University of Virginia Library

12. CHAPTER XII.

Mr. Fairfax was borne to his own dwelling
upon a litter, amidst the universal regrets and lamentations
of the people. The condition of his
own immediate family may be more easily imagined
than described. The most heart-rending
shrieks pierced the air when it was announced to
the female part of it that the amiable and generous
head of their house had been basely shot,—by
whom he knew not, nor could he form a conjecture.
The deed was perpetrated a few moments
after he had himself shot the buck. He immediately
fell from his horse and was for a time perfectly
unconscious of his condition. When he revived
he found his horse gone and himself so
weakened from loss of blood that he was unable to
stand. His only resource was his trumpet, upon
which he made repeated efforts to summon his
companions, but even the sound of his horn was so
feeble that it could not have been heard more than
a few rods from the spot. While he was in this
helpless condition he chanced to discover three men
fishing at the base of the river bank, whom he attempted
to summon to his aid, but the sound of the
water prevented them from hearing him. With

great difficulty and suffering he was at length enabled
to crawl down the hill to such a distance that
he might be heard, and was thence borne to the
city in their boat, as the reader has already been
informed.

The surgeon, after examining his wound, pronounced
it to be of the most alarming character,
and assured Bacon, apart from the family, that he
had little hopes for the life of his patron, who after
the exhaustion of his painful journey and the succeeding
intense pain caused by the probing of his
wounds had fallen into a deep sleep.

Sometime during the morning which has been
described in the preceding chapter, and while the
hunting party were yet enjoying themselves undisturbed
by any untoward accident, Bacon had invited
Virginia to accompany him in his first stroll
through the garden since his illness. She complied
with more alacrity than had been usual with
her of late, hoping that the refreshing sweets of a
summer morning and the cheering sight of birds
and flowers, would dispel the gloomy misanthropy
which had settled upon his countenance, since his
disappointment at not being able to join the chase.

After a silent promenade through the shady
walks, they seated themselves in the little summer
house already mentioned, and Bacon thus broke the
embarrassing silence.

“Virginia, the current of events seems to be
hurrying us on to a painful crisis! It is impossible
for me to shut my eyes to such of them at least, as

relate more particularly to myself. My position
in the society in which I now move, is daily becoming
more painful to me. I am constantly subjected
to the impertinence of those who imagine
that they have, or perhaps really have, some reason
to complain of the protection and countenance afforded
to me by your noble father.”

“Trust then, Nathaniel, to his and our continued
confidence and esteem, and less to the morbid sensibility
which disturbs you, and all will soon be
well again.”

“Not so, Virginia. If we were in a little community
by ourselves, I could indeed give my
whole mind and soul to such enjoyments as the
society of your family has already afforded to
me, forgetting all the world besides, and never listening
for a moment to ambitious hopes and aspiring
thoughts. But in this proud and aristocratic
circle, I must soon be either more or less than
I am at present.”

“Why must you be more or less than you are,
Nathaniel?” said Virginia, with unaffected and bewitching
naiveté.

“Is it possible, Virginia, that you do not see
the reason why? Have you witnessed the fierce
struggles contending at my heart and never formed
a surmise as to the real cause?”

“Except the morbid sensitiveness to which I
have already alluded, and its very insufficient cause,
I declare that I know of none.”

“Is it possible. Good Heavens! and must I at

last break through the restraints which I had imposed
upon myself? Must I trample upon the
generous hospitality of the father to lay my heart
open before his daughter?” Her countenance underwent
an instantaneous change, and while he
continued, her eyes fell beneath his ardent gaze,
and her head sank upon her bosom in confusion.

“I will indeed trust to the flattering delusion
which hope whispers in my ear, that perhaps your
father himself knows enough of me and of my origin
to absolve me from these restraints. It must
be so, Virginia—else he had never trusted a heart,
young and susceptible like mine, to the constant influence
of beauty like yours,” and he took her unresisting
hand, “joined with such perfect innocence
and such childlike simplicity as never till
this moment to be conscious of its power. Oh, Virginia,
I would fain believe that he foresaw and approved
of the result which he could not but anticipate.
What he approves will his daughter's voice
confirm?—No answer! Will you not vouchsafe one
little word to keep my sinking hopes alive!—You
are offended; your countenance speaks the language
which your tongue is unaccustomed to utter!”

