NEARING THE VERGE.
At times there come, as come there ought,
Grave moments of sedater thought.
When fortune frowns, nor lends our night
One gleam of her inconstant light:
And hope, that decks the peasant's bower,
Shines like the rainbow through the shower.
--CUNNINGHAM.
Robert Stevens was warmly greeted by his mother and sister on his return
from Massachusetts. He had grown to a handsome young man, whose daring
blue eye and bold, honest face seemed born to defy tyrants. Rebecca, his
sister, was a beautiful maiden, just budding into womanhood. She
possessed her father's quiet, gentle, modest demeanor with her mother's
beauty. Her great dark eyes were softer than her mother's, and her face
and contour were perfections of beauty.
"How glad I am to see you! Oh, how you have grown!" were among the
exclamations of his mother.
Robert noticed a great change in her. She was no longer the
proud-spirited being of old. Even when assailed by poverty, she was not
crushed and humiliated. Nothing was said of Mr. Price, though he was
uppermost in the minds of all. The stepfather was not present; but
Robert thought:
"I shall meet him, and the meeting will come soon enough."
When the house was reached he had almost forgotten him. His mother's
pale face and wasted form were indications of poor health; but she
smiled once more, and he hoped to see the bloom return to the still
youthful cheek.
It was early when he disembarked, and Mr. Hugh Price, the royalist, had
gone with Governor Berkeley on a fox chase. He returned late that night,
and Robert did not see him until next morning. The greeting between
Robert and the man whom he heartily despised was formal and cool.
The cavalier was, as usual, dressed with scrupulous care, and, in lace
ruffles and silk, sought to conceal his coarse, beastly nature. His fat
face and pursed lips, with his bottle nose, all bore evidence of high
living and indulgence in the wine cup. The family assembled at the
breakfast table and sat in silence through the meal. When it was over,
Mr. Price said:
"Robert, I want to see you in my study."
His "study" was a room in which were a few books and a great many
implements of the chase. There were horns, whips, spurs, boar spears and
guns on the wall. Mr. Price lighted his pipe and, throwing himself into
his great easy chair, said:
"Sit down, Robert, I have something to say to you."
Robert closed his lips firmly, for he intuitively felt that what was
coming would have something unpleasant about it. Mr. Hugh Price
partially raised himself from his chair to close the door. Robert caught
a momentary glance of two anxious faces at the foot of the stairs,
watching them and evidently wondering how it was all going to end.
Having closed the door and shut those friendly countenances out from
view, Hugh Price raised his slippered feet and placed them on the stool
before him, and smoked in silence. Robert had lost the little fear he
had entertained in childhood for his stepfather; but he did not
calculate on the cunning and treachery which in Hugh Price had taken the
place of strength. He realized not the powerful weapons which Price
could wield in the governor and officers of State.
"Robert, you have come back," began Mr. Price, slowly and deliberately,
as if he wished to impress what he was about to say more fully on his
hearer. "I have some words of advice to offer, and I trust you will
profit by them. If you fail to, don't blame me."
Robert, by a respectful nod, indicated that he was listening, and Mr.
Price went on:
"We have reached a period when a great civil revolution seems to be at
hand. Virginia is about to be shaken by an earthquake, to writhe under
intestine wars, and it may be necessary for you to take sides. I warn
you to have a care which side you choose, for a mistake means death. You
had better know something of the condition of the country before you
make your choice."
"I assure you that I am willing to learn all I can of Virginia," Robert
answered.
"Very well spoken. I hope that you have eradicated from your mind all
those fallacious and treasonable ideas of republicanism. The failure of
the commonwealth in England ought to convince any one that republicanism
can never succeed."
Robert was silent. So deeply had republicanism been engrafted in his
soul that he might as well attempt to tear out his heart, as to think of
uprooting it. His meeting with General Goffe and his love for Ester had
more strongly cemented his love for liberty; but Robert held his peace,
and the stepfather went on.
"Virginia is ruled by a governor and sixteen councillors, commissioned
by his majesty, and a grand assembly, consisting of two burgesses from
each county, meets annually, which levies taxes, hears appeals and
passes laws of all descriptions, which are sent to the lord chancellor
for his approval, as in accordance with the laws of the realm. We now
have forty thousand people in Virginia, of whom six thousand are white
servants and two thousand negro slaves. Since 1619, only three
ship-loads of negroes have been brought here, yet by natural increase
the negroes have grown a hundredfold."
The cavalier, who delighted in long morning talks over his pipe, paused
a moment to rest, and Robert sat wondering what all this could have to
do with him. After a moment, Hugh Price resumed:
"The freemen of Virginia number more than eight thousand horse, and are
bound to muster monthly in every county, to be ready for the Indians;
but the Indians are absolutely subjugated, so there need be no fear of
them. There are five forts in Virginia, mounted with thirty cannon, two
on James River, and one each on the other three rivers of York,
Rappahannock, and Potomac; but we have neither skill nor ability to
maintain them. We have a large foreign commerce. Nearly eighty ships
every year come out from England and Ireland, and a few ketches from New
England, in defiance of the navigation laws, which the people of New
England seem more willing to break than are the people of Virginia. We
build neither small nor great vessels here, for we are most obedient to
all laws, whilst the New England men break them with impunity and trade
at any place to which their interests lead them."
