.
,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
THE
DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
A TALE.
JAMES K. PATILDING.
SOMEWHERE ABOUT THE TIME OP THE OLD FRENCH WAR."
EDITED BY WILLIAM I. PAULDING.
*
IN ONE VOLUME.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY.
1868.
1
Library
7
r
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
WILLIAM I. PAULDING,
In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
CAMBRIDGE:
STEKEOTTPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON.
EDITOB S PEEFACE.
THE most successful of Mr. Paulding s works, and
the most deserving of success, was " The Dutchman s
Fireside," published in 1831. This he prefaced, him
self, only with the following modest
"ADVERTISEMENT.
The idea of the following tale was conceived on reading,
many years ago, The Memoirs of an American Lady, by
Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, and the work partly finished about
that time. The reader acquainted with the book referred to
will, perhaps, wonder at the indiscretion of the author of The
Dutchman s Fireside in thus, as it were, provoking a compar
ison with one of the finest sketches of early American man
ners ever drawn.
April, 1831."
This novel was, no doubt, notwithstanding what
is said above, written heedlessly, as the rest of
Mr. Paulding s works were. His references to Sir
William Johnson and to the military operations in
which he was engaged are far from accurate, and in
other particulars connected with that personage he is
in error; while a singular discrepancy in point of
I
viii EDITOR S PREFACE.
time, (arising perhaps from the intermission of labor
on the book which is alluded to in the " Advertise
ment "), is noticeable, where Sybrant Westbrook, leav
ing Johnstown near the Mohawk river in what we
must suppose to have been the fall of the year, and
travelling direct to the vicinity of Albany, arrives
there in June.
These things, however, in no way affect the charm
of the work, which lies in its unaffected simplicity, its
intimate relations with Nature, its truth to human
character.
But it is not for me to pass judgment on this
production. I stand too much in the position of a
pleader no, that is not true, nor even of an advo
cate but in the position of one who displays wares
for people to buy if they think they get their money s-
worth in return. Yet this will I observe : one
would think that it should be evermore a favorite
with all the many thousands who, every year, aban
don the homesteads and the rural hearth-stones of the
land, to fight the battle of fortune in our cities and
our towns. For it ought to bring back to them, if
they have not become wholly the servitors of brick
and mortar, all earlier and purer recollections. Like
the dying Falstaff, it babbles " of green fields", and it
is instinct with the very freshness and fulness of June.
I can only say for myself, that, as I have sat over
these pages in the weary toil of examining proofs,
with a brain intent upon commas and spelling, some
times as it were the damp breath of the mould would
EDITOR S PREFACE. ix
rise upon the air about me, and presently there would
come a whiff of the mysterious and transporting per
fume of the wild grape of our woods, which thrills for
a moment on the breeze, and then, in a moment
again, is gone.
Whatever may be my opinion as to the merit of
the book, one thing is certain. Its success, on its first
publication, was immediate and marked, and indica
tions of a permanent hold upon the public mind have
not since been lacking. In England it met with ap
preciative criticism; and it was translated into two
foreign languages.
These circumstances gratified no less the author s
national than his personal pride, as we may readily
believe. At least, it was in no spirit of mere conceit
that he wrote, some years later, on the 7th of
March, 1834 to " Mr. Thomas W. White, Booksel
ler", of Richmond, Virginia, who was then, or at one
time, interested in The Southern Literary Messenger.
" It has always been one of my first objects, to which a
great portion of my life has been devoted, to incite and en
courage the genius of this country, and, most especially, to
draw its attention and its efforts toward our own history, tra
ditions, scenery, and manners, instead of foraging in the bar
ren and exhausted fields of the Old World. I have lived to
see this object in a great measure accomplished, and one of
the most gratifying of all my reflexions is, that possibly I
may have had some little agency in bringing it about."
Fairly might he write thus. The terrible genius of
Hawthorne, indeed, had not yet, through the medium
x EDITOR S PREFACE.
of that limpid English of his, cast those weird and
dark-lantern flashes of light upon what had been sup
posed to be only bare and dingy annals, but which
he has shown to be susceptible of the effects of
Rembrandt himself; but "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow " had been given to the world ; Cooper had
already painted his most vivid pictures of the wild
woods and the sea; and Mr. Paulding himself had
done something. Yes, there \vas now a germ of an
American literature ; distinct ; on its own root ; grow
ing ; vigorous ; and not to be pooh-poohd, or tram
pled under foot, or easily done to death, any more.
Assuredly, the time will arrive when the AMERICANS,
as a people, will take pride in a literature of their
own, and realize that a National Literature is a
National Power. With the dawn of that day, me-
thinks the reputation of James K. Paulding will begin
to mount and spread among Americans, for then will
they look back in gratitude on those that led in the
mighty round: and, when I consider of the many
thousand millions that are yet to bear that continen
tal and imperial name, I say to myself that those
interested in his fame may well take heart unto them
selves, albeit mayhap they see it grow but slowly at
the first.
That American Literature has done all, or the no
blest, that it has been appointed for it to do that
the names, however great, which have already made
it illustrious, are to be the greatest in its history
that it is henceforth and forever to degenerate into
XI
sensation, burlesque, and dish-water is not, for one
moment, to be admitted. A people with prospects so
magnificent and such a fund of energy must, sooner
or later, develop a corresponding literature as vigor
ous and varied, and yet not all the same, as that of
the Mother Country, and worthy to demand a place
by the side of the grand old literature of England at
its bravest and its best.
Doubtless, the universal and ever-living men are
yet to come. They will come. But, among the pre
cursors of those giants that are to cast their lengthen-
o o
ing, broadening shadows far adown the centuries, it
seems to me that JAMES K. PAULDING should always
hold a prominent position and name ; while, with re
gard to THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE, as an artistic study
of a condition of society almost peculiar to his native
State in the colonial time, I must be permitted to dis
believe that it can ever be superseded.
W. I. P.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
PART I.
Library*
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE,
CHAPTER I.
RURAL SCENES AND RURAL, MANNERS.
" SOMEWHERE about the time of the old French
war," there resided on the rich border that skirts the
Hudson, not a hundred miles from the good city of
Albany, a family of some distinction, which we shall
call Vancour, / consisting of three brothers, whose
names- were Egbert, Dennis, and Ariel, or Auriel as
it was pronounced by the Dutch of that day. They
were the sons of one of the earliest as well as most
respectable of the emigrants from Holland, and hon
ourably sustained the dignity of their ancestry, by
sturdy integrity, liberal hospitality, and a generous
public spirit.
On the death of the patriarch, who departed this
life almost a century old, according to the custom
of those early times the estate was amicably divided
among his three sons ; the portion of the eldest being
distinguished from that of the others only by compris
ing the mansion-house. This was the sole compli
ment paid to the right of primogeniture, which in
almost every other Christian country swallows up the
4
inheritance of the younger offspring, and enables one
man to wallow in overgrown luxury, at the expense
of all the rest of his blood and name. It was rather a
voluntary acknowledgment than a concession claimed.
At this early period it was not the general custom in
the State for people that had children to make their
wills ; and, however singular it may seem, there were
fewer lawsuits concerning the division of property
among heirs, than there are now, when such particu
lar care is taken in the devising of estates, that it gen
erally takes three or four courts, six or eight lawyers,
and the like number of years, to interpret the oracle.
And how can it be otherwise ? since I once heard a
great pleader affirm, that there never were three words
put together, in any language, that would not admit
of three different interpretations. Here, however,
there was no necessity for the interference of stran
gers ; the children knew the wishes of their parents,
and, for the most part, complied without a murmur.
The settlement of Mr. Vancour s affairs was actu
ally made without consulting a lawyer ; partly, per
haps, for the reason that there was no person of that
description within less than one hundred and sixty
miles, at New York. According to Pliny, Rome sub
sisted five hundred years without a physician ; which
fact, however incredible it may appear, is equalled by
the miracle of the city of Albany and the surrounding
country having flourished for the best part of a cen
tury without the aid of a single jurist. People can
no more go to law without lawyers than to war with
out arms. Deprive them of both, and there would be
no more occasion for peace societies.
But to return. Among the many good old fashions
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 5
that prevailed in the days of ignorance and simplicity
among our forefathers, was that of paying their debts
themselves, instead of leaving the burden to their pos
terity. They knew little or nothing of the virtues of
the post obit ; nor, I believe, did it ever occur to them,
that it was a capital speculation to revel in luxuries
and support a splendid establishment during life, leav
ing the penalty to be paid by their offspring. When
old Mr. Vancour died, he paid the only debt he owed
the debt of nature.
