CAPITOLA'S MOTHER.
A woman like a dew-drop she was purer than the purest,
And her noble heart the noblest, yes, and her sure faith the surest;
And her eyes were dark and humid like the depth in depth of lustre
Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the wild
grape's cluster,
Gushed in raven-tinted plenty down her cheeks' rose-tinted marble;
Then her voice's music--call it the well's bubbling, the bird's warble.
--Browning.
"Cap?"
"Sir!"
"What the blazes is the matter with you?"
"What the blazes! You better say what the dust and ashes! I'm bored to
death! I'm blue as indigo! There never was such a rum old place as this
or such a rum old uncle as you!"
"Cap, how often have I told you to leave off this Bowery boy talk? Rum!
pah!" said Old Hurricane.
"Well, it is rum, then! Nothing ever happens here! The silence deafens
me! the plenty takes away my appetite! the safety makes me low!"
"Hum! you are like the Bowery boys in times of peace, 'spoiling for a
fight.'"
"Yes. I am! just decomposing above ground for want of having my blood
stirred, and I wish I was back in the Bowery! Something was always
happening there! One day a fire, next day a fight, another day a fire
and a fight together."
"Umph! and you to run with the engine!"
"Don't talk about it, uncle; it makes me homesick--every day something
glorious to stir one's blood! Here nothing ever happens, hardly! It has
been three days since I caught Black Donald; ten days since you blowed
up the whole household! Oh! I wish the barns would catch on fire! I wish
thieves would break in and steal. I wish Demon's Run would rise to a
flood and play the demon for once! Ohyah!--oo!" said Cap, opening her
mouth with a yawn wide enough to threaten the dislocation of her jaws.
"Capitola," said the old man, very gravely, "I am getting seriously
uneasy about you. I know I am a rough old soldier, quite unfit to
educate a young girl, and that Mrs. Condiment can't manage you,
and--I'll consult Mr. Goodwin!" he concluded, getting up and putting on
his hat, and walking out of the breakfast-room, where this conversation
had taken place.
Cap laughed to herself. "I hope it is not a sin. I know I should die of
the blues if I couldn't give vent to my feelings and--tease uncle!"
Capitola had scarcely exaggerated her condition. The monotony of her
life affected her spirits; the very absence of the necessity of thinking
and caring for herself left a dull void in her heart and brain, and as
the winter waned the annual spring fever of lassitude and dejection to
which mercurial organizations like her own are subject, tended to
increase the malady that Mrs. Condiment termed "a lowness of spirits."
At his wits' end, from the combined feelings of his responsibility and
his helplessness in his ward's case, Old Hurricane went and laid the
matter before the Rev. Mr. Goodwin.
Having reached the minister's house and found him alone and disengaged
in his library, Old Hurricane first bound him over to strict secrecy and
then "made a clean breast of it;" told him where Capitola had been
brought up and under what circumstances he had found her.
The honest country clergyman was shocked beyond all immediate power of
recovering himself--so shocked, in fact, that Old Hurricane, fearing he
had gone too far, hastened to say:
"But mind, on my truth as a man, my honor as a soldier, and my faith as
a Christian, I declare that that wild, reckless, desolate child has
passed unscathed through the terrible ordeal of destitution, poverty and
exposure. She has, sir! She is as innocent as the most daintily
sheltered young heiress in the country! She is, sir! And I'd cut off the
tongue and ears of any man that said otherwise."
"I do not say otherwise, my friend; but I say that she has suffered a
frightful series of perils."
"She has come out of them safe, sir! I know it by a thousand signs; what
I fear for her is the future. I can't manage her. She won't obey me,
except when she likes. She has never been taught obedience nor been
accustomed to subordination, and I don't understand either. She rides
and walks out alone in spite of all I can do or say. If she were a boy
I'd thrash her; but what can I do with a girl?" said Old Hurricane, in
despair.
"Lock her up in her chamber until she is brought to reason," suggested
the minister.
"Demmy, she'd jump out of the window and break her neck! or hang herself
with her garters! or starve herself to death! You don't know what an
untamable thing she is. Some birds, if caged, beat themselves to death
against the bars of their prison. She is just such a wild bird as that."
"Humph! it is a difficult case to manage; but you should not shrink from
responsibility; you should be firm with her."
