Mr. Fairfax was borne to his own dwelling upon a litter, amidst the
universal regrets and lamentations of the people. The condition of his
own immediate family may be more easily imagined than described. The
most heart-rending shrieks pierced the air when it was announced to the
female part of it that the amiable and generous head of their house had
been basely shot,--by whom he knew not, nor could he form a conjecture.
The deed was perpetrated a few moments after he had himself shot the
buck. He immediately fell from his horse and was for a time perfectly
unconscious of his condition. When he revived he found his horse gone
and himself so weakened from loss of blood that he was unable to stand.
His only resource was his trumpet, upon which he made repeated efforts
to summon his companions, but even the sound of his horn was so feeble
that it could not have been heard more than a few rods from the spot.
While he was in this helpless condition he chanced to discover three men
fishing at the base of the river bank, whom he attempted to summon to
his aid, but the sound of the water prevented them from hearing him.
With great difficulty and suffering he was at length enabled to crawl
down the hill to such a distance that he might be heard, and was thence
borne to the city in their boat, as the reader has already been
informed.
The surgeon, after examining his wound, pronounced it to be of the most
alarming character, and assured Bacon, apart from the family that he had
little hopes for the life of his patron, who after the exhaustion of his
painful journey and the succeeding intense pain caused by the probing of
his wounds had fallen into a deep sleep.
Sometime during the morning which has been described in the preceding
chapter, and while the hunting party were yet enjoying themselves
undisturbed by any untoward accident, Bacon had invited Virginia to
accompany him in his first stroll through the garden since his illness.
She complied with more alacrity than had been usual with her of late,
hoping that the refreshing sweets of a summer morning and the cheering
sight of birds and flowers, would dispel the gloomy misanthropy which
had settled upon his countenance since his disappointment at not being
able to join the chase.
After a silent promenade through the shady walks, they seated themselves
in the little summer house already mentioned, and Bacon thus broke the
embarrassing silence.
"Virginia, the current of events seems to be hurrying us on to a painful
crisis! It is impossible for me to shut my eyes to such of them at
least, as relate more particularly to myself. My position in the
society in which I now move, is daily becoming more painful to me. I am
constantly subjected to the impertinence of those who imagine that they
have, or perhaps really have, some reason to complain of the protection
and countenance afforded to me by your noble father."
"Trust then, Nathaniel, to his and our continued confidence and esteem,
and less to the morbid sensibility which disturbs you, and all will soon
be well again."
"Not so, Virginia. If we were in a little community by ourselves, I
could indeed give my whole mind and soul to such enjoyments as the
society of your family has already afforded to me, forgetting all the
world besides, and never listening for a moment to ambitious hopes and
aspiring thoughts. But in this proud and aristocratic circle, I must
soon be either more or less than I am at present."
"Why must you be more or less than you are, Nathaniel?" said Virginia,
with unaffected and bewitching _naivete_.
"Is it possible, Virginia, that you do not see the reason why? Have you
witnessed the fierce struggles contending at my heart and never formed a
surmise as to the real cause?"
"Except the morbid sensitiveness to which I have already alluded, and
its very insufficient cause, I declare that I know of none."
"Is it possible. Good Heavens! and must I at last break through the
restraints which I had imposed upon myself? Must I trample upon the
generous hospitality of the father to lay my heart open before his
daughter?" Her countenance underwent an instantaneous change, and while
he continued, her eyes fell beneath his ardent gaze, and her head sank
upon her bosom in confusion.
"I will indeed trust to the flattering delusion which hope whispers in
my ear, that perhaps your father himself knows enough of me and of my
origin to absolve me from these restraints. It must be so,
Virginia--else he had never trusted a heart, young and susceptible like
mine, to the constant influence of beauty like yours," and he took her
unresisting hand, "joined with such perfect innocence and such childlike
simplicity as never till this moment to be conscious of its power. Oh,
Virginia, I would fain believe, that he foresaw and approved of the
result which he could not but anticipate. What he approves will his
daughter's voice confirm?--No answer! Will you not vouchsafe one little
word to keep my sinking hopes alive!--You are offended; your countenance
speaks the language which your tongue is unaccustomed to utter!"