In the division of the estate, Egbert, the eldest
brother, received the third part, which occupied the
centre, with the old mansion ; Dennis, that on the
right hand, and Ariel, that on the left. Each of these
included the space between a range of hills and the
banks of the Hudson, on which they bordered about
two miles, equally. With a view to this arrangement,
Mr. Vancour had erected, at different times, a com
fortable house on each of the wings of his domain ;
so that the two younger brothers were saved the ex
pense of building.
At the period in which our history commences, the
old gentleman had been dead many years, and Ariel,
the youngest of the three brothers, was fast sliding
towards that stage of life in which a man runs im
minent risk of being set down as an old-bachelor by
the young ladies. Dennis, the second brother, was a
widower, without issue ; and Egbert was blessed with
a most notable wife, the mother of an only daughter
just verging on womanhood and finishing her educa
tion at a boarding-school in New York. The house
occupied by Mr. Vancour was built when it was cus
tomary for men to anticipate the possibility of their
6 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
descendants , (some one of them at least), inheriting
and dwelling in their old nestling-places. It was a
large foursquare mansion of two low stories, built of
little yellow Dutch bricks, imported from Holland, as
much from veneration for the " Faderland," as from
a certain unconsciousness of the capacity to do any
thing out of the ordinary way, that long beset and
still in some degree besets the occupants of this wes
tern world. Right through the centre ran a wide and
stately hall, wainscoted with oak ; from the farther
end of which a broad staircase rose in an easy ascent.
This staircase was defended on the outer side by a
row of chubby mahogany balusters, ranged so as al
most to touch each other, and presenting in their
plump solidity fit models for the legs of all the gal
lant burghers of the country round. We know not
whether it was in sympathy with these classical pat
terns, or from some other more occult influence, but,
certain it is, there hath not, since the fashion of them
changed, been seen so goodly a set of legs, not even
in the picture of the Declaration of our Independence,
as was exhibited every Sunday in the little stone church
of the Flats, at the time of which we are treating.
The furniture of the mansion corresponded with its
Doric dignity arid simplicity. There was nothing too
fine for use, or which was not used whenever occasion
required ; although, we are willing to confess, there
was one hallowed room, dignified with the title of THE
SPARE ROOM, which was difficult of access, and into
which no one intruded except on very particular occa
sions. This was the sacred depository of ancestral
heirlooms chairs with high and haughty backs and
worked satin bottoms, from the old country ; a Bras-
sels carpet ; two vast china jars, nearly five feet high,
one on either side of the chimney ; and the treasure
of all treasures, a Dutch cabinet, exactly such a one
as is now to be seen at Hampton Court, left there
by King William, so exuberantly and yet so tastefully
and richly ornamented with brass hinges and a lock
covering almost half its front, that, when properly
rubbed, as it was every day, it was dazzling to behold.
The brass had a silvery whiteness, a delicate lustre,
such as is never exhibited by the bastard imitation of
these degenerate days. But the most valued and val
uable part of the embellishments consisted in a num
ber of fine pictures of the Flemish school, which the
elder Mr. Vancour had brought with him from Hol
land, and which have since been lost by the burning
of the mansion of one of his later descendants.
The house stood about a quarter of a mile from the
river, in the midst of a rich meadow, dotted here and
there with a vast primeval elm, standing like a wide
umbrella, under which the lazy herds lay ruminating,
protected from the mid-day sun. Four of these elms
surrounded and almost hid the mansion, all but its
front, and furnished retreats for a host of twittering
birds. Within a hundred yards, on one side, ran a
brook, which descended from the hills about a mile in
the rear, and which in the course of ages had made a
deep ravine, skirted on either side with a wilderness
of various trees, and shrubs, and briers, and wild flow
ers, and vines of every sort, whence went up, in the
genial season, a perpetual concert of nature s never-
tiring and never-tired songsters. This copse was wide
enough to shelter an invisible road, the only passage
to and from the house ; so that all around it was
8 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
nothing but one fair carpet of delicious green, unbro
ken by road or pathway.
The river in front slept between its verdant banks,
for its course was so slow, so quiet, so almost imper
ceptible, that it seemed to partake in that repose which
it diffused all around. Besides the elms and syca
mores which the rich alluvion fostered into majestic
growth, its borders were fringed at intervals with
silvery willows drinking its pure moisture, and other
dwarfish fry, from whose branches hung grape-vines
and vines of various other names, forming canopies,
through which the pattering shower could scarcely
win its way. The stream was about a quarter of a
mile wide, so that every rural sight and rural sound
could be clearly distinguished from side to side ; and,
at the termination of the rich meadows on the oppo
site shore, there rose a bold precipice of gray rock,
enamelled with light green mosses, and bearing on its
summit a crown of towering pines of everlasting ver
dure.
There is certainly in the majesty of nature, its hoary
rocks, its silent shadowy glens, foaming torrents, and
lofty mountains, something that awakens the soul to
high contemplation and rouses its slumbering ener
gies. But there is in her gentler beauties, her rich
\and laughing meadows decked with flowers and joy
ous with sprightly birds, her waving fields of grain,
her noiseless glassy streams, a charm not less delight
ful, and far more lasting than the high-wrought en
thusiasm induced by the other. Both have, without
doubt, their influence on the human character. He
who lives in the rude regions of the mountain solitude
will generally prefer dangerous and fatiguing enter-
;
9
prise to easy and wholesome labours. He would
rather risk his safety for a meal, or go without it
entirely, than earn it by the sweat of his brow in the
cultivation of the earth. But the inhabitant of the
rich plain, that yields from its generous bosom an
ample reward for every hour of labour he bestows, is
enamoured of security; he hates all changes but
those of the revolving seasons ; is seldom buffeted by
extremes of passion, never elevated to enthusiasm, or
depressed to despair. If let alone, his life will proba
bly glide away as noiselessly, if not as pure, as the
gentle stream that winds its way unheard through his
lowland domain. It has been said, a thousand times,
that the inhabitants of mountains are more attached
to their homes than those of the lowlands; but I
doubt the truth of the observation. Take any man
away from his home and his accustomed routine of
life, and he will sigh to return to them, the native of
the plain, as well as the dweller among the hills. The
former we doubt would be as wretched among the
rocks and torrents, the wild beasts, and hunters equal
ly wild, as the latter in the laborious quiet of the fruit
ful valleys.
However this may be, the brothers to whom the
reader has just been introduced partook in a great de
gree of the character of the scene which was at once
their birthplace and their inheritance, but modified in
some particulars by certain peculiarities in their situa
tion. Peaceful as was the abode they inhabited and
the aspect of all around them, they were not always
reposing in the lap of security. Within thirty or
forty miles, in almost every direction, roamed various
tribes of Indians, whose fierce, unsteady, and revenge-
10 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ful nature made their friendship as precarious as their
enmity was terrible. True, they were now at peace,
or rather they had begun to submit to their inevitable
destiny; yet their friendship could not be relied on,
and they not unfrequently approached the neighbour
ing settlements in the dead of the night, where they
committed the most horrible atrocities. This state of
things contributed to keep up a warlike spirit and
habits of dangerous enterprise among the early set
tlers, and they partook of the opposite characters of
husbandman and soldier, in a degree which has sel
dom been known in the inhabitants of the rest of the
world. The Vancours and their neighbours all found
it necessary to mingle the arts of peace and war to
gether ; all had their arms at hand, and all knew how
to use them.
The Vancours were people of fashion, as well as
fortune. The elder more especially, from inhabiting
the family mansion, and having a regularly established
household, saw a great deal of company at times, from
Albany, New York, and elsewhere. His house, indeed,
was open to all respectable visitors, and was seldom
without the presence of some stranger, friend, or rela
tive from a distance. They were received and treated
with that plain, unostentatious, quiet hospitality which
always bespeaks a welcome. Madam Vancour, as
she was called by way of eminence, was a New York
lady bom and bred, partaking almost equally in the
blood of the genuine Hollander, the Englishman, and
the Huguenot. New York, being at that time the
residence of the English governor, was, of course, the
focus of fashion. The governor affected somewhat
of the kingly state ; and, there being always a consid-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 11
erable number of troops in garrison, the place swarmed
with redcoats, as some of our eating-cellars now do
with boiled lobsters. These ruddy sons of Mars were
the prime objects of the ambition of our city belles,
and happy was the damsel and proud the mother that
could unite their fate and family with the lieutenant
of a company of British grenadiers. His excellency,
like most other excellencies, had plenty of aides-de
camp to keep up his state, write his invitations, pick
up news, and carve at his table. These important
functions, of course, entitled them to great distinction
among our provincial belles, and it is on record in the
traditions of those times, that the good matrons of the
capital could never sleep quietly the night before a
ball at the government-house, for thinking whether
their daughters would dance with an aide-de-camp.
