“At first, he, busy, plodding, poor,
Earned, saved, and daily swelled his store;
But soon Ambition’s summits rose,
And Avarice dug his mine of woes.”
For the better understanding of some of the allusions of the preceding
chapter, and of others that may yet appear in different parts of our
tale, as well, indeed, as for a better appreciation of the whole, we
will here turn aside from the thread of the narrative just commenced,
to take a brief retrospect of the leading events and circumstances with
which the previous lives of the several personages we have introduced
had been connected, and among which their characters had been shaped
and their destinies determined.
Some twenty two or three years previous to the juncture we have been
describing, Arthur and Mark Elwood, by the fruits of their unremitting
industry as laborers on a farm in summers, and as pedlars of what they
could best buy and sell in winters, added to the few hundred dollars
patrimony they each inherited, were enabled, in a few years, to realize
the object of their early ambition, in the opening of a small retail
store, in one of the little outskirt villages of northern New-Hampshire.
Such, like that of hundreds of others among us who now count their
wealth by half millions, was the slender beginning of these two
brothers. And, although they were from the first, as we have seen them
at the last, as different in their general characters as they were
in their persons, they yet got on very well together; for, however
they might disagree respecting the modes and means of acquisition,
they were always as one in regard to the great result each alike had
in view, and that was to make money and be rich. And, by a sort of
tacit understanding, falling into the departments of business best
suited to their different tastes and capacities, the quiet, cautious,
calculating, and systematic Arthur confined himself to the store,
kept the books, contrived the _ways and means_, and, in short, did
the principal head-work of the establishment; while Mark, being of a
more stirring turn, and, from his brisk _bon homme_ manner and less
scrupulous disposition, better calculated for drumming up customers
and securing bargains for the store, did most of the outdoor business,
riding about the country, contracting for produce, securing barter
deal, and making himself, in all things, the runner and trumpeter of
the company. At night they usually met together to compare notes and
report progress; and they were never happier than when they sat down
in their small store-room, hemmed in and surrounded by casks of nails,
quintals of codfish, farming tools, etc., on one side, and narrow
shelves of cheap calicos, India cottons, and flaunting ribbons, on the
other, and recounted to each other the business and bargains of the
day. Thus the two, working on, like the spring and balance-wheel of
some piece of mechanism, in harmony together, soon placed themselves
beyond all fears of failure, and seemed happy and contented with their
situation and prospects.
This situation of affairs, however, was not destined to be of very long
continuance. Not long after finding themselves safely on the highway
to independence, they very naturally began to think of selecting, from
among the fair young customers of their store, the ones who might make
them eligible companions for life. And, as the wayward love-fates
would have it, they both secretly fixed their affections on one and
the same girl,--the pretty and sensible Alice Gregg, who, though a
plain farmer’s daughter, was, to the vexation and envy of her numerous
rustic suitors, to be won by nothing short of one of the village
merchants. Alice was not long in discovering her advantage, nor in
deciding to avail herself of it, so far as to confine her election
to one of these, her two undeclared lovers. And, after balancing a
while in her mind the account between her judgment, which would have
declared for the reserved but sterling Arthur, and her fancy, which
clamored hard for the manly-looking and more social Mark, she finally
yielded the reins to the latter, and took measures accordingly. After
this, Arthur’s taste in selecting a piece of goods did not, as before,
seem to be appreciated. Her handkerchief was never dropped where he
had any chance to pick it up; and she was never quite ready to go till
Mark was nearest at hand to help her into her wagon or side-saddle.
By this delicate system of female tactics, common with girls of more
pretensions than Alice, she effectually repressed the advances of the
one, and as effectually encouraged those of the other; and the result,
as she had anticipated, was a declaration from Mark, an acceptance on
her part, and a speedy marriage between them. Arthur’s heart bled at
the event; but it bled inwardly; and he had at least the consolation
of believing that no one suspected the state of his feelings, except,
perhaps, Alice, and he was not unwilling that she should know them. He
therefore put the best face on the matter he could,--appeared wholly
unconcerned,--attended the wedding, and with forced gayety _openly_
wished the new married couple the happiness which he _secretly_
wished was his own. The tender passion had been a new thing to the
money-loving Arthur. By its elevating influences, he, who had looked
for enjoyment only in wealth, had been enabled to raise his vision to
a higher sphere of happiness. And thus to lose the bright glimpses,
and be thrown back to earth again, was, in reality, however he might
disguise the fact from others, a serious blow to his feelings, and one,
indeed, which soon mainly led to a movement on his part that gave a new
turn to his apparent destinies, and a no less one, probably, to those
of his then almost envied brother Mark. For, finding it impossible to
feel his former interest in business, in a place whose associations had
become painful to him, he secretly resolved to leave it as soon as he
believed he could do so without leading to any surmises respecting the
true cause of the change he contemplated. Accordingly, in a few months,
he began to suggest his own unfitness for making a profitable partner
in country trade, and finally came out with a direct proposition to his
brother to buy him out at a sum which he knew would be a temptingly
low one. And the result was, that the proposition was accepted, “the
partnership dissolved by mutual consent,” and the released Arthur, with
his portion, soon on his way to one of the eastern seaports, to set up
business, as he soon did, for himself alone.
