"Well may we sing her beauties
This pleasant land of ours,
Her sunny smiles, her golden fruits,
And all her world of flowers.
And well would they persuade us now,
In moments all too dear,
That, sinful though our hearts may be,
We have our Eden here."--SIMMS.
The following day was Sunday. I did not rise until nine, and when I
withdrew the curtains and opened the shutters of my window, and looked
out upon the lawn, and the fields beyond it, and the blue void that
canopied all, I thought a lovelier day, or one more in harmony with the
tranquil character of the whole scene, never shone from the heavens. I
threw up the sash, and breathed the morning air which filled my
dressing-room, pregnant with the balms and odors of the hundred
sweet-smelling flowers and plants that embellished the shrubberies. The
repose of the Sabbath seemed to rest on man and beast; the bees and
humming-birds that buzzed about the flowers, even at their usual
pursuits, seemed as if conscious of the sanctity of the day. I think no
one can be insensible to the difference there is between a Sabbath in
the country and any other day of the week. Most of this, doubtless, is
the simple consequence of abstaining from labor; but, connected with the
history of the festival, its usual observances, and the holy calm that
appears to reign around, it is so very obvious and impressive, that a
Sunday in a mild day in June is to me ever a delicious resting-place, as
a mere poetical pause in the bustling and turmoil of this world's time.
Such a day was that which succeeded the night through which we had just
passed, and it came most opportunely to soothe the spirits, tranquillize
the apprehensions, and afford a moment for sober reflection.
There lay the smouldering ruins of the barn, it is true; a blackened
monument of a wicked deed; but the mood which had produced this waste
and wrong appeared to have passed away; and in all other respects, far
and near, the farms of Ravensnest had never spread themselves before the
eye in colors more in consonance with the general benevolence of a
bountiful nature. For a moment, as I gazed on the broad view, I felt all
my earlier interests in it revive, and am not ashamed to own that a
profound feeling of gratitude to God came over me, when I recollected it
was by his Providence I was born the heir to such a scene, instead of
having my lot cast among the serfs and dependents of other regions.
After standing at the window a minute, in contemplation of that pleasing
view, I drew back, suddenly and painfully conscious of the character and
extent of the combination that existed to rob me of my rights in it.
America no longer seemed America to my eyes; but in place of its ancient
submission to the law, its quick distinction between right and wrong,
its sober and discriminating liberty, which equally avoided submission
to the injustice of power, and the excesses of popular delusions, there
had been substituted the rapacity of the plunderer, rendered formidable
by the insidious manner in which it was interwoven with political
machinery, and the truckling of the wretches intrusted with authority;
men who were playing into the hands of demagogues, solely in order to
secure majorities to perpetuate their own influence. Was, then, the
State really so corrupt as to lend itself to projects as base as those
openly maintained by the anti-renters? Far from it: four men out of
five, if not a larger proportion, must be, and indeed are, sensible of
the ills that their success would entail on the community, and would
lift up heart and hand to-morrow to put them down totally and without
pity; but they have made themselves slaves of the lamp; have enlisted in
the ranks of _party_, and _dare_ not oppose their leaders, who wield
them as Napoleon wielded his masses, to further private views,
apostrophizing and affecting an homage to liberty all the while! Such is
the history of man!
When the family met in the breakfast-room, a singular tranquillity
prevailed among us. As for my grandmother, I knew her spirit and early
experience, and was not so much surprised to find her calm and
reasonable; but these qualities seemed imparted to her four young
companions also. Patt could laugh, and yield to her buoyant spirits,
just the same as if nothing had occurred, while my uncle's other wards
maintained a lady-like quiet, that denoted anything but apprehension.
Mary Warren, however, surprised me by her air and deportment. There she
sat, in her place at the table, looking, if possible, the most feminine,
gentle, and timid of the four. I could scarcely believe that the
blushing, retiring, modest, pretty daughter of the rector could be the
prompt, decided, and clear-headed young girl who had been of so much
service to me the past night, and to whose coolness and discretion,
indeed, we were all indebted for the roof that was over our heads, and
some of us, most probably, for our lives.