Occasionally one of these would demean himself by
marrying an indigenous heiress, and many of the lar
gest estates in the province, with a blooming damsel
at the back of them, were exchanged for a red coat
and a pair of gorgeous epaulettes, to the infinite con
tentment of the mothers, who partook largely in the
dignity of the connexion. I cannot affirm that the
fathers and brothers shared in these triumphs ; for,
already, the fine airs of the pompous intruders, and
their undisguised assumption of superiority, had
awakened in the bosoms of these homely provincials
a feeling, which, in after-times mingling with others
equally powerful, produced a revolution, of which
the world yet feels, and will long feel, the influence.
The Vancours had many connexions in New York,
among the most wealthy and fashionable of the in
habitants, and seldom missed paying them a visit of
12 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
a few weeks in the course of every autumn. They
were always well received, and, as the governor never
came to Albany without partaking in their hospitali
ties, he thought himself bound to repay them when
they visited the place of his residence. This inter
course with the gay world kept up certain feelings
and ways, which seldom fail to accompany it; still,
in the main, their characters partook largely of the
simplicity of the country where they dwelt. In man
ners they might not be particularly distinguished
from the polite and well-bred people of the world;
but in habits and modes of thinking they were essen
tially different. There was a certain hale simplicity
in their mode of life, which has long since passed
away, leaving behind what I sometimes feel inclined
to doubt is but an inadequate compensation for its
loss.
Dennis and Ariel, the two younger brothers, being,
the one a lonely widower the other an equally lonely
bachelor, spent a good deal of their time at the old
mansion, where they were as much at home as at
their own houses. The two elder brothers were
greatly attached to each other, and fond of being to
gether in their own quiet way. They sometimes
passed a whole morning without exchanging half a
dozen words. They had a way of communicating
their thoughts by certain little expressive inarticulate
sounds and unobtrusive gestures, which each one un
derstood as well as he did his mother tongue. Ariel,
on the contrary, was ungovernably impatient of idle
ness, and never could sit still fifteen minutes at a
time without falling into a doze. He was a great
hand at grafting and inoculating fruit-trees; an in-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 13
dustrious seeker after mushrooms ; and mighty in all
undertakings which had for their object the further
ance of good eating. In truth, he was one of those
persons who are seldom without a project for the ben
efit of their neighbours, and who, though they never
by any chance succeed in their own enterprises, can
always tell to a nicety what will be most for the ad
vantage of others. Dennis, on the contrary, had a
horror of all innovation and improvement in rural
economy ; he despised labour-saving machines from
the bottom of his soul, and held it as incontrovertible,
that the human hand was the most perfect instrument
ever invented. Ariel one year spent the proceeds of
a whole crop in devising contrivances for exterminat
ing field mice ; while Egbert secured half of his by
labour and attention. Somehow, so it was, one grew
richer every year, and the other was always in want
of money.
" They won t be here to-day," said Dennis, one
morning, after his elder brother and himself had been
sitting with their heads inclined towards each other
about two hours, without exchanging a word.
" They won t be here to-day," echoed Egbert, and
there ended the conversation, for an hour at least.
" I think it will clear up before noon," quoth Dennis,
eyeing the clouds as they separated above, disclosing
a little piece of clear blue sky.
" I think it will," responded Egbert, and the matter
was settled.
The expected arrivals were Colonel Vancour s wife
and daughter, the latter of whom, having finished her
education at the boarding-school, was now on her way
home from New York with her mother. The reader
!
14 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
will be pleased to recollect that this was long before
the invention of steam-boats, and when a genuine
Albany packet never dreamed of sailing but with a
fair wind, nor scarcely ever passed the Overslaugh
without paying it the compliment of running high and
dry aground. We ourselves well remember, in times
long-subsequent, having once lain there seven days
within seven miles of Albany ; yet such appeared the
immeasurable distance, that no one on board ever
dreamed of leaving the vessel and going to the city by
land. All waited patiently for an easterly wind or a
heavy rain, to float them off again ; and spent the time
pleasantly in eating and smoking. In truth, there is
no greater help to patience than a pipe of Blaise
Moore s tobacco. But, the fact is, neither were people
so much in a hurry in those days, nor was their time
half so precious as it is now. Then a man was all his
life in making a fortune ; at present he cannot spare
so much time, because he has not only to make, but to
spend, a fortune before he dies. It would have been
wellnigh impossible to persuade a man to risk a quick
passage to the other world, for the sake of shortening
his journey in this.
The daughter, accompanied by her mother and
Tjerck, an old black servant, had been expected more
than a week, on every day of which precisely the same
colloquy as that we have just recorded passed between
the two brothers. We ought to mention, that Mr. Eg
bert Vancour was prevented attending the ladies home
by having been appointed a commissioner to hold a
treaty with the Five Nations at Schenectady. The past
week had been one of almost continual rain, and the
three brothers began to manifest impatience, each in his
15
own way the two elder, by frequent emigrations from
the chimney-corner to the window ; and the younger,
by marching out every five minutes, in the intervals
between his naps, squaring himself with his thick
short legs wide apart, and reconnoitring the weather
cock, which, by the way, was an iron shad, through
whose sides were cut the letters D. V., in honour of
the family.
At length, towards evening, the yellow sun broke
through the opening western clouds, most gorgeously
gilding the weeping landscape, and turning the cold
drops of rain which had collected on the grass and
waving branches of the trees to sparkling diamonds
bright. A brisk yet mellow south wind sprung up,
and a fleet of sloops with snow-white sails appeared
below, ploughing their way merrily up the river. All
turned out to see if they could distinguish the " Pa-
troon," the vessel in which the ladies had taken pas
sage. The indefatigable Ariel was down at the
wharf, in front of the mansion-house, making a prodi
gious noise, and calling out to every vessel that passed,
to know if the Patroon was coming, every now and
then clearing his throat, as was his custom, with an
" a-hem ! " that at length startled a flock of black
ducks, which had maintained its station in a little
neighbouring cove for several days past. Sloop after
sloop passed on, without stopping, until Ariel got out
of all patience, and stamped about from one side of
the wharf to the other, muttering that the Patroon
was the worst of all vessels, and the captain the most
lazy, slow-motioned, stupid of all blockheads.
" I knew it; damn him, I knew it. I ll bet my life,
he is high and dry on the Overslaugh. No ! hey !
16 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
no : damn it, there she comes there she is at last ; "
and he darted across the wharf towards her, with such
enthusiasm that he broke his shins against a post;
whereat he gave the Patroon and her captain another
broadside, not forgetting the post.
Ariel was not mistaken : it was the Patroon, and,
in a few minutes, Madam Vancour and her daughter
Catalina were welcomed once more at the fireside of
their best friends, with a quiet speechless warmth
which nature dictated and nature understood. All
but Ariel spoke through their eyes ; but it was the
characteristic of that worthy bachelor, to make a
noise on all occasions of merriment or sadness ; the
more he felt, the more noise he made, and this pro
pensity followed him even in his sleep; he being
a most sonorous and irrepressible practitioner of
snoring, in all its varieties. He paraded round the
young woman, crying, " A-hem ! bless me, how you
have grown ; a-hem ! zounds, I shouldn t have known
you; why, ahem! damn it, you re almost as tall as
I am ! " And then he measured his square stumpy
figure with that of the tall graceful girl. Finally,
having exhausted all his waking noises, he placed
himself in an arm-chair and fell into a sleep, from
which he was only roused by the music of setting the
supper-table, which, above all others, was most agree
able to his ear. " Hey ! damn it, what have you
got for supper hey ! ", and he marched round, taking
special cognizance of the ample board.
" But where is Sybrandt ? " asked Madam Van
cour : " I expected, to be sure, he would be here to
welcome us home."
" Oh, that s true, Dennis," said Egbert ; " what has
become of the boy ? "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 17
I can t tell."
