University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.

Such was my haste in quitting the church, that I did not
turn to the right or the left. I saw the light, but well-rounded
form of Mary Warren loitering along with the rest
of the party, seemingly in waiting for me to join them;
and crossing the road, I sprang upon the stile, and thence
to the ground, coming up with the girls at the next instant.

“What is the meaning of the crowd, Hugh?” asked my
sister, pointing down the road with the stick of her parasol,
as she put the question.

“Crowd! I have seen no crowd. Everybody had left
the church before I quitted it, and all has gone off peaceably.
Ha! sure enough, that does look like a crowd yonder
in the highway. It seems an organized meeting, by George!
Yes, there is the chairman, seated on the upper rail of the
fence, and the fellow with a bit of paper in his hand is
doubtless the secretary. Very American, and regular, all
that! Some vile project is hatching, I 'll answer for it, under
the aspect of an expression of public opinion. See, there is
a chap speaking, and gesticulating manfully!”

We all stopped, for a moment, and stood looking at the
crowd, which really had all the signs of a public meeting
about it. There it had been, the girls told me, ever since
they had quitted the church, and seemingly engaged much
as it was at that moment. The spectacle was curious, and
the day being fine, while time did not press, we lingered in

the fields, occasionally stopping to look behind us, and note
what was going on in the highway.

In this manner, we might have walked half the distance
to the Nest, when, on turning to take another look, we perceived
that the crowd had dispersed; some driving off in
the ever-recurring one-horse wagon, some on horseback,
and others on foot. Three men, however, were walking
fast in our direction, as if desirous of overtaking us. They
had already crossed the stile, and were on the path in the
field, a route rarely or never taken by any but those who
desired to come to the house. Under the circumstances, I
determined at once to stop and wait for them. First feeling
in my pocket, and making sure of the “revolver,” which is
getting to be an important weapon, now that private battles
are fought not only “yard-arm and yard-arm,” but by
regular “broadsides,” starboard and larboard, I intimated
my intention to the girls.

“As these men are evidently coming in quest of me,” I
remarked, “it may be as well, ladies, for you to continue
your walk towards home, while I wait for them on this
stile.”

“Very true,” answered Patt. “They can have little to
say that we shall wish to hear, and you will soon overtake
us. Remember, we dine at two on Sundays, Hugh; the
evening service commencing at four, in this month.”

“No, no,” said Mary Warren, hurriedly, “we ought not,
cannot, quit Mr. Littlepage. These men may do him some
harm.”

I was delighted with this simple, natural manifestation of
interest, as well as with the air of decision with which it
was made. Mary, herself, coloured at her own interest,
but did not the less maintain the ground she had taken.

“Why, of what use can we be to Hugh, dear, even admitting
what you say to be true?” answered Patt; “it were
better for us to hurry on to the house, and send those here
who can assist him in such a case, than stand by idle and
useless.”

As if profiting by this hint, Miss Coldbrooke and Miss
Marston, who were already some little distance in advance,
went off almost on a run, doubtless intending to put my
sister's project into execution. But Mary Warren stood

firm, and Patt would not desert her friend, whatever might
have been her disposition to treat me with less consideration.

“It is true, we may not be able to assist Mr. Littlepage,
should violence be attempted,” the first remarked; “but violence
is, perhaps, what is least to be apprehended. These
wretched people so little regard truth, and they will be three
to one, if your brother be left alone; that it is better we stay
and hear what is said, in order that we may assert what
the facts really were, should these persons see fit to pervert
them, as too often happens.”

Both Patt and myself were struck with the prudence and
sagacity of this suggestion; and the former now came quite
near to the stile, on which I was still standing, with an air
as steady and resolute as that of Mary Warren herself. Just
then the three men approached. Two of them I knew by
name, though scarcely in person, while the third was a
total stranger. The two of whom I had some knowledge,
were named Bunce and Mowatt, and were both tenants of
my own; and, as I have since learned, warm anti-renters.
The stranger was a travelling demagogue, who had been at
the bottom of the whole affair connected with the late meeting,
and who had made his two companions his tools. The
three came up to the stile, with an air of great importance,
nor could the dignity of their demeanour have been greater
had they been ambassadors extraordinary from the Emperor
of China.

