Red Rock: A Chronicle of Reconstruction

by Thomas Nelson Page

  CHAPTER XVII

  JACQUELIN GRAY GOES ON A LONG VOYAGE AND RED ROCK PASSES OUT OF HISHANDS

  Jacquelin had never recovered from the rough handling which he hadreceived that night from Leech. His wound had broken out afresh and hewas now confined to his bed all the time. There was one cause which,perhaps, more than all the rest, weighed him down, and that, certainly,Dr. Cary did not know, though, no doubt, Mrs. Cary and Mrs. Gray knew.It was a secret wound, deeper than that which Dr. Cary was treating. Hehad never been the same since the evening of his misunderstanding withBlair Cary. The affair in which the negro soldiers were killed, andRupert’s and Steve’s part in it, with the necessity of sending Rupertaway, and the consequences which followed, seemed to be the finishingstroke, and it appeared to be only a question of a few months withJacquelin.

  One other reason for his anxiety Dr. Cary had. Reports of threats madeby Leech came to the Doctor.

  “Another arrest, and he will go,” said Dr. Cary. “We must get him away.Send him first to a city where he can have better surgical treatmentthan he is able to receive in the country. Then, when he is fit forit, put him on a sailing vessel and send him around the world.” Howcleverly he had managed it, thought the Doctor!

  Mrs. Gray also had her own reasons for wishing to get Jacquelin away,though they were not mainly what Dr. Cary thought. With a keenerinsight than the good Doctor had, she had seen Blair Cary’s changeand its effect on Jacquelin. And she eagerly sought to carry out theDoctor’s suggestions. The chief difficulty in the way was want offunds. The demands of the plantation, according to Mr. Still’s account,had been enough of late to consume everything that was made on it. Thenegroes had to be supported whether they worked or not, and the estatewas running behind.

  The Doctor felt certain he could manage the matter of means. HiramStill had just offered to lend him a further sum. Indeed, Still hadhimself brought up the matter of Jacquelin’s health, and had evenasked the Doctor if he did not think a long visit somewhere might doJacquelin good.

  “He is a strange mixture, that man Still. He is undoubtedly a verykind-hearted man,” asserted the Doctor.

  Mrs. Gray did not altogether agree with her cousin in his estimate ofStill; she had her own opinion of him; but she was somewhat mollifiedby hearing of his interest in Jacquelin’s welfare. She could not,however, allow her cousin to borrow money in his own name on heraccount, but, in the face of Jacquelin’s steady decline, she finallyyielded and bowed her pride so far as to permit the Doctor to borrowit for her, only stipulating that the plate and pictures in the houseshould be pledged to secure it. This would relieve her partly frompersonal obligations to Still. One other stipulation she made: thatJacquelin was not to know of the loan.

  When the Doctor applied to Still he obtained the loan withoutdifficulty, and Still, having taken an assignment of the plate andpictures, agreed without hesitation to his condition of silence, evenexpressing the deepest interest in Jacquelin’s welfare, and reiteratinghis protestations of friendship for him and Mrs. Gray.

  “It is the most curious thing,” said the Doctor to Mrs. Cary,afterward: “I never apply to that man without his doing what I ask.I always expect to be refused. I am always surprised—and yet mysuspicion is not relieved—I do not know why it is. I think I must be avery suspicious man.”

  Mrs. Cary’s mouth shut closely. But she would not add to her husband’sworries by a suggestion, the very idea of which she thought was anindignity.

  “I wish you had not applied to him,” she said. “I do not want to beunder any obligations to him whatever. I do not think Helen should haveasked it of you.”

  “Oh! my dear!” said the Doctor. “She didn’t ask it of me, I offered itto her.”

  “I cannot bear him,” declared Mrs. Cary, with the tone of one whodelivers a convincing argument. “And the son is more intolerable thanthe father. It requires all my politeness to prevent my asking him outof the house whenever he comes. He comes here entirely too often.”