“What should I say?” answered Virginia;
“would you have me promise a return of love
whose indulgence is dependent on contingency?
Is it kind, is it proper to urge me upon this subject
under existing circumstances?”

“By heavens, Virginia, there shall be no contingeney

of my making! I have crossed the
Rubicon, and you shall have the knowledge as
you have had possession of my whole soul from
the days of our infancy. 'Tis yours, Virginia,
wholly yours; soul, mind and heart, all yours.
Mould them as you will, reject me if you must,
they are still yours. I swear never to profane
the shrine of this first and only love by offering
them up on any other. They are offered now,
because my destiny so wills it. We are the
creatures of circumstances. I have vainly struggled
against the overwhelming tide which has
borne me to this point. I am goaded onward by
insult—beset with menaces, and torn by the storms
of such a passion as never man before encountered.
Can you, dear Virginia, vouchsafe to me
some measure of relief from these distracting
emotions? Say that you would have been mine
under other circumstances! Say that you will
never wed that proud and imperious Beverly!
Say any thing, Virginia, which shall calm the
tumults of my bosom, and feed my hopes for the
future.” While he thus spoke, the blushing
maiden was evidently labouring under emotions
little less powerful than his own. Her previous
air of offended feminine dignity was fast melting
into sympathy, with the impassioned feelings of
the excited youth. She felt for his peculiar griefs
and cares, and shared his warmer sentiments. The
youth perceived the softening mood, and continued.
“Speak, I pray you, Virginia, I am in your hands.
Speak me into existence, or banish me from your
presence!”

“I do not know, Nathaniel,” said Virginia, after
many attempts to give utterance to her thoughts,
“whether it is proper at all times to speak the truth,
but I will not deceive you now. There does indeed
seem to be a peculiar concurrence of circumstances
around us, and more perhaps than you are
yourself aware of. I did not intend to deceive
you, or lead you astray; when I told you a few
moments since that I knew nothing of any other
struggle than that arising from your own excited
feelings, I spoke the truth, but perhaps not the
entire truth;” and as she spoke, a lovely blush
suffused her neck and downeast face; “I knew
of other struggles indeed, but not your's, Nathaniel.”

“Were they your's, Virginia, and of the same
nature? say they were, and heaven bless for ever
the tongue that utters it.”

“That you have to ask, does more honour to
my discretion, than I have ascribed to it myself
of late. I have had painful fears that I should have
little to tell on an occasion like the present, should
it ever come, with my father's approbation. And
if I have now overstepped the bounds of that proviso,
it was in the hope of calming your troubled
spirits, and preventing a catastrophe upon which I
have looked with dreadful anticipation, since the
night of the insurrection.”

“And will you indeed be mine?”

“I will, Nathaniel, whenever you gain my
father's approbation; but without it, never.”

At this moment the garden gate was heard to
creak upon its hinges, (most unmusically to Bacon's
ears,) and Harriet Harrison came tripping
over beds and flowers, all out of breath, her
cheeks glowing with the heightened colour of exercise,
and her eyes sparkling with mischief just
ready to explode.

“Oh, Virginia! Virginia! such news!” was
her first exclamation; “But shall I tell it before
Mr. Bacon?”

“Yes, if it is of the usual kind.”

“Well, upon your own head be the consequences.
I have accidentally overheard such a secret!
You must know that your Aunt Berkley has been
at our house this morning, and I overheard her
tell my mother that there was to be a great wedding
immediately, and that I was to be one of the
brides-maids. What! no tell-tale guilty blush?
Well, who do you think is to be the bride-groom,
and who the bride?”

“Indeed, Harriet, I cannot even guess.”

“The blissful man, then, is Beverly—but can
you name his bride?”

“I should not go far hence for an answer, if you
had not announced your nomination for a secondary
office.”

