper front chamber, comfortably furnished, where a fine +wood fire burned, and a kettle of hot water stood upon the hearth, for +the convenience of warm ablutions.</p> + +<p>"This is your room, my dear Agnes, where I hope you will find yourself +at home," said my kind hostess.</p> + +<p>I thanked her, but secretly hoped that she would leave me alone with +Mathilde, to hear the mystery of the haunted presence explained, for as +yet we had no opportunity of a <i>tête-à-tête</i>.</p> + +<p>But the old lady lingered with motherly solicitude, until I had washed +myself, and changed my traveling habit for a home dress; and then +directing Jacinthe or "Jet," as she was nicknamed, to restore the room +to order, she invited me down into the parlor.</p> + +<p>As I left the chamber, I observed Jet's eyes start out like beads, and +she made a motion to follow us; but a peremptory gesture from her +mistress repelled her, and she remained, though evidently terrified at +the idea of being left alone.</p> + +<p>"Can it be possible," thought I, "that the child is afraid to stay by +herself in the new house, when, of course, the supernatural inmate, if +there is one, must be a denizen of the old one?"</p> + +<p>And at the same time I experienced a feeling of disappointed love of +adventure in being accommodated with a chamber so shining in freshness +and so distant in character as well as location from what I fancied must +be the scene of the mystery.</p> + +<p>When we reached the parlor, we found a party of young people collected +to celebrate Christmas Eve. But scarcely were the introductions over, +before a servant opened the door and announced supper, and, conducted by +Mrs. Legare, we all went out by way of the hall and the covered piazza +to the dining-room in the old house, where the feast was spread.</p> + +<p>I cannot stop to analyze the sensation with which I crossed the +threshold of this mystery-haunted house, and entered the quaint, +old-fashioned parlor, where the supper table was set. The polished oak +floor, the oak-paneled walls, the high, narrow, deep-set windows, the +tall, black-walnut chimney-piece over the broad fireplace, flanked by a +high cupboard in one corner, and a coffinlike clock in the other—all +whispered of those who had lived and died there long years before. There +was a well-spread and cheerfully-lighted table, and a merry, youthful +company assembled around it; but even these animating influences were +not sufficiently powerful to exorcise the thoughts of the dead—for, +talkative and frolicksome though they were, their talk was still of the +supernatural, of ghosts, and ghosts' seers. I did not talk—I was too +earnestly interested in hearing. And I listened breathlessly to learn +the mystery of the house. In vain! not a single allusion was made to a +spectre in connection with Wolfbrake Lodge. They ignored the +supposition. Perhaps they were really ignorant of it.</p> + +<p>Supper over and cleared away, the young people returned no more that +night to the parlor in the new house, but prepared for a game of +"Snap-apple" in the old dining-room, which their romping could not hurt.</p> + +<p>I was so weary with my three days and nights of riding, and so eager +besides for a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Mathilde, that I pleaded fatigue as an +undeniable reason for retiring before the games should commence. I hoped +that Mathilde alone would attend me. Not so. Mrs. Legare, apparently +watching for my withdrawal, joined her daughter and myself as we left +the room, and accompanied us to the chamber set apart for my use in the +new house. When we had reached this apartment, Mrs. Legare said:</p> + +<p>"There is no one that sleeps in this house usually. We keep these +chambers principally for the use of our guests. No one will occupy any +room within it to-night except yourself, unless indeed you feel +afraid——"</p> + +<p>"Afraid?" repeated I, in a tone that quickly called forth an apology.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know, my dear Agnes, that you are no coward; but I did not know +but that you might feel indisposed to sleep alone in a strange house."</p> + +<p>"What? when it is a perfectly new house, Mrs. Legare? If, indeed, it +were an old-time house, I might be afraid of the traditional ghost," +said I, watching in her countenance the effect of my words, and seeing +her, to my astonishment, turn pale, and send a quick, significant glance +to Mathilde, who averted her head.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" thought I, "the old house is haunted! Would they would only let me +sleep there, where there is some chance of being delightfully +frightened."</p> + +<p>"I was about to say, Agnes, that if you prefer, I will send one of the +negro women to sleep on a mattress in your room."</p> + +<p>"By no means, Mrs. Legare. I shall fall asleep as soon as I touch my +pillow, and not wake until morning—so I should not be able to +appreciate the benefit of Peggy or Dinah's society."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my dear, as you please. Here is a bellrope at your bed's +head—its wires run into the old house. If you should want anything, +ring."</p> + +<p>I smiled, and assured my hostess that I wanted nothing but sleep. +Whereupon she called Mathilde, bade me good-night, and left the room. +Turning back, however, she said to me:</p> + +<p>"Agnes, my dear, lock your chamber door after us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, my dear; but young people are forgetful—especially when +they are tired and sleepy. I think I should like to hear you lock it, +Agnes."</p> + +<p>There was something in her caution that struck me as very singular—but +I laughed and went to the door, and after repeating my good-night, as +desired, shut the door in their faces, and locked it.</p> + +<p>"There! have you heard me lock the door?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear—all right."</p> + +<p>"And is your mind at rest on that score?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure that you have attended to my advice. Good night, and happy +dreams."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, and the same good wishes! Good-night!" said I, in conclusion.</p> + +<p>I listened, and heard them go downstairs, enter the parlor, and fasten +the windows, and secure the safety of the fire there—go to the back +hall door, and bolt and bar it—and finally go out by the front door, +and lock it after them.</p> + +<p>Fastened up as I was in the house, I did not feel myself quite in +prison, because, should I, like Sterne's starling, want to "get out," I +could do so by the back door.</p> + +<p>Now, I never could account for it, but no sooner was I left alone in +that room, resplendent as it was with newness, than a strange feeling of +superstition came over me, that I could neither understand nor escape. +It was in vain that I turned my eyes from the shining white wall and +freshly painted windows to the cheerful pattern of the carpet and +furniture drapery, and said that in this new and freshly furnished +chamber the supernatural was out of place—there grew upon me the +impression of an unearthly presence near; and the feeling, in spite of +all probability, that this—this was the scene of the household +mystery—this was the haunted chamber!</p> + +<p>In this new aspect I examined it. It was the least like one that could +be imagined. It was a lofty, spacious, cheerful, double-bedded room, +with four large windows—two on the east and two on the west side—with +a fireplace in the south wall, and the heads of the beds, at some +distance apart, against the north wall. Between the two east windows was +a pretty dressing-table and glass; between the west windows was a neat +washstand with a china service; on each side of the fireplace were two +spacious clothes closets; before the fire sat two easy-chairs; in +intermediate spaces around the walls were half a dozen other chairs.</p> + +<p>I examined the clothes closets, and found them entirely empty, and at +the service of my dresses; then I looked under the bed; then beneath the +drapery of the dressing-table; and finding nothing that should not be +there, undressed myself, said my prayers, blew out my candle, and went +to bed.</p> + +<p>I could not sleep; my mind, my nerves, had for some reason become +unusually excited; and, despite of extreme fatigue, I lay awake. I +thought the room was too light; for, though the candle was extinguished, +a glowing fire burned upon the hearth, a few yards from the foot of my +bed, and the light of the now risen moon streamed into the east windows. +After turning from side to side, vainly wooing slumber, I arose and went +to close the east front windows. As I reached them with this purpose, I +stayed my hand a moment, while I looked out at the snow-clad, moon-lit +mountain landscape; below me was the bottom, bounded, not many furlongs +off, by the cedar-grown precipice, down which, that very evening, I had +come; under the shelter of that mountain, straight in the line of my +vision, lay the family graveyard of the former owner, in a copse of +evergreens, where the spectral-looking tombstones gleamed whitely among +the dark firs and cedars. Meditating upon those departed, I closed the +blinds of the front windows, and then went to the back ones.</p> + +<p>The latter looked straight down into the uncurtained windows of the +lighted dining-room, where the young people were still at play. Above +these windows, and directly opposite to mine, were those of Mrs. +Legare's bedroom, now dimly lighted from the fire within.</p> + +<p>With this proximity of the family, I felt less lonely, closed my blinds, +and returned to bed.</p> + +<p>Still I could not sleep. The fire on the hearth, beyond my bed's foot, +flickered up and down, casting tall, spectral shadows, that danced upon +the walls, or stretched their long arms over the ceiling. For hours I +lay watching this phantasmagoria, until the fire died down, and the +tall, dancing shadows sank into a mass of darkness, before sleep came to +my wearied senses. But scarcely had I closed my eyes upon the natural +world before a strange vision, or dream, if you prefer to call it so, +passed before me. Methought I heard the click of a turning key; I opened +my eyes, and saw the door slowly swing back upon its hinges, and a lady +of dark, majestic beauty, dressed in deep mourning, and having a pale +and care-worn face, enter the chamber! Slowly and silently she walked to +and fro, her footfall waking no echo—her progress attended by no sound, +save the slight rustle of her silken robe! I was magnetized to watch +her, as with clasped hands and wide-open, mournful eyes, she walked in +silent, measured steps up and down the room. At length she paused in the +middle of the floor, fixed her eyes upon mine with a wild and mournful +gaze, slowly raised one hand from the breast upon which both had been +tightly clasped, and with her spectral finger extended downward, pointed +to the spot beneath her feet, and then as slowly resumed her former +attitude, and passed with measured steps from the room!</p> + +<p>I tried to speak to her, to question her, but failed to utter a sound. +In an agony of distress I tried to call out, and in the effort to do so +awoke! awoke to find that I had been dreaming.</p> + +<p>But, reader! the door that I had locked so carefully the night before, +was standing wide open, as when the dark woman of my dream had passed +through it!</p> + +<p>Day was dawning. I shivered, both from superstitious excitement, and +from the cool draught of air blowing upon me from the open door. I drew +the cover closely around me and listened; but no sounds except the +undefined, low, pleasant murmur of awakening nature—the soft rustle of +the pines in the up-springing morning breeze, the flutter of the night +birds waking up in their branches, and the detonating echo of distant, +louder noises were heard. I arose softly and opened the east window +blinds, and then went back to bed to lie and watch the crimson light of +morning kindling up the orient.</p> + +<p>An hour I lay thus, watching the dawn growing brighter and brighter unto +the perfect day. And then I heard a key turned in the hall door, and +some one come in and ascend the stairs. It was the little black maid +Jet, come to make my fire. As she entered I saw her eyes grow wild, and +she inquired:</p> + +<p>"Miss Agnes, is yer been up, miss, to open dis yer door?"</p> + +<p>"I have been up this morning, Jet," said I, not wishing to let her into +my full confidence. The answer seemed to set her at rest, for her +countenance lost its wild terror, and she proceeded with cheerful +alacrity to light the fire, fill the ewers and so forth.</p> + +<p>Before she had got through with her task, there was a rush of many feet +into the hall, and up the stairs, and Mathilde and such of her young +friends as were already up and dressed, bounded into the room, +exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"A merry Christmas! A merry Christmas, Agnes!"</p> + +<p>Their arrival was enough to put to flight all the supernatural visitants +that Hades ever sent forth. They hurried me with my toilet; they worried +me to come down and see the Christmas tree, and get some eggnog.</p> + +<p>I was carried away with their gay excitement, and almost forgot my +mysterious dream or visitant, but not quite; for all through the morning +greetings of the family, the eggnog drinking, the visit to the Christmas +tree, the distributions of presents, the merry breakfast, the arrival of +invited guests, the Christmas dinner party, the afternoon sports, and +the evening dance, I was possessed with the haunting presence of that +dark, handsome woman, and her majestic woe.</p> + +<p>We danced in the dining-room through all the Christmas night; and it was +two o'clock in the morning before we separated.</p> + +<p>Again, when I was about to retire, Mrs. Legare came to accompany me.</p> + +<p>"I hope you rested well last night, my dear Agnes, though I have +scarcely had an opportunity of asking you to-day," she said, as we +entered my room.</p> + +<p>"I did not wake until dawn, ma'am," I answered, evasively, for I had +determined, since they let me into no confidence upon the subject of the +household mystery, to keep my own counsel in regard to my dream and the +open door.</p> + +<p>"You slept until dawn. That is well. I hope you will have as good a rest +for the few remaining hours of the night. Good-evening, my dear. Lock +your door after me," said Mrs. Legare, going out with a look of relief +and satisfaction.</p> + +<p>As upon the evening previous, I turned the key upon my retiring hostess, +listened until I heard her pass out and secure the hall door, then +searched my room, undressed, said my prayers, and went to bed.</p> + +<p>As I hinted in the beginning of this narrative, nature had made me at +once superstitious and fearless. In the supernatural I "believed without +trembling." And now alone, in this supposed-to-be haunted chamber, I lay +with an interest devoid of uneasiness, waiting the development of +events.</p> + +<p>It was near day, when, overcome with watching, I fell asleep, and then, +as upon the night previous, I had a vision or dream (as you please to +call it). Methought the sound of a deep sigh awoke me, when looking up, +I saw, standing in the middle of the room, the fearful woman of my +dream, her finger pointed downward to the same spot, and, still pointing +thus, she receded backward until she disappeared through the open door.</p> + +<p>I started up to call or stop her, and with the violence of my effort, +awoke! awoke to see the morning light shining in through the shutters +that I had neglected to close, and to hear little Jet letting herself in +at the hall door, to come up and light my fire.</p> + +<p>Again on entering and seeing the open door, she cast an uneasy, +suspicious, frightened look around her, and said: "Yer allus gets up an' +opens dis door when yer hears me a comin', don't yer, Miss Agnes, +ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard you coming Jet," I replied, evasively, but the answer +satisfied my simple little maid, who went cheerfully about her tasks.</p> + +<p>As it was not early, I hastened to my toilet and descended to the +dining-room, not to keep my kind hostess waiting breakfast.</p> + +<p>They were all ready to sit down when I joined them, and we immediately +took our seats at the table.</p> + +<p>Upon my plate I found a letter from my brother, which I asked and +obtained permission to open and read. It was a regretful refusal of my +invitation to him to join me at Wolfbrake to spend the holidays, upon +the ground that he had brought home with him a friend whom he could not +leave.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! pooh! let him bring his friend along! Tell him so! Any friend of +your brother will be welcome here, Agnes!" said Mr. Legare, to whom I +communicated the contents of my letter.</p> + +<p>I acted upon this permission, and wrote for my brother to come and bring +his friend. After I had finished and dispatched my letter, I joined a +party who were going out to dine. The dinner was followed by a dance, +and the dance by a moonlight sleighride home. But through all the +excitements of the day the image of the dark woman haunted my mind. And +again it was very late when I retired to bed.</p> + +<p>As usual, Mrs. Legare and Mathilde saw me to my room, and, as before, I +locked the door behind them, and listened until I heard them leave the +house and secure the hall entrance. Then I hastened my preparations, got +into bed, and, thoroughly worn out with fatigue and loss of rest, soon +fell into a deep sleep. And a third time the dream or vision passed +before me. Methought I was awakened by a voice calling my name. I opened +my eyes, and saw—first the door stretched wide open, and then, standing +in the middle of the floor, the beautiful and majestic woman of my +former visions, but this time more sad and stern in aspect than before. +Fixing those wild, mournful eyes upon mine, and holding my gaze as it +were by a mesmeric spell, she slowly and severely pointed to the spot +beneath her feet, and saying, as it were, "Look!" passed in measured +steps from the room.</p> + +<p>Once more in an agony I started up to call and stay her, but with the +effort awoke. The door that I had carefully locked stood wide open as +before. It was the same hour as that of my awakening upon the two +previous mornings. The day was flushing redly up the eastern horizon +beyond the mountains, and nature was awakening everywhere.</p> + +<p>I could not now so readily shake off the influence of my dream. There +was something that I wished to ascertain before my little maid should +interrupt me; the reiterated gesture by the woman of my dream, +determined me to examine the spot upon which she had stood and pointed, +to see if, really, her action had any meaning. So I arose from my bed, +and, first securing the door, and turning the key straight in the lock, +that my little maid, should she come, might not spy my doings, I +removed the hearthrug took a pair of strong scissors and drew out the +tacks, turned up the carpet.</p> + +<p>Reader! I had an attraction to the supernatural, but a mortal antagonism +to the horrible, and nearly swooned on seeing the spot to which the dark +woman of my vision had pointed deeply marked with a sanguine-crimson +stain! The very heart in my bosom seemed frozen with horror, and I felt +myself, as it were, turning to stone, when a loud knocking at my chamber +door aroused me. It was my little maid, whose coming, I, in my deep and +fearful abstractions, had not heard. I hurriedly replaced the carpet and +the rug, and went and opened the door.</p> + +<p>"Yer sleeped soun' dis mornin', Miss Agnes, ma'am," said little Jet, +smiling as she entered. "I feared I scared you out'n your dream," she +added, noticing, I suppose, my horror-stricken face.</p> + +<p>"You certainly startled me, Jet," I said, evasively. And while she +lighted the fire, I returned to bed to try to compose my nerves.</p> + +<p>Between the horror I felt at the idea of sleeping another night alone in +an accursed room, where, it seemed, a crime had been committed, and my +intense desire to elucidate the mystery, I was at a loss how to act. +Only one thing I decided upon—to keep my own counsel for the present.</p> + +<p>"De fire is burnin' fus-rate now, Miss Agnes, so you can get up an' +dress, if you likes, as break'as' is mos' ready," said my little +attendant. And taking her hint, I arose and hastened my toilet, in order +to be punctual at the morning meal of my hostess.</p> + +<p>As I descended the stairs, I heard Mrs. Legare speaking to her daughter +in the parlor, where a fire was kindled every morning while there were +visitors in the house. She was saying:</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Mathilde, it is all a delusion. Those who have never heard +the story, never see, or hear, or fancy anything unusual. You know now +Agnes has not been disturbed, and it is because she has heard nothing. +Whereas, if you had told her this history, she would have imagined, +Heaven knows what! all sorts of horrors! that is the reason I wished her +to hear nothing of it. She has slept undisturbed in that room. Let that +be known. Others will then not object to do so, and the report will die +out."</p> + +<p>She spoke in a quick, low tone, and, seeing me coming, instantly changed +the subject. But my sense of hearing, always acute, was quickened by +intense interest, and I had heard more than she could have wished me to +know. She turned to me with a smile, and said:</p> + +<p>"I hope that you have rested well, my dear Agnes."</p> + +<p>I said, "As well as usual," and receiving Mathilde's morning kiss, took +her arm, and accompanied them into the breakfast-room.</p> + +<p>It was some hours after breakfast, that day, when I went up into my +chamber to write letters. While thus engaged, I heard Mathilde coming +up, singing, and enter a chamber corresponding to mine, but separated +from it by the front hall.</p> + +<p>"Are you there, Agnes?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear. Shall I come to you?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Si vous plait, mademoiselle</i>," she answered, gayly.</p> + +<p>I went into the room, where I found Mathilde directing Jet in her work +of preparing the chamber for guests.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to put your brother and his friend here together to sleep, +my dear Agnes, as we are so full. But, by the way, who is his friend?"</p> + +<p>"That is just what I cannot tell you. John, in his wild, careless way, +simply said that he had a friend with him, as a reason why he could not +at once accept your father's invitation, and Mr. Legare as carelessly +and frankly wrote back for him to bring his 'friend' along with him."</p> + +<p>"<i>Eh bien! cette l'ami inconnu</i> must be content to lodge with John; we +can do no better."</p> + +<p>"Since your house is not so large as your heart, <i>chere</i> Mathilde."</p> + +<p>Little Jet was engaged in removing the firescreen, preparatory to +lighting the fire to air the room. As she set this board down before my +eyes, I could scarcely repress the cry that arose to my lips. It was an +old, faded family portrait that had been put to this use. That was not +much; but—it was the portrait of the dark woman of my dream.</p> + +<p>The same midnight eyes and hair, the same proud, stern, sad brow!</p> + +<p>"Whose likeness is that, Mathilde?" I asked, when I had in some degree +recovered my composure.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I don't know; it is a portrait of some member of the family of the +former proprietors, I suppose! We found it here with other rubbish, +considered, I suppose, of too little value to remove after the Van Der +Vaughans left; I washed its face and set it up for a firescreen. 'To +such vile uses,' etc. By the way, look at it! It is a very remarkable +countenance! Such expression might have been that of Semiramis when +ordering the execution of Ninus."</p> + +<p>"No! I do not think so, there is no wickedness in this face! There is +strength, sternness, perhaps cruelty (if necessary)," I replied, still +studying the portrait. "Who could it have been?"</p> + +<p>"I know not indeed! some old, old member of the Vaughan family."</p> + +<p>"Nay, I do not think the portrait is of such ancient date! To be sure it +is dilapidated; but that seems to be more from abuse than from time. +And observe! the costume is modern."</p> + +<p>"So it is!"</p> + +<p>"I had not thought of that before! Well now since you said so, I begin +to surmise that this may be the portrait of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan."</p> + +<p>"And who was she?" I inquired, with as much indifference as I could +assume.</p> + +<p>"Oh! the last lineal descendant of the elder branch of the family and +the last heiress of this old estate; she married her first cousin, +Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan."</p> + +<p>"And what was her history and her fate?" I inquired, striving to +restrain the betrayal of the intense interest I felt.</p> + +<p>"Oh, her history was as painful as her fate was tragic."</p> + +<p>"And—well?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! there is some one coming! I will tell you another time!"</p> + +<p>It was Mrs. Legare who entered, and smiling a sort of salutation to me, +and opening a letter she held in her hand, said:</p> + +<p>"My dear Mathilde, we are to have more company. Your cousin Rachel +Noales is coming; she will be here this afternoon!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I should be so glad if we only had room for her!" exclaimed +Mathilde, impulsively, and then she blushed deeply in having spoken thus +freely of their crowded state in the presence of a guest.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mathilde," said I, "as mine is a double-bedded chamber, I +should be very happy to have Miss Rachel for a roommate; that is, if it +would be agreeable to herself."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Agnes, dear. Agreeable! why it would be the very thing. +Rachel Noales is the greatest coward that ever ran! and would no more +sleep in a strange room, by herself, than she would in a churchyard! If +you had not kindly offered, some of us girls would have to take her in, +although we are all sleeping double now!"</p> + +<p>"But are you sure, my dear Agnes, that you will not be incommoded," +kindly inquired Mrs. Legare.</p> + +<p>"Incommoded? Not in the least! The arrangement suits me to a nicety!" I +replied.</p> + +<p>And so, in truth, it did; for let me confess that while I could not +prevail upon myself to shorten my visit, and leave the house with its +great mystery unsolved, the prospect of sleeping alone in that chamber +cursed with crime appalled me, but, in company with a companion of my +own age, it would be a very different affair.</p> + +<p>"That horrid portrait! take it into the attic, Jet," said Mrs. Legare, +as her eyes fell upon the <i>ci devant</i> firescreen.</p> + +<p>The little maid took up the picture and carried it off as commanded.</p> + +<p>Then there was a visit of inspection and preparation paid to my room. +Fresh sheets and more blankets were put upon the second bed, fresh +napkins laid, and then mother and daughter and little maid departed.</p> + +<p>Through the remainder of that day I had no further opportunity of +learning from Mathilde the history of the dark lady.</p> + +<p>Late that afternoon Uncle Judah was dispatched with the mules to Frost +Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring Rachel Noales to the house. +And about seven o'clock he returned, escorting the new visitor, for whom +we were waiting tea.</p> + +<p>As Miss Noales was to be my roommate, I examined her with much more +interest than I had bestowed upon any other among my fellow-visitors. +Rachel Noales was an orphan, and was still in deep mourning for her +father, who had been dead about nine months. She was a very pretty, +timid-looking girl, with a fair face, soft brown hair and large hazel +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ah! my dear child," I thought to myself, "you are scarcely the most +proper denizen for a crime-cursed, haunted chamber."</p> + +<p>And I made up my mind to protect her, if possible, from the knowledge +that would only make her wretched, and perhaps drive her away from the +place. As this was the fourth evening of Christmas revelry, and we had +all been up to a very late hour upon each of the three preceding nights, +it was moved, seconded, and carried by a large majority that we should +retire early on this and the succeeding evenings of the week, so as to +recruit a little for the New Year's festivity.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, at ten o'clock we separated.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Legare and Mathilde accompanied Rachel Noales and myself to our +chamber. And when our hostess and her daughter had seen that the room +was in perfect order, the fire burning well, the beds turned down, the +ewers filled, etc., etc., they took leave, waiting, as before, until +they had heard me lock the chamber door behind them. When they had +passed down the stairs and out at the hall door and locked it after +them, I turned around to meet the surprised look of Rachel Noales.</p> + +<p>"Why, where have they gone?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Into the old house, to bed."</p> + +<p>"Why!—do they sleep there?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly—the whole family sleep there."</p> + +<p>"And who sleeps here in the new house?"</p> + +<p>"No one but you and I!"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that they have put us in this house to sleep +alone?"</p> + +<p>"Why not? It is an adjunct to the other house, which is, besides, quite +full of guests. It was so when I came."</p> + +<p>"And where did you sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Here."</p> + +<p>"Alone?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>She looked at me with astonishment. And had my mind been sufficiently at +ease I should have enjoyed her naïve admiration. But it was not so; and +when I saw her draw her chair up in front of the fire, and sit down +immediately over that spot, I shuddered and spoke to her.</p> + +<p>"Rachel, dear, don't sit directly in front of the fire; it is injurious +to the eyes."</p> + +<p>She moved to one side and began to unfasten her dress preparatory to +going to bed. We were now ready. But before lying down, Rachel asked me:</p> + +<p>"Is the door secure?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear."</p> + +<p>"And the windows?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Not quite content with my answer, Rachel went slyly around to all the +windows, and then to the door, to ascertain their security; then she +searched the closets, and finally got into bed.</p> + +<p>I soon followed her example, but found myself more sleepless than upon +the preceding evening. I know not exactly how long I had lain awake, +thinking of the dead proprietors, of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, and her +sad history and tragic fate (whatever they might have been), and of the +stern, dark woman of my dream, and of the blood-stained floor, and +trying to combine these materials into some coherent whole, when +suddenly I heard the lock click back, the door swing slowly open, and a +rustle, as of silken drapery, and I opened my eyes to behold the awful +woman of my dream standing in the middle of the room, and pointing +sternly to the blood-stained floor!</p> + +<p>And in the very same instant that I heard and saw this, Rachel had also +been awakened, and was even now asking in frightened tones:</p> + +<p>"Who is that?"</p> + +<p>But there was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Who is that?" again asked the girl.</p> + +<p>And still there was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Who—is—that?" she reiterated, emphatically.</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Legare!—Mathilde!—Jet!—Who is it?"</p> + +<p>No reply. But the tall, black-robed woman standing motionless, and +pointing with spectral finger to the spot on the floor!</p> + +<p>"Oh! dear me! Agnes, Agnes!"</p> + +<p>I answered:</p> + +<p>"What, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Have you opened the door?"</p> + +<p>"No, love."</p> + +<p>"Have you been up at all since you laid down?"</p> + +<p>"No, Rachel."</p> + +<p>"Who opened the door?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you hear it open?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And it is open now!"</p> + +<p>"I see it is."</p> + +<p>"But how came it open?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know; perhaps it was not quite locked, and the catch flew +back."</p> + +<p>"Oh, perhaps that was it," said Rachel; and, though her teeth were +chattering with a nervous tremor, she got out of bed, and went to the +door, to close and lock it, And, reader, the black-robed woman passed +out before her, and she saw her not.</p> + +<p>I fell back upon my pillow, nearer swooning than ever I had been in my +life; for now I knew that this was no dream, but a vision—an apparition +to me, and to me only.</p> + +<p>I slept no more that night.</p> + +<p>And in the morning when I arose, and looked into the glass, I was +startled at the haggardness of my own face.</p> + +<p>When we appeared at the breakfast-table, some of the young people +remarked my paleness, and said that I had been frolicking more than was +good for me. Then one of the company inquired of Rachel Noales how she +had rested.</p> + +<p>"Not very well," Rachel answered; "I was frightened by the door flying +open in the middle of the night."</p> + +<p>I noticed a quick, intelligent look pass between Mathilde and her +mother, while Rachel continued:</p> + +<p>"I thought at first that it was thieves breaking in; but I know now that +it flew open because Agnes had not locked the door fast enough to hold +it."</p> + +<p>"No, I had not," said I.</p> + +<p>The arrival of the mailbag put an end to this discussion. The letters +were distributed at the table. Among them was one from my brother to Mr. +Legare, accepting his invitation for himself and his friend, whom he +begged to name as the Hon. Francis Howard, of Massachusetts, and +announcing the letter as a mere <i>avant courier</i> of the party which would +reach Frost Height that afternoon.</p> + +<p>Upon hearing the name of Frank Howard as the "friend" of John and their +expected guest, Mathilde flushed and paled, and was quite unable to +conceal from the interested scrutiny of her parents the emotion these +tidings caused her.</p> + +<p>As for Mr. Legare, upon reading his name, he said: "Humph!" and "humph!" +very emphatically several times before he could get any further. But he +considered his hospitality implicated; nay, his honor pledged to receive +and treat with politeness the guest that he had so unconsciously +invited. He was a fine old gentleman, notwithstanding his +prejudices—was Mr. Legare.</p> + +<p>So, in the afternoon, once more Uncle Judah was ordered to take the +mules and go up to Frost Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring two +visitors to the house; an order so little to the old man's satisfaction +that he vented his disapprobation in the exclamation:</p> + +<p>"Ole masse better had set up 'Entertainment for Man and Beast' at once."</p> + +<p>As usual, when expecting a new arrival of visitors, Mrs. Legare put back +her tea hour, and prepared a supper of extra luxuriousness. And Mr. +Legare brewed the great ancestral punchbowl to the brim with rich, +frothy eggnog, and set it away to "mellow," against the coming of the +gentlemen.</p> + +<p>"My dear mother and father! they have noble hearts in spite of their +social conservatism! And you shall see that they will treat my Frank +with as much kindness and respect as if they did not consider him a sort +of wolf, prowling about after their one ewe lamb," said Mathilde, with +tears of affection brimming to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"And you see, my darling, it is as I foretold you it would be. He is +seeking you now in your own home. And under what favorable +circumstances—the invited guest of your father. How very providential +the whole train of events! Trust still in Divine Providence; and if your +love is a true love, it will end happily," I answered.</p> + +<p>And in my deep sympathy with Mathilde's joy, I almost forgot that I was +a haunted maiden, with some, as yet unknown, supernatural mission to +accomplish.</p> + +<p>I was resolved, if possible, before the day should be over, to hear from +Mathilde the tragic story of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, whose portrait +I had mentally identified as that of the awful visitant of my midnight +hours. The opportunity came, or rather, I made it. Mathilde had early +completed her toilet for the evening. I had done likewise. And at five +o'clock we found ourselves alone together in the drawing-room of the new +house. The lamps were not as yet lighted. The hickory fire had ceased to +blaze, and now only burned redly, showing out a strong, solid heat, in +what Uncle Judah called "solemn columns," and casting over the dark +chamber a sombre, ruddy twilight. We sat down by the fire together. +There would be no chance for the next half hour of being interrupted.</p> + +<p>For Mr. Legare was still engaged at his breakfast in the dining-room. +Mrs. Legare was busy in her pantry and the kitchen, and the few servants +of the now reduced establishment were in constant attendance upon their +master or mistress.</p> + +<p>Rachel Noales was upstairs in my chamber, dressing for the evening, and +the other young persons of the Christmas party were in the bedrooms of +the old house, similarly engaged.</p> + +<p>There was not the slightest possibility of an interruption.</p> + +<p>Mathilde commenced speaking.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are pleased with your chamber, Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"Charmed," I answered.</p> + +<p>Without perceiving the <i>double entendre</i> hidden in my reply, she said:</p> + +<p>"And you have always slept well, then?"</p> + +<p>"Never better," I replied; "in that chamber," I mentally added.</p> + +<p>In her ignorance of this silent reservation, she was pleased with my +answer, and sat smiling quietly and studying, apparently, the glowing +coals of fire in the chimneyplace.</p> + +<p>I broke her reverie by saying, in a careless, off-hand way:</p> + +<p>"<i>Apropos de rien</i>, you have not told me the story of that mysterious +portrait yet."</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't! But, indeed, I am not sure that the history of Madeleine +Van Der Vaughan has anything to do with that portrait, since I am not +sure that it is hers."</p> + +<p>"No matter; take it for granted that it is; or at least tell the story +whether or not."</p> + +<p>"Very well; listen, then," said Mathilde, settling herself comfortably +in her chair, and commencing the narrative.</p> + +<p>"The Van Der Vaughans, as you may perceive by their name, are of +Teutonic origin, though by frequent intermarriage with other races, they +have no doubt lost, or modified, many of their national traits. Their +residence, in this part of the country, dates back to the time of the +first settlement of New York by the Dutch.</p> + +<p>"Why this particular family should have wandered down to the backwoods +and mountains of Virginia remains a mystery, unless they were of a +patriotic and poetical turn, and found in her wild hills and boundless +woods something to remind them of the Hartz Mountains and the Black +Forest. However that may be, they came, took up a great tract of land, +built themselves a dwelling place (the old house adjoining this), and +settled down permanently.</p> + +<p>"For a time they were prosperous, as others were, and then, by bad +agriculture, they grew poor, as others in this neighborhood did. If we +may believe tradition the poorer this family grew the prouder they +became, until at last, pride and poverty united, culminated in the +character and the circumstances of the last heiress of the elder branch +of the family, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan.</p> + +<p>"At the age of twenty-five Madeleine Van Der Vaughan was left, by the +death of her father (her mother died long before), sole heiress of a +worn-out plantation and dilapidated house.</p> + +<p>"Madeleine is reported to have possessed great and singular beauty—a +tall and imperial form, a fine head, with strongly marked and perfectly +regular features, a deep, rich complexion, and hair, eyes and eyebrows +all black as Erebus. Gifted and accomplished was she also, and, as I +stated, proud as Lucifer. It is said that this overweening pride +prevented her taking a husband from among her numerous visitors, none of +whom, though of the best families in the State, she deemed worthy of her +own "high alliance.""</p> + +<p>"Until at last her relative, Ernest Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan, made his +appearance in her train and claimed her hand; a claim that was indorsed +by her acceptance.</p> + +<p>"It is said that family pride had to do with this marriage much more +than love. However that might be, no sooner was the knot securely tied, +than Mr. Van Der Vaughan began to importune his wife to sell her land +and homestead that they might emigrate to the West. But in vain; for +Mrs. Van Der Vaughan would not, for an instant, entertain the idea of +alienating her patrimony.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, she had one ambition concerning her inheritance—an +ambition that reached the height of a ruling passion—and that was, to +resuciate the dead soil of the plantation and to rebuild the mansion +house.</p> + +<p>"All Ernest Van Der Vaughan's property consisted in bank stock. All +Madeleine's estate was in worthless land and negroes. But she offered +him, as she would not have offered any other than a Van Der Vaughan, the +fee simple of her plantation, if he would only devote his money to the +restoring of the worn-out fields and the rebuilding of the homestead.</p> + +<p>"Ernest did not like the plan, and he told her so. He explained to her +how, at one-tenth the outlay that he should have to make for manures and +for labor to resusciate this effete soil, he could go to Iowa and +purchase a large farm of the richest land and build a comfortable +dwelling-house and all needful offices around it.</p> + +<p>"But it was in vain that he argued with her. She was a strong-minded, +self-willed woman, with one idea—one monomania—love for 'Old +Virginia,' and especially for her own portion of the soil. She +absolutely rejected the plan of emigration, and told Ernest, in the most +decided manner, that, go where he might, she never would desert her +birthplace.</p> + +<p>"She was the stronger of the two, and she prevailed. Ernest embarked +nearly all his means in the doubtful enterprise of restoring the old, +worn-out fields and rebuilding the mansion, or rather, I should say, +repairing it, and building a new house beside it.</p> + +<p>"Madeleine, on her part, kept her word. She executed a deed conveying +the whole property to her husband. And after he, in a fit of generous +abandonment, tore that deed and threw it in the fire, she made a second +one, caused it to be recorded, and thus rendered it irrevocable, before +she told him anything about it.</p> + +<p>"She went even further than this, and aided him in every possible way in +his work of restoration. To retrench expenses, so that every spare +dollar should go to that enterprise, she discharged her housekeeper, +reduced her establishment of servants, and took upon her own shoulders +the additional burdens lately borne by those whom she had discharged +from her service. She worked hard and constantly. No one knew how +severely she toiled—not even her husband, until her labors seriously +affected her health. Then Ernest Van Der Vaughan remonstrated. But she +smiled and pointed to the growing fields and to the rising mansion.</p> + +<p>"Yet the restoration of the lands and the elevation of the house was a +work of years. Often progress was arrested by the want of funds, and +then, though it cost the mistress many severe heart pangs, one after +another of the old family servants were sold to raise the necessary +amount, and their places in the field had to be supplied by fresh drafts +upon the small household establishment, until at last the mistress was +reduced to one maid-of-all-work about her person.</p> + +<p>"I do not think your citizens, Agnes, dream of how much labor devolves +upon the mistress of a large plantation in circumstances such as these. +Even when assisted by an efficient housekeeper, and many well-trained +servants, the duties are onerous, sometimes oppressive, Madeleine Van +Der Vaughan had deprived herself of nearly all help; but most willingly +she bore her self-assumed burden, only showing distress when some +financial exigency compelled her to wound humanity. She gave her heart, +her life, to one object of her ambition. Yes—literally, this was so; +for it was observable that as the carefully tended land recovered, she +lost vitality, and as the mansion arose, she sank.</p> + +<p>"It was in glorious autumn, when the richest wheat harvest that had ever +been reaped in the State was gathered into the barns of Wolfbrake, and +the finest corn crop that had ever grown in the valley, stood ripe in +the fields, that the house was finished.</p> + +<p>"So much money had been spent and so many debts remained to be paid, +that there was but little to expend upon furniture, and Mrs. Van Der +Vaughan could not appoint her house in a style so gorgeous as would +have satisfied her ambition. However, it was furnished in the manner +that you now see, which, after all, is much handsomer than anything that +was known to the grand old Van Der Vaughans in their grandest days of, +no doubt, fabulous grandeur.</p> + +<p>"It was about the first of November that the last of the Van Der +Vaughans removed into this house.</p> + +<p>"The plastering of the sleeping-rooms was not so well dried as had been +supposed. This was soon ascertained by Mr. Van Der Vaughan, who advised +and entreated his wife to delay the removal.</p> + +<p>"But when had Madeleine Van Der Vaughan yielded to any will but her own? +With the impatience and fever of a long desire, she hastened to take +possession of her new residence.</p> + +<p>"Although the weather had continued fine, with westerly or southerly +winds, up to the day of removal, yet then the wind shifted to the east, +blowing up masses of dark clouds and cold mists, followed by rain and +even sleet.</p> + +<p>"Alas! worn out by self-assumed, unnecessary burdens, Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan was in no condition successfully to meet a change of weather and +other circumstances. Moreover, she, so earnest in her ambition, so +zealous for ostentation, was fatally careless in regard to her own +personal comforts. There was no grate or stove in her chamber, or in any +other room in the house; all depended upon open fireplaces, which, +however handsome, cheerful and poetic they may look, are not always just +the very best things for damp houses in severe weather.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Van Der Vaughan's chamber could not be properly dried and heated. +The consequence was that she took a severe cold, which fell upon her +lungs, and from which she, in her enfeebled state, had not power to +recover. She dropped into a rapid consumption, and in six weeks from +her triumphant <i>entrée</i> into her new house, she was borne thence to the +family burial-ground, that you may see from your windows."</p> + +<p>"Poor lady! What room did she occupy?"</p> + +<p>"Yours."</p> + +<p>"And—she died there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; she died there, a victim, I am sure, of her own impatient, +feverish ambition."</p> + +<p>"Do not judge her harshly."</p> + +<p>"I do not. This is the reputation she has left behind her."</p> + +<p>"Yet it may not have been her true character. Reputation is one thing, +character is another," said I, falling into thought, and then reflecting +that much yet must remain to be told, to give me a sure clew to the +household mystery.</p> + +<p>"Well, what else?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"What else, my dear? Why, nothing else. I have told you all her story to +her death," said Mathilde, uneasily.</p> + +<p>"But, after all," said I, "one of the most interesting things in the +connection, is your father's purchase of this fine property."</p> + +<p>"Ah, true! Well, after the death of his lady, Ernest Van Der Vaughan +removed back into the old house, and closed up the new one. In the +course of a few weeks he advertised the property for sale, but months +passed, and no purchaser appeared willing to give him the price set upon +the estate.</p> + +<p>"A year went by, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan made the acquaintance of a +young lady, Alice Brightwell, who was, it is said, as strong a contrast +as possible to his late wife; for Alice was young, and fair and gay, +loved music, dancing and company, and had not a regret, a care, or an +ambition in the world.</p> + +<p>"It must have been the attraction of antagonism that united the hearts +of this dark and sombre man of thirty, and this laughing, careless girl +of nineteen, for it is said that they were greatly attached to each +other.</p> + +<p>"At all events, after a brief courtship, and a briefer engagement they +were married; and when Mr. Van Der Vaughan proposed to her, as he had to +his first wife, that they should emigrate to the West, she, in her gay, +adventurous love of novelty, eagerly assented, notwithstanding that to +go with him thither, she must leave her parents, brothers and sisters.</p> + +<p>"Once more the property came into the market, and my father, seeing the +advertisement, and desiring to remove to Virginia, opened a +correspondence with the proprietor, then made a visit of inspection, and +finally became the purchaser of the estates.</p> + +<p>"When the transfer was about to be made, my father, pointing to the +family graveyard, inquired of Mr. Van Der Vaughan whether he did not +feel an unwillingness to sell that piece of ground, and told him that he +might readily make an exception of that plot, and retain it in his own +right.</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan replied that he did not really care to own a +foot of ground on the estate.</p> + +<p>"My father then told him that if he would like to retain the graveyard +it should make no difference in the price of the whole already agreed +upon—for my father, you see, Alice, felt a sort of hesitation in buying +the place without exempting the bones of the old family from the +purchase.</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan had no scruples of the sort.</p> + +<p>"'No,' he said, 'Mr. Legare, if I were to retain possession of the +graveyard, I and my heirs after me, would own an acre of ground in the +very midst of your estate, which, as it stands now, might make no +difference, as I shall never return to claim it, and could make no use +of it if I did; but which might embarrass you very much should you ever +wish to sell the property.'</p> + +<p>"That was good reasoning enough, I suppose, and, at all events, the sale +was completed without the exception.</p> + +<p>"We moved into the house, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan and his bride departed +for Kansas."</p> + +<p>"And he really, when he might just as easily have avoided it, sold the +bones of his wife and her ancestors to a stranger!"</p> + +<p>"Even so, my dear Agnes, and believe me, that we all felt as much +shocked as you look."</p> + +<p>"But," said I, fixing my eyes upon her face, where the flickering +firelight made the shadows play, "the stranger has not been able to +retain the peaceable possession of his purchase!"</p> + +<p>"What—what mean you, Agnes!" exclaimed Mathilde, in alarm.</p> + +<p>"I mean that the late proud lady of Wolfbrake still carries the keys, +and unlocks doors at will!"</p> + +<p>"Heavens! do you know that?"</p> + +<p>"Ay! I know much more than that. I know the portrait that performed the +humiliating office of firescreen in the next room is the likeness of the +haughty Madeleine Van Der Vaughan! I know, beside——"</p> + +<p>"What more do you know?"</p> + +<p>"That our travelers have arrived!" I said, as the sound of footsteps and +voices at the hall door fell upon my ear.</p> + +<p>It was true. We were interrupted.</p> + +<p>As if "borne on the wings of love," the slow old stage-coach was so much +earlier that evening that our friends arrived an hour earlier than we +had expected them, while Mrs. Legare was still superintending the +arrangement of her supper-table, and Mr. Legare was grating nutmeg over +his huge bowl of eggnog, so there was no one to welcome the visitors +except Mathilde and myself.</p> + +<p>As they entered the parlor we arose and advanced to meet them.</p> + +<p>"Mathilde! Miss Legare! Can it be possible! This is, indeed, indeed, a +joyous surprise," exclaimed Frank Howard, as he recognized his ladylove, +and with an eager smile extended his hand; while my brother, without +ceremony, embraced me cordially.</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew to whom you were coming," said Mathilde, with simple +candor.</p> + +<p>"No! I scarcely dared to hope for such happiness!"</p> + +<p>"Hey-day! Hal-loe!—do you know anybody here, Frank?" exclaimed my wild +and thoughtless brother.</p> + +<p>But before Mr. Howard had time to answer, I pinched Jack's arm, turned +him around, and presented him to Miss Legare.</p> + +<p>The refined and elegant presence of Mathilde immediately brought my rude +cadet to order, and he gracefully expressed the pleasure and honor he +felt in being permitted to make her acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Miss Legare welcomed my brother with more cordiality than she had +bestowed upon her lover.</p> + +<p>And I turned to receive Frank Howard's offered hand, and responded to +his expressions of satisfaction at the present opportunity of renewing +our acquaintance.</p> + +<p>When these rather commonplace ceremonies were over Miss Legare invited +her guests to be seated, and we resumed our chairs. A deep blush settled +upon the beautiful face of Mathilde.</p> + +<p>But, whatever might have been the emotions of Mr. Howard, he suppressed +them through that regnant self-control that ever distinguished his +manners. And he was the first to perceive the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. +Legare, and to arise and advance to receive them.</p> + +<p>My brother presented Mr. Howard to Mr. Legare, who received him with +cordial politeness, and in his turn introduced him to Mrs. Legare, who +smilingly welcomed him to Virginia.</p> + +<p>Certainly Howard had nothing to complain of in his reception. There was +not the slightest lack of respect and kindness, and not the least +over-doing of ceremony, which would have been still more offensive. All +was natural and genial, as if there had not once existed a strong +hostility to Frank Howard, the machinist. I was charmed at the manner +with which my dear host and hostess completely overcame their +prejudices, or at least suppressed them, and treated Mr. Howard in all +respects as an honored and welcome guest, and did this assuredly not in +the spirit of hypocrisy, but of hospitality, as they understood its +requirements.</p> + +<p>Soon Rachel Noales and the other young persons of the Christmas party +came in, were introduced, seated, and conversation became general and +free. This afforded me the coveted opportunity of having a moment's talk +aside with my brother.</p> + +<p>"Johnny! tell me now, and tell me quickly, and truly—was there any +design on you or your friend's part to get him invited here?"</p> + +<p>"Design! bless you, no!" replied my brother, opening wide his great gray +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I thought not; for, if the truth must be told, honest Johnny was +anything but a diplomat."</p> + +<p>"Well, there was no conscious manœuvring on your part, but was there +not on his?"</p> + +<p>"Why, bless you, no! Why should there have been?" "'Why should there +have been?' Oh, Johnny! Johnny! where are your perceptive faculties? +You will never be wideawake enough for a soldier!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you would be at."</p> + +<p>"I suppose not. But did you observe nothing interesting in the meeting +between Mr. Howard and Miss Legare?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh, oh, oh! Whew ew-ew-ew! Is that it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"That's what you meant when you pinched my arm black and blue?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"A sorry dog. He never hinted one word about this to me."</p> + +<p>"He had no right to do so, nor must you speak of it."</p> + +<p>"Eh! why?"</p> + +<p>"Because—but I had better tell you all about it. They met about three +years ago for the first time. It was at Saratoga, where he was making +quite a figure. The acquaintance had ripened to friendship, and +something more when 'papa' bethought himself to inquire who this very +distinguished-looking gentleman might be at home among his own people, +and was informed that he was—a machinist by trade! Recall to mind the +passion of Desdemonia's proud patrician 'pa' on discovering that he had +a black-a-moor for a son-in-law, and you may be able remotely to +conceive the consternation of Mr. Legare. He hurried his family away +from Saratoga, and forbid the name of Howard to be mentioned in his +presence. The lovers never corresponded, and never met until this +evening! You may judge how much cause for speculation there is in this +meeting."</p> + +<p>"Yes—but within these three years great changes have taken place. Mr. +Howard is a distinguished man—a man of fortune, and of acknowledged +talent—one of the lawgivers of the nation. And Mr. Legare and his +family are reduced from wealth to a moderate competency."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but that does not change the old aristocrat's manner of +regarding the affair. He contends that a gentleman born is always a +gentleman, and a peasant always a peasant, notwithstanding the +vicissitudes of fortune, that may enrich the one and impoverish the +other."</p> + +<p>"Or rather, he contended so—it belongs to the past tense. Look at him +now—see what deference he pays to Mr. Howard's opinions."</p> + +<p>"The mere politeness of the host. Take nothing for granted from that."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but Frank Howard is a gentleman of whom any father might be proud +as a son-in-law."</p> + +<p>"Very likely. But Mr. Legare is not 'any' father. However, what I wish +to know is, whether Frank Howard did not use you to procure the 'bid' +that brought him hither?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"How came it, then, you artful boy, that you took just the course, and +the only course, by which you could procure him an invitation?"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>"You innocent! How came it, then, that you wrote to Mr. Legare, you +would be very happy to obey his summons, and spend the holidays at +Wolfbrake, but that you had a friend with you whom you could not leave, +and whom you took care not to mention by name?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, because I never gave the matter a moment's thought. When I got Mr. +Legare's letter, I just sat down and answered it right off, and +mentioned my friend merely as my friend. If I had, as you seem to think, +been fishing for an invitation for him also, I certainly should have +mentioned him by name and title as the Hon. Frank Howard, of +Massachusetts, etc., etc., etc."</p> + +<p>"In which case you certainly would not have been invited to bring him +here."</p> + +<p>"Probably not, but I did not know that. What knew I of the hostility, or +even of the acquaintance, between the parties? I acted only in simple +honesty."</p> + +<p>"The best way to act, my dear Johnny."</p> + +<p>"And so blundered into helping the lovers."</p> + +<p>"Not so. You were providentially led."</p> + +<p>"Well, as soon as ever I received the invitation, I hastened to write +and give the name of my friend to our host, as I should have done at +first, if I had dreamed of his being invited to accompany me. And as for +Frank Howard, he was as innocent of design as myself. He knew nothing +about the matter until I showed him Mr. Legare's last letter, and +pressed him to go with me. He then asked me if Mr. Legare was any +relation of the Legares, of Louisiana. I said I believed he had brothers +in Louisiana, but I was not certain, as I knew very little of the +family. Then he told me that he had had the pleasure of meeting a Mr. +Legare, of Louisiana, at Saratoga, and should feel happy in making the +acquaintance of any of his family; and there the conversation stopped. +Frank was evidently as much astonished as delighted at the unexpected +meeting with his ladylove."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to know it," said I.</p> + +<p>And then, not to continue the rudeness of an aside conversation, I took +my brother to Rachel Noales, and left him with her, while I joined my +kind old host.</p> + +<p>Supper was soon after announced, and we were all marshaled into the +dining-room, where a sumptuous feast was spread, over which we lingered, +eating and drinking, with epicurean leisure, and talking and laughing +for more than an hour. I said we—but I should rather say they—for I +could not eat, or talk, or laugh. At last the long-drawn meal came to an +end.</p> + +<p>The company adjourned to the drawing-room, and an hour was passed in +pleasant conversation, and then, in consideration of the fatigue of the +newly-arrived guests, we separated for the night.</p> + +<p>In the hall I noticed a diminutive page, of the African race, who +rejoiced in the chivalric name of Emmanuel Philibert, which was adapted +to daily and popular use by the abbreviative of Phlit. Phlit was +standing, and solemnly holding a light in one hand and a bootjack in the +other, waiting to attend the two gentlemen to their bedroom.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Legare took upon himself the office of groom of the chambers, +and accompanied his latest guests to their apartment.</p> + +<p>Rachel Noales and myself reached ours about the same time. We heard the +voice of Mr. Legare taking leave of the gentlemen for the night; we +heard him and the little waiter Phlit, go downstairs and out at the hall +door, fastening it after them.</p> + +<p>"I will take care that this is secured to-night," said Rachel, going and +carefully locking our door, and then trying it to be sure that it was +fast. "That will do," she said, when she had satisfied herself of its +security.</p> + +<p>Then, as we were very weary, we prepared to retire. We were soon in bed.</p> + +<p>Rachel was soon asleep.</p> + +<p>Not so myself. I lay perfectly still, almost breathless, waiting the +developments of the night. And, reader, it was while lying thus wide +awake, and gazing straight out through the window to the spot where the +family tombstones gleamed white and spectral in the moonlight among the +dark firs, that my ear was struck by the click of the recoiling lock, +and, turning, I saw the door swing slowly open and my dark-robed +midnight visitant enter. Though wide awake as at this moment, I was +deprived, by excess of awe, of the power of speech or motion. Slowly +the spectre advanced and stood as before, pointing to the dark-red spot +hid beneath the carpet under her feet. I essayed once more to speak to +her, but such terror as her presence had never before inspired froze my +utterance. I listened, wondering if my companion in the other bed was +conscious of this supernatural presence in the room; but the deep and +regular breathing of Rachel assured me that she was sleeping soundly, +the deep sleep of fatigue.</p> + +<p>And all this while the black-robed woman stood holding my eyes with her +fixed and burning gaze, and pointing to the spot on the floor. Then, +letting her arm fall slowly to her side, she passed, in measured steps, +from the room, and through the door that swung to, gradually, and closed +behind her. Again I essayed to cry out, but the spell was still upon me, +and no sound escaped my paralyzed lips. While lying thus, I heard once +more the recoiling click of a lock, and the swing of a door upon its +hinges; but this time it was not our own but another door—that of the +opposite chamber, where my brother and his friend slept.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" I heard John call out, in no pleasant voice, and seeming +evidently annoyed at the disturbance.</p> + +<p>There was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?"</p> + +<p>Continued silence.</p> + +<p>"Phlit!"</p> + +<p>No reply.</p> + +<p>"Phlit!"</p> + +<p>No reply.</p> + +<p>"Phlit!"</p> + +<p>Dead silence.</p> + +<p>"Jet! Is that you?"</p> + +<p>The silence of the grave continued; until at last the calling of my +brother awoke his companion in the other bed.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, John?" I heard him ask.</p> + +<p>"Why, some one has unlocked our door and entered, and I can't make them +speak; but shoot me if I don't find them out!" said my brother, jumping +out of bed and beginning to strike a light.</p> + +<p>"You have been dreaming."</p> + +<p>"Have I? Look there, then!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I see the door is open; but you probably forgot to lock it."</p> + +<p>"I'll make sure of it now, then," said John, banging the door violently, +locking it with a resonant force and proceeding to search for the +supposed intruder. Of course the search was fruitless, and, with many +grumbles and threats, he went back to bed.</p> + +<p>My brother had not seen the supernatural visitant to his room, who, go +where she might, appeared only to me.</p> + +<p>While turning these things over in my mind, again I heard John's lock +turn and his door swing open, and almost simultaneously his voice called +out:</p> + +<p>"What the demon does this mean? Who are you then?" as he jumped out of +bed, relocked the door, struck a light and proceeded once more vainly to +examine the room.</p> + +<p>"Well, this is certainly the most inexplicable thing I ever knew in my +life!" exclaimed John, with an intonation between astonishment and +indignation.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I really suppose you did not lock the door properly," replied +Howard, getting up and going to ascertain the state of the case. And I +heard him unlock and lock the door several times, and finally locking it +fast, he said:</p> + +<p>"There! now I will guarantee that it will stay shut!" and went back to +his couch.</p> + +<p>I do not think that more than fifteen minutes had passed before I heard, +for the third time, their lock fly back and their door swing open.</p> + +<p>"By Jupiter! This is past belief!" exclaimed Mr. Howard, while my +brother, without speaking, jumped out of bed and struck a light.</p> + +<p>They searched the room. They came out thence and searched the hall. They +went up into the garret and searched the rooms over our heads. And, +finding no one, they returned, wondering and conjecturing to their +chamber, and for the third time that night fast locked their door.</p> + +<p>"Take the key out, John," said Mr. Howard. And John withdrew the key and +took it to bed with him.</p> + +<p>About fifteen minutes more passed and then—"click!" flew the lock, open +swung the door, and out of bed jumped John, in a state of mind between +affright and rage.</p> + +<p>"John, never mind! It is clear that the door will not remain closed; +leave it open; to-morrow I will look at the lock and see what is amiss," +said Mr. Howard.</p> + +<p>And for the fourth time that night I heard my brother muttering like +distant thunder, go back to his bed.</p> + +<p>But I do not think that he slept that night, and I am sure that I did +not.</p> + +<p>In the morning I felt weary, and certain that if this mysterious +visitation continued, I should go mad. As I was dressing before the +toilet mirror, the reflection of my own face in the glass startled and +terrified me, it looked so pale, wild and haggard, and not unlike the +awful face of the midnight spectre. When Rachel and myself were dressed +and ready to go down, I opened the door. And just at that moment my +brother and Mr. Howard came out of their chamber and bade us +"Good-morning."</p> + +<p>"Were you at our door last night, Agnes?" John asked me.</p> + +<p>"At your door, John? Certainly not."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't you, though?"</p> + +<p>"Assuredly not. What should have brought me there?"</p> + +<p>"Well, somebody was, that's all!" said my brother, while Mr. Howard +silently looked what he did not say.</p> + +<p>We all went down together to the parlor, where a fine fire was burning, +and Mathilde, in her fresh morning beauty, waited to welcome us.</p> + +<p>And soon our host and hostess entered, and in a few moments the +breakfast was announced, and we all adjourned to the table.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was served long before the usual hour, that the gentlemen of +our party might make an early start upon the fox hunt that Mr. Legare +had arranged for that day.</p> + +<p>While we were still at the table, Mrs. Legare bethought herself to hope +that the gentlemen had rested well; when my brusque and thoughtless +brother John said:</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, my dear madam! We were 'fashed wi' a bogle' all night +long."</p> + +<p>"Sir?"</p> + +<p>"He means, madam, that we could not by any means keep our door locked, +and had finally to give up the attempt," explained Mr. Howard.</p> + +<p>A deathly paleness overspread Mrs. Legare's face. I knew she regretted +the question that she had been tempted to ask, and now she receded from +the subject.</p> + +<p>Mr. Legare, who had kept his eyes averted and turned a deaf ear to the +disclosure, now adroitly changed the topic by speaking of the hunt.</p> + +<p>The horses were neighing with impatience in the yard, and as soon as the +gentlemen arose from the breakfast-table, they prepared themselves, +mounted and rode off to their day's sport.</p> + +<p>It proved a very successful chase, for they took the brush before twelve +o'clock and returned with fine appetites to the excellent dinner set +upon the table at two in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>The evening was passed in quiet hilarity, and we separated at a +comparatively early hour.</p> + +<p>But that night, reader! It passes all my powers of description. I had +always been in the habit of "saying" my prayers before retiring; but of +late, since I had been habitually haunted, I had taken to praying +devoutly before going to bed. I prayed with unusual earnestness this +night, and then I retired to my couch. So wearied out in body was I +that, despite of mental excitement, I soon fell asleep.</p> + +<p>I do not know how long I had slept, probably several hours, for it was +near day, when I was awakened by a strong light and a great noise.</p> + +<p>I opened my eyes and collected my senses to find that both proceeded +from the opposite bedroom, where Mr. Howard and John were up with a +lighted candle, looking about for the mysterious and persevering +intruder upon their slumbers. The light from their room streamed across +the hall and through the open door into ours and fell upon the tall, +dark-robed, stern-visaged haunter of my chamber, where she stood +pointing her spectral finger to the spot upon the floor. A moment she +stood thus, and then, as before, passed slowly from the room and through +the open door, that, without hands, closed behind her.</p> + +<p>The silvery beams of the full moon poured through the two east windows, +and in its light I now saw Rachel Noales sitting up straight, stark and +still in her bed.</p> + +<p>"Rachel! Rachel!" said I, "what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Heaven and earth, Agnes, we are haunted!" she gasped, rather than +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen anything, Rachel?" I asked, now hoping that she had, for +I felt it terrible to be alone in my spectral experiences.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I have not seen anything! But that door! that door! that I am +sure I fastened so carefully, was unlocked without a key, and opened +without hands! I heard and saw it, for I was laying awake!"</p> + +<p>"Let us hope that you were mistaken, Rachel."</p> + +<p>"No, no, impossible! Oh, I would not sleep another night in this house +for the wealth of the Indies!"</p> + +<p>While we were talking, the fruitless search proceeded in, the opposite +room, until at length it was given up and the friends retired.</p> + +<p>Rachel left her bed and came into mine, where she lay and trembled.</p> + +<p>Scarcely fifteen minutes of peace and silence passed ere the lock of +both doors flew back, and the doors swung open.</p> + +<p>Rachel began screaming; the occupants of the opposite chamber started +up, exclaiming in every variety of interjection. I arose and donned my +double wrapper, and put my feet in slippers, to go and procure +restoratives, for Rachel had fallen into spasms.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter, Agnes?" inquired my brother, who +had put on his dressing-gown and come to the door.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the Lord only knows!"</p> + +<p>I had seized a bottle of cologne from the dressing-table and began to +deluge the face and hands of Rachel, while my brother went and brought +his candle and put it inside of our door.</p> + +<p>"Do go and wake up Mrs. Legare, John; I can do nothing for Rachel; I +never saw anybody in hysterics before, if this is hysterics!" said I, +feeling both frightened at the condition and angry at the weakness of my +patient.</p> + +<p>But, even while I spoke, Mr. Howard, who during this time had been +hastily dressing himself, went downstairs to the old house in search of +assistance.</p> + +<p>The family were speedily aroused. Mr. and Mrs. Legare hurried into the +new house. The lady herself entered the chamber where Rachel, as often +as her eyes opened in the haunted chamber, fell into new spasms.</p> + +<p>"She will not recover until she is removed from this, Mrs. Legare," I +said.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not; assist me to put her wrapper on, and we will take her +down, and lay her on the parlor sofa," my hostess replied.</p> + +<p>And after we had dressed our patient, we carried her down stairs, where +the fire was still smoldering, and only needed replenishment.</p> + +<p>When the wood was brought and thrown on, and the fire blazed up +brightly, lighting and warming the whole room, and the shutters were +unclosed, and the rising sun smiled in upon us all, I felt that the +gladsome scene was enough to put to flight all the ghosts in Hades, and +all the superstitious terrors that ignorance is heir to. I almost began +to doubt that I was haunted; and would have done so, but for the sombre +and disturbed countenance of my host, who, as soon as Rachel Noales was +soothed and put to sleep on the sofa, turned to us and inquired:</p> + +<p>"Now, my friends, will you be so good as to explain the cause of your +disturbance?"</p> + +<p>"A mere trifle, sir," said my brother, brusquely; "the house is +haunted."</p> + +<p>"You, of course, do not speak seriously; you cannot credit such +absurdities."</p> + +<p>"My dear, sir, I never believed in ghosts until within the last two +nights; but now, with such evidence before me, I should be the most +unbelieving of infidels to refuse credence," said my brother, with a +mixture of gravity and banter in his tone, that made it impossible to +think him in earnest.</p> + +<p>"Will you be so kind, Mr. Howard, as to enlighten us?" inquired Mr. +Legare, turning toward that gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Since you desire me to do so, my dear sir. Well, then, for the two +nights we have passed beneath your very hospitable and delightful roof, +our rest has been somewhat disturbed——"</p> + +<p>"Somewhat disturbed! It has been altogether broken up!" interrupted my +brother.</p> + +<p>"Be silent, John," I whispered, pinching him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howard went on:</p> + +<p>"By an inexplicable circumstance, namely, the flying open of the doors, +after we had carefully and securely locked them."</p> + +<p>"We haven't slept a wink since we have been in the house. We have spent +the nights in jumping up out of bed to lock the doors, and only to have +them unlocked and fly open in our faces," said John.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, gentlemen, for the information you have given me. Agnes, +my dear, have you been disturbed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"In the same manner, sir, by the unaccountable flying open of the door +after I had locked it," said I, suppressing the fact, or fancy, of the +mysterious midnight visitant.</p> + +<p>"My dear, you have never complained of this before."</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because it was more an affair of interest than of complaint. I wished +first to investigate alone."</p> + +<p>"And have you done so?"</p> + +<p>"As far as was possible."</p> + +<p>"With what result, my dear Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"With no satisfactory one, sir."</p> + +<p>"Friends," said the old gentleman, turning toward the assembled guests, +"it is vain to deny that a mystery does exist, and for the whole term of +my residence here, if not before, has existed in this house, that has, +heretofore, defied all investigation. Many of you have heard of the +circumstances under which the transfer of property was made. You +have heard that Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, the last inheritrix +of this estate, was a high-spirited, haughty, self-willed woman, +with one idea—the regeneration of her patrimonial estate; that +everything—money, health, peace, conscience, life itself, was +sacrificed to her monomania; that at last she died a victim to her own +ruling passion; that her husband married again, sold the estate, even +unto the very graveyard where her body lay, and left the neighborhood; +that I became the purchaser; and, finally, that since I have lived in +the house not one chamber door has been secure from a seemingly +supernatural opening.</p> + +<p>"The superstitious among my servants, and poor, ignorant neighbors, +ascribe all these mysteries to the presence of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan's restless ghost, still haunting the scene of her toils, +ambitions and disappointments. Modern spiritualists would, without +doubt, ascribe it to the agency of spirits. I believe in none of these +absurdities. But the annoying mystery remains unexplained, and I would +give 'the half of my kingdom' to him who should elucidate it."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman, at the conclusion of his speech, looked around for an +answer among his audience.</p> + +<p>"Do you not think that there may be a defect in the locks, sir?" +inquired Mr. Howard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, 'I cry you, mercy,' sir! Such a possibility did not in the very +first instance escape us. The locks have been taken off and examined, +and no perceptible defect could be discovered. The half—'the half of my +kingdom' to the knight who shall rid me of this mysterious key-bearer."</p> + +<p>I saw, by the twinkle of Mr. Howard's eyes, that he possessed a clew to +the mystery. I saw him exchange glances with Mathilde, who had just +joined us, looking blooming as Hebe in her fresh morning toilet.</p> + +<p>Now, I was always a bashful girl—I mean moderately so; therefore, I +never could account for the spirit that entered and moved me to say and +do what I soon said and did. I happened to be standing beside Mr. +Legare, and his hand rested caressingly upon my head, when he repeated:</p> + +<p>"'The half of my kingdom' to the knight that shall deliver my castle +from this dragon."</p> + +<p>I answered:</p> + +<p>"Oh, your majesty! Never offer the half of your kingdom! None but a +mercenary wretch would undertake the enterprise for such a bribe! Offer +the hand of your princess, and a thousand lances shall be laid in rest +for such a prize!"</p> + +<p>I do not know whether he discovered the serious meaning under my +lightly-spoken words, for he fell into the humor of the jest, patted me +on the head, and said:</p> + +<p>"Agreed! the hand of my princess to the brave knight who shall deliver +me from this plague!"</p> + +<p>"I accept the challenge!" said Mr. Howard, "and promise that in +twenty-four hours the mysterious carrier of the keys shall be +vanquished!"</p> + +<p>"It is a treaty! It is a treaty!" exclaimed one after another of the +young men and maidens who were present.</p> + +<p>Mr. Legare looked around in some confusion at being taken up so +seriously, and then laughing, said:</p> + +<p>"Very well—agreed! I ratify the compact, Mr. Howard; though I don't +believe your part of it can be fulfilled. And now to breakfast!"</p> + +<p>We adjourned to the old house—all who were in the secret wondering in +what manner Mr. Howard would undertake to exorcise the key-demon; but +all discussion was waived for the present, while we dispatched the +necessary business of the table.</p> + +<p>After breakfast, Frank Howard asked for a horse and rode up to Frost +Height.</p> + +<p>He was absent two hours, at the end of which time he returned, bringing +with him a set of locksmith's tools, and flat piece of board, such as +show-locks are sometimes screwed upon for a sign.</p> + +<p>When he had brought these things into the new house he challenged Mr. +Legare and all who wished to see the mystery evolved, to accompany him +to the chambers above.</p> + +<p>Of course, everybody accepted the invitation.</p> + +<p>We all went first into the gentlemen's room, and stood around in a +semi-circle, with our faces toward the door, and our eyes fixed upon the +lock and Frank Howard. First he turned the key, and begged that we would +observe that all was fast, and watch the result. Then he came away, and +we waited with our eyes fixed upon the lock.</p> + +<p>In a little less than fifteen minutes we both heard and saw the catch +fly back, and the door swing open!</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you with what a superstitious thrill we all shuddered, +though this was in broad daylight, and in the mutually supporting +presence of a dozen persons, and, though there was a machinist on the +spot, professing himself ready to demonstrate that this was a purely +mechanical phenomenon!</p> + +<p>"There! ladies and gentlemen, you all see the action!"</p> + +<p>"We all see!"</p> + +<p>"No hand near the lock!"</p> + +<p>"None!"</p> + +<p>"There could have been no deception."</p> + +<p>"Assuredly not," we all declared.</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly not—I have seen the thing twenty times," said Mr. +Legare.</p> + +<p>"And I indorse your declarations, sir; you were right. There was no +deception—there is none! It is a purely mechanical phenomenon! But, +listen! Spiritual powers reside in mechanical forces. Every year we live +elucidates this mystery, though none but the deepest thinkers see this +truth in all its importance. Look you! a savage thinks that there is a +diabolism in the self-action of a watch—in the reflection of a +looking-glass. We think both mysteries to be simple mechanical +combinations! Pray look at the lock before us. I observe that it is +Harmon's patent. Poor Harmon, a demented machinist, scarcely knew what +he would be at, and so undertook to make an invaluable improvement in +the common door-lock. This is one of his; its intricate machinery has +got out of order, and hence 'the fantastic tricks before high heaven' +that these rooms have witnessed! I am about to take off the lock, to +prove what I have stated, as well as to remedy the evil."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, that has been tried—I have seen it done—hope nothing from +that!" exclaimed Mr. Legare.</p> + +<p>"Patience, my dear sir!" said Frank Howard, taking up the tools with so +much of the air of a man accustomed to the handling of them that old Mr. +Legare winced and fidgeted.</p> + +<p>But Frank speedily took off the lock, and brought it to us for +inspection.</p> + +<p>"Here! you notice that nothing seems amiss," he said.</p> + +<p>"Nothing in the world—I told you that before," replied Mr. Legare.</p> + +<p>"Furthermore, if now I were to turn the key, it would remain turned."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, while the lock is off the door, it looks exactly right, and +behaves exactly right; but just put it on the door and lock it, and in +from ten to thirty minutes, more or less, it will fly open."</p> + +<p>"Exactly; that is what I am about to explain," said Frank Howard, taking +up a flat, smooth piece of board, and laying it upon the table; and then +he took the lock, laid it on the board, screwed it tightly, turned the +key and said:</p> + +<p>"It is not the circumstance of this lock being attached to the door that +has caused it to act in this manner; for I will prove to you that if the +same lock be screwed tightly to any other resisting object—as, for +instance, this board—it will act in the same irregular manner. Watch it +now, and you will see."</p> + +<p>We did so, and in a few minutes we saw the catch fly back, as before.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you the reason," said Mr. Howard, unscrewing the lock from +the board and inviting us to look on.</p> + +<p>"Now, though there seems to be no defect whatever in this lock, yet in +truth the whole inside machinery has started slightly outward. This does +not affect its right action while detached; but when attached, the +continued pressure of the board to which it is fastened, gradually acts +upon the spring, and causes the catch in a given time to fly back, and +unlock, and the force with which this occurs opens the door. I can well +imagine that such unexplained movements, occurring in the middle of the +night, should have rather a supernatural effect. But the evil can be +remedied in a few minutes."</p> + +<p>And then, while we were all dumb with astonishment, Frank Howard took up +his tools, went to work, and in about twenty minutes fixed the inside of +the lock, and replaced it on the door.</p> + +<p>"Now," said he, "if ever this door comes open again without hands, I +will consent to forfeit the fair reward of my triumph. And now, friends, +I will go to work and mend the other."</p> + +<p>And, inviting us to precede him, he passed out, locked the door, gave +the key to Mr. Legare, and begged him to take notice that the door would +remain fast until he (Mr. Legare) might choose to open it, or to give up +the key.</p> + +<p>We reached the other chamber door, where twenty minutes' work served to +rectify the error. Then, locking that, as he had done the other, he +called me to witness that it should remain fast until I should use, or +give up the key that he placed in my charge.</p> + +<p>We then went downstairs, Mr. Legare having one key safe in his pocket—I +having the other secure in mine.</p> + +<p>It was the last day of the old year, and company were expected in the +evening—not to dance, but to watch it out.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Legare went to attend to her extra housekeeping duties, and the +young ladies retired to their chambers to arrange their dresses for the +next day.</p> + +<p>Mr. Legare, Frank Howard, my brother John, and the other gentlemen, took +their guns and game-bags, called their dogs, and started off "birding."</p> + +<p>I went into the parlor where Rachel Noales still lay upon the sofa, in +the state of exhaustion that had succeeded her fright in the morning, +and told her that the mystery of the locks was discovered, and +explained, as far as I could, the process of demonstration. And Rachel +rallied from that hour.</p> + +<p>I had reassured her, but who should reassure me? I was still very deeply +disturbed. True, the mystery of the opening doors was satisfactorily +explained. True, that my midnight visitor might have been an optical +illusion, produced by the mysterious surroundings acting upon my +highly-susceptible temperament. And true, also, that the resemblance +between my visionary woman and the portrait of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan, might have been a mere fancy. But the spot of blood on the +floor. Who should explain that?</p> + +<p>From time to time, during that day, I slipped upstairs to examine the +state of the doors; they remained fast.</p> + +<p>The gentlemen dined out, but joined us at an early tea. Nothing was said +of the event of the morning, until, as we arose from the table, little +Phlit sidled up to his master, and asked for the keys so that he might +make fires in the bedrooms, "for de ladies an' gemlen to dress for +ebenin.'"</p> + +<p>"The deuce! You tell me that the doors remain fast?" demanded Mr. +Legare, turning around upon us all.</p> + +<p>I assured him that they did. He was too polite to doubt my statement; +but he wished to see for himself.</p> + +<p>We followed him, and found him in a state of admiration before Mr. +Howard's door. When he had gazed some time at that, and tried it in +various ways, he turned about and went to mine, which he proved in the +same manner. And having found that both remained fast locked, without +mistake, he extended his hand to Frank, and said:</p> + +<p>"Candidly, Mr. Howard, I did not believe in your success until this +moment. You have fairly vanquished the ghosts!"</p> + +<p>Frank Howard took the offered hand, and bowed gravely and silently, as +he again resigned it. The doors were then opened, and Phlit admitted to +do his duties. And we separated to prepare for the evening watch-party.</p> + +<p>It was eight o'clock when our friends from the neighborhood came in; and +after partaking of a bowl of eggnog in the dining-room, we adjourned to +the parlor, where we passed four hours in very pleasant social +intercourse, conversing, singing and reading. And as the clock neared +the stroke of twelve, Mr. Howard took a volume of Tennyson, and in an +affecting manner read his tender and beautiful "Requiem of the Dying +Year." All were moved, and as the reader finished, the tears were +running down the cheeks of Mathilde, who said:</p> + +<p>"Oh! I do not know how any one, even the most thoughtless, can bear to +'dance out the old year!' I could no more do it than I could dance +beside the deathbed of a dear old friend! But I must not greet the +infant New Year with tears," she exclaimed, and dashing aside the +sparkling drops that spangled the roses of her cheeks, and turning to +her parents, she said:</p> + +<p>"Dearest father! Dearest mother! Let me be the first to wish you a Happy +New Year, and many, ever happier returns of it!"</p> + +<p>"You make our anniversaries happy, best child; now tell us truly what +shall be our New Year's gift to you?" said Mr. Legare, while Mrs. Legare +silently embraced her daughter.</p> + +<p>Blushing deeply, Mathilde whispered one word to her father, who +repressed a rising sigh, and asked:</p> + +<p>"Is this so? Must this be so, my dearest child?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my father."</p> + +<p>"Then am I doubly bound to do what I am about to do, Mr. Howard!"</p> + +<p>Frank Howard stepped eagerly forward.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Howard! I always settle outstanding debts at the first of the +year," said Mr. Legare, taking the hand of Mathilde and placing it in +that of Frank Howard, who gently pressed it, as he answered:</p> + +<p>"Sir, I believe that for years, I have possessed the priceless heart of +this dear maiden, but her fair hand, I would prefer to owe to her +father's approval and good-will, rather than to a mere accident."</p> + +<p>"Sir, there are no such things as accidents! I am sixty years old who +say it! And as for the rest, sir, 'her father's approval and good-will' +always follows his esteem and respect, and now goes with his consent! +God bless you! Be true to Mathilde!"</p> + +<p>"May Heaven deal with me as I with her!" said Frank Howard, earnestly.</p> + +<p>While this important little family aside was going on the other guests +were wishing each other a "Happy New Year," and chatting and laughing +too merrily and noisily to hear what was there passing.</p> + +<p>And now they asked for their cloaks and hoods, which Rachel Noales and I +flew to bring; and in less than half an hour all the evening visitors +had departed, and the returning sound of their sleighbells died away in +the distance.</p> + +<p>We that were left separated and retired. When we reached our chamber +Rachel and I locked the door and went to bed.</p> + +<p>We were sufficiently wearied out to go fast asleep, and sleep until late +in the morning, when the loud knocking of little Jet at our chamber door +aroused us. I jumped up and went and opened it.</p> + +<p>"De doors do stay shet fas' 'nuff now!" exclaimed my little maid, with a +broad grin, as she entered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jet; thanks to Mr. Howard."</p> + +<p>"Ain't him a smart gemlan, dough? Wunner if him's a wizard?"</p> + +<p>"I really do not know, Jet. You must ask your Miss Mathilde."</p> + +<p>"Law! Do she know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Den I ax her, sure."</p> + +<p>And so my little maid proceeded to light the fire.</p> + +<p>This was a New Year's day, and a large company was expected to dinner. +And it was upon this occasion that the engagement of the Hon. Frank +Howard, of Massachusetts, and Miss Mathilde Legare, was announced.</p> + +<p>But little is left to be told. For the remainder of my stay I rested in +undisturbed peace, suffering no recurrence of opening doors and midnight +visitors. I was almost sorry that my ghostly mysteries had found so +commonplace a solution—a mechanical defect taking the place of the +phantom key, and an optical illusion explaining my midnight vision!—all +was accounted for except the spot of blood upon the floor! Upon the +morning of my departure, I called Mathilde into the room, and striking +an attitude like that of the woman of my vision, I silently pointed to +the hidden spot, and gazed at Mathilde, to discover consciousness in her +countenance.</p> + +<p>But Mathilde first looked back in innocent surprise, and then +recollecting herself, said:</p> + +<p>"Oh! you allude to a stain there; yes, it is a pity! The men who were +painting red lines on the doors over-turned the paint-pot and made a +deep, ugly, crimson stain; and, like the spot of blood on Bluebeard's +key, 'the more we scrub it the brighter it grows!' The next time a +carpenter happens to be at work here, mamma intends to have it planed +out."</p> + +<p>So much for my last hold upon the supernatural! Let me repeat—the +phantom key, a mere mechanical defect; the spot of blood, a mere stain +of paint; and the midnight spectre, an optical illusion!</p> + +<p>But the reader may ask, how I account for the resemblance between the +woman of my vision and the portrait of the ill-fated Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan? I answer, that at this distance of time, I regard it as the +effect of imagination only, as was the whole vision!</p> + +<p>It was about two months after the conclusion of my Christmas visit that +I was summoned to Wolfbrake to act as bridesmaid for Mathilde, for it +was immediately after the rising of Congress upon the fourth of March, +that Mr. Howard went up to claim the hand of his betrothed. They were +married upon the seventh. It was a wedding in the fine, old-fashioned +country style, with a ball and supper the same evening, and dinner +parties and dancing parties, given successively by the neighbors, in +honor of the bride, almost every day and night for the next two weeks.</p> + +<p>They have now been married several years, and have several +children—boys and girls. Frank Howard now holds a "high official" +position in the present administration. And old Mr. Legare is justly +proud of his gifted son-in-law. As Mathilde is too much of a Creole to +bear the rigor of a New England climate they divide the year, spending +the summer in Massachusetts and the winter in Virginia "with the old +folks at home."</p> + +<p>And year after year I have visited them there, and slept in the haunted +chamber, but never, since the locks were mended, have I been troubled by +an opening door, or a midnight ghost!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PRESENTIMENT" id="THE_PRESENTIMENT"></a>THE PRESENTIMENT.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>THE QUADROON.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! yet we hope that, somehow, good<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will be the final goal of ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pangs of nature, sins of will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Defects of doubt and taints of blood.—<span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>There was an account of an execution item that met my eyes in glancing +over the columns of a newspaper. It made no more impression upon me at +the time than such paragraphs make upon you or any of us. My glance +slided over that to the next items, chronicling in order the success of +a benevolent ball, the arrival of a popular singer, etc.; and I should +have forgotten all about it had not the execution occurred near the +plantation of a dear friend, with whom I was accustomed to pass a part +of every year. From that friend I heard the story—a domestic tragedy, +which, for its inspirations of pity and terror equaled any old Greek +drama that I ever read. I know not if I can do anything like justice to +the subject by giving the story in my own words.</p> + +<p>Near the city of M——, on the A—— river, stood the plantation of Red +Hill. It was one of the largest cotton plantations in the South, +covering several square miles, but it was ill-cultivated and +unprofitable.</p> + +<p>The plantation house was situated a mile back from the river, in a +grove of trees on the brow of the hill quite out of the reach of fog and +miasma.</p> + +<p>At the time I speak of, it was owned by Colonel Waring, a widower, with +one son, to whom he had given his mother's family name of Oswald. The +ostensible female head of this house was the major's own mother, Madam +Waring, an old lady of French extraction, and now fallen deeply into the +vale of years and infirmities. The real head was Phædra, a female slave, +and a Mestizza<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> by birth. Phædra had one child, a boy, some two years +younger than the heir of the family. Notwithstanding the want of a lady +hostess at the head of the table, there was not a pleasanter or a more +popular mansion in the State than Colonel Waring's. Indeed, he might be +said to have kept open house, for the dwelling was half the time filled +with company, comprising old and young gentlemen, ladies and children.</p> + +<p>Without any one habit of dissipation, Colonel Waring was a <i>bon-vivant</i> +of the gayest order, who loved to play the host, forget care, and enjoy +himself with his friends and neighbors. He was benevolent, also; no +appeal to his heart was ever slighted. He was frequently in want of +ready money, yet, when he had cash, it was as likely to be lavished in +injudicious alms-giving, as expended upon his own debts or necessities. +I have heard of his giving a thousand dollars to set up a poor widow in +business, and at the same time put off his creditors, and go deeper into +debt for his negroes' winter clothing. In the times when the yellow +fever desolated the South, his mansion year after year became the house +of refuge to those who fled from the cities, yet were unable to bear the +expense of a watering place. His house was a place where the trammels of +conventionalism could, without offense, be cast off for a while. +Children might do as they liked; young people as they pleased; and old +folks might—dance, if they felt lively. "It was at Colonel Waring's," +was sufficient explanation of any sort of eccentricity.</p> + +<p>Madam Waring, in her distant chamber, was not much more than a "myth," +or, at best, a family tradition; yet her name undoubtedly gave a +sanction to the presence of ladies in a house, which, without her, they +would probably never have entered.</p> + +<p>The Mestizza was scarcely less of a myth. Everybody knew of her +existence, and there were few who did not understand her position as +well as that of the beautiful boy Valentine, who was the constant +companion of Oswald; but Phædra was never seen, nor was her presence to +be guessed, except in the well-ordered house, and the delicious +breakfasts, dinners and suppers, prepared under her supervision, and +sent up to the guests.</p> + +<p>Colonel Waring had his enemies. What man has not? And even among those +who at times sat at his board, and slept under his roof, it was said +that "justice should go before generosity;" and that Colonel Waring, by +his reckless charities and lavish hospitality, wronged both his +creditors and his heir. Others whispered that he plunged into the +excitements of company for the purpose of drowning thought or +conscience; and if a stranger came into the neighborhood, and found +himself, as he would be not unlikely to do, the guest of Colonel Waring, +he would be told by some fellow-visitor that the late Mrs. Waring, the +wife of the colonel, had died, raving mad, in a Northern lunatic asylum.</p> + +<p>And, among the women, it was whispered that in dying she had deeply +cursed the Mestizza and her boy.</p> + +<p>However that might be, it is certain that Phædra had always manifested +the most sincere attachment to the lady's son; and from the time that +Oswald was left an orphan, at the age of six months, to the time of her +death, no one could be a more devoted nurse or a greater child-spoiler +than she was to him. Phædra's nature was despotic, and every one on the +plantation had to yield to Master Oswald, or they would find rations +shortened, holidays refused, work increased, clothing neglected, and be +punished in numerous indirect ways, not by their most indulgent of +masters, but by the influence of the Mestizza. Even her own son was +scarcely an exception to the universal homage she exacted for Oswald. He +had two claims upon her—in the first place, in her eyes he was the +young master, the heir-apparent, the Crown Prince—and then he had "no +mother."</p> + +<p>And the boy on his side repaid his nurse's devotion by the most sincere +affection, both for her and for his foster brother, Valentine.</p> + +<p>Oswald "took after" his father, both in the Saxon fairness of his fresh +complexion, flaxen hair, and lively blue eyes, and in the hearty +benevolence and careless gayety of his disposition. Like his father, +also, he lacked self-esteem, and the dignity of character that it gives. +Nay, he had not half so much of that quality as had the son of the +Mestizza, whose overweening pride won for him the name of "Little +Prince."</p> + +<p>Valentine was an exquisitely beautiful boy; he was like his Mestizza +mother, in the clear, dark-brown skin, and regular aquiline features; +but, instead of her straight black locks, he had soft, shining, +bluish-black hair, that fell in numerous spiral ringlets all around his +neck, and when he stooped veiled his cheeks. In startling, yes, in +absolutely frightful contrast to that dark skin and raven black hair and +eyebrows, were his clear, light-blue, Saxon eyes! One who understands +scientifically, or feels intuitively, the nature of such a fearful +combination of antagonistic and never-to-be-harmonized elements of +character, fated without the saving grace of God, to become the +elements of insanity and crime, cannot look upon its external outward +signs without shuddering.</p> + +<p>Think of it; and wonder, if you can, at anything in his after life! +Think of a boy combining in his own nature the ardent passions and +impulsive temperament of the African negro, the tameless love of freedom +of the North American Indian, and the intellectual power and domineering +pride of the Anglo-Saxon. Place him in the condition of a pet slave; +leave him without moral and Christian instruction; alternately praise +and pamper or condemn him—not as his merit, but as your caprice +decides; let him grow up in that manner, and, as it seems to me, the +result is so sure that it might be demonstrated in advance.</p> + +<p>Both the boys were great favorites with the visitors who frequented the +house. Oswald, as the son of the host, and also for his bright, joyous, +frolicsome nature; and Valentine, for his beauty, wit, and piquant +sauciness. Willingly would Phædra have kept the lad away from the "white +folks," but Oswald would not suffer his playmate to be separated from +himself. Nor when the visitors had once discovered Valentine's value as +an entertainer, would they have spared him.</p> + +<p>The lads did not seem in the least to understand their relations as +young master and servant, but behaved in all respects toward each other +as peers—the quicker and more impulsive nature taking the lead as a +matter of course. And that nature happened to belong to the Mestizza's +son.</p> + +<p>Valentine had the keenest appreciation of pleasure, and the quickest +intelligence in discovering the way to it. In all their boyish +amusements, Valentine was the purveyor; in all their adventures, he was +the leader—Oswald entering into all his plans, and following all his +suggestions, with the heartiest good-will. And, in all their childish +misdemeanors, he was the tempter, and always, also, the willing +scapegoat—that is to say, when in a fit of generosity to shield Oswald, +he voluntarily assumed all the blame, he was perfectly willing to take +all the punishment; but, on the contrary, if both were discovered <i>in +flagrante delicto</i>, and he only punished, then at such injustice, he +would fly into the most ungovernable fury, that would sometimes end in +frenzy and congestion of the brain. It was these maniacal fits of +passion that procured for him the sobriquet of Little Demon, conferred +upon him by the negroes of the plantation, in opposition to that of +Little Prince, given him by the visitors at the house.</p> + +<p>Often, too, the boy gave evidence of reflection and of feeling, beyond +his years; as, for instance, once, when he was but nine years old, a +lady, who delighted in his childish beauty, grace, and wit, allowed him +frequently to ride in the carriage with her, and accompany her, when +making visits, or on going to places of amusement. One day, when she was +gently stroking his silky curls, he suddenly dropped his head into his +hands, and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Why, Valley! what is the matter?" she asked, again caressing his +beautiful head. But, at the gentle caress and the gentle tone, he wept +more passionately than ever. "Why, Valley! what is the matter? Have I +hurt your feelings? Have any of us hurt your feelings?" she asked, +knowing his sensitive nature, and imagining that some thoughtlessness on +her part, or on some one else's, might have wounded it. "Have any of us +hurt your feelings, Valley?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you have! all of you have! and you do all the time!"</p> + +<p>The lady laughed, for it struck her as very droll to hear such a charge +from the spoiled and petted boy. But the boy went on to speak with +warmth and vehemence:</p> + +<p>"You all treat me like a little poodle dog, or like a monkey; for you +feed me, and you dress me up, and pet me, and laugh at me, and by and by +you will drive me out."</p> + +<p>Another time, he was sitting in the parlor with a lady, who had diverted +herself a good deal with his precocious wit and intelligence, and had +allowed him to play with the rings on her fingers, the bracelets on her +wrists, and the pearls that bound her dark tresses, and then to follow +her to the piano, and stand close by her side while she played and sang, +until suddenly down dropped his head upon his hands, and he burst into a +passion of tears. The lady broke off in astonishment, turned around, +drew him up to her, took his hands from his face, and looked kindly at +him, without saying a word. But the boy dropped upon the floor, and +crouching, wept more vehemently than before. The lady stooped and raised +his head, and laid it on her lap, and laid her hand soothingly upon his +silken curls, but spoke no word. When his passion of tears had passed, +and he had sobbed himself into something like composure, he looked up +into her face, and said:</p> + +<p>"You did not laugh at me, Mrs. Hewitt, and you didn't ask me what I was +crying for; but I couldn't help it, because—because I know this good +time will go away; and I shall get taller, and then you won't let me +stay and hear you talk, and hear you sing, and—and—and—I wish I never +could grow any taller. I wish I may die before I grow older."</p> + +<p>Ah! poor, fated boy! would indeed, that he had died before he grew +taller! before those evil days his childhood's prophet heart foretold!</p> + +<p>But they came on apace.</p> + +<p>The first trial that he suffered might seem light enough to an outside +looker-on, but it was heavy enough to Valentine. When he was eleven +years of age, and Oswald nine, Oswald was sent to school, and he +remained at home.