The Spy, Volume 2

by James Fenimore Cooper

  Cæsar obeyed in silence, and a mulatto boy, who was sleeping on a bench in the room, was bidden to convey the note of the surgeon to the building where the wounded were quartered.

  “Here,” said the washerwoman, tendering to Cæsar a taste of the article that most delighted herself, “try a drop, smooty, ’twill warm the black sowl within your body, and be giving you spirits as you are going homeward.”

  “I tell you, Elizabeth,” said the sergeant, “that the souls of niggurs are the same as our own, and how often have I heard the good Mr. Whitfield say, that there was no distinction of colour in heaven. Therefore it is reasonable to believe, that the soul of this here black, is as white as my own, or even Major Dunwoodie’s.”

  “Be sure he be,” cried Cæsar, a little tartly, who had received a wonderful stimulus by tasting the drop of Mrs. Flanagan.

  “Its a good sowl that the major is, any way,” returned the washerwoman, “and a kind sowl-- aye, and a brave sowl too; and you’ll say all that yeerself, sargeant, I’m thinking.”

  “For the matter of that,” returned the veteran, “there is one above even Washington, to judge of souls; but this I will say, that Major Dunwoodie is a gentleman who never says, go, boys--but always says, come, boys; and if a poor fellow is in want of a spur or a martingale, and the leather-wack is gone, there is never wanting the real silver to make up the loss, and that from his own pocket too.”

  “Why, then, are you here idle, when all that he holds most dear are in danger,” cried a voice with startling abruptness; “mount, mount, and follow your captain--arm and mount, and that instantly, or you will be too late.”

  This unexpected interruption, produced an instantaneous confusion amongst the tiplers. Cæsar fled instinctively into the fire-place, where he maintained his position in defiance of a heat that would have roasted a white man. Sergeant Hollister turned promptly on his heel, and seizing his sabre, the steel was glittering in the fire-light, in the twinkling of an eye; but perceiving the intruder to be the pedlar, who stood near the open door that led to the stoop in the rear, he began to fall back towards the position of the black, with a kind of military intuition which taught him to concentrate his forces. Betty alone stood her ground by the side of the temporary table. Replenishing the mug with a large addition of the article known to the soldiery by the name of “choke dog,” she held it towards the pedlar. The eyes of the washerwoman had for some time been swimming with love and liquor, and turning them good naturedly on Birch, she cried--

  “Faith, but yee’r welcome, Mister Pidlar, or Mister Birch, or Mister Beelzeboob, or what’s yee’r name. Yee’r an honest divil, any way, and I’m hoping that you found the pittlicoats convanient--come forward, dear, and fale the fire; Sergeant Hollister won’t be hurting you for the fear of an ill turn you may be doing him hereafter-- will yee, Sargeant, dear.”

  “Depart, ungodly man,” cried the veteran, edging still nearer to Cæsar, but lifting his legs alternately as they scorched with the heat, “depart in peace. There is none here for thy service, and you seek the woman in vain. There is a tender mercy that will save her from thy talons.” The sergeant ceased to utter aloud, but the motion of his lips continued, and a few scattering words of prayer were alone to be heard.

  The brain of the washerwoman was in such a state of confusion, that she did not clearly comprehend the meaning of her lover, but a new idea struck her imagination, and she broke forth--

  “If it’s me the man seeks, where’s the matter, pray--am I not a widow’d body and my own property? And you talk of tinderness, Sargeant, but it’s little I see of it, any way--who knows but Mr. Beelzeboob here is free to spake his mind-- I’m sure it is willing to hear that I am.”

  “Woman,” said the pedlar, “be silent; and you, foolish man, mount--arm and mount, and flee to the rescue of your officer, if you are worthy of the cause in which you serve, and would not disgrace the coat that you wear.” The feelings of the pedlar communicated to his manner the power of eloquence, and he vanished from the sight of the bewildered trio, with a rapidity that left them uncertain whither he had fled.

  Oh hearing the voice of an old friend, Cæsar emerged from his quarters, with a skin that was glistening with moisture, and fearlessly advanced to where Betty stood in a maze of intellectual confusion.

