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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/7372-8.txt b/7372-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af2d158 --- /dev/null +++ b/7372-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6333 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +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: Septimius Felton + or, The Elixir of Life + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: April 12, 2014 [EBook #7372] +Release Date: January, 2005 +First Posted: April 22, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +Septimius Felton; + +Or, + +The Elixir Of Life. + +By Nathanial Hawthorne + +1883 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE. + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON. + + + +The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871. + +Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See _English +Note-Books,_ April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence--one +of the strange premonitions of genius--is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:-- + +"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more _all the happiness;_ because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years. + +When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton." + +Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne. + +Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region. + +The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer. + +In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated. + +G.P.L. + + + +PREFACE. + + + +The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (_e. g._ p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me. + +UNA HAWTHORNE. + + + + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON; + +OR, THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. + + + +It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,--beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,--so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more. + +These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road--a +fertile tract--had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,--Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves. + +Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,--a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,--a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,--who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,--so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead. + +Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,--pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble. + +"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,--weaker than his father, who came from England,--and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me." + +"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,--lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,--then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?" + +"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head. + +"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point." + +"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no." + +"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,--"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!" + +"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways." + +"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more." + +"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past." + +"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?" + +"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?" + +"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!--but it is so short!" + +"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?" + +"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know." + +"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest." + +"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,--my seventy years of what this +life has,--toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,--only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content." + +"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!" + +"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time." + +"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle." + +"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him. + +"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?" + +"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk." + +"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,--all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business." + +"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within." + +"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so." + +"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius. + +"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith." + +"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such." + +"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win." + +"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it." + +"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly." + +"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough." + +"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!" + +"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous." + +"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air." + +"I will try," said Septimius. + +"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change." + +He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality. + +So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!" + +After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby. + +Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward. + +So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman--an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler--called him to dinner,--a +frugal dinner,--and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table. + +"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word." + +"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body." + +"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him." + +"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. + +"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day." + +"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!" + +It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death. + +Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it. + +Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?" + +As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,--or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,--grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,--storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,--the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,--hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,--lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves. + +Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,--the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him. + +"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!" + +"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man." + +"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!" + +Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence. + +Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction. + +As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in. + +"Septimius--Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?" + +"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?" + +"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like." + +"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius. + +"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight." + +"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius. + +"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!" + +In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!" + +And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village. + +"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife." + +"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!" + +He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories. + +"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,--you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm." + +They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane. + +"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men." + +"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious." + +Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up. + +"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains." + +"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman." + +"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge." + +Before Septimius could reply or act,--and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,--the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on. + +"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence. + +It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said. + +"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother." + +"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she. + +"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge." + +"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself. + +Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever. + +"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!" + +Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,--by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe. + +Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more. + +While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked. + +[_Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed_.] + +They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,--some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he. + +Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement. + +"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!" + +The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth. + +"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace." + +"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner." + +"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body." + +"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!" + +As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius. + +"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!" + +"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might." + +"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought. + +"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life." + +In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them. + +"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst." + +Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments. + +"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world." + +"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!" + +"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you." + +Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed. + +"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address." + +He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England. + +"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?" + +As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,--though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls." + +"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius. + +"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand." + +Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book. + +"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper." + +Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,--straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain. + +"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side. + +"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now." + +Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour. + +He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,--might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,--still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,--all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,--this never could be made up,--all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,--this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,--where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,--trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him. + +Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,--the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality. + +Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey. + +Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone. + +The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well. + +"Septimius! what are you doing here?" + +He looked up and saw the minister. + +"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here." + +He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated. + +"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it." + +"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others." + +"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then." + +With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould. + +"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,--so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you." + +"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life." + +"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty." + +"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy." + +"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon." + +Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts. + +So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,--the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,--the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,--which were less questionable spoils of war,--only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address. + +But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were. + +This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there. + +But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,--as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing." + +"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment." + +"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose. + +"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius. + +He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer. + +"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?" + +"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me." + +"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius." + +"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy." + +And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,--the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,--spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,--admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,--Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife. + +And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,--perchance,--there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow. + + * * * * * + +Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?" + +"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either." + +"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one. + +Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal. + +Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,--down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,--he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon. + +For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate. + +He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts. + +Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case. + +I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,--it was not to be read in a happy mood. + +Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop. + +"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!" + +"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter--yes, much sweeter, I find--to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone." + +"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover." + +"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!" + +"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?--for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance." + +"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,--to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,--because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element." + +"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one." + +As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed. + +"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago." + +"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother." + +"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present." + +"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose. + +"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men--many of them at +least--will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other." + +"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field." + +"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius. + +Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,--a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day. + +Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,--potent wine,--with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment. + +Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if--so secret and +so important was it--it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word! + +But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years. + +Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,--the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him. + +But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,--as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,--appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him. + +"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on." + +"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now." + +"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors." + +Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case. + + * * * * * + +The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,--a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation. + +But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,--a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manoeuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder. + +In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end. + +Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way. + +Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design. + +"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?" + +"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,--pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil." + +Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind. + +By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,--the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,--until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him. + +However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,-- + +"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well." + +"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day." + +"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time." + +"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,--which?" + +So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand. + +While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep. + +What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [_Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl._] + +Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before. + +"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!" + +As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there. + +The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,--those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!" + +A very sweet voice it was,--plaintive, low,--and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant. + +"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,--the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers." + +"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up." + +"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius. + +"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring." + +"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius. + +"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop." + +It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations. + +"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder. + +"For a time," said she. + +"And shall I see you again?" asked he. + +"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill." + +It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,--to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him. + +"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another. + +"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own." + +A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human. + +It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her. + +"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board." + +"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius. + +"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable." + +"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius. + +"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +_Sanguinea sanguinissima_ grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted." + +"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius. + +"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see." + +"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies." + +"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts." + +"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits." + +"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection." + +Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least--the one now by his side--to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,--the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting. + +By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden. + +Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome. + +It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known. + +So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring." + +[_Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies_.] + +The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [_He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely_.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth. + +"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he. + +"That is my name," replied Septimius. + +"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army." + +"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers. + +"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me." + +"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before. + +"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,--"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away." + +"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius. + +"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country." + +"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,--that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing." + +"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge." + +"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius. + +"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?--there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web." + +"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom." + +"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?" + +"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way." + +"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at." + +Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!" + +"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest. + +"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it." + +"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful." + +"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not." + +"I neither shrink nor fear,--neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate--if anything you can--I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve." + +So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back. + +"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she. + +"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him." + +"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she. + +"I? Nothing!--that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in." + +"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him." + +So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer. + +"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor. + +"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king." + +"And you took it from him?" said the doctor. + +"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius. + +"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet." + +Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject. + +"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past." + +"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe. + +It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one. + +[_"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"_--] + +But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy. + +Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet--growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly--grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days. + +"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up." + +"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues." + +The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English. + +The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate. + +"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks." + +"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius. + +"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?" + +"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?" + +"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole." + +He read the paper again, and continued:-- + +"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts." + +"And what is that?" asked Septimius. + +"_Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach." + +"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so." + +"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years." + +Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him. + +"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No--you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you." + +Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him. + +But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him. + +"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he." + +So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius. + +"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it." + +"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality." + +He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life. + +"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it." + +"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it." + +"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines." + +"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect." + +And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him. + +She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him. + +So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died. + +[_Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc._] + +But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [_Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,--doubtful +which._] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife. + +"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,--who taught the +drink to me,--and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear." + +"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?" + +"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here." + +Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same. + +"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?" + +"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear." + +So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency. + +Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to. + +Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,--the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds. + +"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,--shame to him for it! + +"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon." + +"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does." + +"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly. + +"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end." + +"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face. + +"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,--all of us,--causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave." + +"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds." + +Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,--when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,--the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,--yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot. + +"This is very strange," said he. + +"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil." + +"Where could the seeds have come from?--that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot." + +"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it." + +Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt. + +"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away." + +"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius. + +"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant." + +"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,--I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?" + +"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more." + +Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:-- + +"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it." + +"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is. + + * * * * * + +"On the threshold of one of the doors of ---- Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago. + +"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of ---- Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,--a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose. + +"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man--this man of a noble +purpose--spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms? + +"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view. + +"You see, the object of the lord of ---- Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he. + +"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;--that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection--as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow--on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,--at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good. + +"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),--its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child. + +"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,--which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so. + +"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,--this noble, pure, loving child,--she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death. + +"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained. + +"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast. + +"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of ---- Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual." + + * * * * * + +So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,--both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,--all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve." + + * * * * * + +Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success. + +A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure. + +Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,--so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,--what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,--for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect. + +It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out. + +"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation. + +"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning. + +"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart. + +"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day. + +"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is. + +"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him. + +"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee. + +"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain. + +"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life. + +"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits. + +"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful. + +"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people--all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,--from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere. + +"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot. + +"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,--it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide. + +"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation. + +"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear. + +"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow. + +"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee. + +"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules. + +"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them. + +"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end. + +"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors." + +Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them. + +And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,--it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,--out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself. + +The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness. + +Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,--as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden. + +Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,--a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them. + +The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life." + +"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose. + +"The _Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said Sibyl. + +It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,--groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,--half a dozen times it +might be,--of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable. + +But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined. + +Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her. + +"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?" + +"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?" + +"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls--or +it may be four, as I am very bad--of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,--or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!" + +Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,--if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,--why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup. + +"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again." + +The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink. + +He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot. + +"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble." + +"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good." + +"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good." + +"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he. + +"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?" + +She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long. + +"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years." + +She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs. + +"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,--but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once." + +Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave. + +But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale? + +He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death! + +[_It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made_.--ED.] + +And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live." + +Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment. + +By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,--nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter. + +"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed." + +"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything." + +"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie." + +"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her." + +"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow." + +So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping. + +Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,--so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,--so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation. + +"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,--"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?" + +"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other." + +"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!" + +"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,--for the +neighbors? something must be done!" + +The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,--much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy. + +"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,--a Christian woman." + +"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one." + +"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,--all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!" + +Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly. + +"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,--not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,--but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!" + +After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands. + +"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,--that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,--but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?" + +"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time." + +"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!" + +"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature. + +The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers." + +"Not one drop, auntie." + +"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it." + +These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,--and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar. + +Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it. + +"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it." + +Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die. + +By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face. + +"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she. + +"She is dead," said Septimius. + +"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way." + +"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius. + +"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl. + +Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?--then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [_Here several pages +are missing_.--ED.] + + * * * * * + +Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements. + +Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side. + +"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business." + +Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web? + +"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?" + +"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!" + +"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?" + +"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius. + +"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?" + +"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them." + +The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again. + +"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?" + +"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"--he hesitated a little,--"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house." + +The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower. + +"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reëxamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,--yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,--so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?" + +Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,--as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know. + +"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave." + +"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle." + +"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius. + +"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner." + +"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me." + +"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end." + +Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness. + +"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil." + +"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected." + +"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection." + +There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature. + +"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him." + +In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion. + +"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on." + +Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least. + +"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations." + +Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food. + +"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it." + +When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down. + +"Now for a talk about business," said he. + +Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him. + +Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this. + +"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race." + +Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity. + +On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,--having, at least, some early recollections of it,--inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood. + +"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?" + +"None," said Septimius. + +"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?" + +"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures." + +"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents." + +"I have other things to do," said Septimius. + +"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?" + +"Very little, I confess," said Septimius. + +"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,--all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?" + +"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,--no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,--but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance." + +"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,--only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this." + +Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber. + +At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation. + +"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say." + +"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time." + +So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise. + +"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms." + +So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home. + +So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,--a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,--to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,--old +autographs,--for the Black Man was the original autograph collector. + +But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from Aunt +Keziah; or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable. + +I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,--because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,--they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,--all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course. + +Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,--the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy! + +Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?--how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,--friendship, and the +love of woman,--the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,--and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now." + +But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be--sweet for me, +at least--if this intercourse might last forever!" + +"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!--doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go." + +"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?" + +"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,--none sooner nor better than you,--so much I promise you." + +"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look. + +"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl. + +"And what is it?" demanded Septimius. + +"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him. + +He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him. + +And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result. + +One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost. + +But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret. + +It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be. + +He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in." + +The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man. + +"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!" + +"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!" + +"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way." + +"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,--there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,--the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,--and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,--hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes." + +"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?" + +"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,--the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,--since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying." + +Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,--not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,--Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,--doing the first good thing that +came to hand,--and here was a hero. + +"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing. + +"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert. + +"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius. + +"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this." + +"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?" + +"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay." + +"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?" + +"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever." + +"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy." + +Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box. + +The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediæval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,--nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,--nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference. + +Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,--those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,--the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy! + +"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity." + +With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,--a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath. + +"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones." + +In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation. + +But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done. + +Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him. + +So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it. + +And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,--not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real. + +There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating. + +Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,--its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked. + +Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend--one single heart--before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,--all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought. + +Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said. + +"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he. + +"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment." + +"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence." + +"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl. + +"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,--heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,--have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter." + +"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,--to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out--as I suspect--that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!" + +"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,--a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do." + +"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl. + +"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way." + +"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,--which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,--we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us." + +"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,--"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?" + +"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it." + +"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?" + +"By this time," said Septimius,--"how many hundred years have we now +lived?--by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime." + +[_He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one_.] + +"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,--in that one little century,--methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things." + +[_The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness_.] + +"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too." + +"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,--some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!" + +"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?" + +"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,--these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do." + +"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel." + +"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,--yet I think not +so,--perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?" + +"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no." + +"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,--the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new." + +[_He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,--himself among his own posterity_.] + +"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?" + +"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?" + +"One little interval--a few centuries only--of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?" + +"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless." + +In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,--loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success. + + * * * * * + +And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all--except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves--rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness. + +Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,--a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,--and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood. + +And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,--a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully." + +"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?" + +"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it." + +"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes. + +"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet." + +These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon. + +[_It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage_.] + +"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day." + +"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it." + +"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward." + +"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!" + +Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply. + +"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple." + +"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two. + +"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?" + +He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,--how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,-- + +"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!" + +After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire. + +After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed. + +Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse. + +"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,--for so he should be called,--and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his." + +"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,--the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!" + +"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them." + +The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!" + +"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?" + +"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with." + +Some of the company laughed. + +"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor. + +"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young." + +"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,--superstitions, do you call them?--that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body." + +"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in. + +"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver." + +"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me." + +"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely." + +"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been." + +She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,--a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done. + +"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl. + +"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is." + +She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand. + +"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius. + +"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?" + +"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you." + +"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part." + +"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it." + +"I could,--I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?" + +"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!" + +"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you--were they your features--which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?" + +"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him." + +"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius. + +"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?" + +"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,--why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?" + +"Ah, my friend,--my enemy, if you will have it so,--are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine." + +"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?" + +"Septimius, I am weak,--a weak, weak girl,--only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,--could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!" + +She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him. + +"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?" + +He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around. + +"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror. + +"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,--then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it." + +"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!" + +"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality." + +"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt." + +"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,--a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,--and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now." + +"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?" + +"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,--and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying." + +"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together." + +"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,--what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,--and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!" + +[_She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way_.] + +But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?--ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world." + +And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again. + + * * * * * + +The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,--some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company. + +"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss." + +This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor--such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself--seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider. + +As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man. + +A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature. + +As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +***** This file should be named 7372-8.txt or 7372-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/3/7/7372/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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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: Septimius Felton + or, The Elixir of Life + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: April 12, 2014 [EBook #7372] +Release Date: January, 2005 +First Posted: April 22, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>Septimius Felton;</h1> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps">Or,</p> + +<h2>The Elixir Of Life.</h2> + +<h3>By Nathanial Hawthorne</h3> + +<h4>1883</h4> + + + +<h1>Introductory Note.</h1> + +<h2>Septimius Felton.</h2> + + + +<p>The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871.</p> + +<p>Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See <i>English +Note-Books,</i> April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence–one +of the strange premonitions of genius–is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:–</p> + +<p>"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more <i>all the happiness;</i> because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years.</p> + +<p>When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton."</p> + +<p>Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne.</p> + +<p>Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region.</p> + +<p>The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer.</p> + +<p>In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated.</p> + +<p>G.P.L.</p> + + + +<h1>Preface.</h1> + + + +<p>The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (<i>e. g.</i> p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;font-variant: small-caps">Una Hawthorne.</p> + + + +<h1>Septimius Felton;</h1> + +<h2>Or, The Elixir of Life.</h2> + + + +<p>It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,–beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,–so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more.</p> + +<p>These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road–a +fertile tract–had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,–Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves.</p> + +<p>Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,–a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,–a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,–who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,–so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead.</p> + +<p>Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,–pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble.</p> + +<p>"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,–weaker than his father, who came from England,–and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me."</p> + +<p>"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,–lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,–then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head.</p> + +<p>"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point."</p> + +<p>"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no."</p> + +<p>"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,–"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more."</p> + +<p>"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past."</p> + +<p>"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?"</p> + +<p>"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!–but it is so short!"</p> + +<p>"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?"</p> + +<p>"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know."</p> + +<p>"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest."</p> + +<p>"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,–my seventy years of what this +life has,–toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,–only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content."</p> + +<p>"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!"</p> + +<p>"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle."</p> + +<p>"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him.</p> + +<p>"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?"</p> + +<p>"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk."</p> + +<p>"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,–all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within."</p> + +<p>"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so."</p> + +<p>"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith."</p> + +<p>"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it."</p> + +<p>"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly."</p> + +<p>"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough."</p> + +<p>"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!"</p> + +<p>"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air."</p> + +<p>"I will try," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change."</p> + +<p>He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality.</p> + +<p>So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!"</p> + +<p>After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby.</p> + +<p>Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward.</p> + +<p>So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman–an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler–called him to dinner,–a +frugal dinner,–and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table.</p> + +<p>"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word."</p> + +<p>"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body."</p> + +<p>"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him."</p> + +<p>"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day."</p> + +<p>"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!"</p> + +<p>It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death.</p> + +<p>Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it.</p> + +<p>Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?"</p> + +<p>As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,–or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,–grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,–storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,–the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,–hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,–lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves.</p> + +<p>Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,–the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him.</p> + +<p>"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!"</p> + +<p>"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man."</p> + +<p>"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!"</p> + +<p>Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence.</p> + +<p>Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction.</p> + +<p>As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in.</p> + +<p>"Septimius–Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?"</p> + +<p>"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?"</p> + +<p>"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like."</p> + +<p>"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight."</p> + +<p>"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!"</p> + +<p>In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!"</p> + +<p>And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife."</p> + +<p>"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!"</p> + +<p>He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,–you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm."</p> + +<p>They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane.</p> + +<p>"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men."</p> + +<p>"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious."</p> + +<p>Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up.</p> + +<p>"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains."</p> + +<p>"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman."</p> + +<p>"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge."</p> + +<p>Before Septimius could reply or act,–and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,–the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on.</p> + +<p>"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said.</p> + +<p>"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother."</p> + +<p>"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge."</p> + +<p>"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself.</p> + +<p>Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever.</p> + +<p>"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!"</p> + +<p>Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,–by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe.</p> + +<p>Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more.</p> + +<p>While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked.</p> + +<p>[<i>Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed</i>.]</p> + +<p>They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,–some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he.</p> + +<p>Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!"</p> + +<p>The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth.</p> + +<p>"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace."</p> + +<p>"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner."</p> + +<p>"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body."</p> + +<p>"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!"</p> + +<p>As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!"</p> + +<p>"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might."</p> + +<p>"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life."</p> + +<p>In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst."</p> + +<p>Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world."</p> + +<p>"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!"</p> + +<p>"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you."</p> + +<p>Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address."</p> + +<p>He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England.</p> + +<p>"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?"</p> + +<p>As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,–though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls."</p> + +<p>"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand."</p> + +<p>Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book.</p> + +<p>"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper."</p> + +<p>Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,–straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now."</p> + +<p>Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour.</p> + +<p>He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,–might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,–still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,–all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,–this never could be made up,–all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,–this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,–where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,–trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him.</p> + +<p>Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,–the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality.</p> + +<p>Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey.</p> + +<p>Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone.</p> + +<p>The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well.</p> + +<p>"Septimius! what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>He looked up and saw the minister.</p> + +<p>"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here."</p> + +<p>He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated.</p> + +<p>"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others."</p> + +<p>"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then."</p> + +<p>With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould.</p> + +<p>"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,–so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you."</p> + +<p>"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life."</p> + +<p>"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty."</p> + +<p>"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy."</p> + +<p>"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon."</p> + +<p>Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts.</p> + +<p>So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,–the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,–the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,–which were less questionable spoils of war,–only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address.</p> + +<p>But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were.</p> + +<p>This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there.</p> + +<p>But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,–as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing."</p> + +<p>"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment."</p> + +<p>"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius.</p> + +<p>He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?"</p> + +<p>"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me."</p> + +<p>"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius."</p> + +<p>"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy."</p> + +<p>And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,–the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,–spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,–admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,–Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife.</p> + +<p>And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,–perchance,–there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?"</p> + +<p>"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either."</p> + +<p>"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one.</p> + +<p>Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal.</p> + +<p>Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,–down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,–he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon.</p> + +<p>For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate.</p> + +<p>He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts.</p> + +<p>Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case.</p> + +<p>I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,–it was not to be read in a happy mood.</p> + +<p>Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop.</p> + +<p>"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter–yes, much sweeter, I find–to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone."</p> + +<p>"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover."</p> + +<p>"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?–for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance."</p> + +<p>"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,–to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,–because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element."</p> + +<p>"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one."</p> + +<p>As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed.</p> + +<p>"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother."</p> + +<p>"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present."</p> + +<p>"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose.</p> + +<p>"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men–many of them at +least–will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other."</p> + +<p>"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field."</p> + +<p>"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,–a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day.</p> + +<p>Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,–potent wine,–with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment.</p> + +<p>Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if–so secret and +so important was it–it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word!</p> + +<p>But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years.</p> + +<p>Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,–the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him.</p> + +<p>But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,–as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,–appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him.</p> + +<p>"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now."</p> + +<p>"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors."</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,–a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation.</p> + +<p>But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,–a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manœuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder.</p> + +<p>In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end.</p> + +<p>Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way.</p> + +<p>Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design.</p> + +<p>"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?"</p> + +<p>"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,–pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil."</p> + +<p>Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind.</p> + +<p>By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,–the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,–until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him.</p> + +<p>However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,–</p> + +<p>"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well."</p> + +<p>"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day."</p> + +<p>"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time."</p> + +<p>"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,–which?"</p> + +<p>So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand.</p> + +<p>While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep.</p> + +<p>What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [<i>Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl.</i>]</p> + +<p>Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before.</p> + +<p>"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there.</p> + +<p>The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,–those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!"</p> + +<p>A very sweet voice it was,–plaintive, low,–and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant.</p> + +<p>"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,–the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers."</p> + +<p>"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up."</p> + +<p>"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring."</p> + +<p>"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop."</p> + +<p>It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations.</p> + +<p>"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder.</p> + +<p>"For a time," said she.</p> + +<p>"And shall I see you again?" asked he.</p> + +<p>"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill."</p> + +<p>It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,–to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him.</p> + +<p>"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own."</p> + +<p>A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human.</p> + +<p>It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her.</p> + +<p>"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board."</p> + +<p>"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable."</p> + +<p>"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +<i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i> grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted."</p> + +<p>"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see."</p> + +<p>"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts."</p> + +<p>"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits."</p> + +<p>"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection."</p> + +<p>Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least–the one now by his side–to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,–the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting.</p> + +<p>By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden.</p> + +<p>Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome.</p> + +<p>It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known.</p> + +<p>So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring."</p> + +<p>[<i>Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies</i>.]</p> + +<p>The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [<i>He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely</i>.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he.</p> + +<p>"That is my name," replied Septimius.</p> + +<p>"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army."</p> + +<p>"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers.</p> + +<p>"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me."</p> + +<p>"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,–"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away."</p> + +<p>"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country."</p> + +<p>"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,–that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing."</p> + +<p>"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge."</p> + +<p>"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?–there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom."</p> + +<p>"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?"</p> + +<p>"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way."</p> + +<p>"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at."</p> + +<p>Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!"</p> + +<p>"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it."</p> + +<p>"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful."</p> + +<p>"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not."</p> + +<p>"I neither shrink nor fear,–neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate–if anything you can–I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve."</p> + +<p>So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back.</p> + +<p>"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him."</p> + +<p>"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"I? Nothing!–that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in."</p> + +<p>"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him."</p> + +<p>So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer.</p> + +<p>"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king."</p> + +<p>"And you took it from him?" said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet."</p> + +<p>Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject.</p> + +<p>"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past."</p> + +<p>"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one.</p> + +<p>[<i>"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"</i>–]</p> + +<p>But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy.</p> + +<p>Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet–growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly–grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days.</p> + +<p>"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up."</p> + +<p>"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues."</p> + +<p>The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English.</p> + +<p>The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate.</p> + +<p>"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks."</p> + +<p>"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius.</p> + +<p>"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?"</p> + +<p>"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?"</p> + +<p>"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole."</p> + +<p>He read the paper again, and continued:–</p> + +<p>"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts."</p> + +<p>"And what is that?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"<i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i>" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach."</p> + +<p>"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so."</p> + +<p>"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years."</p> + +<p>Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him.</p> + +<p>"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No–you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you."</p> + +<p>Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him.</p> + +<p>But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him.</p> + +<p>"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he."</p> + +<p>So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius.</p> + +<p>"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality."</p> + +<p>He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life.</p> + +<p>"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it."</p> + +<p>"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it."</p> + +<p>"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines."</p> + +<p>"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect."</p> + +<p>And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him.</p> + +<p>She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him.</p> + +<p>So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died.</p> + +<p>[<i>Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc.</i>]</p> + +<p>But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [<i>Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,–doubtful +which.</i>] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife.</p> + +<p>"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,–who taught the +drink to me,–and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear."</p> + +<p>"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same.</p> + +<p>"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?"</p> + +<p>"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear."</p> + +<p>So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency.</p> + +<p>Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to.</p> + +<p>Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,–the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds.</p> + +<p>"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,–shame to him for it!</p> + +<p>"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon."</p> + +<p>"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does."</p> + +<p>"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly.</p> + +<p>"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end."</p> + +<p>"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face.</p> + +<p>"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,–all of us,–causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave."</p> + +<p>"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds."</p> + +<p>Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,–when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,–the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,–yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot.</p> + +<p>"This is very strange," said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil."</p> + +<p>"Where could the seeds have come from?–that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot."</p> + +<p>"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it."</p> + +<p>Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt.</p> + +<p>"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away."</p> + +<p>"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant."</p> + +<p>"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,–I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more."</p> + +<p>Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:–</p> + +<p>"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it."</p> + +<p>"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>"On the threshold of one of the doors of —— Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago.</p> + +<p>"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of —— Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,–a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose.</p> + +<p>"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man–this man of a noble +purpose–spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms?</p> + +<p>"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view.</p> + +<p>"You see, the object of the lord of —— Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he.</p> + +<p>"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;–that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection–as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow–on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,–at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good.</p> + +<p>"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),–its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child.</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,–which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so.</p> + +<p>"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,–this noble, pure, loving child,–she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death.</p> + +<p>"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained.</p> + +<p>"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast.</p> + +<p>"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of —— Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,–both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,–all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success.</p> + +<p>A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure.</p> + +<p>Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,–so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,–what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,–for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect.</p> + +<p>It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out.</p> + +<p>"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation.</p> + +<p>"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning.</p> + +<p>"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart.</p> + +<p>"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day.</p> + +<p>"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is.</p> + +<p>"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him.</p> + +<p>"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee.</p> + +<p>"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain.</p> + +<p>"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life.</p> + +<p>"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits.</p> + +<p>"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful.</p> + +<p>"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people–all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,–from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot.</p> + +<p>"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,–it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide.</p> + +<p>"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation.</p> + +<p>"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear.</p> + +<p>"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow.</p> + +<p>"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee.</p> + +<p>"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules.</p> + +<p>"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them.</p> + +<p>"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end.</p> + +<p>"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors."</p> + +<p>Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them.</p> + +<p>And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,–it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,–out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself.</p> + +<p>The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness.</p> + +<p>Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,–as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden.</p> + +<p>Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,–a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them.</p> + +<p>The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life."</p> + +<p>"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i>" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,–groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,–half a dozen times it +might be,–of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable.</p> + +<p>But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined.</p> + +<p>Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her.</p> + +<p>"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?"</p> + +<p>"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls–or +it may be four, as I am very bad–of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,–or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!"</p> + +<p>Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,–if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,–why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup.</p> + +<p>"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again."</p> + +<p>The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink.</p> + +<p>He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot.</p> + +<p>"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble."</p> + +<p>"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good."</p> + +<p>"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good."</p> + +<p>"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he.</p> + +<p>"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?"</p> + +<p>She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long.</p> + +<p>"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years."</p> + +<p>She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs.</p> + +<p>"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,–but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once."</p> + +<p>Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave.</p> + +<p>But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale?</p> + +<p>He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death!</p> + +<p>[<i>It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made</i>.–ED.]</p> + +<p>And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live."</p> + +<p>Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment.</p> + +<p>By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,–nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed."</p> + +<p>"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything."</p> + +<p>"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping.</p> + +<p>Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,–so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,–so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation.</p> + +<p>"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,–"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?"</p> + +<p>"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other."</p> + +<p>"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!"</p> + +<p>"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,–for the +neighbors? something must be done!"</p> + +<p>The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,–much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy.</p> + +<p>"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,–a Christian woman."</p> + +<p>"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one."</p> + +<p>"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,–all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!"</p> + +<p>Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,–not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,–but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!"</p> + +<p>After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands.</p> + +<p>"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,–that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,–but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time."</p> + +<p>"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!"</p> + +<p>"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature.</p> + +<p>The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers."</p> + +<p>"Not one drop, auntie."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it."</p> + +<p>These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,–and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar.</p> + +<p>Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it.</p> + +<p>"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it."</p> + +<p>Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die.</p> + +<p>By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face.</p> + +<p>"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she.</p> + +<p>"She is dead," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way."</p> + +<p>"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?–then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [<i>Here several pages +are missing</i>.–ED.]</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements.</p> + +<p>Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side.</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business."</p> + +<p>Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web?</p> + +<p>"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?"</p> + +<p>"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!"</p> + +<p>"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?"</p> + +<p>"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?"</p> + +<p>"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them."</p> + +<p>The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again.</p> + +<p>"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?"</p> + +<p>"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"–he hesitated a little,–"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house."</p> + +<p>The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower.</p> + +<p>"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reëxamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,–yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,–so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?"</p> + +<p>Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,–as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know.</p> + +<p>"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave."</p> + +<p>"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle."</p> + +<p>"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner."</p> + +<p>"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me."</p> + +<p>"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end."</p> + +<p>Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness.</p> + +<p>"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil."</p> + +<p>"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected."</p> + +<p>"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection."</p> + +<p>There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature.</p> + +<p>"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him."</p> + +<p>In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion.</p> + +<p>"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on."</p> + +<p>Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least.</p> + +<p>"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations."</p> + +<p>Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food.</p> + +<p>"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it."</p> + +<p>When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down.</p> + +<p>"Now for a talk about business," said he.</p> + +<p>Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him.</p> + +<p>Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this.</p> + +<p>"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race."</p> + +<p>Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity.</p> + +<p>On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,–having, at least, some early recollections of it,–inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?"</p> + +<p>"None," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?"</p> + +<p>"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures."</p> + +<p>"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents."</p> + +<p>"I have other things to do," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?"</p> + +<p>"Very little, I confess," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,–all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?"</p> + +<p>"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,–no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,–but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,–only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this."</p> + +<p>Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber.</p> + +<p>At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation.</p> + +<p>"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time."</p> + +<p>So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise.</p> + +<p>"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms."</p> + +<p>So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home.</p> + +<p>So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,–a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,–to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,–old +autographs,–for the Black Man was the original autograph collector.</p> + +<p>But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from Aunt +Keziah; or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable.</p> + +<p>I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,–because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,–they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,–all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,–the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy!</p> + +<p>Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?–how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,–friendship, and the +love of woman,–the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,–and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now."</p> + +<p>But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be–sweet for me, +at least–if this intercourse might last forever!"</p> + +<p>"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!–doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go."</p> + +<p>"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,–none sooner nor better than you,–so much I promise you."</p> + +<p>"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look.</p> + +<p>"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"And what is it?" demanded Septimius.</p> + +<p>"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him.</p> + +<p>He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him.</p> + +<p>And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result.</p> + +<p>One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost.</p> + +<p>But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret.</p> + +<p>It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be.</p> + +<p>He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in."</p> + +<p>The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man.</p> + +<p>"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!"</p> + +<p>"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,–there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,–the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,–and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,–hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes."</p> + +<p>"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?"</p> + +<p>"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,–the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,–since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying."</p> + +<p>Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,–not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,–Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,–doing the first good thing that +came to hand,–and here was a hero.</p> + +<p>"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing.</p> + +<p>"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert.</p> + +<p>"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this."</p> + +<p>"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay."</p> + +<p>"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?"</p> + +<p>"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever."</p> + +<p>"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy."</p> + +<p>Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box.</p> + +<p>The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediæval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,–nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,–nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference.</p> + +<p>Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,–those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,–the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy!</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity."</p> + +<p>With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,–a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath.</p> + +<p>"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones."</p> + +<p>In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation.</p> + +<p>But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done.</p> + +<p>Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him.</p> + +<p>So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it.</p> + +<p>And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,–not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real.</p> + +<p>There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating.</p> + +<p>Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,–its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked.</p> + +<p>Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend–one single heart–before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,–all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought.</p> + +<p>Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said.</p> + +<p>"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he.</p> + +<p>"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence."</p> + +<p>"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,–heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,–have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter."</p> + +<p>"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,–to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out–as I suspect–that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!"</p> + +<p>"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,–a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do."</p> + +<p>"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way."</p> + +<p>"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,–which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,–we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us."</p> + +<p>"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,–"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?"</p> + +<p>"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it."</p> + +<p>"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?"</p> + +<p>"By this time," said Septimius,–"how many hundred years have we now +lived?–by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime."</p> + +<p>[<i>He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one</i>.]</p> + +<p>"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,–in that one little century,–methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things."</p> + +<p>[<i>The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too."</p> + +<p>"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,–some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!"</p> + +<p>"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,–these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do."</p> + +<p>"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel."</p> + +<p>"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,–yet I think not +so,–perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no."</p> + +<p>"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,–the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new."</p> + +<p>[<i>He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,–himself among his own posterity</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?"</p> + +<p>"One little interval–a few centuries only–of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?"</p> + +<p>"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless."</p> + +<p>In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,–loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all–except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves–rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness.</p> + +<p>Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,–a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,–and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood.</p> + +<p>And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,–a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully."</p> + +<p>"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it."</p> + +<p>"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet."</p> + +<p>These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon.</p> + +<p>[<i>It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day."</p> + +<p>"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!"</p> + +<p>Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply.</p> + +<p>"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple."</p> + +<p>"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two.</p> + +<p>"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?"</p> + +<p>He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,–how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,–</p> + +<p>"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!"</p> + +<p>After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire.</p> + +<p>After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed.</p> + +<p>Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse.</p> + +<p>"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,–for so he should be called,–and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his."</p> + +<p>"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,–the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!"</p> + +<p>"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them."</p> + +<p>The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?"</p> + +<p>"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with."</p> + +<p>Some of the company laughed.</p> + +<p>"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor.</p> + +<p>"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,–superstitions, do you call them?–that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body."</p> + +<p>"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in.</p> + +<p>"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me."</p> + +<p>"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been."</p> + +<p>She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,–a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done.</p> + +<p>"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is."</p> + +<p>She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand.</p> + +<p>"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?"</p> + +<p>"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you."</p> + +<p>"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part."</p> + +<p>"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it."</p> + +<p>"I could,–I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!"</p> + +<p>"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you–were they your features–which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?"</p> + +<p>"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him."</p> + +<p>"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,–why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, my friend,–my enemy, if you will have it so,–are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine."</p> + +<p>"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?"</p> + +<p>"Septimius, I am weak,–a weak, weak girl,–only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,–could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!"</p> + +<p>She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him.</p> + +<p>"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?"</p> + +<p>He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around.</p> + +<p>"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,–then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it."</p> + +<p>"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!"</p> + +<p>"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt."</p> + +<p>"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,–a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,–and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now."</p> + +<p>"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?"</p> + +<p>"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,–and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying."</p> + +<p>"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together."</p> + +<p>"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,–what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,–and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!"</p> + +<p>[<i>She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way</i>.]</p> + +<p>But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?–ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world."</p> + +<p>And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,–some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company.</p> + +<p>"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss."</p> + +<p>This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor–such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself–seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider.</p> + +<p>As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man.</p> + +<p>A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature.</p> + +<p>As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +***** This file should be named 7372-h.htm or 7372-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/3/7/7372/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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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: Septimius Felton + or, The Elixir of Life + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: April 12, 2014 [EBook #7372] +Release Date: January, 2005 +First Posted: April 22, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +Septimius Felton; + +Or, + +The Elixir Of Life. + +By Nathanial Hawthorne + +1883 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE. + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON. + + + +The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871. + +Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See _English +Note-Books,_ April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence--one +of the strange premonitions of genius--is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:-- + +"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more _all the happiness;_ because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years. + +When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton." + +Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne. + +Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region. + +The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer. + +In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated. + +G.P.L. + + + +PREFACE. + + + +The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (_e. g._ p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me. + +UNA HAWTHORNE. + + + + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON; + +OR, THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. + + + +It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,--beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,--so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more. + +These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road--a +fertile tract--had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,--Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves. + +Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,--a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,--a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,--who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,--so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead. + +Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,--pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble. + +"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,--weaker than his father, who came from England,--and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me." + +"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,--lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,--then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?" + +"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head. + +"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point." + +"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no." + +"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,--"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!" + +"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways." + +"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more." + +"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past." + +"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?" + +"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?" + +"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!--but it is so short!" + +"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?" + +"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know." + +"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest." + +"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,--my seventy years of what this +life has,--toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,--only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content." + +"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!" + +"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time." + +"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle." + +"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him. + +"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?" + +"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk." + +"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,--all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business." + +"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within." + +"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so." + +"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius. + +"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith." + +"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such." + +"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win." + +"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it." + +"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly." + +"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough." + +"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!" + +"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous." + +"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air." + +"I will try," said Septimius. + +"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change." + +He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality. + +So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!" + +After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby. + +Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward. + +So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman--an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler--called him to dinner,--a +frugal dinner,--and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table. + +"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word." + +"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body." + +"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him." + +"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. + +"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day." + +"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!" + +It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death. + +Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it. + +Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?" + +As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,--or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,--grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,--storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,--the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,--hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,--lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves. + +Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,--the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him. + +"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!" + +"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man." + +"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!" + +Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence. + +Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction. + +As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in. + +"Septimius--Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?" + +"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?" + +"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like." + +"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius. + +"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight." + +"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius. + +"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!" + +In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!" + +And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village. + +"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife." + +"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!" + +He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories. + +"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,--you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm." + +They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane. + +"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men." + +"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious." + +Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up. + +"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains." + +"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman." + +"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge." + +Before Septimius could reply or act,--and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,--the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on. + +"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence. + +It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said. + +"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother." + +"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she. + +"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge." + +"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself. + +Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever. + +"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!" + +Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,--by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe. + +Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more. + +While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked. + +[_Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed_.] + +They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,--some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he. + +Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement. + +"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!" + +The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth. + +"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace." + +"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner." + +"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body." + +"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!" + +As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius. + +"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!" + +"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might." + +"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought. + +"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life." + +In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them. + +"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst." + +Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments. + +"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world." + +"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!" + +"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you." + +Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed. + +"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address." + +He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England. + +"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?" + +As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,--though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls." + +"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius. + +"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand." + +Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book. + +"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper." + +Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,--straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain. + +"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side. + +"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now." + +Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour. + +He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,--might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,--still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,--all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,--this never could be made up,--all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,--this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,--where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,--trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him. + +Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,--the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality. + +Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey. + +Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone. + +The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well. + +"Septimius! what are you doing here?" + +He looked up and saw the minister. + +"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here." + +He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated. + +"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it." + +"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others." + +"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then." + +With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould. + +"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,--so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you." + +"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life." + +"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty." + +"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy." + +"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon." + +Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts. + +So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,--the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,--the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,--which were less questionable spoils of war,--only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address. + +But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were. + +This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there. + +But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,--as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing." + +"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment." + +"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose. + +"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius. + +He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer. + +"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?" + +"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me." + +"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius." + +"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy." + +And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,--the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,--spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,--admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,--Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife. + +And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,--perchance,--there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow. + + * * * * * + +Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?" + +"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either." + +"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one. + +Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal. + +Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,--down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,--he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon. + +For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate. + +He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts. + +Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case. + +I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,--it was not to be read in a happy mood. + +Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop. + +"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!" + +"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter--yes, much sweeter, I find--to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone." + +"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover." + +"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!" + +"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?--for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance." + +"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,--to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,--because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element." + +"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one." + +As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed. + +"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago." + +"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother." + +"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present." + +"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose. + +"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men--many of them at +least--will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other." + +"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field." + +"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius. + +Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,--a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day. + +Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,--potent wine,--with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment. + +Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if--so secret and +so important was it--it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word! + +But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years. + +Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,--the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him. + +But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,--as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,--appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him. + +"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on." + +"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now." + +"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors." + +Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case. + + * * * * * + +The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,--a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation. + +But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,--a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manoeuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder. + +In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end. + +Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way. + +Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design. + +"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?" + +"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,--pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil." + +Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind. + +By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,--the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,--until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him. + +However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,-- + +"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well." + +"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day." + +"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time." + +"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,--which?" + +So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand. + +While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep. + +What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [_Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl._] + +Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before. + +"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!" + +As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there. + +The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,--those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!" + +A very sweet voice it was,--plaintive, low,--and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant. + +"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,--the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers." + +"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up." + +"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius. + +"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring." + +"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius. + +"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop." + +It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations. + +"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder. + +"For a time," said she. + +"And shall I see you again?" asked he. + +"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill." + +It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,--to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him. + +"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another. + +"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own." + +A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human. + +It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her. + +"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board." + +"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius. + +"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable." + +"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius. + +"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +_Sanguinea sanguinissima_ grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted." + +"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius. + +"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see." + +"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies." + +"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts." + +"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits." + +"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection." + +Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least--the one now by his side--to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,--the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting. + +By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden. + +Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome. + +It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known. + +So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring." + +[_Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies_.] + +The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [_He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely_.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth. + +"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he. + +"That is my name," replied Septimius. + +"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army." + +"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers. + +"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me." + +"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before. + +"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,--"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away." + +"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius. + +"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country." + +"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,--that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing." + +"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge." + +"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius. + +"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?--there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web." + +"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom." + +"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?" + +"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way." + +"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at." + +Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!" + +"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest. + +"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it." + +"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful." + +"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not." + +"I neither shrink nor fear,--neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate--if anything you can--I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve." + +So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back. + +"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she. + +"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him." + +"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she. + +"I? Nothing!--that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in." + +"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him." + +So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer. + +"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor. + +"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king." + +"And you took it from him?" said the doctor. + +"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius. + +"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet." + +Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject. + +"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past." + +"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe. + +It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one. + +[_"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"_--] + +But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy. + +Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet--growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly--grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days. + +"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up." + +"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues." + +The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English. + +The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate. + +"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks." + +"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius. + +"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?" + +"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?" + +"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole." + +He read the paper again, and continued:-- + +"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts." + +"And what is that?" asked Septimius. + +"_Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach." + +"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so." + +"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years." + +Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him. + +"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No--you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you." + +Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him. + +But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him. + +"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he." + +So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius. + +"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it." + +"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality." + +He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life. + +"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it." + +"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it." + +"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines." + +"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect." + +And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him. + +She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him. + +So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died. + +[_Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc._] + +But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [_Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,--doubtful +which._] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife. + +"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,--who taught the +drink to me,--and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear." + +"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?" + +"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here." + +Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same. + +"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?" + +"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear." + +So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency. + +Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to. + +Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,--the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds. + +"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,--shame to him for it! + +"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon." + +"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does." + +"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly. + +"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end." + +"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face. + +"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,--all of us,--causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave." + +"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds." + +Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,--when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,--the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,--yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot. + +"This is very strange," said he. + +"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil." + +"Where could the seeds have come from?--that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot." + +"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it." + +Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt. + +"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away." + +"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius. + +"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant." + +"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,--I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?" + +"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more." + +Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:-- + +"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it." + +"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is. + + * * * * * + +"On the threshold of one of the doors of ---- Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago. + +"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of ---- Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,--a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose. + +"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man--this man of a noble +purpose--spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms? + +"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view. + +"You see, the object of the lord of ---- Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he. + +"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;--that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection--as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow--on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,--at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good. + +"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),--its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child. + +"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,--which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so. + +"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,--this noble, pure, loving child,--she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death. + +"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained. + +"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast. + +"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of ---- Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual." + + * * * * * + +So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,--both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,--all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve." + + * * * * * + +Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success. + +A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure. + +Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,--so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,--what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,--for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect. + +It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out. + +"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation. + +"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning. + +"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart. + +"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day. + +"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is. + +"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him. + +"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee. + +"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain. + +"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life. + +"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits. + +"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful. + +"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people--all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,--from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere. + +"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot. + +"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,--it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide. + +"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation. + +"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear. + +"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow. + +"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee. + +"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules. + +"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them. + +"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end. + +"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors." + +Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them. + +And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,--it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,--out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself. + +The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness. + +Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,--as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden. + +Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,--a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them. + +The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life." + +"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose. + +"The _Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said Sibyl. + +It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,--groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,--half a dozen times it +might be,--of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable. + +But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined. + +Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her. + +"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?" + +"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?" + +"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls--or +it may be four, as I am very bad--of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,--or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!" + +Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,--if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,--why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup. + +"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again." + +The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink. + +He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot. + +"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble." + +"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good." + +"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good." + +"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he. + +"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?" + +She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long. + +"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years." + +She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs. + +"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,--but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once." + +Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave. + +But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale? + +He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death! + +[_It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made_.--ED.] + +And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live." + +Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment. + +By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,--nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter. + +"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed." + +"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything." + +"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie." + +"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her." + +"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow." + +So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping. + +Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,--so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,--so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation. + +"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,--"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?" + +"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other." + +"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!" + +"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,--for the +neighbors? something must be done!" + +The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,--much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy. + +"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,--a Christian woman." + +"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one." + +"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,--all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!" + +Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly. + +"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,--not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,--but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!" + +After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands. + +"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,--that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,--but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?" + +"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time." + +"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!" + +"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature. + +The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers." + +"Not one drop, auntie." + +"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it." + +These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,--and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar. + +Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it. + +"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it." + +Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die. + +By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face. + +"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she. + +"She is dead," said Septimius. + +"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way." + +"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius. + +"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl. + +Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?--then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [_Here several pages +are missing_.--ED.] + + * * * * * + +Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements. + +Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side. + +"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business." + +Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web? + +"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?" + +"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!" + +"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?" + +"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius. + +"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?" + +"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them." + +The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again. + +"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?" + +"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"--he hesitated a little,--"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house." + +The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower. + +"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reexamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,--yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,--so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?" + +Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,--as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know. + +"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave." + +"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle." + +"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius. + +"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner." + +"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me." + +"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end." + +Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness. + +"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil." + +"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected." + +"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection." + +There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature. + +"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him." + +In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion. + +"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on." + +Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least. + +"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations." + +Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food. + +"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it." + +When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down. + +"Now for a talk about business," said he. + +Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him. + +Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this. + +"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race." + +Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity. + +On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,--having, at least, some early recollections of it,--inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood. + +"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?" + +"None," said Septimius. + +"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?" + +"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures." + +"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents." + +"I have other things to do," said Septimius. + +"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?" + +"Very little, I confess," said Septimius. + +"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,--all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?" + +"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,--no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,--but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance." + +"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,--only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this." + +Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber. + +At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation. + +"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say." + +"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time." + +So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise. + +"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms." + +So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home. + +So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,--a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,--to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,--old +autographs,--for the Black Man was the original autograph collector. + +But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from Aunt +Keziah; or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable. + +I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,--because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,--they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,--all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course. + +Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,--the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy! + +Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?--how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,--friendship, and the +love of woman,--the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,--and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now." + +But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be--sweet for me, +at least--if this intercourse might last forever!" + +"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!--doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go." + +"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?" + +"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,--none sooner nor better than you,--so much I promise you." + +"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look. + +"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl. + +"And what is it?" demanded Septimius. + +"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him. + +He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him. + +And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result. + +One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost. + +But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret. + +It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be. + +He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in." + +The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man. + +"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!" + +"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!" + +"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way." + +"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,--there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,--the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,--and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,--hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes." + +"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?" + +"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,--the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,--since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying." + +Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,--not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,--Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,--doing the first good thing that +came to hand,--and here was a hero. + +"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing. + +"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert. + +"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius. + +"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this." + +"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?" + +"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay." + +"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?" + +"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever." + +"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy." + +Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box. + +The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediaeval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,--nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,--nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference. + +Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,--those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,--the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy! + +"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity." + +With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,--a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath. + +"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones." + +In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation. + +But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done. + +Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him. + +So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it. + +And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,--not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real. + +There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating. + +Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,--its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked. + +Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend--one single heart--before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,--all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought. + +Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said. + +"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he. + +"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment." + +"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence." + +"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl. + +"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,--heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,--have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter." + +"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,--to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out--as I suspect--that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!" + +"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,--a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do." + +"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl. + +"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way." + +"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,--which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,--we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us." + +"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,--"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?" + +"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it." + +"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?" + +"By this time," said Septimius,--"how many hundred years have we now +lived?