</p> + +<p>Up to this time they had been playmates and companions, faring alike in +all respects, and sharing equally all pleasures, even the favors of the +visitors.</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, Valentine keenly felt the new state of things, which in +more than one way deeply grieved his heart; first, in the separation +from his friend and playmate whom he dearly loved; and then in the +denial of knowledge to his thirsting intellect, for there existed a +statute law against educating a slave—a law, too, that was of late very +strictly enforced, except in the case of children, who frequently +transgressed it, and always with impunity; for slaves are often taught +to read and write by their nurslings, the master's children.</p> + +<p>Valentine was thus far kin to us all, that he was a lineal descendant of +Eve, and inherited all her longing desire for forbidden knowledge. And, +in like manner, Oswald had received a goodly portion of that Adamic +propensity to do just precisely what he was commanded not to do.</p> + +<p>No grief of Valentine could long be hid from Oswald, and it followed, of +course, that when he discovered the great trouble of his playmate to be +his desire for education, all that Oswald learned at school by day was +taught to Valentine at home by night. And peace and good-will was once +more restored to the boys.</p> + +<p>Thus the time went on till the lads were fourteen and sixteen +respectively.</p> + +<p>Then Oswald was placed as a boarder at an academy in a neighboring city. +Before leaving home, Oswald had begged, prayed, and insisted upon +Valentine being permitted to accompany him, and had finally gained his +object—an almost unheard-of indulgence—but one, nevertheless, that +could not be refused by the father of his cherished son. So Valentine, +ostensibly as a servant, but really as friend and companion, accompanied +Oswald to his school.</p> + +<p>Here also Oswald took every opportunity to impart his acquired knowledge +to his companion.</p> + +<p>And now Valentine's taste in literature and art began to develop itself. +His mind was by no means an "omnium-gatherem." <i>Belle-lettres</i>, rather +than classic lore or mathematical science, was his attraction. +Astronomy, botany, poetry, rhetoric, oratory, elocution, music, +painting, and the drama—these, and other studies only in proportion as +they related to these, were his delights. An æsthetic rather than a +strong intellect distinguished him. A love of beauty, elegance, and +refinement, in all things—in art, science, and the drama, as well as in +his own person, dress, and surroundings—began to reveal itself. And +those who did not understand or like Valentine, began to sneer at him +for a <i>petit-maitre</i> and a dandy.</p> + +<p>A change began to creep over the relations between the youths. Oswald +was no longer a boy, but a young man. He could no longer instruct his +companion, because he would thereby render himself obnoxious to public +opinion, as well as to the laws of the State, to which his age now made +him responsible. Neither could he bear the good-humored jests and the +ridicule of his school-fellows, who bantered him unmercifully upon his +friendship for his "man," calling them the foster-brothers, the Siamese +twins, Valentine and Orson, etc.; and Valentine was beginning to suffer +from the occasional slights, neglect, contempt, and inequality in temper +of his young master, when fortunately the scene changed. Oswald was +withdrawn from the Academy of M——, and sent to the University of +Virginia, whither Valentine, as his valet, attended him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE MANIAC'S CURSE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life is before ye! Oh, if ye would look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the secrets of that sealed book,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong as ye are in youth and hope and faith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye would sink down and falter, "Give us Death!"—<span class="smcap">Fanny Kemble.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oswald Waring remained three years at the University of Virginia, and +during the whole of that period he had not returned home once. The +vacations had been spent at various Northern watering-places, to which +he went, accompanied by his inseparable companion and valet, Valentine. +His fellow-students at the university often warned him of what they +called the reckless imprudence of taking his slave with him to the +North, expressing their belief that one day the fellow would give him +the slip. But Oswald laughed, in his reckless, confiding good humor, and +declared, if the rascal could have the heart to leave him, he was +perfectly welcome to do so, at the same time expressing his belief that +the boy understood his true interests too well to do anything of the +sort. But the fact was, Valentine loved his master much too well to +leave him lightly.</p> + +<p>Oswald Waring never distinguished himself at the university, or anywhere +else, for anything but good nature, generosity, and reckless +extravagance. He never graduated; but at the close of his third year, +being some months past his legal majority, he left the university +finally, and went on a tour through the Northern States and Canada, +before embarking for Europe. He was accompanied, as usual, by Valentine.</p> + +<p>And the youth did not avail himself of that opportunity to leave his +master, perhaps from the fascination of their easy, careless, roving +life, as well as the affection that bound them together.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring had reached New York, on his return from Canada, and was +making a short stay in that city, previous to embarking for his European +travels, when he received a letter from his father's attorney, Mr. +Pettigrew, announcing the death of old Madam Waring, and the extreme +illness of Colonel Waring, and pressing for the immediate return of his +son.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring lost no time in commencing his homeward journey, and attended +by his favorite, in less than a fortnight from the day of leaving New +York, he reached the city near to which was his father's plantation.</p> + +<p>But there fatal news met him. He was too late. The virulent fever of +that latitude had quickly done its work; and Colonel Waring's funeral +had taken place the week previous. As this result had been dreaded by +Oswald, the shock of hearing of it lost half its force. There was +nothing to do but to hasten to the plantation, to examine into the +confused condition of affairs there. Leaving a note for Mr. Pettigrew to +meet him there the next day, Oswald took a carriage, and, with Valentine +by his side, drove rapidly out to the plantation. They were met by +Phædra, who had been tacitly left in sole charge of the house, and who +saluted her young master with grave respect, and greeted her long absent +son with a silent pressure of the hand, deferring all expression of +interest in or affection for Valentine, until they should be alone +together.</p> + +<p>The next morning Mr. Pettigrew arrived, and the examination of the +condition of the estate of the deceased began.</p> + +<p>The lawyer expressed his opinion that there was no will of his late +client in existence; and, further, that none had ever been made by him.</p> + +<p>Colonel Waring had never spoken to him, as his legal adviser, upon the +subject, as he would have been likely to have done had he contemplated +making one. Colonel Waring was a hale, sanguine man, in the prime of +life, and not likely to entertain the thought of the contingency of his +own death. And the fever that terminated his existence had been too +sudden in its attack and delirium—insensibility and death had followed +with too fatal rapidity, to admit of such a possibility as his executing +his will. However, a search for a possible one was instituted; the +library, secretaries, bureau, strong boxes—in fact, the whole house was +ransacked for a will, or some memento of one; but neither will, nor sign +of will, could be discovered.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the person most deeply interested in the search was Phædra. As +soon as her quick intelligence discovered that there was a doubt +relative to the existence of a will, her interest became intense. When +coming into the house to attend her young master or the lawyer, she +paused, loitered near them; and, whenever she was allowed to do so, she +assisted in the search with a zeal not equaled by either of the others. +And when at last this search was abandoned as fruitless, she looked so +unutterably wretched, as she hurried from the room, that both gentlemen +gazed after her in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Why, what is the matter with Phædra?" inquired Mr. Waring, looking +interrogatively at the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"She is disappointed, most probably."</p> + +<p>"But in what respect? I do not understand."</p> + +<p>"She was a favorite slave, was she not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—that is to say, she was a very faithful servant to my late father, +and was very well treated. But what has that to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that she probably expected to be left free by your father's will."</p> + +<p>"And that accounts for her anxiety that the will should be found."</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"What a fool that woman must be! Free, indeed! Why should she want to be +free—at her age, too. What can be her object? What would she do if she +were free? How in the world came she to get such an idea into her head? +Who could have put it there, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"No one, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"But how should she ever think of such nonsense as her freedom?"</p> + +<p>"It is a notion they all have, I believe."</p> + +<p>"A notion! I should think it was a notion, and a very foolish one, on +her part; I am really half inclined to cure her of her folly by setting +her free, and letting her try her freedom on, to see how it fits. +Nothing but experience will teach ignorant creatures like herself."</p> + +<p>"I've noticed, in the course of my practice, a good many such instances +of folly as hers."</p> + +<p>"They are, the best of them, a set of the dullest and most +ungrateful——. Now, I want to know if there are not hundreds of white +women who would jump at such a situation as Phædra's?"</p> + +<p>"Quite likely."</p> + +<p>"Why, where could the fool be better off, or freer, if that's her whim? +She is mistress of the house—absolutely to all intents and purposes, +mistress of the house. All the money for domestic expenses passes +through her hands; she carries the keys, governs the maids, and arranges +everything to suit herself."</p> + +<p>"And her master, too, let us hope, sir."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; I do not complain of her good management or her fidelity. In +fact, I should be very unjust to do so, for she is everything that I +could desire in these respects. And to render exact justice in this +tribute, I may say that it would be difficult, and, more than that, it +would be impossible, to replace her. It is these considerations, you +see, that vex me so, when I hear of her hankering after her freedom. +Freedom from what, I should like to know? In what respect does her +position now differ from that of any respectable white woman, filling +the situation of housekeeper?"</p> + +<p>"Really, I wish the conversation had not arisen. Certainly, Phædra's +absurd notions were not of sufficient importance to occupy so much of +our attention. Now, then, to business."</p> + +<p>And the lawyer and the heir were soon deep in the papers and accounts, +which they found in such hopeless confusion as promised many weeks, if +not months, and perhaps years, of legal and financial diplomacy to +settle.</p> + +<p>Phædra, when she had left the room in such a state of strange +excitement, had hurried off in search of her son.</p> + +<p>Valentine was in his master's chamber, surrounded by the trunks and +boxes that had been sent after them from New York, and had but that day +arrived. Half of them were opened and unpacked, and a part of their +contents scattered all over the floor. They consisted of books, +pictures, statuettes, vases, and other beautiful fancies, that Valentine +had persuaded his master to collect in New York, during the visits he +had made there while residing at the University of Virginia.</p> + +<p>And in the midst of the picturesque and beautiful confusion, Valentine +sat, reclining in an easy chair, fascinated, spellbound by an +illustrated volume of Shakespeare's plays. It was a new purchase of his +master's, made evidently without his knowledge, for it came in a box of +books direct from the bookseller, and that was now unpacked for the +first time.</p> + +<p>Valentine had taken the costly book from its double wrapper of coarse +and of tissue paper, and merely meant to look at it before placing it in +the bookcase; but that single look was fatal to his resolution for +industry that morning, for he threw himself back in his master's easy +chair, and was soon deep in the spells of the magic volume.</p> + +<p>Hour after hour passed, and there he sat, his body in his master's +lounging-chair, surrounded by the beautiful litter of books and +pictures, statuettes and vases, flutes and eolian harps and other toys, +and his spirit enchanted and carried captive by the master magician to +attend the fortunes of King Lear. The spirit-music, of which his ear was +still conscious, came not from the eolian harp in the window, that +vibrated to the touch of the breeze, but from some old minstrel harper +at the court of King Lear; and the perfume that filled the room came not +from the magnolias of the grove outside, but from rare English flowers +tended by Cordelia, for his soul was not in America in the nineteenth +century, but in ancient Britain in the age of poetry and fable.</p> + +<p>He was aroused from his daydream by the entrance of Phædra, in more +excitement than he had ever seen her betray.</p> + +<p>Without a word spoken, she fell upon his neck, and, clasping him +closely, burst into tears; then, quickly sinking down by his side, +clasped his knees, dropped her head upon them, and wept convulsively.</p> + +<p>Astonished and alarmed, Valentine tried to raise her, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Mother! what is the matter? Mother! why, mother! what ails you? What +has happened?"</p> + +<p>But she clung around his knees, and buried her face, and wept as she had +never wept before.</p> + +<p>Using all his strength, the youth forcibly unclasped her arms, and got +up, and raised her, and placed her in the chair that he had vacated.</p> + +<p>"Now, mother, what is the matter?" he asked, bending affectionately over +her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Valentine!" she said, as soon as she could speak for sobbing, "Oh, +Valentine! after all, there is no will!"</p> + +<p>"No will!" he repeated, in quiet perplexity, for he did not quite +comprehend the cause of her excessive emotion. "No will, did you say, +mother?"</p> + +<p>"No! no! no! no!" she repeated, tearing her hair, "there is no will! +although he promised—and I felt sure he'd keep his word—I never +doubted it, because he was an honorable man, after his fashion—there +was no will!"</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear mother, what of that, that it should distress you so?"</p> + +<p>"What of that? Oh, Valley! Valley! what a question!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I do not know why you should take the non-existence of a will +so much to heart, mother," he said, soothingly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Valley! Valley! Master promised faithfully that he would leave you +free, and leave you money to take you to France, or to some other +foreign country. And he broke his word to me! Master broke his pledged +word to me, who served his family so faithfully so many years. I didn't +ask for freedom for myself, only for you!"</p> + +<p>"Mother, don't take it to heart so! don't go on so, don't."</p> + +<p>"Hush! hush! it is the Spanish woman's curse falling on us—me! She +cursed me, dying."</p> + +<p>"My own dear mother, the curse recoiled upon her own head, for she died +mad. It never reached you, who did not in any way deserve it. It was +you that was wronged, not her, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, it was I that was wronged! It was I that was wronged! I came +to my master with his other property—with his land, and with his +negroes. I had no mother, for my mother died when I was but seven years +old. I was brought up by an old negro, named Dinah. I was but fourteen +years old when I came into the possession of my master, along with his +patrimony."</p> + +<p>"Don't look upon things in that light, mother; don't talk in that wild, +imbittered way," said Valentine, taking both her hands, and looking +gently and fondly on her. But she snatched her hands away, and covered +her face, and was silent for awhile—then she spoke:</p> + +<p>"I know it hurts you. I know it goes to your heart like a knife; but it +is true, true as—as that I might have been tempted to take your life +and my own, had I seen how this was to end!"</p> + +<p>"I am very glad you did not, mother, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Will you always say so?"</p> + +<p>"As I hope to be saved, yes, mother," replied the youth, half smiling, +to raise her spirits.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you think so now. Will you think so in the future?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother! I will pledge you my word to think no other way forever, +if that will satisfy you."</p> + +<p>"Yet, oh, Valley! that Spanish woman's dying curse! It haunts me now +upon this day of the fall of all my hopes for you; it haunts me, it +hangs over me like a funeral pall! It oppresses and darkens all my +soul!"</p> + +<p>"My dear mother, don't be superstitious, if you do inherit a tendency in +that direction from both sides of your ancestry. Forget that violent +woman's curse; and whatever you do, don't make it fulfill itself, by +believing in it. And believe that if any evil befall us, it will not +have come from that angry woman's malediction. Why, if I thought that +the imprecations of the angry and malignant could bring down curses from +heaven upon the heads of the innocent, I should turn pagan, and worship +beasts. Besides, as I said before, it was not her, but you, who was +injured. And if any one could have had the right to utter maledictions, +it was you; yet you never did it."</p> + +<p>"No, Heaven forbid! I took things as a matter of course; and though my +heart was almost broken, I made no complaint, far less ventured on any +reproach; for I am sure I thought master would do no great wrong; and I +thought he acted much better than his neighbors, when he promised that +you should be free, and should go to France, and learn a profession. But +he broke that promise. Oh, he broke his pledged word and honor, and the +woman's curse is surely falling."</p> + +<p>"Think no more of that, mother; she had no power to curse you."</p> + +<p>"I never did her harm, in deed, or word, or thought. I never deserved it +from her, whatever I deserved from Heaven. It was the old Bible story of +Abraham and Sarah and Hagar acted over again on this plantation, only +this was a great deal worse, as I look upon it now, though then I +thought it was all right, hard as it was to bear. I had been keeping +house for master four years, and you were nearly a year old, when one +winter he went to New Orleans, to spend a month or two. He stayed the +whole winter. I did not know that he married there, for he never wrote +to tell me, and I never read a newspaper. How should either happen, when +I could not read nor write? Well, in the spring, instead of coming home, +he sent a message with some directions to the overseer, but no word +about his being married, only that he was going abroad for awhile. Well, +he went, and he stayed away for a year. And then he came home by way of +New Orleans, where he stopped to buy furniture, that he sent up before +him, in charge of an upholsterer, who was to fix it all up. But still no +word of his marriage. I might have guessed something, from the +refurnishing of the house; but I did not, because my heart was so taken +up with the thought that master was coming home, and how nice everything +should be for him when he should come. I afterward knew that my master +had written to Mr. Hewitt, to come over and tell me to prepare to meet +my new mistress; but Mr. Hewitt, for the sake of what he called the +joke, left me in ignorance, so that madam might find me and you when she +should come. Well, I don't want to talk any more about this. The +afternoon that master was expected to arrive, I was on the watch. I was +standing on the portico, holding you by the hand, when I saw the +carriage approach. It came up very rapidly, and my heart beat thick and +fast, as if it would suffocate me. I could not help it, Valley! When the +carriage stopped, my master got out first, and handed out a lady, and +led her up the stairs. And while the whole scene was swimming before me, +he said to the lady, 'This is your maid, madam'; and to me, 'Phædra, +attend your mistress.' I had no business to faint, I know, because I was +only master's poor housekeeper, and I might have expected this thing +that had happened; but it came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and my +heart had been beating so high only the minute before, that I could not +help it. One single glimpse of her great, black eyes, and the sight left +mine, and I fell, like a tree. You see this scar upon my forehead; it +was where my head struck the sharp edge of the stone step, when I fell +down. When I came to myself, I was in old Dinah's cabin. You were there, +too. I was very stupid from the blow I had received in falling, and +could not more than half understand old Dinah's mumbled consolations. +And I was almost as stupid the next morning, when my master paid me a +visit, and stood there, and advised me not to be a fool, and asked me +what I had expected—and told me that I had behaved very badly, very +badly indeed; that he had hoped I had had more sense, and more regard +for his comfort; but that I had acted abominably—I had spoiled his +domestic peace for he did not know how long. That I had given madam such +a shock on her first arrival, too, that he did not believe she could +ever endure to look upon my face again; that she was in strong hysterics +now; that I ought to have had more consideration for him, than to have +brought him into so much trouble. But that women are a great curse, +anyhow, with their abominable selfishness and jealousy——"</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, mother!" gasped the boy, "I shall go mad, if you tell me +more."</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes and looked at him and grew frightened at his looks. +His face was gray, and his features haggard, with the struggle in his +bosom. His hand clutched his breast as if to grapple with some hidden +demon there.</p> + +<p>After awhile, Phædra resumed, softly and quietly:</p> + +<p>"Hush! he was not naturally cruel. I never knew him to do a cruel thing +wantonly or knowingly. But many people do not understand or make +allowance for others who have naturally more tender hearts than theirs. +He did not know how I felt——"</p> + +<p>"Mother! mother! for Heaven's sake!"</p> + +<p>"Dear Valley, let me go on and tell this story for the first and last +time. I felt that I had to tell it some day; the day is come; let me +finish—finish for my own justification, for I would be justified to +you. Well, I never entered the lady's presence again, of course, and, +from that day to this, was only my master's faithful servant, and no +more. As soon as I was able to travel, my master sent me with you into +the town to hire out. I found a good place, where we lived several +years. I never even saw my master's face all the time, but strange +reports went around, notwithstanding. People said that Colonel Waring +and his lady lived very unhappily together; that they quarreled very +often; that she was mad with jealousy of the Mestizza; that every time +the colonel came in town, there would be a dreadful scene upon his +return home. At last it is certain that my master left off visiting the +city altogether, and did all his business there by deputies. But the +lady's attacks of passion or hysterics became periodical, returning at +regular intervals, and in the course of the first year she became a +confirmed lunatic. Before the end of the second year, it became +necessary to put her under restraint. Finally, she was taken to a +Northern lunatic asylum, in the hope of cure, and there, at the end of a +few months, she died raving mad, and hurling down imprecations upon me. +It was generally reported then, as now, that jealousy had driven her +mad; but it was not true—Heaven knows that it was not true, any more +than it was true that she had a just cause for her jealousy. For if ever +I saw insanity in any creature, I saw it in her great staring eyes the +first and only time I ever set mine upon her face. No; jealousy did not +cause her madness, but her madness caused her jealousy!"</p> + +<p>Phædra paused, and, with her head bent upon her hand, remained silent +some moments; then she resumed:</p> + +<p>"When that unfortunate lady had been dead some time, and one nurse after +another had been intrusted with the care of her child, and had failed to +give satisfaction, my year at last being up with my city employer, my +master took me home, to mind Master Oswald. It was the first time I had +seen the baby, although he had come home with his mother, and was in the +carriage with his nurse at the very time that she first set foot upon +the threshold of her new home. Master Oswald was about two years old +when I first took charge of him; and if my heart had been ever so seared +and hardened, it could not but have been touched at the sight of that +motherless infant—so puny, neglected and suffering, as he looked. Well, +I took care of him—Heaven knows I did—excellent care of him, or he +would not be living now. But he doesn't remember that. How should he, +indeed, when even his father did not remember it, although many, many +times, when he saw how his heir thrived under my care, he would praise +me, and promise me such great things for my own poor boy. Well, I was +sure he would keep his word. He has not done so; and I could find it in +my heart to pray for both your death and mine!" exclaimed Phædra, with a +short, sudden sob, as if she were on the eve of another burst of violent +emotion.</p> + +<p>"Do not grieve, mother; Mr. Waring has not done ill by us, I am sure. I +have had as happy a life with him as my own nature will permit. I could +not have borne life with a master less good-natured and tolerant. In +truth, if our mutual relations had been reversed, I fear that I should +not have been so uniformly kind as he. In fact, barring a little +selfishness, where his habits and personal comforts are concerned, he is +one of the very kindest of men. You know how he has regarded us both, +from his boyhood——"</p> + +<p>"Until he left home—he changed to us from that time."</p> + +<p>"Only for a while, when he was at school, and his classmates laughed at +him for his attachment to me, and he grew angry and ashamed to show it; +now he is his old self again. And, mother, there is but one obstacle to +his realizing for us the hopes his father disappointed."</p> + +<p>"And what is that, Valentine?"</p> + +<p>"His affection for us both, that has in it a certain alloy of +selfishness, as, indeed, many other people's affections for others also +have. He loves us both, in a different way; and he loves his own comfort +in us. He would not like to lose his faithful, motherly housekeeper, or +his confidential, attached valet; or that either the one or the other +should have the power to leave him at will. Ah, mother, I can understand +Master Oswald better than any one else in the world can. I can read his +heart like an open book; and, moreover, I can in most things wind him +around my finger like a string. Look at these things. Why do you suppose +he collected them? He doesn't care for anything like this, but I delight +in them, and so I persuaded him to collect them to adorn his rooms. I +did not do so for my own gratification alone, but that I really did wish +to see him cultivate a refined taste. Now, we are soon going to Europe. +Why? Do you think he wished to go at first? No; he never would have +thought of it. It would have been a great deal too much trouble to take +the lead in such a plan, but I thought he ought to make the grand tour, +like other young men of fortune; besides which, I had a desire to travel +myself. So I persuaded him that a gentleman of fashion (as he desires to +be thought, you know) ought to see Europe. So we go! Why, bless his +easy, good-natured heart, I have such great power over him—may I never +abuse it! that ninety-nine days out of a hundred it is I who am master!"</p> + +<p>"But the hundredth day, Valentine!"</p> + +<p>The boy's face suddenly changed.</p> + +<p>"I had rather not think of that, mother," he said, in an altered voice.</p> + +<p>Phædra's face also changed. It was as if a thundercloud had suddenly +crossed the sun, and darkened all the room. The mother spoke first, and +her voice was deep and hollow, as she said:</p> + +<p>"Valentine! Valentine! you have said that in ninety-nine days of a +hundred you can govern your master. Oh, my son, pray God to give you +grace on that hundredth day to govern yourself!"</p> + +<p>"Mother! Mother! Why do you say that to me?" exclaimed the boy, with a +shudder.</p> + +<p>"I do not know why—or if I do, I dare not tell you. A heavy weight is +on my heart; I cannot shake it off. You are going away soon! I must warn +you now; I may not have another chance, or may not feel able to do it. +Oh, Valentine, learn self-control, try to keep your temper always under. +Ay! seek the grace of God; there is such a thing, though your poor +mother has not got it, and only wishes she had. Seek it, Valentine—it +is your best safety; in every time of trial and temptation, it is a +steadfast support. I know it, though I haven't got it; I know it, +because I've seen it in many others."</p> + +<p>Valentine was looking at her with the most intense expression of +countenance.</p> + +<p>"Anger is a short madness, is it not, mother? So it was with me, at +least, when I was a boy; and how those frenzies of passion, into which I +would be thrown, used to terrify me when I came to my senses! I used to +be haunted with a fear that, in some such mad and blind fury, I +might——"</p> + +<p>"Hush! oh, hush! Pray to God!" exclaimed Phædra, turning pale.</p> + +<p>"Well, but of late years I have been able to control myself, and have +also suffered less provocation."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes; less provocation."</p> + +<p>"Well, mother, I will promise you, faithfully, at least, to exercise +habitual self-control. As for your other subject of anxiety, be at rest. +Oswald Waring has his fits of generosity, in which even his sensual love +of his own comforts is forgotten. And I shall take advantage of one of +those moods to procure our manumission—not that I am sure I shall leave +him, even after that is obtained."</p> + +<p>All that is necessary to record of their conversation ended here. In a +few minutes after, Phædra left the chamber to attend to her domestic +affairs.</p> + +<p>In the course of a few weeks, Mr. Waring hurried the completion of all +the business to which his personal attention was indispensable; and +then, attended by Valentine, he set out for his European travels, +leaving the further settlement of his estate in the hands of Mr. +Pettigrew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE BOTTLE DEMON.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! that men should put an enemy in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their mouths to steal away their brains; that we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Transform ourselves into beasts!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! thou invisible Spirit of wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thou hast no name to be known by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us call thee Devil!—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After an absence of fifteen months, Oswald Waring and his inseparable +companion, Valentine, returned home.</p> + +<p>Not in all respects was the master or the man improved by travel, as +circumstances soon demonstrated.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring brought back the same benevolent, careless, mirthful, yet +occasionally arrogant temper, that had always distinguished him; and +Valentine, the same affectionate, aspiring, quick, inflammable nature, +that made his conduct so uncertain.</p> + +<p>The character of Oswald might have been easily read in his personal +appearance. He was a rather handsome specimen of a pure Anglo-Saxon; he +was of medium height, of a stout and well-set form; with a round head, +smooth, white, receding forehead, shaded with thickly clustered curls of +auburn hair; prominent, clear, light-blue eyes, whose prevailing +expression was that of frank mirthfulness; a straight nose; a +well-curved, but rather sensual mouth; and a full, rounded chin, that, +altogether, made up a countenance whose chief characteristics were good +nature, sensuality and gayety. His dress was equally remarkable for the +costliness of its material and the negligence of its arrangement; and +left the point at issue, whether the costume were the more extravagant +or the more slovenly. His manners were marked by habitual cheerfulness, +good temper and love of merriment. And, though he rarely emitted a flash +of wit, he was ever the quickest to appreciate that gift in others; and +it must have been a dull jest, indeed, that his ready laugh did not +hail. And it is not unlikely that to his sincere, hearty, contagious +laughter he owed a great deal of his popularity among men, and women +too. For who does not love a good laugher?</p> + +<p>Valentine was in almost every respect the antipodes of his master, yet +resembled him in this, that his nature also might be easily read in his +dark but singularly beautiful face. I use the term "beautiful" instead +of the other term "handsome" advisedly, as more proper to the subject +under description. Valentine was rather below the medium height, and +slightly but elegantly formed, with a stately little head, delicate +aquiline features, a complexion dark as a Spaniard's, bluish-black hair +falling in many well-trained curls around the dark face, and light-blue +eyes so deeply veiled under their thicket of long, close lashes, that it +was only in moments of excitement, when they suddenly lightened, that +their strange, startling, almost terrible contrast to the blackness of +the hair and darkness of the skin could be noticed. In the matter of +dress, Valentine was fastidious to a degree. In other circumstances, he +might have been an exquisite and a <i>petit maitre</i>, as his master often +laughingly called him. As it was, the youth was undeniably a dandy; but +his love of dress was to be attributed fully as much to his innate love +of order, beauty, and propriety, as to his coxcombry. His fine +raven-black hair—his "favorite vanity," was carefully kept, and trained +to fall in those faultless ringlets; and it is upon record, that when +the owner was not in full dress, that "splendid head of hair" was +carefully bound down from injury by sun or dust, under a double silk +bandanna, arranged in the graceful folds and twists of a Turkish turban. +Valentine's "foppery" was a never-failing source of merriment to his +fun-loving master—though I think the boy's love of dress could scarcely +with fairness be called foppery, since he was never known to try the +effects of his most elegant toilet upon the hearts of any of the young +girls of his class, until his own heart was seriously engaged. +Valentine's deportment was characterized by habitual pensiveness and +reserve, occasionally broken by sudden unaccountable fits of excitement, +strange flights of fancy, and startling, frightful paroxysms of passion, +having many of the features of incipient insanity. These were +undoubtedly to be attributed to the antagonistic constituents of his +nature. What alchemy but the all-powerful grace of God could ever +harmonize the discordant elements of a being deriving his descent from +three races so different as the Indian, the Negro, and the Saxon, and +reconcile him to the position in which this boy was placed?</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring, soon after his return home, began to lead a wild, reckless +life. He kept bachelor's hall at Red Hill, in extravagant style.</p> + +<p>Frequent dinners, suppers, and wine parties, with cards, billiards, +dice, etc., converted the quiet old country house into a scene of wild +midnight orgies, with drinking, song-singing, and gambling, that +threatened soon to leave the young spendthrift without a house to revel +in, or a dollar to revel on.</p> + +<p>And almost every day, when there was not a party at the house, Valentine +would have to drive his master in the buggy to the town. Upon such +occasions, the master would go to some favorite restaurant or billiard +saloon, or perhaps to some wine or card party, to which he had been +invited, while the man would take the buggy to the livery stable, and +lounge about town until the small hours of the morning, when he would +rouse the sleepy groom at the stables, get his buggy and horse, and take +his master home. Sometimes Mr. Waring would be slightly elevated by the +wine he had drank, but never to the degree of intoxication.</p> + +<p>At first, and for a long while, Valentine resisted the temptations of +the life into which he was led; but, in the course of time, those +listless hours of waiting in town wore away his good habits; and it at +last happened that, while the master was gambling and drinking in some +splendid saloon, the man would be imitating him in some humbler scene of +dissipation. And when he would have to drive Mr. Waring home, it not +unfrequently happened that both were under the influence of wine.</p> + +<p>To poor Phædra, who happily had some time since found that grace of God +that she had so long and humbly and earnestly desired, this conduct in +her young master and her son gave the greatest distress and anxiety. +With Valentine she often and earnestly expostulated; and the impressible +boy, for boy he continued to be to the day of his death, would promise +with tears in his eyes, to amend. Even with Oswald Waring, using the +privilege of the old nurse, she ventured to reason, faithfully, +fearlessly, sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>But, in his thoughtless, good-humored way, he laughed in her face, +called her a well-meaning old woman, but advised her to attend to her +own concerns.</p> + +<p>Yet Phædra did not slacken in making what poor opposition she could to +the approach of ruin.</p> + +<p>It was not the least deplorable and dangerous feature in the mutual +relations of Oswald Waring and his favorite slave that their mutual +positions often seemed temporarily reversed. Valentine would, upon +occasions, seem, or really for the hour be, the leader, and Oswald the +follower.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, Mr. Waring was singularly wanting in those qualities that +command habitual respect from inferiors; nay, he even lacked +self-respect and the dignity that it gives; while, more unhappily still, +his servant Valentine possessed a large share of self-esteem, that, in +his excitable nature, would, under provocation or temptation, rise to +insufferable insolence. And this frequently placed them in false and +trying attitudes toward each other. It was a baleful circumstance, too, +that when, under the effects of wine, the master fell from easy +good-nature into maudlin tenderness and sentimentality, varied by +eccentric impulses of domineering authority, all of which was extremely +distasteful and irritating to the servant, whose pride, instigated by +the like baleful spirit, would rise to an intolerable arrogance. It was +a situation full of dire bodency to both.</p> + +<p>It happened one evening that Valentine had driven Mr. Waring into town +to be present at a wine and card party. It was late at night, or +speaking more accurately, early in the morning, when they were returning +home. It was difficult to say which of the two was most excited. Mr. +Waring was in his most maudlin mood of familiarity, Valentine +in his most insolent humor. Each perceived the intoxication of +the other, without being conscious of his own state. Oswald broke +out in a bacchanalian song, which he sung all wrong, and by +snatches—occasionally, in a sudden fit of maudlin affection, varying +the performance by throwing his arm around his servant, and hugging him +closely. Valentine bore this once, but, the second time it was repeated, +he shook his master's arm off, exclaiming: "I am not one of your +companions." But Oswald laughed aloud, rolled himself from side to side, +and breaking out into another low song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Life is all a wariorum,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And we cares not how it goes!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"You will frighten the horses presently. Can't you behave yourself with +common decency?" exclaimed Valentine, shaking off the hand that had been +laid upon his shoulder.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let them talk about decorum,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As has characters to lose,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>sang the inebriate, chuckling and slapping the boy upon the back.</p> + +<p>"If you do not be quiet, I'll get out of this buggy, and leave you to +drive home as you can," said Valentine, impatiently.</p> + +<p>This seemed to amuse the other very much; he burst out into a peal of +laughter, falling back, and clasping his knees, and rolling with the +tipsy enjoyment of the joke. When he had laughed himself into a fit of +the hiccoughs, and hiccoughed himself into comparative calmness, he +still seemed to enjoy the drollery of the idea, and recommenced laughing +and singing by fits, and slapping Valentine upon the back.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, if you do not quit this, I will get out!" exclaimed the +boy, angrily. "You a gentleman!"</p> + +<p>This language, instead of rousing Oswald to anger, seemed to strike him +as the drollest of speeches, for he fell back into another peal of +laughter; and when he had recovered himself he began, not in +displeasure, but in a maudlin, jesting way, and with a very thick +utterance, to taunt Valentine:</p> + +<p>"Why, you ins'lent f'low, do you know who you're talking to? You're a +spoiled negro—that is what you are! Now, don't you know, if I wa'n't +the most forgivin' f'low in the world, that I'd have you tied up and +whipt for such language?"</p> + +<p>"Me?"</p> + +<p>It is utterly impossible to convey in words any idea of the fierce, +savage, almost demoniac glare of hatred and defiance with which that +single monosyllable was uttered. But it was lost upon the tipsy master, +who replied, nodding and chuckling:</p> + +<p>"Yes, you, my little fellow! and I think it will have to be done, too, +to bring you to a sense of your condition. Sit down, sir! What the devil +do you mean by standing up and looking at me in that way?"</p> + +<p>Valentine had risen to his feet, still unconsciously holding the reins, +but no longer guiding the horses, who went on their own way, while he +stood and glared at his master, with an almost maniacal light blazing +from those pale-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, sir, I say! What the h—ll do you mean? Sit down, I say, or, +by the Lord Harry! I'll do as I've threatened!"</p> + +<p>This is not a proper scene to go on with. Both were mad with wine, and +one also with rage. The master, though not angry, nor by any means +disposed to punish, grew every moment, from very wantonness, more +taunting in his manner—the man became each instant more insolent; words +rose higher between them; Valentine grew frenzied, dashed his clenched +fist with all his strength into his master's face, and sprang from the +buggy, leaving him to his fate.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>AN HUMBLE WEDDING.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Habitual evils change not on a sudden,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But many days must pass, and many sorrows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To curb desire, to break the stubborn will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And work a second nature in the soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere virtue can resume the place she lost.—<span class="smcap">Rowe's Ulysses.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Valentine awoke the next morning with a heavy weight upon his heart and +a thick cloud over his brain.</p> + +<p>The first fact that attracted his attention was the circumstance that he +was not in his own apartment, but in his mother's bedchamber. A small +wood fire was burning in the fireplace, and a teakettle was hanging over +the blaze; the red hearth was neat and bright, and the only window was +darkened by the lowered paper blind.</p> + +<p>Phædra sat in her flag-bottomed elbow-chair, at the chimney corner; her +work was on her lap, but she sat with her hands clasped upon it in +idleness, and in an attitude of deepest grief. Such was the picture +immediately before him.</p> + +<p>He could not tell the hour, but supposed it to be near midday. He +strove, through the aching of his head and heart, to recall the latest +events of his waking consciousness, before he had fallen into the sleep +or the insensibility from which he had just recovered. And, as memory +came back in a rushing flood, bringing the hideous phantoms of the +previous night's history, overcome with shame and sorrow, he groaned +aloud, and buried his face in the pillow. Still he was in ignorance of +what had occurred after he had sprung from the buggy; and in terror for +what might have happened to Mr. Waring, whom he had left there to guide +as he could, in a state of extreme intoxication, the frightened and +rearing horses.</p> + +<p>Phædra arose and approached the bed.</p> + +<p>"Mother! tell me what has happened, for I remember nothing after getting +home," said the boy, in a voice half smothered in emotion.</p> + +<p>But Phædra sank down by the bedside, buried her face in the coverlid, +and sobbed.</p> + +<p>"Mother! tell me the worst at once. Was he thrown out? Is he dead?" +asked Valentine, in a deep, breathless, husky voice, as he raised upon +his elbow and leaned forward, his light eyes, from the tangled thicket +of his dark hair, turning upon her like coals at a white heat.</p> + +<p>"No, no, he is not dead. But it was a very narrow escape. Oh! Valley, +such a good Providence, my boy," she said, taking his disengaged hand +and hugging it closely to her bosom, and weeping over it, as if that +hand had been saved from some great calamity.</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it, mother."</p> + +<p>But Phædra was sobbing and choking, and could not utter a word more +then.</p> + +<p>"Where is he now, mother?" asked Valentine, after a little while.</p> + +<p>"In his room—unable to rise, but out of danger, the doctor says."</p> + +<p>A few more minutes passed in silence. Phædra rose and resumed her chair +and her needlework, though the sudden sobs and deep heavings of her +bosom betrayed the storm of grief still beating.</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Valentine, after a few moments longer, "can you tell me +now all about it? How did I get home? How did he? What happened to the +buggy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Valentine, first of all, you came home in a state that made my +heart sick to see. I can't tell you how; but I hope never to see the +like again. I could not have got you upstairs without help, but I +managed to get you in here, and to bed, without any one seeing you."</p> + +<p>"Mother——"</p> + +<p>This single word, uttered in a tone of deepest regret, and humiliation; +and then his voice broke down, and he covered his face with his hands.</p> + +<p>"I had not more than got you to bed, when a violent barking of the dogs +startled me, and I went out, and found it was master that Mr. Hewitt's +niggers had brought home on a door. Dr. Carter, who was coming home from +a night call, had found him lying on the side of the road that runs +along by Mr. Hewitt's cotton field. And he had ridden up to Mr. Hewitt's +house, and roused up the old gentleman and some of the niggers; and they +took a barn door off its hinges, and spread a bed and laid him on it, +and brought him home. It was well that it happened to be Dr. Carter who +found him; for he stayed with him all night, and that has been the means +of saving his life. Oh, Valley, it was such a kind Providence that saved +him!" said Phædra, breaking off suddenly, and clasping her hands.</p> + +<p>"And this morning, mother?" said Valentine, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh! This morning the horses were found near the stables, with a part of +the gearing hanging to their necks; and the buggy was found on the road, +broken all to pieces."</p> + +<p>"I don't mean them—I mean Mr. Waring."</p> + +<p>"He is out of danger this morning, as I told you before. He was stunned +and very much bruised by being thrown from the buggy, but not otherwise +injured."</p> + +<p>"What does he say about the accident?"</p> + +<p>"He says he doesn't know much about it. He says he supposes he must have +been taking too much wine, and that the horses got unruly, and he +couldn't manage them; and that was how they threw him out, and broke +the carriage."</p> + +<p>"Mother! I must get up and go to him now!" said Valentine, hastily.</p> + +<p>"Oh, stop! Stay one moment, Valentine! Lie there, and let me speak to +you! I have been praying for you all night, in my master's room, here, +wherever I have been. Reflect; have you no thanks to offer to the Lord +for his providential care, when you so little deserved it? And no +sorrow, Valentine, for what has passed, and no promises for the future? +Oh, Valentine, how is this course you and your master have begun, going +to end?"</p> + +<p>"Mother! for my own part, I can affirm that this is the first time I +ever was in such a state as you saw me in last night. All I feel about +it, shall be said in this one oath—I will never taste intoxicating +drink again, so help me Heaven—and shall be proved every day of my +life, in the way I keep it!" exclaimed Valentine, impetuously, +earnestly, tearfully.</p> + +<p>Phædra grasped his hand once more, and hugged it to her heart, and +prayed "God bless" him.</p> + +<p>"And now, mother, I must get up and go to him."</p> + +<p>Phædra brought his clothes from the closet in which she had put them, +and then left the room, while Valentine arose and dressed himself, and +went to his master's apartments. It was in painful doubt and humiliating +embarrassment that he sought Oswald Waring's presence. He got to the +door, knocked, and at the words, "Come in," he entered.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring was in bed, and looking very pale and ghastly; and as +Valentine saw him, a pang shot through his heart at the thought that, +but for the merciful intervention of Providence in averting the +consequences of his own rash anger, Oswald Waring might have been lying +there—not a sick man, but a dead one! And a secret vow to forsake +intemperance, in all its forms, material and moral, was made in +Valentine's mind, and registered in heaven.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Valley, old fellow? I had begun to fear that you had +suffered more than myself, when I asked after you this morning and they +told me you were sick. Were you thrown out, also?"</p> + +<p>"Good Heaven," thought Valentine, as a new light burst upon him; "he +does not recollect what happened. He must have been much further gone +than myself."</p> + +<p>"Well, old fellow, why don't you answer me? I asked you if you were +thrown out. Don't be afraid to tell me, for you see I'm a great deal +better; besides, seeing you there alive and well, I shall not be much +shocked to hear of what might have happened, you know. Come! where were +you pitched, and how much were you hurt, and who picked you up? Tell me, +for I can't get the least satisfaction out of anybody here."</p> + +<p>"I was not thrown out—I sprang out."</p> + +<p>"When the horses were rearing? A bad plan that, Val.; that is, if you +really did it as you think you did. For my part, I doubt if you know +anything more about it than I do myself; and if my soul were to have to +answer for my memory, I could not tell whether I jumped out or was +thrown out. Bad course we've been pursuing, old boy; like to have cost +us both our lives, really has cost me that beautiful buggy—that is +ruined, they tell me. Bad course; bad course, Val. Not safe for master +and man both to be glorious at the same time. Another evening, old +fellow, do you try to keep sober, when you think it likely that I shall +be—otherwise."</p> + +<p>"I never mean to touch another drop of intoxicating drink as long as I +live, sir, so help me Heaven!" said Valentine, fervently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, pooh, pooh! old fellow. Resolutions made with a bad headache, the +day after a frolic, are as worthless as the oaths sworn in wine the +night previous, both being the effects of an abnormal state of the soul +and—stomach. Now, wine is a good thing in moderation—it is only a bad +thing in excess. Don't look so dreadfully downcast, old fellow, nor make +such dismally lugubrious resolutions. 'The servant is not greater than +his master,' says the good Book; and, if I was overtaken, how could you +expect to escape? Give me your honest fist, old fellow; those who have +had such a d—d lucky escape together might shake hands upon it, I +should think," said Oswald Waring, offering his hand.</p> + +<p>Valentine took it and squeezed it, and then, in the warmth of his +affectionate nature, pressed it to his heart, while tears welled to his +eyes—tears, that came at the thought how nearly he had occasioned the +death of this man—this man, who, with all his faults, had, from their +boyhood, been ever kind, generous, forbearing—more like a brother than +a master. All that was unjust and galling in their mutual relations was +forgotten by Valentine at that moment; he only remembered that they had +been playmates in childhood, companions in youth, and friends always, up +to the present, and that he had narrowly escaped causing Oswald's death; +and, in the ardor and vehemence of emotion, he pressed the hand that had +been yielded up to him, to his heart, exclaiming in a broken voice:</p> + +<p>"It was my fault, Master Oswald, all my fault; but I will never—never +touch any sort of intoxicating liquor again—never, as the Lord hears +me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, tut, tut! you best fellow that ever was in the world! Who asks you +for any such promises? Only promise that when there is a wine supper or +card party in the wind, or any other signs of the times in the sky to +warn you, you will take care to keep sober, knowing that I shall be +likely to be something else. Wine is a good servant, but a bad master."</p> + +<p>"Not good for me, ever, Master Oswald; certainly not good for me; +probably not so for you, either."</p> + +<p>"Come, come; you exceed your license, Valentine. You're a pretty fellow +to preach to me, after nearly breaking my neck. However, that's +ungenerous, after once forgiving you; so we'll say no more about it +forever. But don't preach to me, whatever you do. Phædra nearly wears my +patience out."</p> + +<p>"Can I do anything to make you more comfortable, or help the time +along?"</p> + +<p>"N-o-o, I think not. Dr. Carter says I must keep quiet, and my head +begins to ache now; so you had better darken the room, and leave me to +rest."</p> + +<p>Valentine closed all the shutters, and let down all the curtains, and +then asked:</p> + +<p>"Shan't I sit here, Master Oswald, to be at hand in case you should want +anything?"</p> + +<p>"No! Lord, no! it must be a d—l of a bore to sit in a dark room, with +no better amusement than to watch somebody going off to sleep. No; go +and take care of yourself, old fellow. I can ring if I should want +anything," said Oswald, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Always so very considerate when he is in his right mind," thought +Valentine, as he took the tasseled end of the bellrope and put it in +reach of his master's hand, before leaving the room.</p> + +<p>That was the last time that Valentine saw his master in his right mind +for many weeks. The effects of his fall, acting upon a system weakened +and vitiated by dissipation, was much more serious than any one had +foreseen. Before night a brain fever, with delirium, had set in, and, +for days after, the life of Oswald Waring hung upon the feeblest chance. +For many weeks of his illness, Phædra and Valentine nursed him with the +most devoted affection. Poor Phædra prayed constantly for his recovery, +and also for his reform, and solicited every Sabbath the prayers of the +congregation of her church in his behalf. And Valentine, in deep +despair, daily accused himself of his master's death, as if he had +purposely stricken a fatal blow, and Oswald were already dead. The long +days and nights of watching by the side of the sickbed, that might at +any hour become a deathbed, were very fruitful in good to Valentine. +There he learned to hate and dread the demon anger, that had caused him +so much misery; there he came to listen with patience and reverence to +his poor mother's tearful pleadings and counsels; there he began to +pray. It was six weeks before Mr. Waring left his room, and one more +before he was fully restored to health. And this brought midsummer—a +season that camp-meetings were frequent in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>This summer there was much greater excitement than ever before among the +religious revivalists. The Rev. Mr. M—— and several others, equally +eloquent and successful field preachers, were making a circuit of the +country. Their fame always preceded them as an <i>avant courier</i>, and +crowds congregated to hear them.</p> + +<p>There was a camp-meeting held, by permission of the owner, in a magnolia +grove where there was a fine spring, upon the grounds of Mr. Hewitt, Mr. +Waring's nearest neighbor. And it was given out that on Sunday morning +the eloquent field preacher, M——, would address the assembled +multitudes. There was a great deal of excitement and anticipation among +all classes in that quiet rural district; and when the Sabbath came, +congregations forsook their own churches, and assembled to hear M——. +Crowds after crowds gathered; some went with the avowed purpose of +getting converted; some to get revived; many to get excited; and most +from motives of idle curiosity. Poor Phædra went for the candidly +expressed purpose of being warmed and comforted. Valentine went to drive +his master, who went only to kill a dull day.</p> + +<p>Now, not only was Phædra praying with all her soul's strength for her +son's conversion, but naturally that desired consummation was one of the +most likely things in the world to eventuate; for Valentine's nature was +just the one to be most deeply affected and impressed by the magnetic +power of a man like M——, and he was also in the most favorable mood +for receiving such impressions. And while hundreds around him were +swayed, as by a mighty wizard's wand, under the wonderful eloquence of +the most potent preacher since the days of Wesley and Whitefield, +Valentine was deeply and almost fearfully excited.</p> + +<p>And from that Sabbath, during the whole time of Mr. M——'s sojourn in +the neighborhood, the boy was a regular attendant upon his ministry, and +in the end was numbered among his converts. This is not the place to +call in question the Rev. Mr. M——'s sincerity or consistency as a +Christian; those who knew him best, believed him to be perfectly sincere +in his religious enthusiasm, however inconsistent was sometimes his +conduct. And, though it may be true that some of his converts were his +only, and not God's, as they afterward demonstrated by their +backsliding, yet it is equally true that many shining lights in the +Christian Church at this day ascribe their first awakening to Christian +life, under Divine Providence, to the electric power of M——'s +eloquence. At the time that I write of, the people of that neighborhood +adored him as an angel sent from God; though some years after the same +people hunted him as a wild beast, from village to village, until old, +poor, ill and exhausted, he died alone—a fugitive from their insane +wrath. But to return.</p> + +<p>M—— had succeeded in reviving the religious spirit of that district; +and when he departed, he left behind him many new but zealous laborers +in that vineyard of the Lord.</p> + +<p>Among the most enthusiastic in the field of the colored mission of +Magnolia Grove was Valentine. His sincere, ardent, earnest soul; his +natural gift of eloquence; his sympathy with those in his own condition, +if not strictly of his own race; his better education, and even his +beauty of person, grace of manner, and sweetness of voice, all combined +to make him the most popular and effective, and best beloved of all the +class-leaders in the colored mission of Magnolia Grove. "Brother +Valentine's" class was the largest and most important in the church. If +ever Brother Valentine was announced to address the meeting upon any +given day, there was sure to be a crowded house. And if ever Phædra held +a prayer meeting in her quarter, there was sure to be a crowd to hear +Brother Valentine speak.</p> + +<p>Among the most zealous of the church members, and among those who never +failed to be present at Phædra's weekly prayer meetings, was a young and +pretty quadroon, named Fannie. She was a free girl and an orphan, and +was employed as shop girl in a hair dresser's and fancy store kept by a +respectable old French couple in the city of M. But though her home and +her business was in town, and there were also two or three "colored +missions" in that place, yet Fannie preferred to walk out every Sunday +morning to the little log meeting-house in Magnolia Grove. And those who +were envious of Fannie's beauty did not scruple to say that she came out +so far for the sake of hearing Brother Valentine pray or exhort, or to +let him hear her sing; for Fannie had a voice that might have made her +fortune, had she been white, and had it been cultivated. However that +might be, Phædra loved Fannie as if she had been her own daughter, and +she always took her home from meeting, to dine and spend the afternoon +at Red Hill. And after an early tea, Valentine always walked home with +Fannie to the city.</p> + +<p>It is also true that Valentine became a frequent customer at Leroux's, +the hair-dresser's and fancy store where Fannie was employed; and as +Valentine not only made his own but also his master's purchases, and as +he had a <i>carte blanche</i> for the same, his custom was of no trifling +importance to the establishment. But, valuable as was this patronage, as +soon as the proprietors began to suspect the nature of the attraction to +their store, they felt it to be their duty to warn the young girl, which +they would do in something like these terms:</p> + +<p>"Take my advice, Fannie, and send that young fellow about his business; +he may be a very good young man, I dare say; but he is a slave, and +never will be able to do anything for you," Monsieur Leroux would say.</p> + +<p>"You are free, Fannie, and you are very pretty, and all that; and you +might look a great deal higher than that," would say Madam Leroux.</p> + +<p>"Think, <i>ma fille</i>, if you take him, you will always have yourself and +your family to support, for you never can have any help from a slave +husband"—thus Monsieur Leroux.</p> + +<p>"Consider, <i>mon enfant</i>, if you marry him, he may be sold away next +year, or next month, even! How would you like that?" thus Madam Leroux.</p> + +<p>And Fannie would blush, or smile, or pout, or drop a tear, or say to +herself:</p> + +<p>"Poor Valley! Maybe something may happen to set him free! Maybe I might +work hard, and save money enough to"—she could not bring herself to say +buy—"ransom him! And, anyhow, it is not his fault if he is not free. +And it must be hard enough, the dear knows, to be as he is, without my +letting him think that it makes any difference to me."</p> + +<p>Obstacles and objections which, to cooler-hearted and clearer-headed +people would seem very formidable, if not entirely conclusive, were but +slight impediments in the way of these humble lovers.</p> + +<p>Long courtships and protracted engagements are not common among +quadroons, and in this case were not favored by Valentine. He had won +little Fannie's heart and consent to speak to her employers, who, having +advised her against the match, and holding no authority to go further in +their opposition, gave a reluctant consent, with their good wishes and +blessing.</p> + +<p>Valentine had, all through the courtship, the hearty approbation of +Phædra; and, lastly, he had none but his master to consult.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring rallied Valentine unmercifully upon his intended marriage; +swore that, seriously, it was a pity such a fine young fellow as +himself, who was such a favorite among the girls, should leave his gay +bachelor's life, to tie himself down to a wife and family; asked him +what he should do for kid gloves and perfumery, if he had to give all +his pocket money to Fannie and the children; and finally made him a +wedding present of a hundred dollars, and advised him to go out and hang +himself.</p> + +<p>In the following Christmas holidays, the slaves' annual Saturnalia in +the South, the marriage of Valentine and Fannie took place. A mad +marriage it was, where the bride had no dower and the bridegroom not +even the ownership of his own limbs to work for their support. An +impossible marriage it would seem, had it not really taken place, and +did we not know, for a certainty, that such marriages between the free +and the enslaved frequently took place.</p> + +<p>Phædra gave a serious little Methodist wedding, and invited all her +favorite brethren and sisters of the church to be present. And the young +master loaned his dining-room for the occasion, and invited himself to +do the lovers the honor of his personal attendance at the marriage +ceremony. And he gave the little bride two testimonials of his friendly +consideration—one in the form of a pretty wedding dress, that was +gratefully received; the other in the guise of a hearty embrace and +kiss, that was not quite so thankfully accepted.</p> + +<p>"But now, mommer," whispered little Fannie, in the course of the +evening, to Phædra, "Valley's young master has been so very kind and +generous to us all, s'pose now he was to make Valley a present of his +free papers, for a wedding gift to-night—to surprise us, you know; to +see how delighted we'd all be, and to hear what we'd say. I think he +might; 'deed, I shouldn't wonder if he did, only for the pleasure of the +thing, you know. Should you, mommer?"</p> + +<p>Phædra sighed; but, then, not to damp the girl's spirits, she replied: +"He may do that some day, honey."</p> + +<p>"Something seems to whisper to me that he is thinking of it to-night, +mommer! Ah! the Lord send he may! Wouldn't we be happy? Valley would +have a place in the same store with me; it would suit him, too; he has +so much good taste! And then we could have such a pretty little home of +our own! 'Deed, I believe he is thinking about it now. Look at him. I +shouldn't be the least surprised to see him call Valley aside, and clap +him on the shoulder, and call him 'old fellow,' and tell him he is a +free man!"</p> + +<p>The girl had read aright the thoughts of the master. Angels, who +saw the future, with all the phantoms of its bright or dark +possibilities—angels, who loved the goodness latent in his own abused +nature—angels were whispering to him: "Make this young couple +supremely happy—give him only the common right to himself, into which +every creature is justly born—and then rejoice in their exceeding great +joy!"</p> + +<p>And never had the face of Oswald Waring looked so bright, benignant and +happy, as when he, for a moment, entertained this thought.</p> + +<p>"But pshaw!" he said to himself, directly. "Am I Don Quixote the +younger, that I should be guilty of such a piece of extravagant +generosity? Absurd! I really must begin to learn moderation at some time +of my life. St. Paul says: 'Let your moderation be known unto all men.'"</p> + +<p>Now, what on earth can the angels reply, when the other party quotes +Scripture against them? Nothing, of course; and Oswald Waring had no +more generous impulses that evening. But oh! if he had only listened to +those angel whispers; if he had only realized poor little Fannie's +romance; if he had only, for once in his life, yielded to his impulse to +commit that mad, rash, extravagant piece of Quixotism, as he called the +act which, for a moment, he had dreamed of performing—from what +impending anguish, what temptations, crime, and remorse, would they not +have been redeemed!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>A CLOUDED HONEYMOON.</h3> + + +<p>It had been arranged, as the best plan for all parties, under present +circumstances, that Fannie should retain her situation as shop-woman at +Leroux's hair-dressing and fancy store, where they were anxious to keep +her as long as possible.</p> + +<p>With Valentine's hundred dollars, and fifty dollars that had been made +in overwork by Phædra, a room was taken in M——, and neatly furnished.</p> + +<p>And there Valentine and Fannie went to housekeeping, after this fashion: +Fannie, still tending Leroux's shop all day, ate and slept at home, +where Valentine visited her once a week, or oftener, whenever he could +do so.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, as winter advanced, Mr. Waring's health was fully +re-established; and, as many of his favorite boon companions, who had +been absent on their summer tours, returned to the neighborhood, Oswald +began to resume his former habits of extravagant and reckless +dissipation. Deer-hunting, coursing, partridge-shooting, and other field +sports, occupied the mornings; and dinner parties, oyster suppers, and +other entertainments, accompanied and followed by wine-drinking, +song-singing, card-playing, and similar orgies, at home or abroad, +filled up the afternoons and evenings.</p> + +<p>Again were Valentine's services brought into requisition three or four +nights of every week, to drive his master to the city at dusk, and home +again at dawn. Upon these occasions, Valentine would drive Mr. Waring +first to the clubhouse, restaurant, or billiard-saloon, that happened to +be his destination for the evening, set him down, take the carriage and +horses to the livery stable, leave them, and then go to Leroux's and +stay with Fannie until the hour of closing the store arrived, when he +would take her home.</p> + +<p>Valentine, from his "gentlemanly" appearance, dress, and address, as +well as from his perfectly trustworthy character, was not an unwelcome +visitor at the store, where, behind the counter and by the side of +Fannie, he made himself so useful that Monsieur Leroux would often +speculate as to the possibility of getting him for an assistant. This +also was Valentine's and Fannie's great ambition; but it was a vain +one, for his personal attendance was considered indispensable to his +master's comfort.</p> + +<p>Valentine's standing order, upon these occasions of their night visits +to the town, was to be in waiting with the carriage for Mr. Waring at +twelve o'clock. And the man was obliged to be punctual, though he had +often to wait two or three hours for the coming of the master. And, as a +general fact, the longer Mr. Waring remained among his boon companions, +the more intoxicated he became; and when at last he appeared, all the +old humiliations and provocations of Valentine's former days were +renewed. You know what these were. It would be vain repetition to +describe them again.</p> + +<p>All this was, in every respect, very trying to the poor boy. He +religiously adhered to his resolution of abstinence from all spirituous +liquors, and constantly and prayerfully struggled against the +ebullitions of his own impetuous temper. But the life he led acted +nearly fatally upon a very fragile organization; and all individuals of +antagonistically-mixed races are known to be frail. The continued loss +of rest, habitual irregularity in food and sleep, affectionate anxiety +upon account of his master, tender solicitude for his own gentle, little +wife, frequent and excessive provocation from Oswald, all combined to +wear and fret his originally excitable temperament to a state of +unnatural nervous irritability, that could scarcely sustain with +calmness the rudeness of the shocks to which, in his false position, he +was constantly exposed; and therefore he was very frequently—to use his +own expression at the "love feasts"—in great danger of falling from +grace.</p> + +<p>Reflecting upon this portion of the poor, doomed boy's life; +recollecting the great, the almost superhuman struggle his spirit was +making against the terrible, combined powers of evil; of his discordant +organization; his fiery, impulsive temperament; his unfortunate +education; his unhappy position, and his exasperating surroundings, all +antagonistic, false and fateful, we find his parallel nowhere in modern +times, and are forced to think of the age of antiquity, and of those +mighty but ineffectual struggles of some foredoomed mortal, like +Œdipus, in the power of the angry Fates.</p> + +<p>Upon poor Valentine's silent, deadly struggle, none but the pitying eye +of our Father looked. And nothing but a miracle could have averted its +final and fatal issue; and miracles are not wrought at the expense of +moral free agency. There came at last a day—an awful day—when the boy +spoke, and others heard, of that fell struggle with the powers of +darkness.</p> + +<p>But we anticipate. The dark and trying seasons were relieved by brighter +ones, alternating like night and day.</p> + +<p>The hours spent with Fannie, either in the gay, lighted shop, among a +thousand objects of taste and beauty, and occupations shared with her, +and congenial to his own æsthetic fancy, or in their little home, that, +despite of poverty, Fannie's taste had made beautiful, were seasons of +unclouded happiness, in which all care was forgotten.</p> + +<p>There were sunny hours, also, when Mr. Waring's better nature was in the +ascendant; when he would feel like gratifying his own benevolence, and +making Valentine happy, by fair promises of making him free; of setting +him and Fannie up in the hair-dressing and fancy business, which he +would laughingly declare to be exactly suited to Valentine; that Val +could be the barber, and Fan the ladies' hair-dresser; and that they +could have a nice little house in an eligible street, with the dwelling +above, and the shop below. Thus he would talk, indulging his good humor +at the small expense of his breath, and amusing himself with noticing +the effect of his words upon Valentine's sensitive nature, playing upon +its chords of hope and fear, as if his heart had been a harp, and his +own the experimenting hand that tried its strings. Perhaps he intended +to realize, at some future day, these expectations that he raised; at +least, at the time of speaking he wished to please the boy by infusing a +hope; but, alas! he only disturbed him, by exciting and aggravating his +old passionate aspiration after liberty.</p> + +<p>But, besides those happiest hours spent with Fannie, there were other +seasons of forgetfulness, and of almost unalloyed bliss. These were the +Sabbath services and the weekly meetings, where the ardent, zealous soul +of the young man found its expression in eloquence that reached the +hearts of all who heard him, either in exhortation or in prayer.</p> + +<p>He was very much beloved by the brethren, and especially by the sisters, +of the Magnolia Grove Mission.</p> + +<p>There was, however, two or three among the class-leaders who objected to +Valentine as being too much given to the vanities of this world, and who +found great stumbling blocks in Valley's shining, black ringlets, and +neat and even elegant dress. But as the fiend really did contrive to +find his way into sinless Eden, so jealousy might possibly have crept +into a "love feast" among Christian brethren and sisters; and +Valentine's beauty, grace, eloquence and consequent pre-eminence, among +the men, and popularity with the women, might have been the true ground +of offense to his less gifted brothers.</p> + +<p>However that might be, Valentine, perceiving only the ostensible matter +of complaint, half resolved to give up his taste in dress and sacrifice +his cherished ringlets, and seriously consulted Fannie upon the subject.</p> + +<p>But Fannie would not listen to such a proposition with a moment's favor, +and said that brother Portiphar and some of the others had such a grudge +against beauty that they would turn all the Lord's fair roses and lilies +into lobelia and rue, if they could. And Fannie's single opinion and +vote outweighed all the others, and Valentine's hyperion curls continued +to be an offense in Israel.</p> + +<p>Thus passed the winter and spring. This first half year, with all its +shadows, was yet the fairest portion of the young pair's married life. +Toward its close clouds began to gather darkly and threateningly over +their heads.</p> + +<p>In the early part of summer Fannie was necessitated to give up her +situation at Leroux's, and confine herself to such work as she could +perform in the privacy of her own room, such as fine sewing and fancy +work, which was not very lucrative; but even this resource in the course +of a few weeks had to be abandoned, for Fannie was unusually delicate, +and sadly needed rest and some one to take care of her for a while. And +just about this time, late in July, Mr. Waring made up his mind to go to +the North and spend the remainder of the summer in a tour among the +fashionable watering-places. Of course, he designed to take his servant +with him. In vain Valentine, hoping in the proverbial "good nature" of +his master, proffered his earnest request to be left behind, urging the +state of Fannie's health as the reason.</p> + +<p>"Pooh, pooh, nonsense!" Mr. Waring could not spare the servant that was +used to his ways. Fannie must do without her husband, and take her +chance, as all those of her class had to do. Surely she must have known +what she had to expect when she married a slave man.</p> + +<p>"And now, Valentine, don't bore me any longer with the subject. You were +a great fool to get married at all; and if you trouble me further, you +will make me regret ever having given my consent to that foolish +measure," concluded Mr. Waring.</p> + +<p>Valentine controlled his own rebellious emotions, and leaving Fannie as +comfortable as under the circumstances he could make her, accompanied +his master to the North.</p> + +<p>They visited first the Virginia Springs, then Niagara, Saratoga, Nahant, +and at the end of three months, returned home.</p> + +<p>In close attendance upon his master, Valentine was obliged to pass +through M—— without stopping to see his wife.</p> + +<p>But the next day, at his first disengaged hour, he set out for the city, +where he found Fannie the mother of a little girl of six weeks of age, +and reinstated in her former position at Leroux's.</p> + +<p>Fannie was very happy, and gave a cheering account of all that had +occurred. Everybody had been very kind to her; the sisters of the church +had visited her often; Phædra had been with her, and Madame Leroux had +made her many presents.</p> + +<p>All this relieved and delighted the youthful husband and father; and +when he pressed his infant daughter to his bosom, he wept tears of joy +at the thought that her mother's heritage of freedom would be hers.</p> + +<p>Some peaceful days followed this, in which Valentine, oblivious of every +cause of disquietude, enjoyed the perfection of domestic happiness.</p> + +<p>Then, early in November, Mr. Waring determined to go to New Orleans, to +prosecute his acquaintance with a young widow, a native and resident of +that city, whom he had met at Saratoga, and with whom he had been very +much pleased. His servant was, of course, required to attend him, and +upon this occasion Valentine obeyed without a single demur.</p> + +<p>On reaching New Orleans, Mr. Waring took rooms at the St. Charles Hotel. +Apparently his suit prospered, for their stay in that city was prolonged +through November and December. And Valentine had no opportunity of +visiting his girlish wife until after the new year.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Waring hastily, and in the highest spirits, returned home, to +settle up certain necessary business with his lawyer appertaining to +troublesome creditors, and give some commendable directions to his +housekeeper touching the rearrangement of his disorderly bachelor's +hall. This occupied two or three weeks, during which time Valentine, +when not in close attendance upon Mr. Waring, found opportunities to +visit his beloved Fannie, and caress the infant, of whom he was dotingly +fond.</p> + +<p>The first of February Mr. Waring went again to New Orleans to meet his +engagement with Madam Moriere, his promised bride.</p> + +<p>Their marriage was arranged to take place immediately, to save the delay +of the seven weeks of Lent, just at hand, and during which no strict +Catholic, such as madam professed to be, would dare to enter into the +"holy state" of matrimony.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the ceremony, the newly-married couple set out on a +bridal tour.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring was attended by his favorite servant, and madam by her maid, +a French <i>grisette</i>, who "made eyes" at Valentine, and otherwise +harassed him with her coquetries during the whole journey. And this +conduct of Finette first suggested to Valentine's mind the probability +that, during his own enforced, long and frequent absences from home, +some one as unprincipled as Finette might be making love to his own +pretty Fannie, unprotected and exposed as she was in that French +hair-dressing establishment. Valentine might have been sure of that; but +Fannie, with her wise and affectionate consideration for him, had never +troubled the transient happiness of his sojourn with her by any +histories of the petty vexations that disturbed her own life during his +absence. Besides, Fannie, with all her innocence, was city bred, full of +experience and the wisdom it gives, and quite capable of taking care of +herself. And Valentine never would have dreamed of the possibility of +such annoyances for her had not the behavior of Mademoiselle Finette +made the suggestion. And now the thought gave his excitable heart a +great deal of disturbance, and made him very anxious to return home. Of +course, Valentine's impatience did not expedite that desired event.</p> + +<p>The bridal party were absent six weeks, and finally reached home about +the middle of April—a most enchanting season in that climate, +corresponding in its advanced state of vegetation with our June, but +much more beautiful in the luxuriance and variety of its trees, shrubs, +vines, fruits and flowers, than any season in our latitude. The Red Hill +mansion was very lovely in its grove of magnolias. The internal +arrangement of the house reflected great credit upon Phædra; and madam +condescended to express much satisfaction with her new home and her good +housekeeper.</p> + +<p>As upon all former occasions, Valentine had been in too much +requisition, when they passed through M——, on their way home, to stop +and see Fannie; but the next morning Mr. Waring dispatched him to the +city to attend to the careful packing and sending out some baggage that +had been left, of necessity, the evening before, at the hotel.</p> + +<p>And Valentine availed of that opportunity to visit his small family.</p> + +<p>He found Fannie as pretty and as glad to see him as always, and his +little darling Coralie, now seven months old, more beautiful and +attractive than ever; but he could not linger with them; his duties to +his master obliged him, in less than an hour, to tear himself away again +and hasten with madam's trunks and boxes to Red Hill.</p> + +<p>The necessity of leaving his treasures so soon again after so long an +absence depressed Valentine so much that Fannie hastened to console and +cheer him. He was not, after all, more unfortunate in that respect, she +said, than sailors and soldiers, nor was she more to be pitied than +their wives.</p> + +<p>And she sent him off, comforted with the promise that she would get +leave from Leroux and come out the next morning with her baby to spend +the day with Phædra at Red Hill.</p> + +<p>Fannie kept her word, and, during her visit the next day won her way so +well into the good graces of madam that that lady expressed a kind +interest in her and her little child, made them some pretty presents, +and promised to facilitate as much as possible the frequent visits of +Valentine to his wife and child. And the lady remembered and performed +her promise so well that unusual indulgence was extended to Valentine, +who was by her intercession enabled to pass every night with his family.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring, in his attachment to his bride, seemed for the time quite +won from the extravagance and dissipation of his late bachelor life. He +remained at home and addressed himself with commendable zeal to the +management of his plantation, to the improvement of his land, his stock, +his machinery, and agricultural system in general, and also, after his +own blundering fashion, to the amelioration, comfort and welfare of his +people.</p> + +<p>Valentine, no longer distressed for or by his master, divided his +attention between the manifold light duties that occupied him all day at +Red Hill, and the evenings spent in assisting Fannie in her business +behind the counter of Leroux's shop, and for which he now received a +regular payment, in consideration of the fact that he stood at the post +and performed the duties of Monsieur Leroux, whose age obliged him to +leave the shop at an early hour of the evening, just as the custom was +beginning to grow brisk. Thus they were enabled to add many little +comforts to their humble home, and also to lay up a trifle against the +chance of darker days.</p> + +<p>Every alternate Sabbath they attended meeting together at Magnolia +Grove, and afterward dined with Phædra at Red Hill, and went home at +night; and, on the intervening Sabbath, when there was no service at the +Grove Mission, Phædra would come into town and go to church with the +children at the Bethel (colored) Mission of M——, and afterward take +dinner with them, before returning home in the evening.</p> + +<p>Thus passed the halcyon days of spring, preceding the awful moral storm +which ended in that "household wreck."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>PROPHETIC.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The look, the air that frets thy sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May be a token that below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul has closed in deadly fight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With some eternal fiery foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cast thee, shuddering, on thy face.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Spring in the South is a season of the most enchanting beauty. Forests +of odoriferous, blossoming trees, thickets of sweet-scented shrubs, and +fields of fragrant wild flowers fill the atmosphere with their delicious +perfume; climbing vines twine around the trees and overgrow the fences, +transforming them into arbors and to hedges of flowering plants of +matchless bloom and fragrance; while myriads of bright-winged birds +enliven all the sunny air with their glad melody. It is a season and a +scene no lover of nature could look upon without rapture.</p> + +<p>But the summer, with its advanced luxuriance of beauty, too often brings +malaria, pestilence and death.</p> + +<p>The promise of the spring to one in Valentine's condition had been too +fair to last for any length of time. Clouds began to gather over his +head. First, as Mr. Waring went no longer to town to spend his evenings, +it followed as a matter of course that he frequently required +Valentine's services at that hour at home. On inquiring for his servant +upon these occasions, and receiving the answer that Valentine had gone +to town to see his wife, he would grow angry, and exclaim, with an oath:</p> + +<p>"I have never had any good of that boy since his foolish marriage. In +town every night! This thing is getting to be insufferable, and shall be +stopped."</p> + +<p>And one morning, when Valentine returned, Mr. Waring told him that he +was not to take himself off to see his wife every evening, but that in +future he must ask permission to do so.</p> + +<p>Now, anger was Valentine's easily besetting sin, the one dangerous +internal foe he had constantly to combat. Now, indignation rose and +swelled in his bosom. And not from fear or from policy, but from +Christian principle, he strove to quell its ragings. He answered only +with a bow, and left the room for that silent, solitary struggle with +himself that no eye but the Father's ever witnessed. He obeyed the +mandate; it was galling, but he obeyed it; and each evening presented +himself to his master with something like this style of request, which, +as a compromise between asking a permission and intimating a purpose, +was not so difficult to make:</p> + +<p>"I have got through all my business here for to-day, sir, and am ready +to go to town if you don't want me."</p> + +<p>"Very well; take yourself off; only be sure to come back early in the +morning, to be ready when I rise," would be the frequent answer. "The +proud rascal! I believe he would almost as lief die as ask leave to do +anything; but it is my own fault; I have treated that boy like a +brother, until he is so spoiled as to be quite above his condition," Mr. +Waring would add, half jesting, half in earnest.</p> + +<p>But sometimes, when Valentine asked, leave would not be granted him; and +this occasioned an irregularity in his nightly attendance at the shop, +that finally obliged Monsieur Leroux to say to him:</p> + +<p>"Valentine, my man, unless you can attend better, I shall have to +discharge you altogether, and get a full clerk, which would be better +anyway, as he could be here all the time."</p> + +<p>Full of trouble at this prospect, Valentine the next day mentioned this +to his master, who, happening to be in an ill-humor, answered:</p> + +<p>"What the fiend is all that to me, sir? Old Leroux is liable to +prosecution for hiring your services at all without a permit."</p> + +<p>"But it was in over-hours—in my own time," remonstrated Valentine.</p> + +<p>"Your own time! Pray, sir, what time is that? I have yet to learn that +you have any time of your own!"</p> + +<p>Valentine suppressed his indignation, but that was as much as he could +do. He dared not trust himself to reply.</p> + +<p>"Leave the room! The sight of you irritates me. And be very thankful +that I do not prosecute your friend, old Leroux, with his mulatto clerks +and shop-girls! These beasts of Frenchmen have not the slightest idea of +the distinctions of race."</p> + +<p>Silently, Valentine left the room, to retire and have another wrestle +with his pride and anger.</p> + +<p>That evening he was not permitted to go to see Fannie; and, from that +time the permission to visit her was less and still less frequently +granted.</p> + +<p>Finally, old Leroux, who had long delayed the step for poor Fannie's +sake, hired a clerk, and Valentine lost his over-hour situation, and +with it many fair though humble hopes and prospects. He was much +depressed; but Fannie bid him do right, trust in God, and cheer up; and +said that she would probably get her own salary raised, and that they +would get on very well.</p> + +<p>Now, whether his marriage had changed his feelings toward Valentine, or +whether it was Valentine's marriage that in time and effect grew +displeasing to him, or whether both these causes combined to produce an +estrangement between the master and the man, I know not; but certainly +their mutual relations were changing for the worse. The master grew less +considerate and indulgent, and more arrogant and exacting toward his +poor servant; and that servant had a daily struggle with his own +indignant sense of outraged manhood. Still, Fannie soothed him.</p> + +<p>"Govern your temper, dear Valley, and God will bless you. Never mind me +and Coralie; we shall get along well enough; and we can see each other +Sunday at church, and Thursday at prayer-meeting, anyhow," she would +say, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>True, Fannie had her baby always with her, and that was a great comfort +to the youthful wife and mother for the absence of her husband. They +might have looked for some aid from the intercession of Mrs. Waring; but +alas! for fair and false hopes, her romantic interest in little Fannie +that had been but a frail spring blossom of her own happy bridehood, +soon withered; and, added to that, her influence with her husband had +waned with her honeymoon. So, between her indifference and her +inability, together with her ignorance of the facts—for Valentine +seldom had sight or speech alone with his mistress, or, when he had, was +too proud and reserved to complain, and Fannie, from native modesty, +would rather endure than plead—little aid was to be expected from Mrs. +Waring's interference in behalf of the young couple.</p> + +<p>The gathering clouds of fate darkened and deepened over the head of the +doomed boy. His little home in the city was visited with sickness.</p> + +<p>First, his little Coralie was taken ill. No father in this world, +whatever his nature or degree might be, ever loved his infant with a +more passionate attachment, than poor Valentine felt toward his little +Coralie; she was the darling of his heart and eyes, the light and joy of +his present, and the hope of his future. It was for her own sake that he +wished to save money—to educate her. Daily he thanked God that she was +born free.</p> + +<p>Now, his bright, beautiful Coralie was pining away under a complication +of infant disorders.</p> + +<p>A sick and suffering child is one of the most distressing objects in +nature, especially when that child is but a babe, and cannot, as the +nurses say, "tell where its trouble is," and can only look at you with +its pleading eyes, as if imploring the relief you cannot give. You who +have ever had an ill and suffering infant, always pining and moaning +with its aching head, too heavy for the slender, attenuated neck, +dropped upon its nurse's or its mother's shoulder, yet still often +looking up with a faint little smile to greet you when you come to take +it, or piteously holding out its emaciated arms to coax you back when +you are called to leave it—you can estimate the distress of the poor +young father, living three miles distant from the sick child, that might +at any hour grow suddenly worse, and die; and only permitted to visit it +occasionally at the pleasure of others.</p> + +<p>Fannie's health, never strong, began to fail; loss of rest night after +night, with the sick child, joined to the fatiguing duties of her +situation, which she was still obliged to retain as a means of support, +exhausted her strength.</p> + +<p>The poor infant, bereft all day of both parents, and left in charge of +an old, free negress, that lived near the shop, had the sad, unnatural +grief of home-sickness added to its other suffering, and so pined and +failed day by day.</p> + +<p>This state of things lasted for some weeks.</p> + +<p>After a night of suffering to the child and sleeplessness to herself, +Fannie would rise in the morning, and, though nearly blind, giddy and +fainting from habitual loss of rest, she would set her room in order, +eat a morsel of breakfast, bathe and dress the little one, collect all +the articles it would need, and prepare its food and medicine for the +day; and, lastly, dress herself with neatness and taste, for it was very +necessary that the shop girl should look as well as possible; take her +sick babe in one arm, and its basket of necessaries in the other, lock +her door, and set out for the shop, stopping on her way to leave the +child and its basket at Aunt Peggy's hut, where there was no cradle or +rocking-chair, but, what was perhaps as well, a pallet laid in the +coolest part of the room.</p> + +<p>Here Fannie would sit and rest a moment, while she nursed her child, and +then she would lay it down upon the pallet and leave it, thankful if the +little creature happened to be sleeping peacefully, wretched if it +chanced to be wakeful and to be wailing after its mother.</p> + +<p>One morning, when Fannie had lingered beyond her hour for going to the +store, trying to put to sleep or to pacify the suffering child, she +finally laid it down upon the pallet, and, with many kisses and soothing +words and promises to come back soon, tore herself away; but, just as +she reached the door the little one struggled upon its feeble limbs, +staggered toward her, and fell, with its weak hand clasping her skirts.</p> + +<p>Fannie burst into tears, took the babe up in her arms, sat down upon a +chair, and, pressing the little sufferer to her bosom, caressed and +soothed it, and promised never to leave it again; and, speaking to the +old woman, said:</p> + +<p>"Please go over to Leroux's, Aunt Peggy, and tell monsieur that I can't +come to-day on account of poor little Coralie; and I don't know when I +can come—so he may, if he chooses, look out for somebody else to fill +my place."</p> + +<p>The prudent old woman expostulated, asked Fannie what she would do for a +living if she gave up her situation at Leroux's, and advised her to hold +fast, saying that the child might die, and then, there! she couldn't get +the place again so easy as she had lost it.</p> + +<p>But Fannie was firm. Pressing the infant closer to her bosom, she +replied: Yes; that little Coralie might die, and then the thought of how +often she had left the poor baby grieving for her mother would break her +heart; that it was no use for any one to talk; come what might, she +never would leave the sick child again.</p> + +<p>Aunt Peggy carried the message, and brought back the reply that Madam +Leroux had always expected this trouble to come upon Fannie; that she +had always said so; and that Fannie would find her words true, that this +was only the beginning of the troubles she would meet, for having been +so lost to her own interest as to marry a handsome slave man, whose very +hands were not his own, to help her.</p> + +<p>Fannie said that she would trust in God, unto death and beyond death; +for that often she thought the best way in which He could right His +children's wrongs, and comfort their afflictions, was by taking them +from this sad world to His own heaven.</p> + +<p>Truly, the poor young creature needed all this faith to enable her to +bear the troubles that were, and those that were to come. She carried +little Coralie back to her own poor room. She sought out what plain +sewing and clear starching she could get to do in her own home; but this +was very little, now that so many of the ladies and gentlemen among whom +she hoped to get employment had left the city for the Northern +watering-places. It brought her a very scanty income; and as, out of +this, room rent, fuel, light, food, clothing, medicine and other +incidental expenses had to be paid, and as, besides, she would not +suffer little Coralie to want any comfort, or even any luxury, that she +could procure for her by her own exertions and self-denial, it followed, +of course, that she herself went without a sufficiency of the real +necessaries of life; and so, privation being added to her other ills, +accelerated the decline of her health.</p> + +<p>Valentine could only come to see them once a week. He would come Sunday +morning, spend the day in nursing his darling, tear himself from her +clinging baby arms, and return, almost broken-hearted, at night.</p> + +<p>This was the condition of things when the yellow fever made its +appearance at M——. This was nothing new—the pestilence was no +stranger, it was an annual visitor at M——.</p> + +<p>But this summer the fever appeared in its most terrible aspect, with all +the malign, virulent and fatal characteristics of the plague.</p> + +<p>I am not about to harrow your feelings or my own with any minute details +of the misery that ensued as the pestilence advanced; of the physical +agony, from pain, fever, thirst and famine; of the wretchedness, from +bereavement, poverty and desertion; of the mental anguish, from terror, +grief, horror and despair. The pestilence brings in its dread train +almost every form of physical and moral evil; at the same time, +providentially, it calls forth to combat these the most exalted virtues +in the human character. You have only to call to mind the ravages of +the yellow fever throughout the South in the past to estimate the +horrors of the pestilence at M——. The people by hundreds fled the +city; those that remained, by thousands died.</p> + +<p>The population, reduced to less than one-half, consisted chiefly of the +poorer classes, who could not get away, and of those heroic souls whom a +high sense of Christian duty or simple humanity had retained in or +brought to the scene of misery.</p> + +<p>A dense, copper-colored cloud hung low, like a pall, over the +plague-stricken city; its air was considered deadly to the newcomer that +breathed it.</p> + +<p>All intercourse between M—— and the surrounding plantations was +interdicted. The greatest anxiety was felt by the planters, lest the +fever should break out in their families, or, where it would be more +likely to make its first appearance, among the slaves; the greatest +precautions were taken to avert such a dread misfortune. The masters and +their families confined themselves strictly to their own domains, and +the slaves were positively forbidden to approach the city, or even the +highways leading thitherward. As many of the neighboring negroes had +friends or relatives living in the city, and as their affections are +known to be rather obstinate and daring, to insure safety, a voluntary +police was organized by the planters, whose duty it was, in turn, to +guard the highways, and see that no negro passed without a written +permit from the master or mistress.</p> + +<p>Preventives of disease and disinfecting agents were diligently sought +after. Alcohol, in the form of wine, brandy and whisky, was supposed to +be a sovereign safeguard against the pestilence. I do not say that it +was laid down as a medical dogma that an habitual inebriate enjoyed +immunity from contagion; but I do say, what will probably shock my +temperance readers, that all persons were counseled by their physicians +to keep themselves always slightly under the influence of alcohol, so +long as the pestilence should last. And most people took the advice, +finding, at least, something in the half-stimulating, half-stupefying +effects of liquor to brave or dull the sense of danger. Wine and brandy +were freely used in the planter's family; whisky was freely circulated +among the negroes of the plantation. Some among them of the Methodist +persuasion and the temperance society demurred at breaking their pledge; +but even these, when made to understand that the whisky was to be taken +as medicine, by the advice of a physician, felt their consciences set at +rest upon the subject, and never was doctor's stuff swallowed with less +repugnance than their grog was taken, three times a day.</p> + +<p>Valentine held to his principles; he would not break his pledge. In vain +for a long time his master, and even his mistress, remonstrated with +him.</p> + +<p>Circumstances altered cases; times were changed; self-preservation was +the first law of nature; in view of the present danger, his pledge was +not binding; "for if he kept his pledge, he might lose his life," they +would argue.</p> + +<p>"That was the Lord's affair; all he had to do was to keep his pledge; +and if he should die, so much the better; life had no charms for him," +Valentine would reply.</p> + +<p>And in truth the wretched young man was much to be compassionated. His +wife and child alone and helpless in the midst of the plague, exposed to +the united horrors of pestilence, famine and solitary death from +desertion; himself forbidden to seek them at their utmost need. Thrice +had he escaped and sought the city, and as often had he fallen into the +hands of the voluntary police; they did not maltreat him, except +inasmuch as they would not suffer him to pass without a permit from his +master, and this permit could not be obtained. He could think of +nothing but his wife and child. Were they living, and suffering +unimagined miseries? Were they among the uncounted dead, whose rude +coffins lay one upon another, three or four feet deep, not in graves, +but in trenches? He did not even know. But all his thoughts by day, and +his fitful dreams by night, were haunted with the forms of Fannie and of +Coralie. He saw little Coralie in every phase of memory, and hope, and +fear. He saw her bright and beautiful, as she had been in the sweet +springtime; he saw her pale and pining, as he had seen her last in her +wasting sickness; and he saw her lying dead in her coffin, and woke with +a loud cry of anguish. His heart, his spirit, seemed broken.</p> + +<p>Seeing his haggard and despairing looks, his mistress expostulated with +him, and counseled the use of wine or brandy, saying that the depressing +effects of the atmosphere were felt by everybody, even by those living +in the country; that it affected all persons with despondency, causing +them to look only on the darkest side of all things; and that it was +only to be counteracted by the stimulating effects of alcohol.</p> + +<p>At last Valentine followed this counsel and took the prescribed +"medicine." Not to prevent contagion did he take it, though that purpose +would have exonerated him from the charge of a broken pledge; but to +dull the poignant sense of suffering, which was greater than he could +bear.</p> + +<p>Oh, fatal day that he placed again to his lips the maddening glass! All +have seen how dangerous is such a relapse. It is generally a sudden and +hopeless fall. It was so in the case of this poor fellow. He took the +first glass, and, liking its effects, took a second and a third before +stopping. If he awoke in the morning to remember his troubles, he drank +all day to forget them, and fell at night into a heavy sleep. He +zealously followed the medical prescription—nay, he quite overdid it, +and kept himself not "slightly" under the influence of alcohol. And in a +short space of time, if his master or his mistress remonstrated with +him, it was not for total abstinence from intoxicating spirits, but for +the opposite extreme of an habitual intemperance. Such was the state of +affairs at Red Hill for a few weeks, during which Valentine had no +direct or certain intelligence of Fannie and his little child.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>CAIN.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I pray thee take thy fingers from my throat:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For though I am not splenetive and rash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet have I in me something dangerous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>One morning, near the last of August—yet, stay! Such mornings dawn +unheralded by any sign to warn us what the fated day shall bring forth +ere its close. Such mornings dawn as other mornings do—the doomed men +and women rise as other people do—as you or I arose this morning, upon +the dread day that unpremeditated crime or sudden death shall fix their +mortal doom forever.</p> + +<p>That morning Mr. Waring arose, feeling rather unwell and irritable, +which was no unusual circumstance of late, for he was chafing between +two conflicting interests, one of which called him away, while the other +bound him at home. He was very anxious, with his wife, to leave the +neighborhood of the infected city; but, in the present condition of +affairs he hesitated to trust the plantation and negroes to the care of +the overseer.</p> + +<p>Valentine arose with the same heavy heart that had marked his waking +hours for many days, yet dressed himself and combed his raven black +curls with the habitual regard to neatness and beauty that had become a +second nature. And it was curious to see how this habit of neatness and +elegance lasted through all the darkest hours of his life.</p> + +<p>Phædra got up and attended to the arrangement of the house and the +preparation of breakfast with her usual exactness.