"Sirrah! how dare you leave your barley-broth
To come in armor thus, against your king?"
_Drama_.
The large irregular building inhabited by Colonel Howard well deserved
the name it had received from the pen of Katherine Plowden.
Notwithstanding the confusion in its orders, owing to the different ages
in which its several parts had been erected, the interior was not
wanting in that appearance of comfort which forms the great
characteristic of English domestic life. Its dark and intricate mazes of
halls, galleries, and apartments were all well provided with good and
substantial furniture; and whatever might have been the purposes of
their original construction, they were now peacefully appropriated to
the service of a quiet and well-ordered family.
There were divers portentous traditions of cruel separations and
blighted loves, which always linger, like cobwebs, around the walls of
old houses, to be heard here also, and which, doubtless, in abler hands,
might easily have been wrought up into scenes of high interest and
delectable pathos. But our humbler efforts must be limited by an attempt
to describe man as God has made him, vulgar and unseemly as he may
appear to sublimated faculties, to the possessors of which enviable
qualifications we desire to say, at once, that we are determined to
eschew all things supernaturally refined, as we would the devil. To all
those, then, who are tired of the company of their species we would
bluntly insinuate, that the sooner they throw aside our pages, and seize
upon those of some more highly gifted bard, the sooner will they be in
the way of quitting earth, if not of attaining heaven. Our business is
solely to treat of man, and this fair scene on which he acts, and that
not in his subtleties, and metaphysical contradictions, but in his
palpable nature, that all may understand our meaning as well as
ourselves--whereby we may manifestly reject the prodigious advantage of
being thought a genius, by perhaps foolishly refusing the mighty aid of
incomprehensibility to establish such a character.
Leaving the gloomy shadows of the cliffs, under which the little Ariel
had been seen to steer, and the sullen roaring of the surf along the
margin of the ocean, we shall endeavor to transport the reader to the
dining parlor of St. Ruth's Abbey, taking the evening of the same day as
the time for introducing another collection of those personages, whose
acts and characters it has become our duty to describe.
The room was not of very large dimensions, and every part was glittering
with the collected light of half a dozen Candles, aided by the fierce
rays that glanced from the grate, which held a most cheerful fire of
sea-coal. The mouldings of the dark oak wainscoting threw back upon the
massive table of mahogany streaks of strong light, which played among
the rich fluids that were sparkling on the board in mimic haloes. The
outline of this picture of comfort was formed by damask curtains of a
deep red, and enormous oak chairs with leathern backs and cushioned
seats, as if the apartment were hermetically sealed against the world
and its chilling cares.
Around the table, which still stood in the centre of the floor, were
seated three gentlemen, in the easy enjoyment of their daily repast. The
cloth had been drawn, and the bottle was slowly passing among them, as
if those who partook of its bounty well knew that neither the time nor
the opportunity would be wanting for their deliberate indulgence in its
pleasures.
At one end of the table an elderly man was seated, who performed
whatever little acts of courtesy the duties of a host would appear to
render necessary, in a company where all seemed to be equally at their
ease and at home. This gentleman was in the decline of life, though his
erect carriage, quick movements, and steady hand, equally denoted that
it was an old age free from the usual infirmities. In his dress, he
belonged to that class whose members always follow the fashions of the
age anterior to the one in which they live, whether from disinclination
to sudden changes of any kind, or from the recollections of a period
which, with them, has been hallowed by scenes and feelings that the
chilling evening of life can neither revive nor equal. Age might
possibly have thrown its blighting frosts on his thin locks, but art had
labored to conceal the ravages with the nicest care. An accurate outline
of powder covered not only the parts where the hair actually remained,
but wherever nature had prescribed that hair should grow. His
countenance was strongly marked in features, if not in expression,
exhibiting, on the whole, a look of noble integrity and high honor,
which was a good deal aided in its effect by the lofty receding
forehead, that rose like a monument above the whole, to record the
character of the aged veteran. A few streaks of branching red mingled
with a swarthiness of complexion, that was rendered more conspicuous by
the outline of unsullied white, which nearly surrounded his prominent
features.
Opposite to the host, who it will at once be understood was Colonel
Howard, was the thin yellow visage of Mr. Christopher Dillon, that bane
to the happiness of her cousin, already mentioned by Miss Plowden.
Between these two gentlemen was a middle-aged hard-featured man, attired
in the livery of King George, whose countenance emulated the scarlet of
his coat, and whose principal employment, at the moment, appeared to
consist in doing honor to the cheer of his entertainer.
Occasionally, a servant entered or left the room in silence, giving
admission, however, through the opened door, to the rushing sounds of
the gale, as the wind murmured amid the angles and high chimneys of the
edifice.
