"At first, he, busy, plodding poor,
Earned, saved, and daily swelled his store;
But soon Ambition's summits rose,
And Avarice dug his mine of woes."
For the better understanding of some of the allusions of the preceding
chapter, and of others that may yet appear in different parts of our tale,
as well, indeed, as for a better appreciation of the whole, we will here
turn aside from the thread of the narrative just commenced, to take a brief
retrospect of the leading events and circumstances with which the previous
lives of the several personages we have introduced had been connected, and
among which their characters had been shaped and their destinies
determined.
Some twenty two or three years previous to the juncture we have been
describing, Arthur and Mark Elwood, by the fruits of their unremitting
industry as laborers on a farm in summers, and as pedlars of what they
could best buy and sell in winters, added to the few hundred dollars
patrimony they each inherited, were enabled, in a few years, to realize the
object of their early ambition, in the opening of a small retail store, in
one of the little outskirt villages of northern New-Hampshire.
Such, like that of hundreds of others among us who now count their wealth
by half millions, was the slender beginning of these two brothers. And,
although they were from the first, as we have seen them at the last, as
different in their general characters as they were in their persons, they
yet got on very well together; for, however they might disagree respecting
the modes and means of acquisition, they were always as one in regard to
the great result each alike had in view, and that was to make money and be
rich. And, by a sort of tacit understanding, falling into the departments
of business best suited to their different tastes and capacities, the
quiet, cautious, calculating, and systematic Arthur confined himself to the
store, kept the books, contrived the _ways and means_, and, in short,
did the principal head-work of the establishment; while Mark, being of a
more stirring turn, and, from his brisk _bon homme_ manner and less
scrupulous disposition, better calculated for drumming up customers and
securing bargains for the store, did most of the outdoor business, riding
about the country, contracting for produce, securing barter deal, and
making himself, in all things, the runner and trumpeter of the company. At
night they usually met together to compare notes and report progress; and
they were never happier than when they sat down in their small store-room,
hemmed in and surrounded by casks of nails, quintals of codfish, farming
tools, etc., on one side, and narrow shelves of cheap calicos, India
cottons, and flaunting ribbons, on the other, and recounted to each other
the business and bargains of the day. Thus the two, working on, like the
spring and balance-wheel of some piece of mechanism, in harmony together,
soon placed themselves beyond all fears of failure, and seemed happy and
contented with their situation and prospects.
This situation of affairs, however, was not destined to be of very long
continuance. Not long after finding themselves safely on the highway to
independence, they very naturally began to think of selecting, from among
the fair young customers of their store, the ones who might make them
eligible companions for life. And, as the wayward love-fates would have it,
they both secretly fixed their affections on one and the same girl,--the
pretty and sensible Alice Gregg, who, though a plain farmer's daughter,
was, to the vexation and envy of her numerous rustic suitors, to be won by
nothing short of one of the village merchants. Alice was not long in
discovering her advantage, nor in deciding to avail herself of it, so far
as to confine her election to one of these, her two undeclared lovers. And,
after balancing a while in her mind the account between her judgment, which
would have declared for the reserved but sterling Arthur, and her fancy,
which clamored hard for the manly-looking and more social Mark, she finally
yielded the reins to the latter, and took measures accordingly. After this,
Arthur's taste in selecting a piece of goods did not, as before, seem to be
appreciated. Her handkerchief was never dropped where he had any chance to
pick it up; and she was never quite ready to go till Mark was nearest at
hand to help her into her wagon or side-saddle. By this delicate system of
female tactics, common with girls of more pretensions than Alice, she
effectually repressed the advances of the one, and as effectually
encouraged those of the other; and the result, as she had anticipated, was
a declaration from Mark, an acceptance on her part, and a speedy marriage
between them. Arthur's heart bled at the event; but it bled inwardly; and
he had at least the consolation of believing that no one suspected the
state of his feelings, except, perhaps, Alice, and he was not unwilling
that _she_ should know them. He therefore put the best face on the matter
he could,--appeared wholly unconcerned,--attended the wedding, and with
forced gayety _openly_ wished the new married couple the happiness which he
_secretly_ wished was his own. The tender passion had been a new thing to
the money-loving Arthur. By its elevating influences, he, who had looked
for enjoyment only in wealth, had been enabled to raise his vision to a
higher sphere of happiness. And thus to lose the bright glimpses, and be
thrown back to earth again, was, in reality, however he might disguise the
fact from others, a serious blow to his feelings, and one, indeed, which
soon mainly led to a movement on his part that gave a new turn to his
apparent destinies, and a no less one, probably, to those of his then
almost envied brother Mark. For, finding it impossible to feel his former
interest in business, in a place whose associations had become painful to
him, he secretly resolved to leave it as soon as he believed he could do so
without leading to any surmises respecting the true cause of the change he
contemplated. Accordingly, in a few months, he began to suggest his own
unfitness for making a profitable partner in country trade, and finally
came out with a direct proposition to his brother to buy him out at a sum
which he knew would be a temptingly low one. And the result was, that the
proposition was accepted, "the partnership dissolved by mutual consent,"
and the released Arthur, with his portion, soon on his way to one of the
eastern seaports, to set up business, as he soon did, for himself alone.