"What should I say?" answered Virginia; "would you have me promise a
return of love whose indulgence is dependent on contingency? Is it kind,
is it proper to urge me upon this subject under existing circumstances?"
"By heavens, Virginia, there shall be no contingency of my making! I
have crossed the Rubicon, and you shall have the knowledge as you have
had possession of my whole soul from the days of our infancy. 'Tis
yours, Virginia, wholly yours; soul, mind and heart, all yours. Mould
them as you will, reject me if you must, they are still yours. I swear
never to profane the shrine of this first and only love by offering them
up on any other. They are offered now, because my destiny so wills it.
We are the creatures of circumstances. I have vainly struggled against
the overwhelming tide which has borne me to this point. I am goaded
onward by insult--beset with menaces, and torn by the storms of such a
passion as never man before encountered. Can you, dear Virginia,
vouchsafe to me some measure of relief from these distracting emotions?
Say that you would have been mine under other circumstances! Say that
you will never wed that proud and imperious Beverly! Say any thing,
Virginia, which shall calm the tumults of my bosom, and feed my hopes
for the future." While he thus spoke, the blushing maiden was evidently
labouring under emotions little less powerful than his own. Her previous
air of offended feminine dignity was fast melting into sympathy, with
the impassioned feelings of the excited youth. She felt for his peculiar
griefs and cares, and shared his warmer sentiments. The youth perceived
the softening mood, and continued.
"Speak, I pray you, Virginia, I am in your hands. Speak me into
existence, or banish me from your presence!"
"I do not know, Nathaniel," said Virginia, after many attempts to give
utterance to her thoughts, "whether it is proper at all times to speak
the truth, but I will not deceive you now. There does indeed seem to be
a peculiar concurrence of circumstances around us, and more perhaps than
you are yourself aware of. I did not intend to deceive you, or lead you
astray; when I told you a few moments since that I knew nothing of any
other struggle than that arising from your own excited feelings, I spoke
the truth, but perhaps not the entire truth;" and as she spoke, a lovely
blush suffused her neck and downcast face; "I knew of other struggles
indeed, but not your's, Nathaniel."
"Were they yours, Virginia, and of the same nature? say they were, and
heaven bless for ever the tongue that utters it."
"That you have to ask, does more honour to my discretion, than I have
ascribed to it myself of late. I have had painful fears that I should
have little to tell on an occasion like the present, should it ever
come, with my father's approbation. And if I have now overstepped the
bounds of that proviso, it was in the hope of calming your troubled
spirits, and preventing a catastrophe upon which I have looked with
dreadful anticipation, since the night of the insurrection."
"And will you indeed be mine?"
"I will, Nathaniel, whenever you gain my father's approbation; but
without it, never."
At this moment the garden gate was heard to creak upon its hinges, (most
unmusically to Bacon's ears,) and Harriet Harrison came tripping over
beds and flowers, all out of breath, her cheeks glowing with the
heightened colour of exercise, and her eyes sparkling with mischief just
ready to explode.
"Oh, Virginia! Virginia! such news!" was her first exclamation; "But
shall I tell it before Mr. Bacon?"
"Yes, if it is of the usual kind."
"Well, upon your own head be the consequences. I have accidentally
overheard such a secret! You must know that your Aunt Berkley has been
at our house this morning, and I overheard her tell my mother that there
was to be a great wedding immediately, and that I was to be one of the
brides-maids. What! no tell-tale guilty blush? Well, who do you think is
to be the bride-groom, and who the bride?"
"Indeed, Harriet, I cannot even guess."
"The blissful man, then is Beverly--but can you name his bride?"
"I should not go far hence for an answer, if you had not announced your
nomination for a secondary office."