“O fie, fie, Virginia, I did not think you could
play the hypocrite so well. I will tell you who

it is then, but you must not breathe it even to the
winds, nor you, Mr. Bacon. It is a sly arch
little damsel, about your age and figure, by name
Virginia Fairfax!” And with these words, she
burst into a loud laugh, pointing to her companion
with her finger, and then tripped away again towards
the gate without waiting to see the effect of
her communication; but stopping with the gate in
her hand, she cried—“But remember, Virginia,
Charles Dudley is not to stand up with me; we
don't speak now.” And then she flew away, her
hat hanging by the riband round her neck, and her
raven ringlets flying loose around her temples.
Virginia sat as one without life or motion, her face
deadly pale, and her eye preternaturally clear and
glassy, but without a tear. Her respiration was
hurried and oppressed, and her countenance expressive
of high and noble resolves in the midst of
the keenest mental suffering. She knew whence
her aunt obtained her information, and in its communication
to others in the confidence of the Governor,
before she had been consulted, she saw the
tyrannical determination of that arbitrary old man
to consummate this hated union without the least
regard to her wishes or her feelings.

As these convictions flashed upon her mind, they
called up firm and resolute determinations, even in
her gentle bosom! she was stung into resistance
by the tyrannical and high handed measures of her
uncle, and resolved to resist upon the threshold.
Bacon's physical frame was not so steady, or his

nerves in his present mood so well strung by high
resolves of independent action. He too saw by
whom the blow was aimed, and upon whose head
it would principally fall, and he trembled for the
consequences to his gentle companion. He did not
know the strength of her independent mind, and
the endurance and fortitude with which she would
carry her purposes into execution. He knew her
to be gentle and kind and superlatively lovely, but
as yet she had endured no trials,—her courage and
fortitude had been put to no test. The very amiable
qualities which had won his affections, served
only to increase his doubts as to her capacity to
resist and endure what he too plainly saw awaited
her. He had yet to learn that these are almost
always found united in the female bosom with a
signal power of steady and calm resistance to oppression.
To this resolution had Virginia arrived,
when his more turbulent and masculine emotions
burst from his tongue as he seized her hand;
“Swear to me, Virginia, before high Heaven, that
you will never marry this proud heir of wealth,
and worldly honours.”

“Upon one condition.”

“Name it! if it is possible, it is done.”

“That you from this moment give up all idea
of a meeting with Frank Beverly, which I know
has only thus long been delayed by your wounds
and illness.” He dropped her hand and writhed
upon his seat in agony—the cold perspiration bursting
from his pale forehead, as he covered it with

his hands. But presently standing up he exclaimed,
“Great God! and can you ask this of me, Virginia?
Is my honour of so little value to you, that
you can ask me to betray it? You heard the insult!
You saw the dagger aimed in the dark! Ay, and
saw it strike upon a bare and wounded nerve!
Shall I not resist? Is an assassin to thrust the point
of his steel into the very apple of my eye, and
meet with no resistance? Instinct itself would
strike back the cowardly blow. Another might
forego the measure of his revenge for an ordinary
insult, but placed as I am, an elevated mark for
impertinence and malignity to shoot at, with nothing
but my single arm to defend me; no line of
noble and heroic ancestors to support my pretensions,
and my rank in the community; no living
relations to give the lie to his calumnies! Standing
alone amidst a host of powerful enemies, shall I be
stricken down by a cowardly maligner, and never
turn to strike one blow for my good name, my mother's
honour, my father's memory, and my own
standing in society? No, no, Virginia; you cannot,
you will not, require me to promise this. One
evidence I must and will give to the calumniator,
that I come of no churl's blood.”

“But, Nathaniel, did you not resent and thus
return his injury upon the spot?”

“Ay, truly, I did hurl defiance in the craven's
teeth, but that only throws the demand for satisfaction
upon his shoulders, so that when it is made,

I may at once atone for his, and take ample reparation
for my own deep wrongs.”

“Promise me, then, that you will but act with
Frank henceforth on the defensive? Remember
he is my kinsman.”

“I do promise; and now promise me in your
turn never to marry this kinsman, unless I give my
consent, or you should be absolved from your obligation
by my death, or some other irremediable
barrier.”

“I promise, Nathaniel.”

Scarcely had the words issued from her lips,
when the clanking of stirrups and clattering of
a horse's hoofs at full speed, were heard outside the
garden wall.

Into what a state of consternation and dismay
the family was thrown by the appearance of the
bloody and panting charger at his stable door
without his master, the reader may already have
imagined.