| | 101 | Author: | Caruthers
William Alexander
1802-1846 | Add | | | Title: | The Kentuckian in New-York, Or, the Adventures of Three Southerns  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “You will be surprised to learn that this letter
is written in bed, on a large old portfolio of yours,
while I am propped up with chairs and pillows behind;
all during the doctor's absence, and against
the urgent entreaties of the whole house. “The change in Virginia's deportment has been
to me a curious subject of study and reflection. I
dare not say that it has been entirely disinterested
study, but perhaps it was none the less close and
minute on that account. We are apt to investigate
those engines which operate upon ourselves
very philosophically. But before I go any farther,
permit me to correct an error into which I fear
I have led you, because I had honestly fallen into
it myself. I stated to you that my sickness had
cast out devils for me, and that I was altogether a
changed and reformed man. It is no such thing;
I feel the devil of mischief and fun in me even
now. It was nothing more than a natural depression
of animal spirits, consequent upon the low
state of my stomach and pulsations. The doctor
was my priest on the occasion. He subdued the
old Adam in me for a time, by the assistance of
his lancet and the whole vegetable and mineral
kingdom, worked up into shot and bullets vulgarly
called pills, by the aid of which these same doctors,
I believe, often do a deal of execution; at all
events this disciple fleeced me of a goodly quantity
of the flesh upon my ribs; none of his shot
happened to be mortal; but, nevertheless, I would
advise you to keep out of the reach of their magazines.
The muzzle of a pill-box is as terrible to
me now, as the mysterious dark hole in the end of
a forty-two-pounder; and a blister-plaster as awful
as an army with banners. As for cupping-glasses
and scarificators, they are neither more nor less
than instruments of torture, borrowed from the
Spanish inquisition. But above all, deliver me
from the point of a seton-needle! Did you ever
see a cruel boy string fish on a stick before they
were dead? He runs the stick through the gills,
tearing and torturing as it goes; so do these disciples
of Esculapius; they seize a piece of your
skin, no matter how scarce the article may be,—
no matter if your lips do not cover your teeth, and
the bones of your nose look white through the attenuated
sheath! Away goes this surgical bayonet
through a handful of it, armed with a piece of gum
elastic, which is left sticking there, the sensation on
the back of your neck being as if the ramrod of a
small swivel had been shot through it; and there
you must sit, or stand, or lie, with this huge thing
all the while poking your head forward, as if you
had a pillory on your back. “I have deferred the closing of this letter a day
longer than I intended when I penned the above.
The fact is, I was not so much in the humour for
writing as I expected. I was compelled to order
your horse and take my first ride, and you may be
sure that I did not restrain his mettle. What
would you argue from this? That I was successful?
or defeated? I should suppose neither, from
that circumstance alone, say you,—as you would
be apt to ride down your impetuosity in either
case. `They tell me hereabouts you're married. Well,
hurrah for old Kentuck, I say, and her sister Carolina.
I'm married, too! yes, and I believe everybody's
married, nearabouts, as far as I can learn.
It's twisted strange, ain't it, when a feller gets half
corned,[5]
[5]Western term for drunk.
everybody reels round; and when a feller
gets married, everybody else should get married
just at that particular time. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 102 | Author: | Caruthers
William Alexander
1802-1846 | Add | | | Title: | The Cavaliers of Virginia, Or, the Recluse of Jamestown | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The romance of history pertains to no human
annals more strikingly than to the early settlement
of Virginia. The mind of the reader at once
reverts to the names of Raleigh, Smith, and Pocahontas.
The traveller's memory pictures in a
moment the ivy-mantled ruin of old Jamestown. Sir—I seize the first moment of your appearance
in public, restored to health, to demand the
satisfaction due for the grievous insult put upon
me, on the night of the Anniversary Celebration,
16*
in presence of the assembled gentry of the Colony.
All proper arrangements will be made by my
friend Ludwell, who will also await your answer.
I have the honour to be your most obedient servant, Sir—Your note by the hands of Mr. Ludwell
was this moment received. Your challenge is accepted.
To-morrow morning at sunrise I will
meet you. The length of my weapon will be
furnished by my friend Dudley, who will convey
this to Mr. Ludwell, as well as make all other
arrangements on my behalf. I have the honour
to be, yours, &c. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 103 | Author: | Caruthers
William Alexander
1802-1846 | Add | | | Title: | The Cavaliers of Virginia, Or, the Recluse of Jamestown | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The lightning streamed athwart the heavens
in quick and vivid flashes. One peal of thunder
after another echoed from cliff to cliff, while a
driving storm of rain, wind and hail, made the
face of nature black and dismal. There was something
frightfully congenial in this uproar of the
contending elements with the storm raging in Bacon's
heart, as he rushed from the scene of the
catastrophe we have just witnessed. The darkness
which succeeded the lurid and sulphureous
flashes was not more complete and unfathomable
than the black despair of his own soul.
These vivid contrasts of light and gloom were
the only stimulants of which he was susceptible,
and they were welcomed as the light of his path!
By their guidance he wildly rushed to his stable,
saddled, led forth, and mounted his noble charger,
his own head still uncovered. For once the gallant
animal felt himself uncontrolled master of his
movements, fleet as the wind his nimble heels
measured the narrow limits of the island. A sudden
glare of intense light served for an instant to
reveal both to horse and rider that they stood upon
the brink of the river, and a single indication of the
rider's will was followed by a plunge into the
troubled waves. Nobly and majestically he rose
and sank with the swelling surges. His master
sat erect in the saddle and felt his benumbed faculties
revived, as he communed with the storm.
The raging elements appeared to sympathize with
the tumult of his own bosom. He laughed in horrid
unison with the gambols of the lightning, and
yelled with savage delight as the muttering thunder
rolled over his head. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 104 | Author: | Caruthers
William Alexander
1802-1846 | Add | | | Title: | The Knights of the Horse-shoe | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Dear Sir—This letter will be handed to you by one of the most unfortunate
adherents of the Pretender. Start not my dear Sir—he is but one of the
Scottish jacobins, and will in no wise compromise you. The very fact of his
seeking your country is evidence enough if it were wanting, that he desires to
be at peace from the toils and dangers of political partizanship. These are
claims enough for citizenship you may think, but not warrant sufficient to
claim your personal friendship. He has these also, for he was one of those
unfortunate men who befriended and supported your late kinsman to the last.