Ariel broke into one of his inspiring laughs : " I
can," said he ; " the poor fellow sneaked away home,
as soon as he knew the Patroon was in sight."
Egbert shrugged his shoulders; Dennis twisted a
piece of celery with such a petulant jerk that he over
turned the whole arrangement of the dish, the pride
of Dame Nauntje, presiding goddess of the kitchen ;
Ariel cried, " A-hem ! ", like a stentor ; and Madam
and her daughter exchanged significant looks, and
smiled. Sybrandt appeared not, that night, and no
thing more was said on the subject.
As this young gentleman is destined to make some
figure in our story, we will take this opportunity to
introduce him more particularly to the reader s notice.
18 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER II.
THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO A BASHFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN.
SYBRANDT WESTBROOK was the only son of a dis
tant female kinswoman of the Vancour family ; once,
it was supposed, a great favourite of Mr. Dennis, who
had been suspected of something more than a mere
liking for the lady. She was a beauty and an heiress,
and married a British officer at New York, who dissi
pated her property, and finally went home and never
returned. She left an only son, without fortune, or a
protector to his infancy. But he found one in Mr.
Dennis Vancour, who, after the death of his wife, took
the boy home, adopted him as his son, and superin
tended his education. Dennis was a worthy man,
with many peculiarities. He cherished the primitive
Dutch manners, and, above all, the primitive Dutch
language, the only one he could now ever be brought
to speak, although master of English. He had a
great distaste for New- York names, modes, and fol
lies ; and, ever since he was cut out by a redcoat,
nursed a mortal antipathy to every man who wore
that livery. He disliked the new system of education
daily gaining ground in the province, and the thou
sand innovations which its change of masters had
introduced. The fashionable young men were cox
combs, and the fashionable young women only fit to
dance, flirt, and make fools of themselves with the
redcoats.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 19
For these and divers other substantial reasons, he
determined that his adopted son should receive a do
mestic education, under the care of the good Dominie
Stettinius, pastor of the congregation. The dominie
was a stanch pillar of the Reformed Dutch church, a
profound scholar, and a man of great piety as well as
simplicity of character. He was bred at the famous
university of Leyden, that renowned seminary, where
Grotius and a thousand other illustrious scholars were
educated ; and where Scaliger, Salmasius, and a hun
dred famous masters presided from time to time. It
was at Leyden, in the United REPUBLICS of Holland,
that scholars sought refuge from monkish bigotry, that
the liberty of thought, speech, and writing, maintained
itself against the persecutions of church and state;
and it was there that the greatest, the most indefatiga
ble, and the most useful scholars that perhaps the
world ever knew were protected, as well as rewarded
for their labours in the cause of learning and liberal
opinions. The rival nations, France, Italy, and Eng
land, have sought to monopolize the glories of scholar
ship, science, and philosophy; but, if we resort to
history and fact, we shall find that the civilized world
is at least equally indebted to the FREE STATES OF
HOLLAND, and that, at one period, comprising a cen
tury or more, had they not found a refuge there, they
would in all probability have been persecuted into
silence, if not unto death.
.Dominie Stettinius had been a laborious student,
and was now a ripe scholar. This was some distinc
tion in those days, when it required the labour of years
to gather that knowledge which was then dispersed
among thousands of bulky volumes, but is now col-
20 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
lected and condensed in encyclopaedias, dictionaries,
and compendiums of various kinds. But tliajdominie
was only a scholar and a pious divine ; he possessed
no one accomplishment except learning, nor had he a
respect for any other ; his manners were simple, almost
uncouth ; and such was the sobriety of his notions,
that, though a kind-hearted being as ever existed, he
could hardly tolerate the smiles, the gayety, and the
gambols of happy childhood.
This worthy theologian, by desire of Mr. Dennis
Vancour, took the entire charge of Sybrandt at the
age of seven years, and made a great scholar of him
at nineteen. The good divine was so zealous in plying
him with books that he forgot men, and, what was
worse, women, who are as necessary to the formation
of mind and manners as they are to the existence of
man himself. The consequence was, that the youth
grew up a shy, awkward, reserved, abstract being,
without the vivacity of his age, and ignorant as a
child of that knowledge of the world which, like small
change, is essential to the every day transactions of
life. There was nothing on the face of the earth he
was so much afraid of as a woman, particularly a
young woman, whose very presence seemed to turn
him into stone, and lock up the springs of thought as
well as action. But, notwithstanding all this, woman
was the divinity of his soul, worshipped in secret in
his rural walks and solitary contemplations. Some
ideal mistress of his own creation was ever present
to his imagination, and the propensity to love, which
is the universal characteristic of youth, only became
the more intense from his entire abstraction from the
will and the means for its gratification. Thus, while,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 21
from a consciousness of his awkwardness and em
barrassment, he shunned all personal communion with
woman, his whole heart was filled and animated by a
latent, smothered fire, a sleeping Cupid, which, when
once roused into action by opportunity and an object,
was destined to become the ruling influence of his
life.
The person and aspect of Sybrandt were eminently
handsome ; but his carriage and address deplorably
rustic and ungainly. When spoken to abruptly, his
confusion had the appearance of dulness ; and such
were his habits of wool-gathering that he often gave
the most silly answers imaginable. Thus he grew up
with little to recommend him to the respect or affec
tion of his fellow-creatures around but a sort of harm
less stupidity, which the good dominie chose to call
the gravity of wisdom. His vivacity, if nature had
ever given him any, was entirely repressed by want -t*
of company and relaxation, reinforced by the stern
discipline of the worthy Stettinius, who plied him
with tasks day and night. His shoulders had become
rounded like those of advancing decrepitude, and he
had acquired a habit of stooping which destroyed the
manliness and dignity of his figure.
With him, the happy days of childhood had been
the season of perpetual toil. While he saw from the
window of his prison the urchins of the neighbour
hood sporting in the meadows, or by the margin of
the river, and heard their shrill shouts of unchecked
hilarity, Nature would yearn in his heart to partake
in the frolic which she herself had provided for the
little sons and daughters of men. But every glance
away from the everlasting book was watched and
22 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
checked by the -giXKLdonrinie, who had long outlived
the recollection of his youthful feelings, and buried
every impulse of nature under the mighty mass of scho
lastic rubbish which the incessant labours of threescore
years had concentrated in his memory. Assuredly
learning is a thing of almost inestimable value ; still,
I doubt it may be bought too dearly. Why should
the season of childhood, which God has ordained to
be a period of freedom from cares and toils, be con
verted into one of labour and anxiety, for the sake of
a little premature knowledge, which the tender intel
lect is unable to comprehend, or the comprehension
of which requires an effort of the mind which stints
its growth for ever afterward ? When I see an urchin,
who ought to be enjoying holiday and strengthening
his constitution by wholesome exercise to bear the
vicissitudes of the world in after-times, kidnapped and
sent to school, to sit on a bench for four or five hours
together, employed in learning by rote what he is un
able to comprehend, I cannot help contemplating him
as the slave and the victim of the vanity of the parent
and the folly of the teacher. Such a system is calcu
lated to lay a foundation for disease and decrepitude,
to stint the physical and intellectual growth, and to
produce a premature old age of body and mind.
Sybrandt had seen but little of Catalina, his cousin,
(for so they used to style each other), previous to
her being sent to the boarding-school ; and less of her
from that time. True, the young lady spent her vaca
tions at home, but Sybrandt was either too hard at
his studies, or too bashful, to be much in her com
pany. When this happened, he was pretty certain to
be more than commonly stupid and embarrassed, so
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 23
that Catalina had long set him down as little better
than a sleepy country bumpkin of the first preten
sions. The youth had anticipated her arrival and
establishment at her father s mansion, as an event of
great interest to him. True, he felt convinced in his
own mind that he should never dare to look her full
in the face, or enjoy either ease or pleasure in her
society. Still, her residence so near him would furnish
a new and charming object for his abstract devoirs
and solitary contemplations. _She would become the
ideal companion of his rambles, the bright seraph of
his imagination; and give a zest to his existence in
that visionary world which furnished almost all the
materials of his happiness. He was excessively anx
ious to see her, and punctual in his attendance at the
mansion-house while the storm lasted and there was
no immediate prospect of the young lady s arrival;
but the moment the " Patroon " came in sight his
heart failed him, and he retreated into the fields, there
to enjoy a fancied meeting which he dared not en
counter in reality. He embraced his cousin; kissed
her cheek ; made the most gallant, eloquent speeches ;
gazed in her face with eager eyes of admiration ; and,
in short, enjoyed in imagination an interview totally
different from that which would in fact have occurred.