  “My dear, he is a young doctor who is trying to practise hisprofession, and needs advice,” expostulated the old doctor, but Mrs.Cary was not to be convinced.

  “A young doctor, indeed! a young—” The rest of the sentence was lostas she went out with her head in the air.

  When the matter of removing Jacquelin was broached to him, a new andunexpected difficulty arose. He refused to go. The idea of his gettingbetter treatment than Dr. Cary was able to give was, he said, allnonsense, and they could not stand the expense of such a plan as wasproposed. In this emergency his mother was forced to bow her pride.She summoned Blair Cary as an ally. Blair yielded so far as to addan expression of her views to the mother’s, because she did not knowhow to refuse; but, with a woman’s finesse, she kept herself withinlimitations, which Jacquelin, at least, would understand. She came overon a visit, and went in to see him, and took occasion to say that shethought he ought to go to the city. It was a very prim and stiff littlespeech that she made. Jacquelin’s face showed the first tinge of colorthat had been on it for months, as he turned his eyes to her almosteagerly. So impassive, though, was she, that the tinge faded out.

  “Do you ask me to go?”

  “No—I have nothing to do with it. I only think you ought to do whatyour mother wishes.” The mouth was closer than usual. There was alittle deeper color in her face now.

  “Oh! it was only a moral idea you wished to inculcate?”

  “If you choose to call it so.” The mouth drew closer.

  “Well—will you ask me?”

  “I don’t mind doing it—for your mother.” It was no accident that awoman was chosen to be the oracle at Delphi. Jacquelin could make nomore of the face before him than if he had never seen it before, and hehad studied it for years.

  Jacquelin agreed to go to the hospital. So he was sent off to the city,where an operation was performed to remove some of the splintered boneand relieve him. And as soon as he was well enough he was sent offon a sailing vessel trading to China. He thus escaped the increasingafflictions that were coming on the county, and his mother, who wouldhave torn out her heart for him, for fear he would come home if he knewthe state of affairs, kept everything from him, and bore her burdensalone.

  The burdens were heavy.

  The next few years which passed brought more changes to the old countythan any years of the war. The war had destroyed the Institutionof slavery; the years of the carpet-bagger’s domination well-nighdestroyed the South. As Miss Thomasia said, sighing, it was thefulfilment of the old prophecy: “After the sword shall come thecankerworm.” And the Doctor’s speech was recalled by some: “You ask forwar, but you do not know what it is. A fool can start a conflagration,but the Sanhedrim cannot stop it. War is never done. It leaves itsbaleful seed for generations.”

  Dr. Cary, when he uttered this statement, had little idea how true itwas.

  Events had proved that although the people were impoverished, theirspirit was not broken. Unhappily, the power was in the hands of thosewho did not understand them, and Leech and his fellows had their ear.It was deemed proper to put them in absolute control. Leech wrotethe authorities that he and his party must have power to preserve theUnion; he wrote to Mrs. Welch that they must have it to preserve thepoor freedmen. The authorities promised it, and kept the promise. Itwas insanity.

  One provision gave the ballot to the former slave, just as it was takenfrom the former master. An act was so shrewdly framed that, while itappeared simply to be intended to secure loyalty to the Union, it wasaimed to strike from the rolls of citizenship almost the entire whitepopulation of the South; that is, all who would not swear they hadnever given aid or comfort to the Confederacy. It was so all-embracingthat it came to be known as the “ironclad” oath.

  “It is the greatest Revolution since the time of Poland,” said Dr.Cary, his nostrils dilating with ire. “They have thrown down the manof intelligence, character, and property, and have set up the slaveand the miscreant. ‘Syria is confederate with Ephraim.’
More is yet tocome.”

  “It is the salvation of the Union,” wrote Leech to Mrs. Welch, who wasthe head of an organization that sent boxes of clothes to the negroesthrough Leech. Leech was beginning to think himself the Union.