The withdrawal of Arthur Elwood deprived this little establishment of its
only really valuable guidance, and left it to the chance fortunes of
greater gains or greater losses than would have been likely to occur under
the cautious and hazard-excluding system of business which he had adopted
for its control. But, nothing for a year or two occurring to induce Mark
Elwood to depart from the system under which the business had been
conducted, and Arthur's prudent maxims of trade, to which he had been
accustomed to defer, remaining fresh in his mind, he naturally kept on in
the old routine, which he was the more willing to follow, as by it he found
himself clearly on the advance. He was blessed in his family; for his wife,
who had no undue aspirations for wealth or show, had not only proved an
efficient helper by her economy and good counsels, but added still more to
his gratification by bringing him a promising boy. Being the only trader of
the village, or hamlet it might more properly be called, he was conscious
of being the object of that peculiar kind of favor and respect which was
then--more freely than at the present day, perhaps--accorded to the country
merchant by the masses among whom he resided. And, finding his still
comparatively moderate expectations thus every day fully realized, he was
satisfied with his condition in the present, and hopeful and happy in the
prospects it presented in the future; for the demon of unlawful gain had
not then tempted him into forbidden paths by the lure of sudden riches.
But that demon at length came in the shape of Gaut Gurley. From what part
of the country this singular and questionable personage originally came,
was unknown, even in the neighboring village (which was within the borders
of Maine) where he had recently located himself with a young wife and
child. And, as he very rarely made any allusions to his own personal
affairs, every thing relating to his origin, life, and employments,
previous to his appearance in this region, was a matter of mere conjecture,
and many a dark surmise, also, we should add, respecting his true
character. For the last few years, however, he was known to have followed,
at the appropriate seasons of the year, the business of trapping, or
trading for furs with the Indians, around the northern lakes. He had
several times passed through the village on his returns from his northern
tours, and called on the Elwoods, whose contrasted characters he seemed
soon to understand. But he pressed no bargains upon them for his peltries;
for, disliking the close questionings and scrutinizing glances of Arthur,
and finding he could make no final trade with Mark without the assent of
the former, he gave up all attempts of the kind, and did not call again
during the continuance of the partnership, nor till this time; when,
finding that Mark was in trade alone, he announced his intention of
spending some time in the village, to see what arrangements could be made,
as he at first held out to Elwood, for establishing this as his place for
the regular sales or deposit of his furs.
But the fur traffic, whatever it might have been formerly, was now not the
main, if any part of the object he had in view. The times had changed,
closing many of the old avenues of trade, but opening new ones to tempt the
ever restless spirit of gain. And, although the fur trade was still
profitable, there was yet another springing up, which, for those who, like
him, had no scruples about engaging in it, promised to become far more so.
The restrictions which it had been the policy of our government to throw
around commerce, in the incipient stages of our last national quarrel with
Great Britain, had caused an unprecedented rise in the prices of silks and
other fine fabrics of foreign import. This had put whatever there was of
the two alleged leading traits of Yankee character, acquisitiveness and
ingenuity, on the _qui vive_ to obtain those goods at the former prices,
for the purpose of home speculation. And Canada, being separated by a land
boundary only from the States, presented to the greedy eyes of hundreds of
village mammonists, who, like Elwood, were plodding along at the slow jog
of twenty per cent profits, opportunities of so purchasing as to quadruple
their gains; which were quite too severe a test for their slender stock of
patriotism to withstand. It was but a natural consequence, therefore, that
all of them whose love of gain was not overcome by their fear of loss by
detection and the forfeiture of their goods, should soon be found, in spite
of all the vigilance and activity of the host of custom-house officers by
whom the government had manned the Canadian lines, secretly engaged in that
contraband traffic.