( Gifted is the man who can thus create a paradise
around him, and spin his enjoyments, as it were, from
his own cocoon. (This is a species of domestic man
ufacture) that certainly ought to be encouraged by the
government.
Mr. Dennis Vancour was somewhat indignant at
the ignominious retreat of Sybrandt, to whom he de
livered a weighty Dutch lecture that very night on his
24 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
sheepishness. The good man took especial care not
to recollect that it was, in a great measure, owing to
the system of education inflicted upon him by the
dominie, with his entire approbation. He insisted on
his accompanying him, the next morning, to pay his
duty to the young lady ; and, accordingly, an interview
took place between them. On the part of Sybrandt
it was shy and constrained, a mixture of pride and
timidity; on that of Catalina, sprightly and good-
humoured, with a subtle expression of slighting
superiority, which was calculated to increase the em
barrassment of one of his quick feelings, and make
him appear still more awkward and stupid. The
noisy, but well-meaning Ariel, made matters still
worse, by occasionally urging the young man to " buck
up," as he expressed it, to the young lady, and show his
breeding. Poor Sybrandt wished himself a thousand
miles away. By the time dinner was served, his head
felt like a great bag of wool, and his heart ached with
an oppressive load of imaginary contempt and ridi
cule, which he thought he saw in the eyes of every
one, more especially those ,of Catalina. Ariel, who sat
next him, was perpetually jogging him in the side, to
offer some civility to the young lady, and at length
wrought him up to the hardihood of asking her to
take a glass of wine, which he did in a voice so low
that nobody heard him.
" Try again," whispered Ariel; "zounds! man, you
could not hear yourself, I am sure."
Sybrandt tried again, but his voice died away in
murmurs. Ariel was out of patience. " A-hem ! "
roared he, in a voice that made his unwilling client
quake. " Ahem ! Catalina, your cousin asks you
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 25
to drink wine with him." The glasses were filled, but,
unfortunately, Ariel, who was none of the smallest,
sat directly between the young people, and intercepted
Sybrandt s view of his cousin. When Sybrandt
leaned forward to catch the lady s eye, Ariel did the
like, from an inherent sympathy with motion, origin
ating in his inveterate antipathy to sitting still ; and
thus they continued bobbing backwards and forwards,
till Catalina could restrain herself no longer, and
laughed outright. People with habits and dispositions
like those of Sybrandt never fail to take the laugh
all to themselves in a case like this, even when they
are not the only parties concerned. The young man
actually perspired with agony, and, when at length
he gained an opportunity of bowing to the lady, his
nerves were in such a state of agitation that he was
incapable of swallowing. The wine took the wrong
way, and nearly suffocated the luckless lad, who was
only relieved by an ungovernable fit of coughing,
during which he precipitated his draught in the face
of honest Ariel.
" Blitzen ! " exclaimed Dennis, but in an under tone ;
for he was extremely anxious that his adopted son
should do credit to his education.
" A-hem ! zounds ! " cried Ariel, wiping his eyes,
"why, Sybrandt, one would think you mistook it for
a dose of physic." The young lady exchanged a sig
nificant smile with her mother, and the good Egbert,
according to his custom, said nothing.
The dinner passed off without any other catas
trophe, though Sybrandt trembled to his very heart
strings, and shuddered when he put any thing into
his mouth, lest it might go the wrong way. He
26 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
escaped as soon as possible, and sought his usual
communion with his friend and counsellor, solitude.
Here his imagination expatiated amid tortures of its
own creation, and painted in the most exaggerated
colours the scenes that had just occurred. Under the
roughness and simplicity of his appearance arid man
ners, this young man concealed a proud sensibility,
that winced under the sense of ridicule and contempt.
The thought, the shadow of a thought, that he had
been the object of either, stung him with a feeling
of self-abasement. Such a temper aggravates the
slightest matters intcTthbrns and nettles, and, with a
morbid solicitude, lies in wait for poisons to nourish
its own infirmity. In five minutes after Sybrandt s
departure from the mansion-house, every circumstance
connected with his mortifications was entirely for
gotten by all but himself. But the recollection con
tinued to rankle in his mind for a long while after
ward, rendering him, if possible, a thousand times
more shy, distrustful, and sensitive than before. He
never entered the old mansion, that the scene of the
dinner-table did not present itself with accumulated
circumstances of humiliation, paralyzing his spirits,
oppressing his understanding, and giving to his actions
a degree of restraint that made his company painful
as well as irksome to Catalina. It was indeed but
seldom that he could be induced to seek her society,
though she was ever the companion of his solitude,
and the theme of a thousand airy visions of the future,
which he indulged without the remotest idea, or even
desire, of realizing. He lived upon his own imagin
ings, of which, though self was always the centre, the
circumference comprehended the universe. The in-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 27
fluence of solitude on the selfish principle is almost
omnipotent. He who lives to himself, and by him
self, becomes, as it were, the object of his own idola
try. Having little to draw off attention from his
peculiar interests, the claims, the actions, the wishes
of his fellow-creatures, never intrude ; or, if they in
trude at all, it is as mere auxiliaries, or obstacles, to
his supreme dominion. JJpon him /the social feeling,
which is the source of a thousand virtues, never
operates, except perhaps in some revery that calls up^
a momentary impulse of kindness or humanity, which
dies away without ever being embodied in action.
He has his being, his enjoyment, his regrets, his dis
appointments, concentrated in himself.
Sybrandt was an example of these truths. His
principles were all good, and he practised no vices.
Yet neither his talents nor his virtues were ever
brought into exercise in a communion with his felloW^
beings, because his pride, timidity, and sensitiveness
drove him continually from society, and kept him per
petually pondering on the derision which was ever
present to his fancy. Thus all his acquirements and
all his good qualities lay dormant. It remained to be
seen what such a being might or would become when
placed in conflict with his fellows, under the incite
ments and temptations of the world.
28 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER m.
A YOUNG LADY WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD
HAD SHE LIVED LONG ENOUGH.
QAT J AIJNA_YANCOUR was a very pretty, and, in the
main, a very good, girl, although she had been bred at
a boarding-school at New York, and danced with an
aide-de-camp. She had lost much of the Doric, but
had acquired a corresponding portion of the Corin
thian. She often sighed for the more piquant and
gorgeous amusements of the capital, and more
especially for the society of the gay gallants in scarlet
uniform. Still, she had not quite lost the rural feel
ing, nor entirely thrown off the witching influence
which nature s various beauties exercise over the
hearts of those who, though they have sat at the
world s great banquet, still preserve a relish for more
homely fare. She sometimes, in the gayety of her
heart, sported with the feelings of poor Sybrandt, and
rallied his shyness, unconscious of the pangs she in
flicted upon his apprehensive self-love, and without
noticing the dew of agony that gathered upon his
forehead, as she playfully reproached him with being
afraid of the young ladies.
The intercourse of young people in those times was
very different from what it is at present. I pretend
not, that one age is, upon the whole, wiser or better
than another; or to sit in judgment upon my con
temporaries. But I often catch myself contemplating,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 29
with something like sober regret, those days of artless-
ness, of easy, unaffected intercourse, and manly inde
pendence. Who is there, indeed, that hath gathered
from history and tradition a picture of the manners,
usages, and morals of the ancient patriarchs of Albany
and its neighbourhood, but will be inclined to con
trast them dolefully with those of the present times ?
Who but will sigh to behold their places usurped by
gilded butterflies, ostentatious beggary, empty pre
tence, and paltry affectation ? In the room of men
above the smiles and frowns of bankers or bankrupts,
he will find speculators glittering in their borrowed
plumage for an hour or two, then passing away, leav
ing nothing behind them but the wrecks of their
unprincipled career. Where once sat the simple ma
gistrates, administering the few simple laws necessary
to regulate the orderly community over which they
presided, is now collected a body of garrulous, igno
rant, visionary, or corrupt legislators, pampering their
own private interests at the expense of the public
good, and sacrificing the prosperity of one portion of
the State to the grasping avidity of another. In the
room of prosperous yeomanry and thriving mechanics,
we behold crowds of hungry expectants, neglecting
the sure and only means of competency, and begging,
in the abjectness of a debased spirit, permission to
sacrifice their independence for a wretched pittance,
held under the wretched tenure of a man who has no
will of his own. > The once quiet city, where the
name and the idea of political corruption were un
known, is now a whirlpool of intrigue, where empty
bubbles are generated and kept alive by the agitation
of the waters, and boiling and conflicting eddies
30 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
gather into one focus all the straws, and chaff, and
feathers, and worthless nothings, that float upon the
surface of the stormy puddle.