A man, in the dress of a rustic, was standing near the chair of Colonel
Howard, between whom and the master of the mansion a dialogue had been
maintained which closed as follows. The colonel was the first to speak,
after the curtain is drawn from between the eyes of the reader and the
scene:
"Said you, farmer, that the Scotchman beheld the vessels with his own
eyes?"
The answer was a simple negative.
"Well, well," continued the colonel, "you can withdraw."
The man made a rude attempt at a bow, which being returned by the old
soldier with formal grace, he left the room. The host turning to his
companions, resumed the subject.
"If those rash boys have really persuaded the silly dotard who commands
the frigate, to trust himself within the shoals on the eve of such a
gale as this, their case must have been hopeless indeed! Thus may
rebellion and disaffection ever meet with the just indignation of
Providence! It would not surprise me, gentleman, to hear that my native
land had been engulfed by earthquakes, or swallowed by the ocean, so
awful and inexcusable has been the weight of her transgressions! And yet
it was a proud and daring boy who held the second station in that ship!
I knew his father well, and a gallant gentleman he was, who, like my own
brother, the parent of Cecilia, preferred to serve his master on the
ocean rather than on the land. His son inherited the bravery of his high
spirit, without its loyalty. One would not wish to have such a youth
drowned, either."
This speech, which partook much of the nature of a soliloquy, especially
toward its close, called for no immediate reply; but the soldier, having
held his glass to the candle, to admire the rosy hue of its contents,
and then sipped of the fluid so often that nothing but a clear light
remained to gaze at, quietly replaced the empty vessel on the table,
and, as he extended an arm toward the blushing bottle, he spoke, in the
careless tones of one whose thoughts were dwelling on another theme:
"Ay, true enough, sir; good men are scarce, and, as you say, one cannot
but mourn his fate, though his death be glorious; quite a loss to his
majesty's service, I dare say, it will prove."
"A loss to the service of his majesty!" echoed the host--"his death
glorious! no, Captain Borroughcliffe, the death of no rebel can be
glorious; and how he can be a loss to his majesty's service, I myself am
quite at a loss to understand."
The soldier, whose ideas were in that happy state of confusion that
renders it difficult to command the one most needed, but who still, from
long discipline, had them under a wonderful control for the disorder of
his brain, answered, with great promptitude:
"I mean the loss of his example, sir. It would have been so appalling to
others to have seen the young man executed instead of shot in battle."
"He is drowned, sir."
"Ah! that is the next thing to being hanged; that circumstance had
escaped me."
"It is by no means certain, sir, that the ship and schooner that the
drover saw are the vessels you take them to have been," said Mr. Dillon,
in a harsh, drawling tone of voice. "I should doubt their daring to
venture so openly on the coast, and in the direct track of our vessels
of war."
"These people are our countrymen, Christopher, though they are rebels,"
exclaimed the colonel. "They are a hardy and brave nation. When I had
the honor of serving his majesty, some twenty years since, it was my
fortune to face the enemies of my king in a few small affairs, Captain
Borroughcliffe; such as the siege of Quebec, and the battle before its
gates, a trifling occasion at Ticonderoga, and that unfortunate
catastrophe of General Braddock--with a few others. I must say, sir, in
favor of the colonists that they played a manful game on the latter day;
and this gentleman who now heads the rebels sustained a gallant name
among us for his conduct in that disastrous business. He was a discreet,
well-behaved young man, and quite a gentleman. I have never denied that
Mr. Washington was very much of a gentleman."
"Yes!" said the soldier, yawning, "he was educated among his majesty's
troops, and he could hardly be other wise. But I am quite melancholy
about this unfortunate drowning, Colonel Howard. Here will be an end of
my vocation, I suppose; and I am far from denying that your hospitality
has made these quarters most agreeable to me."
"Then, sir, the obligation is only mutual," returned the host, with a
polite inclination of his head: "but gentlemen who, like ourselves, have
been made free of the camp, need not bandy idle compliments about such
trifles. If it were my kinsman Dillon, now, whose thoughts ran more on
Coke upon Littleton than on the gayeties of a mess-table and a soldier's
life, he might think such formalities as necessary as his hard words are
to a deed. Come, Borroughcliffe, my dear fellow, I believe we have given
an honest glass to each of the royal family (God bless them all!), let
us swallow a bumper to the memory of the immortal Wolfe."
"An honest proposal, my gallant host, and such a one as a soldier will
never decline," returned the captain, who roused himself with the
occasion. "God bless them all! say I, in echo; and if this gracious
queen of ours ends as famously as she has begun, 'twill be such a family
of princes as no other army of Europe can brag of around a mess-table."
"Ay, ay, there is some consolation in that thought, in the midst of this
dire rebellion of my countrymen. But I'll vex myself no more with the
unpleasant recollections; the arms of my sovereign will soon purge that
wicked land of the foul stain."