--by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime." + +[_He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one_.] + +"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,--in that one little century,--methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things." + +[_The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness_.] + +"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too." + +"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,--some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!" + +"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?" + +"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,--these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do." + +"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel." + +"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,--yet I think not +so,--perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?" + +"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no." + +"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,--the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new." + +[_He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,--himself among his own posterity_.] + +"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?" + +"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?" + +"One little interval--a few centuries only--of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?" + +"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless." + +In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,--loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success. + + * * * * * + +And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all--except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves--rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness. + +Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,--a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,--and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood. + +And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,--a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully." + +"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?" + +"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it." + +"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes. + +"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet." + +These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon. + +[_It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage_.] + +"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day." + +"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it." + +"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward." + +"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!" + +Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply. + +"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple." + +"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two. + +"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?" + +He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,--how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,-- + +"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!" + +After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire. + +After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed. + +Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse. + +"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,--for so he should be called,--and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his." + +"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,--the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!" + +"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them." + +The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!" + +"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?" + +"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with." + +Some of the company laughed. + +"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor. + +"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young." + +"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,--superstitions, do you call them?--that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body." + +"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in. + +"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver." + +"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me." + +"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely." + +"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been." + +She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,--a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done. + +"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl. + +"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is." + +She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand. + +"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius. + +"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?" + +"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you." + +"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part." + +"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it." + +"I could,--I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?" + +"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!" + +"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you--were they your features--which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?" + +"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him." + +"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius. + +"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?" + +"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,--why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?" + +"Ah, my friend,--my enemy, if you will have it so,--are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine." + +"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?" + +"Septimius, I am weak,--a weak, weak girl,--only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,--could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!" + +She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him. + +"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?" + +He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around. + +"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror. + +"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,--then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it." + +"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!" + +"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality." + +"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt." + +"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,--a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,--and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now." + +"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?" + +"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,--and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying." + +"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together." + +"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,--what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,--and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!" + +[_She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way_.] + +But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?--ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world." + +And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again. + + * * * * * + +The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,--some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company. + +"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss." + +This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor--such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself--seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider. + +As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man. + +A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature. + +As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +***** This file should be named 7372.txt or 7372.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/3/7/7372/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Septimius Felton + or, The Elixir of Life + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7372] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +Septimius Felton; + +Or, + +The Elixir Of Life. + +By Nathanial Hawthorne + +1883 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE. + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON. + + + +The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871. + +Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See _English +Note-Books,_ April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence--one +of the strange premonitions of genius--is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:-- + +"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more _all the happiness;_ because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years. + +When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton." + +Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne. + +Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region. + +The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer. + +In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated. + +G.P.L. + + + +PREFACE. + + + +The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (_e. g._ p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me. + +UNA HAWTHORNE. + + + + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON; + +OR, THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. + + + +It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,--beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,--so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more. + +These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road--a +fertile tract--had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,--Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves. + +Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,--a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,--a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,--who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,--so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead. + +Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,--pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble. + +"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,--weaker than his father, who came from England,--and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me." + +"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,--lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,--then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?" + +"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head. + +"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point." + +"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no." + +"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,--"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!" + +"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways." + +"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more." + +"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past." + +"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?" + +"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?" + +"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!--but it is so short!" + +"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?" + +"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know." + +"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest." + +"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,--my seventy years of what this +life has,--toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,--only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content." + +"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!" + +"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time." + +"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle." + +"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him. + +"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?" + +"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk." + +"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,--all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business." + +"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within." + +"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so." + +"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius. + +"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith." + +"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such." + +"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win." + +"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it." + +"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly." + +"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough." + +"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!" + +"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous." + +"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air." + +"I will try," said Septimius. + +"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change." + +He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality. + +So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!" + +After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby. + +Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward. + +So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman--an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler--called him to dinner,--a +frugal dinner,--and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table. + +"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word." + +"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body." + +"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him." + +"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. + +"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day." + +"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!" + +It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death. + +Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it. + +Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?" + +As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,--or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,--grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,--storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,--the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,--hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,--lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves. + +Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,--the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him. + +"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!" + +"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man." + +"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!" + +Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence. + +Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction. + +As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in. + +"Septimius--Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?" + +"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?" + +"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like." + +"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius. + +"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight." + +"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius. + +"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!" + +In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!" + +And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village. + +"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife." + +"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!" + +He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories. + +"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,--you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm." + +They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane. + +"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men." + +"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious." + +Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up. + +"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains." + +"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman." + +"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge." + +Before Septimius could reply or act,--and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,--the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on. + +"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence. + +It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said. + +"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother." + +"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she. + +"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge." + +"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself. + +Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever. + +"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!" + +Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,--by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe. + +Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more. + +While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked. + +[_Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed_.] + +They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,--some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he. + +Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement. + +"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!" + +The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth. + +"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace." + +"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner." + +"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body." + +"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!" + +As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius. + +"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!" + +"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might." + +"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought. + +"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life." + +In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them. + +"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst." + +Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments. + +"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world." + +"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!" + +"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you." + +Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed. + +"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address." + +He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England. + +"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?" + +As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,--though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls." + +"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius. + +"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand." + +Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book. + +"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper." + +Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,--straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain. + +"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side. + +"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now." + +Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour. + +He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,--might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,--still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,--all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,--this never could be made up,--all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,--this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,--where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,--trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him. + +Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,--the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality. + +Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey. + +Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone. + +The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well. + +"Septimius! what are you doing here?" + +He looked up and saw the minister. + +"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here." + +He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated. + +"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it." + +"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others." + +"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then." + +With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould. + +"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,--so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you." + +"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life." + +"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty." + +"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy." + +"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon." + +Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts. + +So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,--the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,--the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,--which were less questionable spoils of war,--only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address. + +But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were. + +This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there. + +But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,--as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing." + +"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment." + +"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose. + +"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius. + +He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer. + +"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?" + +"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me." + +"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius." + +"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy." + +And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,--the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,--spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,--admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,--Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife. + +And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,--perchance,--there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow. + + * * * * * + +Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?" + +"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either." + +"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one. + +Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal. + +Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,--down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,--he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon. + +For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate. + +He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts. + +Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case. + +I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,--it was not to be read in a happy mood. + +Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop. + +"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!" + +"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter--yes, much sweeter, I find--to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone." + +"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover." + +"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!" + +"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?--for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance." + +"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,--to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,--because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element." + +"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one." + +As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed. + +"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago." + +"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother." + +"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present." + +"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose. + +"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men--many of them at +least--will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other." + +"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field." + +"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius. + +Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,--a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day. + +Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,--potent wine,--with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment. + +Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if--so secret and +so important was it--it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word! + +But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years. + +Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,--the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him. + +But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,--as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,--appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him. + +"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on." + +"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now." + +"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors." + +Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case. + + * * * * * + +The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,--a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation. + +But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,--a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manoeuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder. + +In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end. + +Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way. + +Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design. + +"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?" + +"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,--pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil." + +Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind. + +By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,--the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,--until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him. + +However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,-- + +"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well." + +"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day." + +"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time." + +"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,--which?" + +So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand. + +While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep. + +What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [_Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl._] + +Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before. + +"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!" + +As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there. + +The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,--those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!" + +A very sweet voice it was,--plaintive, low,--and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant. + +"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,--the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers." + +"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up." + +"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius. + +"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring." + +"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius. + +"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop." + +It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations. + +"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder. + +"For a time," said she. + +"And shall I see you again?" asked he. + +"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill." + +It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,--to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him. + +"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another. + +"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own." + +A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human. + +It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her. + +"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board." + +"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius. + +"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable." + +"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius. + +"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +_Sanguinea sanguinissima_ grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted." + +"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius. + +"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see." + +"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies." + +"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts." + +"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits." + +"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection." + +Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least--the one now by his side--to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,--the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting. + +By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden. + +Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome. + +It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known. + +So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring." + +[_Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies_.] + +The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [_He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely_.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth. + +"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he. + +"That is my name," replied Septimius. + +"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army." + +"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers. + +"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me." + +"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before. + +"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,--"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away." + +"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius. + +"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country." + +"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,--that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing." + +"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge." + +"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius. + +"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?--there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web." + +"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom." + +"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?" + +"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way." + +"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at." + +Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!" + +"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest. + +"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it." + +"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful." + +"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not." + +"I neither shrink nor fear,--neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate--if anything you can--I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve." + +So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back. + +"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she. + +"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him." + +"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she. + +"I? Nothing!--that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in." + +"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him." + +So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer. + +"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor. + +"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king." + +"And you took it from him?" said the doctor. + +"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius. + +"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet." + +Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject. + +"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past." + +"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe. + +It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one. + +[_"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"_--] + +But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy. + +Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet--growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly--grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days. + +"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up." + +"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues." + +The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English. + +The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate. + +"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks." + +"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius. + +"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?" + +"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?" + +"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole." + +He read the paper again, and continued:-- + +"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts." + +"And what is that?" asked Septimius. + +"_Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach." + +"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so." + +"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years." + +Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him. + +"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No--you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you." + +Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him. + +But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him. + +"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he." + +So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius. + +"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it." + +"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality." + +He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life. + +"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it." + +"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it." + +"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines." + +"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect." + +And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him. + +She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him. + +So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died. + +[_Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc._] + +But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [_Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,--doubtful +which._] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife. + +"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,--who taught the +drink to me,--and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear." + +"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?" + +"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here." + +Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same. + +"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?" + +"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear." + +So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency. + +Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to. + +Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,--the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds. + +"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,--shame to him for it! + +"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon." + +"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does." + +"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly. + +"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end." + +"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face. + +"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,--all of us,--causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave." + +"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds." + +Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,--when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,--the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,--yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot. + +"This is very strange," said he. + +"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil." + +"Where could the seeds have come from?--that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot." + +"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it." + +Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt. + +"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away." + +"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius. + +"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant." + +"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,--I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?" + +"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more." + +Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:-- + +"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it." + +"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is. + + * * * * * + +"On the threshold of one of the doors of ---- Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago. + +"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of ---- Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,--a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose. + +"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man--this man of a noble +purpose--spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms? + +"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view. + +"You see, the object of the lord of ---- Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he. + +"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;--that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection--as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow--on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,--at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good. + +"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),--its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child. + +"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,--which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so. + +"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,--this noble, pure, loving child,--she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death. + +"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained. + +"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast. + +"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of ---- Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual." + + * * * * * + +So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,--both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,--all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve." + + * * * * * + +Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success. + +A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure. + +Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,--so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,--what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,--for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect. + +It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out. + +"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation. + +"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning. + +"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart. + +"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day. + +"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is. + +"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him. + +"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee. + +"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain. + +"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life. + +"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits. + +"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful. + +"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people--all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,--from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere. + +"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot. + +"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,--it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide. + +"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation. + +"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear. + +"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow. + +"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee. + +"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules. + +"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them. + +"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end. + +"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors." + +Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them. + +And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,--it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,--out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself. + +The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness. + +Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,--as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden. + +Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,--a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them. + +The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life." + +"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose. + +"The _Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said Sibyl. + +It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,--groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,--half a dozen times it +might be,--of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable. + +But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined. + +Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her. + +"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?" + +"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?" + +"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls--or +it may be four, as I am very bad--of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,--or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!" + +Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,--if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,--why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup. + +"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again." + +The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink. + +He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot. + +"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble." + +"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good." + +"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good." + +"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he. + +"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?" + +She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long. + +"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years." + +She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs. + +"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,--but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once." + +Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave. + +But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale? + +He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death! + +[_It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made_.--ED.] + +And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live." + +Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment. + +By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,--nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter. + +"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed." + +"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything." + +"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie." + +"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her." + +"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow." + +So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping. + +Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,--so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,--so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation. + +"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,--"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?" + +"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other." + +"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!" + +"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,--for the +neighbors? something must be done!" + +The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,--much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy. + +"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,--a Christian woman." + +"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one." + +"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,--all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!" + +Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly. + +"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,--not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,--but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!" + +After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands. + +"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,--that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,--but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?" + +"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time." + +"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!" + +"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature. + +The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers." + +"Not one drop, auntie." + +"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it." + +These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,--and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar. + +Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it. + +"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it." + +Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die. + +By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face. + +"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she. + +"She is dead," said Septimius. + +"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way." + +"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius. + +"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl. + +Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?--then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [_Here several pages +are missing_.--ED.] + + * * * * * + +Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements. + +Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side. + +"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business." + +Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web? + +"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?" + +"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!" + +"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?" + +"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius. + +"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?" + +"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them." + +The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again. + +"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?" + +"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"--he hesitated a little,--"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house." + +The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower. + +"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reexamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,--yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,--so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?" + +Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,--as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know. + +"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave." + +"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle." + +"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius. + +"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner." + +"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me." + +"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end." + +Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness. + +"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil." + +"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected." + +"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection." + +There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature. + +"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him." + +In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion. + +"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on." + +Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least. + +"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations." + +Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food. + +"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it." + +When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down. + +"Now for a talk about business," said he. + +Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him. + +Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this. + +"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race." + +Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity. + +On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,--having, at least, some early recollections of it,--inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood. + +"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?" + +"None," said Septimius. + +"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?" + +"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures." + +"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents." + +"I have other things to do," said Septimius. + +"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?" + +"Very little, I confess," said Septimius. + +"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,--all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?" + +"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,--no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,--but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance." + +"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,--only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this." + +Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber. + +At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation. + +"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say." + +"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time." + +So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise. + +"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms." + +So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home. + +So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,--a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,--to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,--old +autographs,--for the Black Man was the original autograph collector. + +But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from AuntKeziah; +or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable. + +I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,--because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,--they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,--all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course. + +Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,--the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy! + +Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?--how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,--friendship, and the +love of woman,--the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,--and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now." + +But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be--sweet for me, +at least--if this intercourse might last forever!" + +"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!--doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go." + +"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?" + +"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,--none sooner nor better than you,--so much I promise you." + +"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look. + +"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl. + +"And what is it?" demanded Septimius. + +"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him. + +He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him. + +And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result. + +One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost. + +But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret. + +It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be. + +He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in." + +The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man. + +"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!" + +"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!" + +"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way." + +"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,--there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,--the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,--and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,--hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes." + +"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?" + +"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,--the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,--since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying." + +Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,--not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,--Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,--doing the first good thing that +came to hand,--and here was a hero. + +"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing. + +"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert. + +"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius. + +"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this." + +"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?" + +"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay." + +"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?" + +"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever." + +"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy." + +Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box. + +The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediaval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,--nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,--nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference. + +Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,--those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,--the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy! + +"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity." + +With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,--a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath. + +"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones." + +In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation. + +But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done. + +Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him. + +So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it. + +And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,--not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real. + +There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating. + +Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,--its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked. + +Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend--one single heart--before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,--all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought. + +Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said. + +"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he. + +"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment." + +"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence." + +"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl. + +"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,--heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,--have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter." + +"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,--to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out--as I suspect--that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!" + +"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,--a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do." + +"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl. + +"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way." + +"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,--which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,--we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us." + +"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,--"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?" + +"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it." + +"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?" + +"By this time," said Septimius,--"how many hundred years have we now +lived?--by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime." + +[_He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one_.] + +"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,--in that one little century,--methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things." + +[_The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness_.] + +"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too." + +"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,--some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!" + +"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?" + +"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,--these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do." + +"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel." + +"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,--yet I think not +so,--perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?" + +"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no." + +"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,--the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new." + +[_He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,--himself among his own posterity_.] + +"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?" + +"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?" + +"One little interval--a few centuries only--of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?" + +"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless." + +In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,--loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success. + + * * * * * + +And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all--except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves--rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness. + +Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,--a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,--and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood. + +And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,--a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully." + +"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?" + +"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it." + +"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes. + +"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet." + +These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon. + +[_It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage_.] + +"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day." + +"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it." + +"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward." + +"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!" + +Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply. + +"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple." + +"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two. + +"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?" + +He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,--how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,-- + +"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!" + +After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire. + +After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed. + +Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse. + +"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,--for so he should be called,--and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his." + +"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,--the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!" + +"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them." + +The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!" + +"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?" + +"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with." + +Some of the company laughed. + +"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor. + +"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young." + +"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,--superstitions, do you call them?--that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body." + +"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in. + +"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver." + +"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me." + +"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely." + +"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been." + +She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,--a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done. + +"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl. + +"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is." + +She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand. + +"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius. + +"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?" + +"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you." + +"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part." + +"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it." + +"I could,--I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?" + +"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!" + +"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you--were they your features--which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?" + +"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him." + +"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius. + +"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?" + +"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,--why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?" + +"Ah, my friend,--my enemy, if you will have it so,--are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine." + +"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?" + +"Septimius, I am weak,--a weak, weak girl,--only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,--could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!" + +She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him. + +"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?" + +He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around. + +"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror. + +"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,--then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it." + +"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!" + +"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality." + +"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt." + +"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,--a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,--and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now." + +"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?" + +"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,--and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying." + +"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together." + +"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,--what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,--and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!" + +[_She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way_.] + +But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?--ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world." + +And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again. + + * * * * * + +The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,--some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company. + +"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss." + +This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor--such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself--seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider. + +As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man. + +A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature. + +As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +This file should be named 7sept10.txt or 7sept10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7sept11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7sept10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Septimius Felton + or, The Elixir of Life + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7372] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +Septimius Felton; + +Or, + +The Elixir Of Life. + +By Nathanial Hawthorne + +1883 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE. + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON. + + + +The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871. + +Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See _English +Note-Books,_ April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence--one +of the strange premonitions of genius--is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:-- + +"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more _all the happiness;_ because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years. + +When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton." + +Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne. + +Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region. + +The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer. + +In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated. + +G.P.L. + + + +PREFACE. + + + +The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (_e. g._ p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me. + +UNA HAWTHORNE. + + + + +SEPTIMIUS FELTON; + +OR, THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. + + + +It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,--beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,--so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more. + +These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road--a +fertile tract--had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,--Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves. + +Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,--a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,--a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,--who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,--so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead. + +Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,--pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble. + +"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,--weaker than his father, who came from England,--and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me." + +"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,--lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,--then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?" + +"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head. + +"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point." + +"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no." + +"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,--"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!" + +"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways." + +"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more." + +"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past." + +"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?" + +"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?" + +"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!--but it is so short!" + +"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?" + +"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know." + +"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest." + +"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,--my seventy years of what this +life has,--toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,--only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content." + +"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!" + +"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time." + +"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle." + +"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him. + +"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?" + +"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk." + +"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,--all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business." + +"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within." + +"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so." + +"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius. + +"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith." + +"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such." + +"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win." + +"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it." + +"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly." + +"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough." + +"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!" + +"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous." + +"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air." + +"I will try," said Septimius. + +"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change." + +He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality. + +So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!" + +After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby. + +Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward. + +So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman--an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler--called him to dinner,--a +frugal dinner,--and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table. + +"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word." + +"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body." + +"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him." + +"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. + +"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day." + +"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!" + +It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death. + +Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it. + +Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?" + +As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,--or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,--grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,--storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,--the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,--hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,--lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves. + +Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,--the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him. + +"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!" + +"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man." + +"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!" + +Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence. + +Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction. + +As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in. + +"Septimius--Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?" + +"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?" + +"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like." + +"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius. + +"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight." + +"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius. + +"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!" + +In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!" + +And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village. + +"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife." + +"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!" + +He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories. + +"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,--you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm." + +They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane. + +"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men." + +"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious." + +Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up. + +"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains." + +"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman." + +"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge." + +Before Septimius could reply or act,--and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,--the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on. + +"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence. + +It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said. + +"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother." + +"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she. + +"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge." + +"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself. + +Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever. + +"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!" + +Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,--by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe. + +Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more. + +While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked. + +[_Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed_.] + +They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,--some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he. + +Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement. + +"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!" + +The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth. + +"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace." + +"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner." + +"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body." + +"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!" + +As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius. + +"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!" + +"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might." + +"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought. + +"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life." + +In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them. + +"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst." + +Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments. + +"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world." + +"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!" + +"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you." + +Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed. + +"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address." + +He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England. + +"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?" + +As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,--though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls." + +"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius. + +"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand." + +Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book. + +"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper." + +Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,--straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain. + +"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side. + +"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now." + +Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour. + +He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,--might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,--still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,--all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,--this never could be made up,--all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,--this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,--where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,--trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him. + +Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,--the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality. + +Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey. + +Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone. + +The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well. + +"Septimius! what are you doing here?" + +He looked up and saw the minister. + +"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here." + +He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated. + +"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it." + +"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others." + +"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then." + +With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould. + +"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,--so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you." + +"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life." + +"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty." + +"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy." + +"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon." + +Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts. + +So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,--the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,--the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,--which were less questionable spoils of war,--only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address. + +But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were. + +This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there. + +But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,--as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing." + +"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment." + +"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose. + +"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius. + +He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer. + +"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?" + +"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me." + +"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius." + +"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy." + +And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,--the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,--spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,--admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,--Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife. + +And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,--perchance,--there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow. + + * * * * * + +Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?" + +"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either." + +"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one. + +Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal. + +Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,--down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,--he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon. + +For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate. + +He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts. + +Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case. + +I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,--it was not to be read in a happy mood. + +Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop. + +"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!" + +"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter--yes, much sweeter, I find--to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone." + +"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover." + +"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!" + +"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?