Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency

by John Pendleton Kennedy

  CHAPTER VII.

  SOME ACCOUNT OF PHILIP LINDSAY--SENSIBILITY AND RETIREMENT APT TOENGENDER A PERNICIOUS PHILOSOPHY.

  The thread which I have now to take up and weave into this historyrequires that my narrative should go back for some years. It brieflyconcerns the earlier fortunes of Philip Lindsay.

  His father emigrated from England, and was established in Virginia aboutthe year 1735, as a secretary to the governor of the province. He was agentleman of good name and fortune. Philip was born within a year afterthis emigration. As America was then comparatively a wilderness, andafforded but few facilities for the education of youth, the son of thesecretary was sent at an early age to England, where he remained, withthe exception of an occasional visit to his parents, under theguardianship of a near relative, until he had completed, not only hiscollege course, but also his studies in the Temple--an almostindispensable requirement of that day for young gentlemen of condition.

  His studies in the Temple had been productive of one result, which LordCoke, if I remember, considers idiosyncratic in the younger votaries ofthe law--he had fallen in love with an heiress. The natural consequencewas a tedious year, after his return home, spent at the seat of theprovincial government, and a most energetic and persevering interchangeof letters with the lady, whom my authority allows me to name GertrudeMarshall. This was followed by another voyage across the Atlantic, andfinally, as might be predicted, by a wedding with all proper observanceand parental sanction. Lindsay then returned, a happier and moretranquil man, to Virginia, where he fulfilled the duties of more thanone public station of dignity and trust.

  In due course of time he fell heir to his father's wealth, which withthe estate of his wife made him one of the most opulent and considerablegentlemen of the Old Dominion.

  He had but two children--Mildred and Henry--with four years differencebetween their ages. These were nurtured with all the care and indulgentbounty natural to parents whose affections are concentrated upon sosmall a family circle.

  Lindsay's character was grave and thoughtful, and inclined him to avoidthe contests of ambition and collision with the world. A delicate taste,a nice judgment, and a fondness for inquiry made him a student and anardent lover of books. The ply of his mind was towards metaphysics; hedelved into the obsolete subtleties of the old schools of philosophy,and found amusement, if not instruction, in those frivolous butingenious speculations which have overshadowed even the best wisdom ofthe schoolmen with the hues of a solemn and absurd pedantry. He dreamedin the reveries of Plato, and pursued them through the aberrations ofthe Coryphaeans. He delighted in the visions of Pythagoras, and in theintellectual revels of Epicurus. He found attraction in the Gnosticmysteries, and still more in the phantasmagoria of Judicial Astrology.His library furnished a curious index to this unhealthy appetite for themarvellous and the mystical. The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, RaymondLully, and Martin Delvio, and others of less celebrity in this circle ofimposture, were found associated with truer philosophies and moreapproved and authentic teachers.

  These studies, although pursued with an acknowledgment of their falseand dangerous tendency, nevertheless had their influence upon Lindsay'simagination. There are few men in whom the mastery of reason is soabsolute as to be able totally to subdue the occasional uprising of thatelement of superstition which is found more or less vigorous in everymind. A nervous temperament, which is almost characteristic of minds ofan imaginative cast, is often distressingly liable to this influence, inspite of the strongest resolves of the will and the most earnestconvictions of the judgment. If those who possess this temperament wouldconfess, they might certify to many extraordinary anxieties and troublesof spirit, which it would pain them to have the world believe.

  Lindsay's pursuits had impressed his understanding with some sentimentof respect for that old belief in the supernatural, and had, perhaps,even warmed up his faith to a secret credulity in these awful agenciesof the spiritual world, or at least to an unsatisfied doubt as to theirexistence. Many men of sober brow and renown for wisdom are unwilling toacknowledge the extent of their own credulity on the same topic.

  His relations to the government, his education, pursuits and temper, asmight be expected, had deeply imbued Lindsay with the politics of thetory party, and taught him to regard with distrust, and even withabhorrence, the revolutionary principles which were getting in vogue. Inthis sentiment he visited with a dislike that did not correspond withthe more usual development of his character, all those who were in anydegree suspected of aiding or abetting the prevailing political heresyof the times.