  “I wish a Harvey stop,” said the black; “if he ride down a road, I should like to go along;--I don’t tink Johnny Birch hurt his own son.”

  “Poor ignorant wretch!” exclaimed the veteran, recovering his voice with a long drawn breath; “think you that figure was of flesh and blood?”

  “Harvey an’t a berry fleshy,” replied the black, “but he berry clebber man.”

  “Pooh! sargeant dear,” exclaimed the washerwoman, “talk rason for once, and mind what the knowing one tells yee; call out the boys, and ride a bit after Captain Jack,--rimimber darling, that he told you the day, to be in readiness to mount at a moment’s warning.”

  “Ay, but not at a summons from the foul fiend. Let but Captain Lawton, or Lieutenant Mason, or Cornet Skipwith say the word,” cried the veteran, “and who is quicker in the saddle than I am?”

  “Well sargeant, how often is it that yee’ve boasted to myself, that the corps was’nt a bit afeard to face the divil.”

  “No more be we, in battle array, and by day-light; but it’s fool hardy and irreverent to tempt Satan, and on such a night as this; listen how the wind whistles through the trees, and hark! there is the howlings of evil spirits abroad.”

  “I see him,” said Cæsar, opening his eyes to a width that might have embraced more than an ideal form.

  “Where?” interrupted the sergeant, again instinctively laying his hand on the hilt of his sabre.

  “No--no,” said the black, “I see a Johnny Birch come out of he grave--Johnny walk afore he bury’d.”

  “Ah! then he must have led an evil life indeed,” said Hollister; “the blessed in spirit lie quiet until the general muster at the last day, but wickedness disturbs the soul in this life as well as in that which is to come.”

  “And what is to come of Captain Jack?” cried Betty angrily; “is it yee’r orders that yee won’t mind, nor a warning given? I’ll jist git my cart and ride down and tell him that you are afeard of a dead man and Beelzeboob; and it is’nt succour he may be expicting from you?--I wonder who’ll be the orderly of the troop the morrow then?--his name won’t be Hollister, any way.”

  “Nay, Betty, nay,” said the sergeant, laying his hand on her shoulder, “if there must be riding to-night, let it be by him whose duty it is to call out the men and set an example.--The Lord have mercy, and send us enemies of flesh and blood.”

  Another glass confirmed the veteran in a resolution that was only excited by a dread of his Captain’s displeasure, and he proceeded to summon the dozen men who had been left under his command. The boy arriving with the ring, Cæsar placed it carefully in the pocket of his waistcoat next his heart, and mounting, shut his eyes, seized his charger by the mane, and continued in a state of comparative insensibility, until the animal stopped at the door of the warm stable, whence he had started.

  The movements of the dragoons being timed to the order of a march, were much slower, and were made with a watchfulness that was intended to guard against surprise from the evil one himself.

  CHAPTER VI.

  “Be not your tongue thy own shame’s orator;

  Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyalty;

  Apparel vice like virtue’s harbinger.”

  Comedy of Errors

  The situation of the party in Mr. Wharton’s dwelling, was sufficiently awkward during the short hour of Cæsar’s absence; for such was the astonishing rapidity displayed by his courser, that the four miles of road was gone over, and the events we have recorded, had occurred, somewhat within that period of time. Of course the gentlemen strove to make the irksome moments fly as swiftly as possible; but premeditated happiness is certainly of the least joyous kind. The bride and brideg
room, from a variety of reasons, are privileged to be dull, and but few of their friends seemed disposed, on the present occasion, to dishonour their example. The English Colonel exhibited a proper portion of uneasiness at this unexpected interruption to his felicity, and sat with a varying countenance by the side of Sarah, who seemed to be profiting by the delay, to gather fortitude for the solemn ceremony. In the midst of this embarrassing silence, Dr. Sitgreaves addressed himself to Miss Peyton, by whose side he had contrived to procure a chair.

