Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

  I thought that he would tempt me with the promise of a splendid career under the empire to some service that no honourable man could accept, and though the great world of affairs which was Europe was not less attractive to me than to him, yet every impulse in me rose in rebellion against the future that he predicted. I would have been no true son of the West had it been otherwise, and the feeling that we were right and must prevail, however great the odds against us, re-enforced all the training of my youth and associations of my whole life. I said that I admired England, the Eng land of Elizabeth and Cromwell and Orange, and not the England of to-day, which had lost all sense of right in its struggle with Bonaparte for the leadership of the world, nor did I think that conquest and extension of dominion should be the greatest aim of a people.

  His manner changed again at my reply. Except in his rare moments of enthusiasm he seemed to have him self under perfect control, and now he turned to light irony, designing to make everything around us or in the country appear vain and idle, skilfully choosing the things which contained a grain of truth and exaggerating that grain manifold. He made me feel uncomfortable,

  30 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  sometimes a little ashamed, and I should have left him at once, but he interested me and I felt able to take care of myself. Seemingly he wished to make me forget what he had said about the future glory of Great Britain and the Anglo-Saxon race, as if he had been merely drawing a picture on a slate for our amusement and would now rub it out and let it go. He began to ask me about my ambitions, what I proposed to make of my self, and how I regarded my prospects, turning his tone again from raillery to seriousness.

  " You would marry some day ? " he said.

  He asked the question so suddenly that I was con fused and silent.

  " You need not answer," he said. te I can see and I use a Kinsman's freedom in speech. The lady's father does not choose you, but in the future of which I spoke a little while ago he would be glad to do so. Come, let us go; the night is growing late and it is cold here."

  He drew his cloak more closely around him and we descended the hill, picking our way with care along the rough road and keeping a watchful eye for the mud puddles and stray heaps of building materials. The path narrowed, and just at its narrowest place we met a man in poor attire, probably a belated workman return ing to his hut. There w as room for only one on the firm ground, and Major Northcote, who was in advance, thrust the man with a careless bend of his elbow into the mud and passed on, unheeding the other's curse, while I followed him. I was ashamed of myself, ashamed that I had listened to him so long on the hill, for now I saw the kind of world that he wished, the age of Louis XIV again, with a splendid and glittering aris tocracy riding triumphantly on the necks of the people; it would be neither sordid, mean, nor commonplace for the aristocracy, but wretched only for the unconsidered others; something which no American should wish, and which the free-born English race itself had rejected.

  FROM THE OTHER SIDE. 31

  He bade me good night with his usual courtesy and show of good will and went his way to the British embassy, while I went mine to my room in the Six Buildings, not wholly pleased with myself nor wholly blaming.

  CHAPTEE IV.

  A MEETING BY THE E1VER.

  I AWOKE very early the next morning, and according to my custom began a brisk walk in the fresh air which would make me strong and buoyant for the day's duties.

  It was not much past daybreak, but the men were already at work on the new buildings, and I could hear the ring of hammers and the thud of axes driven into the wood. The air was crisp and stimulating, and my interview of the night with Major Northcote, when he would have tempted me with* a place in a world more splendid than my own, but perhaps not so good, seemed like a bad dream. The people around me were nearer the earth than his and more akin to true humanity. Never had I been more sure that we were right and the glittering monarchies of Europe wrong.

  I met Mercer at a corner of the street and asked him what had happened at Cyrus Pendleton's house after I left.

  "Nothing," he said dryly. "Why should anything have happened? Mr. Pendleton was angry, Mr. Bid- well sullen, and the lady defiant, all because of you. Was not that enough even for Mr. Ten Broeck? "

  He spoke rather more curtly than usual, but passing quickly on his way he gave me no chance to inquire into the cause.

