University of Virginia Library

30. CHAPTER XXX.
HOW MR. ST. JOHN RETURNED HIS COMMISSION TO LORD
DUNMORE.

The young man had just returned to his lodgings, and
had scarcely seated himself, when a knock came at his door,
and a servant, wearing the livery of Lord Dunmore, entered,
and bowing respectfully, handed him a note.

“Good,” said he to himself, “now I think the storm
comes; I am summoned to be scolded, or arrested.”

And he calmly read the note, bidding the servant return.
The communication was in these words:

“Mr. Secretary Foy presents his respects to Mr. St. John,
and requests, on the part of his Excellency Lord Dunmore,
that Mr. St. John will attend at the palace this afternoon,
for conversation with his lordship on military affairs.”

“Very well,” said the young man, tossing the paper carelessly
on the table, “I suppose there'll be an explosion.
I care nothing.”

Early in the afternoon he made his toilette, proceeded to
the palace, and was ushered into the council chamber.

Lord Dunmore, clad with his habitual splendor, sat opposite
the portraits of the king and queen, the members of his
council occupying large leather chairs ranged in a circle.
Behind the table, draped with red damask, and covered with
papers, the pale face of Captain Foy was seen, as he bent
over the documents lying before him.

Mr. St. John was ushered in with great form, and having
attracted the Governor's attention, made that dignitary a
bow, which was perfectly courteous and stiff.

His eye then made the circuit of the apartment—dwelt
on the members of the council, the secretary, the Governor
in the center.

It looked very much like a trial for high treason, a proceeding
of the Star Chamber.

Lord Dunmore, upon whose brow was visible its customary
expression of hauteur and ill humor, acknowledged the
young man's salute by the least possible movement of his
head.

The members of the council were, however, better bred,
and inclined their heads courteously, as the new comer saluted
them.

“Well, Mr. St. John,” said Lord Dunmore, moving with
dignity in his large throne-like chair, “I see you received
my message.”

“I did receive a note from Captain Foy, your Excellency.”

“I instructed him to write, as you doubtless saw.”

Mr. St. John inclined, calmly.

His Excellency did not seem pleased at the small effect
produced upon his visitor by the solemnity and state of his
reception. His brow clouded with its unpleasant frown, and
his head rose more haughtily than ever.

“I wished to see you, sir,” he said, almost rudely, “to
express my disapprobation of your lengthened absence from
command of my guards. You must be aware, sir, that such
absence does not comport with my views of the duty of the
commander of that body, but I am ready to listen to any
thing in explanation from yourself, sir.”

As the Governor spoke, the old flush of anger came to
Mr. St. John's face, and his head rose proudly erect as he
listened to these words, even more insulting in tone than
significance. The folly of any exhibition of ill temper seemed,
however, to strike him at once, and he controlled himself in
an instant.

“Do not be embarrassed, sir,” said the Governor. “I
have no desire to confuse you.”

“I am much obliged to your Excellency,” said the young
man, calmly, “but I do n't feel at all confused or embarrassed.”

“I thought, being a young man, sir—”

“That I was a clodhopper? No, your Excellency, that
is not my station in society,” replied Mr. St. John, with
calm politeness.

The vein on Lord Dunmore's brow swelled, and his little
eyes began to gleam with anger. He plainly resented the
tone of unconcern in the delinquent, and was carried out of
his equanimity.

“You amuse yourself at my expense, sir,” he said, coldly,
“and intimate that I intended as an insult what was not so
meant. My observation arose from the way in which you
carry your hat, sir—what I should call an uneasy way!”

And the Governor frowned.

Mr. St. John was motionless and silent for a moment, in
presence of the man who was guilty of this immense exhibition
of ill breeding.

He surveyed Lord Dunmore with an expression of frigid
surprise, which caused the vein in that gentleman's forehead
to distend itself hugely.

“My hat, your Excellency?” said the young man, with
freezing politeness, “perhaps the uneasiness your Excellency
is so good as to observe, is caused by the fact that I have
no place to deposit it, your Excellency not having requested
me to be seated.”

And with the air of a nobleman who has been outraged,
Mr. St. John made his lordship a low and exaggerated bow.

His lordship was beaten with his own weapons, his rudeness
failed, and his ill temper laughed at in the presence of
his council, the most loyal of whom could not forbear smiling.

