I see no more those white locks thinly spread
Round the bald polish of that honored head:
No more that meek, that suppliant look in prayer,
Nor that pure faith that gave it force, are there:
But he is blest, and I lament no more,
A wise good man, contented to be poor.
--CRABBE.
We have already said that the customs of America leave the dead but a
short time in sight of the mourners; and the necessity of providing for
his own safety had compelled the peddler to abridge even this brief
space. In the confusion and agitation produced by the events we have
recorded, the death of the elder Birch had occurred unnoticed; but a
sufficient number of the immediate neighbors were hastily collected, and
the ordinary rites of sepulture were now about to be paid to the
deceased. It was the approach of this humble procession that arrested
the movements of the trooper and his comrade. Four men supported the
body on a rude bier; and four others walked in advance, ready to
relieve their friends from their burden. The peddler walked next the
coffin, and by his side moved Katy Haynes, with a most determined aspect
of woe, and next to the mourners came Mr. Wharton and the English
captain. Two or three old men and women, with a few straggling boys,
brought up the rear. Captain Lawton sat in his saddle, in rigid silence,
until the bearers came opposite to his position, and then, for the first
time, Harvey raised his eyes from the ground, and saw the enemy that he
dreaded so near him. The first impulse of the peddler was certainly
flight; but recovering his recollection, he fixed his eye on the coffin
of his parent, and passed the dragoon with a firm step but swelling
heart. The trooper slowly lifted his cap, and continued uncovered until
Mr. Wharton and his son had moved by, when, accompanied by the surgeon,
he rode leisurely in the rear, maintaining an inflexible silence.
Caesar emerged from the cellar kitchen of the cottage, and with a face
of settled solemnity, added himself to the number of the followers of
the funeral, though with a humble mien and at a most respectful distance
from the horsemen. The old negro had placed around his arm, a little
above the elbow, a napkin of unsullied whiteness, it being the only time
since his departure from the city that he had enjoyed an opportunity of
exhibiting himself in the garniture of servile mourning. He was a great
lover of propriety, and had been a little stimulated to this display by
a desire to show his sable friend from Georgia all the decencies of a
New York funeral; and the ebullition of his zeal went off very well,
producing no other result than a mild lecture from Miss Peyton at his
return, on the fitness of things. The attendance of the black was
thought well enough in itself; but the napkin was deemed a superfluous
exhibition of ceremony, at the funeral of a man who had performed all
the menial offices in his own person.
The graveyard was an inclosure on the grounds of Mr. Wharton, which had
been fenced with stone and set apart for the purpose, by that
gentleman, some years before. It was not, however, intended as a burial
place for any of his own family. Until the fire, which raged as the
British troops took possession of New York, had laid Trinity in ashes, a
goodly gilded tablet on its walls proclaimed the virtues of his deceased
parents, and beneath a flag of marble, in one of the aisles of the
church, their bones were left to molder in aristocratical repose.
Captain Lawton made a movement as if he was disposed to follow the
procession, when it left the highway, to enter the field which contained
the graves of the humble dead, but he was recalled to recollection by a
hint from his companion that he was taking the wrong road.
"Of all the various methods which have been adopted by man for the
disposal of his earthly remains, which do you prefer, Captain Lawton?"
said the surgeon, as they separated from the little procession. "In some
countries the body is exposed to be devoured by wild beasts; in others
it is suspended in the air to exhale its substance in the manner of
decomposition; in other regions it is consumed on the funeral pile, and,
again, it is inhumed in the bowels of the earth; every people have their
own particular fashion, and to which do you give the preference?"
"All are agreeable," said the trooper, following the group they had left
with his eyes; "though the speediest interments give the cleanest
fields. Of which are you an admirer?"
"The last, as practiced by ourselves, for the other three are
destructive of all the opportunities for dissection; whereas, in the
last, the coffin can lie in peaceful decency, while the remains are made
to subserve the useful purposes of science. Ah! Captain Lawton, I enjoy
comparatively but few opportunities of such a nature, to what I expected
on entering the army."
