The Virginians

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER LXXXVII. The Last of God Save the King

  What perverse law of Fate is it that ever places me in a minority?Should a law be proposed to hand over this realm to the Pretender ofRome, or the Grand Turk, and submit it to the new sovereign's religion,it might pass, as I should certainly be voting against it. At home inVirginia, I found myself disagreeing with everybody as usual. By thePatriots I was voted (as indeed I professed myself to be) a Tory; by theTories I was presently declared to be a dangerous Republican. The timewas utterly out of joint. O cursed spite! Ere I had been a year inVirginia, how I wished myself back by the banks of the Waveney! But theaspect of affairs was so troublous, that I could not leave my mother,a lone lady, to face possible war and disaster, nor would she quit thecountry at such a juncture, nor should a man of spirit leave it. At hisExcellency's table, and over his Excellency's plentiful claret, thatpoint was agreed on by numbers of the well-affected, that vow was vowedover countless brimming bumpers. No: it was statue signum, signifer!We Cavaliers would all rally round it; and at these times, our Governortalked like the bravest of the brave.

  Now, I will say, of all my Virginian acquaintance, Madam Esmond was themost consistent. Our gentlefolks had come in numbers to Williamsburg;and a great number of them proposed to treat her Excellency, theGovernor's lady, to a ball, when the news reached us of the Boston PortBill. Straightway the House of Burgesses adopts an indignant protestagainst this measure of the British Parliament, and decrees a solemn dayof fast and humiliation throughout the country, and of solemn prayer toHeaven to avert the calamity of Civil War. Meanwhile, the invitation tomy Lady Dunmore having been already given and accepted, the gentlemenagreed that their ball should take place on the appointed evening, andthen sackcloth and ashes should be assumed some days afterwards.

  "A ball!" says Madam Esmond. "I go to a ball which is given by a set ofrebels who are going publicly to insult his Majesty a week afterwards!I will die sooner!" And she wrote to the gentlemen who were stewards forthe occasion to say, that viewing the dangerous state of the country,she, for her part, could not think of attending a ball.

  What was her surprise then, the next time she went abroad in her chair,to be cheered by a hundred persons, white and black, and shouts of"Huzzah, Madam!" "Heaven bless your ladyship!" They evidently thoughther patriotism had caused her determination not to go to the ball.

  Madam, that there should be no mistake, puts her head out of the chair,and cries out "God save the King" as loud as she can. The people cried"God save the King," too. Everybody cried "God save the King" in thosedays. On the night of that entertainment, my poor Harry, as a Burgessof the House, and one of the givers of the feast, donned his uniform redcoat of Wolfe's (which he so soon was to exchange for another colour),and went off with Madam Fanny to the ball. My Lady Warrington and herhumble servant, as being strangers in the country, and English people asit were, were permitted by Madam to attend the assembly from which sheof course absented herself. I had the honour to dance a country-dancewith the lady of Mount Vernon, whom I found a most lively, pretty, andamiable partner; but am bound to say that my wife's praises of her werereceived with a very grim acceptance by my mother, when Lady Warringtoncame to recount the events of the evening. Could not Sir GeorgeWarrington have danced with my Lady Dunmore or her daughters, or withanybody but Mrs. Washington; to be sure the Colonel thought so well ofhimself and his wife, that no doubt he considered her the grandest ladyin the room; and she who remembered him a road-surveyor at a guinea aday! Well, indeed! there was no measuring the pride of these provincialupstarts, and as for this gentleman, my Lord Dunmore's partiality forhim had evidently turned his head. I do not know about Mr. Washington'spride, I know that my good mother never could be got to love him oranything that was his.