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Waring, suffering from the debilitating effects of the weather, +indulged herself in the morning, and breakfasted in bed.</p> + +<p>No foreboding was felt by any one; no token in sky or air, or +circumstances without, of presentiment within their hearts, warned them +of calamity, crime and sudden death at hand. That morning, after +breakfast, Valentine strolled listlessly out toward the public road +leading to the town. It was his daily habit. It had been commenced in +the hope of meeting some one from the city who might be able to give him +news of Fannie and her little child. And though he never met with +success, he still rambled thither every day, as well from force of habit +as from the faint hope that he might yet hear of them. He strolled to +the highway, met his usual ill-success, and, after lingering an hour or +two, sauntered dejectedly toward home.</p> + +<p>When he reached a lane that separated his master's plantation on the +right from Mr. Hewitt's on the left, his attention was arrested by the +sound of a low voice. He listened.</p> + +<p>"Hish-sh! Walley, come here—here to the gap."</p> + +<p>The voice proceeded from behind the hedge, formed by a thick growth of +Spanish daggers, that completely covered the fence on the left of the +lane. There was a small broken place in it, toward which Valentine +sauntered indifferently. He saw on the other side the huge head of a +gigantic negro, a jet-black, lumbering, awkward, good-natured monster +enough, who belonged to Mr. Hewitt, and who sported the imposing +cognomen of "governor."</p> + +<p>"Well, Governor, is that you? What do you want with me?"</p> + +<p>"Hish-sh, Walley, don't talk so loud! our oberseer ain't far off. +Brudder 'Lisha, he bin out from town."</p> + +<p>"Well!" exclaimed Valentine, with breathless interest, bending forward.</p> + +<p>"W'en you hear from Fannie las'?"</p> + +<p>"Not for two weeks. Why do you ask? Have you heard from her? Speak! oh, +for Heaven's sake, speak!" exclaimed Valentine, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Fannie done got de feber."</p> + +<p>"Oh, God!"</p> + +<p>"Brudder 'Lisha, he done bin 'ere dis mornin' and tell we-dem."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Heaven! oh, when was she taken? Who is with her? Is she——"</p> + +<p>"Dunno nuffin 'tall 'bout it, 'cept 'tis she's got de feber. Brudder +'Lisha, he done bin dere to her place, an' heern it."</p> + +<p>"Where is Elisha?"</p> + +<p>"Done gone right straight back to town."</p> + +<p>"And that is all the satisfaction you can give me," cried Valentine, +beside himself with distress.</p> + +<p>"Yaw, yaw! I trought how I'd watch arter you, and tell you—'long as +you'd like to hear it. Hish-sh-sh! Walley, stoop down here close, till I +whisper to you."</p> + +<p>"What now!" exclaimed Valentine, in new alarm, bending his ear to the +huge negro's lips.</p> + +<p>"Hish-sh-sh! Walley, I wish how it wur my 'ooman as had de yaller +feber!"</p> + +<p>"Wretch!"</p> + +<p>"An' wish we-dem's white nigger oberseer had it too!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"And I wish dey bofe might die long of it."</p> + +<p>"Wretch! I say again!"</p> + +<p>"Trufe, brudder! dat's me jes'! I'se de wretch! an' I wish how dis same +wretch might hab de feber long o' de oder two, an' how I might die long +of 'em, and how we might all go up to Marster's trone, and have de case +'cided whose wife dis 'ooman is for to be."</p> + +<p>"Governor! What! do you mean to say that the new overseer is tampering +with your wife's fidelity to you?"</p> + +<p>"Hish-sh! he ain't fur off. Dunno what de debbil you mean wid your big +words. But she lub fine dress, an' he gib it to her; she berry putty, +mos' white, you know, an' he sen' me way off to de furres' fiel' to +work."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you talk to her?"</p> + +<p>"'Taint no use; she 'ny eberyting."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you speak to your master?"</p> + +<p>"'Tain't no use; he won't nebber hear no 'plaints gin de oberseer."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry for you, poor fellow; and I would like to give you +comfort and counsel, but I must hurry away from you, and try to get +leave to go to town, and see poor dear Fannie. If I were you, Governor, +I would speak to Major Hewitt upon this subject. He never would permit +such a wrong done you."</p> + +<p>"'Taint no use, I tell yer! But nebber min', Walley, listen yer; some ob +dese yere days I fixes him!"</p> + +<p>Valentine started at the demoniac look that, in a man usually so mild, +accompanied these vague words; and, bidding the negro a hasty +good-morning, he ran along the lane until he reached the house.</p> + +<p>His own heart and brain were wild with grief and alarm as he hastened to +the presence of his master, whom he did not doubt would now, in this +extremity, permit him to go to the city.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring, in an irritable frame of mind, was walking up and down the +front piazza, as Valentine stepped upon the floor.</p> + +<p>"Well, what now?" he exclaimed, testily, at the sight of the young man's +agitated countenance.</p> + +<p>"My wife, sir; she has got the fever."</p> + +<p>"Sorry to hear it, but—how did you hear it, sir? I hope no one from +that place has had the temerity to set foot upon these premises, in face +of the prohibition?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I happened to meet with Governor, Major Hewitt's man, and he +had seen an acquaintance of ours from the city, who came from Fannie's +house this morning and brought the news."</p> + +<p>"I wonder Major Hewitt does not take better care of his own interests +than to permit stragglers from the city to infest his place. He will +bring the pestilence among us before we know where we are," said Mr. +Waring, angrily.</p> + +<p>"But, Fannie, sir—my poor wife——"</p> + +<p>"Well, what of her? I am sorry, of course—really sorry, Valentine. It +is a pity you ever got married; if you had not, neither you nor Fannie +would have had so much trouble. It was a very foolish piece of +business!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was, sir; but people who love each other have a sort of +propensity to get married. It can't be helped, I suppose; it's a way +they've got."</p> + +<p>"And a bad way—very bad way—that I ought never to have sanctioned."</p> + +<p>"Nor imitated, sir!"</p> + +<p>"You are an impertinent fellow! But I overlook that. There is some +difference, I should judge, between you and me, and I certainly ought +never to have consented to your taking that girl."</p> + +<p>"It is too late to say that now, sir!" said Valentine, with a sigh so +heavy that Mr. Waring inquired, quickly:</p> + +<p>"So you repent it, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No; God Almighty knows I do not!" replied Valentine, with sorrowful +earnestness; adding, "but, oh, sir, I am losing precious time. I came +here to ask you for a permit to go to town and see my wife."</p> + +<p>"A permit! A permit to go to town, and to visit a woman ill with the +very pestilence we are all doing our best to guard against? A permit to +go there, and take the fever just as sure as you go, and bring back and +spread the contagion among hundreds, whom we are all doing our best to +guard from the pestilence! Impossible, Valentine! I wonder you could be +so unreasonable as to ask it!"</p> + +<p>"Unreasonable that I should want to go and see my suffering wife?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—under the circumstances. Yes, I am sorry for her, Valentine, and +sorry for you, though I cannot say that your manner is very respectful. +Still, I am very sorry for you; and if it were possible for me to do +anything for your relief, I would do it—as it is, I regret that I can +do nothing."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir! Master Oswald, you could let me go to town," pleaded +Valentine.</p> + +<p>"At the imminent hazard of your own life, and the all but certainty of +bringing the pestilence upon this plantation."</p> + +<p>"All do not get the fever who are exposed to its influence; neither do +they always spread contagion into the healthy places they chance to +visit," reasoned the young man.</p> + +<p>"The risk is too great," replied the master, curtly.</p> + +<p>"Would you think it too great if your own wife were the one concerned, +sir?" argued Valentine.</p> + +<p>"Be more respectful, sirrah! There is some difference, I should say!" +retorted the master, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is a difference!" cried Valentine; "and when I see anything +to respect——" Suddenly he stopped. Swift as lightning came the thought +that if he refrained from provoking his master now and came to him an +hour hence, when he should be in a better humor, the prayer that he now +denied he might then grant. Controlling his rising indignation, he +bowed, turned abruptly, and went off.</p> + +<p>"Impudent rascal! he was just about to say something that I should have +had to knock him down for; and then he thought better of it, and +stopped—it's well he did! Poor fellow, I am sorry for him, too; but it +is all his own fault! If he were not so presumptuous, he would not feel +so badly. That is the very deuce of it; for that prevents him from +seeing that there is a difference." Such were the reflections of Mr. +Waring as he continued to pace up and down the front piazza.</p> + +<p>Valentine has mastered his anger, but he could not control the terrible +anxiety that preyed upon his heart; Fannie suffering, Fannie dying, +deserted, alone; little Coralie perishing from neglect—these were the +torturing visions that maddened his brain.</p> + +<p>He went and told Phædra, who wept bitterly at the sad story; but yet +sought to comfort her son, and inspire hope, by promising to go herself +and tell Mrs. Waring, and get her to intercede with her husband for +Valentine.</p> + +<p>This was done, but with little success; for, though Mrs. Waring was +moved to compassion, and went to her husband and besought him to take +compassion upon Valentine and send him to seek his sick wife and trust +in Providence to avert all evil consequences, Mr. Waring was not only +firm in his refusal, but also exhibited no small degree of impatience at +her interference. Unwilling to inflict a hopeless disappointment upon +the poor fellow, Mrs. Waring tempered the report of her ill-success by +saying that, though Mr. Waring had now refused her petition, she still +hoped that he would think better of it and grant the permit.</p> + +<p>Yet all this time Fannie might be dying, and her child perishing for +want—every moment was precious beyond price!</p> + +<p>Phædra sought her master's presence, and pleaded with him—pleaded by +her long years of faithful service; by her devoted care of him in his +feeble infancy; by the days of his childhood, when he and Valentine were +playmates; by all the long years, as boys and as men, those two had +passed together, inseparable companions, until the marriage of each; by +her own devoted attachment to them; by his love for his own wife; by +every sweet affection and holy thought, to have compassion on her son, +his own foster-brother, and let him go and minister to his +sick—probably his dying wife. Phædra pleaded with more eloquence, but +with not more success, than the others.</p> + +<p>Some substances melt under the action of water—others, in the same +element, turn to stone. Instead of melting Mr. Waring's obduracy seemed +to ossify under the effects of tears and entreaties. He told Phædra, +firmly, that he did not mean to gratify one man at the hazard of +exposing many to contagion. And at the dinner-table, speaking partly in +justification of his own line of conduct, and partly in apology for the +manner in which he had met Mrs. Waring's intercession of the morning, he +said:</p> + +<p>"You emphasize this matter too much, madam; this Fannie is, after all, +but one sufferer among thousands; you also mistake in endowing these +creatures with the same acuteness of feelings that we possess; there is +a difference, madam! there is a difference! I wish I could make people +understand that there is a difference; neither Valentine nor Phædra seem +to have the slightest conception of this difference."</p> + +<p>"I must confess that in that respect I share their obtusity," remarked +madam, while Mr. Waring, in apparent self-satisfaction, went on with his +dinner.</p> + +<p>But was he really satisfied with himself? Who shall answer?</p> + +<p>Meantime, Valentine wandered about, consumed with sorrow and anxiety. +Doubtless, he would have run away and endeavored to reach the town, but +he knew how carefully the avenues thither were guarded, and how +desperate was the attempt that he had already thrice before made to +elude the police. It would involve a loss of several hours to make the +attempt, which, if it should fail, as it was altogether likely to do, +would entirely preclude him from all possible chance of seeing Fannie; +therefore he thought best to make another appeal to his master before +taking the last desperate step. He knew by experience that the hour +after dinner always found Oswald Waring in his best humor.</p> + +<p>It was then that he sought him.</p> + +<p>He found him—not, as before, walking in the front piazza, where the +afternoon sun was now shining, but reclining on a settee on the back +piazza that was now in the shade. He lay languidly fanning himself with +one hand, while he held a pamphlet that he was reading in the other. +Valentine had resolved not to provoke him by any hasty words, as he had +used in the morning. He resolved to govern his own spirit, to approach +his master respectfully, humbly. He did so.</p> + +<p>"Master Oswald!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring looked up, seemed annoyed, and hastened to exclaim:</p> + +<p>"Now, Valentine, if you have come again about going to see your sick +wife, and all that humbug, I tell you it is no manner of use. I have +been wearied nearly to death already with fruitless importunity, and I +want to hear no more of it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir!"</p> + +<p>"I tell you it is of no use to talk to me!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, but Master Oswald, only listen, even if you do no more!" pleaded +Valentine, in the fond hope of an ardent nature, that, judging from the +earnestness of his feelings, believes that if he gains a hearing, he +gains his cause.</p> + +<p>"Well, well! but I warn you it will be wasted breath."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, do not say so! I am nearly crazy with trouble, sir, when I +think of Fannie and poor little Coralie. She was very poor, sir, and the +child was very sick, even before the pestilence appeared. Now she has +the fever in that horrible place, with no one to help her or to take +care of the poor child. She may be dying, sir, even while I speak! she +may be dying, as many of the poor in that doomed city die, +deserted—alone—but for the famishing infant, whose cries add to her +own sufferings; she may have, as many of the poor have, famine and +burning thirst added to her fever, with no one near to place to her lips +a morsel of food or a drop of water! Think of it, sir! My God! do you +wonder that I am almost frantic?" cried the young man, earnestly, +beseechingly clasping his hands.</p> + +<p>"An imaginary picture altogether, Valentine," coolly remarked Mr. +Waring.</p> + +<p>"A common reality among the poor of the city, this dreadful season, sir. +You know it. You have heard it and read it. And she is very poor, sir. +She and the child often suffered, even before the pestilence came and +stopped her work with all the rest. Judge what her condition must be +now. Oh, my God!" cried the young man, in a voice of agony.</p> + +<p>"Your fears exaggerate the case, Valentine. There are almshouses and +hospitals, and sisters of charity and relief funds, and all those sort +of contrivances for the very poor."</p> + +<p>"Yet you know, for I heard you read it, that all these places are full, +that the relief fund failed to meet all the demands made upon it; and +you know, besides, that all the poor white people have to be taken care +of, before the colored people are thought of."</p> + +<p>"Of course, there is a difference, you know. I wish, once for all, you +would understand that fact," said Mr. Waring, replying only to the +latter proposition. Then he added: "Your fears magnify the danger; the +yellow fever cannot last forever, and she may get well."</p> + +<p>"Not one in ten do—I heard you say it."</p> + +<p>"Well, she may be that one."</p> + +<p>"What, sir, with all the privations of her lot?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, why not? You are out of sorts, Valentine. Go into +the house and take a drink; it will set you up—in the +dining-room—sideboard—left-hand corner—some fine old Otard +brandy—help yourself; it will make a man of you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Master Oswald; but that is not what I came for."</p> + +<p>"What the devil did you come for, then, you troublesome fellow; tell me, +and let me go to sleep," exclaimed the master, impatiently turning on +his settee.</p> + +<p>"I came to beg and to pray you, Master Oswald, for a permit to go to +town."</p> + +<p>"And you cannot have it, Valentine; so you may save your prayers. Once +for all, if you and your mother, and madam, your mistress, to back you, +were to pray from now till doomsday, you—cannot—have—it. Do you +understand?" said his master, stolidly.</p> + +<p>Valentine governed his own rising anger; it was as much as he could +possibly do; he could not suppress his grief, but broke forth in a voice +of agony:</p> + +<p>"Oh! Fannie, Fannie, Fannie, and her little child!"</p> + +<p>"D——n it, sir, stop your howling, or go somewhere else to howl. What +the devil is Fannie or her brat to me? If they are suffering, it is her +own fault; she had no business to marry a slave, whom she could never +expect to help her. And if their sufferings afflict you, it serves you +right; it is a just punishment for your cursed folly in marrying a free +woman, with no master to look after her or her children."</p> + +<p>"I will be silent! I will be silent!" thought Valentine, as he turned +from his master.</p> + +<p>A storm was raging in his breast; all the fierce passions of his nature +were aroused; rage, grief, terror and despair, made a hell of his bosom. +In passing through the hall, he suddenly dived into the dining-room, +poured out and drained a half tumbler of the strong brandy; then he +hurried through and out of the front door, to make ready for his flight.</p> + +<p>These preparations were soon made, and Valentine commenced his journey.</p> + +<p>The highway leading to M—— was bordered on one side by the hedge of +Spanish daggers that skirted the lower cotton-fields of Major Hewitt's +plantation, and on the other side by a causeway, that shut off an +extensive cypress swamp that formed a portion of Mr. Waring's estate. +Avoiding the middle of the road, Valentine leaped over the causeway, +and, though he waded half a leg deep in water, he made his way safely +under the shelter of the wall and the shadows of the trees.</p> + +<p>He had waded thus a mile, on his way toward the city, when the sound of +a voice, singing a Methodist hymn, and approaching from the opposite +direction, arrested his attention. He knew the hymn, and the voice, +that, in turn, sang and intoned it, and, by them, recognized, before +seeing, Elisha, the colored class-leader of his own congregation, the +man who had that morning brought the first news of Fannie's illness. A +new, intense anxiety seized him. Elisha came from the direction of the +city. "Might he not bring some later intelligence of Fannie?" he +inquired of himself, as he hastened to climb the wall of the causeway, +and peered through the parasitical vines that clung to the top, to +survey the scene.</p> + +<p>Lying between the dark-hued cypress swamp and the high hedge that shut +off the cotton-fields, the road stretched westward, one long, irregular +vista of yellow light shining in the last rays of the setting sun; and +solitary, except for the lonely figure of the old negro preacher, who, +stick and bundle slung across his shoulder, came trudging onward, and +beguiling his way with chanting the refrain of a wild, weird revival +hymn, in strange keeping with the time and circumstances:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Go, wake him! Go, wake him!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Judgment day is coming!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, wake him! Go, wake him!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before it is too late!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Hist! Elisha! Elisha!" called Valentine, in a hushed, eager voice.</p> + +<p>"Who dar?" exclaimed the old negro, starting back so forcibly that the +stick and bundle vibrated on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"It is I, Elisha! Come here, quickly. How is Fannie, my dear, suffering +Fannie? Quickly! You have seen her since morning?" cried Valentine, in a +low, vehement tone.</p> + +<p>"Brudder Walley! I 'clar'; de werry man I lookin' arter!" said the old +creature, approaching the causeway.</p> + +<p>"Tell me! tell me! how is Fannie?" cried Valentine, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Ah, chile! we-dem mus' 'mit to de will o' Marster," sighed the old +preacher.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, be plain! Is she—is she still living?" questioned +the youth, in an agony of anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Wur, when I lef' dar, chile! wur, when I lef' dar! Dat all I can say +for sartin 'bout libbin'."</p> + +<p>Valentine groaned deeply, asking:</p> + +<p>"When did you see her? Tell me everything—everything you know about +her."</p> + +<p>"I happen in dar, to 'quire arter her, 'bout noon. I fin' her all alone, +berry low, berry low, 'deed. Flies, like a cloud, settled on her face; +she onable to lif' her han', drive 'em 'way; lip bake wid thurst; and +she onable han' herse'f a drap o' water."</p> + +<p>"Oh, God! and the child—the child!"</p> + +<p>"'Prawlin' on de floor, kivered with flies an' dirt, cryin' low an' +weak, like, for hunder."</p> + +<p>"Elisha, I must hurry; I must fly! Turn back, and walk a little way with +me, while you tell me more; but if you see any one coming or going on +the road, whistle, to warn me, for I have no permit," said Valentine, +dropping behind the causeway, and plunging along through the water +toward the city.</p> + +<p>They could no longer see each other, and their conway.</p> + +<p>"How you gwine cross bridge widout 'mit, Brudder Walley?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I must try. Tell me more about Fannie."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know, 'out my tellin' you, how I tuk up de chile offen de +flure, an' wash it, an' dress it, and git milk, and feed it. An' how I +go for water, and wash her face, and give her drink, an' fan de flies +offen her, till she come to her min', like; an' how I'd stay 'long o' +her till dis time, ony when she come to herself, she put her two hans +togedder, so she did, de chile, and begged an' prayed me to come arter +you, her 'dear Walley,' to come an' see her once more 'fore she died, +an' take de poor baby home long o' you. An' so, dough I done travel dis +yer yode once afore to-day, I takes my staff in my han' an' I sets off; +an', franks be to de Lor', dey can't sturve me from trav'lin' de +highway, dough I daren't now-a-day put my fut offin it, or onto one o' +der plantashunes. So, now, bress de Lor', here I is; an' long as I wur +so hoped up as to fall in 'long o' you, all I got to do now is, to +'company of you back to de city."</p> + +<p>In a few earnest, fervent words, Valentine thanked his friend, and then, +saving all his breath, and concentrating all his energies, in silence he +toiled on, knee-deep in water and ankle-deep in mud, through the cypress +swamp toward the city.</p> + +<p>Old Daddy Elisha took up the burden of his hymn, and sang or intoned +various portions of that weird melody as he walked.</p> + +<p>Valentine, behind the causeway, in the shadow and the silence, passed +unquestioned; but Elisha was frequently hailed by some vigilant member +of the voluntary police. If personally known to the questioner, he was +allowed to pass; if not, he was required to show his papers; a light had +to be struck to examine them, and all this took up so much time, that +although Elisha had the high road to walk upon, and Valentine the swamp +to wade through, the latter far outstripped the former, and arrived +first at the bridge over the A—— River.</p> + +<p>To cross this bridge was the only means from this direction of reaching +the city; but the bridge was guarded at both ends by the patrol, or +voluntary police; to elude their vigilance was the only desperate part +of Valentine's undertaking.</p> + +<p>The river was broad, deep and strong in current; no one had ever dreamed +of the feat of swimming across it. It was bordered on this side by a +marsh so deep that, in the attempt to pass it, a man of moderate size +and strength must have been swallowed up.</p> + +<p>The bridge was a continuation of the road and causeway, flanked by +parapets extending across the river, and joining the road on the +opposite side.</p> + +<p>Valentine never thought of the impossible feat of wading the marsh and +swimming the river, neither did he dream of attempting to cross the +bridge in the very face of the patrol guard that twice before had +arrested him; but he projected a scheme almost equally wild and +hopeless. This plan was to cross the river by clambering along the water +side of this parapet—a plan involving less risk of discovery by the +patrol, certainly—but undertaken at the most imminent peril of death, +by losing hold and dropping into the river below.</p> + +<p>Valentine waded on through the cypress swamp, until the trees grew more +sparsely, and the mud under the water became deeper and more treacherous +as it merged into the marsh nearest the river.</p> + +<p>The poor fellow then clambered along, now on the broken causeway, his +eyes all on fire with vigilance, and now dropping down into the swamp, +and so in more peril and difficulty he went on, until he reached the +place where the marsh merged into the river, and the road and causeway +into the bridge and parapet.</p> + +<p>Here he heard the patrol guard in their little guard-house laughing and +talking over their drink, for they, too, had to keep the pestilence at +bay with alcohol.</p> + +<p>Here he attempted to gain the parapet, and in doing so, set in motion +some alarm bell, at whose first peals he found himself suddenly +surrounded, and in the hands of the patrol.</p> + +<p>"My good fellow, that feat has been tried once before, so we prepared +for the second, you understand," said one of his captors.</p> + +<p>They all knew Valentine; with most of them he was a great favorite, +though to others he was, for the sole reason of his natural superiority, +very obnoxious.</p> + +<p>While Valentine stood overwhelmed with despair, he discerned Major +Hewitt among the party; and gathering some hope from the presence of +that gentleman, he clasped his hands and appealing to him, said:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Major Hewitt, you know me, sir! You have known me from childhood! +Your dear lady knew me, too, and was very kind to the poor quadroon boy, +when he was a child. And you know my poor little Fannie, too! Sir, my +heart is breaking—that is nothing, but she is dying! Sir, my wife is +dying, alone—not of the fever only, but of starvation, of thirst, of +neglect, of bereavement of all aid; and she sends to me, sir—sends to +pray me to come and see her poor face for the last time, and take her +orphan baby from her dead arms, lest it die, too! You are powerful, +Major Hewitt! Speak the word, and these gentlemen will let me pass!"</p> + +<p>"Valentine, my poor boy, if your sorrow had not crazed you, you would +understand at once that I cannot do so! But I tell you what I can do for +you; I can persuade these gentlemen from detaining you in the +guard-house, and I can write a note of intercession to your master. +Return to him, Valentine—take my horse! There he stands; go to Mr. +Waring; tell him what you have told me! Give him my note; he will not +refuse you the permit, and when you have it, ride back hither as fast as +you please," said the major.</p> + +<p>He scribbled a note in haste. Valentine mounted the horse, received the +missive, and, thanking the major from the depths of his heart, rode off. +He met and hailed Elisha, told him in a few words what had passed, and +added:</p> + +<p>"Go on to the city, Elisha! Go to my dear Fannie! Tell her, if she can +still hear your words, that I shall be with her in two hours, or die in +the effort. No! do not tell her a word to alarm her! Say I will +certainly be with her in two hours! For I will! despite of earth and +h—ll, I will!"</p> + +<p>Valentine galloped swiftly toward home, reached the lawn gate, sprang +from his horse, secured the bridle, and hastened up to the house. There +was no one in front; he entered the hall, looked into the dining-room; +it was empty; he ran in, poured out a glass of brandy, drank it at a +draught, and passed through the house to the back piazza, where he found +his master, pacing up and down the floor. Mr. Waring had grown heated +and angry between the frequent potations and the irritations of the day.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir!" he said, turning abruptly to Valentine, "what now? How dare +you enter my presence again, after your insolent conduct of this +afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Master Oswald, I am very sorry if, in my great trouble, I was surprised +into saying anything wrong. Will you read this note, sir?" said +Valentine, trying, for Fannie's dear sake, to quell the raging storm in +his bosom.</p> + +<p>Oswald Waring took the note with a jerk, tore it open impatiently, and, +casting his eyes over it with a scornful curl of his lip, tossed it +away, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Tush! Major Hewitt is a fool! Where did you get that, sir?"</p> + +<p>Valentine hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I ask you where you got that note, sir?"</p> + +<p>"From Major Hewitt's own hand, Master Oswald," replied Valentine, at +last.</p> + +<p>"By ——! don't prevaricate with me, sir! Where did you see Major +Hewitt, then? That is the question!"</p> + +<p>Again Valentine was silent.</p> + +<p>"What the demon do you mean, sir, by treating my questions with this +contemptuous silence?" demanded Mr. Waring, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Master Oswald!" began Valentine, seriously, impressively; "I will +answer your question truly; but, first, let me beg you, let me pray you, +by all your hopes of salvation, to listen to me favorably; for I swear +to you by all my faith in Heaven, that it is the very last time I will +make the appeal!"</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it, you troublesome, confoundedly spoiled rascal! For +it is the very last minute that I will bear to be trifled with!"</p> + +<p>"I met Major Hewitt on the bridge——"</p> + +<p>"On the bridge! On the bridge! Why, you insolent scoundrel; do you dare +to stand there and tell me to my face that, in direct violation of my +command, you attempted to go to town?"</p> + +<p>"Sir! sir! listen to me! my worst fears are confirmed! My poor Fannie is +dying, as I feared she might die—alone! deserted! dying not only of +pestilence, but of famine and thirst, and every extremity of +wretchedness! She sent a faithful messenger, praying me to come and see +her once more, but once more, to close her eyes and receive the orphan +child. Oh! could I disregard such an appeal as that? would not any man, +or, I was about to say, any beast, risk life, and more than life, if +possible, to obey such a sacred call? I would have periled my soul! Can +you blame me?"</p> + +<p>"They turned you back! They did right! Thank Heaven that I am disposed +to consider that sufficient punishment under the circumstances and am +ready to forget your fault. Go, leave me, sir—stop! into the house! not +out of it! you're not to be trusted, sir."</p> + +<p>A volcano seemed burning and raging in the young man's breast; +nevertheless, he controlled himself with wonderful strength, while he +still pleaded his cause.</p> + +<p>"Major Hewitt felt my position, sir! He had compassion on me, and wrote +that note. Give heed to it, sir! The time may come when, on your own +deathbed, or by the sickbed of one you love, and fear to lose, and pray +for, it may console and bless you to remember the mercy you may now show +me; the Good Being has said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall +obtain mercy.' Give me the permit, sir! let me go and comfort my dying +Fannie! Oh! I do beseech you!"</p> + +<p>"Will you have done worrying me? Major Hewitt is an old dotard! The +mercy you selfishly crave for yourself would be cruelty to all the other +negroes! Once more, and for the last time, I tell you, and I swear it by +all the demons, I will not give you the permit!"</p> + +<p>"Then, by the justice of Heaven, I will go without it!"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"I will go without it! If I cannot pass the bridge, I will swim the +river! Aye, if it were a river of fire!" exclaimed Valentine, losing all +self-control, and breaking into fury.</p> + +<p>"Why, you audacious villain! You shall not stir from this house!"</p> + +<p>"Neither man on earth nor demon from h—ll shall stop me!" broke forth +the man, in a voice of thunder, striding off.</p> + +<p>In an instant Mr. Waring had intercepted him, holding up a light cane, +and exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Stand back, you villain!"</p> + +<p>Valentine came on with the evident intention of attempting to pass.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring met him with a sudden, sharp blow with his cane across the +face.</p> + +<p>And as Valentine, giddy and blinded for an instant with the blood that +streamed from the cut, staggered backward, Mr. Waring, by another heavy +stroke with the loaded end of the cane, felled him to the floor, and +proceeded to follow up his victory with several other severe blows.</p> + +<p>But Valentine was struggling to his feet, and at last sprang up—reeled, +righted himself, cleared the blood from his eyes, glared around; and +just as Mr. Waring had broken his cane with a final stroke over his +shoulder, Valentine saw and seized a heavy oaken stool, and, aiming one +fatal blow with all his force, struck his master in the face! The heavy +leg of the oaken stool, aimed with all the strength of madness, crushed +the eye—entered the brain, and Oswald Waring fell, never to rise again!</p> + +<p>But Valentine was maddened! frenzied! and showered blows upon the dying +man like one unconscious of his acts, until the agonized screams of +women brought him slightly to his senses, when he found himself seized +between Mrs. Waring, who was, amid her frantic shrieks, trying to pull +him away, and Phædra, who was crying, distractedly: "Oh! Valentine, +you've murdered him!"</p> + +<p>He glared from one to the other, in the amazed, bewildered manner of one +half wakened from a horrible dream; looked at the mutilated form before +him; looked at the strange weapon in his hand—the foot-stool, with its +legs clotted with blood and hair; and then, with a violent start, and an +awful change of aspect, as if, for the first time the reality, the +horror and the magnitude of his crime had burst upon his consciousness, +he stood an instant, and casting the weapon from him, broke from the +hands of the women, cleared the porch at a bound, rushed across the +yard, leaped the fence, crossed the road and plunged into the shadows of +the cypress swamp beyond.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>That night, as Fannie lay on the wretched bed of her poor room, in +darkness and solitude, and in the semi-delirium of fever, suddenly an +apparition, like some ghastly phantom of her husband, gleamed out from +the surrounding shadows, stooped over, raised her in its ghostly arms, +chattered, raved wildly, incoherently, and—was lost; whether really +from the room, or only from her failing consciousness, is not +certain—and, indeed, how much of this scene was an actual occurrence, +and how much of it was the mere phantasmagoria of frenzy, the sufferer +never knew!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE APPARITION.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye seem to look on me with asking eyes!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Listen! and I will tell a fearful story!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since I remember aught about myself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strange heart sickness almost like to death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A deep remorse for some unacted crime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For some impossible, nameless wickedness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was on me—in its prophecy I lived;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wretch dragg'd on to execution<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'er felt more horrid pangs than then stirr'd up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My spirit with remorseful agony.—<span class="smcap">John Wilson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Eighteen months had passed since the murder of Oswald Waring, and yet +the murderer had not been apprehended. Though, upon the night of that +fatal catastrophe, both the regular and volunteer police had turned out +in great numbers, and scattered themselves over the neighborhood in +pursuit of the criminal; though trained sleuth-hounds had been made to +smell his clothing, and had been set upon his scent; though, thus with +men and dogs, the authorities had hunted him throughout the State, and +had offered the largest rewards for his betrayal or apprehension, this +length of time had passed, and he had not been arrested.</p> + +<p>Mr. Waring having died intestate, his property, according to the laws of +that commonwealth, fell to the next of kin.</p> + +<p>His childless widow inherited none of her late husband's wealth, but +returned to New Orleans, and thence retired to the country, to live upon +her own reserved patrimony.</p> + +<p>The plantation fell into other hands, and the planter passed out of +memory.</p> + +<p>Valentine, with his crime and his fate, overlaid by newer excitements, +was already sinking into oblivion. He was supposed to have escaped from +the State. But there were three faithful friends who knew that, in all +this time, the miserable young man had never left the neighborhood, or +wandered five miles from the blood-stained floor of his crime.</p> + +<p>Phædra was set free. The quadroons and mestizzas, with all their fiery +vehemence of temperament, have perhaps less of real vital stamina than +any other race. They cannot bear up under any great mental or physical +pressure. Phædra, by the terrible blow that had fallen upon her, was +crushed into premature age and decrepitude. And, as a useless old crone, +she was suffered by her new master to retire to a lone cabin in the pine +barrens above the cypress swamp, and, without being required to work, +was supplied with rations of food and clothing upon an equal footing +with the plantation laborers.</p> + +<p>But this poor Naomi, in her desolation, had also her Ruth.</p> + +<p>Fannie had almost miraculously recovered from the yellow fever; and, in +the mental imbecility that had attended her convalescence, she had been +long shielded from the knowledge of the calamity that had fallen upon +them all; and at last so gradually did the facts of the catastrophe +enter her mind that she could never after say when or how she first +learned the sum of her misery; and thus she was spared the sudden shock +that must certainly have proved fatal to her.</p> + +<p>No one could look upon that fragile form and thin face, with its fair, +transparent pallor, and large, mournful eyes, and not know her heart was +breaking.</p> + +<p>What kept her life power going?</p> + +<p>Something that was not the love of her child, or of her poor, old +mother! Something that occasionally varied that look of hopeless, +incurable sorrow, with a wild and startled expression of extreme terror, +suggestive of insanity. Some people thought it was insanity, but they +were mistaken; her reason was sound, though her heart was broken.</p> + +<p>Fannie kept a little thread and needle shop; she owed the little shop to +the benevolence of Mrs. Waring; for, to the honor of that poor lady be +it spoken, even in the midst of her own awful sorrow, she had remembered +and succored her humble sister in adversity. Fannie's little shop +thrived moderately, and afforded herself and child a decent living, and +the means of alleviating some of the miseries and adding to the few +comforts of her poor mother.</p> + +<p>Early every Saturday evening Fannie would close her little shop and take +her child and walk out to Phædra's cabin, to remain until Monday +morning. And these seasons, spent in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, +and in mutual consolations, were the least unhappy in these poor +women's lives.</p> + +<p>Phædra's decrepitude confined her closely at home.</p> + +<p>But the brothers and sisters of her church did not leave her alone in +her sorrow. They came frequently, they ministered to all her +necessities, material and spiritual, as far as she had need, and they +had power. They held a weekly prayer-meeting at her house.</p> + +<p>And these Thursday evening meetings were sources of great comfort to the +desolate woman.</p> + +<p>Fannie was frequently present at them. And the old negro preacher, +Elisha, was invariable in his punctual attendance. There was also +another, a constant, though an unknown and unsuspected worshipper among +them.</p> + +<p>Valentine's name had long died off from every tongue, as his memory +seemed to have expired from every heart. Even in comforting Phædra her +friends never designated the nature of her grief; and, in praying for +the Lord's mercy upon their "aged sister in her sore affliction," they +never named that affliction's cause. And though the unhappy man was +remembered in their petitions, it was in silence and in secrecy.</p> + +<p>One Thursday evening, while the March winds were piping through the pine +barrens, Phædra was holding a prayer-meeting in her cabin.</p> + +<p>There were about twenty negroes, both men and women, present.</p> + +<p>Among them was the old preacher, Elisha, who led the devotions.</p> + +<p>Fannie was also present, with her child. And the look of wild anxiety +that occasionally varied the heart-broken expression of her face seemed +now fixed; her usually patient, suffering countenance was absolutely +haggard with terror, and strong shudders shook her frame.</p> + +<p>Phædra watched her with great uneasiness.</p> + +<p>Meantime the meeting went on in its services, and they sang, prayed and +exhorted in turn. It was not what is technically called a "good" +meeting. Few seemed to enjoy the privilege of prayer, or to possess the +gift of exhortation. The very singing was tame and lifeless. There +seemed to be some spell of heaviness cast over all. At last, toward the +close of the evening, an aged brother arose, and began in a strain of +such wild eloquence, as deep, earnest, fervid emotions confer upon +untutored minds, to exhort his brethren and sisters of the church upon +the subject of their apathy and lukewarmness. I can do no justice to +that wild, eyrie style of oratory. It impressed, affected and strongly +excited his hearers. He concluded with <i>outre</i> expressions and +gesticulations:</p> + +<p>"And why, my brethren, is this freezing spell of spiritual cold cast +over us? Why can we not pray, or exhort, or sing, or take sweet counsel +together? Why can we not love, or fear, or feel? Why will not the Spirit +of God come down to us? Why will not the Lord inspire and accept our +prayers? Is it because there is 'some accursed thing hidden' among us? +Is there an Achan in our camp? I charge you, brother, sister, whoever +you be, repent! speak! cast the foul sin from your soul!"</p> + +<p>He was interrupted by a deep, hollow voice that proceeded from an +obscure corner, where a seeming old woman sat crouching, her form +enveloped in a long cloak, her head hidden in a deep sunbonnet.</p> + +<p>"Yes! there is 'an accursed thing hidden' in your midst! and I am the +Achan in your camp!" And the figure arose, and the cloak fell, and the +bonnet was dropped, and the stranger stood revealed.</p> + +<p>"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Fannie, in a voice of agony.</p> + +<p>He crossed quickly through the astonished group, to the spot where she +cowered. He stooped and spoke to her a few earnest words, and sat her +down where she could drop her poor, young head upon the lap of the +trembling, sorrow-stricken Phædra, while he stood up and gazed upon the +crowd, who remained, stunned with consternation into silence.</p> + +<p>Valentine was frightfully changed in the last eighteen months. His flesh +had wasted from his bones, until it left him almost a walking skeleton; +his skin had darkened, and his eyes had sunken, and concentrated their +fires until they burned like two imbedded stars; his voice was +cavernous. While the negroes present returned his gaze in silent awe, he +spoke:</p> + +<p>"A price is on my head! the Governor, or the State, will purchase and +emancipate any man here who will deliver me up to death. It is written +that 'a murderer shall hang on a tree!' It is every man's duty to +deliver, if he can, a felon up to justice! It is every man's duty here +to procure, if he can, his own freedom! Therefore, it is doubly some +man's duty to take me into custody. I have determined to die for my +deed! Doubtless, I could go at any time, and surrender to the +authorities. But in that case I should not do the little good I am now +desirous of doing. I should not in dying procure some one of you his +freedom! Therefore, I wish that one of you take me in custody, and +attend me to M——. Come, choose! elect, or cast lots for him who is to +be the freeman. Brother Portiphar——"</p> + +<p>Before Valentine could say another word the old preacher, Elisha, who +had been gradually getting over his astonishment, and, recovering his +self-possession climbed over stools and chairs and the crouching forms +of women and children, and made his way toward Valentine, whom he +embraced with his left arm, while he closed his lips by laying over them +his right hand.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Brudder Walley, hush! You don't know what you'se a-sayin' of. +You'se a prophesyin' of de ole law 'stead o' de new gospel! 'Sides +which, would you temp' any brudder here to sin an' slave his 'mortal +soul, sake o' freein' of his poor, perishin' body? Hush, Brudder Walley, +an' let me prophesy. Bredren and sisters, is der a man or a woman in de +soun' o' my voice as 'ould 'cept his free papers on de terms as Brudder +Walley offers—at de price of a brudder's life an' a sister's happiness? +Which ob yer here 'ould buy his freedom wid the price ob Walley's blood, +and Phædra's and Fannie's tears? Would you, Brudder Portiphar? or you, +Sister Deely? or you? or you? No, not one ob you. Now, brudders an' +sisters, I'se got a proposition to make. Fust, bolt dat door, Brudder +Isaac, an' see to de fastenin' o' dat winder, Sister Hera; no knowin' +who'se 'bout. Now, let's speak low. An' what I want to propose is dis +yer: dat ebery brudder makes a pledge afore he leabes dis room to be +silent as to which has happen here dis night. Let Brudder Walley no more +be lef in de power an' temptations ob de enemy; let him feel hissef free +to 'tend our prayer-meetin's here in peace an' safety, for all as is +happened of to-night. Let us pray wid him, an' try to 'lieve his poor +soul ob its load o' sin an' sorrow!"</p> + +<p>Elisha would have spoken longer, but here Portiphar arose, and said, in +effect, that he did not fully agree with Brother Elisha; that he doubted +whether they should be doing right to conceal Valentine, especially when +the conscience of the latter urged him to the expiation of his crime.</p> + +<p>Elisha could scarcely wait for the other to finish his remarks before he +arose in a hurry, and said, in effect, if not in these words, and with +some vehemence also, that he was the last to make light of the guilt +that Valentine had brought upon his own soul, but that he also knew, +and no one else knew so well, the maddening provocation that had driven +him to his crime. That he prayed the sin might be washed away by +repentance and faith in the Redeemer; that, for this reason, he wished +Valentine to feel safe in coming among them, to share their prayers, and +hymns, and exhortations, and all their other means of grace; that, +undismayed and undistracted by the worldly sorrows of imprisonment, +trial and impending execution, he might have time to work out his +salvation! That therefore he should shield his sinful brother until they +could prove to him that the gallows was a means of grace, "which I don't +believe it is," concluded old Elisha, as he sat down in quiet triumph, +for he saw that every man and woman among the warm-hearted creatures +present coincided in sentiment with himself, and that Portiphar was put +down and silenced, if not convinced.</p> + +<p>And Phædra and Fannie ventured once more to raise their drooping heads +and look about them. Alas, for their feeble hopes! Valentine, still +standing, and still agonized, waved his hand for silence and attention, +and then spoke.</p> + +<p>He told them he had already repented, if that were the word to express +the horrible remorse of blood-guiltiness that had long preyed upon his +heart, and consumed his flesh and blood, and left him what they saw him. +But did they, he asked them, suppose that he had repented only since the +fatal deed? No, no! but for years and years before that catastrophe he +had suffered with that uncommitted crime. Did they think that the act +was premeditated, then? Yes, in one sense it was premeditated, although +entirely unintentional, and so abhorrent that he would have gladly died +to escape committing it. The deed was premeditated, inasmuch as it had +long loomed up before him, a black mountain<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in his forward path of +life, from which it was impossible to turn aside; to which every breath +and every step drew him nearer and nearer. That the first time he caught +a glimpse of this awful phantom of his future was while he and Oswald +were still boys. He had been provoked and exasperated to frenzy by his +playmate, and, in his utter madness, had struck and tried to kill him. +The reaction from that fit of passion had been terrible. The next +occasion upon which arose darkly before him this inevitable doom was +when his master and himself were youths. One night he was driving Oswald +home. Both were intoxicated; they quarreled; his master threatened him +with the lash; he lost his reason and his very eyesight, and all his +senses, in a dark tempest and whirlwind of mad and blind fury, and +struck with all his strength to destroy. By Heaven's mercy, that blow +was not fatal. But the recovery of his own senses from that frenzy of +anger was more horrible than anything he had ever before experienced. +From that time he had never been able to exorcise the haunting presence +of that black phantom, standing waiting for him at the terminus of his +earthly path, from which he could not escape; to which every breath and +every step drew him nearer and nearer! From that time he had felt in +some baleful moment of extreme exasperation, some irresponsible moment +of mad and blind passion, he should strike a fatal blow. Yet he said he +agonized in soul to escape that black crime; he struggled to conquer his +angry passions; he sought the grace of God, and hoped that he had +possessed it; he swore off from alcohol, that stimulus might not be +added to his other excitements to anger—to the inevitable provocations +arising from his temperament, position and circumstances—provocations +that were constantly exasperating his soul to madness. For years, he +said, no eye but the Lord's had seen the desperate war his spirit had +waged with the powers of evil within and around him, and waged +successfully, until one trying season, when, in the utter prostration of +sorrow and despondency, he had been tempted to place again the maddening +glass to his lips—tempted by the sophistry that prescribed the moral +poison as a medicine; then he lost the habit, and at last the power of +self-control, and one fatal day, when amazed and bewildered with +exceeding sorrow, and stung to frenzy with the sense of wrong-suffering +and cruelty, he had struck the blow that laid his master dead before +him.</p> + +<p>"Heaven knows I was not thinking of doing it; in my deep sorrow of the +preceding days the phantom of my predestined crime was exorcised. I had +not even that to warn me; the hour was entirely unguarded. I struck in +self-defense. He had intercepted and knocked me down, to prevent me from +going to see my sick wife. Blind and giddy, and furious, I struggled to +my feet, and seized the first weapon that offered, a three-legged stool, +and struck with all my strength; but when I saw the leg crush through +his eye and brain, one lightning thought told me that he was killed, and +thenceforth all the world was against me, and I against the world; and +then waves of blood and clouds of fire seemed to roll up around me, and +rage in a horrible tempest; reason fled utterly, and I knew nothing more +until near midnight, when I came to myself upon the floor of Fannie's +room; and even then, in my vague remorse and horror of half-conscious +blood-guiltiness, I seemed to be some other thing than myself—perhaps +some lost soul in perdition! Brother Elisha, Heaven bless him, was +bending over me. It was to him I owed the preservation of my life. It +was by his counsel and assistance that I disguised myself in poor +Fannie's clothing, which fitted me well enough for the purpose. He even +crimped my hair and tied up my head in a woman's turban. And he found +and thrust Fannie's free papers in my bosom, and then led me off to his +own home. Well, in this disguise, and by keeping very close, I contrived +to elude the vigilance of the police, until a surer place of safety was +provided for me near this cabin. For eighteen months I have eluded the +police; but think you, my brothers and sisters, that, for one moment, I +have escaped the avenger of blood? No! no! After the crime he found me +even in the first moments of my waking consciousness; his clutch has +never been relaxed from my heart; it compresses now, even to +suffocation; the death that you would save me from I die every hour of +my life; I can bear it no longer; I must die once for all, and have done +with it; I should have resigned myself into the hands of the law, and, +in the final expiation, long since found rest, but for Fannie's grief +and terror. But now, even her tears and prayers must not hinder me; even +for her peace it is better I should give myself up to die, and have it +over, for now she lives in the midst of alarms; hereafter, when all is +over, she will at least have quiet."</p> + +<p>"Quiet! yes, the quiet of death, for I never can outlive you, Valley!" +said Fannie, in a low tone of despair.</p> + +<p>He laid his hand fondly on her bowed head, but without comment resumed +his discourse.</p> + +<p>"I was about to surrender myself to the public authorities, when I +reflected that, by giving myself up to my brothers in the church, I +might confer the blessing of freedom upon some one among you, since that +was one of the rewards offered for my arrest. Here I am! Which of you +will make himself a free man to-night?"</p> + +<p>He paused a moment, looking around upon the little assembly; and then +fixing his eyes upon a handsome, intelligent-looking, young man, to whom +the gift of freedom might well seem the most desirable of goods, he +said:</p> + +<p>"Brother Joseph, will you take me into custody?"</p> + +<p>"May the enemy of souls take me in custody, and never let me go, when I +do!" promptly replied young Joe.</p> + +<p>"That's you, my boy! And may the same fate befall any one else who would +do the like!" exclaimed old Elisha, emphatically.</p> + +<p>A murmur of approbation ran around the little assembly and revealed the +fact that the feelings of the majority were with the speakers.</p> + +<p>"Brother Walley! you think yourself a very guilty man. But no one ever +craved freedom more than you did, and yet you know you would never o' +bought your freedom at the price o' any man's life, no matter how fur +forfeit his life might be! An' now, Brudder Walley, please don't think +us so much wus than yourself."</p> + +<p>When the little assembly heard this, with one voice (and one exception) +they declared that they would die before they would betray Valentine. +And Elisha, to confirm their faith, went around with the Bible in his +hand, and administered to each an oath of fidelity and silence upon the +subject of Valentine and the transactions of that night.</p> + +<p>But when he came to old Portiphar, the latter declared that he had a +scruple against taking an oath on the Evangelists, but readily gave his +promise to be secret.</p> + +<p>Valentine, with grateful but troubled looks, regarded these proceedings, +until Phædra and Fannie, taking advantage of the popular sentiment, came +to him, and, one on each side, seized his hands, besought him, for their +sakes, not to cast away his slender chance of safety.</p> + +<p>What was to be done? Love was almost irresistible, and life, perhaps, +even at the worst was sweet; he had come to the resolution to deliver +himself up to justice; but that could be done at any time; and for the +present it could be deferred. He embraced his mother and his wife, and +bade them rest quietly, as he would proceed no farther in the matter +now.</p> + +<p>The meeting soon after broke up.</p> + +<p>One by one the members of the little community took leave of Valentine, +promising to guard his secret, and remember him in their prayers.</p> + +<p>After all the others had departed old Portiphar still lingered. And when +the room was quite clear, he called Valentine to the door and said:</p> + +<p>"Brudder Valley, I'se a poor man, wid a fam'ly o' chillun, an' ef so be +you'se 'termin' on gibbin' o' yourself up I wouldn' min' walkin' far as +the squire's office wid you myself."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Portiphar; I will inform you when I need your services. +Good-night," replied the young man, shutting the door upon him.</p> + +<p>Portiphar had not proceeded half a dozen steps on his way before he felt +himself seized by the shoulder, and he recognized as his assailant the +strapping negro, young Joe, who, holding him tightly, said:</p> + +<p>"See here, Daddy Fox! I thought what you was up to, so I stopped to give +this 'vice! Ef Valley's took up, we shall all know who slipped the +bloodhounds on him, an' then some dark night somethin' will happen to +you so sudden you won't never know what hurt you! Tain't only me, but a +great many more is a-watchin' of you!"</p> + +<p>And with this brief and pithy exordium Joe released Portiphar, or rather +spurned him forward, and went his own way. This threat put the old man +in a cold sweat of terror. He knew the strong fellow-feeling among his +own class; that, even in the dangerous number of twenty persons, it +would keep Valentine's secret; that he himself was suspected as a +traitor; that, if Valentine should now be arrested, his own life might +not be safe with those of the meeting who were not professing +Christians; and he resolved to guide himself accordingly.</p> + +<p>Several weeks passed in safety to the wretched young man.</p> + +<p>But, released from the awful solitude and silence of his own +heavily-burdened soul, free to come among a few of his fellow-creatures, +free to speak of the deep sorrow and remorse that consumed his heart, +among those who pitied and shrank not from him, who prayed for and with +him, Valentine's mind began to recover its healthy tone; he did not +cease to mourn his crime, but he mourned no longer as one without hope; +he was again received into the little brotherhood of the church, the +simple ceremony being performed in the lone cabin; again he became the +man of fervent prayer and eloquent exhortation; and powerful, far more +powerful, was he now, through his terrible experiences and profound +repentance, than ever he had been.</p> + +<p>To his confidant brother, Elisha, he was accustomed to say:</p> + +<p>"I know I shall not finally escape the earthly punishment of my crime. I +know that sooner or later it must come; nor do I wish to avoid it; yet +will I do nothing to hasten its arrival; but when it shall come, I will +accept it."</p> + +<p>To which Elisha would reply: "Our lives are in the hands of the Lord," +or words to that purpose.</p> + +<p>Weeks grew into months, spring ripened into summer, and summer waned +into autumn, and still Valentine lived unmolested.</p> + +<p>At length, however, near the last of September, a rumor got afloat that +Valentine, the murderer of Mr. Waring, was concealed somewhere in the +neighborhood of his late master's residence. How this report first got +in circulation no one seemed to be able to tell; though how the secret, +known to twenty people, had been guarded so long may be more of a +subject for conjecture to many minds. Be that as it may, the peace of +the unhappy little family was gone forever. Phædra's lonely cabin in the +pine barrens and Fannie's humble home in the city were subject to sudden +invasions and searchings by day and by night. Their weekly +prayer-meetings were surprised and broken up. But no trace of Valentine +could be discovered; as unexpectedly as he had appeared, so suddenly had +he again disappeared. The earth seemed to have swallowed him.</p> + +<p>But this could not last forever; and upon the third of October Valentine +was arrested under the following suspicious circumstances:</p> + +<p>A police officer, stationed in concealment behind a hedge of Spanish +daggers that bordered a lane crossing the highway at right angles, and +running midway between the pine ridge and cypress swamp, saw what seemed +a young negro woman coming down the lane. She was poorly and plainly +clothed, and wore a long sunbonnet. There was nothing whatever in her +manner or appearance to attract attention. Yet this police officer +watched her closely. Presently, coming up the lane from an opposite +direction, appeared the figure of an old negro. The policeman favored +him also with a share of notice. Meeting the seeming woman, the old man +laughed, held out his hand, and exclaimed, in a clear voice:</p> + +<p>"Ha! Brudder Walley! Good-morning! Walking out to take a little air, +eh?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! for Heaven's sake, don't speak so loud or call me by name. Yes, +I have stolen forth for a breath of fresh air."</p> + +<p>"Glad to hear it. Which way is you walking, Brudder Walley?" inquired +the other, raising his voice.</p> + +<p>"For the Lord's sake, I beg you will not call me by my name, or speak so +loud!"</p> + +<p>"No danger at all, Brudder Walley; no one in sight!" exclaimed the old +man, louder than ever. "Which way did you say you wer' goin', Brudder +Walley?"</p> + +<p>"I am going home."</p> + +<p>"Well, Brudder Walley, let me go long wid you dis time. I'd like to see +Sister Phædra," pleaded the old negro.</p> + +<p>"Come along, then; but be careful."</p> + +<p>They walked up the lane together, and then struck into the pines. The +policeman followed them, and, himself unseen, keeping them in sight, +traced them into the cabin of Phædra.</p> + +<p>Then having, as it were, pointed his game, he ran back as fast as +possible, sprang over the hedge, ran down the lane, crossed the highway, +sprang over a second hedge dividing the road from Major Hewitt's +plantation, hastened up to that gentleman's house, gave the alarm, +procured the assistance of the overseer and the gardener, both Irishmen, +and with this reinforcement hastened back to the scene of action.</p> + +<p>They found Phædra's cabin quiet enough. To the knock of the policeman +the old woman's voice responded, "Come in."</p> + +<p>They entered, and found no one within except Phædra and the old negro +preacher, Portiphar—no sign of Valentine. As the cabin contained but +one room, with but one door and window, and no loft or outbuildings, the +premises were easily searched. The little room was also very scantily +furnished; a rag carpet concealed the rough floor, a rude bed stood in +one corner, a cupboard in another, an oak chest in a third, a pine table +in the fourth; a couple of chairs, a few stools, etc., completed the +appointments. The cupboard was opened, the big chest ransacked, the bed +and bedstead pulled to pieces, the chimney inspected, but no trace of +the fugitive could be found.</p> + +<p>Phædra was questioned; but she sadly shook her head and remained dumb.</p> + +<p>The old negro preacher was examined, but he replied evasively, that he +had just come, and knew nothing about it, while at the same time he kept +his eyes strangely fixed upon the corner of the room occupied by +Phædra's bed.</p> + +<p>Yet, the policeman had pulled that bed to pieces and found nothing, and +now did not know what to make of Portiphar's pertinacious gaze. At last +a bright idea struck him. He took the poker and began sounding the +floor. He went on sounding foot by foot until he approached the bed. +Turning then, he saw Phædra's face haggard with the most frightful +expression of terror and anxiety. Dragging the bedstead away by main +force he began to sound the corner. The floor returned a hollow echo; he +was satisfied.</p> + +<p>It was but the work of a moment to turn up the carpet, to lift up a +loose plank and to discover the mouth of the excavation below.</p> + +<p>He knelt upon his knees and peered down into the cavern; the mouth only +opened in the corner of Phædra's cabin; the cavern itself extended under +and beneath the house. He peered down into the darkness for a few +moments, and then called, in a not unkindly voice:</p> + +<p>"Valentine, my poor fellow, you may as well come out; the game is up +with you!"</p> + +<p>A moment passed, and then Valentine, indeed, appeared above the opening.</p> + +<p>"Give me time to change my dress, Mr. Pomfret," he said, for he was +still in his woman's gown.</p> + +<p>This was granted. The change was soon effected, and he came forth and +gave himself up, only saying, as they took him away:</p> + +<p>"Mother, tell my friends that the traitor at your side betrayed me to +death!" And he regretted these words as soon as they were spoken.</p> + +<p>Phædra had not heard them; she seemed praying—she had really fainted.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>THE TRIAL.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">You few that love me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dare be bold to weep for such as I—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My gentle friends and fellows, whom to leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is only bitter to me, only dying—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go with me, like good angels, to mine end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the long divorce of death falls on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make of your prayers one most sweet sacrifice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lift my soul to heaven.—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The news of the arrest of Valentine spread rapidly over the city and +surrounding country, creating everywhere an intense excitement, and +reviving all the deep interest that had been felt two years before, at +the epoch of the crime.</p> + +<p>This excitement prevailed all around Fannie, yet she knew nothing of it, +or at least of its cause. There was no one found willing to carry this +sorrowful intelligence to her, whom it most concerned; and she remained +in total ignorance of the arrest of her husband until the next day, +which being Saturday, she was looking forward, as usual, to an early +closing of the shop, and a walk out into the country, to spend the night +and the Sabbath with her old mother, and to comfort Valentine, when, +unexpectedly, poor Phædra, recovered in some degree from the shock she +had received, and accompanied by Elisha, arrived at her daughter's +humble little home.</p> + +<p>With all possible consideration and gentleness the old negro preacher +broke the intelligence of Valentine's imprisonment to Fannie.</p> + +<p>But, alas! if all fateful antecedents had not led her to anticipate this +consequence, what further possible preparation could fit her to receive +such intelligence? And, indeed, in any event, what preparation would +soften such calamity?</p> + +<p>Poor Fannie's frame was very delicate, and her heart by many blows had +become physically feeble, and was, at best, a very imperfect instrument +of her will. Had it not been so, the poor girl might have better borne +up; as it was, she succumbed to the new blow, and a night of dangerous +illness followed.</p> + +<p>Yet, the next morning Fannie insisted on leaving her bed, and though +apparently more dead than alive, and having to be supported between +Phædra and old Elisha, she went to the prison to see Valentine.</p> + +<p>All prisons are, of course, wretched places; but the jail of M—— was +one of the most wretched of its kind. Comparatively small, shamefully +overcrowded, close, ill-ventilated and pestilential, it insured nothing +but the safe custody of the bodies of its miserable inmates. Evidently +reform had not even looked upon its outer walls, far less opened one of +its doors or windows.</p> + +<p>For greater security Valentine had been confined in the condemned cell. +A slight irregularity, but one of which no one had the right to +complain. Although, under circumstances less tragic it must have seemed +ludicrous to associate the graceful and almost girlish delicacy of poor +Valentine's figure with danger to the security of bolts and bars and +prison walls.</p> + +<p>Howbeit, in the condemned cell Valentine was placed, and there Fannie +and her companions found him.</p> + +<p>Valentine received them with great composure, that was only slightly +disturbed when Fannie, upon first seeing him, threw herself, with a cry +of passionate sorrow, upon his bosom.</p> + +<p>When the turnkey had left the cell, and locked them all in together, +Valentine addressed himself to soothing Fannie. And after a while, +favored by the exhaustion that followed her vehement emotion, he +succeeded in quieting her.</p> + +<p>After a little conversation, the old preacher invited all to join him in +prayer, and, kneeling down, offered up a fervent petition for the divine +mercy on the prisoner. Through the whole of the interview, all were +impressed by the perfect composure and cheerfulness of Valentine. He +seemed like a man who had cast a great weight from his breast, or in +some other way had been relieved from a heavy burden. Though his manner +was perfectly free from any charge of reprehensible levity, there was +certainly an elasticity of spirit in all he said or did, that was as +strange as it was entirely sincere and unaffected. Was this because he +felt that he had nothing further to hope or fear, and trouble had ceased +with uncertainty? Whatever was the cause, his mood happily influenced +others, and they grew quiet and cheerful in his company.</p> + +<p>"Dearest friends," Valentine said, afterward, to Elisha, "these things +that have occurred were obliged to happen; no power on earth could have +prevented them; and the power of Heaven never intervenes to perform +miracles, or to avert evil at the expense of moral free agency. I am +not a predestinarian, Brother Elisha, but I know that certain causes +must produce certain effects, as surely as given figures produce known +results. As I told you before, I always knew that this was to be my +fate. From the first moment that I was provoked to strike Oswald Waring, +I have seen this crime and this fate before me, like a horrible cloud. I +would try to close my eyes to it—try to forget it. In vain—for even in +my brightest moments it would fall suddenly like a funeral pall around +me, blackening all the light of life. When poor Oswald Waring lay dead +before me, I did not realize the crime more intensely than I had by +presentiment a hundred times before. And when I shall stand, as I shall +very soon do, upon the scaffold's fatal drop, with the cord around my +neck, and the cap that is about to shut out the last glimpse of this +world's sunshine from my eyes, descending over my face—even in that +supreme moment, I know I cannot feel the situation more acutely than I +have done prophetically a thousand times before!</p> + +<p>"This prophetic feeling was the secret horror of my whole life. I dared +not confide it to any one; therefore, it preyed upon my spirits, driving +me at times almost to insanity. Yet, friends, there was nothing occult +in this presentiment. It was but the swift and sure inference of certain +effects from certain causes. It was rather a helpless foresight, than +second sight. Well, the worst has come! I am calmer and happier now than +I have been for many long, sad years. This fate is not nearly so +horrible in reality as it seemed in anticipation. The only earthly +trouble that I have is in the thought of my little family. Comfort them, +Brother Elisha! Help them to bring all the power of religion to their +support. Time and religion cures the worst of sorrows; it will cure +theirs. Only, in the meantime—in the hour of their greatest trial, and +the first dark days that follow it—watch over them, sustain and comfort +them, and lift up their hands to God, Elisha."</p> + +<p>"I will—I will, indeed, Brudder Walley," promised the old preacher.</p> + +<p>Valentine was not left alone in his trials. The friends of the Methodist +church flocked around, and one or another was always with him. The +clergymen of every denomination took a great interest in his situation +and character. And the better Valentine was known, the deeper this +interest grew. In advance of his trial, the press took up his case, and +the papers were filled with accounts of visits that this or that +gentleman had made him; conversations that one or another clergyman had +held with him in his cell; and with descriptions of his good looks, +graceful manners, intelligence, knowledge, conversational powers and +eloquence—all "so remarkable in one of his race and station." It would +seem, indeed, as if, unhappily, the good points of the unhappy young man +had never been known or suspected, until crime had brought him +prominently before the public. If there was anything to be regretted in +the great sympathy that was felt for him, it was that the sympathizers +kept up too much fuss around him for the good of one of his excitable +temperament, and thus prevented the self-recollection and sobriety that +befited the solemnity of his situation. Through the kindness of these +friends, the best counsel that could be prevailed upon to take up his +hopeless cause was retained, to defend Valentine in the approaching +trial.</p> + +<p>There was one affecting circumstance that occurred just before the +sitting of the criminal court. Mrs. Waring had been subpoenaed to attend +as a witness for the prosecution. She came up from Louisiana; and, soon +after her arrival in the city, she sought out the poor, little, obscure +wife of the prisoner, and gave her what comfort she could +impart—telling her, that though she was the principal witness, her +testimony would not bear hard upon Valentine, whom she felt persuaded +was mad, and unconscious of his acts at the moment she witnessed them. +And that she hoped his life might yet be spared, for she felt convinced +that capital punishment was in no case a corrector or a preventor of +crime. And that, if the trial should terminate unfavorably, she would +petition the governor for a commutation of the sentence. And that her +petition, under the circumstances, would be the most powerful that could +be presented. These and other merciful promises and reviving hopes did +the gentle-hearted widow infuse into the poor girl's sinking heart.</p> + +<p>And, oh! how Fannie knelt, and covered the lady's hands with loving +kisses, and bathed them with grateful tears. And Mrs. Waring, when she +left her, went directly to the most eminent lawyer in the city—one who +had indignantly repulsed a clergyman who wished to retain him for the +prisoner—and, after telling him very much what she had told Fannie +relative to the character of her own testimony, succeeded in retaining +him to defend Valentine; for this gentleman seemed to think that the +favorable opinion and testimony of Mrs. Waring would make a very great +difference in the respectability, popularity and security of the cause +that he no longer hesitated to embrace.</p> + +<p>Of course, there was much diversity of opinion in regard to Mrs. +Waring's course. All wondered at her, many censured her, while a few saw +in her conduct the perfection of Christian charity. But, like all who +have thought and suffered much, and profited by such experience, Mrs. +Waring was indifferent to any earthly judgment outside the sphere of her +own affections; and so, ignorant and regardless of popular praise or +censure, the lady went calmly on her merciful course.</p> + +<p>The day of the sitting of the court drew near, when, one morning, a +bustle in the gallery leading to Valentine's cell attracted the +attention of the latter, and he had just concluded that the officials +were bringing in a new prisoner, when the noisy group paused before his +own door, unlocked it, and introduced Governor, Major Hewitt's big +negro. With a few parting words, the turnkey and the constable left him, +went out, and locked the door.</p> + +<p>Then, for the first time, Valentine recovered from his surprise, and +spoke to the newcomer.</p> + +<p>But Governor, standing bolt upright until his tall figure and large head +nearly reached the low ceiling, looked the image of stupor, and answered +never a word.</p> + +<p>Valentine knew, of course, that he was in desperate trouble, or he would +not be in that cell. Kindly taking his hand, he led him to the bed, and +made him sit down upon it. He was as docile as the gentlest child, +though seemingly more stupid than any brute. And it was hours before he +recovered sufficiently to tell Valentine the cause of his arrest.</p> + +<p>The story gathered from his thick and incoherent talk was this: He +himself was a huge, black, unsightly negro, painfully conscious of his +personal defects. He was married to Milly, a pretty mulatto woman, whom +he loved with the idolatrous affection that often distinguishes his +race, and who had loved him in return, for the wealth of goodness under +his rude exterior.</p> + +<p>And he had been very happy with his wife and two little girls, until the +new overseer came.</p> + +<p>This person was a young, unmarried man, and his name was Moriarty. He +took a fancy to Milly; used to stop every day at the door of her cabin, +to ask for a drink of water; then, after a while, he got into the habit +of going into her cabin to sit down and rest, and was never in a hurry +to go away.</p> + +<p>If there was any work to be done in the overseer's house, Milly was +always sent for to do it, and always detained a long time. Governor was +dispatched to labor upon the most remote part of the plantation; and +whenever a messenger was required to go upon a distant errand, Governor +was selected.</p> + +<p>Poor fellow! he was not acute enough to be suspicious, or bad enough to +be jealous. On the contrary, he was very good-natured, stupid and +confiding. And he might have gone on forever, without suspecting that +there was anything wrong, had not Milly, upon every Sunday and holiday, +appeared in finery better than any of her companions could sport, and so +excited their envy, quickened their perceptions and stimulated their +tongues.</p> + +<p>And rudely enough were the poor husband's eyes opened, and from that +time no more wretched man than Governor lived upon this earth. He +expostulated with Milly, who tearfully confessed to receiving presents +from the new overseer, and protested her innocence of everything but +their acceptance. And it is probable that up to this time, and for a +long time after, Milly, who sincerely loved the ugly, but good-hearted +father of her children, was innocent of everything except vanity; and +could she have been delivered from the power of the tempter, would have +remained blameless.</p> + +<p>But there was no such deliverance for her. And now commenced the most +troubled life that could be imagined for the husband. He felt that Milly +still loved him with undiminished fidelity, but he knew, also, the power +of temptation and of example. How many virtuous women were there on that +or any other plantation? Why, virtue was not taught them—was not +expected of them; and if they were born with the instinct, it was soon +lost among a class where licentiousness was the rule and integrity the +exception. The generality of this misfortune among his fellow-slaves did +not make it any the less painful to this poor man to see his beloved +Milly tempted from his bosom.</p> + +<p>And he saw, with increasing anguish, that Milly, notwithstanding her +penitence and tearful declaration that she would be faithful to Governor +forever and forever, could not prevent the daily calls of the overseer +at her cabin, and dared not disobey his commands, when he summoned her +to work in his house.</p> + +<p>Governor was still and ever kept at work upon the most distant parts of +the plantation, and the overseer still and ever appropriated as much as +he possibly could of Milly's time and services. There was no help for +them.</p> + +<p>Major Hewitt, in many respects a kind master, had, for his peace, long +closed his ears to complaints of the slaves against their overseer, and +Governor knew full well that his master would hear not one word against +Mr. Moriarty.</p> + +<p>Why lengthen a sad story? All the women of the plantation knew that, +sooner or later, Milly would have no right to look down from her pride +of integrity upon them. Yet it was some time—more than a year—before +she was numbered among the frail ones.</p> + +<p>And then, as guilt is so much more circumspect than innocence, poor +Governor was deceived into a fool's paradise of confiding love, and led +to believe that the overseer had entirely abandoned the persecution of +Milly.</p> + +<p>This blind confidence lasted until one day, when one of those sudden +little breaks of water, so small that its surface might be covered with +two hands, yet, withal, the herald of that terror of the Gulf planters, +a devastating "crevasse," appeared in the midst of a valuable field, +and it became necessary to arrest its progress at once.</p> + +<p>A party of negroes was dispatched to the spot, and Governor was sent +with them. In the course of a few hours, the crevasse had made dangerous +progress, and they had to work until very late at night. But it was +early when the overseer left them.</p> + +<p>It was between eleven and twelve o'clock when a young negro from the +quarters came down to the works, and, taking Governor aside, whispered +something in his ear.</p> + +<p>Down went the man's shovel, and away he sprang, and—all on fire with +rage and jealousy—a man no longer, but an unreasoning brute—ran and +leaped, bounding over everything that came in his way, and taking a +bee-line to his cabin, the door of which he burst open.</p> + +<p>A moment and the overseer lay dead, slain by the hand of the injured +husband.</p> + +<p>Governor did not hurt a hair of Milly's head; even in his mad and blind +rage he had spared her, still so beloved. Neither did he attempt to save +himself by flight, but lay moaning and groaning upon the cabin floor +until he was taken into custody.</p> + +<p>This was the substance of the story related to Valentine.</p> + +<p>"I'se sorry I killed him, Brudder Walley! dough I hardly knowed what I +was a doin' of. I'se sorry, dough it was all so tryin' from fuss to +las'. Yes! I is berry sorry, dough it ain't no use to say it, 'cause I +knows how, ef it wur to do ober agin', I should be sure to do it ober +agin'! so, what's de use o' pentin'?"</p> + +<p>Valentine pressed his hand in silence, scarcely knowing what to reply +just then, sadly thinking of the many thousands whose positions were +just as false, as trying, as maddening, as his own and Governor's had +been.</p> + +<p>About noon that day, Major Hewitt came into the cell to see his slave. +The Major was very much overcome at the sight of Governor, and spoke +with great feeling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Governor! my heart bleeds for you, and for what you have done, my +poor fellow! Oh! Governor, why, why did you take your revenge in your +own hands, in this horrible manner? Why did you not, long ago, complain +to me? I would have seen you righted."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Marse Major, you never would hear no 'plaints we-dem made against +the oberseer. It's been tried often, and you never would!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but my poor fellow! in such a case I would have listened to your +complaint. I would have protected your family peace at every cost. If +necessary, I would have discharged Moriarty. Yours was an exceptional +case, and I would have attended to it."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Marse Major, honey! I dessay you think you would now, as it has +come to dis yer! But you wouldn't o' done it, Marse Major, honey! 'deed +you wouldn't, 'cause you see it has been tried afore, an' you never +would listen to nothin' 't all 'bout de oberseer. It's on'y 'cause it's +come to dis yer you thinks different," said Governor, sadly, but +respectfully, and even affectionately.</p> + +<p>Major Hewitt did not reply; perhaps he felt that the slave had spoken +the truth, for he looked extremely distressed, and told him that he +would engage the best counsel to defend him; that no cost should be +spared, even to the half of his estate, to save him.</p> + +<p>And Major Hewitt kept his word, and hastened to secure the best legal +aid to be had for Governor.</p> + +<p>The day of the trial was at hand. It was known that two were to be tried +for similar offenses. But every one was interested in Valentine, and no +one, except his master, seemed to care one farthing for Governor. Those +who saw him said he was "an ill-looking fellow," and there left the +subject.</p> + +<p>Valentine was the first arraigned. When his case was fully investigated, +it was obvious to all minds that on the fatal encounter in which Mr. +Waring fell, Valentine had struck only in self-defense—only after his +own blood had been drawn, and he had been once felled to the floor. But +then the blow had been fatal. And though he was well and ably defended, +yet the verdict rendered against the prisoner was "Willful Murder." +Valentine heard the verdict, and afterward received his sentence +quietly, as a matter of course. At its conclusion, he bowed gravely, and +was conducted from the court-room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE SCAFFOLD.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! judge none lost, but wait and see,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With hopeful pity, not disdain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The depth of the abyss may be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The measure of the height of pain.—<span class="smcap">Household Words.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>When Valentine's little family circle received information of the +verdict that laid low their last hopes, Phædra met the misfortune with +that sad resignation which we often see in those whom either time or +sorrow has aged, and which we are apt to think owes its calmness as much +to the exhausted energies of the sufferer as to any higher cause. Fannie +heard the issue of the trial with wild grief, and a day and night of +illness intervened before she could go and see the condemned.</p> + +<p>The conviction of Valentine was immediately followed by the arraignment +of Governor. The trial of the latter was even shorter than that of the +former had been. He was ably defended by the counsel employed by his +master; but nothing could have saved him. And the jury, without leaving +their seats, brought in their verdict of "Guilty." His sentence followed +immediately. It was, however, pitiable to observe that the poor wretch +did not understand one-half of what had been done or said during the +whole course of his trial. And when he was conducted back to the prison, +and locked in with Valentine, he said to the latter:</p> + +<p>"Well, Walley, ole marse up dere on de bench put a black nightcap on his +head, an' said somethin' 'r other 'bout hangin'; but I reckon he only +did it to scare me, 'cause I saw by his face how his heart was a +softening all de time."</p> + +<p>After his condemnation to death, Valentine's friends were more devoted +to him than ever. Day and night, one or more of the brethren of the +church was with him. And one sister, especially, who was known by the +name of "Sister Dely," divided her attentions between him and his little +family, who equally, or more, needed comfort. Again the papers were +filled with descriptions of this "extraordinary boy," as Valentine was +called. Interviews held with him by clergymen were reported at length. +His likeness was taken in prison, and wood-cutted in a pamphlet report +of his trial. In a word, the unhappy young man became for a while a +local notoriety. And this was ascribable, not to the nature of the +catastrophe, which, unfortunately, was but too common in that section of +country, but to the individuality and character of the condemned.</p> + +<p>And another circumstance connected with this tragedy was so strange that +I must not omit to record it. A rumor got out that old Portiphar had +betrayed Valentine into the hands of the law, and that a number of +negroes in secret meeting had sworn the death of the traitor whenever +and wherever either one of them could take him. This matter was +carefully investigated by those most interested; but though they could +obtain no sort of satisfactory information, yet their suspicions, +instead of being dissipated, were so strongly confirmed, that it was +deemed advisable for the officers who had arrested Valentine to come out +under oath with the declaration that Portiphar had not by the remotest +hint put them upon the track, but that the discovery of the fugitive +under the disguise of female apparel had been entirely accidental.</p> + +<p>This declaration, duly sworn to and attested, was embodied in a short +address to be read to the negroes, printed on handbills, and posted and +distributed all over the city and surrounding country. And for some +little time this was supposed to be quite sufficient to allay excitement +and insure security. But in a day or two it became evident, in some way, +that the negroes did not believe the sworn statement of the police +officers. And as it was thought best to get rid of unsafe property, +Portiphar, who had lurked in concealment for some weeks, was sold by his +master to a New Orleans trader, and the neighborhood breathed freely +again.</p> + +<p>The petition to the Executive for the pardon of Valentine, got up under +the auspices of Oswald Waring's widow, failed of success, as every one +had predicted that it must. And when this last little glimmering light +of earthly hope went down, Valentine sedulously addressed himself to +preparation for eternity.</p> + +<p>It was piteous to observe Governor at this time. Any one, to have seen +him, must have perceived at once that he was no subject for capital +punishment. But no one, except his master and Valentine, was the least +interested in him. Alas! poor wretch, he was not even interested in +himself! When the refusal of the Executive to pardon Valentine had been +received, it was affecting to see the efforts of Governor to console +what he supposed to be the disappointment of his fellow-prisoner.</p> + +<p>"Don't you mind, Walley! Dey's only doin' dis to scare we! Sho! dey's no +more gwine to hang we, nor dey's gwine to heave so much money in de +fire! Sho! we's too walable. I heern de gemmen all say what fine, +walable men we was—'specially me! Sho! dere's muscle for you!" said +Governor, drawing himself up, jerking forward both arms with a strong +impetus, and then clapping his hands upon his nether limbs.</p> + +<p>"Sho! You think dey's gwine to let all dat here go to loss? Ef it were +only whippin' now, dey might do it! but making all dis here muscle dead? +Sho! what de use o' dead nigger? What good dat do? Sho!"</p> + +<p>And, with this strong expletive of contempt, Governor sat down. Strange +and sad as was the fact, this poor, stupid creature was thoroughly +persuaded that his own and Valentine's life were perfectly safe. He knew +that, living, he himself was worth at least twelve or fifteen hundred +dollars, for he had more than once heard himself so appraised; and that, +dead, he was worth just so much less than nothing as the cost of his +burial would be. And from these facts he drew the inference that he was +far too valuable to be executed. And he persisted in looking upon the +whole train of events, comprising his arrest, imprisonment, trial and +condemnation, with all the pageantry of court-room, judges, lawyers, +juries and officers, only as a solemn show, got up to frighten him and +his fellow prisoner. Nothing could disabuse him of this illusion; for, +if once any idea got fixed in his poor, thick head, it was just +impossible to dislodge it. In vain Valentine endeavored to enlighten him +as to his true position; Governor would reply, with a compassionate +look:</p> + +<p>"Oh, sho! you's scared, Walley! you's scared! Tell me! I knows better! +Dey's not such fools as to hang we! ca'se what would be de use, you +know! Sho!"</p> + +<p>The Methodist preacher exhorted and prayed with Governor, to as little +purpose. He could not be made to believe in the fact of his +fast-approaching death.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sho, Walley! I doesn't say nuffin' 't all afore dem, 'cause you see +'taint right to give de back answer to de ministers; but dey's league +'long o' de oders, Walley! Dey's league 'long o' de oders. Can't scare +dis chile wid no sich! Tell you, Walley, dead nigger ain't no use, but +dead expense! So what de use o' hanging of him? Sho!"</p> + +<p>This interjection usually finished the argument.</p> + +<p>The day of execution approached. Valentine divided his time between +preparation for death, interviews with his family and friends, and the +composition of an address that he wished to deliver upon the scaffold. +This address embodied a great portion of Valentine's life—experiences, +as they are already known to the reader. When it was finished in +manuscript, it was submitted to the perusal of the attendant clergymen. +Some among them warmly approved the address, and declared it to be the +most eloquent appeal they had ever met. Others reserved their opinion +for the time, and afterward asserted that it was the most powerful +sermon that they had ever seen or heard.</p> + +<p>The day before the execution came. And now I must inform you that it is +to "Sister Dely" I am indebted for the report of the scenes that +occurred in her presence in the condemned cell that day. Dely had +obtained leave from her mistress, Mrs. Hewitt, to go to the prison, to +take leave of her Valentine.</p> + +<p>It was about ten o'clock, on Thursday, the 23d of December, when she +reached the city. All the town was preparing for Christmas. When she +entered the condemned cell, she found no one there except the two +prisoners. There were two cot bedsteads at opposite sides of the cell, +and one small iron stove against the wall, between the beds, and +directly opposite the door by which she entered.</p> + +<p>On her right hand, as she came in, sat Governor upon his cot, watching, +with lazy interest, the employment of his fellow-prisoner, which, in +sooth, was strange enough for one of his position.</p> + +<p>Valentine was standing at the little table, and engaged in ironing out a +cravat, while on the cot near him lay spread out a shirt just ironed, a +satin vest, newly pressed, and a full suit of black broadcloth, well +brushed.</p> + +<p>And Dely knew at a glance that the poor fellow, true to his habits of +neatness to the last, was preparing to present a proper appearance upon +the scaffold.</p> + +<p>"Was there no one to do that for you, Valentine?" said Dely, after her +first greeting.</p> + +<p>"No, child, there was not. Mother and poor Fannie are in too much +trouble to think of such a thing."</p> + +<p>"I would have done it for you, Valentine."</p> + +<p>"No matter, child; it is done now," said the young man, laying the +folded cravat upon the cot, and then turning around and sitting down by +the side of Dely.</p> + +<p>"I wish, Delia, that you would try to open the eyes of Governor to the +realities of his position. Poor fellow! he is fully persuaded that +to-morrow, instead of being executed, we shall be set at liberty."</p> + +<p>Delia turned her eyes in wonder toward Governor, who sat upon the side +of his cot, smiling and shaking his head in the most incredulous manner. +Delia shrank from the task that Valentine would have imposed upon her, +and only said:</p> + +<p>"We will pray for him, Brother Valentine. Governor, won't you kneel down +with us, and pray for yourself?"</p> + +<p>Governor said that, as praying could not do anybody any harm, he +reckoned he would, to please Dely, though he did not see the use of it.</p> + +<p>They all knelt, and this humble handmaid of the Lord, who was peculiarly +gifted in prayer, offered up a fervent petition in behalf of the +prisoners, and especially for Governor.</p> + +<p>They had just risen from their knees, when the door of the cell was +opened, and the jailer entered, accompanied by another official, who +nodded to the inmates, and then, beckoning to Valentine, requested him +to step forward.</p> + +<p>Valentine obeyed, and the man, drawing a measuring-line from his pocket, +told him to stand up straight. Valentine drew himself up with as much +composure as ever he had shown when, in his earlier days, he was getting +himself fitted for a Sunday suit of clothes. The operator proceeded to +measure his subject across the shoulders. And when this was done, he +stopped, drew a paper and pencil from his pocket, and, leaning on +Valentine's late ironing table, put down some figures. Then he took the +line again, and carefully measured him from the crown of his head to the +heels of his shoes, and made a second note.</p> + +<p>Then telling Valentine that he was done with him, he beckoned to +Governor, who had been looking on with open-mouthed amazement, and who +now came forward, and braced himself up with the utmost alacrity and +cheerfulness. Indeed, he was smiling from ear to ear, as he exclaimed, +triumphantly:</p> + +<p>"Tell you all so! We ain't had no winter clothes guv us yet, and dey's +done sent de tailor to fit us!"</p> + +<p>The operator with the line, on hearing this, dropped his measure, and, +with emotions divided between astonishment and compassion, gazed at the +poor wretch, who remained smiling in delight. No one else spoke, and, +after a moment, the official picked up his line and resumed his work.</p> + +<p>"Wen'll de clothes be ready for me?" inquired Governor, with great +interest.</p> + +<p>"I am not taking your size for clothes," answered the operator, gravely.</p> + +<p>"No! What den?" inquired Governor, in astonishment, but without the +least suspicion of the truth.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know?"</p> + +<p>"No! I doesn't! What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you know, at least, that you are to die to-morrow. And I am +measuring you for your coffin."</p> + +<p>Governor made no reply, neither did the smile pass at once from his +face. He no longer refused to believe in his approaching fate, but the +idea was very slow in penetrating his brain.</p> + +<p>The carpenter, having now completed his errand, left the cell in company +with the turnkey. Governor went and resumed his seat upon the side of +his cot, and remained perfectly silent, only not as cheerful as he had +been, and occasionally putting up his hand and rubbing his head, and +seeming to ponder. At last he said, dubiously, however:</p> + +<p>"Brother Walley, honey, I'se beginnin' to be 'fraid, arter all, dat dey +tends for to hang us, sure 'nough! Dey wouldn't carry de nonsense dis +far 'out dey did, would dey? 'Sides which, dey wouldn't go to de 'xpense +o' coffins, would dey?"</p> + +<p>"No, Governor," said Valentine, going over and sitting down beside him, +and taking his hand and continuing: "Governor, by this hour to-morrow +you and I will be over all our earthly troubles."</p> + +<p>Slowly, slowly the truth was making its way to Governor's consciousness. +His face clouded over, but he seemed to grow more stupid every instant. +To all Valentine's speeches he answered never one word, not seeming to +hear or to understand them.</p> + +<p>Dely could not bear this. Bursting into tears, she went and dropped upon +her knees before Governor, and took his two hands in hers, and wept over +them, and begged and prayed him, for his soul's sake, to listen to her +words. Governor was only a recent acquaintance; he was not, as Valentine +was, an old friend; yet it almost broke her gentle heart to see him +thus—so stolid, so unconscious, so insensible.</p> + +<p>They were interrupted again, this time by a clergyman and one other +gentleman, a member of the church.</p> + +<p>Dely was now obliged to return home. She took an affectionate leave of +Valentine and of Governor, telling them that she should pray for them +constantly, and that she should be on her knees, praying for them, in +their last hour of trial.</p> + +<p>The minister found Valentine well prepared to meet his doom. But when he +turned his attention to the other condemned man, he found, to his +dismay, that he could not make the slightest impression upon Governor. +The unhappy creature no longer doubted what his doom would be; but, as I +said before, the truth very slowly entered his mind; and, alas! as it +entered it seemed to press him down, and down, into deeper and more +hopeless apathy, until at last he sat there silent, senseless, crushed. +They could not pray with him; they could only pray for him.</p> + +<p>The next day, Christmas Eve, dawned brightly for almost all the +world—darkly enough for the condemned.</p> + +<p>An early hour of the morning had been appointed for the farewell +interview between the prisoners and their families. Such partings are +always distressing beyond conception, and I shrink from the pain of +saying much about them.</p> + +<p>Governor had but few friends, his fellow-slaves, who came over very +early in the morning to take leave of him, and who, finding him so +apathetic, went away comforted, with the belief "that Governor did not +seem to mind it."</p> + +<p>His miserable wife came alone, to drop weeping at his feet, and implore +his dying forgiveness for the part she had had in bringing him to this +awful pass.</p> + +<p>Governor, partially aroused from his torpor, awoke sufficiently to put +his arm around her shoulders, and say:</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, chile; I doesn't bear you no malice. You couldn't help it, +chile, no more 'an I could; things was too much for us bofe. Don't cry; +I loves you same as ever."</p> + +<p>This gentleness almost broke the penitent woman's heart, and she went +away weeping bitterly, wringing her hands and wishing most sincerely it +were possible for her, the most guilty one, to die in her husband's +stead. After this visit Governor sank into a still deeper stupor of +despair, from which nothing had power to arouse him.</p> + +<p>Directly after this followed the last interview between Valentine and +his little family.</p> + +<p>Phædra and Fannie came in, accompanied by old Elisha, who carried little +Coralie in his arms. I cannot describe the anguish of this parting.</p> + +<p>Phædra perhaps bore it best of all, with a strange hopeless fortitude +that reminded one of Governor's stolidity, only saying that though life +was sorrowful even at its happiest, it was, thank Heaven! short at its +longest; and that she should not be many days behind her son.</p> + +<p>But Fannie was wild with sorrow, and utterly inconsolable. When the +moment of final separation arrived, she fainted, and was borne from the +cell, as one dead, in the arms of the old preacher. Phædra followed, +leading little Coralie.</p> + +<p>The execution was to be a public one. And the authorities published a +card in the daily papers, formally inviting the masters of the city and +the surrounding country to give their slaves a holiday upon this day, to +enable the latter to attend the execution of Valentine and Governor. And +as the morning advanced toward noon so numerous was the multitude of +negroes that gathered in from all parts of the country, and so great was +the excitement that prevailed among them, that the powers saw the +mistake they had made by issuing this general invitation, and felt great +alarm as to the result.</p> + +<p>The marshal called upon the militia and the city guards to turn out and +muster around the scaffold to insure the safe custody of the prisoners +and the execution of the sentence.</p> + +<p>The scaffold was erected upon a gentle elevation, on the west suburb of +the city. A crowd of many thousands, each moment augmented, was gathered +upon the ground. But the two companies of militia made a way through +this forest of human beings, and formed around the foot of the scaffold.</p> + +<p>It was about eleven o'clock that the prisoners were placed in a close +van, in company with the marshal and a clergyman, and escorted by a +detachment of the city guards, were driven to the place of execution. +The presence of the guards was needed to force a passage through the +compact and highly-excited crowd. The prison van was kept carefully +closed, and the condemned with their attendants remained invisible until +the procession had passed safely through that stormy sea of human beings +and gained the security of the hollow square formed by the bayonets of +the militia around the scaffold.</p> + +<p>The van drew up at the foot of the steps leading to the platform. The +police officer that stood behind the vehicle jumped down and opened the +door, and handed out the prisoners, who were followed closely by the +marshal and the clergyman.</p> + +<p>The marshal immediately took charge of Governor, to lead him up the +stairs.</p> + +<p>The clergyman drew Valentine's arm within his own, to follow.</p> + +<p>And the police officer was joined by the deputy marshal, who brought up +the rear.</p> + +<p>And so the sad procession ascended those fatal stairs—Governor in a +deep stupor, or looking as if he did not understand what all this +pageant meant; Valentine with grave composure, as if he felt the awful +solemnity of the moment, and was prepared to meet it. The scaffold was +very high, and was reached by a flight of more than twenty steps.</p> + +<p>When the prisoners and their escort gained the platform they stood in +full view of every individual of that vast concourse of people. Their +appearance was hailed by acclamation from the multitude below, and +huzzas of encouragement or defiance, shouts of derision and cries of +sympathy were mingled in one indistinguishable <i>mêlée</i> of noise.</p> + +<p>The prisoners were not prematurely clad in the habiliments of the grave, +as is usual upon such occasions, but were attired in ordinary citizen's +dress.</p> + +<p>Governor wore his best Sunday suit of "pepper and salt" casinet, and +looked a huge, shapeless figure of a negro, in which the sooty skin +could scarcely be distinguished from the sooty clothes.</p> + +<p>Valentine looked very well, though pale and worn. He wore a suit of +black broadcloth, with a white cravat and gloves, and his natural +ringlets were arranged with that habitual regard to order and neatness +which was with him a second nature.</p> + +<p>Valentine held in his hands the manuscript address that he wished to +make to the assembly. He had been promised by the authorities an +opportunity of delivering this address, before the parting prayers +should be said. He stood now with his copy in his hand, only waiting for +the noise to subside before his commencing. Governor stood by his side, +in stolid insensibility.</p> + +<p>But Valentine had been deceived to the last moment. He was not to be +permitted to deliver his address; the authorities feared too much its +exciting effect upon the tumultuous assembly below. The marshal had +received his instructions, and had given private orders to his deputy +and assistants.