University of Virginia Library

1. SYDNEY CLIFTON.

1. CHAPTER I.

It was near the close of a gloomy and cheerless
day in November, anno domini 18—, that two ill-clad
men were seen to enter one of those minor
houses of entertainment which abound in certain
localities in the city of New-York.

The individual who first entered appeared little
past the prime of life, and possessed a frame that
seemed equally endowed with strength and activity.
In height he was somewhat beyond that usually designated
as the middle size; and although his black
bushy hair was slightly sprinkled with gray, yet his
firm and elastic step and erect carriage denoted the

possession of unimpaired bodily energies. His
dress had little to distinguish him from the mechanic
or labourer, being composed of a drab peacoat
and trousers; but the hat, which was placed
somewhat jauntily on the side of his head, retained
some faded evidences of former fashion and elegance,
leaving the beholder in doubt whether to
class its wearer among the numerous race of brokendown
gentlemen, or as one who chose to deck a
portion of his outward man in their discarded habiliments.
As his face was momentarily turned to
the light, it presented a bold and regular profile; but
a dark and chilling scowl from time to time flitted
across his features, and the frank bearing he assumed
was belied by involuntary glances of suspicion
and distrust. His companion was short in stature
and less muscular in frame; and although his
years were less in number than those of his associate,
yet the effects of recent disease impaired the elasticity
of his movements. His dress was that usually
worn by seamen, a short blue jacket, drab trousers,
whose lack of width at the hip was abundantly
compensated by extra dimensions below the knee,
a glazed hat, and sealskin pumps. In his face there
was little to attract observation, if we except a combined,
or, rather, varied expression of low cunning
and reckless gayety, which were so equally blended
that it was impossible to judge which habitually
maintained the ascendant.

A single glance at the furniture of the room into
which these personages found entrace, indicated
the shrine at which its votaries offered incense.

The rude bar, the soiled decanters, filled with
those adulterated liquids so aptly termed by the
American aborigines “fire water,” the stained table,
on which lay scattered a pack of playing cards, and
the rickety and dismembered chairs, were unerring
testimonials of the character of the tavern, its keeper,
and its frequenters. Behind the apology for a bar
stood an individual in the prime of life, but whose
inflamed eye, swollen cheek, and premature wrinkles
imparted a tale of vicious indulgence which
had already sapped the foundation of a naturally
vigorous constitution.

By the side of the deal table sat a youth, apparently
on the verge of manhood, whose lack-lustre
eyes were momentarily attracted by the entrance of
the two visiters; but, after a careless glance, his head
again drooped over the table in real or affected unconsciousness.

As the visiters entered, they directed the bar-keeper
to furnish them with refreshments, and retired
to an apartment in the rear of that to which the
attention of the reader has been directed.

“Well, Maddox,” said the one first described, as
they seated themselves, “of all the cronies that have
played hide and seek in my affections since we met,
none have retained their first station like you. Indeed,
my good fellow, if I was only to tell the scurvy
tricks that not less than half a score of our very good
friends have played me within the time that our fortunes
have separated us, I should only mar the present
hour with gloom. But never fear, I'll pretend for

the next half hour that there are clever fellows in
the world besides ourselves, and that is long enough
to deceive one's self or one's friend, in all conscience.”

“Why, Glenthorne,” replied his companion, “I'm
glad to see you in good spirits. 'Faith, old Squaretoes
himself could scarcely look blacker than you
did the last time I met you in Boston. I thought
you were watching me for fear I'd blow you; but,
as long as you play fair, all's right, my old boy.”

Whatever might have been the nature of the
allusion uttered by Maddox, its effect on his auditor
was of the most exciting description, and the
complacent smile that welcomed his quondam associate
was instantly changed to a look of unmitigated
ferocity.

“What do you mean?” he shouted, with great
violence; and, at the same time springing forward,
he caught his victim by the throat with so vicelike
a gripe, that his tongue was thrust out and his
whole face became livid. “By heavens! a word
more to the same purpose, and I'll leave you a
corpse at my feet.”

The struggle brought forth the landlord and the
youth from the barroom; but, on their appearance,
the assailant relaxed his grasp, and, apologizing to
the parties for his violence, he, with much apparent
contrition, solicited pardon from his prostrate foe,
who was unable, from exhaustion, to return an intelligible
reply.

After this equivocal exhibition of affection on
the part of Glenthorne, the conversation was evidently

constrained; and although the assailant endeavoured,
by every means in his power, to sooth
the irritated feelings of Maddox, it was apparent
that his progress was in an inverse ratio to his
exertions, until, abandoning the effort, he swallowed
the remains of his potation, and with a hasty
“good-evening” left the house.