"To what may these pleasures numerically amount in a year?" said the
captain, withdrawing his gaze from the graveyard.
"Within a dozen, upon my honor; my best picking is when the corps is
detached; for when we are with the main army, there are so many boys to
be satisfied, that I seldom get a good subject. Those youngsters are as
wasteful as prodigals, and as greedy as vultures."
"A dozen!" echoed the trooper, in surprise. "Why, I furnish you that
number with my own hands."
"Ah! Jack," returned the doctor, approaching the subject with great
tenderness of manner, "it is seldom I can do anything with your
patients; you disfigure them woefully. Believe me, John, when I tell you
as a friend that your system is all wrong; you unnecessarily destroy
life, and then you injure the body so that it is unfit for the only use
that can be made of a dead man."
The trooper maintained a silence, which he thought would be the most
probable means of preserving peace between them; and the surgeon,
turning his head from taking a last look at the burial, as they rode
around the foot of the hill that shut the valley from their sight,
continued with a suppressed sigh,--
"One might get a natural death from that graveyard to-night, if there
was but time and opportunity! The patient must be the father of the lady
we saw this morning."
"The petticoat doctor!--she with the aurora borealis complexion," said
the trooper, with a smile, that began to cause uneasiness to his
companion. "But the lady was not the gentleman's daughter, only his
medico-petticoat attendant; and the Harvey, whose name was made to rime
with every word in her song, is the renowned peddler spy."
"What? He who unhorsed you?"
"No man ever unhorsed me, Dr. Sitgreaves," said the dragoon, gravely. "I
fell by mischance of Roanoke; rider and beast kissed the earth
together."
"A warm embrace, from the love spots it left on your cuticle; 'tis a
thousand pities that you cannot find where the tattling rascal
lies hid."
"He followed his father's body."
"And you let him pass!" cried the surgeon, checking his horse. "Let us
return immediately, and take him; to-morrow you shall have him hanged,
Jack,--and, damn him, I'll dissect him!"
"Softly, softly, my dear Archibald. Would you arrest a man while paying
the last offices to a dead father? Leave him to me, and I pledge myself
he shall have justice."
The doctor muttered his dissatisfaction at any postponement of
vengeance, but he was compelled to acquiesce, from a regard to his
reputation for propriety; and they continued their ride to the quarters
of the corps, engaged in various discussions concerning the welfare of
the human body.
Birch supported the grave and collected manner that was thought becoming
in a male mourner, on such occasions, and to Katy was left the part of
exhibiting the tenderness of the softer sex. There are some people,
whose feelings are of such nature that they cannot weep unless it be in
proper company, and the spinster was a good deal addicted to this
congregational virtue. After casting her eyes around the small
assemblage, the housekeeper found the countenances of the few females,
who were present, fixed on her in solemn expectation, and the effect was
instantaneous; the maiden really wept, and she gained no inconsiderable
sympathy, and some reputation for a tender heart, from the spectators.
The muscles of the peddler's face were seen to move, and as the first
clod of earth fell on the tenement of his father, sending up that dull,
hollow sound that speaks so eloquently the mortality of man, his whole
frame was for an instant convulsed. He bent his body down, as if in
pain, his fingers worked while the hands hung lifeless by his side, and
there was an expression in his countenance that seemed to announce a
writhing of the soul; but it was not unresisted, and it was transient.
He stood erect, drew a long breath, and looked around him with an
elevated face, that even seemed to smile with a consciousness of having
obtained the mastery. The grave was soon filled; a rough stone, placed
at either extremity, marked its position, and the turf, whose faded
vegetation was adapted to the fortunes of the deceased, covered the
little hillock with the last office of seemliness. This office ended,
the neighbors, who had officiously pressed forward to offer their
services in performing their solemn duty, paused, and lifting their
hats, stood looking towards the mourner, who now felt himself to be
really alone in the world. Uncovering his head also, the peddler
hesitated a moment, to gather energy, and spoke.