</p> + +<p>Valentine was still letting his eyes rove over the "multitudinous sea" +of heads, waiting for a calm in which he might be heard, when his eye +fell upon Major Hewitt, who had been absent all day at the capital, and +had but just returned from his last fruitless attempt to move the +Executive in behalf of the condemned, and who, without leaving his +saddle, had ridden up at once to the scene of execution. He could not +penetrate the crowd, but remained on horseback on its outskirts. At the +same moment the figure of Major Hewitt caught the eye of Governor, and +roused him from the torpor of despair into which he had fallen—roused +him to an agony of entreaty, and, stretching out his arms to his master, +he cried, with a loud voice that thrilled to the hearts of all present:</p> + +<p>"Oh, marster! I allus looked up to you as if you were my father and my +God! Save me now! save me from under the gallows! Oh, marster——"</p> + +<p>Major Hewitt turned precipitately and galloped away from the scene.</p> + +<p>The condemned were not aware that they stood upon the fatal trapdoor. +They did not notice, either, that, at a signal from the marshal, the +attending clergyman stepped aside and the deputy and assistants gathered +in a little group behind. Governor still had his arms extended in wild +entreaty after his flying master, and Valentine was still waiting for +silence, when suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, their arms were +bound, the cords slipped over their heads, the caps drawn over their +eyes, the spring of the bolt touched, and, without one instant's +warning, or one word of prayer or benediction, they fell, and swung +beneath sky and earth.</p> + +<p>"In the name of Heaven! why have you done this thing?" asked the +terribly-shocked minister, who was altogether unprepared for the +suddenness of the execution.</p> + +<p>"In another five minutes an attempt would have been made at rescue," +answered that official.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This tragedy spoiled the Christmas festivities of many more than were +immediately connected with the sufferers. If the reader cares to follow +the sad fortunes of the survivors, I have only to tell them that Phædra +outlived her son but one short month; and Mrs. Waring kindly took Fannie +and her child away from the scene and associations of their calamity, to +her own quiet and beautiful country home in East Feliciana. Major Hewitt +is a "sadder," and, let us hope, "a wiser man," since he no longer +closes his ears to the complaints of his suffering people.</p> + +<p>One word more. The tragic story in which I have endeavored to interest +you is, in all its essential features, strictly true. Not that I mean to +say that in all the scenes word followed word precisely in the order +here set down, though generally the language used has been faithful to +the letter, and always to the spirit of the facts. Valentine and +Governor lived, suffered, sinned, and finally together died, for the +causes and in the manner related. My means of minute information were +very good. The tragedy occurred but a few years ago, in a neighborhood +with which I am familiar. It excited at the time great local interest, +but never probably got beyond "mere mention" in any but the local +papers. In relating it I have delivered "a round, unvarnished tale," and +have not colored the truth with any adventitious hue of fancy. The +subject was too sacred, in its dark sorrow, for such trifling. Only, for +the sake of some survivors, a change of names and a slight change of +localities has been deemed proper.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SPECTRE_REVELS" id="THE_SPECTRE_REVELS"></a>THE SPECTRE REVELS.</h2> + +<h3>TALE OF ALL HALLOW EVE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Black spirits and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blue spirits and gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mingle, mingle, mingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye that mingle may.—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O'er all these hung a shadow and a fear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That said as plain as whisper in the ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The place is haunted!—<span class="smcap">Thomas Hood.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"Did I ever see a ghost, friends? Um-m—Well! ghost is not the modern +name for such an apparition. It is called 'imagination,' 'optical +illusion,' fancy, fever, or something else—never 'ghost,' which makes +no difference in the nature of the thing, however. 'A rose by any other +name would smell as sweet.' Yes! I have—I have gone through more than +seeing them—I have known them!"</p> + +<p>"Ghosts?"</p> + +<p>"No, I repeat to you the term is obsolete—optical illusions. Though to +be sure the ghostly experience that has left the deepest impression upon +my mind—and that this anniversary especially recalls, was no optical +illusion."</p> + +<p>"What! was it a real ghost story, though? and did it happen to you?"</p> + +<p>"You shall hear."</p> + +<p>It was the thirty-first of October, All Hallow's Eve, a ghostly season, +as every one properly posted in ghostly lore knows very well. A dreary +storm of rain and wind was beating against the windows; but the fire on +the old sitting-room hearth was burning warmly, the candles were not yet +lighted, our father, the pastor, had not returned from a sick call, and +with a delightful show of expectation we all gathered around the fire to +hear Aunt Madeleine's ghost story.</p> + +<p>It is now more years than I care to remember, she began, since we moved +from the old forest of St. Mary's, up to the town of W.</p> + +<p>Our family then consisted of our grandmother, Mrs. Hawkins, my sister +Alice (your mother, dears), and two old family servants, Hector and his +wife Cassandra.</p> + +<p>That removal was the first great memorable epoch in my own and my +sister's lives. We had never seen anything approaching nearer to a town +than the little hamlet of St. Inigoes, and though W. was just exactly +the drowsiest old city that ever slept through centuries and slept +itself to death, yet to us, coming from the forest farm, it seemed a +very miracle of life, enterprise and excitement.</p> + +<p>We reached our home in Church street just about the last of October.</p> + +<p>At first the change was delightful to us. We were never weary of +exploring the streets and reading the signs, and—as we gained +confidence and ventured into the shops—of examining the marvelous +treasures of silks and satins and laces and jewelry and china, and "all +that's bought and sold in city marts."</p> + +<p>I recall the first six months of our residence in W., while the novelty +still lasted and all was beautiful illusion, and think that no mere +worldly event can ever give me such true pleasure again.</p> + +<p>Ally and I told each other over and over again that "the city was the +true Arcadia!" that there all poetry, romance and adventure was to be +found, and that it was like scenes in the "Arabian Nights."</p> + +<p>We were never weary of exploring new quarters—even the narrow, squalid +lanes and alleys with their dilapidated houses and ragged denizens, had +a grotesque attraction for us—and often we would stand gazing at some +wretched tenement, with falling timbers and stuffed windows, and +speculate about the life of the people within.</p> + +<p>And besides the wonders of treasures and pleasures—there was the daily +recurring astonishment at the convenience of the place.</p> + +<p>We could scarcely get used to the idea that when we wanted a skein of +silk or a paper of needles, it was only necessary to go across the +street, or around the corner to get them, instead of putting the mare to +the gig and riding seven miles to the nearest store; or that when we +went out to tea, we had only to walk a square or so, instead of driving +from three to ten miles; or that we might stay out until bedtime, +instead of ordering the horses to start for home at sunset.</p> + +<p>And then the comfort of being able to walk out dry shod over the clean +pavement, in all weathers, instead of in the winter being obliged to +ride in a carriage, plunging axletree deep through lanes of mud and +water, or worse still, being weather-bound by the state of the roads.</p> + +<p>In fact, so charmed were we all with this walking with impunity at +unaccustomed times and seasons, that the old carryall gathered dust in +the coach house, and Jenny, the mare, accumulated fat in the stable.</p> + +<p>But if the autumn in the city seemed so delightful to us rustics, what +shall I say of the winter, when the lecture rooms and concert halls were +thrown open, and when evening parties were given? There seemed to us no +end of enchantments.</p> + +<p>I should have told you that when we first went to town we had but one +acquaintance there. It was with the family of our Uncle and Aunt +Rackaway. They had a large family of growing sons and daughters, of +which our dear Cousin Will (your own respected father, girls), was the +eldest, the handsomest, the wildest, and the best beloved. Will Rackaway +soon initiated us into all the innocent amusements of the season—took +us to evening meetings, lectures, concerts, exhibitions of every sort, +except the theatre, which our grandmother could not be persuaded to +regard as an innocent amusement.</p> + +<p>We were a social family, and soon collected around us a very agreeable +neighborhood circle, some one or two of whom would drop in upon us every +evening when we were at home, or else invite us out. Ally and I extended +our acquaintance among young people whose parents occasionally gave +dancing parties, at which we were always present, and which, therefore, +our good grandmother felt bound to sometimes reciprocate. You are not to +suppose that our days passed in a round of fashionable dissipation. +Nonsense! nothing of the sort. We were rather a staid, domestic +family—but upon the whole what a contrast this to the long, monotonous +evenings in the farm house!</p> + +<p>Well, so passed that winter, so full of future consequences—that winter +in which Ally's gentle spirit first won the heart of her wild Cousin +Will. All pleasures pall! Before the season was over, the streets, the +shops, the shows—all the wonders and glories of the city had lost their +attraction with their novelty.</p> + +<p>When the spring came, we had grown just a little weary of city life. +With April, a spring fever for sowing, and planting, and pruning, and +training came upon us. But, alas! there was nowhere to sow or plant—our +back yard was flagged, and our front one paved. And there was nothing to +prune or train—four forlorn trees, trimmed by city authorities into the +shape of upright mops, standing upon the hard pavement before our door, +were the only apologies for vegetation near us, and they looked as +exiled and homesick as ourselves. Mrs. Hawkins also missed her chickens +and turkeys, and we all felt the loss of the cows.</p> + +<p>"Ah, if we could only get a house away to ourselves, a house in the +suburbs, with ground around it, where we could be private, and have +shade trees and a garden, and cows and poultry, and all that, within +easy walk to the city, how happy I should be," said grandmother, +sighing.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes! if we only could! then we should enjoy the pleasures of both +city and country life," said I.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, that would be joyful, joyful, joyful, joyful!'" exclaimed Ally, +quoting the chorus of a popular hymn.</p> + +<p>"Ah! well, we must keep our eyes open, and see what we can find," said +our grandmother.</p> + +<p>The street upon which we lived was narrow and closely built up. It led +down half a mile to a long bridge that crossed the river. Consequently +this street was the great thoroughfare of country people coming into +town, to market, or to shop, or upon any other errand.</p> + +<p>Among those who came every day was one old man, who was quite an +eccentric character, and who is still remembered by the aged inhabitants +of W——. Dr. H—— always wore a cocked hat, a powdered wig, a black +velvet coat, double waistcoat, ruffled shirt, knee breeches, long hose +and silver buckles, and carried a gold-headed cane, keeping up in his +age the style and costume of his youth.</p> + +<p>He came in town every morning in a gig driven by a servant as old and as +quaint as himself.</p> + +<p>He returned every evening.</p> + +<p>The doctor was a never-failing object of interest to us. The little +information we could get respecting him only whetted our curiosity to a +keener edge. We learned from Cousin Will that he had no family and no +society; that he lived alone in a secluded country house, called the +Willow Cottage, with no companion except the aged servant seen always +with him; that he had a traditional reputation of having possessed great +skill in his profession, and that he now followed a limited practice +among his old contemporaries in the city.</p> + +<p>So much of authentic facts.</p> + +<p>Besides these it was rumored that, years before, he had married a lovely +young girl, who had been persuaded or forced to sacrifice her youth and +beauty and a prior attachment, to his wealth and age and infirmities; +whose short life had been embittered by his jealousies, and whose sudden +death, under suspicious circumstances, had not left him free from +imputations of the gravest character.</p> + +<p>This was all we could learn of the doctor; and you may depend that our +interest in him was deepened and darkened. We watched him with closer +attention. His hard, sharp features, his deep-set eyes, whitened hair, +and thin, bent figure, took on a sinister appearance, or we fancied so.</p> + +<p>However that might be, we felt more shocked than grieved when one +morning the news came that the doctor was found at daybreak dead in his +bed, with dark marks upon his neck as from the pressure of a thumb and +finger!</p> + +<p>The news spread like wildfire. The long-closed doors of the Willow +Cottage flew open to the public, and its darkened chambers to the +sunlight. Crowds flocked thither; the old servant was examined and +discharged, no suspicion attaching to him; the coroner's inquest met, +and, after a session of twelve hours, rendered its sapient verdict: +"Found dead," which, of course, greatly enlightened the public mind. The +old servant obtained a home in the almshouse, and the Willow Cottage +passed to the next of kin.</p> + +<p>These events occurred in the month of May. About the middle of June the +weather became so hot, the streets so dusty, that the city grew +intolerable to us. During winter the town of W—— had afforded a +pleasant contrast to the country; during summer it was quite the +opposite. In the height of our discontent one morning Will Rackaway came +in.</p> + +<p>"The Willow Cottage is for rent! Here is a chance for you!"</p> + +<p>"The Willow Cottage for rent! Oh, that is delightful," said Ally and I +in a breath.</p> + +<p>"Who has the renting of it?" inquired grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Well, the agent is out of town; but I got the key from his clerk, and +if you'll order Jenny put to the carryall, I'll drive you out there to +look at it. I think it will be let cheap, for the associations of the +place are so gloomy that none but a strong-minded woman like Aunt——"</p> + +<p>"A Christian woman, you mean, Will."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, a Christian woman, like Aunt, would venture to live in it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawkins had in the meantime put her hand to the bell, summoned +Hector, and given him an order to get the carryall ready for a drive. We +were soon in the carriage, and half an hour's drive took us down the +street, across the long bridge to the other side of the river, and to +the Willow Cottage.</p> + +<p>There is, as I have noticed always, a remarkable fitness in the names +given to country houses. This was certainly the case with the present +one. There was not a willow near the place.</p> + +<p>A few yards from the end of the bridge, and to the right hand of the +highway, a disused, grass-grown road led through a close thicket of +evergreens, some quarter of a mile on to an open level area, of about a +hundred acres of exhausted land, grown up in broom sedge and completely +surrounded by the pine forest.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this area stood a red stone cottage, consisting of a +central building of two stories, flanked each side by wings of one story +in height. The central building was finished by a gable roof front, with +a large single fan-shaped window just above the front portico.</p> + +<p>The cottage stood in the midst of a garden of about one acre, shaded +with many trees and surrounded by a substantial stone wall, parallel to +which, on the inside, was a hedge of evergreens, and on the outside +another hedge of climbing and intertwining wild rose, eglantine and +blackberry vines.</p> + +<p>An iron gate, very rusty and dilapidated, admitted us to the grass-grown +walk that led between two rows of black-oak trees to the front portico +of the central building.</p> + +<p>We entered a small front hall, behind which was a large, square parlor, +in the rear of which was a long dining-room. The wings on the right and +left consisted each of a bedchamber, entered from the front hall. There +was but one room above stairs, a large chamber immediately over the +parlor in the central building, and lighted by the fan-light in the +front gable.</p> + +<p>The kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms were in another building in the +rear of the cottage; they were not joined together, but stood, as it +were, back to back, presenting to each other a dead wall without door or +window, and about two feet apart, thus forming a blind alley.</p> + +<p>I have been thus particular in describing the house, that you may better +understand the story that follows.</p> + +<p>"The builder who designed this was certainly demented," said one of the +party, pointing to the blind alley, with its waste of wall.</p> + +<p>Will laughed.</p> + +<p>"I have noticed, Madeleine, that quite as much of character is shown in +the construction of houses as in the cut of physiognomies."</p> + +<p>"But, upon the whole, I like it," said the other.</p> + +<p>And so said every one.</p> + +<p>There was a stable, a coachhouse, a henhouse, a smokehouse, and, in +fact, every possible accommodation for the household. The fruit trees +and vines were teeming with fruit, which also lay ripening or decaying +in great quantities upon the ground. The rose bushes had spread the +grass with a warmer hue and sweeter covering.</p> + +<p>We filled our old carryall with fruit and our hands with flowers and +prepared to return home. Ally was in ecstacies. So was Cousin Will. So +was our grandmother, as much as a self-possessed and dignified matron of +the old school could be said to be. As for myself, I could not sleep +that night for thinking of our removal to the fine old place. We had +unanimously resolved to take it.</p> + +<p>Alas! we had reckoned without our landlord. Upon inquiry of the agent +next day we learned that the place was already let to a man who intended +to make it a house of summer resort, for which its convenient distance +from the city, its cool and shady and secluded site, and its extensive +grounds, numerous shade trees and fine fruit, and many other good +points, peculiarly adapted it.</p> + +<p>We were very much disappointed, but our regret was somewhat modified +when we ascertained that it was let at a preposterous rate of rent, that +a prudent woman like our grandmother never would have undertaken to pay. +So we resigned ourselves to the inevitable.</p> + +<p>However, in a week or two we were so fortunate as to rent a small, neat +house on the opposite side of the road from the Willow Cottage, and +nearer to the bridge. We immediately moved into our new home; and +grandmother sent Hector down into the country to bring up her poultry, +and drive up her cows—a business that he took but three days to +accomplish.</p> + +<p>We were thus settled in our suburban residence, with which, by the way, +we were not quite content. It was too small, too exposed to the rays of +the sun, the dust of the road and the eyes of the passengers; it was too +new also, and the shrubs and flowers had not had time to grow, and +then—we had been disappointed of Willow Cottage.</p> + +<p>In addition to these drawbacks, and even worse than these, was the fact +that we were annoyed all day long and every day by the troops of +visitors, on foot and on horseback, in sulkies and buggies, all bound +for the Willow Cottage.</p> + +<p>And, worst of all, we were disturbed all night by the noisy passage of +these revelers returning home.</p> + +<p>On Sundays and Sunday nights this was insufferable. It seemed as if ten +times as many revelers went out in the day and came back ten times as +much intoxicated and as noisy in the night! Our poor old Cassandra vowed +that when we changed the farm for the city house it was bad enough, but +when we changed the city house for the suburban cottage, "we jest did +it—jumped right out'n de fryin' pan inter de fire!"</p> + +<p>However, a terrible event soon occurred at the Willow Cottage that +crowded everything else out of our heads.</p> + +<p>It was the night of the Fourth of July. All day long crowd after crowd +had passed our house on their way out there. From early in the morning +until late at night the road was kept clouded with the dust, that +settled upon everything in and around our house. We were glad when, late +at night, the revelry seemed to cease, and we were permitted to be at +peace.</p> + +<p>We retired, and, exhausted by the exciting annoyances of the day, I fell +asleep. I know not how long I had slept, when I was suddenly aroused by +the noise of many persons hurrying past the house in apparently a state +of great excitement. In another moment I perceived that all the family +had been aroused as well as myself. They hurried into my room, which was +the front chamber of the second floor, and thus from a secure point +commanded the street. We all crowded to the two windows, left the +candles unlighted that we might not be seen, and remained as mute as +mice that we might not be heard.</p> + +<p>The stars were very bright, and we could distinctly see the hurrying +crowd in the road below. Some were running in the direction of the +Willow Cottage, while others were hastening thence. These opposite +parties, meeting, would exchange a few vehement words and gestures, and +then speed upon their several ways.</p> + +<p>At last a man, running against another immediately under the window, +inquired:</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter at the Willow Cottage?"</p> + +<p>"Don't stop me, for the Lord's sake! O'Donnegan, the landlord, has +killed young Keats, the only son of Colonel Keats! I am running to fetch +his father!"</p> + +<p>"Heavens and earth! another murder within that accursed house! That is +the third!" exclaimed the questioner, in a voice of horror.</p> + +<p>The men separated in opposite directions, the one running toward the +town, the other toward the scene of the outrage. The same questions and +the same answers were quietly heard between other meeting parties, who +separated, running in opposite ways, as the first had done. The dreadful +news was thus confirmed.</p> + +<p>We drew back our heads and looked each other in the face in +consternation. We knew none of the parties concerned, yet we could not +compose ourselves to sleep that night.</p> + +<p>The next day was a terrible one to the friends of the murdered and the +murderer.</p> + +<p>Once more—the third time—a coroner's inquest sat upon a dead body at +the Willow Cottage. But this time their verdict, made up after a careful +investigation and patient deliberation, was of a more fatal character. +It was that "The deceased came to his death by blows upon the head from +a bludgeon in the hands of Patrick O'Donnegan."</p> + +<p>O'Donnegan, who was under arrest, awaiting the verdict, was then fully +committed to stand his trial at the approaching session of the criminal +court.</p> + +<p>The establishment at the Willow Cottage was broken up, the furniture +sold, the house closed, and the premises once more advertised for rent. +But now with the bad odor hanging around the place, no one wished to +take it, and the house remained idle upon the proprietor's hands.</p> + +<p>Meantime the trial of O'Donnegan approached. He was arraigned, convicted +and sentenced, in a shorter space of time than I ever heard of in the +trial of any criminal. Many people thought that the prosecution was +conducted in a vindictive spirit, and that the friends of the deceased +exerted every faculty, sparing neither influence nor expense in the +pursuit of a conviction. They retained the best counsel in the country +to assist the State's attorney, while on the other hand the poor wretch +of a prisoner had no defense except that appointed for him by the court. +However that might be, in the short space of one month from the time of +committing the homicide, he was sentenced to die, and in six weeks from +his conviction he expiated his crime upon the scaffold.</p> + +<p>It was about the middle of September, of that eventful year, when a +rumor arose—as all rumors arise, mysteriously—that the Willow Cottage +was haunted; that ghostly lights flitted through its chambers; that +ghostly revelers held midnight orgies in its deserted halls; and that +the murderer and the murdered still played their game at ninepins, or +waged their last war along its lonely corridors.</p> + +<p>While these reports were rife in the neighborhood, our Grandmother +Hawkins turned a deaf ear, or threw in a good-humored, sarcastic word to +the marvel-mongers—upon one occasion launching at them and us the +time-honored proverb:</p> + +<p>"You will never see anything worse than yourselves, my dears."</p> + +<p>"I believe you, mistress, honey! for long as I lib on dis yeth, and +feared as I is o' ghoses, I nebber see nothin' worse nor myse'f +yet—dough, the Lord betune me an' harm, I sartinly saw de debbil +once—I did," observed old Cassy, sapiently.</p> + +<p>"If no one else takes the Willow Cottage beforehand, just wait until my +term is up here, and then if Mr. Buzzard will let it to a small, quiet +family on anything like reasonable terms, you'll see how we meet +spectres," said our grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Too late, Aunt Rachel! The Willow Cottage is let," exclaimed Will +Rackaway, who had a few minutes previously joined our party.</p> + +<p>"Let, is it? Ah! well, I hope it is not to another rum-seller!"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed! to another guess tenant! to Colonel Manly, of the —— +regiment, who is now ordered to join General Armistead, in Florida, and +who takes the cottage as a pleasant country home for his wife and +children during his absence."</p> + +<p>"Hum-m me! then we shall have neighbors. I am very well reconciled," +said Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>A few weeks after this conversation the new tenants were settled in the +Willow Cottage, and the colonel embarked for Florida.</p> + +<p>Grandmother Hawkins was rather slow and ceremonious in all her dealings +with society. Therefore she "took her time" in calling upon Mrs. Manly. +Consequently, upon the very morning that she set out to pay that lady a +visit she met a train of furniture drays proceeding from the premises, +and heard to her great astonishment that the family were moving away.</p> + +<p>"And they have been only here a week!" exclaimed the old lady, by +unmitigated astonishment thrown for a moment off her guard.</p> + +<p>Significant looks and mysterious gestures were the only comments made by +the servants upon the subject.</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Hawkins, thinking it improper to push inquiries in that +quarter, sent in her respects and good wishes to Mrs. Manly, and then, +without having alighted from her carryall, gave the order to turn the +horse's head homeward.</p> + +<p>You may judge the surprise with which we heard the news of this +flitting; but as our grandmother had asked no questions, she could give +us no information.</p> + +<p>Others, however, were not so discreet. Inquiries were made and +answered, and soon the news flew all over the country that Mrs. Manly, +upon account of the mysterious noises that nightly disturbed her rest, +found it impossible to live in the house.</p> + +<p>The cottage remained idle for some weeks, and then was taken by another +family, who stayed ten days, then vanished—whispering the same cause +for their abandonment of the premises.</p> + +<p>The excitement of the neighborhood increased. There was nothing talked +of but the haunted house. Large parties visited the spot during +daylight, who, after the most curious investigation, found nothing +unusual about the looks of the place. But no tenant could be induced to +take it, and it remained idle for several weeks, at the end of which +time a family from down the country moved up, and reading of this fine +place to let, and not knowing its "haunted" reputation, engaged it at +once. The name of the newcomers was Ferguson. The neighborhood waited +the event in deep interest.</p> + +<p>Upon the day after their settlement at the cottage, as we were just +about to sit down to our very early breakfast, there was a knock at the +door, followed by the entrance of a good-looking, motherly, colored +woman, who announced herself as "Aunt Hannah, ole Marse Josh Ferguson's +'oman," and stood waiting.</p> + +<p>"Well, Hannah, you look tired—sit down on that stool and let us know +how we can do you good," said Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Thanky, mist'ess—no time to sit, honey; 'deed I hasn't—I come to see +if you would 'form me where I could buy a little drap o' cream, for ole +marse coffee. Our cows; hasn't riv' from below yet."</p> + +<p>"You cannot buy cream at all in this neighborhood, but I will supply +your master, with great pleasure, until his cows come home."</p> + +<p>"Thanky, mist'ess! thanky, honey! I 'cepts of it wid all de comfort in +life! An' if so be you-dem wants any plums, or pears, or squinches, for +'serves, we'd s'ply you in like manner."</p> + +<p>After this Aunt Hannah came every morning for her pitcher of cream. One +morning I overheard her talking with Cassy in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"How you dew likes your new place?" inquired Cassy.</p> + +<p>"Hush, honey!" exclaimed the other, with an air of deep mystery.</p> + +<p>"Lord! 'deed, now?" whispered Cassy.</p> + +<p>"Trufe I'm telling you!" replied Hannah.</p> + +<p>"Do any one sturve you o' nights?"</p> + +<p>"Hush, honey!"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Dead people."</p> + +<p>"The Lord betune us and harm!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, honey! Don't let on! We's gwine 'way; but de family don't want it +should be known as dey leave for sich a cause."</p> + +<p>"I unnerstans! The saints betune us an' sin!"</p> + +<p>A few days after this conversation Mr. Ferguson's family left the Willow +Cottage; and the excitement of the neighborhood upon the subject of the +haunted homestead received a tremendous impetus. As it had been once +visited from motives of incredulous curiosity, it was now avoided in the +spirit of superstitious dread. It was believed to be unlucky to the +visitor. All the worst rumors about the former proprietors were revived +and credited. It was said that a curse rested upon the house where +marriage faith and friendship's trust and hospitality's laws had each in +succession been basely betrayed—upon the house of three reputed +murders!</p> + +<p>Only Mrs. Hawkins stoutly stood up for the defense of the Willow +Cottage.</p> + +<p>"Three murders! nonsense! three stage plays! The doctor's young wife +fretted herself into illness, and died of heart disease, poor thing. She +was not, therefore, murdered. The old doctor himself lived to a good age +and died in a fit. Was he murdered? I guess the coroner's jury knew! The +unhappy young man Keats lost his life in a sinful revel—a warning to +all youth. What guilt, then, rests upon the comfortable home and +beautiful garden? Did they suggest wine-bibbing and brawling? Pshaw! I +am ashamed of people's want of logic. Only wait until my term is up +here, and then see if I do not move into the house, and stay in it, +too!"</p> + +<p>This decision of Mrs. Hawkins produced different effects upon each of +her family. I for my own part had a natural turn for melodramatic +heroism—admired Joan of Arc, Margaret of Norway, Philippa of Hainault, +and all the lion-hearted, eagle-eyed, battle-ax heroines—and wished for +the opportunity of imitating them. I had an aspiring, courageous spirit, +but weak nerves; and so I stoutly seconded the move to move, though my +heart quailed at the idea of our living alone in the haunted house.</p> + +<p>Ally's trust in her grandmother was so perfect that she resigned herself +in confidence to her decision.</p> + +<p>The old negroes were possessed with the direst fore-bodings, but feeling +that it would be vain to remonstrate, only shook their heads and +muttered something to the effect that "old mist'ess'" confidence in +herself would be sure to have a check some day.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawkins was as good as her word. She began in her steady, energetic +way to tie up parcels and pack boxes of such things as were not in daily +use, in anticipation of moving. There was no competition for the +possession of the deserted mansion. Mrs. Hawkins engaged it at a very +moderate rate of rent.</p> + +<p>And upon the 31st of October—the ghostly anniversary of Hallow E'en—a +day ever to be remembered, we began our removal to the haunted house.</p> + +<p>It was a dark, overcast day.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawkins, who seldom stopped for weather, was anxious to get all her +effects safely housed before the rain, or at least before night. So, +very early in the morning, accompanied by Alice and attended by old +Hector, she drove over to Willow Cottage to have fires lighted in the +damp house, and to receive and dispose of the furniture as it should +arrive.</p> + +<p>Myself and Will Rackaway, who came to help me and old Cassy, remained in +charge of the house to dispatch the furniture. It was a hard day's work, +I assure you. And as the twilight hours passed the sky grew darker, and +the air damper and colder. A gloomier and more depressing day could +scarcely be imagined.</p> + +<p>It was nearly night when at length we dispatched the last cartload of +effects, locked up the house, and got into the old carryall that had +returned for us. Old Cassy sat with me on the back seat, and old Hector, +who drove for us, sat beside Will Rackaway, in front. The rain was now +falling in a fine, slow drizzle. Perhaps it was the dark and heavy +atmosphere, fatigue, and the approach of night, that so oppressed my +spirits, but I well remember the feeling of gloom and terror with which +I crossed the highway and entered upon the grass-grown and shadowy road, +through the thicket that led to Willow Cottage. It was a very dark and +silent scene—no sight but the trees, that, like lower and heavier +clouds, met and hung over our heads; no sound but the stealthy, muffled +turn of the wheels over the wet and fallen leaves.</p> + +<p>"The road to the haunted house is a very ghostly one! I think, for my +part, Mark Tapley would have found this a fine place to get jolly in," +said Will, twisting his head around to look at me.</p> + +<p>But he had quickly to recall his attention, for his first words had so +upset the equanimity of our driver that he had allowed his horse to run +full tilt into the trees. Will seized the reins from the shaking hands +of old Hector and soon righted the carryall.</p> + +<p>At last we emerged from the thicket, and saw dimly the great open area +girdled with its pine forest, of which I have already spoken.</p> + +<p>Only like a denser group of shadow was the old Willow Cottage, in the +midst of its ancient trees, in the center of that open space.</p> + +<p>We followed the road through the broom sedge across the field until we +drew up at the rusty iron gate of the cottage.</p> + +<p>There we alighted, and, leaving old Hector to drive the carryall around +to the stable door, we entered and went up the long grass-grown walk +between the black oaks, until we reached the house.</p> + +<p>The doors and window blinds were all closed, and the faint light within +gleamed fitfully through the chinks where the framework was warped.</p> + +<p>The front door was not locked, and we entered at once into the hall that +ran parallel with the front of the house, and formed, in fact, a sort of +anteroom to the large parlor that lay behind it. From this hall, besides +the central door before us that led into the parlor, there was a door on +the right hand and one on the left, leading into the side bedchambers in +the wings; and by the side of the right-hand door, nearer the front +wall, was the staircase leading up to the large chamber in the gable +end, that was lighted and ventilated by that fan-shaped window seen in +the front of the house over the portico.</p> + +<p>We passed through the hall, and through the large, empty parlor behind +it, and entered the long dining-room in the rear.</p> + +<p>There we found Mrs. Hawkins and Alice awaiting us among the piled-up +furniture.</p> + +<p>"You look tired and out of spirits, Madeleine. You must have worked +harder than we did."</p> + +<p>"How have you got on?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"Why, we have arranged the bedchambers and the kitchen—that is all. We +have left the dining-room and parlor and hall to be put to rights +to-morrow. But Hector has got the supper ready, and set the table in the +kitchen; let us go in there; it is warmer. Come, girls—come, Will."</p> + +<p>As I before mentioned, the kitchen, pantry, laundry and servants' rooms +were in a building behind the dwelling-house, not joined to it, but +standing back to back with it at a distance of three feet. So we had to +go out of doors to enter the kitchen.</p> + +<p>I remember even now the sense of comfort I experienced on entering that +cozy room. It was a stone room, with a great fireplace, in which blazed +a fine fire, a wide, high dresser, upon which shone, tier upon tier, +rows of bright metal and clean crockeryware; in the middle of the floor +was an inviting table, upon which smoked an abundant supper.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Will, with an appreciating glance at the board; "thus +fortified, we can meet the enemy!"</p> + +<p>"Can you spend the night with us, Will?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! must return; mother doesn't know I'm out!" replied the youth.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, after supper Will prepared to take his leave of us.</p> + +<p>"Before you go, Will, I wish you to take Hector and the lantern and go +over every foot of the grounds, and all along the walks, to see that +everything is safe here," said our grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course, noble lady! Order the seneschal and the luminary, +and I will reconnoitre the state of the fortifications!" said Will, as +he buttoned up his coat.</p> + +<p>By the time he had drawn on his gloves Hector appeared at the door with +the lantern, and they sallied forth. I looked through an end window, and +found strange amusement in watching the progress of that lantern up one +shadowy walk and down another, and along the hedged wall, until at last +it approached the house. Will entered, speaking gayly.</p> + +<p>"Well, Lady Hawkins, I have reconnoitred the defenses, and found them in +an excellent condition! The wall is strong, the hedge on the inside is +high, and that upon the outerside sharp. The enemy could not attempt to +scale without such damage to cuticle from the one, and bone from the +others, as no enemy endowed with 'the better part of valor' would risk. +All is quiet within the garrison; and if you will send the warden to +lock the gate after me, I think the castle will be impregnable for the +night."</p> + +<p>Hector once more received orders to attend the young master, who now +bade us good-night and left the house.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Cassy had washed up the supper service and restored the +kitchen to order. So that when old Hector returned from his errand, +bearing the key of the gate, nothing remained for us to do but examine +and close the house, offer up our evening worship, and go to bed, which, +as it was very late and we were very tired, we prepared to do at once. +After every room was visited, and every door and window firmly secured, +we went to the dining-room for family prayer, and then let Cassy and +Hector out, and gave them the key to lock the door on the outside, so +that they might be able to let themselves in in the morning to light +the fires without disturbing us. After having thus dismissed them, +closed the door, and heard it locked, we turned to seek our rest.</p> + +<p>"I do not consider these lower bedrooms quite dry and safe just at +present, girls; so I have had two beds made up in the room overhead, +which is large and well ventilated. Alice can sleep with me in the large +bed, and you, Madeleine, can occupy the other," said our grandmother, as +she led the way upstairs.</p> + +<p>I did not quite like the arrangement, but could not resist Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>The upper room, notwithstanding the fact of its being in the roof, was +amply high and large enough for a healthful, double-bedded chamber. Our +beds stood parallel, but sufficiently far apart, with their heads +against the north, or back wall, and their feet toward the front gable, +lighted by the fan-shaped window aforesaid. As it was very damp and +chill, and we were very much exhausted, we did not linger long over our +final preparations, but went speedily to bed.</p> + +<p>Our grandmother and Alice seemed scarcely to have settled themselves +under their blankets and given me a drowsy good-night when they slid off +into the land of dreams.</p> + +<p>I could not sleep! I seldom can the first night in a strange house, and +this was—such a house! I felt quite alone—as much alone as if the +heavy sleepers in the next bed were a thousand miles away, for farther +still in spirit were they. I thought of the isolated situation of the +house we were in; of the crimes, real or reputed, that had stained its +hearthstone; of the superstitious terror attaching to the haunted place; +of the hard facts that three several families, not reputed less wise or +brave than their neighbors, had been driven from the spot by +supernatural disturbance as yet unexplained; of the coincidence that +this dreary night was the ghostly Hallow E'en; then of the superstition +that spirits, when they wish to appear to only one in a room, have the +power of casting all others into a profound sleep, from which the +haunted one cannot awake them; and of isolating their victim from all +the natural world—even from the very bedfellow by their side. The room +was very dark and still—solid blackness and dead silence. It oppressed +me like a nightmare. At last, when my senses grew accustomed to the +scenes by straining my eyes, I could dimly perceive beyond the foot of +the bed the segment of a circle formed by the fan-light window, that now +only seemed a thinner darkness; and, by straining my ears, I could +faintly hear the stealthy fall of the drizzling rain. It was almost +worse than the first total silence and darkness; for it kept my nerves +on a strange <i>qui vive</i> of attention. Presently this was over, too. The +muffled sound of the drizzling ceased. Yet darker clouds must have +lowered over the earth, for the faint outline of the fan-light window +was no longer visible. All was once more black darkness and intense +silence, and again I felt oppressed almost to suffocation. Welcome now +would have been the faint fall of the fine rain or the dim outline of +the window. I strained my senses in vain; no sight or sound responded. I +felt the silence and the darkness settling like the clods of the ground +upon my breast.</p> + +<p>Hoo-oo-o!—went something.</p> + +<p>Hark! what was that? I thought, starting.</p> + +<p>Hoo-oo-o——!</p> + +<p>Oh! the wailing voice of some low, wandering wind, I concluded.</p> + +<p>Whirirr-rr-r-r——!</p> + +<p>Yes! the wind is rising, but how like a lost spirit it wails.</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r——!</p> + +<p>My Lord! it's not the wind! What is it? Great Heavens!</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r!</p> + +<p>I started up in a sitting posture, and, bathed in a cold perspiration, +remained listening, my hair bristling with terror.</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r—"Ha—ha—ha!"</p> + +<p>I could bear no more! Springing out, I called:</p> + +<p>"Grandmother! Grandmother!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter? Why, what ails the child?" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh! listen! listen!"</p> + +<p>"Listen at what? You are dreaming!"</p> + +<p>"Dreaming, am I? Oh! wait! Listen——"</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r—"Ha!—ha!—ha!"</p> + +<p>It was, as plainly as I ever heard, the sound of the rolling of a ball, +followed by a peal of demoniac laughter.</p> + +<p>I turned on Mrs. Hawkins an appalled look.</p> + +<p>She was surprised, but self-possessed, and evidently bent on calmly +listening and investigating. She sat straight up in bed with a strong, +concentrated attention to the sounds. They came again:</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-e—rattle-te-bang!—"A ten-strike at last!—O's a dead +shot!"</p> + +<p>"A dead shot."</p> + +<p>"A dead shot," was echoed all around.</p> + +<p>Grandmother calmly threw the quilts off her, stepped out of bed, and +began to dress herself.</p> + +<p>"Strike a light, Madeleine," she said.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, grandmother?"</p> + +<p>"Dress myself and examine the premises."</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r—"Ha! ha! ha!" sounded once more the demoniac noise +and laughter.</p> + +<p>The matchbox nearly dropped from my shaking hands, but I struck the +light.</p> + +<p>The sudden flash awoke Alice just as another sonorous roll of the ball, +and fall of the pins, and peal of demon laughter, sounded hollowly +around us.</p> + +<p>"Heaven and earth! what is that?" she exclaimed, starting up.</p> + +<p>"What do you think it is, Alice?" said I.</p> + +<p>"My Lord! my Lord!—it is the phantoms of the murderer and the murdered +playing over again their last game!" cried the girl, in an agony of +terror.</p> + +<p>Just at this moment a distinct knocking was heard at the little door at +the foot of the staircase.</p> + +<p>Alice screamed.</p> + +<p>I held my breath.</p> + +<p>The knocking was repeated.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" said Mrs. Hawkins, going to the head of the stairs.</p> + +<p>No answer; but the knocking was repeated; and then a frightened, +plaintive voice, crying:</p> + +<p>"Ole mist'ess—ole mist'ess—oh! do, for the Lord sake, let me in, +chile! the hair's almos' turn gray on my head."</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Cassy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, honey—yes, what the ghoses has left o' me," replied the poor +creature, in a dying voice.</p> + +<p>Grandmother went down the stairs and opened the door at the foot, and +Cassy came tumbling up into the room after her. She was absolutely ashen +gray with terror, and her limbs shook so that she could scarcely stand.</p> + +<p>"Oh! did you hear—did you hear all the ghoses and devils playing +ninepins together in our very house?" she gasped, dropping into a chair.</p> + +<p>As if in answer to her question, once more the phantom ball rolled in +detonating thunder, the pins fell with a loud, rattling sound, followed +by a hollow shout of triumph!</p> + +<p>Cassy fell on her knees and crossed herself devoutly.</p> + +<p>Alice clung in terror to her grandmother.</p> + +<p>I felt that the time to play the heroine was come, and strove to exhibit +self-possession and courage.</p> + +<p>"Take up the candle, Cassy, and lead the way downstairs. We must go and +search the house," said Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh! for the Lord's sake, don't! don't! old mist'ess, honey! Don't be a +temptin' o' Providence! Leave the ghoses alone and stay here, and fasten +the door."</p> + +<p>"I shall search the house and grounds," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a +peremptory voice. "Therefore, take up the light and go before me."</p> + +<p>"Oh! for de Lord's love, ole mis'tess! ef we mus' go, you go first, you +go first; I dar'n't; I's such a sinner, I is!" cried Cassy, wringing her +hands in an agony of terror.</p> + +<p>Urr-rrr-rr-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang!</p> + +<p>"A ten-strike! Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" again sounded the revels.</p> + +<p>"Hooley St. Bridget, pray for us! Hail Mary, full of grace! Don't go, +ole mist'ess, honey! Oh, stay where you is in safety!" pleaded the old +woman, clasping her hands.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Hold your tongue, Cassy. If ever there was a woman plagued +with a set of cowardly simpletons, it is myself. Let go my skirts this +moment, Alice! Be silent, every one of you, and follow me as softly as +possible," said my grandmother, in a low, stern voice, as she took up +the candle and led the way downstairs. We followed at this order—Cassy +holding on to her mistress' skirts, Alice holding to Cassy's, and I +bringing up the rear, with carnal weapons in one hand and spiritual ones +in the other—that is to say, with a big ruler and a prayerbook.</p> + +<p>A chill, damp air met us at the foot of the stairs—nothing else.</p> + +<p>The front hall was empty and bleak. We tried the doors, and found them +as secure as we had left them, with the exception of the parlor door, by +which Cassy had entered, and which was on the latch. Mrs. Hawkins pulled +it to and locked it, saying, in a low voice, that she wished, while +examining each room, to keep all the rest locked, that there might be no +escape for any one concealed in the house.</p> + +<p>First we went into the right-hand bedroom, opening from the hall. It was +secure, vacant and bleak. We locked the door and drew out the key.</p> + +<p>Next we looked into the left-hand bedroom; it was in precisely the same +condition. We made it fast in the same manner.</p> + +<p>Then we opened and entered the parlor. This was the bleakest room of +any—large, square, lofty, totally bare, cold and damp.</p> + +<p>"Nothing here," said Mrs. Hawkins, looking around.</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang-ang! the phantom ball rolled, and +scattered the ninepins.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" shouted the hollow, ghostly voices.</p> + +<p>They seemed to be in the very room with us, reverberating in the very +air we breathed, echoing from the four walls around, and from the +ceiling above us!</p> + +<p>"Jesu, Mary!" cried Cassy, dropping on her knees.</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! oh!" gasped Alice, clinging to me.</p> + +<p>"This is very unaccountable," said our grandmother, looking all around +the room, where nothing but bare walls and bare boards met the view.</p> + +<p>We looked at each other in silence for a few moments, and then Mrs. +Hawkins said:</p> + +<p>"Come! let us look into the dining-room, and then call up Hector to +assist us in searching the grounds."</p> + +<p>We passed on into the next room and locked the door behind us, as we had +locked every one in our tour through the house. That room was closely +packed with furniture, over which we had to clamber our passage.</p> + +<p>While we were doing so, once again sounded the detonating roll of the +ball, the rattling, scattering of the pins, and the hollow peals of +laughter, all echoing around and around us, as it were, in the same +rooms.</p> + +<p>Alice again seized her grandmother.</p> + +<p>Cassy fell over a stack of washtubs, and called on all the saints to +help her.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawkins ordered Alice to let her go, and Cassy to get up, and me to +move on.</p> + +<p>She was obeyed. A great general was our grandmother, and we all knew it!</p> + +<p>We left the dining-room, locking the last door behind us. We dodged the +dark, blind alley, sheltered the candle from the drizzling mist, and +went around into the kitchen and called Hector from above.</p> + +<p>The old man answered, and soon came toddling down the narrow stairs.</p> + +<p>"Hector, have you heard those noises?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"The Lord between us and evil! I've heern, mist'ess! I've heern!"</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose it is?"</p> + +<p>A dubious, solemn shake of the head was the old man's only reply.</p> + +<p>"Can't you speak, Hector? How do you account for these noises? Come! no +mysteries; answer if you can; what are they?"</p> + +<p>"Dead people!" groaned the old man, with a shudder.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>But I could see that even she was paler than usual.</p> + +<p>"Come, Hector! There is no one in the house—that is certain. And no one +can get into it while we are gone, because it is locked up. Now fasten +up the kitchen, and let us go and search the grounds, and unkennel any +interlopers that may be lurking there."</p> + +<p>We came out and secured the kitchen door, and began our tour of the +garden.</p> + +<p>As we left the door, our watchdog ran out to join us.</p> + +<p>This circumstance, while it greatly assisted us in our search, very much +increased the perplexity of our minds. Had the dog heard the noises that +had disturbed us, and if so, why had he not given the alarm?—or, on the +other hand, were dogs insensible to supernatural sights and sounds? We +could not tell; but we were glad to have Fidelle snuffing and trotting +along before us, confident that if there were a human being lurking +anywhere in the garden, he would smell him out. So we went up one +grass-grown walk and down another, between rows of gooseberry bushes, +currant bushes, and raspberry bushes, all damp and dripping with mist, +and through alleys of dwarf plum trees, and all along the hedges of +evergreen inside the brick wall, and past the iron gate, which was still +chained, as it had been left, and then around in the stable, coachhouse, +henhouse and smokehouse, each of which we found securely locked, and, +when opened, damp, musty and vacant; and so we looked over every foot of +ground, and into every outbuilding, finding all safe and leaving all +safe; and at last, without having discovered anything, we arrived again +at the dining-room door.</p> + +<p>We all entered, locked the door after us, clambered over the piles of +furniture, and passed on into the parlor.</p> + +<p>The parlor, as I have said, was as yet unfurnished, damp and cold. Yet +there we paused for a little while to take breath.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing concealed in the garden, and nothing in the house; +that is demonstrated. These strange manifestations must admit of a +natural explanation; but I confess myself at a loss to explain them," +said Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh! ole mist'ess; 'fess it's de ghoses, honey! 'fess it's de ghoses! +Memorize how nobody was ever able to lib in dis cussed house!" pleaded +Cassy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, grandmother, do let's sit up here all night to-night, and move +out early to-morrow morning," entreated Ally.</p> + +<p>"What do you say, Madeleine?" inquired my grandmother.</p> + +<p>"I say, brave it out!"</p> + +<p>"So do I, my girl!" replied Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for de love o' de Lord, don't ole mist'ess! don't, Miss Maddy! +don't! It's a temptin' o' Providence! Leave de 'fernel ole place to de +ghoses, as has de bes' right to it!" prayed Cassy.</p> + +<p>"We'll see about that!" said our grandmother. "But come! all seems quiet +now; we will go to bed, and investigate further to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Yes, ole mist'ess, honey, I knows all is quiet jest now, but——"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!—Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" burst a peal +of demoniac laughter, resounding through and through the room, and close +into our ears.</p> + +<p>"The Lord between us and Satan!" cried Cassy, dropping the candle, which +immediately went out and left us in darkness.</p> + +<p>While, peal on peal, sounded the demoniac laughter around us.</p> + +<p>Cassy fell on her knees and began praying:</p> + +<p>"St. Mary, pray for us! St. Martha pray for us! all ye hooly vargins and +widders, pray for us lone women! St. Peter, pray for us! St. Powl pray +for us! All hooly 'postles and 'vangellers, pray for us poor +sinners!—Saint—Saint—Saint—oh! for de Lor's sake, Miss Ally, honey, +tell me de name o' that hooly saint as met a ghose riding on Balaam's +ass and knows hows—how it feels!"</p> + +<p>"It was Saul or Samuel, or the Witch of Endor, I forget which," said +Alice, whose knowledge of the Old Testament, never very precise, was +frightened out of her.</p> + +<p>"St. Saul, St. Samuel, St. Witchywinder, pray for us, as met a ghost +yourself and knows how it feels."</p> + +<p>And still, while Cassy prayed her frantic prayers, and poor old Hector +told his beads, and Alice trembled and clung to me, the demon laughter +resounded around and around us. We were in such total darkness that I +had not seen Mrs. Hawkins withdraw herself from the group, nor suspected +her absence until we heard her firm, cheery voice outside near the +dining-room door, saying:</p> + +<p>"What can any one think of this? Come here, Hector! Come here, +children!"</p> + +<p>We all went—expecting some <i>denouement</i>.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawkins telegraphed to us to be perfectly silent, and to step +lightly. She turned the angle of the house and walked up the blind alley +between the back of the house and the back of the kitchen; when she had +got about midway of the walk, she stopped, and silently pointed to the +rank weeds and bushes that grew closely under the wall of the house.</p> + +<p>"There! what do you think of that?" she said, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>We looked, and at first could see nothing; but, on a closer inspection, +we perceived a very faint glimmer, a mere thread of red light, low down +among the bushes.</p> + +<p>We looked up at Mrs. Hawkins for explanation.</p> + +<p>"After the candle fell and went out," she said, "I slipped out, with the +intention of exploring again, and this time alone, and in darkness. I +came up this blind alley, and, looking sharply, descried that glimmer of +light. And now I am convinced that the revelers, human or ghostly, are +below there, in that old, disused cellar that we were made to believe +was nearly full of water, and required to be drained. Don't be agitated, +children! take it coolly," concluded Mrs. Hawkins, stooping down to put +aside the weeds and bushes.</p> + +<p>Just at this moment another detonating roll of the ball, and scattering +fall of the pins, and peal of hollow laughter, resounded from below.</p> + +<p>Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-rattle bang-ang-ang! "Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! +ho! A dead shot!"</p> + +<p>"Too late, young gentlemen! Your fun is all over! Your game is up! You +are discovered! Come forth!" said Mrs. Hawkins, who, down upon her +knees, pulled away the bushes, turned up the old, broken and mouldy +cellar door, and discovered the scene below.</p> + +<p>A rudely fitted-up bowling alley, occupying the further end of the room, +and some eight or ten youths, no longer engaged in rolling balls, but, +on the contrary, standing in various attitudes of detected culpability.</p> + +<p>"Come! come forth!" commanded Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>And they came, climbing up the rotten and moldering steps, and the very +first who put his impudent head up through the door into the open air +was Will Rackaway!</p> + +<p>"Oh! Will," exclaimed Alice, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"You! Will?" questioned Mrs. Hawkins, in scandalized astonishment.</p> + +<p>"No! the ghost of O'Donnegan," replied the youth, in a sepulchral voice.</p> + +<p>"Reprobate!" exclaimed our grandmother.</p> + +<p>"Now, indeed, indeed, I was only taking the liberty of entertaining my +friends in my kind Aunt Hawkins' cellar. Quite right, you know! Only +don't tell father, and I'll never do so no more!" pleaded Will, with +mock humility.</p> + +<p>"Dismiss your comrades, sir! and come into the house! I shall send for +your father to-morrow morning," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a stern voice.</p> + +<p>There was no need to dismiss the intruders; they were climbing up the +dilapidated steps as fast as they could come, and slinking away with +averted heads, trying to conceal their faces, which Mrs. Hawkins did not +insist upon discovering. When they were all gone, Will followed us into +the house.</p> + +<p>"Now, then, sir, explain your conduct," ordered Mrs. Hawkins.</p> + +<p>And Will, with an air of mock humility and deprecation, obeyed.</p> + +<p>The account he gave was briefly this: Himself and several other youths, +sons of very strict parents, who proscribed ninepins with other games, +had, out of some old timber and furniture left of O'Donnegan's old +ninepin alley, that had been taken down and carried away, fitted up the +old, disused cellar for their games. They had played there recently +every night, with no other intention than that of amusing themselves, +and of keeping their game concealed—with no thought of enacting a +ghostly drama, until, to their astonishment, they gradually learned that +these revels were mistaken for ghostly orgies, and had given the house +its unenviable reputation of being haunted—a joke much too good for +human nature, and especially for boys' human nature, not to carry out. +Everything favored their concealment. The cellar was reputed to be half +full of water, and was long disused, and every cellar window, except the +narrow, hidden one that they had turned into a door, was nailed up. +Besides, the front division of the cellar was really two feet deep in +water, and when there was any great risk of discovery they had a means +of letting it in to overflow the back division, so that their fixtures +were all covered. Thus for months they had played the double game of +ninepins and of a ghostly drama!</p> + +<p>Need I say more? Will was let off with a lengthy lecture, which I have +reason to believe did him a vast deal of good, as he is now the staid +father of a family, and pastor of a church. Mrs. Hawkins was for the +next nine days the wonder of the neighborhood for having so valiantly +exorcised the ghosts. And we settled down in perfect content in the fine +old house, to which we possessed the double right of rental and of +conquest.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_GILBERTS" id="THE_GILBERTS"></a>THE GILBERTS;</h2> + +<h3>OR,</h3> + +<h3>RICE CORNER NUMBER TWO.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IA" id="CHAPTER_IA"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>THE GILBERTS.</h3> + + +<p>The spring following Carrie Howard's death Rice Corner was thrown into a +commotion by the astounding fact that Captain Howard was going out West, +and had sold his farm to a gentleman from the city, whose wife "kept six +servants, wore silk all the time, never went inside of the kitchen, +never saw a churn, breakfasted at ten, dined at three, and had supper +the next day!"</p> + +<p>Such was the story which Mercy Jenkins detailed to us early one Monday +morning, and then, eager to communicate so desirable a piece of news to +others of her acquaintance, she started off, stopping for a moment as +she passed the wash-room to see if Sally's clothes "wan't kinder dingy +and yaller." As soon as she was gone the astonishment of our household +broke forth, grandma wondering why Captain Howard wanted to go to the +ends of the earth, as she designated Chicago, their place of +destination, and what she should do without Aunt Eunice, who, having +been born on grandma's wedding-day, was very dear to her, and then her +age was so easy to keep. But the best of friends must part, and when at +Mrs. Howard's last tea-drinking with us I saw how badly they all felt, +and how many tears were shed, I firmly resolved never to like anybody +but my own folks, unless, indeed, I made an exception in favor of Tom +Jenkins, who so often drew me to school on his sled, and who made such +comical looking jack-o'-lanterns out of the big yellow pumpkins.</p> + +<p>In reply to the numerous questions concerning Mr. Gilbert, the purchaser +of their farm, Mrs. Howard could only reply that he was very wealthy and +had got tired of living in the city; adding, further, that he wore a +"monstrous pair of musquitoes," had an evil-looking eye, four children, +smoked cigars, and was a lawyer by profession. This last was all grandma +wanted to know about him—"that told the whole story," for there never +was but <i>one</i> decent lawyer, and that was Mr. Evelyn, Cousin Emma's +husband. Dear old lady! when a few years ago, she heard that I, her +favorite grandchild, was to marry one of the craft, she made another +exception in his favor, saying that "if he wasn't all straight, Mary +would soon make him so!"</p> + +<p>Within a short time after Aunt Eunice's visit she left Rice Corner, and +on the same day wagon-load after wagon-load of Mr. Gilbert's furniture +passed our house, until Sally declared "there was enough to keep a +tavern, and she didn't see nothin' where theys' goin' to put it," at the +same time announcing her intention of "running down there after dinner, +to see what was going on."</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that Sally was now a married woman—"Mrs. Michael +Welsh;" consequently, mother, who lived with her, instead of her living +with mother, did not presume to interfere with her much, though she +hinted pretty strongly that she "always liked to see people mind their +own affairs." But Sally was incorrigible. The dinner dishes were washed +with a whew, I was coaxed into sweeping the back room—which I did, +leaving the dirt under the broom behind the door—while Mrs. Welsh, +donning a pink calico, blue shawl, and bonnet trimmed with dark green, +started off on her prying excursion, stopping by the roadside where Mike +was making fence, and keeping him, as grandma said, "full half an hour +by the clock from his work."</p> + +<p>Not long after Sally's departure a handsome carriage, drawn by two fine +bay horses, passed our house; and as the windows were down we could +plainly discern a pale, delicate-looking lady, wrapped in shawls, a +tall, stylish-looking girl, another one about my own age, and two +beautiful little boys.</p> + +<p>"That's the Gilberts, I know," said Anna. "Oh, I'm so glad Sally's gone, +for now we shall have the full particulars;" and again we waited as +impatiently for Sally's return as we had once done before for grandma.</p> + +<p>At last, to our great relief, the green ribbons and blue shawl were +descried in the distance, and ere long Sally was with us, ejaculating, +"Oh, my—mercy me!" etc., thus giving us an inkling of what was to +follow. "Of all the sights that ever I have seen," said she, folding up +the blue shawl, and smoothing down the pink calico. "There's carpeting +enough to cover every crack and crevice—all pure bristles, too!"</p> + +<p>Here I tittered, whereupon Sally angrily retorted, that "she guessed she +knew how to talk proper, if she hadn't studied grammar."</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Anna, "go on; brussels carpeting and what else?"</p> + +<p>"Mercy knows what else," answered Sally. "I can't begin to guess the +names of half the things. There's mahogany, and rosewood, and marble +fixin's—and in Miss Gilbert's room there's lace curtains and silk +damson ones"—</p> + +<p>A look from Anna restrained me this time, and Sally continued.</p> + +<p>"Mercy Jenkins is there, helpin', and she says Mr. Gilbert told 'em, his +wife never et a piece of salt pork in her life, and knew no more how +bread was made than a child two years old."</p> + +<p>"What a simple critter she must be," said grandma, while Anna asked if +she saw Mrs. Gilbert, and if that tall girl was her daughter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I seen her," answered Sally, "and I guess she's weakly, for the +minit she got into the house she lay down on the sofa, which Mr. Gilbert +says cost seventy-five dollars. That tall, proud-lookin' thing they call +Miss Adaline, but I'll warrant you don't catch me puttin' on the miss. I +called her Adaline, and you had orto seen how her big eyes looked at me. +Says she, at last, 'Are you one of pa's new servants?'</p> + +<p>"'Servants!' says I, 'no, indeed; I'm Mrs. Michael Welsh, one of your +nighest neighbors.'</p> + +<p>"Then I told her that there were two nice girls lived in the house with +me, and she'd better get acquainted with 'em right away; and then with +the hatefulest of all hateful laughs, she asked if 'they wore glass +beads and went barefoot.'"</p> + +<p>I fancied that neither Juliet nor Anna were greatly pleased at being +introduced by Sally, the housemaid, to the elegant Adaline Gilbert, who +had come to the country with anything but a favorable impression of its +inhabitants. The second daughter, the one about my own age, Sally said +they called Nellie; "and a nice, clever creature she is, too—not a bit +stuck up like t'other one. Why, I do believe she'd walked every big +beast in the barn before she'd been there half an hour, and the last I +saw of her she was coaxing a cow to lie still while she got upon her +back!"</p> + +<p>How my heart warmed toward the romping Nellie, and how I wondered if +after that beam-walking exploit her hooks and eyes were all in their +places! The two little boys, Sally said, were twins, Edward and Egbert, +or, as they were familiarly called, Bert and Eddie. This was nearly all +she had learned, if we except the fact that the family ate with silver +forks, and drank wine after dinner. This last, mother pronounced +heterodox, while I, who dearly loved the juice of the grape, and +sometimes left finger marks on the top shelf, whither I had climbed for +a sip from grandma's decanter, secretly hoped I should some day dine +with Nellie Gilbert, and drink all the wine I wanted, thinking how many +times I'd rinse my mouth so mother shouldn't smell my breath!</p> + +<p>In the course of a few weeks the affairs of the Gilbert family were +pretty generally canvassed in Rice Corner, Mercy Jenkins giving it as +her opinion that "Miss Gilbert was much the likeliest of the two, and +that Mr. Gilbert was cross, overbearing, and big feeling."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIA" id="CHAPTER_IIA"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>NELLIE.</h3> + + +<p>As yet I had only seen Nellie in the distance, and was about despairing +of making her acquaintance when accident threw her in my way. Directly +opposite our house, and just across a long green meadow, was a piece of +woods which belonged to Mr. Gilbert, and there, one afternoon early in +May, I saw Nellie. I had seen her there before, but never dared approach +her; and now I divided my time between watching her and a dense black +cloud which had appeared in the west, and was fast approaching the +zenith. I was just thinking how nice it would be if the rain should +drive her to our house for shelter, when patter, patter came the large +drops in my face; thicker and faster they fell, until it seemed like a +perfect deluge; and through the almost blinding sheet of rain I descried +Nellie coming toward me at a furious rate. With the agility of a fawn +she bounded over the gate, and with the exclamation of, "Ain't I wetter +than a drownded rat?" we were perfectly well acquainted.</p> + +<p>It took but a short time to divest her of her dripping garments, and +array her in some of mine, which Sally said "fitted her to a T," though +I fancied she looked sadly out of place in my linen pantalets and +long-sleeved dress. She was a great lover of fun and frolic, and in less +than half an hour had "ridden to Boston" on Joe's rocking-horse, turned +the little wheel faster than even I dared to turn it, tried on grandma's +stays, and then, as a crowning feat, tried the rather dangerous +experiment of riding down the garret stairs on a board! The clatter +brought up grandma, and I felt some doubts about her relishing a kind of +play which savored so much of what she called "a racket," but the soft +brown eyes which looked at her so pleadingly were too full of love, +gentleness, and mischief to be resisted, and permission for "one more +ride" was given, "provided she'd promise not to break her neck."</p> + +<p>Oh, what fun we had that afternoon! What a big rent she tore in my +gingham frock, and what a "dear, delightful old haunted castle of a +thing" she pronounced our house to be. Darling, darling Nellie! I shut +my eyes and she comes before me again, the same bright, beautiful +creature she was when I saw her first, as she was when I saw her for the +last, last time.</p> + +<p>It rained until dark, and Nellie, who confidently expected to stay all +night, had whispered to me her intention of "tying our toes together," +when there came a tremendous rap upon the door, and without waiting to +be bidden in walked Mr. Gilbert, puffing and swelling, and making +himself perfectly at home, in a kind of off-hand manner, which had in it +so much of condescension that I was disgusted, and when sure Nellie +would not see me I made at him a wry face, thereby feeling greatly +relieved!</p> + +<p>After managing to let mother know how expensive his family was, how much +he paid yearly for wines and cigars, and how much Adaline's education +and piano had cost, he arose to go, saying to his daughter. "Come, puss, +take off those—ahem—those habiliments, and let's be off!"</p> + +<p>Nellie obeyed, and just before she was ready to start, she asked when I +would come and spend the day with her.</p> + +<p>I looked at mother, mother looked at Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert looked at +me, and after surveying me from head to foot said, spitting between +every other word, "Ye-es, ye-es, we've come to live in the country, and +I suppose" (here he spit three successive times), "and I suppose we may +as well be on friendly terms as any other; so, madam" (turning to +mother), "I am willing to have your little daughter visit us +occasionally." Then adding that "he would extend the same invitation to +her, were it not that his wife was an invalid and saw no company," he +departed.</p> + +<p>One morning, several days afterward, a servant brought to our house a +neat little note from Mrs. Gilbert, asking mother to let me spend the +day with Nellie. After some consultation between mother and grandma, it +was decided that I might go, and in less than an hour I was dressed and +on the road, my hair braided so tightly in my neck that the little red +bumps of flesh set up here and there, like currants on a brown earthen +platter.</p> + +<p>Nellie did not wait to receive me formally, but came running down the +road, telling me that Robin had made a swing in the barn, and that we +would play there most all day, as her mother was sick, and Adaline, who +occupied two-thirds of the house, wouldn't let us come near her. This +Adaline was to me a very formidable personage. Hitherto I had only +caught glimpses of her, as with long skirts and waving plumes she +sometimes dashed past our house on horseback, and it was with great +trepidation that I now followed Nellie into the parlor, where she told +me her sister was.</p> + +<p>"Adaline, this is my little friend," said she; and Adaline replied:</p> + +<p>"How do you do, little friend?"</p> + +<p>My cheeks tingled, and for the first time raising my eyes I found myself +face to face with the haughty belle. She was very tall and queenlike in +her figure, and though she could hardly be called handsome, there was +about her an air of elegance and refinement which partially compensated +for the absence of beauty. That she was proud one could see from the +glance of her large black eyes and the curl of her lip. Coolly surveying +me for a moment, as she would any other curious specimen, she resumed +her book, never speaking to me again, except to ask, when she saw me +gazing wonderingly around the splendidly-furnished room, "if I supposed +I could remember every article of furniture, and give a faithful +report."</p> + +<p>I thought I was insulted when she called me "little friend," and now, +feeling sure of it, I tartly replied that "if I couldn't she perhaps +might lend me paper and pencil, with which to write them down."</p> + +<p>"Original, truly," said she, again poring over her book.</p> + +<p>Nellie, who had left me for a moment, now returned, bidding me come and +see her mother, and passing through the long hall, I was soon in Mrs. +Gilbert's room, which was as tastefully, though perhaps not quite so +richly, furnished as the parlor. Mrs. Gilbert was lying upon a sofa, and +the moment I looked upon her, the love which I had so freely given the +daughter was shared with the mother, in whose pale sweet face, and soft +brown eyes, I saw a strong resemblance to Nellie. She was attired in a +rose-colored morning-gown, which flowed open in front, disclosing to +view a larger quantity of rich French embroidery than I had ever before +seen.</p> + +<p>Many times during the day, and many times since, have I wondered what +made her marry, and if she really loved the bearish-looking man who +occasionally stalked into the room, smoking cigars and talking very +loudly, when he knew how her head was throbbing with pain.</p> + +<p>I had eaten but little breakfast that morning, and verily I thought I +should famish before their dinner hour arrived; and when at last it +came, and I saw the table glittering with silver, I felt many misgivings +as to my ability to acquit myself creditably. But by dint of watching +Nellie, doing just what she did, and refusing just what she refused, I +managed to get through with it tolerably well. For once, too, in my life +I drank all the wine I wanted; the result of which was that long before +sunset I went home, crying and vomiting with the sick headache, which +Sally said "served me right;" at the same time hinting her belief that I +was slightly intoxicated!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIIA" id="CHAPTER_IIIA"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE HAUNTED HOUSE.</h3> + + +<p>Down our long, green lane, and at the further extremity of the narrow +footpath which led to the "old mine," was another path or wagon road +which wound along among the fern bushes, under the chestnut trees, +across the hemlock swamp, and up to a grassy ridge which overlooked a +small pond, said, of course, to have no bottom. Fully crediting this +story, and knowing, moreover, that China was opposite to us, I had often +taken down my atlas and hunted through that ancient empire, in hopes of +finding a corresponding sheet of water. Failing to do so I had made one +with my pencil, writing against it, "Cranberry Pond," that being the +name of its American brother.</p> + +<p>Just above the pond on the grassy ridge stood an old dilapidated +building which had long borne the name of the "haunted house," I never +knew whether this title was given it on account of its proximity to the +"old mine," or because it stood near the very spot where, years and +years ago, the "bloody Indians" pushed those cart-loads of burning hemp +against the doors "of the only remaining house in Quaboag"—for which +see Goodrich's Child's History, page —, somewhere toward the +commencement. I only know that 'twas called the "haunted house," and +that for a long time no one would live there, on account of the rapping, +dancing, and cutting-up generally which was said to prevail there, +particularly in the west room, the one overhung with ivy and grapevines.</p> + +<p>Three or four years before our story opens a widow lady, Mrs. Hudson, +with her only daughter, Mabel, appeared in our neighborhood, hiring the +"haunted house," and, in spite of the neighbors' predictions to the +contrary, living there quietly and peaceably, unharmed by ghost or +goblin. At first Mrs. Hudson was looked upon with distrust, and even a +league with a certain old fellow was hinted at; but as she seemed to be +well disposed, kind, and affable toward all, this feeling gradually wore +away, and now she was universally liked, while Mabel, her daughter, was +a general favorite. For two years past, Mabel had worked in the Fiskdale +factory a portion of the time, going to school the remainder of the +year. She was fitting herself for a teacher, and as the school in our +district was small, the trustees had this summer kindly offered it to +her. This arrangement delighted me; for, next to Nellie Gilbert, I loved +Mabel Hudson best of anybody; and I fancied, too, that they looked +alike, but of course it was all fancy.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hudson was a tailoress, and the day following my visit to Mr. +Gilbert's I was sent by mother to take her some work. I found her in the +little porch, her white cap-border falling over her placid face, and her +wide checked apron coming nearly to the bottom of her dress. Mabel was +there, too, and as she rose to receive me something about her reminded +me of Adaline Gilbert. I could not tell what it was, for Mabel was very +beautiful, and beside her Adaline would be plain; still there was a +resemblance, either in voice or manner, and this it was, perhaps, which +made me so soon mention the Gilberts and my visit to them the day +previous.</p> + +<p>Instantly Mrs. Hudson and Mabel exchanged glances, and I thought the +face of the former grew a shade paler; still I may have been mistaken, +for in her usual tone of voice she began to ask me numberless questions +concerning the family, which seemed singular, as she was not remarkable +for curiosity. But it suited me. I loved to talk then not less than I do +now, and in a few minutes I had told all I knew—and more, too, most +likely.</p> + +<p>At last Mrs. Hudson asked about Mr. Gilbert, and how I liked him.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," said I. "He's the hatefulest, crossest, big-feelingest man +I ever saw, and Adaline is just like him!"</p> + +<p>Had I been a little older I might, perhaps, have wondered at the crimson +flush which my hasty words brought to Mrs. Hudson's cheek, but I did not +notice it then, and thinking she was, of course, highly entertained, I +continued to talk about Mr. Gilbert and Adaline, in the last of whom +Mabel seemed the most interested. Of Nellie I spoke with the utmost +affection, and when Mrs. Hudson expressed a wish to see her, I promised, +if possible, to bring her there; then, as I had already outstaid the +time for which permission had been given, I tied on my sunbonnet and +started for home, revolving the ways and means by which I should keep my +promise.</p> + +<p>This proved to be a very easy matter; for within a few days Nellie came +to return my visit, and as mother had other company she the more readily +gave us permission to go where we pleased. Nellie had a perfect passion +for ghost and witch stories, saying though that "she never liked to have +them explained—she'd rather they'd be left in solemn mystery;" so when +I told her of the "old mine" and the "haunted house" she immediately +expressed a desire to see them. Hiding our bonnets under our aprons the +better to conceal our intentions from sister Lizzie, who, we fancied, +had serious thoughts of <i>tagging</i>, we sent her upstairs in quest of +something which we knew was not there, and then away we scampered down +the green lane and across the pasture, dropping once into some alders as +Lizzie's yellow hair became visible on the fence at the foot of the +lane. Our consciences smote us a little, but we kept still until she +returned to the house; then, continuing our way, we soon came in sight +of the mine, which Nellie determined to explore.</p> + +<p>It was in vain that I tried to dissuade her from the attempt. She was +resolved, and stationing myself at a safe distance I waited while she +scrambled over stones, sticks, logs, and bushes, until she finally +disappeared in the cave. Ere long, however, she returned with soiled +pantelets, torn apron, and scratched face, saying that "the mine was +nothing in the world but a hole in the ground, and a mighty little one +at that." After this I didn't know but I would sometime venture in, but +for fear of what might happen I concluded to choose a time when I hadn't +run away from Liz!</p> + +<p>When I presented Nellie to Mrs. Hudson she took both her hands in hers, +and, greatly to my surprise, kissed her on both cheeks. Then she walked +hastily into the next room, but not until I saw something fall from her +eyes, which I am sure were tears.</p> + +<p>"Funny, isn't it?" said Nellie, looking wonderingly at me. "I don't know +whether to laugh or what."</p> + +<p>Mabel now came in, and though she manifested no particular emotion, she +was exceedingly kind to Nellie, asking her many questions, and sometimes +smoothing her brown curls. When Mrs. Hudson again appeared she was very +calm, but I noticed that her eyes constantly rested upon Nellie, who, +with Mabel's grey kitten in her lap, was seated upon the doorstep, the +very image of childish innocence and beauty. Mrs. Hudson urged us to +stay to tea, but I declined, knowing that there was company at home, +with three kinds of cake, besides cookies, for supper. So bidding her +good-bye, and promising to come again, we started homeward, where we +found the ladies discussing their green tea and making large inroads +upon the three kinds of cake.</p> + +<p>One of them, a Mrs. Thompson, was gifted with the art of +fortune-telling, by means of tea-grounds, and when Nellie and I took our +seats at the table she kindly offered to see what was in store for us. +She had frequently told my fortune, each time managing to fish up a +freckle-faced boy so nearly resembling her grandson, my particular +aversion, that I didn't care to hear it again. But with Nellie 'twas all +new, and after a great whirling of tea-grounds and staining of mother's +best table-cloth, she passed her cup to Mrs. Thompson, confidently +whispering to me that she guessed she'd tell her something about Willie +Raymond, who lived in the city, and who gave her the little cornelian +ring which she wore. With the utmost gravity Mrs. Thompson read off the +past and present, and then peering far into the future she suddenly +exclaimed, "Oh, my! there's a gulf, or something, before you, and you +are going to tumble into it headlong; don't ask me anything more."</p> + +<p>I never did and never shall believe in fortune-telling, much less in +Granny Thompson's "turned-up cups," but years after I thought of her +prediction with regard to Nellie. Poor, poor Nellie!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IVA" id="CHAPTER_IVA"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>JEALOUSY.</h3> + + +<p>On the first Monday in June our school commenced, and long before +breakfast Lizzie and I were dressed and had turned inside out the little +cupboard over the fireplace where our books were kept during vacation. +Breakfast being over we deposited in our dinner-basket the whole of a +custard pie, and were about starting off when mother said, "we shouldn't +go a step until half-past eight," adding further, that "we must put that +pie back, for 'twas one she'd saved for their own dinner."</p> + +<p>Lizzie pouted, while I cried, and taking my bonnet I repaired to the +"great rock," where the sassafras, blackberries, and blacksnakes grew. +Here I sat for a long time, thinking if I ever did grow up and get +married (I was sure of the latter), I'd have all the custard pie I could +eat for once! In the midst of my reverie a footstep sounded near, and +looking up I saw before me Nellie Gilbert, with her satchel of books on +her arm, and her sunbonnet hanging down her back, after the fashion in +which I usually wore mine. In reply to my look of inquiry she said her +father had concluded to let her go to the district school, though he +didn't expect her to learn anything but "slang terms and ill manners."</p> + +<p>By this time it was half-past eight, and together with Lizzie we +repaired to the schoolhouse, where we found assembled a dozen girls and +as many boys, among whom was Tom Jenkins. Tom was a great admirer of +beauty, and hence I could never account for the preference he had +hitherto shown for me, who my brothers called "bung-eyed" and Sally +"raw-boned." He, however, didn't think so. My eyes, he said, were none +too large, and many a night had he carried home my books for me, and +many a morning had he brought me nuts and raisins, to say nothing of the +time when I found in my desk a little note, which said—But everybody +who's been to school, knows what it said!</p> + +<p>Taking it all round we were as good as engaged; so you can judge what +my feelings were when, before the night of Nellie's first day at school, +I saw Tom Jenkins giving her an orange which I had every reason to think +was originally intended for me! I knew very well that Nellie's brown +curls and eyes had done the mischief; and though I did not love her the +less, I blamed him the more for his fickleness, for only a week before +he had praised my eyes, calling them a "beautiful indigo blue," and all +that. I was highly incensed, and when on our way from school he tried to +speak good-humoredly, I said, "I'd thank you to let me alone! I don't +like you, and never did!"</p> + +<p>He looked sorry for a minute, but soon forgot it all in talking to +Nellie, who after he had left us said "he was a cleverish kind of boy, +though he couldn't begin with William Raymond." After that I was very +cool toward Tom, who attached himself more and more to Nellie, saying +"she had the handsomest eyes he ever saw"; and, indeed, I think it +chiefly owing to those soft, brown, dreamy eyes that I am not now "Mrs. +Tom Jenkins of Jenkinsville," a place way out West, whither Tom and his +mother have migrated.</p> + +<p>One day Nellie was later at school than usual, giving as a reason that +their folks had company—a Mr. Sherwood and his mother, from Hartford; +and adding that if I'd never tell anybody as long as I lived and +breathed she'd tell me something.</p> + +<p>Of course I promised, and Nellie told me how she guessed that Mr. +Sherwood, who was rich and handsome, liked Adaline. "Anyway, Adaline +likes him," said she, "and oh, she's so nice and good when he's around. +I ain't 'Nell, you hateful thing' then, but I'm 'Sister Nellie.' They +are going to ride this morning, and perhaps they'll go by here. There +they are, now!" and looking toward the road I saw Mr. Sherwood and +Adaline Gilbert on horseback, riding leisurely past the schoolhouse. She +was nodding to Nellie, but he was looking intently at Mabel, who was +sitting near the window. I know he asked Adaline something about her, +for I distinctly heard a part of her reply—"a poor factory girl," and +Adaline's head tossed scornfully, as if that were a sufficient reason +why Mabel should be despised.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sherwood evidently did not think so, for the next day he walked by +alone—and the next day he did the same, this time bringing with him a +book, and seating himself in the shadow of a chestnut tree not far from +the schoolhouse. The moment school was out, he arose and came forward, +inquiring for Nellie, who, of course, introduced him to Mabel. The +three then walked on together, while Tom Jenkins stayed in the rear with +me, wondering what I wanted to act so for; "couldn't a feller like more +than one girl if he wanted to?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I s'posed a feller could, though I didn't know, nor care!"</p> + +<p>Tom made no reply, but whittled away upon a bit of shingle, which +finally assumed the shape of a heart, and which I afterward found in his +desk with the letter "N" written upon it, and then scratched out. When +at last we reached our house Mr. Sherwood asked Nellie "where that old +mine and sawmill were, of which she had told him so much."</p> + +<p>"Right on Miss Hudson's way home," said Nellie. "Let's walk along with +her;" and the next moment Mr. Sherwood, Mabel, and Nellie were in the +long, green lane which led down to the sawmill.</p> + +<p>Oh, how Adaline stormed when she heard of it, and how sneeringly she +spoke to Mr. Sherwood of the "factory girl," insinuating that the bloom +on her cheek was paint, and the lily on her brow powder! But he probably +did not believe it, for almost every day he passed the schoolhouse, +generally managing to speak with Mabel; and once he went all the way +home with her, staying ever so long, too, for I watched until 'twas +pitch dark, and he hadn't got back yet!</p> + +<p>In a day or two he went home, and I thought no more about him, until +Tom, who had been to the post office, brought Mabel a letter, which made +her turn red and white alternately, until at last she cried. She was +very absent-minded the remainder of that day, letting us do as we +pleased, and never in my life did I have a better time "carrying on" +than I did that afternoon when Mabel received her first letter from Mr. +Sherwood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VA" id="CHAPTER_VA"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>NEW RELATIONS.</h3> + + +<p>About six weeks after the close of Mabel's school we were one day +startled with the intelligence that she was going to be married, and to +Mr. Sherwood, too. He had become tired of the fashionable ladies of his +acquaintance, and when he saw how pure and artless Mabel was, he +immediately became interested in her; and at last, overcoming all +feelings of pride, he had offered her his hand, and had been accepted. +At first we could hardly credit the story; but when Mrs. Hudson herself +confirmed it we gave it up, and again I wondered if I should be invited. +All the nicest and best chestnuts which I could find, to say nothing of +the apples and butternuts, I carried to her, not without my reward +either, for when invitations came to us I was included with the rest. +Our family were the only invited guests, and I felt no fears this time +of being hidden by the crowd.</p> + +<p>Just before the ceremony commenced there was the sound of a heavy +footstep upon the outer porch, a loud knock at the door, and then into +the room came Mr. Gilbert! He seemed slightly agitated, but not one-half +so much as Mrs. Hudson, who exclaimed, "William, my son, why are you +here?"</p> + +<p>"I came to witness my sister's bridal," was the answer; and turning +toward the clergyman, he said, somewhat authoritatively, "Do not delay +for me, sir. Go on."</p> + +<p>There was a movement in the next room, and then the bridal party +entered, both starting with surprise as they saw Mr. Gilbert. Very +beautiful did Mabel look as she stood up to take upon herself the +marriage vow, not a syllable of which did one of us hear. We were +thinking of Mr. Gilbert, and the strange words, "my son" and "my +sister."</p> + +<p>When it was over, and Mabel was Mrs. Sherwood, Mr. Gilbert approached +Mrs. Hudson, saying, "Come, mother, let me lead you to the bride."</p> + +<p>With an impatient gesture she waved him off, and going alone to her +daughter, threw her arms around her neck, sobbing convulsively. There +was an awkward silence, and then Mr. Gilbert, thinking he was called +upon for an explanation, arose, and addressing himself mostly to Mr. +Sherwood, said, "I suppose what has transpired here to-night seems +rather strange, and will undoubtedly furnish the neighborhood with +gossip for more than a week, but they are welcome to canvass whatever I +do. I can't help it if I was born with an unusual degree of pride, +neither can I help feeling mortified, as I many times did, at my family, +particularly after she," glancing at his mother, "married the man whose +name she bears."</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Hudson lifted up her head, and coming to Mr. Gilbert's side, +stood proudly erect, while he continued: "She would tell you he was a +good man, but I hated him, and swore never to enter the house while he +lived. I went away, took care of myself, grew rich, married into one of +the first families in Hartford, and—and"—</p> + +<p>Here he paused, and his mother, continuing the sentence, added, "and +grew ashamed of your own mother, who many a time went without the +comforts of life that you might be educated. You were always a proud, +wayward boy, William, but never did I think you would do as you have +done. You have treated me with utter neglect, never allowing your wife +to see me, and when I once proposed visiting you in Hartford you asked +your brother, now dead, to dissuade me from it, if possible, for you +could not introduce me to your acquaintances as your mother. Never do +you speak of me to your children, who, if they know they have a +grandmother, little dream that she lives within a mile of their father's +dwelling. One of them I have seen, and my heart yearned toward her as it +did toward you when first I took you in my arms, my firstborn baby; and +yet, William, I thank Heaven there is in her sweet face no trace of her +father's features. This may sound harsh, unmotherly, but greatly have I +been sinned against, and now, just as a brighter day is dawning upon me, +why have you come here? Say, William, why?"</p> + +<p>By the time Mrs. Hudson had finished, nearly all in the room were +weeping. Mr. Gilbert, however, seemed perfectly indifferent, and with +the most provoking coolness, replied, "I came to see my fair sister +married—to congratulate her upon an alliance which will bring us upon a +more equal footing."</p> + +<p>"You greatly mistake me, sir," said Mr. Sherwood, turning haughtily +toward Mr. Gilbert, at the same time drawing Mabel nearer to him; "you +greatly mistake me, if, after what I have heard, you think I would wish +for your acquaintance. If my wife, when poor and obscure, was not worthy +of your attention, <i>you</i> certainly are not now worthy of hers, and it is +my request that our intercourse should end here."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gilbert muttered something about "extenuating circumstances," and +"the whole not being told," but no one paid him any attention; and at +last, snatching up his hat, he precipitately left the house, I sending +after him a hearty good riddance, and mentally hoping he would measure +his length in the ditch which he must pass on his way across Hemlock +Swamp.</p> + +<p>The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood departed on their bridal tour, +intending on their return to take their mother with them to the city. +Several times during their absence I saw Mr. Gilbert, either going to +or returning from the "haunted house," and I readily guessed he was +trying to talk his mother over, for nothing could be more mortifying +than to be cut by the Sherwoods, who were among the first in Hartford. +Afterward, greatly to my satisfaction, I heard that though, motherlike, +Mrs. Hudson had forgiven her son, Mr. Sherwood ever treated him with a +cool haughtiness which effectually kept him at a distance.</p> + +<p>Once, indeed, at Mabel's earnest request, Mrs. Gilbert and Nellie were +invited to visit her, and as the former was too feeble to accomplish the +journey, Nellie went alone, staying a long time, and torturing her +sister on her return with a glowing account of the elegantly-furnished +house, of which Adaline had once hoped to be the proud mistress.</p> + +<p>For several years after Mabel's departure from Rice Corner nothing +especial occurred in the Gilbert family, except the marriage of Adaline +with a rich bachelor, who must have been many years older than her +father, for he colored his whiskers, wore false teeth and a wig, besides +having, as Nellie declared, a wooden leg! For the truth of this last I +will not vouch, as Nellie's assertion was only founded upon the fact of +her having once looked through the keyhole of his door and espied, +standing by his bed, something which looked like a cork leg, but which +might have been a boot! What Adaline saw in him to like I could never +guess. I suppose, however, that she only looked at his rich gilding, +which covered a multitude of defects.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the wedding the happy pair started for a two-years +tour in Europe, where the youthful bride so enraged her baldheaded lord +by flirting with a mustached Frenchman that in a fit of anger the old +man picked up his goods, chattels, and wife, and returned to New York +within three months of his leaving it!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIA" id="CHAPTER_VIA"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>POOR, POOR NELLIE.</h3> + + +<p>And now, in the closing chapter of this brief sketch of the Gilberts, I +come to the saddest part—the fate of poor Nellie, the dearest playmate +my childhood knew, she whom the lapse of years ripened into a graceful, +beautiful girl, loved by everybody, even by Tom Jenkins, whose boyish +affection had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength.</p> + +<p>And now Nellie was the affianced bride of William Raymond, who had +replaced the little cornelian with the engagement ring. At last the +rumor reached Tom Jenkins, awaking him from the sweetest dream he had +ever known. He could not ask Nellie if it were true, so he came to me; +and when I saw how he grew pale and trembled, I felt that Nellie was not +altogether blameless. But he breathed no word of censure against her; +and when, a year or two afterward, I saw her given to William Raymond, I +knew that the love of two hearts was hers; the one to cherish and watch +over her, the other to love and worship, silently, secretly, as a miser +worships his hidden treasure.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The bridal was over. The farewells were over, and Nellie had gone—gone +from the home whose sunlight she had made, and which she had left +forever. Sadly the pale, sick mother wept, and mourned her absence, +listening in vain for the light footfall and soft, ringing voice she +would never hear again.</p> + +<p>Three weeks had passed away, and then, far and near the papers teemed +with accounts of the horrible Norwalk catastrophe, which desolated many +a home, and wrung from many a heart its choicest treasure. Side by side +they found them—Nellie and her husband—the light of her brown eyes +quenched forever, and the pulses of his heart still in death!</p> + +<p>I was present when they told the poor invalid of her loss, and even now +I seem to hear the bitter, wailing cry which broke from her white lips, +as she begged them to unsay what they had said, and tell her Nellie was +not dead—that she would come back again.</p> + +<p>It could not be. Nellie would never return; and in six weeks' time the +broken-hearted mother was at rest with her child.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Mestizza is half Indian, half negro.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> I use here the precise words of the unhappy man, as they +were repeated to me.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Other_Fiction" id="Other_Fiction"></a>Other Fiction</h2> + + +<h3>Charles Garvice</h3> + +<p>Is now the most widely read author living. The following books from his +facile pen are now ready in the MODERN AUTHORS' LIBRARY</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A MARTYRED LOVE<br /></span> +<span class="i0">LOVE'S DILEMMA; or, Kate Meddon's Lover<br /></span> +<span class="i0">SO NEARLY LOST; or, Springtime of Love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">JEANNE; or, Barriers Between<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A WOMAN'S SOUL<br /></span> +<span class="i0">WOUNDED HEART; or, Sweet as a Rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">THE USURPER; or, Her Humble Lover<br /></span> +<span class="i0">LUCILLE, THE LADY OF DARRACOURT; or, Love's Conquest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">THE EARL'S HEIR<br /></span> +<span class="i0">OLIVIA<br /></span> +<span class="i0">SO FAIR, SO FALSE; or, The Beauty of the Season<br /></span> +<span class="i0">THE MARQUIS<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A WASTED LOVE; or, on Love's Altar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">LESLIE'S LOYALTY; or, His Love So True<br /></span> +<span class="i0">LORRIE; or, Hollow Gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">SHE LOVED HIM; or, Bessie Harewood's Triumph<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ONLY A GIRL'S LOVE<br /></span> +<span class="i0">LEOLA DALE'S FORTUNE<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ONLY ONE LOVE; or, Who Was The Heir<br /></span> +<span class="i0">HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ELAINE; or, Lady Nairne's Fortune<br /></span> +<span class="i0">CLAIRE; or, The Mistakes of Court Regna<br /></span> +<span class="i0">HER HEART'S DESIRE; or An Innocent Girl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">HER RANSOM; or, Paid For<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>THE Sweet Clover Stories</h3> + +<h3>FOR GIRLS</h3> + +<h3>BY MRS. CARRIE L. MAY</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">INCLUDING<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Brownie Sanford<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nellie Milton's Housekeeping<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sylvia's Burden<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ruth Lovell<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>THE SELF-EDUCATOR SERIES</h3> + +<h3>Edited by John Adams, M. A., B. Sc.</h3> + + +<p>The object of this series is to meet the needs of students who are +either unable or unwilling to attend classes in subjects which they wish +to study. No effort has been spared to make the books self-contained. It +is taken for granted that no help is available other than that to be +found in the pages of the various volumes, and it is hoped that this +help will be sufficient to enable the most isolated student to give +himself a thorough grounding in the subjects he takes up. The books +begin at the beginning of their subjects, and carry the student far +enough to enable him to continue his studies intelligently and +successfully on his own account. Two common mistakes have been carefully +avoided: (1) Expecting too much from the student. (2) Attempting to +exhaust a whole subject in one book. Each volume contains all the +"Essentials" of the subject, and concludes with a set of hints on how +best to prosecute the study as a private student.</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in Algebra. By W. P. Higgs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in French. By John Adams.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in Latin. By W. A. Edward.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in German. By John Adams.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in Chemistry. By James Knight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-Educator in English Composition. By C. H. Thornton.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>LOVE LETTERS</h3> + +<h3>With Directions How To Write Them</h3> + +<h3>By INGOLDSBY NORTH.</h3> + + +<p>This is a branch of correspondence which fully demands a volume alone to +provide for the various phases incident to Love, Courtship and Marriage. +Few persons, however otherwise fluent with the pen, are able to express +in words the promptings of the first dawn of love, and even the ice once +broken how to follow up a correspondence with the dearest one in the +whole world and how to smooth the way with those who need to be +consulted in the matter. The numerous letters and answers in this book +go far to overcome the difficulties and embarrassment inseparable from +letters on this all-absorbing topic in all stages from beginning to end +of a successful courtship, aided in many instances by the author's +sensible comments on the specimen letters, and his valuable hints under +adverse contingencies. It also contains the Art of Secret Writing, the +Language of Love portrayed and rules in grammar.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>THE COMPLETE LETTER WRITER</h3> + +<h3>Being the only Comprehensive and Practical Guide and Assistant to Letter +Writing Published.</h3> + +<h3>Edited by CHARLES WALTER BROWN, A. M.</h3> + +<p>There are few books that contain such a fund of valuable information on +the everyday affairs of life. 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Shows how to increase their earning capacity as layers. +Points the way to get more money for them in the market.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Haunted Homestead, by E. D. E. N. 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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 Haunted Homestead + A Novel + +Author: E. D. E. N. Southworth + +Release Date: July 12, 2011 [EBook #36713] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + +The Haunted Homestead + +_A NOVEL_ + +BY MRS. E. D. E. N. SOUTHWORTH + +Author of "Ishmael," "Retribution," "The Bridal Eve," "A Noble Lord," +"The Deserted Wife," "Unknown," "The Lady of the Isle," "The Bride's +Fate," "Victor's Triumph," "The Wife's Victory," etc. + +CHICAGO +M. A. DONOHUE & CO. + + + + +THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD. + + A residence for woman, child, or man, + A dwelling-place--and yet no habitation; + A house, but under some prodigious ban + Of excommunication.