No sooner had his footsteps ceased to echo from
the threshold, than Maddox beckoned the youth
from his meditations in the barroom, and, after a
hasty conference, the latter issued forth in the direction
taken by Glenthorne.

Meanwhile that individual, with rapid strides,
threaded the narrow and filthy streets that intersected
the quarter of the city in which the tavern
was situated, until he reached a broader and more
commodious thoroughfare, when, sliding into the
porch of a fruiterer's shop at one of the corners, he
gave a long and piercing survey of the route he
had traversed, scanning the lineaments of each individual
within the scope of his vision, till, apparently
satisfied with the scrutiny, he more leisurely
joined the throng that poured along one of the most
busy streets of the metropolis. Directing his course
to a distant part of the city, he entered a low and
weather-beaten dwelling, and hastily ascended the
stairway to a room in the rear of the second story.

The sharp, shrill bark of a stunted terrier saluted
his entrance; but, as the door swung open
sufficiently to discover his person, the savage growl
of the animal was changed to a friendly whine of

recognition, which was answered by a kick that
sent the poor brute howling to the opposite corner
of the room.

If the outward appearance of the dwelling indicated
the abode of indigence, nothing presented
itself within the apartment to weaken or efface the
impression. A few broken and unmatched chairs,
a narrow cott at one side of the room and a bed at
the other, the covering of both much frayed and
worn, a decayed bureau, a dilapidated travelling-trunk,
and a few rude cooking utensils, constituted
the principal articles of ornament or use in the room,
which appeared to serve the purposes of parlour,
bedroom, and kitchen. By the side of the hearth,
where a few expiring embers were struggling to
retain a feeble existence, sat a female, apparently
of some twenty-five years of age, in whose sunken
eye and faded cheek might be discovered the remains
of much beauty and intelligence; and although
her attenuated frame had lost the voluptuous
fulness of its early prime, there was that in the
symmetrical curve of her neck and shoulder, the
delicate tapering of the fingers and the chiselled
lip, that would arrest the attention of the most indifferent
observer.

The exclamation, in the silvery tones of her
voice, “Down, Trimmer, down,” was heard simultaneously
with the howl of the terrified animal,
which sought shelter from farther injury behind the
chair of his indulgent mistress.

“Curse the dog, I wish I had dashed out his

brains,” grimly exclaimed Glenthorne; “curse
him; he is something like the mistresses and wives
of the present day, who only wait till misfortunes
have buffeted their paramours or husbands to join
the world of curs in yelping at their heels.

“By the gods! I don't know what women and
terriers were made for, except as a penance to fit
us for the heaven that fools and bigots prate about.”

With this affectionate salute the speaker threw
himself on a chair.

The barking of the dog and the loud tones of
Glenthorne's voice awoke a child of some three
years of age, who occupied the cott; but, on raising
his little head and perceiving the form of the speaker,
he suddenly drew himself under the clothing, and
his deep short breathing was all that thereafter indicated
his presence.

To these taunts of her associate the female retorted
with warmth, until, evidently overcome by her
emotions, her head drooped on the back of the chair,
and she sobbed in very bitterness of spirit.

Before this silent rebuke the sternness of the reviler
relaxed, and after some inaudible mutterings
rather to himself than to his weeping auditor, he
suddenly started up, exclaiming,

“But why do I remain here to be caged like a
wild beast; already the bloodhounds of the law are
probably on my track, lapping their hungry jaws for
the repast. By heavens! if they do come they shall
not gain a bloodless victory. I can die but once,
and I'll leave behind me gory evidences of the prowess

of one against whom society has warred with
unrelenting fury.

“Why, again I say, let them come; there is that
in these trusty friends (the only true ones I ever
possessed) that shall make a pair of them at least
bite the dust.”

While closing this fierce soliloquy he opened
one of the drawers of the bureau, in which were deposited
a pair of silver-mounted pistols; and examining
the priming with some care, and ascertaining
that they were in a condition for action, he deposited
them on the top of the bureau, and carefully secured
the fastenings of the only door through which
intruders could find entrance. Apparently satisfied
with these preparations, he resumed his seat, but
the fall of his companion from her chair in a swoon
suddenly arrested his attention.