“Mr. Littlepage,” commenced Mr. Bunce, with a particularly
important physiognomy, “there has been a meeting
of the public, this morning, at which these resolutions
was passed. We have been appointed a committee to deliver
a copy of them to you, and our duty is now performed,
by handing you this paper.”

“Not unless I see fit to accept it, I presume, sir,” was
my answer.

“I should think no man, in a free country, would refuse
to receive a set of resolutions that has been passed by a
meeting of his fellow-citizens.”

“That might depend on circumstances; the character of
the resolutions, in particular. The freedom of the country
it is, precisely, which gives one man the same right to say

he cares nothing about your resolutions, as it does you to
pass them.”

“But you have not looked at the resolutions, sir; and
until you do, you cannot know how you may like them.”

“That is very true; but I have looked at their bearers,
have seen their manner, and do not quite like the assumption
of power which says any body of men can send me
resolutions, whether I like to receive them or not.”

This declaration seemed to strike the committee aghast!
The idea that one man should hesitate to submit himself to
a yoke imposed by a hundred, was so new and inconceivable
to those who deem majorities all in all, that they hardly
knew how to take it.[1] At first there was an obvious disposition
to resent the insult; then came reflection which
probably told them that such a course might not prove so
well, the whole terminating in a more philosophical determination
of getting along easily.

“Am I to understand, Mr. Littlepage, that you refuse to
accept the resolutions of a public meeting?”

“Yes; of half-a-dozen public meetings put together, if
those resolutions are offensive, or are offered offensively.”

“As to the resolutions, you can know nothing, having
never seen them. Of the right of any number of the people
to pass such resolutions as they may think proper, I presume
there can be no question.”

“Of that right, sir, there is a very great question, as has
been settled within the last few years, in our own Courts.
But, even if the right existed, and in as broad a way as you
seem to think, it would not form a right to force these resolutions
on me.”

“I am, then, to tell the people you refuse even to read
their resolutions, 'Squire Littlepage.”

“You can tell them what you please, sir. I know of no
people, except in the legal sense, and under the limited
powers that they exercise by law. As for this new power,
which is rising up in the country, and has the impudence to
call itself the people, though composed of little knots of men
got together by management, and practised on by falsehood,
it has neither my respect nor dread; and as I hold it in
contempt, I shall treat it with contempt, whenever it comes
in my way.”

“I am, then, to tell the people of Ravensnest, you hold
them in contempt, sir.”

“I authorize you to tell the people of Ravensnest nothing,
as coming from me, for I do not know that the people of
Ravensnest have employed you. If you will ask me, respectfully,
as if you were soliciting a favour instead of demanding
a right, to read the contents of the paper you hold
in your hand, I may be willing to comply. What I object
to, is a handful of men's getting together, setting themselves
up as the people, pretending to authority in that capacity,
and claiming a right to force their notions on other folks.”

The three committee-men now drew back a few paces,
and consulted together apart, for two or three minutes.
While they were thus employed, I heard the sweet gentle
voice of Mary Warren say at my elbow—“Take their resolutions,
Mr. Littlepage, and get rid of them. I dare say
they are very silly, but you will get rid of them all the
sooner, by receiving the paper.” This was woman's advice,
which is a little apt to err on the side of concession,
when her apprehensions are aroused; but I was spared the
pain of not complying with it, by the altered tone of the trio,

who now came up to the stile again, having apparently
come to a final decision in the premises.

“Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage, junior,” said Bunce in a
solemn voice, and in a manner as precise as if he were
making some legal tender that was of the last importance,
and which required set phrases, “I now ask you, in a
most respectful manner, if you will consent to receive this
paper. It contains certain resolutions, passed with great
unanimity by the people of Ravensnest, and which may be
found to affect you. I am directed respectfully to ask you,
if you will accept this copy of the said resolutions.”