  While General Legaie and Steve Allen were discussing constitutionalrights and privileges, and declaring that they would never yield assentto any measures of the kind proposed, a more arbitrary act than thesewas committed: the State itself was suddenly swept out of existence,and a military government was substituted in its place; the veryname of the State on which those gentlemen and their ancestors hadprided themselves for generations was extinguished and lost in that of“Military District, Number ——.” The old State, with all others likeit, ceased to be.

  Colonel Krafton was the chief authority in that part of the State,and Major Leech, as he was now called, was his representative in thecounty. And between them they had the enforcement of all the measuresthat were adopted.

  When their hands were deemed strong enough, it was determined to givethem the form of popular government.

  It was an easy process; for the whites had been disfranchised, and onlythe negroes and those who had taken the ironclad oath could vote.

  At the first election that was held under the new system, the spectaclewas a curious one. Krafton was the candidate for governor. Most ofthe disfranchised whites stayed away, haughtily or sullenly, from thepolls, where ballots were cast under a guard of soldiers. But otherswent to see the strange sight, and to vent their derision on thedetested officials who were in charge. Dr. Cary and General Legaie,with most men of their age and stamp, remained at home in haughty, andimpotent indignation.

  “Why should I go to see my former wagon-driver standing for the seatmy grandfather resigned from the United States Senate to take?” askedGeneral Legaie, proudly.

  Steve Allen and Andy Stamper, however, and many of the young men wereon hand.

  Leech and Nicholas Ash were the candidates for the Legislature, andSteve went to the poll where he thought it likely Leech would be.Steve had become a leader among the whites. Both men knew that it wasnow a fight to the finish between them, and both always acted in fullconsciousness of the fact. Leech counted on his power, and the force hecould always summon to his aid, to hold Steve in check until he shouldhave committed some rashness which would enable him to destroy him.Steve was conscious that Leech was personally afraid of him, and herelied on this fact—taking every occasion to assert himself—as themaster of a treacherous animal keeps ever facing him, holding him withthe spell of an unflinching eye.

  The negroes were led in lines to cast their votes.

  It was a notable thing that in all the county there was not an angryword that day between a white man and a negro. Leech, in a letterto Mrs. Welch describing the occasion, declared that the quietnesswith which the election passed off was due wholly to the presence ofthe soldiery, and he was very eloquent in his denunciation of thedesperadoes who surrounded him, and who were held at bay only by fearof the bayonets about them. But this was not true. The situation wastoo novel not to be interesting, and there was feeling, but it wassuppressed. It was a strange sight, the polls guarded by soldiers; themen who had controlled the country standing by, disfranchised, and thelines of blacks who had just been slaves, and not one in one hundred ofwhom could read their ballots, voting on questions which were to decidethe fate of the State. There were many gibes flung at the new voters bythe disfranchised spectators, but they were mainly good-natured.

  “Whom are you voting for, Uncle Gideon?” asked Steve of one of the oldRed Rock negroes.

  “Marse Steve, you know who I votin’ for better’n I does myself.”

  To another:

  “Whom are you voting for?”

  “Gi’ me a little tobacker, Marse Steve, an’ I’ll tell you.” And when itwas given, he turned to the crowd: “Who is I votin’ for? I done forgit.Oh! yes—old Mr. Linkum—ain’ dat he name?”

  “Well, he’s a good one to vote for—he’s dead,” said Steve.

  “Hi! is he? When did he die?” protested the old man in unfeignedastonishment.

  “You ain’ votin’ for him—you’se votin’ for Mist’ Grant,” explainedanother younger negro, indignant at the old man’s ignorance.

  “Is I? Who’s he? He’s one I ain’ never heard on. Marse Steve, I don’know who I votin’ for—I jis know I votin’, dat’s all.”

  This raised a laugh at Steve’s expense which was led by Leech, and toatone for it the old servant added:

  “I done forgit de gent’man’s name.”

  “The gentlemen you are voting for are Leech and Nicholas Ash,” saidSteve.

  “Marse Steve, you know dey ain’ no gent’mens,” said the old fellow,undisturbed by the fact that Leech was present.

