19. CHAPTER XIX.
HOSTILE INDICATIONS.
Peace itself should not so dull a nation
(Though war, nor no known quarrel were in question)
But that defences, musters, preparations,
Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,
As were a war in expectation.
Shaks. Henry V.
On the fifth day of December, major Willoughby
again embraced his children. He arrived in
Boston, but repaired immediately to Cambridge,
and had a long conference with his son, who almost
petrified him with astonishment by recounting
his own interview with the Mysterious Chief,
at the masquerade, on the same night, and nearly
in the same hour that his father conversed with a
similar being, on the same subject, in the state of
Ohio! Both felt a conviction that it was a call to
duty which ought immediately to be obeyed; and,
under this impression, our young hero took a formal
leave of the illustrious seminary to which he
had already become an ornament.
The tenth day of the month had been appointed
for the nuptial ceremony to crown the happiness
of four amiable beings; but, since the death
of her aunt, Amelia had petitioned that the event
might be deferred until the following summer,
and urged as her reason, the impropriety of being
married in sables. But to this proposition she
gained no assenting voice, and it was at length
overruled by the major himself, who refused to
admit that the death of the old was a rational
cause for delaying the happiness of the young,
and the ceremony accordingly took place on the
day appointed.
Amelia and Ellen had been but three days
brides, when the sunshine of their felicity was
overcast with a temporary cloud that produced a
plentiful shower before it was dissipated. To
speak without a figure, their parting with George
was a most affecting scene, particularly to Amelia,
who had never existed a fortnight without embracing
her brother, since his birth. His absence
was now to be indefinite—unlimited—perhaps
hazardous.
But the reader's patience need not be intruded
on. Let it suffice, that major Willoughby and
his son took lodgings in the city of Washington
near Capitol hill, on the eighteenth of the month.
Congress was then in session, and the city, as
usual, so filled with strangers, that our new comers
found it extremely difficult to get suitably accommodated.
An approaching rupture with England was
here openly talked of, both by members of the
cabinet, and by individuals in both houses of Congress.
The bill for increasing the army was in
debate, and daily gaining ground and popularity;
our hero, therefore, lost no time in filing an application
in the war department for an ensigncy in the
United States infantry. From the weight of the recommendations
which accompanied this application,
no doubt was entertained of its success, and
the major was determined to continue with his
son until his final destination was known; in the
mean time, however, he received a pressing invitation
to spend the holidays with a friend in
Richmond, and accordingly set out for that place,
on the morning of the twenty-second, accompanied
by George, and arrived there in season for celebrating
the festival of Christmas.
On the following day they dined with a select
party at the house of his excellency, George W.
Smith, governor of Virginia, where our hero met
with an opportunity, for which he had long sighed,
of cultivating an acquaintance with those who, like
himself, had chosen the profession of arms.
Several officers of the army and navy were present,
and among the latter class was lieutenant
Gibbon. This amiable, brave, and accomplished
young man, was the son of a revolutionary
officer who had valiantly served his country
in “the times which tried men's souls.” Possessing
an enterprizing disposition, young Gibbon
had early entered as a midshipman, and
was now a lieutenant in the navy; he had
served in the Mediterranean, and was on board
the Philadelphia frigate when that ship fell into
the power of the Tripolitans. Long and tedious
were the months of his captivity, but he submitted
to every privation and hardship without a murmur;
his unbending fortitude rose superior to calamity,
and bore him up through all the miseries
his oppressors could inflict.
After his release from captivity, and his return
to his native country, he contracted an attachment
for a lovely female in Richmond, which was rewarded
with a reciprocal sentiment. This young
lady possessed every requisite to insure happiness
in the conjugal state; virtue, beauty, wealth, and
every fascinating accomplishment, enriched her in
an eminent degree, and Gibbon was now anxiously
awaiting the happy day which was to crown his
wishes, and make him supremely blest. Preliminaries
were already arranged, the bower of
felicity was before him, and the path to happiness
seemed short and easy.
Such was the character, and such were the
prospects of lieutenant Gibbon, when George
was introduced to him at Richmond. He took
his leave of the party at an early hour; not,
however, without assuring major Willoughby
(who had been intimate with his father) that he
would pay his respects to him on the following
day at his lodgings, and receiving the promise of
George to join him at the theatre in the course of
the evening.