I cut the rest of the speech short by receiving the proffered
paper, and I thought all three of the worthy ambassadors
looked disappointed at my having done so. This gave
a new turn to my ideas, and had they now demanded their
resolutions back again, they should not have had them, so
long as the revolvers could do their duty. For a moment,
I do believe Bunce was for trying the experiment. He and
his companions would have been delighted to have it in
their power to run up and down the country crying out that
the aristocrat-landlord, young Littlepage, held the people in
contempt, and had refused even to accept the resolutions
they had deigned, in their majesty, to pass. As it was,
however, I had sufficiently rebuked the presumption of these
pretenders to liberty, avoided all the consequences of their
clamour in that behalf, and had an opportunity to gratify a
curiosity to know what the leaders of the meeting had been
about, and to read their resolutions. I say, the leaders of
the meeting, for it is very certain the meetings themselves,
on all such occasions, have no more to do with the forming,
or entertaining the opinions that are thus expressed, than if
they had been in Kamtschatka, the whole time. Folding
the paper, therefore, and putting it in my pocket, I bowed
to the committee, saying, as I descended the stile on the
other side of the fence—

“It is well, gentlemen; if the resolutions require any notice,
they'll be sure to receive it. Public meetings held of a
Sunday are so unusual in this part of the world, that this
may have interest with that small portion of the State which
does not dwell at Ravensnest.”

I thought the committee was a little abashed; but the

stranger, or the travelling demagogue, caught at my words,
and answered as I walked away, in company with Patt and
Mary Warren—

“The better day, the better deed. The matter related to
the Sabbath, and no time so suitable as the Sabbath to act
on it.”

I will down I was dying with curiosity to read the resolutions,
but dignity prevented any such thing until we had
reached a spot where the path led through a copse, that concealed
us from observation. Once under that cover, however,
I eagerly drew out the paper, the two girls drawing
near to listen, with as lively an interest as that I felt myself
in the result.

“Here you may see at a glance,” I cried, shaking open
the folds of the paper, “the manner in which the people so
often pass their resolutions! All this writing has a very
school-master air, and has been done with care and deliberation,
whereas there was certainly no opportunity to make
a copy as fair as this of anything out in the highway where
the meeting was actually held. This proves that matters
have been cut and dried for the sovereign people, who, like
other monarchs, are saved a great deal of trouble by their
confidential servants.”

“I dare say,” said Patt, “two or three men down at the
village prepared everything, and then brought their work
up to the meeting to be read and approved, and to go forth
as public sentiment.”

“If it were only honestly approved by even those who
heard it read, it would be another matter; but two-thirds of
every meeting are nothing but dough-faces, that are moulded
to look whichever way the skilful manager may choose. But
let us see what these notable resolutions are; we may like
them, possibly, after having read them.”

“It is so extraordinary to have a public meeting of a
Sunday in this part of the world!” exclaimed Mary
Warren.

I now set about reading the contents of the paper, which,
at a glance, I saw had been very carefully prepared for publication,
and no doubt would soon figure in some of the
journals. Fortunately, this business has been so much overdone,
and so many meetings are held that flatly contradict

each other, though all represent public sentiment, fire is
made so effectually to fight fire, that the whole procedure is
falling into contempt, and the public is actually losing the
great advantage which, under a more temperate use of its
power, it might possess, by making known from time to
time, as serious occasions offered, its true opinions and
wishes. As things actually are, every man of intelligence
is fully aware that simulated public opinions are much the
most noisy and active in the country, and he regards nothing
of the sort of which he hears or reads, unless he happen to
know something of the authority. It is the same with the
newspaper press generally; into such deep discredit has it
fallen, that not only is its power to do evil much curtailed,
but it has nearly lost all power to do good; for, by indulging
in licentiousness, and running into the habit of crying
“wolf,” nobody is disposed to believe, were the beast actually
committing its ravages in the flocks of the nation. There
are but two ways for a man to regain a position from which
he has departed; the one is by manfully retracing his steps,
and the other is by making a circuit so complete that
all who choose to watch him may see and understand all
sides of him, and estimate him accordingly. The last is
likely to be the career of demagogueism and the press; both
of which have already gone so far as to render retreat next
to impossible, and who can only regain any portion of public
confidence by being satisfied with completing their circuit,
and falling in the rear of the nation, content to follow those
whom it has been their craving ambition to lead.