  The river, with its wide and shining sweep showing green and blue and silver in the shifting light, invited me, and I strolled along its banks, as yet primitive in most 82

  A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 33

  part in their wildness, though we had begun to build a shipyard at one point and a wooden wharf at another. Still, when I turned my back to the town it seemed to belong to the wilderness. Forest and bush covered the farther shore; on the dim horizon was a slight dark line which must be the rising smoke from a squatter's cabin, yet one could easily imagine that it was the trail of an In dian camp fire; a negro in a boat came in sight, letting his rude dugout drift with the stream, and I could have made him an Indian warrior, his own canoe the leader of a long and silent file. Everything seemed so new, so like the wilderness, so unlike civilization and the old towns of the coast.

  I followed a footpath that led along the shore. A flight of wild ducks not yet used to the sight of the city, nor sure that it would stay, shot down in a slanting line from the sky and settled upon the surface of the river. I remembered my boyhood's practice, and picking up a little stone made it skim and ricochet along the surface of the water near the ducks. They rose with an indig nant squawk, and, rising higher and higher, flew away toward the north, following their leader in a file as direct and straight as the flight of an Indian arrow. I watched the straight black line cutting the sky, while it grew dimmer and dimmer until my eyes could not have seen it had they not followed its flight from the beginning; then it disappeared altogether and the sky was an un broken blue.

  I resumed my stroll. Fifty yards ahead of me I saw a smallish man walking very slowly. His shoulders were bent and his hands were crossed behind him. The wisps of hair which showed under the brim of his hat and clung to the back of his head were gray. He wore dingy gray clothes, and his coat, much too large for him, was shoved lip so high that its collar met the wisps of gray hair and took all shape from his figure. I knew by his bent shoulders and hesitating steps that he was in deep

  34: A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  thought, and I concluded that the trouble which could send an old man walking that way by the river side at such an early hour must be of a serious kind. I would cheer him up. It is the custom in the West, with rich or poor alike, to be friendly with strangers whom we overtake or who overtake us, going our way.

  I shouted to him, but he paid no attention. I called again, but he continued his slow, meditative stroll, his hands still crossed behind his back. It seemed to me, since I was in a very good humour, to be too early in the day for a man to have so much thought and maybe care, too, on his mind, and walking more swiftly I soon over took him.

  " Good morning, stranger," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder, and I felt as if I had to reach down to do it. Even in Kentucky, a State of large men, I am called large. " You must have much on your mind this morning, if one can tell anything from the way you walk."

  He turned and smiled up at me, for I towered some good inches above him.

  "Perhaps I have," he said, "but since I have your company I may be able to throw it off, at least for the present."

  My face flushed until I knew it must be blazing red. I bowed with the deepest respect, and likewise with some humility, since I wished to appear well always, and my pride was hurt.

  " I beg your pardon for such familiarity, sir," I said. " I did not know that it was you; I did not think of it."

  " Then I am glad that you did not know," he re plied, still smiling pleasantly at me, " for otherwise I would have missed the pleasure of your company. I needed to be taken away from my thoughts this morn ing, and I am g
lad that you overtook me. Come, we will walk together and you can tell me about yourself."

  A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 35

  He took my arm, leaning slightly upon it, and we walked on together. The sting of my awkward little act was taken away and I felt honoured.

  " You hear often from your State ? " he asked me presently, for he knew me well. Our Government was so small then that one might know every official in Wash ington by face.

  " Yes," I said.

  " Tell me about the war feeling there."

  I told him all I knew; I described the indignation of the Kentuckians when they heard of the repeated out rages upon us by Great Britain, and how this anger had been increased by the approaching Indian wars. I felt so deeply on this subject, my feeling increased maybe by the revulsion of my mind against Major Northcote's allurements, that perhaps I became warmer than I should have been in such company, though I was not ashamed of my warmth.

  " They think out there, sir," I said, " that we have reached the point where to endure more is disgrace."

  He said nothing, but looked troubled. His face was worn and tired, and his frame seemed to be suffering from exhaustion.