"The New England people are prosperous and God-fearing," Robert ventured
to put in.
"Yea; but do they not harbor outlaws and regicides. Do not Whalley and
Goffe find in that country aiders and abettors in their criminal
proceeding?"
"The New Englanders are friendly to the education of the masses."
At this, Hugh Price for an instant lost control of his passion. His
master, Sir William Berkeley, in a memorial to parliament, had
just said:
"I thank God that there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we
shall not have them these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels
against the best governments. God keep us from both!"
Virginia was the last province to submit to the commonwealth and first
to declare for the returned monarch, and the royalists residing in
Virginia despised what the common people insisted in calling freedom.
The commonwealth had driven many excellent royalists from England to
Virginia, and while Hugh Price seeks to smother his anger in clouds of
tobacco smoke, we will make a quotation from John Esten Cooke's
"Virginia" in regard to some of them:
"The character of the king's men who came over during the commonwealth
period has been a subject of much discussion. They have been called even
by Virginia writers as we have seen, 'butterflies of aristocracy,' who
had no influence in affairs or in giving its coloring to Virginia
society. The facts entirely contradict the view. They and their
descendants were the leaders in public affairs, and exercised a
controlling influence upon the community. Washington was the
greatgrandson of a royalist, who took refuge in Virginia during the
commonwealth. George Mason was the descendant of a colonel, who fought
for Charles II. Edmond Pendleton was of royalist origin, and lived and
died a most uncompromising churchman. Richard Henry Lee, who moved the
Declaration, was of the family of Richard Lee, who had gone to invite
Charles II. to Virginia. Peyton and Edmund Randolph, president of the
First Congress, and attorney-general were of the old royalist family.
Archibald Cary, who threatened to stab Patrick Henry if he were made
dictator, was a relative of Lord Falkland and heir apparent at his
death to the barony of Hunsdon. Madison and Monroe were descended from
the royalist families--the first from a refugee of 1653, the last from a
captain in the army of Charles I., and Patrick Henry and Thomas
Jefferson, afterward the leaders of democratic opinion, were of church
and king blood, since the father of Henry was a loyal officer who 'drank
the king's health at the head of his regiment'; and the mothers of both
were Church of England women, descended from royalist families."
With this brief digression, we will return to Hugh Price, who, having
smoked himself into a calmer state, turned his eyes upon his wife's son
with a look designed to be compassionate and said:
"Robert, it is the great love I bear you, which causes my anxiety about
your welfare. I trust that your recent sojourn in New England hath not
established the seeds of republicanism and Puritanism in your heart. I
trust that any fallacious ideas you may have formed during your absence
will become, in the light of reason, eradicated."
"He who is not susceptible of reason is unworthy of being called a
reasonable being," Robert answered.
"I am glad to hear you say as much. Now permit me to return to the
original subject. Virginia is on the verge of a political irruption,
and your arrival may be most opportune or unfortunate."
"I hardly comprehend you."
"There is some dissatisfaction with Governor Berkeley's course with the
Indians. Some unreasonable people think that he should prosecute the war
against them more vigorously."
"Why does he not?"
"He has good reasons."
"What are they?"
"He has dealings with the Indians in which there are many great fortunes
involved. To go to war with them would be sure to lose him and his
friends these profits. I am one concerned in these speculations, and it
would be a grievous wrong to me were the war prosecuted."
Robert knew something of the savage outrages in Virginia. He had learned
of them while on shipboard, and he had some difficulty in restraining
his rising indignation, so it was with considerable warmth that
he answered:
"Do you think your gains of more value than the human lives sacrificed
on the frontier?"
"Such talk is treason," cried Price. "It sounds not unlike Bacon,
Cheeseman, Lawrence and Drummond. Have you seen them since your return?"
"I have not, nor did I ever hear of the man Bacon before."
"Have a care! You would do well to avoid Drummond, Cheeseman and
Lawrence."
"Why?"
"They are suspected of republicanism. Have naught to do with them."
Some people are so constituted that to refuse them a thing increases
their desire for it. Robert would no doubt have gone to hunt up his
former friends and rescuers even had not his stepfather forbidden his
doing so, but now that Price prohibited his having anything to do with
them, he was doubly determined to meet them and learn what they had to
say about the threatened trouble.
His mother and sister were waiting in the room below with anxiously
beating hearts to know the result of the conference. Sighs of relief
escaped both, when they were assured that the meeting had been peaceful.
"Hold your peace, my son," plead the mother, "and do naught to bring
more distress upon your poor mother."
Robert realized that a great crisis was coming which would try his soul.
He had never broken his word with his mother, and for fear that his
conscience might conflict with any promise, he resolved to make none, so
he evaded her, by saying:
"Mother, there is no need for apprehension. We are in no danger."
"But your stepfather and you?"
"We have had no new quarrel."
