University of Virginia Library

17. CHAPTER XVII.

Here, perhaps, it would be wise to suffer the
curtain of our imperfect drama to fall before the
reader, trusting that the imagination of every individual
can readily supply the due proportions of
health, wealth, and happiness, that the rigid rules
of poetic justice would award to the different
characters of the legend. But as we are not disposed
to part so coldly from those with whom we
have long held amicable intercourse, and as there
is no portion of that in reservation which is not
quite as true as all that has been already related,
we see no unanswerable reason for dismissing the
dramatis personæ so abruptly. We shall therefore
proceed to state briefly, the outlines of that which
befel them in after-life, regretting, at the same
time, that the legitimate limits of a modern tale
will not admit of such a dilatation of many a merry
or striking scene, as might create the pleasing
hope of beholding hereafter, some more of our rude
sketches quickened into life, by the spirited pencil
of Dunlap.

Following the course of the frigate, then, towards
those shores, from which, perhaps, we should
never have suffered our truant pen to have wandered,
we shall commence the brief task with Barnstable,
and his laughing, weeping, gay, but affectionate,
bride—the black-eyed Katherine. The
ship fought her way. gallantly, through swarms of
the enemy's cruisers, to the port of Boston, where
Barnstable was rewarded for his services by promotion,
and a more regular authority to command
his vessel.

During the remainder of the war, he continued
to fill that station with ability and zeal, nor did he
return to the dwelling of his fathers, which he soon
inherited, by regular descent, until after peace
had established not only the independence of his
country, but his own reputation, as a brave and
successful sea-officer. When the Federal Government
laid the foundation of its present navy, Captain
Barnstable was once more tempted by the
offer of a new commission to desert his home; and
for many years he was employed among that band
of gallant seamen who served their country so
faithfully in times of trial and high daring. Happily,
however, he was enabled to accomplish a
great deal of the more peaceful part of his service
accompanied by Katherine, who, having no children,
eagerly profited by his consent, to share his
privations and hardships on the ocean. In this
manner they passed merrily, and we trust happily,
down the vale of life together, Katherine entirely
discrediting the ironical prediction of her former
guardian, by making, every thing considered, a
very obedient, and certainly, so far as attachment
was concerned, a most devoted wife.

The boy Merry, who in due time became a
man, clung to Barnstable and Katherine, so long

as it was necessary to hold him in leading strings;
and when he received his regular promotion, his
first command was under the shadow of his kinsman's
broad pendant. He proved to be in his
meridian, what his youth had so strongly indicated,
a fearless, active, and reckless sailor, and his
years might have extended to this hour, had he
not fallen untimely, in a duel with a foreign officer.

The first act of Captain Manual, after landing
once more on his native soil, was to make interest
to be again restored to the line of the army. He
encountered but little difficulty in this attempt,
and was soon in possession of the complete enjoyment
of that which his soul had so long pined after,
“a steady drill.” He was in time to share in all
the splendid successes which terminated the war,
and also to participate in his due proportion of the
misery of the army. His merits were not forgotten,
however, in the reorganization of the forces,
and he followed both St. Clair and his more fortunate
successor, Wayne, in the western campaigns.
About the close of the century, when the British
made their tardy relinquishment of the line of posts
along the frontiers, Captain Manual was ordered
to take charge, with his company, of a small stockade
on our side of one of those mighty rivers, that
sets bounds to the territories of the Republic in the
north. The British flag was waving over the
ramparts of a more regular fortress, that had been
recently built, directly opposite, within the new
lines of the Canadas. Manual was not a man to
neglect the observances of military etiquette, and
understanding that the neighbouring fort was commanded
by a field officer, he did not fail to wait
on that gentleman, in proper time, with a view to
cultivate the sort of acquaintance that their mutual
situations would render not only agreeable,

but highly convenient. The American martinet,
in ascertaining the rank of the other, had not
deemed it at all necessary to ask his name, but
when the red-faced, comical-looking officer with
one leg, who met him, was introduced as Major
Borroughcliffe, he had not the least difficulty in
recalling to recollection his quondam acquaintance
of St. Ruth. The intercourse between these
worthies was renewed with remarkable gusto, and
at length arrived to so regular a pass, that a log
cabin was erected on one of the islands in the river,
as a sort of neutral territory, where their feastings
and revels might be held without any scandal to the
discipline of their respective garrisons. Here the
qualities of many a saddle of savory venison were
discussed, together with those of sundry pleasant
fowls, as well as of divers strange beasts that inhabit
those western wilds, while, at the same time, the secret
places of the broad river were vexed, that nothing
might be wanting that could contribute to the
pleasures of their banquets. A most equitable levy
was regularly made on their respective pockets,
to sustain the foreign expenses of this amicable
warfare, and a suitable division of labour was also
imposed on the two Commandants, in order to
procure such articles of comfort as were only to
be obtained from those portions of the globe, where
the art of man had made a nearer approach to the
bounties of nature, than in the vicinity of their
fortifications. All liquids in which malt formed
an ingredient, as well as the deep-coloured wines
of Oporto, were suffered to enter the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and were made to find their way, under
the superintendence of Borroughcliffe, to their
destined goal; but Manual was, solely, entrusted
with the more important duty of providing the generous
liquor of Madeira, without any other restriction
on his judgment, than an occasional injunction
from his coadjutor, that it should not fail to
be the product of the “South-side!”