"My friends and neighbors," he said, "I thank you for assisting me to
bury my dead out of my sight."
A solemn pause succeeded the customary address, and the group dispersed
in silence, some few walking with the mourners back to their own
habitation, but respectfully leaving them at its entrance. The peddler
and Katy were followed into the building by one man, however, who was
well known to the surrounding country by the significant term of "a
speculator." Katy saw him enter, with a heart that palpitated with
dreadful forebodings, but Harvey civilly handed him a chair, and
evidently was prepared for the visit.
The peddler went to the door, and, taking a cautious glance about the
valley, quickly returned, and commenced the following dialogue:--
"The sun has just left the top of the eastern hill; my time presses me:
here is the deed for the house and lot; everything is done according
to law."
The other took the paper, and conned its contents with a deliberation
that proceeded partly from his caution, and partly from the unlucky
circumstance of his education having been much neglected when a youth.
The time occupied in this tedious examination was employed by Harvey in
gathering together certain articles which he intended to include in the
stores that were to leave the habitation with himself. Katy had already
inquired of the peddler whether the deceased had left a will; and she
saw the Bible placed in the bottom of a new pack, which she had made
for his accommodation, with a most stoical indifference; but as the six
silver spoons were laid carefully by its side, a sudden twinge of her
conscience objected to such a palpable waste of property, and she
broke silence.
"When you marry, Harvey, you may miss those spoons."
"I never shall marry."
"Well, if you don't there's no occasion to make rash promises, even to
yourself. One never knows what one may do, in such a case. I should like
to know, of what use so many spoons can be to a single man; for my part,
I think it is a duty for every man who is well provided, to have a wife
and family to maintain."
At the time when Katy expressed this sentiment, the fortune of women in
her class of life consisted of a cow, a bed, the labors of their own
hands in the shape of divers pillowcases, blankets, and sheets, with,
where fortune was unusually kind, a half dozen silver spoons. The
spinster herself had obtained all the other necessaries by her own
industry and prudence, and it can easily be imagined that she saw the
articles she had long counted her own vanish in the enormous pack, with
a dissatisfaction that was in no degree diminished by the declaration
that had preceded the act. Harvey, however, disregarded her opinions and
feelings, and continued his employment of filling the pack, which soon
grew to something like the ordinary size of the peddler's burden.
"I'm rather timersome about this conveyance," said the purchaser, having
at length waded through the covenants of the deed.
"Why so?"
"I'm afraid it won't stand good in law. I know that two of the neighbors
leave home to-morrow morning, to have the place entered for
confiscation; and if I should give forty pounds, and lose it all,
'twould be a dead pull back to me."
"They can only take my right," said the peddler. "Pay me two hundred
dollars, and the house is yours; you are a well-known Whig, and you at
least they won't trouble." As Harvey spoke, there was a strange
bitterness of manner, mingled with the shrewd care he expressed
concerning the sale of his property.
"Say one hundred, and it is a bargain," returned the man, with a grin
that he meant for a good-natured smile.
"A bargain!" echoed the peddler, in surprise. "I thought the bargain
already made."
"Nothing is a bargain," said the purchaser, with a chuckle, "until
papers are delivered, and the money paid in hand."
"You have the paper."
"Aye, and will keep it, if you will excuse the money. Come, say one
hundred and fifty, and I won't be hard; here--here is just the money."
The peddler looked from the window, and saw with dismay that the evening
was fast advancing, and knew well that he endangered his life by
remaining in the dwelling after dark; yet he could not tolerate the idea
of being defrauded in this manner, in a bargain that had already been
fairly made; he hesitated.
