Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

  The black boy opened the door and announced that M. Serurier, the French minister, though he did not pro nounce it that way, had arrived and would be pleased to see the President of the United States and the gentle men of his Cabinet at their earliest convenience.

  The President of the United States and the gentle men of his Cabinet would be pleased to see M. Serurier, the French minister, at once; and hence M. Serurier, the chosen representative of the only polite nation and of the great and glorious empire of his Majesty Napo leon I, was shown into our humble, rural presence. M. Serurier had neglected no precaution to make himself great. His uniform was a miracle of fine cloth, brilliant colours, and gold lace. His cocked hat, which he held proudly and stiffly in his hand, illuminated the room. His black hair shone with some fine ointment, which made it curl up in most ferocious and terrifying fashion. The sword which hung at his side, and seemed tempted

  A CABINET SESSION. 51

  to swing between his legs every time he took a step, had a hilt of gold set with gems and jingled fiercely.

  His Haughtiness the French minister, the servant of his Imperial Majesty the French Emperor, gave one of his finest bows to each of those present, except myself. 1 1 e knew me very well, but he was too much of a French gentleman to waste a useful bow on a clerk in the Treas ury Department.

  " We are glad to see you, M. Serurier," said the Presi dent politely. " Won't you take a glass of wine with us?"

  I jumped up, poured out the wine, and handed it to the minister. He drank standing, and was asked to take a seat, but seemed to prefer that martial and impressive appearance which can be preserved only in an upright position. I watched him, determined not to lose a word or gesture. I believed that this was the beginning of what Mr. Gallatin had brought me to see.

  " You said, M. Serurier," began Mr. Madison, " that you had received written complaints from the emperor against our Government, and were instructed to push them personally."

  " That is correct, your Excellency," said the minister. " I am instructed by my master, the emperor " I hope that if any representative of our Government abroad speaks of the President as " his master " somebody will kick him " to complain of the great partiality the Americans are showing for the English, his enemies, helping them in trade, furnishing them with food and other supplies, and thereby showing a desire to assist them to succeed, whereas France has always been the friend of this country, which owes to her a heavy debt of gratitude."

  I was astonished, but the same complaint of our giv ing friendship and assistance to the English was made by Napoleon more than once. In those days the Eng lish robbed us and kidnapped us on the ground that we

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  were once colonists of theirs, speaking the same language and of the same race, and the French treated us nearly as badly, all the while reminding us that we owed them a debt of gratitude for assistance in the Kevolutionary war.

  " The emperor, then, thinks that we are showing par tiality for England ? " asked the President.

  " His Majesty is convinced, and is deeply grieved at such a policy from those who he thinks should be the friends of France."

  A faint smile appeared on the worn features of the President.

  " Mr. Smith," he said to the Secretary of State, " will you read to M. Serurier the protest which we received three days ago from the Prime Minister of Great Britain? Will you listen, M. Serurier? "

  M. Seruri er shrugged his haughty shoulders and sig nified his assent.

  The Secretary of State took from the heap a large paper, liberally stamped with the arms of England, and began to read. It was an energetic protest against the undoubted partiality which the American Government was showing for France in the present struggle between that power and Great Britain, feeding the armies of the French despot and usurper, giving them sympathy and otherwise comforting and strengthening them in their attempts to crush Great Britain, the defender of the liberties and freedom of Europe and the sole bulwark of the oppressed.

  " The king," concluded the Prime Minister's letter, " regards with the deepest grief such a policy from those who are of our own blood, who speak our language, who are really our children, and who should assist us to main tain the liberties of the world against the tyrant and usurper Bonaparte."

  M. Serurier listened with a supercilious smile.

  "Perhaps we are guilty on both counts, M. Seru rier," said the President with his pale little smile; " that

  A CABINET SESSION. 53

  is, of undue partisanship for the French as against the English, and also of undue friendship for the English as against the French, but for the present we must deny either."

  " The charges of that wicked and perfidious nation, Britain, are not to be believed for a moment," said M. Serurier, making his sword rattle a little, as a threat against England and not particularly against us, I pre sume; " but his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon is too great to speak anything but the truth. Your Excellency, shall I report to him any answer to this complaint? "

  " State to the emperor," said the President, " that his report has been received and will be considered."

  M. Serurier bowed again, but not as if he liked the answer.

  " I trust," he said, " that your Excellency will not forget that France has always been the friend of this country, and gave it invaluable assistance when it was fighting England for its freedom."

  " We will not forget it," was the reply.

  M. Serurier was asked to take a second glass of wine with us, and he unbent so far as to do so. Then he bowed again, and took the majesty of France out with him. We heard the wheels of his carriage rolling over the sand, but the worn old men said nothing further about him, and resumed the discussion of questions con cerned with the finances and the internal state of the country. I guessed that Mr. Gallatin had brought me there to show me how we were pulled about by both England and France, and were subjected to the most ridiculous accusations from each, but he used me for work too. Those old men sat in that room, hour after hour, discussing ways and seeking means, and trying so hard to make two and two equal to five. I have come to the con clusion that it is a weary task to found a nation, espe cially when there are several others already in existence which think they have an exclusive claim to the title

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  and the rights conferred by it, regarding you merely as an intruder to be clubbed and kicked and stripped whenever it may so please their high mightinesses.