  About two years after the birth of Mildred, he had purchased a tract ofland in the then new and frontier country lying upon the Rockfish river.Many families of note in the low country had possessed themselves ofestates at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in this neighborhood, and werealready making establishments there. Mr. Lindsay, attracted by theromantic character of the scenery, the freshness of the soil, and thehealthfulness of the climate, following the example of others, had laidoff the grounds of his new estate with great taste, and had soon built,upon a beautiful site, a neat and comfortable rustic dwelling, with suchaccommodation as might render it a convenient and pleasant retreatduring the hot months of the summer.

  The occupation which this new establishment afforded his family; thescope which its improvement gave to their taste; and the charms thatintrinsically belonged to it, by degrees communicated to his householdan absorbing interest in its embellishment. His wife cherished thisenterprise with a peculiar ardor. The plans of improvement were hers;the garden, the lawns, the groves, the walks--all the little appendageswhich an assiduous taste might invent, or a comfort-seeking fancy mightimagine necessary, were taken under her charge; and one beauty quicklyfollowing upon another, from day to day, evinced the dominion which arefined art may exercise with advantage over nature. It was a quiet,calm, and happy spot, where many conveniences were congregated together,and where, for a portion of every succeeding year, this little familynestled, as it were, in the enjoyment of voluptuous ease. From thisidea, and especially as it was allied with some of the tenderestassociations connected with the infancy of Mildred, it was called by thefanciful and kindly name of "The Dove Cote."

  The education of Mildred and Henry became a delightful household care.Tutors were supplied, and the parents gave themselves up to the task ofsupervision with a fond industry. They now removed earlier to the DoveCote with every returning spring, and remained there later in theautumn. The neighborhood furnished an intelligent and hospitablesociety; and the great western wilderness smiled with the contentment ofa refined and polished civilization, which no after day in the historyof this empire has yet surpassed--perhaps, not equalled. It is not to bewondered at, that a mind so framed as Lindsay's, and a family sodevoted, should find an exquisite enjoyment in such a spot.

  Whilst this epoch of happiness was in progression, the political heavenbegan to be darkened with clouds. The troubles came on with harshportents; war rumbled in the distance, and, at length, broke out inthunder. Mildred had, in the meantime, grown up to the verge ofwomanhood,--a fair, ruddy, light-haired beauty, of exceeding gracefulproportions, and full of the most interesting impulses. Henry trodclosely upon her heels, and was now shooting through the rapid stages ofboyhood. Both had entwined themselves around their parents' affections,like fibres that conveyed to them their chief nourishment; and thechildren were linked to each other even, if that where possible, by astronger band.

  The war threw Lindsay into a perilous predicament. His estates werelarge, and his principles exposed him to the sequestration which wasrigidly enforced against the royalist party. To avoid this blow, or, atleast, to mitigate its severity, he conveyed the estate of the Dove Coteto Mildred; assigning, as his reason for doing so, that, as it waspurchased with moneys belonging to his wife, he consulted and executedher wish, in transferring the absolute ownership of it to his daughter.The rest of his property was converted into money, and invested in fundsin Great Bri
tain. As soon as this arrangement was made, about the secondyear of the war, the Dove Cote became the permanent residence of thefamily; Lindsay preferring to remain here rather than to retire toEngland, hoping to escape the keen notice of the dominant party, and tofind, in this classic and philosophical privacy, an oblivion of the rudecares that beset the pillow of every man who mingled in the strife ofthe day.

  He was destined to a grievous disappointment. His wife, to whom he wasromantically attached, was snatched from him by death, just at thisinteresting period. This blow, for a time, almost unseated his reason.The natural calm of such a mind as Lindsay's is not apt to showparoxysms in grief. Its sorrow was too still and deep for show. Theflight of years, however, brought healing on their wings; and Mildredand Henry gradually relumed their father's countenance with flashes ofcheerful thought, that daily grew broader and more abiding; till, atlast, sense and duty completed their triumph, and once more gave Lindsayto his family, unburdened of his grief, or, if not unburdened,conversing with it only in the secret hours of self-communion.