Notwithstanding this air of tranquillity, the breakfast was a silent and
thoughtful meal. Most of the conversation was between my uncle and
grandmother, and a portion of it related to the disposal of the
prisoners. There was no magistrate within several miles of the Nest, but
those who were tainted with anti-rentism; and to carry Seneca and his
companion before a justice of the peace of this character, would be, in
effect, to let them go at large. Nominal bail would be taken, and it is
more than probable the constable employed would have suffered a rescue,
did they even deem it necessary to go through this parade of performing
their duties. My uncle, consequently, adopted the following plan. He had
caused the two incendiaries to be transferred to the old farm-house,
which happened to contain a perfectly dry and empty cellar, and which
had much of the security of a dungeon, without the usual defects of
obscurity and dampness. The red-men had assumed the office of sentinels,
one having his station at the door, while another watched near a window
which admitted the light, while it was scarcely large enough to permit
the human body to squeeze through it. The interpreter had received
instructions from the agent to respect the Christian Sabbath; and no
movement being contemplated for the day, this little duty just suited
their lounging, idle habits, when in a state of rest. Food and water, of
course, had not been forgotten; and there my uncle Ro had left that
portion of the business, intending to have the delinquents carried to a
distant magistrate, one of the judges of the county, early on Monday
morning. As for the disturbers of the past night, no signs of them were
any longer visible; and there being little extensive cover near the
Nest, no apprehension was felt of any surprise.
We were still at breakfast, when the tone of St. Andrew's bell came
floating, plaintively, through the air, as a summons to prepare
ourselves for the services of the day. It was little more than a mile to
the church, and the younger ladies expressed a desire to walk. My
grandmother, attended by her son, therefore, alone used the carriage,
while we young people went off in a body, on foot, half an hour before
the ringing of the second bell. Considering the state of the country,
and the history of the past night, I was astonished at my own
indifference on this occasion, no less than at that of my charming
companions; nor was it long before I gave utterance to the feeling.
"This America of ours is a queer place, it must be admitted," I cried,
as we crossed the lawn to take a foot-path that would lead us, by
pleasant pastures, quite to the church-door, without entering the
highway, except to cross it once; "here we have the whole neighborhood
as tranquil as if crime never disturbed it, though it is not yet a dozen
hours since riot, arson, and perhaps murder, were in the contemplation
of hundreds of those who live on every side of us. The change is
wonderful!"
"But, you will remember it is Sunday, Hugh," put in Patt. "All summer,
when Sunday has come, we have had a respite from disturbances and fears.
In this part of the country, the people are too religious to think of
desecrating the Sabbath by violence and armed bands. The anti-renters
would lose more than they would gain by pursuing a different course."
I had little or no difficulty in believing this, it being no unusual
thing, among us, to find observances of this nature clinging to the
habits of thousands, long after the devout feeling which had first
instilled it into the race has become extinct. Something very like it
prevails in other countries, and among even higher and more intellectual
classes, where it is no unusual thing to find the most profound outward
respect manifested toward the altar and its rites, by men who live in
the hourly neglect of the first and plainest commands of the decalogue.
We are not alone, therefore, in this pharisaical spirit, which exists,
in some mode or other, wherever man himself is to be found.
But this equivocal piety was certainly manifested to a striking degree,
that day, at Ravensnest. The very men who were almost desperate in their
covetous longings appeared at church, and went through the service with
as much seeming devotion as if conscious of no evil; and a general truce
appeared to prevail in the country, notwithstanding there must have been
much bitterness of feeling among the discomfited. Nevertheless, I could
detect in the countenances of many of the old tenants of the family, an
altered expression, and a coldness of the eye, which bespoke anything
but the ancient friendly feeling which had so long existed between us.
The solution was very simple; demagogues had stirred up the spirit--not
of the institutions, but--of covetousness, in their breasts; and so long
as that evil tendency predominated, there was little room for better
feelings.