  “Uncle Tom, you know something, anyhow,” said Steve, enjoying theProvost’s discomfiture.

  The only white man of any note in the upper end of the county who tookthe new “ironclad” oath was Hiram Still. Andy Stamper met him afterHiram had voted. Still tried to dodge him.

  “Don’t run, Hiram,” said the little Sergeant, contemptuously, “I ain’ta going to hurt ye. The war’s over. If I had known at the time you wasgivin’ the Yanks information, I might ’a’ done it once—and I wouldadvise you, Hiram, never to give ’em too much information about _me_now. You’ve already giv’ ’em too much once about me. See there?” Hestretched out his arm and showed a purple mark on his wrist. It wasthe scar that had been left by the handcuff when he was arrested forthe riot at Deal’s. “It won’t come out. You understand?” The littlefellow’s eyes shot at the renegade so piercing a glance that Stillcowered and muttered that he had nothing to do with him one way oranother.

  “Maybe, if you didn’t give no aid and comfort to the rebels you’d liketo give me back that little piece of paper you took from my old motherto secure the price of that horse you let me have to go back in thearmy?” drawled Stamper, while one or two onlookers laughed.

  The renegade made his escape as quickly as possible.

  Still’s reply to the contempt that was visited on him was to bring suiton the bonds he held. Leech was his counsel. One of the first suits wasagainst Andy Stamper. Andy was promptly sold out under the deed whichhad been given during the war; the place was bought by Still, and Andyand Delia rented another little house. This was only the beginning,however.

  When Still flung away his mask, he went as far as he dared. It was nowopen war, and he had thrown in his fortune with the other side.

  Dr. Cary received a note one morning from Mrs. Gray asking him to comeand see her immediately. He found her in a state of agitation veryunusual with her. She had the night before received a letter fromStill, stating that he was a creditor of her husband’s estate and heldhis bonds for over fifty thousand dollars. Mrs. Gray had known thatthere were some outstanding debts of her husband due him, though shehad supposed they were nearly paid off—but fifty thousand dollars! Itwould take the whole estate!

  “Why, it is incredible,” declared the Doctor. “Quite incredible! Theman is crazy. You need give yourself no uneasiness whatever about it. Iwill see him and clear up the whole matter.”

  Yet, even as the Doctor spoke, he recalled certain hints of Still’s,dropped from time to time, recently, as to balances due by his formeremployer on old accounts connected with his Southern estate, and Mr.Gray was a very easy man, thought the Doctor, who believed himself oneof the keenest and most methodical of men.

  Women love to have encouragement from men, even though they may feelthe reverse of what they are told to believe. So Mrs. Gray and MissThomasia were more comforted than they could have found ground for.

  When Dr. Cary did look into the matter, to his amazement he found thatthe bonds were in existence. Still gave the account of them which hehad already given to Leech, and produced some corroborative evidence inthe shape of letters relating to the transaction of buying and stockingthe sugar plantation. There was hope for awhile that the wr
iters ofthe letters might be able to throw some light on the matter, but, oninvestigation, it turned out that they were without exception dead,and Mrs. Gray herself, on seeing the big bond, pronounced it genuine,and declared that she remembered her husband once spoke of it, thoughshe thought he had told her it was all settled. She hunted all throughhis papers, but though she found other bonds of his which he had takenin she could find no record of this big one. Jacquelin was written to,but in his reply he said that no matter what the cost, he wanted hisfather’s debts paid. So no defence was made to the suit which Stillhad instituted by Leech as his counsel, and judgment was obtained bydefault. And soon afterward the Red Rock place, with everything on it,was sold under this judgment and was bought in by Still for less thanthe amount of his claim.

  Jacquelin was still abroad and Mrs. Gray purposely kept him inignorance of what was going on; for her chief anxiety at this time wasto prevent Jacquelin from returning home until all this matter wasended. He had written that his health was steadily improving.

