University of Virginia Library

THE CASCADE:
OR THE EXILE'S ROCK.
A Tale of the Vally of the Kennebec.

It is nearly half a century since that this
story opens in the beautiful valley of the
Kennebec. At that period there were but
few inhabitants, and the fine town of Hallowell
was then a mere hamlet upon the river's
bank. There was, nevertheless, one mansion
of wealth and refinement situated amid
its scenery. It was the abode of an English
gentleman who had held an influential position
in the politics of England; but his party
becoming the minority, he left his native
country and purchased a domain on the Kennebec.
Here he established himself for life,
and although he lives no longer, he has left
behind him a grateful memory in the hearts
of many to whom his benevolence and riches
have administered.

He had been but two or three years in his
romantic home upon the Kennebec, when a
stranger landed from an ascending fur-boat
at the foot of his grounds and walked up to
the villa. His appearance was striking from
the dignity of his air, his tall figure, and a
certain air of birth and command. He was,
however, dressed in very much worn appar
el, as if he had seen much travel in his present
garb.

He was seen to debark from the boat by
the dwellers in the hamlet, and as every
stranger was an object of interest to them,
they watched him with curiosity as he wound
his way up to the mansion; and when the
fur-boat reached the landing where they
awaited it, they began to question the men
in it touching their passenger.

`He's a foreigner and I guess a Frencher,'
answered the owner of the boat. `We took
him in down to Phippsburg, where he came
in a Boston schooner. He seems a quiet,
nice man, but don't speak English no better
than the Indian chief Sagadock.'

`What does he want, think?' asked one
of the curious. `Think he's after furs, or
land?'

`Can't say. I asked him—but if he know'd
what I said, he didn't know enough English
to answer and tell his business. He's got
money, for he paid me these three Spanish
silver dollars for bringing him up.'

Not far from the mansion of the English
gentleman, and within the limits of his estate,
is one of the most wildly romantic water-falls
that ever sent its echoes through a rock-bound
glen. It is now known as `The Cascade,'
and has been for years a favorite resort for
those youths and maidens who love to ramble
along the dreamy shades of the overhanging
woods and listen to the murmur of the
flowing water. At the period of our story
there was a small cabin upon this brook
about a mile and a half from the villa. In it
dwelt an elderly female and her son, a lad
about fifteen years of age. She subsisted
chiefly upon fish caught in the stream and by
knitting stout woollen hose for the people at
`the Hook,' as the infant town was then denominated,
from a bend in the river. This
woman one morning, about three weeks after
the arrival of the stranger in the fur-boat,
was seated in her cabin door knitting and
enjoying the warmth of the sun, which shed
its cheering autumnal beams broadly down
upon her roughly-boarded floor. She was
about forty-eight, with the appearance of a
person who had seen better days. Indeed,
she once contributed not a little to render the
best society of Boston the best in New England;
but the reverses had taken hold of her
husband, and at length he sought the wilderness
to endeavor to retrieve his fortunes.—
Here sickness followed unusual exposure,
and by and by she laid him in his grave.
She now lived mainly by the bounty of the
family at the villa, though rarely would she
suffer them to bestow anything upon her, so
long as she could have health to knit, or
Howard, her son, skill in trouting.

He was now down the glen with his spear
and lines while she sat in her door. Suddenly
she heard a loud outcry down the brook.
It was the voice of Howard, and its tone was
that of alarm, like a call for aid. She dropped
her knitting and hastened along the wild
pathway by the edge of the foaming torrent,
and soon came in sight of her son standing
at the foot of a cliff which overhung a dark
basin in which the water was many feet deep.
He was mid-waist in the water and support
ing with difficulty the head of a man above
the surface, his body being entirely beneath
it.

`Come quickly, dear mother! Help me
soon, for I can hardly keep him above water!'

`It is the foreign gentleman from the
house,' exclaimed Mrs. Holley, on seeing
the pale and lifeless features; but without
pausing to express her surprise or at that
time put questions as to the manner of the
accident, she clambered down the rocky sides
of the basin and gave Howard her assistance.

With great difficulty they succeeded in
drawing him from the basin and laying him
upon a rock covered with thick moss like a
couch of velvet. Here they both applied the
best means in their power to restore animation.

`How did he fall?' asked his mother, as
she was rubbing his temples.

`You see, mother, I was down there upon
that rock watching for the trout to dart by
and spear them,' answered Howard, a fine-looking
boy, with a free, spirited air. `This
foreign gentleman came up the path, and
smiling, asked me in his bad English if I
caught many fish; and then, after looking at
me a little while, he went round the basin
and began to ascend the crag. He had got
up about twelve feet, when a part of the rock
on which he pressed his foot broke off, for
you know what a heavy man he is, and he
fell over into the basin. I shrieked out and
ran to his aid. He didn't rise, and suspecting
he had struck his head, I jumped in, and
diving down, raised up his head out of the
water.'

`What a providence you were by, my
child! What shall now be done?'

`He is not dead, is he, dear mother?'

`No. He is only insensible. Can't we
get him to the cottage?'

`Not alone. Ah, here is John, the farm
man from “the House.” John come here
quickly,' cried Howard to a country fellow.
`Here is your master's guest, who has had
a fall, and is now almost dead. Help us get

him into the cottage, and then run and tell
him what has happened.'