"Of that there can be no doubt," said Borroughcliffe, whose thoughts
still continued a little obscured by the sparkling Madeira that had long
lain ripening under a Carolinian sun; "these Yankees fly before his
majesty's regulars, like so many dirty clowns in a London mob before a
charge of the horse-guards."
"Pardon me, Captain Borroughcliffe," said his host, elevating his person
to more than its usually erect attitude; "they may be misguided,
deluded, and betrayed, but the comparison is unjust. Give them arms and
give them discipline, and he who gets an inch of their land from them,
plentiful as it is, will find a bloody day on which to take possession."
"The veriest coward in Christendom would fight in country where wine
brews itself into such a cordial as this," returned the cool soldier. "I
am a living proof that you mistook my meaning; for had not those loose-
flapped gentlemen they call Vermontese and Hampshire-granters (God grant
them his blessing for the deed) finished two-thirds of my company, I
should not have been at this day under your roof, a recruiting instead
of a marching officer; neither should I have been bound up in a
covenant, like the law of Moses, could Burgoyne have made head against
their long-legged marchings and countermarchings. Sir, I drink their
healths, with all my heart; and with such a bottle of golden sunshine
before me, rather than displease so good a friend, I will go through
Gates' whole army, regiment by regiment, company by company, or, if you
insist on the same, even man by man, in a bumper."
"On no account would I tax your politeness so far," returned the
colonel, abundantly mollified by this ample concession; "I stand too
much your debtor, Captain Borroughcliffe, for so freely volunteering to
defend my house against the attacks of my piratical, rebellious, and
misguided countrymen, to think of requiring such a concession."
"Harder duty might be performed, and no favors asked, my respectable
host," returned the soldier. "Country quarters are apt to be dull, and
the liquor is commonly execrable; but in such a dwelling as this, a man
can rock himself in the very cradle of contentment. And yet there is one
subject of complaint, that I should disgrace my regiment did I not speak
of--for it is incumbent on me, both as a man and a soldier, to be no
longer silent."
"Name it, sir, freely, and its cause shall be as freely redressed," said
the host in some amazement.
"Here we three sit, from morning to night," continued the soldier;
"bachelors all, well provisioned and better liquored, I grant you, but
like so many well-fed anchorites, while two of the loveliest damsels in
the island pine in solitude within a hundred feet of us, without tasting
the homage of our sighs. This, I will maintain, is a reproach both to
your character, Colonel Howard, as an old soldier and to mine as a young
one. As to our old friend, Coke on top of Littleton here, I leave him to
the quiddities of the law to plead his own cause."
The brow of the host contracted for a moment, and the sallow cheek of
Dillon, who had sat during the dialogue in a sullen silence, appeared to
grow even livid; but gradually the open brow of the veteran resumed its
frank expression, and the lips of the other relaxed into a Jesuitical
sort of a smile, that was totally disregarded by the captain, who amused
himself with sipping his wine while he waited for an answer, as if he
analyzed each drop that crossed his palate.
After an embarrassing pause of a moment, Colonel Howard broke the
silence:
"There is reason in Borroughcliffe's hint, for such I take it to be----"
"I meant it for a plain, matter-of-fact complaint," interrupted the
soldier.
"And you have cause for it," continued the colonel. "It is unreasonable,
Christopher, that the ladies should allow their dread of these piratical
countrymen of ours to exclude us from their society, though prudence may
require that they remain secluded in their apartments. We owe the
respect to Captain Borroughcliffe, that at least we admit him to the
sight of the coffee-urn in an evening."
"That is precisely my meaning," said the captain: "as for dining with
them, why, I am well provided for here; but there is no one knows how to
set hot water a hissing in so professional a manner as a woman. So
forward, my dear and honored colonel, and lay your injunctions on them,
that they command your humble servant and Mr. Coke unto Littleton to
advance and give the countersign of gallantry."
Dillon contracted his disagreeable features into something that was
intended for a satirical smile, before he spoke as follows:
"Both the veteran Colonel Howard and the gallant Captain Borroughcliffe
may find it easier to overcome the enemies of his majesty in the field
than to shake a woman's caprice. Not a day has passed these three weeks,
that I have not sent my inquiries to the door of Miss Howard as became
her father's kinsman, with a wish to appease her apprehensions of the
pirates; but little has she deigned me In reply, more than such thanks
as her sex and breeding could not well dispense with."
"Well, you have been, as fortunate as myself, and why you should be more
so, I see no reason," cried the soldier, throwing a glance of cool
contempt at the other: "fear whitens the cheek, and ladies best love to
be seen when the roses flourish rather than the lilies."
"A woman is never so interesting, Captain Borroughcliffe, said the
gallant host," as when she appears to lean on man for support; and he
who does not feel himself honored by the trust is a disgrace to his
species."
