YEAR 1798
THIS was one of the heaviest years in the whole course of my ministry.
The spring was slow of coming, and cold and wet when it did come; the
dibs were full, the roads foul, and the ground that should have been dry
at the seed-time, was as claggy as clay, and clung to the harrow. The
labour of man and beast was thereby augmented; and all nature being in a
state of sluggish indisposition, it was evident to every eye of
experience that there would be a great disappointment to the hopes of the
husbandman.
Foreseeing this, I gathered the opinion of all the most sagacious of my
parishioners, and consulted with them for a provision against the evil
day, and we spoke to Mr. Cayenne on the subject, for he had a talent by
common in matters of mercantile management. It was amazing, considering
his hot temper, with what patience he heard the grounds of our
apprehension, and how he questioned and sifted the experience of the old
farmers, till he was thoroughly convinced that all similar seed-times
were ever followed by a short crop. He then said, that he would prove
himself a better friend to the parish than he was thought. Accordingly,
as he afterwards told me himself, he wrote off that very night to his
correspondents in America, to buy for his account all the wheat and flour
they could get, and ship it to arrive early in the fall; and he bought up
likewise in countries round the Baltic great store of victual, and
brought in two cargoes to Irville on purpose for the parish, against the
time of need, making for the occasion a garnel of one of the warehouses
of the cotton-mill.
The event came to pass as had been foretold: the harvest fell short, and
Mr. Cayenne’s cargoes from America and the Baltic came home in due
season, by which he made a terrible power of money, clearing thousands on
thousands by post after post—making more profit, as he said himself, in
the course of one month, he believed, than ever was made by any
individual within the kingdom of Scotland in the course of a year.—He
said, however that he might have made more if he had bought up the corn
at home; but being convinced by us that there would be a scarcity, he
thought it his duty as an honest man to draw from the stores and
granaries of foreign countries, by which he was sure he would serve his
country, and be abundantly rewarded. In short, we all reckoned him
another Joseph when he opened his garnels at the cotton-mill, and, after
distributing a liberal portion to the poor and needy, selling the
remainder at an easy rate to the generality of the people. Some of the
neighbouring parishes, however, were angry that he would not serve them
likewise, and called him a wicked and extortionate forestaller; but he
made it plain to the meanest capacity, that if he did not circumscribe
his dispensation to our own bounds it would be as nothing. So that,
although he brought a wonderful prosperity in by the cotton-mill, and a
plenteous supply of corn in a time of famine, doing more in these things
for the people than all the other heritors had done from the beginning of
time, he was much reviled; even his bounty was little esteemed by my
people, because he took a moderate profit on what he sold to them.
Perhaps, however, these prejudices might be partly owing to their dislike
of his hasty temper, at least I am willing to think so; for it would
grieve me if they were really ungrateful for a benefit that made the
pressure of the time lie but lightly on them.
The alarm of the Irish rebellion in this year was likewise another source
of affliction to us; for many of the gentry coming over in great straits,
especially ladies and their children, and some of them in the hurry of
their flight having but little ready money, were very ill off. Some four
or five families came to the Cross-Keys in this situation, and the
conduct of Mr. Cayenne to them was most exemplary. He remembered his own
haste with his family from Virginia, when the Americans rebelled; and
immediately on hearing of these Irish refugees, he waited on them with
his wife and daughter, supplied them with money, invited them to his
house, made ploys to keep up their spirits, while the other gentry stood
back till they knew something of the strangers.
Among these destitute ladies was a Mrs. Desmond and her two daughters, a
woman of most august presence, being indeed more like one ordained to
reign over a kingdom, than for household purposes. The Miss Desmonds
were only entering their teens, but they also had no ordinary stamp upon
them. What made this party the more particular, was on account of Mr.
Desmond, who was supposed to be a united man with the rebels, and it was
known his son was deep in their plots; yet although this was all told to
Mr. Cayenne, by some of the other Irish ladies who were of the loyal
connexion, it made no difference with him, but, on the contrary, he acted
as if he thought the Desmonds the most of all the refugees entitled to
his hospitable civilities. This was a wonderment to our strait-laced
narrow lairds, as there was not a man of such strict government
principles in the whole country side as Mr. Cayenne: but he said he
carried his political principles only to the camp and the council. “To
the hospital and the prison,” said he, “I take those of a man”—which was
almost a Christian doctrine, and from that declaration Mr. Cayenne and me
began again to draw a little more cordially together; although he had
still a very imperfect sense of religion, which I attributed to his being
born in America, where even as yet, I am told, they have but a scanty
sprinkling of grace.
But before concluding this year, I should tell the upshot of the
visitation of the Irish, although it did not take place until some time
after the peace with France.
In the putting down of the rebels Mr. Desmond and his son made their
escape to Paris, where they stayed till the treaty was signed, by which,
for several years after the return to Ireland of the grand lady and her
daughters, as Mrs. Desmond was called by our commonalty, we heard nothing
of them. The other refugees repaid Mr. Cayenne his money with
thankfulness, and, on their restoration to their homes, could not
sufficiently express their sense of his kindness. But the silence and
seeming ingratitude of the Desmonds vexed him; and he could not abide to
hear the Irish rebellion mentioned without flying into a passion against
the rebels, which every body knew was owing to the ill return he had
received from that family. However, one afternoon, just about half an
hour before his wonted dinner hour, a grand equipage, with four horses
and outriders, stopped at his door, and who was in it but Mrs. Desmond
and an elderly man, and a young gentleman with an aspect like a lord. It
was her husband and son. They had come from Ireland in all their state
on purpose to repay with interest the money Mr. Cayenne had counted so
long lost, and to express in person the perpetual obligation which he had
conferred upon the Desmond family, in all time coming. The lady then
told him, that she had been so straitened in helping the poor ladies,
that it was not in her power to make repayment till Desmond, as she
called her husband, came home; and not choosing to assign the true
reason, lest it might cause trouble, she rather submitted to be suspected
of ingratitude than to an improper thing.
Mr. Cayenne was transported with this unexpected return, and a friendship
grew up between the families, which was afterwards cemented into
relationship by the marriage of the young Desmond with Miss Caroline
Cayenne. Some in the parish objected to this match, Mrs. Desmond being a
papist: but as Miss Caroline had received an episcopalian education, I
thought it of no consequence, and married them after their family
chaplain from Ireland, as a young couple both by beauty and fortune well
matched, and deserving of all conjugal felicity.