`My master is as good a doctor as the
best,' responded John, as he looked upon
the gentleman. `Well, it is a pity he should
have had such a fall; but what can be expected
o' foreigners that don't know how to
climb nor move about in the woods? I've
prophesied this afore, when I've seen him
walk up and down the rocks.'

The stranger was borne to the cabin and
John sent off after his master. In the meanwhile
the mother and son, by the aid of
vinegar and other stimulants, were so successful
as to restore animation. The gentleman,
after opening his eyes and looking
around him a moment wildly, at length
seemed to recollect himself and be conscious
of his situation. He sat up, and looking
gratefully upon them, he said in broken
English:

`I have had a fall, I believe. I remember
falling. I find myself here, and I owe
you my life; for my wet garments tell me I
was plunged into the basin.'

`I saw you falling, sir,' answered Howard.
`You must have struck your head
against the bottom, for you did not rise
again. I dove down and got your head
above the surface. We then brought you
here, and have sent for the English gentleman.'

`How can I ever repay you for your act,
my lad?' said the foreigner, taking his hand.
`And you too, madam?'

`I don't wish any other reward than seeing
you well again, sir,' answered both.

`You are very good, and have noble natures.
I trust I shall be able one day to reward
you.'

While he was speaking his host entered,
followed by three or four men. The pleasure
of the former on finding his guest revived,
and less hurt than he expected, was
very great. He repeated also expressions
of thanks to the family who had done so
much for the stranger, and assuring Mrs.
Holley he should never forget her or her
son for her act of mercy and kind attentions,
he soon departed with the stranger leaning
upon the shoulders of the two men.

After a few days the foreigner entirely
recovered, and prepared for his departure.
Before leaving, however, he called at the
cottage and warmly renewed his expressions
of gratitude, calling Howard the preserver
of his life. Upon each of them he bestowed
a trifling present.

`I am poor, or I would reward you with
much money to make you comfortable,' he
said. `But I am a wanderer, an exile, and
am dependent upon the bounty of others.'

Thus speaking, he left them, and the same
evening descended the river. The proprietor
of the villa did not forget the residents
of the cabin. He made their situation more
comfortable, and gave Howard the privilege
of studying at `the great House' with his
own children, who had an English tutor.

Ten years passed away. Howard had
gone to sea at the age of sixteen, and at the
age of twenty-four became a captain. He
had made more comfortable his mother's
cabin, converting it into a beautiful cottage.
Here she lived with Howard's young wife;
for he had married at twenty-two. At length
one day news came from him that he had
lost his ship and all that he was worth
Thankful that his life was spared, they both
forgot the loss of mere worldly goods. He
wrote that he should be at home on a certain
day. The eve of that day came. They
conversed together, the mother and daughter,
of the happiness of the coming morrow.
That night fire seized upon their dwelling
and consumed it with all its contents.

`We have our lives given to us, and God
be thanked,' was the Christian remark of
Mrs. Holley. `Howard will think nothing
of this so he finds you and your little infant
boy alive to welcome him.'

Howard came home that day. He came
home a poor man. He found no house of
his own to receive him. He found, however,
two warm, loving hearts, and when he
gazed upon his little boy's smiling brow he
felt that all was not taken from him.

`You all live, and so do I. Worldly
goods may be obtained again. Life can
never be restored. Let us take heart and
look upward. All will yet go well with us.'

While he was speaking, the English gentleman
from the villa rode up to the neighbor's
house where Edward met his mother
and wife. He alighted, and calling to
Howard, took his hand, and then placed in
it a package with a note.

`Read this, Captain Holley. It came this
morning under an envelop to me. You see
that a good deed never goes unrewarded;
and that the darkest hour is just before day.'

`I assure you, Captain,' said the English
gentleman, after the surprise of all had in
some measure subsided; `that this person is
well able to give you this expression of his
regard for you, and his estimation of your
services.'

`Who is he, sir?'

`A French nobleman. He is now restored
to his country and estates. I congratulate
you on your good fortune.'

The joy and surprise and deep gratitude
of Howard cannot be expressed. He was
now rich, and happiness once more smiled
where misfortune had so lately frowned.

Twenty years after this event a party of
naval officers were presented to Louis Philippe
by the American minister. The name
of one of them as he was announced arrested
the monarch's ears. He fixed upon the
handsome young lieutenant his gaze so
closely that he colored and drew back.

`Monsieur,' said the French king, advancing
and speaking with kindly courtesy,
`your name is familiar to me. Perhaps you
are related to Captain Howard Holley, of
Hallowell, who died a few years ago?'

`I am his son, sir.'

`His son!' cried the king with joyful surprise.
`Let me embrace you. Your father
saved my life. I am the foreigner of whom
doubtless you have heard him and your excellent
grandmother speak.'

The astonishment and pleasure of the
young American may be imagined. He
was compelled by the grateful monarch to
make his palace his home while he remained
in Paris; and when he quitted France he
was loaded with costly gifts as expressions
of his majesty's lively remembrance of his
father.

The rock from which the exile fell is still
pointed out by `John,' now an old grey-headed
man, who is never weary of telling
the story, and of exhibiting a gold cross
which the `furreigner' had bestowed upon
him.