University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.

We left our hero, at the conclusion of the last
chapter save one, quietly on his way to prison,
in the custody of Lob Dotterel, the vigilant
high constable of Elsingburgh. The reader
may perhaps wonder at the spiritless acquiescence
with which the Long Finne submitted to
the decision of the Heer Piper, as well as to
the safe conduct of the constable. Now, though
it is in our power, by a single flourish of the
pen, to account for this singularity, we are too
well acquainted with the nature of the human
mind, to deprive our history at the very outset
of that indescribable interest which arises from
the author's keeping to himself certain secrets,
which, like leading strings, as it were, conduct
the reader to the end, in the hope of at length
being fully rewarded by a disclosure of the

mystery. Suffice it to say that the tall youth was
quietly conducted to prison, apparently without
either caring much about it himself, or exciting
the compassion of a single soul in the village.

But it was not so.—There was one heart that
melted with sympathy, and one eye that shed a
solitary tear, to see so interesting a youth thus,
as it were, about to be buried alive, upon so
vague and slight a suspicion. That heart, and
that eye, beat in the bosom, and sparkled in the
brow of as fair a maid as ever the sun shone
upon in this new world, whose sprightly daughters
are acknowledged on all hands to excel in
beauty, grace, and virtue, all the rest of the universe.
The daughter, the only daughter, nay,
the only offspring of the Heer, was sitting in the
low parlour window that looked out upon the
green sward, where that puissant governor used
to smoke his afternoon's pipe in pleasant weather,
when the vigilant high constable brought in the
tall, fair prisoner. Her eye was naturally attracted
by a face and figure so different from
those she had been accustomed to see in the village,
and being sufficiently near to hear his examination,
she was struck with wonder and curiosity,
two sentiments that are said to be inherited
by the sex, in a direct line from grandmother
Eve.

Those readers, ay, and writers too, who
happen to know as much of human nature as the
head of a cabbage, are aware of the electrical
quality of any excitement that springs up in the
heart, in a situation, and under circumstances,
where objects of interest are rare, and there is
no variety to attract us from the train of thought
and feeling, which such objects inspire. In early
youth, and just at that blooming period of
spring, when the bud of sentiment begins to
expand its leaves to the zephyr and the sun, it
often happens, that the memory and the fancy
will both combine to rivet in the mind, a feeling
lighted by a single spark, in a single moment,
and make its impression almost indelible.

It was thus, in some degree, with the fair and
gentle daughter of the Heer, whose light blue
eye, the colour of the north, seemed destined to
conquer all hearts in the new world, as her blue-eyed
ancestors did the old with their invincible
arms. She had never yet seen, except in
dreams, since she entered her teens, a being like
the Long Finne, who, contrasted with the sturdy
boors around her, not even excepting her admirer
Othman Pfegel, was an Apollo among satyrs.
Christina, for so was she called, had indeed

some remote recollection of a species of more
polished beings, such as, when a little girl, she
had seen in Finland; but the remembrance was
so vague as only to enable her in some degree
to recognise the vulgarity and want of refinement
of the Sunday beaux of Elsingburgh.

The heart, the pure, warm, social heart of a
girl of seventeen, may be said to be like the
turtle dove, which pines in the absence of its
mate, and fills the wilderness of the world with
its solitary moanings. It waits but to see its
destined counterpart, to tremble and palpitate;
and if its first emotions are not rudely jostled
aside, or overpowered by the distraction of conflicting
objects, and the variety of opposing
temptations, they will become the governing
principle of existence during a whole life
of love.

Koningsmarke was, in truth, a figure that
might have drawn the particular attention of a
lady whose eyes were accustomed to the finest
forms of mankind. He was nearly, or quite
six feet high, straight, and well proportioned,
with a complexion almost too fair for a man, and
eyes of a light blue. His hair was somewhat
too light to suit the taste of the present day, but
which, to an eye accustomed to associate it with

ideas of manly beauty, was rather attractive than
otherwise.

With these features, he might have been
thought somewhat effeminate in his appearance,
were it not that a vigorous, muscular form,
and a certain singular expression of his eye,
which partook somewhat of a fierce violence,
threw around him the port of a hardy and fearless
being. This expression of the eye, in after times,
when their acquaintance had ripened into intimacy,
often gave rise to vague and indefinite
suspicions of his character, and fears of its
developement, which the fair Christina could
never wholly discard from her bosom. The
dress of the youth, though not fine nor splendid,
was of the better sort, and in excellent taste,
except that he wore his ruff higher up in the
neck than beseemed.

