O, you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
The untuned and jarring senses O, wind up!
KING LEAR.
As soon as they reached the house of Armstrong, Dr. Elmer was sent
for, and to him Holden communicated the events of the morning, not
concealing his own relationship. This last particular was a case not
provided for in the books, or coming within the scope of the good
doctor's practice. Contenting himself, therefore, with ejaculating,
"Is this the lord Talbot, Uncle Gloster,
That hath so long been resident in France?"
he shook Holden by the hand as an evidence of welcome, and, without
hesitation, assented to the propriety of the Solitary's suggestion,
that the insanity of Armstrong and his attempted violence, should
be kept secret. Rest was prescribed by the doctor for Faith, whom,
contrary to her inclinations, he compelled to retire to her chamber,
whither he sent a composing draught, with assurances that her father
was doing well, which declaration, probably, had quite as much effect
in inducing the slumbers that succeeded, as the anodyne. He next
turned his attention to her father.
No one, without particular observation, would have remarked any change
in him. Upon returning home, he had quietly entered the parlor and sat
down in a large arm-chair, which was a favorite seat, looking first
around with a grave and pleased expression. His daughter was with him
then, who, indeed, until the arrival of the physician, had remained by
his side, and nothing seemed to please Armstrong so much as retaining
her hand in one of his, to pass the other over her silken hair, and
let it slide down over the pale cheeks, all the time gazing at her
with an appearance of infinite affection. But when the doctor felt his
pulse, he found it bounding like a frightened steed; and this symptom,
together with the heightened crimson of the cheeks, and deepening
blackness of the eyes, but too plainly revealed the access of violent
fever. Bleeding was in vogue in those days, and much practised, and
the skill of Elmer could suggest nothing better for the pressure
of blood on the brain, than letting blood. Having had, therefore,
Armstrong conducted to his chamber, he opened a vein, and bleeding him
till he fainted, he afterwards administered the medicines he thought
proper, enjoining the strictest quiet, promising to be with him every
moment that his professional engagements permitted. During the whole
Armstrong was passive, yielding himself like a child to all that was
required, and seeming to be in a beatitude, which made whatever might
occur of but little concernment. As the doctor was about leaving,
he accepted of Holden's proposal, which was rather uttered as a
determination, to remain, and send for his son. "If," thought Elmer,
"Holden is Armstrong's brother, he has a right to stay; if not, he has
at least saved Faith's life, as she says herself, and he knows after
all, a 'hawk from a hand-saw.' Young Holden, too, is a sensible
fellow, and I think I may trust them." In some such way thronged the
thoughts through Elmer's mind. "I will," he said to himself, "stop as
I pass Judge Bernard's house, to let Anne know that her friend
Faith is indisposed, and ask her to sleep with her to-night." Such,
accordingly, was, for a short time the composition of the family under
Mr. Armstrong's roof.
Once or twice daring the night Faith started in her sleep, and threw
her arm around her lovely companion, as if to ask for protection, and
Anne heard her moaning something indistinctly; but, on the whole, her
sleep was refreshing, and in the morning she awoke, paler, indeed, and
weaker than common, but with no other signs of illness about her.
"They will soon pass off," said the doctor. "It was a severe shock,
but youth and a good constitution are great odds."
But it was not so with Armstrong. The combined effects of loss of
blood and of the medicines he had taken, were unable to calm the
excitement of the nerves, much less produce drowsiness. All night he
lay with eyes wide open, burning with fever, and calling for drink.
But, although his body suffered, the exaltation of his mind continued
to triumph over pain, and, from the words that escaped him, from time
to time, it would seem as if he felt himself absolutely happy.
When Doctor Elmer came in the morning, and heard the report of Holden,
he expressed no surprise.
"It is as I supposed," he said. "He must have a run of fever, and what
the result may be, no mortal man can divine. Let us hope for the best,
while prepared for the worst."
Faith, from the moment she was permitted, was assiduous by the
bed-side of her father. The delusion with respect to Holden, which had
taken possession of him, whom, while continuing to recognize as his
brother, George, he would not believe was alive, fancying it was his
spirit, extended itself after a time to his daughter, whom also he
believed to be dead. So far as could be gathered from the disjointed
utterances that escaped him, he supposed that his own spirit was
trying to escape from the body, and that the spirits of his brother
and daughter had been sent to comfort and assist him.
Thus tossing and tumbling on a heated bed, which the delicious breath
of June, streaming through the open windows, could not cool for him,
passed nine long wretched days, during which the confinement of both
Holden and Faith was almost incessant, for whenever either moved from
the bed or made a motion as if to leave the room, Armstrong would
intreat them, in the most touching tones and pathetic language, which
neither the brother's nor daughter's heart could withstand, not to
leave him, for he was just then ready, only one more struggle was
necessary, and he should be free. And besides carrying into his
insanity a habit, of which we have spoken, he would insist on holding
their hands. The touch of their heavenly bodies, he said, sent a
sensation of roses and lilies through his earthly body; they refined
him and attracted him upward, and he was sure he had sometimes risen a
little way into the air. "O!" he would exclaim, "I never knew before,
how much flowers resemble spirits. They smile and laugh alike, and
their voices are very similar."
On the tenth day the fever abated, and Armstrong gradually fell into
a long, deep sleep. So long, so profound was the slumber that the
attendants about his bed feared that it might be one from which there
was no awaking. But the orders of the doctor, who, at the crisis was
present the whole time, were peremptory that the patient should not
be disturbed, but Nature allowed, in her own way, to work out her
beneficent purposes. Armstrong then slept many, many hours, in that
still and darkened room, while attentive ears were listening to the
deeper drawn breath, and anxious eyes watching the slightest change of
countenance.