"Now I shall have another look at the canopied pew," I cried, as we
entered the last field, on our way to the church. "That offensive, but
unoffending object, had almost gone out of my mind's eye, until my uncle
recollected it, by intimating that Jack Dunning, as he calls his friend
and council, had written him it _must_ come down."
"I agree with Mr. Dunning altogether," answered Martha, quickly. "I wish
with all my heart, Hugh, you would order that hideous-looking thing to
be taken away this very week."
"Why this earnestness, my dear Patt? There has the hideous thing been
ever since the church was built, which is now these threescore years,
and no harm has come of it, as I know."
"It is harm to be so ugly. It disfigures the church; and then I do not
think distinctions of that sort are proper for the house of God. I know
this ever has been my grandmother's opinion; but finding her
father-in-law and husband desirous of such an _ornament_, she consented
in silence, during their lives."
"What do _you_ say to all this, Miss Warren," I asked, turning to my
companion, for by some secret influence I was walking at her side. "Are
you 'up canopy' or 'down canopy'?"
"'Down canopy,'" answered Mary, firmly. "I am of Mrs. Littlepage's
opinion, that churches ought to contain as little as possible to mark
worldly distinctions. Such distinctions are inseparable from life, I
know; but it is to prepare for death that we enter such buildings."
"And your father, Miss Warren--have you ever heard him speak of my
unfortunate pew?"
Mary hesitated an instant, changed color, then looked up into my face
with a countenance so ingenuous and lovely, that I would have forgiven
her even a severe comment on some act of folly of my own.
"My father is an advocate for doing away with pews altogether," she
answered, "and, of course, can have no particular wish to preserve
yours. He tells me, that in the churches of the Romanists, the
congregation sit, stand, or kneel, promiscuously before the altar, or
crowd around the pulpit, without any distinction of rank or persons.
Surely, that is better than bringing into the very temple the most
pitiful of all worldly classifications, that of mere money."
"It _is_ better, Miss Warren; and I wish, with all my heart, the custom
could be adopted here. But the church that might best dispense with the
support obtained from pews, and which by its size and architecture, is
best fitted to set the example of a new mode, has gone on in the old
way, I understand, and has its pews as well as another."
"Do we get our custom from England, Hugh!" demanded Martha.
"Assuredly; as we do most others, good, bad and indifferent. The
property-notion would be very likely to prevail in a country like
England; and then it is not absolutely true that everybody sits in
common, even in the churches of the continent of the old world. The
seigneur, under the old regime, in France, had _his_ pew, usually; and
high dignitaries of the State in no country are found mingling with the
mass of worshippers, unless it be in good company. It is true, a
_duchesse_ will kneel in the crowd, in most Romish churches, in the
towns, for there are too many such persons to accommodate all with
privileged seats, and such honors are reserved for the very great; but
in the country, there are commonly pews, in by-places, for the great
personages of the neighborhood. We are not quite so bad as we fancy
ourselves, in this particular, though we might be better."
"But you will allow that a canopied pew is unsuited to this country,
brother?"
"Not more to this than to any other. I agree that it is unsuited to all
places of worship, where the petty differences between men, which are
created by their own usages, should sink into insignificance, in the
direct presence, as it might be, of the power of God. But, in this
country, I find a spirit rising, which some persons would call the
'spirit of the institutions,' that is forever denying men rewards, and
honors, and credit exactly in the degree in which they deserve them. The
moment a citizen's head is seen above the crowd of faces around him, it
becomes the mark of rotten eggs, as if he were raised in the pillory,
and his fellow-creatures would not tolerate any difference in moral
stature."
"How do you reconcile that with the great number of Catos, and Brutuses,
not to say of the Gracchi, that are to be found among us?" asked Mary
Warren, slyly.
"Oh! these are the mere creatures of party--great men for the nonce.
They are used to serve the purposes of factions, and are be-greated for
the occasion. Thus it is, that nine-tenths of the Catos you mention are
forgotten, even by name, every political _lustrum_. But let a man rise,
_independently of the people_, by his own merit, and see how the people
will tolerate him. Thus it is with my pew--it is a _great_ pew, and
become great without any agency of the 'folks;' and the 'folks' don't
like it."