He protests that he will in no wise compromise your Excellency with the ministry
or their adherents on your side of the water, and has begged me not to
write, but knowing that you would delight to befriend so staunch an adherent
of the unfortunate General, I have insisted on his taking a sealed packet at
all events, as it would contain other matters than those relating purely to
himself. And now for those matters. He will be accompanied by a great
many ruined families of rather a higher class than that from which your immigrants
are generally furnished—they, too, are worn out in spirit and in fortune,
with the ceaseless struggles between the hereditary claimant of the
crown and the present occupant. They see, also, breakers ahead. The
Queen's health is far from being stable, and in case of her sudden demise
there will be an awful struggle here. Are they not right then to gather up
the little remnant of their property and seek an asylum on your peaceful
shores? Your note of last night, containing an invitation to Temple Farm, from
Kate, has just been received. I will go, but for a reason, among others,
which I fear my ever kind friend, Kate, will consider any thing but complimentary—it
is because this house is haunted, and I can no longer stay in it.
Look not so grave, dear father, 'tis no ghost. I wish it was, or he was, for
it is that same tedious, tiresome, persecuting, Harry Lee. I have been most
anxiously expecting your return; but, as it seems, you have become a permanent
fixture at Temple Farm, it is but right that I should grow along side
of the parent stem. The townsfolk are even more anxious for your return
than I am. I tell them you ran away from practice, but it seems the more
you desire to run away from it, the more they run after you. Few people in
this dreary world have been able to effect so much unmixed good as you have,
and for that, I thank God. Dear Father, I have no desire to live but for your
sake, and that the short time we are to live together may not be diminished by
any act of mine, I will be with you presently. Our poor pensioners and invalids
are all doing as well as usual, and I leave them in the hands of the Rev.
Mr. Jones, who, I know, will care for them as we would. He is surely one
of God's chosen instruments for doing good in this world. He has shouldered
his cross in earnest, and devoutly does he labor to advance the Redeemer's
kingdom. “Dear Sir.—You will no doubt be surprised that I date this letter from
the county jail, instead of the barracks, but, Sir, so it is—deeply mortifying
as it is to me to state the fact. I had scarcely alighted in the capital, after
marching the soldiers to the garrison, before I was waited upon by the Deputy
Sheriff of the county, with a bail writ, (or whatever that process is called
by which the law seizes a man's person,) at the suit of Henry Lee, Esq.,
and for the very money which your Excellency was mainly instrumental in
procuring at his hands for me. You will recollect, no doubt, that as a mere
matter of form, (so the gentleman expressed it,) I gave him a note of hand
for the amount. Unfortunately I paid away part of the sum for my passage
money, and the remainder to recruit my dilapidated wardrobe, so that instant
payment was out of the question. None of my new and kind friends were
in the city. I had, indeed, hoped to find the good Doctor at home, but unfortunately
for me he was absent in the country. “Dear Sir: I owe you an apology for the very abrupt manner in which I
left your house, where I had been tacitly, as it were, left in charge of the
ladies; but the fact is, Sir, that I found the young person whom you had hastily
employed as Tutor, presumptuous and impertinent, and that I must either
degrade myself by a personal encounter with him, or leave the premises. I
chose the latter, and had hoped to have paid my respects to your Excellency
before you left the capital, but was detained by unavoidable legal business until
you had unfortunately left the city. It is useless now to enter into particulars
as to his conduct in your absence; for the evidence is now before
me, that he is such a gross impostor and swindler, that it is scarcely worth
while to inquire into minor particulars of conduct. While I was in the very
act of consulting Attorney General Clayton, (who is also my own legal adviser,)
about the steps necessary to be taken in order to repossess the funds
out of which I weakly suffer myself to be cheated, I received a ship letter by
way of York. Whom does your Excellency suppose that letter was from?
Why, sir, from Mr. Henry Hall, my cousin, the real gentleman, whose name
and character this base impostor had assumed for the lowest purposes. You
will recollect that I had written to the young man before this person appeared
at your house, informing him of my aunt's will. This letter which I
have received is in answer to that one, and states among other things that
the writer would sail in the very first vessel for this country after the one
which would bring the letter, so that by the time that this pseudo Mr. Hall
manages to release himself from prison, where I have snugly stowed him,
the real personage, whose name he has assumed, will be here to confront
him. I am delighted that I am thus able to relieve your Excellency from
the disagreeable duty of unmasking the impostor; for if your Excellency
will permit me to say so, your kindly nature had so far led you astray with
regard to this man, that you might have found it rather unpleasant to deal
with him. Leave all that to me, Sir—I will give him his deserts, be well assured;
and if he escapes with whole ears and a sound skin, he may thank
the clemency of the law, and not mine. Dear Ellen: Such a friendship as ours can bear the imposition with which
I am about to tax you. You know the sad tale of this poor Indian girl, and
how it lacerates all our hearts afresh, even to look upon her; and knowing
this, you will do all those little kindnesses for her that we cannot, and which
her situation requires. She sees that we cannot look upon her with complacency,
and now she misinterprets it. God knows we wish to wreak no vengeance
upon her for my poor brother's death. Do make her sensible of all
this. You, my dear Ellen, that know so well how to compass these delicate
offices so much better than any one else—do give her all the comfort the case
admits of, and administer such consolation as her peculiar nature requires.
Explain to her our feelings, and that they are the farthest in the world
removed from unkindness Oh, Ellen, you know what a shock we have sustained,
and will, I know, acquit us of any mawkish sensibility in the case.