The person whose appearance we have thus
sketched, as might be expected, excited a degree
of interest in the maiden, sufficiently powerful
to have impelled her to actual interference with
the Heer, in favour of the prisoner, had it not
been for that new-born feeling, which, wherever
it is awakened in the bosom of a delicate and
virtuous female, is accompanied by a shrinking
and timid consciousness, that trembles lest the

most common courtesies, and the most ordinary
emotions, may be detected as the offspring of a
warmer feeling. Besides this, the fair Christina
knew from experience that though her father
loved her better than all the world besides, there
was one thing he loved still better, and that was,
the freedom of his sovereign will and pleasure,
in the exercise of his authority as the representative
of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The Heer,
in fact, never failed to resent all interference
of this nature on the part of the ladies of his
household, always accompanying his refusal by
some wicked jest, or some reflection upon people's
not minding their own business. Christina,
therefore, remained quiet in her seat, and accompanied
the fair, tall youth to prison with the
sigh and the tear heretofore commemorated.

The prison formed one side of the square, at
the opposite extremity of which was placed the
Governor's palace, as he called it, videlicet, a
two-story brick house, with a steep roof, covered
with fiery red tiles, lapping over each
other like the scales of a drum fish. The
bricks which composed the walls of the palace
were of the same dusky hue of red, so that the
whole had the appearance of a vast oven, just
heated for a batch of bread. Agreeably to the

fashion of the times, the house was of little
depth, the windows of the same room opening
to both front and rear; but then it made up in
length what it wanted in depth, and when not
taken in profile, had a very imposing appearance.
Exactly opposite, at a distance of about
thirty yards, was the prison, also of brick, with
small windows, having ominous iron bars, and
other insignia shrewdly indicative of durance vile.
One part of the building was appropriated to
the accommodation of persons who had the
misfortune to fall under the guilt of suspicion,
like the Long Finne; and in the other portion,
was the great court room, as it was pompously
called, where the Heer met, as was his custom,
to consult with his council, and do just as he liked
afterwards, as practised by the potent Governors
of that day. In truth, these little men were so
far out of the reach of their masters, that they
considered themselves as little less than immortal,
and often kicked up a dust for the sole
purpose of showing their authority.

The Governor's mansion, and the court-house
or jail, were the only brick buildings in the village,
the rest consisting of wooden edifices of
round logs for the vulgar, and square ones,
filled in with mortar, for the better sort. These

were huddled close together round the square,
for two special reasons; one, that they might
be the more easily included in the strong palisade,
which had been raised about the town
for security against any sudden irruption of the
savages; the other, that no ground might be
wasted in laying out the place, which, in the
opinion of the longest heads, was so advantageously
situated, that every foot of
land must be of immense value some day or
other. Vain anticipations! since the place is
now a ruin, and the colony no more; yet such
is the usual fate of all the towering hopes of
man! The houses we speak of, were all nearly
of the same size and fashion, and equally dignified
by an enormous chimney of brick, which appertained
to the house, or more strictly speaking,
to which the house seemed to appertain,
and which being placed outside of the wall instead
of inside, for the purpose of affording
more room to the family, gave the mansion
somewhat the relative appearance of a wren
house stuck up against the side of a chimney.

In this veritable jail, we have just described,
the Long Finne was consigned by Lob Dotterel.
and received by the Cerberus who guarded it,
and who, finding the emoluments of his office

considerably inadequate to maintain a family,
of some eight or ten children, generally worked
at his trade of carpenter abroad, leaving the
keys of the prison in the hands of his wife. The
latter was popularly considered the better man
of the two, and currently reported not to fear
devil or dominie, in fair open daylight.

Master Gottlieb Swaschbuckler's vocation
might be said to be almost a sinecure, since,
notwithstanding Lob Dotterel's vigilant police,
the prison was, during the greater part of the
year, undignified by a single inhabitant, save
the jailer and his family. And here we cannot
but express our mortification, that, notwithstanding
the vast pains taken since that time
to improve the mind and morals of mankind,
and the astonishing success of all the plans laid
down for that purpose, there should be such
a singular and unaccountable increase of the
tenants of jails, bridewells, penitentiaries, and
such like schools of reformation. So extraordinary
indeed is the fact we have just stated,
that we feel it incumbent upon us, to request of
the reader a little exertion of that generous credulity,
by which he is enabled to gulp down the interesting
improbabilities of our modern romances.

Dame Swaschbuckler was, consequently, delighted

at the appearance of the Long Finne,
having been some time without any body but
her husband and family upon whom to exercise
her authority, and holding, as she did, that a
prison without a prisoner was, like a cage without
a bird, utterly worthless and uninteresting.
She was resolved to entertain him in her best
manner, and accordingly showed him into a
room, the doors of which were twice as thick,
and the windows ornamented with double the
number of bars, of any other in the whole
building.

Having thus accommodated our hero with
board and lodging, we shall pause a moment
in order to cogitate what we shall say in the
next chapter.