An old worshipful gentleman who had a great estate,
That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate.
THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER.
But who the countless charms can draw
That grac'd his mistress true?
Such charms the old world seldom saw,
Nor oft, I ween, the new.
Her raven hair plays round her neck
Like tendrils of the vine;
Her cheeks, red, dewy rose-buds deck,
Her eyes like diamonds shine.
BRYAN AND PEREENE.
Anthony Warden had resided in Maryland for forty years before the
period of this story. During the greater portion of this time he
performed the duties of the Collector of the Proprietary's revenues in
the port. By the persuasion of Cecilius Calvert he had become a settler
in the New World, where he had received from his patron the grant of a
large tract of land, which, in progress of time, under a careful course
of husbandry, rendered him a man of easy fortune. One portion of this
tract lay adjacent to the town, and stretched along the creek of St.
Inigoe's, constituting an excellent farm of several hundred acres. Upon
this land the Collector had dwelt from an early period of his
settlement.
A certain sturdiness of character that matched the perils of that
adventurous colonial life, and a vigorous intellect, gave Mr. Warden
great authority over the inhabitants of the province, which was
increased by the predominant honesty of purpose and plain, unpretending
directness of his nature. A bountiful purse and jocund temper enabled
and prompted him to indulge, almost without stint, that hospitality
which furnishes the most natural and appropriate enjoyment of those who
dwell remote from the busy marts of the world. His companionable habits
had left their tokens upon his exterior. His frame was corpulent, his
features strongly defined, his eye dark blue, with a mastiff kindness
in its glance. The flush of generous living had slightly overmastered
the wind-and-weather hue of his complexion, and given it the tints of a
ripe pear. Seventy years had beaten upon his poll without other badge
of conquest than that of a change of his brown locks to white;--their
volume was scarcely diminished, and they still fell in curls upon his
shoulders.
Two marriages had brought him a large family of children, of whom the
eldest (the only offspring of his first nuptials) was Alice Warden, a
maiden lady who now, well advanced in life, occupied the highest post
of authority in the household, which had, for several years past, been
transferred to her by the demise of the second wife. His sons had all
abandoned the paternal roof in the various pursuits of fortune, leaving
behind them, besides Mistress Alice, a sister, the youngest of the
flock, who, at the epoch at which I am about to present her, was just
verging towards womanhood.
The dwelling of the Collector stood upon the high bank formed by the
union of St. Inigoe's creek and St. Mary's river. It was, according to
the most approved fashion of that day, built of imported brick, with a
double roof penetrated by narrow and triangular-capped windows. The
rooms were large and embellished with carved wainscots and a profusion
of chiseled woodwork, giving them an elaborate and expensive aspect.
This main building overlooked, with a magisterial and protecting air, a
group of single-storied offices and out-houses which were clustered
around, one of which was appropriated by the Collector as his place of
business, and may still be seen with its decayed book-shelves, a
deserted ruin hard by the mansion which yet survives in tolerable
repair. This spacious domicil, with its broad porch, cottage-like
appendages and latticed sheds, was embosomed in the shade of elms and
mulberries, whose brown foliage, fanned by the autumnal breeze,
murmured in unison with the plashing tide that beat against the pebbles
immediately below. A garden in the rear, with trellised and vine-clad
gateways, and walks lined with box, which the traveller may yet behold
in venerable luxuriance, furnished good store of culinary dainties;
whilst a lawn, in front, occupying some two or three acres and bounded
by the cliff which formed the headland on the river, lay open to the
sun, and gave from the water an unobstructed view of the mansion. The
taste displayed in these embellishments, the neatness of the grounds,
the low, flower-spangled hedge of thorn that guarded the cliff, the
clumps of rose trees and other ornamental shrubs, disposed to gratify
the eye in the shifting seasons of their bloom, the various accessories
of rustic seats, bowers and parterres--all united to present an
agreeable and infallible index of that purity of mind which brought
into assemblage such simple and attractive elements of beauty.
All around the immediate domain of the dwelling-house were orchards,
woodlands and cultivated fields, with the usual barns and other
structures necessary in the process of agriculture;--the whole region
presenting a level plain, some fifty or sixty feet above the tide, of
singular richness as a landscape, and no less agreeable to be looked
upon for its associations with the idea of comfortable independence in
the proprietor. This homestead had obtained the local designation of
the Rose Croft,--a name, in some degree, descriptive of the predominant
embellishment of the spot.
In his attire, Master Anthony Warden, the worshipful Collector (to give
him his usual style of address in the province) exhibited some tendency
towards the coxcombry of his day. It was marked by that scrupulous
observance of the prerogative of rank and age which characterised the
costume of the olden time,--smacking no little of the flavour of the
official martinet. Authority, amongst our ancestors, was wont to borrow
consequence from show. The broad line which separated gentle from
simple was recognised, in those days, not less strongly in the
habiliments of the person than in his nurture and manners. The
divisions between the classes of society were not more authentically
distinguished in any outward sign than in the embroidered velvet or
cloth of the man of wealth, and the plain serge, worsted, or leather of
the craftsman. The Collector of St. Mary's, on festive occasions, went
forth arrayed much after the manner in which Leslie has represented Sir
Roger de Coverly, in his admirable painting of that knight; and
although he was too vain of his natural locks to adopt the periwig of
that period, yet he had trained his luxuriant tresses into a studied
imitation of this artificial adornment. His embroidered coat of drab
velvet, with wadded skirts and huge open cuffs, his lace wristbands,
his ample vest, and white lamb's-wool hose rolled above his knees, his
buckled shoe and three-cornered hat--all adjusted with a particularity
that would put our modern foppery to shame--gave to the worthy burgess
of St. Mary's a substantial ascendancy and an unquestioned regard, that
rendered him, next to the Proprietary, the most worshipful personage in
the province.
