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HATCHIE THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;
OR
THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.
A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west
by
WARREN T. ASHTON.
Boston:
B. B. Mussey and Company,
and
R. B. Fitts and Company
1853.
Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the
Fisk University Library Negro Collection
New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Hallandale, Florida 33009
"Here is a man, setting his fate aside, Of comely virtues."
SHAKSPEARE
"Is this the daughter of a slave?"
KNOWLES.
INTRODUCTION.
In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a passenger
on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the
passage--one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of
western river navigation--the plot of this story was arranged. Many of
its incidents, and all its descriptions of steamboat life, will be
recognized by the voyager of the Mississippi.
The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin,"--before negro literature had become a mania in the community. It
was not designed to illustrate the evils or the blessings of slavery. It
is, as its title-page imports, a _tale_; and the author has not stepped
out of his path to moralize upon Southern institutions, or any other
extraneous topic. But, as its _locale_ is the South, and its principal
character a slave, the story incidentally portrays some features of
slavery.
With these explanations, the author submits the tale to the public,
hoping the reader will derive some portion of the pleasure from its
perusal which he experienced in its preparation.
BOSTON, November 18, 1852.
HATCHIE:
THE GUARDIAN SLAVE.
CHAPTER I.
"_Antony_. You grow presumptuous.
_Ventidius_. I take the privilege of plain love to speak.
_Antony_. Plain love!--Plain arrogance! plain insolence!"
DRYDEN.
On the second floor of a lofty building in ---- street, New Orleans, was
situated the office of Anthony Maxwell, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at
Law, Commissioner for Georgia, Alabama, and a dozen other states. His
office had not the usual dusty, business-like aspect of such places, but
presented more the appearance of a gentleman's drawing-room; and, but
for the ponderous cases of books bound in law-sheep, and a table covered
with tin boxes and bundles of papers secured with red tape, the visitor
would easily have mistaken it for such. The space on the walls not
occupied by book-cases was hung with rich paintings, whose artistic
beauty and elevated themes betokened a refined taste. The floor of the
room was covered by a magnificent tapestry carpet. The chairs, lounges
and tables, were of the most costly and elegant description. The windows
were hung with graceful and brilliant draperies. Every arrangement of
the office betokened luxury and indolence, rather than the severe toil
and privation to which the aspirant for legal honors must so often
submit. The costly appurtenances of the apartment seemed to indicate
that the young lawyer's path to fame was over a velvet lawn, bedecked
with beautiful flowers, rather than the rough road, steep and crooked,
over which the greatest statesmen and most eminent jurists have trodden.
The occupant of this chamber was stretched at full length upon one of
the luxurious lounges, puffing, with an abstracted air, a fragrant
regalia. He was a young man, not more than five-and-twenty years of age,
and what ladies of taste would have styled decidedly handsome. His face
was pale, with a certain haggard appearance, which indicates the earlier
stages of dissipation. His complexion was of a delicate white, unbrowned
by the southern sun, and the skin was so transparent that the roots of
his black beard were visible beneath its surface. His jet-black hair
hung in rich, wavy curls, which seemed to be the especial care of some
renowned tonsorial artist, so gracefully and accurately were they
arranged. His black eye was sharp and expressive when his mind was
excited in manly thought; but now it was a little unsteady,--disposed to
droop, and wander, as though ashamed to express the emotions which
agitated his soul. Altogether, his features were classic; but there was
something about them which the moralist would not like--a sort of
lascivious softness mingling with the nobler intellectual expression,
that warned him to beware of the Siren, while he admired the Apollo.
The marks of vice were visible in his countenance. They had not yet
become canker-spots on the surface, but they rankled and festered
beneath that fair field of physical and intellectual grandeur.
The young attorney was dressed in the extreme of fashion, yet in good
taste. Though he wore all the fashion demanded, he did not court
ridicule by overstepping its flickering lines. He was not the
over-dressed dandy, but the full-dressed gentleman of refined taste, in
his external appearance.