"Bravo! my honored sir, a worthy sentiment, and spoken like a true
soldier; but I have heard much of the loveliness of the ladies of the
abbey since I have been in my present quarters, and I feel a strong
desire to witness beauty encircled by such loyalty as could induce them
to flee their native country, rather than to devote their charms to the
rude keeping of the rebels."
The colonel looked grave, and for a moment fierce, but the expression of
his displeasure soon passed away in a smile of forced gayety, and, as he
cheerfully rose from his seat, he cried:
"You shall be admitted this very night, and this instant, Captain
Borroughcliffe, We owe it, sir, to your services here, as well as in the
field, and those forward girls shall be humored no longer. Nay, it is
nearly two weeks since I have seen my ward myself; nor have I laid my
eyes on my niece but twice in all that time, Christopher, I leave the
captain under your good care while I go seek admission into the
cloisters, we call that part of, the building the cloisters, because it
holds our nuns, sir! You will pardon my early absence from the table,
Captain Borroughcliffe."
"I beg it may not be mentioned; you leave an excellent representative
behind you, sir," cried the soldier, taking in the lank figure of Mr.
Dillon in a sweeping glance, that terminated with a settled gaze on his
decanter. "Make my devoirs to the recluses, and say all that your own
excellent wit shall suggest as an apology for my impatience, Mr. Dillon,
I meet you in a bumper to their healths and in their honor."
The challenge was coldly accepted; and while these gentlemen still held
their glasses to their lips, Colonel Howard left the apartment, bowing
low, and uttering a thousand excuses to his guest, as he proceeded, and
even offering a very unnecessary apology of the same effect to his
habitual inmate, Mr. Dillon.
"Is fear so very powerful within these old walls," said the soldier,
when the door closed behind their host, "that your ladies deem it
necessary to conceal themselves before even an enemy is known to have
landed?"
Dillon coldly replied:
"The name of Paul Jones is terrific to all on this coast, I believe; nor
are the ladies of St. Ruth singular in their apprehensions."
"Ah! the pirate has bought himself a desperate name since the affair of
Flamborough Head. But let him look to't, if he trusts himself in another
Whitehaven expedition, while there is a detachment of the ----th in the
neighborhood, though the men should be nothing better than recruits."
"Our last accounts leave him safe in the court of Louis," returned his
companion; "but there are men as desperate as himself, who sail the
ocean under the rebel flag, and from one or two of them we have had much
reason to apprehend the vengeance of disappointed men. It is they that
we hope we lost in this gale."
"Hum! I hope they were dastards, or your hopes are a little unchristian,
and----"
He would have proceeded, but the door opened, and his orderly entered,
and announced that a sentinel had detained three men, who were passing
along the highway, near the abbey, and who, by their dress, appeared to
be seamen.
"Well, let them pass," cried the captain; "what, have we nothing to do
better than to stop passengers, like footpads on the king's highway!
Give them of your canteens, and let the rascals pass. Your orders were
to give the alarm if any hostile party landed on the coast, not to
detain peaceable subjects on their lawful business."
"I beg your honor's pardon," returned the sergeant; "but these men
seemed lurking about the grounds for no good, and as they kept carefully
aloof from the place where our sentinel was posted, until to-night,
Downing thought it looked suspiciously and detained them."
"Downing is a fool, and it may go hard with him for his officiousness.
What have you done with the men?"
"I took them to the guardroom in the east wings your honor."
"Then feed them; and hark ye, sirrah! liquor them well, that we hear no
complaints, and let them go."
"Yes, sir, yes, your honor shall be obeyed; but there is a straight,
soldierly-looking fellow among them, that I think might be persuaded to
enlist, if he were detained till morning. I doubt, sir, by his walk, but
he has served already."
"Ha! what say you!" cried the captain, pricking up his ears like a hound
who hears a well-known cry; "served, think ye, already?"
"There are signs about him, your honor, to that effect An old soldier is
seldom deceived in such a thing; and considering his disguise, for it
can be no other, and the place where we took him, there is no danger of
a have-us corpses until he is tied to us by the laws of the kingdom."
"Peace, you knave!" said Borroughcliffe, rising, and making a devious
route toward the door; "you speak in the presence of my lord chief
justice that is to be, and should not talk lightly of the laws. But
still you say reason: give me your arm, sergeant, and lead the way to
the east wing; my eyesight is good for nothing in such a dark night. A
soldier should always visit his guard before the tattoo beats."
After emulating the courtesy of their host, Captain Borroughcliffe
retired on this patriotic errand, leaning on his subordinate in a style
of most familiar condescension. Dillon continued at the table,
endeavoring to express the rancorous feelings of his breast by a
satirical smile of contempt, that was necessarily lost on all but
himself, as a large mirror threw back the image of his morose and
unpleasant features.
But we must precede the veteran colonel in his visits to the
"cloisters."