“At a meeting of the citizens of Ravensnest,” I began to
read aloud, “spontaneously convened, June 22d, 1845, in
the public highway, after attending divine service in the
Episcopal meeting-house, according to the forms of the established
denomination of England, on the church and state
system, Onesiphoras Hayden, Esquire, was called to the
chair, and Pulaski Todd, Esquire, was appointed Secretary.
After a luminous and eloquent exposition of the objects of
the meeting, and some most pungent strictures on aristocracy
and the rights of man, from Demosthenes Hewlett and John
Smith, Esquires, the following expression of public sentiment
was sustained by an undivided unanimity:—Resolved,
that a temperate expression of public opinion is useful to the

rights of freemen, and is one of the most precious privileges
of freedom, as the last has been transmitted to us in a free
country by our ancestors, who fought and bled for free and
equal institutions on free and equal grounds.

“Resolved, That we prize this privilege, and shall ever
watch over its exercise with vigilance, the price of liberty.

“Resolved, That, as all men are equal in the eyes of the
law, so are they much more so in the eyes of God.

“Resolved, That meeting-houses are places constructed
for the convenience of the people, and that nothing ought to
be admitted into them that is opposed to public sentiment,
or which can possibly offend it.

“Resolved, That, in our judgment, the seat that is good
enough for one man is good enough for another; that we
know no difference in families and races, and that pews
ought to be constructed on the principles of equality, as well
as laws.

“Resolved, That canopies are royal distinctions, and quite
unsuited to republicans; and most of all, to republican meeting-houses.

“Resolved, That religion should be adapted to the institutions
of a country, and that a republican form of government
is entitled to a republican form of religion; and that
we do not see the principles of freedom in privileged seats
in the House of God.”

“That resolution has been got up as a commentary on
what has been circulated so much, of late, in the newspapers,”
cried Mary Warren, quickly; “in which it has been
advanced, as a recommendation of certain sects, that their
dogmas and church-government are more in harmony with
republicanism than certain others, our own church included.”

“One would think,” I answered, “if this conformity be
a recommendation, that it would be the duty of men to make
their institutions conform to the church, instead of the church's
conforming to the institutions.”

“Yes; but it is not the fashion to reason in this way,
now-a-days. Prejudice is just as much appealed to in matters
connected with religion, as with anything else.”

“Resolved,” I continued to read, “That in placing a
canopy over his pew, in St. Andrew's meeting-house, Ravensnest,

Gen. Cornelius Littlepage conformed to the spirit
of a past age, rather than to the spirit of the present time,
and that we regard its continuance there as an aristocratical
assumption of a superiority that is opposed to the character
of the government, offensive to liberty, and dangerous as an
example.”

“Really that is too bad!” exclaimed Patt, vexed at heart,
even while she laughed at the outrageous silliness of the
resolutions, and all connected with them. “Dear, liberal-minded
grandpapa, who fought and bled for that very liberty
about which these people cant so much, and who was actively
concerned in framing the very institutions that they do not
understand, and are constantly violating, is accused of being
false to what were notoriously his own principles!”

“Never mind that, my dear; there only remain three
more resolutions: let us hear them. `Resolved, That we
see an obvious connection between crowned heads, patents
of nobility, canopied pews, personal distinctions, leasehold
tenures, land-Lords, days' works, fat fowls, quarter-sales,
three-lives leases, and Rent.'

“Resolved, That we are of opinion that, when the owners
of barns wish them destroyed, for any purpose whatever,
there is a mode less alarming to a neighbourhood than by
setting them on fire, and thus giving rise to a thousand reports
and accusations that are wanting in the great merit of
truth.