I trust her entirely to your kindness and discretion. My father has just
stepped in, and anticipating my object, begged to see this note; and he now
begs me to say to you, that Wingina must be closely watched, else her brother
will contrive some subtle scheme to whisk her off again. I again resume my sweet correspondence with you, after an interval it
seems to me of an age: computed by what I have (may I not say we have)
suffered. But during all my unexampled difficulties and trials, one constant
soarce of consolation remained to me. It was your steady constancy. It is
true, that for a time, I was laboring under a delusion in regard to it, but even
during that time, you were as unwavering as before. No portion of blame
can attach to you, that I was led astray. You, my Ellen, have been like my
evening and morning star—the last ray of serene comfort at night, and the
brightest dawn of hope in the morning. From day to day, and from year to
year, have you clung to the memory of the youth to whom you plighted your
young affections—through good and through evil report—through life and in
death, (as was supposed) you have without wavering or turning aside, cherished
the first bright morning dream of youthful love. Do you know, my
Ellen, that the world scarcely believes in the reality of such early attachments
enduring to the end. The heartless throng know not, my sweet playmate, of
the little romantic world we possess within ourselves. They have all gone
astray after strange gods, and cannot believe that others will be more true and
devoted than they have been. Especially has the odium of all such failures
been laid to the charge of your sex, but I am sure unjustly. The first slight
or unkindness nearly always proceeds from the other, and this slight or unkindness
cannot be blazoned to the world—it is hidden within the recesses of
the sufferer's heart, and pride (perhaps proper maidenly pride) prevents it from
ever being known. How happy are we my Ellen, that not a shadow of distrust
has fallen out between us—if indeed I except your momentary confounding
me with the gentleman whose name I had assumed, and my temporary
mistake about my brother's marriage with you. You see I have brought
myself to write that name. While I am upon the subject of Miss Elliot's
engagement, permit me to explain one thing which I omitted in the hurry of
departure, and the confusion which attended all its exciting scenes. That
young lady though present at the masking scene at the Governor's house, and
knowing of my design to present myself in disguise, among my old associates,
was not made acquainted with the name or occupation which I would assume.
The resolution to adopt that name was seized upon after the departure of that
young lady and her father. Hence her supposition, on hearing that Mr. Hall
had arrived in the Colony, that it was her own Henry. I am led to think of
these things, by seeing, so frequently, this young gentleman, with whom I
was, and am, on the most intimate terms. His distress of mind is truly pitiable—he
appears like one physically alive and well, and yet dead to all hope.
Not absolutely dead to all hope either, for you should have seen how the blessed,
but dormant, faculty flashed up for a moment or two, when I told him, a
little while ago, that there was a prospect of an expedition being sent ahead of
the troops, in pursuit of the assassins and robbers who murdered our old friend
and stole his mistress. Oh, if he could be sent off upon such an expedition,
what a blessed relief the activity and excitement of the pursuit would be to
him. But the Governor, though sympathizing fully with him and me, would
not consent to it, and I must say his reasons were to me, satisfactory; not so,
however, with my poor friend; he is dissatisfied with the Governor on account
of it, and if it were not for my restraining and urgent counsel, he would start
off, single handed, in pursuit. The fact is, his apprehensions for the fate of
the poor girl, whether dead or alive, are so desponding, that the madness and
rashness of such an adventure, only add new charms to it, in his eyes, and I
can only seduce him from such wild designs by dwelling upon the known
clemency of the Indians to other females, who have for months and years
remained captives with them. I have exhausted all my recollections of the
kind, and I have put the scout, Jarvis, in possession of his dreadful secret, and
commanded him to detail all his knowledge favorable to my views. At this
very moment he is walking with Joe, among the tall pines, his melancholy
eye wandering among the stars, while Joe is telling a long story of a Mrs.
Thompson, who was taken prisoner by them and carried beyond the mountains.
I at first suspected my new forest friend, of romancing in the wildest
vein, and inventing as he went along, for the justifiable purpose, as it seemed
to me, of plucking the rooted sorrow from the heart of my friend, but I am
satisfied now that it is a true narrative, because he recounted several circumstances
about the route to the mountains, which he had before told me he had
procured from an old lady, who had been a prisoner among the Indians. Seeing
that he was, for the time, so absorbed with the story of the scout, I have
stolen away, my Ellen, to hold this sweet converse with you. If you had but
known the charming girl, about whom my friend thus mourns, you would
neither be surprised nor jealous that even I feel an anxious interest in her fate.
Think too of her sad history,—the loss of her uncle by whom she was adopted,
and upon whom she doted as a father, little less fond than the real one whom
she has now lost, also. Think, too, of the dreadful manner of their two deaths
—of her nearest and dearest kinsmen. Then bring before your mind the
highly educated, delicate and sensitive girl herself—torn from the reeking
body of her deceased parent; and borne a captive among a rude and wild people,
not one word of whose language she understands. Oh its a dreadful fate
for one like her. She is a most lovely girl in every sense of the word, and as
good as she is beautiful! I feel a double interest in her fate, because her
sad lot is so much like my own. We were first wrecked by the same disastrous
political storm—thrown upon the same shores, and among the same
people for a time. Well Bill, I'm dad shamed if I don't bust if I don't write to you a spell—the
fact is Bill, I've kept company with these here gold laced gentry so long that
I'm gettin' spiled—fact! I rubbed myself all over last night head and ears
with salt for fear on't. Yes, and if you and Charley and Ikey don't take keer,
I'll cut you when I come back. But without any joke at all about it, I've got
into the greatest mess that ever the likes of you clapped eyes on. There's
that Mr. Hall—the real genuine Mr. Hall, the one as come last; O Lord if you
could only see how he takes on—dash my flint, if I don't think he's a leetle
teched in the upper story. All day long he rides that black horse—(and he's
dressed in black you know) and looks as if he was a goin' to his grandmother's
funeral. Poor lad, they say he's got cause enough, the yaller niggers have
run away with his sweet heart, but you don't know nothin' about them sort of
tender things, Bill, its only a throwin' of pearls before swine to tell you of 'em,
else I would tell you that Mr. Hall and me is exactly in the same fix. Yes,
you and Charley may laugh, confound you, if so be you ever spell this out,
We're exactly in the same situation—the yaller niggers has run away with
my sweet heart too. You know the little Ingin gal that asked me for that
lock 'o hair, but you know al about it and what's the use of swettin' over agin.
Well, Squire Lee, that Mr. Hall that was tried for killin' the Governor's son;
well, he says she's a ruined gal, and to hear him talk, you'd think that she
was dead and buried and he a sayin' of the funeral service over her. I tell you
Bill, these gentry are queerish folks, they don't know nothin' of human nature.
He says he wants to know if I would take another man's cast off mistress.
Now, Bill, ain't her lover dead, and could'nt I make an honest woman of her,
by a marryin' of her, I'd like to know that. But the best part of the story is
to come yit. The Governor's been axed about it, and he's all agreed, and says
moreover, that he'll settle fifty pounds a year on me, if the gal will have me.