  “Marriage, Madam, is pronounced to be honourable in the sight of God and man; and it may be said to be reduced in the present age to the laws of nature and reason. The ancients, in sanctioning polygamy, lost sight of the provisions of nature, and condemned thousands to misery; but with the increase of science, have grown the wise ordinances of society, which ordain that man should be the husband of but one woman.”

  Wellmere glanced a fierce expression of disgust at the surgeon, that indicated his sense of the tediousness of the other’s remarks; while the spinster, with a slight trembling at touching on forbidden subjects, replied with an extremely dignified inclination of her body--

  “I had thought, sir, that we were indebted to the christian religion for our morals on this subject.”

  “True, Madam,” replied the operator, “it is somewhere provided in the prescriptions of the apostles, that the sexes should henceforth be on an equality in this respect. But in what degree could polygamy affect holiness of life? Certainly it was a scientific arrangement of Paul, who was much of a scholar, and probably had frequent conferences with Luke, whom we all know to have been bred to the practice of medicine, on this important subject.”

  To this profound discussion, the spinster made no other reply, than another bend of her body, that would have struck an observant man dumb; but Captain Lawton, placing the point of his sheathed sabre on the floor, folded his hands across the hilt, and leaning his chin thereon, threw singular glances with his searching eyes, alternately from the surgeon to the bridegroom.

  “Yet this practice still prevails,” said the trooper; “and in those very countries where it was first abolished by the christian code. Pray, Colonel Wellmere, in what manner is bigamy punished in England?”

  Thus addressed, the bridegroom raised his eyes to the countenance of the other, but they quickly sunk again under the prying look they encountered; and an effort banished the tremor from his lip, and restored some of the colour to his cheek, as he replied--

  “Death!--as such an offence merits.”

  “Death and dissection,” continued the operator; “it is seldom that the law loses sight of eventual utility in a malefactor. Bigamy in a man is certainly a most heinous offence.”

  “More so, think you, than celibacy?” asked Lawton, a little archly.

  “Even so,” returned the surgeon with undisturbed simplicity; “he who remains in a single state, may devote his life to science and the extension of knowledge, if not of his species; but the wretch who profits by the constitutional tendency of the female sex to credulity and tenderness, incurs all the wickedness of a positive sin, heightened by the baseness of deception in its execution.”

  “Really, sir, the ladies are infinitely obliged to you, for attributing folly to them as part of their nature.”

  “Captain Lawton, in man the animal is more nobly formed than in woman. The nerves are endowed with less sensibility--the whole frame is less pliable and yielding; is it, therefore, surprising, that a tendency to rely on the faith of her partner, is more natural to woman than to the other sex?”

  Wellmere, unable at this moment to listen with any degree of patience to the dialogue, sprung from his seat, and paced the floor in disorder. Pitying his situation, the reverend gentleman, who, in his robes, was patiently awaiting the return of Cæsar, changed the discourse, and a few minutes brought the black himself. The billet was handed to Dr. Sitgreaves; for Miss Peyton had expressly enjoined Cæsar, not to implicate her in any manner in the errand on which he was despatched. The note contained a summary statement of the several subjects of the surgeon’s directions, and referred him to the black for the ring; it was instantly demanded, and promptly delivered. A transient look of melancholy clouded the brow of the operator as he stood a moment, and gazed silently on the bauble; nor did he remember the place or the occasion, while he soliloquized as follows:

  “Poor Anna! gay as innocence and youth could make you, was thy heart when this cincture was formed to grace thy nuptials; but ere the hour had come, God had taken you to himself. Years have passed, my sister, but never have I forgotten the companion of my infancy;” he advanced to Sarah, and, unconscious of observation, placing the ring on her finger, continued, “she for whom it was intended, has long been in her grave, and the youth who bestowed the gift, soon followed her sainted spirit; take it, Madam, and God grant that it may be an instrument in making you as happy as you deserve to be.”