Anthony Maxwell had been educated at a northern institution. A year
before his introduction to the reader, he had entered his father's
office in the capacity of a partner, where, by an assumed devotion to
business, he had effectually deceived his father and his clients into
the belief that he was a steady, industrious young man. His talents were
of a very respectable order, which, superadded to a native eloquence and
an engaging demeanor, had enabled him to acquit himself with much credit
in the cases intrusted to his management. A few months after his
professional _début_, his father's decease had placed him in possession
of a very lucrative practice and a moderate fortune, thus enabling him
in some degree to follow the bent of his own inclinations. To those
whose habits and desires were similar to his own, he was not long in
unfolding his true character, though not to a sufficient extent to
destroy at once his professional prospects. The irresponsible life of
the man of leisure had more charms to him than an honorable distinction
in his profession. To labor in any form he had an intolerable
repugnance. His fortune was not sufficient to allow an entire neglect of
business; therefore he determined to practise law in an easy manner,
until a rich wife, or the "tricks" of his craft, would permit an entire
devotion to the pleasures of affluence.
In accordance with this idea, his first step, after the death of his
father, had been to locate himself in the magnificent apartments we have
described. He gave up the house in which his father had dwelt, and,
fitting up a sleeping-room in the rear of the office with oriental
splendor, his life and habits were free from the scrutinizing gaze of
friend and foe, and he found himself situated as nearly to his mind as
his income would permit. These indications of a dissolute life were
viewed with distrust by the more respectable of his clients. His
subsequent actions were not calculated to increase their confidence;
yet, for the respect they bore to the father's memory, they were slow in
casting off the son.
Mr. Maxwell smoked his cigar, and occasionally uttered an impatient
exclamation, as though some scheme he was turning in his mind refused to
accommodate itself to his means. He was evidently engaged in the
consideration of some complicated affair; and the more he thought, the
more impatient he grew. He finished his cigar, and lit another; still
the knotty point was not conquered. His haggard countenance at one
moment was lighted up, as though success had dawned upon his mental
contest; but at the next moment it darkened into disappointment, which
he vented in an audible oath.
While thus laboring in his perplexity, the door communicating with the
ante-chamber was opened, and the boy in attendance very formally
announced "Miss Dumont."
This announcement seemed to dissipate the vexatious clouds which had
environed the attorney, and a light and cheerful smile came, as if by
magic, upon his care-worn features, as he apologized to the lady for the
smoky atmosphere of the room.
"I trust your honored father is well," said he, after disposing of the
usual commonplace introductions of conversation.
"I regret to say that his failing health is the occasion of this visit,"
replied the lady, in a cold and even serious tone. "I have called to
request your immediate attendance at Bellevue. My father has some
business matters upon which he requires your professional advice."
"Col. Dumout, I trust, is not seriously ill," returned Maxwell, with an
appearance of sympathy.
"He is confined to his room, but not entirely to his bed. When shall I
say you will come?" said the lady.
"I will be there within an hour after your own arrival, if you go
direct."
"Very well, sir;" and she turned to depart.
This intention on the part of the lady did not seem to meet the
approbation of the attorney.
"Stay a moment, Miss Dumont," said he, in an embarrassed manner; "pray,
honor me with a moment's conversation."
"Nay, sir. I know too well your object in this request, and cannot
accede to it," replied the lady, in a firm and dignified manner, while
a rich crimson shade suffused her beautiful countenance.
"Be not so unkind,--a moment is all I ask," said Maxwell, with pleading
earnestness.
"No, sir; not a moment. Your unopened letter, which I yesterday
returned, should be enough to convince you that my mind is not changed,"
replied she, moving to the door.
The lawyer was vexed. The letter alluded to by the lady he had received,
and it had troubled him exceedingly. He had a great purpose in view,--a
purpose which, accomplished, would enable him to realize the cherished
object of his life,--would enable him to revel in the ease and affluence
he so much coveted. Something must be done. Here was an opportunity
afforded by the providential visit of Miss Dumont which might never
occur again, and he resolved to improve it. Determined to detain her, he
adopted the first expedient which presented itself.
"Pardon me," said he, "I have not received the letter, and was not aware
that you intended to return it."
"Indeed!" replied the lady, with evident astonishment, as she
relinquished her hold of the door-handle, and returned to the table by
the side of which the attorney stood.
"I regret that I did not, as it would have saved you from further
annoyance, and me from a few of the hours of anguish with which I have
awaited your reply," returned the lawyer, in accents of humility, which
were too well feigned to permit the lady to suspect them. "The
bitterness of a blighted hope were better than the agony of suspense."
