University of Virginia Library

15. CHAPTER XV.
AT THE HALL.

Our narrative does not require a lengthy description of the
great dinner and ball at the mansion of the squire. When
we have said that the noble mansion blazed from top to bottom

with a thousand lights, that chariots constantly rolled
up, and deposited beautiful dames and gallant cavaliers, that
they dined in state, and danced and feasted and made merry,
we have said all that is necessary. As to describing with a
mere pen one of these old festivals, which still occasionally
fill with laughter and high revelry some old houses, the
thing is simply impossible. Some great artist, uniting a
genius for the humorous and the noble, the rude and the elegant,
the grotesque and the beautiful, might possibly delineate
one of these old jubilees, and the singular old race
who delighted in them; we cannot, yet we may, before passing
on to the real events of this narrative, pause a moment
to jot down some of the salient points of the brilliant
gathering.

In addition to the chariots with their rumbling wheels,
neighing horses, and cracking whips, there came great numbers
of brave cavaliers upon good steeds, in parties, laughing
and jesting, or singly. Sometimes these gentlemen accompanied
the chariots, as in the case of Mr. Hamilton, who
rode dutifully by the Riverhead coach, the said coach containing
Mr. Lee, Henrietta, and Clare, who had consented
to attend the ball, only after repeated requests from her
father, who had observed and regretted her inexplicable dislike
to visiting at the Hall for some weeks past.

The dinner was a splendid affair, and there was much
marshalling of the guests in their places—his Excellency,
Francis Fauquier, Governor of the Colony, sitting on the
squire's right hand. The dinner proceeded as those pleasant
pompous old affairs were wont to, and in due time the
gentlemen were left to their politics and wine. There was
not much political discourse, however, in deference to his
Excellency. It was not polite to denounce his gracious
Majesty, his ministry, and their darling money-project, the
stamp act; and to speak favorably of any one of these, was
more than any guest's courtesy could compass. So they discussed
the weather and the crops, and the seven years' war,
last passed, and, above all, the approaching races near
Jamestown, from which they glided into erudite disquisitions
on the pedigree of racers.

As night closed in—they dined early, even on state occasions,
in those honest days—the cavaliers betook themselves

to the drawing-room, and there insinuated themselves
into the glittering throng of lovely dames, all powdered and
furbelowed and flounced, and then arose that buzz which, in
our time, by force of progressive increase, has grown into a
stunning uproar, in which every one endeavors, by raising
his or her voice, to drown the voice of every one else.

The smiling cavaliers, in powder, ruffles, embroidery,
long waistcoats, and silk stockings, betook themselves to
paying devoted court to the fascinating dames in lace, diamonds,
satin robes with trains, and shoes portentously
high in the heels; and so, with flirting fans, and winning
smiles, and low bows and little graceful curtsies, the time
passed. Then the well-instructed musicians, led by Mr.
William Booker, colored gentleman, violinist and appendage
to the glebe of Effingham, struck up a minuet, and the furbelows
and silk stockings bowed and curtsied with ambling
swaying movement, with cocked hats pressed upon the heart,
and fans expanded, and then closed again, and many an unguarded
heart was taken captive, and many silk stockings
accompanied as many furbelows through the dance of life
thereafter, fascinated with each other in that dance of
pleasure.

His Excellency danced with Miss Alethea, though this is
not one of those matches which we have foretold. Clare
danced with Mr. Hamilton, while Mr. Effingham looked on
and sighed; lastly, Kate danced with the noble Earl of
Dorset, whose brilliant verses we have listened to upon a
similar occasion, at the metropolitan city of Williamsburg,
and the fresh, frank face of the child pleased all, and made
all love her. As for the sensations experienced by Master
Willie Effingham, and Master Tommy Alston who was dying
for love of Kate, we prefer not to venture upon such a tragical
subject. The noble Earl, on that occasion, made two
mortal enemies for life.

So the stately minuets glided onward to the lofty music,
rejoicing, one would say, with a low, melodious, well-bred
laughter in its undertones at all this pompous ceremony, and
graceful reverential bowing, and low curtsying. Then came
supper, in due time, where healths were drank many fathoms
deep, and where the ladies took scarcely more nourishment
than they do at present. Then the gay, glancing, merry

hours fled on with music once again, and finally, when midnight
had long sounded, the ball drew to an end with that
merry and enlivening divertisement, a Virginia reel.

If the music for the minuet was glad and merry, under all
its stately and prim cadences, the music of the reel was more
than unaffected merriment:—the merriment was mad, desperate,
exuberant, headlong and uproarious. The right arm
of the noble minstrels darted furiously up and down—the
violins and hautboys nearly cracked with the immense flood
of harmony; and if the lovely damsels smiled before, they
laughed out loudly now: and flashed like shooting stars from
end to end of the great room:—and scattered perfumed powder
in a cloud:—and then, as the mad music stopped with a
long scrape, stood still with laughing lips and panting bosoms,
and red cheeks and dancing eyes, fanning themselves
and uttering little rapturous exclamations, and assuming die
away airs: and so the reel too was dead:—it ended all.

Perhaps the most picturesque portion of the whole festival
was the breaking up. In those times, they drank deep,
and a gentleman imbibed his two bottles as he wore his sword
—as a matter of course. The consequence was—heads being
much the same then as they are at present—that more than
one of the gallants present on the occasion found themselves
elated to the pitch of noisy merriment, and the Effingham
woods echoed back their shouts and songs for leagues.

The chariots resumed their burdens:—though many staid
at the ball all night—the gubernatorial coach, with those six
glossy white horses which have become history, bore off his
noble Excellency: and amid a tremendous clatter of negroes'
voices, cracking whips, rumbling wheels, and merry exclamations,
the festival, like all bright things, went onward to the
future.

Mr. Effingham assisted Clare to enter the Riverhead chariot,
with grave softness and courtesy: pressing Hamilton's
hand with friendly warmth; and so the carriage rolled away,
and Mr. Effingham's heart went with it.

As he entered his chamber, he murmured as before, “The
storm has passed, but all of the old feeling is not dead:—
beware!” and, sleeping with his pale face illumined by the
broad full moon, he dreamed of her, and saw her glide before

him with veiled brows and tender eyes and open arms. And
when he tried to clasp her to his heart she vanished.

A shadow crossed the sleeper's forehead, and his hand
stole to his brow. Then his face grew serene again—the
brow clear and soft. He heard her singing.