  She was no better pleased with him for going to the ball, than with hisconduct three days afterwards, when the day of fast and humiliationwas appointed, and when he attended the service which our new clergymanperformed. She invited Mr. Belman to dinner that day, and sundrycolonial authorities. The clergyman excused himself. Madam Esmond tossedup her head, and said he might do as he liked. She made a parade of adinner; she lighted her house up at night, when all the rest of the citywas in darkness and gloom; she begged Mr. Hardy, one of his Excellency'saides-de-camp, to sing "God save the King," to which the people inthe street outside listened, thinking that it might be a part of somereligious service which Madam was celebrating; but then she calledfor "Britons, strike home!" which the simple young gentleman just fromEurope began to perform, when a great yell arose in the street, anda large stone, flung from some rebellious hand, plumped into thepunch-bowl before me, and scattered it and its contents about ourdining-room.

  My mother went to the window nothing daunted. I can see her rigid littlefigure now, as she stands with a tossed-up head, outstretched frilledarms, and the twinkling stars for a background, and sings in chorus,"Britons, strike home! strike home!" The crowd in front of the palingsshout and roar, "Silence! for shame! go back!" but she will not go back,not she. "Fling more stones, if you dare!" says the brave little lady;and more might have come, but some gentlemen issuing out of the RaleyTavern interpose with the crowd. "You mustn't insult a lady," says avoice I think I know. "Huzza, Colonel! Hurrah, Captain! God blessyour honour!" say the people in the street. And thus the enemies arepacified.

  My mother, protesting that the whole disturbance was over, would havehad Mr. Hardy sing another song, but he gave a sickly grin, and said,"he really did not like to sing to such accompaniments," and theconcert for that evening was ended; though I am bound to say that somescoundrels returned at night, frightened my poor wife almost out ofwits, and broke every single window in the front of our tenement."Britons, strike home!" was a little too much; Madam should havecontented herself with "God save the King." Militia was drilled,bullets were cast, supplies of ammunition got ready, cunning plans fordisappointing the royal ordinances devised and carried out; but, to besure, "God save the King" was the cry everywhere, and in reply to myobjections to the gentlemen-patriots, "Why, you are scheming for aseparation; you are bringing down upon you the inevitable wrath of thegreatest power in the world!"--the answer to me always was, "We mean noseparation at all; we yield to no men in loyalty; we glory in the nameof Britons," and so forth, and so forth. The powder-barrels were heapedin the cellar, the train was laid, but Mr. Fawkes was persistent in hisdutiful petitions to King and Parliament and meant no harm, not he!'Tis true when I spoke of the power of our country, I imagined shewould exert it; that she would not expect to overcome three millionsof fellow-Britons on their own soil with a few battalions, a half-dozengenerals from Bond Street, and a few thousand bravos hired out ofGermany. As if we wanted to insult the thirteen colonies as well as tosubdue them, we must set upon them these hordes of Hessians, and themurderers out of the Indian wigwams. Was our great quarrel not to befought without tali auxilio and istis defensoribus? Ah! 'tis easy, nowwe are worsted, to look over the map of the great empire wrested fromus, and show how we ought not to have lost it. Long Island ought tohave exterminated Washington's army; he ought never to have come out ofValley Forge except as a prisoner. The South was ours after the battleof Camden, but for the inconceivable meddling of the Commander-in-Chiefat New York, who paralysed the exertions of the only capable BritishGeneral who appeared during the war, and sent him into that miserablecul-de-sac at York Town, whence he could only issue defeated and aprisoner. Oh, for a week more! a day more, an hour more of darknessor light! In reading over our American campaigns from their unhappycommencement to their inglorious end, now that we are able to see theenemy's movements and conditions as well as our own, I fancy we can seehow an advance, a march, might have put enemies into our power who hadno means to withstand it, and changed the entire issue of the struggle.But it was ordained by Heaven, and for the good, as we can now have nodoubt, of both empires, that the great Western Republic should separatefrom us: and the gallant soldiers who fought on her side, theirindomitable and heroic C
hief above all, had the glory of facing andovercoming, not only veteran soldiers amply provided and inured to war,but wretchedness, cold, hunger, dissensions, treason within their owncamp, where all must have gone to rack, but for the pure unquenchableflame of patriotism that was for ever burning in the bosom of theheroic leader. What a constancy, what a magnanimity, what a surprisingpersistence against fortune! Washington before the enemy was no betternor braver than hundreds that fought with him or against him (who hasnot heard the repeated sneers against "Fabius" in which his factiouscaptains were accustomed to indulge?), but Washington the Chief of anation in arms, doing battle with distracted parties; calm in the midstof conspiracy; serene against the open foe before him and the darkerenemies at his back; Washington inspiring order and spirit into troopshungry and in rags; stung by ingratitude, but betraying no anger, andever ready to forgive; in defeat invincible, magnanimous in conquest,and never so sublime as on that day when he laid down his victorioussword and sought his noble retirement:--here indeed is a character toadmire and revere; a life without a stain, a fame without a flaw. Quandoinvenies parem? In that more extensive work, which I have planned andpartly written on the subject of this great war, I hope I have donejustice to the character of its greatest leader. [And I trust that inthe opinions I have recorded regarding him, I have shown that I alsocan be just and magnanimous towards those who view me personally withno favour. For my brother Hal being at Mount Vernon, and always eager tobring me and his beloved Chief on good terms, showed his Excellency someof the early sheets of my History. General Washington (who read butfew books, and had not the slightest pretensions to literary taste)remarked, "If you will have my opinion, my dear General, I think SirGeorge's projected work, from the specimen I have of it, is certainto offend both parties."--G. E. W.]. And this from the sheer forceof respect which his eminent virtues extorted. With the young Mr.Washington of my own early days I had not the honour to enjoy muchsympathy: though my brother, whose character is much more frank andaffectionate than mine, was always his fast friend in early times, whenthey were equals, as in latter days when the General, as I do own andthink, was all mankind's superior.