  His hopes of ease and retirement were disappointed in another way. Thesequesterment of the Dove Cote was not sufficient to shut out the noisenor the intrigues of the war. His reputation, as a man of education, ofwealth, of good sense, and especially as a man of aristocraticpretensions, irresistibly drew him into the agitated vortex of politics.His house was open to the visits of the tory leaders, no less than tothose of the other side; and, although this intercourse could not beopenly maintained without risk, yet pretexts were not wanting,occasionally, to bring the officers and gentlemen in the Britishinterest to the Dove Cote. They came stealthily and in disguise, andthey did not fail to involve him in the insidious schemes and baseplottings by which a wary foe generally endeavors to smoothe the way ofinvasion. The temporary importance which these connections conferred,and the assiduous appeal which it was the policy of the enemy to make tohis loyalty, wrought upon the vanity of the scholar, and brought him, bydegrees, from the mere toleration of an intercourse that he at firstsincerely sought to avoid, into a participation of the plans of thosewho courted his fellowship. Still, however, this was grudginglygiven--as much from the inaptitude of his character, as from a secretconsciousness, at bottom, that it was contrary to the purpose that hadinduced him to seek the shelter of the woods. Unless, therefore, thespur was frequently applied to the side of his reluctant resolution, hiszeal was apt to weary in its pace, or, to change my figure for oneequally appropriate, to melt away in the sunny indolence of his temper.

  I have said that, during the tenderer years of the children, and up tothe period of the loss of their mother, they had received the mostunremitting attention from their parents. The bereavement of his wife,the deep gloom that followed this event, and the now engrossingcharacter of the war, had in some degree relaxed Lindsay's vigilanceover their nurture, although it had in no wise abated his affection forthem; on the contrary, perhaps this was more concentrated than ever.Mildred had grown up to the blossom-time of life, in the possession ofevery personal attraction. From the fanciful ideas of education adoptedby her father, or rather from the sedulous care with which heexperimented upon her capacity, and devoted himself to the task ofdirecting and waiting upon the expansion of her intellect, she had madeacquirements much beyond her years, and altogether of a characterunusual to her sex. An ardent and persevering temper had imparted asingular enthusiasm to her pursuits; and her air, though not devoid ofplayfulness, might be said to be habitually abstracted andself-communing.

  As the war advanced, her temper and situation both enlisted her as apartisan in the questions which it brought into discussion; and, whilsther father's opinions were abhorrent to this struggle for independence,she, on the other hand, unknown to him, was casting her thoughts,feelings, affections, and hopes upon the broad waters of rebellion; and,if not expecting them to return to her, after many days, with increaseof good, certainly believing that she was mingling them with those ofpatriots who were predestined to the brightest meed of glory.

  A father is not apt to reason with a daughter; the passions andprejudices of a parent are generally received as principles by thechild; and most fathers, counting upon this instinct, deem it enough tomake known the bent merely of their own opinions, without caring toargue them. This mistake will serve to explain the wide difference whichis sometimes seen between the most tenderly attached parent and child,in those deeper sentiments that do not belong to the every-day concernsof life. Whilst, therefore, Mr. Lindsay took no heed how the seed ofdoctrine fructified and grew in the soil where he desired to plant it,it in truth fell upon ungenial ground, and either was blown away by thewind, or perished for want of appropriate nourishment.

  As the crisis became more momentous, and the discussion of nationalrights more rife, Mildred's predilections ran stronger on the republicanside; and, at the opening of my story, she was a sincere andenthusiastic friend of American independence,--a character (however itmay be misdoubted by my female readers of the present day, nursed asthey are in a lady-like apathy to all concerns of government, and littleaware, in the lazy lap of peace, how vividly their own quicksensibilities may be enlisted by the strife of men) neither rare norinefficient amongst the matrons and maidens of the year seventy-six,some of whom--now more than fifty years gone by--are embalmed in therichest spices and holiest ointment of our country's memory.