At last he awoke, and the first word he spoke, so low, that even in
the hushed chamber it was scarcely audible, was, "Faith." A smile of
wonderful sweetness illuminated his face, as he tried to extend his
hand, white as the snowy coverlet on which it rested, toward her, but
so weak was he, that only a motion of the fingers could be perceived.
Faith, through the tears which fell upon the hand she covered with
kisses, could mark the light of returned intelligence, and her heart
swelled with an almost overpowering emotion.
"O, doctor," she said, turning to Elmer, "say he is safe."
"I hope so," answered Elmer, "but control yourself. I forbid all
agitation."
The life of Armstrong, for some days longer, vibrated in the
balance. So excessive was the weakness consequent upon the tremendous
excitement through which he had passed, that sometimes it appeared
hardly possible that nature could sufficiently rally, to bring the
delicate machinery again into healthy action. But stealing slowly
along, insensibly, the gracious work went on, until one day the
anxious daughter had the happiness to hear from the lips of the doctor
that her father was out of danger.
It seems a strange thing, but so it is, that the events of the
dreadful day, when, as if by a heavenly interposition, his hand had
been arrested when raised to take away the life of his daughter,
and also of the time when he lay insane upon his bed, were blotted
completely from the memory of Armstrong. The scratches of a school-boy
on a slate were never more perfectly erased by a wet sponge. All his
conduct proves this. When he beheld his brother after the return of
reason, he addressed him as Mr. Holden, and never, in conversation
with any one, did he make allusion to his aberration of mind. Nor
during the short period while he remained on earth, did he know of his
conduct on the banks of the Wootúppocut. The secret was confined to
the bosoms of a few, and it was mutually agreed that it was wisest it
should be concealed.
It was not until the health of Armstrong seemed completely restored
that his brother, in the presence of his son and of Faith, disclosed
his relationship. He had made it known before to his son, to whom, as
well as to his father, we must, for the brief period our acquaintance
with them continues, give their true name of Armstrong. It may well be
conceived, that young Armstrong had no objections to recognize in the
lovely Faith a cousin, nor was she unwilling to find a relative in the
amiable and intelligent young man.
But, if they were pleased, how shall we express the happiness of James
Armstrong? The sting of a sorrow that had poisoned so many years of
his life was extracted. If he had been the cause of misfortune to his
brother, he had it now in his power to repair, in a degree, the wrong
he had inflicted. Nor had he recovered only a brother, but also
a nephew, whom he could love and respect, and who would, in some
measure, supply the loss of his son, by transmitting his family name,
the extinction of which no man can regard with indifference.
Long was the conversation of the brothers after their children had
left them to themselves. Together they wandered over the scenes of
childhood, recalling its minutest, and, what would be to strangers,
uninteresting scenes, George Armstrong listening, with a sad pleasure,
to the details of his parents' lives after his own escape from the
Asylum, and, also, to changes in the family of his brother since their
death; while James Armstrong as eagerly drank in the particulars of
his brother George's adventures. But little respecting the latter need
be added, after what has been disclosed.
We already know, that George Armstrong married, in one of the Western
States, and commenced the life of a pioneer, and that, in a night
attack, his cabin had been burned, his wife killed, and his son
carried away by the savages. It would seem that the effect of these
misfortunes was again to disturb his reason, and that, urged by a
passion for revenge, he had made himself terrible, under the name of
Onontio (given by the natives, with what meaning is unknown,) among
the Western Indians. But, after a time, the feeling passed away, and
he became, somehow, a subject of religious impressions, which assumed
the shape of a daily expectation of the Coming of Christ, joined with
a firm belief in the doctrine of predestination. In this frame of
mind, influenced by a feeling like the instinct, perhaps, of the bird
which returns from the southern clime, whither the cold of winter has
driven it, to seek again the tree where hung the parental nest, George
Armstrong came back to the place of his birth. He was supposed to
be dead, and, even without any such prepossession, no one would have
recognized him; for, the long beard he had suffered to grow, and the
sorrow and hardship he had undergone, gave him an appearance of much
more advanced age than his elder brother, and effectually disguised
him. Why, instead of taking possession of the cabin, on Salmon Island,
and secluding himself from society, he did not make himself known to
his brother and demand his inheritance, always puzzled the gossips of
Hillsdale, and yet, it appears to us, susceptible of explanation.
When he came from the West, he felt, at first, as if the ties which
had united him to the world, were broken, never to be renewed. What he
most prized and loved he had lost. He was an exception to other
men. He had been isolated by destiny, whose iron finger pointed to
solitude, and solitude he chose as most congenial to his bruised
spirit. But, besides, an idea had mastered him, in whose presence the
vanities and indulgences of the world and all worldly considerations,
shrunk into insignificance. Of what consequence were wealth and
distinction to one who looked momently for the introduction of a state
of things, when they would be of less importance than the baubles of a
child? The gay world might laugh and jest in its delusion, but it was
for him to watch and pray. Some feeling of resentment, too, towards
his brother, may have helped to color his conduct. As time, however,
wore on, his heart began to expand to human affections; for we
have seen, how fond he became of the society, first, of Faith,
and, finally, of his brother; deriving, possibly, a sort of insane
gratification from even the concealment of his relationship, as a
miser gloats over the security of his hoard. It is, indeed, probable,
that, but for the discovery of his son, he would have died without
betraying the secret, but, that discovery awakened anew feelings which
he never expected to have again in this life. He looked upon his
son and the inheritance, which to him was valueless, assumed
an importance. And it may be--who can tell?--that, sometimes, a
doubt--for how long had he waited in vain?--might throw a shadow
over his expectation of the Millennium. But this we have no means
of determining, and, as we shall presently see, his subsequent life
rather sustains the opposite opinion.