“Resolved, That a fair draft be made of these resolutions,
and a copy of them delivered to one Hugh Roger Littlepage,
a citizen of Ravensnest, in the county of Washington;
and that Peter Bunce, Esq., John Mowatt, Esq., and
Hezeckiah Trott, Esq., be a committee to see that this act
be performed.

“Whereupon the meeting adjourned, sine die. Onesiphorus
Hayden, chairman; Pulaski Todd, secretary.”

“Whe-e-e-w!” I whistled, “here 's gunpowder enough
for another Waterloo!”

“What means that last resolution, Mr. Littlepage?” asked
Mary Warren, anxiously. “That about the barn.”

“Sure enough; there is a latent meaning there which has
its sting. Can the scoundrels intend to insinuate that I
caused that barn to be set on fire!”

“If they should, it is scarcely more than they have attempted
to do with every landlord they have endeavoured to
rob,” said Patt, with spirit. “Calumny seems a natural
weapon of those who get their power by appealing to numbers.”

“That is natural enough, my dear sister; since prejudice
and passion are quite as active agents as reason and facts,
in the common mind. But this is a slander that shall be
looked to. If I find that these men really wish to circulate a
report that I caused my own barn to be set on fire—pshaw!
nonsense, after all; have we not Newcome, and that other
rascal in confinement, at this moment, for attempting to set
fire to my house?”

“Be not too confident, Mr. Littlepage,” said Mary, with
an anxiety so pointed that I could not but feel its flattery—
“my dear father tells me he has lost most of his confidence
in innocence, except as One above all weaknesses shall be
the judge: this very story may be got up expressly to throw
distrust on your accusations against the two incendiaries
you have taken in the act. Remember how much of the
facts will depend on your own testimony.”

“I shall have you to sustain me, Miss Warren, and the
juror is not living, who would hesitate to believe that to
which you will testify. But here we are approaching the
house; we will talk no more on the subject, lest it distress
my grandmother.”

We found all quiet at the Nest, no report of any sort
having come from the red-men. Sunday was like any other
day to them, with the exception that they so far deferred to
our habits, as to respect it, to a certain extent, while in our
presence. Some writers have imagined that the aborigines
of America are of the lost tribes of Israel; but it seems to
me that such a people could never have existed apart, uninfluenced
by foreign association, and preserved no tradition,
no memorial of the Jewish Sabbath. Let this be as it may,
John, who met us at the door, which we reached just after
my uncle and grandmother, reported all quiet, so far as he
knew anything of the state of the farm-buildings.

“They got enough last night, I 'se thinking, Mr. Hugh,
and has found out by this time, that it 's better to light a fire
in one of their own cook-stoves, than come to light it on the

floor of a gentleman's kitchen. I never heard it said, sir,
that the Hamericans was as much Hirish as they be Henglish,
but to me they seems to grow every day more like the
wild Hirishers, of whom we used to hear so much in Lun'un.
Your honoured father, sir, would never have believed that
his own dwelling would be entered, at night, by men who
are his very neighbours, and who act like burglariouses, as
if they were so many Newgate birds,—no. Why, Mr.
Hugh, this 'Squire Newcome, as they call him, is an hattorney,
and has often dined here at the Nest. I have 'anded
him his soup, and fish, and wine, fifty times, just as if he
was a gentleman, and to his sister, Miss Hopportunity, too;
and they to come to set fire to the house, at midnight!”

“You do Miss Opportunity injustice, John; for she has
not had the least connection with the matter.”

“Well, sir, nobody knows anything, now-a-days—I declare,
my eyes be getting weak, or there is the young lady,
at this very instant!”

“Young lady! where?—you do not mean Opportunity
Newcome, surely.”

“I does though, sir, and it 's she, sure enough. If that
is n't Miss Hopportunity, the prisoner that the savages has
got up in the cellar of the old farm-house, is n't her
brother.”

