University of Virginia Library

9. CHAPTER IX.

The eventful day at length arrived. The numerous guests,
comprising nearly the whole adult population of the place, assembled
to witness the ceremony, which was to dispose of their
fair and almost worshipped neighbor to one, who, in spite of all
the disadvantages attending his origin, had gained, by his rare
qualities of head and heart, a scarcely less enviable place in their
esteem. Old Jude, who had awaited the day with a feverish
anxiety and impatience, which was nearly alike unaccountable
to the family and all others cognizant of his late singular conduct,
now seemed to hail the hour of consummation with almost
puerile delight; though it was observed, and afterwards remembered,
that as he moved restlessly round among the company,
with his enfeebled gait, and thin, pale, and ghastly features
peering from the snow-white locks which hung trembling over
them, he was frequently lost in deep fits of abstraction, from
which he would arouse himself with a forced glee, and that a
sort of unnatural excitement marked his appearance in all his
conversation and movements on the occasion. At the appointed
hour, the bride and bridegroom made their appearance; when,
amidst the blessings and kind wishes of all, the lovely orphan
was united with her handsome and gifted lover. The ceremony
and the congratulations, that immediately followed, were scarcely
over, before Old Jude came forward and presented Lot with
a thick, heavy package of papers, consisting as he averred, and,
as in truth, it afterwards appeared, of deeds, transferred notes
and other legal evidences of all the property to which Lucy was
entitled, accompanied with a written statement acknowledging
that it took all he possessed to make good her fortune, and
throwing himself wholly on the generosity of the young couple
for the future support of himself and family. Lot courteously

received the package, and without examining it, carelessly placed
it on the sill of the open window beside which he was sitting;
while the old man, fetching a deep sigh, as if some fearful load
was removed from his mind, took a seat by the side of his niece,
and appeared more tranquil and happy than he had done for
many weeks before—a circumstance which the former noticed
with heartfelt pleasure, and drew from it an augury of what she
so ardently desired, that her uncle was indeed about to settle
down a better and happier man. But all her pleasing anticipations
and kindly wishes were destined to be repaid the next hour
only with disappointment and aggravated sorrow. As the gratified
guests, after partaking the sumptuous entertainment with
which they had been regaled, and spending a short time in innocent
hilarity, were beginning to depart, Old Jude went out into
the yard to look to his servant, who was engaged in bringing up
to the door, as fast as they wanted, the horses and carriages of
the company. Shack, who had thus far performed his duties
with great alacrity and cheerfulness, now, as his master appeared
in the yard and began to order him about, suddenly became
so dilatory, sullen and perverse as to exhaust the old man's patience,
and cause him at last to break out, as was his former
wont, in abusive epithets, which the other seemed in no humor
to bear; for he retorted with great boldness, plainly intimating,
that he was a slave no longer. Astonished at such words and
bearing from one, who was an indented servant, and who had
ever before borne his petulance and abusive language submissively,
the enraged master turned fiercely upon him and exclaimed:

“Impudent scoundrel, begone! from this moment, you quit my
house and employment forever!”

“It's a bargain!” cried Shack, bluntly, and with dogged composure,
while he looked round on the company, now mostly
drawn to the door by the collision, as if appealing to them to
witness the compact, “it's a bargain—exactly what I wanted—
so now, old man, we are quits in law as well as friendship. But
before I go, jest for the fun of the thing, I'll whisper a word in
your ear.”

He then walked deliberately up to the other, and, as he had

proposed, whispered something in his ear; when he sprang back,
and, with a look of malicious triumph, awaited the effect of his
secret communication.

And that effect was soon visible. The old man, after standing
mute an instant with a staggered and perplexed expression,
suddenly started, like one on whose mind some exciting truth has
unexpectedly broken, and a look of overpowering chagrin settled
on his countenance, but was quickly succeeded by one of unmitigated
wrath and maddening concern. Hurling with fury his
cane at the head of the devoted Shack, he turned eagerly towards
the window on which the package he had given Lot was still
lying:—

“The papers—the papers!” he gasped, rushing forward
towards the object of his concern with one hand extended out for
the grasp.

But just as his half clutched fingers were fastening on the
desperately coveted prize, he suddenly stopped short,—a change
passed over his countenance,—his arm sunk nerveless by his
side, and straightening back and glaring horridly around him, he
pitched forward to the earth with the blood gushing from his
mouth and nostrils. The violence of his emotions had ruptured
a blood vessel, and the next moment the spirit of Old Jude Hosmer
had winged its flight to its doubtful destination in another
world.

We must task the imagination of the reader to picture the
scene which followed among the family and guests on the awful
dispensation that had thus turned their festivities into mourning
—the painful sensations of the young couple, when all that could
be known and inferred, respecting the situation of the property
and its connection with the old gentleman's death, was discovered—the
great stir made by the event on the community around
—the wild stories that naturally arose out of it among the ignorant
and superstitious, and the baffled attempts of the intelligent
to account for a great part of what had happened: For,
after all the circumstances, attending Old Jude's strange conduct
before and at the time of his death, were known, much still remained
enveloped in mystery which none could penetrate. Shack
who had been seen to whisper to the deceased the secret communication

which produced such instant effect on him, was
often asked what he had communicated on that occasion, and
whether he could throw any light on the subject, but always in
vain: He would either doggedly refuse all explanation, or turn
off the subject with some odd evasion. And thus the whole affair,
after having been, for some months, the talk of the country
around as one of the greatest wonders of the day, at length passed
into a legend of the marvelous and supernatural, whose foundation
in fact none were ever found to gainsay. Lot, now that the
fear of the old man's power was removed by his death, was soon
furnished with all the evidence which would have been required
to substantiate his wife's claim to all the property, had such been
needed. But it was not. The deeds and other instruments
made out and left by the deceased were found to convey legally
the whole estate, which now, by common consent, after a liberal
provision was made for the widow and her insane married
daughter before named, passed into the hands of the young
couple—the business and all transactions connected with it at
length resumed their wonted channel, although the public at
large soon had reason to rejoice in the change of the ownership
and possession of a property, by the management of which so
many interests were affected.