--for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance." + +"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,--to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,--because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element." + +"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one." + +As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed. + +"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago." + +"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother." + +"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present." + +"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose. + +"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men--many of them at +least--will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other." + +"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field." + +"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius. + +Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,--a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day. + +Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,--potent wine,--with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment. + +Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if--so secret and +so important was it--it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word! + +But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years. + +Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,--the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him. + +But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,--as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,--appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him. + +"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on." + +"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now." + +"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors." + +Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case. + + * * * * * + +The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,--a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation. + +But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,--a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manoeuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder. + +In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end. + +Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way. + +Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design. + +"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?" + +"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,--pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil." + +Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind. + +By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,--the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,--until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him. + +However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,-- + +"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well." + +"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day." + +"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure. + +"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time." + +"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,--which?" + +So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand. + +While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep. + +What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [_Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl._] + +Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before. + +"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!" + +As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there. + +The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,--those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!" + +A very sweet voice it was,--plaintive, low,--and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant. + +"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,--the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers." + +"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up." + +"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius. + +"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring." + +"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius. + +"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop." + +It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations. + +"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder. + +"For a time," said she. + +"And shall I see you again?" asked he. + +"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill." + +It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,--to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him. + +"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another. + +"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own." + +A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human. + +It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her. + +"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board." + +"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius. + +"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable." + +"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius. + +"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +_Sanguinea sanguinissima_ grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted." + +"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius. + +"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see." + +"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies." + +"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts." + +"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits." + +"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection." + +Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least--the one now by his side--to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,--the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting. + +By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden. + +Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome. + +It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known. + +So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring." + +[_Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies_.] + +The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [_He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely_.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth. + +"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he. + +"That is my name," replied Septimius. + +"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army." + +"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers. + +"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me." + +"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before. + +"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,--"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away." + +"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius. + +"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country." + +"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,--that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing." + +"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge." + +"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius. + +"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?--there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web." + +"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom." + +"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?" + +"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way." + +"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at." + +Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!" + +"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest. + +"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it." + +"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful." + +"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not." + +"I neither shrink nor fear,--neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate--if anything you can--I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve." + +So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back. + +"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she. + +"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him." + +"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she. + +"I? Nothing!--that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in." + +"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him." + +So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer. + +"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor. + +"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king." + +"And you took it from him?" said the doctor. + +"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius. + +"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet." + +Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject. + +"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past." + +"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe. + +It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one. + +[_"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"_--] + +But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy. + +Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet--growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly--grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days. + +"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up." + +"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues." + +The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English. + +The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate. + +"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks." + +"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius. + +"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?" + +"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?" + +"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole." + +He read the paper again, and continued:-- + +"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts." + +"And what is that?" asked Septimius. + +"_Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach." + +"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so." + +"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years." + +Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him. + +"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No--you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you." + +Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him. + +But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him. + +"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he." + +So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius. + +"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it." + +"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality." + +He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life. + +"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it." + +"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it." + +"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines." + +"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect." + +And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him. + +She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him. + +So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died. + +[_Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc._] + +But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [_Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,--doubtful +which._] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife. + +"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,--who taught the +drink to me,--and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear." + +"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?" + +"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here." + +Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same. + +"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?" + +"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear." + +So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency. + +Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to. + +Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,--the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds. + +"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,--shame to him for it! + +"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon." + +"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does." + +"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly. + +"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end." + +"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face. + +"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,--all of us,--causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave." + +"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds." + +Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,--when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,--the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,--yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot. + +"This is very strange," said he. + +"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil." + +"Where could the seeds have come from?--that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot." + +"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it." + +Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt. + +"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away." + +"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius. + +"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant." + +"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,--I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?" + +"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more." + +Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:-- + +"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it." + +"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is. + + * * * * * + +"On the threshold of one of the doors of ---- Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago. + +"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of ---- Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,--a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose. + +"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man--this man of a noble +purpose--spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms? + +"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view. + +"You see, the object of the lord of ---- Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he. + +"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;--that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection--as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow--on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,--at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good. + +"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),--its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child. + +"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,--which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so. + +"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,--this noble, pure, loving child,--she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death. + +"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained. + +"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast. + +"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of ---- Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual." + + * * * * * + +So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,--both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,--all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve." + + * * * * * + +Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success. + +A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure. + +Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,--so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,--what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,--for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect. + +It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out. + +"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation. + +"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning. + +"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart. + +"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day. + +"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is. + +"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him. + +"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee. + +"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain. + +"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life. + +"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits. + +"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful. + +"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people--all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,--from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere. + +"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot. + +"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,--it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide. + +"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation. + +"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear. + +"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow. + +"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee. + +"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules. + +"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them. + +"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end. + +"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors." + +Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them. + +And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,--it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,--out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself. + +The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness. + +Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,--as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden. + +Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,--a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them. + +The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life." + +"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose. + +"The _Sanguinea sanguinissima_" said Sibyl. + +It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,--groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,--half a dozen times it +might be,--of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable. + +But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined. + +Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her. + +"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?" + +"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?" + +"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls--or +it may be four, as I am very bad--of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,--or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!" + +Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,--if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,--why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup. + +"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again." + +The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink. + +He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot. + +"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble." + +"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good." + +"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good." + +"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he. + +"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?" + +She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long. + +"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years." + +She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs. + +"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,--but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once." + +Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave. + +But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale? + +He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death! + +[_It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made_.--ED.] + +And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live." + +Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment. + +By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,--nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter. + +"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed." + +"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything." + +"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie." + +"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her." + +"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow." + +So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping. + +Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,--so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,--so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation. + +"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,--"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?" + +"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other." + +"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!" + +"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,--for the +neighbors? something must be done!" + +The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,--much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy. + +"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,--a Christian woman." + +"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one." + +"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,--all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!" + +Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly. + +"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,--not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,--but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!" + +After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands. + +"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,--that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,--but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?" + +"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time." + +"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!" + +"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature. + +The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers." + +"Not one drop, auntie." + +"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it." + +These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,--and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar. + +Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it. + +"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it." + +Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die. + +By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face. + +"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she. + +"She is dead," said Septimius. + +"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way." + +"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius. + +"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl. + +Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?--then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [_Here several pages +are missing_.--ED.] + + * * * * * + +Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements. + +Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side. + +"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business." + +Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web? + +"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?" + +"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!" + +"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?" + +"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius. + +"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?" + +"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them." + +The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again. + +"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?" + +"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"--he hesitated a little,--"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house." + +The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower. + +"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reëxamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,--yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,--so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?" + +Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,--as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know. + +"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave." + +"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle." + +"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius. + +"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner." + +"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me." + +"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end." + +Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness. + +"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil." + +"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected." + +"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection." + +There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature. + +"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him." + +In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion. + +"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on." + +Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least. + +"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations." + +Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food. + +"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it." + +When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down. + +"Now for a talk about business," said he. + +Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him. + +Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this. + +"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race." + +Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity. + +On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,--having, at least, some early recollections of it,--inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood. + +"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?" + +"None," said Septimius. + +"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?" + +"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures." + +"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents." + +"I have other things to do," said Septimius. + +"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?" + +"Very little, I confess," said Septimius. + +"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,--all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?" + +"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,--no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,--but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance." + +"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,--only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this." + +Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber. + +At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation. + +"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say." + +"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time." + +So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise. + +"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms." + +So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home. + +So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,--a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,--to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,--old +autographs,--for the Black Man was the original autograph collector. + +But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from AuntKeziah; +or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable. + +I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,--because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,--they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,--all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course. + +Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,--the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy! + +Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?--how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,--friendship, and the +love of woman,--the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,--and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now." + +But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be--sweet for me, +at least--if this intercourse might last forever!" + +"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!--doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go." + +"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?" + +"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,--none sooner nor better than you,--so much I promise you." + +"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look. + +"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl. + +"And what is it?" demanded Septimius. + +"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him. + +He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him. + +And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result. + +One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost. + +But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret. + +It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be. + +He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in." + +The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man. + +"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!" + +"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!" + +"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way." + +"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,--there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,--the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,--and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,--hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes." + +"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?" + +"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,--the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,--since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying." + +Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,--not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,--Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,--doing the first good thing that +came to hand,--and here was a hero. + +"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing. + +"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert. + +"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius. + +"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this." + +"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?" + +"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay." + +"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?" + +"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever." + +"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy." + +Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box. + +The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediæval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,--nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,--nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference. + +Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,--those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,--the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy! + +"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity." + +With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,--a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath. + +"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones." + +In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation. + +But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done. + +Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him. + +So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it. + +And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,--not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real. + +There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating. + +Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,--its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked. + +Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend--one single heart--before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,--all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought. + +Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said. + +"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he. + +"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment." + +"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence." + +"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl. + +"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,--heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,--have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter." + +"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,--to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out--as I suspect--that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!" + +"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,--a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do." + +"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl. + +"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way." + +"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,--which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,--we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us." + +"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,--"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?" + +"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it." + +"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?" + +"By this time," said Septimius,--"how many hundred years have we now +lived?--by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime." + +[_He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one_.] + +"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy. + +"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,--in that one little century,--methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things." + +[_The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness_.] + +"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too." + +"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,--some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!" + +"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?" + +"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,--these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do." + +"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel." + +"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,--yet I think not +so,--perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?" + +"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no." + +"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,--the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new." + +[_He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,--himself among his own posterity_.] + +"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?" + +"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?" + +"One little interval--a few centuries only--of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?" + +"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless." + +In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,--loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success. + + * * * * * + +And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all--except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves--rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness. + +Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,--a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,--and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood. + +And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,--a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully." + +"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?" + +"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it." + +"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes. + +"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet." + +These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon. + +[_It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage_.] + +"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day." + +"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it." + +"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward." + +"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!" + +Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply. + +"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple." + +"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two. + +"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?" + +He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,--how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,-- + +"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!" + +After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire. + +After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed. + +Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse. + +"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,--for so he should be called,--and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his." + +"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,--the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!" + +"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them." + +The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!" + +"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?" + +"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with." + +Some of the company laughed. + +"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor. + +"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young." + +"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,--superstitions, do you call them?--that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body." + +"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in. + +"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver." + +"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me." + +"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely." + +"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been." + +She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,--a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done. + +"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl. + +"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is." + +She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand. + +"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius. + +"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?" + +"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you." + +"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part." + +"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it." + +"I could,--I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?" + +"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!" + +"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you--were they your features--which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?" + +"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him." + +"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius. + +"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?" + +"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,--why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?" + +"Ah, my friend,--my enemy, if you will have it so,--are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine." + +"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?" + +"Septimius, I am weak,--a weak, weak girl,--only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,--could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!" + +She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him. + +"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?" + +He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around. + +"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror. + +"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,--then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it." + +"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!" + +"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality." + +"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt." + +"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,--a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,--and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now." + +"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?" + +"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,--and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying." + +"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together." + +"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,--what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,--and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!" + +[_She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way_.] + +But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?--ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world." + +And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again. + + * * * * * + +The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,--some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company. + +"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss." + +This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor--such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself--seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider. + +As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man. + +A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature. + +As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +This file should be named 8sept10.txt or 8sept10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sept11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sept10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/8sept10.zip b/old/8sept10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3462975 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8sept10.zip diff --git a/old/8sept10h.htm b/old/8sept10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b72a43 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8sept10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6348 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html> + +<head> +<title>Septimius Felton; or, The Elixir of Life, by Nathaniel Hawthorne</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + h2 { margin-top: 1.5em } + h3 { margin-top: 1.25em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +#13 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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Weyant +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Septimius Felton;</h1> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps">Or,</p> + +<h2>The Elixir Of Life.</h2> + +<h3>By Nathanial Hawthorne</h3> + +<h4>1883</h4> + + + +<h1>Introductory Note.</h1> + +<h2>Septimius Felton.</h2> + + + +<p>The existence of this story, posthumously published, was not known to any +one but Hawthorne himself, until some time after his death, when the +manuscript was found among his papers. The preparation and copying of his +Note-Books for the press occupied the most of Mrs. Hawthorne's available +time during the interval from 1864 to 1870; but in the latter year, having +decided to publish the unfinished romance, she began the task of putting +together its loose sheets and deciphering the handwriting, which, towards +the close of Hawthorne's life, had grown somewhat obscure and uncertain. +Her death occurred while she was thus engaged, and the transcription was +completed by her daughters. The book was then issued simultaneously in +America and England, in 1871.</p> + +<p>Although "Septimius Felton" appeared so much later than "The Marble Faun," +it was conceived and, in another form, begun before the Italian romance +had presented itself to the author's mind. The legend of a bloody foot +leaving its imprint where it passed, which figures so prominently in the +following fiction, was brought to Hawthorne's notice on a visit to +Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, England. [Footnote: See <i>English +Note-Books,</i> April 7, and August 25, 1855.] Only five days after +hearing of it, he made a note in his journal, referring to "my Romance," +which had to do with a plot involving the affairs of a family established +both in England and New England; and it seems likely that he had already +begun to associate the bloody footstep with this project. What is +extraordinary, and must be regarded as an unaccountable coincidence–one +of the strange premonitions of genius–is that in 1850, before he had ever +been to England and before he knew of the existence of Smithell's Hall, he +had jotted down in his Note-Book, written in America, this suggestion: +"The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a +town." The idea of treating in fiction the attempt to renew youth or to +attain an earthly immortality had engaged his fancy quite early in his +career, as we discover from "Doctor Heidegger's Experiment," in the +"Twice-Told Tales." In 1840, also, we find in the journal: "If a man were +sure of living forever, he would not care about his offspring." The +"Mosses from an Old Manse" supply another link in this train of +reflection; for "The Virtuoso's Collection" includes some of the elixir +vitae "in an antique sepulchral urn." The narrator there represents +himself as refusing to quaff it. "'No; I desire not an earthly +immortality,' said I. 'Were man to live longer on earth, the spiritual +would die out of him.... There is a celestial something within us that +requires, after a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it +from ruin.'" On the other hand, just before hearing, for the first time, +the legend of Smithell's Hall, he wrote in his English journal:–</p> + +<p>"God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of +eternity. All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another +life, and still more <i>all the happiness;</i> because all true happiness +involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more than +a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it." It is sufficiently clear that +he had meditated on the main theme of "Septimius Felton," at intervals, +for many years.</p> + +<p>When, in August, 1855, Hawthorne went by invitation to Smithell's Hall, the +lady of the manor, on his taking leave, asked him "to write a ghost-story +for her house;" and he observes in his notes, "the legend is a good one." +Three years afterwards, in 1858, on the eve of departure for France and +Italy, he began to sketch the outline of a romance laid in England, and +having for its hero an American who goes thither to assert his inherited +rights in an old manor-house possessing the peculiarity of a supposed +bloody foot-print on the threshold-stone. This sketch, which appears in +the present edition as "The Ancestral Footstep," was in journal form, the +story continuing from day to day, with the dates attached. There remains +also the manuscript without elate, recently edited under the title "Dr. +Grimshawe's Secret," which bears a resemblance to some particulars in +"Septimius Felton."</p> + +<p>Nothing further seems to have been done in this direction by the author +until he had been to Italy, had written "The Marble Faun," and again +returned to The Wayside, his home at Concord. It was then, in 1861, that +he took up once more the "Romance of Immortality," as the sub-title of the +English edition calls it. "I have not found it possible," he wrote to Mr. +Bridge, who remained his confidant, "to occupy my mind with its usual +trash and nonsense during these anxious times; but as the autumn advances, +I myself sitting down at my desk and blotting successive sheets of paper +as of yore." Concerning this place, The Wayside, he had said in a letter +to George William Curtis, in 1852: "I know nothing of the history of the +house, except Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation or +two ago by a man who believed he should never die." It was this legendary +personage whom he now proceeded to revive and embody as Septimius; and the +scene of the story was placed at The Wayside itself and the neighboring +house, belonging to Mr. Bronson Alcott, both of which stand at the base of +a low ridge running beside the Lexington road, in the village of Concord. +Rose Garfield is mentioned as living "in a small house, the site of which +is still indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very summer +planted some sunflowers." The cellar-site remains at this day distinctly +visible near the boundary of the land formerly owned by Hawthorne.</p> + +<p>Attention may here perhaps appropriately be called to the fact that some of +the ancestors of President Garfield settled at Weston, not many miles from +Concord, and that the name is still borne by dwellers in the vicinity. One +of the last letters written by the President was an acceptance of an +invitation to visit Concord; and it was his intention to journey thither +by carriage, incognito, from Boston, passing through the scenes where +those ancestors had lived, and entering the village by the old Lexington +road, on which The Wayside faces. It is an interesting coincidence that +Hawthorne should have chosen for his first heroine's name, either +intentionally or through unconscious association, this one which belonged +to the region.</p> + +<p>The house upon which the story was thus centred, and where it was written, +had been a farm-house, bought and for a time occupied by Hawthorne +previous to his departure for Europe. On coming back to it, he made some +additions to the old wooden structure, and caused to be built a low tower, +which rose above the irregular roofs of the older and newer portions, thus +supplying him with a study lifted out of reach of noise or interruption, +and in a slight degree recalling the tower in which he had taken so much +pleasure at the Villa Montauto. The study was extremely simple in its +appointments, being finished chiefly in stained wood, with a vaulted +plaster ceiling, and containing, besides a few pictures and some plain +furniture, a writing-table, and a shelf at which Hawthorne sometimes wrote +standing. A story has gone abroad and is widely believed, that, on +mounting the steep stairs leading to this study, he passed through a +trap-door and afterwards placed upon it the chair in which he sat, so that +intrusion or interruption became physically impossible. It is wholly +unfounded. There never was any trap-door, and no precaution of the kind +described was ever taken. Immediately behind the house the hill rises in +artificial terraces, which, during the romancer's residence, were grassy +and planted with fruit-trees. He afterwards had evergreens set out there, +and directed the planting of other trees, which still attest his +preference for thick verdure. The twelve acres running back over the hill +were closely covered with light woods, and across the road lay a level +tract of eight acres more, which included a garden and orchard. From his +study Hawthorne could overlook a good part of his modest domain; the view +embraced a stretch of road lined with trees, wide meadows, and the hills +across the shallow valley. The branches of trees rose on all sides as if +to embower the house, and birds and bees flew about his casement, through +which came the fresh perfumes of the woods, in summer.</p> + +<p>In this spot "Septimius Felton" was written; but the manuscript, thrown +aside, was mentioned in the Dedicatory Preface to "Our Old Home" as an +"abortive project." As will be found explained in the Introductory Notes +to "The Dolliver Romance" and "The Ancestral Footstep," that phase of the +same general design which was developed in the "Dolliver" was intended to +take the place of this unfinished sketch, since resuscitated.</p> + +<p>G.P.L.</p> + + + +<h1>Preface.</h1> + + + +<p>The following story is the last written by my father. It is printed as it +was found among his manuscripts. I believe it is a striking specimen of +the peculiarities and charm of his style, and that it will have an added +interest for brother artists, and for those who care to study the method +of his composition, from the mere fact of its not having received his +final revision. In any case, I feel sure that the retention of the +passages within brackets (<i>e. g.</i> p. 253), which show how my father +intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or +two of the character studies, will not be regretted by appreciative +readers. My earnest thanks are due to Mr. Robert Browning for his kind +assistance and advice in interpreting the manuscript, otherwise so +difficult to me.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;font-variant: small-caps">Una Hawthorne.</p> + + + +<h1>Septimius Felton;</h1> + +<h2>Or, The Elixir of Life.</h2> + + + +<p>It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and +atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground,–beautiful flowers, +or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and +decay,–so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, +who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For +they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; +the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had +been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish +gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood +and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps +thinking about them the more.</p> + +<p>These three young people were neighbors' children, dwelling in houses that +stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that +rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which +stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the +village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, +according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in +caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and +woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning +woods defended them from the northern blasts and snow-drifts, it was an +admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature +was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side than on the +unprotected plains, or by the river, or in any other part of Concord. So +that here, during the hundred years that had elapsed since the first +settlement of the place, dwellings had successively risen close to the +hill's foot, and the meadow that lay on the other side of the road–a +fertile tract–had been cultivated; and these three young people were the +children's children's children of persons of respectability who had dwelt +there,–Rose Garfield, in a small house, the site of which is still +indicated by the cavity of a cellar, in which I this very past summer +planted some sunflowers to thrust their great disks out from the hollow +and allure the bee and the humming-bird; Robert Hagburn, in a house of +somewhat more pretension, a hundred yards or so nearer to the village, +standing back from the road in the broader space which the retreating +hill, cloven by a gap in that place, afforded; where some elms intervened +between it and the road, offering a site which some person of a natural +taste for the gently picturesque had seized upon. Those same elms, or +their successors, still flung a noble shade over the same old house, which +the magic hand of Alcott has improved by the touch that throws grace, +amiableness, and natural beauty over scenes that have little pretension in +themselves.</p> + +<p>Now, the other young man, Septimius Felton, dwelt in a small wooden house, +then, I suppose, of some score of years' standing,–a two-story house, +gabled before, but with only two rooms on a floor, crowded upon by the +hill behind,–a house of thick walls, as if the projector had that sturdy +feeling of permanence in life which incites people to make strong their +earthly habitations, as if deluding themselves with the idea that they +could still inhabit them; in short, an ordinary dwelling of a well-to-do +New England farmer, such as his race had been for two or three generations +past, although there were traditions of ancestors who had led lives of +thought and study, and possessed all the erudition that the universities +of England could bestow. Whether any natural turn for study had descended +to Septimius from these worthies, or how his tendencies came to be +different from those of his family,–who, within the memory of the +neighborhood, had been content to sow and reap the rich field in front of +their homestead,–so it was, that Septimius had early manifested a taste +for study. By the kind aid of the good minister of the town he had been +fitted for college; had passed through Cambridge by means of what little +money his father had left him and by his own exertions in school-keeping; +and was now a recently decorated baccalaureate, with, as was understood, a +purpose to devote himself to the ministry, under the auspices of that +reverend and good friend whose support and instruction had already stood +him in such stead.</p> + +<p>Now here were these young people, on that beautiful spring morning, sitting +on the hill-side, a pleasant spectacle of fresh life,–pleasant, as if +they had sprouted like green things under the influence of the warm sun. +The girl was very pretty, a little freckled, a little tanned, but with a +face that glimmered and gleamed with quick and cheerful expressions; a +slender form, not very large, with a quick grace in its movements; sunny +hair that had a tendency to curl, which she probably favored at such +moments as her household occupation left her; a sociable and pleasant +child, as both of the young men evidently thought. Robert Hagburn, one +might suppose, would have been the most to her taste; a ruddy, burly young +fellow, handsome, and free of manner, six feet high, famous through the +neighborhood for strength and athletic skill, the early promise of what +was to be a man fit for all offices of active rural life, and to be, in +mature age, the selectman, the deacon, the representative, the colonel. As +for Septimius, let him alone a moment or two, and then they would see him, +with his head bent down, brooding, brooding, his eyes fixed on some chip, +some stone, some common plant, any commonest thing, as if it were the clew +and index to some mystery; and when, by chance startled out of these +meditations, he lifted his eyes, there would be a kind of perplexity, a +dissatisfied, foiled look in them, as if of his speculations he found no +end. Such was now the case, while Robert and the girl were running on with +a gay talk about a serious subject, so that, gay as it was, it was +interspersed with little thrills of fear on the girl's part, of excitement +on Robert's. Their talk was of public trouble.</p> + +<p>"My grandfather says," said Rose Garfield, "that we shall never be able to +stand against old England, because the men are a weaker race than he +remembers in his day,–weaker than his father, who came from England,–and +the women slighter still; so that we are dwindling away, grandfather +thinks; only a little sprightlier, he says sometimes, looking at me."</p> + +<p>"Lighter, to be sure," said Robert Hagburn; "there is the lightness of the +Englishwomen compressed into little space. I have seen them and know. And +as to the men, Rose, if they have lost one spark of courage and strength +that their English forefathers brought from the old land,–lost any one +good quality without having made it up by as good or better,–then, for my +part, I don't want the breed to exist any longer. And this war, that they +say is coming on, will be a good opportunity to test the matter. +Septimius! Don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Think what?" asked Septimius, gravely, lifting up his head.</p> + +<p>"Think! why, that your countrymen are worthy to live," said Robert Hagburn, +impatiently. "For there is a question on that point."</p> + +<p>"It is hardly worth answering or considering," said Septimius, looking at +him thoughtfully. "We live so little while, that (always setting aside the +effect on a future existence) it is little matter whether we live or no."</p> + +<p>"Little matter!" said Rose, at first bewildered, then laughing,–"little +matter! when it is such a comfort to live, so pleasant, so sweet!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and so many things to do," said Robert; "to make fields yield +produce; to be busy among men, and happy among the women-folk; to play, +work, fight, and be active in many ways."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but so soon stilled, before your activity has come to any definite +end," responded Septimius, gloomily. "I doubt, if it had been left to my +choice, whether I should have taken existence on such terms; so much +trouble of preparation to live, and then no life at all; a ponderous +beginning, and nothing more."</p> + +<p>"Do you find fault with Providence, Septimius?" asked Rose, a feeling of +solemnity coming over her cheerful and buoyant nature. Then she burst out +a-laughing. "How grave he looks, Robert; as if he had lived two or three +lives already, and knew all about the value of it. But I think it was +worth while to be born, if only for the sake of one such pleasant spring +morning as this; and God gives us many and better things when these are +past."</p> + +<p>"We hope so," said Septimius, who was again looking on the ground. "But who +knows?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew," said Robert Hagburn. "You have been to college, and +have learned, no doubt, a great many things. You are a student of +theology, too, and have looked into these matters. Who should know, if not +you?"</p> + +<p>"Rose and you have just as good means of ascertaining these points as I," +said Septimius; "all the certainty that can be had lies on the surface, as +it should, and equally accessible to every man or woman. If we try to +grope deeper, we labor for naught, and get less wise while we try to be +more so. If life were long enough to enable us thoroughly to sift these +matters, then, indeed!–but it is so short!"</p> + +<p>"Always this same complaint," said Robert. "Septimius, how long do you wish +to live?"</p> + +<p>"Forever!" said Septimius. "It is none too long for all I wish to know."</p> + +<p>"Forever?" exclaimed Rose, shivering doubtfully. "Ah, there would come +many, many thoughts, and after a while we should want a little rest."</p> + +<p>"Forever?" said Robert Hagburn. "And what would the people do who wish to +fill our places? You are unfair, Septimius. Live and let live! Turn about! +Give me my seventy years, and let me go,–my seventy years of what this +life has,–toil, enjoyment, suffering, struggle, fight, rest,–only let me +have my share of what's going, and I shall be content."</p> + +<p>"Content with leaving everything at odd ends; content with being nothing, +as you were before!"</p> + +<p>"No, Septimius, content with heaven at last," said Rose, who had come out +of her laughing mood into a sweet seriousness. "Oh dear! think what a worn +and ugly thing one of these fresh little blades of grass would seem if it +were not to fade and wither in its time, after being green in its time."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, my pretty Rose," said Septimius apart, "an immortal weed is +not very lovely to think of, that is true; but I should be content with +one thing, and that is yourself, if you were immortal, just as you are at +seventeen, so fresh, so dewy, so red-lipped, so golden-haired, so gay, so +frolicsome, so gentle."</p> + +<p>"But I am to grow old, and to be brown and wrinkled, gray-haired and ugly," +said Rose, rather sadly, as she thus enumerated the items of her decay, +"and then you would think me all lost and gone. But still there might be +youth underneath, for one that really loved me to see. Ah, Septimius +Felton! such love as would see with ever-new eyes is the true love." And +she ran away and left him suddenly, and Robert Hagburn departing at the +same time, this little knot of three was dissolved, and Septimius went +along the wayside wall, thoughtfully, as was his wont, to his own +dwelling. He had stopped for some moments on the threshold, vaguely +enjoying, it is probable, the light and warmth of the new spring day and +the sweet air, which was somewhat unwonted to the young man, because he +was accustomed to spend much of his day in thought and study within doors, +and, indeed, like most studious young men, was overfond of the fireside, +and of making life as artificial as he could, by fireside heat and +lamplight, in order to suit it to the artificial, intellectual, and moral +atmosphere which he derived from books, instead of living healthfully in +the open air, and among his fellow-beings. Still he felt the pleasure of +being warmed through by this natural heat, and, though blinking a little +from its superfluity, could not but confess an enjoyment and cheerfulness +in this flood of morning light that came aslant the hill-side. While he +thus stood, he felt a friendly hand laid upon his shoulder, and, looking +up, there was the minister of the village, the old friend of Septimius, to +whose advice and aid it was owing that Septimius had followed his +instincts by going to college, instead of spending a thwarted and +dissatisfied life in the field that fronted the house. He was a man of +middle age, or little beyond, of a sagacious, kindly aspect; the +experience, the lifelong, intimate acquaintance with many concerns of his +people being more apparent in him than the scholarship for which he had +been early distinguished. A tanned man, like one who labored in his own +grounds occasionally; a man of homely, plain address, which, when occasion +called for it, he could readily exchange for the polished manner of one +who had seen a more refined world than this about him.</p> + +<p>"Well, Septimius," said the minister, kindly, "have you yet come to any +conclusion about the subject of which we have been talking?"</p> + +<p>"Only so far, sir," replied Septimius, "that I find myself every day less +inclined to take up the profession which I have had in view so many years. +I do not think myself fit for the sacred desk."</p> + +<p>"Surely not; no one is," replied the clergyman; "but if I may trust my own +judgment, you have at least many of the intellectual qualifications that +should adapt you to it. There is something of the Puritan character in +you, Septimius, derived from holy men among your ancestors; as, for +instance, a deep, brooding turn, such as befits that heavy brow; a +disposition to meditate on things hidden; a turn for meditative +inquiry,–all these things, with grace to boot, mark you as the germ of a +man who might do God service. Your reputation as a scholar stands high at +college. You have not a turn for worldly business."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but, sir," said Septimius, casting down his heavy brows, "I lack +something within."</p> + +<p>"Faith, perhaps," replied the minister; "at least, you think so."</p> + +<p>"Cannot I know it?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely, just now," said his friend. "Study for the ministry; bind your +thoughts to it; pray; ask a belief, and you will soon find you have it. +Doubts may occasionally press in; and it is so with every clergyman. But +your prevailing mood will be faith."</p> + +<p>"It has seemed to me," observed Septimius, "that it is not the prevailing +mood, the most common one, that is to be trusted. This is habit, +formality, the shallow covering which we close over what is real, and +seldom suffer to be blown aside. But it is the snake-like doubt that +thrusts out its head, which gives us a glimpse of reality. Surely such +moments are a hundred times as real as the dull, quiet moments of faith or +what you call such."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for you," said the minister; "yet to a youth of your frame of +character, of your ability I will say, and your requisition for something +profound in the grounds of your belief, it is not unusual to meet this +trouble. Men like you have to fight for their faith. They fight in the +first place to win it, and ever afterwards to hold it. The Devil tilts +with them daily and often seems to win."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but," replied Septimius, "he takes deadly weapons now. If he meet me +with the cold pure steel of a spiritual argument, I might win or lose, and +still not feel that all was lost; but he takes, as it were, a great clod +of earth, massive rocks and mud, soil and dirt, and flings it at me +overwhelmingly; so that I am buried under it."</p> + +<p>"How is that?" said the minister. "Tell me more plainly."</p> + +<p>"May it not be possible," asked Septimius, "to have too profound a sense of +the marvellous contrivance and adaptation of this material world to +require or believe in anything spiritual? How wonderful it is to see it +all alive on this spring day, all growing, budding! Do we exhaust it in +our little life? Not so; not in a hundred or a thousand lives. The whole +race of man, living from the beginning of time, have not, in all their +number and multiplicity and in all their duration, come in the least to +know the world they live in! And how is this rich world thrown away upon +us, because we live in it such a moment! What mortal work has ever been +done since the world began! Because we have no time. No lesson is taught. +We are snatched away from our study before we have learned the alphabet. +As the world now exists, I confess it to you frankly, my dear pastor and +instructor, it seems to me all a failure, because we do not live long +enough."</p> + +<p>"But the lesson is carried on in another state of being!"</p> + +<p>"Not the lesson that we begin here," said Septimius. "We might as well +train a child in a primeval forest, to teach him how to live in a European +court. No, the fall of man, which Scripture tells us of, seems to me to +have its operation in this grievous shortening of earthly existence, so +that our life here at all is grown ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"Well, Septimius," replied the minister, sadly, yet not as one shocked by +what he had never heard before, "I must leave you to struggle through this +form of unbelief as best you may, knowing that it is by your own efforts +that you must come to the other side of this slough. We will talk further +another time. You are getting worn out, my young friend, with much study +and anxiety. It were well for you to live more, for the present, in this +earthly life that you prize so highly. Cannot you interest yourself in the +state of this country, in this coming strife, the voice of which now +sounds so hoarsely and so near us? Come out of your thoughts and breathe +another air."</p> + +<p>"I will try," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do," said the minister, extending his hand to him, "and in a little time +you will find the change."</p> + +<p>He shook the young man's hand kindly, and took his leave, while Septimius +entered his house, and turning to the right sat down in his study, where, +before the fireplace, stood the table with books and papers. On the +shelves around the low-studded walls were more books, few in number but of +an erudite appearance, many of them having descended to him from learned +ancestors, and having been brought to light by himself after long lying in +dusty closets; works of good and learned divines, whose wisdom he had +happened, by help of the Devil, to turn to mischief, reading them by the +light of hell-fire. For, indeed, Septimius had but given the clergyman the +merest partial glimpse of his state of mind. He was not a new beginner in +doubt; but, on the contrary, it seemed to him as if he had never been +other than a doubter and questioner, even in his boyhood; believing +nothing, although a thin veil of reverence had kept him from questioning +some things. And now the new, strange thought of the sufficiency of the +world for man, if man were only sufficient for that, kept recurring to +him; and with it came a certain sense, which he had been conscious of +before, that he, at least, might never die. The feeling was not peculiar +to Septimius. It is an instinct, the meaning of which is mistaken. We have +strongly within us the sense of an undying principle, and we transfer that +true sense to this life and to the body, instead of interpreting it justly +as the promise of spiritual immortality.</p> + +<p>So Septimius looked up out of his thoughts, and said proudly: "Why should I +die? I cannot die, if worthy to live. What if I should say this moment +that I will not die, not till ages hence, not till the world is exhausted? +Let other men die, if they choose, or yield; let him that is strong enough +live!"</p> + +<p>After this flush of heroic mood, however, the glow subsided, and poor +Septimius spent the rest of the day, as was his wont, poring over his +books, in which all the meanings seemed dead and mouldy, and like pressed +leaves (some of which dropped out of the books as he opened them), brown, +brittle, sapless; so even the thoughts, which when the writers had +gathered them seemed to them so brightly colored and full of life. Then he +began to see that there must have been some principle of life left out of +the book, so that these gathered thoughts lacked something that had given +them their only value. Then he suspected that the way truly to live and +answer the purposes of life was not to gather up thoughts into books, +where they grew so dry, but to live and still be going about, full of +green wisdom, ripening ever, not in maxims cut and dry, but a wisdom ready +for daily occasions, like a living fountain; and that to be this, it was +necessary to exist long on earth, drink in all its lessons, and not to die +on the attainment of some smattering of truth; but to live all the more +for that; and apply it to mankind and increase it thereby.</p> + +<p>Everything drifted towards the strong, strange eddy into which his mind had +been drawn: all his thoughts set hitherward.</p> + +<p>So he sat brooding in his study until the shrill-voiced old woman–an aunt, +who was his housekeeper and domestic ruler–called him to dinner,–a +frugal dinner,–and chided him for seeming inattentive to a dish of early +dandelions which she had gathered for him; but yet tempered her severity +with respect for the future clerical rank of her nephew, and for his +already being a bachelor of arts. The old woman's voice spoke outside of +Septimius, rambling away, and he paying little heed, till at last dinner +was over, and Septimius drew back his chair, about to leave the table.</p> + +<p>"Nephew Septimius," said the old woman, "you began this meal to-day without +asking a blessing, you get up from it without giving thanks, and you soon +to be a minister of the Word."</p> + +<p>"God bless the meat," replied Septimius (by way of blessing), "and make it +strengthen us for the life he means us to bear. Thank God for our food," +he added (by way of grace), "and may it become a portion in us of an +immortal body."</p> + +<p>"That sounds good, Septimius," said the old lady. "Ah! you'll be a mighty +man in the pulpit, and worthy to keep up the name of your +great-grandfather, who, they say, made the leaves wither on a tree with +the fierceness of his blast against a sin. Some say, to be sure, it was an +early frost that helped him."</p> + +<p>"I never heard that before, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"I warrant you no," replied his aunt. "A man dies, and his greatness +perishes as if it had never been, and people remember nothing of him only +when they see his gravestone over his old dry bones, and say he was a good +man in his day."</p> + +<p>"What truth there is in Aunt Keziah's words!" exclaimed Septimius. "And how +I hate the thought and anticipation of that contemptuous appreciation of a +man after his death! Every living man triumphs over every dead one, as he +lies, poor and helpless, under the mould, a pinch of dust, a heap of +bones, an evil odor! I hate the thought! It shall not be so!"</p> + +<p>It was strange how every little incident thus brought him back to that one +subject which was taking so strong hold of his mind; every avenue led +thitherward; and he took it for an indication that nature had intended, by +innumerable ways, to point out to us the great truth that death was an +alien misfortune, a prodigy, a monstrosity, into which man had only fallen +by defect; and that even now, if a man had a reasonable portion of his +original strength in him, he might live forever and spurn death.</p> + +<p>Our story is an internal one, dealing as little as possible with outward +events, and taking hold of these only where it cannot be helped, in order +by means of them to delineate the history of a mind bewildered in certain +errors. We would not willingly, if we could, give a lively and picturesque +surrounding to this delineation, but it is necessary that we should advert +to the circumstances of the time in which this inward history was passing. +We will say, therefore, that that night there was a cry of alarm passing +all through the succession of country towns and rural communities that lay +around Boston, and dying away towards the coast and the wilder forest +borders. Horsemen galloped past the line of farm-houses shouting alarm! +alarm! There were stories of marching troops coming like dreams through +the midnight. Around the little rude meeting-houses there was here and +there the beat of a drum, and the assemblage of farmers with their +weapons. So all that night there was marching, there was mustering, there +was trouble; and, on the road from Boston, a steady march of soldiers' +feet onward, onward into the land whose last warlike disturbance had been +when the red Indians trod it.</p> + +<p>Septimius heard it, and knew, like the rest, that it was the sound of +coming war. "Fools that men are!" said he, as he rose from bed and looked +out at the misty stars; "they do not live long enough to know the value +and purport of life, else they would combine together to live long, +instead of throwing away the lives of thousands as they do. And what +matters a little tyranny in so short a life? What matters a form of +government for such ephemeral creatures?"</p> + +<p>As morning brightened, these sounds, this clamor,–or something that was in +the air and caused the clamor,–grew so loud that Septimius seemed to feel +it even in his solitude. It was in the atmosphere,–storm, wild +excitement, a coming deed. Men hurried along the usually lonely road in +groups, with weapons in their hands,–the old fowling-piece of seven-foot +barrel, with which the Puritans had shot ducks on the river and Walden +Pond; the heavy harquebus, which perhaps had levelled one of King Philip's +Indians; the old King gun, that blazed away at the French of Louisburg or +Quebec,–hunter, husbandman, all were hurrying each other. It was a good +time, everybody felt, to be alive, a nearer kindred, a closer sympathy +between man and man; a sense of the goodness of the world, of the +sacredness of country, of the excellence of life; and yet its slight +account compared with any truth, any principle; the weighing of the +material and ethereal, and the finding the former not worth considering, +when, nevertheless, it had so much to do with the settlement of the +crisis. The ennobling of brute force; the feeling that it had its godlike +side; the drawing of heroic breath amid the scenes of ordinary life, so +that it seemed as if they had all been transfigured since yesterday. Oh, +high, heroic, tremulous juncture, when man felt himself almost an angel; +on the verge of doing deeds that outwardly look so fiendish! Oh, strange +rapture of the coming battle! We know something of that time now; we that +have seen the muster of the village soldiery on the meeting-house green, +and at railway stations; and heard the drum and fife, and seen the +farewells; seen the familiar faces that we hardly knew, now that we felt +them to be heroes; breathed higher breath for their sakes; felt our eyes +moistened; thanked them in our souls for teaching us that nature is yet +capable of heroic moments; felt how a great impulse lifts up a people, and +every cold, passionless, indifferent spectator,–lifts him up into +religion, and makes him join in what becomes an act of devotion, a prayer, +when perhaps he but half approves.