"That's just what I can't be with the witch, confound her! she is such a
wag, such a drole, such a mimic; disobeys me in such a mocking,
cajoling, affectionate way. I could not give her pain if her soul
depended on it!"
"Then you should talk to her; try moral suasion."
"Yes; if I could only get her to be serious long enough to listen to me!
But you see Cap isn't sentimental, and if I try to be she laughs in my
face."
"But, then, is she so insensible to all the benefits you have conferred
upon her? Will not gratitude influence her?"
"Yes; so far as repaying me with a genuine affection, fervent caresses
and careful attention to my little comforts can go; but Cap evidently
thinks that the restriction of her liberty is too heavy a price to pay
for protection and support. The little rogue! Think of her actually
threatening, in her good-humored way, to cite me before the nearest
justice to show cause why I detained her in my house!"
"Well, you could easily do that, I suppose, and she could no longer
oppose your authority."
"No; that is just what I couldn't do; I couldn't show any legal rights
to detain Capitola."
"Humph! That complicates the case very much!"
"Yes; and much more than you think; for I wish to keep Capitola until
she is of legal age. I do not wish that she should fall into the hands
of her perfidious guardian until I shall be able to bring legal proof of
his perfidy."
"Then it appears that this girl has received foul play from her
friends?"
"Foul play! I should think so! Gabriel Le Noir has very nearly put his
neck into a halter."
"Gabriel Le Noir! Colonel Le Noir, our neighbor!" exclaimed the
minister.
"Exactly so. Parson, you have given me your word as a Christian minister
to be silent forever concerning this interview, or until I give you
leave to speak of it."
"Yes, major, and I repeat my promise; but, indeed, sir, you astound me!"
"Listen, and let astonishment rise to consternation. I will tell you who
Capitola is. You, sir, have been in this neighborhood only ten years,
and, consequently, you know Gabriel Le Noir only as the proprietor of
Hidden House, a widower with a grown son----"
"And as a gentleman of irreproachable reputation, in good standing both
in the church and in the county."
"Ex-actly! A man that pays his pew rent, gives good dinners and takes
off his hat to women and clergymen! Well, sir, this gentleman of
irreproachable manners and morals--this citizen of consideration in the
community--this member in good standing with the church--has qualified
himself for twenty years' residence in the penitentiary, even if not for
the exaltation of a hangman's halter!"
"Sir, I am inexpressibly shocked to hear you say so, and I must still
believe that there is some great mistake."
"Wait until I tell you! I, Ira Warfield, have known Gabriel Le Noir as a
villain for the last eighteen years. I tell you so without scruple, and
hold myself ready to maintain my words in field or forum, by sword or
law! Well, having known him so long for such a knave, I was in no manner
surprised to discover some six months ago that he was also a criminal,
and only needed exposure to become a felon!"
"Sir, sir! this is strong language!"
"I am willing to back it with 'life, liberty and sacred honor,' as the
Declaration of Independence has it. Listen: Some sixteen years ago,
before you came to take this pastoral charge, the Hidden House was
occupied by old Victor Le Noir, the father of Eugene, the heir, and of
Gabriel, the present usurper. The old man died, leaving a will to this
effect--the landed estate, including the coal and iron mines, the Hidden
House and all the negroes, stock, furniture and other personal property
upon the premises to his eldest son Eugene, with the proviso that if
Eugene should die without issue, the landed estate, houses, negroes,
etc., should descend to his younger brother Gabriel. To Gabriel he left
his bank stock and blessing."
"An equitable will," observed the minister.
"Yes; but hear! At the time of his father's death Eugene was traveling
in Europe. On receiving the news he immediately returned home, bringing
with him a lovely young creature, a mere child, that he presented to his
astounded neighbors as Madame Eugene Le Noir! I declare to you there was
one simultaneous outcry of shame, that he should have trapped into
matrimony a creature so infantile, for she was scarcely fourteen years
of age!"
"It was indeed highly improper," said the minister.
"So thought all the neighborhood; but when they found out how it
happened, disapproval was changed to commendation. She was the daughter
of a French patriot. Her father and mother had both perished on the
scaffold in the sacred cause of liberty; she was thrown helpless,
friendless and penniless upon the cold charity of the world; Providence
cast her in the way of our sensitive and enthusiastic young traveler; he
pitied her; he loved her, and was casting about in his own mind how he
could help without compromising her, when the news of his father's
illness summoned him home. Then, seeing no better way of protecting her,
after a little hesitation upon account of her tender age, he married her
and brought with him."