The girls laughed at this sally, as light-hearted, happy girls will
laugh at anything of the sort; and Patt put in her retort, in her own
direct, spirited manner.
"It is a _great_ ugly thing, if that concession will flatter your
vanity," she said, "and I do entreat it may come down _greatly_, this
present week. Really, you can have no notion, Hugh, how much talk it has
made of late."
"I do not doubt it, my dear. The talk is all aimed at the leases;
everything that can be thought of, being dragged into the account
against us poor landlords, in order to render our cause unpopular, and
thus increase the chances of robbing us with impunity. _The good people
of this State little imagine that the very evils that the enemies of the
institutions have long predicted, and which their friends have as warmly
repudiated, are now actively at work among us, and that the great
experiment is in imminent danger of failing, at the very moment the
people are loudly exulting in its success. Let this attempt on property
succeed, ever so indirectly, AND IT WILL BE FOLLOWED UP BY OTHERS,
WHICH WILL AS INEVITABLY DRIVE US INTO DESPOTISM, AS A REFUGE AGAINST
ANARCHY, AS EFFECT SUCCEEDS TO CAUSE_. The danger exists, now, in its
very worst form--that of political demagogueism--and must be met, face
to face, and put down manfully, and on true principles, or, in my poor
judgment, we are gone. Cant is a prevailing vice of the nation, more
especially political and religious cant, and cant can never be appeased
by concessions. My canopy _shall_ stand, so long as anti-rentism exists
at Ravensnest, or be torn down by violence; when men return to their
senses, and begin to see the just distinctions between _meum_ and
_tuum_, the cook may have it for oven-wood, any day in the week."
As we were now about to cross the stile that communicated with the
highway, directly in front of the church, the conversation ceased, as
unsuited to the place and the occasion. The congregation of St. Andrew's
was small, as is usually the case with country congregations of its
sect, which are commonly regarded with distrust by the descendants of
the Puritans in particular, and not unfrequently with strong aversion.
The rowdy religion--half-cant, half-blasphemy--that Cromwell and his
associates entailed on so many Englishmen, but which was not without a
degree of ferocious, narrow-minded sincerity about it, after all, has
probably been transmitted to this country, with more of its original
peculiarities than exist, at the present day, in any other part of the
world. Much of the narrow-mindedness remains; but, unhappily, when
liberality does begin to show itself in these sects, it is apt to take
the character of latitudinarianism. In a word, the exaggerations and
false principles that were so common among the religious fanatics of the
American colonies in the seventeenth century, which burnt witches,
hanged Quakers, and denounced all but the elect few, are now running
their natural race, with the goal of infidelity in open view before
them. Thus will it be, also, with the abuses of political liberty, which
must as certainly terminate in despotism, unless checked in season; such
being not the "_spirit_ of the institutions," but the tendency of human
nature, as connected with everything in which the right is abandoned to
sustain the wrong.
Mr. Warren, I found, was a popular preacher, notwithstanding the
disfavor with which his sect was generally regarded. A prejudiced and
provincial people were naturally disposed to look at everything that
differed from their own opinions and habits with dislike; and the simple
circumstance that he belonged to a church that possessed bishops, was of
itself tortured into a proof that his sect favored aristocracy and
privileged classes. It is true that nearly every other sect in the
country had orders in the church, under the names of ministers, elders,
and deacons, and was just as liable to the same criticism; but then they
did not possess _bishops_, and having that which we do not happen to
have ourselves, usually constitutes the _gist_ of an offence, in cases
of this sort. Notwithstanding these obstacles to popularity, Mr. Warren
commanded the respect of all around him; and, strange as it may seem,
none the less because, of all the clergy in that vicinity, he alone had
dared to rebuke the spirit of covetousness that was abroad, and which it
suits the morals of some among us to style the "spirit of the
institutions;" a duty he had discharged on more than one occasion, and
with great distinctness and force, though temperately and under the full
influence of a profound feeling of Christian charity. This conscientious
course had given rise to menaces and anonymous letters, the usual
recourse of the mean and cowardly; but it had also increased the weight
of his character, and extorted the secret deference of many who would
gladly have entertained a different feeling toward him, had it been in
their power.