The history of smuggling as carried on between the Northern States and
Canada, from the enactment of the embargo at the close of 1807, and
especially from the enactment of the more stringent non-intercourse law of
1810, to the declaration of war in 1812, and even, to a greater or less
extent, to the proclamation of peace in 1815, is a portion of our annals
that yet remains almost wholly unwritten. Although the contraband trade in
question was doubtless more or less followed along the entire extent of our
northern boundaries, from east to west, yet along no portions of them half
so extensively, probably, as those, of Vermont and New Hampshire, which,
from their close contiguity to Montreal and Quebec, the only importing
cities of the Canadas, afforded the most tempting facilities and the best
chances for success. Along these borders, indeed, it was for years one
almost continuous scene of wild warfare between the custom-house officers
and their assistants, and the smugglers and their abettors, both parties
carrying arms, and the smugglers, especially, going armed to the teeth. In
these skirmishes many were, at different times, killed outright; many more
were missing, even on the side of the officials, for whom dark fates were
naturally conjectured; while hundreds, on both sides, were crippled or
otherwise seriously wounded. Sometimes, when a double sleigh, or wagon,
deeply laden with smuggled goods, in charge of three or four stout and
resolute fellows aboard, who, with as many more, perhaps, of their
confederates on horseback or in light teams, before and behind, were making
their way, at full speed, with their prize, from the line to some secret
and safe depository in the interior, was suddenly beset and brought to a
stand by an equal or greater number of government officials, deeply intent
on a seizure, a most furious conflict would ensue, in which the combatants,
growing desperate for the seizure or defence of the prize, would ply their
hard yeoman fists, clubs, loaded whipstocks, or whatever was at hand, with
terrible effect, and often prolong the melee till the snow or ground was
encrimsoned with blood, and scarcely an uninjured man remained on the
ground. Sometimes the besetting officials were made prisoners, and marched
off at the cocked pistol's mouth into the deep woods, and, after being led
forward and backward through the labyrinths of the forest till bewildered
and lost, were suddenly left to find their way out as they best could,--a
feat which there was no danger of their accomplishing till long after both
the smugglers and their goods were beyond the reach of pursuers. And
sometimes the smugglers, when closely pressed and seeing no hope of rescue
if taken, as their last resort, drew their dirks and pistols; and wo to the
official who then persisted in attempting a seizure.
But the system of tactics more generally practiced by the smugglers was
that of craft and concealment, carried out by some ingenious measure to
prevent all suspicion of the times and places of their movements, by
travelling in the night or in stormy weather, or in the most unfrequented
routes, and, when pursued, by putting the pursuers on false scents, or by
feints of running away with loads of empty boxes to mislead pursuit, till
the goods, which had been previously taken to some place of temporary
concealment, could be removed from the vicinity of the search and sent on
their destination.
Such were the general features of the illicit traffic which characterized
the period of which we are treating,--a traffic which laid the foundations
of many a village fortune, whose dashing heirs would not probably be very
willing to acknowledge the true source from which the wealth and position
they may now be enjoying was derived,--and finally a traffic which, in its
attending homicides and desperate affrays, its hot pursuits and marvellous
escapes, its curious concealments and artful subterfuges, and, lastly, in
the family and neighborhood feuds which it left behind, would furnish
materials for a series of tales as wild and romantic, if not always as
creditable to the actors, as any thing ever yet spread before the public.
It was this questionable business which was then occupying the thoughts of
Gaut Gurley, and in which it was his aim to involve Mark Elwood, whom he
had pitched on for the purpose, as not only a man of sufficient means, with
no scruples which could not be overcome, but a man whom he believed he
could make dependent on him, when once enlisted, and to whom he could
dictate terms for his own services. And it is no wonder that a man of his
dark cunning, working on one of the obtuse moral sense, the love of money,
and the thoughtlessness of consequences, of Elwood, should, as he did, soon
completely succeed in his objects. For, after having kindled Elwood's
political prejudices against the embargo law, which was held up to be such
an outrage on the commercial rights of the North that it were almost a
merit to violate it, Gaut proceeded to show how enormous were the profits
to be made in this trade, and how safely the goods might be smuggled in,
through the back roads and forest routes with which he was familiar, by
employing Frenchmen, as he could, at a cheap rate, to bring them in large
panniers on the backs of their Canadian ponies, or by engaging Indians, who
could be enlisted for even less wages, to bring them in knapsacks through
the woods. And so clearly did he demonstrate all this to the mind of
Elwood, that the latter, being unable any longer to resist the temptation
of thus securing the gains of a traffic, by the side of which the small
profits of his store at home dwindled into contempt, soon resolved to
engage in it.