The withdrawal of Arthur Elwood deprived this little establishment of
its only really valuable guidance, and left it to the chance fortunes
of greater gains or greater losses than would have been likely to occur
under the cautious and hazard-excluding system of business which he had
adopted for its control. But, nothing for a year or two occurring to
induce Mark Elwood to depart from the system under which the business
had been conducted, and Arthur’s prudent maxims of trade, to which he
had been accustomed to defer, remaining fresh in his mind, he naturally
kept on in the old routine, which he was the more willing to follow,
as by it he found himself clearly on the advance. He was blessed in
his family; for his wife, who had no undue aspirations for wealth or
show, had not only proved an efficient helper by her economy and good
counsels, but added still more to his gratification by bringing him
a promising boy. Being the only trader of the village, or hamlet it
might more properly be called, he was conscious of being the object of
that peculiar kind of favor and respect which was then--more freely
than at the present day, perhaps--accorded to the country merchant by
the masses among whom he resided. And, finding his still comparatively
moderate expectations thus every day fully realized, he was satisfied
with his condition in the present, and hopeful and happy in the
prospects it presented in the future; for the demon of unlawful gain
had not then tempted him into forbidden paths by the lure of sudden
riches.
But that demon at length came in the shape of Gaut Gurley. From what
part of the country this singular and questionable personage originally
came, was unknown, even in the neighboring village (which was within
the borders of Maine) where he had recently located himself with a
young wife and child. And, as he very rarely made any allusions to his
own personal affairs, every thing relating to his origin, life, and
employments, previous to his appearance in this region, was a matter
of mere conjecture, and many a dark surmise, also, we should add,
respecting his true character. For the last few years, however, he was
known to have followed, at the appropriate seasons of the year, the
business of trapping, or trading for furs with the Indians, around the
northern lakes. He had several times passed through the village on
his returns from his northern tours, and called on the Elwoods, whose
contrasted characters he seemed soon to understand. But he pressed
no bargains upon them for his peltries; for, disliking the close
questionings and scrutinizing glances of Arthur, and finding he could
make no final trade with Mark without the assent of the former, he
gave up all attempts of the kind, and did not call again during the
continuance of the partnership, nor till this time; when, finding that
Mark was in trade alone, he announced his intention of spending some
time in the village, to see what arrangements could be made, as he at
first held out to Elwood, for establishing this as his place for the
regular sales or deposit of his furs.
But the fur traffic, whatever it might have been formerly, was now
not the main, if any part of the object he had in view. The times had
changed, closing many of the old avenues of trade, but opening new ones
to tempt the ever restless spirit of gain. And, although the fur trade
was still profitable, there was yet another springing up, which, for
those who, like him, had no scruples about engaging in it, promised to
become far more so. The restrictions which it had been the policy of
our government to throw around commerce, in the incipient stages of our
last national quarrel with Great Britain, had caused an unprecedented
rise in the prices of silks and other fine fabrics of foreign import.
This had put whatever there was of the two alleged leading traits of
Yankee character, acquisitiveness and ingenuity, on the _qui vive_
to obtain those goods at the former prices, for the purpose of home
speculation. And Canada, being separated by a land boundary only
from the States, presented to the greedy eyes of hundreds of village
mammonists, who, like Elwood, were plodding along at the slow jog of
twenty per cent profits, opportunities of so purchasing as to quadruple
their gains; which were quite too severe a test for their slender
stock of patriotism to withstand. It was but a natural consequence,
therefore, that all of them whose love of gain was not overcome by
their fear of loss by detection and the forfeiture of their goods,
should soon be found, in spite of all the vigilance and activity of the
host of custom-house officers by whom the government had manned the
Canadian lines, secretly engaged in that contraband traffic.