My grandmother and uncle were already seated in the canopied pew when we
pedestrians entered the church. Mary Warren turned into another aisle,
and proceeded to the pew reserved for the rector, accompanied by my
sister, while the other two ladies passed up to the chancel, and took
their customary places. I followed, and for the first time in my life
was seated beneath the offensive canopy, vested with all the rights of
ownership. By the term "canopy," however, the reader is not to imagine
anything like festooned drapery--crimson colors and gilded laces; our
ambition had never soared so high. The amount of the distinction between
this pew and any other in the church was simply this: it was larger and
more convenient than those around it, an advantage which any other might
have equally enjoyed who saw fit to pay for it, as had been the case
with us, and it was canopied with a heavy, clumsy, ill-shaped sort of a
roof, that was a perfect caricature of the celebrated _baldachino_ of
St. Peter's in Rome. The first of these advantages probably excited no
particular envy, for it came within the common rule of the country, of
"play and pay;" but as for the canopy, that was aristocratic, and was
not to be tolerated. Like the leasehold tenure, it was opposed to the
"spirit of the institutions." It is true, it did no real harm, as an
existing thing; it is true, it had a certain use, as a memorial of past
opinions and customs; it is true, it was property, and could not be
touched without interfering with its privileges; it is true, that every
person who saw it secretly felt there was nothing, after all, so very
inappropriate in such a pew's belonging to a Littlepage; and, most of
all, it was true that they who sat in it never fancied for a moment that
it made them any better or any worse than the rest of their
fellow-creatures. There it was, however; and, next to the feudal
character of a lease, it was the most offensive object then existing in
Ravensnest. It may be questioned if the cross, which occupied the place
that, according to provincial orthodoxy, a weathercock should have
adorned, or Mr. Warren's surplice, was one-half as offensive.
When I raised my head, after the private devotions which are customary
with us semi-papishes, on entering a place of worship, and looking
around me, I found that the building was crowded nearly to overflowing.
A second glance told me that nearly every eye was fastened on myself. At
first, the canopy having been uppermost so lately in my mind, I fancied
that the looks were directed at _that_; but I soon became satisfied that
I, in my own unworthy person, was their object. I shall not stop to
relate most of the idle and silly reports that had got abroad, in
connection with the manner and reason of my disguised appearance in the
hamlet the preceding day, or in connection with anything else, though
one of those reports was so very characteristic, and so entirely
peculiar to the subject in hand, that I cannot omit it. That report was
simply a rumor that I had caused one of my own barns to be set on fire,
the second night of my arrival, in order to throw the odium of the act
on those "virtuous and hard-working husbandmen," who only maintained an
illegal and armed body on foot, just to bully and worry me out of my
property. Yes, there I sat; altogether unconscious of the honor done me;
regarded by quite half that congregation as the respected and
just-minded youth who had devised and carried out precisely such a
rascally scheme. Now no one who has not had the opportunity to compare,
can form any idea how much more potent and formidable is the American
"folks say," than the vulgar reports of any other state of society. The
French _on dit_ is a poor, pitiful report, placed by the side of this
vast lever, which, like that of Archimedes, only wants a stand for its
fulcrum, to move the world. The American "folks say" has a certain
omnipotence, so long as it lasts, which arises from, not the spirit, but
the _character_ of the institutions themselves. In a country in which
the people rule, "folks" are resolved that their "say" shall not pass
for nothing. So few doubt the justice of the popular decision, that holy
writ itself has not, in practical effect, one-half the power that really
belongs to one of these reports, so long as it suits the common mind to
entertain it. Few dare resist it; fewer still call in question its
accuracy; though, in sober truth, it is hardly ever right. It makes and
unmakes reputation, for the time being _bien entendu_; it even makes and
unmakes patriots themselves. In short, though never quite truth, and not
often very much like the truth, paradoxical as it may appear, it is
truth, and nothing but the truth, _pro hac vice_. Everybody knows,
nevertheless, that there is no permanency to what "folks say" about
anything; and that "folks" frequently, nay, almost invariably, "unsay"
what has been said six months before; yet, all submit to the authority
of its _dicta_, so long as "folks" choose to "say." The only exception
to this rule, and it merely proves it, is in the case of political
parties, when there are always two "folks say" which flatly contradict
each other; and sometimes there are half-a-dozen, no two of which are
ever precisely alike!