--HOOD. + + +In childhood I always had a fearless faith in ghosts. I desired before +all sights to see them, and threw myself in the way of meeting them +whenever and wherever there seemed the slightest possibility of so +doing. Whenever there were mysterious sounds heard in the night, I +listened with breathless interest, arose from the bed in silent +eagerness, and went stealing on tiptoe through the dark house in the +hopes of meeting the ghosts. Once I met a severe blow on the nose from +the sharp edge of an open door, and once a tom cat, who made one spring +from the top of the pantry shelves upon my head, and another thence +through a broken window pane. I would have liked to fancy him a ghostly +cat, only I knew him too well for our own "Tom," the cunningest thief +that ever run on four feet. Another time, perambulating through the +house at midnight, I surprised a burglar, who, mistaking me in the +darkness for the master of the house, the watch, or an ambush, jumped +straight over my head (or past me, I hardly knew which in my +astonishment), and made his escape at the back door. But I must say that +I never met a ghost, or even a "vestige" of a ghost until--but I think I +will begin at the beginning and tell you the whole story. + +At the Newton Academy, where I was educated, among two hundred fellow +pupils, I had but one bosom friend and confidante--quite enough in all +discretion for one individual, though you are aware that most young +ladies have at least a dozen. My female Pythias was Mathilde Legare, a +beautiful and warm-hearted Creole from New Orleans. Orestes and Pylades, +Castor and Pollux, the Siamese twins, are but faint illustrations of the +closeness of our friendship. To say that we were inseparable is nothing +to the fact--we were united, blended, consolidated; and the one "angel" +of Swedenborg formed of two congenial spirits, is the only sufficiently +expressive example of our union of hearts. It was of little use for me +to study a lesson, for though I had never looked at it, if Mathilde only +committed hers to memory I was sure, in some occult manner, to have mine +"at my fingers' ends"--or, on the other hand, if I studied, Mathilde +might play--she would recite her task just as well. Moreover, if I told +a story Mathilde would swear to it, and _vice versa_. In short, we two +were in all cases "too many" for all the rest of the school--principal, +assistant, masters and pupils--and we afforded a striking illustration +of the truth of Robert Browning's lines--though I suppose the latter +alluded to "a true marriage," and not a schoolgirl friendship: + + "If any two creatures grow into one + They should do more than the world has done, + By each apart ever so weak, + Yet vainly thro' the world should you seek, + For the knowledge and the might, + Which in such union grew their right." + +As Mathilde was rich and I was comparatively poor, this friendship +brought me many advantages, among which was the privilege of annual +travel and change of scene. About the first of every July, Mathilde's +father and mother would leave their sugar plantation in Louisiana, and +travel northward. They usually arrived at the Newton Academy about the +tenth of the month, in time to be present at the annual examination and +exhibition of the pupils. Upon these occasions, Mathilde, who possessed +quickness and vivacity, rather than depth or strength of mind, generally +achieved a brilliant success; though she often told me that her triumph +in being first at these milestones on the road to fame, was nothing more +than the success of the swift-footed, careless hare over the slow and +painstaking tortoise, who would win the race at the goal. + +However this might be, Mr. and Mrs. Legare were equally proud of their +daughter's genius and beauty, and to reward her "industry and +application," as they called it, they took her each year to spend the +long vacation of July and August, with them, in making a tour of the +Virginia Springs, which are the most frequented by Southerners, for the +convenience of bringing their servants with them. + +Upon one occasion, however--that of the vacation preceding the last year +of Mathilde's residence at school--Mr. Legare determined to vary their +usual route by going to the Northern watering places of Saratoga and +Ballstown. And, as usual, I, with the consent of my guardians, +accompanied the party as their invited guest. + +We arrived at Saratoga at the very height of the season. In all, I +suppose that there might have been several thousand visitors at the +springs. The United States Hotel, at which we stopped, was uncomfortably +crowded. And, though Mr. Legare grumbled in a very old-gentlemanly way, +and Mrs. Legare wished herself at home again, Mathilde and I enjoyed the +crowd for the crowd's sake, and experienced the truth of the popular +adage of "the more the merrier." + +At a place like that, even in the ballroom, "distinction" was almost as +impossible as it is said to be in London, where, now that the "duke" is +dead, no one is any one. Scarcely anybody was anybody at Saratoga that +season. Many a village beauty, the toast of her own little circle, and +many a city belle, the queen of her own coterie, who went thither, +reasonably expecting to make a "sensation," found herself and her claims +to notice lost in a brilliant multitude all more or less expectant or +disappointed. + +I thought Mathilde, with her tall and beautifully rounded form, stately +head, pure olive complexion, shaded by jet-black ringlets, and lighted +up by laughing black eyes, bridged over with arch and flexible black +eyebrows--would attract some attention. + +Not a bit of it! Heiress and beauty, as she was, Mathilde Legare was +merely one in the crowd. There were hundreds with equal or greater +claims to distinction. And so our beautiful Mathilde was not enthroned. +Of course she soon attracted around her a circle of old and new +acquaintances and had from them a due share of attention. + +Among the first of these new acquaintances was a young gentleman of the +name of Howard. His introduction to our party, without being romantic, +was certainly marked by singularity. It occurred the third day after our +arrival, at one of the weekly balls at the United States. It happened to +be a fine, cool evening, and the assembly upon the occasion was +unusually large. The saloon was quite crowded, leaving but little room +for the motions of the dancers. + +Mathilde was looking very beautiful that night. She wore a dress with a +three-fold skirt of very fine, transparent thale over rose-colored silk, +and which with every motion floated around her graceful form with a +mistlike softness and lightness; a bertha and falls of the finest lace +veiled her rounded arms and neck. She wore no jewels, but a wreath of +rich white heliotrope crowned her jetty ringlets, and a bouquet of the +same odoriferous flowers employed her slender fingers. + +Yes! she was looking very lovely. Nevertheless, Mathilde, as well as +myself, seemed destined to adorn the sofa as a "wall flower" all the +evening, for set after set formed until every one was complete. The +music struck up and the dancing commenced, and still no one came near +us, nor did we even so much as see, within the range of our vision, one +single person that we knew. + +Mathilde voted this "the very stupidest ball" she was ever at, and hoped +her papa would never come to Saratoga again. + +I, for my part, fell into the study of faces, and through them into the +study of character, and through that into dreaming. + +Presently a head--start not gentle reader, there was a living body +attached to it--attracted my particular attention. It was not because it +was above every other head present--though had not this been the case I +should not at that distance have seen it--nor was it because it was a +very handsome one--for there were others much handsomer; but it was a +very remarkable, characteristic, individual sort of head--a monarchical +head, with a forehead that in its commanding height and breadth seemed +the natural throne of intellectual sovereignty, with a strongly and +clearly-marked nose and mouth, with eyes full of calm power--that +surveyed the multitude below with the quiet interest of a king +inspecting his army on some festive parade day. + +"_Magnus Apollo!_" were the words that sprang alive to my lips as I laid +my hand upon the soft, white arm of Mathilde and called her attention to +this stranger. + +"Hush! he is looking this way," said my companion, blushing and casting +down her eyes. + +I knew very well, if he was "looking this way," at whom he must be +looking, and so, did not feel Mathilde's embarrassment in again raising +my eyes to the "_Magnus Apollo_." When I did so I perceived that he was +in conversation with another gentleman, whom I recognized as Mr. ----, +the proprietor of the house. I saw Mr. ---- bow and precede the +stranger, conducting him to the presence of Mr. Legare, to whom he +immediately introduced him. I saw Mr. Legare and the stranger +approaching our quarter of the room, and I thought I understood it all. + +I was not mistaken. + +Mr. Legare presented the stranger as "Mr. Howard, of Boston," first to +me, whom he favored with a bow, but certainly not with a single glance, +and next to Mathilde, whom he almost immediately petitioned to become +his partner in the next quadrille. + +Miss Legare bowed a gracious acceptance to his suit. + +The presentation over, Mr. Legare went to rejoin his wife, who could not +endure to be left alone. + +Mr. Howard remained standing before us, and soon, by the brilliancy, +variety and interest of his conversation, attracted and engaged both his +hearers. He was certainly a man of the most distinguished and commanding +presence that I had ever seen, and one for whom every hour's +acquaintance increased our esteem. + +When the new quadrille formed, with a graceful bow he extended his hand +to Mathilde and led her to the head of one of the sets. He danced as +well as he conversed. Why should I run into detail? Mathilde's fancy was +captivated. They finished the quadrille, and for the remainder of the +evening Mr. Howard's attentions, though very devoted, were marked by too +much delicacy and good taste to attract notice from any one except her +to whom they were directed. + +The impression made upon Mathilde was as yet not sufficiently deep to +render her reserved with me upon this subject. Consequently when the +ball was over, and we had reached our double-bedded chamber, my friend +broke forth in eager exclamations. + +"Did you ever see such a fine-looking person, Agnes? And then his +conversation! how brilliant! and how varied! how much he must have +traveled! and then how well he dances!" + +"Pshaw!" said I. "'Oh, what a fall was there,' 'from the sublime to the +ridiculous!'" + +"Yes, but he does dance well! and let me tell you that very few men can +do so! he strikes the nice balance between _le grand_ and _la frivole_ +in his manner! And then his name--Howard--_la creme de la creme_ of +aristocratic names. Don't you remember _Le Lion blanc_ of the house of +Howard?" + +And so she rattled on, talking incessantly of the new acquaintance until +we went to bed, and I went to sleep leaving her still talking. + +The next morning, I noticed that Mathilde spent more than usual time and +attention upon her toilette. She looked very pretty--when did she +not?--in her embroidered cambric morning dress, with no ornament but her +jetty ringlets flowing down each side her freshly-blooming face. + +When we went downstairs, there was Mr. Howard waiting in the hall, to +offer Mathilde his arm to the breakfast table. + +Afterward at the ladies bowling-alley who but Mr. Howard stood at +Mathilde's elbow to hand the balls? Who took her in to dinner? Who made +a horseblock of his knee and a stepping-stone of the palm of his hand +to lift Mathilde into her saddle? Who attended her in her afternoon +ride? In her evening walk? In the duet with the piano accompaniment at +night? + +Howard--still Howard! + +Until after several weeks of this association, at last papa opened his +eyes and inquired first of himself and next of his host: + +"Who is this Mr. Howard, who is paying such very particular attention to +my daughter?" + +"Mr. Howard, sir; Mr. Howard is a very talented young mechanic of +Boston," answered the proprietor. + +"A--what?" questioned the astonished old gentleman. + +"A very accomplished young machinist, and mathematical instrument maker, +sir, who has realized quite a handsome fortune by his patented +improvement in----" + +"The foul fiend!" exclaimed the old aristocrat, throwing up his hands in +consternation, as he trotted off. + +His daughter talking, dancing, riding, flirting with a mechanic! Oh! +horror, horror, horror! + +The result of this was, that after Mr. Legare's perturbed feelings had +become somewhat calmed he called for his bill, settled it, took four +places in the morning coach, ordered his servants to pack up, and the +next day set out for the South. + +He was very much disturbed; Mrs. Legare said nothing, but poor Mathilde +was miserable, having been made to feel that she had unwittingly brought +discredit upon herself and all her family. + +Mr. Legare left Mathilde and myself at our school, and with his wife +proceeded to Louisiana. + +I soon saw that the warm-hearted young Southern maiden really was, or +believed herself to be, the subject of a deep and unhappy attachment; +she became reserved to all, even to me, and her health suffered. As +weeks grew into months her indisposition increased. One day her emotion +broke the bounds of reserve, and throwing herself into my arms, she +exclaimed: + +"Oh, Agnes! if Frank would only write to me I should not feel so +wretched!" + +"Frank? who is Frank, my love?" I inquired in surprise, for I had never +heard this name among our acquaintances. + +She blushed deeply. "Oh! I mean Mr. Howard, you know! Frank Howard." + +"No--I did not know! Has it come to this? and do you call him Frank? And +do you, perhaps, correspond with him? Oh, Mathilde, Mathilde, my dear! +take care!" + +"Oh! no, no, I do not correspond with him! never have done so! he never +even asked me! but after pa got so high with him, he looked mournful and +dignified, and took leave of me! Oh! he might write to me." + +"Mathilde, knowing your father's sentiments, he would not, as a man of +honor, commence a correspondence with you. But tell me, dear, how far +this affair had gone?" + +"Oh! very far indeed; he was going to ask me of papa that very day we +left!" + +"Wait, Mathilde! you are so young! if this is anything more serious than +a passing fancy on both sides, he will delay until you leave school, and +then he will first seek you at your father's house. This is the only +course for a man of honor in such a case, you are aware." + +"Um-m! little hope in seeking me at my father's house, with my father's +estimate of a mechanic! But I do not the least believe that Frank Howard +is a mechanic! He does not look like one!" + +"Nonsense, my dear Mathilde! he is an intelligent Boston mechanic, who +has made a valuable invention that has brought him a fortune; that is +all about it." + +Still Mathilde's health waned, and at last the principal of our academy +wrote to her parents, who came, and finding her condition more +precarious than they had anticipated, removed her from school and +carried her home. Mathilde could not bring against her friend the same +charge that she had brought against her lover; for I requested a +frequent correspondence, and faithfully kept up my part of it. + +I remained at Newton for nearly twelve months after Mathilde had left. + +And this time, passed in so great monotony by me, was full of event for +Mathilde and those connected with her. In the first place, she +accompanied her friends on a short visit to Europe, and returning, +entered society at New Orleans with some _eclat_. + +Then followed for her father a succession of losses, one growing out of +another, until his fortune was so reduced as to make it necessary for +him to retrench and change his whole style of living. + +Under such circumstances, his pride would not permit him to remain in +that part of the country where for so many years he had lived _grand +seigneur_. + +His wife was a Virginian by birth and education, and in changing her +home preferred to return to her native State. Therefore Mr. Legare +purchased a small estate lying within a fertile gap of the Alleghanies, +to which, in the spring of the next year, he removed his family. + +Up to this time Mathilde had heard nothing directly from her Saratoga +lover, but had learned, through the newspapers, that he had been +nominated to represent his district in the National House of +Representatives. + +Hoping much from the two circumstances of her own reduction in worldly +fortune and her lover's elevation in social rank, which must bring them +nearer together in position, she had called the attention of her father +to the announcement of Mr. Howard's nomination; but her fond +expectations were soon dissipated by the old aristocrat's comment: + +"Oh, yes, my dear, I see! Any upstart can get into Congress now. Really +a private station is the seat of honor; but the comfort remains that a +patrician by birth, is still a patrician, no matter how low his worldly +fortunes; a plebeian is still a plebeian, even though accident or +caprice may constitute him a legislator." + +"And now what shall I do, Agnes?" wrote Mathilde, after recounting these +things. + +"Hope! If Mr. Howard is as constant as you appear to be, you have +everything to expect from time and change ordered by Providence," was my +written reply. + +I finally left school at the commencement of the summer vacation +following the spring in which Mr. Legare's family removed to their +mountain home in Virginia. + +It was just before the ensuing Christmas that I received an invitation +from Mathilde to come up and spend the holidays with her at her father's +new home. + +In extending this invitation, she wrote: "I do not know, dear Agnes, how +much or how little you may feel disposed to credit these modern, +so-called spiritual manifestations, these 'rappings,' 'table-tippings,' +etc., but I know your strong penchant for the supernatural and your +inveterate habit of ghost-hunting, and I do assure you, if it will be +any inducement for you to come to us, that our home contains as +inexplicable a mystery as ever frightened human habitants away, and +doomed a dwelling-place to desolation and decay, and this haunting +presence infests a house in a neighborhood, as yet innocent of +spirit-rappings, table-tippings, and 'sich like diviltries,' as it is of +railroads, steamboats and telegraph wires. But I shall say no more of +this mystery until I see you 'face to face' except this, that even my +unbelieving pa talks of selling the place unless the nuisance is +explained and removed." + +I think that it was the existence of this darkly intimated spectre that +fascinated me to the point of accepting Mathilde's invitation. +Ghost-hunting was my one weakness--perhaps I should say monomania. I +secretly hoped that there might be a haunted chamber in the old house +and that they might put me to sleep in it; furthermore, that I might be +favored with an interview with the ghost. I resolved to go. No +persuasion had power to withhold me, no obstacle to prevent me. My only +brother was expected home to spend Christmas, but I could not wait for +him. I would, on the contrary, ask Mr. Legare to invite him to follow +me. The weather was very severe, the snow covered the ground to the +depth of two feet on a level, and what it might be among the ravines of +the mountains I was going to cross, I feared to conjecture; +nevertheless, to go I was determined. + +It was a three days' and three nights' stage ride from Winchester, where +I lived with my guardian, to Wolfbrake, the home of the Legares. +Accordingly, in order to reach my journey's end on Christmas Eve, I set +out from home on the twentieth of December, and after three days and +nights of the roughest traveling, up hill and down, through the darkest +forests, along the banks of the most frightful precipices, across the +rudest and most primitive bridges thrown over the most awful chasms, +through mountain streams so deep and rapid that in fording them it was +often hard to tell whether we rode or rowed, finally, on the evening of +the twenty-fourth, I reached Frost Height, where the mules from +Wolfbrake, under the charge of Uncle Judah, already awaited me. + +Although it was getting dusky, and the road down the snow-covered +mountain path to Wolfbrake was not of the safest description, even by +daylight, and might be considered dangerous by a starless night, yet +Uncle Judah, with the hard-headedness of a favored old family servant, +insisted that I should set forth immediately, as "Marse and mis' would +be 'spectin'" me to supper. + +So, mounting my mule, and preceded by the old servant upon his jack, I +descended into the outer darkness of the downward mountain path. + +In a little while it was quite dark, and I could neither see Judah on +his jack before me, nor even the narrow path under my feet. At every +step I seemed to be plunging down into some dark abysm of shadows below +shadows. I could not guide my course, but trusted to the habits and +sure-footedness of the mountain mule that carried me. A glimmering +light, shining up from the deepest depths of the darkness below, +indicated the position of Wolfbrake Lodge. There was always a strange, +mystic interest felt in approaching a place like that, for the first +time, amid the shadows of night. The undefined, shapeless mass of +buildings, the unseen boundaries, the unknown circumstances that awaits +us, all like some strange mystery, pique curiosity. And to these general +subjects of interest was added the particular one of the haunting +presence of which Mathilde had darkly written. I was yielding +imagination up to the fascination of these dreamy speculations, when my +mule, having reached the bottom, or else an obstacle of some sort--I +could not in the deep darkness decide which--stopped short. And +immediately I heard a sweet, familiar voice say: + +"Is that you, Uncle Judah? Did Agnes come?" + +"Yes, honey," replied the old man; and: + +"I am here! where are you, dear Mathilde?" exclaimed I, in the same +instant. + +"I am in the carryall! Uncle Judah, help your Miss Agnes off, and bring +her in here with me." + +In obedience, the old man lifted me out of my saddle, and, to use his +own vernacular, "toted" me "through the slush," and set me in the +carryall beside Mathilde. I could not see her form, but I felt her arms +wound around me, and her lips against my face, searching for those other +lips that quickly met hers, and then: + +"I am so overjoyed to see you, dear Agnes! It was so good of you to +come!" she said. "I couldn't wait! I had to order the carryall, and come +to meet you at the foot of the hill." + +We were then about a half a mile from the house. Mathilde made the boy +that drove her get down and give place on the driver's seat to Uncle +Judah, and then take charge of the mules, to lead them home. And so we +proceeded through the snow-covered bottom toward the house. + +As I said, it was so dark that I could not clearly distinguish the +outline of the buildings; but there appeared to be two houses, an old +one and a new one, joined by a covered piazza, and shaded by many trees. + +We stopped before the door of the new house, from the parlor windows of +which a stream of light from the lamps within was pouring. + +We were met by Mrs. Legare, who gave me a cordial welcome, and took me +at once to an upper front chamber, comfortably furnished, where a fine +wood fire burned, and a kettle of hot water stood upon the hearth, for +the convenience of warm ablutions. + +"This is your room, my dear Agnes, where I hope you will find yourself +at home," said my kind hostess. + +I thanked her, but secretly hoped that she would leave me alone with +Mathilde, to hear the mystery of the haunted presence explained, for as +yet we had no opportunity of a _tete-a-tete_. + +But the old lady lingered with motherly solicitude, until I had washed +myself, and changed my traveling habit for a home dress; and then +directing Jacinthe or "Jet," as she was nicknamed, to restore the room +to order, she invited me down into the parlor. + +As I left the chamber, I observed Jet's eyes start out like beads, and +she made a motion to follow us; but a peremptory gesture from her +mistress repelled her, and she remained, though evidently terrified at +the idea of being left alone. + +"Can it be possible," thought I, "that the child is afraid to stay by +herself in the new house, when, of course, the supernatural inmate, if +there is one, must be a denizen of the old one?" + +And at the same time I experienced a feeling of disappointed love of +adventure in being accommodated with a chamber so shining in freshness +and so distant in character as well as location from what I fancied must +be the scene of the mystery. + +When we reached the parlor, we found a party of young people collected +to celebrate Christmas Eve. But scarcely were the introductions over, +before a servant opened the door and announced supper, and, conducted by +Mrs. Legare, we all went out by way of the hall and the covered piazza +to the dining-room in the old house, where the feast was spread. + +I cannot stop to analyze the sensation with which I crossed the +threshold of this mystery-haunted house, and entered the quaint, +old-fashioned parlor, where the supper table was set. The polished oak +floor, the oak-paneled walls, the high, narrow, deep-set windows, the +tall, black-walnut chimney-piece over the broad fireplace, flanked by a +high cupboard in one corner, and a coffinlike clock in the other--all +whispered of those who had lived and died there long years before. There +was a well-spread and cheerfully-lighted table, and a merry, youthful +company assembled around it; but even these animating influences were +not sufficiently powerful to exorcise the thoughts of the dead--for, +talkative and frolicksome though they were, their talk was still of the +supernatural, of ghosts, and ghosts' seers. I did not talk--I was too +earnestly interested in hearing. And I listened breathlessly to learn +the mystery of the house. In vain! not a single allusion was made to a +spectre in connection with Wolfbrake Lodge. They ignored the +supposition. Perhaps they were really ignorant of it. + +Supper over and cleared away, the young people returned no more that +night to the parlor in the new house, but prepared for a game of +"Snap-apple" in the old dining-room, which their romping could not hurt. + +I was so weary with my three days and nights of riding, and so eager +besides for a _tete-a-tete_ with Mathilde, that I pleaded fatigue as an +undeniable reason for retiring before the games should commence. I hoped +that Mathilde alone would attend me. Not so. Mrs. Legare, apparently +watching for my withdrawal, joined her daughter and myself as we left +the room, and accompanied us to the chamber set apart for my use in the +new house. When we had reached this apartment, Mrs. Legare said: + +"There is no one that sleeps in this house usually. We keep these +chambers principally for the use of our guests. No one will occupy any +room within it to-night except yourself, unless indeed you feel +afraid----" + +"Afraid?" repeated I, in a tone that quickly called forth an apology. + +"Oh! I know, my dear Agnes, that you are no coward; but I did not know +but that you might feel indisposed to sleep alone in a strange house." + +"What? when it is a perfectly new house, Mrs. Legare? If, indeed, it +were an old-time house, I might be afraid of the traditional ghost," +said I, watching in her countenance the effect of my words, and seeing +her, to my astonishment, turn pale, and send a quick, significant glance +to Mathilde, who averted her head. + +"Ah!" thought I, "the old house is haunted! Would they would only let me +sleep there, where there is some chance of being delightfully +frightened." + +"I was about to say, Agnes, that if you prefer, I will send one of the +negro women to sleep on a mattress in your room." + +"By no means, Mrs. Legare. I shall fall asleep as soon as I touch my +pillow, and not wake until morning--so I should not be able to +appreciate the benefit of Peggy or Dinah's society." + +"Very well, my dear, as you please. Here is a bellrope at your bed's +head--its wires run into the old house. If you should want anything, +ring." + +I smiled, and assured my hostess that I wanted nothing but sleep. +Whereupon she called Mathilde, bade me good-night, and left the room. +Turning back, however, she said to me: + +"Agnes, my dear, lock your chamber door after us." + +"Yes, madam." + +"Excuse me, my dear; but young people are forgetful--especially when +they are tired and sleepy. I think I should like to hear you lock it, +Agnes." + +There was something in her caution that struck me as very singular--but +I laughed and went to the door, and after repeating my good-night, as +desired, shut the door in their faces, and locked it. + +"There! have you heard me lock the door?" I inquired. + +"Yes, my dear--all right." + +"And is your mind at rest on that score?" + +"I am sure that you have attended to my advice. Good night, and happy +dreams." + +"Thanks, and the same good wishes! Good-night!" said I, in conclusion. + +I listened, and heard them go downstairs, enter the parlor, and fasten +the windows, and secure the safety of the fire there--go to the back +hall door, and bolt and bar it--and finally go out by the front door, +and lock it after them. + +Fastened up as I was in the house, I did not feel myself quite in +prison, because, should I, like Sterne's starling, want to "get out," I +could do so by the back door. + +Now, I never could account for it, but no sooner was I left alone in +that room, resplendent as it was with newness, than a strange feeling of +superstition came over me, that I could neither understand nor escape. +It was in vain that I turned my eyes from the shining white wall and +freshly painted windows to the cheerful pattern of the carpet and +furniture drapery, and said that in this new and freshly furnished +chamber the supernatural was out of place--there grew upon me the +impression of an unearthly presence near; and the feeling, in spite of +all probability, that this--this was the scene of the household +mystery--this was the haunted chamber! + +In this new aspect I examined it. It was the least like one that could +be imagined. It was a lofty, spacious, cheerful, double-bedded room, +with four large windows--two on the east and two on the west side--with +a fireplace in the south wall, and the heads of the beds, at some +distance apart, against the north wall. Between the two east windows was +a pretty dressing-table and glass; between the west windows was a neat +washstand with a china service; on each side of the fireplace were two +spacious clothes closets; before the fire sat two easy-chairs; in +intermediate spaces around the walls were half a dozen other chairs. + +I examined the clothes closets, and found them entirely empty, and at +the service of my dresses; then I looked under the bed; then beneath the +drapery of the dressing-table; and finding nothing that should not be +there, undressed myself, said my prayers, blew out my candle, and went +to bed. + +I could not sleep; my mind, my nerves, had for some reason become +unusually excited; and, despite of extreme fatigue, I lay awake. I +thought the room was too light; for, though the candle was extinguished, +a glowing fire burned upon the hearth, a few yards from the foot of my +bed, and the light of the now risen moon streamed into the east windows. +After turning from side to side, vainly wooing slumber, I arose and went +to close the east front windows. As I reached them with this purpose, I +stayed my hand a moment, while I looked out at the snow-clad, moon-lit +mountain landscape; below me was the bottom, bounded, not many furlongs +off, by the cedar-grown precipice, down which, that very evening, I had +come; under the shelter of that mountain, straight in the line of my +vision, lay the family graveyard of the former owner, in a copse of +evergreens, where the spectral-looking tombstones gleamed whitely among +the dark firs and cedars. Meditating upon those departed, I closed the +blinds of the front windows, and then went to the back ones. + +The latter looked straight down into the uncurtained windows of the +lighted dining-room, where the young people were still at play. Above +these windows, and directly opposite to mine, were those of Mrs. +Legare's bedroom, now dimly lighted from the fire within. + +With this proximity of the family, I felt less lonely, closed my blinds, +and returned to bed. + +Still I could not sleep. The fire on the hearth, beyond my bed's foot, +flickered up and down, casting tall, spectral shadows, that danced upon +the walls, or stretched their long arms over the ceiling. For hours I +lay watching this phantasmagoria, until the fire died down, and the +tall, dancing shadows sank into a mass of darkness, before sleep came to +my wearied senses. But scarcely had I closed my eyes upon the natural +world before a strange vision, or dream, if you prefer to call it so, +passed before me. Methought I heard the click of a turning key; I opened +my eyes, and saw the door slowly swing back upon its hinges, and a lady +of dark, majestic beauty, dressed in deep mourning, and having a pale +and care-worn face, enter the chamber! Slowly and silently she walked to +and fro, her footfall waking no echo--her progress attended by no sound, +save the slight rustle of her silken robe! I was magnetized to watch +her, as with clasped hands and wide-open, mournful eyes, she walked in +silent, measured steps up and down the room. At length she paused in the +middle of the floor, fixed her eyes upon mine with a wild and mournful +gaze, slowly raised one hand from the breast upon which both had been +tightly clasped, and with her spectral finger extended downward, pointed +to the spot beneath her feet, and then as slowly resumed her former +attitude, and passed with measured steps from the room! + +I tried to speak to her, to question her, but failed to utter a sound. +In an agony of distress I tried to call out, and in the effort to do so +awoke! awoke to find that I had been dreaming. + +But, reader! the door that I had locked so carefully the night before, +was standing wide open, as when the dark woman of my dream had passed +through it! + +Day was dawning. I shivered, both from superstitious excitement, and +from the cool draught of air blowing upon me from the open door. I drew +the cover closely around me and listened; but no sounds except the +undefined, low, pleasant murmur of awakening nature--the soft rustle of +the pines in the up-springing morning breeze, the flutter of the night +birds waking up in their branches, and the detonating echo of distant, +louder noises were heard. I arose softly and opened the east window +blinds, and then went back to bed to lie and watch the crimson light of +morning kindling up the orient. + +An hour I lay thus, watching the dawn growing brighter and brighter unto +the perfect day. And then I heard a key turned in the hall door, and +some one come in and ascend the stairs. It was the little black maid +Jet, come to make my fire. As she entered I saw her eyes grow wild, and +she inquired: + +"Miss Agnes, is yer been up, miss, to open dis yer door?" + +"I have been up this morning, Jet," said I, not wishing to let her into +my full confidence. The answer seemed to set her at rest, for her +countenance lost its wild terror, and she proceeded with cheerful +alacrity to light the fire, fill the ewers and so forth. + +Before she had got through with her task, there was a rush of many feet +into the hall, and up the stairs, and Mathilde and such of her young +friends as were already up and dressed, bounded into the room, +exclaiming: + +"A merry Christmas! A merry Christmas, Agnes!" + +Their arrival was enough to put to flight all the supernatural visitants +that Hades ever sent forth. They hurried me with my toilet; they worried +me to come down and see the Christmas tree, and get some eggnog. + +I was carried away with their gay excitement, and almost forgot my +mysterious dream or visitant, but not quite; for all through the morning +greetings of the family, the eggnog drinking, the visit to the Christmas +tree, the distributions of presents, the merry breakfast, the arrival of +invited guests, the Christmas dinner party, the afternoon sports, and +the evening dance, I was possessed with the haunting presence of that +dark, handsome woman, and her majestic woe. + +We danced in the dining-room through all the Christmas night; and it was +two o'clock in the morning before we separated. + +Again, when I was about to retire, Mrs. Legare came to accompany me. + +"I hope you rested well last night, my dear Agnes, though I have +scarcely had an opportunity of asking you to-day," she said, as we +entered my room. + +"I did not wake until dawn, ma'am," I answered, evasively, for I had +determined, since they let me into no confidence upon the subject of the +household mystery, to keep my own counsel in regard to my dream and the +open door. + +"You slept until dawn. That is well. I hope you will have as good a rest +for the few remaining hours of the night. Good-evening, my dear. Lock +your door after me," said Mrs. Legare, going out with a look of relief +and satisfaction. + +As upon the evening previous, I turned the key upon my retiring hostess, +listened until I heard her pass out and secure the hall door, then +searched my room, undressed, said my prayers, and went to bed. + +As I hinted in the beginning of this narrative, nature had made me at +once superstitious and fearless. In the supernatural I "believed without +trembling." And now alone, in this supposed-to-be haunted chamber, I lay +with an interest devoid of uneasiness, waiting the development of +events. + +It was near day, when, overcome with watching, I fell asleep, and then, +as upon the night previous, I had a vision or dream (as you please to +call it). Methought the sound of a deep sigh awoke me, when looking up, +I saw, standing in the middle of the room, the fearful woman of my +dream, her finger pointed downward to the same spot, and, still pointing +thus, she receded backward until she disappeared through the open door. + +I started up to call or stop her, and with the violence of my effort, +awoke! awoke to see the morning light shining in through the shutters +that I had neglected to close, and to hear little Jet letting herself in +at the hall door, to come up and light my fire. + +Again on entering and seeing the open door, she cast an uneasy, +suspicious, frightened look around her, and said: "Yer allus gets up an' +opens dis door when yer hears me a comin', don't yer, Miss Agnes, +ma'am?" + +"Yes, I heard you coming Jet," I replied, evasively, but the answer +satisfied my simple little maid, who went cheerfully about her tasks. + +As it was not early, I hastened to my toilet and descended to the +dining-room, not to keep my kind hostess waiting breakfast. + +They were all ready to sit down when I joined them, and we immediately +took our seats at the table. + +Upon my plate I found a letter from my brother, which I asked and +obtained permission to open and read. It was a regretful refusal of my +invitation to him to join me at Wolfbrake to spend the holidays, upon +the ground that he had brought home with him a friend whom he could not +leave. + +"Pooh! pooh! let him bring his friend along! Tell him so! Any friend of +your brother will be welcome here, Agnes!" said Mr. Legare, to whom I +communicated the contents of my letter. + +I acted upon this permission, and wrote for my brother to come and bring +his friend. After I had finished and dispatched my letter, I joined a +party who were going out to dine. The dinner was followed by a dance, +and the dance by a moonlight sleighride home. But through all the +excitements of the day the image of the dark woman haunted my mind. And +again it was very late when I retired to bed. + +As usual, Mrs. Legare and Mathilde saw me to my room, and, as before, I +locked the door behind them, and listened until I heard them leave the +house and secure the hall entrance. Then I hastened my preparations, got +into bed, and, thoroughly worn out with fatigue and loss of rest, soon +fell into a deep sleep. And a third time the dream or vision passed +before me. Methought I was awakened by a voice calling my name. I opened +my eyes, and saw--first the door stretched wide open, and then, standing +in the middle of the floor, the beautiful and majestic woman of my +former visions, but this time more sad and stern in aspect than before. +Fixing those wild, mournful eyes upon mine, and holding my gaze as it +were by a mesmeric spell, she slowly and severely pointed to the spot +beneath her feet, and saying, as it were, "Look!" passed in measured +steps from the room. + +Once more in an agony I started up to call and stay her, but with the +effort awoke. The door that I had carefully locked stood wide open as +before. It was the same hour as that of my awakening upon the two +previous mornings. The day was flushing redly up the eastern horizon +beyond the mountains, and nature was awakening everywhere. + +I could not now so readily shake off the influence of my dream. There +was something that I wished to ascertain before my little maid should +interrupt me; the reiterated gesture by the woman of my dream, +determined me to examine the spot upon which she had stood and pointed, +to see if, really, her action had any meaning. So I arose from my bed, +and, first securing the door, and turning the key straight in the lock, +that my little maid, should she come, might not spy my doings, I +removed the hearthrug took a pair of strong scissors and drew out the +tacks, turned up the carpet. + +Reader! I had an attraction to the supernatural, but a mortal antagonism +to the horrible, and nearly swooned on seeing the spot to which the dark +woman of my vision had pointed deeply marked with a sanguine-crimson +stain! The very heart in my bosom seemed frozen with horror, and I felt +myself, as it were, turning to stone, when a loud knocking at my chamber +door aroused me. It was my little maid, whose coming, I, in my deep and +fearful abstractions, had not heard. I hurriedly replaced the carpet and +the rug, and went and opened the door. + +"Yer sleeped soun' dis mornin', Miss Agnes, ma'am," said little Jet, +smiling as she entered. "I feared I scared you out'n your dream," she +added, noticing, I suppose, my horror-stricken face. + +"You certainly startled me, Jet," I said, evasively. And while she +lighted the fire, I returned to bed to try to compose my nerves. + +Between the horror I felt at the idea of sleeping another night alone in +an accursed room, where, it seemed, a crime had been committed, and my +intense desire to elucidate the mystery, I was at a loss how to act. +Only one thing I decided upon--to keep my own counsel for the present. + +"De fire is burnin' fus-rate now, Miss Agnes, so you can get up an' +dress, if you likes, as break'as' is mos' ready," said my little +attendant. And taking her hint, I arose and hastened my toilet, in order +to be punctual at the morning meal of my hostess. + +As I descended the stairs, I heard Mrs. Legare speaking to her daughter +in the parlor, where a fire was kindled every morning while there were +visitors in the house. She was saying: + +"I tell you, Mathilde, it is all a delusion. Those who have never heard +the story, never see, or hear, or fancy anything unusual. You know now +Agnes has not been disturbed, and it is because she has heard nothing. +Whereas, if you had told her this history, she would have imagined, +Heaven knows what! all sorts of horrors! that is the reason I wished her +to hear nothing of it. She has slept undisturbed in that room. Let that +be known. Others will then not object to do so, and the report will die +out." + +She spoke in a quick, low tone, and, seeing me coming, instantly changed +the subject. But my sense of hearing, always acute, was quickened by +intense interest, and I had heard more than she could have wished me to +know. She turned to me with a smile, and said: + +"I hope that you have rested well, my dear Agnes." + +I said, "As well as usual," and receiving Mathilde's morning kiss, took +her arm, and accompanied them into the breakfast-room. + +It was some hours after breakfast, that day, when I went up into my +chamber to write letters. While thus engaged, I heard Mathilde coming +up, singing, and enter a chamber corresponding to mine, but separated +from it by the front hall. + +"Are you there, Agnes?" she asked. + +"Yes, dear. Shall I come to you?" + +"_Si vous plait, mademoiselle_," she answered, gayly. + +I went into the room, where I found Mathilde directing Jet in her work +of preparing the chamber for guests. + +"I shall have to put your brother and his friend here together to sleep, +my dear Agnes, as we are so full. But, by the way, who is his friend?" + +"That is just what I cannot tell you. John, in his wild, careless way, +simply said that he had a friend with him, as a reason why he could not +at once accept your father's invitation, and Mr. Legare as carelessly +and frankly wrote back for him to bring his 'friend' along with him." + +"_Eh bien! cette l'ami inconnu_ must be content to lodge with John; we +can do no better." + +"Since your house is not so large as your heart, _chere_ Mathilde." + +Little Jet was engaged in removing the firescreen, preparatory to +lighting the fire to air the room. As she set this board down before my +eyes, I could scarcely repress the cry that arose to my lips. It was an +old, faded family portrait that had been put to this use. That was not +much; but--it was the portrait of the dark woman of my dream. + +The same midnight eyes and hair, the same proud, stern, sad brow! + +"Whose likeness is that, Mathilde?" I asked, when I had in some degree +recovered my composure. + +"Oh! I don't know; it is a portrait of some member of the family of the +former proprietors, I suppose! We found it here with other rubbish, +considered, I suppose, of too little value to remove after the Van Der +Vaughans left; I washed its face and set it up for a firescreen. 'To +such vile uses,' etc. By the way, look at it! It is a very remarkable +countenance! Such expression might have been that of Semiramis when +ordering the execution of Ninus." + +"No! I do not think so, there is no wickedness in this face! There is +strength, sternness, perhaps cruelty (if necessary)," I replied, still +studying the portrait. "Who could it have been?" + +"I know not indeed! some old, old member of the Vaughan family." + +"Nay, I do not think the portrait is of such ancient date! To be sure it +is dilapidated; but that seems to be more from abuse than from time. +And observe! the costume is modern." + +"So it is!" + +"I had not thought of that before! Well now since you said so, I begin +to surmise that this may be the portrait of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan." + +"And who was she?" I inquired, with as much indifference as I could +assume. + +"Oh! the last lineal descendant of the elder branch of the family and +the last heiress of this old estate; she married her first cousin, +Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan." + +"And what was her history and her fate?" I inquired, striving to +restrain the betrayal of the intense interest I felt. + +"Oh, her history was as painful as her fate was tragic." + +"And--well?" + +"Hush! there is some one coming! I will tell you another time!" + +It was Mrs. Legare who entered, and smiling a sort of salutation to me, +and opening a letter she held in her hand, said: + +"My dear Mathilde, we are to have more company. Your cousin Rachel +Noales is coming; she will be here this afternoon!" + +"Oh! I should be so glad if we only had room for her!" exclaimed +Mathilde, impulsively, and then she blushed deeply in having spoken thus +freely of their crowded state in the presence of a guest. + +"My dear Mathilde," said I, "as mine is a double-bedded chamber, I +should be very happy to have Miss Rachel for a roommate; that is, if it +would be agreeable to herself." + +"Thank you, Agnes, dear. Agreeable! why it would be the very thing. +Rachel Noales is the greatest coward that ever ran! and would no more +sleep in a strange room, by herself, than she would in a churchyard! If +you had not kindly offered, some of us girls would have to take her in, +although we are all sleeping double now!" + +"But are you sure, my dear Agnes, that you will not be incommoded," +kindly inquired Mrs. Legare. + +"Incommoded? Not in the least! The arrangement suits me to a nicety!" I +replied. + +And so, in truth, it did; for let me confess that while I could not +prevail upon myself to shorten my visit, and leave the house with its +great mystery unsolved, the prospect of sleeping alone in that chamber +cursed with crime appalled me, but, in company with a companion of my +own age, it would be a very different affair. + +"That horrid portrait! take it into the attic, Jet," said Mrs. Legare, +as her eyes fell upon the _ci devant_ firescreen. + +The little maid took up the picture and carried it off as commanded. + +Then there was a visit of inspection and preparation paid to my room. +Fresh sheets and more blankets were put upon the second bed, fresh +napkins laid, and then mother and daughter and little maid departed. + +Through the remainder of that day I had no further opportunity of +learning from Mathilde the history of the dark lady. + +Late that afternoon Uncle Judah was dispatched with the mules to Frost +Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring Rachel Noales to the house. +And about seven o'clock he returned, escorting the new visitor, for whom +we were waiting tea. + +As Miss Noales was to be my roommate, I examined her with much more +interest than I had bestowed upon any other among my fellow-visitors. +Rachel Noales was an orphan, and was still in deep mourning for her +father, who had been dead about nine months. She was a very pretty, +timid-looking girl, with a fair face, soft brown hair and large hazel +eyes. + +"Ah! my dear child," I thought to myself, "you are scarcely the most +proper denizen for a crime-cursed, haunted chamber." + +And I made up my mind to protect her, if possible, from the knowledge +that would only make her wretched, and perhaps drive her away from the +place. As this was the fourth evening of Christmas revelry, and we had +all been up to a very late hour upon each of the three preceding nights, +it was moved, seconded, and carried by a large majority that we should +retire early on this and the succeeding evenings of the week, so as to +recruit a little for the New Year's festivity. + +Accordingly, at ten o'clock we separated. + +Mrs. Legare and Mathilde accompanied Rachel Noales and myself to our +chamber. And when our hostess and her daughter had seen that the room +was in perfect order, the fire burning well, the beds turned down, the +ewers filled, etc., etc., they took leave, waiting, as before, until +they had heard me lock the chamber door behind them. When they had +passed down the stairs and out at the hall door and locked it after +them, I turned around to meet the surprised look of Rachel Noales. + +"Why, where have they gone?" she asked. + +"Into the old house, to bed." + +"Why!--do they sleep there?" + +"Certainly--the whole family sleep there." + +"And who sleeps here in the new house?" + +"No one but you and I!" + +"You don't mean to say that they have put us in this house to sleep +alone?" + +"Why not? It is an adjunct to the other house, which is, besides, quite +full of guests. It was so when I came." + +"And where did you sleep?" + +"Here." + +"Alone?" + +"Certainly." + +She looked at me with astonishment. And had my mind been sufficiently at +ease I should have enjoyed her naive admiration. But it was not so; and +when I saw her draw her chair up in front of the fire, and sit down +immediately over that spot, I shuddered and spoke to her. + +"Rachel, dear, don't sit directly in front of the fire; it is injurious +to the eyes." + +She moved to one side and began to unfasten her dress preparatory to +going to bed. We were now ready. But before lying down, Rachel asked me: + +"Is the door secure?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"And the windows?" + +"Yes." + +Not quite content with my answer, Rachel went slyly around to all the +windows, and then to the door, to ascertain their security; then she +searched the closets, and finally got into bed. + +I soon followed her example, but found myself more sleepless than upon +the preceding evening. I know not exactly how long I had lain awake, +thinking of the dead proprietors, of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, and her +sad history and tragic fate (whatever they might have been), and of the +stern, dark woman of my dream, and of the blood-stained floor, and +trying to combine these materials into some coherent whole, when +suddenly I heard the lock click back, the door swing slowly open, and a +rustle, as of silken drapery, and I opened my eyes to behold the awful +woman of my dream standing in the middle of the room, and pointing +sternly to the blood-stained floor! + +And in the very same instant that I heard and saw this, Rachel had also +been awakened, and was even now asking in frightened tones: + +"Who is that?" + +But there was no answer. + +"Who is that?" again asked the girl. + +And still there was no answer. + +"Who--is--that?" she reiterated, emphatically. + +No answer. + +"Aunt Legare!--Mathilde!--Jet!--Who is it?" + +No reply. But the tall, black-robed woman standing motionless, and +pointing with spectral finger to the spot on the floor! + +"Oh! dear me! Agnes, Agnes!" + +I answered: + +"What, my dear?" + +"Have you opened the door?" + +"No, love." + +"Have you been up at all since you laid down?" + +"No, Rachel." + +"Who opened the door?" + +"I do not know." + +"Didn't you hear it open?" + +"Yes." + +"And it is open now!" + +"I see it is." + +"But how came it open?" + +"I do not know; perhaps it was not quite locked, and the catch flew +back." + +"Oh, perhaps that was it," said Rachel; and, though her teeth were +chattering with a nervous tremor, she got out of bed, and went to the +door, to close and lock it, And, reader, the black-robed woman passed +out before her, and she saw her not. + +I fell back upon my pillow, nearer swooning than ever I had been in my +life; for now I knew that this was no dream, but a vision--an apparition +to me, and to me only. + +I slept no more that night. + +And in the morning when I arose, and looked into the glass, I was +startled at the haggardness of my own face. + +When we appeared at the breakfast-table, some of the young people +remarked my paleness, and said that I had been frolicking more than was +good for me. Then one of the company inquired of Rachel Noales how she +had rested. + +"Not very well," Rachel answered; "I was frightened by the door flying +open in the middle of the night." + +I noticed a quick, intelligent look pass between Mathilde and her +mother, while Rachel continued: + +"I thought at first that it was thieves breaking in; but I know now that +it flew open because Agnes had not locked the door fast enough to hold +it." + +"No, I had not," said I. + +The arrival of the mailbag put an end to this discussion. The letters +were distributed at the table. Among them was one from my brother to Mr. +Legare, accepting his invitation for himself and his friend, whom he +begged to name as the Hon. Francis Howard, of Massachusetts, and +announcing the letter as a mere _avant courier_ of the party which would +reach Frost Height that afternoon. + +Upon hearing the name of Frank Howard as the "friend" of John and their +expected guest, Mathilde flushed and paled, and was quite unable to +conceal from the interested scrutiny of her parents the emotion these +tidings caused her. + +As for Mr. Legare, upon reading his name, he said: "Humph!" and "humph!" +very emphatically several times before he could get any further. But he +considered his hospitality implicated; nay, his honor pledged to receive +and treat with politeness the guest that he had so unconsciously +invited. He was a fine old gentleman, notwithstanding his +prejudices--was Mr. Legare. + +So, in the afternoon, once more Uncle Judah was ordered to take the +mules and go up to Frost Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring two +visitors to the house; an order so little to the old man's satisfaction +that he vented his disapprobation in the exclamation: + +"Ole masse better had set up 'Entertainment for Man and Beast' at once." + +As usual, when expecting a new arrival of visitors, Mrs. Legare put back +her tea hour, and prepared a supper of extra luxuriousness. And Mr. +Legare brewed the great ancestral punchbowl to the brim with rich, +frothy eggnog, and set it away to "mellow," against the coming of the +gentlemen. + +"My dear mother and father! they have noble hearts in spite of their +social conservatism! And you shall see that they will treat my Frank +with as much kindness and respect as if they did not consider him a sort +of wolf, prowling about after their one ewe lamb," said Mathilde, with +tears of affection brimming to her eyes. + +"And you see, my darling, it is as I foretold you it would be. He is +seeking you now in your own home. And under what favorable +circumstances--the invited guest of your father. How very providential +the whole train of events! Trust still in Divine Providence; and if your +love is a true love, it will end happily," I answered. + +And in my deep sympathy with Mathilde's joy, I almost forgot that I was +a haunted maiden, with some, as yet unknown, supernatural mission to +accomplish. + +I was resolved, if possible, before the day should be over, to hear from +Mathilde the tragic story of Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, whose portrait +I had mentally identified as that of the awful visitant of my midnight +hours. The opportunity came, or rather, I made it. Mathilde had early +completed her toilet for the evening. I had done likewise. And at five +o'clock we found ourselves alone together in the drawing-room of the new +house. The lamps were not as yet lighted. The hickory fire had ceased to +blaze, and now only burned redly, showing out a strong, solid heat, in +what Uncle Judah called "solemn columns," and casting over the dark +chamber a sombre, ruddy twilight. We sat down by the fire together. +There would be no chance for the next half hour of being interrupted. + +For Mr. Legare was still engaged at his breakfast in the dining-room. +Mrs. Legare was busy in her pantry and the kitchen, and the few servants +of the now reduced establishment were in constant attendance upon their +master or mistress. + +Rachel Noales was upstairs in my chamber, dressing for the evening, and +the other young persons of the Christmas party were in the bedrooms of +the old house, similarly engaged. + +There was not the slightest possibility of an interruption. + +Mathilde commenced speaking. + +"I believe you are pleased with your chamber, Agnes?" + +"Charmed," I answered. + +Without perceiving the _double entendre_ hidden in my reply, she said: + +"And you have always slept well, then?" + +"Never better," I replied; "in that chamber," I mentally added. + +In her ignorance of this silent reservation, she was pleased with my +answer, and sat smiling quietly and studying, apparently, the glowing +coals of fire in the chimneyplace. + +I broke her reverie by saying, in a careless, off-hand way: + +"_Apropos de rien_, you have not told me the story of that mysterious +portrait yet." + +"No, I haven't! But, indeed, I am not sure that the history of Madeleine +Van Der Vaughan has anything to do with that portrait, since I am not +sure that it is hers." + +"No matter; take it for granted that it is; or at least tell the story +whether or not." + +"Very well; listen, then," said Mathilde, settling herself comfortably +in her chair, and commencing the narrative. + +"The Van Der Vaughans, as you may perceive by their name, are of +Teutonic origin, though by frequent intermarriage with other races, they +have no doubt lost, or modified, many of their national traits. Their +residence, in this part of the country, dates back to the time of the +first settlement of New York by the Dutch. + +"Why this particular family should have wandered down to the backwoods +and mountains of Virginia remains a mystery, unless they were of a +patriotic and poetical turn, and found in her wild hills and boundless +woods something to remind them of the Hartz Mountains and the Black +Forest. However that may be, they came, took up a great tract of land, +built themselves a dwelling place (the old house adjoining this), and +settled down permanently. + +"For a time they were prosperous, as others were, and then, by bad +agriculture, they grew poor, as others in this neighborhood did. If we +may believe tradition the poorer this family grew the prouder they +became, until at last, pride and poverty united, culminated in the +character and the circumstances of the last heiress of the elder branch +of the family, Madeleine Van Der Vaughan. + +"At the age of twenty-five Madeleine Van Der Vaughan was left, by the +death of her father (her mother died long before), sole heiress of a +worn-out plantation and dilapidated house. + +"Madeleine is reported to have possessed great and singular beauty--a +tall and imperial form, a fine head, with strongly marked and perfectly +regular features, a deep, rich complexion, and hair, eyes and eyebrows +all black as Erebus. Gifted and accomplished was she also, and, as I +stated, proud as Lucifer. It is said that this overweening pride +prevented her taking a husband from among her numerous visitors, none of +whom, though of the best families in the State, she deemed worthy of her +own "high alliance."" + +"Until at last her relative, Ernest Wolfgang Van Der Vaughan, made his +appearance in her train and claimed her hand; a claim that was indorsed +by her acceptance. + +"It is said that family pride had to do with this marriage much more +than love. However that might be, no sooner was the knot securely tied, +than Mr. Van Der Vaughan began to importune his wife to sell her land +and homestead that they might emigrate to the West. But in vain; for +Mrs. Van Der Vaughan would not, for an instant, entertain the idea of +alienating her patrimony. + +"On the contrary, she had one ambition concerning her inheritance--an +ambition that reached the height of a ruling passion--and that was, to +resuciate the dead soil of the plantation and to rebuild the mansion +house. + +"All Ernest Van Der Vaughan's property consisted in bank stock. All +Madeleine's estate was in worthless land and negroes. But she offered +him, as she would not have offered any other than a Van Der Vaughan, the +fee simple of her plantation, if he would only devote his money to the +restoring of the worn-out fields and the rebuilding of the homestead. + +"Ernest did not like the plan, and he told her so. He explained to her +how, at one-tenth the outlay that he should have to make for manures and +for labor to resusciate this effete soil, he could go to Iowa and +purchase a large farm of the richest land and build a comfortable +dwelling-house and all needful offices around it. + +"But it was in vain that he argued with her. She was a strong-minded, +self-willed woman, with one idea--one monomania--love for 'Old +Virginia,' and especially for her own portion of the soil. She +absolutely rejected the plan of emigration, and told Ernest, in the most +decided manner, that, go where he might, she never would desert her +birthplace. + +"She was the stronger of the two, and she prevailed. Ernest embarked +nearly all his means in the doubtful enterprise of restoring the old, +worn-out fields and rebuilding the mansion, or rather, I should say, +repairing it, and building a new house beside it. + +"Madeleine, on her part, kept her word. She executed a deed conveying +the whole property to her husband. And after he, in a fit of generous +abandonment, tore that deed and threw it in the fire, she made a second +one, caused it to be recorded, and thus rendered it irrevocable, before +she told him anything about it. + +"She went even further than this, and aided him in every possible way in +his work of restoration. To retrench expenses, so that every spare +dollar should go to that enterprise, she discharged her housekeeper, +reduced her establishment of servants, and took upon her own shoulders +the additional burdens lately borne by those whom she had discharged +from her service. She worked hard and constantly. No one knew how +severely she toiled--not even her husband, until her labors seriously +affected her health. Then Ernest Van Der Vaughan remonstrated. But she +smiled and pointed to the growing fields and to the rising mansion. + +"Yet the restoration of the lands and the elevation of the house was a +work of years. Often progress was arrested by the want of funds, and +then, though it cost the mistress many severe heart pangs, one after +another of the old family servants were sold to raise the necessary +amount, and their places in the field had to be supplied by fresh drafts +upon the small household establishment, until at last the mistress was +reduced to one maid-of-all-work about her person. + +"I do not think your citizens, Agnes, dream of how much labor devolves +upon the mistress of a large plantation in circumstances such as these. +Even when assisted by an efficient housekeeper, and many well-trained +servants, the duties are onerous, sometimes oppressive, Madeleine Van +Der Vaughan had deprived herself of nearly all help; but most willingly +she bore her self-assumed burden, only showing distress when some +financial exigency compelled her to wound humanity. She gave her heart, +her life, to one object of her ambition. Yes--literally, this was so; +for it was observable that as the carefully tended land recovered, she +lost vitality, and as the mansion arose, she sank. + +"It was in glorious autumn, when the richest wheat harvest that had ever +been reaped in the State was gathered into the barns of Wolfbrake, and +the finest corn crop that had ever grown in the valley, stood ripe in +the fields, that the house was finished. + +"So much money had been spent and so many debts remained to be paid, +that there was but little to expend upon furniture, and Mrs. Van Der +Vaughan could not appoint her house in a style so gorgeous as would +have satisfied her ambition. However, it was furnished in the manner +that you now see, which, after all, is much handsomer than anything that +was known to the grand old Van Der Vaughans in their grandest days of, +no doubt, fabulous grandeur. + +"It was about the first of November that the last of the Van Der +Vaughans removed into this house. + +"The plastering of the sleeping-rooms was not so well dried as had been +supposed. This was soon ascertained by Mr. Van Der Vaughan, who advised +and entreated his wife to delay the removal. + +"But when had Madeleine Van Der Vaughan yielded to any will but her own? +With the impatience and fever of a long desire, she hastened to take +possession of her new residence. + +"Although the weather had continued fine, with westerly or southerly +winds, up to the day of removal, yet then the wind shifted to the east, +blowing up masses of dark clouds and cold mists, followed by rain and +even sleet. + +"Alas! worn out by self-assumed, unnecessary burdens, Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan was in no condition successfully to meet a change of weather and +other circumstances. Moreover, she, so earnest in her ambition, so +zealous for ostentation, was fatally careless in regard to her own +personal comforts. There was no grate or stove in her chamber, or in any +other room in the house; all depended upon open fireplaces, which, +however handsome, cheerful and poetic they may look, are not always just +the very best things for damp houses in severe weather. + +"Mrs. Van Der Vaughan's chamber could not be properly dried and heated. +The consequence was that she took a severe cold, which fell upon her +lungs, and from which she, in her enfeebled state, had not power to +recover. She dropped into a rapid consumption, and in six weeks from +her triumphant _entree_ into her new house, she was borne thence to the +family burial-ground, that you may see from your windows." + +"Poor lady! What room did she occupy?" + +"Yours." + +"And--she died there?" + +"Yes; she died there, a victim, I am sure, of her own impatient, +feverish ambition." + +"Do not judge her harshly." + +"I do not. This is the reputation she has left behind her." + +"Yet it may not have been her true character. Reputation is one thing, +character is another," said I, falling into thought, and then reflecting +that much yet must remain to be told, to give me a sure clew to the +household mystery. + +"Well, what else?" I inquired. + +"What else, my dear? Why, nothing else. I have told you all her story to +her death," said Mathilde, uneasily. + +"But, after all," said I, "one of the most interesting things in the +connection, is your father's purchase of this fine property." + +"Ah, true! Well, after the death of his lady, Ernest Van Der Vaughan +removed back into the old house, and closed up the new one. In the +course of a few weeks he advertised the property for sale, but months +passed, and no purchaser appeared willing to give him the price set upon +the estate. + +"A year went by, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan made the acquaintance of a +young lady, Alice Brightwell, who was, it is said, as strong a contrast +as possible to his late wife; for Alice was young, and fair and gay, +loved music, dancing and company, and had not a regret, a care, or an +ambition in the world. + +"It must have been the attraction of antagonism that united the hearts +of this dark and sombre man of thirty, and this laughing, careless girl +of nineteen, for it is said that they were greatly attached to each +other. + +"At all events, after a brief courtship, and a briefer engagement they +were married; and when Mr. Van Der Vaughan proposed to her, as he had to +his first wife, that they should emigrate to the West, she, in her gay, +adventurous love of novelty, eagerly assented, notwithstanding that to +go with him thither, she must leave her parents, brothers and sisters. + +"Once more the property came into the market, and my father, seeing the +advertisement, and desiring to remove to Virginia, opened a +correspondence with the proprietor, then made a visit of inspection, and +finally became the purchaser of the estates. + +"When the transfer was about to be made, my father, pointing to the +family graveyard, inquired of Mr. Van Der Vaughan whether he did not +feel an unwillingness to sell that piece of ground, and told him that he +might readily make an exception of that plot, and retain it in his own +right. + +"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan replied that he did not really care to own a +foot of ground on the estate. + +"My father then told him that if he would like to retain the graveyard +it should make no difference in the price of the whole already agreed +upon--for my father, you see, Alice, felt a sort of hesitation in buying +the place without exempting the bones of the old family from the +purchase. + +"But Mr. Van Der Vaughan had no scruples of the sort. + +"'No,' he said, 'Mr. Legare, if I were to retain possession of the +graveyard, I and my heirs after me, would own an acre of ground in the +very midst of your estate, which, as it stands now, might make no +difference, as I shall never return to claim it, and could make no use +of it if I did; but which might embarrass you very much should you ever +wish to sell the property.' + +"That was good reasoning enough, I suppose, and, at all events, the sale +was completed without the exception. + +"We moved into the house, and Mr. Van Der Vaughan and his bride departed +for Kansas." + +"And he really, when he might just as easily have avoided it, sold the +bones of his wife and her ancestors to a stranger!" + +"Even so, my dear Agnes, and believe me, that we all felt as much +shocked as you look." + +"But," said I, fixing my eyes upon her face, where the flickering +firelight made the shadows play, "the stranger has not been able to +retain the peaceable possession of his purchase!" + +"What--what mean you, Agnes!" exclaimed Mathilde, in alarm. + +"I mean that the late proud lady of Wolfbrake still carries the keys, +and unlocks doors at will!" + +"Heavens! do you know that?" + +"Ay! I know much more than that. I know the portrait that performed the +humiliating office of firescreen in the next room is the likeness of the +haughty Madeleine Van Der Vaughan! I know, beside----" + +"What more do you know?" + +"That our travelers have arrived!" I said, as the sound of footsteps and +voices at the hall door fell upon my ear. + +It was true. We were interrupted. + +As if "borne on the wings of love," the slow old stage-coach was so much +earlier that evening that our friends arrived an hour earlier than we +had expected them, while Mrs. Legare was still superintending the +arrangement of her supper-table, and Mr. Legare was grating nutmeg over +his huge bowl of eggnog, so there was no one to welcome the visitors +except Mathilde and myself. + +As they entered the parlor we arose and advanced to meet them. + +"Mathilde! Miss Legare! Can it be possible! This is, indeed, indeed, a +joyous surprise," exclaimed Frank Howard, as he recognized his ladylove, +and with an eager smile extended his hand; while my brother, without +ceremony, embraced me cordially. + +"I thought you knew to whom you were coming," said Mathilde, with simple +candor. + +"No! I scarcely dared to hope for such happiness!" + +"Hey-day! Hal-loe!--do you know anybody here, Frank?" exclaimed my wild +and thoughtless brother. + +But before Mr. Howard had time to answer, I pinched Jack's arm, turned +him around, and presented him to Miss Legare. + +The refined and elegant presence of Mathilde immediately brought my rude +cadet to order, and he gracefully expressed the pleasure and honor he +felt in being permitted to make her acquaintance. + +Miss Legare welcomed my brother with more cordiality than she had +bestowed upon her lover. + +And I turned to receive Frank Howard's offered hand, and responded to +his expressions of satisfaction at the present opportunity of renewing +our acquaintance. + +When these rather commonplace ceremonies were over Miss Legare invited +her guests to be seated, and we resumed our chairs. A deep blush settled +upon the beautiful face of Mathilde. + +But, whatever might have been the emotions of Mr. Howard, he suppressed +them through that regnant self-control that ever distinguished his +manners. And he was the first to perceive the entrance of Mr. and Mrs. +Legare, and to arise and advance to receive them. + +My brother presented Mr. Howard to Mr. Legare, who received him with +cordial politeness, and in his turn introduced him to Mrs. Legare, who +smilingly welcomed him to Virginia. + +Certainly Howard had nothing to complain of in his reception. There was +not the slightest lack of respect and kindness, and not the least +over-doing of ceremony, which would have been still more offensive. All +was natural and genial, as if there had not once existed a strong +hostility to Frank Howard, the machinist. I was charmed at the manner +with which my dear host and hostess completely overcame their +prejudices, or at least suppressed them, and treated Mr. Howard in all +respects as an honored and welcome guest, and did this assuredly not in +the spirit of hypocrisy, but of hospitality, as they understood its +requirements. + +Soon Rachel Noales and the other young persons of the Christmas party +came in, were introduced, seated, and conversation became general and +free. This afforded me the coveted opportunity of having a moment's talk +aside with my brother. + +"Johnny! tell me now, and tell me quickly, and truly--was there any +design on you or your friend's part to get him invited here?" + +"Design! bless you, no!" replied my brother, opening wide his great gray +eyes. + +"I thought not; for, if the truth must be told, honest Johnny was +anything but a diplomat." + +"Well, there was no conscious manoeuvring on your part, but was there +not on his?" + +"Why, bless you, no! Why should there have been?" "'Why should there +have been?' Oh, Johnny! Johnny! where are your perceptive faculties? +You will never be wideawake enough for a soldier!" + +"I don't know what you would be at." + +"I suppose not. But did you observe nothing interesting in the meeting +between Mr. Howard and Miss Legare?" + +"Oh, oh, oh, oh! Whew ew-ew-ew! Is that it?" + +"Yes." + +"That's what you meant when you pinched my arm black and blue?" + +"Yes." + +"A sorry dog. He never hinted one word about this to me." + +"He had no right to do so, nor must you speak of it." + +"Eh! why?" + +"Because--but I had better tell you all about it. They met about three +years ago for the first time. It was at Saratoga, where he was making +quite a figure. The acquaintance had ripened to friendship, and +something more when 'papa' bethought himself to inquire who this very +distinguished-looking gentleman might be at home among his own people, +and was informed that he was--a machinist by trade! Recall to mind the +passion of Desdemonia's proud patrician 'pa' on discovering that he had +a black-a-moor for a son-in-law, and you may be able remotely to +conceive the consternation of Mr. Legare. He hurried his family away +from Saratoga, and forbid the name of Howard to be mentioned in his +presence. The lovers never corresponded, and never met until this +evening! You may judge how much cause for speculation there is in this +meeting." + +"Yes--but within these three years great changes have taken place. Mr. +Howard is a distinguished man--a man of fortune, and of acknowledged +talent--one of the lawgivers of the nation. And Mr. Legare and his +family are reduced from wealth to a moderate competency." + +"Yes, I know; but that does not change the old aristocrat's manner of +regarding the affair. He contends that a gentleman born is always a +gentleman, and a peasant always a peasant, notwithstanding the +vicissitudes of fortune, that may enrich the one and impoverish the +other." + +"Or rather, he contended so--it belongs to the past tense. Look at him +now--see what deference he pays to Mr. Howard's opinions." + +"The mere politeness of the host. Take nothing for granted from that." + +"Nay, but Frank Howard is a gentleman of whom any father might be proud +as a son-in-law." + +"Very likely. But Mr. Legare is not 'any' father. However, what I wish +to know is, whether Frank Howard did not use you to procure the 'bid' +that brought him hither?" + +"No, indeed!" + +"How came it, then, you artful boy, that you took just the course, and +the only course, by which you could procure him an invitation?" + +"I don't understand you." + +"You innocent! How came it, then, that you wrote to Mr. Legare, you +would be very happy to obey his summons, and spend the holidays at +Wolfbrake, but that you had a friend with you whom you could not leave, +and whom you took care not to mention by name?" + +"Oh, because I never gave the matter a moment's thought. When I got Mr. +Legare's letter, I just sat down and answered it right off, and +mentioned my friend merely as my friend. If I had, as you seem to think, +been fishing for an invitation for him also, I certainly should have +mentioned him by name and title as the Hon. Frank Howard, of +Massachusetts, etc., etc., etc." + +"In which case you certainly would not have been invited to bring him +here." + +"Probably not, but I did not know that. What knew I of the hostility, or +even of the acquaintance, between the parties? I acted only in simple +honesty." + +"The best way to act, my dear Johnny." + +"And so blundered into helping the lovers." + +"Not so. You were providentially led." + +"Well, as soon as ever I received the invitation, I hastened to write +and give the name of my friend to our host, as I should have done at +first, if I had dreamed of his being invited to accompany me. And as for +Frank Howard, he was as innocent of design as myself. He knew nothing +about the matter until I showed him Mr. Legare's last letter, and +pressed him to go with me. He then asked me if Mr. Legare was any +relation of the Legares, of Louisiana. I said I believed he had brothers +in Louisiana, but I was not certain, as I knew very little of the +family. Then he told me that he had had the pleasure of meeting a Mr. +Legare, of Louisiana, at Saratoga, and should feel happy in making the +acquaintance of any of his family; and there the conversation stopped. +Frank was evidently as much astonished as delighted at the unexpected +meeting with his ladylove." + +"I am glad to know it," said I. + +And then, not to continue the rudeness of an aside conversation, I took +my brother to Rachel Noales, and left him with her, while I joined my +kind old host. + +Supper was soon after announced, and we were all marshaled into the +dining-room, where a sumptuous feast was spread, over which we lingered, +eating and drinking, with epicurean leisure, and talking and laughing +for more than an hour. I said we--but I should rather say they--for I +could not eat, or talk, or laugh. At last the long-drawn meal came to an +end. + +The company adjourned to the drawing-room, and an hour was passed in +pleasant conversation, and then, in consideration of the fatigue of the +newly-arrived guests, we separated for the night. + +In the hall I noticed a diminutive page, of the African race, who +rejoiced in the chivalric name of Emmanuel Philibert, which was adapted +to daily and popular use by the abbreviative of Phlit. Phlit was +standing, and solemnly holding a light in one hand and a bootjack in the +other, waiting to attend the two gentlemen to their bedroom. + +But Mr. Legare took upon himself the office of groom of the chambers, +and accompanied his latest guests to their apartment. + +Rachel Noales and myself reached ours about the same time. We heard the +voice of Mr. Legare taking leave of the gentlemen for the night; we +heard him and the little waiter Phlit, go downstairs and out at the hall +door, fastening it after them. + +"I will take care that this is secured to-night," said Rachel, going and +carefully locking our door, and then trying it to be sure that it was +fast. "That will do," she said, when she had satisfied herself of its +security. + +Then, as we were very weary, we prepared to retire. We were soon in bed. + +Rachel was soon asleep. + +Not so myself. I lay perfectly still, almost breathless, waiting the +developments of the night. And, reader, it was while lying thus wide +awake, and gazing straight out through the window to the spot where the +family tombstones gleamed white and spectral in the moonlight among the +dark firs, that my ear was struck by the click of the recoiling lock, +and, turning, I saw the door swing slowly open and my dark-robed +midnight visitant enter. Though wide awake as at this moment, I was +deprived, by excess of awe, of the power of speech or motion. Slowly +the spectre advanced and stood as before, pointing to the dark-red spot +hid beneath the carpet under her feet. I essayed once more to speak to +her, but such terror as her presence had never before inspired froze my +utterance. I listened, wondering if my companion in the other bed was +conscious of this supernatural presence in the room; but the deep and +regular breathing of Rachel assured me that she was sleeping soundly, +the deep sleep of fatigue. + +And all this while the black-robed woman stood holding my eyes with her +fixed and burning gaze, and pointing to the spot on the floor. Then, +letting her arm fall slowly to her side, she passed, in measured steps, +from the room, and through the door that swung to, gradually, and closed +behind her. Again I essayed to cry out, but the spell was still upon me, +and no sound escaped my paralyzed lips. While lying thus, I heard once +more the recoiling click of a lock, and the swing of a door upon its +hinges; but this time it was not our own but another door--that of the +opposite chamber, where my brother and his friend slept. + +"Who's there?" I heard John call out, in no pleasant voice, and seeming +evidently annoyed at the disturbance. + +There was no answer. + +"Who's there?" he repeated. + +No answer. + +"Who's there?" + +Continued silence. + +"Phlit!" + +No reply. + +"Phlit!" + +No reply. + +"Phlit!" + +Dead silence. + +"Jet! Is that you?" + +The silence of the grave continued; until at last the calling of my +brother awoke his companion in the other bed. + +"What is the matter, John?" I heard him ask. + +"Why, some one has unlocked our door and entered, and I can't make them +speak; but shoot me if I don't find them out!" said my brother, jumping +out of bed and beginning to strike a light. + +"You have been dreaming." + +"Have I? Look there, then!" + +"Well, I see the door is open; but you probably forgot to lock it." + +"I'll make sure of it now, then," said John, banging the door violently, +locking it with a resonant force and proceeding to search for the +supposed intruder. Of course the search was fruitless, and, with many +grumbles and threats, he went back to bed. + +My brother had not seen the supernatural visitant to his room, who, go +where she might, appeared only to me. + +While turning these things over in my mind, again I heard John's lock +turn and his door swing open, and almost simultaneously his voice called +out: + +"What the demon does this mean? Who are you then?" as he jumped out of +bed, relocked the door, struck a light and proceeded once more vainly to +examine the room. + +"Well, this is certainly the most inexplicable thing I ever knew in my +life!" exclaimed John, with an intonation between astonishment and +indignation. + +"Oh! I really suppose you did not lock the door properly," replied +Howard, getting up and going to ascertain the state of the case. And I +heard him unlock and lock the door several times, and finally locking it +fast, he said: + +"There! now I will guarantee that it will stay shut!" and went back to +his couch. + +I do not think that more than fifteen minutes had passed before I heard, +for the third time, their lock fly back and their door swing open. + +"By Jupiter! This is past belief!" exclaimed Mr. Howard, while my +brother, without speaking, jumped out of bed and struck a light. + +They searched the room. They came out thence and searched the hall. They +went up into the garret and searched the rooms over our heads. And, +finding no one, they returned, wondering and conjecturing to their +chamber, and for the third time that night fast locked their door. + +"Take the key out, John," said Mr. Howard. And John withdrew the key and +took it to bed with him. + +About fifteen minutes more passed and then--"click!" flew the lock, open +swung the door, and out of bed jumped John, in a state of mind between +affright and rage. + +"John, never mind! It is clear that the door will not remain closed; +leave it open; to-morrow I will look at the lock and see what is amiss," +said Mr. Howard. + +And for the fourth time that night I heard my brother muttering like +distant thunder, go back to his bed. + +But I do not think that he slept that night, and I am sure that I did +not. + +In the morning I felt weary, and certain that if this mysterious +visitation continued, I should go mad. As I was dressing before the +toilet mirror, the reflection of my own face in the glass startled and +terrified me, it looked so pale, wild and haggard, and not unlike the +awful face of the midnight spectre. When Rachel and myself were dressed +and ready to go down, I opened the door. And just at that moment my +brother and Mr. Howard came out of their chamber and bade us +"Good-morning." + +"Were you at our door last night, Agnes?" John asked me. + +"At your door, John? Certainly not." + +"Wasn't you, though?" + +"Assuredly not. What should have brought me there?" + +"Well, somebody was, that's all!" said my brother, while Mr. Howard +silently looked what he did not say. + +We all went down together to the parlor, where a fine fire was burning, +and Mathilde, in her fresh morning beauty, waited to welcome us. + +And soon our host and hostess entered, and in a few moments the +breakfast was announced, and we all adjourned to the table. + +Breakfast was served long before the usual hour, that the gentlemen of +our party might make an early start upon the fox hunt that Mr. Legare +had arranged for that day. + +While we were still at the table, Mrs. Legare bethought herself to hope +that the gentlemen had rested well; when my brusque and thoughtless +brother John said: + +"No, indeed, my dear madam! We were 'fashed wi' a bogle' all night +long." + +"Sir?" + +"He means, madam, that we could not by any means keep our door locked, +and had finally to give up the attempt," explained Mr. Howard. + +A deathly paleness overspread Mrs. Legare's face. I knew she regretted +the question that she had been tempted to ask, and now she receded from +the subject. + +Mr. Legare, who had kept his eyes averted and turned a deaf ear to the +disclosure, now adroitly changed the topic by speaking of the hunt. + +The horses were neighing with impatience in the yard, and as soon as the +gentlemen arose from the breakfast-table, they prepared themselves, +mounted and rode off to their day's sport. + +It proved a very successful chase, for they took the brush before twelve +o'clock and returned with fine appetites to the excellent dinner set +upon the table at two in the afternoon. + +The evening was passed in quiet hilarity, and we separated at a +comparatively early hour. + +But that night, reader! It passes all my powers of description. I had +always been in the habit of "saying" my prayers before retiring; but of +late, since I had been habitually haunted, I had taken to praying +devoutly before going to bed. I prayed with unusual earnestness this +night, and then I retired to my couch. So wearied out in body was I +that, despite of mental excitement, I soon fell asleep. + +I do not know how long I had slept, probably several hours, for it was +near day, when I was awakened by a strong light and a great noise. + +I opened my eyes and collected my senses to find that both proceeded +from the opposite bedroom, where Mr. Howard and John were up with a +lighted candle, looking about for the mysterious and persevering +intruder upon their slumbers. The light from their room streamed across +the hall and through the open door into ours and fell upon the tall, +dark-robed, stern-visaged haunter of my chamber, where she stood +pointing her spectral finger to the spot upon the floor. A moment she +stood thus, and then, as before, passed slowly from the room and through +the open door, that, without hands, closed behind her. + +The silvery beams of the full moon poured through the two east windows, +and in its light I now saw Rachel Noales sitting up straight, stark and +still in her bed. + +"Rachel! Rachel!" said I, "what is the matter?" + +"Heaven and earth, Agnes, we are haunted!" she gasped, rather than +spoke. + +"Have you seen anything, Rachel?" I asked, now hoping that she had, for +I felt it terrible to be alone in my spectral experiences. + +"No, no, I have not seen anything! But that door! that door! that I am +sure I fastened so carefully, was unlocked without a key, and opened +without hands! I heard and saw it, for I was laying awake!" + +"Let us hope that you were mistaken, Rachel." + +"No, no, impossible! Oh, I would not sleep another night in this house +for the wealth of the Indies!" + +While we were talking, the fruitless search proceeded in, the opposite +room, until at length it was given up and the friends retired. + +Rachel left her bed and came into mine, where she lay and trembled. + +Scarcely fifteen minutes of peace and silence passed ere the lock of +both doors flew back, and the doors swung open. + +Rachel began screaming; the occupants of the opposite chamber started +up, exclaiming in every variety of interjection. I arose and donned my +double wrapper, and put my feet in slippers, to go and procure +restoratives, for Rachel had fallen into spasms. + +"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter, Agnes?" inquired my brother, who +had put on his dressing-gown and come to the door. + +"Oh, the Lord only knows!" + +I had seized a bottle of cologne from the dressing-table and began to +deluge the face and hands of Rachel, while my brother went and brought +his candle and put it inside of our door. + +"Do go and wake up Mrs. Legare, John; I can do nothing for Rachel; I +never saw anybody in hysterics before, if this is hysterics!" said I, +feeling both frightened at the condition and angry at the weakness of my +patient. + +But, even while I spoke, Mr. Howard, who during this time had been +hastily dressing himself, went downstairs to the old house in search of +assistance. + +The family were speedily aroused. Mr. and Mrs. Legare hurried into the +new house. The lady herself entered the chamber where Rachel, as often +as her eyes opened in the haunted chamber, fell into new spasms. + +"She will not recover until she is removed from this, Mrs. Legare," I +said. + +"Perhaps not; assist me to put her wrapper on, and we will take her +down, and lay her on the parlor sofa," my hostess replied. + +And after we had dressed our patient, we carried her down stairs, where +the fire was still smoldering, and only needed replenishment. + +When the wood was brought and thrown on, and the fire blazed up +brightly, lighting and warming the whole room, and the shutters were +unclosed, and the rising sun smiled in upon us all, I felt that the +gladsome scene was enough to put to flight all the ghosts in Hades, and +all the superstitious terrors that ignorance is heir to. I almost began +to doubt that I was haunted; and would have done so, but for the sombre +and disturbed countenance of my host, who, as soon as Rachel Noales was +soothed and put to sleep on the sofa, turned to us and inquired: + +"Now, my friends, will you be so good as to explain the cause of your +disturbance?" + +"A mere trifle, sir," said my brother, brusquely; "the house is +haunted." + +"You, of course, do not speak seriously; you cannot credit such +absurdities." + +"My dear, sir, I never believed in ghosts until within the last two +nights; but now, with such evidence before me, I should be the most +unbelieving of infidels to refuse credence," said my brother, with a +mixture of gravity and banter in his tone, that made it impossible to +think him in earnest. + +"Will you be so kind, Mr. Howard, as to enlighten us?" inquired Mr. +Legare, turning toward that gentleman. + +"Since you desire me to do so, my dear sir. Well, then, for the two +nights we have passed beneath your very hospitable and delightful roof, +our rest has been somewhat disturbed----" + +"Somewhat disturbed! It has been altogether broken up!" interrupted my +brother. + +"Be silent, John," I whispered, pinching him. + +Mr. Howard went on: + +"By an inexplicable circumstance, namely, the flying open of the doors, +after we had carefully and securely locked them." + +"We haven't slept a wink since we have been in the house. We have spent +the nights in jumping up out of bed to lock the doors, and only to have +them unlocked and fly open in our faces," said John. + +"I thank you, gentlemen, for the information you have given me. Agnes, +my dear, have you been disturbed?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How?" + +"In the same manner, sir, by the unaccountable flying open of the door +after I had locked it," said I, suppressing the fact, or fancy, of the +mysterious midnight visitant. + +"My dear, you have never complained of this before." + +"No, sir." + +"Why?" + +"Because it was more an affair of interest than of complaint. I wished +first to investigate alone." + +"And have you done so?" + +"As far as was possible." + +"With what result, my dear Agnes?" + +"With no satisfactory one, sir." + +"Friends," said the old gentleman, turning toward the assembled guests, +"it is vain to deny that a mystery does exist, and for the whole term of +my residence here, if not before, has existed in this house, that has, +heretofore, defied all investigation. Many of you have heard of the +circumstances under which the transfer of property was made. You +have heard that Madeleine Van Der Vaughan, the last inheritrix +of this estate, was a high-spirited, haughty, self-willed woman, +with one idea--the regeneration of her patrimonial estate; that +everything--money, health, peace, conscience, life itself, was +sacrificed to her monomania; that at last she died a victim to her own +ruling passion; that her husband married again, sold the estate, even +unto the very graveyard where her body lay, and left the neighborhood; +that I became the purchaser; and, finally, that since I have lived in +the house not one chamber door has been secure from a seemingly +supernatural opening. + +"The superstitious among my servants, and poor, ignorant neighbors, +ascribe all these mysteries to the presence of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan's restless ghost, still haunting the scene of her toils, +ambitions and disappointments. Modern spiritualists would, without +doubt, ascribe it to the agency of spirits. I believe in none of these +absurdities. But the annoying mystery remains unexplained, and I would +give 'the half of my kingdom' to him who should elucidate it." + +The old gentleman, at the conclusion of his speech, looked around for an +answer among his audience. + +"Do you not think that there may be a defect in the locks, sir?" +inquired Mr. Howard. + +"Oh, 'I cry you, mercy,' sir! Such a possibility did not in the very +first instance escape us. The locks have been taken off and examined, +and no perceptible defect could be discovered. The half--'the half of my +kingdom' to the knight who shall rid me of this mysterious key-bearer." + +I saw, by the twinkle of Mr. Howard's eyes, that he possessed a clew to +the mystery. I saw him exchange glances with Mathilde, who had just +joined us, looking blooming as Hebe in her fresh morning toilet. + +Now, I was always a bashful girl--I mean moderately so; therefore, I +never could account for the spirit that entered and moved me to say and +do what I soon said and did. I happened to be standing beside Mr. +Legare, and his hand rested caressingly upon my head, when he repeated: + +"'The half of my kingdom' to the knight that shall deliver my castle +from this dragon." + +I answered: + +"Oh, your majesty! Never offer the half of your kingdom! None but a +mercenary wretch would undertake the enterprise for such a bribe! Offer +the hand of your princess, and a thousand lances shall be laid in rest +for such a prize!" + +I do not know whether he discovered the serious meaning under my +lightly-spoken words, for he fell into the humor of the jest, patted me +on the head, and said: + +"Agreed! the hand of my princess to the brave knight who shall deliver +me from this plague!" + +"I accept the challenge!" said Mr. Howard, "and promise that in +twenty-four hours the mysterious carrier of the keys shall be +vanquished!" + +"It is a treaty! It is a treaty!" exclaimed one after another of the +young men and maidens who were present. + +Mr. Legare looked around in some confusion at being taken up so +seriously, and then laughing, said: + +"Very well--agreed! I ratify the compact, Mr. Howard; though I don't +believe your part of it can be fulfilled. And now to breakfast!" + +We adjourned to the old house--all who were in the secret wondering in +what manner Mr. Howard would undertake to exorcise the key-demon; but +all discussion was waived for the present, while we dispatched the +necessary business of the table. + +After breakfast, Frank Howard asked for a horse and rode up to Frost +Height. + +He was absent two hours, at the end of which time he returned, bringing +with him a set of locksmith's tools, and flat piece of board, such as +show-locks are sometimes screwed upon for a sign. + +When he had brought these things into the new house he challenged Mr. +Legare and all who wished to see the mystery evolved, to accompany him +to the chambers above. + +Of course, everybody accepted the invitation. + +We all went first into the gentlemen's room, and stood around in a +semi-circle, with our faces toward the door, and our eyes fixed upon the +lock and Frank Howard. First he turned the key, and begged that we would +observe that all was fast, and watch the result. Then he came away, and +we waited with our eyes fixed upon the lock. + +In a little less than fifteen minutes we both heard and saw the catch +fly back, and the door swing open! + +I cannot tell you with what a superstitious thrill we all shuddered, +though this was in broad daylight, and in the mutually supporting +presence of a dozen persons, and, though there was a machinist on the +spot, professing himself ready to demonstrate that this was a purely +mechanical phenomenon! + +"There! ladies and gentlemen, you all see the action!" + +"We all see!" + +"No hand near the lock!" + +"None!" + +"There could have been no deception." + +"Assuredly not," we all declared. + +"Oh, certainly not--I have seen the thing twenty times," said Mr. +Legare. + +"And I indorse your declarations, sir; you were right. There was no +deception--there is none! It is a purely mechanical phenomenon! But, +listen! Spiritual powers reside in mechanical forces. Every year we live +elucidates this mystery, though none but the deepest thinkers see this +truth in all its importance. Look you! a savage thinks that there is a +diabolism in the self-action of a watch--in the reflection of a +looking-glass. We think both mysteries to be simple mechanical +combinations! Pray look at the lock before us. I observe that it is +Harmon's patent. Poor Harmon, a demented machinist, scarcely knew what +he would be at, and so undertook to make an invaluable improvement in +the common door-lock. This is one of his; its intricate machinery has +got out of order, and hence 'the fantastic tricks before high heaven' +that these rooms have witnessed! I am about to take off the lock, to +prove what I have stated, as well as to remedy the evil." + +"Oh, sir, that has been tried--I have seen it done--hope nothing from +that!" exclaimed Mr. Legare. + +"Patience, my dear sir!" said Frank Howard, taking up the tools with so +much of the air of a man accustomed to the handling of them that old Mr. +Legare winced and fidgeted. + +But Frank speedily took off the lock, and brought it to us for +inspection. + +"Here! you notice that nothing seems amiss," he said. + +"Nothing in the world--I told you that before," replied Mr. Legare. + +"Furthermore, if now I were to turn the key, it would remain turned." + +"Certainly, while the lock is off the door, it looks exactly right, and +behaves exactly right; but just put it on the door and lock it, and in +from ten to thirty minutes, more or less, it will fly open." + +"Exactly; that is what I am about to explain," said Frank Howard, taking +up a flat, smooth piece of board, and laying it upon the table; and then +he took the lock, laid it on the board, screwed it tightly, turned the +key and said: + +"It is not the circumstance of this lock being attached to the door that +has caused it to act in this manner; for I will prove to you that if the +same lock be screwed tightly to any other resisting object--as, for +instance, this board--it will act in the same irregular manner. Watch it +now, and you will see." + +We did so, and in a few minutes we saw the catch fly back, as before. + +"I will tell you the reason," said Mr. Howard, unscrewing the lock from +the board and inviting us to look on. + +"Now, though there seems to be no defect whatever in this lock, yet in +truth the whole inside machinery has started slightly outward. This does +not affect its right action while detached; but when attached, the +continued pressure of the board to which it is fastened, gradually acts +upon the spring, and causes the catch in a given time to fly back, and +unlock, and the force with which this occurs opens the door. I can well +imagine that such unexplained movements, occurring in the middle of the +night, should have rather a supernatural effect. But the evil can be +remedied in a few minutes." + +And then, while we were all dumb with astonishment, Frank Howard took up +his tools, went to work, and in about twenty minutes fixed the inside of +the lock, and replaced it on the door. + +"Now," said he, "if ever this door comes open again without hands, I +will consent to forfeit the fair reward of my triumph. And now, friends, +I will go to work and mend the other." + +And, inviting us to precede him, he passed out, locked the door, gave +the key to Mr. Legare, and begged him to take notice that the door would +remain fast until he (Mr. Legare) might choose to open it, or to give up +the key. + +We reached the other chamber door, where twenty minutes' work served to +rectify the error. Then, locking that, as he had done the other, he +called me to witness that it should remain fast until I should use, or +give up the key that he placed in my charge. + +We then went downstairs, Mr. Legare having one key safe in his pocket--I +having the other secure in mine. + +It was the last day of the old year, and company were expected in the +evening--not to dance, but to watch it out. + +Mrs. Legare went to attend to her extra housekeeping duties, and the +young ladies retired to their chambers to arrange their dresses for the +next day. + +Mr. Legare, Frank Howard, my brother John, and the other gentlemen, took +their guns and game-bags, called their dogs, and started off "birding." + +I went into the parlor where Rachel Noales still lay upon the sofa, in +the state of exhaustion that had succeeded her fright in the morning, +and told her that the mystery of the locks was discovered, and +explained, as far as I could, the process of demonstration. And Rachel +rallied from that hour. + +I had reassured her, but who should reassure me? I was still very deeply +disturbed. True, the mystery of the opening doors was satisfactorily +explained. True, that my midnight visitor might have been an optical +illusion, produced by the mysterious surroundings acting upon my +highly-susceptible temperament. And true, also, that the resemblance +between my visionary woman and the portrait of Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan, might have been a mere fancy. But the spot of blood on the +floor. Who should explain that? + +From time to time, during that day, I slipped upstairs to examine the +state of the doors; they remained fast. + +The gentlemen dined out, but joined us at an early tea. Nothing was said +of the event of the morning, until, as we arose from the table, little +Phlit sidled up to his master, and asked for the keys so that he might +make fires in the bedrooms, "for de ladies an' gemlen to dress for +ebenin.'" + +"The deuce! You tell me that the doors remain fast?" demanded Mr. +Legare, turning around upon us all. + +I assured him that they did. He was too polite to doubt my statement; +but he wished to see for himself. + +We followed him, and found him in a state of admiration before Mr. +Howard's door. When he had gazed some time at that, and tried it in +various ways, he turned about and went to mine, which he proved in the +same manner. And having found that both remained fast locked, without +mistake, he extended his hand to Frank, and said: + +"Candidly, Mr. Howard, I did not believe in your success until this +moment. You have fairly vanquished the ghosts!" + +Frank Howard took the offered hand, and bowed gravely and silently, as +he again resigned it. The doors were then opened, and Phlit admitted to +do his duties. And we separated to prepare for the evening watch-party. + +It was eight o'clock when our friends from the neighborhood came in; and +after partaking of a bowl of eggnog in the dining-room, we adjourned to +the parlor, where we passed four hours in very pleasant social +intercourse, conversing, singing and reading. And as the clock neared +the stroke of twelve, Mr. Howard took a volume of Tennyson, and in an +affecting manner read his tender and beautiful "Requiem of the Dying +Year." All were moved, and as the reader finished, the tears were +running down the cheeks of Mathilde, who said: + +"Oh! I do not know how any one, even the most thoughtless, can bear to +'dance out the old year!' I could no more do it than I could dance +beside the deathbed of a dear old friend! But I must not greet the +infant New Year with tears," she exclaimed, and dashing aside the +sparkling drops that spangled the roses of her cheeks, and turning to +her parents, she said: + +"Dearest father! Dearest mother! Let me be the first to wish you a Happy +New Year, and many, ever happier returns of it!" + +"You make our anniversaries happy, best child; now tell us truly what +shall be our New Year's gift to you?" said Mr. Legare, while Mrs. Legare +silently embraced her daughter. + +Blushing deeply, Mathilde whispered one word to her father, who +repressed a rising sigh, and asked: + +"Is this so? Must this be so, my dearest child?" + +"Yes, my father." + +"Then am I doubly bound to do what I am about to do, Mr. Howard!" + +Frank Howard stepped eagerly forward. + +"Mr. Howard! I always settle outstanding debts at the first of the +year," said Mr. Legare, taking the hand of Mathilde and placing it in +that of Frank Howard, who gently pressed it, as he answered: + +"Sir, I believe that for years, I have possessed the priceless heart of +this dear maiden, but her fair hand, I would prefer to owe to her +father's approval and good-will, rather than to a mere accident." + +"Sir, there are no such things as accidents! I am sixty years old who +say it! And as for the rest, sir, 'her father's approval and good-will' +always follows his esteem and respect, and now goes with his consent! +God bless you! Be true to Mathilde!" + +"May Heaven deal with me as I with her!" said Frank Howard, earnestly. + +While this important little family aside was going on the other guests +were wishing each other a "Happy New Year," and chatting and laughing +too merrily and noisily to hear what was there passing. + +And now they asked for their cloaks and hoods, which Rachel Noales and I +flew to bring; and in less than half an hour all the evening visitors +had departed, and the returning sound of their sleighbells died away in +the distance. + +We that were left separated and retired. When we reached our chamber +Rachel and I locked the door and went to bed. + +We were sufficiently wearied out to go fast asleep, and sleep until late +in the morning, when the loud knocking of little Jet at our chamber door +aroused us. I jumped up and went and opened it. + +"De doors do stay shet fas' 'nuff now!" exclaimed my little maid, with a +broad grin, as she entered. + +"Yes, Jet; thanks to Mr. Howard." + +"Ain't him a smart gemlan, dough? Wunner if him's a wizard?" + +"I really do not know, Jet. You must ask your Miss Mathilde." + +"Law! Do she know?