"O fie, fie, Virginia, I did not think you could play the hypocrite so
well. I will tell you who it is then, but you must not breathe it even
to the winds, nor you, Mr. Bacon. It is a sly arch little damsel, about
your age and figure; by name Virginia Fairfax!" And with, these words,
she burst into a loud laugh, pointing to her companion with her finger,
and then tripped away again towards the gate without waiting to see the
effect of her communication; but stopping with the gate in her hand, she
cried--"But remember, Virginia, Charles Dudley is not to stand up with
me; we don't speak now." And then she flew away, her hat hanging by the
riband round her neck, and her raven ringlets flying loose around her
temples. Virginia sat as one without life or motion, her face deadly
pale, and her eye preternaturally clear and glassy, but without a tear.
Her respiration was hurried and oppressed, and her countenance
expressive of high and noble resolves in the midst of the keenest mental
suffering. She knew whence her aunt obtained her information, and in its
communication to others in the confidence of the Governor, before she
had been consulted, she saw the tyrannical determination of that
arbitrary old man to consummate this hated union without the least
regard to her wishes or her feelings.
As these convictions flashed upon her mind, they called up firm and
resolute determinations, even in her gentle bosom! she was stung into
resistance by the tyrannical and high handed measures of her uncle, and
resolved to resist upon the threshold. Bacon's physical frame was not so
steady, or his nerves in his present mood so well strung by high
resolves of independent action. He too saw by whom the blow was aimed,
and upon whose head it would principally fall, and he trembled for the
consequences to his gentle companion. He did not know the strength of
her independent mind, and the endurance and fortitude with which she
would carry her purposes into execution. He knew her to be gentle and
kind and superlatively lovely, but as yet she had endured no
trials,--her courage and fortitude had been put to no test. The very
amiable qualities which had won his affections, served only to increase
his doubts as to her capacity to resist and endure what he too plainly
saw awaited her. He had yet to learn that these are almost always found
united in the female bosom with a signal power of steady and calm
resistance to oppression. To this resolution had Virginia arrived, when
his more turbulent and masculine emotions burst from his tongue as he
seized her hand, "Swear to me, Virginia, before high Heaven, that you
will never marry this proud heir of wealth, and worldly honours."
"Upon one Condition."
"Name it! if it is possible, it is done!"
"That you from this moment give up all idea of a meeting with Frank
Beverly, which I know has only thus long been delayed by your wounds and
illness." He dropped her hand and writhed upon his seat in agony--the
cold perspiration bursting from his pale forehead, as he covered it
with his hands. But presently standing up he exclaimed, "Great God! and
can you ask this of me, Virginia? Is my honour of so little value to
you, that you can ask me to betray it? You heard the insult! You saw the
dagger aimed in the dark! Ay, and saw it strike upon a bare and wounded
nerve! Shall I not resist? Is an assassin to thrust the point of his
steel into the very apple of my eye, and meet with no resistance?
Instinct itself would strike back the cowardly blow. Another might
forego the measure of his revenge for an ordinary insult, but placed as
I am, an elevated mark for impertinence and malignity to shoot at, with
nothing but my single arm to defend me; no line of noble and heroic
ancestors to support my pretensions, and my rank in the community; no
living relations to give the lie to his calumnies! Standing alone amidst
a host of powerful enemies, shall I be stricken down by a cowardly
maligner, and never turn to strike one blow for my good name, my
mother's honour, my father's memory, and my own standing in society? No,
no, Virginia; you cannot, you will not, require me to promise this. One
evidence I must and will give to the calumniator, that I come of no
churl's blood."
"But, Nathaniel, did you not resent and thus return his injury upon the
spot?"
"Ay, truly, I did hurl defiance in the craven's teeth, but that only
throws the demand for satisfaction upon his shoulders, so that when it
is made, I may at once atone for his, and take ample reparation for my
own deep wrongs."
"Promise me, then, that you will but act with Frank henceforth on the
defensive? Remember he is my kinsman."
"I do promise; and now promise me in your turn never to marry this
kinsman, unless I give my consent, or you should be absolved from your
obligation by my death, or some other irremediable barrier."
"I promise, Nathaniel."
Scarcely had the words issued from her lips, when the clanking of
stirrups and clattering of a horse's hoofs at full speed, were heard
outside the garden wall.
Into what a state of consternation and dismay the family was thrown by
the appearance of the bloody and panting charger at his stable door
without his master, the reader may already have imagined.