"Good deeds, we know, must be rewarded in heaven, since on earth they
are so often punished."
"He did not long enjoy his bride. She was just the most beautiful
creature that ever was seen--with a promise of still more glorious
beauty in riper years. I have seen handsome women and pretty women--but
Madame Eugene Le Noir was the only perfectly beautiful woman I ever saw
in my long life! My own aged eyes seemed 'enriched' only to look at her!
She adored Eugene, too; any one could see that. At first she spoke
English in 'broken music,' but soon her accent became as perfect as if
she had been native born. How could it have been otherwise, when her
teacher and inspirer was love? She won all hearts with her loveliness!
Humph! hear me, an old fool--worse--an Old Hurricane--betrayed into
discourses of love and beauty merely by the remembrance of Madame Eugene
Le Noir! Ah, bright, exotic flower! she did not bloom long. The bride
had scarcely settled down into the wife when one night Eugene Le Noir
did not come home as usual. The next day his dead body, with a bullet in
his brain, was found in the woods around the Hidden House. The murderer
was never discovered. Gabriel Le Noir came in haste from the military
post where he had been stationed. Madame Eugene was never seen abroad
after the death of her husband. It was reported that she had lost her
reason, a consequence that surprised no one. Eugene having died without
issue, and his young widow being mad, Gabriel, by the terms of his
father's will, stepped at once into the full possession of the whole
property."
"Something of all this I have heard before," said the minister.
"Very likely, for these facts and falsehoods were the common property of
the neighborhood. But what you have not heard before, and what is not
known to any now living, except the criminals, the victims and myself,
is that, three months after the death of her husband, Madame Eugene Le
Noir gave birth to twins--one living, one dead. The dead child was
privately buried; the living one, together with the nurse that was the
sole witness of the birth, was abducted."
"Great heavens! can this be true?" exclaimed the minister, shocked
beyond all power of self-control.
"True as gospel! I have proof enough to carry conviction to any honest
breast--to satisfy any caviller--except a court of justice. You shall
hear. You remember the dying woman whom you dragged me out in the
snow-storm to see--blame you!"
"Yes."
"She was the abducted nurse, escaped and returned. It was to make a
deposition to the facts I am about to relate that she sent you to fetch
me," said Old Hurricane; and with that he commenced and related the
whole dark history of crime comprised in the nurse's dying deposition.
They examined the instrument together, and Old Hurricane again related,
in brief, the incidents of his hurried journey to New York; his meeting
and identifying Capitola and bringing her home in safety to his house.
"And thus," said the old man, "you perceive that this child whose birth
was feloniously concealed, and who was cast away to perish among the
wretched beggars, thieves and street-walkers of New York, is really the
only living child of the late Eugene Le Noir, and the sole inheritrix of
the Hidden House, with its vast acres of fields, forests, iron and coal
mines, water power, steam mills, furnaces and foundries--wealth that I
would not undertake to estimate within a million of dollars--all of
which is now held and enjoyed by that usurping villain, Gabriel Le
Noir!"
"But," said the minister, gravely, "you have, of course, commenced
proceedings on the part of your protege."
"Listen; I will tell you what I have done. When I first brought Cap home
I was moved not only by the desire of wreaking vengeance upon a most
atrocious miscreant who had done me an irreparable injury, but also by
sympathy for the little witch who had won my heart at first sight.
Therefore, you may judge I lost no time in preparing to strike a double
blow which should ruin my own mortal enemy and reinstate my favorite in
her rights. With this view, immediately on my return home, I sent for
Breefe, my confidential attorney, and laid the whole matter before him."
"And he----"
"To my dismay he told me that, though the case was clear enough, it was
not sufficiently strong, in a legal point of view, to justify us in
bringing suit; for that the dying deposition of the mulatto nurse could
not be received as evidence in our county courts."
"You knew that before, sir, I presume."
"Of course I did; but I thought it was a lawyer's business to get over
such difficulties; and I assure you, parson, that I flew into a passion
and cursed court and county law and lawyers to my heart's content. I
would have quarreled with old Breefe then and there, only Breefe won't
get excited. He very coolly advised me to keep the matter close and my
eyes open, and gather all the corroborative testimony I could find, and
that, in the meantime, he would reflect upon the best manner of
proceeding."