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Den I ax her, sure." + +And so my little maid proceeded to light the fire. + +This was a New Year's day, and a large company was expected to dinner. +And it was upon this occasion that the engagement of the Hon. Frank +Howard, of Massachusetts, and Miss Mathilde Legare, was announced. + +But little is left to be told. For the remainder of my stay I rested in +undisturbed peace, suffering no recurrence of opening doors and midnight +visitors. I was almost sorry that my ghostly mysteries had found so +commonplace a solution--a mechanical defect taking the place of the +phantom key, and an optical illusion explaining my midnight vision!--all +was accounted for except the spot of blood upon the floor! Upon the +morning of my departure, I called Mathilde into the room, and striking +an attitude like that of the woman of my vision, I silently pointed to +the hidden spot, and gazed at Mathilde, to discover consciousness in her +countenance. + +But Mathilde first looked back in innocent surprise, and then +recollecting herself, said: + +"Oh! you allude to a stain there; yes, it is a pity! The men who were +painting red lines on the doors over-turned the paint-pot and made a +deep, ugly, crimson stain; and, like the spot of blood on Bluebeard's +key, 'the more we scrub it the brighter it grows!' The next time a +carpenter happens to be at work here, mamma intends to have it planed +out." + +So much for my last hold upon the supernatural! Let me repeat--the +phantom key, a mere mechanical defect; the spot of blood, a mere stain +of paint; and the midnight spectre, an optical illusion! + +But the reader may ask, how I account for the resemblance between the +woman of my vision and the portrait of the ill-fated Madeleine Van Der +Vaughan? I answer, that at this distance of time, I regard it as the +effect of imagination only, as was the whole vision! + +It was about two months after the conclusion of my Christmas visit that +I was summoned to Wolfbrake to act as bridesmaid for Mathilde, for it +was immediately after the rising of Congress upon the fourth of March, +that Mr. Howard went up to claim the hand of his betrothed. They were +married upon the seventh. It was a wedding in the fine, old-fashioned +country style, with a ball and supper the same evening, and dinner +parties and dancing parties, given successively by the neighbors, in +honor of the bride, almost every day and night for the next two weeks. + +They have now been married several years, and have several +children--boys and girls. Frank Howard now holds a "high official" +position in the present administration. And old Mr. Legare is justly +proud of his gifted son-in-law. As Mathilde is too much of a Creole to +bear the rigor of a New England climate they divide the year, spending +the summer in Massachusetts and the winter in Virginia "with the old +folks at home." + +And year after year I have visited them there, and slept in the haunted +chamber, but never, since the locks were mended, have I been troubled by +an opening door, or a midnight ghost! + + + + +THE PRESENTIMENT. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE QUADROON. + + Oh! yet we hope that, somehow, good + Will be the final goal of ill, + To pangs of nature, sins of will, + Defects of doubt and taints of blood.--TENNYSON. + + +There was an account of an execution item that met my eyes in glancing +over the columns of a newspaper. It made no more impression upon me at +the time than such paragraphs make upon you or any of us. My glance +slided over that to the next items, chronicling in order the success of +a benevolent ball, the arrival of a popular singer, etc.; and I should +have forgotten all about it had not the execution occurred near the +plantation of a dear friend, with whom I was accustomed to pass a part +of every year. From that friend I heard the story--a domestic tragedy, +which, for its inspirations of pity and terror equaled any old Greek +drama that I ever read. I know not if I can do anything like justice to +the subject by giving the story in my own words. + +Near the city of M----, on the A---- river, stood the plantation of Red +Hill. It was one of the largest cotton plantations in the South, +covering several square miles, but it was ill-cultivated and +unprofitable. + +The plantation house was situated a mile back from the river, in a +grove of trees on the brow of the hill quite out of the reach of fog and +miasma. + +At the time I speak of, it was owned by Colonel Waring, a widower, with +one son, to whom he had given his mother's family name of Oswald. The +ostensible female head of this house was the major's own mother, Madam +Waring, an old lady of French extraction, and now fallen deeply into the +vale of years and infirmities. The real head was Phaedra, a female slave, +and a Mestizza[1] by birth. Phaedra had one child, a boy, some two years +younger than the heir of the family. Notwithstanding the want of a lady +hostess at the head of the table, there was not a pleasanter or a more +popular mansion in the State than Colonel Waring's. Indeed, he might be +said to have kept open house, for the dwelling was half the time filled +with company, comprising old and young gentlemen, ladies and children. + +[Footnote 1: The Mestizza is half Indian, half negro.] + +Without any one habit of dissipation, Colonel Waring was a _bon-vivant_ +of the gayest order, who loved to play the host, forget care, and enjoy +himself with his friends and neighbors. He was benevolent, also; no +appeal to his heart was ever slighted. He was frequently in want of +ready money, yet, when he had cash, it was as likely to be lavished in +injudicious alms-giving, as expended upon his own debts or necessities. +I have heard of his giving a thousand dollars to set up a poor widow in +business, and at the same time put off his creditors, and go deeper into +debt for his negroes' winter clothing. In the times when the yellow +fever desolated the South, his mansion year after year became the house +of refuge to those who fled from the cities, yet were unable to bear the +expense of a watering place. His house was a place where the trammels of +conventionalism could, without offense, be cast off for a while. +Children might do as they liked; young people as they pleased; and old +folks might--dance, if they felt lively. "It was at Colonel Waring's," +was sufficient explanation of any sort of eccentricity. + +Madam Waring, in her distant chamber, was not much more than a "myth," +or, at best, a family tradition; yet her name undoubtedly gave a +sanction to the presence of ladies in a house, which, without her, they +would probably never have entered. + +The Mestizza was scarcely less of a myth. Everybody knew of her +existence, and there were few who did not understand her position as +well as that of the beautiful boy Valentine, who was the constant +companion of Oswald; but Phaedra was never seen, nor was her presence to +be guessed, except in the well-ordered house, and the delicious +breakfasts, dinners and suppers, prepared under her supervision, and +sent up to the guests. + +Colonel Waring had his enemies. What man has not? And even among those +who at times sat at his board, and slept under his roof, it was said +that "justice should go before generosity;" and that Colonel Waring, by +his reckless charities and lavish hospitality, wronged both his +creditors and his heir. Others whispered that he plunged into the +excitements of company for the purpose of drowning thought or +conscience; and if a stranger came into the neighborhood, and found +himself, as he would be not unlikely to do, the guest of Colonel Waring, +he would be told by some fellow-visitor that the late Mrs. Waring, the +wife of the colonel, had died, raving mad, in a Northern lunatic asylum. + +And, among the women, it was whispered that in dying she had deeply +cursed the Mestizza and her boy. + +However that might be, it is certain that Phaedra had always manifested +the most sincere attachment to the lady's son; and from the time that +Oswald was left an orphan, at the age of six months, to the time of her +death, no one could be a more devoted nurse or a greater child-spoiler +than she was to him. Phaedra's nature was despotic, and every one on the +plantation had to yield to Master Oswald, or they would find rations +shortened, holidays refused, work increased, clothing neglected, and be +punished in numerous indirect ways, not by their most indulgent of +masters, but by the influence of the Mestizza. Even her own son was +scarcely an exception to the universal homage she exacted for Oswald. He +had two claims upon her--in the first place, in her eyes he was the +young master, the heir-apparent, the Crown Prince--and then he had "no +mother." + +And the boy on his side repaid his nurse's devotion by the most sincere +affection, both for her and for his foster brother, Valentine. + +Oswald "took after" his father, both in the Saxon fairness of his fresh +complexion, flaxen hair, and lively blue eyes, and in the hearty +benevolence and careless gayety of his disposition. Like his father, +also, he lacked self-esteem, and the dignity of character that it gives. +Nay, he had not half so much of that quality as had the son of the +Mestizza, whose overweening pride won for him the name of "Little +Prince." + +Valentine was an exquisitely beautiful boy; he was like his Mestizza +mother, in the clear, dark-brown skin, and regular aquiline features; +but, instead of her straight black locks, he had soft, shining, +bluish-black hair, that fell in numerous spiral ringlets all around his +neck, and when he stooped veiled his cheeks. In startling, yes, in +absolutely frightful contrast to that dark skin and raven black hair and +eyebrows, were his clear, light-blue, Saxon eyes! One who understands +scientifically, or feels intuitively, the nature of such a fearful +combination of antagonistic and never-to-be-harmonized elements of +character, fated without the saving grace of God, to become the +elements of insanity and crime, cannot look upon its external outward +signs without shuddering. + +Think of it; and wonder, if you can, at anything in his after life! +Think of a boy combining in his own nature the ardent passions and +impulsive temperament of the African negro, the tameless love of freedom +of the North American Indian, and the intellectual power and domineering +pride of the Anglo-Saxon. Place him in the condition of a pet slave; +leave him without moral and Christian instruction; alternately praise +and pamper or condemn him--not as his merit, but as your caprice +decides; let him grow up in that manner, and, as it seems to me, the +result is so sure that it might be demonstrated in advance. + +Both the boys were great favorites with the visitors who frequented the +house. Oswald, as the son of the host, and also for his bright, joyous, +frolicsome nature; and Valentine, for his beauty, wit, and piquant +sauciness. Willingly would Phaedra have kept the lad away from the "white +folks," but Oswald would not suffer his playmate to be separated from +himself. Nor when the visitors had once discovered Valentine's value as +an entertainer, would they have spared him. + +The lads did not seem in the least to understand their relations as +young master and servant, but behaved in all respects toward each other +as peers--the quicker and more impulsive nature taking the lead as a +matter of course. And that nature happened to belong to the Mestizza's +son. + +Valentine had the keenest appreciation of pleasure, and the quickest +intelligence in discovering the way to it. In all their boyish +amusements, Valentine was the purveyor; in all their adventures, he was +the leader--Oswald entering into all his plans, and following all his +suggestions, with the heartiest good-will. And, in all their childish +misdemeanors, he was the tempter, and always, also, the willing +scapegoat--that is to say, when in a fit of generosity to shield Oswald, +he voluntarily assumed all the blame, he was perfectly willing to take +all the punishment; but, on the contrary, if both were discovered _in +flagrante delicto_, and he only punished, then at such injustice, he +would fly into the most ungovernable fury, that would sometimes end in +frenzy and congestion of the brain. It was these maniacal fits of +passion that procured for him the sobriquet of Little Demon, conferred +upon him by the negroes of the plantation, in opposition to that of +Little Prince, given him by the visitors at the house. + +Often, too, the boy gave evidence of reflection and of feeling, beyond +his years; as, for instance, once, when he was but nine years old, a +lady, who delighted in his childish beauty, grace, and wit, allowed him +frequently to ride in the carriage with her, and accompany her, when +making visits, or on going to places of amusement. One day, when she was +gently stroking his silky curls, he suddenly dropped his head into his +hands, and burst into tears. + +"Why, Valley! what is the matter?" she asked, again caressing his +beautiful head. But, at the gentle caress and the gentle tone, he wept +more passionately than ever. "Why, Valley! what is the matter? Have I +hurt your feelings? Have any of us hurt your feelings?" she asked, +knowing his sensitive nature, and imagining that some thoughtlessness on +her part, or on some one else's, might have wounded it. "Have any of us +hurt your feelings, Valley?" + +"Yes, you have! all of you have! and you do all the time!" + +The lady laughed, for it struck her as very droll to hear such a charge +from the spoiled and petted boy. But the boy went on to speak with +warmth and vehemence: + +"You all treat me like a little poodle dog, or like a monkey; for you +feed me, and you dress me up, and pet me, and laugh at me, and by and by +you will drive me out." + +Another time, he was sitting in the parlor with a lady, who had diverted +herself a good deal with his precocious wit and intelligence, and had +allowed him to play with the rings on her fingers, the bracelets on her +wrists, and the pearls that bound her dark tresses, and then to follow +her to the piano, and stand close by her side while she played and sang, +until suddenly down dropped his head upon his hands, and he burst into a +passion of tears. The lady broke off in astonishment, turned around, +drew him up to her, took his hands from his face, and looked kindly at +him, without saying a word. But the boy dropped upon the floor, and +crouching, wept more vehemently than before. The lady stooped and raised +his head, and laid it on her lap, and laid her hand soothingly upon his +silken curls, but spoke no word. When his passion of tears had passed, +and he had sobbed himself into something like composure, he looked up +into her face, and said: + +"You did not laugh at me, Mrs. Hewitt, and you didn't ask me what I was +crying for; but I couldn't help it, because--because I know this good +time will go away; and I shall get taller, and then you won't let me +stay and hear you talk, and hear you sing, and--and--and--I wish I never +could grow any taller. I wish I may die before I grow older." + +Ah! poor, fated boy! would indeed, that he had died before he grew +taller! before those evil days his childhood's prophet heart foretold! + +But they came on apace. + +The first trial that he suffered might seem light enough to an outside +looker-on, but it was heavy enough to Valentine. When he was eleven +years of age, and Oswald nine, Oswald was sent to school, and he +remained at home. + +Up to this time they had been playmates and companions, faring alike in +all respects, and sharing equally all pleasures, even the favors of the +visitors. + +Now, therefore, Valentine keenly felt the new state of things, which in +more than one way deeply grieved his heart; first, in the separation +from his friend and playmate whom he dearly loved; and then in the +denial of knowledge to his thirsting intellect, for there existed a +statute law against educating a slave--a law, too, that was of late very +strictly enforced, except in the case of children, who frequently +transgressed it, and always with impunity; for slaves are often taught +to read and write by their nurslings, the master's children. + +Valentine was thus far kin to us all, that he was a lineal descendant of +Eve, and inherited all her longing desire for forbidden knowledge. And, +in like manner, Oswald had received a goodly portion of that Adamic +propensity to do just precisely what he was commanded not to do. + +No grief of Valentine could long be hid from Oswald, and it followed, of +course, that when he discovered the great trouble of his playmate to be +his desire for education, all that Oswald learned at school by day was +taught to Valentine at home by night. And peace and good-will was once +more restored to the boys. + +Thus the time went on till the lads were fourteen and sixteen +respectively. + +Then Oswald was placed as a boarder at an academy in a neighboring city. +Before leaving home, Oswald had begged, prayed, and insisted upon +Valentine being permitted to accompany him, and had finally gained his +object--an almost unheard-of indulgence--but one, nevertheless, that +could not be refused by the father of his cherished son. So Valentine, +ostensibly as a servant, but really as friend and companion, accompanied +Oswald to his school. + +Here also Oswald took every opportunity to impart his acquired knowledge +to his companion. + +And now Valentine's taste in literature and art began to develop itself. +His mind was by no means an "omnium-gatherem." _Belle-lettres_, rather +than classic lore or mathematical science, was his attraction. +Astronomy, botany, poetry, rhetoric, oratory, elocution, music, +painting, and the drama--these, and other studies only in proportion as +they related to these, were his delights. An aesthetic rather than a +strong intellect distinguished him. A love of beauty, elegance, and +refinement, in all things--in art, science, and the drama, as well as in +his own person, dress, and surroundings--began to reveal itself. And +those who did not understand or like Valentine, began to sneer at him +for a _petit-maitre_ and a dandy. + +A change began to creep over the relations between the youths. Oswald +was no longer a boy, but a young man. He could no longer instruct his +companion, because he would thereby render himself obnoxious to public +opinion, as well as to the laws of the State, to which his age now made +him responsible. Neither could he bear the good-humored jests and the +ridicule of his school-fellows, who bantered him unmercifully upon his +friendship for his "man," calling them the foster-brothers, the Siamese +twins, Valentine and Orson, etc.; and Valentine was beginning to suffer +from the occasional slights, neglect, contempt, and inequality in temper +of his young master, when fortunately the scene changed. Oswald was +withdrawn from the Academy of M----, and sent to the University of +Virginia, whither Valentine, as his valet, attended him. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE MANIAC'S CURSE. + + Life is before ye! Oh, if ye would look + Into the secrets of that sealed book, + Strong as ye are in youth and hope and faith, + Ye would sink down and falter, "Give us Death!"--FANNY KEMBLE. + +Oswald Waring remained three years at the University of Virginia, and +during the whole of that period he had not returned home once. The +vacations had been spent at various Northern watering-places, to which +he went, accompanied by his inseparable companion and valet, Valentine. +His fellow-students at the university often warned him of what they +called the reckless imprudence of taking his slave with him to the +North, expressing their belief that one day the fellow would give him +the slip. But Oswald laughed, in his reckless, confiding good humor, and +declared, if the rascal could have the heart to leave him, he was +perfectly welcome to do so, at the same time expressing his belief that +the boy understood his true interests too well to do anything of the +sort. But the fact was, Valentine loved his master much too well to +leave him lightly. + +Oswald Waring never distinguished himself at the university, or anywhere +else, for anything but good nature, generosity, and reckless +extravagance. He never graduated; but at the close of his third year, +being some months past his legal majority, he left the university +finally, and went on a tour through the Northern States and Canada, +before embarking for Europe. He was accompanied, as usual, by Valentine. + +And the youth did not avail himself of that opportunity to leave his +master, perhaps from the fascination of their easy, careless, roving +life, as well as the affection that bound them together. + +Mr. Waring had reached New York, on his return from Canada, and was +making a short stay in that city, previous to embarking for his European +travels, when he received a letter from his father's attorney, Mr. +Pettigrew, announcing the death of old Madam Waring, and the extreme +illness of Colonel Waring, and pressing for the immediate return of his +son. + +Mr. Waring lost no time in commencing his homeward journey, and attended +by his favorite, in less than a fortnight from the day of leaving New +York, he reached the city near to which was his father's plantation. + +But there fatal news met him. He was too late. The virulent fever of +that latitude had quickly done its work; and Colonel Waring's funeral +had taken place the week previous. As this result had been dreaded by +Oswald, the shock of hearing of it lost half its force. There was +nothing to do but to hasten to the plantation, to examine into the +confused condition of affairs there. Leaving a note for Mr. Pettigrew to +meet him there the next day, Oswald took a carriage, and, with Valentine +by his side, drove rapidly out to the plantation. They were met by +Phaedra, who had been tacitly left in sole charge of the house, and who +saluted her young master with grave respect, and greeted her long absent +son with a silent pressure of the hand, deferring all expression of +interest in or affection for Valentine, until they should be alone +together. + +The next morning Mr. Pettigrew arrived, and the examination of the +condition of the estate of the deceased began. + +The lawyer expressed his opinion that there was no will of his late +client in existence; and, further, that none had ever been made by him. + +Colonel Waring had never spoken to him, as his legal adviser, upon the +subject, as he would have been likely to have done had he contemplated +making one. Colonel Waring was a hale, sanguine man, in the prime of +life, and not likely to entertain the thought of the contingency of his +own death. And the fever that terminated his existence had been too +sudden in its attack and delirium--insensibility and death had followed +with too fatal rapidity, to admit of such a possibility as his executing +his will. However, a search for a possible one was instituted; the +library, secretaries, bureau, strong boxes--in fact, the whole house was +ransacked for a will, or some memento of one; but neither will, nor sign +of will, could be discovered. + +Perhaps the person most deeply interested in the search was Phaedra. As +soon as her quick intelligence discovered that there was a doubt +relative to the existence of a will, her interest became intense. When +coming into the house to attend her young master or the lawyer, she +paused, loitered near them; and, whenever she was allowed to do so, she +assisted in the search with a zeal not equaled by either of the others. +And when at last this search was abandoned as fruitless, she looked so +unutterably wretched, as she hurried from the room, that both gentlemen +gazed after her in astonishment. + +"Why, what is the matter with Phaedra?" inquired Mr. Waring, looking +interrogatively at the lawyer. + +"She is disappointed, most probably." + +"But in what respect? I do not understand." + +"She was a favorite slave, was she not?" + +"Yes--that is to say, she was a very faithful servant to my late father, +and was very well treated. But what has that to do with it?" + +"Why, that she probably expected to be left free by your father's will." + +"And that accounts for her anxiety that the will should be found." + +"I think so." + +"What a fool that woman must be! Free, indeed! Why should she want to be +free--at her age, too. What can be her object? What would she do if she +were free? How in the world came she to get such an idea into her head? +Who could have put it there, do you think?" + +"No one, I suppose." + +"But how should she ever think of such nonsense as her freedom?" + +"It is a notion they all have, I believe." + +"A notion! I should think it was a notion, and a very foolish one, on +her part; I am really half inclined to cure her of her folly by setting +her free, and letting her try her freedom on, to see how it fits. +Nothing but experience will teach ignorant creatures like herself." + +"I've noticed, in the course of my practice, a good many such instances +of folly as hers." + +"They are, the best of them, a set of the dullest and most +ungrateful----. Now, I want to know if there are not hundreds of white +women who would jump at such a situation as Phaedra's?" + +"Quite likely." + +"Why, where could the fool be better off, or freer, if that's her whim? +She is mistress of the house--absolutely to all intents and purposes, +mistress of the house. All the money for domestic expenses passes +through her hands; she carries the keys, governs the maids, and arranges +everything to suit herself." + +"And her master, too, let us hope, sir." + +"Yes, yes; I do not complain of her good management or her fidelity. In +fact, I should be very unjust to do so, for she is everything that I +could desire in these respects. And to render exact justice in this +tribute, I may say that it would be difficult, and, more than that, it +would be impossible, to replace her. It is these considerations, you +see, that vex me so, when I hear of her hankering after her freedom. +Freedom from what, I should like to know? In what respect does her +position now differ from that of any respectable white woman, filling +the situation of housekeeper?" + +"Really, I wish the conversation had not arisen. Certainly, Phaedra's +absurd notions were not of sufficient importance to occupy so much of +our attention. Now, then, to business." + +And the lawyer and the heir were soon deep in the papers and accounts, +which they found in such hopeless confusion as promised many weeks, if +not months, and perhaps years, of legal and financial diplomacy to +settle. + +Phaedra, when she had left the room in such a state of strange +excitement, had hurried off in search of her son. + +Valentine was in his master's chamber, surrounded by the trunks and +boxes that had been sent after them from New York, and had but that day +arrived. Half of them were opened and unpacked, and a part of their +contents scattered all over the floor. They consisted of books, +pictures, statuettes, vases, and other beautiful fancies, that Valentine +had persuaded his master to collect in New York, during the visits he +had made there while residing at the University of Virginia. + +And in the midst of the picturesque and beautiful confusion, Valentine +sat, reclining in an easy chair, fascinated, spellbound by an +illustrated volume of Shakespeare's plays. It was a new purchase of his +master's, made evidently without his knowledge, for it came in a box of +books direct from the bookseller, and that was now unpacked for the +first time. + +Valentine had taken the costly book from its double wrapper of coarse +and of tissue paper, and merely meant to look at it before placing it in +the bookcase; but that single look was fatal to his resolution for +industry that morning, for he threw himself back in his master's easy +chair, and was soon deep in the spells of the magic volume. + +Hour after hour passed, and there he sat, his body in his master's +lounging-chair, surrounded by the beautiful litter of books and +pictures, statuettes and vases, flutes and eolian harps and other toys, +and his spirit enchanted and carried captive by the master magician to +attend the fortunes of King Lear. The spirit-music, of which his ear was +still conscious, came not from the eolian harp in the window, that +vibrated to the touch of the breeze, but from some old minstrel harper +at the court of King Lear; and the perfume that filled the room came not +from the magnolias of the grove outside, but from rare English flowers +tended by Cordelia, for his soul was not in America in the nineteenth +century, but in ancient Britain in the age of poetry and fable. + +He was aroused from his daydream by the entrance of Phaedra, in more +excitement than he had ever seen her betray. + +Without a word spoken, she fell upon his neck, and, clasping him +closely, burst into tears; then, quickly sinking down by his side, +clasped his knees, dropped her head upon them, and wept convulsively. + +Astonished and alarmed, Valentine tried to raise her, exclaiming: + +"Mother! what is the matter? Mother! why, mother! what ails you? What +has happened?" + +But she clung around his knees, and buried her face, and wept as she had +never wept before. + +Using all his strength, the youth forcibly unclasped her arms, and got +up, and raised her, and placed her in the chair that he had vacated. + +"Now, mother, what is the matter?" he asked, bending affectionately over +her. + +"Oh, Valentine!" she said, as soon as she could speak for sobbing, "Oh, +Valentine! after all, there is no will!" + +"No will!" he repeated, in quiet perplexity, for he did not quite +comprehend the cause of her excessive emotion. "No will, did you say, +mother?" + +"No! no! no! no!" she repeated, tearing her hair, "there is no will! +although he promised--and I felt sure he'd keep his word--I never +doubted it, because he was an honorable man, after his fashion--there +was no will!" + +"Well, my dear mother, what of that, that it should distress you so?" + +"What of that? Oh, Valley! Valley! what a question!" + +"Indeed, I do not know why you should take the non-existence of a will +so much to heart, mother," he said, soothingly. + +"Oh, Valley! Valley! Master promised faithfully that he would leave you +free, and leave you money to take you to France, or to some other +foreign country. And he broke his word to me! Master broke his pledged +word to me, who served his family so faithfully so many years. I didn't +ask for freedom for myself, only for you!" + +"Mother, don't take it to heart so! don't go on so, don't." + +"Hush! hush! it is the Spanish woman's curse falling on us--me! She +cursed me, dying." + +"My own dear mother, the curse recoiled upon her own head, for she died +mad. It never reached you, who did not in any way deserve it. It was +you that was wronged, not her, I am sure." + +"Yes, yes, it was I that was wronged! It was I that was wronged! I came +to my master with his other property--with his land, and with his +negroes. I had no mother, for my mother died when I was but seven years +old. I was brought up by an old negro, named Dinah. I was but fourteen +years old when I came into the possession of my master, along with his +patrimony." + +"Don't look upon things in that light, mother; don't talk in that wild, +imbittered way," said Valentine, taking both her hands, and looking +gently and fondly on her. But she snatched her hands away, and covered +her face, and was silent for awhile--then she spoke: + +"I know it hurts you. I know it goes to your heart like a knife; but it +is true, true as--as that I might have been tempted to take your life +and my own, had I seen how this was to end!" + +"I am very glad you did not, mother, I am sure." + +"Will you always say so?" + +"As I hope to be saved, yes, mother," replied the youth, half smiling, +to raise her spirits. + +"Ah, you think so now. Will you think so in the future?" + +"Yes, mother! I will pledge you my word to think no other way forever, +if that will satisfy you." + +"Yet, oh, Valley! that Spanish woman's dying curse! It haunts me now +upon this day of the fall of all my hopes for you; it haunts me, it +hangs over me like a funeral pall! It oppresses and darkens all my +soul!" + +"My dear mother, don't be superstitious, if you do inherit a tendency in +that direction from both sides of your ancestry. Forget that violent +woman's curse; and whatever you do, don't make it fulfill itself, by +believing in it. And believe that if any evil befall us, it will not +have come from that angry woman's malediction. Why, if I thought that +the imprecations of the angry and malignant could bring down curses from +heaven upon the heads of the innocent, I should turn pagan, and worship +beasts. Besides, as I said before, it was not her, but you, who was +injured. And if any one could have had the right to utter maledictions, +it was you; yet you never did it." + +"No, Heaven forbid! I took things as a matter of course; and though my +heart was almost broken, I made no complaint, far less ventured on any +reproach; for I am sure I thought master would do no great wrong; and I +thought he acted much better than his neighbors, when he promised that +you should be free, and should go to France, and learn a profession. But +he broke that promise. Oh, he broke his pledged word and honor, and the +woman's curse is surely falling." + +"Think no more of that, mother; she had no power to curse you." + +"I never did her harm, in deed, or word, or thought. I never deserved it +from her, whatever I deserved from Heaven. It was the old Bible story of +Abraham and Sarah and Hagar acted over again on this plantation, only +this was a great deal worse, as I look upon it now, though then I +thought it was all right, hard as it was to bear. I had been keeping +house for master four years, and you were nearly a year old, when one +winter he went to New Orleans, to spend a month or two. He stayed the +whole winter. I did not know that he married there, for he never wrote +to tell me, and I never read a newspaper. How should either happen, when +I could not read nor write? Well, in the spring, instead of coming home, +he sent a message with some directions to the overseer, but no word +about his being married, only that he was going abroad for awhile. Well, +he went, and he stayed away for a year. And then he came home by way of +New Orleans, where he stopped to buy furniture, that he sent up before +him, in charge of an upholsterer, who was to fix it all up. But still no +word of his marriage. I might have guessed something, from the +refurnishing of the house; but I did not, because my heart was so taken +up with the thought that master was coming home, and how nice everything +should be for him when he should come. I afterward knew that my master +had written to Mr. Hewitt, to come over and tell me to prepare to meet +my new mistress; but Mr. Hewitt, for the sake of what he called the +joke, left me in ignorance, so that madam might find me and you when she +should come. Well, I don't want to talk any more about this. The +afternoon that master was expected to arrive, I was on the watch. I was +standing on the portico, holding you by the hand, when I saw the +carriage approach. It came up very rapidly, and my heart beat thick and +fast, as if it would suffocate me. I could not help it, Valley! When the +carriage stopped, my master got out first, and handed out a lady, and +led her up the stairs. And while the whole scene was swimming before me, +he said to the lady, 'This is your maid, madam'; and to me, 'Phaedra, +attend your mistress.' I had no business to faint, I know, because I was +only master's poor housekeeper, and I might have expected this thing +that had happened; but it came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and my +heart had been beating so high only the minute before, that I could not +help it. One single glimpse of her great, black eyes, and the sight left +mine, and I fell, like a tree. You see this scar upon my forehead; it +was where my head struck the sharp edge of the stone step, when I fell +down. When I came to myself, I was in old Dinah's cabin. You were there, +too. I was very stupid from the blow I had received in falling, and +could not more than half understand old Dinah's mumbled consolations. +And I was almost as stupid the next morning, when my master paid me a +visit, and stood there, and advised me not to be a fool, and asked me +what I had expected--and told me that I had behaved very badly, very +badly indeed; that he had hoped I had had more sense, and more regard +for his comfort; but that I had acted abominably--I had spoiled his +domestic peace for he did not know how long. That I had given madam such +a shock on her first arrival, too, that he did not believe she could +ever endure to look upon my face again; that she was in strong hysterics +now; that I ought to have had more consideration for him, than to have +brought him into so much trouble. But that women are a great curse, +anyhow, with their abominable selfishness and jealousy----" + +"Stop, stop, mother!" gasped the boy, "I shall go mad, if you tell me +more." + +She raised her eyes and looked at him and grew frightened at his looks. +His face was gray, and his features haggard, with the struggle in his +bosom. His hand clutched his breast as if to grapple with some hidden +demon there. + +After awhile, Phaedra resumed, softly and quietly: + +"Hush! he was not naturally cruel. I never knew him to do a cruel thing +wantonly or knowingly. But many people do not understand or make +allowance for others who have naturally more tender hearts than theirs. +He did not know how I felt----" + +"Mother! mother! for Heaven's sake!" + +"Dear Valley, let me go on and tell this story for the first and last +time. I felt that I had to tell it some day; the day is come; let me +finish--finish for my own justification, for I would be justified to +you. Well, I never entered the lady's presence again, of course, and, +from that day to this, was only my master's faithful servant, and no +more. As soon as I was able to travel, my master sent me with you into +the town to hire out. I found a good place, where we lived several +years. I never even saw my master's face all the time, but strange +reports went around, notwithstanding. People said that Colonel Waring +and his lady lived very unhappily together; that they quarreled very +often; that she was mad with jealousy of the Mestizza; that every time +the colonel came in town, there would be a dreadful scene upon his +return home. At last it is certain that my master left off visiting the +city altogether, and did all his business there by deputies. But the +lady's attacks of passion or hysterics became periodical, returning at +regular intervals, and in the course of the first year she became a +confirmed lunatic. Before the end of the second year, it became +necessary to put her under restraint. Finally, she was taken to a +Northern lunatic asylum, in the hope of cure, and there, at the end of a +few months, she died raving mad, and hurling down imprecations upon me. +It was generally reported then, as now, that jealousy had driven her +mad; but it was not true--Heaven knows that it was not true, any more +than it was true that she had a just cause for her jealousy. For if ever +I saw insanity in any creature, I saw it in her great staring eyes the +first and only time I ever set mine upon her face. No; jealousy did not +cause her madness, but her madness caused her jealousy!" + +Phaedra paused, and, with her head bent upon her hand, remained silent +some moments; then she resumed: + +"When that unfortunate lady had been dead some time, and one nurse after +another had been intrusted with the care of her child, and had failed to +give satisfaction, my year at last being up with my city employer, my +master took me home, to mind Master Oswald. It was the first time I had +seen the baby, although he had come home with his mother, and was in the +carriage with his nurse at the very time that she first set foot upon +the threshold of her new home. Master Oswald was about two years old +when I first took charge of him; and if my heart had been ever so seared +and hardened, it could not but have been touched at the sight of that +motherless infant--so puny, neglected and suffering, as he looked. Well, +I took care of him--Heaven knows I did--excellent care of him, or he +would not be living now. But he doesn't remember that. How should he, +indeed, when even his father did not remember it, although many, many +times, when he saw how his heir thrived under my care, he would praise +me, and promise me such great things for my own poor boy. Well, I was +sure he would keep his word. He has not done so; and I could find it in +my heart to pray for both your death and mine!" exclaimed Phaedra, with a +short, sudden sob, as if she were on the eve of another burst of violent +emotion. + +"Do not grieve, mother; Mr. Waring has not done ill by us, I am sure. I +have had as happy a life with him as my own nature will permit. I could +not have borne life with a master less good-natured and tolerant. In +truth, if our mutual relations had been reversed, I fear that I should +not have been so uniformly kind as he. In fact, barring a little +selfishness, where his habits and personal comforts are concerned, he is +one of the very kindest of men. You know how he has regarded us both, +from his boyhood----" + +"Until he left home--he changed to us from that time." + +"Only for a while, when he was at school, and his classmates laughed at +him for his attachment to me, and he grew angry and ashamed to show it; +now he is his old self again. And, mother, there is but one obstacle to +his realizing for us the hopes his father disappointed." + +"And what is that, Valentine?" + +"His affection for us both, that has in it a certain alloy of +selfishness, as, indeed, many other people's affections for others also +have. He loves us both, in a different way; and he loves his own comfort +in us. He would not like to lose his faithful, motherly housekeeper, or +his confidential, attached valet; or that either the one or the other +should have the power to leave him at will. Ah, mother, I can understand +Master Oswald better than any one else in the world can. I can read his +heart like an open book; and, moreover, I can in most things wind him +around my finger like a string. Look at these things. Why do you suppose +he collected them? He doesn't care for anything like this, but I delight +in them, and so I persuaded him to collect them to adorn his rooms. I +did not do so for my own gratification alone, but that I really did wish +to see him cultivate a refined taste. Now, we are soon going to Europe. +Why? Do you think he wished to go at first? No; he never would have +thought of it. It would have been a great deal too much trouble to take +the lead in such a plan, but I thought he ought to make the grand tour, +like other young men of fortune; besides which, I had a desire to travel +myself. So I persuaded him that a gentleman of fashion (as he desires to +be thought, you know) ought to see Europe. So we go! Why, bless his +easy, good-natured heart, I have such great power over him--may I never +abuse it! that ninety-nine days out of a hundred it is I who am master!" + +"But the hundredth day, Valentine!" + +The boy's face suddenly changed. + +"I had rather not think of that, mother," he said, in an altered voice. + +Phaedra's face also changed. It was as if a thundercloud had suddenly +crossed the sun, and darkened all the room. The mother spoke first, and +her voice was deep and hollow, as she said: + +"Valentine! Valentine! you have said that in ninety-nine days of a +hundred you can govern your master. Oh, my son, pray God to give you +grace on that hundredth day to govern yourself!" + +"Mother! Mother! Why do you say that to me?" exclaimed the boy, with a +shudder. + +"I do not know why--or if I do, I dare not tell you. A heavy weight is +on my heart; I cannot shake it off. You are going away soon! I must warn +you now; I may not have another chance, or may not feel able to do it. +Oh, Valentine, learn self-control, try to keep your temper always under. +Ay! seek the grace of God; there is such a thing, though your poor +mother has not got it, and only wishes she had. Seek it, Valentine--it +is your best safety; in every time of trial and temptation, it is a +steadfast support. I know it, though I haven't got it; I know it, +because I've seen it in many others." + +Valentine was looking at her with the most intense expression of +countenance. + +"Anger is a short madness, is it not, mother? So it was with me, at +least, when I was a boy; and how those frenzies of passion, into which I +would be thrown, used to terrify me when I came to my senses! I used to +be haunted with a fear that, in some such mad and blind fury, I +might----" + +"Hush! oh, hush! Pray to God!" exclaimed Phaedra, turning pale. + +"Well, but of late years I have been able to control myself, and have +also suffered less provocation." + +"Ah, yes; less provocation." + +"Well, mother, I will promise you, faithfully, at least, to exercise +habitual self-control. As for your other subject of anxiety, be at rest. +Oswald Waring has his fits of generosity, in which even his sensual love +of his own comforts is forgotten. And I shall take advantage of one of +those moods to procure our manumission--not that I am sure I shall leave +him, even after that is obtained." + +All that is necessary to record of their conversation ended here. In a +few minutes after, Phaedra left the chamber to attend to her domestic +affairs. + +In the course of a few weeks, Mr. Waring hurried the completion of all +the business to which his personal attention was indispensable; and +then, attended by Valentine, he set out for his European travels, +leaving the further settlement of his estate in the hands of Mr. +Pettigrew. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BOTTLE DEMON. + + + Oh! that men should put an enemy in + Their mouths to steal away their brains; that we + Should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, + Transform ourselves into beasts! + Oh! thou invisible Spirit of wine, + If thou hast no name to be known by, + Let us call thee Devil!--SHAKESPEARE. + +After an absence of fifteen months, Oswald Waring and his inseparable +companion, Valentine, returned home. + +Not in all respects was the master or the man improved by travel, as +circumstances soon demonstrated. + +Mr. Waring brought back the same benevolent, careless, mirthful, yet +occasionally arrogant temper, that had always distinguished him; and +Valentine, the same affectionate, aspiring, quick, inflammable nature, +that made his conduct so uncertain. + +The character of Oswald might have been easily read in his personal +appearance. He was a rather handsome specimen of a pure Anglo-Saxon; he +was of medium height, of a stout and well-set form; with a round head, +smooth, white, receding forehead, shaded with thickly clustered curls of +auburn hair; prominent, clear, light-blue eyes, whose prevailing +expression was that of frank mirthfulness; a straight nose; a +well-curved, but rather sensual mouth; and a full, rounded chin, that, +altogether, made up a countenance whose chief characteristics were good +nature, sensuality and gayety. His dress was equally remarkable for the +costliness of its material and the negligence of its arrangement; and +left the point at issue, whether the costume were the more extravagant +or the more slovenly. His manners were marked by habitual cheerfulness, +good temper and love of merriment. And, though he rarely emitted a flash +of wit, he was ever the quickest to appreciate that gift in others; and +it must have been a dull jest, indeed, that his ready laugh did not +hail. And it is not unlikely that to his sincere, hearty, contagious +laughter he owed a great deal of his popularity among men, and women +too. For who does not love a good laugher? + +Valentine was in almost every respect the antipodes of his master, yet +resembled him in this, that his nature also might be easily read in his +dark but singularly beautiful face. I use the term "beautiful" instead +of the other term "handsome" advisedly, as more proper to the subject +under description. Valentine was rather below the medium height, and +slightly but elegantly formed, with a stately little head, delicate +aquiline features, a complexion dark as a Spaniard's, bluish-black hair +falling in many well-trained curls around the dark face, and light-blue +eyes so deeply veiled under their thicket of long, close lashes, that it +was only in moments of excitement, when they suddenly lightened, that +their strange, startling, almost terrible contrast to the blackness of +the hair and darkness of the skin could be noticed. In the matter of +dress, Valentine was fastidious to a degree. In other circumstances, he +might have been an exquisite and a _petit maitre_, as his master often +laughingly called him. As it was, the youth was undeniably a dandy; but +his love of dress was to be attributed fully as much to his innate love +of order, beauty, and propriety, as to his coxcombry. His fine +raven-black hair--his "favorite vanity," was carefully kept, and trained +to fall in those faultless ringlets; and it is upon record, that when +the owner was not in full dress, that "splendid head of hair" was +carefully bound down from injury by sun or dust, under a double silk +bandanna, arranged in the graceful folds and twists of a Turkish turban. +Valentine's "foppery" was a never-failing source of merriment to his +fun-loving master--though I think the boy's love of dress could scarcely +with fairness be called foppery, since he was never known to try the +effects of his most elegant toilet upon the hearts of any of the young +girls of his class, until his own heart was seriously engaged. +Valentine's deportment was characterized by habitual pensiveness and +reserve, occasionally broken by sudden unaccountable fits of excitement, +strange flights of fancy, and startling, frightful paroxysms of passion, +having many of the features of incipient insanity. These were +undoubtedly to be attributed to the antagonistic constituents of his +nature. What alchemy but the all-powerful grace of God could ever +harmonize the discordant elements of a being deriving his descent from +three races so different as the Indian, the Negro, and the Saxon, and +reconcile him to the position in which this boy was placed? + +Mr. Waring, soon after his return home, began to lead a wild, reckless +life. He kept bachelor's hall at Red Hill, in extravagant style. + +Frequent dinners, suppers, and wine parties, with cards, billiards, +dice, etc., converted the quiet old country house into a scene of wild +midnight orgies, with drinking, song-singing, and gambling, that +threatened soon to leave the young spendthrift without a house to revel +in, or a dollar to revel on. + +And almost every day, when there was not a party at the house, Valentine +would have to drive his master in the buggy to the town. Upon such +occasions, the master would go to some favorite restaurant or billiard +saloon, or perhaps to some wine or card party, to which he had been +invited, while the man would take the buggy to the livery stable, and +lounge about town until the small hours of the morning, when he would +rouse the sleepy groom at the stables, get his buggy and horse, and take +his master home. Sometimes Mr. Waring would be slightly elevated by the +wine he had drank, but never to the degree of intoxication. + +At first, and for a long while, Valentine resisted the temptations of +the life into which he was led; but, in the course of time, those +listless hours of waiting in town wore away his good habits; and it at +last happened that, while the master was gambling and drinking in some +splendid saloon, the man would be imitating him in some humbler scene of +dissipation. And when he would have to drive Mr. Waring home, it not +unfrequently happened that both were under the influence of wine. + +To poor Phaedra, who happily had some time since found that grace of God +that she had so long and humbly and earnestly desired, this conduct in +her young master and her son gave the greatest distress and anxiety. +With Valentine she often and earnestly expostulated; and the impressible +boy, for boy he continued to be to the day of his death, would promise +with tears in his eyes, to amend. Even with Oswald Waring, using the +privilege of the old nurse, she ventured to reason, faithfully, +fearlessly, sorrowfully. + +But, in his thoughtless, good-humored way, he laughed in her face, +called her a well-meaning old woman, but advised her to attend to her +own concerns. + +Yet Phaedra did not slacken in making what poor opposition she could to +the approach of ruin. + +It was not the least deplorable and dangerous feature in the mutual +relations of Oswald Waring and his favorite slave that their mutual +positions often seemed temporarily reversed. Valentine would, upon +occasions, seem, or really for the hour be, the leader, and Oswald the +follower. + +Unfortunately, Mr. Waring was singularly wanting in those qualities that +command habitual respect from inferiors; nay, he even lacked +self-respect and the dignity that it gives; while, more unhappily still, +his servant Valentine possessed a large share of self-esteem, that, in +his excitable nature, would, under provocation or temptation, rise to +insufferable insolence. And this frequently placed them in false and +trying attitudes toward each other. It was a baleful circumstance, too, +that when, under the effects of wine, the master fell from easy +good-nature into maudlin tenderness and sentimentality, varied by +eccentric impulses of domineering authority, all of which was extremely +distasteful and irritating to the servant, whose pride, instigated by +the like baleful spirit, would rise to an intolerable arrogance. It was +a situation full of dire bodency to both. + +It happened one evening that Valentine had driven Mr. Waring into town +to be present at a wine and card party. It was late at night, or +speaking more accurately, early in the morning, when they were returning +home. It was difficult to say which of the two was most excited. Mr. +Waring was in his most maudlin mood of familiarity, Valentine +in his most insolent humor. Each perceived the intoxication of +the other, without being conscious of his own state. Oswald broke +out in a bacchanalian song, which he sung all wrong, and by +snatches--occasionally, in a sudden fit of maudlin affection, varying +the performance by throwing his arm around his servant, and hugging him +closely. Valentine bore this once, but, the second time it was repeated, +he shook his master's arm off, exclaiming: "I am not one of your +companions." But Oswald laughed aloud, rolled himself from side to side, +and breaking out into another low song: + + "Life is all a wariorum, + And we cares not how it goes!" + +"You will frighten the horses presently. Can't you behave yourself with +common decency?" exclaimed Valentine, shaking off the hand that had been +laid upon his shoulder. + + "Let them talk about decorum, + As has characters to lose," + +sang the inebriate, chuckling and slapping the boy upon the back. + +"If you do not be quiet, I'll get out of this buggy, and leave you to +drive home as you can," said Valentine, impatiently. + +This seemed to amuse the other very much; he burst out into a peal of +laughter, falling back, and clasping his knees, and rolling with the +tipsy enjoyment of the joke. When he had laughed himself into a fit of +the hiccoughs, and hiccoughed himself into comparative calmness, he +still seemed to enjoy the drollery of the idea, and recommenced laughing +and singing by fits, and slapping Valentine upon the back. + +"I tell you, if you do not quit this, I will get out!" exclaimed the +boy, angrily. "You a gentleman!" + +This language, instead of rousing Oswald to anger, seemed to strike him +as the drollest of speeches, for he fell back into another peal of +laughter; and when he had recovered himself he began, not in +displeasure, but in a maudlin, jesting way, and with a very thick +utterance, to taunt Valentine: + +"Why, you ins'lent f'low, do you know who you're talking to? You're a +spoiled negro--that is what you are! Now, don't you know, if I wa'n't +the most forgivin' f'low in the world, that I'd have you tied up and +whipt for such language?" + +"Me?" + +It is utterly impossible to convey in words any idea of the fierce, +savage, almost demoniac glare of hatred and defiance with which that +single monosyllable was uttered. But it was lost upon the tipsy master, +who replied, nodding and chuckling: + +"Yes, you, my little fellow! and I think it will have to be done, too, +to bring you to a sense of your condition. Sit down, sir! What the devil +do you mean by standing up and looking at me in that way?" + +Valentine had risen to his feet, still unconsciously holding the reins, +but no longer guiding the horses, who went on their own way, while he +stood and glared at his master, with an almost maniacal light blazing +from those pale-gray eyes. + +"Sit down, sir, I say! What the h--ll do you mean? Sit down, I say, or, +by the Lord Harry! I'll do as I've threatened!" + +This is not a proper scene to go on with. Both were mad with wine, and +one also with rage. The master, though not angry, nor by any means +disposed to punish, grew every moment, from very wantonness, more +taunting in his manner--the man became each instant more insolent; words +rose higher between them; Valentine grew frenzied, dashed his clenched +fist with all his strength into his master's face, and sprang from the +buggy, leaving him to his fate. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AN HUMBLE WEDDING. + + Habitual evils change not on a sudden, + But many days must pass, and many sorrows; + Conscious remorse and anguish must be felt, + To curb desire, to break the stubborn will, + And work a second nature in the soul, + Ere virtue can resume the place she lost.--ROWE'S ULYSSES. + + +Valentine awoke the next morning with a heavy weight upon his heart and +a thick cloud over his brain. + +The first fact that attracted his attention was the circumstance that he +was not in his own apartment, but in his mother's bedchamber. A small +wood fire was burning in the fireplace, and a teakettle was hanging over +the blaze; the red hearth was neat and bright, and the only window was +darkened by the lowered paper blind. + +Phaedra sat in her flag-bottomed elbow-chair, at the chimney corner; her +work was on her lap, but she sat with her hands clasped upon it in +idleness, and in an attitude of deepest grief. Such was the picture +immediately before him. + +He could not tell the hour, but supposed it to be near midday. He +strove, through the aching of his head and heart, to recall the latest +events of his waking consciousness, before he had fallen into the sleep +or the insensibility from which he had just recovered. And, as memory +came back in a rushing flood, bringing the hideous phantoms of the +previous night's history, overcome with shame and sorrow, he groaned +aloud, and buried his face in the pillow. Still he was in ignorance of +what had occurred after he had sprung from the buggy; and in terror for +what might have happened to Mr. Waring, whom he had left there to guide +as he could, in a state of extreme intoxication, the frightened and +rearing horses. + +Phaedra arose and approached the bed. + +"Mother! tell me what has happened, for I remember nothing after getting +home," said the boy, in a voice half smothered in emotion. + +But Phaedra sank down by the bedside, buried her face in the coverlid, +and sobbed. + +"Mother! tell me the worst at once. Was he thrown out? Is he dead?" +asked Valentine, in a deep, breathless, husky voice, as he raised upon +his elbow and leaned forward, his light eyes, from the tangled thicket +of his dark hair, turning upon her like coals at a white heat. + +"No, no, he is not dead. But it was a very narrow escape. Oh! Valley, +such a good Providence, my boy," she said, taking his disengaged hand +and hugging it closely to her bosom, and weeping over it, as if that +hand had been saved from some great calamity. + +"Tell me all about it, mother." + +But Phaedra was sobbing and choking, and could not utter a word more +then. + +"Where is he now, mother?" asked Valentine, after a little while. + +"In his room--unable to rise, but out of danger, the doctor says." + +A few more minutes passed in silence. Phaedra rose and resumed her chair +and her needlework, though the sudden sobs and deep heavings of her +bosom betrayed the storm of grief still beating. + +"Mother," said Valentine, after a few moments longer, "can you tell me +now all about it? How did I get home? How did he? What happened to the +buggy?" + +"Oh, Valentine, first of all, you came home in a state that made my +heart sick to see. I can't tell you how; but I hope never to see the +like again. I could not have got you upstairs without help, but I +managed to get you in here, and to bed, without any one seeing you." + +"Mother----" + +This single word, uttered in a tone of deepest regret, and humiliation; +and then his voice broke down, and he covered his face with his hands. + +"I had not more than got you to bed, when a violent barking of the dogs +startled me, and I went out, and found it was master that Mr. Hewitt's +niggers had brought home on a door. Dr. Carter, who was coming home from +a night call, had found him lying on the side of the road that runs +along by Mr. Hewitt's cotton field. And he had ridden up to Mr. Hewitt's +house, and roused up the old gentleman and some of the niggers; and they +took a barn door off its hinges, and spread a bed and laid him on it, +and brought him home. It was well that it happened to be Dr. Carter who +found him; for he stayed with him all night, and that has been the means +of saving his life. Oh, Valley, it was such a kind Providence that saved +him!" said Phaedra, breaking off suddenly, and clasping her hands. + +"And this morning, mother?" said Valentine, anxiously. + +"Oh! This morning the horses were found near the stables, with a part of +the gearing hanging to their necks; and the buggy was found on the road, +broken all to pieces." + +"I don't mean them--I mean Mr. Waring." + +"He is out of danger this morning, as I told you before. He was stunned +and very much bruised by being thrown from the buggy, but not otherwise +injured." + +"What does he say about the accident?" + +"He says he doesn't know much about it. He says he supposes he must have +been taking too much wine, and that the horses got unruly, and he +couldn't manage them; and that was how they threw him out, and broke +the carriage." + +"Mother! I must get up and go to him now!" said Valentine, hastily. + +"Oh, stop! Stay one moment, Valentine! Lie there, and let me speak to +you! I have been praying for you all night, in my master's room, here, +wherever I have been. Reflect; have you no thanks to offer to the Lord +for his providential care, when you so little deserved it? And no +sorrow, Valentine, for what has passed, and no promises for the future? +Oh, Valentine, how is this course you and your master have begun, going +to end?" + +"Mother! for my own part, I can affirm that this is the first time I +ever was in such a state as you saw me in last night. All I feel about +it, shall be said in this one oath--I will never taste intoxicating +drink again, so help me Heaven--and shall be proved every day of my +life, in the way I keep it!" exclaimed Valentine, impetuously, +earnestly, tearfully. + +Phaedra grasped his hand once more, and hugged it to her heart, and +prayed "God bless" him. + +"And now, mother, I must get up and go to him." + +Phaedra brought his clothes from the closet in which she had put them, +and then left the room, while Valentine arose and dressed himself, and +went to his master's apartments. It was in painful doubt and humiliating +embarrassment that he sought Oswald Waring's presence. He got to the +door, knocked, and at the words, "Come in," he entered. + +Mr. Waring was in bed, and looking very pale and ghastly; and as +Valentine saw him, a pang shot through his heart at the thought that, +but for the merciful intervention of Providence in averting the +consequences of his own rash anger, Oswald Waring might have been lying +there--not a sick man, but a dead one! And a secret vow to forsake +intemperance, in all its forms, material and moral, was made in +Valentine's mind, and registered in heaven. + +"Is that you, Valley, old fellow? I had begun to fear that you had +suffered more than myself, when I asked after you this morning and they +told me you were sick. Were you thrown out, also?" + +"Good Heaven," thought Valentine, as a new light burst upon him; "he +does not recollect what happened. He must have been much further gone +than myself." + +"Well, old fellow, why don't you answer me? I asked you if you were +thrown out. Don't be afraid to tell me, for you see I'm a great deal +better; besides, seeing you there alive and well, I shall not be much +shocked to hear of what might have happened, you know. Come! where were +you pitched, and how much were you hurt, and who picked you up? Tell me, +for I can't get the least satisfaction out of anybody here." + +"I was not thrown out--I sprang out." + +"When the horses were rearing? A bad plan that, Val.; that is, if you +really did it as you think you did. For my part, I doubt if you know +anything more about it than I do myself; and if my soul were to have to +answer for my memory, I could not tell whether I jumped out or was +thrown out. Bad course we've been pursuing, old boy; like to have cost +us both our lives, really has cost me that beautiful buggy--that is +ruined, they tell me. Bad course; bad course, Val. Not safe for master +and man both to be glorious at the same time. Another evening, old +fellow, do you try to keep sober, when you think it likely that I shall +be--otherwise." + +"I never mean to touch another drop of intoxicating drink as long as I +live, sir, so help me Heaven!" said Valentine, fervently. + +"Oh, pooh, pooh! old fellow. Resolutions made with a bad headache, the +day after a frolic, are as worthless as the oaths sworn in wine the +night previous, both being the effects of an abnormal state of the soul +and--stomach. Now, wine is a good thing in moderation--it is only a bad +thing in excess. Don't look so dreadfully downcast, old fellow, nor make +such dismally lugubrious resolutions. 'The servant is not greater than +his master,' says the good Book; and, if I was overtaken, how could you +expect to escape? Give me your honest fist, old fellow; those who have +had such a d--d lucky escape together might shake hands upon it, I +should think," said Oswald Waring, offering his hand. + +Valentine took it and squeezed it, and then, in the warmth of his +affectionate nature, pressed it to his heart, while tears welled to his +eyes--tears, that came at the thought how nearly he had occasioned the +death of this man--this man, who, with all his faults, had, from their +boyhood, been ever kind, generous, forbearing--more like a brother than +a master. All that was unjust and galling in their mutual relations was +forgotten by Valentine at that moment; he only remembered that they had +been playmates in childhood, companions in youth, and friends always, up +to the present, and that he had narrowly escaped causing Oswald's death; +and, in the ardor and vehemence of emotion, he pressed the hand that had +been yielded up to him, to his heart, exclaiming in a broken voice: + +"It was my fault, Master Oswald, all my fault; but I will never--never +touch any sort of intoxicating liquor again--never, as the Lord hears +me." + +"Oh, tut, tut! you best fellow that ever was in the world! Who asks you +for any such promises? Only promise that when there is a wine supper or +card party in the wind, or any other signs of the times in the sky to +warn you, you will take care to keep sober, knowing that I shall be +likely to be something else. Wine is a good servant, but a bad master." + +"Not good for me, ever, Master Oswald; certainly not good for me; +probably not so for you, either." + +"Come, come; you exceed your license, Valentine. You're a pretty fellow +to preach to me, after nearly breaking my neck. However, that's +ungenerous, after once forgiving you; so we'll say no more about it +forever. But don't preach to me, whatever you do. Phaedra nearly wears my +patience out." + +"Can I do anything to make you more comfortable, or help the time +along?" + +"N-o-o, I think not. Dr. Carter says I must keep quiet, and my head +begins to ache now; so you had better darken the room, and leave me to +rest." + +Valentine closed all the shutters, and let down all the curtains, and +then asked: + +"Shan't I sit here, Master Oswald, to be at hand in case you should want +anything?" + +"No! Lord, no! it must be a d--l of a bore to sit in a dark room, with +no better amusement than to watch somebody going off to sleep. No; go +and take care of yourself, old fellow. I can ring if I should want +anything," said Oswald, cheerfully. + +"Always so very considerate when he is in his right mind," thought +Valentine, as he took the tasseled end of the bellrope and put it in +reach of his master's hand, before leaving the room. + +That was the last time that Valentine saw his master in his right mind +for many weeks. The effects of his fall, acting upon a system weakened +and vitiated by dissipation, was much more serious than any one had +foreseen. Before night a brain fever, with delirium, had set in, and, +for days after, the life of Oswald Waring hung upon the feeblest chance. +For many weeks of his illness, Phaedra and Valentine nursed him with the +most devoted affection. Poor Phaedra prayed constantly for his recovery, +and also for his reform, and solicited every Sabbath the prayers of the +congregation of her church in his behalf. And Valentine, in deep +despair, daily accused himself of his master's death, as if he had +purposely stricken a fatal blow, and Oswald were already dead. The long +days and nights of watching by the side of the sickbed, that might at +any hour become a deathbed, were very fruitful in good to Valentine. +There he learned to hate and dread the demon anger, that had caused him +so much misery; there he came to listen with patience and reverence to +his poor mother's tearful pleadings and counsels; there he began to +pray. It was six weeks before Mr. Waring left his room, and one more +before he was fully restored to health. And this brought midsummer--a +season that camp-meetings were frequent in the neighborhood. + +This summer there was much greater excitement than ever before among the +religious revivalists. The Rev. Mr. M---- and several others, equally +eloquent and successful field preachers, were making a circuit of the +country. Their fame always preceded them as an _avant courier_, and +crowds congregated to hear them. + +There was a camp-meeting held, by permission of the owner, in a magnolia +grove where there was a fine spring, upon the grounds of Mr. Hewitt, Mr. +Waring's nearest neighbor. And it was given out that on Sunday morning +the eloquent field preacher, M----, would address the assembled +multitudes. There was a great deal of excitement and anticipation among +all classes in that quiet rural district; and when the Sabbath came, +congregations forsook their own churches, and assembled to hear M----. +Crowds after crowds gathered; some went with the avowed purpose of +getting converted; some to get revived; many to get excited; and most +from motives of idle curiosity. Poor Phaedra went for the candidly +expressed purpose of being warmed and comforted. Valentine went to drive +his master, who went only to kill a dull day. + +Now, not only was Phaedra praying with all her soul's strength for her +son's conversion, but naturally that desired consummation was one of the +most likely things in the world to eventuate; for Valentine's nature was +just the one to be most deeply affected and impressed by the magnetic +power of a man like M----, and he was also in the most favorable mood +for receiving such impressions. And while hundreds around him were +swayed, as by a mighty wizard's wand, under the wonderful eloquence of +the most potent preacher since the days of Wesley and Whitefield, +Valentine was deeply and almost fearfully excited. + +And from that Sabbath, during the whole time of Mr. M----'s sojourn in +the neighborhood, the boy was a regular attendant upon his ministry, and +in the end was numbered among his converts. This is not the place to +call in question the Rev. Mr. M----'s sincerity or consistency as a +Christian; those who knew him best, believed him to be perfectly sincere +in his religious enthusiasm, however inconsistent was sometimes his +conduct. And, though it may be true that some of his converts were his +only, and not God's, as they afterward demonstrated by their +backsliding, yet it is equally true that many shining lights in the +Christian Church at this day ascribe their first awakening to Christian +life, under Divine Providence, to the electric power of M----'s +eloquence. At the time that I write of, the people of that neighborhood +adored him as an angel sent from God; though some years after the same +people hunted him as a wild beast, from village to village, until old, +poor, ill and exhausted, he died alone--a fugitive from their insane +wrath. But to return. + +M---- had succeeded in reviving the religious spirit of that district; +and when he departed, he left behind him many new but zealous laborers +in that vineyard of the Lord. + +Among the most enthusiastic in the field of the colored mission of +Magnolia Grove was Valentine. His sincere, ardent, earnest soul; his +natural gift of eloquence; his sympathy with those in his own condition, +if not strictly of his own race; his better education, and even his +beauty of person, grace of manner, and sweetness of voice, all combined +to make him the most popular and effective, and best beloved of all the +class-leaders in the colored mission of Magnolia Grove. "Brother +Valentine's" class was the largest and most important in the church. If +ever Brother Valentine was announced to address the meeting upon any +given day, there was sure to be a crowded house. And if ever Phaedra held +a prayer meeting in her quarter, there was sure to be a crowd to hear +Brother Valentine speak. + +Among the most zealous of the church members, and among those who never +failed to be present at Phaedra's weekly prayer meetings, was a young and +pretty quadroon, named Fannie. She was a free girl and an orphan, and +was employed as shop girl in a hair dresser's and fancy store kept by a +respectable old French couple in the city of M. But though her home and +her business was in town, and there were also two or three "colored +missions" in that place, yet Fannie preferred to walk out every Sunday +morning to the little log meeting-house in Magnolia Grove. And those who +were envious of Fannie's beauty did not scruple to say that she came out +so far for the sake of hearing Brother Valentine pray or exhort, or to +let him hear her sing; for Fannie had a voice that might have made her +fortune, had she been white, and had it been cultivated. However that +might be, Phaedra loved Fannie as if she had been her own daughter, and +she always took her home from meeting, to dine and spend the afternoon +at Red Hill. And after an early tea, Valentine always walked home with +Fannie to the city. + +It is also true that Valentine became a frequent customer at Leroux's, +the hair-dresser's and fancy store where Fannie was employed; and as +Valentine not only made his own but also his master's purchases, and as +he had a _carte blanche_ for the same, his custom was of no trifling +importance to the establishment. But, valuable as was this patronage, as +soon as the proprietors began to suspect the nature of the attraction to +their store, they felt it to be their duty to warn the young girl, which +they would do in something like these terms: + +"Take my advice, Fannie, and send that young fellow about his business; +he may be a very good young man, I dare say; but he is a slave, and +never will be able to do anything for you," Monsieur Leroux would say. + +"You are free, Fannie, and you are very pretty, and all that; and you +might look a great deal higher than that," would say Madam Leroux. + +"Think, _ma fille_, if you take him, you will always have yourself and +your family to support, for you never can have any help from a slave +husband"--thus Monsieur Leroux. + +"Consider, _mon enfant_, if you marry him, he may be sold away next +year, or next month, even! How would you like that?" thus Madam Leroux. + +And Fannie would blush, or smile, or pout, or drop a tear, or say to +herself: + +"Poor Valley! Maybe something may happen to set him free! Maybe I might +work hard, and save money enough to"--she could not bring herself to say +buy--"ransom him! And, anyhow, it is not his fault if he is not free. +And it must be hard enough, the dear knows, to be as he is, without my +letting him think that it makes any difference to me." + +Obstacles and objections which, to cooler-hearted and clearer-headed +people would seem very formidable, if not entirely conclusive, were but +slight impediments in the way of these humble lovers. + +Long courtships and protracted engagements are not common among +quadroons, and in this case were not favored by Valentine. He had won +little Fannie's heart and consent to speak to her employers, who, having +advised her against the match, and holding no authority to go further in +their opposition, gave a reluctant consent, with their good wishes and +blessing. + +Valentine had, all through the courtship, the hearty approbation of +Phaedra; and, lastly, he had none but his master to consult. + +Mr. Waring rallied Valentine unmercifully upon his intended marriage; +swore that, seriously, it was a pity such a fine young fellow as +himself, who was such a favorite among the girls, should leave his gay +bachelor's life, to tie himself down to a wife and family; asked him +what he should do for kid gloves and perfumery, if he had to give all +his pocket money to Fannie and the children; and finally made him a +wedding present of a hundred dollars, and advised him to go out and hang +himself. + +In the following Christmas holidays, the slaves' annual Saturnalia in +the South, the marriage of Valentine and Fannie took place. A mad +marriage it was, where the bride had no dower and the bridegroom not +even the ownership of his own limbs to work for their support. An +impossible marriage it would seem, had it not really taken place, and +did we not know, for a certainty, that such marriages between the free +and the enslaved frequently took place. + +Phaedra gave a serious little Methodist wedding, and invited all her +favorite brethren and sisters of the church to be present. And the young +master loaned his dining-room for the occasion, and invited himself to +do the lovers the honor of his personal attendance at the marriage +ceremony. And he gave the little bride two testimonials of his friendly +consideration--one in the form of a pretty wedding dress, that was +gratefully received; the other in the guise of a hearty embrace and +kiss, that was not quite so thankfully accepted. + +"But now, mommer," whispered little Fannie, in the course of the +evening, to Phaedra, "Valley's young master has been so very kind and +generous to us all, s'pose now he was to make Valley a present of his +free papers, for a wedding gift to-night--to surprise us, you know; to +see how delighted we'd all be, and to hear what we'd say. I think he +might; 'deed, I shouldn't wonder if he did, only for the pleasure of the +thing, you know. Should you, mommer?" + +Phaedra sighed; but, then, not to damp the girl's spirits, she replied: +"He may do that some day, honey." + +"Something seems to whisper to me that he is thinking of it to-night, +mommer! Ah! the Lord send he may! Wouldn't we be happy? Valley would +have a place in the same store with me; it would suit him, too; he has +so much good taste! And then we could have such a pretty little home of +our own! 'Deed, I believe he is thinking about it now. Look at him. I +shouldn't be the least surprised to see him call Valley aside, and clap +him on the shoulder, and call him 'old fellow,' and tell him he is a +free man!" + +The girl had read aright the thoughts of the master. Angels, who +saw the future, with all the phantoms of its bright or dark +possibilities--angels, who loved the goodness latent in his own abused +nature--angels were whispering to him: "Make this young couple +supremely happy--give him only the common right to himself, into which +every creature is justly born--and then rejoice in their exceeding great +joy!" + +And never had the face of Oswald Waring looked so bright, benignant and +happy, as when he, for a moment, entertained this thought. + +"But pshaw!" he said to himself, directly. "Am I Don Quixote the +younger, that I should be guilty of such a piece of extravagant +generosity? Absurd! I really must begin to learn moderation at some time +of my life. St. Paul says: 'Let your moderation be known unto all men.'" + +Now, what on earth can the angels reply, when the other party quotes +Scripture against them? Nothing, of course; and Oswald Waring had no +more generous impulses that evening. But oh! if he had only listened to +those angel whispers; if he had only realized poor little Fannie's +romance; if he had only, for once in his life, yielded to his impulse to +commit that mad, rash, extravagant piece of Quixotism, as he called the +act which, for a moment, he had dreamed of performing--from what +impending anguish, what temptations, crime, and remorse, would they not +have been redeemed! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A CLOUDED HONEYMOON. + + +It had been arranged, as the best plan for all parties, under present +circumstances, that Fannie should retain her situation as shop-woman at +Leroux's hair-dressing and fancy store, where they were anxious to keep +her as long as possible. + +With Valentine's hundred dollars, and fifty dollars that had been made +in overwork by Phaedra, a room was taken in M----, and neatly furnished. + +And there Valentine and Fannie went to housekeeping, after this fashion: +Fannie, still tending Leroux's shop all day, ate and slept at home, +where Valentine visited her once a week, or oftener, whenever he could +do so. + +In the meantime, as winter advanced, Mr. Waring's health was fully +re-established; and, as many of his favorite boon companions, who had +been absent on their summer tours, returned to the neighborhood, Oswald +began to resume his former habits of extravagant and reckless +dissipation. Deer-hunting, coursing, partridge-shooting, and other field +sports, occupied the mornings; and dinner parties, oyster suppers, and +other entertainments, accompanied and followed by wine-drinking, +song-singing, card-playing, and similar orgies, at home or abroad, +filled up the afternoons and evenings. + +Again were Valentine's services brought into requisition three or four +nights of every week, to drive his master to the city at dusk, and home +again at dawn. Upon these occasions, Valentine would drive Mr. Waring +first to the clubhouse, restaurant, or billiard-saloon, that happened to +be his destination for the evening, set him down, take the carriage and +horses to the livery stable, leave them, and then go to Leroux's and +stay with Fannie until the hour of closing the store arrived, when he +would take her home. + +Valentine, from his "gentlemanly" appearance, dress, and address, as +well as from his perfectly trustworthy character, was not an unwelcome +visitor at the store, where, behind the counter and by the side of +Fannie, he made himself so useful that Monsieur Leroux would often +speculate as to the possibility of getting him for an assistant. This +also was Valentine's and Fannie's great ambition; but it was a vain +one, for his personal attendance was considered indispensable to his +master's comfort. + +Valentine's standing order, upon these occasions of their night visits +to the town, was to be in waiting with the carriage for Mr. Waring at +twelve o'clock. And the man was obliged to be punctual, though he had +often to wait two or three hours for the coming of the master. And, as a +general fact, the longer Mr. Waring remained among his boon companions, +the more intoxicated he became; and when at last he appeared, all the +old humiliations and provocations of Valentine's former days were +renewed. You know what these were. It would be vain repetition to +describe them again. + +All this was, in every respect, very trying to the poor boy. He +religiously adhered to his resolution of abstinence from all spirituous +liquors, and constantly and prayerfully struggled against the +ebullitions of his own impetuous temper. But the life he led acted +nearly fatally upon a very fragile organization; and all individuals of +antagonistically-mixed races are known to be frail. The continued loss +of rest, habitual irregularity in food and sleep, affectionate anxiety +upon account of his master, tender solicitude for his own gentle, little +wife, frequent and excessive provocation from Oswald, all combined to +wear and fret his originally excitable temperament to a state of +unnatural nervous irritability, that could scarcely sustain with +calmness the rudeness of the shocks to which, in his false position, he +was constantly exposed; and therefore he was very frequently--to use his +own expression at the "love feasts"--in great danger of falling from +grace. + +Reflecting upon this portion of the poor, doomed boy's life; +recollecting the great, the almost superhuman struggle his spirit was +making against the terrible, combined powers of evil; of his discordant +organization; his fiery, impulsive temperament; his unfortunate +education; his unhappy position, and his exasperating surroundings, all +antagonistic, false and fateful, we find his parallel nowhere in modern +times, and are forced to think of the age of antiquity, and of those +mighty but ineffectual struggles of some foredoomed mortal, like +OEdipus, in the power of the angry Fates. + +Upon poor Valentine's silent, deadly struggle, none but the pitying eye +of our Father looked. And nothing but a miracle could have averted its +final and fatal issue; and miracles are not wrought at the expense of +moral free agency. There came at last a day--an awful day--when the boy +spoke, and others heard, of that fell struggle with the powers of +darkness. + +But we anticipate. The dark and trying seasons were relieved by brighter +ones, alternating like night and day. + +The hours spent with Fannie, either in the gay, lighted shop, among a +thousand objects of taste and beauty, and occupations shared with her, +and congenial to his own aesthetic fancy, or in their little home, that, +despite of poverty, Fannie's taste had made beautiful, were seasons of +unclouded happiness, in which all care was forgotten. + +There were sunny hours, also, when Mr. Waring's better nature was in the +ascendant; when he would feel like gratifying his own benevolence, and +making Valentine happy, by fair promises of making him free; of setting +him and Fannie up in the hair-dressing and fancy business, which he +would laughingly declare to be exactly suited to Valentine; that Val +could be the barber, and Fan the ladies' hair-dresser; and that they +could have a nice little house in an eligible street, with the dwelling +above, and the shop below. Thus he would talk, indulging his good humor +at the small expense of his breath, and amusing himself with noticing +the effect of his words upon Valentine's sensitive nature, playing upon +its chords of hope and fear, as if his heart had been a harp, and his +own the experimenting hand that tried its strings. Perhaps he intended +to realize, at some future day, these expectations that he raised; at +least, at the time of speaking he wished to please the boy by infusing a +hope; but, alas! he only disturbed him, by exciting and aggravating his +old passionate aspiration after liberty. + +But, besides those happiest hours spent with Fannie, there were other +seasons of forgetfulness, and of almost unalloyed bliss. These were the +Sabbath services and the weekly meetings, where the ardent, zealous soul +of the young man found its expression in eloquence that reached the +hearts of all who heard him, either in exhortation or in prayer. + +He was very much beloved by the brethren, and especially by the sisters, +of the Magnolia Grove Mission. + +There was, however, two or three among the class-leaders who objected to +Valentine as being too much given to the vanities of this world, and who +found great stumbling blocks in Valley's shining, black ringlets, and +neat and even elegant dress. But as the fiend really did contrive to +find his way into sinless Eden, so jealousy might possibly have crept +into a "love feast" among Christian brethren and sisters; and +Valentine's beauty, grace, eloquence and consequent pre-eminence, among +the men, and popularity with the women, might have been the true ground +of offense to his less gifted brothers. + +However that might be, Valentine, perceiving only the ostensible matter +of complaint, half resolved to give up his taste in dress and sacrifice +his cherished ringlets, and seriously consulted Fannie upon the subject. + +But Fannie would not listen to such a proposition with a moment's favor, +and said that brother Portiphar and some of the others had such a grudge +against beauty that they would turn all the Lord's fair roses and lilies +into lobelia and rue, if they could. And Fannie's single opinion and +vote outweighed all the others, and Valentine's hyperion curls continued +to be an offense in Israel. + +Thus passed the winter and spring. This first half year, with all its +shadows, was yet the fairest portion of the young pair's married life. +Toward its close clouds began to gather darkly and threateningly over +their heads. + +In the early part of summer Fannie was necessitated to give up her +situation at Leroux's, and confine herself to such work as she could +perform in the privacy of her own room, such as fine sewing and fancy +work, which was not very lucrative; but even this resource in the course +of a few weeks had to be abandoned, for Fannie was unusually delicate, +and sadly needed rest and some one to take care of her for a while. And +just about this time, late in July, Mr. Waring made up his mind to go to +the North and spend the remainder of the summer in a tour among the +fashionable watering-places. Of course, he designed to take his servant +with him. In vain Valentine, hoping in the proverbial "good nature" of +his master, proffered his earnest request to be left behind, urging the +state of Fannie's health as the reason. + +"Pooh, pooh, nonsense!" Mr. Waring could not spare the servant that was +used to his ways. Fannie must do without her husband, and take her +chance, as all those of her class had to do. Surely she must have known +what she had to expect when she married a slave man. + +"And now, Valentine, don't bore me any longer with the subject. You were +a great fool to get married at all; and if you trouble me further, you +will make me regret ever having given my consent to that foolish +measure," concluded Mr. Waring. + +Valentine controlled his own rebellious emotions, and leaving Fannie as +comfortable as under the circumstances he could make her, accompanied +his master to the North. + +They visited first the Virginia Springs, then Niagara, Saratoga, Nahant, +and at the end of three months, returned home. + +In close attendance upon his master, Valentine was obliged to pass +through M---- without stopping to see his wife. + +But the next day, at his first disengaged hour, he set out for the city, +where he found Fannie the mother of a little girl of six weeks of age, +and reinstated in her former position at Leroux's. + +Fannie was very happy, and gave a cheering account of all that had +occurred. Everybody had been very kind to her; the sisters of the church +had visited her often; Phaedra had been with her, and Madame Leroux had +made her many presents. + +All this relieved and delighted the youthful husband and father; and +when he pressed his infant daughter to his bosom, he wept tears of joy +at the thought that her mother's heritage of freedom would be hers. + +Some peaceful days followed this, in which Valentine, oblivious of every +cause of disquietude, enjoyed the perfection of domestic happiness. + +Then, early in November, Mr. Waring determined to go to New Orleans, to +prosecute his acquaintance with a young widow, a native and resident of +that city, whom he had met at Saratoga, and with whom he had been very +much pleased. His servant was, of course, required to attend him, and +upon this occasion Valentine obeyed without a single demur. + +On reaching New Orleans, Mr. Waring took rooms at the St. Charles Hotel. +Apparently his suit prospered, for their stay in that city was prolonged +through November and December. And Valentine had no opportunity of +visiting his girlish wife until after the new year. + +Then Mr. Waring hastily, and in the highest spirits, returned home, to +settle up certain necessary business with his lawyer appertaining to +troublesome creditors, and give some commendable directions to his +housekeeper touching the rearrangement of his disorderly bachelor's +hall. This occupied two or three weeks, during which time Valentine, +when not in close attendance upon Mr. Waring, found opportunities to +visit his beloved Fannie, and caress the infant, of whom he was dotingly +fond. + +The first of February Mr. Waring went again to New Orleans to meet his +engagement with Madam Moriere, his promised bride. + +Their marriage was arranged to take place immediately, to save the delay +of the seven weeks of Lent, just at hand, and during which no strict +Catholic, such as madam professed to be, would dare to enter into the +"holy state" of matrimony. + +Immediately after the ceremony, the newly-married couple set out on a +bridal tour. + +Mr. Waring was attended by his favorite servant, and madam by her maid, +a French _grisette_, who "made eyes" at Valentine, and otherwise +harassed him with her coquetries during the whole journey. And this +conduct of Finette first suggested to Valentine's mind the probability +that, during his own enforced, long and frequent absences from home, +some one as unprincipled as Finette might be making love to his own +pretty Fannie, unprotected and exposed as she was in that French +hair-dressing establishment. Valentine might have been sure of that; but +Fannie, with her wise and affectionate consideration for him, had never +troubled the transient happiness of his sojourn with her by any +histories of the petty vexations that disturbed her own life during his +absence. Besides, Fannie, with all her innocence, was city bred, full of +experience and the wisdom it gives, and quite capable of taking care of +herself. And Valentine never would have dreamed of the possibility of +such annoyances for her had not the behavior of Mademoiselle Finette +made the suggestion. And now the thought gave his excitable heart a +great deal of disturbance, and made him very anxious to return home. Of +course, Valentine's impatience did not expedite that desired event. + +The bridal party were absent six weeks, and finally reached home about +the middle of April--a most enchanting season in that climate, +corresponding in its advanced state of vegetation with our June, but +much more beautiful in the luxuriance and variety of its trees, shrubs, +vines, fruits and flowers, than any season in our latitude. The Red Hill +mansion was very lovely in its grove of magnolias. The internal +arrangement of the house reflected great credit upon Phaedra; and madam +condescended to express much satisfaction with her new home and her good +housekeeper. + +As upon all former occasions, Valentine had been in too much +requisition, when they passed through M----, on their way home, to stop +and see Fannie; but the next morning Mr. Waring dispatched him to the +city to attend to the careful packing and sending out some baggage that +had been left, of necessity, the evening before, at the hotel. + +And Valentine availed of that opportunity to visit his small family. + +He found Fannie as pretty and as glad to see him as always, and his +little darling Coralie, now seven months old, more beautiful and +attractive than ever; but he could not linger with them; his duties to +his master obliged him, in less than an hour, to tear himself away again +and hasten with madam's trunks and boxes to Red Hill. + +The necessity of leaving his treasures so soon again after so long an +absence depressed Valentine so much that Fannie hastened to console and +cheer him. He was not, after all, more unfortunate in that respect, she +said, than sailors and soldiers, nor was she more to be pitied than +their wives. + +And she sent him off, comforted with the promise that she would get +leave from Leroux and come out the next morning with her baby to spend +the day with Phaedra at Red Hill. + +Fannie kept her word, and, during her visit the next day won her way so +well into the good graces of madam that that lady expressed a kind +interest in her and her little child, made them some pretty presents, +and promised to facilitate as much as possible the frequent visits of +Valentine to his wife and child. And the lady remembered and performed +her promise so well that unusual indulgence was extended to Valentine, +who was by her intercession enabled to pass every night with his family. + +Mr. Waring, in his attachment to his bride, seemed for the time quite +won from the extravagance and dissipation of his late bachelor life. He +remained at home and addressed himself with commendable zeal to the +management of his plantation, to the improvement of his land, his stock, +his machinery, and agricultural system in general, and also, after his +own blundering fashion, to the amelioration, comfort and welfare of his +people. + +Valentine, no longer distressed for or by his master, divided his +attention between the manifold light duties that occupied him all day at +Red Hill, and the evenings spent in assisting Fannie in her business +behind the counter of Leroux's shop, and for which he now received a +regular payment, in consideration of the fact that he stood at the post +and performed the duties of Monsieur Leroux, whose age obliged him to +leave the shop at an early hour of the evening, just as the custom was +beginning to grow brisk. Thus they were enabled to add many little +comforts to their humble home, and also to lay up a trifle against the +chance of darker days. + +Every alternate Sabbath they attended meeting together at Magnolia +Grove, and afterward dined with Phaedra at Red Hill, and went home at +night; and, on the intervening Sabbath, when there was no service at the +Grove Mission, Phaedra would come into town and go to church with the +children at the Bethel (colored) Mission of M----, and afterward take +dinner with them, before returning home in the evening. + +Thus passed the halcyon days of spring, preceding the awful moral storm +which ended in that "household wreck." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +PROPHETIC. + + The look, the air that frets thy sight, + May be a token that below, + The soul has closed in deadly fight + With some eternal fiery foe, + Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace, + And cast thee, shuddering, on thy face. + + +Spring in the South is a season of the most enchanting beauty. Forests +of odoriferous, blossoming trees, thickets of sweet-scented shrubs, and +fields of fragrant wild flowers fill the atmosphere with their delicious +perfume; climbing vines twine around the trees and overgrow the fences, +transforming them into arbors and to hedges of flowering plants of +matchless bloom and fragrance; while myriads of bright-winged birds +enliven all the sunny air with their glad melody. It is a season and a +scene no lover of nature could look upon without rapture. + +But the summer, with its advanced luxuriance of beauty, too often brings +malaria, pestilence and death. + +The promise of the spring to one in Valentine's condition had been too +fair to last for any length of time. Clouds began to gather over his +head. First, as Mr. Waring went no longer to town to spend his evenings, +it followed as a matter of course that he frequently required +Valentine's services at that hour at home. On inquiring for his servant +upon these occasions, and receiving the answer that Valentine had gone +to town to see his wife, he would grow angry, and exclaim, with an oath: + +"I have never had any good of that boy since his foolish marriage. In +town every night! This thing is getting to be insufferable, and shall be +stopped." + +And one morning, when Valentine returned, Mr. Waring told him that he +was not to take himself off to see his wife every evening, but that in +future he must ask permission to do so. + +Now, anger was Valentine's easily besetting sin, the one dangerous +internal foe he had constantly to combat. Now, indignation rose and +swelled in his bosom. And not from fear or from policy, but from +Christian principle, he strove to quell its ragings. He answered only +with a bow, and left the room for that silent, solitary struggle with +himself that no eye but the Father's ever witnessed. He obeyed the +mandate; it was galling, but he obeyed it; and each evening presented +himself to his master with something like this style of request, which, +as a compromise between asking a permission and intimating a purpose, +was not so difficult to make: + +"I have got through all my business here for to-day, sir, and am ready +to go to town if you don't want me." + +"Very well; take yourself off; only be sure to come back early in the +morning, to be ready when I rise," would be the frequent answer. "The +proud rascal! I believe he would almost as lief die as ask leave to do +anything; but it is my own fault; I have treated that boy like a +brother, until he is so spoiled as to be quite above his condition," Mr. +Waring would add, half jesting, half in earnest. + +But sometimes, when Valentine asked, leave would not be granted him; and +this occasioned an irregularity in his nightly attendance at the shop, +that finally obliged Monsieur Leroux to say to him: + +"Valentine, my man, unless you can attend better, I shall have to +discharge you altogether, and get a full clerk, which would be better +anyway, as he could be here all the time." + +Full of trouble at this prospect, Valentine the next day mentioned this +to his master, who, happening to be in an ill-humor, answered: + +"What the fiend is all that to me, sir? Old Leroux is liable to +prosecution for hiring your services at all without a permit." + +"But it was in over-hours--in my own time," remonstrated Valentine. + +"Your own time! Pray, sir, what time is that? I have yet to learn that +you have any time of your own!" + +Valentine suppressed his indignation, but that was as much as he could +do. He dared not trust himself to reply. + +"Leave the room! The sight of you irritates me. And be very thankful +that I do not prosecute your friend, old Leroux, with his mulatto clerks +and shop-girls! These beasts of Frenchmen have not the slightest idea of +the distinctions of race." + +Silently, Valentine left the room, to retire and have another wrestle +with his pride and anger. + +That evening he was not permitted to go to see Fannie; and, from that +time the permission to visit her was less and still less frequently +granted. + +Finally, old Leroux, who had long delayed the step for poor Fannie's +sake, hired a clerk, and Valentine lost his over-hour situation, and +with it many fair though humble hopes and prospects. He was much +depressed; but Fannie bid him do right, trust in God, and cheer up; and +said that she would probably get her own salary raised, and that they +would get on very well. + +Now, whether his marriage had changed his feelings toward Valentine, or +whether it was Valentine's marriage that in time and effect grew +displeasing to him, or whether both these causes combined to produce an +estrangement between the master and the man, I know not; but certainly +their mutual relations were changing for the worse. The master grew less +considerate and indulgent, and more arrogant and exacting toward his +poor servant; and that servant had a daily struggle with his own +indignant sense of outraged manhood. Still, Fannie soothed him. + +"Govern your temper, dear Valley, and God will bless you. Never mind me +and Coralie; we shall get along well enough; and we can see each other +Sunday at church, and Thursday at prayer-meeting, anyhow," she would +say, cheerfully. + +True, Fannie had her baby always with her, and that was a great comfort +to the youthful wife and mother for the absence of her husband. They +might have looked for some aid from the intercession of Mrs. Waring; but +alas! for fair and false hopes, her romantic interest in little Fannie +that had been but a frail spring blossom of her own happy bridehood, +soon withered; and, added to that, her influence with her husband had +waned with her honeymoon. So, between her indifference and her +inability, together with her ignorance of the facts--for Valentine +seldom had sight or speech alone with his mistress, or, when he had, was +too proud and reserved to complain, and Fannie, from native modesty, +would rather endure than plead--little aid was to be expected from Mrs. +Waring's interference in behalf of the young couple. + +The gathering clouds of fate darkened and deepened over the head of the +doomed boy. His little home in the city was visited with sickness. + +First, his little Coralie was taken ill. No father in this world, +whatever his nature or degree might be, ever loved his infant with a +more passionate attachment, than poor Valentine felt toward his little +Coralie; she was the darling of his heart and eyes, the light and joy of +his present, and the hope of his future. It was for her own sake that he +wished to save money--to educate her. Daily he thanked God that she was +born free. + +Now, his bright, beautiful Coralie was pining away under a complication +of infant disorders. + +A sick and suffering child is one of the most distressing objects in +nature, especially when that child is but a babe, and cannot, as the +nurses say, "tell where its trouble is," and can only look at you with +its pleading eyes, as if imploring the relief you cannot give. You who +have ever had an ill and suffering infant, always pining and moaning +with its aching head, too heavy for the slender, attenuated neck, +dropped upon its nurse's or its mother's shoulder, yet still often +looking up with a faint little smile to greet you when you come to take +it, or piteously holding out its emaciated arms to coax you back when +you are called to leave it--you can estimate the distress of the poor +young father, living three miles distant from the sick child, that might +at any hour grow suddenly worse, and die; and only permitted to visit it +occasionally at the pleasure of others. + +Fannie's health, never strong, began to fail; loss of rest night after +night, with the sick child, joined to the fatiguing duties of her +situation, which she was still obliged to retain as a means of support, +exhausted her strength. + +The poor infant, bereft all day of both parents, and left in charge of +an old, free negress, that lived near the shop, had the sad, unnatural +grief of home-sickness added to its other suffering, and so pined and +failed day by day. + +This state of things lasted for some weeks. + +After a night of suffering to the child and sleeplessness to herself, +Fannie would rise in the morning, and, though nearly blind, giddy and +fainting from habitual loss of rest, she would set her room in order, +eat a morsel of breakfast, bathe and dress the little one, collect all +the articles it would need, and prepare its food and medicine for the +day; and, lastly, dress herself with neatness and taste, for it was very +necessary that the shop girl should look as well as possible; take her +sick babe in one arm, and its basket of necessaries in the other, lock +her door, and set out for the shop, stopping on her way to leave the +child and its basket at Aunt Peggy's hut, where there was no cradle or +rocking-chair, but, what was perhaps as well, a pallet laid in the +coolest part of the room. + +Here Fannie would sit and rest a moment, while she nursed her child, and +then she would lay it down upon the pallet and leave it, thankful if the +little creature happened to be sleeping peacefully, wretched if it +chanced to be wakeful and to be wailing after its mother. + +One morning, when Fannie had lingered beyond her hour for going to the +store, trying to put to sleep or to pacify the suffering child, she +finally laid it down upon the pallet, and, with many kisses and soothing +words and promises to come back soon, tore herself away; but, just as +she reached the door the little one struggled upon its feeble limbs, +staggered toward her, and fell, with its weak hand clasping her skirts. + +Fannie burst into tears, took the babe up in her arms, sat down upon a +chair, and, pressing the little sufferer to her bosom, caressed and +soothed it, and promised never to leave it again; and, speaking to the +old woman, said: + +"Please go over to Leroux's, Aunt Peggy, and tell monsieur that I can't +come to-day on account of poor little Coralie; and I don't know when I +can come--so he may, if he chooses, look out for somebody else to fill +my place." + +The prudent old woman expostulated, asked Fannie what she would do for a +living if she gave up her situation at Leroux's, and advised her to hold +fast, saying that the child might die, and then, there! she couldn't get +the place again so easy as she had lost it. + +But Fannie was firm. Pressing the infant closer to her bosom, she +replied: Yes; that little Coralie might die, and then the thought of how +often she had left the poor baby grieving for her mother would break her +heart; that it was no use for any one to talk; come what might, she +never would leave the sick child again. + +Aunt Peggy carried the message, and brought back the reply that Madam +Leroux had always expected this trouble to come upon Fannie; that she +had always said so; and that Fannie would find her words true, that this +was only the beginning of the troubles she would meet, for having been +so lost to her own interest as to marry a handsome slave man, whose very +hands were not his own, to help her. + +Fannie said that she would trust in God, unto death and beyond death; +for that often she thought the best way in which He could right His +children's wrongs, and comfort their afflictions, was by taking them +from this sad world to His own heaven. + +Truly, the poor young creature needed all this faith to enable her to +bear the troubles that were, and those that were to come. She carried +little Coralie back to her own poor room. She sought out what plain +sewing and clear starching she could get to do in her own home; but this +was very little, now that so many of the ladies and gentlemen among whom +she hoped to get employment had left the city for the Northern +watering-places. It brought her a very scanty income; and as, out of +this, room rent, fuel, light, food, clothing, medicine and other +incidental expenses had to be paid, and as, besides, she would not +suffer little Coralie to want any comfort, or even any luxury, that she +could procure for her by her own exertions and self-denial, it followed, +of course, that she herself went without a sufficiency of the real +necessaries of life; and so, privation being added to her other ills, +accelerated the decline of her health. + +Valentine could only come to see them once a week. He would come Sunday +morning, spend the day in nursing his darling, tear himself from her +clinging baby arms, and return, almost broken-hearted, at night. + +This was the condition of things when the yellow fever made its +appearance at M----. This was nothing new--the pestilence was no +stranger, it was an annual visitor at M----. + +But this summer the fever appeared in its most terrible aspect, with all +the malign, virulent and fatal characteristics of the plague. + +I am not about to harrow your feelings or my own with any minute details +of the misery that ensued as the pestilence advanced; of the physical +agony, from pain, fever, thirst and famine; of the wretchedness, from +bereavement, poverty and desertion; of the mental anguish, from terror, +grief, horror and despair. The pestilence brings in its dread train +almost every form of physical and moral evil; at the same time, +providentially, it calls forth to combat these the most exalted virtues +in the human character. You have only to call to mind the ravages of +the yellow fever throughout the South in the past to estimate the +horrors of the pestilence at M----. The people by hundreds fled the +city; those that remained, by thousands died. + +The population, reduced to less than one-half, consisted chiefly of the +poorer classes, who could not get away, and of those heroic souls whom a +high sense of Christian duty or simple humanity had retained in or +brought to the scene of misery. + +A dense, copper-colored cloud hung low, like a pall, over the +plague-stricken city; its air was considered deadly to the newcomer that +breathed it. + +All intercourse between M---- and the surrounding plantations was +interdicted. The greatest anxiety was felt by the planters, lest the +fever should break out in their families, or, where it would be more +likely to make its first appearance, among the slaves; the greatest +precautions were taken to avert such a dread misfortune. The masters and +their families confined themselves strictly to their own domains, and +the slaves were positively forbidden to approach the city, or even the +highways leading thitherward. As many of the neighboring negroes had +friends or relatives living in the city, and as their affections are +known to be rather obstinate and daring, to insure safety, a voluntary +police was organized by the planters, whose duty it was, in turn, to +guard the highways, and see that no negro passed without a written +permit from the master or mistress. + +Preventives of disease and disinfecting agents were diligently sought +after. Alcohol, in the form of wine, brandy and whisky, was supposed to +be a sovereign safeguard against the pestilence. I do not say that it +was laid down as a medical dogma that an habitual inebriate enjoyed +immunity from contagion; but I do say, what will probably shock my +temperance readers, that all persons were counseled by their physicians +to keep themselves always slightly under the influence of alcohol, so +long as the pestilence should last. And most people took the advice, +finding, at least, something in the half-stimulating, half-stupefying +effects of liquor to brave or dull the sense of danger. Wine and brandy +were freely used in the planter's family; whisky was freely circulated +among the negroes of the plantation. Some among them of the Methodist +persuasion and the temperance society demurred at breaking their pledge; +but even these, when made to understand that the whisky was to be taken +as medicine, by the advice of a physician, felt their consciences set at +rest upon the subject, and never was doctor's stuff swallowed with less +repugnance than their grog was taken, three times a day. + +Valentine held to his principles; he would not break his pledge. In vain +for a long time his master, and even his mistress, remonstrated with +him. + +Circumstances altered cases; times were changed; self-preservation was +the first law of nature; in view of the present danger, his pledge was +not binding; "for if he kept his pledge, he might lose his life," they +would argue. + +"That was the Lord's affair; all he had to do was to keep his pledge; +and if he should die, so much the better; life had no charms for him," +Valentine would reply. + +And in truth the wretched young man was much to be compassionated. His +wife and child alone and helpless in the midst of the plague, exposed to +the united horrors of pestilence, famine and solitary death from +desertion; himself forbidden to seek them at their utmost need. Thrice +had he escaped and sought the city, and as often had he fallen into the +hands of the voluntary police; they did not maltreat him, except +inasmuch as they would not suffer him to pass without a permit from his +master, and this permit could not be obtained. He could think of +nothing but his wife and child. Were they living, and suffering +unimagined miseries? Were they among the uncounted dead, whose rude +coffins lay one upon another, three or four feet deep, not in graves, +but in trenches? He did not even know. But all his thoughts by day, and +his fitful dreams by night, were haunted with the forms of Fannie and of +Coralie. He saw little Coralie in every phase of memory, and hope, and +fear. He saw her bright and beautiful, as she had been in the sweet +springtime; he saw her pale and pining, as he had seen her last in her +wasting sickness; and he saw her lying dead in her coffin, and woke with +a loud cry of anguish. His heart, his spirit, seemed broken. + +Seeing his haggard and despairing looks, his mistress expostulated with +him, and counseled the use of wine or brandy, saying that the depressing +effects of the atmosphere were felt by everybody, even by those living +in the country; that it affected all persons with despondency, causing +them to look only on the darkest side of all things; and that it was +only to be counteracted by the stimulating effects of alcohol. + +At last Valentine followed this counsel and took the prescribed +"medicine." Not to prevent contagion did he take it, though that purpose +would have exonerated him from the charge of a broken pledge; but to +dull the poignant sense of suffering, which was greater than he could +bear. + +Oh, fatal day that he placed again to his lips the maddening glass! All +have seen how dangerous is such a relapse. It is generally a sudden and +hopeless fall. It was so in the case of this poor fellow. He took the +first glass, and, liking its effects, took a second and a third before +stopping. If he awoke in the morning to remember his troubles, he drank +all day to forget them, and fell at night into a heavy sleep. He +zealously followed the medical prescription--nay, he quite overdid it, +and kept himself not "slightly" under the influence of alcohol. And in a +short space of time, if his master or his mistress remonstrated with +him, it was not for total abstinence from intoxicating spirits, but for +the opposite extreme of an habitual intemperance. Such was the state of +affairs at Red Hill for a few weeks, during which Valentine had no +direct or certain intelligence of Fannie and his little child. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CAIN. + + I pray thee take thy fingers from my throat: + For though I am not splenetive and rash, + Yet have I in me something dangerous, + Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!--SHAKESPEARE. + + +One morning, near the last of August--yet, stay! Such mornings dawn +unheralded by any sign to warn us what the fated day shall bring forth +ere its close. Such mornings dawn as other mornings do--the doomed men +and women rise as other people do--as you or I arose this morning, upon +the dread day that unpremeditated crime or sudden death shall fix their +mortal doom forever. + +That morning Mr. Waring arose, feeling rather unwell and irritable, +which was no unusual circumstance of late, for he was chafing between +two conflicting interests, one of which called him away, while the other +bound him at home. He was very anxious, with his wife, to leave the +neighborhood of the infected city; but, in the present condition of +affairs he hesitated to trust the plantation and negroes to the care of +the overseer. + +Valentine arose with the same heavy heart that had marked his waking +hours for many days, yet dressed himself and combed his raven black +curls with the habitual regard to neatness and beauty that had become a +second nature. And it was curious to see how this habit of neatness and +elegance lasted through all the darkest hours of his life. + +Phaedra got up and attended to the arrangement of the house and the +preparation of breakfast with her usual exactness. + +Mrs. Waring, suffering from the debilitating effects of the weather, +indulged herself in the morning, and breakfasted in bed. + +No foreboding was felt by any one; no token in sky or air, or +circumstances without, of presentiment within their hearts, warned them +of calamity, crime and sudden death at hand. That morning, after +breakfast, Valentine strolled listlessly out toward the public road +leading to the town. It was his daily habit. It had been commenced in +the hope of meeting some one from the city who might be able to give him +news of Fannie and her little child. And though he never met with +success, he still rambled thither every day, as well from force of habit +as from the faint hope that he might yet hear of them. He strolled to +the highway, met his usual ill-success, and, after lingering an hour or +two, sauntered dejectedly toward home. + +When he reached a lane that separated his master's plantation on the +right from Mr. Hewitt's on the left, his attention was arrested by the +sound of a low voice. He listened. + +"Hish-sh! Walley, come here--here to the gap." + +The voice proceeded from behind the hedge, formed by a thick growth of +Spanish daggers, that completely covered the fence on the left of the +lane. There was a small broken place in it, toward which Valentine +sauntered indifferently. He saw on the other side the huge head of a +gigantic negro, a jet-black, lumbering, awkward, good-natured monster +enough, who belonged to Mr. Hewitt, and who sported the imposing +cognomen of "governor." + +"Well, Governor, is that you? What do you want with me?" + +"Hish-sh, Walley, don't talk so loud! our oberseer ain't far off. +Brudder 'Lisha, he bin out from town." + +"Well!" exclaimed Valentine, with breathless interest, bending forward. + +"W'en you hear from Fannie las'?" + +"Not for two weeks. Why do you ask? Have you heard from her? Speak! oh, +for Heaven's sake, speak!" exclaimed Valentine, breathlessly. + +"Fannie done got de feber." + +"Oh, God!" + +"Brudder 'Lisha, he done bin 'ere dis mornin' and tell we-dem." + +"Oh, Heaven! oh, when was she taken? Who is with her? Is she----" + +"Dunno nuffin 'tall 'bout it, 'cept 'tis she's got de feber. Brudder +'Lisha, he done bin dere to her place, an' heern it." + +"Where is Elisha?" + +"Done gone right straight back to town." + +"And that is all the satisfaction you can give me," cried Valentine, +beside himself with distress. + +"Yaw, yaw! I trought how I'd watch arter you, and tell you--'long as +you'd like to hear it. Hish-sh-sh! Walley, stoop down here close, till I +whisper to you." + +"What now!" exclaimed Valentine, in new alarm, bending his ear to the +huge negro's lips. + +"Hish-sh-sh! Walley, I wish how it wur my 'ooman as had de yaller +feber!" + +"Wretch!" + +"An' wish we-dem's white nigger oberseer had it too!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"And I wish dey bofe might die long of it." + +"Wretch! I say again!" + +"Trufe, brudder! dat's me jes'! I'se de wretch! an' I wish how dis same +wretch might hab de feber long o' de oder two, an' how I might die long +of 'em, and how we might all go up to Marster's trone, and have de case +'cided whose wife dis 'ooman is for to be." + +"Governor! What! do you mean to say that the new overseer is tampering +with your wife's fidelity to you?" + +"Hish-sh! he ain't fur off. Dunno what de debbil you mean wid your big +words. But she lub fine dress, an' he gib it to her; she berry putty, +mos' white, you know, an' he sen' me way off to de furres' fiel' to +work." + +"Why don't you talk to her?" + +"'Taint no use; she 'ny eberyting." + +"Why don't you speak to your master?" + +"'Tain't no use; he won't nebber hear no 'plaints gin de oberseer." + +"I am very sorry for you, poor fellow; and I would like to give you +comfort and counsel, but I must hurry away from you, and try to get +leave to go to town, and see poor dear Fannie. If I were you, Governor, +I would speak to Major Hewitt upon this subject. He never would permit +such a wrong done you." + +"'Taint no use, I tell yer! But nebber min', Walley, listen yer; some ob +dese yere days I fixes him!" + +Valentine started at the demoniac look that, in a man usually so mild, +accompanied these vague words; and, bidding the negro a hasty +good-morning, he ran along the lane until he reached the house. + +His own heart and brain were wild with grief and alarm as he hastened to +the presence of his master, whom he did not doubt would now, in this +extremity, permit him to go to the city. + +Mr. Waring, in an irritable frame of mind, was walking up and down the +front piazza, as Valentine stepped upon the floor. + +"Well, what now?" he exclaimed, testily, at the sight of the young man's +agitated countenance. + +"My wife, sir; she has got the fever." + +"Sorry to hear it, but--how did you hear it, sir? I hope no one from +that place has had the temerity to set foot upon these premises, in face +of the prohibition?" + +"No, sir; I happened to meet with Governor, Major Hewitt's man, and he +had seen an acquaintance of ours from the city, who came from Fannie's +house this morning and brought the news." + +"I wonder Major Hewitt does not take better care of his own interests +than to permit stragglers from the city to infest his place. He will +bring the pestilence among us before we know where we are," said Mr. +Waring, angrily. + +"But, Fannie, sir--my poor wife----" + +"Well, what of her? I am sorry, of course--really sorry, Valentine. It +is a pity you ever got married; if you had not, neither you nor Fannie +would have had so much trouble. It was a very foolish piece of +business!" + +"Perhaps it was, sir; but people who love each other have a sort of +propensity to get married. It can't be helped, I suppose; it's a way +they've got." + +"And a bad way--very bad way--that I ought never to have sanctioned." + +"Nor imitated, sir!" + +"You are an impertinent fellow! But I overlook that. There is some +difference, I should judge, between you and me, and I certainly ought +never to have consented to your taking that girl." + +"It is too late to say that now, sir!" said Valentine, with a sigh so +heavy that Mr. Waring inquired, quickly: + +"So you repent it, do you?" + +"No; God Almighty knows I do not!" replied Valentine, with sorrowful +earnestness; adding, "but, oh, sir, I am losing precious time. I came +here to ask you for a permit to go to town and see my wife." + +"A permit! A permit to go to town, and to visit a woman ill with the +very pestilence we are all doing our best to guard against? A permit to +go there, and take the fever just as sure as you go, and bring back and +spread the contagion among hundreds, whom we are all doing our best to +guard from the pestilence! Impossible, Valentine! I wonder you could be +so unreasonable as to ask it!" + +"Unreasonable that I should want to go and see my suffering wife?" + +"Yes--under the circumstances. Yes, I am sorry for her, Valentine, and +sorry for you, though I cannot say that your manner is very respectful. +Still, I am very sorry for you; and if it were possible for me to do +anything for your relief, I would do it--as it is, I regret that I can +do nothing." + +"Oh, sir! Master Oswald, you could let me go to town," pleaded +Valentine. + +"At the imminent hazard of your own life, and the all but certainty of +bringing the pestilence upon this plantation." + +"All do not get the fever who are exposed to its influence; neither do +they always spread contagion into the healthy places they chance to +visit," reasoned the young man. + +"The risk is too great," replied the master, curtly. + +"Would you think it too great if your own wife were the one concerned, +sir?" argued Valentine. + +"Be more respectful, sirrah! There is some difference, I should say!" +retorted the master, angrily. + +"Yes, there is a difference!" cried Valentine; "and when I see anything +to respect----" Suddenly he stopped. Swift as lightning came the thought +that if he refrained from provoking his master now and came to him an +hour hence, when he should be in a better humor, the prayer that he now +denied he might then grant. Controlling his rising indignation, he +bowed, turned abruptly, and went off. + +"Impudent rascal! he was just about to say something that I should have +had to knock him down for; and then he thought better of it, and +stopped--it's well he did! Poor fellow, I am sorry for him, too; but it +is all his own fault! If he were not so presumptuous, he would not feel +so badly. That is the very deuce of it; for that prevents him from +seeing that there is a difference." Such were the reflections of Mr. +Waring as he continued to pace up and down the front piazza. + +Valentine has mastered his anger, but he could not control the terrible +anxiety that preyed upon his heart; Fannie suffering, Fannie dying, +deserted, alone; little Coralie perishing from neglect--these were the +torturing visions that maddened his brain. + +He went and told Phaedra, who wept bitterly at the sad story; but yet +sought to comfort her son, and inspire hope, by promising to go herself +and tell Mrs. Waring, and get her to intercede with her husband for +Valentine. + +This was done, but with little success; for, though Mrs. Waring was +moved to compassion, and went to her husband and besought him to take +compassion upon Valentine and send him to seek his sick wife and trust +in Providence to avert all evil consequences, Mr. Waring was not only +firm in his refusal, but also exhibited no small degree of impatience at +her interference. Unwilling to inflict a hopeless disappointment upon +the poor fellow, Mrs. Waring tempered the report of her ill-success by +saying that, though Mr. Waring had now refused her petition, she still +hoped that he would think better of it and grant the permit. + +Yet all this time Fannie might be dying, and her child perishing for +want--every moment was precious beyond price! + +Phaedra sought her master's presence, and pleaded with him--pleaded by +her long years of faithful service; by her devoted care of him in his +feeble infancy; by the days of his childhood, when he and Valentine were +playmates; by all the long years, as boys and as men, those two had +passed together, inseparable companions, until the marriage of each; by +her own devoted attachment to them; by his love for his own wife; by +every sweet affection and holy thought, to have compassion on her son, +his own foster-brother, and let him go and minister to his +sick--probably his dying wife. Phaedra pleaded with more eloquence, but +with not more success, than the others. + +Some substances melt under the action of water--others, in the same +element, turn to stone. Instead of melting Mr. Waring's obduracy seemed +to ossify under the effects of tears and entreaties. He told Phaedra, +firmly, that he did not mean to gratify one man at the hazard of +exposing many to contagion. And at the dinner-table, speaking partly in +justification of his own line of conduct, and partly in apology for the +manner in which he had met Mrs. Waring's intercession of the morning, he +said: + +"You emphasize this matter too much, madam; this Fannie is, after all, +but one sufferer among thousands; you also mistake in endowing these +creatures with the same acuteness of feelings that we possess; there is +a difference, madam! there is a difference! I wish I could make people +understand that there is a difference; neither Valentine nor Phaedra seem +to have the slightest conception of this difference." + +"I must confess that in that respect I share their obtusity," remarked +madam, while Mr. Waring, in apparent self-satisfaction, went on with his +dinner. + +But was he really satisfied with himself? Who shall answer? + +Meantime, Valentine wandered about, consumed with sorrow and anxiety. +Doubtless, he would have run away and endeavored to reach the town, but +he knew how carefully the avenues thither were guarded, and how +desperate was the attempt that he had already thrice before made to +elude the police. It would involve a loss of several hours to make the +attempt, which, if it should fail, as it was altogether likely to do, +would entirely preclude him from all possible chance of seeing Fannie; +therefore he thought best to make another appeal to his master before +taking the last desperate step. He knew by experience that the hour +after dinner always found Oswald Waring in his best humor. + +It was then that he sought him. + +He found him--not, as before, walking in the front piazza, where the +afternoon sun was now shining, but reclining on a settee on the back +piazza that was now in the shade. He lay languidly fanning himself with +one hand, while he held a pamphlet that he was reading in the other. +Valentine had resolved not to provoke him by any hasty words, as he had +used in the morning. He resolved to govern his own spirit, to approach +his master respectfully, humbly. He did so. + +"Master Oswald!" + +Mr. Waring looked up, seemed annoyed, and hastened to exclaim: + +"Now, Valentine, if you have come again about going to see your sick +wife, and all that humbug, I tell you it is no manner of use. I have +been wearied nearly to death already with fruitless importunity, and I +want to hear no more of it." + +"Oh, sir!" + +"I tell you it is of no use to talk to me!" + +"Ah, but Master Oswald, only listen, even if you do no more!" pleaded +Valentine, in the fond hope of an ardent nature, that, judging from the +earnestness of his feelings, believes that if he gains a hearing, he +gains his cause. + +"Well, well! but I warn you it will be wasted breath." + +"Ah, sir, do not say so! I am nearly crazy with trouble, sir, when I +think of Fannie and poor little Coralie. She was very poor, sir, and the +child was very sick, even before the pestilence appeared. Now she has +the fever in that horrible place, with no one to help her or to take +care of the poor child. She may be dying, sir, even while I speak! she +may be dying, as many of the poor in that doomed city die, +deserted--alone--but for the famishing infant, whose cries add to her +own sufferings; she may have, as many of the poor have, famine and +burning thirst added to her fever, with no one near to place to her lips +a morsel of food or a drop of water! Think of it, sir! My God! do you +wonder that I am almost frantic?" cried the young man, earnestly, +beseechingly clasping his hands. + +"An imaginary picture altogether, Valentine," coolly remarked Mr. +Waring. + +"A common reality among the poor of the city, this dreadful season, sir. +You know it. You have heard it and read it. And she is very poor, sir. +She and the child often suffered, even before the pestilence came and +stopped her work with all the rest. Judge what her condition must be +now. Oh, my God!" cried the young man, in a voice of agony. + +"Your fears exaggerate the case, Valentine. There are almshouses and +hospitals, and sisters of charity and relief funds, and all those sort +of contrivances for the very poor." + +"Yet you know, for I heard you read it, that all these places are full, +that the relief fund failed to meet all the demands made upon it; and +you know, besides, that all the poor white people have to be taken care +of, before the colored people are thought of." + +"Of course, there is a difference, you know. I wish, once for all, you +would understand that fact," said Mr. Waring, replying only to the +latter proposition. Then he added: "Your fears magnify the danger; the +yellow fever cannot last forever, and she may get well." + +"Not one in ten do--I heard you say it." + +"Well, she may be that one." + +"What, sir, with all the privations of her lot?" + +"Yes, why not? You are out of sorts, Valentine. Go into +the house and take a drink; it will set you up--in the +dining-room--sideboard--left-hand corner--some fine old Otard +brandy--help yourself; it will make a man of you." + +"Thank you, Master Oswald; but that is not what I came for." + +"What the devil did you come for, then, you troublesome fellow; tell me, +and let me go to sleep," exclaimed the master, impatiently turning on +his settee. + +"I came to beg and to pray you, Master Oswald, for a permit to go to +town." + +"And you cannot have it, Valentine; so you may save your prayers. Once +for all, if you and your mother, and madam, your mistress, to back you, +were to pray from now till doomsday, you--cannot--have--it. Do you +understand?" said his master, stolidly. + +Valentine governed his own rising anger; it was as much as he could +possibly do; he could not suppress his grief, but broke forth in a voice +of agony: + +"Oh! Fannie, Fannie, Fannie, and her little child!" + +"D----n it, sir, stop your howling, or go somewhere else to howl. What +the devil is Fannie or her brat to me? If they are suffering, it is her +own fault; she had no business to marry a slave, whom she could never +expect to help her. And if their sufferings afflict you, it serves you +right; it is a just punishment for your cursed folly in marrying a free +woman, with no master to look after her or her children." + +"I will be silent! I will be silent!" thought Valentine, as he turned +from his master. + +A storm was raging in his breast; all the fierce passions of his nature +were aroused; rage, grief, terror and despair, made a hell of his bosom. +In passing through the hall, he suddenly dived into the dining-room, +poured out and drained a half tumbler of the strong brandy; then he +hurried through and out of the front door, to make ready for his flight. + +These preparations were soon made, and Valentine commenced his journey. + +The highway leading to M---- was bordered on one side by the hedge of +Spanish daggers that skirted the lower cotton-fields of Major Hewitt's +plantation, and on the other side by a causeway, that shut off an +extensive cypress swamp that formed a portion of Mr. Waring's estate. +Avoiding the middle of the road, Valentine leaped over the causeway, +and, though he waded half a leg deep in water, he made his way safely +under the shelter of the wall and the shadows of the trees. + +He had waded thus a mile, on his way toward the city, when the sound of +a voice, singing a Methodist hymn, and approaching from the opposite +direction, arrested his attention. He knew the hymn, and the voice, +that, in turn, sang and intoned it, and, by them, recognized, before +seeing, Elisha, the colored class-leader of his own congregation, the +man who had that morning brought the first news of Fannie's illness. A +new, intense anxiety seized him. Elisha came from the direction of the +city. "Might he not bring some later intelligence of Fannie?" he +inquired of himself, as he hastened to climb the wall of the causeway, +and peered through the parasitical vines that clung to the top, to +survey the scene. + +Lying between the dark-hued cypress swamp and the high hedge that shut +off the cotton-fields, the road stretched westward, one long, irregular +vista of yellow light shining in the last rays of the setting sun; and +solitary, except for the lonely figure of the old negro preacher, who, +stick and bundle slung across his shoulder, came trudging onward, and +beguiling his way with chanting the refrain of a wild, weird revival +hymn, in strange keeping with the time and circumstances: + + "Go, wake him! Go, wake him! + Judgment day is coming! + Go, wake him! Go, wake him! + Before it is too late!" + +"Hist! Elisha! Elisha!" called Valentine, in a hushed, eager voice. + +"Who dar?" exclaimed the old negro, starting back so forcibly that the +stick and bundle vibrated on his shoulder. + +"It is I, Elisha! Come here, quickly. How is Fannie, my dear, suffering +Fannie? Quickly! You have seen her since morning?" cried Valentine, in a +low, vehement tone. + +"Brudder Walley! I 'clar'; de werry man I lookin' arter!" said the old +creature, approaching the causeway. + +"Tell me! tell me! how is Fannie?" cried Valentine, impatiently. + +"Ah, chile! we-dem mus' 'mit to de will o' Marster," sighed the old +preacher. + +"For Heaven's sake, be plain! Is she--is she still living?" questioned +the youth, in an agony of anxiety. + +"Wur, when I lef' dar, chile! wur, when I lef' dar! Dat all I can say +for sartin 'bout libbin'." + +Valentine groaned deeply, asking: + +"When did you see her? Tell me everything--everything you know about +her." + +"I happen in dar, to 'quire arter her, 'bout noon. I fin' her all alone, +berry low, berry low, 'deed. Flies, like a cloud, settled on her face; +she onable to lif' her han', drive 'em 'way; lip bake wid thurst; and +she onable han' herse'f a drap o' water." + +"Oh, God! and the child--the child!" + +"'Prawlin' on de floor, kivered with flies an' dirt, cryin' low an' +weak, like, for hunder." + +"Elisha, I must hurry; I must fly! Turn back, and walk a little way with +me, while you tell me more; but if you see any one coming or going on +the road, whistle, to warn me, for I have no permit," said Valentine, +dropping behind the causeway, and plunging along through the water +toward the city. + +They could no longer see each other, and their conway. + +"How you gwine cross bridge widout 'mit, Brudder Walley?" + +"I don't know; I must try. Tell me more about Fannie." + +"Well, you know, 'out my tellin' you, how I tuk up de chile offen de +flure, an' wash it, an' dress it, and git milk, and feed it. An' how I +go for water, and wash her face, and give her drink, an' fan de flies +offen her, till she come to her min', like; an' how I'd stay 'long o' +her till dis time, ony when she come to herself, she put her two hans +togedder, so she did, de chile, and begged an' prayed me to come arter +you, her 'dear Walley,' to come an' see her once more 'fore she died, +an' take de poor baby home long o' you. An' so, dough I done travel dis +yer yode once afore to-day, I takes my staff in my han' an' I sets off; +an', franks be to de Lor', dey can't sturve me from trav'lin' de +highway, dough I daren't now-a-day put my fut offin it, or onto one o' +der plantashunes. So, now, bress de Lor', here I is; an' long as I wur +so hoped up as to fall in 'long o' you, all I got to do now is, to +'company of you back to de city." + +In a few earnest, fervent words, Valentine thanked his friend, and then, +saving all his breath, and concentrating all his energies, in silence he +toiled on, knee-deep in water and ankle-deep in mud, through the cypress +swamp toward the city. + +Old Daddy Elisha took up the burden of his hymn, and sang or intoned +various portions of that weird melody as he walked. + +Valentine, behind the causeway, in the shadow and the silence, passed +unquestioned; but Elisha was frequently hailed by some vigilant member +of the voluntary police. If personally known to the questioner, he was +allowed to pass; if not, he was required to show his papers; a light had +to be struck to examine them, and all this took up so much time, that +although Elisha had the high road to walk upon, and Valentine the swamp +to wade through, the latter far outstripped the former, and arrived +first at the bridge over the A---- River. + +To cross this bridge was the only means from this direction of reaching +the city; but the bridge was guarded at both ends by the patrol, or +voluntary police; to elude their vigilance was the only desperate part +of Valentine's undertaking. + +The river was broad, deep and strong in current; no one had ever dreamed +of the feat of swimming across it. It was bordered on this side by a +marsh so deep that, in the attempt to pass it, a man of moderate size +and strength must have been swallowed up. + +The bridge was a continuation of the road and causeway, flanked by +parapets extending across the river, and joining the road on the +opposite side. + +Valentine never thought of the impossible feat of wading the marsh and +swimming the river, neither did he dream of attempting to cross the +bridge in the very face of the patrol guard that twice before had +arrested him; but he projected a scheme almost equally wild and +hopeless. This plan was to cross the river by clambering along the water +side of this parapet--a plan involving less risk of discovery by the +patrol, certainly--but undertaken at the most imminent peril of death, +by losing hold and dropping into the river below. + +Valentine waded on through the cypress swamp, until the trees grew more +sparsely, and the mud under the water became deeper and more treacherous +as it merged into the marsh nearest the river. + +The poor fellow then clambered along, now on the broken causeway, his +eyes all on fire with vigilance, and now dropping down into the swamp, +and so in more peril and difficulty he went on, until he reached the +place where the marsh merged into the river, and the road and causeway +into the bridge and parapet. + +Here he heard the patrol guard in their little guard-house laughing and +talking over their drink, for they, too, had to keep the pestilence at +bay with alcohol. + +Here he attempted to gain the parapet, and in doing so, set in motion +some alarm bell, at whose first peals he found himself suddenly +surrounded, and in the hands of the patrol. + +"My good fellow, that feat has been tried once before, so we prepared +for the second, you understand," said one of his captors. + +They all knew Valentine; with most of them he was a great favorite, +though to others he was, for the sole reason of his natural superiority, +very obnoxious. + +While Valentine stood overwhelmed with despair, he discerned Major +Hewitt among the party; and gathering some hope from the presence of +that gentleman, he clasped his hands and appealing to him, said: + +"Oh, Major Hewitt, you know me, sir! You have known me from childhood! +Your dear lady knew me, too, and was very kind to the poor quadroon boy, +when he was a child. And you know my poor little Fannie, too! Sir, my +heart is breaking--that is nothing, but she is dying! Sir, my wife is +dying, alone--not of the fever only, but of starvation, of thirst, of +neglect, of bereavement of all aid; and she sends to me, sir--sends to +pray me to come and see her poor face for the last time, and take her +orphan baby from her dead arms, lest it die, too! You are powerful, +Major Hewitt! Speak the word, and these gentlemen will let me pass!" + +"Valentine, my poor boy, if your sorrow had not crazed you, you would +understand at once that I cannot do so! But I tell you what I can do for +you; I can persuade these gentlemen from detaining you in the +guard-house, and I can write a note of intercession to your master. +Return to him, Valentine--take my horse! There he stands; go to Mr. +Waring; tell him what you have told me! Give him my note; he will not +refuse you the permit, and when you have it, ride back hither as fast as +you please," said the major. + +He scribbled a note in haste. Valentine mounted the horse, received the +missive, and, thanking the major from the depths of his heart, rode off. +He met and hailed Elisha, told him in a few words what had passed, and +added: + +"Go on to the city, Elisha! Go to my dear Fannie! Tell her, if she can +still hear your words, that I shall be with her in two hours, or die in +the effort. No! do not tell her a word to alarm her! Say I will +certainly be with her in two hours! For I will! despite of earth and +h--ll, I will!" + +Valentine galloped swiftly toward home, reached the lawn gate, sprang +from his horse, secured the bridle, and hastened up to the house. There +was no one in front; he entered the hall, looked into the dining-room; +it was empty; he ran in, poured out a glass of brandy, drank it at a +draught, and passed through the house to the back piazza, where he found +his master, pacing up and down the floor. Mr. Waring had grown heated +and angry between the frequent potations and the irritations of the day. + +"Well, sir!" he said, turning abruptly to Valentine, "what now? How dare +you enter my presence again, after your insolent conduct of this +afternoon?" + +"Master Oswald, I am very sorry if, in my great trouble, I was surprised +into saying anything wrong. Will you read this note, sir?" said +Valentine, trying, for Fannie's dear sake, to quell the raging storm in +his bosom. + +Oswald Waring took the note with a jerk, tore it open impatiently, and, +casting his eyes over it with a scornful curl of his lip, tossed it +away, exclaiming: + +"Tush! Major Hewitt is a fool! Where did you get that, sir?" + +Valentine hesitated. + +"I ask you where you got that note, sir?" + +"From Major Hewitt's own hand, Master Oswald," replied Valentine, at +last. + +"By ----! don't prevaricate with me, sir! Where did you see Major +Hewitt, then? That is the question!" + +Again Valentine was silent. + +"What the demon do you mean, sir, by treating my questions with this +contemptuous silence?" demanded Mr. Waring, angrily. + +"Master Oswald!" began Valentine, seriously, impressively; "I will +answer your question truly; but, first, let me beg you, let me pray you, +by all your hopes of salvation, to listen to me favorably; for I swear +to you by all my faith in Heaven, that it is the very last time I will +make the appeal!" + +"I am glad to hear it, you troublesome, confoundedly spoiled rascal! For +it is the very last minute that I will bear to be trifled with!" + +"I met Major Hewitt on the bridge----" + +"On the bridge! On the bridge! Why, you insolent scoundrel; do you dare +to stand there and tell me to my face that, in direct violation of my +command, you attempted to go to town?" + +"Sir! sir! listen to me! my worst fears are confirmed! My poor Fannie is +dying, as I feared she might die--alone! deserted! dying not only of +pestilence, but of famine and thirst, and every extremity of +wretchedness! She sent a faithful messenger, praying me to come and see +her once more, but once more, to close her eyes and receive the orphan +child. Oh! could I disregard such an appeal as that? would not any man, +or, I was about to say, any beast, risk life, and more than life, if +possible, to obey such a sacred call? I would have periled my soul! Can +you blame me?" + +"They turned you back! They did right! Thank Heaven that I am disposed +to consider that sufficient punishment under the circumstances and am +ready to forget your fault. Go, leave me, sir--stop! into the house! not +out of it! you're not to be trusted, sir." + +A volcano seemed burning and raging in the young man's breast; +nevertheless, he controlled himself with wonderful strength, while he +still pleaded his cause. + +"Major Hewitt felt my position, sir! He had compassion on me, and wrote +that note. Give heed to it, sir! The time may come when, on your own +deathbed, or by the sickbed of one you love, and fear to lose, and pray +for, it may console and bless you to remember the mercy you may now show +me; the Good Being has said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall +obtain mercy.' Give me the permit, sir! let me go and comfort my dying +Fannie! Oh! I do beseech you!" + +"Will you have done worrying me? Major Hewitt is an old dotard! The +mercy you selfishly crave for yourself would be cruelty to all the other +negroes! Once more, and for the last time, I tell you, and I swear it by +all the demons, I will not give you the permit!" + +"Then, by the justice of Heaven, I will go without it!" + +"What?" + +"I will go without it! If I cannot pass the bridge, I will swim the +river! Aye, if it were a river of fire!" exclaimed Valentine, losing all +self-control, and breaking into fury. + +"Why, you audacious villain! You shall not stir from this house!" + +"Neither man on earth nor demon from h--ll shall stop me!" broke forth +the man, in a voice of thunder, striding off. + +In an instant Mr. Waring had intercepted him, holding up a light cane, +and exclaiming: + +"Stand back, you villain!" + +Valentine came on with the evident intention of attempting to pass. + +Mr. Waring met him with a sudden, sharp blow with his cane across the +face. + +And as Valentine, giddy and blinded for an instant with the blood that +streamed from the cut, staggered backward, Mr. Waring, by another heavy +stroke with the loaded end of the cane, felled him to the floor, and +proceeded to follow up his victory with several other severe blows. + +But Valentine was struggling to his feet, and at last sprang up--reeled, +righted himself, cleared the blood from his eyes, glared around; and +just as Mr. Waring had broken his cane with a final stroke over his +shoulder, Valentine saw and seized a heavy oaken stool, and, aiming one +fatal blow with all his force, struck his master in the face! The heavy +leg of the oaken stool, aimed with all the strength of madness, crushed +the eye--entered the brain, and Oswald Waring fell, never to rise again! + +But Valentine was maddened! frenzied! and showered blows upon the dying +man like one unconscious of his acts, until the agonized screams of +women brought him slightly to his senses, when he found himself seized +between Mrs. Waring, who was, amid her frantic shrieks, trying to pull +him away, and Phaedra, who was crying, distractedly: "Oh! Valentine, +you've murdered him!" + +He glared from one to the other, in the amazed, bewildered manner of one +half wakened from a horrible dream; looked at the mutilated form before +him; looked at the strange weapon in his hand--the foot-stool, with its +legs clotted with blood and hair; and then, with a violent start, and an +awful change of aspect, as if, for the first time the reality, the +horror and the magnitude of his crime had burst upon his consciousness, +he stood an instant, and casting the weapon from him, broke from the +hands of the women, cleared the porch at a bound, rushed across the +yard, leaped the fence, crossed the road and plunged into the shadows of +the cypress swamp beyond. + + * * * * * + +That night, as Fannie lay on the wretched bed of her poor room, in +darkness and solitude, and in the semi-delirium of fever, suddenly an +apparition, like some ghastly phantom of her husband, gleamed out from +the surrounding shadows, stooped over, raised her in its ghostly arms, +chattered, raved wildly, incoherently, and--was lost; whether really +from the room, or only from her failing consciousness, is not +certain--and, indeed, how much of this scene was an actual occurrence, +and how much of it was the mere phantasmagoria of frenzy, the sufferer +never knew! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE APPARITION. + + Ye seem to look on me with asking eyes! + Listen! and I will tell a fearful story! + Since I remember aught about myself, + A strange heart sickness almost like to death, + A deep remorse for some unacted crime, + For some impossible, nameless wickedness, + Was on me--in its prophecy I lived; + No wretch dragg'd on to execution + E'er felt more horrid pangs than then stirr'd up + My spirit with remorseful agony.--JOHN WILSON. + + +Eighteen months had passed since the murder of Oswald Waring, and yet +the murderer had not been apprehended. Though, upon the night of that +fatal catastrophe, both the regular and volunteer police had turned out +in great numbers, and scattered themselves over the neighborhood in +pursuit of the criminal; though trained sleuth-hounds had been made to +smell his clothing, and had been set upon his scent; though, thus with +men and dogs, the authorities had hunted him throughout the State, and +had offered the largest rewards for his betrayal or apprehension, this +length of time had passed, and he had not been arrested. + +Mr. Waring having died intestate, his property, according to the laws of +that commonwealth, fell to the next of kin. + +His childless widow inherited none of her late husband's wealth, but +returned to New Orleans, and thence retired to the country, to live upon +her own reserved patrimony. + +The plantation fell into other hands, and the planter passed out of +memory. + +Valentine, with his crime and his fate, overlaid by newer excitements, +was already sinking into oblivion. He was supposed to have escaped from +the State. But there were three faithful friends who knew that, in all +this time, the miserable young man had never left the neighborhood, or +wandered five miles from the blood-stained floor of his crime. + +Phaedra was set free. The quadroons and mestizzas, with all their fiery +vehemence of temperament, have perhaps less of real vital stamina than +any other race. They cannot bear up under any great mental or physical +pressure. Phaedra, by the terrible blow that had fallen upon her, was +crushed into premature age and decrepitude. And, as a useless old crone, +she was suffered by her new master to retire to a lone cabin in the pine +barrens above the cypress swamp, and, without being required to work, +was supplied with rations of food and clothing upon an equal footing +with the plantation laborers. + +But this poor Naomi, in her desolation, had also her Ruth. + +Fannie had almost miraculously recovered from the yellow fever; and, in +the mental imbecility that had attended her convalescence, she had been +long shielded from the knowledge of the calamity that had fallen upon +them all; and at last so gradually did the facts of the catastrophe +enter her mind that she could never after say when or how she first +learned the sum of her misery; and thus she was spared the sudden shock +that must certainly have proved fatal to her. + +No one could look upon that fragile form and thin face, with its fair, +transparent pallor, and large, mournful eyes, and not know her heart was +breaking. + +What kept her life power going? + +Something that was not the love of her child, or of her poor, old +mother! Something that occasionally varied that look of hopeless, +incurable sorrow, with a wild and startled expression of extreme terror, +suggestive of insanity. Some people thought it was insanity, but they +were mistaken; her reason was sound, though her heart was broken. + +Fannie kept a little thread and needle shop; she owed the little shop to +the benevolence of Mrs. Waring; for, to the honor of that poor lady be +it spoken, even in the midst of her own awful sorrow, she had remembered +and succored her humble sister in adversity. Fannie's little shop +thrived moderately, and afforded herself and child a decent living, and +the means of alleviating some of the miseries and adding to the few +comforts of her poor mother. + +Early every Saturday evening Fannie would close her little shop and take +her child and walk out to Phaedra's cabin, to remain until Monday +morning. And these seasons, spent in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, +and in mutual consolations, were the least unhappy in these poor +women's lives. + +Phaedra's decrepitude confined her closely at home. + +But the brothers and sisters of her church did not leave her alone in +her sorrow. They came frequently, they ministered to all her +necessities, material and spiritual, as far as she had need, and they +had power. They held a weekly prayer-meeting at her house. + +And these Thursday evening meetings were sources of great comfort to the +desolate woman. + +Fannie was frequently present at them. And the old negro preacher, +Elisha, was invariable in his punctual attendance. There was also +another, a constant, though an unknown and unsuspected worshipper among +them. + +Valentine's name had long died off from every tongue, as his memory +seemed to have expired from every heart. Even in comforting Phaedra her +friends never designated the nature of her grief; and, in praying for +the Lord's mercy upon their "aged sister in her sore affliction," they +never named that affliction's cause. And though the unhappy man was +remembered in their petitions, it was in silence and in secrecy. + +One Thursday evening, while the March winds were piping through the pine +barrens, Phaedra was holding a prayer-meeting in her cabin. + +There were about twenty negroes, both men and women, present. + +Among them was the old preacher, Elisha, who led the devotions. + +Fannie was also present, with her child. And the look of wild anxiety +that occasionally varied the heart-broken expression of her face seemed +now fixed; her usually patient, suffering countenance was absolutely +haggard with terror, and strong shudders shook her frame. + +Phaedra watched her with great uneasiness. + +Meantime the meeting went on in its services, and they sang, prayed and +exhorted in turn. It was not what is technically called a "good" +meeting. Few seemed to enjoy the privilege of prayer, or to possess the +gift of exhortation. The very singing was tame and lifeless. There +seemed to be some spell of heaviness cast over all. At last, toward the +close of the evening, an aged brother arose, and began in a strain of +such wild eloquence, as deep, earnest, fervid emotions confer upon +untutored minds, to exhort his brethren and sisters of the church upon +the subject of their apathy and lukewarmness. I can do no justice to +that wild, eyrie style of oratory. It impressed, affected and strongly +excited his hearers. He concluded with _outre_ expressions and +gesticulations: + +"And why, my brethren, is this freezing spell of spiritual cold cast +over us? Why can we not pray, or exhort, or sing, or take sweet counsel +together? Why can we not love, or fear, or feel? Why will not the Spirit +of God come down to us? Why will not the Lord inspire and accept our +prayers? Is it because there is 'some accursed thing hidden' among us? +Is there an Achan in our camp? I charge you, brother, sister, whoever +you be, repent! speak! cast the foul sin from your soul!" + +He was interrupted by a deep, hollow voice that proceeded from an +obscure corner, where a seeming old woman sat crouching, her form +enveloped in a long cloak, her head hidden in a deep sunbonnet. + +"Yes! there is 'an accursed thing hidden' in your midst! and I am the +Achan in your camp!" And the figure arose, and the cloak fell, and the +bonnet was dropped, and the stranger stood revealed. + +"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Fannie, in a voice of agony. + +He crossed quickly through the astonished group, to the spot where she +cowered. He stooped and spoke to her a few earnest words, and sat her +down where she could drop her poor, young head upon the lap of the +trembling, sorrow-stricken Phaedra, while he stood up and gazed upon the +crowd, who remained, stunned with consternation into silence. + +Valentine was frightfully changed in the last eighteen months. His flesh +had wasted from his bones, until it left him almost a walking skeleton; +his skin had darkened, and his eyes had sunken, and concentrated their +fires until they burned like two imbedded stars; his voice was +cavernous. While the negroes present returned his gaze in silent awe, he +spoke: + +"A price is on my head! the Governor, or the State, will purchase and +emancipate any man here who will deliver me up to death. It is written +that 'a murderer shall hang on a tree!' It is every man's duty to +deliver, if he can, a felon up to justice! It is every man's duty here +to procure, if he can, his own freedom! Therefore, it is doubly some +man's duty to take me into custody. I have determined to die for my +deed! Doubtless, I could go at any time, and surrender to the +authorities. But in that case I should not do the little good I am now +desirous of doing. I should not in dying procure some one of you his +freedom! Therefore, I wish that one of you take me in custody, and +attend me to M----. Come, choose! elect, or cast lots for him who is to +be the freeman. Brother Portiphar----" + +Before Valentine could say another word the old preacher, Elisha, who +had been gradually getting over his astonishment, and, recovering his +self-possession climbed over stools and chairs and the crouching forms +of women and children, and made his way toward Valentine, whom he +embraced with his left arm, while he closed his lips by laying over them +his right hand. + +"Hush, Brudder Walley, hush! You don't know what you'se a-sayin' of. +You'se a prophesyin' of de ole law 'stead o' de new gospel! 'Sides +which, would you temp' any brudder here to sin an' slave his 'mortal +soul, sake o' freein' of his poor, perishin' body? Hush, Brudder Walley, +an' let me prophesy. Bredren and sisters, is der a man or a woman in de +soun' o' my voice as 'ould 'cept his free papers on de terms as Brudder +Walley offers--at de price of a brudder's life an' a sister's happiness? +Which ob yer here 'ould buy his freedom wid the price ob Walley's blood, +and Phaedra's and Fannie's tears? Would you, Brudder Portiphar? or you, +Sister Deely? or you? or you? No, not one ob you. Now, brudders an' +sisters, I'se got a proposition to make. Fust, bolt dat door, Brudder +Isaac, an' see to de fastenin' o' dat winder, Sister Hera; no knowin' +who'se 'bout. Now, let's speak low. An' what I want to propose is dis +yer: dat ebery brudder makes a pledge afore he leabes dis room to be +silent as to which has happen here dis night. Let Brudder Walley no more +be lef in de power an' temptations ob de enemy; let him feel hissef free +to 'tend our prayer-meetin's here in peace an' safety, for all as is +happened of to-night. Let us pray wid him, an' try to 'lieve his poor +soul ob its load o' sin an' sorrow!" + +Elisha would have spoken longer, but here Portiphar arose, and said, in +effect, that he did not fully agree with Brother Elisha; that he doubted +whether they should be doing right to conceal Valentine, especially when +the conscience of the latter urged him to the expiation of his crime. + +Elisha could scarcely wait for the other to finish his remarks before he +arose in a hurry, and said, in effect, if not in these words, and with +some vehemence also, that he was the last to make light of the guilt +that Valentine had brought upon his own soul, but that he also knew, +and no one else knew so well, the maddening provocation that had driven +him to his crime. That he prayed the sin might be washed away by +repentance and faith in the Redeemer; that, for this reason, he wished +Valentine to feel safe in coming among them, to share their prayers, and +hymns, and exhortations, and all their other means of grace; that, +undismayed and undistracted by the worldly sorrows of imprisonment, +trial and impending execution, he might have time to work out his +salvation! That therefore he should shield his sinful brother until they +could prove to him that the gallows was a means of grace, "which I don't +believe it is," concluded old Elisha, as he sat down in quiet triumph, +for he saw that every man and woman among the warm-hearted creatures +present coincided in sentiment with himself, and that Portiphar was put +down and silenced, if not convinced. + +And Phaedra and Fannie ventured once more to raise their drooping heads +and look about them. Alas, for their feeble hopes! Valentine, still +standing, and still agonized, waved his hand for silence and attention, +and then spoke. + +He told them he had already repented, if that were the word to express +the horrible remorse of blood-guiltiness that had long preyed upon his +heart, and consumed his flesh and blood, and left him what they saw him. +But did they, he asked them, suppose that he had repented only since the +fatal deed? No, no! but for years and years before that catastrophe he +had suffered with that uncommitted crime. Did they think that the act +was premeditated, then? Yes, in one sense it was premeditated, although +entirely unintentional, and so abhorrent that he would have gladly died +to escape committing it. The deed was premeditated, inasmuch as it had +long loomed up before him, a black mountain[2] in his forward path of +life, from which it was impossible to turn aside; to which every breath +and every step drew him nearer and nearer. That the first time he caught +a glimpse of this awful phantom of his future was while he and Oswald +were still boys. He had been provoked and exasperated to frenzy by his +playmate, and, in his utter madness, had struck and tried to kill him. +The reaction from that fit of passion had been terrible. The next +occasion upon which arose darkly before him this inevitable doom was +when his master and himself were youths. One night he was driving Oswald +home. Both were intoxicated; they quarreled; his master threatened him +with the lash; he lost his reason and his very eyesight, and all his +senses, in a dark tempest and whirlwind of mad and blind fury, and +struck with all his strength to destroy. By Heaven's mercy, that blow +was not fatal. But the recovery of his own senses from that frenzy of +anger was more horrible than anything he had ever before experienced. +From that time he had never been able to exorcise the haunting presence +of that black phantom, standing waiting for him at the terminus of his +earthly path, from which he could not escape; to which every breath and +every step drew him nearer and nearer! From that time he had felt in +some baleful moment of extreme exasperation, some irresponsible moment +of mad and blind passion, he should strike a fatal blow. Yet he said he +agonized in soul to escape that black crime; he struggled to conquer his +angry passions; he sought the grace of God, and hoped that he had +possessed it; he swore off from alcohol, that stimulus might not be +added to his other excitements to anger--to the inevitable provocations +arising from his temperament, position and circumstances--provocations +that were constantly exasperating his soul to madness. For years, he +said, no eye but the Lord's had seen the desperate war his spirit had +waged with the powers of evil within and around him, and waged +successfully, until one trying season, when, in the utter prostration of +sorrow and despondency, he had been tempted to place again the maddening +glass to his lips--tempted by the sophistry that prescribed the moral +poison as a medicine; then he lost the habit, and at last the power of +self-control, and one fatal day, when amazed and bewildered with +exceeding sorrow, and stung to frenzy with the sense of wrong-suffering +and cruelty, he had struck the blow that laid his master dead before +him. + +[Footnote 2: I use here the precise words of the unhappy man, as they +were repeated to me.] + +"Heaven knows I was not thinking of doing it; in my deep sorrow of the +preceding days the phantom of my predestined crime was exorcised. I had +not even that to warn me; the hour was entirely unguarded. I struck in +self-defense. He had intercepted and knocked me down, to prevent me from +going to see my sick wife. Blind and giddy, and furious, I struggled to +my feet, and seized the first weapon that offered, a three-legged stool, +and struck with all my strength; but when I saw the leg crush through +his eye and brain, one lightning thought told me that he was killed, and +thenceforth all the world was against me, and I against the world; and +then waves of blood and clouds of fire seemed to roll up around me, and +rage in a horrible tempest; reason fled utterly, and I knew nothing more +until near midnight, when I came to myself upon the floor of Fannie's +room; and even then, in my vague remorse and horror of half-conscious +blood-guiltiness, I seemed to be some other thing than myself--perhaps +some lost soul in perdition! Brother Elisha, Heaven bless him, was +bending over me. It was to him I owed the preservation of my life. It +was by his counsel and assistance that I disguised myself in poor +Fannie's clothing, which fitted me well enough for the purpose. He even +crimped my hair and tied up my head in a woman's turban. And he found +and thrust Fannie's free papers in my bosom, and then led me off to his +own home. Well, in this disguise, and by keeping very close, I contrived +to elude the vigilance of the police, until a surer place of safety was +provided for me near this cabin. For eighteen months I have eluded the +police; but think you, my brothers and sisters, that, for one moment, I +have escaped the avenger of blood? No! no! After the crime he found me +even in the first moments of my waking consciousness; his clutch has +never been relaxed from my heart; it compresses now, even to +suffocation; the death that you would save me from I die every hour of +my life; I can bear it no longer; I must die once for all, and have done +with it; I should have resigned myself into the hands of the law, and, +in the final expiation, long since found rest, but for Fannie's grief +and terror. But now, even her tears and prayers must not hinder me; even +for her peace it is better I should give myself up to die, and have it +over, for now she lives in the midst of alarms; hereafter, when all is +over, she will at least have quiet." + +"Quiet! yes, the quiet of death, for I never can outlive you, Valley!" +said Fannie, in a low tone of despair. + +He laid his hand fondly on her bowed head, but without comment resumed +his discourse. + +"I was about to surrender myself to the public authorities, when I +reflected that, by giving myself up to my brothers in the church, I +might confer the blessing of freedom upon some one among you, since that +was one of the rewards offered for my arrest. Here I am! Which of you +will make himself a free man to-night?" + +He paused a moment, looking around upon the little assembly; and then +fixing his eyes upon a handsome, intelligent-looking, young man, to whom +the gift of freedom might well seem the most desirable of goods, he +said: + +"Brother Joseph, will you take me into custody?" + +"May the enemy of souls take me in custody, and never let me go, when I +do!" promptly replied young Joe. + +"That's you, my boy! And may the same fate befall any one else who would +do the like!" exclaimed old Elisha, emphatically. + +A murmur of approbation ran around the little assembly and revealed the +fact that the feelings of the majority were with the speakers. + +"Brother Walley! you think yourself a very guilty man. But no one ever +craved freedom more than you did, and yet you know you would never o' +bought your freedom at the price o' any man's life, no matter how fur +forfeit his life might be! An' now, Brudder Walley, please don't think +us so much wus than yourself." + +When the little assembly heard this, with one voice (and one exception) +they declared that they would die before they would betray Valentine. +And Elisha, to confirm their faith, went around with the Bible in his +hand, and administered to each an oath of fidelity and silence upon the +subject of Valentine and the transactions of that night. + +But when he came to old Portiphar, the latter declared that he had a +scruple against taking an oath on the Evangelists, but readily gave his +promise to be secret. + +Valentine, with grateful but troubled looks, regarded these proceedings, +until Phaedra and Fannie, taking advantage of the popular sentiment, came +to him, and, one on each side, seized his hands, besought him, for their +sakes, not to cast away his slender chance of safety. + +What was to be done? Love was almost irresistible, and life, perhaps, +even at the worst was sweet; he had come to the resolution to deliver +himself up to justice; but that could be done at any time; and for the +present it could be deferred. He embraced his mother and his wife, and +bade them rest quietly, as he would proceed no farther in the matter +now. + +The meeting soon after broke up. + +One by one the members of the little community took leave of Valentine, +promising to guard his secret, and remember him in their prayers. + +After all the others had departed old Portiphar still lingered. And when +the room was quite clear, he called Valentine to the door and said: + +"Brudder Valley, I'se a poor man, wid a fam'ly o' chillun, an' ef so be +you'se 'termin' on gibbin' o' yourself up I wouldn' min' walkin' far as +the squire's office wid you myself." + +"Thank you, Portiphar; I will inform you when I need your services. +Good-night," replied the young man, shutting the door upon him. + +Portiphar had not proceeded half a dozen steps on his way before he felt +himself seized by the shoulder, and he recognized as his assailant the +strapping negro, young Joe, who, holding him tightly, said: + +"See here, Daddy Fox! I thought what you was up to, so I stopped to give +this 'vice! Ef Valley's took up, we shall all know who slipped the +bloodhounds on him, an' then some dark night somethin' will happen to +you so sudden you won't never know what hurt you! Tain't only me, but a +great many more is a-watchin' of you!" + +And with this brief and pithy exordium Joe released Portiphar, or rather +spurned him forward, and went his own way. This threat put the old man +in a cold sweat of terror. He knew the strong fellow-feeling among his +own class; that, even in the dangerous number of twenty persons, it +would keep Valentine's secret; that he himself was suspected as a +traitor; that, if Valentine should now be arrested, his own life might +not be safe with those of the meeting who were not professing +Christians; and he resolved to guide himself accordingly. + +Several weeks passed in safety to the wretched young man. + +But, released from the awful solitude and silence of his own +heavily-burdened soul, free to come among a few of his fellow-creatures, +free to speak of the deep sorrow and remorse that consumed his heart, +among those who pitied and shrank not from him, who prayed for and with +him, Valentine's mind began to recover its healthy tone; he did not +cease to mourn his crime, but he mourned no longer as one without hope; +he was again received into the little brotherhood of the church, the +simple ceremony being performed in the lone cabin; again he became the +man of fervent prayer and eloquent exhortation; and powerful, far more +powerful, was he now, through his terrible experiences and profound +repentance, than ever he had been. + +To his confidant brother, Elisha, he was accustomed to say: + +"I know I shall not finally escape the earthly punishment of my crime. I +know that sooner or later it must come; nor do I wish to avoid it; yet +will I do nothing to hasten its arrival; but when it shall come, I will +accept it." + +To which Elisha would reply: "Our lives are in the hands of the Lord," +or words to that purpose. + +Weeks grew into months, spring ripened into summer, and summer waned +into autumn, and still Valentine lived unmolested. + +At length, however, near the last of September, a rumor got afloat that +Valentine, the murderer of Mr. Waring, was concealed somewhere in the +neighborhood of his late master's residence. How this report first got +in circulation no one seemed to be able to tell; though how the secret, +known to twenty people, had been guarded so long may be more of a +subject for conjecture to many minds. Be that as it may, the peace of +the unhappy little family was gone forever. Phaedra's lonely cabin in the +pine barrens and Fannie's humble home in the city were subject to sudden +invasions and searchings by day and by night. Their weekly +prayer-meetings were surprised and broken up. But no trace of Valentine +could be discovered; as unexpectedly as he had appeared, so suddenly had +he again disappeared. The earth seemed to have swallowed him. + +But this could not last forever; and upon the third of October Valentine +was arrested under the following suspicious circumstances: + +A police officer, stationed in concealment behind a hedge of Spanish +daggers that bordered a lane crossing the highway at right angles, and +running midway between the pine ridge and cypress swamp, saw what seemed +a young negro woman coming down the lane. She was poorly and plainly +clothed, and wore a long sunbonnet. There was nothing whatever in her +manner or appearance to attract attention. Yet this police officer +watched her closely. Presently, coming up the lane from an opposite +direction, appeared the figure of an old negro. The policeman favored +him also with a share of notice. Meeting the seeming woman, the old man +laughed, held out his hand, and exclaimed, in a clear voice: + +"Ha! Brudder Walley! Good-morning! Walking out to take a little air, +eh?" + +"Hush! for Heaven's sake, don't speak so loud or call me by name. Yes, +I have stolen forth for a breath of fresh air." + +"Glad to hear it. Which way is you walking, Brudder Walley?" inquired +the other, raising his voice. + +"For the Lord's sake, I beg you will not call me by my name, or speak so +loud!" + +"No danger at all, Brudder Walley; no one in sight!" exclaimed the old +man, louder than ever. "Which way did you say you wer' goin', Brudder +Walley?" + +"I am going home." + +"Well, Brudder Walley, let me go long wid you dis time. I'd like to see +Sister Phaedra," pleaded the old negro. + +"Come along, then; but be careful." + +They walked up the lane together, and then struck into the pines. The +policeman followed them, and, himself unseen, keeping them in sight, +traced them into the cabin of Phaedra. + +Then having, as it were, pointed his game, he ran back as fast as +possible, sprang over the hedge, ran down the lane, crossed the highway, +sprang over a second hedge dividing the road from Major Hewitt's +plantation, hastened up to that gentleman's house, gave the alarm, +procured the assistance of the overseer and the gardener, both Irishmen, +and with this reinforcement hastened back to the scene of action. + +They found Phaedra's cabin quiet enough. To the knock of the policeman +the old woman's voice responded, "Come in." + +They entered, and found no one within except Phaedra and the old negro +preacher, Portiphar--no sign of Valentine. As the cabin contained but +one room, with but one door and window, and no loft or outbuildings, the +premises were easily searched. The little room was also very scantily +furnished; a rag carpet concealed the rough floor, a rude bed stood in +one corner, a cupboard in another, an oak chest in a third, a pine table +in the fourth; a couple of chairs, a few stools, etc., completed the +appointments. The cupboard was opened, the big chest ransacked, the bed +and bedstead pulled to pieces, the chimney inspected, but no trace of +the fugitive could be found. + +Phaedra was questioned; but she sadly shook her head and remained dumb. + +The old negro preacher was examined, but he replied evasively, that he +had just come, and knew nothing about it, while at the same time he kept +his eyes strangely fixed upon the corner of the room occupied by +Phaedra's bed. + +Yet, the policeman had pulled that bed to pieces and found nothing, and +now did not know what to make of Portiphar's pertinacious gaze. At last +a bright idea struck him. He took the poker and began sounding the +floor. He went on sounding foot by foot until he approached the bed. +Turning then, he saw Phaedra's face haggard with the most frightful +expression of terror and anxiety. Dragging the bedstead away by main +force he began to sound the corner. The floor returned a hollow echo; he +was satisfied. + +It was but the work of a moment to turn up the carpet, to lift up a +loose plank and to discover the mouth of the excavation below. + +He knelt upon his knees and peered down into the cavern; the mouth only +opened in the corner of Phaedra's cabin; the cavern itself extended under +and beneath the house. He peered down into the darkness for a few +moments, and then called, in a not unkindly voice: + +"Valentine, my poor fellow, you may as well come out; the game is up +with you!" + +A moment passed, and then Valentine, indeed, appeared above the opening. + +"Give me time to change my dress, Mr. Pomfret," he said, for he was +still in his woman's gown. + +This was granted. The change was soon effected, and he came forth and +gave himself up, only saying, as they took him away: + +"Mother, tell my friends that the traitor at your side betrayed me to +death!" And he regretted these words as soon as they were spoken. + +Phaedra had not heard them; she seemed praying--she had really fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TRIAL. + + You few that love me, + And dare be bold to weep for such as I-- + My gentle friends and fellows, whom to leave + Is only bitter to me, only dying-- + Go with me, like good angels, to mine end, + And when the long divorce of death falls on me, + Make of your prayers one most sweet sacrifice, + And lift my soul to heaven.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +The news of the arrest of Valentine spread rapidly over the city and +surrounding country, creating everywhere an intense excitement, and +reviving all the deep interest that had been felt two years before, at +the epoch of the crime. + +This excitement prevailed all around Fannie, yet she knew nothing of it, +or at least of its cause. There was no one found willing to carry this +sorrowful intelligence to her, whom it most concerned; and she remained +in total ignorance of the arrest of her husband until the next day, +which being Saturday, she was looking forward, as usual, to an early +closing of the shop, and a walk out into the country, to spend the night +and the Sabbath with her old mother, and to comfort Valentine, when, +unexpectedly, poor Phaedra, recovered in some degree from the shock she +had received, and accompanied by Elisha, arrived at her daughter's +humble little home. + +With all possible consideration and gentleness the old negro preacher +broke the intelligence of Valentine's imprisonment to Fannie. + +But, alas! if all fateful antecedents had not led her to anticipate this +consequence, what further possible preparation could fit her to receive +such intelligence? And, indeed, in any event, what preparation would +soften such calamity? + +Poor Fannie's frame was very delicate, and her heart by many blows had +become physically feeble, and was, at best, a very imperfect instrument +of her will. Had it not been so, the poor girl might have better borne +up; as it was, she succumbed to the new blow, and a night of dangerous +illness followed. + +Yet, the next morning Fannie insisted on leaving her bed, and though +apparently more dead than alive, and having to be supported between +Phaedra and old Elisha, she went to the prison to see Valentine. + +All prisons are, of course, wretched places; but the jail of M---- was +one of the most wretched of its kind. Comparatively small, shamefully +overcrowded, close, ill-ventilated and pestilential, it insured nothing +but the safe custody of the bodies of its miserable inmates. Evidently +reform had not even looked upon its outer walls, far less opened one of +its doors or windows. + +For greater security Valentine had been confined in the condemned cell. +A slight irregularity, but one of which no one had the right to +complain. Although, under circumstances less tragic it must have seemed +ludicrous to associate the graceful and almost girlish delicacy of poor +Valentine's figure with danger to the security of bolts and bars and +prison walls. + +Howbeit, in the condemned cell Valentine was placed, and there Fannie +and her companions found him. + +Valentine received them with great composure, that was only slightly +disturbed when Fannie, upon first seeing him, threw herself, with a cry +of passionate sorrow, upon his bosom. + +When the turnkey had left the cell, and locked them all in together, +Valentine addressed himself to soothing Fannie. And after a while, +favored by the exhaustion that followed her vehement emotion, he +succeeded in quieting her. + +After a little conversation, the old preacher invited all to join him in +prayer, and, kneeling down, offered up a fervent petition for the divine +mercy on the prisoner. Through the whole of the interview, all were +impressed by the perfect composure and cheerfulness of Valentine. He +seemed like a man who had cast a great weight from his breast, or in +some other way had been relieved from a heavy burden. Though his manner +was perfectly free from any charge of reprehensible levity, there was +certainly an elasticity of spirit in all he said or did, that was as +strange as it was entirely sincere and unaffected. Was this because he +felt that he had nothing further to hope or fear, and trouble had ceased +with uncertainty? Whatever was the cause, his mood happily influenced +others, and they grew quiet and cheerful in his company. + +"Dearest friends," Valentine said, afterward, to Elisha, "these things +that have occurred were obliged to happen; no power on earth could have +prevented them; and the power of Heaven never intervenes to perform +miracles, or to avert evil at the expense of moral free agency. I am +not a predestinarian, Brother Elisha, but I know that certain causes +must produce certain effects, as surely as given figures produce known +results. As I told you before, I always knew that this was to be my +fate. From the first moment that I was provoked to strike Oswald Waring, +I have seen this crime and this fate before me, like a horrible cloud. I +would try to close my eyes to it--try to forget it. In vain--for even in +my brightest moments it would fall suddenly like a funeral pall around +me, blackening all the light of life. When poor Oswald Waring lay dead +before me, I did not realize the crime more intensely than I had by +presentiment a hundred times before. And when I shall stand, as I shall +very soon do, upon the scaffold's fatal drop, with the cord around my +neck, and the cap that is about to shut out the last glimpse of this +world's sunshine from my eyes, descending over my face--even in that +supreme moment, I know I cannot feel the situation more acutely than I +have done prophetically a thousand times before! + +"This prophetic feeling was the secret horror of my whole life. I dared +not confide it to any one; therefore, it preyed upon my spirits, driving +me at times almost to insanity. Yet, friends, there was nothing occult +in this presentiment. It was but the swift and sure inference of certain +effects from certain causes. It was rather a helpless foresight, than +second sight. Well, the worst has come! I am calmer and happier now than +I have been for many long, sad years. This fate is not nearly so +horrible in reality as it seemed in anticipation. The only earthly +trouble that I have is in the thought of my little family. Comfort them, +Brother Elisha! Help them to bring all the power of religion to their +support. Time and religion cures the worst of sorrows; it will cure +theirs. Only, in the meantime--in the hour of their greatest trial, and +the first dark days that follow it--watch over them, sustain and comfort +them, and lift up their hands to God, Elisha." + +"I will--I will, indeed, Brudder Walley," promised the old preacher. + +Valentine was not left alone in his trials. The friends of the Methodist +church flocked around, and one or another was always with him. The +clergymen of every denomination took a great interest in his situation +and character. And the better Valentine was known, the deeper this +interest grew. In advance of his trial, the press took up his case, and +the papers were filled with accounts of visits that this or that +gentleman had made him; conversations that one or another clergyman had +held with him in his cell; and with descriptions of his good looks, +graceful manners, intelligence, knowledge, conversational powers and +eloquence--all "so remarkable in one of his race and station." It would +seem, indeed, as if, unhappily, the good points of the unhappy young man +had never been known or suspected, until crime had brought him +prominently before the public. If there was anything to be regretted in +the great sympathy that was felt for him, it was that the sympathizers +kept up too much fuss around him for the good of one of his excitable +temperament, and thus prevented the self-recollection and sobriety that +befited the solemnity of his situation. Through the kindness of these +friends, the best counsel that could be prevailed upon to take up his +hopeless cause was retained, to defend Valentine in the approaching +trial. + +There was one affecting circumstance that occurred just before the +sitting of the criminal court. Mrs. Waring had been subpoenaed to attend +as a witness for the prosecution. She came up from Louisiana; and, soon +after her arrival in the city, she sought out the poor, little, obscure +wife of the prisoner, and gave her what comfort she could +impart--telling her, that though she was the principal witness, her +testimony would not bear hard upon Valentine, whom she felt persuaded +was mad, and unconscious of his acts at the moment she witnessed them. +And that she hoped his life might yet be spared, for she felt convinced +that capital punishment was in no case a corrector or a preventor of +crime. And that, if the trial should terminate unfavorably, she would +petition the governor for a commutation of the sentence. And that her +petition, under the circumstances, would be the most powerful that could +be presented. These and other merciful promises and reviving hopes did +the gentle-hearted widow infuse into the poor girl's sinking heart. + +And, oh! how Fannie knelt, and covered the lady's hands with loving +kisses, and bathed them with grateful tears. And Mrs. Waring, when she +left her, went directly to the most eminent lawyer in the city--one who +had indignantly repulsed a clergyman who wished to retain him for the +prisoner--and, after telling him very much what she had told Fannie +relative to the character of her own testimony, succeeded in retaining +him to defend Valentine; for this gentleman seemed to think that the +favorable opinion and testimony of Mrs. Waring would make a very great +difference in the respectability, popularity and security of the cause +that he no longer hesitated to embrace. + +Of course, there was much diversity of opinion in regard to Mrs. +Waring's course. All wondered at her, many censured her, while a few saw +in her conduct the perfection of Christian charity. But, like all who +have thought and suffered much, and profited by such experience, Mrs. +Waring was indifferent to any earthly judgment outside the sphere of her +own affections; and so, ignorant and regardless of popular praise or +censure, the lady went calmly on her merciful course. + +The day of the sitting of the court drew near, when, one morning, a +bustle in the gallery leading to Valentine's cell attracted the +attention of the latter, and he had just concluded that the officials +were bringing in a new prisoner, when the noisy group paused before his +own door, unlocked it, and introduced Governor, Major Hewitt's big +negro. With a few parting words, the turnkey and the constable left him, +went out, and locked the door. + +Then, for the first time, Valentine recovered from his surprise, and +spoke to the newcomer. + +But Governor, standing bolt upright until his tall figure and large head +nearly reached the low ceiling, looked the image of stupor, and answered +never a word. + +Valentine knew, of course, that he was in desperate trouble, or he would +not be in that cell. Kindly taking his hand, he led him to the bed, and +made him sit down upon it. He was as docile as the gentlest child, +though seemingly more stupid than any brute. And it was hours before he +recovered sufficiently to tell Valentine the cause of his arrest. + +The story gathered from his thick and incoherent talk was this: He +himself was a huge, black, unsightly negro, painfully conscious of his +personal defects. He was married to Milly, a pretty mulatto woman, whom +he loved with the idolatrous affection that often distinguishes his +race, and who had loved him in return, for the wealth of goodness under +his rude exterior. + +And he had been very happy with his wife and two little girls, until the +new overseer came. + +This person was a young, unmarried man, and his name was Moriarty. He +took a fancy to Milly; used to stop every day at the door of her cabin, +to ask for a drink of water; then, after a while, he got into the habit +of going into her cabin to sit down and rest, and was never in a hurry +to go away. + +If there was any work to be done in the overseer's house, Milly was +always sent for to do it, and always detained a long time. Governor was +dispatched to labor upon the most remote part of the plantation; and +whenever a messenger was required to go upon a distant errand, Governor +was selected. + +Poor fellow! he was not acute enough to be suspicious, or bad enough to +be jealous. On the contrary, he was very good-natured, stupid and +confiding. And he might have gone on forever, without suspecting that +there was anything wrong, had not Milly, upon every Sunday and holiday, +appeared in finery better than any of her companions could sport, and so +excited their envy, quickened their perceptions and stimulated their +tongues. + +And rudely enough were the poor husband's eyes opened, and from that +time no more wretched man than Governor lived upon this earth. He +expostulated with Milly, who tearfully confessed to receiving presents +from the new overseer, and protested her innocence of everything but +their acceptance. And it is probable that up to this time, and for a +long time after, Milly, who sincerely loved the ugly, but good-hearted +father of her children, was innocent of everything except vanity; and +could she have been delivered from the power of the tempter, would have +remained blameless. + +But there was no such deliverance for her. And now commenced the most +troubled life that could be imagined for the husband. He felt that Milly +still loved him with undiminished fidelity, but he knew, also, the power +of temptation and of example. How many virtuous women were there on that +or any other plantation? Why, virtue was not taught them--was not +expected of them; and if they were born with the instinct, it was soon +lost among a class where licentiousness was the rule and integrity the +exception. The generality of this misfortune among his fellow-slaves did +not make it any the less painful to this poor man to see his beloved +Milly tempted from his bosom. + +And he saw, with increasing anguish, that Milly, notwithstanding her +penitence and tearful declaration that she would be faithful to Governor +forever and forever, could not prevent the daily calls of the overseer +at her cabin, and dared not disobey his commands, when he summoned her +to work in his house. + +Governor was still and ever kept at work upon the most distant parts of +the plantation, and the overseer still and ever appropriated as much as +he possibly could of Milly's time and services. There was no help for +them. + +Major Hewitt, in many respects a kind master, had, for his peace, long +closed his ears to complaints of the slaves against their overseer, and +Governor knew full well that his master would hear not one word against +Mr. Moriarty. + +Why lengthen a sad story? All the women of the plantation knew that, +sooner or later, Milly would have no right to look down from her pride +of integrity upon them. Yet it was some time--more than a year--before +she was numbered among the frail ones. + +And then, as guilt is so much more circumspect than innocence, poor +Governor was deceived into a fool's paradise of confiding love, and led +to believe that the overseer had entirely abandoned the persecution of +Milly. + +This blind confidence lasted until one day, when one of those sudden +little breaks of water, so small that its surface might be covered with +two hands, yet, withal, the herald of that terror of the Gulf planters, +a devastating "crevasse," appeared in the midst of a valuable field, +and it became necessary to arrest its progress at once. + +A party of negroes was dispatched to the spot, and Governor was sent +with them. In the course of a few hours, the crevasse had made dangerous +progress, and they had to work until very late at night. But it was +early when the overseer left them. + +It was between eleven and twelve o'clock when a young negro from the +quarters came down to the works, and, taking Governor aside, whispered +something in his ear. + +Down went the man's shovel, and away he sprang, and--all on fire with +rage and jealousy--a man no longer, but an unreasoning brute--ran and +leaped, bounding over everything that came in his way, and taking a +bee-line to his cabin, the door of which he burst open. + +A moment and the overseer lay dead, slain by the hand of the injured +husband. + +Governor did not hurt a hair of Milly's head; even in his mad and blind +rage he had spared her, still so beloved. Neither did he attempt to save +himself by flight, but lay moaning and groaning upon the cabin floor +until he was taken into custody. + +This was the substance of the story related to Valentine. + +"I'se sorry I killed him, Brudder Walley! dough I hardly knowed what I +was a doin' of. I'se sorry, dough it was all so tryin' from fuss to +las'. Yes! I is berry sorry, dough it ain't no use to say it, 'cause I +knows how, ef it wur to do ober agin', I should be sure to do it ober +agin'! so, what's de use o' pentin'?" + +Valentine pressed his hand in silence, scarcely knowing what to reply +just then, sadly thinking of the many thousands whose positions were +just as false, as trying, as maddening, as his own and Governor's had +been. + +About noon that day, Major Hewitt came into the cell to see his slave. +The Major was very much overcome at the sight of Governor, and spoke +with great feeling. + +"Oh, Governor! my heart bleeds for you, and for what you have done, my +poor fellow! Oh! Governor, why, why did you take your revenge in your +own hands, in this horrible manner? Why did you not, long ago, complain +to me? I would have seen you righted." + +"Ah, Marse Major, you never would hear no 'plaints we-dem made against +the oberseer. It's been tried often, and you never would!" + +"Yes, but my poor fellow! in such a case I would have listened to your +complaint. I would have protected your family peace at every cost. If +necessary, I would have discharged Moriarty. Yours was an exceptional +case, and I would have attended to it." + +"Ah, Marse Major, honey! I dessay you think you would now, as it has +come to dis yer! But you wouldn't o' done it, Marse Major, honey! 'deed +you wouldn't, 'cause you see it has been tried afore, an' you never +would listen to nothin' 't all 'bout de oberseer. It's on'y 'cause it's +come to dis yer you thinks different," said Governor, sadly, but +respectfully, and even affectionately. + +Major Hewitt did not reply; perhaps he felt that the slave had spoken +the truth, for he looked extremely distressed, and told him that he +would engage the best counsel to defend him; that no cost should be +spared, even to the half of his estate, to save him. + +And Major Hewitt kept his word, and hastened to secure the best legal +aid to be had for Governor. + +The day of the trial was at hand. It was known that two were to be tried +for similar offenses. But every one was interested in Valentine, and no +one, except his master, seemed to care one farthing for Governor. Those +who saw him said he was "an ill-looking fellow," and there left the +subject. + +Valentine was the first arraigned. When his case was fully investigated, +it was obvious to all minds that on the fatal encounter in which Mr. +Waring fell, Valentine had struck only in self-defense--only after his +own blood had been drawn, and he had been once felled to the floor. But +then the blow had been fatal. And though he was well and ably defended, +yet the verdict rendered against the prisoner was "Willful Murder." +Valentine heard the verdict, and afterward received his sentence +quietly, as a matter of course. At its conclusion, he bowed gravely, and +was conducted from the court-room. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE SCAFFOLD. + + Oh! judge none lost, but wait and see, + With hopeful pity, not disdain; + The depth of the abyss may be + The measure of the height of pain.--HOUSEHOLD WORDS. + + +When Valentine's little family circle received information of the +verdict that laid low their last hopes, Phaedra met the misfortune with +that sad resignation which we often see in those whom either time or +sorrow has aged, and which we are apt to think owes its calmness as much +to the exhausted energies of the sufferer as to any higher cause. Fannie +heard the issue of the trial with wild grief, and a day and night of +illness intervened before she could go and see the condemned. + +The conviction of Valentine was immediately followed by the arraignment +of Governor. The trial of the latter was even shorter than that of the +former had been. He was ably defended by the counsel employed by his +master; but nothing could have saved him. And the jury, without leaving +their seats, brought in their verdict of "Guilty." His sentence followed +immediately. It was, however, pitiable to observe that the poor wretch +did not understand one-half of what had been done or said during the +whole course of his trial. And when he was conducted back to the prison, +and locked in with Valentine, he said to the latter: + +"Well, Walley, ole marse up dere on de bench put a black nightcap on his +head, an' said somethin' 'r other 'bout hangin'; but I reckon he only +did it to scare me, 'cause I saw by his face how his heart was a +softening all de time." + +After his condemnation to death, Valentine's friends were more devoted +to him than ever. Day and night, one or more of the brethren of the +church was with him. And one sister, especially, who was known by the +name of "Sister Dely," divided her attentions between him and his little +family, who equally, or more, needed comfort. Again the papers were +filled with descriptions of this "extraordinary boy," as Valentine was +called. Interviews held with him by clergymen were reported at length. +His likeness was taken in prison, and wood-cutted in a pamphlet report +of his trial. In a word, the unhappy young man became for a while a +local notoriety. And this was ascribable, not to the nature of the +catastrophe, which, unfortunately, was but too common in that section of +country, but to the individuality and character of the condemned. + +And another circumstance connected with this tragedy was so strange that +I must not omit to record it. A rumor got out that old Portiphar had +betrayed Valentine into the hands of the law, and that a number of +negroes in secret meeting had sworn the death of the traitor whenever +and wherever either one of them could take him. This matter was +carefully investigated by those most interested; but though they could +obtain no sort of satisfactory information, yet their suspicions, +instead of being dissipated, were so strongly confirmed, that it was +deemed advisable for the officers who had arrested Valentine to come out +under oath with the declaration that Portiphar had not by the remotest +hint put them upon the track, but that the discovery of the fugitive +under the disguise of female apparel had been entirely accidental. + +This declaration, duly sworn to and attested, was embodied in a short +address to be read to the negroes, printed on handbills, and posted and +distributed all over the city and surrounding country. And for some +little time this was supposed to be quite sufficient to allay excitement +and insure security. But in a day or two it became evident, in some way, +that the negroes did not believe the sworn statement of the police +officers. And as it was thought best to get rid of unsafe property, +Portiphar, who had lurked in concealment for some weeks, was sold by his +master to a New Orleans trader, and the neighborhood breathed freely +again. + +The petition to the Executive for the pardon of Valentine, got up under +the auspices of Oswald Waring's widow, failed of success, as every one +had predicted that it must. And when this last little glimmering light +of earthly hope went down, Valentine sedulously addressed himself to +preparation for eternity. + +It was piteous to observe Governor at this time. Any one, to have seen +him, must have perceived at once that he was no subject for capital +punishment. But no one, except his master and Valentine, was the least +interested in him. Alas! poor wretch, he was not even interested in +himself! When the refusal of the Executive to pardon Valentine had been +received, it was affecting to see the efforts of Governor to console +what he supposed to be the disappointment of his fellow-prisoner. + +"Don't you mind, Walley! Dey's only doin' dis to scare we! Sho! dey's no +more gwine to hang we, nor dey's gwine to heave so much money in de +fire! Sho! we's too walable. I heern de gemmen all say what fine, +walable men we was--'specially me! Sho! dere's muscle for you!" said +Governor, drawing himself up, jerking forward both arms with a strong +impetus, and then clapping his hands upon his nether limbs. + +"Sho! You think dey's gwine to let all dat here go to loss? Ef it were +only whippin' now, dey might do it! but making all dis here muscle dead? +Sho! what de use o' dead nigger? What good dat do? Sho!" + +And, with this strong expletive of contempt, Governor sat down. Strange +and sad as was the fact, this poor, stupid creature was thoroughly +persuaded that his own and Valentine's life were perfectly safe. He knew +that, living, he himself was worth at least twelve or fifteen hundred +dollars, for he had more than once heard himself so appraised; and that, +dead, he was worth just so much less than nothing as the cost of his +burial would be. And from these facts he drew the inference that he was +far too valuable to be executed. And he persisted in looking upon the +whole train of events, comprising his arrest, imprisonment, trial and +condemnation, with all the pageantry of court-room, judges, lawyers, +juries and officers, only as a solemn show, got up to frighten him and +his fellow prisoner. Nothing could disabuse him of this illusion; for, +if once any idea got fixed in his poor, thick head, it was just +impossible to dislodge it. In vain Valentine endeavored to enlighten him +as to his true position; Governor would reply, with a compassionate +look: + +"Oh, sho! you's scared, Walley! you's scared! Tell me! I knows better! +Dey's not such fools as to hang we! ca'se what would be de use, you +know! Sho!" + +The Methodist preacher exhorted and prayed with Governor, to as little +purpose. He could not be made to believe in the fact of his +fast-approaching death. + +"Oh, sho, Walley! I doesn't say nuffin' 't all afore dem, 'cause you see +'taint right to give de back answer to de ministers; but dey's league +'long o' de oders, Walley! Dey's league 'long o' de oders. Can't scare +dis chile wid no sich! Tell you, Walley, dead nigger ain't no use, but +dead expense! So what de use o' hanging of him? Sho!" + +This interjection usually finished the argument. + +The day of execution approached. Valentine divided his time between +preparation for death, interviews with his family and friends, and the +composition of an address that he wished to deliver upon the scaffold. +This address embodied a great portion of Valentine's life--experiences, +as they are already known to the reader. When it was finished in +manuscript, it was submitted to the perusal of the attendant clergymen. +Some among them warmly approved the address, and declared it to be the +most eloquent appeal they had ever met. Others reserved their opinion +for the time, and afterward asserted that it was the most powerful +sermon that they had ever seen or heard. + +The day before the execution came. And now I must inform you that it is +to "Sister Dely" I am indebted for the report of the scenes that +occurred in her presence in the condemned cell that day. Dely had +obtained leave from her mistress, Mrs. Hewitt, to go to the prison, to +take leave of her Valentine. + +It was about ten o'clock, on Thursday, the 23d of December, when she +reached the city. All the town was preparing for Christmas. When she +entered the condemned cell, she found no one there except the two +prisoners. There were two cot bedsteads at opposite sides of the cell, +and one small iron stove against the wall, between the beds, and +directly opposite the door by which she entered. + +On her right hand, as she came in, sat Governor upon his cot, watching, +with lazy interest, the employment of his fellow-prisoner, which, in +sooth, was strange enough for one of his position. + +Valentine was standing at the little table, and engaged in ironing out a +cravat, while on the cot near him lay spread out a shirt just ironed, a +satin vest, newly pressed, and a full suit of black broadcloth, well +brushed. + +And Dely knew at a glance that the poor fellow, true to his habits of +neatness to the last, was preparing to present a proper appearance upon +the scaffold. + +"Was there no one to do that for you, Valentine?" said Dely, after her +first greeting. + +"No, child, there was not. Mother and poor Fannie are in too much +trouble to think of such a thing." + +"I would have done it for you, Valentine." + +"No matter, child; it is done now," said the young man, laying the +folded cravat upon the cot, and then turning around and sitting down by +the side of Dely. + +"I wish, Delia, that you would try to open the eyes of Governor to the +realities of his position. Poor fellow! he is fully persuaded that +to-morrow, instead of being executed, we shall be set at liberty." + +Delia turned her eyes in wonder toward Governor, who sat upon the side +of his cot, smiling and shaking his head in the most incredulous manner. +Delia shrank from the task that Valentine would have imposed upon her, +and only said: + +"We will pray for him, Brother Valentine. Governor, won't you kneel down +with us, and pray for yourself?" + +Governor said that, as praying could not do anybody any harm, he +reckoned he would, to please Dely, though he did not see the use of it. + +They all knelt, and this humble handmaid of the Lord, who was peculiarly +gifted in prayer, offered up a fervent petition in behalf of the +prisoners, and especially for Governor. + +They had just risen from their knees, when the door of the cell was +opened, and the jailer entered, accompanied by another official, who +nodded to the inmates, and then, beckoning to Valentine, requested him +to step forward. + +Valentine obeyed, and the man, drawing a measuring-line from his pocket, +told him to stand up straight. Valentine drew himself up with as much +composure as ever he had shown when, in his earlier days, he was getting +himself fitted for a Sunday suit of clothes. The operator proceeded to +measure his subject across the shoulders. And when this was done, he +stopped, drew a paper and pencil from his pocket, and, leaning on +Valentine's late ironing table, put down some figures. Then he took the +line again, and carefully measured him from the crown of his head to the +heels of his shoes, and made a second note. + +Then telling Valentine that he was done with him, he beckoned to +Governor, who had been looking on with open-mouthed amazement, and who +now came forward, and braced himself up with the utmost alacrity and +cheerfulness. Indeed, he was smiling from ear to ear, as he exclaimed, +triumphantly: + +"Tell you all so! We ain't had no winter clothes guv us yet, and dey's +done sent de tailor to fit us!" + +The operator with the line, on hearing this, dropped his measure, and, +with emotions divided between astonishment and compassion, gazed at the +poor wretch, who remained smiling in delight. No one else spoke, and, +after a moment, the official picked up his line and resumed his work. + +"Wen'll de clothes be ready for me?" inquired Governor, with great +interest. + +"I am not taking your size for clothes," answered the operator, gravely. + +"No! What den?" inquired Governor, in astonishment, but without the +least suspicion of the truth. + +"Don't you know?" + +"No! I doesn't! What is it?" + +"Well, you know, at least, that you are to die to-morrow. And I am +measuring you for your coffin." + +Governor made no reply, neither did the smile pass at once from his +face. He no longer refused to believe in his approaching fate, but the +idea was very slow in penetrating his brain. + +The carpenter, having now completed his errand, left the cell in company +with the turnkey. Governor went and resumed his seat upon the side of +his cot, and remained perfectly silent, only not as cheerful as he had +been, and occasionally putting up his hand and rubbing his head, and +seeming to ponder. At last he said, dubiously, however: + +"Brother Walley, honey, I'se beginnin' to be 'fraid, arter all, dat dey +tends for to hang us, sure 'nough! Dey wouldn't carry de nonsense dis +far 'out dey did, would dey? 