  "It's hard to know what to do," he said presently. A minute or two later he turned the talk to matters not connected with government or politics and asked about my father. He was at his home in Kentucky, I said, and stjll well and strong.

  " I met him once in the war, the Revolutionary war," he said, " and remember him. It was just before he marched south with Greene, and I did not see him again, as he went to Kentucky when the peace came. What was your mother's name? "

  " Northcote," I said. " She was of a New York family."

  He looked at me sharply.

  " Northcote! " he said. " Was she related to Gilbert

  36 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  Northcote, the Loyalist, who is in the English service here?"

  "He is our distant cousin."

  " An able man; one who has seen much of the world, but a dangerous man too I think. I trust that you do not talk too much to him, even if he is your kinsman."

  He looked very keenly at me again. I bore his look without flinching, though my conscience gave me a wrench.

  " We can never agree," I said. " He is my cousin and I can not forget the fact, but that is all."

  " I should think you could not agree with him if you followed your father in belief and action," he said. " Mr. Ten Broeck fought through the Kevolution, and did he not bear his part, too, in the wars with the Northwestern tribes after he went to Kentucky?"

  I said yes, and I began to tell him of my father's deeds, being proud of his warlike record, a pride that I preserve to this day. I told how he had fought at the Blue Licks when the Kentuckians rashly dashed into the river in pursuit of a foe ambushed on the other side in overwhelming numbers, and suffered defeat, to be made ever glorious by valour and unparalleled self-sacrifice. Then he was with St. Clair when the raw army was sur prised in the dense winter thickets by Little Turtle and the Northwestern tribes, and he had told me many a time of the awful massacre and the mad terror, exactly the same as that which befell Braddock and the British forty years before. He was at the Fallen Timbers, too, with Wayne when we found revenge under the guns of the British fort itself for St. Glair's disaster and drove the beaten tribes farther into the Northwest. I told these deeds of my father, warming to the tale as I proceeded, and when I ended I said:

  " My father, who has fought them both, says the Northwestern tribes are more to be dreaded than the Bri tish. He says that with equal arms, equal discipline,

  A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 37

  and equal ground we ought to beat the latter, man for man."

  But he would not be led upon that ground. He was silent again, and his worn, weary face was very thought ful. The curve in his shoulders increased and he leaned more upon my arm. We came presently to a turn in the path.

  " I must go back now," he said, " but I am glad that I met you, Mr. Ten Broeck, and I am glad that I have had a chance to talk with you about your father, who was one of my comrades more than thirty years ago. Tell him when you write to him or see him next that I hope he holds me in as much esteem as I hold him. Good morning, Mr. Ten Broeck."

  " Good morning, Mr. Madison."

  He turned and went back.

  I stood there and watched his bent figure as he walked slowly on, until it was hidden by the trees and the bushes.

  I think it is the greatest thing in the world to be President of the United States, but I knew that I was far happier than he and I felt sorry for him.

  I was saddened a little, but the feeling soon disap peared under the influence of the bright morning and the crisp west wind. The broad and clear river, the far hills and the forest stretching away until they disap peared under the horizon line, appealed to me and re minded me of the land in which I was born and had grown up. The wild free breath of the endless outdoors crept into my blood, and for the moment I despised roofs and cramped offices. I wished to be back in my own Kentucky, to see the long, easy sweep of the blue grass, and rolling hills of the pennyroyal, and the swelling slopes of the mountains, close-grown with beach and oak and hickory, down which the clear brooks dashed and spattered and gleamed afar like streaks of melting silver.

  I felt for the moment a repugnance to my desk in a

  38 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  Government office, however it might help my prospects and however well it might serve as a means for learning the ways of the great world. We Kentuckians were then children of the open air, of the hills, the valleys, and the woods, and we are yet as much as ever and will re main so. It is in the blood; the houses trouble us; they are good enough to sleep in when the winter nights come, but by day we want outdoors with its illimitable room. That is why we grow so large and strong and live so long.