It was not unusual for the younger officers of
the two garrisons to allude to the battle in which
Major Borroughcliffe had lost his limb—the English
ensign invariably whispering to the American
on such occasions, that it occurred during the late
contest, in a desperate affair on the North Eastern
coast of their island, in which the Major commanded,
in behalf of his country, with great credit
and signal success; and for which service he obtained
his present rank “without purchase!” A sort of
national courtesy prevented the two veterans, for
by this time both had earned that honourable title,
from participating at all in these delicate allusions;
though whenever, by any accident, they
occurred near the termination of the revels, Borroughcliffe
would so far betray his consciousness
of what was passing, as to favor his American
friend with a leer of singular significance, which
generally produced in the other that sort of dull
recollection, which all actors and painters endeavour
to represent by scratching the head. In
this manner year after year rolled by, the most
perfect harmony existing between the two posts,
notwithstanding the angry passions that disturbed
their respective countries, when an end was suddenly
put to the intercourse by the unfortunate
death of Manual. This rigid observer of discipline,
never trusted his person on the neutral island
without being accompanied by a party of his warriors,
who were posted as a regular picquet, sustaining
a suitable line of sentries; a practice which
he also recommended to his friend, as being highly
conducive to discipline, as well as a salutary
caution against a surprise on the part of either
garrison. The Major, however, dispensed with
the formality in his own behalf, but was sufficiently

good-natured to wink at the want of confidence
it betrayed in his boon companion. On one unhappy
occasion, when the discussions of a new importation
had made a heavy inroad on the morning,
Manual left the hut to make his way towards his picquet,
in such a state of utter mental aberration, as
to forget the countersign when challenged by a sentinel,
and, melancholy to relate, he met his death
by a shot from a soldier, whom he had drilled to such
an exquisite state of insensibility, that the man
cared but little whether he killed friend or enemy,
so long as he kept within military usage, and the
hallowed limits established by the articles of war.
He lived long enough, however, to commend the
fellow for the deed, and died while delivering an
eulogium to Borroughcliffe, on the high state of
perfection to which he had brought his command!

About a year before this melancholy event. a
quarter cask of wine had been duly ordered from
the South side of the island of Madeira, which
was, at the death of Manual, toiling its weary way
up the rapids of the Mississippi and the Ohio;
having been made to enter by the port of New-Orleans,
with the intention of keeping it as long
as possible under a genial sun! The untimely
fate of his friend imposed on Borroughcliffe the
necessity of attending to this precious relick of
their mutual tastes; and he procured a leave
of absence from his superior, with the laudable
desire to proceed down the streams and superintend
its farther advance in person. The result
of his zeal was a high fever, that set in the day
after he reached his treasure, and as the Doctor
and the Major espoused different theories, in
treating a disorder so dangerous in that climate,
the one advising abstemiousness, and the other administering
repeated draughts of the cordial that
had drawn him so far from home, the disease was

left to act its pleasure. Borroughcliffe died in
three days; and was carried back and interred by
the side of his friend, in the very hut which had
so often resounded with their humours and festivities!
We have been thus particular in relating
the sequel of the lives of these rival chieftains, because,
from their want of connexion with any kind
heart of the other sex, no widows and orphans
were left to lament their several ends, and furthermore,
as they were both mortal, and might be expected
to die at a suitable period, and yet did not
terminate their career until each had attained the
mature age of three-score, the reader can find no
just grounds of dissatisfaction at being allowed this
deep glance into the womb of fate.

The chaplain abandoned the seas in time to retrieve
his character, a circumstance which gave
no little satisfaction to Katherine, who occasionally
annoyed her worthy husband on the subject of
the informality of their marriage.

Griffith and his mourning bride conveyed the
body of Colonel Howard in safety to one of
the principal towns in Holland, where it was
respectfully and sorrowfully interred; after which
the young man removed to Paris, with a view
of erasing the sad images, which the hurried and
melancholy events of the few preceding days
had left on the mind of his lovely companion.—
From this place Cecilia held communion, by letter,
with her friend Alice Dunscombe, and such
suitable provision was made in the affairs of her
late uncle as the times would permit. Afterwards,
when Griffith obtained the command which
had been offered him, before sailing on the cruise
in the North Sea, they returned together to America.
The young man continued a sailor until
the close of the war, when he entirely withdrew
from the ocean, and devoted the remainder of his

life to the conjoint duties of a husband and a
good citizen.