This pedantry of costume and the circumspect carriage which it exacted,
were pleasantly contrasted with the flowing vivacity of the wearer,
engendering by their concourse an amusing compound, which I might call
a fettered and pinioned alacrity of demeanour, the rigid stateliness of
exterior seeming rather ineffectually to encase, as a half-bursting
chrysalis, the wings of a gay nature.
Mr. Warden was reputed to be stubborn in opinion. The good people of
the town, aware of his pertinacity in this particular, had no mind to
make points with him, but, on the contrary, rather corroborated him in
his dogmatism by an amiable assentation; so that, it is said, he grew
daily more peremptory. This had become so much his prerogative, that
the Lord Proprietary himself gave way to it with as good a grace as the
rest of the inhabitants.
It may be imagined that so general a submission to this temper would
have the tendency to render him a little passionate. They say it was a
rich sight to see him in one of his flashes, which always took the
bystanders by surprise, like thunder in the midst of sunshine; but
these explosions were always short-lived, and rather left a more
wholesome and genial clearness in the atmosphere of his affections.
The household at the Rose Croft, I have hinted, was regulated by
Mistress Alice, who had, some time before our acquaintance with her,
reached that period of life at which the female ambition for display is
prone to subside into a love of domestic pursuits. It was now her chief
worldly care and delight to promote the comfort of those who
congregated around the family hearth. In the administration of this
office, it may be told to her praise, that she manifested that
unpretending good sense which is a much more rare and estimable quality
than many others of better acceptation with the world. As was natural
to her tranquil position and kindly temper, her feelings had taken a
ply towards devotion, which father Pierre did not omit to encourage and
confirm by all the persuasions enjoined by the discipline of the Romish
church. The gentle solicitude with which the ministers of that ancient
faith watch and assist the growing zeal of its votaries; the
captivation of its venerable ceremonies, and the familiar and endearing
tone in which it addresses itself to the regard of its children,
sufficiently account for its sway over so large a portion of mankind,
and especially for its hold upon the affections of the female breast.
Upon the thoughtful character of Alice Warden this influence shed a
mellow and attractive light, and gave to the performance of her daily
duties that orderly and uninterrupted cheerfulness which showed the
content of her spirit. She found an engrossing labour of love in
superintending the education of her sister. Blanche Warden had now
arrived within a span of her eighteenth year. Alice had guarded her
path from infancy with a mother's tenderness, ministering to her
enjoyments and instilling into her mind all that her own attainments,
circumscribed, it is true, within a narrow circle, enabled her to
teach. The young favourite had grown up under this domestic nurture,
aided by the valuable instructions of father Pierre, who had the
guidance of her studies, a warm-hearted girl, accomplished much beyond
the scant acquisitions ordinarily, at that day, within the reach of
women, and distinguished for that confiding gentleness of heart and
purity of thought and word which the caresses of friends, the
perception of the domestic affections, and seclusion from the busy
world are likely to engender in an ardent and artless nature.
Of the beauty of the Rose of St. Mary's (for so contemporaries were
wont to designate her) tradition speaks with a poetical fervour. I have
heard it said that Maryland, far-famed for lovely women, hath not since
had a fairer daughter. The beauty which lives in expression was
eminently hers; that beauty which is scarcely to be caught by the
painter,--which, changeful as the surface of the welling fountain where
all the fresh images of nature are for ever shifting and sparkling with
the glories of the mirror, defies the limner's skill. In stature she
was neither short nor tall, but distinguished by a form of admirable
symmetry both for grace and activity. Her features, it is scarce
necessary to say, were regular,--but not absolutely so, for, I know not
why, perfect regularity is a hinderance to expression. Eyes of dark
hazel, with long lashes that gave, by turns, a pensive and playful
light to her face, serving, at will, to curtain from the world the
thoughts which otherwise would have been read by friend and foe; hair
of a rich brown, glossy and, in some lights, even like the raven's
wing,--ample in volume and turning her brow and shoulders almost into
marble by the contrast; a complexion of spotless, healthful white and
red; a light, elastic step, responding to the gaiety of her heart; a
voice melodious and clear, gentle in its tones and various in its
modulation, according to the feeling it uttered;--these constituted no
inconsiderable items in the inventory of her perfections. Her spirit
was blithe, affectionate and quick in its sympathies; her ear credulous
to believe what was good, and slow to take an evil report. The
innocence of her thoughts kindled an habitual light upon her
countenance, which was only dimmed when the rough handling by fortune
of friend or kinsman was recounted to her, and brought forth the ready
tear--for that was ever as ready as her smile.
I might tell more of Blanche Warden, but that my task compels me to
hasten to the matter of my story.