John was quite right; there was Opportunity standing in
the very path, and at the very spot where I had last seen
her disappear from my sight, the past night. That spot
was just where the path plunged into the wooded ravine, and
so far was her person concealed by the descent, that we could
only perceive the head, and the upper part of the body. The
girl had shown herself just that much, in order to attract
my attention, in which she had no sooner succeeded, than,
by moving downward a few paces, she was entirely hid
from sight. Cautioning John to say nothing of what had
passed, I sprang down the steps, and walked in the direction
of the ravine, perfectly satisfied I was expected, and far
from certain that this visit did not portend further evil.

The distance was so short that I was soon at the verge
of the ravine, but when I reached it Opportunity had disappeared.
Owing to the thicket, her concealment was easily
obtained, while she might be within a few yards from me,

and I plunged downwards, bent only on ascertaining her
object. One gleam of distrust shot across my mind, I will
own, as I strided down the declivity; but it was soon lost in
the expectation and curiosity that were awakened by the appearance
of the girl.

I believe it has already been explained, that in this part
of the lawn a deep, narrow ravine had been left in wood, and
that the bridle-path that leads to the hamlet had been carried
directly through it, for effect. This patch of wood may be
three or four acres in extent, following the course of the
ravine until it reaches the meadows, and it contains three or
four rustic seats, intended to be used in the warmer months.
As Opportunity was accustomed to all the windings and
turnings of the place, she had posted herself near one of
these seats, which stood in a dense thicket, but so near the
main path as to enable her to let me know where she was
to be found, by a low utterance of my name, as my tread
announced my approach. Springing up the by-path, I was
at her side in an instant. I do believe that, now she had so
far succeeded, the girl sunk upon the seat from inability to
stand.

“Oh! Mr. Hugh!” she exclaimed, looking at me with a
degree of nature and concern in her countenance that it was
not usual to see there—“Sen—my poor brother Sen—what
have I done?—what have I done?”

“Will you answer me one or two questions, Miss Opportunity,
with frankness, under the pledge that the replies
never shall be used to injure you or yours? This is a very
serious affair, and should be treated with perfect frankness.”

“I will answer any thing to you—any question you can
put me, though I might blush to do so—but,” laying her
hand familiarly, not to say tenderly on my arm—“why
should we be Mr. Hugh and Miss Opportunity to each
other, when we were so long Hugh and Op? Call me Op
again, and I shall feel that the credit of my family and the
happiness of poor Sen are, after all, in the keeping of a
true friend.”

“No one can be more willing to do this than myself, my
dear Op, and I am willing to be Hugh again. But, you
know all that has passed.”

“I do—yes, the dreadful news has reached us, and
mother would n't leave me a moment's peace till I stole out
again to see you.”

“Again?—Was your mother, then, acquainted with the
visit of last night?”

“Yes, yes—she knew it all, and advised it all.”

“Your mother is a most thoughtful and prudent parent,”
I answered, biting my lip, “and I shall know hereafter
how much I am indebted to her. To you, Opportunity, I
owe the preservation of my house, and possibly the lives of
all who are most dear to me.”

“Well, that 's something, any how. There 's no grief that
has n't its relief. But, you must know, Hugh, that I never
could or did suppose that Sen himself would be so weak as
to come in his own person on such an errand! I did n't
want telling to understand that, in anti-rent times, fire and
sword are the law,—but, take him in general, Sen is altogether
prudent and cautious. I 'd a bit my tongue off before
I 'd a got my own brother into so cruel a scrape. No, no—
do n't think so ill of me as to suppose I came to tell of Sen!”

“It is enough for me that I know how much trouble you
took to warn me of danger. It is unnecessary for me to
think of you in any other light than that of a friend.”

“Ah, Hugh! how happy and merry we all of us used to
be a few years since! That was before your Miss Coldbrookes,
and Miss Marstons, and Mary Warrens ever saw the
country. Then we did enjoy ourselves, and I hope such
times will return. If Miss Martha would only stick to old
friends, instead of running after new ones, Ravensnest
would be Ravensnest again.”

“You are not to censure my sister for loving her own
closest associates best. She is several years our junior,
you will remember, and was scarcely of an age to be our
companion six years ago.”