"Well," said the purchaser, rising, "mayhap you can find another man to
trade with between this and morning, but if you don't, your title won't
be worth much afterwards."
"Take it, Harvey," said Katy, who felt it impossible to resist a tender
like the one before her; for the purchase money was in English guineas.
Her voice roused the peddler, and a new idea seemed to strike him.
"I agree to the price," he said; and, turning to the spinster, he placed
part of the money in her hand, as he continued, "Had I other means to
pay you, I would have lost all, rather than suffer myself to be
defrauded of part."
"You may lose all yet," muttered the stranger, with a sneer, as he rose
and left the building.
"Yes," said Katy, following him with her eyes, "he knows your failing,
Harvey; he thinks with me, now the old gentleman is gone, you will want
a careful body to take care of your concerns."
The peddler was busied in making arrangements for his departure, and he
took no notice of this insinuation, while the spinster returned again to
the attack. She had lived so many years in expectation of a termination
to her hopes, so different from that which now seemed likely to occur,
that the idea of separation began to give her more uneasiness than she
had thought herself capable of feeling, about a man so destitute and
friendless.
"Have you another house to go to?" inquired Katy.
"Providence will provide me with a home."
"Yes," said the housekeeper, "but maybe 'twill not be to your liking."
"The poor must not be difficult."
"I'm sure I'm anything but a difficult body," cried the spinster, very
hastily; "but I love to see things becoming, and in their places; yet I
wouldn't be hard to persuade to leave this place myself. I can't say I
altogether like the ways of the people hereabouts."
"The valley is lovely," said the peddler, with fervor, "and the people
like all the race of man. But to me it matters nothing; all places are
now alike, and all faces equally strange." As he spoke he dropped the
article he was packing from his hand, and seated himself on a chest,
with a look of vacant misery.
"Not so, not so," said Katy, shoving her chair nearer to the place where
the peddler sat. "Not so, Harvey, you must know me at least; my face
cannot be strange to you."
Birch turned his eyes slowly on her countenance, which exhibited more of
feeling, and less of self, than he had ever seen there before; he took
her hand kindly, and his own features lost some of their painful
expression, as he said,--
"Yes, good woman, you, at least, are not a stranger to me; you may do me
partial justice; when others revile me possibly your feelings may lead
you to say something in my defense."
"That I will; that I would!" said Katy, eagerly. "I will defend you,
Harvey, to the last drop; let me hear them that dare to revile you! You
say true, Harvey, I am partial and just to you; what if you do like the
king? I have often heard it said he was at the bottom a good man; but
there's no religion in the old country, for everybody allows the
ministers are desperate bad!"
The peddler paced the floor in evident distress of mind; his eyes had a
look of wildness that Katy had never witnessed before, and his step was
measured, with a dignity that appalled the housekeeper.
"While my father lived," murmured Harvey, unable to smother his
feelings, "there was one who read my heart, and oh! what a consolation
to return from my secret marches of danger, and the insults and wrongs
that I suffered, to receive his blessing and his praise; but he is
gone," he continued, stopping and gazing wildly towards the corner that
used to hold the figure of his parent, "and who is there to do
me justice?"
"Why, Harvey! Harvey!"
"Yes, there is one who will, who must know me before I die! Oh! it is
dreadful to die, and leave such a name behind me."
"Don't talk of dying, Harvey," said the spinster, glancing her eye
around the room, and pushing the wood in the fire to obtain a light from
the blaze.
The ebullition of feeling in the peddler was over. It had been excited
by the events of the past day, and a vivid perception of his sufferings.
It was not long, however, that passion maintained an ascendency ever the
reason of this singular man; and perceiving that the night had already
thrown an obscurity around objects without doors, he hastily threw his
pack over his shoulders, and taking Katy kindly by the hand, in
leavetaking,--
"It is painful to part with even you, good woman," he said, "but the
hour has come, and I must go. What is left in the house is yours; to me
it could be of no use, and it may serve to make you more comfortable.
