TROUBLES IN COUNCIL.
Let us now turn back to see what is doing at St. Mary's.
On the 17th of February comes to the Council a letter from Lord
Effingham. It has the superscription, "These, with the greatest care and
speed." It is dated on the 11th of February from Poropotanck, an Indian
point on the York River above Gloucester, and memorable as being in the
neighborhood of the spot where, some sixty years before these events,
Pocahontas saved the life of that mirror of chivalry, Captain John
Smith.
The letter brings information "that last night [the 10th of February]
Colonel Talbot escaped out of prison,"--a subsequent letter says, "by
the corruption of his guard,"--and it is full of admonition, which has
very much the tone of command, urging all strenuous efforts to recapture
him, and particularly recommending a proclamation of "hue and cry."
And now, for a month, there is a great parade in Maryland of
proclamation, and hue and cry, and orders to sheriffs and county
colonels to keep a sharp look-out everywhere for Talbot. But no person
in the Province seems to be anxious to catch him, except Mr. Nehemiah
Blakiston, the Collector, and a few others, who seem to have been
ministering to Lord Effingham's spleen against the Council for not
capturing him. His Lordship writes several letters of complaint at the
delay and ill success of this pursuit, and some of them in no measured
terms of courtesy. "I admire," he says in one of these, "at any slow
proceedings in service wherein his Majesty is so concerned, and hope you
will take off all occasions of future trouble, both unto me and you,
of this nature, by manifesting yourselves zealous for his Majesty's
service." They answer, that all imaginable care for the apprehending
of Talbot has been taken by issuing proclamations, etc.,--but all have
proved ineffectual, because Talbot upon all occasions flies and
takes refuge "in the remotest parts of the woods and deserts of this
Province."
At this point we get some traces of Talbot. There is a deposition of
Robert Kemble of Cecil County, and some other papers, that give us a few
particulars by which I am enabled to construct my narrative.
Colonel Talbot got to his own house about the middle of
February,--nearly at the same time at which the news of his escape
reached St. Mary's. He there lay warily watching the coming hue and cry
for his apprehension. He collected his friends, armed them, and set them
at watch and ward, at all his outposts. He had a disguise provided, in
which he occasionally ventured abroad. Kemble met him, on the 19th of
February, at George Oldfield's, on Elk River; and although the Colonel
was disguised in a flaxen wig, and in other ways, Kemble says he knew
him by hearing him cough in the night, in a room adjoining that in which
Kemble slept. Whilst this witness was at Oldfield's, "Talbot's shallop,"
he says, "was busking and turning before Oldfield's landing for several
hours." The roads leading towards Talbot's house were all guarded by his
friends, and he had a report made to him of every vessel that arrived in
the river. By way of more permanent concealment, until the storm should
blow over, he had made preparations to build himself a cabin, somewhere
in the woods out of the range of the thoroughfares of the district. When
driven by a pressing emergency which required more than ordinary care
to prevent his apprehension, he betook himself to the cave on the
Susquehanna, where, most probably, with a friend or two,--Cornet Murray
I hope was one of them,--he lay perdu for a few days at a time, and
then ventured back to speak a word of comfort and encouragement to the
faithful wife who kept guard at home.
In this disturbed and anxious alternation of concealment and flight
Talbot passed the winter, until about the 25th of April, when, probably
upon advice of friends, he voluntarily surrendered himself to the
Council at St. Mary's, and was committed for trial in the provincial
Court. The fact of the surrender was communicated to Lord Effingham by
the Council, with a request that he would send the witnesses to Maryland
to appear at his trial. Hereupon arose another correspondence with his
Lordship, which is worthy of a moment's notice. Lord Effingham has lost
nothing of his arrogance. He says, on the 12th of May, 1685, "I am so
far from answering your desires, that I do hereby demand Colonel Talbot
as my prisoner, in the King of England's name, and that you do forthwith
convey him into Virginia. And to this my demand I expect your ready
performance and compliance, upon your allegiance to his Majesty."
I am happy to read the answer to this insolent letter, in which it will
be seen that the spirit of Maryland was waked up on the occasion to its
proper voice.--It is necessary to say, by way of explanation to one
point in this answer, that the Governor of Virginia had received the
news of the accession and proclamation of James the Second, and had not
communicated it to the Council in Maryland. The Council give an answer
at their leisure, having waited till the 1st of June, when they write
to his Lordship, protesting against Virginia's exercising any
superintendence over Maryland, and peremptorily refusing to deliver
Talbot. They tell him "that we are desirous and conclude to await his
Majesty's resolution, [in regard to the prisoner,] which we question not
will be agreeable to his Lordship's Charter, and, consequently, contrary
to your expectations. In the mean time we cannot but resent in some
measure, for we are willing to let you see that we observe, the small
notice you seem to take of this Government, (contrary to that amicable
correspondence so often promised, and expected by us,) in not holding us
worthy to be advised of his Majesty's being proclaimed, without which,
certainly, we have not been enabled to do our duty in that particular.
Such advice would have been gratefully received by your Excellency's
humble servants." Thanks, Colonels Darnall and Digges and you other
Colonels and Majors, for this plain outspeaking of the old Maryland
heart against the arrogance of the "Right Honorable Lord Howard, Baron
of Effingham, Captain General and Chief Governor of his Majesty's Colony
of Virginia," as he styles himself! I am glad to see this change of
tone, since that first letter of obsequious submission.
Perhaps this change of tone may have had some connection with the recent
change on the throne, in which the accession of a Catholic monarch may
have given new courage to Maryland, and abated somewhat the confidence
of Virginia. If so, it was but a transitory hope, born to a sad
disappointment.
The documents afford but little more information.
Lord Baltimore, being in London, appears to have interceded with the
King for some favor to Talbot, and writes to the Council on the third
of July, "that it formerly was and still is the King's pleasure, that
Talbot shall be brought over, in the Quaker Ketch, to England, to
receive his trial there; and that, in order thereto, his Majesty had
sent his commands to the Governor of Virginia to deliver him to
Captain Allen, commander of said ketch, who is to bring him over." The
Proprietary therefore directs his Council to send the prisoner to the
Governor of Virginia, "to the end that his Majesty's pleasure may be
fulfilled."
This letter was received on the 7th of October, 1685, and Talbot was
accordingly sent, under the charge of Gilbert Clarke and a proper guard,
to Lord Effingham, who gives Clarke a regular business receipt, as if
he had brought him a hogshead of tobacco, and appends to it a short
apologetic explanation of his previous rudeness, which we may receive as
another proof of his distrust of the favor of the new monarch. "I had
not been so urgent," he says, "had I not had advices from England, last
April, of the measures that were taken there concerning him."
After this my chronicle is silent. We have no further tidings of Talbot.
The only hint for a conjecture is the marginal note of "The Landholder's
Assistant," got from Chalmers: "He was, I believe," says the note,
"tried and convicted, and finally pardoned by James the Second." This is
probably enough. For I suppose him to have been of the same family with
that Earl of Tyrconnel equally distinguished for his influence with
James the Second as for his infamous life and character, who held at
this period unbounded sway at the English Court. I hope, for the honor
of our hero, that he preserved no family-likeness to that false-hearted,
brutal, and violent favorite, who is made immortal in Macaulay's pages
as Lying Dick Talbot. Through his intercession his kinsman may have been
pardoned, or even never brought to trial.