A smile of pity and contempt rested upon the fair face of the lady, as
she turned her glance from him to the papers on the table. There lay
Maxwell's letter, with the envelope in which she had returned it! She
only pointed to it, and looked into his face to read the shame and
confusion her discovery must create.
Maxwell's pallid cheek reddened, as he perceived that his deceit was
exposed; but he instantly recovered his self-possession, and said,
"Pardon this little subterfuge. I permitted myself to descend to it,
that I might gain a moment's time to plead with you for the heart which
is wasting away beneath your coldness. You do not, you cannot, know the
misery I have endured in possessing the love upon which you so cruelly
frown."
The passionate eloquence of Maxwell might have melted a heart less firm
than that of Emily Dumont. As it was, the cold expression of contempt
left her features, and, if not disposed to listen with favor to his
suit, she was softened into pity for his assumed misery. Under any other
circumstances, the lie he had a moment before uttered would have forever
condemned him in her sight. But her charitable disposition compelled her
to believe that it was the last resort of a mind on the verge of
despair.
"Mr. Maxwell," said she, "I am deeply grieved that you should have
suffered any unhappiness on my account."
"I will bless you for even those words," returned Maxwell, hastily,
feeling that he had gained the first point.
"But I do not intend to encourage your suit," promptly returned the
lady.
"Be not again unkind! Veil not that heavenly sympathy in the coldness of
indifference again!"
"I wish not to be harsh, or unkind. You have before given me an index of
your sentiments, and I have endeavored, by all courteous means, to
discountenance them."
"Yet I have always found something upon which to base a flickering
hope."
"If you have, I regret it all the more."
"Do not say so! Changed as has been your demeanor towards me, I have
dared to fan the flame in my heart, till now it is a raging fire, and
beyond my control."
"I cannot give my hand where my heart is uninterested," replied the
lady, feelingly. "I love you not. I am candid, and plain, and I trust
this unequivocal declaration will forever terminate any hope you have
cherished in relation to this matter. Painful as I now feel it must be
for you to hear, and painful as it is to me, on that account, to declare
it, I repeat--I can never reciprocate the affection you profess. And now
let this interview terminate. It is too painful to be prolonged;"--and
she again moved towards the door.
"Do not leave me to despair!" pleaded Maxwell, earnestly, as he followed
her toward the door. "At least, bid me wait, bid me prove myself
worthy,--anything, but do not forever extinguish the little star I have
permitted to blaze in the firmament of my heart--the star I have dared
to worship. Do not veil me in utter darkness!"
"I can offer no hope--not the slightest, even to rid myself of an
annoyance," replied Miss Dumont, with the return of some portion of her
former dignity; for the perseverance of the attorney perplexed and
troubled her exceedingly.
"You know not to what a fate you doom me," said Maxwell, heedless of the
lady's rebuke.
"There is no remedy;" and Miss Dumont grasped the door-knob.
"There is a remedy. Bid me wait a month, a year, any time, till you
examine more closely your own heart. Give me any respite from hopeless
misery."
"You have my answer; and now I trust to your honor as a gentleman to
save me from further annoyance," said Miss Dumont, with spirit, for her
patience was fast ebbing out.
"I will not _annoy_ you," replied Maxwell, with emphasis, as he assumed
an air of more self-possession. "I have been pleading for exemption from
the direst of human miseries. But I will not _annoy_ you, even to save
myself from endless woe."
"Forget this misplaced affection; for he assured my sentiments will
continue unchanged."
"I can never forget it; but I will strive to endure it with
resignation. I feel that I must still cherish the presumptuous hope
that you will yet relent."
"Destroy not your own peace; for the hope must be a vain one.
Good-afternoon;" and the lady departed before the attorney had time to
add another hyperbolical profession of a passion which, however well
acted, was not half so deeply grounded as he had led the unsuspecting
object of it to believe. That he really loved her was to some extent
true. That his love was earnest and pure, such as the blight of coldness
and inconstancy would render painful, was not true,--far from it. He had
sought her hand, not to lay at her feet the offering of a hallowed
affection, but to realize the object we have before mentioned,--to
enable him, by the possession of her vast wealth, to live a life of ease
and pleasure.