  Mrs. Gray did not remain at Red Rock twenty-four hours after Stillbecame its owner. She and Miss Thomasia moved next day to Dr. Cary’s,where they were offered a home. She congratulated herself anew thatmorning that Jacquelin was yet absent.

  Mrs. Gray and Miss Thomasia walked out with their heads up, biddinggood-by to their old servants, who had assembled outside of the house,their faces full of concern and sorrow.

  There was hardly a negro on the place who was not there. However theymight follow Still in politics, they had not yet learned to forgetthe old ties that bound them in other matters to their old masters,and they were profoundly affected by this step, which they could allappreciate.

  “I drives you away, my mistis,” said the driver, old Waverley. “I praysGord I may live to drive you back.”

  “Not me, Waverley; but, maybe, this boy,” said Mrs. Gray, laying herhand on Rupert’s shoulder.

  “Yes’m, we heah him say he comin’ back,” said the old driver, withpride. “Gord knows we hopes so.”

  Just then Hiram Still, accompanied by Leech, rode up into the yard.He had evidently kept himself informed as to Mrs. Gray’s movements.He rode across the grass and gave orders to the negroes to clearaway. Mrs. Gray took not the least notice of him, but, outraged byhis insolence, Rupert suddenly sprang forward and denounced himpassionately. His mother checked him: “Rupert, my son.” But the boy waswild with anger. “We are coming back some day,” he cried to Still. “Youhave robbed us; but wait till my brother returns.”

  Both Still and Leech laughed, and Still ostentatiously ordered thenegroes off. Still moved in that afternoon.

  Before Still had been installed in his new mansion twenty-four hours herepented of his indiscretion, if not of his insolence. He was absent apart of the evening, and on his return he heard that Captain Allen hadbeen to see him. The face of the servant who gave the message told morethan the words he delivered.

  “What did he want?” Still asked, sharply.

  “He say he want to see you, and he want to see you pussonally.” Thenegro looked significant.

  “Well, he knows where to find me.”

  “Yes, he say he _gwine_ fine you—dat’s huccome he come, an’ he gwine_keep on_ till he do fine you.” Still’s heart sank.

  “I don’t know what he wants with me,” he growled, as he turned awayand went into the house. The great hall filled with pictures had neverlooked so big or so dark. The eyes fastened on him from the wallsseemed to search him. Those of the “Indian-Killer” pierced him whereverhe went.

  “Curse them; they are all alike,” he growled. “I wish I had let themhave the d——d rubbish. I would, but for having to take that one down.”

  Poor Virgy, who had been given the room that had formerly beenJacquelin’s, came toward him. She was scared and lonely in her newsurroundings, and had been crying.

  This increased her father’s ill-humor. He inquired if she had seenCaptain Allen. She had, but he had only bowed to her; all he had saidwas to the servant.

  “Did he seem excited?” Still asked.

  “No, he only looked quiet. He looked like one of those pictures upthere.” It was an unlucky illustration. Her father broke out on her soseverely that she ran to her own room weeping. It was only of late thathe had begun to be so harsh.

  Still, left alone, sat down and without delay wrote a letter to CaptainAllen, expressing regret that he had been away when he called. He alsowrote a letter to Dr. Cary, which he sent out that night, apologizingto Mrs. Gray and calling heaven to witness that he had not meant tooffend her, and did not even know she was on the place when he rode up.He did not wait for replies. The next morning before daylight he leftfor the city.

  “I would not mind one of them,” he complained to his counsel, Leech.“I’m as good a man as any one of ’em; but you don’t know ’em. Theystick together like Indians, and if one of ’em got hurt, the wholetribe would come down on me like hornets.”

  “Wait till we get ready for ’em,” counselled Leech. “We’ll bring theirpride down. We’ll be more than a match for the whole tribe. Wait tillI get in the Legislature; I’ll pass some laws that will settle ’em.”His blue eyes were glistening and he was opening his hands and shuttingthem tightly in a way he had, as if he were crushing something in hispalms.

  “That’s it—that’s it,” said Still, eagerly.