Fanny Campbell, The Female Pirate Captain: A Tale of The Revolution
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CONCLUSION.
Terrence Moony was employed until ripe old age laid him up on the estateof William Lovell, and he died happy, surrounded by every comforthe could desire, and with his own children about him, to smoothe hispillow, and regret him gone.
There is still another character in whom the reader has doubtless becomeinterested, and of whom we shall be expected to say something before weclose; our own feelings too, would lead us voluntarily to allude to him,for there were many extenuating points in his character. We refer to SirRalph Burnet of the Royal Navy.
Soon after he recovered from the effects of his severe wound, he appliedfor a change of station, not wishing to be an enemy to a people whomhe honestly considered to be in the right, and whom at heart he wishedmight prove successful in the cause that engaged them. He was soonordered on to the English coast, and greatly distinguished himselfthere, in the war with the French, and several other importantengagements, until step by step, he became an Admiral, and for somegallant act, was knighted by his King. He was true to his promise toFanny Campbell, and was wedded to fame only, but therein he chose adistinguished mistress, and one that did him full honor.
Lovell had two sons, who partook of the martial character of theirparents, and now serve their country as officers in the right arm of itsdefence, our gallant navy. These sons, too, have seen active service,but we will speak no more of them.
The descendants of the High Rock hamlet still exist, and are yetoccupied like their parents, in the early times of the Revolution, inthe hardy and honest employment of fishermen. The inhabitants of thehamlet removed to about two miles more easterly of the Rock, and weremerged into the community of the Swampscot fishermen of Lynn, a hardyand industrious people. High Rock, firm and immovable, still towersabove the scene, and is often visited by our travelers to enjoy theextended and beautiful prospect it affords, both of the land and sea,from its elevated summit.
I could add no small degree of interest to this closing part of mystory, if I could take the reader over the turnpike road leading fromLynn to Salem, where the old Mansion-house of the Lovell family stillremains, surrounded by well improved and highly cultivated lands, aherald of the past. It was built by Lovell, and the style is but littlein advance of the earliest mode of architecture in the colonies; but itis still a stout and commodious house, with every convenience the heartneed desire. We know that the reader who has perused our tale, wouldlook upon the spot with not a little interest, where Fanny, our heroine,closed her days, and where the honest Terrence Moony displayed his skillin gardening, until grey old age laid him quietly on the shelf. Whenbusiness or pleasure shall again call you to that vicinity, as you passthrough the town of Lynn, turn off from the common, and take the ‘upperroad,’ by the base of High Rock, and from its summit recall the ‘locale’of our tale; then pass on through the now thickly settled part of thetown called Wood End, and taking the Northern road, strike again intothe great Eastern turnpike road that passes through Salem, and you willshortly come upon the Lovell estate. I am vain enough to think thatperhaps some one may be induced to make the trip solely by reason of theinterest I may have created; if so, I can assure them that they willbe richly paid for the labor. If you do it, eschew the railroad, take ahorse and vehicle, and be your own master; go where you like, and returnwhen you will. This is independence; the deuce take all railroads, sayI, where romance is concerned, for while one is exercised by some veryfine feeling, he may awake from his lethargy, and find that the carshave very quietly gone off and left him.
And now we must part, gentle reader, and patient too, if thou hastfollowed us thus far.
Fairly at the end of our ill-spun yarn, it now remains for us to thankyou for the great patience that has carried you through to these lines.We have endeavored in Fanny Campbell to portray a heroine who should notbe like every other the fancy has created; we have strove to makeher such an one as should elicit the reader’s interest, and have yetendeavored in the picture not to overstep the modest bounds of nature.We have designed to show that among the lower classes of society, thereis more of the germ of true intellect and courage, nobleness of purpose,and strength of will than may be found among the pampered and wealthychildren of fortune. We have given you but modest and true men inWilliam Lovell and Jack Herbert. In Terrence Moony we have only shownthe impetuous generosity and warmth of affection that characterize hiscountrymen. In the pardoned Englishman we have drawn a picture that wewould be glad to hold up before the advocates of Capital Punishment; norhave we overdrawn the picture here; it is a faithful one so far as thehuman heart can be judged of by past and long experience.
In Captain Burnet we have given form to a spirit, the genuineness ofwhich We all can bear testimony to. A warm, ardent, thoughtless manbecomes entirely changed in heart and purpose by the strange power oflove. We have seen in him the contradictions of which those who areexercised by it will be at one time rash and headstrong, at another,calm and repentant. Such men will make great naval heroes, but badfathers of families.
And now again, farewell, dear reader, dear reader, and thus ends ourtale of Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain.
THE END.