 | Hilt to hilt, or, Days and nights on the banks of the Shenandoah in the autumn of 1864 |  |
XXV.
POISON.
“I took Ratcliffe, as I have informed you, to visit
the family at `Chapeldale,' and, having thus been introduced,
he went thither frequently afterwards, not
seldom by himself. I did not dream of his becoming
my rival. My rival? The thing was impossible!
Had I not informed him of my engagement; grown
extravagant, as young men will, over my love, my
adoration, my infatuation for Miss Adair? How
was it possible for a gentleman to think of wooing
his friend's affiancée? Well, I swear to you, the
thought never entered my head, until one morning
Miss Adair quietly said: —
“`You have a singular friend.'
“`Singular?' I said.
“`Yes,' was her reply. `He addressed me yesterday;
you ought to know it.'
“She looked frightened, as she glanced at my
face.
“`Good heavens! how pale you are!' she said;
`you are angry?'
“`No,' I replied, and ten minutes afterwards I
left her.
“I went back at a gallop to `Bizarre,' hastened to
Ratcliffe's room, entered, and charged him with his
perfidy. His reply was a good-humoured laugh, and
the words: —
“`Why, old fellow, can't you allow an inveterate
flirt like myself to have some fun without wanting
to cut my throat for it? Do you think I for a moment
imagined I could cut you out with Miss Ellen?
that I was in earnest? You are too sensitive, old
fellow, too distrustful.' And for ten minutes he
poured out his smiling blandishments and denials;
laughing, and finally putting me in a good humour
again.
“`Well, Ratcliffe,' I said, `I will say no more
about this, but on one condition, — a condition which
I exact.'
“`What is that?' he said, smiling.
“`That you will never utter another word of that
description to Miss Adair as long as you live.'
“`And if I decline,' he said, laughing.
“Those words fired me.
“`Try it,' I said, `and by Heaven, I will have your
blood!'
“He turned white as I spoke, and a flash of anger
darted from his eye. A moment afterwards he
forced a laugh, and said: —
“`All right, old fellow; but you don't mean to
deny me the privilege of calling on Miss Ellen?'
“`Certainly not,' I replied, already growing
ashamed of uttering such harsh words to a guest;
`but I have your promise, you understand?'
“`All right,' he repeated, laughing as before;
and the interview terminated.
“Going to my room,” continued Landon, “I
sat down and reflected. Had I not been harsh and
uncharitable toward Ratcliffe? The young lady
doubtless exaggerated his attentions, misunderstood
mere `gallantry,' and did not know that, by many
of her sex, such avowals as Ratcliffe had made
were regarded simply as an amusing pastime, meaning
little. Thus I gradually regained my equanimity,
and when I again saw Miss Adair, informed
her, with a smile, that I doubted extremely whether
Ratcliffe was as much in love with her as she imagined.
It was a brilliant jest, you see; but I do
not think the young lady relished it very much.
She replied that her imagination had had nothing to
do with the matter. And as this incident occurred
just as Ratcliffe and myself were about to set off for
West Point, I had the misery of parting with the
young lady in a frame of mind far less agreeable
than I desired. Have you ever been what is called
`in love,' friend? If so, I need not tell you that to
leave the woman you love with no smile upon her
thus I left her, to go to West Point. Something
like a cloud seemed to have swept across the sky
overshadowing the landscape. In the sequel, as you
will perceive, events were to occur which blackened
the whole horizon of my life.
“I now approach the main point of my narrative.
Many things remain a mystery still to me, but subsequent
information revealed to me an amount of
diablerie on the part of my dear friend Ratcliffe,
which will be sufficient to give interest to my story.
Many things I know; what I do not know, I suspect.
You shall judge if I have cause to love this man.
“To relate all in its order. I went to West
Point, leaving my mother, my sisters, and my
younger brother in perfect health. Six months
afterwards the whole family were attacked with
pneumonia; my brother and both my sisters died,
and my mother was brought to the brink of the
grave. I hastened back at the first intelligence of
their illness, only in time to follow the funeral cortege
of the last of my sisters to the Old Chapel; then for
a month I watched, breathless, the progress of
my mother's malady.
“Well, she rallied at length. I had the inexpressible
happiness of seeing the colour return to her
cheeks. Her constitution was evidently broken, but
at least she was spared to me! From that moment
love which she gave me in return even exceeded my
own for her.
“Alas!” said Landon, with flushed cheeks, and
sighing wearily, “men do not know the happiness
of having a mother until she is dead! Then they
bitterly repent all their waywardness, their neglect,
their absence without reason. They would give all
they possess to feel the pressure of the thin hand on
their heated brows again, to hear the dear mother's
voice, and see the old, fond, caressing smile!”
The man's heart throbbed, and his lips trembled
as he spoke. This memory of his mother had flushed
his cheeks as he gazed at her portrait, and agitated
him again as he now spoke of her. It seemed the
sole tie which still bound him to his species, and
kept the heart of this iceberg from freezing.
“I loved my mother,” he groaned, with something
like a fiery tear in the haughty eyes. “No
man ever loved mother more, and that wretch yonder
was the cause of her death!”
His face grew hard again as he referred to Ratcliffe.
In his eye was the old, grim, pitiless look;
the glance of the man whose purpose is not to be
shaken.
“Listen, friend,” he went on coolly, “and I will
tell you how Ratcliffe thus darkened my whole life.
The fact was long a mystery to me; it is only recently
him, and I hope to repay him to the last farthing.
Some men's memories are short, and lose everything;
mine is long, and loses nothing.