There I sat, as I afterward learned, "the observed of all observers,"
merely because it suited the purposes of those who wished to get away my
estate to raise various reports to my prejudice--not one of which, I am
happy to have it in my power to say, was in any manner true. The first
good look that I took at the congregation satisfied me that very much
the larger part of it consisted of those who did not belong to St.
Andrew's Church. Curiosity, or some worse feeling, had trebled the
number of Mr. Warren's hearers that day--or, it might be more correct to
say, of my observers.
There was no other interruption to the services than that which was
produced by the awkwardness of so many who were strangers to the ritual.
The habitual respect paid to religious rites kept every one in order;
and, in the midst of a feeling that was as malignant and selfish as well
could exist under circumstances of so little provocation, I was safe
from violence, and even from insult. As for myself, little was or could
be known of my character and propensities at Ravensnest. School,
college, and travelling, with winter residences in town, had made me a
sort of stranger in my own domain, and I was regarded through the
covenants of my leases, rather than through any known facts. The same
was true, though in a less degree, with my uncle, who had lived so much
abroad as to be considered a sort of half foreigner, and one who
preferred other countries to his own. This is an offence that is rarely
forgiven by the masses in America, though it is probably the most venial
sin that one who has had the opportunities of comparing can commit. Old
nations offer so many more inducements than young nations to tempt men
of leisure and cultivation to reside in them, that it is not surprising
the travelled American should prefer Europe to his own quarter of the
world; but the jealousy of a provincial people is not apt to forgive
this preference. For myself, I have heard it said, and I believe it to
be true, to a certain extent, that countries on the decline, supposing
them to have been once at the summit of civilization, make pleasanter
abodes for the idler than nations on the advance. This is one of the
reasons why Italy attracts so many more visitors than England, though
climate must pass for something in such a comparison. But these long
absences, and supposed preferences for foreign life, had made my uncle
Ro, in one sense, unpopular with the mass, which has been taught to
believe, by means of interested and fulsome eulogies on their own state
of society, that it implies something more than a want of taste, almost
a want of principle, to prefer any other. This want of popularity,
however, was a good deal relieved by a wide and deep conviction of my
uncle's probity, as well as of his liberality, his purse having no more
string to it than General Harrison's door was thought to have a latch.
But the case was very different with my grandmother. The early part of
her life had been spent at the Nest, and it was impossible so excellent
a woman could be anything but respected. She had, in truth, been a sore
impediment with the anti-renters; more especially in carrying out that
part of their schemes which is connected with traduction, and its
legitimate offspring, prejudice. It would hardly do to traduce this
noble-minded, charitable, spirited, and just woman; yet, hazardous as
the experiment must and did seem, it was attempted, and not altogether
without success. She was accused of an aristocratic preference of her
own family to the families of other people. Patt and I, it was urged,
were only her grandchildren, and had ample provision made for us in
other estates besides this--and a woman of Mrs. Littlepage's time of
life, it was said, who had one foot in the grave, ought to have too much
general philanthropy to give a preference to the interests of mere
grandchildren, over the interests of the children of men who had paid
her husband and sons rent, now, for quite sixty years. This attack had
come from the pulpit, too, or the top of a molasses hogshead, which was
made a substitute for a pulpit, by an itinerant preacher, who had taken
a bit of job-work, in which the promulgation of the tenets of the gospel
and those of anti-rentism was the great end in view.