So you see, Bill, she's a fortune. Did'nt I tell you that I was a goin to seek
my fortune, and that you had better come along. But I've talked about myself
long enough, now let me tell you something of our betters. The old
Governor, I tell you what, he's a tip top old feller, in the field. He don't know
nothing about fightin' Ingins yit, but I'll tell you, he'll catch it mighty quick;
he makes every one stand up to the rack, and as for running away from an
enemy, it ain't in his dictionary. I am told he drinks gunpowder every mornin'
in his bitters, and as for shootin,' he's tip top at that, too. He thinks nothin'
of takin' off a wild turkeys' head with them there pistols of his'n. You may'nt
believe the story about the gunpowder, but I got from old June, his shoe black,
who sleeps behind his tent, and I reckon he ought to know, if any body does.
He rides a hoss as if he rammed down the gunpowder with half a dozen ramrods.
You ought to see him a ridin' a review of a mornin'. I swang if his
cocked hat don't look like a pictur', and I'm told he's all riddled with bullets
too, and that he sometimes picks the lead out of his teeth yit. He's a a whole
team, Bill; set that down in your books. The next man to the Governor is Mr.
Frank, that I told you of a while ago; he belongs to the gunpowder breed too
he's got an eye like a eagle, and, Bill when they made a gintleman of him they
spiled one of the best scouts in all these parts. If there's any fightin' you
take my word for it, he'll have his share. Some of the men do say that he was
for upsettin' the Queen when he was to England, and that's the reason he came
over in disguise. One thing I know, he's got no airs about him; he talks to
me just as he does to the Governor, and this present writin', as the lawyers say,
is writ on his camp stool and with his pen and paper. I guess he'll find his pen
druv up to the stump. Well, I suppose you want to know what I call this
camp nigger foot for. I'll tell you, for I christened it myself. I was a followin'
of a fresh trail as hard as one of the Governor's bounds arter a buck—
when what should we light upon, but the track of of a big nigger's foot in the
mud here among em—fact! I told the Governor afore I seed the print of
the nigger's foot that they had had some spy or another at Williamsburg, else
they would'nt a know'd the waggons as had the powder in 'em. Oh, I forgot
to tell you that the yaller raskels killed one of the sentinels, and stole a heap
of powder and lead. Yes, and they had the wagon tops marked with red paint. The ink would blister the paper, could I be guilty of the hypocrisy of commencing
a letter to you with an endearing epithet, after all that is past and
gone. Indeed, it was my intention never to have addressed you again in
any manner this side of the grave. I thought you had done your worst
towards me and mine, and I was resolved, if I could not forgive, that I would
at least bear it in silence. But I was mistaken, you had not done your worst,
as this night's experience teaches me. I find that my heart yearns towards every
thing connected with the happy days of our infancy. Over many of these
you have power, and through these you can wound me grievously. I do not,
and will not, charge you with suborning one of our father's faithful servants
to his own ruin and disgrace. I leave it entirely with you and your God.—
But if even innocent, (which I trust in God you are,) yet you are responsible
for their conduct. Nay, the world, even your old associates here, hold you
now as the accessory before the fact, to this poor fellow's crime. Oh, Henry,
how have your passions led you on, from step to step, to this degradation!
Can you be the proud boy that I once knew as an affectionate brother? But
I will not be weak; my object in writing is merely a matter of business. I
have a proposition to make to you—it is that you abandon your home and
country forever. Start not, but listen to me. You know that you will be
largely indebted to me for the yearly proceeds of my property, every cent of
which you have drawn, and which I understand you will not be able to repay,
without sacrificing your own property. Now, I propose to give you a clear
quittance for the whole of it, if you will sail for Europe before my return, and
take poor Cæsar with you. I know that you can find means to liberate him—
indeed, I do not think the Governor himself will be much displeased to find
this scheme carried into effect upon his return. Reflect well upon it, and may
God forgive you for your past errors. I shall never cease to pray not only for
that, but that I may myself learn to grant you that tree and full forgiveness
which I daily ask him for myself. Dear Frank.—But a few days have elapsed since your departure, yet it
seems an age. Short as the time is, however, I must write now in compliance
with my promise, or lose all opportunity of writing, until the expedition is on
its return. The courier who takes this, it is hoped, will overtake you near the
foot of the mountains. First and foremost, then, I must be selfish enough to
begin at home. Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh, and I
suppose the pen writeth. You will, I am sure, be surprised to learn that my
father seems to miss your society even more than I. After your departure,
he would sit up for hours, wrapped up in his own thoughts. At first I did not
heed this particularly, because he often does so, when any of his patients are
sick unto death; but I soon found that my caresses—a successful remedy
generally—were entirely unheeded; and once I saw a tear stealing down
his dear and venerable face. I could submit tacitly no longer, but begged him
to tell me what disturbed him. He said he was beginning to find out my
value just as he was about to lose me. “Dear father,” said I “I will never,
never leave you. We have been too long all in all to each other!” Was I
not right, Frank, in giving him this assurance, and will you not doubly assure
him, when you come back? I know you will. “How can you make any such
promise, my child,” he asked, “when you have given your whole heart and
soul to another?” Now, was not this a strange speech for the good old man
to make? Do you not discover a little—just a little—jealousy in it? I
thought I did, and I laughed at the idea, though the tears were coursing each
other down his cheeks faster than ever; and I taxed him with the strange
manifestation. “Well,” said he, “have you not been wife, and daughter,
and companion, and comforter, and nurse, and every thing to me—and how
can I live, when all that gives life and cheerfulness to my house is gone?