“To narrate. I returned to West Point after the
death of my brother and sisters, and the illness of
my mother, almost broken down in spirits. One
thing alone consoled me, — the fond and faithful affection
of the young girl to whom I had given my
whole heart. Her love had never failed me; seemed
to deepen rather, as she saw how much I suffered;
and the recollection of the tenderness which she exhibited
for me at that time has alone preserved me
from the darkest cynicism, the intensest scorn and
hatred for her whole sex. When I parted with her,
there was no cloud upon the pure and truthful brow;
in her heart there was nothing but love for me. It
was arranged that we were to be married as soon as
I attained my majority; and with this to console me
and light up my poor weary life, I returned to finish
my course at West Point.
“I remained there until the autumn of 1860.
Then the storm began to mutter, and it was plain
that the Republicans would attempt to coerce the
South if she dared to secede from the Union. Would
the Southern States do so? South Carolina — the
brave, the chivalrous South Carolina — first drew
the sword and threw away the scabbard; Virginia
never doubted; as to my own course, I did not hesitate.
I never yet knew the time when the flag of
Virginia was not my flag before all others; when I
did not consider myself bound to obey the order of
the Governor of Virginia before that of the President
of the United States; when I did not say to myself,
`I am a citizen first and foremost of the sovereign nation
of Virginia, and only afterwards a sort of citizen
of the political federation called the United States.'
“But I weary you. To return: I came back to
Virginia in the autumn of 1860, to offer her my
sword; and I never saw Ratcliffe again until the
other day. He declared his intention of remaining
at the North, and `taking no part in the rebellion,'
— and this alone would have broken our connection.
We had already grown cold, however, and even
quarrelled on other grounds, — the result simply of
the man's utter depravity and want of principle. I
have never set myself up as an example to anybody,
colonel, and have never had the pretension to make
broad my phylacteries, and thank God I am not as
yonder sinner. On the contrary, I lived freely, —
drank, played cards, and was far from a model.
But Ratcliffe was a thousand times worse, and absolutely
revolted me. Drunkenness, insane gambling,
debauchery of every description, were habitual with
him. To this he added a laxity in money matters,
alienated me from him, and ended by terminating our
intimacy.
“Then, as I have since discovered, he began to
hate me, and had a double reason to ruin me if he
could. Do you ask the meaning of the word `double'?
My reply is that he was crazily in love with
Miss Adair, — a fact which I have discovered, like
the rest, only recently.
“This, then, was the `situation,' as we say in
the army. I was engaged to Miss Adair. Ratcliffe
loved her, and hated me. Obviously, to ruin
me would be to gratify at once his love and his vengeance.
And he nearly accomplished his object.
“I come now to the most curious portion of my
story, — Ratcliffe's mode of proceeding in undermining
my character and good name in an entire community.
His course was one full of strange cunning.
By letters, both anonymous and over his signature,
he disseminated the most frightful calumnies in reference
to me. I have seen some of these letters, and
it is impossible to convey to you any idea of the diabolical
ingenuity of the writer. I was represented
as a monster. My small vices were magnified into
gigantic crimes; my chance games at cards into wild
gambling; my occasional wine-drinking into brutal
drunkenness. I was charged with such other vices
as degrade and brutalize young men, — with utter
thus drawn was so repulsive and hateful, that
those who did not know me must have shrunk in
horror and disgust from the moral monster thus presented
to their view.
“When I returned to the Valley in 1860, Ratcliffe
had accomplished his object, or a portion of it.
My best friends turned away from or looked coldly
at me. Does that seem fanciful, colonel? Bah!
nothing that is mean is fanciful in human nature!
Do you think that the world is not pleased when you
stumble? They are standing erect and are better
than you! Do you think that your `friends' believe
with difficulty discreditable reports about you?
Undeceive yourself; they hasten to believe them,
and I assure you they lose no time in disseminating
them, — to communicate `bad news' is so delightful!
`No news is good news,' the proverb says, — that
is, people never take the trouble to communicate
what will make you happy; but let them only have
some bad news that will make you miserable, — you
shall know that, if they have to arouse you at midnight!
“Well, many persons had shocking news to tell
of the reprobate St. Leger Landon, the drunkard,
the debauchee, the unprincipled blackguard! It
was all communicated under the breath, in whispers,
— in the `giggle-gabble' tone, — and the whole air
everywhere, people shook their heads, groaned, lamented
the shocking conduct of the last of the Landons
— and pitied my poor mother.
“My mother! there was where the arrow struck.
Of Miss Adair I will speak presently; but first of
my mother. The kind friends whom I have mentioned
did not fail to put her in possession of the reports
in relation to me; they would not have missed
the luxury of seeing her writhe, and of witnessing
her agony. They came to `Bizarre;' had no pity
for her pale face and trembling nerves; struck her
cruelly, pitilessly, as women can only strike women,
and ended by prostrating her upon a bed of illness.
The implacable fury of the old gossips had
pierced the tender heart to its core, and she was
overwhelmed. Since I, her only child, her stay and
comfort, had become thus depraved, there was no
longer anything in life worth living for; existence
was a burden.
“Can you realize from these cold, colourless words,
the spectacle which greeted me upon my return? It
was that of my mother, stretched upon the couch from
which she was never more to rise, writhing under the
poisonous stings of those female tongues, — believing
that her only boy, her all, was worse than dead to
her! That was what greeted me as I came back to
`Bizarre' with open arms to kiss my dear mother!
“Three months afterwards she was dead. The
shock to her system from the loss of her children,
and all this painful emotion in addition, had brought
on a return of her malady. This second attack she
had not been able to withstand. I followed her to
the Old Chapel graveyard, as I had followed my
brother and my sisters.”
| Hilt to hilt, or, Days and nights on the banks of the Shenandoah in the autumn of 1864 | |