  I have mentioned that contrariety in my disposition, and, perhaps, in mybrother's, which somehow placed us on wrong sides in the quarrel whichensued, and which from this time forth raged for five years, until themother country was fain to acknowledge her defeat. Harry should havebeen the Tory, and I the Whig. Theoretically my opinions were verymuch more liberal than those of my brother, who, especially afterhis marriage, became what our Indian nabobs call a Bahadoor--a personceremonious, stately, and exacting respect. When my Lord Dunmore, forinstance, talked about liberating the negroes, so as to induce them tojoin the King's standard, Hal was for hanging the Governor and the BlackGuards (as he called them) whom his Excellency had crimped. "If you,gentlemen are fighting for freedom," says I, "sure the negroes mayfight, too." On which Harry roars out, shaking his fist, "Infernalvillains, if I meet any of 'em, they shall die by this hand!" Andmy mother agreed that this idea of a negro insurrection was the mostabominable and parricidal notion which had ever sprung up in her unhappycountry. She at least was more consistent than brother Hal. She wouldhave black and white obedient to the powers that be: whereas Hal onlycould admit that freedom was the right of the latter colour.

  As a proof of her argument, Madam Esmond and Harry too would point toan instance in our own family in the person of Mr. Gumbo. Having got hisfreedom from me, as a reward for his admirable love and fidelity to mewhen times were hard, Gumbo, on his return to Virginia, was scarce awelcome guest in his old quarters, amongst my mother's servants. He wasfree, and they were not: he was, as it were, a centre of insurrection.He gave himself no small airs of protection and consequence amongstthem; bragging of his friends in Europe ("at home," as he called it),and his doings there; and for a while bringing the household round abouthim to listen to him and admire him, like the monkey who had seen theworld. Now, Sady, Hal's boy, who went to America of his own desire,was not free. Hence jealousies between him and Mr. Gum; and battles,in which they both practised the noble art of boxing and butting, whichthey had learned at Marybone Gardens and Hockley-in-the-Hole. Nor wasSady the only jealous person: almost all my mother's servants hatedSignor Gumbo for the airs which he gave himself; and I am sorry tosay, that our faithful Molly, his wife, was as jealous as his oldfellow-servants. The blacks could not pardon her for having demeanedherself so far as to marry one of their kind. She met with no respect,could exercise no authority, came to her mistress with ceaselesscomplaints of the idleness, knavery, lies, stealing of the black people;and finally with a story of jealousy against a certain Dinah, or Diana,who, I heartily trust, was as innocent as her namesake the moonlightvisitant of Endymion. Now, on the article of morality Madam Esmond wasa very Draconess; and a person accused was a person guilty. She madecharges against Mr. Gumbo to which he replied with asperity. Forgettingthat he was a free gentleman, my mother now ordered Gumbo to be whipped,on which Molly flew at her ladyship, all her wrath at her husband'sinfidelity vanishing at the idea of the indignity put upon him; therewas a rebellion in our house at Castlewood. A quarrel took place betweenme and my mother, as I took my man's side. Hal and Fanny sided with her,on the contrary; and in so far the difference did good, as it broughtabout some little intimacy between Madam and her younger children.This little difference was speedily healed; but it was clear thatthe Standard of Insurrection must be removed out of our house; and wedetermined that Mr. Gumbo and his lady should return to Europe.