  It is, however, due to truth to say, that Mildred's eager attachment tothis cause was not altogether the free motion of patriotism. How oftendoes some little under-current of passion, some slight and amiableprepossession, modest and unobserved, rise to the surface of ourfeelings, and there give its direction to the stream upon which floatsall our philosophy! What is destiny but these under-currents that comewhencesoever they list, unheeded at first, and irresistible everafterwards!

  My reader must be told that, before the war broke out, this enthusiasticgirl had flitted across the path of Arthur Butler, then a youth of rarefaculty and promise, who combined with a gentle and modest demeanor anearnest devotion to his country, sustained by a chivalrous tone of honorthat had in it all the fanciful disinterestedness of boyhood. It willnot, therefore, appear wonderful that, amongst the golden opinions theyoung man was storing up in all quarters, some fragments of this graceshould have made a lodgment in the heart of Mildred Lindsay.

  Butler was a native of one of the lower districts of South Carolina, andwas already the possessor, by inheritance, of what was then called ahandsome fortune. He first met Mildred, under the safe-conduct of herparents, at Annapolis in Maryland, at that time the seat of opulence andfashion. There the wise and the gay, the beautiful and the rarely-giftedunited in a splendid little constellation, in which wealth threw itssun-beam glitter over the wings of love, and learning and eloquencewere warmed by the smiles of fair women: there gallant men gave thefascinations of wit to a festive circle unsurpassed in the new world, orthe old, for its proportion of the graces that embellish, and theendowments that enrich life. In this circle there was no budding beautyof softer charm than the young Mildred, nor was there amongst the gayand bright cavaliers that thronged the "little academy" of Eden, (thegovernor of the province,) a youth of more favorable omen than ArthurButler.

  The war was at the very threshold, and angry men thought of turning theploughshare into the sword. Amongst these was Butler; an unsparingdenouncer of the policy of Britain, and an unhesitating volunteer in theranks of her opposers. It was at this eventful time that he met Mildred.I need hardly add that under these inauspicious circumstances they beganto love. Every interview afterwards (and they frequently saw each otherat Williamsburg and Richmond) only developed more completely the tale oflove that nature was telling in the heart of each.

  Butler received from Congress an ensign's commission in the continentalarmy, and was employed for a few months in the recruiting service atCharlottesville. This position favored his views and enabled him tovisit at the Dove Cote. His intercourse with Mildred, up to this period,had been allowed by Lindsay t
o pass without comment: it was regarded butas the customary and common-place civility of polite society. Mildred'sparents had no sympathy in her lover's sentiments, and consequently noespecial admiration of his character, and they had not yet doubted theirdaughter's loyalty to be made of less stern materials than their own.Her mother was the first to perceive that the modest maiden awaited thecoming of the young soldier with a more anxious forethought thanbetokened an unoccupied heart. How painfully did this perception breakupon her! It opened upon her view a foresight of that unhappy sequenceof events that attends the secret struggle between parental authorityand filial inclination, when the absorbing interests of true love areconcerned: a struggle that so frequently darkens the fate of the noblestnatures, and whose history supplies the charm of so many a melancholyand thrilling page. Mrs. Lindsay had an invincible objection to thecontemplated alliance, and immediately awakened the attention of herhusband to the subject. From this moment Butler's reception at the DoveCote was cold and formal, and Mr. Lindsay did not delay to express tohis daughter a marked aversion to her intimacy with a man so uncongenialto his own taste. I need not dwell upon the succession of incidents thatfollowed: are they not written in every book that tells of young heartsloving in despite of authority? Let it suffice to say that Butler, "manya time and oft," hied stealthily and with a lover's haste to the DoveCote, where, "under the shade of melancholy boughs," or sometimes ofgood Mistress Dimock's roof, he found means to meet and exchange vows ofconstancy with the lady of his love.