Farewell--we shall meet hereafter."
"In the regions of darkness!" cried a voice that caused the peddler to
sink on the chest from which he had risen, in despair.
"What! another pack, Mr. Birch, and so well stuffed so soon!"
"Have you not done evil enough?" cried the peddler, regaining his
firmness, and springing on his feet with energy. "Is it not enough to
harass the last moments of a dying man--to impoverish me; what more
would you have?"
"Your blood!" said the Skinner, with cool malignity.
"And for money," cried Harvey, bitterly. "Like the ancient Judas, you
would grow rich with the price of blood!"
"Aye, and a fair price it is, my gentleman; fifty guineas; nearly the
weight of that carcass of yours in gold."
"Here," said Katy, promptly, "here are fifteen guineas, and these
drawers and this bed are all mine; if you will give Harvey but one
hour's start from the door, they shall be yours."
"One hour?" said the Skinner, showing his teeth, and looking with a
longing eye at the money.
"But a single hour; here, take the money."
"Hold!" cried Harvey. "Put no faith in the miscreant."
"She may do what she pleases with her faith," said the Skinner, with
malignant pleasure, "but I have the money in good keeping; as for you,
Mr. Birch, we will bear your insolence, for the fifty guineas that are
to pay for your gallows."
"Go on," said the peddler, proudly; "take me to Major Dunwoodie; he, at
least, may be kind, although just."
"I can do better than by marching so far in such disgraceful company;
this Mr. Dunwoodie has let one or two Tories go at large; but the troop
of Captain Lawton is quartered some half mile nearer, and his receipt
will get me the reward as soon as his major's. How relish you the idea
of supping with Captain Lawton, this evening, Mr. Birch?"
"Give me my money, or set Harvey free," cried the spinster in alarm.
"Your bribe was not enough, good woman, unless there is money in this
bed." Thrusting his bayonet through the ticking and ripping it for some
distance, he took a malicious satisfaction in scattering its contents
about the room.
"If," cried the housekeeper, losing sight of her personal danger in care
for her newly-acquired property, "there is law in the land, I will
be righted!"
"The law of the neutral ground is the law of the strongest; but your
tongue is not as long as my bayonet; you had, therefore, best not set
them at loggerheads, or you might be the loser."
A figure stood in the shadow of the door, as if afraid to be seen in the
group of Skinners; but a blaze of light, raised by some articles thrown
in the fire by his persecutors, showed the peddler the face of the
purchaser of his little domain. Occasionally there was some whispering
between this man and the Skinner nearest him, that induced Harvey to
suspect he had been the dupe of a contrivance in which that wretch had
participated. It was, however, too late to repine; and he followed the
party from the house with a firm and collected tread, as if marching to
a triumph, and not to a gallows. In passing through the yard, the leader
of the band fell over a billet of wood, and received a momentary hurt
from the fall; exasperated at the incident, the fellow sprang on his
feet, filling the air with execrations.
"The curse of heaven light on the log!" he exclaimed. "The night is too
dark for us to move in; throw that brand of fire in yon pile of tow, to
light up the scene."
"Hold!" roared the speculator; "you'll fire the house."
"And see the farther," said the other, hurling the brand in the midst
of the combustibles. In an instant the building was in flames. "Come on;
let us move towards the heights while we have light to pick our road."
"Villain!" cried the exasperated purchaser, "is this your
friendship--this my reward for kidnapping the peddler?"
"'Twould be wise to move more from the light, if you mean to entertain
us with abuse, or we may see too well to miss our mark," cried the
leader of the gang. The next instant he was as good as his threat, but
happily missed the terrified speculator and equally appalled spinster,
who saw herself again reduced from comparative wealth to poverty, by the
blow. Prudence dictated to the pair a speedy retreat; and the next
morning, the only remains of the dwelling of the peddler was the huge
chimney we have already mentioned.