From this time Gaut was in high favor with Elwood. The two, indeed, seemed
to have suddenly become inseparable. They were always found together, and
always engaged in some closely private conversation, the purport of which
no others were permitted to know, or were enabled to conjecture, except
from the new business movement which was observed soon to follow the
forming of their mysterious connection. And that movement was that Elwood
put his store in charge of a clerk, and, giving out that he was about to
engage more extensively in the fur trade, which would require him to be
often absent, went off with a strong and fleet double team, in a northerly
direction, with Gaut for his only companion.
With the advent of this new era in the life of Elwood, every thing became
changed about his establishment. His bustling presence, with his bantering,
off-hand, and communicative talk, no longer enlivened the store and
neighborhood; and people, who before seemed to know every thing about his
business and plans, now knew nothing. For he was now most of the time
absent in conducting his operations at the north, or in his stealthy
journeyings thence to the cities, to receive and dispose of the valuable
packages which he had put on their passage. He generally came and departed
in the night, and, even during his brief stays at home, he kept himself
secluded, seeming to wish to be seen as little as possible. All this, of
course, led to considerable talk and various speculations; but he so well
shrouded his movements from the public, and kept afloat so many plausible
stories to account for his change of business, that he prevented suspicions
from taking any definite shape about home, or spreading abroad to any
extent that endangered his operations, although those operations were
constantly continued for years, and, from cautious and small beginnings, at
length became more bold, extensive, and successful, perhaps, than any thing
of the kind ever carried on in the interior of New England. But there was
one whose suspicions of the true character of the business in which he was
engaged, notwithstanding his denials and evasions, even to her, and whose
fears and anxieties on account of the dangers she believed he was
constantly incurring, not only from seizure of his property and the
personal violence to which he was exposed in trying to defend it, but from
his association of reckless confederates, especially Gaut Gurley, of whose
dark character, as little as she had seen of him, she was already filled
with an instinctive dread,--there was one whose suspicions, and consequent
anxieties, he could never succeed in quieting; and that was his discreet
and faithful wife. She had, during the first year or two of his new career,
often expostulated with him on the doubtful character of his business; but
he, by always making light of her fears, by telling her some truth and
withholding more, and disclosing as great a part of his astonishing gains
as he supposed would pass with her for honest acquisitions, generally
silenced, if he did not convince, her; and she, finding him always
light-hearted and satisfied with himself, when he came home, finally ceased
her remonstrances, having concluded she would try to conquer her doubts and
fears, or at least say no more on the subject.
At length, however, after a prolonged absence on a tour, in which he had a
large venture at stake, he came home in a greatly altered mood. His usual
buoyancy of spirits was gone; he appeared gloomy and abstracted; and,
although, in reply to the anxious inquiries of his wife, he represented
himself to have been entire successful,--even to a greater extent than ever
before,--yet it was quite obvious that something very untoward, to say the
least, must have happened to him. He would not leave his house after dark,
he placed loaded pistols within the reach of his hand when he went to bed,
and he would often start up wildly from his sleep. His whole conduct,
indeed, was such as to excite the deeper concern of his perplexed wife, for
she feared it betokened his connection with something very
wrong,--something that had brought him into deadly peril,--something,
perhaps, done to others, which made her tremble to think of, but something,
at all events, which made her more than ever dread to have him go back
again to the scene of his operations. But of the last-named of her fears
she was shortly relieved; for, to her agreeable surprise, he soon assured
her of his determination to break off entirely from the business he had
been pursuing, and, as much to her gratification as to the evident vexation
of Gaut Gurley, who had come on to look his employer up, he firmly
persisted in carrying out his resolution. Nor was this all. He rapidly drew
his business to a close, broke off his old associations, privately left the
place, and, in a few weeks, sent for his family to join him in Boston,
where it appeared he had been for some time secretly transferring his
capital, and where he had now established himself in business, with all the
means required, even there, of doing it to the best advantage. And for some
years he _did_ engage in business to advantage, the same strangely good
luck attending him, and prospering wonderfully in all he undertook, till he
gained the reputation of being among the wealthiest of the city. But the
spoiler came in a second appearance of Gaut Gurley, who, having squandered
in the country the bounteous sums of money which Elwood had paid him for
his services, now followed the latter to the city. And, with the coming of
that personage, together with the foolish ambition that had, about that
time, seized Elwood, to outshine some of his city competitors in display
and expensive living, commenced the wane of a fortune which, as large as it
was, it had required but two short years to bring to the verge on which we
represented its unhappy master as standing in the opening scene of our
story.
Having now related all we designed in this retrospect of events, we will
return from the somewhat long but necessary digression, and take up the
thread of the narrative where we left it.