His countenance colored with anger, and his eyes flashed.

“Well, sir!” he said, “you gentlemen of Virginia are extremely
witty! I make you my compliments, sir, upon your
attainments in private theatricals! Your discourteous reply
to my simple remark, however, sir, shall not move me.
If I overlooked the fact that you were standing, it was because
I am not accustomed to request persons who are called
to defend themselves before me, to be seated in my presence.”

The young man met this outburst with an expression of
cold disdain lurking in his eyes, which lashed the Governor's
anger into fury.

“I await your reply, sir!” he said, almost trembling with
rage.

“If your lordship will frame a distinct question, I will reply,”
said Mr. St. John. “I can not answer your denunciation.”

“I demand why you have absented yourself from the barracks
of my guards?”

“I went to visit my relations.”

“That is no excuse, sir.”

“I inform your lordship that I left my sub-lieutenant in
command,” said the young man, coldly, controlling himself.

“That was wholly informal, without my permission, sir!”

“Informal, my lord?”

“Yes, sir! worse! It was a dereliction of duty!”

“Your lordship proceeds far, and I am at a loss to understand
upon what grounds this decision is based.”

“I am not in the habit, sir, of defending my opinions on
occasions like this!”

“This is, then, simply your Excellency's opinion?”

“No, sir—it is the opinion of every rational individual.
You have deserted your post and gone away at your pleasure,
sir, leaving your command to take care of itself!”

“I have the honor to call to your Excellency's attention
the fact that Virginia is not now in a state of war.”

“That is nothing, sir!”

“Pardon me, my lord, I think 't is a vast deal. During
hostilities I should not have gone away.”

“There's no difference, sir!”

“Your Excellency is determined to find fault with me.”

“I repeat that you have deserted your post, sir! I repeat
that!”

“I have the honor to repeat that my sub lieutenant is in
command.”

“You know perfectly, sir, that he's no fit commander for
my guards!”

“He's an Englishman, commissioned by your Excellency.”

“Mr. St. John!” said the Governor, crimson with rage,
“are you aware with whom you are bandying epithets and
contradictions?”

“Your Excellency has spoken, I have replied,” returned
the young man, bracing himself against the coming storm.

“Are you aware, sir, that I am a peer of the realm?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“That I am the Governor of this colony—do you know
that, sir?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And knowing this, sir—knowing my nobility, and my

power—knowing my commission from his Majesty—a commission,
sir, which gives me the power of punishing sedition
and treason!—knowing this, sir, you have presumed to address
me as you have done! Pray, who are you, sir?” added
his Excellency, almost trembling with rage and scorn, “who
are you, to reply to me in this manner?”

The young man made a ceremonious bow, and in a tone as
cold as ice, replied,

“Only a gentleman, your lordship—that, and nothing
more.”

These calm words put the finishing touch to Lord Dunmore's
wrath. Beaten, defeated, derided, humbled almost,
by a young man who did not lose his temper, while he was
furious; exposed and humiliated thus in presence of his
council and his secretary, the Governor shook with speechless
rage, and almost rose to his feet in the tumult of his
wrath.

“Look you, sir!” he cried with an explosion of passion,
“this interview has come to a conclusion! There is but
one reply I have to make to your insults, sir!”

His lordship turned furiously to Captain Foy, and would
have ended his threatening sentence by an order to that
gentleman.

Something in Captain Foy's eye, however, seemed to arrest
him even in the height of his rage. The dark glance
of the secretary and the slight movement of his pale lips,
seemed to produce an instant effect upon Lord Dunmore,
and he did not finish the sentence which doubtless would
have ordered the arrest of Mr. St. John.

The subtle glance of Captain Foy seemed to arouse in the
Governor his own large supply of cunning, and he leaned
back silent for a moment in his seat, scowling at the young
man.

Mr. St. John preserved the same attitude of coldness and
disdain, and waited to be addressed.

“Young man,” said his Excellency, with a bad affectation
of dignified forbearance, “you have in this conversation

adopted a manner of speaking toward myself extremely irritating
and wholly improper, coming from one of your age
to myself. Permit me, also, to say, sir, that more than you
imagine is due to a peer of the realm and the representative
of his majesty in the colony, and it will be well for the inhabitants
of this colony to understand the fact. Yes, sir!”
continued his Excellency, carried out of his assumed dignity,
“the sooner they become convinced of the fact, the better
for them! and I think that you, sir, have much yet to
learn.”