An age of simplicity is an age of morality ; and
hence it is that the wisest writers of antiquity have
made simplicity of manners essential to the preserva
tion of that liberty which cannot be sustained by a
luxurious and corrupt people. That our own high-
toned feelings of independence are rapidly fleeing
away before the advancing steps of ostentation and
luxury, and that the love of wealth, as the means of
attaining to these gratifications, is becoming the ruling
passion, must be obvious to all observers. But enough
of this ; the subject belongs to graver heads than ours.
One smiling morning in June, when nature, to use
the fashionable phrase, sent out her cards of invitation
to all the living imps of earth, from those of two legs
to those of a thousand, to come and revel at her ban
quet of flowers, zephyrs, and woodland harmonies
not forgetting the strawberries and cream Catalina,
according to the fashion of the times, had made a
party with some of the lads and lasses of Albany to
visit a little island lying lengthwise along the river, a
mile or two below the mansion-house. Here, on the
soft bosom of tranquil nature, the young people ram
bled about till they were tired, and then sat down on
the green sward under the protecting shade of some
little copse of half-grown trees canopied by grape
vines, forming a vast awning over their heads. Here,
at a proper time, they brought out their stores ; and
a collation, to which health, exercise, and cheerful
innocent hearts gave zest, succeeded. Many a sober
youth and red-ripe damsel were first awakened to a
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 31
gentle preference in these smiling solitudes : and many
a long uncertain beauty was here brought, at last, to
know her own mind, and acknowledge it to the chosen
swain.
Catalina was resolved that Sybrandt should accom
pany the party; not that she admired her shy and
awkward cousin, or valued his society : but, I know
not how it is, there is a wayward wilfulness in woman
which, being common to all past times, is probably
a gift of nature. We allude to the propensity to
carrying a point, whether a favourite one or not ; to
overcoming opposition ; to having full swing in every
thing. Had Sybrandt sought her society, or discovered
a disposition to be attentive, Catalina would have
probably been tired to death of him in a little tvhile,
and affronted the youth downright. But he kept at a
distance ; he avoided her whenever he could ; he some
times excited her curiosity and sometimes her anger,
by his lonely habits, and total neglect in short, he
was not to be had at all times, or at any time, and
was, therefore, in spite of herself, an object of conse
quence to his cousin. But the difficulty was to catch
this perverse monster, and Ariel was deputed for that
purpose. There was nothing he loved like being em
ployed upon the affairs of other people ; and Catalina
had gained his whole heart by sending him to Albany
every day, to purchase a paper of pins, a skein of
thread, or a pennyworth of some kind or other.
Ariel, who knew some of the haunts of Sybrandt,
took his gun, and went, as he said, to hunt this
strange animal. Among the rugged hills that formed
the inland boundary of these rich flats, was a deep
romantic glen, through which a fine stream tumbled
32
in foaming volumes from rock to rock. It was over
shadowed by huge pines and cedars, which threw their
gloomy arms and locked their fingers half-way across
the abyss. Here was a perpetual twilight, through
out all times of the day and every season of the year.
In the hottest days of summer there was a refreshing
coolness diffused around, that came with exquisite
zest to the lazy and relaxed frame, and keyed the
spirit up to vigorous thought. Every rock, and stump,
and half-decayed branch of a mouldering tree, was
coated with velvet moss ; and, all along the margin of
the brook, the green fringe kissed the foamy waters as
they glanced away. It was here that Sybrandt was
often found, deep in the reveries of a wandering rnind,
that seeks some steady rational object of pursuit, and
floats clumsily about without purpose, like a bark
away from its anchor. His mind was a perfect chaos,
wanting the powerful stimulus of some master-pas
sion, some great pursuit, to arrange its intellectual
forces, and marshal them to usefulness, if not to deeds
of noble daring.
Ariel was an astonishing man for killing two birds
with one stone. He always had two irons in the fire
at once; and nothing was more common with him
than to forget them both in pursuit of a third. It is
related of him, that, being one day waiting with his
horse to cross the ferry at Albany, he was so taken up
with the " damned stupid blundering " of the ferry-man
in bringing his boat to the stairs, that he let go the
bridle of his horse, who forthwith trotted gallantly
away. His master pursued, and finally came up with
him. But, just as he seized the bridle and turned
round, he saw the ferry-boat leaving the stairs.
33
Whereupon he let go the bridle, and ran as fast as his
little short drumsticks would permit towards the boat,
hallooing to the " damned stupid blockhead " to stop.
The man, being now in the current of the stream,
could not or would not put back. Then did Ariel,
in a great passion, bethink him of his horse ; but the
horse was gone too, past all recovery, having this time
mended his pace to a gallop, and made straightway
for home. So Ariel missed both ferry-boat and steed,
by not attending to one at a time.
As he was proceeding in the execution of his com
mission for Catalina, unluckily for the wishes of that
young lady, Ariel espied at some distance a noble
flock of pigeons perched on a dead tree. The last
object was always sure to carry all before it with
Ariel. He forgot every thing else, and trudged away
with his best speed towards this new and powerful
attraction. He got a copse between him and the
birds ; he advanced cautiously under cover ; he gained
a station within gunshot, while the unconscious victims
sat perfectly quiet; he cocked his piece, raised it to
his shoulder, and was just taking aim, when his irre
sistible propensity to clearing his throat came across
him, and he essayed such a stout, magnificent,
" ahem ! ", that the birds took the alarm and flew
away. " Damn it," quoth Ariel, and scampered after,
following them with his eye, till he unfortunately
plumped into a ditch, where he got most gloriously
garnished with a coat of mud, and was fain to make
the best of his way home, leaving the pigeons to their
fate and Sybrandt to his solitude.
" Well, uncle," said Catalina, when she saw him,
" did you see the white savage ? "
3
34 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" No, zounds ! they all flew away ", replied Ariel,
thinking of the pigeons.
" Flew away ! What are you talking about, uncle ? "
" Why, zounds! I tell you, just as I was going to
let fly at them, they flew away, and I fell into a ditch,
trying to follow."
" Follow whom," said the young woman, who began
to suspect honest Ariel had lost his wits.
" Why, the pigeons."
" Pigeons ! I though you went in search of Sy-
brandt?"
" Bless my soul ! a-hem ! bless my soul, so I did.
But the truth is, Catty, I took my gun with me, by
way of company, and met a flock of pigeons that led
me plump into a ditch, and I forgot all about it. 5
The young lady was half -diverted, half -vexed,
though well acquainted with her uncle s inveterate
habit of running after anything that seized his atten
tion for the moment. He once lost an excellent
opportunity of getting married, by stopping on the
way to show some boys how to catch minnows.
" I ll go this minute and look for him," added Ariel,
after a moment s hesitation.
" Do, uncle ; but don t take your gun with you."
" No, no."
" And don t run after the pigeons."
O, no."
" And take care you don t fall into the ditch."
" O, never fear," and away went the good-natured
Ariel, with a sonorous, " a-hem ! "
On his way to the house of his brother Dennis, he
saw a number of little peach-trees, just fit for inocu
lating, which tempted him sorely. But, luckily for the
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 35
consummation of his errand, he had left his knife at
home, and there was an end of the matter. He went
on, therefore, and found Sybrandt at home. That
young gentleman had been considering all the morn
ing whether he should go over and see his pretty
cousin, and had just wrought himself up to the feat,
when Ariel arrived with his message, which threw
him into great perplexity. In going to see her of his
own accord, and alone, he had privately come to an
understanding with himself, that if his heart failed
him by the way he could turn back again, and nobody
would be the wiser. But here was a different predica
ment, a message and a companion, and he felt greatly
inclined to demur.
" Come, come ! Zounds, man, why don t you stir
yourself? When I was of your age, if a pretty girl
sent for me, I was off like a shot."
" Yes, but you never hit the mark, uncle," said Sy
brandt, smiling.
" A-hem," quoth Ariel ; " but, zounds ! come along,
will you ? I ve got fifty things to do this morning.