  Sarah felt an unaccountable chill at her heart, as this burst of feeling escaped from the surgeon; but Wellmere offering his hand, she was led before the divine, and the ceremony began. The first words of this imposing office, produced a dead stillness in the apartment; and the minister of God proceeded to the solemn exhortation, and witnessed the plighted troth of the parties, when the investiture of the ring was to follow. It had been left, from inadvertency, and the agitation of the moment, where Sitgreaves had placed it;--a slight interruption was occasioned by the circumstance, and the clergyman was about to proceed, when a figure glided into the midst of the party, that at once put a stop to the ceremony.--It was the pedlar:--his sunken and cowering eye no longer avoided the look of others, but glared wildly around him, and his whole frame was agitated by an exertion that had shaken his iron nerves. But all these emotions passed away like shadows from a fleeting cloud, and assuming a look of deep humility and habitual respect, he turned to the bridegroom, and bowing low, said--

  “Can Colonel Wellmere waste the precious moments here, when his wife has crossed the ocean to meet him? The nights are long, and the moon bright;--a few hours riding would take him to the city.”

  Aghast at the suddenness of this extraordinary address, Wellmere for a moment lost the command of his faculties. To Sarah, the countenance of Birch, wild and agitated as it was, produced no terror; but the instant she recovered from the surprise of his interruption, she turned her anxious gaze on the features of the man to whom she had just pledged herself for life. They afforded the most terrible confirmation of all that the pedlar affirmed; the room whirled around with her, and she fell lifeless into the arms of her aunt. There is an instinctive delicacy in woman, that for a time seems to conquer all other emotions however powerful, and through its impulse, the insensible bride was immediately conveyed from sight by her friends, and the parlour was deserted to the wondering group of men.

  The confusion of the fall of Sarah, enabled the pedlar to retreat with a rapidity that would have baffled pursuit, had any been attempted, and Wellmere stood with all eyes fixed on him in ominous silence.

  “ ’Tis false--’tis false as hell!” he cried, striking his hand to his forehead. “I have ever denied her claim; nor will the laws of my country compel me to acknowledge it.”

  “But will not conscience, and the laws of God?” asked Lawton.

  Before Wellmere could reply, Singleton, who had hitherto been supported by his servant, moved into the center of the circle, and with cheeks glowing with animation, and eyes that flashed fire, exclaimed--

  “Thus is it ever with your nation, proud Englishman; your boasted honour, where is it? obligatory only among yourselves,--but have a care,” striking the hilt of his sabre, “each daughter of America has a claim upon the protection of her sons, and there are none so helpless, but a countryman can be found to avenge her injuries, or redress her wrongs.”

  “ ’Tis well, sir,” said Wellmere, haughtily, and retreating towards the door--“your situation protects you now: but a time may come--”

  He
had reached the entry, when a slight tap on his shoulder caused him to turn his head;--it was Captain Lawton--who, with a smile of peculiar meaning, beckoned to him to follow. The state of Wellmere’s mind was such, that he would gladly have gone any where to avoid the gaze of horror and detestation that glared from every eye he met. They reached the stables before the trooper spoke, when he cried aloud--

  “Bring out Roanoke.”

  His man appeared with the steed caparisoned as when ready for its master; and Lawton. coolly throwing the bridle on the neck of the animal, took his pistols from the holsters, and continued, “You said truly, Colonel Wellmere, when you pronounced George Singleton unfit for combat-- but here are weapons that have seen good service before to-day--ay! and in honourable hands sir. These were the pistols of my father, Colonel Wellmere; he used them with credit in the wars with France, and gave them to me to fight the battles of my country with. In what better way can I serve her than in exterminating a wretch who would have blasted one of her fairest flowers?”

  “This injurious treatment shall meet with its reward,” cried the Englishman, seizing the offered weapon eagerly, “and the blood lie on the head of him who sought it.”

  “Amen!” said Lawton; but hold, a moment, sir. You are now free, and the passports of Washington are in your pocket;--I give you the re;--if I fall, there is a steed that will outstrip pursuit; and I would advise you to retreat without much delay, for even Archibald Sitgreaves would fight in such a cause--nor will the guard above be very apt to give quarters.”

  “Are you ready?” asked Wellmere, guashing his teeth with rage.

  “Stand forward, Tom, with the lights;--fire!”

  Wellmere fired, and the bullion flew from the epaulette of the trooper in fifty pieces.