Opportunity had the grace to colour a little, for she had
only used Patt as a cloak to make her assaults on me, and
she knew as well as I did that my sister was good seven
years younger than herself. This feeling, however, was
but momentary, and she next turned to the real object of
this visit.

“What am I to tell mother, Hugh?—You will let Sen
off, I know!”

I reflected, for the first time, on the hardships of the
case; but felt a strong reluctance to allow incendiaries to
escape.

“The facts must be known, soon, all over the town,” I
remarked.

“No fear of that: they are pretty much known, already.
News does fly fast, at Ravensnest, all must admit.”

“Ay, if it would only fly true. But, your brother can
hardly remain here, after such an occurrence.”

“Lord! How you talk! If the law will only let him
alone, who 'd trouble him for this? You havn't been home
long enough, to learn that folks don't think half as much of
setting fire to a house, in anti-rent times, as they 'd think of
a trespass, under the old-fashioned law. Anti-rent alters
the whole spirit.”

How true was this! And we have lads among us, who
have passed from their tenth to their eighteenth and twentieth
years, in a condition of society that is almost hopelessly
abandoned to the most corrupting influence of all
the temptations that beset human beings. It is not surprising
that men begin to regard arson as a venial offence,
when the moral feeling of the community is thus unhinged,
and boys are suffered to grow into manhood, in the midst
of notions so fatal to every thing that is just and safe.

“But the law itself will not be quite as complaisant as the
`folks.' It will scarcely allow incendiaries to escape; and
your brother would be compelled to flee the land.”

“What of that? How many go off, and stay off for a
time; and that 's better than going up north to work at the
new prison. I 'm not a bit afraid of Sen's being hanged, for
these an't hanging times, in this country; but it is some disgrace
to a family to have a member in the state's prison.
As for any punishment that is lasting, you can see how it
is, as well as I. There 've been men murdered about anti-rentism,
but, Lord! the senators and assemblymen will
raise such a rumpus, if you go to punish them, that it won't
be long, if things go on as they have, before it will be
thought more honourable to be put in jail for shooting a
peace-officer, than to stay out of it, for not having done it.

Talk 's all; and if folks have a mind to make any thing honourable,
they 've only to say so often enough, to make it out.”

Such were the notions of Miss Opportunity Newcome,
on the subject of modern morals, and how far was she from
the truth? I could not but smile at the manner in which
she treated things, though there was a homely and practical
common sense in her way of thinking, that was probably of
more efficiency than would have been the case with a more
refined and nicer code. She looked at things as they are,
and that is always something towards success.

As for myself, I was well enough disposed to consider
Opportunity, in this unfortunate affair of the fire, for it
would have been a cruel thing to suffer the girl to imagine
she had been an instrument in destroying her brother. It
is true, there is no great danger of a rogue's being hanged,
now-a-days, and Seneca was not sufficiently a gentleman,
though very tenacious of the title, to endanger his neck.
Had he been a landlord, and caught lighting a fire on the
kitchen-floor of one of the tenants, the State would not grow
hemp enough for his execution; but it was a very different
thing to catch a tenant at that work. I could not but ask
myself, how many of the “honourable gentlemen” at Albany
would interfere in my behalf, had matters been reversed; for
this is the true mode of arriving at the `spirit of the institutions;'
or, rather, I have just as good a right to affirm such
is their `spirit,' as any one has to assert that the lease-hold
tenure is opposed to them; the laws and institutions themselves,
being equally antagonist to both.

The results of the interview I had with Opportunity were,
1stly,—I kept my heart just where it was at its commencement,
though I am not certain that it was in my own custody;
2dly,—The young lady left me much encouraged on
the subject of the credit of the Newcomes, though I took
very good care not to put myself in her power, by promising
to compromise felony; 3dly,—I invited the sister to
come openly to the Nest, that evening, as one of the means
to be employed in attaining her ends—as respects Seneca,
be it remembered, not as respects me; and lastly, we parted
just as good friends as we ever had been, and entertaining
exactly the same views as regards each other. What those
views were, it may not be modest in me to record.