It will be putting out the light of mine eyes—for my Ellen, all is dark
and dreary, when your shadow does not fall within the range of these
fast failing orbs.” According to promise, you see I have begun to write you a letter—and
one dozen have I commenced before, but tore them up, because I did not
know exactly what word to prefix to your name. First I tried plain Bernard—that
looked too cold and abrupt; and then Mr. Moore—and that appeared
too business like and formal; and then I began without any prefix at
all. At last, I went to Ellen in my distress, and she rated me roundly for
being ashamed to salute with an endearing epithet a man to whom I had promised
my hand, and given my heart. Nor was that all—she took me to task
for still wrapping myself up in that reserve which the world compels us to
wear, instead of endeavoring, as is my duty, (you know I call her Mrs. Duty,)
to establish an unreserved confidence between us, and to learn and betray at
the same time all those peculiarities of thought and feeling which go to make
up our identity. As I told her, that is the very thing which I dread. My Dear, Sir—At length we have scaled the Blue Mountains, but
not without a sharp skirmish with the savages, and many of them, I am
sorry to say, were of those who so lately received our bounty, and were
besides objects of such deep solicitude to us. All our labors, my dear
Sir, towards civilizing and christianizing even the tributaries, have been
worse than thrown away. Mr. Boyle's splendid scheme of philanthropy is
a failure, and we, his humble agents, have no other consolation left, but
a consciousness of having done our duty, with a perseverance which
neither scorn nor scepticism could not turn aside. Let it not be
said hereafter, that no effort was made in Virginis to treat the Aborigines
with the same spirit of clemency and mildness which was so successful
in Pennsylvania. Far greater efforts have been made by us, than was
ever made in that favored colony. The difference in the result is no
doubt owing to the fact, that the subjects with whom we have had to
deal were irretrievably spoiled before they came under our charge—not
so with those of Pennsylvania. I mention these things to you, because you
know that it was my determination when I sat out, to cross the mountains,
peaceably if I could, and forcibly if I must. The latter has been the alternative
forced upon me. From almost the very moment of setting out, our
steps have been dogged, and our flanks harrassed by these lawless men, and
more than one murder has been committed upon our sentries. But of
these things we can converse when we meet. I suppose you are anxious to
hear something of the country, which I have so long desired to see with my
own eyes. Well, Sir, the descriptions given to us at Temple Farm by the
interpreter were not at all exaggerated, and were, besides, wonderfully accurate
in a geographical point of view. It is indeed true enough that there are
double ranges of mountains, and that the sources of the Mississippi do not
rise here. We are now in a valley between these ranges, with the western
mountains distinctly in view, and the eastern ones immediately in our rear.
This valley seems to extend for hundreds of miles to the northeast and south-west,
and may be some fifty or sixty broad. I learn from my prisoners that
it has been mostly kept sacred by the Indians as a choice hunting ground, and
has not been the permanent residence of any of them, but that they came
and squatted during the hunting season. All this the interpreter kept (very
wisely, as he thought, no doubt) to himself. We have not yet seen the
miraculous boiling and medicinal springs, nor the bridge across the mountains;
but parties of exploration are daily going out, and such extravagant
accounts as they give of the game, and the country, and the rivers, and the
magnificent prospects, beggar my pen to describe. I can see enough, my dear
Sir, from the heights in my near neighborhood, to know that it is one of the
most charming retreats in the world. I do not hesitate to predict that a
second Virginia will grow up here, which will rival the famed shores of the
Chesapeake; but the products will be different, and the people must be different;
for it is a colder region. We have already had nipping frosts, and some
ice upon the borders of the streams. I am once more writing from a couch of some pain and suffering, but thank
God not like the last from which I addressed you that dismal letter, which I
then supposed would be my last. I have no such apprehensions now. My
wounds are in a fair way, and I am even permitted to walk about this large
tent—(the Governor's marquee) and above all, I am permitted to write to you. My Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 5th inst., and in reply to it,
can only say what I some years past said to my friend George W. Summers,*
*The Hon. Geo. W. Summers, the present representative in Congress, from the Kenawha District,
in Virginia.
on the subject of your letter. I said to him, that I had seen in the possession
of the eldest branch of my family, a Golden Horse-Shoe set with garnets,
and having inscribed on it the motto: “Sic juval transcendere montes,” which
from tradition, I always understood was presented by Governor Spotswood, to
my Grandfather, as one of many gentlemen who acompanied him across the
mountains. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 106 | Author: | Child
Lydia Maria Francis
1802-1880 | Add | | | Title: | Letters from New York | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | You ask what is now my opinion of this great Babylon:
and playfully remind me of former philippics, and a long
string of vituperative alliterations, such as magnificence and
mud, finery and filth, diamonds and dirt, bullion and brass
tape, &c. &c. Nor do you forget my first impression of
the city, when we arrived at early dawn, amid fog and
drizzling rain, the expiring lamps adding their smoke to the
impure air, and close beside us a boat called the “Fairy
Queen,” laden with dead hogs. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 107 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Spy | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It was near the close of the year 1780, that a solitary
traveller was seen pursuing his way through
one of the numerous little valleys of West-Chester.
The easterly wind, with its chilling dampness,
and increasing violence, gave unerring notice of
the approach of a storm, which, as usual, might
be expected to continue for several days: and the
experienced eye of the traveller was turned, in
vain, through the darkness of the evening, in quest
of some convenient shelter, in which, for the term
of his confinement by the rain, that already began
to mix with the atmosphere in a thick mist,
he might obtain such accommodations as his age
and purposes required. Nothing, however, offered,
but the small and inconvenient tenements
of the lower order of inhabitants, with whom, in
that immediate neighbourhood, he did not think it
either safe or politic to trust himself. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 108 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Lionel Lincoln, Or, the Leaguer of Boston | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | No American can be ignorant of the principal
events that induced the parliament of Great
Britain, in 1774, to lay those impolitic restrictions
on the port of Boston, which so effectually destroyed
the trade of the chief town in her western
colonies. Nor should it be unknown to any American,
how nobly, and with what devotedness to
the great principles of the controversy, the inhabitants
of the adjacent town of Salem refused to
profit by the situation of their neighbours and fellow-subjects.
In consequence of these impolitic
measures of the English government, and of the
laudable unanimity among the capitalists of the
times, it became a rare sight to see the canvass of
any other vessels than such as wore the pennants
of the king, whitening the forsaken waters of Massachusetts
bay. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 109 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Lionel Lincoln, or, The Leaguer of Boston | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Although the battle of Bunker-hill was fought
while the grass yet lay on the meadows, the heats
of summer had been followed by the nipping frosts
of November; the leaf had fallen in its hour, and
the tempests and biting colds of February had
succeeded, before Major Lincoln left that couch
where he had been laid, when carried, in total
helplessness, from the fatal heights of the
peninsula. Throughout the whole of that long
period, the hidden bullet had defied the utmost
skill of the British surgeons; nor could all their
science and experience embolden them to risk
cutting certain arteries and tendons in the body
of the heir of Lincoln, which were thought
to obstruct the passage to that obstinate lead,
which, all agreed, alone impeded the recovery of
the unfortunate sufferer. This indecision was
one of the penalties that poor Lionel paid for
his greatness; for had it been Meriton who lingered,
instead of his master, it is quite probable
the case would have been determined at a
much earlier hour. At length a young and enterprising
leech, with the world before him, arrived
from Europe, who, possessing greater skill or more
effrontery (the effects are sometimes the same) than
his fellows, did not hesitate to decide at once on
the expediency of an operation. The medical staff
of the army sneered at this bold innovator, and
at first were content with such silent testimonials
of their contempt. But when the friends of the
patient, listening, as usual, to the whisperings of
hope, consented that the confident man of probes
should use his instruments, the voices of his contemporaries
became not only loud, but clamorous.