</p> + +<p>Septimius could not study on a morning like this. He tried to say to +himself that he had nothing to do with this excitement; that his studious +life kept him away from it; that his intended profession was that of +peace; but say what he might to himself, there was a tremor, a bubbling +impulse, a tingling in his ears,–the page that he opened glimmered and +dazzled before him.</p> + +<p>"Septimius! Septimius!" cried Aunt Keziah, looking into the room, "in +Heaven's name, are you going to sit here to-day, and the redcoats coming +to burn the house over our heads? Must I sweep you out with the +broomstick? For shame, boy! for shame!"</p> + +<p>"Are they coming, then, Aunt Keziah?" asked her nephew. "Well, I am not a +fighting-man."</p> + +<p>"Certain they are. They have sacked Lexington, and slain the people, and +burnt the meeting-house. That concerns even the parsons; and you reckon +yourself among them. Go out, go out, I say, and learn the news!"</p> + +<p>Whether moved by these exhortations, or by his own stifled curiosity, +Septimius did at length issue from his door, though with that reluctance +which hampers and impedes men whose current of thought and interest runs +apart from that of the world in general; but forth he came, feeling +strangely, and yet with a strong impulse to fling himself headlong into +the emotion of the moment. It was a beautiful morning, spring-like and +summer-like at once. If there had been nothing else to do or think of, +such a morning was enough for life only to breathe its air and be +conscious of its inspiring influence.</p> + +<p>Septimius turned along the road towards the village, meaning to mingle with +the crowd on the green, and there learn all he could of the rumors that +vaguely filled the air, and doubtless were shaping themselves into various +forms of fiction.</p> + +<p>As he passed the small dwelling of Rose Garfield, she stood on the +doorstep, and bounded forth a little way to meet him, looking frightened, +excited, and yet half pleased, but strangely pretty; prettier than ever +before, owing to some hasty adornment or other, that she would never have +succeeded so well in giving to herself if she had had more time to do it +in.</p> + +<p>"Septimius–Mr. Felton," cried she, asking information of him who, of all +men in the neighborhood, knew nothing of the intelligence afloat; but it +showed a certain importance that Septimius had with her. "Do you really +think the redcoats are coming? Ah, what shall we do? What shall we do? But +you are not going to the village, too, and leave us all alone?"</p> + +<p>"I know not whether they are coming or no, Rose," said Septimius, stopping +to admire the young girl's fresh beauty, which made a double stroke upon +him by her excitement, and, moreover, made her twice as free with him as +ever she had been before; for there is nothing truer than that any +breaking up of the ordinary state of things is apt to shake women out of +their proprieties, break down barriers, and bring them into perilous +proximity with the world. "Are you alone here? Had you not better take +shelter in the village?"</p> + +<p>"And leave my poor, bedridden grandmother!" cried Rose, angrily. "You know +I can't, Septimius. But I suppose I am in no danger. Go to the village, if +you like."</p> + +<p>"Where is Robert Hagburn?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Gone to the village this hour past, with his grandfather's old firelock on +his shoulder," said Rose; "he was running bullets before daylight."</p> + +<p>"Rose, I will stay with you," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Oh gracious, here they come, I'm sure!" cried Rose. "Look yonder at the +dust. Mercy! a man at a gallop!"</p> + +<p>In fact, along the road, a considerable stretch of which was visible, they +heard the clatter of hoofs and saw a little cloud of dust approaching at +the rate of a gallop, and disclosing, as it drew near, a hatless +countryman in his shirt-sleeves, who, bending over his horse's neck, +applied a cart-whip lustily to the animal's flanks, so as to incite him to +most unwonted speed. At the same time, glaring upon Rose and Septimius, he +lifted up his voice and shouted in a strange, high tone, that communicated +the tremor and excitement of the shouter to each auditor: "Alarum! alarum! +alarum! The redcoats! The redcoats! To arms! alarum!"</p> + +<p>And trailing this sound far wavering behind him like a pennon, the eager +horseman dashed onward to the village.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, what shall we do?" cried Rose, her eyes full of tears, yet +dancing with excitement. "They are coming! they are coming! I hear the +drum and fife."</p> + +<p>"I really believe they are," said Septimius, his cheek flushing and growing +pale, not with fear, but the inevitable tremor, half painful, half +pleasurable, of the moment. "Hark! there was the shrill note of a fife. +Yes, they are coming!"</p> + +<p>He tried to persuade Rose to hide herself in the house; but that young +person would not be persuaded to do so, clinging to Septimius in a way +that flattered while it perplexed him. Besides, with all the girl's +fright, she had still a good deal of courage, and much curiosity too, to +see what these redcoats were of whom she heard such terrible stories.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, Rose," said Septimius; "I doubt not we may stay here without +danger,–you, a woman, and I, whose profession is to be that of peace and +good-will to all men. They cannot, whatever is said of them, be on an +errand of massacre. We will stand here quietly; and, seeing that we do not +fear them, they will understand that we mean them no harm."</p> + +<p>They stood, accordingly, a little in front of the door by the well-curb, +and soon they saw a heavy cloud of dust, from amidst which shone bayonets; +and anon, a military band, which had hitherto been silent, struck up, with +drum and fife, to which the tramp of a thousand feet fell in regular +order; then came the column, moving massively, and the redcoats who seemed +somewhat wearied by a long night-march, dusty, with bedraggled gaiters, +covered with sweat which had rundown from their powdered locks. +Nevertheless, these ruddy, lusty Englishmen marched stoutly, as men that +needed only a half-hour's rest, a good breakfast, and a pot of beer +apiece, to make them ready to face the world. Nor did their faces look +anywise rancorous; but at most, only heavy, cloddish, good-natured, and +humane.</p> + +<p>"O heavens, Mr. Felton!" whispered Rose, "why should we shoot these men, or +they us? they look kind, if homely. Each of them has a mother and sisters, +I suppose, just like our men."</p> + +<p>"It is the strangest thing in the world that we can think of killing them," +said Septimius. "Human life is so precious."</p> + +<p>Just as they were passing the cottage, a halt was called by the commanding +officer, in order that some little rest might get the troops into a better +condition and give them breath before entering the village, where it was +important to make as imposing a show as possible. During this brief stop, +some of the soldiers approached the well-curb, near which Rose and +Septimius were standing, and let down the bucket to satisfy their thirst. +A young officer, a petulant boy, extremely handsome, and of gay and +buoyant deportment, also came up.</p> + +<p>"Get me a cup, pretty one," said he, patting Rose's cheek with great +freedom, though it was somewhat and indefinitely short of rudeness; "a +mug, or something to drink out of, and you shall have a kiss for your +pains."</p> + +<p>"Stand off, sir!" said Septimius, fiercely; "it is a coward's part to +insult a woman."</p> + +<p>"I intend no insult in this," replied the handsome young officer, suddenly +snatching a kiss from Rose, before she could draw back. "And if you think +it so, my good friend, you had better take your weapon and get as much +satisfaction as you can, shooting at me from behind a hedge."</p> + +<p>Before Septimius could reply or act,–and, in truth, the easy presumption +of the young Englishman made it difficult for him, an inexperienced +recluse as he was, to know what to do or say,–the drum beat a little tap, +recalling the soldiers to their rank and to order. The young officer +hastened back, with a laughing glance at Rose, and a light, contemptuous +look of defiance at Septimius, the drums rattling out in full beat, and +the troops marched on.</p> + +<p>"What impertinence!" said Rose, whose indignant color made her look pretty +enough almost to excuse the offence.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to see how Septimius could have shielded her from the +insult; and yet he felt inconceivably outraged and humiliated at the +thought that this offence had occurred while Rose was under his +protection, and he responsible for her. Besides, somehow or other, he was +angry with her for having undergone the wrong, though certainly most +unreasonably; for the whole thing was quicker done than said.</p> + +<p>"You had better go into the house now, Rose," said he, "and see to your +bedridden grandmother."</p> + +<p>"And what will you do, Septimius?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I will house myself, also," he replied. "Perhaps take yonder proud +redcoat's counsel, and shoot him behind a hedge."</p> + +<p>"But not kill him outright; I suppose he has a mother and a sweetheart, the +handsome young officer," murmured Rose pityingly to herself.</p> + +<p>Septimius went into his house, and sat in his study for some hours, in that +unpleasant state of feeling which a man of brooding thought is apt to +experience when the world around him is in a state of intense action, +which he finds it impossible to sympathize with. There seemed to be a +stream rushing past him, by which, even if he plunged into the midst of +it, he could not be wet. He felt himself strangely ajar with the human +race, and would have given much either to be in full accord with it, or to +be separated from it forever.</p> + +<p>"I am dissevered from it. It is my doom to be only a spectator of life; to +look on as one apart from it. Is it not well, therefore, that, sharing +none of its pleasures and happiness, I should be free of its fatalities +its brevity? How cold I am now, while this whirlpool of public feeling is +eddying around me! It is as if I had not been born of woman!"</p> + +<p>Thus it was that, drawing wild inferences from phenomena of the mind and +heart common to people who, by some morbid action within themselves, are +set ajar with the world, Septimius continued still to come round to that +strange idea of undyingness which had recently taken possession of him. +And yet he was wrong in thinking himself cold, and that he felt no +sympathy in the fever of patriotism that was throbbing through his +countrymen. He was restless as a flame; he could not fix his thoughts upon +his book; he could not sit in his chair, but kept pacing to and fro, while +through the open window came noises to which his imagination gave diverse +interpretation. Now it was a distant drum; now shouts; by and by there +came the rattle of musketry, that seemed to proceed from some point more +distant than the village; a regular roll, then a ragged volley, then +scattering shots. Unable any longer to preserve this unnatural +indifference, Septimius snatched his gun, and, rushing out of the house, +climbed the abrupt hill-side behind, whence he could see a long way +towards the village, till a slight bend hid the uneven road. It was quite +vacant, not a passenger upon it. But there seemed to be confusion in that +direction; an unseen and inscrutable trouble, blowing thence towards him, +intimated by vague sounds,–by no sounds. Listening eagerly, however, he +at last fancied a mustering sound of the drum; then it seemed as if it +were coming towards him; while in advance rode another horseman, the same +kind of headlong messenger, in appearance, who had passed the house with +his ghastly cry of alarum; then appeared scattered countrymen, with guns +in their hands, straggling across fields. Then he caught sight of the +regular array of British soldiers, filling the road with their front, and +marching along as firmly as ever, though at a quick pace, while he fancied +that the officers looked watchfully around. As he looked, a shot rang +sharp from the hill-side towards the village; the smoke curled up, and +Septimius saw a man stagger and fall in the midst of the troops. Septimius +shuddered; it was so like murder that he really could not tell the +difference; his knees trembled beneath him; his breath grew short, not +with terror, but with some new sensation of awe.</p> + +<p>Another shot or two came almost simultaneously from the wooded height, but +without any effect that Septimius could perceive. Almost at the same +moment a company of the British soldiers wheeled from the main body, and, +dashing out of the road, climbed the hill, and disappeared into the wood +and shrubbery that veiled it. There were a few straggling shots, by whom +fired, or with what effect, was invisible, and meanwhile the main body of +the enemy proceeded along the road. They had now advanced so nigh that +Septimius was strangely assailed by the idea that he might, with the gun +in his hand, fire right into the midst of them, and select any man of that +now hostile band to be a victim. How strange, how strange it is, this +deep, wild passion that nature has implanted in us to be the death of our +fellow-creatures, and which coexists at the same time with horror! +Septimius levelled his weapon, and drew it up again; he marked a mounted +officer, who seemed to be in chief command, whom he knew that he could +kill. But no! he had really no such purpose. Only it was such a +temptation. And in a moment the horse would leap, the officer would fall +and lie there in the dust of the road, bleeding, gasping, breathing in +spasms, breathing no more.</p> + +<p>While the young man, in these unusual circumstances, stood watching the +marching of the troops, he heard the noise of rustling boughs, and the +voices of men, and soon understood that the party, which he had seen +separate itself from the main body and ascend the hill, was now marching +along on the hill-top, the long ridge which, with a gap or two, extended +as much as a mile from the village. One of these gaps occurred a little +way from where Septimius stood. They were acting as flank guard, to +prevent the up-roused people from coming so close to the main body as to +fire upon it. He looked and saw that the detachment of British was +plunging down one side of this gap, with intent to ascend the other, so +that they would pass directly over the spot where he stood; a slight +removal to one side, among the small bushes, would conceal him. He stepped +aside accordingly, and from his concealment, not without drawing quicker +breaths, beheld the party draw near. They were more intent upon the space +between them and the main body than upon the dense thicket of birch-trees, +pitch-pines, sumach, and dwarf oaks, which, scarcely yet beginning to bud +into leaf, lay on the other side, and in which Septimius lurked.</p> + +<p>[<i>Describe how their faces affected him, passing so near; how strange +they seemed</i>.]</p> + +<p>They had all passed, except an officer who brought up the rear, and who had +perhaps been attracted by some slight motion that Septimius made,–some +rustle in the thicket; for he stopped, fixed his eyes piercingly towards +the spot where he stood, and levelled a light fusil which he carried. +"Stand out, or I shoot," said he.</p> + +<p>Not to avoid the shot, but because his manhood felt a call upon it not to +skulk in obscurity from an open enemy, Septimius at once stood forth, and +confronted the same handsome young officer with whom those fierce words +had passed on account of his rudeness to Rose Garfield. Septimius's fierce +Indian blood stirred in him, and gave a murderous excitement.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you!" said the young officer, with a haughty smile. "You meant, +then, to take up with my hint of shooting at me from behind a hedge? This +is better. Come, we have in the first place the great quarrel between me a +king's soldier, and you a rebel; next our private affair, on account of +yonder pretty girl. Come, let us take a shot on either score!"</p> + +<p>The young officer was so handsome, so beautiful, in budding youth; there +was such a free, gay petulance in his manner; there seemed so little of +real evil in him; he put himself on equal ground with the rustic Septimius +so generously, that the latter, often so morbid and sullen, never felt a +greater kindness for fellow-man than at this moment for this youth.</p> + +<p>"I have no enmity towards you," said he; "go in peace."</p> + +<p>"No enmity!" replied the officer. "Then why were you here with your gun +amongst the shrubbery? But I have a mind to do my first deed of arms on +you; so give up your weapon, and come with me as prisoner."</p> + +<p>"A prisoner!" cried Septimius, that Indian fierceness that was in him +arousing itself, and thrusting up its malign head like a snake. "Never! If +you would have me, you must take my dead body."</p> + +<p>"Ah well, you have pluck in you, I see, only it needs a considerable +stirring. Come, this is a good quarrel of ours. Let us fight it out. Stand +where you are, and I will give the word of command. Now; ready, aim, +fire!"</p> + +<p>As the young officer spoke the three last words, in rapid succession, he +and his antagonist brought their firelocks to the shoulder, aimed and +fired. Septimius felt, as it were, the sting of a gadfly passing across +his temple, as the Englishman's bullet grazed it; but, to his surprise and +horror (for the whole thing scarcely seemed real to him), he saw the +officer give a great start, drop his fusil, and stagger against a tree, +with his hand to his breast. He endeavored to support himself erect, but, +failing in the effort, beckoned to Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Come, my good friend," said he, with that playful, petulant smile flitting +over his face again. "It is my first and last fight. Let me down as softly +as you can on mother earth, the mother of both you and me; so we are +brothers; and this may be a brotherly act, though it does not look so, nor +feel so. Ah! that was a twinge indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Septimius. "I had no thought of this, no malice +towards you in the least!"</p> + +<p>"Nor I towards you," said the young man. "It was boy's play, and the end of +it is that I die a boy, instead of living forever, as perhaps I otherwise +might."</p> + +<p>"Living forever!" repeated Septimius, his attention arrested, even at that +breathless moment, by words that rang so strangely on what had been his +brooding thought.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I have lost my chance," said the young officer. Then, as +Septimius helped him to lie against the little hillock of a decayed and +buried stump, "Thank you; thank you. If you could only call back one of my +comrades to hear my dying words. But I forgot. You have killed me, and +they would take your life."</p> + +<p>In truth, Septimius was so moved and so astonished, that he probably would +have called back the young man's comrades, had it been possible; but, +marching at the swift rate of men in peril, they had already gone far +onward, in their passage through the shrubbery that had ceased to rustle +behind them.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I must die here!" said the young man, with a forlorn expression, as +of a school-boy far away from home, "and nobody to see me now but you, who +have killed me. Could you fetch me a drop of water? I have a great +thirst."</p> + +<p>Septimius, in a dream of horror and pity, rushed down the hill-side; the +house was empty, for Aunt Keziah had gone for shelter and sympathy to some +of the neighbors. He filled a jug with cold water, and hurried back to the +hill-top, finding the young officer looking paler and more deathlike +within those few moments.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, my enemy that was, my friend that is," murmured he, faintly +smiling. "Methinks, next to the father and mother that gave us birth, the +next most intimate relation must be with the man that slays us, who +introduces us to the mysterious world to which this is but the portal. You +and I are singularly connected, doubt it not, in the scenes of the unknown +world."</p> + +<p>"Oh, believe me," cried Septimius, "I grieve for you like a brother!"</p> + +<p>"I see it, my dear friend," said the young officer; "and though my blood is +on your hands, I forgive you freely, if there is anything to forgive. But +I am dying, and have a few words to say, which you must hear. You have +slain me in fair fight, and my spoils, according to the rules and customs +of warfare, belong to the victor. Hang up my sword and fusil over your +chimney-place, and tell your children, twenty years hence, how they were +won. My purse, keep it or give it to the poor. There is something, here +next my heart, which I would fain have sent to the address which I will +give you."</p> + +<p>Septimius, obeying his directions, took from his breast a miniature that +hung round it; but, on examination, it proved that the bullet had passed +directly through it, shattering the ivory, so that the woman's face it +represented was quite destroyed.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that is a pity," said the young man; and yet Septimius thought that +there was something light and contemptuous mingled with the pathos in his +tones. "Well, but send it; cause it to be transmitted, according to the +address."</p> + +<p>He gave Septimius, and made him take down on a tablet which he had about +him, the name of a hall in one of the midland counties of England.</p> + +<p>"Ah, that old place," said he, "with its oaks, and its lawn, and its park, +and its Elizabethan gables! I little thought I should die here, so far +away, in this barren Yankee land. Where will you bury me?"</p> + +<p>As Septimius hesitated to answer, the young man continued: "I would like to +have lain in the little old church at Whitnash, which comes up before me +now, with its low, gray tower, and the old yew-tree in front, hollow with +age, and the village clustering about it, with its thatched houses. I +would be loath to lie in one of your Yankee graveyards, for I have a +distaste for them,–though I love you, my slayer. Bury me here, on this +very spot. A soldier lies best where he falls."</p> + +<p>"Here, in secret?" exclaimed Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Yes; there is no consecration in your Puritan burial-grounds," said the +dying youth, some of that queer narrowness of English Churchism coming +into his mind. "So bury me here, in my soldier's dress. Ah! and my watch! +I have done with time, and you, perhaps, have a long lease of it; so take +it, not as spoil, but as my parting gift. And that reminds me of one other +thing. Open that pocket-book which you have in your hand."</p> + +<p>Septimius did so, and by the officer's direction took from one of its +compartments a folded paper, closely written in a crabbed hand; it was +considerably worn in the outer folds, but not within. There was also a +small silver key in the pocket-book.</p> + +<p>"I leave it with you," said the officer; "it was given me by an uncle, a +learned man of science, who intended me great good by what he there wrote. +Reap the profit, if you can. Sooth to say, I never read beyond the first +lines of the paper."</p> + +<p>Septimius was surprised, or deeply impressed, to see that through this +paper, as well as through the miniature, had gone his fatal +bullet,–straight through the midst; and some of the young man's blood, +saturating his dress, had wet the paper all over. He hardly thought +himself likely to derive any good from what it had cost a human life, +taken (however uncriminally) by his own hands, to obtain.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything more that I can do for you?" asked he, with genuine +sympathy and sorrow, as he knelt by his fallen foe's side.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, nothing, I believe," said he. "There was one thing I might have +confessed; if there were a holy man here, I might have confessed, and +asked his prayers; for though I have lived few years, it has been long +enough to do a great wrong! But I will try to pray in my secret soul. Turn +my face towards the trunk of the tree, for I have taken my last look at +the world. There, let me be now."</p> + +<p>Septimius did as the young man requested, and then stood leaning against +one of the neighboring pines, watching his victim with a tender concern +that made him feel as if the convulsive throes that passed through his +frame were felt equally in his own. There was a murmuring from the youth's +lips which seemed to Septimius swift, soft, and melancholy, like the voice +of a child when it has some naughtiness to confess to its mother at +bedtime; contrite, pleading, yet trusting. So it continued for a few +minutes; then there was a sudden start and struggle, as if he were +striving to rise; his eyes met those of Septimius with a wild, troubled +gaze, but as the latter caught him in his arms, he was dead. Septimius +laid the body softly down on the leaf-strewn earth, and tried, as he had +heard was the custom with the dead, to compose the features distorted by +the dying agony. He then flung himself on the ground at a little distance, +and gave himself up to the reflections suggested by the strange +occurrences of the last hour.</p> + +<p>He had taken a human life; and, however the circumstances might excuse +him,–might make the thing even something praiseworthy, and that would be +called patriotic,–still, it was not at once that a fresh country youth +could see anything but horror in the blood with which his hand was +stained. It seemed so dreadful to have reduced this gay, animated, +beautiful being to a lump of dead flesh for the flies to settle upon, and +which in a few hours would begin to decay; which must be put forthwith +into the earth, lest it should be a horror to men's eyes; that delicious +beauty for woman to love; that strength and courage to make him famous +among men,–all come to nothing; all probabilities of life in one so +gifted; the renown, the position, the pleasures, the profits, the keen +ecstatic joy,–this never could be made up,–all ended quite; for the dark +doubt descended upon Septimius, that, because of the very fitness that was +in this youth to enjoy this world, so much the less chance was thereof his +being fit for any other world. What could it do for him there,–this +beautiful grace and elegance of feature,–where there was no form, nothing +tangible nor visible? what good that readiness and aptness for associating +with all created things, doing his part, acting, enjoying, when, under the +changed conditions of another state of being, all this adaptedness would +fail? Had he been gifted with permanence on earth, there could not have +been a more admirable creature than this young man; but as his fate had +turned out, he was a mere grub, an illusion, something that nature had +held out in mockery, and then withdrawn. A weed might grow from his dust +now; that little spot on the barren hill-top, where he had desired to be +buried, would be greener for some years to come, and that was all the +difference. Septimius could not get beyond the earthiness; his feeling was +as if, by an act of violence, he had forever cut off a happy human +existence. And such was his own love of life and clinging to it, peculiar +to dark, sombre natures, and which lighter and gayer ones can never know, +that he shuddered at his deed, and at himself, and could with difficulty +bear to be alone with the corpse of his victim,–trembled at the thought +of turning his face towards him.</p> + +<p>Yet he did so, because he could not endure the imagination that the dead +youth was turning his eyes towards him as he lay; so he came and stood +beside him, looking down into his white, upturned face. But it was +wonderful! What a change had come over it since, only a few moments ago, +he looked at that death-contorted countenance! Now there was a high and +sweet expression upon it, of great joy and surprise, and yet a quietude +diffused throughout, as if the peace being so very great was what had +surprised him. The expression was like a light gleaming and glowing within +him. Septimius had often, at a certain space of time after sunset, looking +westward, seen a living radiance in the sky,–the last light of the dead +day that seemed just the counterpart of this death-light in the young +man's face. It was as if the youth were just at the gate of heaven, which, +swinging softly open, let the inconceivable glory of the blessed city +shine upon his face, and kindle it up with gentle, undisturbing +astonishment and purest joy. It was an expression contrived by God's +providence to comfort; to overcome all the dark auguries that the physical +ugliness of death inevitably creates, and to prove by the divine glory on +the face, that the ugliness is a delusion. It was as if the dead man +himself showed his face out of the sky, with heaven's blessing on it, and +bade the afflicted be of good cheer, and believe in immortality.</p> + +<p>Septimius remembered the young man's injunctions to bury him there, on the +hill, without uncovering the body; and though it seemed a sin and shame to +cover up that beautiful body with earth of the grave, and give it to the +worm, yet he resolved to obey.</p> + +<p>Be it confessed that, beautiful as the dead form looked, and guiltless as +Septimius must be held in causing his death, still he felt as if he should +be eased when it was under the ground. He hastened down to the house, and +brought up a shovel and a pickaxe, and began his unwonted task of +grave-digging, delving earnestly a deep pit, sometimes pausing in his +toil, while the sweat-drops poured from him, to look at the beautiful clay +that was to occupy it. Sometimes he paused, too, to listen to the shots +that pealed in the far distance, towards the east, whither the battle had +long since rolled out of reach and almost out of hearing. It seemed to +have gathered about itself the whole life of the land, attending it along +its bloody course in a struggling throng of shouting, shooting men, so +still and solitary was everything left behind it. It seemed the very +midland solitude of the world where Septimius was delving at the grave. He +and his dead were alone together, and he was going to put the body under +the sod, and be quite alone.</p> + +<p>The grave was now deep, and Septimius was stooping down into its depths +among dirt and pebbles, levelling off the bottom, which he considered to +be profound enough to hide the young man's mystery forever, when a voice +spoke above him; a solemn, quiet voice, which he knew well.</p> + +<p>"Septimius! what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>He looked up and saw the minister.</p> + +<p>"I have slain a man in fair fight," answered he, "and am about to bury him +as he requested. I am glad you are come. You, reverend sir, can fitly say +a prayer at his obsequies. I am glad for my own sake; for it is very +lonely and terrible to be here."</p> + +<p>He climbed out of the grave, and, in reply to the minister's inquiries, +communicated to him the events of the morning, and the youth's strange +wish to be buried here, without having his remains subjected to the hands +of those who would prepare it for the grave. The minister hesitated.</p> + +<p>"At an ordinary time," said he, "such a singular request would of course +have to be refused. Your own safety, the good and wise rules that make it +necessary that all things relating to death and burial should be done +publicly and in order, would forbid it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Septimius; "but, it may be, scores of men will fall to-day, +and be flung into hasty graves without funeral rites; without its ever +being known, perhaps, what mother has lost her son. I cannot but think +that I ought to perform the dying request of the youth whom I have slain. +He trusted in me not to uncover his body myself, nor to betray it to the +hands of others."</p> + +<p>"A singular request," said the good minister, gazing with deep interest at +the beautiful dead face, and graceful, slender, manly figure. "What could +have been its motive? But no matter. I think, Septimius, that you are +bound to obey his request; indeed, having promised him, nothing short of +an impossibility should prevent your keeping your faith. Let us lose no +time, then."</p> + +<p>With few but deeply solemn rites the young stranger was laid by the +minister and the youth who slew him in his grave. A prayer was made, and +then Septimius, gathering some branches and twigs, spread them over the +face that was turned upward from the bottom of the pit, into which the sun +gleamed downward, throwing its rays so as almost to touch it. The twigs +partially hid it, but still its white shone through. Then the minister +threw a handful of earth upon it, and, accustomed as he was to burials, +tears fell from his eyes along with the mould.</p> + +<p>"It is sad," said he, "this poor young man, coming from opulence, no doubt, +a dear English home, to die here for no end, one of the first-fruits of a +bloody war,–so much privately sacrificed. But let him rest, Septimius. I +am sorry that he fell by your hand, though it involves no shadow of a +crime. But death is a thing too serious not to melt into the nature of a +man like you."</p> + +<p>"It does not weigh upon my conscience, I think," said Septimius; "though I +cannot but feel sorrow, and wish my hand were as clean as yesterday. It +is, indeed, a dreadful thing to take human life."</p> + +<p>"It is a most serious thing," replied the minister; "but perhaps we are apt +to over-estimate the importance of death at any particular moment. If the +question were whether to die or to live forever, then, indeed, scarcely +anything should justify the putting a fellow-creature to death. But since +it only shortens his earthly life, and brings a little forward a change +which, since God permits it, is, we may conclude, as fit to take place +then as at any other time, it alters the case. I often think that there +are many things that occur to us in our daily life, many unknown crises, +that are more important to us than this mysterious circumstance of death, +which we deem the most important of all. All we understand of it is, that +it takes the dead person away from our knowledge of him, which, while we +live with him, is so very scanty."</p> + +<p>"You estimate at nothing, it seems, his earthly life, which might have been +so happy."</p> + +<p>"At next to nothing," said the minister; "since, as I have observed, it +must, at any rate, have closed so soon."</p> + +<p>Septimius thought of what the young man, in his last moments, had said of +his prospect or opportunity of living a life of interminable length, and +which prospect he had bequeathed to himself. But of this he did not speak +to the minister, being, indeed, ashamed to have it supposed that he would +put any serious weight on such a bequest, although it might be that the +dark enterprise of his nature had secretly seized upon this idea, and, +though yet sane enough to be influenced by a fear of ridicule, was busy +incorporating it with his thoughts.</p> + +<p>So Septimius smoothed down the young stranger's earthy bed, and returned to +his home, where he hung up the sword over the mantel-piece in his study, +and hung the gold watch, too, on a nail,–the first time he had ever had +possession of such a thing. Nor did he now feel altogether at ease in his +mind about keeping it,–the time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had +cut off. A splendid watch it was, round as a turnip. There seems to be a +natural right in one who has slain a man to step into his vacant place in +all respects; and from the beginning of man's dealings with man this right +has been practically recognized, whether among warriors or robbers, as +paramount to every other. Yet Septimius could not feel easy in availing +himself of this right. He therefore resolved to keep the watch, and even +the sword and fusil,–which were less questionable spoils of war,–only +till he should be able to restore them to some representative of the young +officer. The contents of the purse, in accordance with the request of the +dying youth, he would expend in relieving the necessities of those whom +the war (now broken out, and of which no one could see the limit) might +put in need of it. The miniature, with its broken and shattered face, that +had so vainly interposed itself between its wearer and death, had been +sent to its address.</p> + +<p>But as to the mysterious document, the written paper, that he had laid +aside without unfolding it, but with a care that betokened more interest +in it than in either gold or weapon, or even in the golden representative +of that earthly time on which he set so high a value. There was something +tremulous in his touch of it; it seemed as if he were afraid of it by the +mode in which he hid it away, and secured himself from it, as it were.</p> + +<p>This done, the air of the room, the low-ceilinged eastern room where he +studied and thought, became too close for him, and he hastened out; for he +was full of the unshaped sense of all that had befallen, and the +perception of the great public event of a broken-out war was intermixed +with that of what he had done personally in the great struggle that was +beginning. He longed, too, to know what was the news of the battle that +had gone rolling onward along the hitherto peaceful country road, +converting everywhere (this demon of war, we mean), with one blast of its +red sulphurous breath, the peaceful husbandman to a soldier thirsting for +blood. He turned his steps, therefore, towards the village, thinking it +probable that news must have arrived either of defeat or victory, from +messengers or fliers, to cheer or sadden the old men, the women, and the +children, who alone perhaps remained there.</p> + +<p>But Septimius did not get to the village. As he passed along by the cottage +that has been already described, Rose Garfield was standing at the door, +peering anxiously forth to know what was the issue of the conflict,–as it +has been woman's fate to do from the beginning of the world, and is so +still. Seeing Septimius, she forgot the restraint that she had hitherto +kept herself under, and, flying at him like a bird, she cried out, +"Septimius, dear Septimius, where have you been? What news do you bring? +You look as if you had seen some strange and dreadful thing."</p> + +<p>"Ah, is it so? Does my face tell such stories?" exclaimed the young man. "I +did not mean it should. Yes, Rose, I have seen and done such things as +change a man in a moment."</p> + +<p>"Then you have been in this terrible fight," said Rose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Rose, I have had my part in it," answered Septimius.</p> + +<p>He was on the point of relieving his overburdened mind by telling her what +had happened no farther off than on the hill above them; but, seeing her +excitement, and recollecting her own momentary interview with the young +officer, and the forced intimacy and link that had been established +between them by the kiss, he feared to agitate her further by telling her +that that gay and beautiful young man had since been slain, and deposited +in a bloody grave by his hands. And yet the recollection of that kiss +caused a thrill of vengeful joy at the thought that the perpetrator had +since expiated his offence with his life, and that it was himself that did +it, so deeply was Septimius's Indian nature of revenge and blood +incorporated with that of more peaceful forefathers, although Septimius +had grace enough to chide down that bloody spirit, feeling that it made +him, not a patriot, but a murderer.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Rose, shuddering, "it is awful when we must kill one another! +And who knows where it will end?"</p> + +<p>"With me it will end here, Rose," said Septimius. "It may be lawful for any +man, even if he have devoted himself to God, or however peaceful his +pursuits, to fight to the death when the enemy's step is on the soil of +his home; but only for that perilous juncture, which passed, he should +return to his own way of peace. I have done a terrible thing for once, +dear Rose, one that might well trace a dark line through all my future +life; but henceforth I cannot think it my duty to pursue any further a +work for which my studies and my nature unfit me."</p> + +<p>"Oh no! Oh no!" said Rose; "never! and you a minister, or soon to be one. +There must be some peacemakers left in the world, or everything will turn +to blood and confusion; for even women grow dreadfully fierce in these +times. My old grandmother laments her bedriddenness, because, she says, +she cannot go to cheer on the people against the enemy. But she remembers +the old times of the Indian wars, when the women were as much in danger of +death as the men, and so were almost as fierce as they, and killed men +sometimes with their own hands. But women, nowadays, ought to be gentler; +let the men be fierce, if they must, except you, and such as you, +Septimius."</p> + +<p>"Ah, dear Rose," said Septimius, "I have not the kind and sweet impulses +that you speak of. I need something to soften and warm my cold, hard life; +something to make me feel how dreadful this time of warfare is. I need +you, dear Rose, who are all kindness of heart and mercy."</p> + +<p>And here Septimius, hurried away by I know not what excitement of the +time,–the disturbed state of the country, his own ebullition of passion, +the deed he had done, the desire to press one human being close to his +life, because he had shed the blood of another, his half-formed purposes, +his shapeless impulses; in short, being affected by the whole stir of his +nature,–spoke to Rose of love, and with an energy that, indeed, there was +no resisting when once it broke bounds. And Rose, whose maiden thoughts, +to say the truth, had long dwelt upon this young man,–admiring him for a +certain dark beauty, knowing him familiarly from childhood, and yet having +the sense, that is so bewitching, of remoteness, intermixed with intimacy, +because he was so unlike herself; having a woman's respect for +scholarship, her imagination the more impressed by all in him that she +could not comprehend,–Rose yielded to his impetuous suit, and gave him +the troth that he requested. And yet it was with a sort of reluctance and +drawing back; her whole nature, her secretest heart, her deepest +womanhood, perhaps, did not consent. There was something in Septimius, in +his wild, mixed nature, the monstrousness that had grown out of his hybrid +race, the black infusions, too, which melancholic men had left there, the +devilishness that had been symbolized in the popular regard about his +family, that made her shiver, even while she came the closer to him for +that very dread. And when he gave her the kiss of betrothment her lips +grew white. If it had not been in the day of turmoil, if he had asked her +in any quiet time, when Rose's heart was in its natural mood, it may well +be that, with tears and pity for him, and half-pity for herself, Rose +would have told Septimius that she did not think she could love him well +enough to be his wife.</p> + +<p>And how was it with Septimius? Well; there was a singular correspondence in +his feelings to those of Rose Garfield. At first, carried away by a +passion that seized him all unawares, and seemed to develop itself all in +a moment, he felt, and so spoke to Rose, so pleaded his suit, as if his +whole earthly happiness depended on her consent to be his bride. It seemed +to him that her love would be the sunshine in the gloomy dungeon of his +life. But when her bashful, downcast, tremulous consent was given, then +immediately came a strange misgiving into his mind. He felt as if he had +taken to himself something good and beautiful doubtless in itself, but +which might be the exchange for one more suited to him, that he must now +give up. The intellect, which was the prominent point in Septimius, +stirred and heaved, crying out vaguely that its own claims, perhaps, were +ignored in this contract. Septimius had perhaps no right to love at all; +if he did, it should have been a woman of another make, who could be his +intellectual companion and helper. And then, perchance,–perchance,–there +was destined for him some high, lonely path, in which, to make any +progress, to come to any end, he must walk unburdened by the affections. +Such thoughts as these depressed and chilled (as many men have found them, +or similar ones, to do) the moment of success that should have been the +most exulting in the world. And so, in the kiss which these two lovers had +exchanged there was, after all, something that repelled; and when they +parted they wondered at their strange states of mind, but would not +acknowledge that they had done a thing that ought not to have been done. +Nothing is surer, however, than that, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn +into too close proximity with people, if we over-estimate the degree of +our proper tendency towards them, or theirs towards us, a reaction is sure +to follow.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Septimius quitted Rose, and resumed his walk towards the village. But now +it was near sunset, and there began to be straggling passengers along the +road, some of whom came slowly, as if they had received hurts; all seemed +wearied. Among them one form appeared which Rose soon found that she +recognized. It was Robert Hagburn, with a shattered firelock in his hand, +broken at the butt, and his left arm bound with a fragment of his shirt, +and suspended in a handkerchief; and he walked weariedly, but brightened +up at sight of Rose, as if ashamed to let her see how exhausted and +dispirited he was. Perhaps he expected a smile, at least a more earnest +reception than he met; for Rose, with the restraint of what had recently +passed drawing her back, merely went gravely a few steps to meet him, and +said, "Robert, how tired and pale you look! Are you hurt?"</p> + +<p>"It is of no consequence," replied Robert Hagburn; "a scratch on my left +arm from an officer's sword, with whose head my gunstock made instant +acquaintance. It is no matter, Rose; you do not care for it, nor do I +either."</p> + +<p>"How can you say so, Robert?" she replied. But without more greeting he +passed her, and went into his own house, where, flinging himself into a +chair, he remained in that despondency that men generally feel after a +fight, even if a successful one.</p> + +<p>Septimius, the next day, lost no time in writing a letter to the direction +given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's +death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up +certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, +mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his +intention, in compliance with the verbal will of the deceased, to expend +it in alleviating the wants of prisoners. Having so done, he went up on +the hill to look at the grave, and satisfy himself that the scene there +had not been a dream; a point which he was inclined to question, in spite +of the tangible evidence of the sword and watch, which still hung over the +mantel-piece. There was the little mound, however, looking so +incontrovertibly a grave, that it seemed to him as if all the world must +see it, and wonder at the fact of its being there, and spend their wits in +conjecturing who slept within; and, indeed, it seemed to give the affair a +questionable character, this secret burial, and he wondered and wondered +why the young man had been so earnest about it. Well; there was the grave; +and, moreover, on the leafy earth, where the dying youth had lain, there +were traces of blood, which no rain had yet washed away. Septimius +wondered at the easiness with which he acquiesced in this deed; in fact, +he felt in a slight degree the effects of that taste of blood, which makes +the slaying of men, like any other abuse, sometimes become a passion. +Perhaps it was his Indian trait stirring in him again; at any rate, it is +not delightful to observe how readily man becomes a blood-shedding +animal.</p> + +<p>Looking down from the hill-top, he saw the little dwelling of Rose +Garfield, and caught a glimpse of the girl herself, passing the windows or +the door, about her household duties, and listened to hear the singing +which usually broke out of her. But Rose, for some reason or other, did +not warble as usual this morning. She trod about silently, and somehow or +other she was translated out of the ideality in which Septimius usually +enveloped her, and looked little more than a New England girl, very pretty +indeed, but not enough so perhaps to engross a man's life and higher +purposes into her own narrow circle; so, at least, Septimius thought. +Looking a little farther,–down into the green recess where stood Robert +Hagburn's house,–he saw that young man, looking very pale, with his arm +in a sling sitting listlessly on a half-chopped log of wood which was not +likely soon to be severed by Robert's axe. Like other lovers, Septimius +had not failed to be aware that Robert Hagburn was sensible to Rose +Garfield's attractions; and now, as he looked down on them both from his +elevated position, he wondered if it would not have been better for Rose's +happiness if her thoughts and virgin fancies had settled on that frank, +cheerful, able, wholesome young man, instead of on himself, who met her on +so few points; and, in relation to whom, there was perhaps a plant that +had its root in the grave, that would entwine itself around his whole +life, overshadowing it with dark, rich foliage and fruit that he alone +could feast upon.</p> + +<p>For the sombre imagination of Septimius, though he kept it as much as +possible away from the subject, still kept hinting and whispering, still +coming back to the point, still secretly suggesting that the event of +yesterday was to have momentous consequences upon his fate.</p> + +<p>He had not yet looked at the paper which the young man bequeathed to him; +he had laid it away unopened; not that he felt little interest in it, but, +on the contrary, because he looked for some blaze of light which had been +reserved for him alone. The young officer had been only the bearer of it +to him, and he had come hither to die by his hand, because that was the +readiest way by which he could deliver his message. How else, in the +infinite chances of human affairs, could the document have found its way +to its destined possessor? Thus mused Septimius, pacing to and fro on the +level edge of his hill-top, apart from the world, looking down +occasionally into it, and seeing its love and interest away from him; +while Rose, it might be looking upward, saw occasionally his passing +figure, and trembled at the nearness and remoteness that existed between +them; and Robert Hagburn looked too, and wondered what manner of man it +was who, having won Rose Garfield (for his instinct told him this was so), +could keep that distance between her and him, thinking remote thoughts.</p> + +<p>Yes; there was Septimius treading a path of his own on the hill-top; his +feet began only that morning to wear it in his walking to and fro, +sheltered from the lower world, except in occasional glimpses, by the +birches and locusts that threw up their foliage from the hill-side. But +many a year thereafter he continued to tread that path, till it was worn +deep with his footsteps and trodden down hard; and it was believed by some +of his superstitious neighbors that the grass and little shrubs shrank +away from his path, and made it wider on that account; because there was +something in the broodings that urged him to and fro along the path alien +to nature and its productions. There was another opinion, too, that an +invisible fiend, one of his relatives by blood, walked side by side with +him, and so made the pathway wider than his single footsteps could have +made it. But all this was idle, and was, indeed, only the foolish babble +that hovers like a mist about men who withdraw themselves from the throng, +and involve themselves in unintelligible pursuits and interests of their +own. For the present, the small world, which alone knew of him, considered +Septimius as a studious young man, who was fitting for the ministry, and +was likely enough to do credit to the ministerial blood that he drew from +his ancestors, in spite of the wild stream that the Indian priest had +contributed; and perhaps none the worse, as a clergyman, for having an +instinctive sense of the nature of the Devil from his traditionary claims +to partake of his blood. But what strange interest there is in tracing out +the first steps by which we enter on a career that influences our life; +and this deep-worn pathway on the hill-top, passing and repassing by a +grave, seemed to symbolize it in Septimius's case.</p> + +<p>I suppose the morbidness of Septimius's disposition was excited by the +circumstances which had put the paper into his possession. Had he received +it by post, it might not have impressed him; he might possibly have looked +over it with ridicule, and tossed it aside. But he had taken it from a +dying man, and he felt that his fate was in it; and truly it turned out to +be so. He waited for a fit opportunity to open it and read it; he put it +off as if he cared nothing about it; perhaps it was because he cared so +much. Whenever he had a happy time with Rose (and, moody as Septimius was, +such happy moments came), he felt that then was not the time to look into +the paper,–it was not to be read in a happy mood.</p> + +<p>Once he asked Rose to walk with him on the hilltop.</p> + +<p>"Why, what a path you have worn here, Septimius!" said the girl. "You walk +miles and miles on this one spot, and get no farther on than when you +started. That is strange walking!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Rose; I sometimes think I get a little onward. But it is +sweeter–yes, much sweeter, I find–to have you walking on this path here +than to be treading it alone."</p> + +<p>"I am glad of that," said Rose; "for sometimes, when I look up here, and +see you through the branches, with your head bent down, and your hands +clasped behind you, treading, treading, treading, always in one way, I +wonder whether I am at all in your mind. I don't think, Septimius," added +she, looking up in his face and smiling, "that ever a girl had just such a +young man for a lover."</p> + +<p>"No young man ever had such a girl, I am sure," said Septimius; "so sweet, +so good for him, so prolific of good influences!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, it makes me think well of myself to bring such a smile into your face! +But, Septimius, what is this little hillock here so close to our path? +Have you heaped it up here for a seat? Shall we sit down upon it for an +instant?–for it makes me more tired to walk backward and forward on one +path than to go straight forward a much longer distance."</p> + +<p>"Well; but we will not sit down on this hillock," said Septimius, drawing +her away from it. "Farther out this way, if you please, Rose, where we +shall have a better view over the wide plain, the valley, and the long, +tame ridge of hills on the other side, shutting it in like human life. It +is a landscape that never tires, though it has nothing striking about it; +and I am glad that there are no great hills to be thrusting themselves +into my thoughts, and crowding out better things. It might be desirable, +in some states of mind, to have a glimpse of water,–to have the lake that +once must have covered this green valley,–because water reflects the sky, +and so is like religion in life, the spiritual element."</p> + +<p>"There is the brook running through it, though we do not see it," replied +Rose; "a torpid little brook, to be sure; but, as you say, it has heaven +in its bosom, like Walden Pond, or any wider one."</p> + +<p>As they sat together on the hill-top, they could look down into Robert +Hagburn's enclosure, and they saw him, with his arm now relieved from the +sling, walking about, in a very erect manner, with a middle-aged man by +his side, to whom he seemed to be talking and explaining some matter. Even +at that distance Septimius could see that the rustic stoop and uncouthness +had somehow fallen away from Robert, and that he seemed developed.</p> + +<p>"What has come to Robert Hagburn?" said he. "He looks like another man than +the lout I knew a few weeks ago."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Rose Garfield, "except what comes to a good many young men +nowadays. He has enlisted, and is going to the war. It is a pity for his +mother."</p> + +<p>"A great pity," said Septimius. "Mothers are greatly to be pitied all over +the country just now, and there are some even more to be pitied than the +mothers, though many of them do not know or suspect anything about their +cause of grief at present."</p> + +<p>"Of whom do you speak?" asked Rose.</p> + +<p>"I mean those many good and sweet young girls," said Septimius, "who would +have been happy wives to the thousands of young men who now, like Robert +Hagburn, are going to the war. Those young men–many of them at +least–will sicken and die in camp, or be shot down, or struck through +with bayonets on battle-fields, and turn to dust and bones; while the +girls that would have loved them, and made happy firesides for them, will +pine and wither, and tread along many sour and discontented years, and at +last go out of life without knowing what life is. So you see, Rose, every +shot that takes effect kills two at least, or kills one and worse than +kills the other."</p> + +<p>"No woman will live single on account of poor Robert Hagburn being shot," +said Rose, with a change of tone; "for he would never be married were he +to stay at home and plough the field."</p> + +<p>"How can you tell that, Rose?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>Rose did not tell how she came to know so much about Robert Hagburn's +matrimonial purposes; but after this little talk it appeared as if +something had risen up between them,–a sort of mist, a medium, in which +their intimacy was not increased; for the flow and interchange of +sentiment was balked, and they took only one or two turns in silence along +Septimius's trodden path. I don't know exactly what it was; but there are +cases in which it is inscrutably revealed to persons that they have made a +mistake in what is of the highest concern to them; and this truth often +comes in the shape of a vague depression of the spirit, like a vapor +settling down on a landscape; a misgiving, coming and going perhaps, a +lack of perfect certainty. Whatever it was, Rose and Septimius had no more +tender and playful words that day; and Rose soon went to look after her +grandmother, and Septimius went and shut himself up in his study, after +making an arrangement to meet Rose the next day.</p> + +<p>Septimius shut himself up, and drew forth the document which the young +officer, with that singular smile on his dying face, had bequeathed to him +as the reward of his death. It was in a covering of folded parchment, +right through which, as aforesaid, was a bullet-hole and some stains of +blood. Septimius unrolled the parchment cover, and found inside a +manuscript, closely written in a crabbed hand; so crabbed, indeed, that +Septimius could not at first read a word of it, nor even satisfy himself +in what language it was written. There seemed to be Latin words, and some +interspersed ones in Greek characters, and here and there he could +doubtfully read an English sentence; but, on the whole, it was an +unintelligible mass, conveying somehow an idea that it was the fruit of +vast labor and erudition, emanating from a mind very full of books, and +grinding and pressing down the great accumulation of grapes that it had +gathered from so many vineyards, and squeezing out rich viscid +juices,–potent wine,–with which the reader might get drunk. Some of it, +moreover, seemed, for the further mystification of the officer, to be +written in cipher; a needless precaution, it might seem, when the writer's +natural chirography was so full of puzzle and bewilderment.</p> + +<p>Septimius looked at this strange manuscript, and it shook in his hands as +he held it before his eyes, so great was his excitement. Probably, +doubtless, it was in a great measure owing to the way in which it came to +him, with such circumstances of tragedy and mystery; as if–so secret and +so important was it–it could not be within the knowledge of two persons +at once, and therefore it was necessary that one should die in the act of +transmitting it to the hand of another, the destined possessor, inheritor, +profiter by it. By the bloody hand, as all the great possessions in this +world have been gained and inherited, he had succeeded to the legacy, the +richest that mortal man ever could receive. He pored over the inscrutable +sentences, and wondered, when he should succeed in reading one, if it +might summon up a subject-fiend, appearing with thunder and devilish +demonstrations. And by what other strange chance had the document come +into the hand of him who alone was fit to receive it? It seemed to +Septimius, in his enthusiastic egotism, as if the whole chain of events +had been arranged purposely for this end; a difference had come between +two kindred peoples; a war had broken out; a young officer, with the +traditions of an old family represented in his line, had marched, and had +met with a peaceful student, who had been incited from high and noble +motives to take his life; then came a strange, brief intimacy, in which +his victim made the slayer his heir. All these chances, as they seemed, +all these interferences of Providence, as they doubtless were, had been +necessary in order to put this manuscript into the hands of Septimius, who +now pored over it, and could not with certainty read one word!</p> + +<p>But this did not trouble him, except for the momentary delay. Because he +felt well assured that the strong, concentrated study that he would bring +to it would remove all difficulties, as the rays of a lens melt stones; as +the telescope pierces through densest light of stars, and resolves them +into their individual brilliancies. He could afford to spend years upon it +if it were necessary; but earnestness and application should do quickly +the work of years.</p> + +<p>Amid these musings he was interrupted by his Aunt Keziah; though generally +observant enough of her nephew's studies, and feeling a sanctity in them, +both because of his intending to be a minister and because she had a great +reverence for learning, even if heathenish, this good old lady summoned +Septimius somewhat peremptorily to chop wood for her domestic purposes. +How strange it is,–the way in which we are summoned from all high +purposes by these little homely necessities; all symbolizing the great +fact that the earthly part of us, with its demands, takes up the greater +portion of all our available force. So Septimius, grumbling and groaning, +went to the woodshed and exercised himself for an hour as the old lady +requested; and it was only by instinct that he worked, hardly conscious +what he was doing. The whole of passing life seemed impertinent; or if, +for an instant, it seemed otherwise, then his lonely speculations and +plans seemed to become impalpable, and to have only the consistency of +vapor, which his utmost concentration succeeded no further than to make +into the likeness of absurd faces, mopping, mowing, and laughing at him.</p> + +<p>But that sentence of mystic meaning shone out before him like a +transparency, illuminated in the darkness of his mind; he determined to +take it for his motto until he should be victorious in his quest. When he +took his candle, to retire apparently to bed, he again drew forth the +manuscript, and, sitting down by the dim light, tried vainly to read it; +but he could not as yet settle himself to concentrated and regular effort; +he kept turning the leaves of the manuscript, in the hope that some other +illuminated sentence might gleam out upon him, as the first had done, and +shed a light on the context around it; and that then another would be +discovered, with similar effect, until the whole document would thus be +illuminated with separate stars of light, converging and concentrating in +one radiance that should make the whole visible. But such was his bad +fortune, not another word of the manuscript was he able to read that whole +evening; and, moreover, while he had still an inch of candle left, Aunt +Keziah, in her nightcap,–as witch-like a figure as ever went to a wizard +meeting in the forest with Septimius's ancestor,–appeared at the door of +the room, aroused from her bed, and shaking her finger at him.</p> + +<p>"Septimius," said she, "you keep me awake, and you will ruin your eyes, and +turn your head, if you study till midnight in this manner. You'll never +live to be a minister, if this is the way you go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, covering his manuscript with a +book, "I am just going to bed now."</p> + +<p>"Good night, then," said the old woman; "and God bless your labors."</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, a glance at the manuscript, as he hid it from the old +woman, had seemed to Septimius to reveal another sentence, of which he had +imperfectly caught the purport; and when she had gone, he in vain sought +the place, and vainly, too, endeavored to recall the meaning of what he +had read. Doubtless his fancy exaggerated the importance of the sentence, +and he felt as if it might have vanished from the book forever. In fact, +the unfortunate young man, excited and tossed to and fro by a variety of +unusual impulses, was got into a bad way, and was likely enough to go mad, +unless the balancing portion of his mind proved to be of greater volume +and effect than as yet appeared to be the case.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The next morning he was up, bright and early, poring over the manuscript +with the sharpened wits of the new day, peering into its night, into its +old, blurred, forgotten dream; and, indeed, he had been dreaming about it, +and was fully possessed with the idea that, in his dream, he had taken up +the inscrutable document, and read it off as glibly as he would the page +of a modern drama, in a continual rapture with the deep truth that it made +clear to his comprehension, and the lucid way in which it evolved the mode +in which man might be restored to his originally undying state. So strong +was the impression, that when he unfolded the manuscript, it was with +almost the belief that the crabbed old handwriting would be plain to him. +Such did not prove to be the case, however; so far from it, that poor +Septimius in vain turned over the yellow pages in quest of the one +sentence which he had been able, or fancied he had been able, to read +yesterday. The illumination that had brought it out was now faded, and all +was a blur, an inscrutableness, a scrawl of unintelligible characters +alike. So much did this affect him, that he had almost a mind to tear it +into a thousand fragments, and scatter it out of the window to the +west-wind, that was then blowing past the house; and if, in that summer +season, there had been a fire on the hearth, it is possible that easy +realization of a destructive impulse might have incited him to fling the +accursed scrawl into the hottest of the flames, and thus returned it to +the Devil, who, he suspected, was the original author of it. Had he done +so, what strange and gloomy passages would I have been spared the pain of +relating! How different would have been the life of Septimius,–a +thoughtful preacher of God's word, taking severe but conscientious views +of man's state and relations, a heavy-browed walker and worker on earth, +and, finally, a slumberer in an honored grave, with an epitaph bearing +testimony to his great usefulness in his generation.</p> + +<p>But, in the mean time, here was the troublesome day passing over him, and +pestering, bewildering, and tripping him up with its mere sublunary +troubles, as the days will all of us the moment we try to do anything that +we flatter ourselves is of a little more importance than others are doing. +Aunt Keziah tormented him a great while about the rich field, just across +the road, in front of the house, which Septimius had neglected the +cultivation of, unwilling to spare the time to plough, to plant, to hoe it +himself, but hired a lazy lout of the village, when he might just as well +have employed and paid wages to the scarecrow which Aunt Keziah dressed +out in ancient habiliments, and set up in the midst of the corn. Then came +an old codger from the village, talking to Septimius about the war,–a +theme of which he was weary: telling the rumor of skirmishes that the next +day would prove to be false, of battles that were immediately to take +place, of encounters with the enemy in which our side showed the valor of +twenty-fold heroes, but had to retreat; babbling about shells and mortars, +battalions, manœuvres, angles, fascines, and other items of military art; +for war had filled the whole brain of the people, and enveloped the whole +thought of man in a mist of gunpowder.</p> + +<p>In this way, sitting on his doorstep, or in the very study, haunted by such +speculations, this wretched old man would waste the better part of a +summer afternoon while Septimius listened, returning abstracted +monosyllables, answering amiss, and wishing his persecutor jammed into one +of the cannons he talked about, and fired off, to end his interminable +babble in one roar; [talking] of great officers coming from France and +other countries; of overwhelming forces from England, to put an end to the +war at once; of the unlikelihood that it ever should be ended; of its +hopelessness; of its certainty of a good and speedy end.</p> + +<p>Then came limping along the lane a disabled soldier, begging his way home +from the field, which, a little while ago, he had sought in the full vigor +of rustic health he was never to know again; with whom Septimius had to +talk, and relieve his wants as far as he could (though not from the poor +young officer's deposit of English gold), and send him on his way.</p> + +<p>Then came the minister to talk with his former pupil, about whom he had +latterly had much meditation, not understanding what mood had taken +possession of him; for the minister was a man of insight, and from +conversations with Septimius, as searching as he knew how to make them, he +had begun to doubt whether he were sufficiently sound in faith to adopt +the clerical persuasion. Not that he supposed him to be anything like a +confirmed unbeliever: but he thought it probable that these doubts, these +strange, dark, disheartening suggestions of the Devil, that so surely +infect certain temperaments and measures of intellect, were tormenting +poor Septimius, and pulling him back from the path in which he was capable +of doing so much good. So he came this afternoon to talk seriously with +him, and to advise him, if the case were as he supposed, to get for a time +out of the track of the thought in which he had so long been engaged; to +enter into active life; and by and by, when the morbid influences should +have been overcome by a change of mental and moral religion, he might +return, fresh and healthy, to his original design.</p> + +<p>"What can I do," asked Septimius, gloomily, "what business take up, when +the whole land lies waste and idle, except for this war?"</p> + +<p>"There is the very business, then," said the minister. "Do you think God's +work is not to be done in the field as well as in the pulpit? You are +strong, Septimius, of a bold character, and have a mien and bearing that +gives you a natural command among men. Go to the wars, and do a valiant +part for your country, and come back to your peaceful mission when the +enemy has vanished. Or you might go as chaplain to a regiment, and use +either hand in battle,–pray for success before a battle, help win it with +sword or gun, and give thanks to God, kneeling on the bloody field, at its +close. You have already stretched one foe on your native soil."</p> + +<p>Septimius could not but smile within himself at this warlike and bloody +counsel; and, joining it with some similar exhortations from Aunt Keziah, +he was inclined to think that women and clergymen are, in matters of war, +the most uncompromising and bloodthirsty of the community. However, he +replied, coolly, that his moral impulses and his feelings of duty did not +exactly impel him in this direction, and that he was of opinion that war +was a business in which a man could not engage with safety to his +conscience, unless his conscience actually drove him into it; and that +this made all the difference between heroic battle and murderous strife. +The good minister had nothing very effectual to answer to this, and took +his leave, with a still stronger opinion than before that there was +something amiss in his pupil's mind.</p> + +<p>By this time, this thwarting day had gone on through its course of little +and great impediments to his pursuit,–the discouragements of trifling and +earthly business, of purely impertinent interruption, of severe and +disheartening opposition from the powerful counteraction of different +kinds of mind,–until the hour had come at which he had arranged to meet +Rose Garfield. I am afraid the poor thwarted youth did not go to his +love-tryst in any very amiable mood; but rather, perhaps, reflecting how +all things earthly and immortal, and love among the rest, whichever +category, of earth or heaven, it may belong to, set themselves against +man's progress in any pursuit that he seeks to devote himself to. It is +one struggle, the moment he undertakes such a thing, of everything else in +the world to impede him.</p> + +<p>However, as it turned out, it was a pleasant and happy interview that he +had with Rose that afternoon. The girl herself was in a happy, tuneful +mood, and met him with such simplicity, threw such a light of sweetness +over his soul, that Septimius almost forgot all the wild cares of the day, +and walked by her side with a quiet fulness of pleasure that was new to +him. She reconciled him, in some secret way, to life as it was, to +imperfection, to decay; without any help from her intellect, but through +the influence of her character, she seemed, not to solve, but to smooth +away, problems that troubled him; merely by being, by womanhood, by +simplicity, she interpreted God's ways to him; she softened the stoniness +that was gathering about his heart. And so they had a delightful time of +talking, and laughing, and smelling to flowers; and when they were +parting, Septimius said to her,–</p> + +<p>"Rose, you have convinced me that this is a most happy world, and that Life +has its two children, Birth and Death, and is bound to prize them equally; +and that God is very kind to his earthly children; and that all will go +well."</p> + +<p>"And have I convinced you of all this?" replied Rose, with a pretty +laughter. "It is all true, no doubt, but I should not have known how to +argue for it. But you are very sweet, and have not frightened me to-day."</p> + +<p>"Do I ever frighten you then, Rose?" asked Septimius, bending his black +brow upon her with a look of surprise and displeasure.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sometimes," said Rose, facing him with courage, and smiling upon the +cloud so as to drive it away; "when you frown upon me like that, I am a +little afraid you will beat me, all in good time."</p> + +<p>"Now," said Septimius, laughing again, "you shall have your choice, to be +beaten on the spot, or suffer another kind of punishment,–which?"</p> + +<p>So saying, he snatched her to him, and strove to kiss her, while Rose, +laughing and struggling, cried out, "The beating! the beating!" But +Septimius relented not, though it was only Rose's cheek that he succeeded +in touching. In truth, except for that first one, at the moment of their +plighted troths, I doubt whether Septimius ever touched those soft, sweet +lips, where the smiles dwelt and the little pouts. He now returned to his +study, and questioned with himself whether he should touch that weary, +ugly, yellow, blurred, unintelligible, bewitched, mysterious, +bullet-penetrated, blood-stained manuscript again. There was an +undefinable reluctance to do so, and at the same time an enticement +(irresistible, as it proved) drawing him towards it. He yielded, and +taking it from his desk, in which the precious, fatal treasure was locked +up, he plunged into it again, and this time with a certain degree of +success. He found the line which had before gleamed out, and vanished +again, and which now started out in strong relief; even as when sometimes +we see a certain arrangement of stars in the heavens, and again lose it, +by not seeing its individual stars in the same relation as before; even +so, looking at the manuscript in a different way, Septimius saw this +fragment of a sentence, and saw, moreover, what was necessary to give it a +certain meaning. "Set the root in a grave, and wait for what shall +blossom. It will be very rich, and full of juice." This was the purport, +he now felt sure, of the sentence he had lighted upon; and he took it to +refer to the mode of producing something that was essential to the thing +to be concocted. It might have only a moral being; or, as is generally the +case, the moral and physical truth went hand in hand.</p> + +<p>While Septimius was busying himself in this way, the summer advanced, and +with it there appeared a new character, making her way into our pages. +This was a slender and pale girl, whom Septimius was once startled to +find, when he ascended his hill-top, to take his walk to and fro upon the +accustomed path, which he had now worn deep.</p> + +<p>What was stranger, she sat down close beside the grave, which none but he +and the minister knew to be a grave; that little hillock, which he had +levelled a little, and had planted with various flowers and shrubs; which +the summer had fostered into richness, the poor young man below having +contributed what he could, and tried to render them as beautiful as he +might, in remembrance of his own beauty. Septimius wished to conceal the +fact of its being a grave: not that he was tormented with any sense that +he had done wrong in shooting the young man, which had been done in fair +battle; but still it was not the pleasantest of thoughts, that he had laid +a beautiful human creature, so fit for the enjoyment of life, there, when +his own dark brow, his own troubled breast, might better, he could not but +acknowledge, have been covered up there. [<i>Perhaps there might sometimes +be something fantastically gay in the language and behavior of the +girl.</i>]</p> + +<p>Well; but then, on this flower and shrub-disguised grave, sat this unknown +form of a girl, with a slender, pallid, melancholy grace about her, simply +dressed in a dark attire, which she drew loosely about her. At first +glimpse, Septimius fancied that it might be Rose; but it needed only a +glance to undeceive him; her figure was of another character from the +vigorous, though slight and elastic beauty of Rose; this was a drooping +grace, and when he came near enough to see her face, he saw that those +large, dark, melancholy eyes, with which she had looked at him, had never +met his gaze before.</p> + +<p>"Good-morrow, fair maiden," said Septimius, with such courtesy as he knew +how to use (which, to say truth, was of a rustic order, his way of life +having brought him little into female society). "There is a nice air here +on the hill-top, this sultry morning below the hill!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he continued to look wonderingly at the strange maiden, half +fancying that she might be something that had grown up out of the grave; +so unexpected she was, so simply unlike anything that had before come +there.