  Thus passed the first year of the war. The death of Mrs. Lindsay, towhich I have before adverted, now occurred. The year of mourning wasdoubly afflictive to Mildred. Her father's grief hung as heavily uponher as her own, and to this was added a total separation from Butler. Hehad joined his regiment and was sharing the perils of the northerncampaigns, and subsequently of those which ended in the subjugation ofCarolina and Georgia. During all this period he was enabled to keep upan uncertain and irregular correspondence with Mildred, and he had oncemet her in secret, for a few hours only, at Mistress Dimock's, duringthe autumn immediately preceding the date of the opening of my story.

  Mrs. Lindsay, upon her death-bed, had spoken to her husband in the mostemphatic terms of admonition against Mildred's possible alliance withButler, and conjured him to prevent it by whatever means might be in hispower. Besides this, she made a will directing the distribution of alarge jointure estate in England between her two children, coupling,with the bequest, a condition of forfeiture, if Mildred married withouther father's approbation.

  I have now to relate an incident in the life of Philip Lindsay, whichthrows a sombre coloring over most of the future fortunes of Mildred andArthur, as they are hereafter to be developed in my story.

  The lapse of years, Lindsay supposed, would wear out the first favorableimpressions made by Arthur Butler upon his daughter. Years had nowpassed: he knew nothing of the secret correspondence between theparties, and he had hoped that all was forgotten. He could not help,however, perceiving that Mildred had grown reserved, and that herdeportment seemed to be controlled by some secret care that sat uponher heart. She was anxious, solicitous, and more inclined, than becameher youth, to be alone. Her household affections took a softer tone,like one in grief. These things did not escape her father's eye.

  It was on a night in June, a little more than a year before the visit ofButler and Robinson which I have narrated in a former chapter, that thefather and daughter had a free communion together, in which it was hispurpose to penetrate into the causes of her disturbed spirit. Theconference was managed with an affectionate and skilful address on thepart of the father, and "sadly borne" by Mildred. It is sufficient tosay that it revealed to him a truth of which he was previously butlittle aware, namely, that neither the family afflictions nor the flightof two years had rooted out the fond predilection of Mildred for ArthurButler. When this interview ended Mildred retired weeping to herchamber, and Lindsay sat in his study absorbed in meditation. The objectin life nearest to his heart was the happiness of his daughter; and forthe accomplishment of this what sacrifice would he not make? He minutelyrecalled to memory all the passages of her past life. What error ofeducation had he committed, that she thus, at womanhood, was foundwandering along a path to which he had never led her, which, indeed, hehad ever taught her to avoid? What accident of fortune had brought herinto this, as he must consider it, unhappy relation? "How careful have Ibeen," he said, "to shut out all the inducements that might give acomplexion to her tastes and principles different from my own! Howsedulously have I waited upon her footsteps from infancy onward, toshield her from the influences that might mislead her pliant mind! Andyet in this, the most determinate act of her life, that which is to givethe hue to the whole of her coming fortune, the only truly momentousevent in her history--how strangely has it befallen!"

  In such a strain did his thoughts pursue this harassing subject. Thewindow of his study was open, and he sat near it, looking out upon thenight. The scene around him was of a nature to awaken his imaginationand lead his musings towards the preternatural and invisible world. Itwas past midnight, and the bright moon was just sinking down the westernslope of the heavens, journeying through the fantastic and gorgeousclouds, that, as they successively caught her beam, stood likepromontories jutting upon a waveless ocean, their rich profiles tippedwith burnished silver. The long black shadows of the trees slept inenchanted stillness upon the earth: the night-wind breathed through thefoliage, and brought the distant gush of the river fitfully upon hisear. There was a witching harmony and music in the landscape that sortedwith the solitary hour, and conjured up thoughts of the world ofshadows. Lindsay's mind began to run upon the themes of his favoritestudies: the array of familiar spirits rose upon his mental vision; themany recorded instances of what was devoutly believed the interferenceof the dead in the concerns of the living, came fresh, at this moment,to his memory, and made him shudder at his lonesomeness. Struggling withthis conception, it struck him with an awe that he was unable to master:"some invisible counsellor," he muttered, "some mysterious intelligence,now holds my daughter in thrall, and flings his spell upon herexistence. The powers that mingle unseen in the affairs of mortals, thatguide to good or lead astray, have wafted this helpless bark into thecurrent that sweeps onward, unstayed by man. I cannot contend withdestiny. She is thy child, Gertrude," he exclaimed, apostrophizing thespirit of his departed wife. "She is thine, and thou wilt hover near herand protect her from those who contrive against her peace: thou wiltavert the ill and shield thy daughter!"