As it was easy to reclaim the estates of Colonel
Howard, which, in fact, had been abandoned more
from pride than necessity, and which had never
been confiscated, their joint inheritances made
the young couple extremely affluent, and we shall
here take occasion to say, that Griffith remembered
his promise to the dying master, and saw such
a provision made for the childless mother, as her
situation and his character required.

It might have been some twelve years after
the short cruise, which it has been our task to
record in these volumes, that Griffith, who was
running his eyes carelessly over a file of newspapers,
was observed by his wife to drop the bundle
from before his face, and pass his hand slowly
across his brow, like a man who had been suddenly
struck with renewed impressions of some
former event, or who was endeavouring to recall
to his mind images that had long since faded.

“See you any thing in that paper, to disturb you
Griffith?” said the still lovely Cecilia. “I hope that
now we have our confederate government, the
States will soon recover from their losses—but it
is one of those plans to create a new navy, that
has met your eye! Ah! truant! you sigh to become
a wanderer again, and pine after your beloved
ocean!”

“I have ceased sighing and pining since you
have begun to smile,” he returned, with a vacant
manner, and without removing his hand from
his brow.

“Is not the new order of things, then, likely to
succeed? Does the Congress enter into contention
with the President?

The wisdom and name of Washington will
smooth the way for the experiment, until time

shall mature the system. Cecilia, do you remember
the man who accompanied Manual and
myself to St. Ruth, the night we became your uncle's
prisoners, and who afterwards led the party
which liberated us, and rescued Barnstable?”

“Surely I do; he was the pilot of your ship,
it was then said; and I remember the shrewd soldier
we entertained, even suspected that he was
one greater than he seemed.”

“The soldier surmised the truth: but you saw
him not on that fearful night, when he carried us
through the shoals! and you could not witness the
calm courage with which he guided the ship into
those very channels again, while the confusion of
battle was among us!”

“I heard the dreadful din! And I can easily
imagine the horrid scene,” returned his wife, her
recollections chasing the colour from her cheeks
even at that distance of time; “but what of him?
is his name mentioned in those papers? Ah! they
are English prints! you called his name Gray, if
I remember?”

“That was the name he bore with us! he was
a man who had formed romantic notions of glory,
and wished every thing concealed in which he acted
a part that he thought would not contribute
to his renown. It has been, therefore, in compliance
with a solemn promise made at the time,
that I have ever avoided mentioning his name—
he is now dead!”

“Can there have been any connexion between
him and Alice Dunscomb?” said Cecilia, dropping
her work in her lap, in a thoughtful manner.—
“She met him alone, at her own urgent request,
the night Katherine and myself saw you in your
confinement, and even then my cousin whispered
that they were acquainted! The letter I received
yesterday, from Alice, was sealed with black, and

I was pained with the melancholy, though gentle
manner, in which she wrote of passing from this
world into another!”

Griffith glanced his eye at his wife, with a look
of sudden intelligence, and then answered like one
who began to see with the advantages of a clearer
atmosphere.

“Cecilia, your conjecture is surely true! Fifty
things rush to my mind at that one surmise—
his acquaintance with that particular spot—his
early life—his expedition—his knowledge of the
abbey, all confirm it! He, altogether, was indeed
a man of marked character!”

“Why has he not been among us,” asked Cecilia;
“he appeared devoted to our cause?”

“His devotion to America proceeded from
desire of distinction, his ruling passion, and perhaps
a little also from resentment at some injustice
which he claimed to have suffered from his
own countrymen. He was a man, and not therefore
without foibles—among which may have been
reckoned the estimation of his own acts; but
they were most daring, and deserving of praise!
neither did he merit one half the obloquy that he
received from his enemies. His love of liberty
may be more questionable; for if he commenced
his deeds in the cause of these free States, they
terminated in the service of a despot! He is now
dead—but had he lived in times and under circumstances,
when his consummate knowledge of
his profession, his cool, deliberate, and even desperate
courage, could have been exercised in a
regular, and well-supported Navy, and had the
habits of his youth better qualified him to have
borne, meekly, the honors he acquired in his age,
he would have left behind him no name in its lists
that would have descended to the latest posterity
of his adopted countrymen with greater renown!”

“Why, Griffith,” exclaimed Cecilia, in a little
surprise, “you are zealous in his cause! Who
was he?”

“A man who held a promise of secrecy while
living, which is not at all released by his death.
It is enough to know, that he was greatly instrumental
in procuring our sudden union, and that
our happiness might have been wrecked in the
voyage of life had we not met the unknown pilot
of the German Ocean.”

Perceiving her husband to rise, and carefully collect
the papers in a bundle, before he left the
room, Cecilia made no further remark at the time
nor was the subject ever revived between them!