As I have said, my good grandmother suffered somewhat in public
estimation, in consequence of this assault. It is true, had any one
openly charged the circulators of this silly calumny with their offence,
they would have stoutly denied it; but it was none the less certain that
this charge, among a hundred others, varying from it only in degree, and
not at all in character, was industriously circulated in order to render
the Littlepages unpopular; unpopularity being among us the sin that is
apt to entail all the evil consequences of every other offence.
The reader who is not acquainted with the interior of our social habits,
must not suppose that I am coloring for effect. So far from this, I am
quite conscious of having kept the tone of the picture down, it being an
undeniable truth that nothing of much interest, nowadays, is left to the
simple decision of principles and laws, in this part of the country at
least. The supremacy of numbers is so great, that scarce a private suit
of magnitude is committed to a jury, without attempts, more or less
direct, to influence the common mind in favor of one side or the other,
in the hope that the jurors will be induced to think as the majority
thinks. In Europe, it is known that judges were, nay, _are_, visited and
solicited by the parties; but here, it is the public that must be
treated in the same way. I am far from wishing to blazon the defects of
my own country, and I know from observation, that corresponding evils,
differing in their exterior aspects, and in their mode of acting, exist
elsewhere; but these are the forms in which some of our defects present
themselves, and he is neither a friend to his country, nor an honest
man, who wishes them to be bundled up and cloaked, instead of being
exposed, understood, and corrected. This notion of "_nil nisi bene_" has
done an infinite degree of harm to the country; and, through the
country, to freedom.
I do not think the worship of the temple amounted to any great matter
that day in St. Andrew's Church, Ravensnest. Quite half the congregation
was blundering through the liturgy, and every man who lost his place in
the prayer-book, or who could not find it at all, seemed to fancy it was
quite sufficient for the ritual of us semi-papists if he kept his eye on
_me_ and my canopied pew. How many pharisees were present, who actually
believed that I had caused my own barn to be burned, in order to throw
opprobrium on the "virtuous," "honest," and "hard-working" tenants, and
who gave credit to the stories affecting my title, and all the rest of
the stuff that calculating cupidity had set afloat in the country, I
have no way of knowing; but subsequent circumstances have given me
reason to suppose they were not a few. A great many men left the house
of God that morning, I make no doubt, whose whole souls were wrapped up
in effecting an act of the grossest injustice, professing to themselves
to thank God that they were not as wicked as the being whom they desired
to injure.
I stopped to say a word to Mr. Warren, in the vestry-room, after the
people were dismissed, for he had not passed the night with us at the
Nest, though his daughter had. After we had said a word about the
occurrence of the morning, the good rector having heard a rumor of the
arrest of certain incendiaries, without knowing who they were, I made a
more general remark or two previously to quitting the place.
"Your congregation was unusually large this morning, sir," I said,
smiling, "though not altogether as attentive as it might have been."
"I owe it to your return, Mr. Littlepage, aided by the events of the
past day or two. At one moment I was afraid that some secret project was
on foot, and that the day and place might be desecrated by some scene of
disgraceful violence. All has gone off well in that respect, however,
and I trust that no harm will come of this crowd. We Americans _have_ a
respect for sacred things, which will ordinarily protect the temple."
"Did you, then, think St. Andrew's ran any risk to-day, sir?"
Mr. Warren colored a little, and he hesitated an instant before he
answered.
"You doubtless know, young sir," he said, "the nature of the feeling
that is now abroad in the country. With a view to obtain its ends,
anti-rentism drags every auxiliary it can find into its ranks, and,
among other things, it has assailed your canopied pew. I own, that, at
first, I apprehended some assault might be contemplated on _that_."
"Let it come, sir; the pew shall be altered on a general and right
principle, but not until it is let alone by envy, malice, and
covetousness. It would be worse to make a concession to these than to
let the pew stand another half century."
With these words in my mouth, I took my leave, hastening on to overtake
the girls in the fields.