He was about to excuse himself and take a stroll about Jamestown, when
he saw a short, stout little fellow, resembling an apple dumpling
mounted on two legs, entering the door. Though years had passed since he
had seen that form, he knew him at sight. Giles Peram, the traitor and
informer, had grown plumper, and his round face seemed more silly. His
little eyes had sunk deeper into his fat cheeks, and his lips were
puckered as if to whistle. He was attired as a cavalier, with a scarlet
laced coat, a waistcoat of yellow velvet and knee breeches of the
cavalier, with silk stockings.
"Good day, good people," he said, squeezing his fat little hands
together. "I hope you will excuse this visit, for I--I--heard that the
brother of my--of the pretty maid had come home, and hastened to
congratulate him."
Robert gazed for a moment on the contemptible little fellow, the chief
cause of his arrest and banishment and, turning to his mother, asked:
"Do you allow him to come here?"
"We must," she whispered.
"Why?"
"Hush, son; you don't understand it all. I will explain it to you
soon."
"You may; but I think I shall change matters, if he is to be a visitor."
"He is the governor's secretary."
"I care not if he be governor himself; he has no business here."
The little fellow, whose face had grown alternately white and purple,
stood squeezing his palms and ejaculating:
"Oh, dear me!--oh, dear!--this is very extraordinary--what can this
mean?"
"Why do you dare enter this house?" demanded Robert, fiercely.
"Oh, dear, I don't know--I am only a small fellow, you know."
At this moment Mrs. Price and her daughter interposed and begged Robert,
for the peace of the family, to make no further remonstrance. He was
informed that Giles Peram was the favorite of the governor and Hugh
Price, and to insult him would be insulting those high functionaries.
"Why is he here? Whom does he come to see?"
"Perhaps it is Mr. Price!" the mother stammered, casting a glance at
Peram, who quickly answered:
"Yes--yes, it is Mr. Price. Will you show me up to him? I have a very
important message from the governor."
He was trembling in every limb, for he expected to be hurled from the
house.
Robert went into the street in a sort of maze.
He felt a strange foreboding that all was not right, and that Giles
Peram had some deep scheme on foot.
"I will kill the knave, if the governor should hang me for it the next
moment," he said in a fit of anger.
It was not long before Robert was at the house of Mr. Lawrence, where he
met his friends Drummond and Cheeseman. The three were engaged in a
close consultation as if discussing a matter of vital importance. They
did not at first recognize Robert, who had grown to manhood; but as soon
as he made himself known, they welcomed him back among them, and
warm-hearted Cheeseman said:
"I know full well you can be relied upon in this great crisis."
"What is the crisis?" Robert asked.
"We seem on the verge of some sort of a revolution. Virginia welcomed
Charles II. and Governor Berkeley as the frogs welcomed the stork, and
they, stork like, have begun devouring us."
"I have heard something of the grievances of the people of Virginia;
but I do not know all of them. What leads up to this revolution?"
Mr. Drummond answered:
"The two main grievances are the English navigation acts and the grant
of authority to the English noblemen to sell land titles and manage
other matters in Virginia. Why, the king hath actually given to Lord
Culpepper, a cunning and covetous member of the commission, for trade
and plantations, and the earl of Arlington, a heartless spendthrift,
'all the dominion of land and water called Virginia, for the term of
thirty-one years.' We are permitted by the trade laws to trade only with
England in English ships, manned by Englishmen."
"Is it such a great grievance to the people?"
"It is foolish and injurious to the government as well as to ourselves.
The system cripples the colony, and, by discouraging production,
decreases the English revenue. To profit from Virginia they grind down
Virginia. Instead of friends, as we expected, on the restoration, we are
beset by enemies, who seize us by the throat and cry: 'Pay that
thou owest!'"
"To these grievances are added the confinement of suffrage to
freeholders, which hath disfranchised a large number of persons," put in
Mr. Drummond.
"Also the failure of the governor to protect the frontier from the
Indians," added Mr. Cheeseman. "These heathen have begun to threaten
the colony."
"What cause have they for taking up the hatchet?" asked Robert. Mr.
Cheeseman answered:
"Their jealousy was aroused by an expedition made by Captain Henry Batte
beyond the mountains. Last summer there was a fight with some of the
Indians. A party of Doegs attacked the frontier in Staffard and
committed outrages, and were pursued into Maryland by a company of
Virginians under Major John Washington. They stood at bay in an old
palisaded fort. Six Indians were killed while bringing a flag of truce.
The governor said that even though they had slain his nearest relatives,
had they come to treat with him he would have treated with them. The
Indian depredations have been on the increase until the frontier is
unsafe, and this spring, when five hundred men were ready to march
against the heathen, Governor Berkeley disbanded them, saying the
frontier forts were sufficient protection for the people."
"Are they?" asked Robert.
"No."
"Then why does he not send an army against them?"
"He is engaged in trafficking with the heathen and fears that he may
lose, financially, by a war."
"Is gain in traffic of more consequence than human life?"
"With him, it is."
Robert was a lover of humanity, and in a moment he had taken sides. He
was a republican and his fate was cast with Bacon, even before he had
seen this remarkable man.