</p> + +<p>The girl did not speak to him, but as she sat by the grave she kept weeding +out the little white blades of faded autumn grass and yellow pine-spikes, +peering into the soil as if to see what it was all made of, and everything +that was growing there; and in truth, whether by Septimius's care or no, +there seemed to be several kinds of flowers,–those little asters that +abound everywhere, and golden flowers, such as autumn supplies with +abundance. She seemed to be in quest of something, and several times +plucked a leaf and examined it carefully; then threw it down again, and +shook her head. At last she lifted up her pale face, and, fixing her eyes +quietly on Septimius, spoke: "It is not here!"</p> + +<p>A very sweet voice it was,–plaintive, low,–and she spoke to Septimius as +if she were familiar with him, and had something to do with him. He was +greatly interested, not being able to imagine who the strange girl was, or +whence she came, or what, of all things, could be her reason for coming +and sitting down by this grave, and apparently botanizing upon it, in +quest of some particular plant.</p> + +<p>"Are you in search of flowers?" asked Septimius. "This is but a barren spot +for them, and this is not a good season. In the meadows, and along the +margin of the watercourses, you might find the fringed gentian at this +time. In the woods there are several pretty flowers,–the side-saddle +flower, the anemone; violets are plentiful in spring, and make the whole +hill-side blue. But this hill-top, with its soil strewn over a heap of +pebble-stones, is no place for flowers."</p> + +<p>"The soil is fit," said the maiden, "but the flower has not sprung up."</p> + +<p>"What flower do you speak of?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"One that is not here," said the pale girl. "No matter. I will look for it +again next spring."</p> + +<p>"Do you, then, dwell hereabout?" inquired Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Surely," said the maiden, with a look of surprise; "where else should I +dwell? My home is on this hilltop."</p> + +<p>It not a little startled Septimius, as may be supposed, to find his +paternal inheritance, of which he and his forefathers had been the only +owners since the world began (for they held it by an Indian deed), claimed +as a home and abiding-place by this fair, pale, strange-acting maiden, who +spoke as if she had as much right there as if she had grown up out of the +soil like one of the wild, indigenous flowers which she had been gazing at +and handling. However that might be, the maiden seemed now about to +depart, rising, giving a farewell touch or two to the little verdant +hillock, which looked much the neater for her ministrations.</p> + +<p>"Are you going?" said Septimius, looking at her in wonder.</p> + +<p>"For a time," said she.</p> + +<p>"And shall I see you again?" asked he.</p> + +<p>"Surely," said the maiden, "this is my walk, along the brow of the hill."</p> + +<p>It again smote Septimius with a strange thrill of surprise to find the walk +which he himself had made, treading it, and smoothing it, and beating it +down with the pressure of his continual feet, from the time when the +tufted grass made the sides all uneven, until now, when it was such a +pathway as you may see through a wood, or over a field, where many feet +pass every day,–to find this track and exemplification of his own secret +thoughts and plans and emotions, this writing of his body, impelled by the +struggle and movement of his soul, claimed as her own by a strange girl +with melancholy eyes and voice, who seemed to have such a sad familiarity +with him.</p> + +<p>"You are welcome to come here," said he, endeavoring at least to keep such +hold on his own property as was implied in making a hospitable surrender +of it to another.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the girl, "a person should always be welcome to his own."</p> + +<p>A faint smile seemed to pass over her face as she said this, vanishing, +however, immediately into the melancholy of her usual expression. She went +along Septimius's path, while he stood gazing at her till she reached the +brow where it sloped towards Robert Hagburn's house; then she turned, and +seemed to wave a slight farewell towards the young man, and began to +descend. When her figure had entirely sunk behind the brow of the hill, +Septimius slowly followed along the ridge, meaning to watch from that +elevated station the course she would take; although, indeed, he would not +have been surprised if he had seen nothing, no trace of her in the whole +nearness or distance; in short, if she had been a freak, an illusion, of a +hard-working mind that had put itself ajar by deeply brooding on abstruse +matters, an illusion of eyes that he had tried too much by poring over the +inscrutable manuscript, and of intellect that was mystified and bewildered +by trying to grasp things that could not be grasped. A thing of +witchcraft, a sort of fungus-growth out of the grave, an unsubstantiality +altogether; although, certainly, she had weeded the grave with bodily +fingers, at all events. Still he had so much of the hereditary mysticism +of his race in him, that he might have held her supernatural, only that on +reaching the brow of the hill he saw her feet approach the dwelling of +Robert Hagburn's mother, who, moreover, appeared at the threshold +beckoning her to come, with a motherly, hospitable air, that denoted she +knew the strange girl, and recognized her as human.</p> + +<p>It did not lessen Septimius's surprise, however, to think that such a +singular being was established in the neighborhood without his knowledge; +considered as a real occurrence of this world, it seemed even more +unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft. +Continually through the day the incident kept introducing its recollection +among his thoughts and studies; continually, as he paced along his path, +this form seemed to hurry along by his side on the track that she had +claimed for her own, and he thought of her singular threat or promise, +whichever it were to be held, that he should have a companion there in +future. In the decline of the day, when he met the schoolmistress coming +home from her little seminary, he snatched the first opportunity to +mention the apparition of the morning, and ask Rose if she knew anything +of her.</p> + +<p>"Very little," said Rose, "but she is flesh and blood, of that you may be +quite sure. She is a girl who has been shut up in Boston by the siege; +perhaps a daughter of one of the British officers, and her health being +frail, she requires better air than they have there, and so permission was +got for her, from General Washington, to come and live in the country; as +any one may see, our liberties have nothing to fear from this poor +brain-stricken girl. And Robert Hagburn, having to bring a message from +camp to the selectmen here, had it in charge to bring the girl, whom his +mother has taken to board."</p> + +<p>"Then the poor thing is crazy?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"A little brain-touched, that is all," replied Rose, "owing to some grief +that she has had; but she is quite harmless, Robert was told to say, and +needs little or no watching, and will get a kind of fantastic happiness +for herself, if only she is allowed to ramble about at her pleasure. If +thwarted, she might be very wild and miserable."</p> + +<p>"Have you spoken with her?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"A word or two this morning, as I was going to my school," said Rose. "She +took me by the hand, and smiled, and said we would be friends, and that I +should show her where the flowers grew; for that she had a little spot of +her own that she wanted to plant with them. And she asked me if the +<i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i> grew hereabout. I should not have taken her +to be ailing in her wits, only for a kind of free-spokenness and +familiarity, as if we had been acquainted a long while; or as if she had +lived in some country where there are no forms and impediments in people's +getting acquainted."</p> + +<p>"Did you like her?" inquired Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Yes; almost loved her at first sight," answered Rose, "and I hope may do +her some little good, poor thing, being of her own age, and the only +companion, hereabouts, whom she is likely to find. But she has been well +educated, and is a lady, that is easy to see."</p> + +<p>"It is very strange," said Septimius, "but I fear I shall be a good deal +interrupted in my thoughts and studies, if she insists on haunting my +hill-top as much as she tells me. My meditations are perhaps of a little +too much importance to be shoved aside for the sake of gratifying a crazy +girl's fantasies."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that is a hard thing to say!" exclaimed Rose, shocked at her lover's +cold egotism, though not giving it that title. "Let the poor thing glide +quietly along in the path, though it be yours. Perhaps, after a while, she +will help your thoughts."</p> + +<p>"My thoughts," said Septimius, "are of a kind that can have no help from +any one; if from any, it would only be from some wise, long-studied, and +experienced scientific man, who could enlighten me as to the bases and +foundation of things, as to mystic writings, as to chemical elements, as +to the mysteries of language, as to the principles and system on which we +were created. Methinks these are not to be taught me by a girl touched in +the wits."</p> + +<p>"I fear," replied Rose Garfield with gravity, and drawing imperceptibly +apart from him, "that no woman can help you much. You despise woman's +thought, and have no need of her affection."</p> + +<p>Septimius said something soft and sweet, and in a measure true, in regard +to the necessity he felt for the affection and sympathy of one woman at +least–the one now by his side–to keep his life warm and to make the +empty chambers of his heart comfortable. But even while he spoke, there +was something that dragged upon his tongue; for he felt that the solitary +pursuit in which he was engaged carried him apart from the sympathy of +which he spoke, and that he was concentrating his efforts and interest +entirely upon himself, and that the more he succeeded the more remotely he +should be carried away, and that his final triumph would be the complete +seclusion of himself from all that breathed,–the converting him, from an +interested actor into a cold and disconnected spectator of all mankind's +warm and sympathetic life. So, as it turned out, this interview with Rose +was one of those in which, coming no one knows from whence, a nameless +cloud springs up between two lovers, and keeps them apart from one another +by a cold, sullen spell. Usually, however, it requires only one word, +spoken out of the heart, to break that spell, and compel the invisible, +unsympathetic medium which the enemy of love has stretched cunningly +between them, to vanish, and let them come closer together than ever; but, +in this case, it might be that the love was the illusive state, and the +estrangement the real truth, the disenchanted verity. At all events, when +the feeling passed away, in Rose's heart there was no reaction, no warmer +love, as is generally the case. As for Septimius, he had other things to +think about, and when he next met Rose Garfield, had forgotten that he had +been sensible of a little wounded feeling, on her part, at parting.</p> + +<p>By dint of continued poring over the manuscript, Septimius now began to +comprehend that it was written in a singular mixture of Latin and ancient +English, with constantly recurring paragraphs of what he was convinced was +a mystic writing; and these recurring passages of complete +unintelligibility seemed to be necessary to the proper understanding of +any part of the document. What was discoverable was quaint, curious, but +thwarting and perplexing, because it seemed to imply some very great +purpose, only to be brought out by what was hidden.</p> + +<p>Septimius had read, in the old college library during his pupilage, a work +on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his +curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use +his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary +to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he +would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts +of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of +life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on +everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or +moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a +definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly +(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this +strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination, +and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on +this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by +the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living +world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away +from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome.</p> + +<p>It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present +have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental +Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec. +Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and +enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of +mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united +enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism +or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and +Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the +people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and +public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of +calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More +people become insane, I should suppose; offences against public morality, +female license, are more numerous; suicides, murders, all ungovernable +outbreaks of men's thoughts, embodying themselves in wild acts, take place +more frequently, and with less horror to the lookers-on. So [with] +Septimius; there was not, as there would have been at an ordinary time, +the same calmness and truth in the public observation, scrutinizing +everything with its keen criticism, in that time of seething opinions and +overturned principles; a new time was coming, and Septimius's phase of +novelty attracted less attention so far as it was known.</p> + +<p>So he continued to brood over the manuscript in his study, and to hide it +under lock and key in a recess of the wall, as if it were a secret of +murder; to walk, too, on his hill-top, where at sunset always came the +pale, crazy maiden, who still seemed to watch the little hillock with a +pertinacious care that was strange to Septimius. By and by came the winter +and the deep snows; and even then, unwilling to give up his habitual place +of exercise, the monotonousness of which promoted his wish to keep before +his mind one subject of thought, Septimius wore a path through the snow, +and still walked there. Here, however, he lost for a time the +companionship of the girl; for when the first snow came, she shivered, and +looked at its white heap over the hillock, and said to Septimius, "I will +look for it again in spring."</p> + +<p>[<i>Septimius is at the point of despair for want of a guide in his +studies</i>.]</p> + +<p>The winter swept over, and spring was just beginning to spread its green +flush over the more favored exposures of the landscape, although on the +north side of stone-walls, and the northern nooks of hills, there were +still the remnants of snow-drifts. Septimius's hill-top, which was of a +soil which quickly rid itself of moisture, now began to be a genial place +of resort to him, and he was one morning taking his walk there, meditating +upon the still insurmountable difficulties which interposed themselves +against the interpretation of the manuscript, yet feeling the new gush of +spring bring hope to him, and the energy and elasticity for new effort. +Thus pacing to and fro, he was surprised, as he turned at the extremity of +his walk, to see a figure advancing towards him; not that of the pale +maiden whom he was accustomed to see there, but a figure as widely +different as possible. [<i>He sees a spider dangling from his web, and +examines him minutely</i>.] It was that of a short, broad, somewhat +elderly man, dressed in a surtout that had a half-military air; the cocked +hat of the period, well worn, and having a fresher spot in it, whence, +perhaps, a cockade had been recently taken off; and this personage carried +a well blackened German pipe in his hand, which, as he walked, he applied +to his lips, and puffed out volumes of smoke, filling the pleasant western +breeze with the fragrance of some excellent Virginia. He came slowly +along, and Septimius, slackening his pace a little, came as slowly to meet +him, feeling somewhat indignant, to be sure, that anybody should intrude +on his sacred hill; until at last they met, as it happened, close by the +memorable little hillock, on which the grass and flower-leaves also had +begun to sprout. The stranger looked keenly at Septimius, made a careless +salute by putting his hand up, and took the pipe from his mouth.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Septimius Felton, I suppose?" said he.</p> + +<p>"That is my name," replied Septimius.</p> + +<p>"I am Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said the stranger, "late surgeon of his +Majesty's sixteenth regiment, which I quitted when his Majesty's army +quitted Boston, being desirous of trying my fortunes in your country, and +giving the people the benefit of my scientific knowledge; also to practise +some new modes of medical science, which I could not so well do in the +army."</p> + +<p>"I think you are quite right, Doctor Jabez Portsoaken," said Septimius, a +little confused and bewildered, so unused had he become to the society of +strangers.</p> + +<p>"And as to you, sir," said the doctor, who had a very rough, abrupt way of +speaking, "I have to thank you for a favor done me."</p> + +<p>"Have you, sir?" said Septimius, who was quite sure that he had never seen +the doctor's uncouth figure before.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay, me," said the doctor, puffing coolly,–"me in the person of my +niece, a sickly, poor, nervous little thing, who is very fond of walking +on your hill-top, and whom you do not send away."</p> + +<p>"You are the uncle of Sibyl Dacy?" said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Even so, her mother's brother," said the doctor, with a grotesque bow. +"So, being on a visit, the first that the siege allowed me to pay, to see +how the girl was getting on, I take the opportunity to pay my respects to +you; the more that I understand you to be a young man of some learning, +and it is not often that one meets with such in this country."</p> + +<p>"No," said Septimius, abruptly, for indeed he had half a suspicion that +this queer Doctor Portsoaken was not altogether sincere,–that, in short, +he was making game of him. "You have been misinformed. I know nothing +whatever that is worth knowing."</p> + +<p>"Oho!" said the doctor, with a long puff of smoke out of his pipe. "If you +are convinced of that, you are one of the wisest men I have met with, +young as you are. I must have been twice your age before I got so far; and +even now, I am sometimes fool enough to doubt the only thing I was ever +sure of knowing. But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue +with you. If we put both our shortcomings together, they may make up an +item of positive knowledge."</p> + +<p>"What use can one make of abortive thoughts?" said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do your speculations take a scientific turn?" said Doctor Portsoaken. +"There I can meet you with as much false knowledge and empiricism as you +can bring for the life of you. Have you ever tried to study +spiders?–there is my strong point now! I have hung my whole interest in +life on a spider's web."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of them, sir," said Septimius, "except to crush them when I +see them running across the floor, or to brush away the festoons of their +webs when they have chanced to escape my Aunt Keziah's broom."</p> + +<p>"Crush them! Brush away their webs!" cried the doctor, apparently in a +rage, and shaking his pipe at Septimius. "Sir, it is sacrilege! Yes, it is +worse than murder. Every thread of a spider's web is worth more than a +thread of gold; and before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be +beaten to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of these +sacred animals. But, come again. Shall we talk of botany, the virtues of +herbs?"</p> + +<p>"My Aunt Keziah should meet you there, doctor," said Septimius. "She has a +native and original acquaintance with their virtues, and can save and kill +with any of the faculty. As for myself, my studies have not turned that +way."</p> + +<p>"They ought! they ought!" said the doctor, looking meaningly at him. "The +whole thing lies in the blossom of an herb. Now, you ought to begin with +what lies about you; on this little hillock, for instance;" and looking at +the grave beside which they were standing, he gave it a kick which went to +Septimius's heart, there seemed to be such a spite and scorn in it. "On +this hillock I see some specimens of plants which would be worth your +looking at."</p> + +<p>Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer +attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his +face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make +of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length he +raised himself, muttering, "Very curious! very curious!"</p> + +<p>"Do you see anything remarkable there?" asked Septimius, with some +interest.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, bluntly. "No matter what! The time will come when +you may like to know it."</p> + +<p>"Will you come with me to my residence at the foot of the hill, Doctor +Portsoaken?" asked Septimius. "I am not a learned man, and have little or +no title to converse with one, except a sincere desire to be wiser than I +am. If you can be moved on such terms to give me your companionship, I +shall be thankful."</p> + +<p>"Sir, I am with you," said Doctor Portsoaken. "I will tell you what I know, +in the sure belief (for I will be frank with you) that it will add to the +amount of dangerous folly now in your mind, and help you on the way to +ruin. Take your choice, therefore, whether to know me further or not."</p> + +<p>"I neither shrink nor fear,–neither hope much," said Septimius, quietly. +"Anything that you can communicate–if anything you can–I shall +fearlessly receive, and return you such thanks as it may be found to +deserve."</p> + +<p>So saying, he led the way down the hill, by the steep path that descended +abruptly upon the rear of his bare and unadorned little dwelling; the +doctor following with much foul language (for he had a terrible habit of +swearing) at the difficulties of the way, to which his short legs were ill +adapted. Aunt Keziah met them at the door, and looked sharply at the +doctor, who returned the gaze with at least as much keenness, muttering +between his teeth, as he did so; and to say the truth, Aunt Keziah was as +worthy of being sworn at as any woman could well be, for whatever she +might have been in her younger days, she was at this time as strange a +mixture of an Indian squaw and herb doctress, with the crabbed old maid, +and a mingling of the witch-aspect running through all as could well be +imagined; and she had a handkerchief over her head, and she was of hue a +dusky yellow, and she looked very cross. As Septimius ushered the doctor +into his study, and was about to follow him, Aunt Keziah drew him back.</p> + +<p>"Septimius, who is this you have brought here?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"A man I have met on the hill," answered her nephew; "a Doctor Portsoaken +he calls himself, from the old country. He says he has knowledge of herbs +and other mysteries; in your own line, it may be. If you want to talk with +him, give the man his dinner, and find out what there is in him."</p> + +<p>"And what do you want of him yourself, Septimius?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"I? Nothing!–that is to say, I expect nothing," said Septimius. "But I am +astray, seeking everywhere, and so I reject no hint, no promise, no +faintest possibility of aid that I may find anywhere. I judge this man to +be a quack, but I judge the same of the most learned man of his +profession, or any other; and there is a roughness about this man that may +indicate a little more knowledge than if he were smoother. So, as he threw +himself in my way, I take him in."</p> + +<p>"A grim, ugly-looking old wretch as ever I saw," muttered Aunt Keziah. +"Well, he shall have his dinner; and if he likes to talk about +yarb-dishes, I'm with him."</p> + +<p>So Septimius followed the doctor into his study, where he found him with +the sword in his hand, which he had taken from over the mantel-piece, and +was holding it drawn, examining the hilt and blade with great minuteness; +the hilt being wrought in openwork, with certain heraldic devices, +doubtless belonging to the family of its former wearer.</p> + +<p>"I have seen this weapon before," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"It may well be," said Septimius. "It was once worn by a person who served +in the army of your king."</p> + +<p>"And you took it from him?" said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"If I did, it was in no way that I need be ashamed of, or afraid to tell, +though I choose rather not to speak of it," answered Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Have you, then, no desire nor interest to know the family, the personal +history, the prospects, of him who once wore this sword, and who will +never draw sword again?" inquired Doctor Portsoaken. "Poor Cyril Norton! +There was a singular story attached to that young man, sir, and a singular +mystery he carried about with him, the end of which, perhaps, is not +yet."</p> + +<p>Septimius would have been, indeed, well enough pleased to learn the mystery +which he himself had seen that there was about the man whom he slew; but +he was afraid that some question might be thereby started about the secret +document that he had kept possession of; and he therefore would have +wished to avoid the whole subject.</p> + +<p>"I cannot be supposed to take much interest in English family history. It +is a hundred and fifty years, at least, since my own family ceased to be +English," he answered. "I care more for the present and future than for +the past."</p> + +<p>"It is all one," said the doctor, sitting down, taking out a pinch of +tobacco and refilling his pipe.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to follow up the description of the visit of the +eccentric doctor through the day. Suffice it to say that there was a sort +of charm, or rather fascination, about the uncouth old fellow, in spite of +his strange ways; in spite of his constant puffing of tobacco; and in +spite, too, of a constant imbibing of strong liquor, which he made +inquiries for, and of which the best that could be produced was a certain +decoction, infusion, or distillation, pertaining to Aunt Keziah, and of +which the basis was rum, be it said, done up with certain bitter herbs of +the old lady's own gathering, at proper times of the moon, and which was a +well-known drink to all who were favored with Aunt Keziah's friendship; +though there was a story that it was the very drink which used to be +passed round at witch-meetings, being brewed from the Devil's own recipe. +And, in truth, judging from the taste (for I once took a sip of a draught +prepared from the same ingredients, and in the same way), I should think +this hellish origin might be the veritable one.</p> + +<p>[<i>"I thought" quoth the doctor, "I could drink anything, but"</i>–]</p> + +<p>But the valiant doctor sipped, and sipped again, and said with great +blasphemy that it was the real stuff, and only needed henbane to make it +perfect. Then, taking from his pocket a good-sized leathern-covered flask, +with a silver lip fastened on the muzzle, he offered it to Septimius, who +declined, and to Aunt Keziah, who preferred her own decoction, and then +drank it off himself, with a loud smack of satisfaction, declaring it to +be infernally good brandy.</p> + +<p>Well, after this Septimius and he talked; and I know not how it was, but +there was a great deal of imagination in this queer man, whether a bodily +or spiritual influence it might be hard to say. On the other hand +Septimius had for a long while held little intercourse with men; none +whatever with men who could comprehend him; the doctor, too, seemed to +bring the discourse singularly in apposition with what his host was +continually thinking about, for he conversed on occult matters, on people +who had had the art of living long, and had only died at last by accident, +on the powers and qualities of common herbs, which he believed to be so +great, that all around our feet–growing in the wild forest, afar from +man, or following the footsteps of man wherever he fixes his residence, +across seas, from the old homesteads whence he migrated, following him +everywhere, and offering themselves sedulously and continually to his +notice, while he only plucks them away from the comparatively worthless +things which he cultivates, and flings them aside, blaspheming at them +because Providence has sown them so thickly–grow what we call weeds, only +because all the generations, from the beginning of time till now, have +failed to discover their wondrous virtues, potent for the curing of all +diseases, potent for procuring length of days.</p> + +<p>"Everything good," said the doctor, drinking another dram of brandy, "lies +right at our feet, and all we need is to gather it up."</p> + +<p>"That's true," quoth Keziah, taking just a little sup of her hellish +preparation; "these herbs were all gathered within a hundred yards of this +very spot, though it took a wise woman to find out their virtues."</p> + +<p>The old woman went off about her household duties, and then it was that +Septimius submitted to the doctor the list of herbs which he had picked +out of the old document, asking him, as something apposite to the subject +of their discourse, whether he was acquainted with them, for most of them +had very queer names, some in Latin, some in English.</p> + +<p>The bluff doctor put on his spectacles, and looked over the slip of yellow +and worn paper scrutinizingly, puffing tobacco-smoke upon it in great +volumes, as if thereby to make its hidden purport come out; he mumbled to +himself, he took another sip from his flask; and then, putting it down on +the table, appeared to meditate.</p> + +<p>"This infernal old document," said he, at length, "is one that I have never +seen before, yet heard of, nevertheless; for it was my folly in youth (and +whether I am any wiser now is more than I take upon me to say, but it was +my folly then) to be in quest of certain kinds of secret knowledge, which +the fathers of science thought attainable. Now, in several quarters, +amongst people with whom my pursuits brought me in contact, I heard of a +certain recipe which had been lost for a generation or two, but which, if +it could be recovered, would prove to have the true life-giving potency in +it. It is said that the ancestor of a great old family in England was in +possession of this secret, being a man of science, and the friend of Friar +Bacon, who was said to have concocted it himself, partly from the precepts +of his master, partly from his own experiments, and it is thought he might +have been living to this day, if he had not unluckily been killed in the +Wars of the Roses; for you know no recipe for long life would be proof +against an old English arrow, or a leaden bullet from one of our own +firelocks."</p> + +<p>"And what has been the history of the thing after his death?" asked +Septimius.</p> + +<p>"It was supposed to be preserved in the family," said the doctor, "and it +has always been said, that the head and eldest son of that family had it +at his option to live forever, if he could only make up his mind to it. +But seemingly there were difficulties in the way. There was probably a +certain diet and regimen to be observed, certain strict rules of life to +be kept, a certain asceticism to be imposed on the person, which was not +quite agreeable to young men; and after the period of youth was passed, +the human frame became incapable of being regenerated from the seeds of +decay and death, which, by that time, had become strongly developed in it. +In short, while young, the possessor of the secret found the terms of +immortal life too hard to be accepted, since it implied the giving up of +most of the things that made life desirable in his view; and when he came +to a more reasonable mind, it was too late. And so, in all the generations +since Friar Bacon's time, the Nortons have been born, and enjoyed their +young days, and worried through their manhood, and tottered through their +old age (unless taken off sooner by sword, arrow, ball, fever, or what +not), and died in their beds, like men that had no such option; and so +this old yellow paper has done not the least good to any mortal. Neither +do I see how it can do any good to you, since you know not the rules, +moral or dietetic, that are essential to its effect. But how did you come +by it?"</p> + +<p>"It matters not how," said Septimius, gloomily. "Enough that I am its +rightful possessor and inheritor. Can you read these old characters?"</p> + +<p>"Most of them," said the doctor; "but let me tell you, my young friend, I +have no faith whatever in this secret; and, having meddled with such +things myself, I ought to know. The old physicians and chemists had +strange ideas of the virtues of plants, drugs, and minerals, and equally +strange fancies as to the way of getting those virtues into action. They +would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put +them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their +potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. Whereas, the most +likely result would be that they would counteract one another, and the +concoction be of no virtue at all; or else some more powerful ingredient +would tincture the whole."</p> + +<p>He read the paper again, and continued:–</p> + +<p>"I see nothing else so remarkable in this recipe, as that it is chiefly +made up of some of the commonest things that grow; plants that you set +your foot upon at your very threshold, in your garden, in your wood-walks, +wherever you go. I doubt not old Aunt Keziah knows them, and very likely +she has brewed them up in that hell-drink, the remembrance of which is +still rankling in my stomach. I thought I had swallowed the Devil himself, +whom the old woman had been boiling down. It would be curious enough if +the hideous decoction was the same as old Friar Bacon and his acolyte +discovered by their science! One ingredient, however, one of those plants, +I scarcely think the old lady can have put into her pot of Devil's elixir; +for it is a rare plant, that does not grow in these parts."</p> + +<p>"And what is that?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"<i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i>" said the doctor; "it has no vulgar name; +but it produces a very beautiful flower, which I have never seen, though +some seeds of it were sent me by a learned friend in Siberia. The others, +divested of their Latin names, are as common as plantain, pig-weed, and +burdock; and it stands to reason that, if vegetable Nature has any such +wonderfully efficacious medicine in store for men, and means them to use +it, she would have strewn it everywhere plentifully within their reach."</p> + +<p>"But, after all, it would be a mockery on the old dame's part," said the +young man, somewhat bitterly, "since she would thus hold the desired thing +seemingly within our reach; but because she never tells us how to prepare +and obtain its efficacy, we miss it just as much as if all the ingredients +were hidden from sight and knowledge in the centre of the earth. We are +the playthings and fools of Nature, which she amuses herself with during +our little lifetime, and then breaks for mere sport, and laughs in our +faces as she does so."</p> + +<p>"Take care, my good fellow," said the doctor, with his great coarse laugh. +"I rather suspect that you have already got beyond the age when the great +medicine could do you good; that speech indicates a great toughness and +hardness and bitterness about the heart that does not accumulate in our +tender years."</p> + +<p>Septimius took little or no notice of the raillery of the grim old doctor, +but employed the rest of the time in getting as much information as he +could out of his guest; and though he could not bring himself to show him +the precious and sacred manuscript, yet he questioned him as closely as +possible without betraying his secret, as to the modes of finding out +cryptic writings. The doctor was not without the perception that his +dark-browed, keen-eyed acquaintance had some purpose not openly avowed in +all these pertinacious, distinct questions; he discovered a central +reference in them all, and perhaps knew that Septimius must have in his +possession some writing in hieroglyphics, cipher, or other secret mode, +that conveyed instructions how to operate with the strange recipe that he +had shown him.</p> + +<p>"You had better trust me fully, my good sir," said he. "Not but what I will +give you all the aid I can without it; for you have done me a greater +benefit than you are aware of, beforehand. No–you will not? Well, if you +can change your mind, seek me out in Boston, where I have seen fit to +settle in the practice of my profession, and I will serve you according to +your folly; for folly it is, I warn you."</p> + +<p>Nothing else worthy of record is known to have passed during the doctor's +visit; and in due time he disappeared, as it were, in a whiff of +tobacco-smoke, leaving an odor of brandy and tobacco behind him, and a +traditionary memory of a wizard that had been there. Septimius went to +work with what items of knowledge he had gathered from him; but the +interview had at least made him aware of one thing, which was, that he +must provide himself with all possible quantity of scientific knowledge of +botany, and perhaps more extensive knowledge, in order to be able to +concoct the recipe. It was the fruit of all the scientific attainment of +the age that produced it (so said the legend, which seemed reasonable +enough), a great philosopher had wrought his learning into it; and this +had been attempered, regulated, improved, by the quick, bright intellect +of his scholar. Perhaps, thought Septimius, another deep and earnest +intelligence added to these two may bring the precious recipe to still +greater perfection. At least it shall be tried. So thinking, he gathered +together all the books that he could find relating to such studies; he +spent one day, moreover, in a walk to Cambridge, where he searched the +alcoves of the college library for such works as it contained; and +borrowing them from the war-disturbed institution of learning, he betook +himself homewards, and applied himself to the study with an earnestness of +zealous application that perhaps has been seldom equalled in a study of so +quiet a character. A month or two of study, with practice upon such plants +as he found upon his hill-top, and along the brook and in other +neighboring localities, sufficed to do a great deal for him. In this +pursuit he was assisted by Sibyl, who proved to have great knowledge in +some botanical departments, especially among flowers; and in her cold and +quiet way, she met him on this subject and glided by his side, as she had +done so long, a companion, a daily observer and observed of him, mixing +herself up with his pursuits, as if she were an attendant sprite upon +him.</p> + +<p>But this pale girl was not the only associate of his studies, the only +instructress, whom Septimius found. The observation which Doctor +Portsoaken made about the fantastic possibility that Aunt Keziah might +have inherited the same recipe from her Indian ancestry which had been +struck out by the science of Friar Bacon and his pupil had not failed to +impress Septimius, and to remain on his memory. So, not long after the +doctor's departure, the young man took occasion one evening to say to his +aunt that he thought his stomach was a little out of order with too much +application, and that perhaps she could give him some herb-drink or other +that would be good for him.</p> + +<p>"That I can, Seppy, my darling," said the old woman, "and I'm glad you have +the sense to ask for it at last. Here it is in this bottle; and though +that foolish, blaspheming doctor turned up his old brandy nose at it, I'll +drink with him any day and come off better than he."</p> + +<p>So saying, she took out of the closet her brown jug, stopped with a cork +that had a rag twisted round it to make it tighter, filled a mug half full +of the concoction and set it on the table before Septimius.</p> + +<p>"There, child, smell of that; the smell merely will do you good; but drink +it down, and you'll live the longer for it."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Aunt Keziah, is that so?" asked Septimius, a little startled by a +recommendation which in some measure tallied with what he wanted in a +medicine. "That's a good quality."</p> + +<p>He looked into the mug, and saw a turbid, yellow concoction, not at all +attractive to the eye; he smelt of it, and was partly of opinion that Aunt +Keziah had mixed a certain unfragrant vegetable, called skunk-cabbage, +with the other ingredients of her witch-drink. He tasted it; not a mere +sip, but a good, genuine gulp, being determined to have real proof of what +the stuff was in all respects. The draught seemed at first to burn in his +mouth, unaccustomed to any drink but water, and to go scorching all the +way down into his stomach, making him sensible of the depth of his inwards +by a track of fire, far, far down; and then, worse than the fire, came a +taste of hideous bitterness and nauseousness, which he had not previously +conceived to exist, and which threatened to stir up his bowels into utter +revolt; but knowing Aunt Keziah's touchiness with regard to this +concoction, and how sacred she held it, he made an effort of real heroism, +squelched down his agony, and kept his face quiet, with the exception of +one strong convulsion, which he allowed to twist across it for the sake of +saving his life.</p> + +<p>"It tastes as if it might have great potency in it, Aunt Keziah," said this +unfortunate young man. "I wish you would tell me what it is made of, and +how you brew it; for I have observed you are very strict and secret about +it."</p> + +<p>"Aha! you have seen that, have you?" said Aunt Keziah, taking a sip of her +beloved liquid, and grinning at him with a face and eyes as yellow as that +she was drinking. In fact the idea struck him, that in temper, and all +appreciable qualities, Aunt Keziah was a good deal like this drink of +hers, having probably become saturated by them while she drank of it. And +then, having drunk, she gloated over it, and tasted, and smelt of the cup +of this hellish wine, as a winebibber does of that which is most fragrant +and delicate. "And you want to know how I make it? But first, child, tell +me honestly, do you love this drink of mine? Otherwise, here, and at once, +we stop talking about it."</p> + +<p>"I love it for its virtues," said Septimius, temporizing with his +conscience, "and would prefer it on that account to the rarest wines."</p> + +<p>"So far good," said Aunt Keziah, who could not well conceive that her +liquor should be otherwise than delicious to the palate. "It is the most +virtuous liquor that ever was; and therefore one need not fear drinking +too much of it. And you want to know what it is made of? Well; I have +often thought of telling you, Seppy, my boy, when you should come to be +old enough; for I have no other inheritance to leave you, and you are all +of my blood, unless I should happen to have some far-off uncle among the +Cape Indians. But first, you must know how this good drink, and the +faculty of making it, came down to me from the chiefs, and sachems, and +Peow-wows, that were your ancestors and mine, Septimius, and from the old +wizard who was my great-grandfather and yours, and who, they say, added +the fire-water to the other ingredients, and so gave it the only one thing +that it wanted to make it perfect."</p> + +<p>And so Aunt Keziah, who had now put herself into a most comfortable and +jolly state by sipping again, and after pressing Septimius to mind his +draught (who declined, on the plea that one dram at a time was enough for +a new beginner, its virtues being so strong, as well as admirable), the +old woman told him a legend strangely wild and uncouth, and mixed up of +savage and civilized life, and of the superstitions of both, but which yet +had a certain analogy, that impressed Septimius much, to the story that +the doctor had told him.</p> + +<p>She said that, many ages ago, there had been a wild sachem in the forest, a +king among the Indians, and from whom, the old lady said, with a look of +pride, she and Septimius were lineally descended, and were probably the +very last who inherited one drop of that royal, wise, and warlike blood. +The sachem had lived very long, longer than anybody knew, for the Indians +kept no record, and could only talk of a great number of moons; and they +said he was as old, or older, than the oldest trees; as old as the hills +almost, and could remember back to the days of godlike men, who had arts +then forgotten. He was a wise and good man, and could foretell as far into +the future as he could remember into the past; and he continued to live +on, till his people were afraid that he would live forever, and so disturb +the whole order of nature; and they thought it time that so good a man, +and so great a warrior and wizard, should be gone to the happy +hunting-grounds, and that so wise a counsellor should go and tell his +experience of life to the Great Father, and give him an account of matters +here, and perhaps lead him to make some changes in the conduct of the +lower world. And so, all these things duly considered, they very +reverently assassinated the great, never-dying sachem; for though safe +against disease, and undecayable by age, he was capable of being killed by +violence, though the hardness of his skull broke to fragments the stone +tomahawk with which they at first tried to kill him.</p> + +<p>So a deputation of the best and bravest of the tribe went to the great +sachem, and told him their thought, and reverently desired his consent to +be put out of the world; and the undying one agreed with them that it was +better for his own comfort that he should die, and that he had long been +weary of the world, having learned all that it could teach him, and +having, chiefly, learned to despair of ever making the red race much +better than they now were. So he cheerfully consented, and told them to +kill him if they could; and first they tried the stone hatchet, which was +broken against his skull; and then they shot arrows at him, which could +not pierce the toughness of his skin; and finally they plastered up his +nose and mouth (which kept uttering wisdom to the last) with clay, and set +him to bake in the sun; so at last his life burnt out of his breast, +tearing his body to pieces, and he died.</p> + +<p>[<i>Make this legend grotesque, and express the weariness of the tribe at +the intolerable control the undying one had of them; his always bringing +up precepts from his own experience, never consenting to anything new, and +so impeding progress; his habits hardening into him, his ascribing to +himself all wisdom, and depriving everybody of his right to successive +command; his endless talk, and dwelling on the past, so that the world +could not bear him. Describe his ascetic and severe habits, his rigid +calmness, etc.</i>]</p> + +<p>But before the great sagamore died he imparted to a chosen one of his +tribe, the next wisest to himself, the secret of a potent and delicious +drink, the constant imbibing of which, together with his abstinence from +luxury and passion, had kept him alive so long, and would doubtless have +compelled him to live forever. This drink was compounded of many +ingredients, all of which were remembered and handed down in tradition, +save one, which, either because it was nowhere to be found, or for some +other reason, was forgotten; so that the drink ceased to give immortal +life as before. They say it was a beautiful purple flower. [<i>Perhaps the +Devil taught him the drink, or else the Great Spirit,–doubtful +which.</i>] But it still was a most excellent drink, and conducive to +health, and the cure of all diseases; and the Indians had it at the time +of the settlement by the English; and at one of those wizard meetings in +the forest, where the Black Man used to meet his red children and his +white ones, and be jolly with them, a great Indian wizard taught the +secret to Septimius's great-grandfather, who was a wizard, and died for +it; and he, in return, taught the Indians to mix it with rum, thinking +that this might be the very ingredient that was missing, and that by +adding it he might give endless life to himself and all his Indian +friends, among whom he had taken a wife.</p> + +<p>"But your great-grandfather, you know, had not a fair chance to test its +virtues, having been hanged for a wizard; and as for the Indians, they +probably mixed too much fire-water with their liquid, so that it burnt +them up, and they all died; and my mother, and her mother,–who taught the +drink to me,–and her mother afore her, thought it a sin to try to live +longer than the Lord pleased, so they let themselves die. And though the +drink is good, Septimius, and toothsome, as you see, yet I sometimes feel +as if I were getting old, like other people, and may die in the course of +the next half-century; so perhaps the rum was not just the thing that was +wanting to make up the recipe. But it is very good! Take a drop more of +it, dear."</p> + +<p>"Not at present, I thank you, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, gravely; "but +will you tell me what the ingredients are, and how you make it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will, my boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; +"for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you +live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on +living here."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, making Septimius take pen and ink, she proceeded to tell him a +list of plants and herbs, and forest productions, and he was surprised to +find that it agreed most wonderfully with the recipe contained in the old +manuscript, as he had puzzled it out, and as it had been explained by the +doctor. There were a few variations, it is true; but even here there was a +close analogy, plants indigenous to America being substituted for cognate +productions, the growth of Europe. Then there was another difference in +the mode of preparation, Aunt Keziah's nostrum being a concoction, whereas +the old manuscript gave a process of distillation. This similarity had a +strong effect on Septimius's imagination. Here was, in one case, a drink +suggested, as might be supposed, to a primitive people by something +similar to that instinct by which the brute creation recognizes the +medicaments suited to its needs, so that they mixed up fragrant herbs for +reasons wiser than they knew, and made them into a salutary potion; and +here, again, was a drink contrived by the utmost skill of a great +civilized philosopher, searching the whole field of science for his +purpose; and these two drinks proved, in all essential particulars, to be +identically the same.</p> + +<p>"O Aunt Keziah," said he, with a longing earnestness, "are you sure that +you cannot remember that one ingredient?"</p> + +<p>"No, Septimius, I cannot possibly do it," said she. "I have tried many +things, skunk-cabbage, wormwood, and a thousand things; for it is truly a +pity that the chief benefit of the thing should be lost for so little. But +the only effect was, to spoil the good taste of the stuff, and, two or +three times, to poison myself, so that I broke out all over blotches, and +once lost the use of my left arm, and got a dizziness in the head, and a +rheumatic twist in my knee, a hardness of hearing, and a dimness of sight, +and the trembles; all of which I certainly believe to have been caused by +my putting something else into this blessed drink besides the good New +England rum. Stick to that, Seppy, my dear."</p> + +<p>So saying, Aunt Keziah took yet another sip of the beloved liquid, after +vainly pressing Septimius to do the like; and then lighting her old clay +pipe, she sat down in the chimney-corner, meditating, dreaming, muttering +pious prayers and ejaculations, and sometimes looking up the wide flue of +the chimney, with thoughts, perhaps, how delightful it must have been to +fly up there, in old times, on excursions by midnight into the forest, +where was the Black Man, and the Puritan deacons and ladies, and those +wild Indian ancestors of hers; and where the wildness of the forest was so +grim and delightful, and so unlike the common-placeness in which she spent +her life. For thus did the savage strain of the woman, mixed up as it was +with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes +snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius, +though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there +was the same tendency.</p> + +<p>Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air +again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild +character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps, +too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her +diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he +was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless +contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid +thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to.</p> + +<p>Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the +pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or +at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,–the one +so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a +morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm +round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man +in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at +the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the +clouds.</p> + +<p>"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved +in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the +war,–shame to him for it!</p> + +<p>"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way +home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here +soon."</p> + +<p>"He is a brave fellow, Robert," said Septimius, carelessly. "And I know +not, since life is so short, that anything better can be done with it than +to risk it as he does."</p> + +<p>"I truly think not," said Rose Garfield, composedly.</p> + +<p>"What a blessing it is to mortals," said Sibyl Dacy, "what a kindness of +Providence, that life is made so uncertain; that death is thrown in among +the possibilities of our being; that these awful mysteries are thrown +around us, into which we may vanish! For, without it, how would it be +possible to be heroic, how should we plod along in commonplaces forever, +never dreaming high things, never risking anything? For my part, I think +man is more favored than the angels, and made capable of higher heroism, +greater virtue, and of a more excellent spirit than they, because we have +such a mystery of grief and terror around us; whereas they, being in a +certainty of God's light, seeing his goodness and his purposes more +perfectly than we, cannot be so brave as often poor weak man, and weaker +woman, has the opportunity to be, and sometimes makes use of it. God gave +the whole world to man, and if he is left alone with it, it will make a +clod of him at last; but, to remedy that, God gave man a grave, and it +redeems all, while it seems to destroy all, and makes an immortal spirit +of him in the end."</p> + +<p>"Dear Sibyl, you are inspired," said Rose, gazing in her face.</p> + +<p>"I think you ascribe a great deal too much potency to the grave," said +Septimius, pausing involuntarily alone by the little hillock, whose +contents he knew so well. "The grave seems to me a vile pitfall, put right +in our pathway, and catching most of us,–all of us,–causing us to tumble +in at the most inconvenient opportunities, so that all human life is a +jest and a farce, just for the sake of this inopportune death; for I +observe it never waits for us to accomplish anything: we may have the +salvation of a country in hand, but we are none the less likely to die for +that. So that, being a believer, on the whole, in the wisdom and +graciousness of Providence, I am convinced that dying is a mistake, and +that by and by we shall overcome it. I say there is no use in the grave."</p> + +<p>"I still adhere to what I said," answered Sibyl Dacy; "and besides, there +is another use of a grave which I have often observed in old English +graveyards, where the moss grows green, and embosses the letters of the +gravestones; and also graves are very good for flower-beds."</p> + +<p>Nobody ever could tell when the strange girl was going to say what was +laughable,–when what was melancholy; and neither of Sibyl's auditors knew +quite what to make of this speech. Neither could Septimius fail to be a +little startled by seeing her, as she spoke of the grave as a flower-bed, +stoop down to the little hillock to examine the flowers, which, indeed, +seemed to prove her words by growing there in strange abundance, and of +many sorts; so that, if they could all have bloomed at once, the spot +would have looked like a bouquet by itself, or as if the earth were +richest in beauty there, or as if seeds had been lavished by some florist. +Septimius could not account for it, for though the hill-side did produce +certain flowers,–the aster, the golden-rod, the violet, and other such +simple and common things,–yet this seemed as if a carpet of bright colors +had been thrown down there and covered the spot.</p> + +<p>"This is very strange," said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Sibyl Dacy, "there is some strange richness in this little spot +of soil."</p> + +<p>"Where could the seeds have come from?–that is the greatest wonder," said +Rose. "You might almost teach me botany, methinks, on this one spot."</p> + +<p>"Do you know this plant?" asked Sibyl of Septimius, pointing to one not yet +in flower, but of singular leaf, that was thrusting itself up out of the +ground, on the very centre of the grave, over where the breast of the +sleeper below might seem to be. "I think there is no other here like it."</p> + +<p>Septimius stooped down to examine it, and was convinced that it was unlike +anything he had seen of the flower kind; a leaf of a dark green, with +purple veins traversing it, it had a sort of questionable aspect, as some +plants have, so that you would think it very likely to be poison, and +would not like to touch or smell very intimately, without first inquiring +who would be its guarantee that it should do no mischief. That it had some +richness or other, either baneful or beneficial, you could not doubt.</p> + +<p>"I think it poisonous," said Rose Garfield, shuddering, for she was a +person so natural she hated poisonous things, or anything speckled +especially, and did not, indeed, love strangeness. "Yet I should not +wonder if it bore a beautiful flower by and by. Nevertheless, if I were to +do just as I feel inclined, I should root it up and fling it away."</p> + +<p>"Shall she do so?" said Sibyl to Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Not for the world," said he, hastily. "Above all things, I desire to see +what will come of this plant."</p> + +<p>"Be it as you please," said Sibyl. "Meanwhile, if you like to sit down here +and listen to me, I will tell you a story that happens to come into my +mind just now,–I cannot tell why. It is a legend of an old hall that I +know well, and have known from my childhood, in one of the northern +counties of England, where I was born. Would you like to hear it, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of all things," said she. "I like all stories of hall and cottage in +the old country, though now we must not call it our country any more."</p> + +<p>Sibyl looked at Septimius, as if to inquire whether he, too, chose to +listen to her story, and he made answer:–</p> + +<p>"Yes, I shall like to hear the legend, if it is a genuine one that has been +adopted into the popular belief, and came down in chimney-corners with the +smoke and soot that gathers there; and incrusted over with humanity, by +passing from one homely mind to another. Then, such stories get to be +true, in a certain sense, and indeed in that sense may be called true +throughout, for the very nucleus, the fiction in them, seems to have come +out of the heart of man in a way that cannot be imitated of malice +aforethought. Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make +it."</p> + +<p>"I know not whether this legend has the character you mean," said Sibyl, +"but it has lived much more than a century; and here it is.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>"On the threshold of one of the doors of —— Hall there is a bloody +footstep impressed into the doorstep, and ruddy as if the bloody foot had +just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of the +year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at that +doorstep you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have pretended +to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew redden a +cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the fingertips when you touch it? +And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the appointed +night and hour come round, this very year, just as it would three hundred +years ago.</p> + +<p>"Well; but how did it come there? I know not precisely in what age it was, +but long ago, when light was beginning to shine into what were called the +dark ages, there was a lord of —— Hall who applied himself deeply to +knowledge and science, under the guidance of the wisest man of that +age,–a man so wise that he was thought to be a wizard; and, indeed, he +may have been one, if to be a wizard consists in having command over +secret powers of nature, that other men do not even suspect the existence +of, and the control of which enables one to do feats that seem as +wonderful as raising the dead. It is needless to tell you all the strange +stories that have survived to this day about the old Hall; and how it is +believed that the master of it, owing to his ancient science, has still a +sort of residence there, and control of the place; and how, in one of the +chambers, there is still his antique table, and his chair, and some rude +old instruments and machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, +just as if he might still come back to finish some experiment. What it is +important to say is, that one of the chief things to which the old lord +applied himself was to discover the means of prolonging his own life, so +that its duration should be indefinite, if not infinite; and such was his +science, that he was believed to have attained this magnificent and awful +purpose.</p> + +<p>"So, as you may suppose, the man of science had great joy in having done +this thing, both for the pride of it, and because it was so delightful a +thing to have before him the prospect of endless time, which he might +spend in adding more and more to his science, and so doing good to the +world; for the chief obstruction to the improvement of the world and the +growth of knowledge is, that mankind cannot go straightforward in it, but +continually there have to be new beginnings, and it takes every new man +half his life, if not the whole of it, to come up to the point where his +predecessor left off. And so this noble man–this man of a noble +purpose–spent many years in finding out this mighty secret; and at last, +it is said, he succeeded. But on what terms?</p> + +<p>"Well, it is said that the terms were dreadful and horrible; insomuch that +the wise man hesitated whether it were lawful and desirable to take +advantage of them, great as was the object in view.</p> + +<p>"You see, the object of the lord of —— Hall was to take a life from the +course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that, +great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not +consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time, +except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this was +to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty years +being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in that time, +this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied the +requisition, and he might live on. There is a form of the legend which +says, that one of the ingredients of the drink which the nobleman brewed +by his science was the heart's blood of a pure young boy or girl. But this +I reject, as too coarse an idea; and, indeed, I think it may be taken to +mean symbolically, that the person who desires to engross to himself more +than his share of human life must do it by sacrificing to his selfishness +some dearest interest of another person, who has a good right to life, and +may be as useful in it as he.</p> + +<p>"Now, this lord was a just man by nature, and if he had gone astray, it was +greatly by reason of his earnest wish to do something for the poor, +wicked, struggling, bloody, uncomfortable race of man, to which he +belonged. He bethought himself whether he would have a right to take the +life of one of those creatures, without their own consent, in order to +prolong his own; and after much arguing to and fro, he came to the +conclusion that he should not have the right, unless it were a life over +which he had control, and which was the next to his own. He looked round +him; he was a lonely and abstracted man, secluded by his studies from +human affections, and there was but one human being whom he cared +for;–that was a beautiful kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had +brought up, and, dying, left her to his care. There was great kindness and +affection–as great as the abstracted nature of his pursuits would +allow–on the part of this lord towards the beautiful young girl; but not +what is called love,–at least, he never acknowledged it to himself. But, +looking into his heart, he saw that she, if any one, was to be the person +whom the sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without +effect, but if he took the life of this one, it would make the charm +strong and good.</p> + +<p>"My friends, I have meditated many a time on this ugly feature of my +legend, and am unwilling to take it in the literal sense; so I conceive +its spiritual meaning (for everything, you know, has its spiritual +meaning, which to the literal meaning is what the soul is to the +body),–its spiritual meaning was, that to the deep pursuit of science we +must sacrifice great part of the joy of life; that nobody can be great, +and do great things, without giving up to death, so far as he regards his +enjoyment of it, much that he would gladly enjoy; and in that sense I +choose to take it. But the earthly old legend will have it that this mad, +high-minded, heroic, murderous lord did insist upon it with himself that +he must murder this poor, loving, and beloved child.</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to delay upon this horrible matter, and to tell you how he +argued it with himself; and how, the more and more he argued it, the more +reasonable it seemed, the more absolutely necessary, the more a duty that +the terrible sacrifice should be made. Here was this great good to be done +to mankind, and all that stood in the way of it was one little delicate +life, so frail that it was likely enough to be blown out, any day, by the +mere rude blast that the rush of life creates, as it streams along, or by +any slightest accident; so good and pure, too, that she was quite unfit +for this world, and not capable of any happiness in it; and all that was +asked of her was to allow herself to be transported to a place where she +would be happy, and would find companions fit for her,–which he, her only +present companion, certainly was not. In fine, he resolved to shed the +sweet, fragrant blood of this little violet that loved him so.</p> + +<p>"Well; let us hurry over this part of the story as fast as we can. He did +slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood near the house, an +old wood that is standing yet, with some of its magnificent oaks; and then +he plunged a dagger into her heart, after they had had a very tender and +loving talk together, in which he had tried to open the matter tenderly to +her, and make her understand that, though he was to slay her, it was +really for the very reason that he loved her better than anything else in +the world, and that he would far rather die himself, if that would answer +the purpose at all. Indeed, he is said to have offered her the alternative +of slaying him, and taking upon herself the burden of indefinite life, and +the studies and pursuits by which he meant to benefit mankind. But she, it +is said,–this noble, pure, loving child,–she looked up into his face and +smiled sadly, and then snatching the dagger from him, she plunged it into +her own heart. I cannot tell whether this be true, or whether she waited +to be killed by him; but this I know, that in the same circumstances I +think I should have saved my lover or my friend the pain of killing me. +There she lay dead, at any rate, and he buried her in the wood, and +returned to the house; and, as it happened, he had set his right foot in +her blood, and his shoe was wet in it, and by some miraculous fate it left +a track all along the wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone +steps of the threshold, and up into his chamber, all along; and the +servants saw it the next day, and wondered, and whispered, and missed the +fair young girl, and looked askance at their lord's right foot, and turned +pale, all of them, as death.</p> + +<p>"And next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at +what he had done, and could not bear the laboratory where he had toiled so +long, and was sick to death of the object that he had pursued, and was +most miserable, and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a day. +But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody footstep +impressed upon the stone doorstep of the Hall. The track had lain all +along through the wood-path, and across the lawn, to the old Gothic door +of the Hall; but the rain, the English rain, that is always falling, had +come the next day, and washed it all away. The track had lain, too, across +the broad hall, and up the stairs, and into the lord's study; but there it +had lain on the rushes that were strewn there, and these the servants had +gathered carefully up, and thrown them away, and spread fresh ones. So +that it was only on the threshold that the mark remained.</p> + +<p>"But the legend says, that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings +about the world, he left a bloody track behind him. It was wonderful, and +very inconvenient, this phenomenon. When he went into a church, you would +see the track up the broad aisle, and a little red puddle in the place +where he sat or knelt. Once he went to the king's court, and there being a +track up to the very throne, the king frowned upon him, so that he never +came there any more. Nobody could tell how it happened; his foot was not +seen to bleed, only there was the bloody track behind him, wherever he +went; and he was a horror-stricken man, always looking behind him to see +the track, and then hurrying onward, as if to escape his own tracks; but +always they followed him as fast.</p> + +<p>"In the hall of feasting, there was the bloody track to his chair. The +learned men whom he consulted about this strange difficulty conferred with +one another, and with him, who was equal to any of them, and pished and +pshawed, and said, 'Oh, there is nothing miraculous in this; it is only a +natural infirmity, which can easily be put an end to, though, perhaps, the +stoppage of such an evacuation will cause damage to other parts of the +frame.' Sir Forrester always said, 'Stop it, my learned brethren, if you +can; no matter what the consequences.' And they did their best, but +without result; so that he was still compelled to leave his bloody track +on their college-rooms and combination-rooms, the same as elsewhere; and +in street and in wilderness; yes, and in the battle-field, they said, his +track looked freshest and reddest of all. So, at last, finding the notice +he attracted inconvenient, this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back +to his own Hall, where, living among faithful old servants born in the +family, he could hush the matter up better than elsewhere, and not be +stared at continually, or, glancing round, see people holding up their +hands in terror at seeing a bloody track behind him. And so home he came, +and there he saw the bloody track on the doorstep, and dolefully went into +the hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber, +and half a dozen others following behind, gazing, shuddering, pointing +with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one another's pale +faces, and the moment he had passed, running to get fresh rushes, and to +scour the stairs. The next day, Sir Forrester went into the wood, and by +the aged oak he found a grave, and on the grave he beheld a beautiful +crimson flower; the most gorgeous and beautiful, surely, that ever grew; +so rich it looked, so full of potent juice. That flower he gathered; and +the spirit of his scientific pursuits coming upon him, he knew that this +was the flower, produced out of a human life, that was essential to the +perfection of his recipe for immortality; and he made the drink, and drank +it, and became immortal in woe and agony, still studying, still growing +wiser and more wretched in every age. By and by he vanished from the old +Hall, but not by death; for, from generation to generation, they say that +a bloody track is seen around that house, and sometimes it is tracked up +into the chambers, so freshly that you see he must have passed a short +time before; and he grows wiser and wiser, and lonelier and lonelier, from +age to age. And this is the legend of the bloody footstep, which I myself +have seen at the Hall door. As to the flower, the plant of it continued +for several years to grow out of the grave; and after a while, perhaps a +century ago, it was transplanted into the garden of —— Hall, and +preserved with great care, and is so still. And as the family attribute a +kind of sacredness, or cursedness, to the flower, they can hardly be +prevailed upon to give any of the seeds, or allow it to be propagated +elsewhere, though the king should send to ask it. It is said, too, that +there is still in the family the old lord's recipe for immortality, and +that several of his collateral descendants have tried to concoct it, and +instil the flower into it, and so give indefinite life; but +unsuccessfully, because the seeds of the flower must be planted in a fresh +grave of bloody death, in order to make it effectual."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>So ended Sibyl's legend; in which Septimius was struck by a certain analogy +to Aunt Keziah's Indian legend,–both referring to a flower growing out of +a grave; and also he did not fail to be impressed with the wild +coincidence of this disappearance of an ancestor of the family long ago, +and the appearance, at about the same epoch, of the first known ancestor +of his own family, the man with wizard's attributes, with the bloody +footstep, and whose sudden disappearance became a myth, under the idea +that the Devil carried him away. Yet, on the whole, this wild tradition, +doubtless becoming wilder in Sibyl's wayward and morbid fancy, had the +effect to give him a sense of the fantasticalness of his present pursuit, +and that in adopting it, he had strayed into a region long abandoned to +superstition, and where the shadows of forgotten dreams go when men are +done with them; where past worships are; where great Pan went when he died +to the outer world; a limbo into which living men sometimes stray when +they think themselves sensiblest and wisest, and whence they do not often +find their way back into the real world. Visions of wealth, visions of +fame, visions of philanthropy,–all visions find room here, and glide +about without jostling. When Septimius came to look at the matter in his +present mood, the thought occurred to him that he had perhaps got into +such a limbo, and that Sibyl's legend, which looked so wild, might be all +of a piece with his own present life; for Sibyl herself seemed an +illusion, and so, most strangely, did Aunt Keziah, whom he had known all +his life, with her homely and quaint characteristics; the grim doctor, +with his brandy and his German pipe, impressed him in the same way; and +these, altogether, made his homely cottage by the wayside seem an +unsubstantial edifice, such as castles in the air are built of, and the +ground he trod on unreal; and that grave, which he knew to contain the +decay of a beautiful young man, but a fictitious swell, formed by the +fantasy of his eyes. All unreal; all illusion! Was Rose Garfield a +deception too, with her daily beauty, and daily cheerfulness, and daily +worth? In short, it was such a moment as I suppose all men feel (at least, +I can answer for one), when the real scene and picture of life swims, +jars, shakes, seems about to be broken up and dispersed, like the picture +in a smooth pond, when we disturb its tranquil mirror by throwing in a +stone; and though the scene soon settles itself, and looks as real as +before, a haunting doubt keeps close at hand, as long as we live, asking, +"Is it stable? Am I sure of it? Am I certainly not dreaming? See; it +trembles again, ready to dissolve."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Applying himself with earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and +interpret the mysterious manuscript, working with his whole mind and +strength, Septimius did not fail of some flattering degree of success.</p> + +<p>A good deal of the manuscript, as has been said, was in an ancient English +script, although so uncouth and shapeless were the characters, that it was +not easy to resolve them into letters, or to believe that they were +anything but arbitrary and dismal blots and scrawls upon the yellow paper; +without meaning, vague, like the misty and undefined germs of thought as +they exist in our minds before clothing themselves in words. These, +however, as he concentrated his mind upon them, took distincter shape, +like cloudy stars at the power of the telescope, and became sometimes +English, sometimes Latin, strangely patched together, as if, so accustomed +was the writer to use that language in which all the science of that age +was usually embodied, that he really mixed it unconsciously with the +vernacular, or used both indiscriminately. There was some Greek, too, but +not much. Then frequently came in the cipher, to the study of which +Septimius had applied himself for some time back, with the aid of the +books borrowed from the college library, and not without success. Indeed, +it appeared to him, on close observation, that it had not been the +intention of the writer really to conceal what he had written from any +earnest student, but rather to lock it up for safety in a sort of coffer, +of which diligence and insight should be the key, and the keen +intelligence with which the meaning was sought should be the test of the +seeker's being entitled to possess the secret treasure.