"I think, Major Warfield, that his counsel was wise and disinterested.
But tell me, sir, of the girl's mother. Is it not astonishing--in fact,
is it not perfectly incomprehensible--that so lovely a woman as you have
represented her to be should have consented to the concealment, if not
to the destruction, of her own legitimate offspring?"
"Sir, to me it is not incomprehensible at all. She was at once an orphan
and a widow; a stranger in a strange land; a poor, desolate,
broken-hearted child, in the power of the cunningest and most
unscrupulous villain that the Lord ever suffered to live! I wonder at
nothing that he might have deceived or frightened her into doing."
"Heaven forgive us! Have I known that man for ten years to hear this
account of him at last? But tell me, sir, have you really any true idea
of what has been the fate of the poor young widow?"
"No; not the slightest. Immediately after his brother's funeral, Gabriel
Le Noir gave out that Madame Eugene had lost her reason through
excessive grief, soon after which he took her with him to the North,
and, upon his return alone, reported that he had left her in a
celebrated lunatic asylum. The story was probable enough, and received
universal belief. Only now I do not credit it, and do not know whether
the widow be living or dead; or, if living, whether she be mad or sane;
if dead, whether she came to her end by fair means or foul!"
"Merciful heaven, sir! you do not mean to say----"
"Yes; I do mean to say; and if you would like to know what is on my
private mind I'll tell you. I believe that Madame Eugene Le Noir has
been treacherously made away with by the same infernal demon at whose
instigation her husband was murdered and her child stolen."
The minister seemed crushed beneath the overwhelming weight of this
communication; he passed his hand over his brow and thence down his face
and sighed deeply. For a few moments he seemed unable to reply, and when
he spoke it was only to say:
"In this matter, Major Warfield, I can offer you no counsel better than
that of your confidential attorney--follow the light that you have until
it lead you to the full elucidation of this affair; and may heaven grant
that you may find Colonel Le Noir less guilty than you apprehend."
"Parson, humbug! When charity drivels it ought to be turned off by
justice! I will follow the little light I have. I suspect, from the
description, that the wretch who at Le Noir's instance carried off the
nurse and child was no other than the notorious Black Donald. I have
offered an additional thousand dollars for his apprehension, and if he
is taken he will be condemned to death, make a last dying speech and
confession and give up his accomplices, the accomplished Colonel Le Noir
among the rest!"
"If the latter really was an accomplice, there could be no better way of
discovering the fact than to bring this Black Donald to justice; but I
greatly fear that there is little hope of that," said the minister.
"Aye, but there is! Listen! The long impunity enjoyed by this desperado
has made him daring to fatuity. Why, I was within a hair's breadth of
capturing him myself a few days ago."
"Ha! is it possible?" asked the minister, with a look of surprise and
interest.
"Aye, was I; and you shall hear all about it," said Old Hurricane. And
upon that he commenced and told the minister the adventure of Capitola
with Black Donald at Hurricane Hall.
The minister was amazed, yet could not forbear to say:
"It seems to me, however, that it was Capitola who was in a hair's
breadth of capturing this notorious desperado."
"Pooh! she clung to him like the reckless lunatic that she is; but Lord,
he would have carried her off on his back if it had not been for me."
The minister smiled a little to himself and then said:
"This protege of yours is a very remarkable girl, as interesting to me
in her character as she is in her history; her very spirit, courage and
insubordination make her singularly hard to manage and apt to go astray.
With your permission I will make her acquaintance, with the view of
seeing what good I can do her."
"Pray do so, for then you will be better able to counsel me how to
manage the capricious little witch who, if I attempt to check her in her
wild and dangerous freedom of action, tells me plainly that liberty is
too precious a thing to be exchanged for food and clothing, and that,
rather than live in bondage, she will throw herself upon the protection
of the court. If she does that the game is up. Le Noir, against whom we
can as yet prove nothing, would claim her as his niece and ward, and get
her into his power for the purpose of making way with her, as he did
with her father and mother."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, sir! no more of that until we have further
evidence," said the minister, uneasily, adding, "I will see your very
interesting protege to-morrow."
"Do, do! to-morrow, to-day, this hour, any time!" said Major Warfield,
as he cordially took leave of the pastor.