  Midnight came and I thought it was time to go home, but no such thoughts seemed to enter the heads of those anxious old men. I became a machine, animated by a will, but nothing more. I made notes in the proper way, but as I finished each I could not have told what I had written. Sleep tied forty-pound weights to my eyelids, and it required a tremendous effort to keep them from shutting over my eyeballs. Sometimes they would go down, but I hauled them up again with a jerk. The room became misty; the walls would drift several miles away and then pass out of sight altogether. I remembered my self sufficiently once or twice to reflect that one pays for the honour of going to a Cabinet meeting, but the old men talked and debated on, until at the end of a large slice out of eternity they began to roll up their papers, and some one a truly great man he must have been said it was time to go home.

  I felt depressed for some days after the Cabinet meet ing, being still desirous of war with Great Britain, con vinced that it would be just, and yet seeing more clearly than before our difficulties and the great odds which we would have to face. Nor was the course of my friends such as to encourage me. I met Major Northcote, and while he did not allude to the conversation at the de serted Capitol, his manner had a somewhat stronger savour of irony, even of triumph and complacency, as if he had warned me of the coming crash, and having offered me safety, even reward, his whole duty was done and his conscience clear. Mercer was a little more cyn ical than usual, perhaps bitter, and Cyrus Pendleton was distinctly hostile. I heard that he had spoken of my apparent
friendship with Major Northcote, and had endeavoured to turn it to my discredit, though I was convinced that his act proceeded from other motives.

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  But a turn, or rather an interruption, was given to these thoughts by the arrival of several of the Western Indian chiefs, whom some of our commissioners had in duced to visit Washington in the hope that they would be impressed so much by the power of the Long Knives and wisdom of their Great Father that they would refrain from the proposed war upon us. I was supposed to un derstand wild nature, being from the West, and Mr. Gallatin delegated me to the task of helping in the escort of the chiefs about Washington; I as well as the others selected, for I was only one of several, being expected to see that the country's greatness lost nothing at our hands. Yet we seemed to make little progress, and when we took them one day to the Capitol, and I spoke of the impos ing appearance it would make when completed, the old est of the chiefs asked me if that completion would ever come, in a manner so much like that of another man who once had asked me the same question that I was startled, and began to believe that some one, an enemy of ours, was tampering with them. And I knew well the man who was our most active enemy in Washington.

  The next day was Sunday, a period of freedom for me, and soon after the noon hour I was in that part of Washington in which Cyrus Pendleton's house stood. Marian came out presently, and when I joined her we walked slowly through the city and up one of the gentle slopes, from which we could see the town and the river. Ours was not a secret meeting in any sense, though both of us knew that Marian's father, however much he might like me personally, did not wish me to become a member of his family. It was with a full knowledge of this that I walked by Marian's side, and my mind was under the influence of opposing emotions. I knew her respect for her father's will, as we in Kentucky have been bred largely in the old English custom of obedience to our parents, and yet I believed that it was not she who would choose Bidv/ell, even if she did not choose some other

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  whom I could name. The prospect of war, too, was growing more threatening every day and threw a de pressing influence over us all, those who opposed it and those who wished it alike.

  Below us the little city peeped out of the woods and bushes, and beyond shone the wide river, both full of peace as we saw them from the hill. Some of the ear liest and tenderest buds of spring were appearing, for the warm weather comes soon in the latitude of the Capitol.

  Marian spoke of the war which we Western people expected and wished, and said that it seemed a sad al ternative when a nation was compelled to redress wrongs by such a method. But I defended our cause, though knowing well the difficulties of the Government, and re peated our old and in fact unanswerable argument that nothing else was left to us. She replied with a woman's tender forethought that it must mean death for many and sorrow for more, and I began to urge our cause in spite of such sufferings with so much zeal that I forgot my own peaceful character as a civilian, and told why war was necessary sometimes, citing old instances in history and telling how a nation frequently came out of the fiery trial stronger, freer, and better than before. A few of my arguments were my own, but the majority I had bor rowed from others, the leaders of our party, and borne on by my enthusiasm I spoke with such fervour that I may have seemed to her a sort of everyday apostle of military triumph and glory.

  I stopped abruptly, for I saw her looking at me with sad and yet not reproachful eyes, and my own zealous speech ceasing she asked me if I would go to the war when it came. I had made up my mind long ago on that point, and I answered without hesitation that I would go. I think that every woman is anxious for any man for whom she cares Marian and I had been children to gether to fight for his country if the country needs him,

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  and yet she is loath, too, to let him go, looking further than man does to wounds, misery, and death.