Let me see I promised to show the dominie how to
ring his pigs noses after that, I must go and tell
the widow Van Amburgh how her geese ought to be
yoked then to squire Vervalen s to teach them how
to give a bolus to a horse then to Riper s, to see
how his sugar-pears get on -and but come along;
damn it, I shall never get through half my business
this morning." Accordingly he seized the youth by
the arm and dragged him along, half- willing, half-
reluctant. A man is sometimes pleased with a little
violence, which saves him the trouble of making up
his mind when he don t know exactly what he would
36
be at ; and so is a woman, unless great lies have been
told.
"Well, here he is I ve caught him at last,"
shouted Ariel, as he entered the hall where Catalina
sat enjoying the sweet south breeze that gathered
coolness as it sailed up the river.
"What, uncle the pigeons?" And the young
lady smiled at the recollection of the morning s disas
ter.
" No ; the goose," replied Ariel, bursting into a
great laugh at his own happy rejoinder.
Reader, art thou a modest, bashful, or what is still
more deplorable, a sheepish young person, as proud as
Lucifer, and with feelings more wakeful and skittish
than a wild partridge ? and hast thou ever been made
the object of laughter? If so, thou wilt be able to
enter into the agonies of Sybrandt, as he stood smart
ing under the consciousness that he cut rather a ridic
ulous figure. No one can ever know what a man
suffers in such a situation, except persons of the tem
perament I have described. Else, the most ill-natured,
malignant being that was ever created would be care
ful not to play rudely upon an instrument so easily
disposed to tormenting discords. There are thou
sands of young persons, all of the higher order of in
tellect, who, in the days of their probation, before their
hearts are seared in the fires of indulgence, or dead
ened by disappointments, suffer more from the care
less disregard to their feelings, and the thoughtless
ridicule indulged in by the domestic circle in which
they move, than from all other causes combined.
It was thus with Sybrandt. His apprehensive pride
whispered in his suspicious ear, that his cousin had
THI: DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 37
sent for him to make sport with his infirmity. His
mind lost its poise, and his faculties became sus
pended, as he stood, the image of stupid insensibility,
at the moment his heart and brain were pregnant with
feelings which, (could he have rallied the confidence
to utter them), would have astounded his uncle, and
waked in the kind bosom of Catalina respect and com
miseration. As it was, she considered him a conceited
bookworm, whose neglect of her society and marked
avoidance arose from indifference to her person and
contempt for her understanding. From the moment
she entertained this conviction, he became an object
of consequence in her eyes, and she resolved either to
overcome this dislike or insensibility, or revenge the
injured dignity of womanhood, by worrying his self-
esteem and laughing at his airs of superiority.
Sybrandt stood twirling his hat, immersed in a
chaos of conflicting feelings that took away all pres
ence of mind, when Ariel slapped him on the shoulder,
in his good-humoured boisterous way, and roared out,
in a voice that caused the young man to drop his hat
on the floor,
" Zounds! man, can t you speak? Why don t you
ask your cousin what she wants. Hey a-hem ! If
I was a young fellow like you, I d have got it all out
of her in less than no time. But I suppose I d better
leave the young couple together a-hem!" And,
with a most significant look, he departed to teach the
dominie how to ring his pigs noses.
This allusion to the " young couple " affronted Cat
alina, and made poor Sybrandt feel more silly than
ever. At length the young lady, assuming an air of
taunting distance, masked under affected humility,
said
88 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Mr. Westbrook, I am afraid, is offended at the
liberty I have taken in sending for him."
" Indeed I I could not imagine I was sur
prised I " and here his tongue cleaved to the
roof of his mouth.
" I beg pardon for the liberty ; but I thought it
might be agreeable to Mr. Westbrook to go with a
little party to-morrow to the island, if the day is fair.
But, I suppose I see you can t leave your books.
These little rural pastimes are unworthy a philoso
pher : " and she concocted her rosy lips and ivory
teeth into a pretty sneer, as she uttered this truly
female oration.
" I would I will I should like much to go
with you but " and here the demon of sheepish-
ness conjured up a hundred reasons for not going.
" O, very well I suppose Mr. Westbrook thinks
the diversions of common folks, especially young
women who don t understand Greek, beneath his no
tice."
Sybrandt was a little nettled at this, and anger soon
overcomes timidity.
" Miss Vancour is inclined to be satirical, I will not
say ill-natured, to-day."
" Wonderful ! Why, he has found his voice. Mr.
Westbrook condescends to speak to a poor damsel.
Surely he mistakes her for one of the seven wise men
of Greece. How could you let down your dignity
so ! " and the lady made him a low obeisance.
Sybrandt s face and heart grew hot with a sense of
insult.
" Miss Vancour does not do me justice if she thinks
me proud. She cannot know my feelings, nor enter
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 39
into the mortifications I suffer daily, from the con
sciousness that I that I " and here his proud shy
spirit shrunk from revealing the mysteries of his de
portment. He remained silent and embarrassed ; yet
his face glowed with an expression, and his eye kin
dled with a fire, Catalina had never seen lighted there
before. She was delighted to discover that he had
feelings which it was in her power to awaken. It
was a proof that he did not think her altogether be
neath his notice.
" What is it, then," said she, " that keeps you from
my father s house, where you are always welcome ;
from the society of the young men who would be
proud of your company; and from all share in the
amusements of the girls, my friends ? If it is not
pride, what is it ? "
At one moment Sybrandt determined to give his
cousin an analysis of his emotions ; the next he re
coiled from the disclosure ; and the conflict of oppos
ing impulses threw his mind into such a confusion,
that for the soul of him he could not utter a con
nected sentence.
" Well, well, Mr. Westbrook," said Catalina, after
waiting the event of this struggle, " I don t wish to in
quire into your secrets, nor to persuade you to go any
where against your will. You had better ask the
dominie s permission. I won t keep you any longer
from your studies." And the young lady left the
room, saying within herself, " He is not such a sense
less block, after all, as I thought him. A man that
can blush must have a heart, certainly."
Sybrandt could have knocked his head against a
stone wall. He buried himself in the woody solitudes,
40 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
where he dwelt, with exaggerated agony, on the pre
posterous figure he had made in this interview, the
laugh of Ariel, and the mockery of his cousin. He
called himself fool, oaf, idiot, in his very heart, and it
be may fairly questioned whether any pang he after
ward experienced, arising from actual suffering or
misfortune, ever came up to the intensity of this his
present feeling of mortified pride and insulted sensi
bility, combined with the consciousness that he had
made himself ridiculous.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 41
CHAPTER IV.
THE MORNING S SMILES, THE EVENING S TEARS.
THE next morning, Ariel, who was to be comman-
der-in-chief of the party to the island, came over, and
found Sybrandt half-willing, half-afraid to accompany
them. Never man was so busy, so important, and
so delighted as the good Ariel, at having something
to do for a whole day. Blessed indeed, yea, thrice
blessed is he whom trifles can make happy. It is this
which forms the bliss of childhood and the consola
tion of old age, each of which finds its appropriate
enjoyments in an exemption from the serious labours
and oppressive anxieties of the world s great busi
ness.
It was a cheerful and inspiring morning as ever
shone upon the rich plains of the happy Hudson
happy in being the chosen river on whose bosom floats
the tide of fashion to and fro, and on whose delicious
borders dwell in rustic competency thousands of con
tented human beings, finding the reward of their la
bours in the fruitions of a blameless life and a quiet
spirit. The day was such a one as I myself prefer to
all others ; when the sun diffuses his influence through
a gauzy veil of semi-transparent clouds, which temper
his rays into a mild genial warmth, that, while it takes,
perhaps, from the vigour of the body, communicates
to the mind a delicious and luxurious aptitude for the
indulgence of the gentler emotions. In such days,
42 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
and through such a medium, the beauties of nature
exhibit only their loveliest features, and display their
greatest varieties of shade and colouring; the winds
are hushed, the waters, smooth and glassy ; the fo
liage wears a fleecy softness ; the hills appear more
beautiful ; the mountains, magnified in the misty
vagueness of distance, seem blended with the skies ;
the differing tints of green that deck the bosom of the
earth become more distinct yet more harmonious than
when basking in the glare of the sun ; and every
sound that meets the ear, like every object that at
tracts the eye, partakes in the gentle harmony that
reigns all around. It is in the remembrance of such
scenes in after-life, and amid the struggles, hopes, and
disappointments which checker the course of man
hood, that we are apt to contrast our present cares
with our former enjoyments, exaggerating both, and
: making a false estimate of the different periods of an
existence, which, if we fairly hold the balance, will be
found pretty much the same in all its various changes,
from the cradle to the grave.