  I looked at my watch and saw that it was time to hurry to my office if I would not be late, and Mr. Gallatin had been too kind for me to neglect his work in that manner, even if I were disposed to be careless of my own interests. I walked swiftly and was soon at the Treasury building, where I was glad to see that I had arrived before my chief.

  Mr. Gallatin was late, not coming until I had been there a full hour, and he was usually a prompt man who trod on the heels of his clerks. When he arrived at last I noticed that he too looked worn and worried, as much trouble showing in his face as had been visible in Mr. Madison's. He unlocked his desk near a window, pulled up his chair, and began to prowl through piles of papers. Those were troublous times for the Secre tary of the Treasury, who was a really great man. There were many bickerings in the Cabinet, which contained some men not at all great, and the Treasury itself, with embargoes and Berlin and Milan decrees and Orders in Council and what not cutting down our trade and the Government receipts at the same time, had to be watched with untiring care. The most of us wanted war, and there was not money to pay for it. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but the purse is mightier than either yes, mightier than both together.

  His look of trouble remained. He Avas a heavy, broad man, and his face was broad in proportion, so there was plenty of room for the expression of trouble. His head

  A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 39

  was quite bald on top and shone resplendently when the sunshine came in at the window and gilded his bare dome. On the sides of his head the hair was rather thick and fell in tousled locks over his ears. He tugged at these now and then in his impatience and worry.

  There were only three of us in the office the Sec retary, a clerk named Chilton, who was a Connecticut man, and myself. We worked all the morning in silence, and when I would raise my head at times to peep through the window, the earth outside," though still in the brown gloom of February, looked very inviting. But the Secretary never took his eyes from his papers. He read on and on, as if there were nothing in the world but scribbled parchment. Two or three messengers came in with letters; he never looked up; they put their let ters on the d
esk beside him and went away, and by and by he opened them in their turn and read them. The time for dinner came, and wearied by the long morn ing's work I hurried away with the eager step of a boy. Dinner was then in Washington what it still is with us in the West, the noon meal, the heaviest in the day, and with those who rise as we do with the dawn, it is likely to remain such.

  There was a new boarding house on Pennsylvania Avenue, and I took my dinner there with other clerks, some congressmen, three or four senators, a naval officer or two on shore duty, and a few professional men. We sat around a long table and passed the things to each other, for the two girls who were supposed to do the waiting could not keep us supplied. We had food in plenty, though I suppose most of it might be called coarse in countries where cookery is a delicate art, but it was not considered so by us. Meat, which makes people strong, was the staple, and of this a large pro portion was game, venison and squirrel and wild ducks, for one does not have to go far from Washington to reach the hunting grounds.

  40 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  I took my customary seat at the table with Mercer on my right, while on my left sat Felix Courtenay, a special friend of us both, a South Carolinian, the son of a Eevolutionary hero, and descendant of hard fighting Huguenots, a brown-faced fellow with straight black hair. There were others of my age with whom I was in the habit of associating: Sanford, a tidewater Vir ginian, a tall, thin man, a little yellow in the face, show ing that there was a touch of malaria in his part of the country, though he would never admit it. Sanford had a lot of family pride. He boasted that five generations in a direct line took his family back to a royal bar sinis ter, which, I believe, is the last proof of nobility in Eng land, and on that account he patronized all Kentuckians, saying they were merely an offshoot and younger branch of the old Virginian stock, which may be true. Never theless, Sanford was a most zealous republican, an incon sistency I have long since given up trying to solve; I see it too often. Next to him sat Wilson, a stout square ly-built Pennsylvanian, and on the other side of the table was Adams Arthur Adams, of Boston, who was of kin to old President John Adams, and, of course, to his son John Quincy Adams, who was to be our President too some day, and to all the other famous Adamses of Massa chusetts, who must be nearly a million in number, and he could never forget it. But the most of us were Western ers or Southerners.