</p> + +<p>Amid a great deal of misty stuff, he found the document to consist chiefly, +contrary to his supposition beforehand, of certain rules of life; he would +have taken it, on a casual inspection, for an essay of counsel, addressed +by some great and sagacious man to a youth in whom he felt an +interest,–so secure and good a doctrine of life was propounded, such +excellent maxims there were, such wisdom in all matters that came within +the writer's purview. It was as much like a digested synopsis of some old +philosopher's wise rules of conduct, as anything else. But on closer +inspection, Septimius, in his unsophisticated consideration of this +matter, was not so well satisfied. True, everything that was said seemed +not discordant with the rules of social morality; not unwise: it was +shrewd, sagacious; it did not appear to infringe upon the rights of +mankind; but there was something left out, something unsatisfactory,–what +was it? There was certainly a cold spell in the document; a magic, not of +fire, but of ice; and Septimius the more exemplified its power, in that he +soon began to be insensible of it. It affected him as if it had been +written by some greatly wise and worldly-experienced man, like the writer +of Ecclesiastes; for it was full of truth. It was a truth that does not +make men better, though perhaps calmer; and beneath which the buds of +happiness curl up like tender leaves in a frost. What was the matter with +this document, that the young man's youth perished out of him as he read? +What icy hand had written, it, so that the heart was chilled out of the +reader? Not that Septimius was sensible of this character; at least, not +long,–for as he read, there grew upon him a mood of calm satisfaction, +such as he had never felt before. His mind seemed to grow clearer; his +perceptions most acute; his sense of the reality of things grew to be +such, that he felt as if he could touch and handle all his thoughts, feel +round about all their outline and circumference, and know them with a +certainty, as if they were material things. Not that all this was in the +document itself; but by studying it so earnestly, and, as it were, +creating its meaning anew for himself, out of such illegible materials, he +caught the temper of the old writer's mind, after so many ages as that +tract had lain in the mouldy and musty manuscript. He was magnetized with +him; a powerful intellect acted powerfully upon him; perhaps, even, there +was a sort of spell and mystic influence imbued into the paper, and +mingled with the yellow ink, that steamed forth by the effort of this +young man's earnest rubbing, as it were, and by the action of his mind, +applied to it as intently as he possibly could; and even his handling the +paper, his bending over it, and breathing upon it, had its effect.</p> + +<p>It is not in our power, nor in our wish, to produce the original form, nor +yet the spirit, of a production which is better lost to the world: because +it was the expression of a human intellect originally greatly gifted and +capable of high things, but gone utterly astray, partly by its own +subtlety, partly by yielding to the temptations of the lower part of its +nature, by yielding the spiritual to a keen sagacity of lower things, +until it was quite fallen; and yet fallen in such a way, that it seemed +not only to itself, but to mankind, not fallen at all, but wise and good, +and fulfilling all the ends of intellect in such a life as ours, and +proving, moreover, that earthly life was good, and all that the +development of our nature demanded. All this is better forgotten; better +burnt; better never thought over again; and all the more, because its +aspect was so wise, and even praiseworthy. But what we must preserve of it +were certain rules of life and moral diet, not exactly expressed in the +document, but which, as it were, on its being duly received into +Septimius's mind, were precipitated from the rich solution, and +crystallized into diamonds, and which he found to be the moral dietetics, +so to speak, by observing which he was to achieve the end of earthly +immortality, whose physical nostrum was given in the recipe which, with +the help of Doctor Portsoaken and his Aunt Keziah, he had already pretty +satisfactorily made out.</p> + +<p>"Keep thy heart at seventy throbs in a minute; all more than that wears +away life too quickly. If thy respiration be too quick, think with thyself +that thou hast sinned against natural order and moderation.</p> + +<p>"Drink not wine nor strong drink; and observe that this rule is worthiest +in its symbolic meaning.</p> + +<p>"Bask daily in the sunshine and let it rest on thy heart.</p> + +<p>"Run not; leap not; walk at a steady pace, and count thy paces per day.</p> + +<p>"If thou feelest, at any time, a throb of the heart, pause on the instant, +and analyze it; fix thy mental eye steadfastly upon it, and inquire why +such commotion is.</p> + +<p>"Hate not any man nor woman; be not angry, unless at any time thy blood +seem a little cold and torpid; cut out all rankling feelings, they are +poisonous to thee. If, in thy waking moments, or in thy dreams, thou hast +thoughts of strife or unpleasantness with any man, strive quietly with +thyself to forget him.</p> + +<p>"Have no friendships with an imperfect man, with a man in bad health, of +violent passions, of any characteristic that evidently disturbs his own +life, and so may have disturbing influence on thine. Shake not any man by +the hand, because thereby, if there be any evil in the man, it is likely +to be communicated to thee.</p> + +<p>"Kiss no woman if her lips be red; look not upon her if she be very fair. +Touch not her hand if thy finger-tips be found to thrill with hers ever so +little. On the whole, shun woman, for she is apt to be a disturbing +influence. If thou love her, all is over, and thy whole past and remaining +labor and pains will be in vain.</p> + +<p>"Do some decent degree of good and kindness in thy daily life, for the +result is a slight pleasurable sense that will seem to warm and delectate +thee with felicitous self-laudings; and all that brings thy thoughts to +thyself tends to invigorate that central principle by the growth of which +thou art to give thyself indefinite life.</p> + +<p>"Do not any act manifestly evil; it may grow upon thee, and corrode thee in +after-years. Do not any foolish good act; it may change thy wise habits.</p> + +<p>"Eat no spiced meats. Young chickens, new-fallen lambs, fruits, bread four +days old, milk, freshest butter will make thy fleshy tabernacle youthful.</p> + +<p>"From sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people–all of whom show +themselves at variance with things as they should be,–from people beyond +their wits, from people in a melancholic mood, from people in extravagant +joy, from teething children, from dead corpses, turn away thine eyes and +depart elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"If beggars haunt thee, let thy servants drive them away, thou withdrawing +out of ear-shot.</p> + +<p>"Crying and sickly children, and teething children, as aforesaid, carefully +avoid. Drink the breath of wholesome infants as often as thou conveniently +canst,–it is good for thy purpose; also the breath of buxom maids, if +thou mayest without undue disturbance of the flesh, drink it as a +morning-draught, as medicine; also the breath of cows as they return from +rich pasture at eventide.</p> + +<p>"If thou seest human poverty, or suffering, and it trouble thee, strive +moderately to relieve it, seeing that thus thy mood will be changed to a +pleasant self-laudation.</p> + +<p>"Practise thyself in a certain continual smile, for its tendency will be to +compose thy frame of being, and keep thee from too much wear.</p> + +<p>"Search not to see if thou hast a gray hair; scrutinize not thy forehead to +find a wrinkle; nor the corners of thy eyes to discover if they be +corrugated. Such things, being gazed at, daily take heart and grow.</p> + +<p>"Desire nothing too fervently, not even life; yet keep thy hold upon it +mightily, quietly, unshakably, for as long as thou really art resolved to +live, Death with all his force, shall have no power against thee.</p> + +<p>"Walk not beneath tottering ruins, nor houses being put up, nor climb to +the top of a mast, nor approach the edge of a precipice, nor stand in the +way of the lightning, nor cross a swollen river, nor voyage at sea, nor +ride a skittish horse, nor be shot at by an arrow, nor confront a sword, +nor put thyself in the way of violent death; for this is hateful, and +breaketh through all wise rules.</p> + +<p>"Say thy prayers at bedtime, if thou deemest it will give thee quieter +sleep; yet let it not trouble thee if thou forgettest them.</p> + +<p>"Change thy shirt daily; thereby thou castest off yesterday's decay, and +imbibest the freshness of the morning's life, which enjoy with smelling to +roses, and other healthy and fragrant flowers, and live the longer for it. +Roses are made to that end.</p> + +<p>"Read not great poets; they stir up thy heart; and the human heart is a +soil which, if deeply stirred, is apt to give out noxious vapors."</p> + +<p>Such were some of the precepts which Septimius gathered and reduced to +definite form out of this wonderful document; and he appreciated their +wisdom, and saw clearly that they must be absolutely essential to the +success of the medicine with which they were connected. In themselves, +almost, they seemed capable of prolonging life to an indefinite period, so +wisely were they conceived, so well did they apply to the causes which +almost invariably wear away this poor short life of men, years and years +before even the shattered constitutions that they received from their +forefathers need compel them to die. He deemed himself well rewarded for +all his labor and pains, should nothing else follow but his reception and +proper appreciation of these wise rules; but continually, as he read the +manuscript, more truths, and, for aught I know, profounder and more +practical ones, developed themselves; and, indeed, small as the manuscript +looked, Septimius thought that he should find a volume as big as the most +ponderous folio in the college library too small to contain its wisdom. It +seemed to drip and distil with precious fragrant drops, whenever he took +it out of his desk; it diffused wisdom like those vials of perfume which, +small as they look, keep diffusing an airy wealth of fragrance for years +and years together, scattering their virtue in incalculable volumes of +invisible vapor, and yet are none the less in bulk for all they give; +whenever he turned over the yellow leaves, bits of gold, diamonds of good +size, precious pearls, seemed to drop out from between them.</p> + +<p>And now ensued a surprise which, though of a happy kind, was almost too +much for him to bear; for it made his heart beat considerably faster than +the wise rules of his manuscript prescribed. Going up on his hill-top, as +summer wore away (he had not been there for some time), and walking by the +little flowery hillock, as so many a hundred times before, what should he +see there but a new flower, that during the time he had been poring over +the manuscript so sedulously had developed itself, blossomed, put forth +its petals, bloomed into full perfection, and now, with the dew of the +morning upon it, was waiting to offer itself to Septimius? He trembled as +he looked at it, it was too much almost to bear,–it was so very +beautiful, so very stately, so very rich, so very mysterious and +wonderful. It was like a person, like a life! Whence did it come? He stood +apart from it, gazing in wonder; tremulously taking in its aspect, and +thinking of the legends he had heard from Aunt Keziah and from Sibyl Dacy; +and how that this flower, like the one that their wild traditions told of, +had grown out of a grave,–out of a grave in which he had laid one slain +by himself.</p> + +<p>The flower was of the richest crimson, illuminated with a golden centre of +a perfect and stately beauty. From the best descriptions that I have been +able to gain of it, it was more like a dahlia than any other flower with +which I have acquaintance; yet it does not satisfy me to believe it really +of that species, for the dahlia is not a flower of any deep +characteristics, either lively or malignant, and this flower, which +Septimius found so strangely, seems to have had one or the other. If I +have rightly understood, it had a fragrance which the dahlia lacks; and +there was something hidden in its centre, a mystery, even in its fullest +bloom, not developing itself so openly as the heartless, yet not +dishonest, dahlia. I remember in England to have seen a flower at Eaton +Hall, in Cheshire, in those magnificent gardens, which may have been like +this, but my remembrance of it is not sufficiently distinct to enable me +to describe it better than by saying that it was crimson, with a gleam of +gold in its centre, which yet was partly hidden. It had many petals of +great richness.</p> + +<p>Septimius, bending eagerly over the plant, saw that this was not to be the +only flower that it would produce that season; on the contrary, there was +to be a great abundance of them, a luxuriant harvest; as if the crimson +offspring of this one plant would cover the whole hillock,–as if the dead +youth beneath had burst into a resurrection of many crimson flowers! And +in its veiled heart, moreover, there was a mystery like death, although it +seemed to cover something bright and golden.</p> + +<p>Day after day the strange crimson flower bloomed more and more abundantly, +until it seemed almost to cover the little hillock, which became a mere +bed of it, apparently turning all its capacity of production to this +flower; for the other plants, Septimius thought, seemed to shrink away, +and give place to it, as if they were unworthy to compare with the +richness, glory, and worth of this their queen. The fervent summer burned +into it, the dew and the rain ministered to it; the soil was rich, for it +was a human heart contributing its juices,–a heart in its fiery youth +sodden in its own blood, so that passion, unsatisfied loves and longings, +ambition that never won its object, tender dreams and throbs, angers, +lusts, hates, all concentrated by life, came sprouting in it, and its +mysterious being, and streaks and shadows, had some meaning in each of +them.</p> + +<p>The two girls, when they next ascended the hill, saw the strange flower, +and Rose admired it, and wondered at it, but stood at a distance, without +showing an attraction towards it, rather an undefined aversion, as if she +thought it might be a poison flower; at any rate she would not be inclined +to wear it in her bosom. Sibyl Dacy examined it closely, touched its +leaves, smelt it, looked at it with a botanist's eye, and at last remarked +to Rose, "Yes, it grows well in this new soil; methinks it looks like a +new human life."</p> + +<p>"What is the strange flower?" asked Rose.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Sanguinea sanguinissima</i>" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>It so happened about this time that poor Aunt Keziah, in spite of her +constant use of that bitter mixture of hers, was in a very bad state of +health. She looked all of an unpleasant yellow, with bloodshot eyes; she +complained terribly of her inwards. She had an ugly rheumatic hitch in her +motion from place to place, and was heard to mutter many wishes that she +had a broomstick to fly about upon, and she used to bind up her head with +a dishclout, or what looked to be such, and would sit by the kitchen fire +even in the warm days, bent over it, crouching as if she wanted to take +the whole fire into her poor cold heart or gizzard,–groaning regularly +with each breath a spiteful and resentful groan, as if she fought +womanfully with her infirmities; and she continually smoked her pipe, and +sent out the breath of her complaint visibly in that evil odor; and +sometimes she murmured a little prayer, but somehow or other the evil and +bitterness, acridity, pepperiness, of her natural disposition overcame the +acquired grace which compelled her to pray, insomuch that, after all, you +would have thought the poor old woman was cursing with all her rheumatic +might. All the time an old, broken-nosed, brown earthen jug, covered with +the lid of a black teapot, stood on the edge of the embers, steaming +forever, and sometimes bubbling a little, and giving a great puff, as if +it were sighing and groaning in sympathy with poor Aunt Keziah, and when +it sighed there came a great steam of herby fragrance, not particularly +pleasant, into the kitchen. And ever and anon,–half a dozen times it +might be,–of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a +private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, +old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls +of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the +hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of +half an hour appeared to find life tolerable.</p> + +<p>But one day poor Aunt Keziah found herself unable, partly from rheumatism, +partly from other sickness or weakness, and partly from dolorous +ill-spirits, to keep about any longer, so she betook herself to her bed; +and betimes in the forenoon Septimius heard a tremendous knocking on the +floor of her bedchamber, which happened to be the room above his own. He +was the only person in or about the house; so with great reluctance, he +left his studies, which were upon the recipe, in respect to which he was +trying to make out the mode of concoction, which was told in such a +mysterious way that he could not well tell either the quantity of the +ingredients, the mode of trituration, nor in what way their virtue was to +be extracted and combined.</p> + +<p>Running hastily up stairs, he found Aunt Keziah lying in bed, and groaning +with great spite and bitterness; so that, indeed, it seemed not +improvidential that such an inimical state of mind towards the human race +was accompanied with an almost inability of motion, else it would not be +safe to be within a considerable distance of her.</p> + +<p>"Seppy, you good-for-nothing, are you going to see me lying here, dying, +without trying to do anything for me?"</p> + +<p>"Dying, Aunt Keziah?" repeated the young man. "I hope not! What can I do +for you? Shall I go for Rose? or call a neighbor in? or the doctor?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, you fool!" said the afflicted person. "You can do all that anybody +can for me; and that is to put my mixture on the kitchen fire till it +steams, and is just ready to bubble; then measure three teaspoonfuls–or +it may be four, as I am very bad–of spirit into a teacup, fill it half +full,–or it may be quite full, for I am very bad, as I said afore; six +teaspoonfuls of spirit into a cup of mixture, and let me have it as soon +as may be; and don't break the cup, nor spill the precious mixture, for +goodness knows when I can go into the woods to gather any more. Ah me! ah +me! it's a wicked, miserable world, and I am the most miserable creature +in it. Be quick, you good-for-nothing, and do as I say!"</p> + +<p>Septimius hastened down; but as he went a thought came into his head, which +it occurred to him might result in great benefit to Aunt Keziah, as well +as to the great cause of science and human good, and to the promotion of +his own purpose, in the first place. A day or two ago, he had gathered +several of the beautiful flowers, and laid them in the fervid sun to dry; +and they now seemed to be in about the state in which the old woman was +accustomed to use her herbs, so far as Septimius had observed. Now if +these flowers were really, as there was so much reason for supposing, the +one ingredient that had for hundreds of years been missing out of Aunt +Keziah's nostrum,–if it was this which that strange Indian sagamore had +mingled with his drink with such beneficial effect,–why should not +Septimius now restore it, and if it would not make his beloved aunt young +again, at least assuage the violent symptoms, and perhaps prolong her +valuable life some years, for the solace and delight of her numerous +friends? Septimius, like other people of investigating and active minds, +had a great tendency to experiment, and so good an opportunity as the +present, where (perhaps he thought) there was so little to be risked at +worst, and so much to be gained, was not to be neglected; so, without more +ado, he stirred three of the crimson flowers into the earthen jug, set it +on the edge of the fire, stirred it well, and when it steamed, threw up +little scarlet bubbles, and was about to boil, he measured out the +spirits, as Aunt Keziah had bidden him and then filled the teacup.</p> + +<p>"Ah, this will do her good; little does she think, poor old thing, what a +rare and costly medicine is about to be given her. This will set her on +her feet again."</p> + +<p>The hue was somewhat changed, he thought, from what he had observed of Aunt +Keziah's customary decoction; instead of a turbid yellow, the crimson +petals of the flower had tinged it, and made it almost red; not a +brilliant red, however, nor the least inviting in appearance. Septimius +smelt it, and thought he could distinguish a little of the rich odor of +the flower, but was not sure. He considered whether to taste it; but the +horrible flavor of Aunt Keziah's decoction recurred strongly to his +remembrance, and he concluded that were he evidently at the point of +death, he might possibly be bold enough to taste it again; but that +nothing short of the hope of a century's existence at least would repay +another taste of that fierce and nauseous bitterness. Aunt Keziah loved +it; and as she brewed, so let her drink.</p> + +<p>He went up stairs, careful not to spill a drop of the brimming cup, and +approached the old woman's bedside, where she lay, groaning as before, and +breaking out into a spiteful croak the moment he was within ear-shot.</p> + +<p>"You don't care whether I live or die," said she. "You've been waiting in +hopes I shall die, and so save yourself further trouble."</p> + +<p>"By no means, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius. "Here is the medicine, which I +have warmed, and measured out, and mingled, as well as I knew how; and I +think it will do you a great deal of good."</p> + +<p>"Won't you taste it, Seppy, my dear?" said Aunt Keziah, mollified by the +praise of her beloved mixture. "Drink first, dear, so that my sick old +lips need not taint it. You look pale, Septimius; it will do you good."</p> + +<p>"No, Aunt Keziah, I do not need it; and it were a pity to waste your +precious drink," said he.</p> + +<p>"It does not look quite the right color," said Aunt Keziah, as she took the +cup in her hand. "You must have dropped some soot into it." Then, as she +raised it to her lips, "It does not smell quite right. But, woe's me! how +can I expect anybody but myself to make this precious drink as it should +be?"</p> + +<p>She drank it off at two gulps; for she appeared to hurry it off faster than +usual, as if not tempted by the exquisiteness of its flavor to dwell upon +it so long.</p> + +<p>"You have not made it just right, Seppy," said she in a milder tone than +before, for she seemed to feel the customary soothing influence of the +draught, "but you'll do better the next time. It had a queer taste, +methought; or is it that my mouth is getting out of taste? Hard times it +will be for poor Aunt Kezzy, if she's to lose her taste for the medicine +that, under Providence, has saved her life for so many years."</p> + +<p>She gave back the cup to Septimius, after looking a little curiously at the +dregs.</p> + +<p>"It looks like bloodroot, don't it?" said she. "Perhaps it's my own fault +after all. I gathered a fresh bunch of the yarbs yesterday afternoon, and +put them to steep, and it may be I was a little blind, for it was between +daylight and dark, and the moon shone on me before I had finished. I +thought how the witches used to gather their poisonous stuff at such +times, and what pleasant uses they made of it,–but those are sinful +thoughts, Seppy, sinful thoughts! so I'll say a prayer and try to go to +sleep. I feel very noddy all at once."</p> + +<p>Septimius drew the bedclothes up about her shoulders, for she complained of +being very chilly, and, carefully putting her stick within reach, went +down to his own room, and resumed his studies, trying to make out from +those aged hieroglyphics, to which he was now so well accustomed, what was +the precise method of making the elixir of immortality. Sometimes, as men +in deep thought do, he rose from his chair, and walked to and fro the four +or five steps or so that conveyed him from end to end of his little room. +At one of these times he chanced to look in the little looking-glass that +hung between the windows, and was startled at the paleness of his face. It +was quite white, indeed. Septimius was not in the least a foppish young +man; careless he was in dress, though often his apparel took an unsought +picturesqueness that set off his slender, agile figure, perhaps from some +quality of spontaneous arrangement that he had inherited from his Indian +ancestry. Yet many women might have found a charm in that dark, thoughtful +face, with its hidden fire and energy, although Septimius never thought of +its being handsome, and seldom looked at it. Yet now he was drawn to it by +seeing how strangely white it was, and, gazing at it, he observed that +since he considered it last, a very deep furrow, or corrugation, or +fissure, it might almost be called, had indented his brow, rising from the +commencement of his nose towards the centre of the forehead. And he knew +it was his brooding thought, his fierce, hard determination, his intense +concentrativeness for so many months, that had been digging that furrow; +and it must prove indeed a potent specific of the life-water that would +smooth that away, and restore him all the youth and elasticity that he had +buried in that profound grave.</p> + +<p>But why was he so pale? He could have supposed himself startled by some +ghastly thing that he had just seen; by a corpse in the next room, for +instance; or else by the foreboding that one would soon be there; but yet +he was conscious of no tremor in his frame, no terror in his heart; as why +should there be any? Feeling his own pulse, he found the strong, regular +beat that should be there. He was not ill, nor affrighted; not expectant +of any pain. Then why so ghastly pale? And why, moreover, Septimius, did +you listen so earnestly for any sound in Aunt Keziah's chamber? Why did +you creep on tiptoe, once, twice, three times, up to the old woman's +chamber, and put your ear to the keyhole, and listen breathlessly? Well; +it must have been that he was subconscious that he was trying a bold +experiment, and that he had taken this poor old woman to be the medium of +it, in the hope, of course, that it would turn out well; yet with other +views than her interest in the matter. What was the harm of that? Medical +men, no doubt, are always doing so, and he was a medical man for the time. +Then why was he so pale?</p> + +<p>He sat down and fell into a reverie, which perhaps was partly suggested by +that chief furrow which he had seen, and which we have spoken of, in his +brow. He considered whether there was anything in this pursuit of his that +used up life particularly fast; so that, perhaps, unless he were +successful soon, he should be incapable of renewal; for, looking within +himself, and considering his mode of being, he had a singular fancy that +his heart was gradually drying up, and that he must continue to get some +moisture for it, or else it would soon be like a withered leaf. Supposing +his pursuit were vain, what a waste he was making of that little treasure +of golden days, which was his all! Could this be called life, which he was +leading now? How unlike that of other young men! How unlike that of Robert +Hagburn, for example! There had come news yesterday of his having +performed a gallant part in the battle of Monmouth, and being promoted to +be a captain for his brave conduct. Without thinking of long life, he +really lived in heroic actions and emotions; he got much life in a little, +and did not fear to sacrifice a lifetime of torpid breaths, if necessary, +to the ecstasy of a glorious death!</p> + +<p>[<i>It appears from a written sketch by the author of this story, that he +changed his first plan of making Septimius and Rose lovers, and she was to +be represented as his half-sister, and in the copy for publication this +alteration would have been made</i>.–ED.]</p> + +<p>And then Robert loved, too, loved his sister Rose, and felt, doubtless, an +immortality in that passion. Why could not Septimius love too? It was +forbidden! Well, no matter; whom could he have loved? Who, in all this +world would have been suited to his secret, brooding heart, that he could +have let her into its mysterious chambers, and walked with her from one +cavernous gloom to another, and said, "Here are my treasures. I make thee +mistress of all these; with all these goods I thee endow." And then, +revealing to her his great secret and purpose of gaining immortal life, +have said: "This shall be thine, too. Thou shalt share with me. We will +walk along the endless path together, and keep one another's hearts warm, +and so be content to live."</p> + +<p>Ah, Septimius! but now you are getting beyond those rules of yours, which, +cold as they are, have been drawn out of a subtle philosophy, and might, +were it possible to follow them out, suffice to do all that you ask of +them; but if you break them, you do it at the peril of your earthly +immortality. Each warmer and quicker throb of the heart wears away so much +of life. The passions, the affections, are a wine not to be indulged in. +Love, above all, being in its essence an immortal thing, cannot be long +contained in an earthly body, but would wear it out with its own secret +power, softly invigorating as it seems. You must be cold, therefore, +Septimius; you must not even earnestly and passionately desire this +immortality that seems so necessary to you. Else the very wish will +prevent the possibility of its fulfilment.</p> + +<p>By and by, to call him out of these rhapsodies, came Rose home; and finding +the kitchen hearth cold, and Aunt Keziah missing, and no dinner by the +fire, which was smouldering,–nothing but the portentous earthen jug, +which fumed, and sent out long, ill-flavored sighs, she tapped at +Septimius's door, and asked him what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Keziah has had an ill turn," said Septimius, "and has gone to bed."</p> + +<p>"Poor auntie!" said Rose, with her quick sympathy. "I will this moment run +up and see if she needs anything."</p> + +<p>"No, Rose," said Septimius, "she has doubtless gone to sleep, and will +awake as well as usual. It would displease her much were you to miss your +afternoon school; so you had better set the table with whatever there is +left of yesterday's dinner, and leave me to take care of auntie."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Rose, "she loves you best; but if she be really ill, I shall +give up my school and nurse her."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," said Septimius, "she will be about the house again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>So Rose ate her frugal dinner (consisting chiefly of purslain, and some +other garden herbs, which her thrifty aunt had prepared for boiling), and +went away as usual to her school; for Aunt Keziah, as aforesaid, had never +encouraged the tender ministrations of Rose, whose orderly, womanly +character, with its well-defined orb of daily and civilized duties, had +always appeared to strike her as tame; and she once said to her, "You are +no squaw, child, and you'll never make a witch." Nor would she even so +much as let Rose put her tea to steep, or do anything whatever for herself +personally; though, certainly, she was not backward in requiring of her a +due share of labor for the general housekeeping.</p> + +<p>Septimius was sitting in his room, as the afternoon wore away; because, for +some reason or other, or, quite as likely, for no reason at all, he did +not air himself and his thoughts, as usual, on the hill; so he was sitting +musing, thinking, looking into his mysterious manuscript, when he heard +Aunt Keziah moving in the chamber above. First she seemed to rattle a +chair; then she began a slow, regular beat with the stick which Septimius +had left by her bedside, and which startled him strangely,–so that, +indeed, his heart beat faster than the five-and-seventy throbs to which he +was restricted by the wise rules that he had digested. So he ran hastily +up stairs, and behold, Aunt Keziah was sitting up in bed, looking very +wild,–so wild that you would have thought she was going to fly up chimney +the next minute; her gray hair all dishevelled, her eyes staring, her +hands clutching forward, while she gave a sort of howl, what with pain and +agitation.</p> + +<p>"Seppy! Seppy!" said she,–"Seppy, my darling! are you quite sure you +remember how to make that precious drink?"</p> + +<p>"Quite well, Aunt Keziah," said Septimius, inwardly much alarmed by her +aspect, but preserving a true Indian composure of outward mien. "I wrote +it down, and could say it by heart besides. Shall I make you a fresh pot +of it? for I have thrown away the other."</p> + +<p>"That was well, Seppy," said the poor old woman, "for there is something +wrong about it; but I want no more, for, Seppy dear, I am going fast out +of this world, where you and that precious drink were my only treasures +and comforts. I wanted to know if you remembered the recipe; it is all I +have to leave you, and the more you drink of it, Seppy, the better. Only +see to make it right!"</p> + +<p>"Dear auntie, what can I do for you?" said Septimius, in much +consternation, but still calm. "Let me run for the doctor,–for the +neighbors? something must be done!"</p> + +<p>The old woman contorted herself as if there were a fearful time in her +insides; and grinned, and twisted the yellow ugliness of her face, and +groaned, and howled; and yet there was a tough and fierce kind of +endurance with which she fought with her anguish, and would not yield to +it a jot, though she allowed herself the relief of shrieking savagely at +it,–much more like a defiance than a cry for mercy.</p> + +<p>"No doctor! no woman!" said she; "if my drink could not save me, what would +a doctor's foolish pills and powders do? And a woman! If old Martha +Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other +women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I +could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a +Christian woman, Seppy,–a Christian woman."</p> + +<p>"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a +good man, and a wise one."</p> + +<p>"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were +choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise +enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! Eh, Seppy, I'm +a Christian woman, but I'm not like other Christian women; and I'm glad +I'm going away from this stupid world. I've not been a bad woman, and I +deserve credit for it, for it would have suited me a great deal better to +be bad. Oh, what a delightful time a witch must have had, starting off up +chimney on her broomstick at midnight, and looking down from aloft in the +sky on the sleeping village far below, with its steeple pointing up at +her, so that she might touch the golden weathercock! You, meanwhile, in +such an ecstasy, and all below you the dull, innocent, sober humankind; +the wife sleeping by her husband, or mother by her child, squalling with +wind in its stomach; the goodman driving up his cattle and his +plough,–all so innocent, all so stupid, with their dull days just alike, +one after another. And you up in the air, sweeping away to some nook in +the forest! Ha! What's that? A wizard! Ha! ha! Known below as a deacon! +There is Goody Chickering! How quietly she sent the young people to bed +after prayers! There is an Indian; there a nigger; they all have equal +rights and privileges at a witch-meeting. Phew! the wind blows cold up +here! Why does not the Black Man have the meeting at his own kitchen +hearth? Ho! ho! Oh dear me! But I'm a Christian woman and no witch; but +those must have been gallant times!"</p> + +<p>Doubtless it was a partial wandering of the mind that took the poor old +woman away on this old-witch flight; and it was very curious and pitiful +to witness the compunction with which she returned to herself and took +herself to task for the preference which, in her wild nature, she could +not help giving to harum-scarum wickedness over tame goodness. Now she +tried to compose herself, and talk reasonably and godly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Septimius, my dear child, never give way to temptation, nor consent to +be a wizard, though the Black Man persuade you ever so hard. I know he +will try. He has tempted me, but I never yielded, never gave him his will; +and never do you, my boy, though you, with your dark complexion, and your +brooding brow, and your eye veiled, only when it suddenly looks out with a +flash of fire in it, are the sort of man he seeks most, and that +afterwards serves him. But don't do it, Septimius. But if you could be an +Indian, methinks it would be better than this tame life we lead. 'T would +have been better for me, at all events. Oh, how pleasant 't would have +been to spend my life wandering in the woods, smelling the pines and the +hemlock all day, and fresh things of all kinds, and no kitchen work to +do,–not to rake up the fire, nor sweep the room, nor make the beds,–but +to sleep on fresh boughs in a wigwam, with the leaves still on the +branches that made the roof! And then to see the deer brought in by the +red hunter, and the blood streaming from the arrow-dart! Ah! and the fight +too! and the scalping! and, perhaps, a woman might creep into the battle, +and steal the wounded enemy away of her tribe and scalp him, and be +praised for it! O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women +lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If +I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!"</p> + +<p>After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and +her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, +as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted +features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. And so it proved by +what followed, for the old woman turned to him with a grim tenderness on +her face, and stretched out her hand to be taken in his own. He clasped +the bony talon in both his hands.</p> + +<p>"Seppy, my dear, I feel a great peace, and I don't think there is so very +much to trouble me in the other world. It won't be all house-work, and +keeping decent, and doing like other people there. I suppose I needn't +expect to ride on a broomstick,–that would be wrong in any kind of a +world,–but there may be woods to wander in, and a pipe to smoke in the +air of heaven; trees to hear the wind in, and to smell of, and all such +natural, happy things; and by and by I shall hope to see you there, Seppy, +my darling boy! Come by and by; 't is n't worth your while to live +forever, even if you should find out what's wanting in the drink I've +taught you. I can see a little way into the next world now, and I see it +to be far better than this heavy and wretched old place. You'll die when +your time comes; won't you, Seppy, my darling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear auntie, when my time comes," said Septimius. "Very likely I +shall want to live no longer by that time."</p> + +<p>"Likely not," said the old woman. "I'm sure I don't. It is like going to +sleep on my mother's breast to die. So good night, dear Seppy!"</p> + +<p>"Good night, and God bless you, auntie!" said Septimius, with a gush of +tears blinding him, spite of his Indian nature.</p> + +<p>The old woman composed herself, and lay quite still and decorous for a +short time; then, rousing herself a little, "Septimius," said she, "is +there just a little drop of my drink left? Not that I want to live any +longer, but if I could sip ever so little, I feel as if I should step into +the other world quite cheery, with it warm in my heart, and not feel shy +and bashful at going among strangers."</p> + +<p>"Not one drop, auntie."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, no matter! It was not quite right, that last cup. It had a queer +taste. What could you have put into it, Seppy, darling? But no matter, no +matter! It's a precious stuff, if you make it right. Don't forget the +herbs, Septimius. Something wrong had certainly got into it."</p> + +<p>These, except for some murmurings, some groanings and unintelligible +whisperings, were the last utterances of poor Aunt Keziah, who did not +live a great while longer, and at last passed away in a great sigh, like a +gust of wind among the trees, she having just before stretched out her +hand again and grasped that of Septimius; and he sat watching her and +gazing at her, wondering and horrified, touched, shocked by death, of +which he had so unusual a terror,–and by the death of this creature +especially, with whom he felt a sympathy that did not exist with any other +person now living. So long did he sit, holding her hand, that at last he +was conscious that it was growing cold within his own, and that the +stiffening fingers clutched him, as if they were disposed to keep their +hold, and not forego the tie that had been so peculiar.</p> + +<p>Then rushing hastily forth, he told the nearest available neighbor, who was +Robert Hagburn's mother; and she summoned some of her gossips, and came to +the house, and took poor Aunt Keziah in charge. They talked of her with no +great respect, I fear, nor much sorrow, nor sense that the community would +suffer any great deprivation in her loss; for, in their view, she was a +dram-drinking, pipe-smoking, cross-grained old maid, and, as some thought, +a witch; and, at any rate, with too much of the Indian blood in her to be +of much use; and they hoped that now Rose Garfield would have a pleasanter +life, and Septimius study to be a minister, and all things go well, and +the place be cheerfuller. They found Aunt Keziah's bottle in the cupboard, +and tasted and smelt of it.</p> + +<p>"Good West Indjy as ever I tasted," said Mrs. Hagburn; "and there stands +her broken pitcher, on the hearth. Ah, empty! I never could bring my mind +to taste it; but now I'm sorry I never did, for I suppose nobody in the +world can make any more of it."</p> + +<p>Septimius, meanwhile, had betaken himself to the hill-top, which was his +place of refuge on all occasions when the house seemed too stifled to +contain him; and there he walked to and fro, with a certain kind of +calmness and indifference that he wondered at; for there is hardly +anything in this world so strange as the quiet surface that spreads over a +man's mind in his greatest emergencies: so that he deems himself perfectly +quiet, and upbraids himself with not feeling anything, when indeed he is +passion-stirred. As Septimius walked to and fro, he looked at the rich +crimson flowers, which seemed to be blooming in greater profusion and +luxuriance than ever before. He had made an experiment with these flowers, +and he was curious to know whether that experiment had been the cause of +Aunt Keziah's death. Not that he felt any remorse therefor, in any case, +or believed himself to have committed a crime, having really intended and +desired nothing but good. I suppose such things (and he must be a lucky +physician, methinks, who has no such mischief within his own experience) +never weigh with deadly weight on any man's conscience. Something must be +risked in the cause of science, and in desperate cases something must be +risked for the patient's self. Septimius, much as he loved life, would not +have hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on +Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because, if +the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would not be +in a position to make another and more successful trial; whereas, by +trying it on others, the man of science still reserves himself for new +efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world, so far as involved +in his success, on one cast of the die.</p> + +<p>By and by he met Sibyl Dacy, who had ascended the hill, as was usual with +her, at sunset, and came towards him, gazing earnestly in his face.</p> + +<p>"They tell me poor Aunt Keziah is no more," said she.</p> + +<p>"She is dead," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"The flower is a very famous medicine," said the girl, "but everything +depends on its being applied in the proper way."</p> + +<p>"Do you know the way, then?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No; you should ask Doctor Portsoaken about that," said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>Doctor Portsoaken! And so he should consult him. That eminent chemist and +scientific man had evidently heard of the recipe, and at all events would +be acquainted with the best methods of getting the virtues out of flowers +and herbs, some of which, Septimius had read enough to know, were poison +in one phase and shape of preparation, and possessed of richest virtues in +others; their poison, as one may say, serving as a dark and terrible +safeguard, which Providence has set to watch over their preciousness; even +as a dragon, or some wild and fiendish spectre, is set to watch and keep +hidden gold and heaped-up diamonds. A dragon always waits on everything +that is very good. And what would deserve the watch and ward of danger of +a dragon, or something more fatal than a dragon, if not this treasure of +which Septimius was in quest, and the discovery and possession of which +would enable him to break down one of the strongest barriers of nature? It +ought to be death, he acknowledged it, to attempt such a thing; for how +hanged would be life if he should succeed; how necessary it was that +mankind should be defended from such attempts on the general rule on the +part of all but him. How could Death be spared?–then the sire would live +forever, and the heir never come to his inheritance, and so he would at +once hate his own father, from the perception that he would never be out +of his way. Then the same class of powerful minds would always rule the +state, and there would never be a change of policy. [<i>Here several pages +are missing</i>.–ED.]</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Through such scenes Septimius sought out the direction that Doctor +Portsoaken had given him, and came to the door of a house in the olden +part of the town. The Boston of those days had very much the aspect of +provincial towns in England, such as may still be seen there, while our +own city has undergone such wonderful changes that little likeness to what +our ancestors made it can now be found. The streets, crooked and narrow; +the houses, many gabled, projecting, with latticed windows and diamond +panes; without sidewalks; with rough pavements.</p> + +<p>Septimius knocked loudly at the door, nor had long to wait before a +serving-maid appeared, who seemed to be of English nativity; and in reply +to his request for Doctor Portsoaken bade him come in, and led him up a +staircase with broad landing-places; then tapped at the door of a room, +and was responded to by a gruff voice saying, "Come in!" The woman held +the door open, and Septimius saw the veritable Doctor Portsoaken in an +old, faded morning-gown, and with a nightcap on his head, his German pipe +in his mouth, and a brandy-bottle, to the best of our belief, on the table +by his side.</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in," said the gruff doctor, nodding to Septimius. "I +remember you. Come in, man, and tell me your business."</p> + +<p>Septimius did come in, but was so struck by the aspect of Dr. Portsoaken's +apartment, and his gown, that he did not immediately tell his business. In +the first place, everything looked very dusty and dirty, so that evidently +no woman had ever been admitted into this sanctity of a place; a fact made +all the more evident by the abundance of spiders, who had spun their webs +about the walls and ceiling in the wildest apparent confusion, though +doubtless each individual spider knew the cordage which he had lengthened +out of his own miraculous bowels. But it was really strange. They had +festooned their cordage on whatever was stationary in the room, making a +sort of gray, dusky tapestry, that waved portentously in the breeze, and +flapped, heavy and dismal, each with its spider in the centre of his own +system. And what was most marvellous was a spider over the doctor's head; +a spider, I think, of some South American breed, with a circumference of +its many legs as big, unless I am misinformed, as a teacup, and with a +body in the midst as large as a dollar; giving the spectator horrible +qualms as to what would be the consequence if this spider should be +crushed, and, at the same time, suggesting the poisonous danger of +suffering such a monster to live. The monster, however, sat in the midst +of the stalwart cordage of his web, right over the doctor's head; and he +looked, with all those complicated lines, like the symbol of a conjurer or +crafty politician in the midst of the complexity of his scheme; and +Septimius wondered if he were not the type of Dr. Portsoaken himself, who, +fat and bloated as the spider, seemed to be the centre of some dark +contrivance. And could it be that poor Septimius was typified by the +fascinated fly, doomed to be entangled by the web?</p> + +<p>"Good day to you," said the gruff doctor, taking his pipe from his mouth. +"Here I am, with my brother spiders, in the midst of my web. I told you, +you remember, the wonderful efficacy which I had discovered in spiders' +webs; and this is my laboratory, where I have hundreds of workmen +concocting my panacea for me. Is it not a lovely sight?"</p> + +<p>"A wonderful one, at least," said Septimius. "That one above your head, the +monster, is calculated to give a very favorable idea of your theory. What +a quantity of poison there must be in him!"</p> + +<p>"Poison, do you call it?" quoth the grim doctor. "That's entirely as it may +be used. Doubtless his bite would send a man to kingdom come; but, on the +other hand, no one need want a better life-line than that fellow's web. He +and I are firm friends, and I believe he would know my enemies by +instinct. But come, sit down, and take a glass of brandy. No? Well, I'll +drink it for you. And how is the old aunt yonder, with her infernal +nostrum, the bitterness and nauseousness of which my poor stomach has not +yet forgotten?"</p> + +<p>"My Aunt Keziah is no more," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No more! Well, I trust in Heaven she has carried her secret with her," +said the doctor. "If anything could comfort you for her loss, it would be +that. But what brings you to Boston?"</p> + +<p>"Only a dried flower or two," said Septimius, producing some specimens of +the strange growth of the grave. "I want you to tell me about them."</p> + +<p>The naturalist took the flowers in his hand, one of which had the root +appended, and examined them with great minuteness and some surprise; two +or three times looking in Septimius's face with a puzzled and inquiring +air; then examined them again.</p> + +<p>"Do you tell me," said he, "that the plant has been found indigenous in +this country, and in your part of it? And in what locality?"</p> + +<p>"Indigenous, so far as I know," answered Septimius. "As to the +locality,"–he hesitated a little,–"it is on a small hillock, scarcely +bigger than a molehill, on the hill-top behind my house."</p> + +<p>The naturalist looked steadfastly at him with red, burning eyes, under his +deep, impending, shaggy brows; then again at the flower.</p> + +<p>"Flower, do you call it?" said he, after a reëxamination. "This is no +flower, though it so closely resembles one, and a beautiful one,–yes, +most beautiful. But it is no flower. It is a certain very rare fungus,–so +rare as almost to be thought fabulous; and there are the strangest +superstitions, coming down from ancient times, as to the mode of +production. What sort of manure had been put into that hillock? Was it +merely dried leaves, the refuse of the forest, or something else?"</p> + +<p>Septimius hesitated a little; but there was no reason why he should not +disclose the truth,–as much of it as Doctor Portsoaken cared to know.</p> + +<p>"The hillock where it grew," answered he, "was a grave."</p> + +<p>"A grave! Strange! strange!" quoth Doctor Portsoaken. "Now these old +superstitions sometimes prove to have a germ of truth in them, which some +philosopher has doubtless long ago, in forgotten ages, discovered and made +known; but in process of time his learned memory passes away, but the +truth, undiscovered, survives him, and the people get hold of it, and make +it the nucleus of all sorts of folly. So it grew out of a grave! Yes, yes; +and probably it would have grown out of any other dead flesh, as well as +that of a human being; a dog would have answered the purpose as well as a +man. You must know that the seeds of fungi are scattered so universally +over the world that, only comply with the conditions, and you will produce +them everywhere. Prepare the bed it loves, and a mushroom will spring up +spontaneously, an excellent food, like manna from heaven. So superstition +says, kill your deadliest enemy, and plant him, and he will come up in a +delicious fungus, which I presume to be this; steep him, or distil him, +and he will make an elixir of life for you. I suppose there is some +foolish symbolism or other about the matter; but the fact I affirm to be +nonsense. Dead flesh under some certain conditions of rain and sunshine, +not at present ascertained by science, will produce the fungus, whether +the manure be friend, or foe, or cattle."</p> + +<p>"And as to its medical efficacy?" asked Septimius.</p> + +<p>"That may be great for aught I know," said Portsoaken; "but I am content +with my cobwebs. You may seek it out for yourself. But if the poor fellow +lost his life in the supposition that he might be a useful ingredient in a +recipe, you are rather an unscrupulous practitioner."</p> + +<p>"The person whose mortal relics fill that grave," said Septimius, "was no +enemy of mine (no private enemy, I mean, though he stood among the enemies +of my country), nor had I anything to gain by his death. I strove to avoid +aiming at his life, but he compelled me."</p> + +<p>"Many a chance shot brings down the bird," said Doctor Portsoaken. "You say +you had no interest in his death. We shall see that in the end."</p> + +<p>Septimius did not try to follow the conversation among the mysterious hints +with which the doctor chose to involve it; but he now sought to gain some +information from him as to the mode of preparing the recipe, and whether +he thought it would be most efficacious as a decoction, or as a +distillation. The learned chemist supported most decidedly the latter +opinion, and showed Septimius how he might make for himself a simpler +apparatus, with no better aids than Aunt Keziah's teakettle, and one or +two trifling things, which the doctor himself supplied, by which all might +be done with every necessary scrupulousness.</p> + +<p>"Let me look again at the formula," said he. "There are a good many minute +directions that appear trifling, but it is not safe to neglect any +minutiae in the preparation of an affair like this; because, as it is all +mysterious and unknown ground together, we cannot tell which may be the +important and efficacious part. For instance, when all else is done, the +recipe is to be exposed seven days to the sun at noon. That does not look +very important, but it may be. Then again, 'Steep it in moonlight during +the second quarter.' That's all moonshine, one would think; but there's no +saying. It is singular, with such preciseness, that no distinct directions +are given whether to infuse, decoct, distil, or what other way; but my +advice is to distil."</p> + +<p>"I will do it," said Septimius, "and not a direction shall be neglected."</p> + +<p>"I shall be curious to know the result," said Doctor Portsoaken, "and am +glad to see the zeal with which you enter into the matter. A very valuable +medicine may be recovered to science through your agency, and you may make +your fortune by it; though, for my part, I prefer to trust to my cobwebs. +This spider, now, is not he a lovely object? See, he is quite capable of +knowledge and affection."</p> + +<p>There seemed, in fact, to be some mode of communication between the doctor +and his spider, for on some sign given by the former, imperceptible to +Septimius, the many-legged monster let himself down by a cord, which he +extemporized out of his own bowels, and came dangling his huge bulk down +before his master's face, while the latter lavished many epithets of +endearment upon him, ludicrous, and not without horror, as applied to such +a hideous production of nature.</p> + +<p>"I assure you," said Dr. Portsoaken, "I run some risk from my intimacy with +this lovely jewel, and if I behave not all the more prudently, your +countrymen will hang me for a wizard, and annihilate this precious spider +as my familiar. There would be a loss to the world; not small in my own +case, but enormous in the case of the spider. Look at him now, and see if +the mere uninstructed observation does not discover a wonderful value in +him."</p> + +<p>In truth, when looked at closely, the spider really showed that a care and +art had been bestowed upon his make, not merely as regards curiosity, but +absolute beauty, that seemed to indicate that he must be a rather +distinguished creature in the view of Providence; so variegated was he +with a thousand minute spots, spots of color, glorious radiance, and such +a brilliance was attained by many conglomerated brilliancies; and it was +very strange that all this care was bestowed on a creature that, probably, +had never been carefully considered except by the two pair of eyes that +were now upon it; and that, in spite of its beauty and magnificence, could +only be looked at with an effort to overcome the mysterious repulsiveness +of its presence; for all the time that Septimius looked and admired, he +still hated the thing, and thought it wrong that it was ever born, and +wished that it could be annihilated. Whether the spider was conscious of +the wish, we are unable to say; but certainly Septimius felt as if he were +hostile to him, and had a mind to sting him; and, in fact, Dr. Portsoaken +seemed of the same opinion.</p> + +<p>"Aha, my friend," said he, "I would advise you not to come too near +Orontes! He is a lovely beast, it is true; but in a certain recess of this +splendid form of his he keeps a modest supply of a certain potent and +piercing poison, which would produce a wonderful effect on any flesh to +which he chose to apply it. A powerful fellow is Orontes; and he has a +great sense of his own dignity and importance, and will not allow it to be +imposed on."</p> + +<p>Septimius moved from the vicinity of the spider, who, in fact, retreated, +by climbing up his cord, and ensconced himself in the middle of his web, +where he remained waiting for his prey. Septimius wondered whether the +doctor were symbolized by the spider, and was likewise waiting in the +middle of his web for his prey. As he saw no way, however, in which the +doctor could make a profit out of himself, or how he could be victimized, +the thought did not much disturb his equanimity. He was about to take his +leave, but the doctor, in a derisive kind of way, bade him sit still, for +he purposed keeping him as a guest, that night, at least.</p> + +<p>"I owe you a dinner," said he, "and will pay it with a supper and +knowledge; and before we part I have certain inquiries to make, of which +you may not at first see the object, but yet are not quite purposeless. My +familiar, up aloft there, has whispered me something about you, and I rely +greatly on his intimations."</p> + +<p>Septimius, who was sufficiently common-sensible, and invulnerable to +superstitious influences on every point except that to which he had +surrendered himself, was easily prevailed upon to stay; for he found the +singular, charlatanic, mysterious lore of the man curious, and he had +enough of real science to at least make him an object of interest to one +who knew nothing of the matter; and Septimius's acuteness, too, was piqued +in trying to make out what manner of man he really was, and how much in +him was genuine science and self-belief, and how much quackery and +pretension and conscious empiricism. So he stayed, and supped with the +doctor at a table heaped more bountifully, and with rarer dainties, than +Septimius had ever before conceived of; and in his simpler cognizance, +heretofore, of eating merely to live, he could not but wonder to see a man +of thought caring to eat of more than one dish, so that most of the meal, +on his part, was spent in seeing the doctor feed and hearing him discourse +upon his food.</p> + +<p>"If man lived only to eat," quoth the doctor, "one life would not suffice, +not merely to exhaust the pleasure of it, but even to get the rudiments of +it."</p> + +<p>When this important business was over, the doctor and his guest sat down +again in his laboratory, where the former took care to have his usual +companion, the black bottle, at his elbow, and filled his pipe, and seemed +to feel a certain sullen, genial, fierce, brutal, kindly mood enough, and +looked at Septimius with a sort of friendship, as if he had as lief shake +hands with him as knock him down.</p> + +<p>"Now for a talk about business," said he.</p> + +<p>Septimius thought, however, that the doctor's talk began, at least, at a +sufficient remoteness from any practical business; for he began to +question about his remote ancestry, what he knew, or what record had been +preserved, of the first emigrant from England; whence, from what shire or +part of England, that ancestor had come; whether there were any memorial +of any kind remaining of him, any letters or written documents, wills, +deeds, or other legal paper; in short, all about him.</p> + +<p>Septimius could not satisfactorily see whether these inquiries were made +with any definite purpose, or from a mere general curiosity to discover +how a family of early settlement in America might still be linked with the +old country; whether there were any tendrils stretching across the gulf of +a hundred and fifty years by which the American branch of the family was +separated from the trunk of the family tree in England. The doctor partly +explained this.</p> + +<p>"You must know," said he, "that the name you bear, Felton, is one formerly +of much eminence and repute in my part of England, and, indeed, very +recently possessed of wealth and station. I should like to know if you are +of that race."</p> + +<p>Septimius answered with such facts and traditions as had come to his +knowledge respecting his family history; a sort of history that is quite +as liable to be mythical, in its early and distant stages, as that of +Rome, and, indeed, seldom goes three or four generations back without +getting into a mist really impenetrable, though great, gloomy, and +magnificent shapes of men often seem to loom in it, who, if they could be +brought close to the naked eye, would turn out as commonplace as the +descendants who wonder at and admire them. He remembered Aunt Keziah's +legend and said he had reason to believe that his first ancestor came over +at a somewhat earlier date than the first Puritan settlers, and dwelt +among the Indians where (and here the young man cast down his eyes, having +the customary American abhorrence for any mixture of blood) he had +intermarried with the daughter of a sagamore, and succeeded to his rule. +This might have happened as early as the end of Elizabeth's reign, perhaps +later. It was impossible to decide dates on such a matter. There had been +a son of this connection, perhaps more than one, but certainly one son, +who, on the arrival of the Puritans, was a youth, his father appearing to +have been slain in some outbreak of the tribe, perhaps owing to the +jealousy of prominent chiefs at seeing their natural authority abrogated +or absorbed by a man of different race. He slightly alluded to the +supernatural attributes that gathered round this predecessor, but in a way +to imply that he put no faith in them; for Septimius's natural keen sense +and perception kept him from betraying his weaknesses to the doctor, by +the same instinctive and subtle caution with which a madman can so well +conceal his infirmity.</p> + +<p>On the arrival of the Puritans, they had found among the Indians a youth +partly of their own blood, able, though imperfectly, to speak their +language,–having, at least, some early recollections of it,–inheriting, +also, a share of influence over the tribe on which his father had grafted +him. It was natural that they should pay especial attention to this youth, +consider it their duty to give him religious instruction in the faith of +his fathers, and try to use him as a means of influencing his tribe. They +did so, but did not succeed in swaying the tribe by his means, their +success having been limited to winning the half-Indian from the wild ways +of his mother's people, into a certain partial, but decent accommodation +to those of the English. A tendency to civilization was brought out in his +character by their rigid training; at least, his savage wildness was +broken. He built a house among them, with a good deal of the wigwam, no +doubt, in its style of architecture, but still a permanent house, near +which he established a corn-field, a pumpkin-garden, a melon-patch, and +became farmer enough to be entitled to ask the hand of a Puritan maiden. +There he spent his life, with some few instances of temporary relapse into +savage wildness, when he fished in the river Musquehannah, or in Walden, +or strayed in the woods, when he should have been planting or hoeing; but, +on the whole, the race had been redeemed from barbarism in his person, and +in the succeeding generations had been tamed more and more. The second +generation had been distinguished in the Indian wars of the provinces, and +then intermarried with the stock of a distinguished Puritan divine, by +which means Septimius could reckon great and learned men, scholars of old +Cambridge, among his ancestry on one side, while on the other it ran up to +the early emigrants, who seemed to have been remarkable men, and to that +strange wild lineage of Indian chiefs, whose blood was like that of +persons not quite human, intermixed with civilized blood.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said the doctor, musingly, "whether there are really no +documents to ascertain the epoch at which that old first emigrant came +over, and whence he came, and precisely from what English family. Often +the last heir of some respectable name dies in England, and we say that +the family is extinct; whereas, very possibly, it may be abundantly +flourishing in the New World, revived by the rich infusion of new blood in +a new soil, instead of growing feebler, heavier, stupider, each year by +sticking to an old soil, intermarrying over and over again with the same +respectable families, till it has made common stock of all their vices, +weaknesses, madnesses. Have you no documents, I say, no muniment deed?"</p> + +<p>"None," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"No old furniture, desks, trunks, chests, cabinets?"</p> + +<p>"You must remember," said Septimius, "that my Indian ancestor was not very +likely to have brought such things out of the forest with him. A wandering +Indian does not carry a chest of papers with him. I do remember, in my +childhood, a little old iron-bound chest, or coffer, of which the key was +lost, and which my Aunt Keziah used to say came down from her +great-great-grandfather. I don't know what has become of it, and my poor +old aunt kept it among her own treasures."</p> + +<p>"Well, my friend, do you hunt up that old coffer, and, just as a matter of +curiosity, let me see the contents."</p> + +<p>"I have other things to do," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so," quoth the doctor, "but no other, as it may turn out, of quite +so much importance as this. I'll tell you fairly: the heir of a great +English house is lately dead, and the estate lies open to any +well-sustained, perhaps to any plausible, claimant. If it should appear +from the records of that family, as I have some reason to suppose, that a +member of it, who would now represent the older branch, disappeared +mysteriously and unaccountably, at a date corresponding with what might be +ascertained as that of your ancestor's first appearance in this country; +if any reasonable proof can be brought forward, on the part of the +representatives of that white sagamore, that wizard pow-wow, or however +you call him, that he was the disappearing Englishman, why, a good case is +made out. Do you feel no interest in such a prospect?"</p> + +<p>"Very little, I confess," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Very little!" said the grim doctor, impatiently. "Do not you see that, if +you make good your claim, you establish for yourself a position among the +English aristocracy, and succeed to a noble English estate, an ancient +hall, where your forefathers have dwelt since the Conqueror; splendid +gardens, hereditary woods and parks, to which anything America can show is +despicable,–all thoroughly cultivated and adorned, with the care and +ingenuity of centuries; and an income, a month of which would be greater +wealth than any of your American ancestors, raking and scraping for his +lifetime, has ever got together, as the accumulated result of the toil and +penury by which he has sacrificed body and soul?"</p> + +<p>"That strain of Indian blood is in me yet," said Septimius, "and it makes +me despise,–no, not despise; for I can see their desirableness for other +people,–but it makes me reject for myself what you think so valuable. I +do not care for these common aims. I have ambition, but it is for prizes +such as other men cannot gain, and do not think of aspiring after. I could +not live in the habits of English life, as I conceive it to be, and would +not, for my part, be burdened with the great estate you speak of. It might +answer my purpose for a time. It would suit me well enough to try that +mode of life, as well as a hundred others, but only for a time. It is of +no permanent importance."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is, young man," said the doctor, testily, "you have +something in your brain that makes you talk very foolishly; and I have +partly a suspicion what it is,–only I can't think that a fellow who is +really gifted with respectable sense, in other directions, should be such +a confounded idiot in this."</p> + +<p>Septimius blushed, but held his peace, and the conversation languished +after this; the doctor grimly smoking his pipe, and by no means increasing +the milkiness of his mood by frequent applications to the black bottle, +until Septimius intimated that he would like to go to bed. The old woman +was summoned, and ushered him to his chamber.</p> + +<p>At breakfast, the doctor partially renewed the subject which he seemed to +consider most important in yesterday's conversation.</p> + +<p>"My young friend," said he, "I advise you to look in cellar and garret, or +wherever you consider the most likely place, for that iron-bound coffer. +There may be nothing in it; it may be full of musty love-letters, or old +sermons, or receipted bills of a hundred years ago; but it may contain +what will be worth to you an estate of five thousand pounds a year. It is +a pity the old woman with the damnable decoction is gone off. Look it up, +I say."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Septimius, abstractedly, "when I can find time."</p> + +<p>So saying, he took his leave, and retraced his way back to his home. He had +not seemed like himself during the time that elapsed since he left it, and +it appeared an infinite space that he had lived through and travelled +over, and he fancied it hardly possible that he could ever get back again. +But now, with every step that he took, he found himself getting miserably +back into the old enchanted land. The mist rose up about him, the pale +mist-bow of ghostly promise curved before him; and he trod back again, +poor boy, out of the clime of real effort, into the land of his dreams and +shadowy enterprise.</p> + +<p>"How was it," said he, "that I can have been so untrue to my convictions? +Whence came that dark and dull despair that weighed upon me? Why did I let +the mocking mood which I was conscious of in that brutal, brandy-burnt +sceptic have such an influence on me? Let him guzzle! He shall not tempt +me from my pursuit, with his lure of an estate and name among those heavy +English beef-eaters of whom he is a brother. My destiny is one which kings +might envy, and strive in vain to buy with principalities and kingdoms."</p> + +<p>So he trod on air almost, in the latter parts of his journey, and instead +of being wearied, grew more airy with the latter miles that brought him to +his wayside home.</p> + +<p>So now Septimius sat down and began in earnest his endeavors and +experiments to prepare the medicine, according to the mysterious terms of +the recipe. It seemed not possible to do it, so many rebuffs and +disappointments did he meet with. No effort would produce a combination +answering to the description of the recipe, which propounded a brilliant, +gold-colored liquid, clear as the air itself, with a certain fragrance +which was peculiar to it, and also, what was the more individual test of +the correctness of the mixture, a certain coldness of the feeling, a +chillness which was described as peculiarly refreshing and invigorating. +With all his trials, he produced nothing but turbid results, clouded +generally, or lacking something in color, and never that fragrance, and +never that coldness which was to be the test of truth. He studied all the +books of chemistry which at that period were attainable,–a period when, +in the world, it was a science far unlike what it has since become; and +when Septimius had no instruction in this country, nor could obtain any +beyond the dark, mysterious charlatanic communications of Doctor +Portsoaken. So that, in fact, he seemed to be discovering for himself the +science through which he was to work. He seemed to do everything that was +stated in the recipe, and yet no results came from it; the liquid that he +produced was nauseous to the smell,–to taste it he had a horrible +repugnance, turbid, nasty, reminding him in most respects of poor Aunt +Keziah's elixir; and it was a body without a soul, and that body dead. And +so it went on; and the poor, half-maddened Septimius began to think that +his immortal life was preserved by the mere effort of seeking for it, but +was to be spent in the quest, and was therefore to be made an eternity of +abortive misery. He pored over the document that had so possessed him, +turning its crabbed meanings every way, trying to get out of it some new +light, often tempted to fling it into the fire which he kept under his +retort, and let the whole thing go; but then again, soon rising out of +that black depth of despair, into a determination to do what he had so +long striven for. With such intense action of mind as he brought to bear +on this paper, it is wonderful that it was not spiritually distilled; that +its essence did not arise, purified from all alloy of falsehood, from all +turbidness of obscurity and ambiguity, and form a pure essence of truth +and invigorating motive, if of any it were capable. In this interval, +Septimius is said by tradition to have found out many wonderful secrets +that were almost beyond the scope of science. It was said that old Aunt +Keziah used to come with a coal of fire from unknown furnaces, to light +his distilling apparatus; it was said, too, that the ghost of the old +lord, whose ingenuity had propounded this puzzle for his descendants, used +to come at midnight and strive to explain to him this manuscript; that the +Black Man, too, met him on the hill-top, and promised him an immediate +release from his difficulties, provided he would kneel down and worship +him, and sign his name in his book, an old, iron-clasped, much-worn +volume, which he produced from his ample pockets, and showed him in it the +names of many a man whose name has become historic, and above whose ashes +kept watch an inscription testifying to his virtues and devotion,–old +autographs,–for the Black Man was the original autograph collector.</p> + +<p>But these, no doubt, were foolish stories, conceived andpropagated in +chimney-corners, while yet there were chimney-corners and firesides, and +smoky flues. There wasno truth in such things, I am sure; the Black Man +had changedhis tactics, and knew better than to lure the human soul thus +to come to him with his musty autograph-book. So Septimiusfought with his +difficulty by himself, as many a beginner inscience has done before him; +and to his efforts in this way arepopularly attributed many herb-drinks, +and some kinds ofspruce-beer, and nostrums used for rheumatism, sore +throat,and typhus fever; but I rather think they all came from AuntKeziah; +or perhaps, like jokes to Joe Miller, all sorts ofquack medicines, +flocking at large through the community, areassigned to him or her. The +people have a little mistaken thecharacter and purpose of poor Septimius, +and remember him as aquack doctor, instead of a seeker for a secret, not +the lesssublime and elevating because it happened to be unattainable.</p> + +<p>I know not through what medium or by what means, but it got noised abroad +that Septimius was engaged in some mysterious work; and, indeed, his +seclusion, his absorption, his indifference to all that was going on in +that weary time of war, looked strange enough to indicate that it must be +some most important business that engrossed him. On the few occasions when +he came out from his immediate haunts into the village, he had a strange, +owl-like appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his +face, they said, darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of +his brow deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard, sulking look; and +so he went hastily along the village street, feeling as if all eyes might +find out what he had in his mind from his appearance; taking by-ways where +they were to be found, going long distances through woods and fields, +rather than short ones where the way lay through the frequented haunts of +men. For he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably because he had +learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he was seeking to withdraw +himself from the common bond and destiny,–because he felt, too, that on +that account his fellow-men would consider him as a traitor, an enemy, one +who had deserted their cause, and tried to withdraw his feeble shoulder +from under that great burden of death which is imposed on all men to bear, +and which, if one could escape, each other would feel his load +propertionably heavier. With these beings of a moment he had no longer any +common cause; they must go their separate ways, yet apparently the +same,–they on the broad, dusty, beaten path, that seemed always full, but +from which continually they so strangely vanished into invisibility, no +one knowing, nor long inquiring, what had become of them; he on his lonely +path, where he should tread secure, with no trouble but the loneliness, +which would be none to him. For a little while he would seem to keep them +company, but soon they would all drop away, the minister, his accustomed +towns-people, Robert Hagburn, Rose, Sibyl Dacy,–all leaving him in +blessed unknownness to adopt new temporary relations, and take a new +course.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, the prospect a little chilled him. Could he give them +all up,–the sweet sister; the friend of his childhood; the grave +instructor of his youth; the homely, life-known faces? Yes; there were +such rich possibilities in the future: for he would seek out the noblest +minds, the deepest hearts in every age, and be the friend of human time. +Only it might be sweet to have one unchangeable companion; for, unless he +strung the pearls and diamonds of life upon one unbroken affection, he +sometimes thought that his life would have nothing to give it unity and +identity; and so the longest life would be but an aggregate of insulated +fragments, which would have no relation to one another. And so it would +not be one life, but many unconnected ones. Unless he could look into the +same eyes, through the mornings of future time, opening and blessing him +with the fresh gleam of love and joy; unless the same sweet voice could +melt his thoughts together; unless some sympathy of a life side by side +with his could knit them into one; looking back upon the same things, +looking forward to the same; the long, thin thread of an individual life, +stretching onward and onward, would cease to be visible, cease to be felt, +cease, by and by, to have any real bigness in proportion to its length, +and so be virtually non-existent, except in the mere inconsiderable Now. +If a group of chosen friends, chosen out of all the world for their +adaptedness, could go on in endless life together, keeping themselves +mutually warm on the high, desolate way, then none of them need ever sigh +to be comforted in the pitiable snugness of the grave. If one especial +soul might be his companion, then how complete the fence of mutual arms, +the warmth of close-pressing breast to breast! Might there be one! O Sibyl +Dacy!</p> + +<p>Perhaps it could not be. Who but himself could undergo that great trial, +and hardship, and self-denial, and firm purpose, never wavering, never +sinking for a moment, keeping his grasp on life like one who holds up by +main force a sinking and drowning friend?