The history of smuggling as carried on between the Northern States and
Canada, from the enactment of the embargo at the close of 1807, and
especially from the enactment of the more stringent non-intercourse
law of 1810, to the declaration of war in 1812, and even, to a greater
or less extent, to the proclamation of peace in 1815, is a portion
of our annals that yet remains almost wholly unwritten. Although the
contraband trade in question was doubtless more or less followed
along the entire extent of our northern boundaries, from east to
west, yet along no portions of them half so extensively, probably,
as those of Vermont and New Hampshire, which, from their close
contiguity to Montreal and Quebec, the only importing cities of the
Canadas, afforded the most tempting facilities and the best chances
for success. Along these borders, indeed, it was for years one almost
continuous scene of wild warfare between the custom-house officers
and their assistants, and the smugglers and their abettors, both
parties carrying arms, and the smugglers, especially, going armed to
the teeth. In these skirmishes many were, at different times, killed
outright; many more were missing, even on the side of the officials,
for whom dark fates were naturally conjectured; while hundreds, on
both sides, were crippled or otherwise seriously wounded. Sometimes,
when a double sleigh, or wagon, deeply laden with smuggled goods, in
charge of three or four stout and resolute fellows aboard, who, with
as many more, perhaps, of their confederates on horseback or in light
teams, before and behind, were making their way, at full speed, with
their prize, from the line to some secret and safe depository in the
interior, was suddenly beset and brought to a stand by an equal or
greater number of government officials, deeply intent on a seizure, a
most furious conflict would ensue, in which the combatants, growing
desperate for the seizure or defence of the prize, would ply their hard
yeoman fists, clubs, loaded whipstocks, or whatever was at hand, with
terrible effect, and often prolong the melée till the snow or ground
was encrimsoned with blood, and scarcely an uninjured man remained on
the ground. Sometimes the besetting officials were made prisoners, and
marched off at the cocked pistol’s mouth into the deep woods, and,
after being led forward and backward through the labyrinths of the
forest till bewildered and lost, were suddenly left to find their way
out as they best could,--a feat which there was no danger of their
accomplishing till long after both the smugglers and their goods were
beyond the reach of pursuers. And sometimes the smugglers, when closely
pressed and seeing no hope of rescue if taken, as their last resort,
drew their dirks and pistols; and wo to the official who then persisted
in attempting a seizure.
But the system of tactics more generally practiced by the smugglers
was that of craft and concealment, carried out by some ingenious
measure to prevent all suspicion of the times and places of their
movements, by travelling in the night or in stormy weather, or in the
most unfrequented routes, and, when pursued, by putting the pursuers on
false scents, or by feints of running away with loads of empty boxes to
mislead pursuit, till the goods, which had been previously taken to
some place of temporary concealment, could be removed from the vicinity
of the search and sent on their destination.
Such were the general features of the illicit traffic which
characterized the period of which we are treating,--a traffic which
laid the foundations of many a village fortune, whose dashing heirs
would not probably be very willing to acknowledge the true source
from which the wealth and position they may now be enjoying was
derived,--and finally a traffic which, in its attending homicides and
desperate affrays, its hot pursuits and marvellous escapes, its curious
concealments and artful subterfuges, and, lastly, in the family and
neighborhood feuds which it left behind, would furnish materials for a
series of tales as wild and romantic, if not always as creditable to
the actors, as any thing ever yet spread before the public.
It was this questionable business which was then occupying the thoughts
of Gaut Gurley, and in which it was his aim to involve Mark Elwood,
whom he had pitched on for the purpose, as not only a man of sufficient
means, with no scruples which could not be overcome, but a man whom he
believed he could make dependent on him, when once enlisted, and to
whom he could dictate terms for his own services. And it is no wonder
that a man of his dark cunning, working on one of the obtuse moral
sense, the love of money, and the thoughtlessness of consequences, of
Elwood, should, as he did, soon completely succeed in his objects. For,
after having kindled Elwood’s political prejudices against the embargo
law, which was held up to be such an outrage on the commercial rights
of the North that it were almost a merit to violate it, Gaut proceeded
to show how enormous were the profits to be made in this trade, and
how safely the goods might be smuggled in, through the back roads and
forest routes with which he was familiar, by employing Frenchmen, as he
could, at a cheap rate, to bring them in large panniers on the backs of
their Canadian ponies, or by engaging Indians, who could be enlisted
for even less wages, to bring them in knapsacks through the woods.
And so clearly did he demonstrate all this to the mind of Elwood, that
the latter, being unable any longer to resist the temptation of thus
securing the gains of a traffic, by the side of which the small profits
of his store at home dwindled into contempt, soon resolved to engage in
it.