There was a day or two when even the watch-worn
and jaded subalterns of the army forgot
the dangers and hardships of the siege, to attend
with demure and instructed countenances to the
unintelligible jargon of the “Medici” of their
camp; and men grew pale, as they listened, who
had never been known to exhibit any symptoms
of the disgraceful passion before their more
acknowledged enemies. But when it became
known that the ball was safely extracted, and
the patient was pronounced convalescent, a calm
succeeded that was much more portentous to the
human race than the preceding tempest; and in
a short time the daring practitioner was universally
acknowledged to be the founder of a new
theory. The degrees of M. D. were showered
upon his honoured head from half the learned
bodies in Christendom, while many of his enthusiastic
admirers and imitators became justly entitled
to the use of the same magical symbols, as annexments
to their patrony micks, with the addition
of the first letter in the alphabet. The ancient
reasoning was altered to suit the modern facts, and
before the war was ended, some thousands of the
servants of the crown, and not a few of the patriotic
colonists, were thought to have died, scientifically,
under the favour of this important discovery. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 110 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Red Rover | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In submitting this hastily-composed and imperfect
picture of a few scenes, peculiar to the
profession, to your notice, dear Shubrick, I
trust much more to your kind feelings than to
any merit in the execution. Such as it may
be, however, the book is offered as another
tribute to the constant esteem and friendship of No one, who is familiar with the bustle and activity
of an American commercial town, would recognize,
in the repose which now reigns in the ancient
mart of Rhode Island, a place that, in its day, has
been ranked amongst the most important ports along
the whole line of our extended coast. It would
seem, at the first glance, that nature had expressly
fashioned the spot to anticipate the wants and to
realize the wishes of the mariner. Enjoying the
four great requisites of a safe and commodious haven,
a placed basin, an outer harbour, and a convenient
roadstead, with a clear offing, Newport appeared,
to the eyes of our European ancestors, designed to
shelter fleets and to nurse a race of hardy and expert
seamen. Though the latter anticipation has
not been entirely disappointed, how little has reality
answered to expectation in respect to the former!
A successful rival has arisen, even in the immediate
vicinity of this seeming favourite of nature, to defeat
all the calculations of mercantile sagacity, and to
add another to the thousand existing evidences “that
the wisdom of man is foolishness.” “An accident has disabled the Master of the out
“ward-bound ship called the `Royal Caroline!' Her
“consignee is reluctant to intrust her to the officer
“next in rank; but sail she must. I find she has
“credit for her speed. If you have any credentials
“of character and competency, profit by the occasion,
“and earn the station you are finally destined to fill.
“You have been named to some who are interested,
“and you have been sought diligently. If this reach
“you in season, be on the alert, and be decided.
“Show no surprise at any co-operation you may un
“expectedly meet. My agents are more numerous
“than you had believed. The reason is obvious;
“gold is yellow, though I am | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 111 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Red Rover | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The weight of the tempest had been felt at that
hapless moment when Earing and his unfortunate
companions were precipitated from their giddy elevation
into the sea. Though the wind continued to
blow long after this fatal event, it was with a constantly
diminishing power. As the gale decreased,
the sea began to rise, and the vessel to labour in
proportion. Then followed two hours of anxious
watchfulness on the part of Wilder, during which
the whole of his professional knowledge was needed,
in order to keep the despoiled hull of the Bristol
trader from becoming a prey to the greedy waters.
His consummate skill, however, proved equal to the
task that was required at his hands; and, just as the
symptoms of day were becoming visible along the
east, both wind and waves were rapidly subsiding
together. During the whole of this doubtful period,
our adventurer did not receive the smallest assistance
from any of the crew, with the exception of two
experienced seamen whom he had previously stationed
at the wheel. But to this neglect he was indifferent;
since little more was required than his own
judgment, seconded, as it faithfully was, by the exertions
of the mariners more immediately under his
eye. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 112 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Wept of Wish-ton-wish | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | THE incidents of this tale must be sought in a
remote period of the annals of America. A colony
of self-devoted and pious refugees from religious
persecution had landed on the rock of Plymouth,
less than half a century before the time at which
the narrative commences; and they, and their descendants,
had already transformed many a broad
waste of wilderness into smiling fields and cheerful
villages. The labors of the emigrants had been
chiefly limited to the country on the coast, which,
by its proximity to the waters that rolled between
them and Europe, afforded the semblance of a connexion
with the land of their forefathers and the
distant abodes of civilization. But enterprise, and
a desire to search for still more fertile domains, together
with the temptation offered by the vast and
unknown regions that lay along their western and
northern borders, had induced many bold adventurers
to penetrate more deeply into the forests. The
precise spot, to which we desire to transport the
imagination of the reader, was one of these establishments
of what may, not inaptly, be called the
forlorn-hope, in the march of civilization through
the country. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 113 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Wept of Wish-ton-wish | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | IT has already been said, that the hour at which
the action of the tale must re-commence, was early
morning. The usual coolness of night, in a country
extensively covered with wood, had passed, and the
warmth of a summer morning, in that low latitude,
was causing the streaks of light vapor, that floated
about the meadows, to rise above the trees. The
feathery patches united to form a cloud that sailed
away towards the summit of a distant mountain,
which appeared to be a common rendezvous for
all the mists that had been generated by the past
hours of darkness. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 114 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Bravo | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The sun had disappeared behind the summits of
the Tyrolean Alps, and the moon was already risen
above the low barrier of the Lido. Hundreds of
pedestrians were pouring out of the narrow streets
of Venice into the square of St. Mark, like water
gushing through some strait aqueduct, into a broad
and bubbling basin. Gallant cavalieri and grave
cittadini; soldiers of Dalmatia, and seamen of the
galleys; dames of the city, and females of lighter
manners; jewellers of the Rialto, and traders from
the Levant; Jew, Turk, and Christian; traveller,
adventurer, podestà, valet, avvocato and gondolier,
held their way alike to the common centre of amusement.