  Excited almost to phrensy, terrified and exhausted in physical energy,Lindsay threw his head upon his hand and rested it against thewindow-sill. A moment elapsed of almost inspired madness, and when heraised his head and looked outward upon the lawn, he beheld the paleimage of the being he had invoked, gliding through the shrubbery at thefarthest verge of the level ground. The ghastly visage was bent uponhim, the hand steadily pointed towards him, and as the figure slowlypassed away the last reverted gaze was directed to him. "Great God!" heejaculated, "that form--that form!" and fell senseless into his chair.

  During the night, Mildred was awakened by a low moan, which led her tovisit her father's chamber. He was not there. In great alarm she betookherself to his study, where she found him extended upon a sofa, soenfeebled and bewildered by this recent incident that he was scarcelyconscious of her presence.

  A few weeks restored Lindsay to his usual health, but it was long beforehe regained the equanimity of his mind. He had seen enough to confirmhis faith in the speculations of that pernicious philosophy which iswrapt up in the studies of which I have before given the outline; and hewas, henceforth, oftentimes melancholy, moody, and reserved in spite ofall the resolves of duty, and in defiance of a temper naturally placidand kind.

  Let us pass from this unpleasant incident to a theme of more cheerfulimport: the loves of Mildred and Arthur. I have said these two hadsecret meetings. They were not entirely without a witness. There was acon
fidant in all their intercourse: no other than Henry Lindsay, whounited to the reckless jollity of youth an almost worshipping love ofhis sister. His thoughts and actions were ever akin to hers. Henry wastherefore a safe depository of the precious secret; and as he could notbut think Arthur Butler a good and gallant comrade, he determined thathis father was altogether on the wrong side in respect to the loveaffair, and, by a natural sequence, wrong also in his politics.

  Henry had several additional reasons for this last opinion. The wholecountry-side was kindled into a martial flame, and there was nothing tobe heard but drums and trumpets. There were rifle-corps raising, andthey were all dressed in hunting-shirts, and bugles were blowing, andhorses were neighing: how could a gallant of sixteen resist it? Besides,Stephen Foster, the woodman, right under the brow of the Dove Cote, wasa lieutenant of mounted riflemen, and had, for some time past, beentraining Henry in the mystery of his weapon, and had given him diverslessons on the horn to sound the signals, and had enticed him furtivelyto ride in a platoon on parade, whereof he had dubbed Henry corporal ordeputy corporal. All this worked well for Arthur and Mildred.

  Mr. Lindsay was not ignorant of Henry's popularity in the neighborhood,nor how much he was petted by the volunteer soldiery. He did not objectto this, as it served to quiet suspicion of his own dislike to thecause, and diverted the observation of the adherents of what he calledthe rebel government, from his own motions; whilst, at the same time, hedeemed it no other than a gewgaw that played upon the boyish fancy ofHenry without reaching his principles.

  Mildred, on the contrary, did not so regard it. She had inspired Henrywith her own sentiments, and now carefully trained him up to feel warmlythe interests of the war, and to prepare himself by discipline for thehard life of a soldier. She early awakened in him a wish to renderservice in the field, and a resolution to accomplish it as soon as theoccasion might arrive. Amongst other things, too, she taught him to loveArthur Butler and keep his counsel.