'Sides which, dey wouldn't go to de 'xpense +o' coffins, would dey?" + +"No, Governor," said Valentine, going over and sitting down beside him, +and taking his hand and continuing: "Governor, by this hour to-morrow +you and I will be over all our earthly troubles." + +Slowly, slowly the truth was making its way to Governor's consciousness. +His face clouded over, but he seemed to grow more stupid every instant. +To all Valentine's speeches he answered never one word, not seeming to +hear or to understand them. + +Dely could not bear this. Bursting into tears, she went and dropped upon +her knees before Governor, and took his two hands in hers, and wept over +them, and begged and prayed him, for his soul's sake, to listen to her +words. Governor was only a recent acquaintance; he was not, as Valentine +was, an old friend; yet it almost broke her gentle heart to see him +thus--so stolid, so unconscious, so insensible. + +They were interrupted again, this time by a clergyman and one other +gentleman, a member of the church. + +Dely was now obliged to return home. She took an affectionate leave of +Valentine and of Governor, telling them that she should pray for them +constantly, and that she should be on her knees, praying for them, in +their last hour of trial. + +The minister found Valentine well prepared to meet his doom. But when he +turned his attention to the other condemned man, he found, to his +dismay, that he could not make the slightest impression upon Governor. +The unhappy creature no longer doubted what his doom would be; but, as I +said before, the truth very slowly entered his mind; and, alas! as it +entered it seemed to press him down, and down, into deeper and more +hopeless apathy, until at last he sat there silent, senseless, crushed. +They could not pray with him; they could only pray for him. + +The next day, Christmas Eve, dawned brightly for almost all the +world--darkly enough for the condemned. + +An early hour of the morning had been appointed for the farewell +interview between the prisoners and their families. Such partings are +always distressing beyond conception, and I shrink from the pain of +saying much about them. + +Governor had but few friends, his fellow-slaves, who came over very +early in the morning to take leave of him, and who, finding him so +apathetic, went away comforted, with the belief "that Governor did not +seem to mind it." + +His miserable wife came alone, to drop weeping at his feet, and implore +his dying forgiveness for the part she had had in bringing him to this +awful pass. + +Governor, partially aroused from his torpor, awoke sufficiently to put +his arm around her shoulders, and say: + +"Don't cry, chile; I doesn't bear you no malice. You couldn't help it, +chile, no more 'an I could; things was too much for us bofe. Don't cry; +I loves you same as ever." + +This gentleness almost broke the penitent woman's heart, and she went +away weeping bitterly, wringing her hands and wishing most sincerely it +were possible for her, the most guilty one, to die in her husband's +stead. After this visit Governor sank into a still deeper stupor of +despair, from which nothing had power to arouse him. + +Directly after this followed the last interview between Valentine and +his little family. + +Phaedra and Fannie came in, accompanied by old Elisha, who carried little +Coralie in his arms. I cannot describe the anguish of this parting. + +Phaedra perhaps bore it best of all, with a strange hopeless fortitude +that reminded one of Governor's stolidity, only saying that though life +was sorrowful even at its happiest, it was, thank Heaven! short at its +longest; and that she should not be many days behind her son. + +But Fannie was wild with sorrow, and utterly inconsolable. When the +moment of final separation arrived, she fainted, and was borne from the +cell, as one dead, in the arms of the old preacher. Phaedra followed, +leading little Coralie. + +The execution was to be a public one. And the authorities published a +card in the daily papers, formally inviting the masters of the city and +the surrounding country to give their slaves a holiday upon this day, to +enable the latter to attend the execution of Valentine and Governor. And +as the morning advanced toward noon so numerous was the multitude of +negroes that gathered in from all parts of the country, and so great was +the excitement that prevailed among them, that the powers saw the +mistake they had made by issuing this general invitation, and felt great +alarm as to the result. + +The marshal called upon the militia and the city guards to turn out and +muster around the scaffold to insure the safe custody of the prisoners +and the execution of the sentence. + +The scaffold was erected upon a gentle elevation, on the west suburb of +the city. A crowd of many thousands, each moment augmented, was gathered +upon the ground. But the two companies of militia made a way through +this forest of human beings, and formed around the foot of the scaffold. + +It was about eleven o'clock that the prisoners were placed in a close +van, in company with the marshal and a clergyman, and escorted by a +detachment of the city guards, were driven to the place of execution. +The presence of the guards was needed to force a passage through the +compact and highly-excited crowd. The prison van was kept carefully +closed, and the condemned with their attendants remained invisible until +the procession had passed safely through that stormy sea of human beings +and gained the security of the hollow square formed by the bayonets of +the militia around the scaffold. + +The van drew up at the foot of the steps leading to the platform. The +police officer that stood behind the vehicle jumped down and opened the +door, and handed out the prisoners, who were followed closely by the +marshal and the clergyman. + +The marshal immediately took charge of Governor, to lead him up the +stairs. + +The clergyman drew Valentine's arm within his own, to follow. + +And the police officer was joined by the deputy marshal, who brought up +the rear. + +And so the sad procession ascended those fatal stairs--Governor in a +deep stupor, or looking as if he did not understand what all this +pageant meant; Valentine with grave composure, as if he felt the awful +solemnity of the moment, and was prepared to meet it. The scaffold was +very high, and was reached by a flight of more than twenty steps. + +When the prisoners and their escort gained the platform they stood in +full view of every individual of that vast concourse of people. Their +appearance was hailed by acclamation from the multitude below, and +huzzas of encouragement or defiance, shouts of derision and cries of +sympathy were mingled in one indistinguishable _melee_ of noise. + +The prisoners were not prematurely clad in the habiliments of the grave, +as is usual upon such occasions, but were attired in ordinary citizen's +dress. + +Governor wore his best Sunday suit of "pepper and salt" casinet, and +looked a huge, shapeless figure of a negro, in which the sooty skin +could scarcely be distinguished from the sooty clothes. + +Valentine looked very well, though pale and worn. He wore a suit of +black broadcloth, with a white cravat and gloves, and his natural +ringlets were arranged with that habitual regard to order and neatness +which was with him a second nature. + +Valentine held in his hands the manuscript address that he wished to +make to the assembly. He had been promised by the authorities an +opportunity of delivering this address, before the parting prayers +should be said. He stood now with his copy in his hand, only waiting for +the noise to subside before his commencing. Governor stood by his side, +in stolid insensibility. + +But Valentine had been deceived to the last moment. He was not to be +permitted to deliver his address; the authorities feared too much its +exciting effect upon the tumultuous assembly below. The marshal had +received his instructions, and had given private orders to his deputy +and assistants. + +Valentine was still letting his eyes rove over the "multitudinous sea" +of heads, waiting for a calm in which he might be heard, when his eye +fell upon Major Hewitt, who had been absent all day at the capital, and +had but just returned from his last fruitless attempt to move the +Executive in behalf of the condemned, and who, without leaving his +saddle, had ridden up at once to the scene of execution. He could not +penetrate the crowd, but remained on horseback on its outskirts. At the +same moment the figure of Major Hewitt caught the eye of Governor, and +roused him from the torpor of despair into which he had fallen--roused +him to an agony of entreaty, and, stretching out his arms to his master, +he cried, with a loud voice that thrilled to the hearts of all present: + +"Oh, marster! I allus looked up to you as if you were my father and my +God! Save me now! save me from under the gallows! Oh, marster----" + +Major Hewitt turned precipitately and galloped away from the scene. + +The condemned were not aware that they stood upon the fatal trapdoor. +They did not notice, either, that, at a signal from the marshal, the +attending clergyman stepped aside and the deputy and assistants gathered +in a little group behind. Governor still had his arms extended in wild +entreaty after his flying master, and Valentine was still waiting for +silence, when suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, their arms were +bound, the cords slipped over their heads, the caps drawn over their +eyes, the spring of the bolt touched, and, without one instant's +warning, or one word of prayer or benediction, they fell, and swung +beneath sky and earth. + +"In the name of Heaven! why have you done this thing?" asked the +terribly-shocked minister, who was altogether unprepared for the +suddenness of the execution. + +"In another five minutes an attempt would have been made at rescue," +answered that official. + + * * * * * + +This tragedy spoiled the Christmas festivities of many more than were +immediately connected with the sufferers. If the reader cares to follow +the sad fortunes of the survivors, I have only to tell them that Phaedra +outlived her son but one short month; and Mrs. Waring kindly took Fannie +and her child away from the scene and associations of their calamity, to +her own quiet and beautiful country home in East Feliciana. Major Hewitt +is a "sadder," and, let us hope, "a wiser man," since he no longer +closes his ears to the complaints of his suffering people. + +One word more. The tragic story in which I have endeavored to interest +you is, in all its essential features, strictly true. Not that I mean to +say that in all the scenes word followed word precisely in the order +here set down, though generally the language used has been faithful to +the letter, and always to the spirit of the facts. Valentine and +Governor lived, suffered, sinned, and finally together died, for the +causes and in the manner related. My means of minute information were +very good. The tragedy occurred but a few years ago, in a neighborhood +with which I am familiar. It excited at the time great local interest, +but never probably got beyond "mere mention" in any but the local +papers. In relating it I have delivered "a round, unvarnished tale," and +have not colored the truth with any adventitious hue of fancy. The +subject was too sacred, in its dark sorrow, for such trifling. Only, for +the sake of some survivors, a change of names and a slight change of +localities has been deemed proper. + + + + +THE SPECTRE REVELS. + + + + +TALE OF ALL HALLOW EVE. + + Black spirits and white, + Blue spirits and gray, + Mingle, mingle, mingle, + Ye that mingle may.--SHAKESPEARE. + + O'er all these hung a shadow and a fear! + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + That said as plain as whisper in the ear, + The place is haunted!--THOMAS HOOD. + + +"Did I ever see a ghost, friends? Um-m--Well! ghost is not the modern +name for such an apparition. It is called 'imagination,' 'optical +illusion,' fancy, fever, or something else--never 'ghost,' which makes +no difference in the nature of the thing, however. 'A rose by any other +name would smell as sweet.' Yes! I have--I have gone through more than +seeing them--I have known them!" + +"Ghosts?" + +"No, I repeat to you the term is obsolete--optical illusions. Though to +be sure the ghostly experience that has left the deepest impression upon +my mind--and that this anniversary especially recalls, was no optical +illusion." + +"What! was it a real ghost story, though? and did it happen to you?" + +"You shall hear." + +It was the thirty-first of October, All Hallow's Eve, a ghostly season, +as every one properly posted in ghostly lore knows very well. A dreary +storm of rain and wind was beating against the windows; but the fire on +the old sitting-room hearth was burning warmly, the candles were not yet +lighted, our father, the pastor, had not returned from a sick call, and +with a delightful show of expectation we all gathered around the fire to +hear Aunt Madeleine's ghost story. + +It is now more years than I care to remember, she began, since we moved +from the old forest of St. Mary's, up to the town of W. + +Our family then consisted of our grandmother, Mrs. Hawkins, my sister +Alice (your mother, dears), and two old family servants, Hector and his +wife Cassandra. + +That removal was the first great memorable epoch in my own and my +sister's lives. We had never seen anything approaching nearer to a town +than the little hamlet of St. Inigoes, and though W. was just exactly +the drowsiest old city that ever slept through centuries and slept +itself to death, yet to us, coming from the forest farm, it seemed a +very miracle of life, enterprise and excitement. + +We reached our home in Church street just about the last of October. + +At first the change was delightful to us. We were never weary of +exploring the streets and reading the signs, and--as we gained +confidence and ventured into the shops--of examining the marvelous +treasures of silks and satins and laces and jewelry and china, and "all +that's bought and sold in city marts." + +I recall the first six months of our residence in W., while the novelty +still lasted and all was beautiful illusion, and think that no mere +worldly event can ever give me such true pleasure again. + +Ally and I told each other over and over again that "the city was the +true Arcadia!" that there all poetry, romance and adventure was to be +found, and that it was like scenes in the "Arabian Nights." + +We were never weary of exploring new quarters--even the narrow, squalid +lanes and alleys with their dilapidated houses and ragged denizens, had +a grotesque attraction for us--and often we would stand gazing at some +wretched tenement, with falling timbers and stuffed windows, and +speculate about the life of the people within. + +And besides the wonders of treasures and pleasures--there was the daily +recurring astonishment at the convenience of the place. + +We could scarcely get used to the idea that when we wanted a skein of +silk or a paper of needles, it was only necessary to go across the +street, or around the corner to get them, instead of putting the mare to +the gig and riding seven miles to the nearest store; or that when we +went out to tea, we had only to walk a square or so, instead of driving +from three to ten miles; or that we might stay out until bedtime, +instead of ordering the horses to start for home at sunset. + +And then the comfort of being able to walk out dry shod over the clean +pavement, in all weathers, instead of in the winter being obliged to +ride in a carriage, plunging axletree deep through lanes of mud and +water, or worse still, being weather-bound by the state of the roads. + +In fact, so charmed were we all with this walking with impunity at +unaccustomed times and seasons, that the old carryall gathered dust in +the coach house, and Jenny, the mare, accumulated fat in the stable. + +But if the autumn in the city seemed so delightful to us rustics, what +shall I say of the winter, when the lecture rooms and concert halls were +thrown open, and when evening parties were given? There seemed to us no +end of enchantments. + +I should have told you that when we first went to town we had but one +acquaintance there. It was with the family of our Uncle and Aunt +Rackaway. They had a large family of growing sons and daughters, of +which our dear Cousin Will (your own respected father, girls), was the +eldest, the handsomest, the wildest, and the best beloved. Will Rackaway +soon initiated us into all the innocent amusements of the season--took +us to evening meetings, lectures, concerts, exhibitions of every sort, +except the theatre, which our grandmother could not be persuaded to +regard as an innocent amusement. + +We were a social family, and soon collected around us a very agreeable +neighborhood circle, some one or two of whom would drop in upon us every +evening when we were at home, or else invite us out. Ally and I extended +our acquaintance among young people whose parents occasionally gave +dancing parties, at which we were always present, and which, therefore, +our good grandmother felt bound to sometimes reciprocate. You are not to +suppose that our days passed in a round of fashionable dissipation. +Nonsense! nothing of the sort. We were rather a staid, domestic +family--but upon the whole what a contrast this to the long, monotonous +evenings in the farm house! + +Well, so passed that winter, so full of future consequences--that winter +in which Ally's gentle spirit first won the heart of her wild Cousin +Will. All pleasures pall! Before the season was over, the streets, the +shops, the shows--all the wonders and glories of the city had lost their +attraction with their novelty. + +When the spring came, we had grown just a little weary of city life. +With April, a spring fever for sowing, and planting, and pruning, and +training came upon us. But, alas! there was nowhere to sow or plant--our +back yard was flagged, and our front one paved. And there was nothing to +prune or train--four forlorn trees, trimmed by city authorities into the +shape of upright mops, standing upon the hard pavement before our door, +were the only apologies for vegetation near us, and they looked as +exiled and homesick as ourselves. Mrs. Hawkins also missed her chickens +and turkeys, and we all felt the loss of the cows. + +"Ah, if we could only get a house away to ourselves, a house in the +suburbs, with ground around it, where we could be private, and have +shade trees and a garden, and cows and poultry, and all that, within +easy walk to the city, how happy I should be," said grandmother, +sighing. + +"Ah, yes! if we only could! then we should enjoy the pleasures of both +city and country life," said I. + +"'Oh, that would be joyful, joyful, joyful, joyful!'" exclaimed Ally, +quoting the chorus of a popular hymn. + +"Ah! well, we must keep our eyes open, and see what we can find," said +our grandmother. + +The street upon which we lived was narrow and closely built up. It led +down half a mile to a long bridge that crossed the river. Consequently +this street was the great thoroughfare of country people coming into +town, to market, or to shop, or upon any other errand. + +Among those who came every day was one old man, who was quite an +eccentric character, and who is still remembered by the aged inhabitants +of W----. Dr. H---- always wore a cocked hat, a powdered wig, a black +velvet coat, double waistcoat, ruffled shirt, knee breeches, long hose +and silver buckles, and carried a gold-headed cane, keeping up in his +age the style and costume of his youth. + +He came in town every morning in a gig driven by a servant as old and as +quaint as himself. + +He returned every evening. + +The doctor was a never-failing object of interest to us. The little +information we could get respecting him only whetted our curiosity to a +keener edge. We learned from Cousin Will that he had no family and no +society; that he lived alone in a secluded country house, called the +Willow Cottage, with no companion except the aged servant seen always +with him; that he had a traditional reputation of having possessed great +skill in his profession, and that he now followed a limited practice +among his old contemporaries in the city. + +So much of authentic facts. + +Besides these it was rumored that, years before, he had married a lovely +young girl, who had been persuaded or forced to sacrifice her youth and +beauty and a prior attachment, to his wealth and age and infirmities; +whose short life had been embittered by his jealousies, and whose sudden +death, under suspicious circumstances, had not left him free from +imputations of the gravest character. + +This was all we could learn of the doctor; and you may depend that our +interest in him was deepened and darkened. We watched him with closer +attention. His hard, sharp features, his deep-set eyes, whitened hair, +and thin, bent figure, took on a sinister appearance, or we fancied so. + +However that might be, we felt more shocked than grieved when one +morning the news came that the doctor was found at daybreak dead in his +bed, with dark marks upon his neck as from the pressure of a thumb and +finger! + +The news spread like wildfire. The long-closed doors of the Willow +Cottage flew open to the public, and its darkened chambers to the +sunlight. Crowds flocked thither; the old servant was examined and +discharged, no suspicion attaching to him; the coroner's inquest met, +and, after a session of twelve hours, rendered its sapient verdict: +"Found dead," which, of course, greatly enlightened the public mind. The +old servant obtained a home in the almshouse, and the Willow Cottage +passed to the next of kin. + +These events occurred in the month of May. About the middle of June the +weather became so hot, the streets so dusty, that the city grew +intolerable to us. During winter the town of W---- had afforded a +pleasant contrast to the country; during summer it was quite the +opposite. In the height of our discontent one morning Will Rackaway came +in. + +"The Willow Cottage is for rent! Here is a chance for you!" + +"The Willow Cottage for rent! Oh, that is delightful," said Ally and I +in a breath. + +"Who has the renting of it?" inquired grandmother. + +"Well, the agent is out of town; but I got the key from his clerk, and +if you'll order Jenny put to the carryall, I'll drive you out there to +look at it. I think it will be let cheap, for the associations of the +place are so gloomy that none but a strong-minded woman like Aunt----" + +"A Christian woman, you mean, Will." + +"Well, yes, a Christian woman, like Aunt, would venture to live in it." + +Mrs. Hawkins had in the meantime put her hand to the bell, summoned +Hector, and given him an order to get the carryall ready for a drive. We +were soon in the carriage, and half an hour's drive took us down the +street, across the long bridge to the other side of the river, and to +the Willow Cottage. + +There is, as I have noticed always, a remarkable fitness in the names +given to country houses. This was certainly the case with the present +one. There was not a willow near the place. + +A few yards from the end of the bridge, and to the right hand of the +highway, a disused, grass-grown road led through a close thicket of +evergreens, some quarter of a mile on to an open level area, of about a +hundred acres of exhausted land, grown up in broom sedge and completely +surrounded by the pine forest. + +In the midst of this area stood a red stone cottage, consisting of a +central building of two stories, flanked each side by wings of one story +in height. The central building was finished by a gable roof front, with +a large single fan-shaped window just above the front portico. + +The cottage stood in the midst of a garden of about one acre, shaded +with many trees and surrounded by a substantial stone wall, parallel to +which, on the inside, was a hedge of evergreens, and on the outside +another hedge of climbing and intertwining wild rose, eglantine and +blackberry vines. + +An iron gate, very rusty and dilapidated, admitted us to the grass-grown +walk that led between two rows of black-oak trees to the front portico +of the central building. + +We entered a small front hall, behind which was a large, square parlor, +in the rear of which was a long dining-room. The wings on the right and +left consisted each of a bedchamber, entered from the front hall. There +was but one room above stairs, a large chamber immediately over the +parlor in the central building, and lighted by the fan-light in the +front gable. + +The kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms were in another building in the +rear of the cottage; they were not joined together, but stood, as it +were, back to back, presenting to each other a dead wall without door or +window, and about two feet apart, thus forming a blind alley. + +I have been thus particular in describing the house, that you may better +understand the story that follows. + +"The builder who designed this was certainly demented," said one of the +party, pointing to the blind alley, with its waste of wall. + +Will laughed. + +"I have noticed, Madeleine, that quite as much of character is shown in +the construction of houses as in the cut of physiognomies." + +"But, upon the whole, I like it," said the other. + +And so said every one. + +There was a stable, a coachhouse, a henhouse, a smokehouse, and, in +fact, every possible accommodation for the household. The fruit trees +and vines were teeming with fruit, which also lay ripening or decaying +in great quantities upon the ground. The rose bushes had spread the +grass with a warmer hue and sweeter covering. + +We filled our old carryall with fruit and our hands with flowers and +prepared to return home. Ally was in ecstacies. So was Cousin Will. So +was our grandmother, as much as a self-possessed and dignified matron of +the old school could be said to be. As for myself, I could not sleep +that night for thinking of our removal to the fine old place. We had +unanimously resolved to take it. + +Alas! we had reckoned without our landlord. Upon inquiry of the agent +next day we learned that the place was already let to a man who intended +to make it a house of summer resort, for which its convenient distance +from the city, its cool and shady and secluded site, and its extensive +grounds, numerous shade trees and fine fruit, and many other good +points, peculiarly adapted it. + +We were very much disappointed, but our regret was somewhat modified +when we ascertained that it was let at a preposterous rate of rent, that +a prudent woman like our grandmother never would have undertaken to pay. +So we resigned ourselves to the inevitable. + +However, in a week or two we were so fortunate as to rent a small, neat +house on the opposite side of the road from the Willow Cottage, and +nearer to the bridge. We immediately moved into our new home; and +grandmother sent Hector down into the country to bring up her poultry, +and drive up her cows--a business that he took but three days to +accomplish. + +We were thus settled in our suburban residence, with which, by the way, +we were not quite content. It was too small, too exposed to the rays of +the sun, the dust of the road and the eyes of the passengers; it was too +new also, and the shrubs and flowers had not had time to grow, and +then--we had been disappointed of Willow Cottage. + +In addition to these drawbacks, and even worse than these, was the fact +that we were annoyed all day long and every day by the troops of +visitors, on foot and on horseback, in sulkies and buggies, all bound +for the Willow Cottage. + +And, worst of all, we were disturbed all night by the noisy passage of +these revelers returning home. + +On Sundays and Sunday nights this was insufferable. It seemed as if ten +times as many revelers went out in the day and came back ten times as +much intoxicated and as noisy in the night! Our poor old Cassandra vowed +that when we changed the farm for the city house it was bad enough, but +when we changed the city house for the suburban cottage, "we jest did +it--jumped right out'n de fryin' pan inter de fire!" + +However, a terrible event soon occurred at the Willow Cottage that +crowded everything else out of our heads. + +It was the night of the Fourth of July. All day long crowd after crowd +had passed our house on their way out there. From early in the morning +until late at night the road was kept clouded with the dust, that +settled upon everything in and around our house. We were glad when, late +at night, the revelry seemed to cease, and we were permitted to be at +peace. + +We retired, and, exhausted by the exciting annoyances of the day, I fell +asleep. I know not how long I had slept, when I was suddenly aroused by +the noise of many persons hurrying past the house in apparently a state +of great excitement. In another moment I perceived that all the family +had been aroused as well as myself. They hurried into my room, which was +the front chamber of the second floor, and thus from a secure point +commanded the street. We all crowded to the two windows, left the +candles unlighted that we might not be seen, and remained as mute as +mice that we might not be heard. + +The stars were very bright, and we could distinctly see the hurrying +crowd in the road below. Some were running in the direction of the +Willow Cottage, while others were hastening thence. These opposite +parties, meeting, would exchange a few vehement words and gestures, and +then speed upon their several ways. + +At last a man, running against another immediately under the window, +inquired: + +"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter at the Willow Cottage?" + +"Don't stop me, for the Lord's sake! O'Donnegan, the landlord, has +killed young Keats, the only son of Colonel Keats! I am running to fetch +his father!" + +"Heavens and earth! another murder within that accursed house! That is +the third!" exclaimed the questioner, in a voice of horror. + +The men separated in opposite directions, the one running toward the +town, the other toward the scene of the outrage. The same questions and +the same answers were quietly heard between other meeting parties, who +separated, running in opposite ways, as the first had done. The dreadful +news was thus confirmed. + +We drew back our heads and looked each other in the face in +consternation. We knew none of the parties concerned, yet we could not +compose ourselves to sleep that night. + +The next day was a terrible one to the friends of the murdered and the +murderer. + +Once more--the third time--a coroner's inquest sat upon a dead body at +the Willow Cottage. But this time their verdict, made up after a careful +investigation and patient deliberation, was of a more fatal character. +It was that "The deceased came to his death by blows upon the head from +a bludgeon in the hands of Patrick O'Donnegan." + +O'Donnegan, who was under arrest, awaiting the verdict, was then fully +committed to stand his trial at the approaching session of the criminal +court. + +The establishment at the Willow Cottage was broken up, the furniture +sold, the house closed, and the premises once more advertised for rent. +But now with the bad odor hanging around the place, no one wished to +take it, and the house remained idle upon the proprietor's hands. + +Meantime the trial of O'Donnegan approached. He was arraigned, convicted +and sentenced, in a shorter space of time than I ever heard of in the +trial of any criminal. Many people thought that the prosecution was +conducted in a vindictive spirit, and that the friends of the deceased +exerted every faculty, sparing neither influence nor expense in the +pursuit of a conviction. They retained the best counsel in the country +to assist the State's attorney, while on the other hand the poor wretch +of a prisoner had no defense except that appointed for him by the court. +However that might be, in the short space of one month from the time of +committing the homicide, he was sentenced to die, and in six weeks from +his conviction he expiated his crime upon the scaffold. + +It was about the middle of September, of that eventful year, when a +rumor arose--as all rumors arise, mysteriously--that the Willow Cottage +was haunted; that ghostly lights flitted through its chambers; that +ghostly revelers held midnight orgies in its deserted halls; and that +the murderer and the murdered still played their game at ninepins, or +waged their last war along its lonely corridors. + +While these reports were rife in the neighborhood, our Grandmother +Hawkins turned a deaf ear, or threw in a good-humored, sarcastic word to +the marvel-mongers--upon one occasion launching at them and us the +time-honored proverb: + +"You will never see anything worse than yourselves, my dears." + +"I believe you, mistress, honey! for long as I lib on dis yeth, and +feared as I is o' ghoses, I nebber see nothin' worse nor myse'f +yet--dough, the Lord betune me an' harm, I sartinly saw de debbil +once--I did," observed old Cassy, sapiently. + +"If no one else takes the Willow Cottage beforehand, just wait until my +term is up here, and then if Mr. Buzzard will let it to a small, quiet +family on anything like reasonable terms, you'll see how we meet +spectres," said our grandmother. + +"Too late, Aunt Rachel! The Willow Cottage is let," exclaimed Will +Rackaway, who had a few minutes previously joined our party. + +"Let, is it? Ah! well, I hope it is not to another rum-seller!" + +"No, indeed! to another guess tenant! to Colonel Manly, of the ---- +regiment, who is now ordered to join General Armistead, in Florida, and +who takes the cottage as a pleasant country home for his wife and +children during his absence." + +"Hum-m me! then we shall have neighbors. I am very well reconciled," +said Mrs. Hawkins. + +A few weeks after this conversation the new tenants were settled in the +Willow Cottage, and the colonel embarked for Florida. + +Grandmother Hawkins was rather slow and ceremonious in all her dealings +with society. Therefore she "took her time" in calling upon Mrs. Manly. +Consequently, upon the very morning that she set out to pay that lady a +visit she met a train of furniture drays proceeding from the premises, +and heard to her great astonishment that the family were moving away. + +"And they have been only here a week!" exclaimed the old lady, by +unmitigated astonishment thrown for a moment off her guard. + +Significant looks and mysterious gestures were the only comments made by +the servants upon the subject. + +And Mrs. Hawkins, thinking it improper to push inquiries in that +quarter, sent in her respects and good wishes to Mrs. Manly, and then, +without having alighted from her carryall, gave the order to turn the +horse's head homeward. + +You may judge the surprise with which we heard the news of this +flitting; but as our grandmother had asked no questions, she could give +us no information. + +Others, however, were not so discreet. Inquiries were made and +answered, and soon the news flew all over the country that Mrs. Manly, +upon account of the mysterious noises that nightly disturbed her rest, +found it impossible to live in the house. + +The cottage remained idle for some weeks, and then was taken by another +family, who stayed ten days, then vanished--whispering the same cause +for their abandonment of the premises. + +The excitement of the neighborhood increased. There was nothing talked +of but the haunted house. Large parties visited the spot during +daylight, who, after the most curious investigation, found nothing +unusual about the looks of the place. But no tenant could be induced to +take it, and it remained idle for several weeks, at the end of which +time a family from down the country moved up, and reading of this fine +place to let, and not knowing its "haunted" reputation, engaged it at +once. The name of the newcomers was Ferguson. The neighborhood waited +the event in deep interest. + +Upon the day after their settlement at the cottage, as we were just +about to sit down to our very early breakfast, there was a knock at the +door, followed by the entrance of a good-looking, motherly, colored +woman, who announced herself as "Aunt Hannah, ole Marse Josh Ferguson's +'oman," and stood waiting. + +"Well, Hannah, you look tired--sit down on that stool and let us know +how we can do you good," said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Thanky, mist'ess--no time to sit, honey; 'deed I hasn't--I come to see +if you would 'form me where I could buy a little drap o' cream, for ole +marse coffee. Our cows; hasn't riv' from below yet." + +"You cannot buy cream at all in this neighborhood, but I will supply +your master, with great pleasure, until his cows come home." + +"Thanky, mist'ess! thanky, honey! I 'cepts of it wid all de comfort in +life! An' if so be you-dem wants any plums, or pears, or squinches, for +'serves, we'd s'ply you in like manner." + +After this Aunt Hannah came every morning for her pitcher of cream. One +morning I overheard her talking with Cassy in the kitchen. + +"How you dew likes your new place?" inquired Cassy. + +"Hush, honey!" exclaimed the other, with an air of deep mystery. + +"Lord! 'deed, now?" whispered Cassy. + +"Trufe I'm telling you!" replied Hannah. + +"Do any one sturve you o' nights?" + +"Hush, honey!" + +"Who?" + +"Dead people." + +"The Lord betune us and harm!" + +"Hush, honey! Don't let on! We's gwine 'way; but de family don't want it +should be known as dey leave for sich a cause." + +"I unnerstans! The saints betune us an' sin!" + +A few days after this conversation Mr. Ferguson's family left the Willow +Cottage; and the excitement of the neighborhood upon the subject of the +haunted homestead received a tremendous impetus. As it had been once +visited from motives of incredulous curiosity, it was now avoided in the +spirit of superstitious dread. It was believed to be unlucky to the +visitor. All the worst rumors about the former proprietors were revived +and credited. It was said that a curse rested upon the house where +marriage faith and friendship's trust and hospitality's laws had each in +succession been basely betrayed--upon the house of three reputed +murders! + +Only Mrs. Hawkins stoutly stood up for the defense of the Willow +Cottage. + +"Three murders! nonsense! three stage plays! The doctor's young wife +fretted herself into illness, and died of heart disease, poor thing. She +was not, therefore, murdered. The old doctor himself lived to a good age +and died in a fit. Was he murdered? I guess the coroner's jury knew! The +unhappy young man Keats lost his life in a sinful revel--a warning to +all youth. What guilt, then, rests upon the comfortable home and +beautiful garden? Did they suggest wine-bibbing and brawling? Pshaw! I +am ashamed of people's want of logic. Only wait until my term is up +here, and then see if I do not move into the house, and stay in it, +too!" + +This decision of Mrs. Hawkins produced different effects upon each of +her family. I for my own part had a natural turn for melodramatic +heroism--admired Joan of Arc, Margaret of Norway, Philippa of Hainault, +and all the lion-hearted, eagle-eyed, battle-ax heroines--and wished for +the opportunity of imitating them. I had an aspiring, courageous spirit, +but weak nerves; and so I stoutly seconded the move to move, though my +heart quailed at the idea of our living alone in the haunted house. + +Ally's trust in her grandmother was so perfect that she resigned herself +in confidence to her decision. + +The old negroes were possessed with the direst fore-bodings, but feeling +that it would be vain to remonstrate, only shook their heads and +muttered something to the effect that "old mist'ess'" confidence in +herself would be sure to have a check some day. + +Mrs. Hawkins was as good as her word. She began in her steady, energetic +way to tie up parcels and pack boxes of such things as were not in daily +use, in anticipation of moving. There was no competition for the +possession of the deserted mansion. Mrs. Hawkins engaged it at a very +moderate rate of rent. + +And upon the 31st of October--the ghostly anniversary of Hallow E'en--a +day ever to be remembered, we began our removal to the haunted house. + +It was a dark, overcast day. + +Mrs. Hawkins, who seldom stopped for weather, was anxious to get all her +effects safely housed before the rain, or at least before night. So, +very early in the morning, accompanied by Alice and attended by old +Hector, she drove over to Willow Cottage to have fires lighted in the +damp house, and to receive and dispose of the furniture as it should +arrive. + +Myself and Will Rackaway, who came to help me and old Cassy, remained in +charge of the house to dispatch the furniture. It was a hard day's work, +I assure you. And as the twilight hours passed the sky grew darker, and +the air damper and colder. A gloomier and more depressing day could +scarcely be imagined. + +It was nearly night when at length we dispatched the last cartload of +effects, locked up the house, and got into the old carryall that had +returned for us. Old Cassy sat with me on the back seat, and old Hector, +who drove for us, sat beside Will Rackaway, in front. The rain was now +falling in a fine, slow drizzle. Perhaps it was the dark and heavy +atmosphere, fatigue, and the approach of night, that so oppressed my +spirits, but I well remember the feeling of gloom and terror with which +I crossed the highway and entered upon the grass-grown and shadowy road, +through the thicket that led to Willow Cottage. It was a very dark and +silent scene--no sight but the trees, that, like lower and heavier +clouds, met and hung over our heads; no sound but the stealthy, muffled +turn of the wheels over the wet and fallen leaves. + +"The road to the haunted house is a very ghostly one! I think, for my +part, Mark Tapley would have found this a fine place to get jolly in," +said Will, twisting his head around to look at me. + +But he had quickly to recall his attention, for his first words had so +upset the equanimity of our driver that he had allowed his horse to run +full tilt into the trees. Will seized the reins from the shaking hands +of old Hector and soon righted the carryall. + +At last we emerged from the thicket, and saw dimly the great open area +girdled with its pine forest, of which I have already spoken. + +Only like a denser group of shadow was the old Willow Cottage, in the +midst of its ancient trees, in the center of that open space. + +We followed the road through the broom sedge across the field until we +drew up at the rusty iron gate of the cottage. + +There we alighted, and, leaving old Hector to drive the carryall around +to the stable door, we entered and went up the long grass-grown walk +between the black oaks, until we reached the house. + +The doors and window blinds were all closed, and the faint light within +gleamed fitfully through the chinks where the framework was warped. + +The front door was not locked, and we entered at once into the hall that +ran parallel with the front of the house, and formed, in fact, a sort of +anteroom to the large parlor that lay behind it. From this hall, besides +the central door before us that led into the parlor, there was a door on +the right hand and one on the left, leading into the side bedchambers in +the wings; and by the side of the right-hand door, nearer the front +wall, was the staircase leading up to the large chamber in the gable +end, that was lighted and ventilated by that fan-shaped window seen in +the front of the house over the portico. + +We passed through the hall, and through the large, empty parlor behind +it, and entered the long dining-room in the rear. + +There we found Mrs. Hawkins and Alice awaiting us among the piled-up +furniture. + +"You look tired and out of spirits, Madeleine. You must have worked +harder than we did." + +"How have you got on?" I inquired. + +"Why, we have arranged the bedchambers and the kitchen--that is all. We +have left the dining-room and parlor and hall to be put to rights +to-morrow. But Hector has got the supper ready, and set the table in the +kitchen; let us go in there; it is warmer. Come, girls--come, Will." + +As I before mentioned, the kitchen, pantry, laundry and servants' rooms +were in a building behind the dwelling-house, not joined to it, but +standing back to back with it at a distance of three feet. So we had to +go out of doors to enter the kitchen. + +I remember even now the sense of comfort I experienced on entering that +cozy room. It was a stone room, with a great fireplace, in which blazed +a fine fire, a wide, high dresser, upon which shone, tier upon tier, +rows of bright metal and clean crockeryware; in the middle of the floor +was an inviting table, upon which smoked an abundant supper. + +"Ah!" said Will, with an appreciating glance at the board; "thus +fortified, we can meet the enemy!" + +"Can you spend the night with us, Will?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh, no! must return; mother doesn't know I'm out!" replied the youth. + +Accordingly, after supper Will prepared to take his leave of us. + +"Before you go, Will, I wish you to take Hector and the lantern and go +over every foot of the grounds, and all along the walks, to see that +everything is safe here," said our grandmother. + +"Of course, of course, noble lady! Order the seneschal and the luminary, +and I will reconnoitre the state of the fortifications!" said Will, as +he buttoned up his coat. + +By the time he had drawn on his gloves Hector appeared at the door with +the lantern, and they sallied forth. I looked through an end window, and +found strange amusement in watching the progress of that lantern up one +shadowy walk and down another, and along the hedged wall, until at last +it approached the house. Will entered, speaking gayly. + +"Well, Lady Hawkins, I have reconnoitred the defenses, and found them in +an excellent condition! The wall is strong, the hedge on the inside is +high, and that upon the outerside sharp. The enemy could not attempt to +scale without such damage to cuticle from the one, and bone from the +others, as no enemy endowed with 'the better part of valor' would risk. +All is quiet within the garrison; and if you will send the warden to +lock the gate after me, I think the castle will be impregnable for the +night." + +Hector once more received orders to attend the young master, who now +bade us good-night and left the house. + +Meanwhile, Cassy had washed up the supper service and restored the +kitchen to order. So that when old Hector returned from his errand, +bearing the key of the gate, nothing remained for us to do but examine +and close the house, offer up our evening worship, and go to bed, which, +as it was very late and we were very tired, we prepared to do at once. +After every room was visited, and every door and window firmly secured, +we went to the dining-room for family prayer, and then let Cassy and +Hector out, and gave them the key to lock the door on the outside, so +that they might be able to let themselves in in the morning to light +the fires without disturbing us. After having thus dismissed them, +closed the door, and heard it locked, we turned to seek our rest. + +"I do not consider these lower bedrooms quite dry and safe just at +present, girls; so I have had two beds made up in the room overhead, +which is large and well ventilated. Alice can sleep with me in the large +bed, and you, Madeleine, can occupy the other," said our grandmother, as +she led the way upstairs. + +I did not quite like the arrangement, but could not resist Mrs. Hawkins. + +The upper room, notwithstanding the fact of its being in the roof, was +amply high and large enough for a healthful, double-bedded chamber. Our +beds stood parallel, but sufficiently far apart, with their heads +against the north, or back wall, and their feet toward the front gable, +lighted by the fan-shaped window aforesaid. As it was very damp and +chill, and we were very much exhausted, we did not linger long over our +final preparations, but went speedily to bed. + +Our grandmother and Alice seemed scarcely to have settled themselves +under their blankets and given me a drowsy good-night when they slid off +into the land of dreams. + +I could not sleep! I seldom can the first night in a strange house, and +this was--such a house! I felt quite alone--as much alone as if the +heavy sleepers in the next bed were a thousand miles away, for farther +still in spirit were they. I thought of the isolated situation of the +house we were in; of the crimes, real or reputed, that had stained its +hearthstone; of the superstitious terror attaching to the haunted place; +of the hard facts that three several families, not reputed less wise or +brave than their neighbors, had been driven from the spot by +supernatural disturbance as yet unexplained; of the coincidence that +this dreary night was the ghostly Hallow E'en; then of the superstition +that spirits, when they wish to appear to only one in a room, have the +power of casting all others into a profound sleep, from which the +haunted one cannot awake them; and of isolating their victim from all +the natural world--even from the very bedfellow by their side. The room +was very dark and still--solid blackness and dead silence. It oppressed +me like a nightmare. At last, when my senses grew accustomed to the +scenes by straining my eyes, I could dimly perceive beyond the foot of +the bed the segment of a circle formed by the fan-light window, that now +only seemed a thinner darkness; and, by straining my ears, I could +faintly hear the stealthy fall of the drizzling rain. It was almost +worse than the first total silence and darkness; for it kept my nerves +on a strange _qui vive_ of attention. Presently this was over, too. The +muffled sound of the drizzling ceased. Yet darker clouds must have +lowered over the earth, for the faint outline of the fan-light window +was no longer visible. All was once more black darkness and intense +silence, and again I felt oppressed almost to suffocation. Welcome now +would have been the faint fall of the fine rain or the dim outline of +the window. I strained my senses in vain; no sight or sound responded. I +felt the silence and the darkness settling like the clods of the ground +upon my breast. + +Hoo-oo-o!--went something. + +Hark! what was that? I thought, starting. + +Hoo-oo-o----! + +Oh! the wailing voice of some low, wandering wind, I concluded. + +Whirirr-rr-r-r----! + +Yes! the wind is rising, but how like a lost spirit it wails. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r----! + +My Lord! it's not the wind! What is it? Great Heavens! + +Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r! + +I started up in a sitting posture, and, bathed in a cold perspiration, +remained listening, my hair bristling with terror. + +Urr-rr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha--ha--ha!" + +I could bear no more! Springing out, I called: + +"Grandmother! Grandmother!" + +"What's the matter? Why, what ails the child?" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! listen! listen!" + +"Listen at what? You are dreaming!" + +"Dreaming, am I? Oh! wait! Listen----" + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha!--ha!--ha!" + +It was, as plainly as I ever heard, the sound of the rolling of a ball, +followed by a peal of demoniac laughter. + +I turned on Mrs. Hawkins an appalled look. + +She was surprised, but self-possessed, and evidently bent on calmly +listening and investigating. She sat straight up in bed with a strong, +concentrated attention to the sounds. They came again: + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-e--rattle-te-bang!--"A ten-strike at last!--O's a dead +shot!" + +"A dead shot." + +"A dead shot," was echoed all around. + +Grandmother calmly threw the quilts off her, stepped out of bed, and +began to dress herself. + +"Strike a light, Madeleine," she said. + +"What are you going to do, grandmother?" + +"Dress myself and examine the premises." + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r--"Ha! ha! ha!" sounded once more the demoniac noise +and laughter. + +The matchbox nearly dropped from my shaking hands, but I struck the +light. + +The sudden flash awoke Alice just as another sonorous roll of the ball, +and fall of the pins, and peal of demon laughter, sounded hollowly +around us. + +"Heaven and earth! what is that?" she exclaimed, starting up. + +"What do you think it is, Alice?" said I. + +"My Lord! my Lord!--it is the phantoms of the murderer and the murdered +playing over again their last game!" cried the girl, in an agony of +terror. + +Just at this moment a distinct knocking was heard at the little door at +the foot of the staircase. + +Alice screamed. + +I held my breath. + +The knocking was repeated. + +"Who is there?" said Mrs. Hawkins, going to the head of the stairs. + +No answer; but the knocking was repeated; and then a frightened, +plaintive voice, crying: + +"Ole mist'ess--ole mist'ess--oh! do, for the Lord sake, let me in, +chile! the hair's almos' turn gray on my head." + +"Is that you, Cassy?" + +"Yes, honey--yes, what the ghoses has left o' me," replied the poor +creature, in a dying voice. + +Grandmother went down the stairs and opened the door at the foot, and +Cassy came tumbling up into the room after her. She was absolutely ashen +gray with terror, and her limbs shook so that she could scarcely stand. + +"Oh! did you hear--did you hear all the ghoses and devils playing +ninepins together in our very house?" she gasped, dropping into a chair. + +As if in answer to her question, once more the phantom ball rolled in +detonating thunder, the pins fell with a loud, rattling sound, followed +by a hollow shout of triumph! + +Cassy fell on her knees and crossed herself devoutly. + +Alice clung in terror to her grandmother. + +I felt that the time to play the heroine was come, and strove to exhibit +self-possession and courage. + +"Take up the candle, Cassy, and lead the way downstairs. We must go and +search the house," said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! for the Lord's sake, don't! don't! old mist'ess, honey! Don't be a +temptin' o' Providence! Leave the ghoses alone and stay here, and fasten +the door." + +"I shall search the house and grounds," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a +peremptory voice. "Therefore, take up the light and go before me." + +"Oh! for de Lord's love, ole mis'tess! ef we mus' go, you go first, you +go first; I dar'n't; I's such a sinner, I is!" cried Cassy, wringing her +hands in an agony of terror. + +Urr-rrr-rr-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang! + +"A ten-strike! Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" again sounded the revels. + +"Hooley St. Bridget, pray for us! Hail Mary, full of grace! Don't go, +ole mist'ess, honey! Oh, stay where you is in safety!" pleaded the old +woman, clasping her hands. + +"Nonsense! Hold your tongue, Cassy. If ever there was a woman plagued +with a set of cowardly simpletons, it is myself. Let go my skirts this +moment, Alice! Be silent, every one of you, and follow me as softly as +possible," said my grandmother, in a low, stern voice, as she took up +the candle and led the way downstairs. We followed at this order--Cassy +holding on to her mistress' skirts, Alice holding to Cassy's, and I +bringing up the rear, with carnal weapons in one hand and spiritual ones +in the other--that is to say, with a big ruler and a prayerbook. + +A chill, damp air met us at the foot of the stairs--nothing else. + +The front hall was empty and bleak. We tried the doors, and found them +as secure as we had left them, with the exception of the parlor door, by +which Cassy had entered, and which was on the latch. Mrs. Hawkins pulled +it to and locked it, saying, in a low voice, that she wished, while +examining each room, to keep all the rest locked, that there might be no +escape for any one concealed in the house. + +First we went into the right-hand bedroom, opening from the hall. It was +secure, vacant and bleak. We locked the door and drew out the key. + +Next we looked into the left-hand bedroom; it was in precisely the same +condition. We made it fast in the same manner. + +Then we opened and entered the parlor. This was the bleakest room of +any--large, square, lofty, totally bare, cold and damp. + +"Nothing here," said Mrs. Hawkins, looking around. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r-rattle-te-bang-ang-ang! the phantom ball rolled, and +scattered the ninepins. + +"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" shouted the hollow, ghostly voices. + +They seemed to be in the very room with us, reverberating in the very +air we breathed, echoing from the four walls around, and from the +ceiling above us! + +"Jesu, Mary!" cried Cassy, dropping on her knees. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" gasped Alice, clinging to me. + +"This is very unaccountable," said our grandmother, looking all around +the room, where nothing but bare walls and bare boards met the view. + +We looked at each other in silence for a few moments, and then Mrs. +Hawkins said: + +"Come! let us look into the dining-room, and then call up Hector to +assist us in searching the grounds." + +We passed on into the next room and locked the door behind us, as we had +locked every one in our tour through the house. That room was closely +packed with furniture, over which we had to clamber our passage. + +While we were doing so, once again sounded the detonating roll of the +ball, the rattling, scattering of the pins, and the hollow peals of +laughter, all echoing around and around us, as it were, in the same +rooms. + +Alice again seized her grandmother. + +Cassy fell over a stack of washtubs, and called on all the saints to +help her. + +Mrs. Hawkins ordered Alice to let her go, and Cassy to get up, and me to +move on. + +She was obeyed. A great general was our grandmother, and we all knew it! + +We left the dining-room, locking the last door behind us. We dodged the +dark, blind alley, sheltered the candle from the drizzling mist, and +went around into the kitchen and called Hector from above. + +The old man answered, and soon came toddling down the narrow stairs. + +"Hector, have you heard those noises?" inquired Mrs. Hawkins. + +"The Lord between us and evil! I've heern, mist'ess! I've heern!" + +"What do you suppose it is?" + +A dubious, solemn shake of the head was the old man's only reply. + +"Can't you speak, Hector? How do you account for these noises? Come! no +mysteries; answer if you can; what are they?" + +"Dead people!" groaned the old man, with a shudder. + +"Pooh!" exclaimed Mrs. Hawkins. + +But I could see that even she was paler than usual. + +"Come, Hector! There is no one in the house--that is certain. And no one +can get into it while we are gone, because it is locked up. Now fasten +up the kitchen, and let us go and search the grounds, and unkennel any +interlopers that may be lurking there." + +We came out and secured the kitchen door, and began our tour of the +garden. + +As we left the door, our watchdog ran out to join us. + +This circumstance, while it greatly assisted us in our search, very much +increased the perplexity of our minds. Had the dog heard the noises that +had disturbed us, and if so, why had he not given the alarm?--or, on the +other hand, were dogs insensible to supernatural sights and sounds? We +could not tell; but we were glad to have Fidelle snuffing and trotting +along before us, confident that if there were a human being lurking +anywhere in the garden, he would smell him out. So we went up one +grass-grown walk and down another, between rows of gooseberry bushes, +currant bushes, and raspberry bushes, all damp and dripping with mist, +and through alleys of dwarf plum trees, and all along the hedges of +evergreen inside the brick wall, and past the iron gate, which was still +chained, as it had been left, and then around in the stable, coachhouse, +henhouse and smokehouse, each of which we found securely locked, and, +when opened, damp, musty and vacant; and so we looked over every foot of +ground, and into every outbuilding, finding all safe and leaving all +safe; and at last, without having discovered anything, we arrived again +at the dining-room door. + +We all entered, locked the door after us, clambered over the piles of +furniture, and passed on into the parlor. + +The parlor, as I have said, was as yet unfurnished, damp and cold. Yet +there we paused for a little while to take breath. + +"There is nothing concealed in the garden, and nothing in the house; +that is demonstrated. These strange manifestations must admit of a +natural explanation; but I confess myself at a loss to explain them," +said Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh! ole mist'ess; 'fess it's de ghoses, honey! 'fess it's de ghoses! +Memorize how nobody was ever able to lib in dis cussed house!" pleaded +Cassy. + +"Oh, yes, grandmother, do let's sit up here all night to-night, and move +out early to-morrow morning," entreated Ally. + +"What do you say, Madeleine?" inquired my grandmother. + +"I say, brave it out!" + +"So do I, my girl!" replied Mrs. Hawkins. + +"Oh, for de love o' de Lord, don't ole mist'ess! don't, Miss Maddy! +don't! It's a temptin' o' Providence! Leave de 'fernel ole place to de +ghoses, as has de bes' right to it!" prayed Cassy. + +"We'll see about that!" said our grandmother. "But come! all seems quiet +now; we will go to bed, and investigate further to-morrow." + +"Yes, ole mist'ess, honey, I knows all is quiet jest now, but----" + +"Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!--Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!" burst a peal +of demoniac laughter, resounding through and through the room, and close +into our ears. + +"The Lord between us and Satan!" cried Cassy, dropping the candle, which +immediately went out and left us in darkness. + +While, peal on peal, sounded the demoniac laughter around us. + +Cassy fell on her knees and began praying: + +"St. Mary, pray for us! St. Martha pray for us! all ye hooly vargins and +widders, pray for us lone women! St. Peter, pray for us! St. Powl pray +for us! All hooly 'postles and 'vangellers, pray for us poor +sinners!--Saint--Saint--Saint--oh! for de Lor's sake, Miss Ally, honey, +tell me de name o' that hooly saint as met a ghose riding on Balaam's +ass and knows hows--how it feels!" + +"It was Saul or Samuel, or the Witch of Endor, I forget which," said +Alice, whose knowledge of the Old Testament, never very precise, was +frightened out of her. + +"St. Saul, St. Samuel, St. Witchywinder, pray for us, as met a ghost +yourself and knows how it feels." + +And still, while Cassy prayed her frantic prayers, and poor old Hector +told his beads, and Alice trembled and clung to me, the demon laughter +resounded around and around us. We were in such total darkness that I +had not seen Mrs. Hawkins withdraw herself from the group, nor suspected +her absence until we heard her firm, cheery voice outside near the +dining-room door, saying: + +"What can any one think of this? Come here, Hector! Come here, +children!" + +We all went--expecting some _denouement_. + +Mrs. Hawkins telegraphed to us to be perfectly silent, and to step +lightly. She turned the angle of the house and walked up the blind alley +between the back of the house and the back of the kitchen; when she had +got about midway of the walk, she stopped, and silently pointed to the +rank weeds and bushes that grew closely under the wall of the house. + +"There! what do you think of that?" she said, in a low voice. + +We looked, and at first could see nothing; but, on a closer inspection, +we perceived a very faint glimmer, a mere thread of red light, low down +among the bushes. + +We looked up at Mrs. Hawkins for explanation. + +"After the candle fell and went out," she said, "I slipped out, with the +intention of exploring again, and this time alone, and in darkness. I +came up this blind alley, and, looking sharply, descried that glimmer of +light. And now I am convinced that the revelers, human or ghostly, are +below there, in that old, disused cellar that we were made to believe +was nearly full of water, and required to be drained. Don't be agitated, +children! take it coolly," concluded Mrs. Hawkins, stooping down to put +aside the weeds and bushes. + +Just at this moment another detonating roll of the ball, and scattering +fall of the pins, and peal of hollow laughter, resounded from below. + +Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-rattle bang-ang-ang! "Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! +ho! A dead shot!" + +"Too late, young gentlemen! Your fun is all over! Your game is up! You +are discovered! Come forth!" said Mrs. Hawkins, who, down upon her +knees, pulled away the bushes, turned up the old, broken and mouldy +cellar door, and discovered the scene below. + +A rudely fitted-up bowling alley, occupying the further end of the room, +and some eight or ten youths, no longer engaged in rolling balls, but, +on the contrary, standing in various attitudes of detected culpability. + +"Come! come forth!" commanded Mrs. Hawkins. + +And they came, climbing up the rotten and moldering steps, and the very +first who put his impudent head up through the door into the open air +was Will Rackaway! + +"Oh! Will," exclaimed Alice, reproachfully. + +"You! Will?" questioned Mrs. Hawkins, in scandalized astonishment. + +"No! the ghost of O'Donnegan," replied the youth, in a sepulchral voice. + +"Reprobate!" exclaimed our grandmother. + +"Now, indeed, indeed, I was only taking the liberty of entertaining my +friends in my kind Aunt Hawkins' cellar. Quite right, you know! Only +don't tell father, and I'll never do so no more!" pleaded Will, with +mock humility. + +"Dismiss your comrades, sir! and come into the house! I shall send for +your father to-morrow morning," said Mrs. Hawkins, in a stern voice. + +There was no need to dismiss the intruders; they were climbing up the +dilapidated steps as fast as they could come, and slinking away with +averted heads, trying to conceal their faces, which Mrs. Hawkins did not +insist upon discovering. When they were all gone, Will followed us into +the house. + +"Now, then, sir, explain your conduct," ordered Mrs. Hawkins. + +And Will, with an air of mock humility and deprecation, obeyed. + +The account he gave was briefly this: Himself and several other youths, +sons of very strict parents, who proscribed ninepins with other games, +had, out of some old timber and furniture left of O'Donnegan's old +ninepin alley, that had been taken down and carried away, fitted up the +old, disused cellar for their games. They had played there recently +every night, with no other intention than that of amusing themselves, +and of keeping their game concealed--with no thought of enacting a +ghostly drama, until, to their astonishment, they gradually learned that +these revels were mistaken for ghostly orgies, and had given the house +its unenviable reputation of being haunted--a joke much too good for +human nature, and especially for boys' human nature, not to carry out. +Everything favored their concealment. The cellar was reputed to be half +full of water, and was long disused, and every cellar window, except the +narrow, hidden one that they had turned into a door, was nailed up. +Besides, the front division of the cellar was really two feet deep in +water, and when there was any great risk of discovery they had a means +of letting it in to overflow the back division, so that their fixtures +were all covered. Thus for months they had played the double game of +ninepins and of a ghostly drama! + +Need I say more? Will was let off with a lengthy lecture, which I have +reason to believe did him a vast deal of good, as he is now the staid +father of a family, and pastor of a church. Mrs. Hawkins was for the +next nine days the wonder of the neighborhood for having so valiantly +exorcised the ghosts. And we settled down in perfect content in the fine +old house, to which we possessed the double right of rental and of +conquest. + + +THE END. + + + + +THE GILBERTS; + +OR, + +RICE CORNER NUMBER TWO. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE GILBERTS. + + +The spring following Carrie Howard's death Rice Corner was thrown into a +commotion by the astounding fact that Captain Howard was going out West, +and had sold his farm to a gentleman from the city, whose wife "kept six +servants, wore silk all the time, never went inside of the kitchen, +never saw a churn, breakfasted at ten, dined at three, and had supper +the next day!" + +Such was the story which Mercy Jenkins detailed to us early one Monday +morning, and then, eager to communicate so desirable a piece of news to +others of her acquaintance, she started off, stopping for a moment as +she passed the wash-room to see if Sally's clothes "wan't kinder dingy +and yaller." As soon as she was gone the astonishment of our household +broke forth, grandma wondering why Captain Howard wanted to go to the +ends of the earth, as she designated Chicago, their place of +destination, and what she should do without Aunt Eunice, who, having +been born on grandma's wedding-day, was very dear to her, and then her +age was so easy to keep. But the best of friends must part, and when at +Mrs. Howard's last tea-drinking with us I saw how badly they all felt, +and how many tears were shed, I firmly resolved never to like anybody +but my own folks, unless, indeed, I made an exception in favor of Tom +Jenkins, who so often drew me to school on his sled, and who made such +comical looking jack-o'-lanterns out of the big yellow pumpkins. + +In reply to the numerous questions concerning Mr. Gilbert, the purchaser +of their farm, Mrs. Howard could only reply that he was very wealthy and +had got tired of living in the city; adding, further, that he wore a +"monstrous pair of musquitoes," had an evil-looking eye, four children, +smoked cigars, and was a lawyer by profession. This last was all grandma +wanted to know about him--"that told the whole story," for there never +was but _one_ decent lawyer, and that was Mr. Evelyn, Cousin Emma's +husband. Dear old lady! when a few years ago, she heard that I, her +favorite grandchild, was to marry one of the craft, she made another +exception in his favor, saying that "if he wasn't all straight, Mary +would soon make him so!" + +Within a short time after Aunt Eunice's visit she left Rice Corner, and +on the same day wagon-load after wagon-load of Mr. Gilbert's furniture +passed our house, until Sally declared "there was enough to keep a +tavern, and she didn't see nothin' where theys' goin' to put it," at the +same time announcing her intention of "running down there after dinner, +to see what was going on." + +It will be remembered that Sally was now a married woman--"Mrs. Michael +Welsh;" consequently, mother, who lived with her, instead of her living +with mother, did not presume to interfere with her much, though she +hinted pretty strongly that she "always liked to see people mind their +own affairs." But Sally was incorrigible. The dinner dishes were washed +with a whew, I was coaxed into sweeping the back room--which I did, +leaving the dirt under the broom behind the door--while Mrs. Welsh, +donning a pink calico, blue shawl, and bonnet trimmed with dark green, +started off on her prying excursion, stopping by the roadside where Mike +was making fence, and keeping him, as grandma said, "full half an hour +by the clock from his work." + +Not long after Sally's departure a handsome carriage, drawn by two fine +bay horses, passed our house; and as the windows were down we could +plainly discern a pale, delicate-looking lady, wrapped in shawls, a +tall, stylish-looking girl, another one about my own age, and two +beautiful little boys. + +"That's the Gilberts, I know," said Anna. "Oh, I'm so glad Sally's gone, +for now we shall have the full particulars;" and again we waited as +impatiently for Sally's return as we had once done before for grandma. + +At last, to our great relief, the green ribbons and blue shawl were +descried in the distance, and ere long Sally was with us, ejaculating, +"Oh, my--mercy me!" etc., thus giving us an inkling of what was to +follow. "Of all the sights that ever I have seen," said she, folding up +the blue shawl, and smoothing down the pink calico. "There's carpeting +enough to cover every crack and crevice--all pure bristles, too!" + +Here I tittered, whereupon Sally angrily retorted, that "she guessed she +knew how to talk proper, if she hadn't studied grammar." + +"Never mind," said Anna, "go on; brussels carpeting and what else?" + +"Mercy knows what else," answered Sally. "I can't begin to guess the +names of half the things. There's mahogany, and rosewood, and marble +fixin's--and in Miss Gilbert's room there's lace curtains and silk +damson ones"-- + +A look from Anna restrained me this time, and Sally continued. + +"Mercy Jenkins is there, helpin', and she says Mr. Gilbert told 'em, his +wife never et a piece of salt pork in her life, and knew no more how +bread was made than a child two years old." + +"What a simple critter she must be," said grandma, while Anna asked if +she saw Mrs. Gilbert, and if that tall girl was her daughter. + +"Yes, I seen her," answered Sally, "and I guess she's weakly, for the +minit she got into the house she lay down on the sofa, which Mr. Gilbert +says cost seventy-five dollars. That tall, proud-lookin' thing they call +Miss Adaline, but I'll warrant you don't catch me puttin' on the miss. I +called her Adaline, and you had orto seen how her big eyes looked at me. +Says she, at last, 'Are you one of pa's new servants?' + +"'Servants!' says I, 'no, indeed; I'm Mrs. Michael Welsh, one of your +nighest neighbors.' + +"Then I told her that there were two nice girls lived in the house with +me, and she'd better get acquainted with 'em right away; and then with +the hatefulest of all hateful laughs, she asked if 'they wore glass +beads and went barefoot.'" + +I fancied that neither Juliet nor Anna were greatly pleased at being +introduced by Sally, the housemaid, to the elegant Adaline Gilbert, who +had come to the country with anything but a favorable impression of its +inhabitants. The second daughter, the one about my own age, Sally said +they called Nellie; "and a nice, clever creature she is, too--not a bit +stuck up like t'other one. Why, I do believe she'd walked every big +beast in the barn before she'd been there half an hour, and the last I +saw of her she was coaxing a cow to lie still while she got upon her +back!" + +How my heart warmed toward the romping Nellie, and how I wondered if +after that beam-walking exploit her hooks and eyes were all in their +places! The two little boys, Sally said, were twins, Edward and Egbert, +or, as they were familiarly called, Bert and Eddie. This was nearly all +she had learned, if we except the fact that the family ate with silver +forks, and drank wine after dinner. This last, mother pronounced +heterodox, while I, who dearly loved the juice of the grape, and +sometimes left finger marks on the top shelf, whither I had climbed for +a sip from grandma's decanter, secretly hoped I should some day dine +with Nellie Gilbert, and drink all the wine I wanted, thinking how many +times I'd rinse my mouth so mother shouldn't smell my breath! + +In the course of a few weeks the affairs of the Gilbert family were +pretty generally canvassed in Rice Corner, Mercy Jenkins giving it as +her opinion that "Miss Gilbert was much the likeliest of the two, and +that Mr. Gilbert was cross, overbearing, and big feeling." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NELLIE. + + +As yet I had only seen Nellie in the distance, and was about despairing +of making her acquaintance when accident threw her in my way. Directly +opposite our house, and just across a long green meadow, was a piece of +woods which belonged to Mr. Gilbert, and there, one afternoon early in +May, I saw Nellie. I had seen her there before, but never dared approach +her; and now I divided my time between watching her and a dense black +cloud which had appeared in the west, and was fast approaching the +zenith. I was just thinking how nice it would be if the rain should +drive her to our house for shelter, when patter, patter came the large +drops in my face; thicker and faster they fell, until it seemed like a +perfect deluge; and through the almost blinding sheet of rain I descried +Nellie coming toward me at a furious rate. With the agility of a fawn +she bounded over the gate, and with the exclamation of, "Ain't I wetter +than a drownded rat?" we were perfectly well acquainted. + +It took but a short time to divest her of her dripping garments, and +array her in some of mine, which Sally said "fitted her to a T," though +I fancied she looked sadly out of place in my linen pantalets and +long-sleeved dress. She was a great lover of fun and frolic, and in less +than half an hour had "ridden to Boston" on Joe's rocking-horse, turned +the little wheel faster than even I dared to turn it, tried on grandma's +stays, and then, as a crowning feat, tried the rather dangerous +experiment of riding down the garret stairs on a board! The clatter +brought up grandma, and I felt some doubts about her relishing a kind of +play which savored so much of what she called "a racket," but the soft +brown eyes which looked at her so pleadingly were too full of love, +gentleness, and mischief to be resisted, and permission for "one more +ride" was given, "provided she'd promise not to break her neck." + +Oh, what fun we had that afternoon! What a big rent she tore in my +gingham frock, and what a "dear, delightful old haunted castle of a +thing" she pronounced our house to be. Darling, darling Nellie! I shut +my eyes and she comes before me again, the same bright, beautiful +creature she was when I saw her first, as she was when I saw her for the +last, last time. + +It rained until dark, and Nellie, who confidently expected to stay all +night, had whispered to me her intention of "tying our toes together," +when there came a tremendous rap upon the door, and without waiting to +be bidden in walked Mr. Gilbert, puffing and swelling, and making +himself perfectly at home, in a kind of off-hand manner, which had in it +so much of condescension that I was disgusted, and when sure Nellie +would not see me I made at him a wry face, thereby feeling greatly +relieved! + +After managing to let mother know how expensive his family was, how much +he paid yearly for wines and cigars, and how much Adaline's education +and piano had cost, he arose to go, saying to his daughter. "Come, puss, +take off those--ahem--those habiliments, and let's be off!" + +Nellie obeyed, and just before she was ready to start, she asked when I +would come and spend the day with her. + +I looked at mother, mother looked at Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert looked at +me, and after surveying me from head to foot said, spitting between +every other word, "Ye-es, ye-es, we've come to live in the country, and +I suppose" (here he spit three successive times), "and I suppose we may +as well be on friendly terms as any other; so, madam" (turning to +mother), "I am willing to have your little daughter visit us +occasionally." Then adding that "he would extend the same invitation to +her, were it not that his wife was an invalid and saw no company," he +departed. + +One morning, several days afterward, a servant brought to our house a +neat little note from Mrs. Gilbert, asking mother to let me spend the +day with Nellie. After some consultation between mother and grandma, it +was decided that I might go, and in less than an hour I was dressed and +on the road, my hair braided so tightly in my neck that the little red +bumps of flesh set up here and there, like currants on a brown earthen +platter. + +Nellie did not wait to receive me formally, but came running down the +road, telling me that Robin had made a swing in the barn, and that we +would play there most all day, as her mother was sick, and Adaline, who +occupied two-thirds of the house, wouldn't let us come near her. This +Adaline was to me a very formidable personage. Hitherto I had only +caught glimpses of her, as with long skirts and waving plumes she +sometimes dashed past our house on horseback, and it was with great +trepidation that I now followed Nellie into the parlor, where she told +me her sister was. + +"Adaline, this is my little friend," said she; and Adaline replied: + +"How do you do, little friend?" + +My cheeks tingled, and for the first time raising my eyes I found myself +face to face with the haughty belle. She was very tall and queenlike in +her figure, and though she could hardly be called handsome, there was +about her an air of elegance and refinement which partially compensated +for the absence of beauty. That she was proud one could see from the +glance of her large black eyes and the curl of her lip. Coolly surveying +me for a moment, as she would any other curious specimen, she resumed +her book, never speaking to me again, except to ask, when she saw me +gazing wonderingly around the splendidly-furnished room, "if I supposed +I could remember every article of furniture, and give a faithful +report." + +I thought I was insulted when she called me "little friend," and now, +feeling sure of it, I tartly replied that "if I couldn't she perhaps +might lend me paper and pencil, with which to write them down." + +"Original, truly," said she, again poring over her book. + +Nellie, who had left me for a moment, now returned, bidding me come and +see her mother, and passing through the long hall, I was soon in Mrs. +Gilbert's room, which was as tastefully, though perhaps not quite so +richly, furnished as the parlor. Mrs. Gilbert was lying upon a sofa, and +the moment I looked upon her, the love which I had so freely given the +daughter was shared with the mother, in whose pale sweet face, and soft +brown eyes, I saw a strong resemblance to Nellie. She was attired in a +rose-colored morning-gown, which flowed open in front, disclosing to +view a larger quantity of rich French embroidery than I had ever before +seen. + +Many times during the day, and many times since, have I wondered what +made her marry, and if she really loved the bearish-looking man who +occasionally stalked into the room, smoking cigars and talking very +loudly, when he knew how her head was throbbing with pain. + +I had eaten but little breakfast that morning, and verily I thought I +should famish before their dinner hour arrived; and when at last it +came, and I saw the table glittering with silver, I felt many misgivings +as to my ability to acquit myself creditably. But by dint of watching +Nellie, doing just what she did, and refusing just what she refused, I +managed to get through with it tolerably well. For once, too, in my life +I drank all the wine I wanted; the result of which was that long before +sunset I went home, crying and vomiting with the sick headache, which +Sally said "served me right;" at the same time hinting her belief that I +was slightly intoxicated! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HAUNTED HOUSE. + + +Down our long, green lane, and at the further extremity of the narrow +footpath which led to the "old mine," was another path or wagon road +which wound along among the fern bushes, under the chestnut trees, +across the hemlock swamp, and up to a grassy ridge which overlooked a +small pond, said, of course, to have no bottom. Fully crediting this +story, and knowing, moreover, that China was opposite to us, I had often +taken down my atlas and hunted through that ancient empire, in hopes of +finding a corresponding sheet of water. Failing to do so I had made one +with my pencil, writing against it, "Cranberry Pond," that being the +name of its American brother. + +Just above the pond on the grassy ridge stood an old dilapidated +building which had long borne the name of the "haunted house," I never +knew whether this title was given it on account of its proximity to the +"old mine," or because it stood near the very spot where, years and +years ago, the "bloody Indians" pushed those cart-loads of burning hemp +against the doors "of the only remaining house in Quaboag"--for which +see Goodrich's Child's History, page --, somewhere toward the +commencement. I only know that 'twas called the "haunted house," and +that for a long time no one would live there, on account of the rapping, +dancing, and cutting-up generally which was said to prevail there, +particularly in the west room, the one overhung with ivy and grapevines. + +Three or four years before our story opens a widow lady, Mrs. Hudson, +with her only daughter, Mabel, appeared in our neighborhood, hiring the +"haunted house," and, in spite of the neighbors' predictions to the +contrary, living there quietly and peaceably, unharmed by ghost or +goblin. At first Mrs. Hudson was looked upon with distrust, and even a +league with a certain old fellow was hinted at; but as she seemed to be +well disposed, kind, and affable toward all, this feeling gradually wore +away, and now she was universally liked, while Mabel, her daughter, was +a general favorite. For two years past, Mabel had worked in the Fiskdale +factory a portion of the time, going to school the remainder of the +year. She was fitting herself for a teacher, and as the school in our +district was small, the trustees had this summer kindly offered it to +her. This arrangement delighted me; for, next to Nellie Gilbert, I loved +Mabel Hudson best of anybody; and I fancied, too, that they looked +alike, but of course it was all fancy. + +Mrs. Hudson was a tailoress, and the day following my visit to Mr. +Gilbert's I was sent by mother to take her some work. I found her in the +little porch, her white cap-border falling over her placid face, and her +wide checked apron coming nearly to the bottom of her dress. Mabel was +there, too, and as she rose to receive me something about her reminded +me of Adaline Gilbert. I could not tell what it was, for Mabel was very +beautiful, and beside her Adaline would be plain; still there was a +resemblance, either in voice or manner, and this it was, perhaps, which +made me so soon mention the Gilberts and my visit to them the day +previous. + +Instantly Mrs. Hudson and Mabel exchanged glances, and I thought the +face of the former grew a shade paler; still I may have been mistaken, +for in her usual tone of voice she began to ask me numberless questions +concerning the family, which seemed singular, as she was not remarkable +for curiosity. But it suited me. I loved to talk then not less than I do +now, and in a few minutes I had told all I knew--and more, too, most +likely. + +At last Mrs. Hudson asked about Mr. Gilbert, and how I liked him. + +"Not a bit," said I. "He's the hatefulest, crossest, big-feelingest man +I ever saw, and Adaline is just like him!" + +Had I been a little older I might, perhaps, have wondered at the crimson +flush which my hasty words brought to Mrs. Hudson's cheek, but I did not +notice it then, and thinking she was, of course, highly entertained, I +continued to talk about Mr. Gilbert and Adaline, in the last of whom +Mabel seemed the most interested. Of Nellie I spoke with the utmost +affection, and when Mrs. Hudson expressed a wish to see her, I promised, +if possible, to bring her there; then, as I had already outstaid the +time for which permission had been given, I tied on my sunbonnet and +started for home, revolving the ways and means by which I should keep my +promise. + +This proved to be a very easy matter; for within a few days Nellie came +to return my visit, and as mother had other company she the more readily +gave us permission to go where we pleased. Nellie had a perfect passion +for ghost and witch stories, saying though that "she never liked to have +them explained--she'd rather they'd be left in solemn mystery;" so when +I told her of the "old mine" and the "haunted house" she immediately +expressed a desire to see them. Hiding our bonnets under our aprons the +better to conceal our intentions from sister Lizzie, who, we fancied, +had serious thoughts of _tagging_, we sent her upstairs in quest of +something which we knew was not there, and then away we scampered down +the green lane and across the pasture, dropping once into some alders as +Lizzie's yellow hair became visible on the fence at the foot of the +lane. Our consciences smote us a little, but we kept still until she +returned to the house; then, continuing our way, we soon came in sight +of the mine, which Nellie determined to explore. + +It was in vain that I tried to dissuade her from the attempt. She was +resolved, and stationing myself at a safe distance I waited while she +scrambled over stones, sticks, logs, and bushes, until she finally +disappeared in the cave. Ere long, however, she returned with soiled +pantelets, torn apron, and scratched face, saying that "the mine was +nothing in the world but a hole in the ground, and a mighty little one +at that." After this I didn't know but I would sometime venture in, but +for fear of what might happen I concluded to choose a time when I hadn't +run away from Liz! + +When I presented Nellie to Mrs. Hudson she took both her hands in hers, +and, greatly to my surprise, kissed her on both cheeks. Then she walked +hastily into the next room, but not until I saw something fall from her +eyes, which I am sure were tears. + +"Funny, isn't it?" said Nellie, looking wonderingly at me. "I don't know +whether to laugh or what." + +Mabel now came in, and though she manifested no particular emotion, she +was exceedingly kind to Nellie, asking her many questions, and sometimes +smoothing her brown curls. When Mrs. Hudson again appeared she was very +calm, but I noticed that her eyes constantly rested upon Nellie, who, +with Mabel's grey kitten in her lap, was seated upon the doorstep, the +very image of childish innocence and beauty. Mrs. Hudson urged us to +stay to tea, but I declined, knowing that there was company at home, +with three kinds of cake, besides cookies, for supper. So bidding her +good-bye, and promising to come again, we started homeward, where we +found the ladies discussing their green tea and making large inroads +upon the three kinds of cake. + +One of them, a Mrs. Thompson, was gifted with the art of +fortune-telling, by means of tea-grounds, and when Nellie and I took our +seats at the table she kindly offered to see what was in store for us. +She had frequently told my fortune, each time managing to fish up a +freckle-faced boy so nearly resembling her grandson, my particular +aversion, that I didn't care to hear it again. But with Nellie 'twas all +new, and after a great whirling of tea-grounds and staining of mother's +best table-cloth, she passed her cup to Mrs. Thompson, confidently +whispering to me that she guessed she'd tell her something about Willie +Raymond, who lived in the city, and who gave her the little cornelian +ring which she wore. With the utmost gravity Mrs. Thompson read off the +past and present, and then peering far into the future she suddenly +exclaimed, "Oh, my! there's a gulf, or something, before you, and you +are going to tumble into it headlong; don't ask me anything more." + +I never did and never shall believe in fortune-telling, much less in +Granny Thompson's "turned-up cups," but years after I thought of her +prediction with regard to Nellie. Poor, poor Nellie! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +JEALOUSY. + + +On the first Monday in June our school commenced, and long before +breakfast Lizzie and I were dressed and had turned inside out the little +cupboard over the fireplace where our books were kept during vacation. +Breakfast being over we deposited in our dinner-basket the whole of a +custard pie, and were about starting off when mother said, "we shouldn't +go a step until half-past eight," adding further, that "we must put that +pie back, for 'twas one she'd saved for their own dinner." + +Lizzie pouted, while I cried, and taking my bonnet I repaired to the +"great rock," where the sassafras, blackberries, and blacksnakes grew. +Here I sat for a long time, thinking if I ever did grow up and get +married (I was sure of the latter), I'd have all the custard pie I could +eat for once! In the midst of my reverie a footstep sounded near, and +looking up I saw before me Nellie Gilbert, with her satchel of books on +her arm, and her sunbonnet hanging down her back, after the fashion in +which I usually wore mine. In reply to my look of inquiry she said her +father had concluded to let her go to the district school, though he +didn't expect her to learn anything but "slang terms and ill manners." + +By this time it was half-past eight, and together with Lizzie we +repaired to the schoolhouse, where we found assembled a dozen girls and +as many boys, among whom was Tom Jenkins. Tom was a great admirer of +beauty, and hence I could never account for the preference he had +hitherto shown for me, who my brothers called "bung-eyed" and Sally +"raw-boned." He, however, didn't think so. My eyes, he said, were none +too large, and many a night had he carried home my books for me, and +many a morning had he brought me nuts and raisins, to say nothing of the +time when I found in my desk a little note, which said--But everybody +who's been to school, knows what it said! + +Taking it all round we were as good as engaged; so you can judge what +my feelings were when, before the night of Nellie's first day at school, +I saw Tom Jenkins giving her an orange which I had every reason to think +was originally intended for me! I knew very well that Nellie's brown +curls and eyes had done the mischief; and though I did not love her the +less, I blamed him the more for his fickleness, for only a week before +he had praised my eyes, calling them a "beautiful indigo blue," and all +that. I was highly incensed, and when on our way from school he tried to +speak good-humoredly, I said, "I'd thank you to let me alone! I don't +like you, and never did!" + +He looked sorry for a minute, but soon forgot it all in talking to +Nellie, who after he had left us said "he was a cleverish kind of boy, +though he couldn't begin with William Raymond." After that I was very +cool toward Tom, who attached himself more and more to Nellie, saying +"she had the handsomest eyes he ever saw"; and, indeed, I think it +chiefly owing to those soft, brown, dreamy eyes that I am not now "Mrs. +Tom Jenkins of Jenkinsville," a place way out West, whither Tom and his +mother have migrated. + +One day Nellie was later at school than usual, giving as a reason that +their folks had company--a Mr. Sherwood and his mother, from Hartford; +and adding that if I'd never tell anybody as long as I lived and +breathed she'd tell me something. + +Of course I promised, and Nellie told me how she guessed that Mr. +Sherwood, who was rich and handsome, liked Adaline. "Anyway, Adaline +likes him," said she, "and oh, she's so nice and good when he's around. +I ain't 'Nell, you hateful thing' then, but I'm 'Sister Nellie.' They +are going to ride this morning, and perhaps they'll go by here. There +they are, now!" and looking toward the road I saw Mr. Sherwood and +Adaline Gilbert on horseback, riding leisurely past the schoolhouse. She +was nodding to Nellie, but he was looking intently at Mabel, who was +sitting near the window. I know he asked Adaline something about her, +for I distinctly heard a part of her reply--"a poor factory girl," and +Adaline's head tossed scornfully, as if that were a sufficient reason +why Mabel should be despised. + +Mr. Sherwood evidently did not think so, for the next day he walked by +alone--and the next day he did the same, this time bringing with him a +book, and seating himself in the shadow of a chestnut tree not far from +the schoolhouse. The moment school was out, he arose and came forward, +inquiring for Nellie, who, of course, introduced him to Mabel. The +three then walked on together, while Tom Jenkins stayed in the rear with +me, wondering what I wanted to act so for; "couldn't a feller like more +than one girl if he wanted to?" + +"Yes, I s'posed a feller could, though I didn't know, nor care!" + +Tom made no reply, but whittled away upon a bit of shingle, which +finally assumed the shape of a heart, and which I afterward found in his +desk with the letter "N" written upon it, and then scratched out. When +at last we reached our house Mr. Sherwood asked Nellie "where that old +mine and sawmill were, of which she had told him so much." + +"Right on Miss Hudson's way home," said Nellie. "Let's walk along with +her;" and the next moment Mr. Sherwood, Mabel, and Nellie were in the +long, green lane which led down to the sawmill. + +Oh, how Adaline stormed when she heard of it, and how sneeringly she +spoke to Mr. Sherwood of the "factory girl," insinuating that the bloom +on her cheek was paint, and the lily on her brow powder! But he probably +did not believe it, for almost every day he passed the schoolhouse, +generally managing to speak with Mabel; and once he went all the way +home with her, staying ever so long, too, for I watched until 'twas +pitch dark, and he hadn't got back yet! + +In a day or two he went home, and I thought no more about him, until +Tom, who had been to the post office, brought Mabel a letter, which made +her turn red and white alternately, until at last she cried. She was +very absent-minded the remainder of that day, letting us do as we +pleased, and never in my life did I have a better time "carrying on" +than I did that afternoon when Mabel received her first letter from Mr. +Sherwood. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NEW RELATIONS. + + +About six weeks after the close of Mabel's school we were one day +startled with the intelligence that she was going to be married, and to +Mr. Sherwood, too. He had become tired of the fashionable ladies of his +acquaintance, and when he saw how pure and artless Mabel was, he +immediately became interested in her; and at last, overcoming all +feelings of pride, he had offered her his hand, and had been accepted. +At first we could hardly credit the story; but when Mrs. Hudson herself +confirmed it we gave it up, and again I wondered if I should be invited. +All the nicest and best chestnuts which I could find, to say nothing of +the apples and butternuts, I carried to her, not without my reward +either, for when invitations came to us I was included with the rest. +Our family were the only invited guests, and I felt no fears this time +of being hidden by the crowd. + +Just before the ceremony commenced there was the sound of a heavy +footstep upon the outer porch, a loud knock at the door, and then into +the room came Mr. Gilbert! He seemed slightly agitated, but not one-half +so much as Mrs. Hudson, who exclaimed, "William, my son, why are you +here?" + +"I came to witness my sister's bridal," was the answer; and turning +toward the clergyman, he said, somewhat authoritatively, "Do not delay +for me, sir. Go on." + +There was a movement in the next room, and then the bridal party +entered, both starting with surprise as they saw Mr. Gilbert. Very +beautiful did Mabel look as she stood up to take upon herself the +marriage vow, not a syllable of which did one of us hear. We were +thinking of Mr. Gilbert, and the strange words, "my son" and "my +sister." + +When it was over, and Mabel was Mrs. Sherwood, Mr. Gilbert approached +Mrs. Hudson, saying, "Come, mother, let me lead you to the bride." + +With an impatient gesture she waved him off, and going alone to her +daughter, threw her arms around her neck, sobbing convulsively. There +was an awkward silence, and then Mr. Gilbert, thinking he was called +upon for an explanation, arose, and addressing himself mostly to Mr. +Sherwood, said, "I suppose what has transpired here to-night seems +rather strange, and will undoubtedly furnish the neighborhood with +gossip for more than a week, but they are welcome to canvass whatever I +do. I can't help it if I was born with an unusual degree of pride, +neither can I help feeling mortified, as I many times did, at my family, +particularly after she," glancing at his mother, "married the man whose +name she bears." + +Here Mrs. Hudson lifted up her head, and coming to Mr. Gilbert's side, +stood proudly erect, while he continued: "She would tell you he was a +good man, but I hated him, and swore never to enter the house while he +lived. I went away, took care of myself, grew rich, married into one of +the first families in Hartford, and--and"-- + +Here he paused, and his mother, continuing the sentence, added, "and +grew ashamed of your own mother, who many a time went without the +comforts of life that you might be educated. You were always a proud, +wayward boy, William, but never did I think you would do as you have +done. You have treated me with utter neglect, never allowing your wife +to see me, and when I once proposed visiting you in Hartford you asked +your brother, now dead, to dissuade me from it, if possible, for you +could not introduce me to your acquaintances as your mother. Never do +you speak of me to your children, who, if they know they have a +grandmother, little dream that she lives within a mile of their father's +dwelling. One of them I have seen, and my heart yearned toward her as it +did toward you when first I took you in my arms, my firstborn baby; and +yet, William, I thank Heaven there is in her sweet face no trace of her +father's features. This may sound harsh, unmotherly, but greatly have I +been sinned against, and now, just as a brighter day is dawning upon me, +why have you come here? Say, William, why?" + +By the time Mrs. Hudson had finished, nearly all in the room were +weeping. Mr. Gilbert, however, seemed perfectly indifferent, and with +the most provoking coolness, replied, "I came to see my fair sister +married--to congratulate her upon an alliance which will bring us upon a +more equal footing." + +"You greatly mistake me, sir," said Mr. Sherwood, turning haughtily +toward Mr. Gilbert, at the same time drawing Mabel nearer to him; "you +greatly mistake me, if, after what I have heard, you think I would wish +for your acquaintance. If my wife, when poor and obscure, was not worthy +of your attention, _you_ certainly are not now worthy of hers, and it is +my request that our intercourse should end here." + +Mr. Gilbert muttered something about "extenuating circumstances," and +"the whole not being told," but no one paid him any attention; and at +last, snatching up his hat, he precipitately left the house, I sending +after him a hearty good riddance, and mentally hoping he would measure +his length in the ditch which he must pass on his way across Hemlock +Swamp. + +The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood departed on their bridal tour, +intending on their return to take their mother with them to the city. +Several times during their absence I saw Mr. Gilbert, either going to +or returning from the "haunted house," and I readily guessed he was +trying to talk his mother over, for nothing could be more mortifying +than to be cut by the Sherwoods, who were among the first in Hartford. +Afterward, greatly to my satisfaction, I heard that though, motherlike, +Mrs. Hudson had forgiven her son, Mr. Sherwood ever treated him with a +cool haughtiness which effectually kept him at a distance. + +Once, indeed, at Mabel's earnest request, Mrs. Gilbert and Nellie were +invited to visit her, and as the former was too feeble to accomplish the +journey, Nellie went alone, staying a long time, and torturing her +sister on her return with a glowing account of the elegantly-furnished +house, of which Adaline had once hoped to be the proud mistress. + +For several years after Mabel's departure from Rice Corner nothing +especial occurred in the Gilbert family, except the marriage of Adaline +with a rich bachelor, who must have been many years older than her +father, for he colored his whiskers, wore false teeth and a wig, besides +having, as Nellie declared, a wooden leg! For the truth of this last I +will not vouch, as Nellie's assertion was only founded upon the fact of +her having once looked through the keyhole of his door and espied, +standing by his bed, something which looked like a cork leg, but which +might have been a boot! What Adaline saw in him to like I could never +guess. I suppose, however, that she only looked at his rich gilding, +which covered a multitude of defects. + +Immediately after the wedding the happy pair started for a two-years +tour in Europe, where the youthful bride so enraged her baldheaded lord +by flirting with a mustached Frenchman that in a fit of anger the old +man picked up his goods, chattels, and wife, and returned to New York +within three months of his leaving it! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +POOR, POOR NELLIE. + + +And now, in the closing chapter of this brief sketch of the Gilberts, I +come to the saddest part--the fate of poor Nellie, the dearest playmate +my childhood knew, she whom the lapse of years ripened into a graceful, +beautiful girl, loved by everybody, even by Tom Jenkins, whose boyish +affection had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength. + +And now Nellie was the affianced bride of William Raymond, who had +replaced the little cornelian with the engagement ring. At last the +rumor reached Tom Jenkins, awaking him from the sweetest dream he had +ever known. He could not ask Nellie if it were true, so he came to me; +and when I saw how he grew pale and trembled, I felt that Nellie was not +altogether blameless. But he breathed no word of censure against her; +and when, a year or two afterward, I saw her given to William Raymond, I +knew that the love of two hearts was hers; the one to cherish and watch +over her, the other to love and worship, silently, secretly, as a miser +worships his hidden treasure. + + * * * * * + +The bridal was over. The farewells were over, and Nellie had gone--gone +from the home whose sunlight she had made, and which she had left +forever. Sadly the pale, sick mother wept, and mourned her absence, +listening in vain for the light footfall and soft, ringing voice she +would never hear again. + +Three weeks had passed away, and then, far and near the papers teemed +with accounts of the horrible Norwalk catastrophe, which desolated many +a home, and wrung from many a heart its choicest treasure. Side by side +they found them--Nellie and her husband--the light of her brown eyes +quenched forever, and the pulses of his heart still in death! + +I was present when they told the poor invalid of her loss, and even now +I seem to hear the bitter, wailing cry which broke from her white lips, +as she begged them to unsay what they had said, and tell her Nellie was +not dead--that she would come back again. + +It could not be. Nellie would never return; and in six weeks' time the +broken-hearted mother was at rest with her child. + + +THE END. + + + + +Charles Garvice + +Is now the most widely read author living. The following books from his +facile pen are now ready in the MODERN AUTHORS' LIBRARY + + A MARTYRED LOVE + LOVE'S DILEMMA; or, Kate Meddon's Lover + SO NEARLY LOST; or, Springtime of Love + JEANNE; or, Barriers Between + A WOMAN'S SOUL + WOUNDED HEART; or, Sweet as a Rose + THE USURPER; or, Her Humble Lover + LUCILLE, THE LADY OF DARRACOURT; or, Love's Conquest + THE EARL'S HEIR + OLIVIA + SO FAIR, SO FALSE; or, The Beauty of the Season + THE MARQUIS + A WASTED LOVE; or, on Love's Altar + LESLIE'S LOYALTY; or, His Love So True + LORRIE; or, Hollow Gold + SHE LOVED HIM; or, Bessie Harewood's Triumph + ONLY A GIRL'S LOVE + LEOLA DALE'S FORTUNE + ONLY ONE LOVE; or, Who Was The Heir + HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL + ELAINE; or, Lady Nairne's Fortune + CLAIRE; or, The Mistakes of Court Regna + HER HEART'S DESIRE; or An Innocent Girl + HER RANSOM; or, Paid For + + * * * * * + +THE Sweet Clover Stories + +FOR GIRLS + +BY MRS. CARRIE L. MAY + +INCLUDING + + Brownie Sanford + Nellie Milton's Housekeeping + Sylvia's Burden + Ruth Lovell + + * * * * * + +THE SELF-EDUCATOR SERIES + +Edited by John Adams, M. A., B. Sc. + +[Illustration] + +The object of this series is to meet the needs of students who are +either unable or unwilling to attend classes in subjects which they wish +to study. No effort has been spared to make the books self-contained. It +is taken for granted that no help is available other than that to be +found in the pages of the various volumes, and it is hoped that this +help will be sufficient to enable the most isolated student to give +himself a thorough grounding in the subjects he takes up. The books +begin at the beginning of their subjects, and carry the student far +enough to enable him to continue his studies intelligently and +successfully on his own account. Two common mistakes have been carefully +avoided: (1) Expecting too much from the student. (2) Attempting to +exhaust a whole subject in one book. Each volume contains all the +"Essentials" of the subject, and concludes with a set of hints on how +best to prosecute the study as a private student. + + Self-Educator in Algebra. By W. P. Higgs. + Self-Educator in French. By John Adams. + Self-Educator in Latin. By W. A. Edward. + Self-Educator in German. By John Adams. + Self-Educator in Chemistry. By James Knight. + Self-Educator in English Composition. By C. H. Thornton. + + * * * * * + +LOVE LETTERS + +With Directions How To Write Them + +By INGOLDSBY NORTH. + +[Illustration] + + +This is a branch of correspondence which fully demands a volume alone to +provide for the various phases incident to Love, Courtship and Marriage. +Few persons, however otherwise fluent with the pen, are able to express +in words the promptings of the first dawn of love, and even the ice once +broken how to follow up a correspondence with the dearest one in the +whole world and how to smooth the way with those who need to be +consulted in the matter. The numerous letters and answers in this book +go far to overcome the difficulties and embarrassment inseparable from +letters on this all-absorbing topic in all stages from beginning to end +of a successful courtship, aided in many instances by the author's +sensible comments on the specimen letters, and his valuable hints under +adverse contingencies. It also contains the Art of Secret Writing, the +Language of Love portrayed and rules in grammar. + + * * * * * + +THE COMPLETE LETTER WRITER + +Being the only Comprehensive and Practical Guide and Assistant to Letter +Writing Published. + +Edited by CHARLES WALTER BROWN, A. M. + +[Illustration] + +There are few books that contain such a fund of valuable information on +the everyday affairs of life. In addition to every conceivable form of +business and social correspondence, there are letters of Condolence, +Introduction, Congratulation, Felicitation, Advice and Favor; Letters +accompanying presents; Notes on Love, Courtship and Marriage; Forms of +Wedding Anniversaries, Socials, Parties, Notes, Wills, Deeds, Mortgages; +Tables, Abbreviations, Classical Terms, Common Errors, Selections for +Autograph Albums; Information concerning Rates on Foreign and Domestic +Postage, together with a dictionary of nearly 10,000 Synonyms and other +valuable information which space will not admit of mention. The book is +printed from new plates, on a superior quality of paper and bound in +substantial and durable manner. + + * * * * * + +Standard American Perfection + +POULTRY BOOK + +[Illustration] + +Describing the different varieties of fowls, their points of beauty and +their merits. Shows how to increase their earning capacity as layers. +Points the way to get more money for them in the market. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Haunted Homestead, by E. D. E. N. 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