The hurried air and careless eye; the measured
step and jealous glance; the jest and laugh;
the song of the cantatrice, and the melody of the
flute; the grimace of the buffoon, and the tragic
frown of the improvisatore; the pyramid of the grotesque,
the compelled and melancholy smile of the
harpist, cries of water-sellers, cowls of monks,
plumage of warriors, hum of voices, and the universal
movement and bustle, added to the more permanent
objects of the place, rendered the scene the
most remarkable of Christendom. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 115 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Bravo | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | When the Carmelite re-entered the apartment of
Donna Violetta, his face was covered with the hue
of death, and his limbs with difficulty supported him
to a chair. He scarcely observed that Don Camillo
Monforte was still present, nor did he note the brightness
and joy which glowed in the eyes of the ardent
Violetta. Indeed his appearance was at first unseen
by the happy lovers, for the Lord of St. Agata had
succeeded in wresting the secret from the breast of
his mistress, if that may be called a secret which
Italian character had scarcely struggled to retain,
and he had crossed the room before even the more
tranquil look of the Donna Florinda rested on his
person. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 116 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Heidenmauer, Or, the Benedictines | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The reader must imagine a narrow and secluded
valley, for the opening scene of this tale. The time
was that in which the day loses its power, casting
a light on objects most exposed, that resembles
colors seen through glass slightly stained; a peculiarity
of the atmosphere, which, though almost of
daily occurrence in summer and autumn, is the
source of constant enjoyment to the real lover of
nature. The hue meant is not a sickly yellow, but
rather a soft and melancholy glory, that lends to
the hill-side and copse, to tree and tower, to stream
and lawn, those tinges of surpassing loveliness that
impart to the close of day its proverbial and
soothing charm. The setting sun touched with
oblique rays a bit of shaven meadow, that lay in a
dell so deep as to owe this parting smile of nature
to an accidental formation of the neighboring eminences,
a distant mountain crest, that a flock had
cropped and fertilized, a rippling current that glided
in the bottom, a narrow beaten path, more worn by
hoof than wheel, and a vast range of forest, that
swelled and receded from the view, covering leagues
of a hill-chase, that even tradition had never peopled.
The spot was seemingly as retired as if it had been
chosen in one of our own solitudes of the wilderness;
while it was, in fact, near the centre of Europe, and
in the sixteenth century. But, notwithstanding the
absence of dwellings, and all the other signs of the
immediate presence of man, together with the
wooded character of the scene, an American eye
would not have been slow to detect its distinguishing
features, from those which mark the wilds of
this country. The trees, though preserved with
care, and flourishing, wanted the moss of ages, the
high and rocking summit, the variety and natural
wildness of the western forest. No mouldering
trunk lay where it had fallen, no branch had been
twisted by the gale and forgotten, nor did any upturned
root betray the indifference of man to the
decay of this important part of vegetation. Here
and there, a species of broom, such as is seen occasionally
on the mast-heads of ships, was erected
above some tall member of the woods that stood on
an elevated point; land-marks which divided the
rights of those who were entitled to cut and clip;
the certain evidence that man had long before extended
his sway over these sombre hills, and that,
retired as they seemed, they were actually subject
to all the divisions, and restraints, and vexations,
which, in peopled regions, accompany the rights of
property. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 117 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Heidenmauer, Or, the Benedictines | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The cottage of Lottchen, the mother of Berchthold,
was distinguished from the other habitations of
the hamlet, only by its greater neatness, and by that
air of superior comfort which depends chiefly on
taste and habit, and of which poverty itself can
scarcely deprive those who have been educated in the
usages and opinions of a higher caste. It stood a
little apart from the general cluster of humble roofs;
and, in addition to its other marks of superiority, it
possessed the advantage of a small inclosure, by
which it was partially removed from the publicity
and noise that rob most of the villages and hamlets
of Europe of a rural character. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 118 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Headsman, Or, the Abbaye Des Vignerons | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The year was in its fall, according to a poetical
expression of our own, and the morning bright, as
the fairest and swiftest bark that navigated the
Leman lay at the quay of the ancient and historical
town of Geneva, ready to depart for the country
of Vaud. This vessel was called the Winkelried,
in commemoration of Arnold of that name, who
had so generously sacrificed life and hopes to the
good of his country, and who deservedly ranks
among the truest of those heroes of whom we have
well-authenticated legends. She had been launched
at the commencement of the summer, and still
bore at the fore-top-mast-head a bunch of evergreens,
profusely ornamented with knots and
streamers of riband, the offerings of the patron's
female friends, and the fancied gage of success.