  K i lowing this truth, I watched Marian's face as I told her my intention. She looked away toward the town and the river, and her lips seemed to me to tremble, as if she would speak but restrained herself. I was on the verge of saying something, which perhaps I had come to say, despite everything, but she spoke quickly, seeming to read my looks, and talked of the great uncertainty in which all of us stood, the approach of war, the upsetting of present conditions, and the doubtful future, her manner suggest ing that this was a time in which no one could form any settled plans. It seemed to me that she knew what I would say and was warning me against it, and for a mo ment I felt a little chagrin, but one look at her face was sufficient to drive it away and tell me that she was right. I could not be a man and do otherwise than she wished.

  She ceased, and I also was silent. A slight flush had come into her face, telling of embarrassment, and I too knew not what more to say. Then we walked slowly back to the city, and as we passed down Penn sylvania Avenue, Mercer, riding by, bowed to us.

  " A satirical nature," I said.

  " An honourable and good man," said Marian.

  She was looking at Mercer with an expression that was sad, and yet not without some tenderness, and I be gan to understand.

  CHAPTEE VI.

  THE LONE CABIN.

  OUE business with the chiefs continued to go badly, their tempers growing more intractable, and their com plaints against the encroachments of the Western settlers upon their lands increasing, and my suspicion became a conviction that our efforts were matched or overmatched by an opposing influence. Some of the chiefs had been assigned to quarters in Georgetown, and on the third day after my walk with Marian I was ordered to take them a message the next evening concerning some pres ents that we intended to make to them.

  I ate a hasty supper, put on my best clothes, mounted my horse, and rode upon my journey.

  Georgetown was a more comfortable place in most respects than Washington, and many of the members of Congress lived there during the sessions, going between their rooms and the Capitol in hackney coaches which ran regularly for hire, or on their own horses as I was doing. I passed one coach all spattered over with mud, for the rains had been very heavy recently, and my horse at almost every step sank over his hoofs in the brown and sticky mire. But I did not care, as I had been used to soft, deep roads all my life. I jogged on rather slow ly, for with the mud below and my weight above my horse was not able to travel at any great pace.

  When I had gone about half the distance to George town I heard the heavy sough of a horse's feet in the mud behind me, and looking back saw a hatchet-faced 58

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  man on an enormous gray horse approaching. His pace was considerably faster than mine, and he soon over hauled me, but checked his speed when he came along side, as if he would ride with me. I was not at all averse, although he was not generally known as a companionable man; in fact, the precise reverse, and when he spoke to me in a friendly manner, calling me by name, I replied in like fashion, addressing him by his.

  He would have been thought an odd-looking man any where. When he stood upon the ground he must have been more than six feet high, and he was so few inches through that one wondered if he would not break in two some day in, the face of a strong wind. His clothing was coarse homespun, drab in colour. A tight high stock enclosed his long, thin throat, and above it rose his long, sharp, narrow face, in which keen little eyes sparkled and flashed above high cheek bones. His whole expression was sarcastic, sneering the face of a man who believed in few things. Such was John Randolph, of Roanoke, who was very famous in his day and is yet; a man who said more bitter things and made more enemies than any other whom I know, and yet had many good qualities and high principles.

  " Whom are you visiting in Georgetown, Mr. Ten Broeck?" he asked.

  It is the custom with us for one traveller to ask an other where he is going and is not thought inquisitive, and I told him without reluctance.

  " The Government will not be successful with these chiefs," he said. " There will be war
in the West and the East too, since all the West and South are in favour of hostilities with Great Britain, and they will carry their point. You are a Westerner yourself and you know this is so."

  " I can speak for my own State. I know that all the Kentuckians favour war."

  " The biggest fools of us all," he said bluntly. " You

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  Westerners and Southerners are talking war and doing your best to bring it on, in which you will succeed, but nobody is preparing for it. To make war we must be able to fight. I have no love for the British, who in a foreign country become robbers. I can remember fleeing in the Eevolution with my mother and her newborn child before Tarleton and Phillips and their pandours. But why should we hate the British more than the coward Napoleon, who is doing his best to stir us to war in order to cripple the British to his bene fit? "

  He spoke with great heat. I could not understand why he applied the word " coward " to Napoleon, who might have many faults, though not that of cowardice, but it was his favourite term for the emperor, and he used it often in his speeches.

  I could not argue with him. his tongue was too sharp for me, as it was for many much greater men, and we rode on in silence until we could find some other topic on which we might talk without heat. We came to the hills by and by.

  " Yonder is Georgetown," said he.

  At the crest of the hills we turned, as if by accord, and looked back at Washington.

  The sun was now nearly gone, but a trail of red fire in the west marked its setting. In the east the shadows had come, but the sun, before going, threw a veil of tangled flame and gold over the new city. The white walls of the Capitol were radiant with a pink glow, and the crests catching the last and most brilliant rays of the sun shone afar like beacons.