Springing from his seat in great agitation, he drew
a bottle of spirits from a closet, and applying it to
the forehead and temples of the sufferer, at length
succeeded in restoring her to animation, but it was
a considerable time ere her palsied faculties appeared
to resume their functions. Slowly gazing around
the apartment, her eyes no sooner rested on the pistols,
than, uttering a faint shriek, she relapsed into
unconsciousness, which was, however, of brief duration.

“What dreadful words were those you uttered?”
was her first exclamation on her revival; “did you
not say that they were seeking your life? Speak,
do speak, or my heart will break; for the love of

Heaven keep me not in suspense, but let me know
the worst. Although you did speak harshly a moment
since, I know that you are aware of my fidelity
and affection, and that, if they lead you to death,
they shall bury me in the same grave with you.
But no! no! it cannot be! Say that it was a dream,
or say that you did but mock me, and I will fall
down and worship you.”

In the sternest and most obdurate natures there
are sympathetic influences that lie concealed until
aroused by a master spell, and the heart of Glenthorne
was not proof against the earnest and passionate
appeal of the lovely and confiding being at
his side. Summoning, therefore, a blandness of
manner that to her was as rare as it was delightful,
he briefly detailed the events already recorded; and
while he admitted the probability of Maddox's ignorance
of his retreat, he yet expressed a firm determination
of removing to some other quarter of the
globe.

“Where I fly,” said he, musingly, “is but of little
consequence; while I herd with human beings, I
must expect treachery to poison the very air I breathe;
and whether it lurks beneath the turban of the Turk,
the mustache of the Spaniard, or the hypocritical
leer of the puritanical Yankee, is a matter of indifference.
Suffice it for me to know that I am at war
with all my race; and were not my pride enlisted to
defeat the schemes of that reptile Maddox, who
seems to be thrown by some devil across my track,
the present is as propitious a moment as will arrive

to select the manner of my exit from this den of vipers.”

It is the curse of guilt to be compelled to select its
instruments and auxiliaries from the very hotbeds
of treachery, thus converting the elements of success
into implements of detection and punishment;
and the anxious and careworn countenance of Glenthorne
attested the fact, that, whatever might have
been the nature of his misdeeds, the enjoyment that
had marked their inception, progress, and execution
was now ingulfed in the apprehended consequences
of Maddox's anticipated disclosure.

The reader must not infer, from the seeming confidence
which he reposed in his companion, that he
had imparted to her the true cause of his disquietude.
Being fully aware of the impracticability of entirely
concealing the hazard that he daily incurred of detection,
his ingenuity was taxed in manufacturing a
statement in which misrepresentations were so artfully
interwoven with immaterial facts, that a less
favourable auditor than he possessed would have
failed to detect the semblance of improbability in
the story. Most true it is, that there were moments
in which an unwonted display of brutality on his
part would arouse unwelcome suspicions; but the
slightest appearance of kindness and regard would
banish intruders so alien to her bosom.

It is justly remarked, that in the breast of none
does superstition hold so absolute a supremacy as in
those over whom the sword of destiny or justice is
suspended, like that of Damocles, by a hair, and

Glenthorne's apprehensions were much aggravated
by the recollection of an ominous dream that had
disturbed his slumbers on the previous night. He
thought he was sailing in a pleasure barge, on the
bosom of a placid lake, when suddenly a squall
struck the boat and precipitated him and his companions
into the waves; and while he was struggling
to gain the shore, a serpent coiled itself around
him, and as its slimy folds were encircling his throat,
its head suddenly assumed the features of Maddox,
grinning with delight at his expiring struggles.
Long in imagination did he wrestle with the reptile,
until his agitation awoke his companion, who relieved
him from the dominion of the horrid nightmare.

The casual meeting with Maddox, and the events
connected therewith, appeared to his excited mind
as a partial fulfilment of the omen; and it was not
until he had braced his nerves with artificial stimulus
that he could coolly reflect on the proper means
to elude the vigilance of his adversary. Long, anxious,
and absorbing was the conversation that ensued
between Glenthorne and his chere amie (for,
alas! wedlock had not sanctioned their union); and
when, at its close, he pressed her to his bosom with
a tender kiss, tears of joy, such as had long remained
sealed in their fountains, flowed in streams down
her cheek; and it is doubtful whether, in the first
flush of gratified passion, her heart bounded with
such perfect felicity as on the reception of this long-withheld
evidence of her companion's regard. As

the evening was far spent, the guilty man and his
unhappy victim retired to rest; and reposing on the
bosom of him for whom she had relinquished reputation
and innocence, she sunk into a slumber so
calm that it is difficult to believe, whatever were her
frailties, that they had not found a successful advocate
at the mercy-seat of Heaven.