He had commenced his attack upon her affections with some prospect of
success. To the occasional professional visit he paid her father he had
added frequent social calls, in which he had used all his eloquence to
enlist the sympathies of the fair daughter. She had regarded him as an
agreeable visitor; and, indeed, his natural abilities, the unceasing wit
and liveliness of his conversation, had well earned him this
distinction. Flattering himself that he should be able to win her
affections, he had gradually emerged from the indifference of the mere
formalist to the incipient attentions of the devoted lover. These
overtures were not well received, and, if she had before treated him
with the favor which the agreeable visitor always receives, she now
extended to him only the stately courtesy of entire indifference. The
visible change in the cordiality of her receptions had opened his eyes,
and revealed the nature of his unpromising position. But his disposition
was too buoyant, his character too energetic, to allow him to despair.
Latterly, however, a new obstacle to his suit had presented itself, in
the person of a rival, upon whom the object of his ambitious wishes
appeared to bestow unusual favor. This individual was a young officer
in the army, a sort of _protegé_ of the lady's father, who had been
spending a furlough at Bellevue. In the matter of fortune Maxwell's
rival was not to be dreaded, for he knew the lady was not mercenary in
her views. The young captain was penniless; but his family was good, and
he had the advantage of being a favorite with the father. He had won for
himself a name on the fields of Mexico, which went far to enlist a
lady's favor. He was a universal favorite both with the public and in
the private circle.
Maxwell considered this young officer a formidable rival, and he
resolved to retrieve himself at once. Upon his personal attractions he
relied to overcome the lady's disfavor; and, notwithstanding the
unequivocal intention of discountenancing his suit she had manifested,
he resolved to open his campaign by addressing her, eloquently and
tenderly, through the medium of a letter. He felt that he could in this
manner gain her attention to his suit,--a point which his vanity assured
him was equivalent to a victory. But his philosophy and his vanity were
both sorely tried by the return of the letter unopened. His point was
lost, and he was harassing his fertile brain with vain attempts to
suggest any scheme short of honest, straight-forward wooing,--which the
circumstances seemed to interdict,--when the visit of the lady herself
rendered further efforts useless.
His position, resting, as it did, on the purpose of marrying the
heiress,--a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future prospects to
be resigned,--was now a desperate one. Through the long vista of
struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and the fact that he had to
some extent compromised his heart stimulated him still more to meet and
overcome the barriers that environed him.
For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered the
obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather than a
disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
and disappointment in a volley of oaths.
His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's announcement
of "Mr. Dumont."
"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
demeanor.
"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.
"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
requested me immediately to visit your brother."
"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style
Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.
"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
longer than I supposed it would."
"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother wished
to see you was concerning his will."
"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
apparent alarm.
"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
Jaspar, with a sickly smile.
"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be
prepared for the final event."
"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the
will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste.
Will it take you long?"
"An hour or two."
"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
return."
"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."
Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which
alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that
awaited her, he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly
suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could
scarcely proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled _his_
prospects in darkness; now he was preparing a will which would, at no
distant day, place her in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was
so firmly fixed upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to
bend itself to the task before him.
Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little impatient.
Thrice he rose from his chair, and looked over the lawyer's shoulder.
"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
impatience, "and must be executed with great care."
"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done," observed
Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not unnoticed by
the attorney.
"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype of
Jaspar's smile.
A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single smile! It is
the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts convey their untold
and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious lover it is the bearer of the
first tidings of joy. Long before the heart dare resort to coarse,
material words, the smile carries the messages of affection. To the
villain it reveals the sympathetic purposes of his according fiend. What
the lead and line are to the pilot, the smile, the cunning, dissembling
smile, is to the base mind. By means of it he feels his way into the
heart and soul of his supposed prototype.
Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the meaning of
Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that he was cold and
unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly lacking in common
integrity; but that he was capable of bold and daring villany he had had
no occasion to suspect. As he turned to the document again, the base
character of the uncle came up for consideration in connection with his
suit to the niece. Might not this circumstance open the way to the
attainment of his grand purpose?
But, while he considers, let us turn our attention to the development of
the history and circumstances of the Dumont family.