The use of steam, and the presence of unemployed
seamen of various nations, in this idle season of
the warlike, are slowly leading to innovations and
improvements in the navigation of the lakes of
Italy and Switzerland, it is true; but time, even at
this hour, has done little towards changing the habits
and opinions of those who ply on these inland
waters for a subsistence. The Winkelreid had the
two low, diverging masts; the attenuated and picturesquely-poised
latine yards; the light, triangular
sails; the sweeping and projecting gangways; the
receding and falling stern; the high and peaked
prow, with, in general, the classical and quaint air
of those vessels that are seen in the older paintings
and engravings. A gilded ball glittered on the
summit of each mast, for no canvass was set higher
than the slender and well-balanced yards, and it
was above one of these that the wilted bush, with
its gay appendages, trembled and fluttered in a
fresh western wind. The hull was worthy of so
much goodly apparel, being spacious, commodious,
and, according to the wants of the navigation, of
approved mould. The freight, which was sufficiently
obvious, much the greatest part being piled
on the ample deck, consisted of what our own
watermen would term an assorted cargo. It was,
however, chiefly composed of those foreign luxuries,
as they were then called, though use has now
rendered them nearly indispensable to domestic
economy, which were consumed, in singular moderation,
by the more affluent of those who dwelt
deeper among the mountains, and of the two principal
products of the dairy; the latter being destined
to a market in the less verdant countries of
the south. To these must be added the personal
effects of an unusual number of passengers, which
were stowed on the top of the heavier part of the
cargo, with an order and care that their value
would scarcely seem to require. The arrangement,
however, was necessary to the convenience
and even to the security of the bark, having been
made by the patron with a view to posting each
individual by his particular wallet, in a manner to
prevent confusion in the crowd, and to leave the
crew space and opportunity to discharge the necessary
duties of the navigation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 119 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Headsman, Or, the Abbaye Des Vignerons | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | While the mummeries related were exhibiting
in the great square, Maso, Pippo, Conrad, and the
others concerned in the little disturbance connected
with the affair of the dog, were eating their discontent
within the walls of the guard-house. Vevey
has several squares, and the various ceremonies
of the gods and demigods were now to be repeated
in the smaller areas. On one of the latter
stands the town-house and prison. The offenders
in question had been summarily transferred to the
gaol, in obedience to the command of the officer
charged with preserving the peace. By an act of
grace, however, that properly belonged to the day,
as well as to the character of the offence, the prisoners
were permitted to occupy a part of the edifice
that commanded a view of the square, and
consequently were not precluded from all participation
in the joyousness of the festivities. This
indulgence had been accorded on the condition
that the parties should cease their wrangling, and
otherwise conduct themselves in a way not to
bring scandal on the exhibition in which the pride
of every Vévaisan was so deeply enlisted. All
the captives, the innocent as well as the guilty, gladly
subscribed to the terms; for they found themselves
in a temporary duresse which did not admit
of any fair argument of the merits of the case,
and there is no leveller so effectual as a common
misfortune. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 120 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | The Monikins | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Providence brought us together for more purposes than
were, at first, apparent. I have long hesitated about publishing
the accompanying narrative, for in England there is
a disposition to cavil at extraordinary facts, but the distance
of America from my place of residence will completely save
me from ridicule. The world must have the truth, and I see
no better means than by resorting to your agency. All I ask
is that you will have the book fairly printed, and that you
will send one copy to my address, Householder-hall, Dorsetshire,
England, and another to Capt. Noah Poke, Stonington,
Connecticut, in your own country. My Anna prays for you,
and is ever your friend. Do not forget us. Dear Sir,—Your favour is come to hand, and found me
in good health, as I hope these few lines will have the same
advantage with you. I have read the book, and must say
there is some truth in it, which, I suppose, is as much as befalls
any book, the Bible, the Almanac, and the State Laws,
excepted. I remember Sir John well, and shall gainsay nothing
he testifies to, for the reason that friends should not
contradict each other. I was also acquainted with the four
Monikins he speaks of, though I knew them by differentnames.
Miss Poke says she wonders if it's all true, which I wunt tell
her, seeing that a little unsartainty makes a woman rational.
As to my navigating without geometry, that's a matter that
was'n't worth booking, for it's no cur'osity in these parts,
bating a look at the compass once or twice a day, and so I
take my leave of you, with offers to do any commission for
you among the Sealing Islands, for which I sail to-morrow,
wind and weather permitting. The philosopher who broaches a new theory is
bound to furnish, at least, some elementary proofs
of the reasonableness of his positions, and the historian
who ventures to record marvels that have
hitherto been hid from human knowledge, owes it
to a decent regard to the opinions of others, to produce
some credible testimony in favor of his veracity.
I am peculiarly placed in regard to these
two great essentials, having little more than its
plausibility to offer in favor of my philosophy, and
no other witness than myself to establish the important
facts that are now about to be laid before the
reading world, for the first time. In this dilemma,
I fully feel the weight of responsibility under which
I stand; for there are truths of so little apparent
probability as to appear fictions, and fictions so like
the truth that the ordinary observer is very apt to
affirm that he was an eye-witness to their existence:
two facts that all our historians would do
well to bear in mind, since a knowledge of the circumstances
might spare them the mortification of
having testimony that cost a deal of trouble, discredited
in the one case, and save a vast deal of
painful and unnecessary labor, in the other. Thrown
upon myself, therefore, for what the French call les
pièces justîficatives of my theories, as well as of
my facts, I see no better way to prepare the reader
to believe me, than by giving an unvarnished narrative
of my descent, birth, education and life, up
to the time I became a spectator of those wonderful
facts it is my happiness to record, and with
which it is now his to be made acquainted. I have this moment heard of your being in town, and
am exceedingly rejoiced to learn it. A long intimacy with
your late excellent and most loyal father, justifies my claiming
you for a friend, and I waive all ceremony, (official, of
course, is meant, there being no reason for any other between
us,) and beg to be admitted for half an hour. I met your old neighbor —, this morning, on the
boulevards, and during an interview of an hour we did little
else but talk of thee. Although it has been my most ardent
and most predominant wish to open my heart to the whole
species, yet, Anna, I fear I have loved thee alone! Absence,
so far from expanding, appears to contract my affections, too
many of which centre in thy sweet form and excellent virtues.
The remedy I proposed is insufficient, and I begin to
think that matrimony alone can leave me master of sufficient
freedom of thought and action, to turn the attention I ought
to the rest of the human race. Thou hast been with me in
idea, in the four corners of the earth, by sea and by land,
in dangers and in safety, in all seasons, regions and situations,
and there is no sufficient reason why those who are
ever present in the spirit, should be materially separated.
Thou hast only to say a word, to whisper a hope, to breathe
a wish, and I will throw myself, a repentant truant, at thy
feet, and implore thy pity. When united, however, we will
not lose ourselves in the sordid and narrow paths of selfishness,
but come forth again, in company, to acquire a new
and still more powerful hold on this beautiful creation, of
which, by this act, I acknowledge thee to be the most divine
portion. Thy letter was put into my hands yesterday. This is
the fifth answer I have commenced, and you will therefore
see that I do not write without reflection. I know thy excellent
heart, John, better than it is known to thyself. It has
either led thee to the discovery of a secret of the last importance
to thy fellow-creatures, or it has led thee cruelly
astray. An experiment so noble and so praiseworthy, ought
not to be abandoned, on account of a few momentary misgivings
concerning the result. Do not stay thy eagle flight,
at the instant thou art soaring so near the sun! Should
we both judge it for our mutual happiness, I can become thy
wife at a future day. We are still young, and there is no
urgency for an immediate union. In the mean time, I will
endeavor to prepare myself to be the companion of a philanthropist,
by practising on thy theory, and, by expanding my
own affections, render myself worthy to be the wife of one
who has so large a stake in society, and who loves so many
and so truly. “At a full and overflowing meeting of the most
monikinized of the monikin race, holden at the house
of Peleg Pat, (we still used the human appellations,
at that epoeh,) in the year of the world 3,007, and
of the monikin era 317, Plausible Shout was called
to the chair, and Ready Quill was named secretary. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