  My wife and I would willingly have gone with them, God wot, for ourboy sickened and lost his strength, and caught the fever in our swampycountry; but at this time she was expecting to lie in (of our sonHenry), and she knew, too, that I had promised to stay in Virginia. Itwas agreed that we should send the two back; but when I offered Theo togo, she said her place was with her husband;--her father and Hetty athome would take care of our children; and she scarce would allow me tosee a tear in her eyes whilst she was making her preparations for thedeparture of her little ones. Dost thou remember the time, madam, andthe silence round the worktables, as the piles of little shirts are madeready for the voyage? and the stealthy visits to the children's chamberswhilst they are asleep and yet with you? and the terrible time ofparting, as our barge with the servants and children rows to the ship,and you stand on the shore? Had the Prince of Wales been going on thatvoyage, he could not have been better provided. Where, sirrah, is theTompion watch your grandmother gave you? and how did you survive theboxes of cakes which the good lady stowed away in your cabin?

  The ship which took out my poor Theo's children, returned with theReverend Mr. Hagan and my Lady Maria on board, who meekly chose toresign her rank, and was known in the colony (which was not to be acolony very long) only as Mrs. Hagan. At the time when I was in favourwith my Lord Dunmore, a living falling vacant in Westmoreland county, hegave it to our kinsman, who arrived in Virginia time enough to christenour boy Henry, and to preach some sermons on the then gloomy state ofaffairs, which Madam Esmond pronounced to be prodigious fine. I think myLady Maria won Madam's heart by insisting on going out of the room afterher. "My father, your brother, was an earl, 'tis true," says she, "butyou know your ladyship is a marquis's daughter, and I never can think oftaking precedence of you!" So fond did Madam become of her niece, thatshe even allowed Hagan to read plays--my own humble compositions amongstothers--and was fairly forced to own that there was merit in the tragedyof Pocahontas, which our parson delivered with uncommon energy and fire.

  Hal and his wife came but rarely to Castlewood and Richmond when thechaplain and his lady were with us. Fanny was very curt and rude withMaria, used to giggle and laugh strangely in her company, and repeatedlyremind her of her age, to our mother's astonishment, who wouldoften ask, was there any cause of quarrel between her niece and herdaughter-in-law? I kept my own counsel on these occasions, and was oftennot a little touched by the meekness with which the elder lady bore herpersecutions. Fann
y loved to torture her in her husband's presence(who, poor fellow, was also in happy ignorance about his wife's earlyhistory), and the other bore her agony, wincing as little as might be. Isometimes would remonstrate with Madam Harry, and ask her was she a RedIndian, that she tortured her victims so? "Have not I had tortureenough in my time?" says the young lady, and looked as though she wasdetermined to pay back the injuries inflicted on her.

  "Nay," says I, "you were bred in our wigwam, and I don't rememberanything but kindness!"

  "Kindness!" cries she. "No slave was ever treated as I was. The blowswhich wound most, often are those which never are aimed. The people whohate us are not those we have injured."

  I thought of little Fanny in our early days, silent, smiling, willing torun and do all our biddings for us, and I grieved for my poor brother,who had taken this sly creature into his bosom.