“I desire to treat your Excellency with every particle of
respect that is your due,” replied Mr. St. John coldly.

“Those words may contain a new insult, sir!”

“Your Excellency's number of imaginary insults drives
me to despair.”

“That's a very pretty speech, sir! Then I search for insults!”

“I did not say so, my lord.”

“But you looked it!” said Dunmore, gradually yielding
again to his anger; “it is your favorite mode of outraging
me, sir!”

“Your Excellency seems determined to be outraged. I
have the misfortune to be tried and convicted before my
hearing, in the mind of your lordship.”

“No, sir! this is not the first time you have placed yourself
upon my level, even arrogated superiority, I think, to
judge from your lordly manner!”

And the Governor's lip curled with a sneer.

“Yes, sir!” said the Governor, the vein in his forehead
again swelling, “on the day of Lady Dunmore's entry I was
subjected to your highness' imposing air, and was informed
that I was afraid of a child. Your highness,” he continued,
with a disdainful sneer, “was so good as to find fault with
my honest expression of opinion about the traitor, Waters,
and reprove me with your eyes! By Heaven, sir!” cried
Lord Dunmore, starting up and relapsing into greater rage
than before, “by Heaven, sir! I have endured sufficient

insult, and my patience is ended. Mr. Lieutenant St.
John—”

“Stop, sir!—my lord, I should say—a moment!” interrupted
the young man, rising to a loftier and colder attitude,
“I am no longer Lieutenant St. John—I no longer hold a
commission in the service of your Excellency, or the colony;
I resign that commission, and return it to your Excellency,
and scorn it!”

As the young man spoke, his face turned white with rage
and disdain, and taking from his bosom the parchment, he
threw it at the Governor's feet.

“ 'T is the post of a slave!” he said, “and I'll be no man's
lackey! Your Excellency may supply yourself with another
menial! I'll not fill the position of head waiter to any peer
of the realm that ever was born! I'm a Virginian, and
I'm free! and I'll not be your slave to shiver at your frown,
and crouch like a hound at your bidding! I've been outraged
and insulted; your lordship has tried to put your foot
on my neck, and I resist, that is all! I resist! and I add
that I'll go to my death before mortal man makes a serf
of me! I have done, sir! You hear what has boiled in my
breast from the first day I entered your service—from the
hour when, misled by your unworthy representations, I put
on your livery! You hear a Virginian's voice—one who's
subjected to such insults as he'll no longer endure! I throw
back your lordship's commission, and scorn it, and stamp on
it! I'll not be your slave, and I'm free again!”

And trembling with passion, his eyes burning in his pale
face like balls of fire, the young man turned toward the
door.

Dunmore rose up as on springs. The members of the
council had risen tumultuously to their feet too, and the
eyes of Captain Foy glittered in his white countenance as
he towered above the group.

“Captain Foy!” said Lord Dunmore, pallid with rage,
“call the sentinel to arrest this man.”

Mr. St. John's sword—a part of his full dress—flashed instantly

from its scabbard, and he struck his hat down upon
his brows furiously.

“I'll not be arrested!” he said; “I swore that I would
first plunge this sword into your lordship's breast! and I'll
do it!”

As the weapon flashed before his eyes, and these furious
words resounded through the room, Lord Dunmore trembled
and drew back.

His lordship was not courageous.

“I'll not be arrested!” added the young man, white with
wrath; “I'll not be sent to rot in a prison, or tried for
sedition on your lordship's evidence. You have made me
desperate, and I'll go all lengths to defend myself!”

With which words Mr. St. John left the room and the
palace, unpursued and unmolested.

We shall only add that the council broke up in confusion,
and that Lord Dunmore and Captain Foy remained
alone.

Dunmore strode about the room crimson with rage, and
uttering violent curses, with which he seemed to endeavor
to unburden himself of his wrath.

Captain Foy was writing, serenely, calm, pale and quiet.

“The instructions for Conolly are ready, my lord,” he
said; “let us forget this little scene, and come to business.”