From this time Gaut was in high favor with Elwood. The two, indeed,
seemed to have suddenly become inseparable. They were always found
together, and always engaged in some closely private conversation, the
purport of which no others were permitted to know, or were enabled to
conjecture, except from the new business movement which was observed
soon to follow the forming of their mysterious connection. And that
movement was that Elwood put his store in charge of a clerk, and,
giving out that he was about to engage more extensively in the fur
trade, which would require him to be often absent, went off with a
strong and fleet double team, in a northerly direction, with Gaut for
his only companion.
With the advent of this new era in the life of Elwood, every thing
became changed about his establishment. His bustling presence, with his
bantering, off-hand, and communicative talk, no longer enlivened the
store and neighborhood; and people, who before seemed to know every
thing about his business and plans, now knew nothing. For he was now
most of the time absent in conducting his operations at the north,
or in his stealthy journeyings thence to the cities, to receive and
dispose of the valuable packages which he had put on their passage. He
generally came and departed in the night, and, even during his brief
stays at home, he kept himself secluded, seeming to wish to be seen
as little as possible. All this, of course, led to considerable talk
and various speculations; but he so well shrouded his movements from
the public, and kept afloat so many plausible stories to account for
his change of business, that he prevented suspicions from taking any
definite shape about home, or spreading abroad to any extent that
endangered his operations, although those operations were constantly
continued for years, and, from cautious and small beginnings, at length
became more bold, extensive, and successful, perhaps, than any thing
of the kind ever carried on in the interior of New England. But there
was one whose suspicions of the true character of the business in which
he was engaged, notwithstanding his denials and evasions, even to her,
and whose fears and anxieties on account of the dangers she believed
he was constantly incurring, not only from seizure of his property
and the personal violence to which he was exposed in trying to defend
it, but from his association of reckless confederates, especially
Gaut Gurley, of whose dark character, as little as she had seen of
him, she was already filled with an instinctive dread,--there was one
whose suspicions, and consequent anxieties, he could never succeed in
quieting; and that was his discreet and faithful wife. She had, during
the first year or two of his new career, often expostulated with him
on the doubtful character of his business; but he, by always making
light of her fears, by telling her some truth and withholding more,
and disclosing as great a part of his astonishing gains as he supposed
would pass with her for honest acquisitions, generally silenced, if
he did not convince, her; and she, finding him always light-hearted
and satisfied with himself, when he came home, finally ceased her
remonstrances, having concluded she would try to conquer her doubts and
fears, or at least say no more on the subject.
At length, however, after a prolonged absence on a tour, in which
he had a large venture at stake, he came home in a greatly altered
mood. His usual buoyancy of spirits was gone; he appeared gloomy and
abstracted; and, although, in reply to the anxious inquiries of his
wife, he represented himself to have been entire successful,--even
to a greater extent than ever before,--yet it was quite obvious that
something very untoward, to say the least, must have happened to him.
He would not leave his house after dark, he placed loaded pistols
within the reach of his hand when he went to bed, and he would often
start up wildly from his sleep. His whole conduct, indeed, was such as
to excite the deeper concern of his perplexed wife, for she feared it
betokened his connection with something very wrong,--something that had
brought him into deadly peril,--something, perhaps, done to others,
which made her tremble to think of, but something, at all events,
which made her more than ever dread to have him go back again to the
scene of his operations. But of the last-named of her fears she was
shortly relieved; for, to her agreeable surprise, he soon assured her
of his determination to break off entirely from the business he had
been pursuing, and, as much to her gratification as to the evident
vexation of Gaut Gurley, who had come on to look his employer up, he
firmly persisted in carrying out his resolution. Nor was this all. He
rapidly drew his business to a close, broke off his old associations,
privately left the place, and, in a few weeks, sent for his family
to join him in Boston, where it appeared he had been for some time
secretly transferring his capital, and where he had now established
himself in business, with all the means required, even there, of
doing it to the best advantage. And for some years he _did_ engage in
business to advantage, the same strangely good luck attending him,
and prospering wonderfully in all he undertook, till he gained the
reputation of being among the wealthiest of the city. But the spoiler
came in a second appearance of Gaut Gurley, who, having squandered in
the country the bounteous sums of money which Elwood had paid him for
his services, now followed the latter to the city. And, with the coming
of that personage, together with the foolish ambition that had, about
that time, seized Elwood, to outshine some of his city competitors in
display and expensive living, commenced the wane of a fortune which,
as large as it was, it had required but two short years to bring to
the verge on which we represented its unhappy master as standing in the
opening scene of our story.
Having now related all we designed in this retrospect of events, we
will return from the somewhat long but necessary digression, and take
up the thread of the narrative where we left it.