–how could a woman do it! He +must then give up the thought. There was a choice,–friendship, and the +love of woman,–the long life of immortality. There was something heroic +and ennobling in choosing the latter. And so he walked with the mysterious +girl on the hill-top, and sat down beside her on the grave, which still +ceased not to redden, portentously beautiful, with that unnatural +flower,–and they talked together; and Septimius looked on her weird +beauty, and often said to himself, "This, too, will pass away; she is not +capable of what I am; she is a woman. It must be a manly and courageous +and forcible spirit, vastly rich in all three particulars, that has +strength enough to live! Ah, is it surely so? There is such a dark +sympathy between us, she knows me so well, she touches my inmost so at +unawares, that I could almost think I had a companion here. Perhaps not so +soon. At the end of centuries I might wed one; not now."</p> + +<p>But once he said to Sibyl Dacy, "Ah, how sweet it would be–sweet for me, +at least–if this intercourse might last forever!"</p> + +<p>"That is an awful idea that you present," said Sibyl, with a hardly +perceptible, involuntary shudder; "always on this hill-top, always passing +and repassing this little hillock; always smelling these flowers! I always +looking at this deep chasm in your brow; you always seeing my bloodless +cheek!–doing this till these trees crumble away, till perhaps a new +forest grew up wherever this white race had planted, and a race of savages +again possess the soil. I should not like it. My mission here is but for a +short time, and will soon be accomplished, and then I go."</p> + +<p>"You do not rightly estimate the way in which the long time might be +spent," said Septimius. "We would find out a thousand uses of this world, +uses and enjoyments which now men never dream of, because the world is +just held to their mouths, and then snatched away again, before they have +time hardly to taste it, instead of becoming acquainted with the +deliciousness of this great world-fruit. But you speak of a mission, and +as if you were now in performance of it. Will you not tell me what it +is?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Sibyl Dacy, smiling on him. "But one day you shall know what it +is,–none sooner nor better than you,–so much I promise you."</p> + +<p>"Are we friends?" asked Septimius, somewhat puzzled by her look.</p> + +<p>"We have an intimate relation to one another," replied Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"And what is it?" demanded Septimius.</p> + +<p>"That will appear hereafter," answered Sibyl, again smiling on him.</p> + +<p>He knew not what to make of this, nor whether to be exalted or depressed; +but, at all events, there seemed to be an accordance, a striking together, +a mutual touch of their two natures, as if, somehow or other, they were +performing the same part of solemn music; so that he felt his soul thrill, +and at the same time shudder. Some sort of sympathy there surely was, but +of what nature he could not tell; though often he was impelled to ask +himself the same question he asked Sibyl, "Are we friends?" because of a +sudden shock and repulsion that came between them, and passed away in a +moment; and there would be Sibyl, smiling askance on him.</p> + +<p>And then he toiled away again at his chemical pursuits; tried to mingle +things harmoniously that apparently were not born to be mingled; +discovering a science for himself, and mixing it up with absurdities that +other chemists had long ago flung aside; but still there would be that +turbid aspect, still that lack of fragrance, still that want of the +peculiar temperature, that was announced as the test of the matter. Over +and over again he set the crystal vase in the sun, and let it stay there +the appointed time, hoping that it would digest in such a manner as to +bring about the desired result.</p> + +<p>One day, as it happened, his eyes fell upon the silver key which he had +taken from the breast of the dead young man, and he thought within himself +that this might have something to do with the seemingly unattainable +success of his pursuit. He remembered, for the first time, the grim +doctor's emphatic injunction to search for the little iron-bound box of +which he had spoken, and which had come down with such legends attached to +it; as, for instance, that it held the Devil's bond with his +great-great-grandfather, now cancelled by the surrender of the latter's +soul; that it held the golden key of Paradise; that it was full of old +gold, or of the dry leaves of a hundred years ago; that it had a familiar +fiend in it, who would be exorcised by the turning of the lock, but would +otherwise remain a prisoner till the solid oak of the box mouldered, or +the iron rusted away; so that between fear and the loss of the key, this +curious old box had remained unopened, till itself was lost.</p> + +<p>But now Septimius, putting together what Aunt Keziah had said in her dying +moments, and what Doctor Portsoaken had insisted upon, suddenly came to +the conclusion that the possession of the old iron box might be of the +greatest importance to him. So he set himself at once to think where he +had last seen it. Aunt Keziah, of course, had put it away in some safe +place or other, either in cellar or garret, no doubt; so Septimius, in the +intervals of his other occupations, devoted several days to the search; +and not to weary the reader with the particulars of the quest for an old +box, suffice it to say that he at last found it, amongst various other +antique rubbish, in a corner of the garret.</p> + +<p>It was a very rusty old thing, not more than a foot in length, and half as +much in height and breadth; but most ponderously iron-bound, with bars, +and corners, and all sorts of fortification; looking very much like an +ancient alms-box, such as are to be seen in the older rural churches of +England, and which seem to intimate great distrust of those to whom the +funds are committed. Indeed, there might be a shrewd suspicion that some +ancient church beadle among Septimius's forefathers, when emigrating from +England, had taken the opportunity of bringing the poor-box along with +him. On looking close, too, there were rude embellishments on the lid and +sides of the box in long-rusted steel, designs such as the Middle Ages +were rich in; a representation of Adam and Eve, or of Satan and a soul, +nobody could tell which; but, at any rate, an illustration of great value +and interest. Septimius looked at this ugly, rusty, ponderous old box, so +worn and battered with time, and recollected with a scornful smile the +legends of which it was the object; all of which he despised and +discredited, just as much as he did that story in the "Arabian Nights," +where a demon comes out of a copper vase, in a cloud of smoke that covers +the sea-shore; for he was singularly invulnerable to all modes of +superstition, all nonsense, except his own. But that one mode was ever in +full force and operation with him. He felt strongly convinced that inside +the old box was something that appertained to his destiny; the key that he +had taken from the dead man's breast, had that come down through time, and +across the sea, and had a man died to bring and deliver it to him, merely +for nothing? It could not be.</p> + +<p>He looked at the old, rusty, elaborated lock of the little receptacle. It +was much flourished about with what was once polished steel; and +certainly, when thus polished, and the steel bright with which it was +hooped, defended, and inlaid, it must have been a thing fit to appear in +any cabinet; though now the oak was worm-eaten as an old coffin, and the +rust of the iron came off red on Septimius's fingers, after he had been +fumbling at it. He looked at the curious old silver key, too, and fancied +that he discovered in its elaborate handle some likeness to the ornaments +about the box; at any rate, this he determined was the key of fate, and he +was just applying it to the lock when somebody tapped familiarly at the +door, having opened the outer one, and stepped in with a manly stride. +Septimius, inwardly blaspheming, as secluded men are apt to do when any +interruption comes, and especially when it comes at some critical moment +of projection, left the box as yet unbroached, and said, "Come in."</p> + +<p>The door opened, and Robert Hagburn entered; looking so tall and stately, +that Septimius hardly knew him for the youth with whom he had grown up +familiarly. He had on the Revolutionary dress of buff and blue, with +decorations that to the initiated eye denoted him an officer, and +certainly there was a kind of authority in his look and manner, indicating +that heavy responsibilities, critical moments, had educated him, and +turned the ploughboy into a man.</p> + +<p>"Is it you?" exclaimed Septimius. "I scarcely knew you. How war has altered +you!"</p> + +<p>"And I may say, Is it you? for you are much altered likewise, my old +friend. Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man, at this +rate, before you know you are a young one. You will kill yourself, as sure +as a gun!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" said Septimius, rather startled, for the queer absurdity +of the position struck him, if he should so exhaust and wear himself as to +die, just at the moment when he should have found out the secret of +everlasting life. "But though I look pale, I am very vigorous. Judging +from that scar, slanting down from your temple, you have been nearer death +than you now think me, though in another way."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Robert Hagburn; "but in hot blood, and for a good cause, who +cares for death? And yet I love life; none better, while it lasts, and I +love it in all its looks and turns and surprises,–there is so much to be +got out of it, in spite of all that people say. Youth is sweet, with its +fiery enterprise, and I suppose mature manhood will be just as much so, +though in a calmer way, and age, quieter still, will have its own +merits,–the thing is only to do with life what we ought, and what is +suited to each of its stages; do all, enjoy all,–and I suppose these two +rules amount to the same thing. Only catch real earnest hold of life, not +play with it, and not defer one part of it for the sake of another, then +each part of life will do for us what was intended. People talk of the +hardships of military service, of the miseries that we undergo fighting +for our country. I have undergone my share, I believe,–hard toil in the +wilderness, hunger, extreme weariness, pinching cold, the torture of a +wound, peril of death; and really I have been as happy through it as ever +I was at my mother's cosey fireside of a winter's evening. If I had died, +I doubt not my last moments would have been happy. There is no use of +life, but just to find out what is fit for us to do; and, doing it, it +seems to be little matter whether we live or die in it. God does not want +our work, but only our willingness to work; at least, the last seems to +answer all his purposes."</p> + +<p>"This is a comfortable philosophy of yours," said Septimius, rather +contemptuously, and yet enviously. "Where did you get it, Robert?"</p> + +<p>"Where? Nowhere; it came to me on the march; and though I can't say that I +thought it when the bullets pattered into the snow about me, in those +narrow streets of Quebec, yet, I suppose, it was in my mind then; for, as +I tell you, I was very cheerful and contented. And you, Septimius? I never +saw such a discontented, unhappy-looking fellow as you are. You have had a +harder time in peace than I in war. You have not found what you seek, +whatever that may be. Take my advice. Give yourself to the next work that +comes to hand. The war offers place to all of us; we ought to be +thankful,–the most joyous of all the generations before or after +us,–since Providence gives us such good work to live for, or such a good +opportunity to die. It is worth living for, just to have the chance to die +so well as a man may in these days. Come, be a soldier. Be a chaplain, +since your education lies that way; and you will find that nobody in peace +prays so well as we do, we soldiers; and you shall not be debarred from +fighting, too; if war is holy work, a priest may lawfully do it, as well +as pray for it. Come with us, my old friend Septimius, be my comrade, and, +whether you live or die, you will thank me for getting you out of the +yellow forlornness in which you go on, neither living nor dying."</p> + +<p>Septimius looked at Robert Hagburn in surprise; so much was he altered and +improved by this brief experience of war, adventure, responsibility, which +he had passed through. Not less than the effect produced on his loutish, +rustic air and deportment, developing his figure, seeming to make him +taller, setting free the manly graces that lurked within his awkward +frame,–not less was the effect on his mind and moral nature, giving +freedom of ideas, simple perception of great thoughts, a free natural +chivalry; so that the knight, the Homeric warrior, the hero, seemed to be +here, or possible to be here, in the young New England rustic; and all +that history has given, and hearts throbbed and sighed and gloried over, +of patriotism and heroic feeling and action, might be repeated, perhaps, +in the life and death of this familiar friend and playmate of his, whom he +had valued not over highly,–Robert Hagburn. He had merely followed out +his natural heart, boldly and singly,–doing the first good thing that +came to hand,–and here was a hero.</p> + +<p>"You almost make me envy you, Robert," said he, sighing.</p> + +<p>"Then why not come with me?" asked Robert.</p> + +<p>"Because I have another destiny," said Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Well, you are mistaken; be sure of that," said Robert. "This is not a +generation for study, and the making of books; that may come by and by. +This great fight has need of all men to carry it on, in one way or +another; and no man will do well, even for himself, who tries to avoid his +share in it. But I have said my say. And now, Septimius, the war takes +much of a man, but it does not take him all, and what it leaves is all the +more full of life and health thereby. I have something to say to you about +this."</p> + +<p>"Say it then, Robert," said Septimius, who, having got over the first +excitement of the interview, and the sort of exhilaration produced by the +healthful glow of Robert's spirit, began secretly to wish that it might +close, and to be permitted to return to his solitary thoughts again. "What +can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing," said Robert, looking rather confused, "since all is +settled. The fact is, my old friend, as perhaps you have seen, I have very +long had an eye upon your sister Rose; yes, from the time we went together +to the old school-house, where she now teaches children like what we were +then. The war took me away, and in good time, for I doubt if Rose would +ever have cared enough for me to be my wife, if I had stayed at home, a +country lout, as I was getting to be, in shirt-sleeves and bare feet. But +now, you see, I have come back, and this whole great war, to her woman's +heart, is represented in me, and makes me heroic, so to speak, and +strange, and yet her old familiar lover. So I found her heart tenderer for +me than it was; and, in short, Rose has consented to be my wife, and we +mean to be married in a week; my furlough permits little delay."</p> + +<p>"You surprise me," said Septimius, who, immersed in his own pursuits, had +taken no notice of the growing affection between Robert and his sister. +"Do you think it well to snatch this little lull that is allowed you in +the wild striving of war to try to make a peaceful home? Shall you like to +be summoned from it soon? Shall you be as cheerful among dangers +afterwards, when one sword may cut down two happinesses?"</p> + +<p>"There is something in what you say, and I have thought of it," said +Robert, sighing. "But I can't tell how it is; but there is something in +this uncertainty, this peril, this cloud before us, that makes it sweeter +to love and to be loved than amid all seeming quiet and serenity. Really, +I think, if there were to be no death, the beauty of life would be all +tame. So we take our chance, or our dispensation of Providence, and are +going to love, and to be married, just as confidently as if we were sure +of living forever."</p> + +<p>"Well, old fellow," said Septimius, with more cordiality and outgush of +heart than he had felt for a long while, "there is no man whom I should be +happier to call brother. Take Rose, and all happiness along with her. She +is a good girl, and not in the least like me. May you live out your +threescore years and ten, and every one of them be happy."</p> + +<p>Little more passed, and Robert Hagburn took his leave with a hearty shake +of Septimius's hand, too conscious of his own happiness to be quite +sensible how much the latter was self-involved, strange, anxious, +separated from healthy life and interests; and Septimius, as soon as +Robert had disappeared, locked the door behind him, and proceeded at once +to apply the silver key to the lock of the old strong box.</p> + +<p>The lock resisted somewhat, being rusty, as might well be supposed after so +many years since it was opened; but it finally allowed the key to turn, +and Septimius, with a good deal of flutter at his heart, opened the lid. +The interior had a very different aspect from that of the exterior; for, +whereas the latter looked so old, this, having been kept from the air, +looked about as new as when shut up from light and air two centuries ago, +less or more. It was lined with ivory, beautifully carved in figures, +according to the art which the mediæval people possessed in great +perfection; and probably the box had been a lady's jewel-casket formerly, +and had glowed with rich lustre and bright colors at former openings. But +now there was nothing in it of that kind,–nothing in keeping with those +figures carved in the ivory representing some mythical subjects,–nothing +but some papers in the bottom of the box written over in an ancient hand, +which Septimius at once fancied that he recognized as that of the +manuscript and recipe which he had found on the breast of the young +soldier. He eagerly seized them, but was infinitely disappointed to find +that they did not seem to refer at all to the subjects treated by the +former, but related to pedigrees and genealogies, and were in reference to +an English family and some member of it who, two centuries before, had +crossed the sea to America, and who, in this way, had sought to preserve +his connection with his native stock, so as to be able, perhaps, to prove +it for himself or his descendants; and there was reference to documents +and records in England in confirmation of the genealogy. Septimius saw +that this paper had been drawn up by an ancestor of his own, the +unfortunate man who had been hanged for witchcraft; but so earnest had +been his expectation of something different, that he flung the old papers +down with bitter indifference.</p> + +<p>Then again he snatched them up, and contemptuously read them,–those proofs +of descent through generations of esquires and knights, who had been +renowned in war; and there seemed, too, to be running through the family a +certain tendency to letters, for three were designated as of the colleges +of Oxford or Cambridge; and against one there was the note, "he that sold +himself to Sathan;" and another seemed to have been a follower of +Wickliffe; and they had murdered kings, and been beheaded, and banished, +and what not; so that the age-long life of this ancient family had not +been after all a happy or very prosperous one, though they had kept their +estate, in one or another descendant, since the Conquest. It was not +wholly without interest that Septimius saw that this ancient descent, this +connection with noble families, and intermarriages with names, some of +which he recognized as known in English history, all referred to his own +family, and seemed to centre in himself, the last of a poverty-stricken +line, which had dwindled down into obscurity, and into rustic labor and +humble toil, reviving in him a little; yet how little, unless he fulfilled +his strange purpose. Was it not better worth his while to take this +English position here so strangely offered him? He had apparently slain +unwittingly the only person who could have contested his rights,–the +young man who had so strangely brought him the hope of unlimited life at +the same time that he was making room for him among his forefathers. What +a change in his lot would have been here, for there seemed to be some +pretensions to a title, too, from a barony which was floating about and +occasionally moving out of abeyancy!</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Septimius to himself, "I may hereafter think it worth while +to assert my claim to these possessions, to this position amid an ancient +aristocracy, and try that mode of life for one generation. Yet there is +something in my destiny incompatible, of course, with the continued +possession of an estate. I must be, of necessity, a wanderer on the face +of the earth, changing place at short intervals, disappearing suddenly and +entirely; else the foolish, short-lived multitude and mob of mortals will +be enraged with one who seems their brother, yet whose countenance will +never be furrowed with his age, nor his knees totter, nor his force be +abated; their little brevity will be rebuked by his age-long endurance, +above whom the oaken roof-tree of a thousand years would crumble, while +still he would be hale and strong. So that this house, or any other, would +be but a resting-place of a day, and then I must away into another +obscurity."</p> + +<p>With almost a regret, he continued to look over the documents until he +reached one of the persons recorded in the line of pedigree,–a worthy, +apparently, of the reign of Elizabeth, to whom was attributed a title of +Doctor in Utriusque Juris; and against his name was a verse of Latin +written, for what purpose Septimius knew not, for, on reading it, it +appeared to have no discoverable appropriateness; but suddenly he +remembered the blotted and imperfect hieroglyphical passage in the recipe. +He thought an instant, and was convinced this was the full expression and +outwriting of that crabbed little mystery; and that here was part of that +secret writing for which the Age of Elizabeth was so famous and so +dexterous. His mind had a flash of light upon it, and from that moment he +was enabled to read not only the recipe but the rules, and all the rest of +that mysterious document, in a way which he had never thought of before; +to discern that it was not to be taken literally and simply, but had a +hidden process involved in it that made the whole thing infinitely deeper +than he had hitherto deemed it to be. His brain reeled, he seemed to have +taken a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he +could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation, the +house could not contain him, he rushed up to his hill-top, and there, +after walking swiftly to and fro, at length flung himself on the little +hillock, and burst forth, as if addressing him who slept beneath.</p> + +<p>"O brother, O friend!" said he, "I thank thee for thy matchless beneficence +to me; for all which I rewarded thee with this little spot on my hill-top. +Thou wast very good, very kind. It would not have been well for thee, a +youth of fiery joys and passions, loving to laugh, loving the lightness +and sparkling brilliancy of life, to take this boon to thyself; for, O +brother! I see, I see, it requires a strong spirit, capable of much lonely +endurance, able to be sufficient to itself, loving not too much, dependent +on no sweet ties of affection, to be capable of the mighty trial which now +devolves on me. I thank thee, O kinsman! Yet thou, I feel, hast the better +part, who didst so soon lie down to rest, who hast done forever with this +troublesome world, which it is mine to contemplate from age to age, and to +sum up the meaning of it. Thou art disporting thyself in other spheres. I +enjoy the high, severe, fearful office of living here, and of being the +minister of Providence from one age to many successive ones."</p> + +<p>In this manner he raved, as never before, in a strain of exalted +enthusiasm, securely treading on air, and sometimes stopping to shout +aloud, and feeling as if he should burst if he did not do so; and his +voice came back to him again from the low hills on the other side of the +broad, level valley, and out of the woods afar, mocking him; or as if it +were airy spirits, that knew how it was all to be, confirming his cry, +saying "It shall be so," "Thou hast found it at last," "Thou art +immortal." And it seemed as if Nature were inclined to celebrate his +triumph over herself; for above the woods that crowned the hill to the +northward, there were shoots and streams of radiance, a white, a red, a +many-colored lustre, blazing up high towards the zenith, dancing up, +flitting down, dancing up again; so that it seemed as if spirits were +keeping a revel there. The leaves of the trees on the hill-side, all +except the evergreens, had now mostly fallen with the autumn; so that +Septimius was seen by the few passers-by, in the decline of the afternoon, +passing to and fro along his path, wildly gesticulating; and heard to +shout so that the echoes came from all directions to answer him. After +nightfall, too, in the harvest moonlight, a shadow was still seen passing +there, waving its arms in shadowy triumph; so, the next day, there were +various goodly stories afloat and astir, coming out of successive mouths, +more wondrous at each birth; the simplest form of the story being, that +Septimius Felton had at last gone raving mad on the hill-top that he was +so fond of haunting; and those who listened to his shrieks said that he +was calling to the Devil; and some said that by certain exorcisms he had +caused the appearance of a battle in the air, charging squadrons, +cannon-flashes, champions encountering; all of which foreboded some real +battle to be fought with the enemies of the country; and as the battle of +Monmouth chanced to occur, either the very next day, or about that time, +this was supposed to be either caused or foretold by Septimius's +eccentricities; and as the battle was not very favorable to our arms, the +patriotism of Septimius suffered much in popular estimation.</p> + +<p>But he knew nothing, thought nothing, cared nothing about his country, or +his country's battles; he was as sane as he had been for a year past, and +was wise enough, though merely by instinct, to throw off some of his +superfluous excitement by these wild gestures, with wild shouts, and +restless activity; and when he had partly accomplished this he returned to +the house, and, late as it was, kindled his fire, and began anew the +processes of chemistry, now enlightened by the late teachings. A new agent +seemed to him to mix itself up with his toil and to forward his purpose; +something helped him along; everything became facile to his manipulation, +clear to his thought. In this way he spent the night, and when at sunrise +he let in the eastern light upon his study, the thing was done.</p> + +<p>Septimius had achieved it. That is to say, he had succeeded in amalgamating +his materials so that they acted upon one another, and in accordance; and +had produced a result that had a subsistence in itself, and a right to be; +a something potent and substantial; each ingredient contributing its part +to form a new essence, which was as real and individual as anything it was +formed from. But in order to perfect it, there was necessity that the +powers of nature should act quietly upon it through a month of sunshine; +that the moon, too, should have its part in the production; and so he must +wait patiently for this. Wait! surely he would! Had he not time for +waiting? Were he to wait till old age, it would not be too much; for all +future time would have it in charge to repay him.</p> + +<p>So he poured the inestimable liquor into a glass vase, well secured from +the air, and placed it in the sunshine, shifting it from one sunny window +to another, in order that it might ripen; moving it gently lest he should +disturb the living spirit that he knew to be in it. And he watched it from +day to day, watched the reflections in it, watched its lustre, which +seemed to him to grow greater day by day, as if it imbibed the sunlight +into it. Never was there anything so bright as this. It changed its hue, +too, gradually, being now a rich purple, now a crimson, now a violet, now +a blue; going through all these prismatic colors without losing any of its +brilliance, and never was there such a hue as the sunlight took in falling +through it and resting on his floor. And strange and beautiful it was, +too, to look through this medium at the outer world, and see how it was +glorified and made anew, and did not look like the same world, although +there were all its familiar marks. And then, past his window, seen through +this, went the farmer and his wife, on saddle and pillion, jogging to +meeting-house or market; and the very dog, the cow coming home from +pasture, the old familiar faces of his childhood, looked differently. And +so at last, at the end of the month, it settled into a most deep and +brilliant crimson, as if it were the essence of the blood of the young man +whom he had slain; the flower being now triumphant, it had given its own +hue to the whole mass, and had grown brighter every day; so that it seemed +to have inherent light, as if it were a planet by itself, a heart of +crimson fire burning within it.</p> + +<p>And when this had been done, and there was no more change, showing that the +digestion was perfect, then he took it and placed it where the changing +moon would fall upon it; and then again he watched it, covering it in +darkness by day, revealing it to the moon by night; and watching it here, +too, through more changes. And by and by he perceived that the deep +crimson hue was departing,–not fading; we cannot say that, because of the +prodigious lustre which still pervaded it, and was not less strong than +ever; but certainly the hue became fainter, now a rose-color, now fainter, +fainter still, till there was only left the purest whiteness of the moon +itself; a change that somewhat disappointed and grieved Septimius, though +still it seemed fit that the water of life should be of no one richness, +because it must combine all. As the absorbed young man gazed through the +lonely nights at his beloved liquor, he fancied sometimes that he could +see wonderful things in the crystal sphere of the vase; as in Doctor Dee's +magic crystal used to be seen, which now lies in the British Museum; +representations, it might be, of things in the far past, or in the further +future, scenes in which he himself was to act, persons yet unborn, the +beautiful and the wise, with whom he was to be associated, palaces and +towers, modes of hitherto unseen architecture, that old hall in England to +which he had a hereditary right, with its gables, and its smooth lawn; the +witch-meetings in which his ancestor used to take part; Aunt Keziah on her +death-bed; and, flitting through all, the shade of Sibyl Dacy, eying him +from secret nooks, or some remoteness, with her peculiar mischievous +smile, beckoning him into the sphere. All such visions would he see, and +then become aware that he had been in a dream, superinduced by too much +watching, too intent thought; so that living among so many dreams, he was +almost afraid that he should find himself waking out of yet another, and +find that the vase itself and the liquid it contained were also +dream-stuff. But no; these were real.</p> + +<p>There was one change that surprised him, although he accepted it without +doubt, and, indeed, it did imply a wonderful efficacy, at least +singularity, in the newly converted liquid. It grew strangely cool in +temperature in the latter part of his watching it. It appeared to imbibe +its coldness from the cold, chaste moon, until it seemed to Septimius that +it was colder than ice itself; the mist gathered upon the crystal vase as +upon a tumbler of iced water in a warm room. Some say it actually gathered +thick with frost, crystallized into a thousand fantastic and beautiful +shapes, but this I do not know so well. Only it was very cold. Septimius +pondered upon it, and thought he saw that life itself was cold, individual +in its being, a high, pure essence, chastened from all heats; cold, +therefore, and therefore invigorating.</p> + +<p>Thus much, inquiring deeply, and with painful research into the liquid +which Septimius concocted, have I been able to learn about it,–its +aspect, its properties; and now I suppose it to be quite perfect, and that +nothing remains but to put it to such use as he had so long been laboring +for. But this, somehow or other, he found in himself a strong reluctance +to do; he paused, as it were, at the point where his pathway separated +itself from that of other men, and meditated whether it were worth while +to give up everything that Providence had provided, and take instead only +this lonely gift of immortal life. Not that he ever really had any doubt +about it; no, indeed; but it was his security, his consciousness that he +held the bright sphere of all futurity in his hand, that made him dally a +little, now that he could quaff immortality as soon as he liked.</p> + +<p>Besides, now that he looked forward from the verge of mortal destiny, the +path before him seemed so very lonely. Might he not seek some one own +friend–one single heart–before he took the final step? There was Sibyl +Dacy! Oh, what bliss, if that pale girl might set out with him on his +journey! how sweet, how sweet, to wander with her through the places else +so desolate! for he could but half see, half know things, without her to +help him. And perhaps it might be so. She must already know, or strongly +suspect, that he was engaged in some deep, mysterious research; it might +be that, with her sources of mysterious knowledge among her legendary +lore, she knew of this. Then, oh, to think of those dreams which lovers +have always had, when their new love makes the old earth seem so happy and +glorious a place, that not a thousand nor an endless succession of years +can exhaust it,–all those realized for him and her! If this could not be, +what should he do? Would he venture onward into such a wintry futurity, +symbolized, perhaps, by the coldness of the crystal goblet? He shivered at +the thought.</p> + +<p>Now, what had passed between Septimius and Sibyl Dacy is not upon record, +only that one day they were walking together on the hill-top, or sitting +by the little hillock, and talking earnestly together. Sibyl's face was a +little flushed with some excitement, and really she looked very beautiful; +and Septimius's dark face, too, had a solemn triumph in it that made him +also beautiful; so rapt he was after all those watchings, and emaciations, +and the pure, unworldly, self-denying life that he had spent. They talked +as if there were some foregone conclusion on which they based what they +said.</p> + +<p>"Will you not be weary in the time that we shall spend together?" asked +he.</p> + +<p>"Oh no," said Sibyl, smiling, "I am sure that it will be very full of +enjoyment."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Septimius, "though now I must remould my anticipations; for I +have only dared, hitherto, to map out a solitary existence."</p> + +<p>"And how did you do that?" asked Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there is nothing that would come amiss," answered Septimius; "for, +truly, as I have lived apart from men, yet it is really not because I have +no taste for whatever humanity includes: but I would fain, if I might, +live everybody's life at once, or, since that may not be, each in +succession. I would try the life of power, ruling men; but that might come +later, after I had had long experience of men, and had lived through much +history, and had seen, as a disinterested observer, how men might best be +influenced for their own good. I would be a great traveller at first; and +as a man newly coming into possession of an estate goes over it, and views +each separate field and wood-lot, and whatever features it contains, so +will I, whose the world is, because I possess it forever; whereas all +others are but transitory guests. So will I wander over this world of +mine, and be acquainted with all its shores, seas, rivers, mountains, +fields, and the various peoples who inhabit them, and to whom it is my +purpose to be a benefactor; for think not, dear Sibyl, that I suppose this +great lot of mine to have devolved upon me without great duties,–heavy +and difficult to fulfil, though glorious in their adequate fulfilment. But +for all this there will be time. In a century I shall partially have seen +this earth, and known at least its boundaries,–have gotten for myself the +outline, to be filled up hereafter."</p> + +<p>"And I, too," said Sibyl, "will have my duties and labors; for while you +are wandering about among men, I will go among women, and observe and +converse with them, from the princess to the peasant-girl; and will find +out what is the matter, that woman gets so large a share of human misery +laid on her weak shoulders. I will see why it is that, whether she be a +royal princess, she has to be sacrificed to matters of state, or a +cottage-girl, still somehow the thing not fit for her is done; and whether +there is or no some deadly curse on woman, so that she has nothing to do, +and nothing to enjoy, but only to be wronged by man and still to love him, +and despise herself for it,–to be shaky in her revenges. And then if, +after all this investigation, it turns out–as I suspect–that woman is +not capable of being helped, that there is something inherent in herself +that makes it hopeless to struggle for her redemption, then what shall I +do? Nay, I know not, unless to preach to the sisterhood that they all kill +their female children as fast as they are born, and then let the +generations of men manage as they can! Woman, so feeble and crazy in body, +fair enough sometimes, but full of infirmities; not strong, with nerves +prone to every pain; ailing, full of little weaknesses, more contemptible +than great ones!"</p> + +<p>"That would be a dreary end, Sibyl," said Septimius. "But I trust that we +shall be able to hush up this weary and perpetual wail of womankind on +easier terms than that. Well, dearest Sibyl, after we have spent a hundred +years in examining into the real state of mankind, and another century in +devising and putting in execution remedies for his ills, until our maturer +thought has time to perfect his cure, we shall then have earned a little +playtime,–a century of pastime, in which we will search out whatever joy +can be had by thoughtful people, and that childlike sportiveness which +comes out of growing wisdom, and enjoyment of every kind. We will gather +about us everything beautiful and stately, a great palace, for we shall +then be so experienced that all riches will be easy for us to get; with +rich furniture, pictures, statues, and all royal ornaments; and side by +side with this life we will have a little cottage, and see which is the +happiest, for this has always been a dispute. For this century we will +neither toil nor spin, nor think of anything beyond the day that is +passing over us. There is time enough to do all that we have to do."</p> + +<p>"A hundred years of play! Will not that be tiresome?" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"If it is," said Septimius, "the next century shall make up for it; for +then we will contrive deep philosophies, take up one theory after another, +and find out its hollowness and inadequacy, and fling it aside, the rotten +rubbish that they all are, until we have strewn the whole realm of human +thought with the broken fragments, all smashed up. And then, on this great +mound of broken potsherds (like that great Monte Testaccio, which we will +go to Rome to see), we will build a system that shall stand, and by which +mankind shall look far into the ways of Providence, and find practical +uses of the deepest kind in what it has thought merely speculation. And +then, when the hundred years are over, and this great work done, we will +still be so free in mind, that we shall see the emptiness of our own +theory, though men see only its truth. And so, if we like more of this +pastime, then shall another and another century, and as many more as we +like, be spent in the same way."</p> + +<p>"And after that another play-day?" asked Sibyl Dacy.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Septimius, "only it shall not be called so; for the next +century we will get ourselves made rulers of the earth; and knowing men so +well, and having so wrought our theories of government and what not, we +will proceed to execute them,–which will be as easy to us as a child's +arrangement of its dolls. We will smile superior, to see what a facile +thing it is to make a people happy. In our reign of a hundred years, we +shall have time to extinguish errors, and make the world see the absurdity +of them; to substitute other methods of government for the old, bad ones; +to fit the people to govern itself, to do with little government, to do +with none; and when this is effected, we will vanish from our loving +people, and be seen no more, but be reverenced as gods,–we, meanwhile, +being overlooked, and smiling to ourselves, amid the very crowd that is +looking for us."</p> + +<p>"I intend," said Sibyl, making this wild talk wilder by that petulance +which she so often showed,–"I intend to introduce a new fashion of dress +when I am queen, and that shall be my part of the great reform which you +are going to make. And for my crown, I intend to have it of flowers, in +which that strange crimson one shall be the chief; and when I vanish, this +flower shall remain behind, and perhaps they shall have a glimpse of me +wearing it in the crowd. Well, what next?"</p> + +<p>"After this," said Septimius, "having seen so much of affairs, and having +lived so many hundred years, I will sit down and write a history, such as +histories ought to be, and never have been. And it shall be so wise, and +so vivid, and so self-evidently true, that people shall be convinced from +it that there is some undying one among them, because only an eye-witness +could have written it, or could have gained so much wisdom as was needful +for it."</p> + +<p>"And for my part in the history," said Sibyl, "I will record the various +lengths of women's waists, and the fashion of their sleeves. What next?"</p> + +<p>"By this time," said Septimius,–"how many hundred years have we now +lived?–by this time, I shall have pretty well prepared myself for what I +have been contemplating from the first. I will become a religious teacher, +and promulgate a faith, and prove it by prophecies and miracles; for my +long experience will enable me to do the first, and the acquaintance which +I shall have formed with the mysteries of science will put the latter at +my fingers' ends. So I will be a prophet, a greater than Mahomet, and will +put all man's hopes into my doctrine, and make him good, holy, happy; and +he shall put up his prayers to his Creator, and find them answered, +because they shall be wise, and accompanied with effort. This will be a +great work, and may earn me another rest and pastime."</p> + +<p>[<i>He would see, in one age, the column raised in memory of some great +dead of his in a former one</i>.]</p> + +<p>"And what shall that be?" asked Sibyl Dacy.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Septimius, looking askance at her, and speaking with a certain +hesitation, "I have learned, Sibyl, that it is a weary toil for a man to +be always good, holy, and upright. In my life as a sainted prophet, I +shall have somewhat too much of this; it will be enervating and sickening, +and I shall need another kind of diet. So, in the next hundred years, +Sibyl,–in that one little century,–methinks I would fain be what men +call wicked. How can I know my brethren, unless I do that once? I would +experience all. Imagination is only a dream. I can imagine myself a +murderer, and all other modes of crime; but it leaves no real impression +on the heart. I must live these things."</p> + +<p>[<i>The rampant unrestraint, which is the characteristic of +wickedness</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Good," said Sibyl, quietly; "and I too."</p> + +<p>"And thou too!" exclaimed Septimius. "Not so, Sibyl. I would reserve thee, +good and pure, so that there may be to me the means of redemption,–some +stable hold in the moral confusion that I will create around myself, +whereby I shall by and by get back into order, virtue, and religion. Else +all is lost, and I may become a devil, and make my own hell around me; so, +Sibyl, do thou be good forever, and not fall nor slip a moment. Promise +me!"</p> + +<p>"We will consider about that in some other century," replied Sibyl, +composedly. "There is time enough yet. What next?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, this is enough for the present," said Septimius. "New vistas will +open themselves before us continually, as we go onward. How idle to think +that one little lifetime would exhaust the world! After hundreds of +centuries, I feel as if we might still be on the threshold. There is the +material world, for instance, to perfect; to draw out the powers of +nature, so that man shall, as it were, give life to all modes of matter, +and make them his ministering servants. Swift ways of travel, by earth, +sea, and air; machines for doing whatever the hand of man now does, so +that we shall do all but put souls into our wheel-work and watch-work; the +modes of making night into day; of getting control over the weather and +the seasons; the virtues of plants,–these are some of the easier things +thou shalt help me do."</p> + +<p>"I have no taste for that," said Sibyl, "unless I could make an embroidery +worked of steel."</p> + +<p>"And so, Sibyl," continued Septimius, pursuing his strain of solemn +enthusiasm, intermingled as it was with wild, excursive vagaries, "we will +go on as many centuries as we choose. Perhaps,–yet I think not +so,–perhaps, however, in the course of lengthened time, we may find that +the world is the same always, and mankind the same, and all possibilities +of human fortune the same; so that by and by we shall discover that the +same old scenery serves the world's stage in all ages, and that the story +is always the same; yes, and the actors always the same, though none but +we can be aware of it; and that the actors and spectators would grow weary +of it, were they not bathed in forgetful sleep, and so think themselves +new made in each successive lifetime. We may find that the stuff of the +world's drama, and the passions which seem to play in it, have a monotony, +when once we have tried them; that in only once trying them, and viewing +them, we find out their secret, and that afterwards the show is too +superficial to arrest our attention. As dramatists and novelists repeat +their plots, so does man's life repeat itself, and at length grows stale. +This is what, in my desponding moments, I have sometimes suspected. What +to do, if this be so?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, that is a serious consideration," replied Sibyl, assuming an air of +mock alarm, "if you really think we shall be tired of life, whether or +no."</p> + +<p>"I do not think it, Sibyl," replied Septimius. "By much musing on this +matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring +himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils +that nothing else would cure. This means that we have discovered of +removing death to an indefinite distance is not supernatural; on the +contrary, it is the most natural thing in the world,–the very perfection +of the natural, since it consists in applying the powers and processes of +Nature to the prolongation of the existence of man, her most perfect +handiwork; and this could only be done by entire accordance and co-effort +with Nature. Therefore Nature is not changed, and death remains as one of +her steps, just as heretofore. Therefore, when we have exhausted the +world, whether by going through its apparently vast variety, or by +satisfying ourselves that it is all a repetition of one thing, we will +call death as the friend to introduce us to something new."</p> + +<p>[<i>He would write a poem, or other great work, inappreciable at first, and +live to see it famous,–himself among his own posterity</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Oh, insatiable love of life!" exclaimed Sibyl, looking at him with strange +pity. "Canst thou not conceive that mortal brain and heart might at length +be content to sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Never, Sibyl!" replied Septimius, with horror. "My spirit delights in the +thought of an infinite eternity. Does not thine?"</p> + +<p>"One little interval–a few centuries only–of dreamless sleep," said +Sibyl, pleadingly. "Cannot you allow me that?"</p> + +<p>"I fear," said Septimius, "our identity would change in that repose; it +would be a Lethe between the two parts of our being, and with such +disconnection a continued life would be equivalent to a new one, and +therefore valueless."</p> + +<p>In such talk, snatching in the fog at the fragments of philosophy, they +continued fitfully; Septimius calming down his enthusiasm thus, which +otherwise might have burst forth in madness, affrighting the quiet little +village with the marvellous things about which they mused. Septimius could +not quite satisfy himself whether Sibyl Dacy shared in his belief of the +success of his experiment, and was confident, as he was, that he held in +his control the means of unlimited life; neither was he sure that she +loved him,–loved him well enough to undertake with him the long march +that he propounded to her, making a union an affair of so vastly more +importance than it is in the brief lifetime of other mortals. But he +determined to let her drink the invaluable draught along with him, and to +trust to the long future, and the better opportunities that time would +give him, and his outliving all rivals, and the loneliness which an +undying life would throw around her, without him, as the pledges of his +success.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>And now the happy day had come for the celebration of Robert Hagburn's +marriage with pretty Rose Garfield, the brave with the fair; and, as +usual, the ceremony was to take place in the evening, and at the house of +the bride; and preparations were made accordingly: the wedding-cake, which +the bride's own fair hands had mingled with her tender hopes, and seasoned +it with maiden fears, so that its composition was as much ethereal as +sensual; and the neighbors and friends were invited, and came with their +best wishes and good-will. For Rose shared not at all the distrust, the +suspicion, or whatever it was, that had waited on the true branch of +Septimius's family, in one shape or another, ever since the memory of man; +and all–except, it might be, some disappointed damsels who had hoped to +win Robert Hagburn for themselves–rejoiced at the approaching union of +this fit couple, and wished them happiness.</p> + +<p>Septimius, too, accorded his gracious consent to the union, and while he +thought within himself that such a brief union was not worth the trouble +and feeling which his sister and her lover wasted on it, still he wished +them happiness. As he compared their brevity with his long duration, he +smiled at their little fancies of loves, of which he seemed to see the +end; the flower of a brief summer, blooming beautifully enough, and +shedding its leaves, the fragrance of which would linger a little while in +his memory, and then be gone. He wondered how far in the coming centuries +he should remember this wedding of his sister Rose; perhaps he would meet, +five hundred years hence, some descendant of the marriage,–a fair girl, +bearing the traits of his sister's fresh beauty; a young man, recalling +the strength and manly comeliness of Robert Hagburn,–and could claim +acquaintance and kindred. He would be the guardian, from generation to +generation, of this race; their ever-reappearing friend at times of need; +and meeting them from age to age, would find traditions of himself growing +poetical in the lapse of time; so that he would smile at seeing his +features look so much more majestic in their fancies than in reality. So +all along their course, in the history of the family, he would trace +himself, and by his traditions he would make them acquainted with all +their ancestors, and so still be warmed by kindred blood.</p> + +<p>And Robert Hagburn, full of the life of the moment, warm with generous +blood, came in a new uniform, looking fit to be the founder of a race who +should look back to a hero sire. He greeted Septimius as a brother. The +minister, too, came, of course, and mingled with the throng, with decorous +aspect, and greeted Septimius with more formality than he had been wont; +for Septimius had insensibly withdrawn himself from the minister's +intimacy, as he got deeper and deeper into the enthusiasm of his own +cause. Besides, the minister did not fail to see that his once devoted +scholar had contracted habits of study into the secrets of which he +himself was not admitted, and that he no longer alluded to studies for the +ministry; and he was inclined to suspect that Septimius had unfortunately +allowed infidel ideas to assail, at least, if not to overcome, that +fortress of firm faith, which he had striven to found and strengthen in +his mind,–a misfortune frequently befalling speculative and imaginative +and melancholic persons, like Septimius, whom the Devil is all the time +planning to assault, because he feels confident of having a traitor in the +garrison. The minister had heard that this was the fashion of Septimius's +family, and that even the famous divine, who, in his eyes, was the glory +of it, had had his season of wild infidelity in his youth, before grace +touched him; and had always thereafter, throughout his long and pious +life, been subject to seasons of black and sulphurous despondency, during +which he disbelieved the faith which, at other times, he preached +powerfully."</p> + +<p>"Septimius, my young friend," said he, "are you yet ready to be a preacher +of the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet, reverend pastor," said Septimius, smiling at the thought of the +day before, that the career of a prophet would be one that he should some +time assume. "There will be time enough to preach the truth when I better +know it."</p> + +<p>"You do not look as if you knew it so well as formerly, instead of better," +said his reverend friend, looking into the deep furrows of his brow, and +into his wild and troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," said Septimius. "There is time yet."</p> + +<p>These few words passed amid the bustle and murmur of the evening, while the +guests were assembling, and all were awaiting the marriage with that +interest which the event continually brings with it, common as it is, so +that nothing but death is commoner. Everybody congratulated the modest +Rose, who looked quiet and happy; and so she stood up at the proper time, +and the minister married them with a certain fervor and individual +application, that made them feel they were married indeed. Then there +ensued a salutation of the bride, the first to kiss her being the +minister, and then some respectable old justices and farmers, each with +his friendly smile and joke. Then went round the cake and wine, and other +good cheer, and the hereditary jokes with which brides used to be assailed +in those days. I think, too, there was a dance, though how the couples in +the reel found space to foot it in the little room, I cannot imagine; at +any rate, there was a bright light out of the windows, gleaming across the +road, and such a sound of the babble of numerous voices and merriment, +that travellers passing by, on the lonely Lexington road, wished they were +of the party; and one or two of them stopped and went in, and saw the +new-made bride, drank to her health, and took a piece of the wedding-cake +home to dream upon.</p> + +<p>[<i>It is to be observed that Rose had requested of her friend, Sibyl Dacy, +to act as one of her bridesmaids, of whom she had only the modest number +of two; and the strange girl declined, saying that her intermeddling would +bring ill-fortune to the marriage</i>.]</p> + +<p>"Why do you talk such nonsense, Sibyl?" asked Rose. "You love me, I am +sure, and wish me well; and your smile, such as it is, will be the promise +of prosperity, and I wish for it on my wedding-day."</p> + +<p>"I am an ill-fate, a sinister demon, Rose; a thing that has sprung out of a +grave; and you had better not entreat me to twine my poison tendrils round +your destinies. You would repent it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush, hush!" said Rose, putting her hand over her friend's mouth. +"Naughty one! you can bless me, if you will, only you are wayward."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, then, dearest Rose, and all happiness on your marriage!"</p> + +<p>Septimius had been duly present at the marriage, and kissed his sister with +moist eyes, it is said, and a solemn smile, as he gave her into the +keeping of Robert Hagburn; and there was something in the words he then +used that afterwards dwelt on her mind, as if they had a meaning in them +that asked to be sought into, and needed reply.</p> + +<p>"There, Rose," he had said, "I have made myself ready for my destiny. I +have no ties any more, and may set forth on my path without scruple."</p> + +<p>"Am I not your sister still, Septimius?" said she, shedding a tear or two.</p> + +<p>"A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes +a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you?"</p> + +<p>He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Rose could not +understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he +was about to do, the link that connected him with his race, and making for +himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate +him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor +fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have +been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at +that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and +so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; +wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, +and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as +they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, +sweet charm of uncertainty and temporariness,–how lovely it made them +all, how innocent, even the worst of them; how hard and prosaic was his +own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for +them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among +them, saying,–</p> + +<p>"Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you! Hold me fast!"</p> + +<p>After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sibyl +Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less +merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, +and little squared by general rules, that nobody wondered or tried to +account for them; and as for Septimius, he was such a studious man, so +little accustomed to mingle with his fellow-citizens on any occasion, that +it was rather wondered at that he should have spent so large a part of a +sociable evening with them, than that he should now retire.</p> + +<p>After they were gone the party received an unexpected addition, being no +other than the excellent Doctor Portsoaken, who came to the door, +announcing that he had just arrived on horseback from Boston, and that, +his object being to have an interview with Sibyl Dacy, he had been to +Robert Hagburn's house in quest of her; but, learning from the old +grandmother that she was here, he had followed.</p> + +<p>Not finding her, he evinced no alarm, but was easily induced to sit down +among the merry company, and partake of some brandy, which, with other +liquors, Robert had provided in sufficient abundance; and that being a day +when man had not learned to fear the glass, the doctor found them all in a +state of hilarious chat. Taking out his German pipe, he joined the group +of smokers in the great chimney-corner, and entered into conversation with +them, laughing and joking, and mixing up his jests with that mysterious +suspicion which gave so strange a character to his intercourse.</p> + +<p>"It is good fortune, Mr. Hagburn," quoth he, "that brings me here on this +auspicious day. And how has been my learned young friend Dr. +Septimius,–for so he should be called,–and how have flourished his +studies of late? The scientific world may look for great fruits from that +decoction of his."</p> + +<p>"He'll never equal Aunt Keziah for herb-drinks," said an old woman, smoking +her pipe in the corner, "though I think likely he'll make a good doctor +enough by and by. Poor Kezzy, she took a drop too much of her mixture, +after all. I used to tell her how it would be; for Kezzy and I were pretty +good friends once, before the Indian in her came out so strongly,–the +squaw and the witch, for she had them both in her blood, poor yellow +Kezzy!"</p> + +<p>"Yes! had she indeed?" quoth the doctor; "and I have heard an odd story, +that if the Feltons chose to go back to the old country, they'd find a +home and an estate there ready for them."</p> + +<p>The old woman mused, and puffed at her pipe. "Ah, yes," muttered she, at +length, "I remember to have heard something about that; and how, if Felton +chose to strike into the woods, he'd find a tribe of wild Indians there +ready to take him for their sagamore, and conquer the whites; and how, if +he chose to go to England, there was a great old house all ready for him, +and a fire burning in the hall, and a dinner-table spread, and the +tall-posted bed ready, with clean sheets, in the best chamber, and a man +waiting at the gate to show him in. Only there was a spell of a bloody +footstep left on the threshold by the last that came out, so that none of +his posterity could ever cross it again. But that was all nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"Strange old things one dreams in a chimney-corner," quoth the doctor. "Do +you remember any more of this?"</p> + +<p>"No, no; I'm so forgetful nowadays," said old Mrs. Hagburn; "only it seems +as if I had my memories in my pipe, and they curl up in smoke. I've known +these Feltons all along, or it seems as if I had; for I'm nigh ninety +years old now, and I was two year old in the witch's time, and I have seen +a piece of the halter that old Felton was hung with."</p> + +<p>Some of the company laughed.</p> + +<p>"That must have been a curious sight," quoth the doctor.</p> + +<p>"It is not well," said the minister seriously to the doctor, "to stir up +these old remembrances, making the poor old lady appear absurd. I know not +that she need to be ashamed of showing the weaknesses of the generation to +which she belonged; but I do not like to see old age put at this +disadvantage among the young."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my good and reverend sir," returned the doctor, "I mean no such +disrespect as you seem to think. Forbid it, ye upper powers, that I should +cast any ridicule on beliefs,–superstitions, do you call them?–that are +as worthy of faith, for aught I know, as any that are preached in the +pulpit. If the old lady would tell me any secret of the old Felton's +science, I shall treasure it sacredly; for I interpret these stories about +his miraculous gifts as meaning that he had a great command over natural +science, the virtues of plants, the capacities of the human body."</p> + +<p>"While these things were passing, or before they passed, or some time in +that eventful night, Septimius had withdrawn to his study, when there was +a low tap at the door, and, opening it, Sibyl Dacy stood before him. It +seemed as if there had been a previous arrangement between them; for +Septimius evinced no surprise, only took her hand and drew her in.</p> + +<p>"How cold your hand is!" he exclaimed. "Nothing is so cold, except it be +the potent medicine. It makes me shiver."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that," said Sibyl. "You look frightened at me."</p> + +<p>"Do I?" said Septimius. "No, not that; but this is such a crisis; and +methinks it is not yourself. Your eyes glare on me strangely."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes; and you are not frightened at me? Well, I will try not to be +frightened at myself. Time was, however, when I should have been."</p> + +<p>She looked round at Septimius's study, with its few old books, its +implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical machines; all +these she noticed little; but on the table drawn before the fire, there +was something that attracted her attention; it was a vase that seemed of +crystal, made in that old fashion in which the Venetians made their +glasses,–a most pure kind of glass, with a long stalk, within which was a +curved elaboration of fancy-work, wreathed and twisted. This old glass was +an heirloom of the Feltons, a relic that had come down with many +traditions, bringing its frail fabric safely through all the perils of +time, that had shattered empires; and, if space sufficed, I could tell +many stories of this curious vase, which was said, in its time, to have +been the instrument both of the Devil's sacrament in the forest, and of +the Christian in the village meeting-house. But, at any rate, it had been +a part of the choice household gear of one of Septimius's ancestors, and +was engraved with his arms, artistically done.</p> + +<p>"Is that the drink of immortality?" said Sibyl.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sibyl," said Septimius. "Do but touch the goblet; see how cold it +is."</p> + +<p>She put her slender, pallid fingers on the side of the goblet, and +shuddered, just as Septimius did when he touched her hand.</p> + +<p>"Why should it be so cold?" said she, looking at Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Nay, I know not, unless because endless life goes round the circle and +meets death, and is just the same with it. O Sibyl, it is a fearful thing +that I have accomplished! Do you not feel it so? What if this shiver +should last us through eternity?"</p> + +<p>"Have you pursued this object so long," said Sibyl, "to have these fears +respecting it now? In that case, methinks I could be bold enough to drink +it alone, and look down upon you, as I did so, smiling at your fear to +take the life offered you."</p> + +<p>"I do not fear," said Septimius; "but yet I acknowledge there is a strange, +powerful abhorrence in me towards this draught, which I know not how to +account for, except as the reaction, the revulsion of feeling, consequent +upon its being too long overstrained in one direction. I cannot help it. +The meannesses, the littlenesses, the perplexities, the general +irksomeness of life, weigh upon me strangely. Thou didst refuse to drink +with me. That being the case, methinks I could break the jewelled goblet +now, untasted, and choose the grave as the wiser part."</p> + +<p>"The beautiful goblet! What a pity to break it!" said Sibyl, with her +characteristic malign and mysterious smile. "You cannot find it in your +heart to do it."</p> + +<p>"I could,–I can. So thou wilt not drink with me?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you ask?" said Sibyl. "I am a being that sprung up, like +this flower, out of a grave; or, at least, I took root in a grave, and, +growing there, have twined about your life, until you cannot possibly +escape from me. Ah, Septimius! you know me not. You know not what is in my +heart towards you. Do you remember this broken miniature? would you wish +to see the features that were destroyed when that bullet passed? Then look +at mine!"</p> + +<p>"Sibyl! what do you tell me? Was it you–were they your features–which +that young soldier kissed as he lay dying?"</p> + +<p>"They were," said Sibyl. "I loved him, and gave him that miniature, and the +face they represented. I had given him all, and you slew him."</p> + +<p>"Then you hate me," whispered, Septimius.</p> + +<p>"Do you call it hatred?" asked Sibyl, smiling. "Have I not aided you, +thought with you, encouraged you, heard all your wild ravings when you +dared to tell no one else? kept up your hopes; suggested; helped you with +my legendary lore to useful hints; helped you, also, in other ways, which +you do not suspect? And now you ask me if I hate you. Does this look like +it?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Septimius. "And yet, since first I knew you, there has been +something whispering me of harm, as if I sat near some mischief. There is +in me the wild, natural blood of the Indian, the instinctive, the animal +nature, which has ways of warning that civilized life polishes away and +cuts out; and so, Sibyl, never did I approach you, but there were +reluctances, drawings back, and, at the same time, a strong impulse to +come closest to you; and to that I yielded. But why, then, knowing that in +this grave lay the man you loved, laid there by my hand,–why did you aid +me in an object which you must have seen was the breath of my life?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, my friend,–my enemy, if you will have it so,–are you yet to learn +that the wish of a man's inmost heart is oftenest that by which he is +ruined and made miserable? But listen to me, Septimius. No matter for my +earlier life; there is no reason why I should tell you the story, and +confess to you its weakness, its shame. It may be, I had more cause to +hate the tenant of that grave, than to hate you who unconsciously avenged +my cause; nevertheless, I came here in hatred, and desire of revenge, +meaning to lie in wait, and turn your dearest desire against you, to eat +into your life, and distil poison into it, I sitting on this grave, and +drawing fresh hatred from it; and at last, in the hour of your triumph, I +meant to make the triumph mine."</p> + +<p>"Is this still so?" asked Septimius, with pale lips: "or did your fell +purpose change?"</p> + +<p>"Septimius, I am weak,–a weak, weak girl,–only a girl, Septimius; only +eighteen yet," exclaimed Sibyl. "It is young, is it not? I might be +forgiven much. You know not how bitter my purpose was to you. But look, +Septimius,–could it be worse than this? Hush, be still! Do not stir!"</p> + +<p>She lifted the beautiful goblet from the table, put it to her lips, and +drank a deep draught from it; then, smiling mockingly, she held it towards +him.</p> + +<p>"See; I have made myself immortal before you. Will you drink?"</p> + +<p>He eagerly held out his hand to receive the goblet, but Sibyl, holding it +beyond his reach a moment, deliberately let it fall upon the hearth, where +it shivered into fragments, and the bright, cold water of immortality was +all spilt, shedding its strange fragrance around.</p> + +<p>"Sibyl, what have you done?" cried Septimius in rage and horror.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet! See what sort of immortality I win by it,–then, if you like, +distil your drink of eternity again, and quaff it."</p> + +<p>"It is too late, Sibyl; it was a happiness that may never come again in a +lifetime. I shall perish as a dog does. It is too late!"</p> + +<p>"Septimius," said Sibyl, who looked strangely beautiful, as if the drink, +giving her immortal life, had likewise the potency to give immortal beauty +answering to it, "listen to me. You have not learned all the secrets that +lay in those old legends, about which we have talked so much. There were +two recipes, discovered or learned by the art of the studious old Gaspar +Felton. One was said to be that secret of immortal life which so many old +sages sought for, and which some were said to have found; though, if that +were the case, it is strange some of them have not lived till our day. Its +essence lay in a certain rare flower, which mingled properly with other +ingredients of great potency in themselves, though still lacking the +crowning virtue till the flower was supplied, produced the drink of +immortality."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I had the flower, which I found in a grave," said Septimius, "and +distilled the drink which you have spilt."</p> + +<p>"You had a flower, or what you called a flower," said the girl. "But, +Septimius, there was yet another drink, in which the same potent +ingredients were used; all but the last. In this, instead of the beautiful +flower, was mingled the semblance of a flower, but really a baneful growth +out of a grave. This I sowed there, and it converted the drink into a +poison, famous in old science,–a poison which the Borgias used, and Mary +de Medicis,–and which has brought to death many a famous person, when it +was desirable to his enemies. This is the drink I helped you to distil. It +brings on death with pleasant and delightful thrills of the nerves. O +Septimius, Septimius, it is worth while to die, to be so blest, so +exhilarated as I am now."</p> + +<p>"Good God, Sibyl, is this possible?"</p> + +<p>"Even so, Septimius. I was helped by that old physician, Doctor Portsoaken, +who, with some private purpose of his own, taught me what to do; for he +was skilled in all the mysteries of those old physicians, and knew that +their poisons at least were efficacious, whatever their drinks of +immortality might be. But the end has not turned out as I meant. A girl's +fancy is so shifting, Septimius. I thought I loved that youth in the grave +yonder; but it was you I loved,–and I am dying. Forgive me for my evil +purposes, for I am dying."</p> + +<p>"Why hast thou spilt the drink?" said Septimius, bending his dark brows +upon her, and frowning over her. "We might have died together."</p> + +<p>"No, live, Septimius," said the girl, whose face appeared to grow bright +and joyous, as if the drink of death exhilarated her like an intoxicating +fluid. "I would not let you have it, not one drop. But to think," and here +she laughed, "what a penance,–what months of wearisome labor thou hast +had,–and what thoughts, what dreams, and how I laughed in my sleeve at +them all the time! Ha, ha, ha! Then thou didst plan out future ages, and +talk poetry and prose to me. Did I not take it very demurely, and answer +thee in the same style? and so thou didst love me, and kindly didst wish +to take me with thee in thy immortality. O Septimius, I should have liked +it well! Yes, latterly, only, I knew how the case stood. Oh, how I +surrounded thee with dreams, and instead of giving thee immortal life, so +kneaded up the little life allotted thee with dreams and vaporing stuff, +that thou didst not really live even that. Ah, it was a pleasant pastime, +and pleasant is now the end of it. Kiss me, thou poor Septimius, one +kiss!"</p> + +<p>[<i>She gives the ridiculous aspect to his scheme, in an airy way</i>.]</p> + +<p>But as Septimius, who seemed stunned, instinctively bent forward to obey +her, she drew back. "No, there shall be no kiss! There may a little poison +linger on my lips. Farewell! Dost thou mean still to seek for thy liquor +of immortality?–ah, ah! It was a good jest. We will laugh at it when we +meet in the other world."</p> + +<p>And here poor Sibyl Dacy's laugh grew fainter, and dying away, she seemed +to die with it; for there she was, with that mirthful, half-malign +expression still on her face, but motionless; so that however long +Septimius's life was likely to be, whether a few years or many centuries, +he would still have her image in his memory so. And here she lay among his +broken hopes, now shattered as completely as the goblet which held his +draught, and as incapable of being formed again.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The next day, as Septimius did not appear, there was research for him on +the part of Doctor Portsoaken. His room was found empty, the bed +untouched. Then they sought him on his favorite hill-top; but neither was +he found there, although something was found that added to the wonder and +alarm of his disappearance. It was the cold form of Sibyl Dacy, which was +extended on the hillock so often mentioned, with her arms thrown over it; +but, looking in the dead face, the beholders were astonished to see a +certain malign and mirthful expression, as if some airy part had been +played out,–some surprise, some practical joke of a peculiarly airy kind +had burst with fairy shoots of fire among the company.</p> + +<p>"Ah, she is dead! Poor Sibyl Dacy!" exclaimed Doctor Portsoaken. "Her +scheme, then, has turned out amiss."</p> + +<p>This exclamation seemed to imply some knowledge of the mystery; and it so +impressed the auditors, among whom was Robert Hagburn, that they thought +it not inexpedient to have an investigation; so the learned doctor was not +uncivilly taken into custody and examined. Several interesting +particulars, some of which throw a certain degree of light on our +narrative, were discovered. For instance, that Sibyl Dacy, who was a niece +of the doctor, had been beguiled from her home and led over the sea by +Cyril Norton, and that the doctor, arriving in Boston with another +regiment, had found her there, after her lover's death. Here there was +some discrepancy or darkness in the doctor's narrative. He appeared to +have consented to, or instigated (for it was not quite evident how far his +concurrence had gone) this poor girl's scheme of going and brooding over +her lover's grave, and living in close contiguity with the man who had +slain him. The doctor had not much to say for himself on this point; but +there was found reason to believe that he was acting in the interest of +some English claimant of a great estate that was left without an apparent +heir by the death of Cyril Norton, and there was even a suspicion that he, +with his fantastic science and antiquated empiricism, had been at the +bottom of the scheme of poisoning, which was so strangely intertwined with +Septimius's notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of +immortality. It was observable, however, that the doctor–such a humbug in +scientific matters, that he had perhaps bewildered himself–seemed to have +a sort of faith in the efficacy of the recipe which had so strangely come +to light, provided the true flower could be discovered; but that flower, +according to Doctor Portsoaken, had not been seen on earth for many +centuries, and was banished probably forever. The flower, or fungus, which +Septimius had mistaken for it, was a sort of earthly or devilish +counterpart of it, and was greatly in request among the old poisoners for +its admirable uses in their art. In fine, no tangible evidence being found +against the worthy doctor, he was permitted to depart, and disappeared +from the neighborhood, to the scandal of many people, unhanged; leaving +behind him few available effects beyond the web and empty skin of an +enormous spider.</p> + +<p>As to Septimius, he returned no more to his cottage by the wayside, and +none undertook to tell what had become of him; crushed and annihilated, as +it were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams. Rumors +there have been, however, at various times, that there had appeared an +American claimant, who had made out his right to the great estate of +Smithell's Hall, and had dwelt there, and left posterity, and that in the +subsequent generation an ancient baronial title had been revived in favor +of the son and heir of the American. Whether this was our Septimius, I +cannot tell; but I should be rather sorry to believe that after such +splendid schemes as he had entertained, he should have been content to +settle down into the fat substance and reality of English life, and die in +his due time, and be buried like any other man.</p> + +<p>A few years ago, while in England, I visited Smithell's Hall, and was +entertained there, not knowing at the time that I could claim its owner as +my countryman by descent; though, as I now remember, I was struck by the +thin, sallow, American cast of his face, and the lithe slenderness of his +figure, and seem now (but this may be my fancy) to recollect a certain +Indian glitter of the eye and cast of feature.</p> + +<p>As for the Bloody Footstep, I saw it with my own eyes, and will venture to +suggest that it was a mere natural reddish stain in the stone, converted +by superstition into a Bloody Footstep.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimius Felton, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMIUS FELTON *** + +This file should be named 8sept10h.htm or 8sept10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sept11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sept10ah.htm + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Emily Ratliff, Curtis A. 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