Our party consisted of Master-commandant Ariel,
chief manager, factotum, &c., (as busy as a bee, as
noisy as a katy-did, and as merry as a cricket), Cata-
lina, Sybrandt, and some half a score of the beaux
and belles of Albany, who had come to the mansion-
house bright and early in the morning, all dressed in
neat and simple attire, befitting a ramble among the
wild roses and clambering vines of the favoured isle.
This little paradise, to speak in learned phrase, was
an alluvial formation of times long past, composed of
the rich spoils of the surrounding lands, deposited by
the river. It was as level as the surface of the stream
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 43
in which it was embosomed, and covered with a car
pet of rich, luxuriant verdure, which, when it was not
pastured, gave to the scythe a glorious harvest three
times a year. On every side and all around, the
banks were fringed with the light silvery foliage of
the water-willows, mingled with tufts of sweetbrier,
and growths of nameless wild flowers of every hue
and various odour ; and canopied here and there with
vines, whose long tendrils sometimes bent down and
waved to and fro on the gliding waters as they passed
slowly by. Within this leafy barrier was nothing but
a green sward, shaded at irregular intervals by the
vast giants of the alluvial growth elms and syca
mores, of such towering majesty that they overlooked
the gentle eminences which bounded the flats on either
side. The witching murmurs of the waters, as they
glided along under the willow branches and nodding
vines, mingled with the chorus of a thousand birds,
who remained all summer in undisturbed possession ;
and though the pipe of the shepherd was never heard
in these pleasant abodes, it was aptly supplied by the
music of harmonious nature, the rippling waves, and
the warblers of the woodland.
Under the skilful guidance of the active and viva
cious Ariel, the little party arrived at the scene of
their anticipated pleasures, all gay and happy, save
our friend Sybrandt, who, from the moment he joined
the group, felt the spell of the demon besetting him
sorely. The other young men were, indeed, quite as
awkward, and without his knowledge and acquire
ments; but they made an excellent figure, notwith
standing, and performed their parts with a gay, gallant
frankness, such as woman in every situation loves.
44 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
They had lived in the world at Albany, mixed in its
business, and dissipated their self-love in the pursuit
of various objects, while poor Sybrandt had passed
his youth in nursing the offspring of solitude sensi
bility, pride, and selfishness. It is social intercourse
alone that, by calling him off from self-contemplation,
and making it necessary to remember and to adminis
ter to the wants or the enjoyment of others, can make
man happy himself, and an instrument of happiness
to his fellows.
When they came to the riverside, where lay the
little boat which was to take them to the island, Sy
brandt had sworn to himself that he would offer his
hand to Catalina to assist her in embarking. But it
was so long before he could screw himself up to the
direful feat, that one of the Albany lads, more valiant
as well as alert, was beforehand with him. A bashful
man is like a tiger ; he makes one effort, and, if that
fails, slinks away to his jungle, and essays not another.
I myself have my own experience to vouch for this ;
having, in the far-off days of my gallantry, full many
a time and oft, in dining out, gathered myself together
with a chivalrous ferocity to ask the lady of the feast
for the honour of a glass of wine with her. But,
alas! if perad venture the lady listened not to my first
demonstration, I was prone to relapse into an utter
and incurable incapacity to repeat the mighty effort.
The sound of my voice died suddenly, and word spake
I nevermore. So was it with master Sybrandt, who,
having expended his powder in a flash of the pan,
sunk only the lower for the exertion he had made.
The party landed, and pursued their recreation in
separate groups, or couples, as chance or inclination
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 45
prompted. In those days of innocence and simplicity
and, thanks to Heaven, it is so still in our happy
country young people of different sexes could share
the enjoyments of a rural ramble, in parties or in
pairs, without the remotest idea of impropriety, and
without waking a single breath of scandal. If there
be any thing in the harmony, the repose, the fascinat
ing and quiet beauties of nature that excites to love,
it is gentle and virtuous love, an awakening impulse,
rather than an ungovernable passion ; and if perchance
it works to final mischief, it is rather from accident
than purpose nature than depravity. It is not here
that the sensual passions acquire their overpowering
energies ; but at midnight revels, where dazzling lights,
artificial splendours, seducing music, high-seasoned
viands, and luxurious wines, pamper the senses, and
swell the imagination to exaggerated conceptions of
pleasure, which carry us away we know not and we
care not whither. Long may it be before it is the
fashion to abridge the freedom of virgins, and extend
that of wives, in our country.
Catalina having carried her point in making Sy-
brandt one of the party, was in a rather better humour
with him than usual. She plagued him now and
then in various sly ways, and sometimes raised a
laugh at his expense. The first fine edge of the feel
ings, fortunately for mankind, both in pleasure and
pain, is worn off by the first enjoyment and the first
suffering. Were it not so but I am insensibly be
coming a moralist, when I only aspire to story-telling.
Sybrandt already felt, like a musical instrument, in
better tune for being played upon, and two or three
times caught himself actually enjoying the scene and
46 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
the festivity of his companions. The ridicule of
women sometimes makes bold men only more confi
dent; and I have known a very pattern of modesty
made downright saucy by the freedoms of others.
Indeed, there is not in the world so impudent a being
as a shy man forced out of his shyness. The impulse
carries him to the opposite extreme. The bent of
Sybrandt s mind had, however, been too continuous
and too rigid to be relaxed all at once.
I pity the most exalted of created beings who can
not feel the inspiration of the balmy air, the melody,
and the smiles of nature; for he can have neither
sensibility nor imagination. It was not so with Sy-
brandt. Though apparently a most unpromising pupil
for the school of romance, there were, if I mistake
not, certain springs of action and certain latent fires
hidden and buried in his head and heart, which only
required to be touched or lighted to make him a far
other being than he seemed just now. As the morn
ing passed, he insensibly began to feel less awkward,
and his shyness gradually wore away. He ventured
to speak to some of the damsels, and finally had the
unparalleled intrepidity to attach himself to the side
of his cousin in a stroll under the vines and willows
that skirted the shores of the little island.
By degrees the affections which nature had implant
ed in him opened and expanded, lrke~ttKT seeds which
lie dormant in the deep shades of the-forest for years,
until, the trees being cut down, the sunbeams waken
them to life and vegetation. The emotions of his
heart for a while overpowered his long-cherished diffi
dence, and lent to his tongue an eloquence that pleased,
while it surprised, Catalina. The stores of imagery
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 47
reading and contemplation had gathered
iu his mind came to light, without study or effort, in
striking observations, tender associations, and sparkles
of a rich and glowing fancy. Catalina listened with
astonishment to the animated statue ; and, as she
looked him in the face while pouring out the treasures
of his mind, and saw the divinity that flashed in his
eyes, she once or twice detected herself in thinking
Sybrandt almost as handsome as an aide-de-camp.
He, too, felt elevated in his own estimation ; for the
first time in his life he had listened to his own voice
without feeling his heart beat with apprehension, and
for the first time he could look back upon an hour
spent in the society of a woman, without a pang of
the keenest mortification.
" Sybrandt," at length said Catalina, " why don t
you talk so every day ? "
" Because every day is not like to-day ; nor are you,
my cousin, always what you are now."
A silence ensued, from which they were roused by
the cheerful, joy-inspiring shouts of Ariel, who had
prepared his collation, and was summoning all the
rambling lads and lasses to come and partake of
the blessings of his prudent forethought. To him,
eating was an affair of the first consequence; he
never joined a party, either of business or pleasure,
without first reducing it to a certainty that there
would be no starvation attending it ; and it was
almost as affecting as a last dying speech to hear him
relate the melancholy story of the ruin of a brace of
the finest wood-ducks he ever saw, by the " damned
stupid folly " of his cook, who boiled them in a pot.
The good Ariel had spread his stores on a snow-white
48
table-cloth of ample dimensions, laid upon the rich
greensward, beneath a canopy of vines that clambered
over the tops of a clump of sassafras, whose aromatic
buds sent forth a grateful fragrance. Here he mar
shalled his forces with great discretion, placing the
lads and lasses alternately around the rural repast,
and enjoining upon each of the former the strictest
attention to his nearest neighbour. As to himself,
he never could sit still where there was room for
action. He curvetted around the little circle like a
frolic spaniel; cracked his jokes, and laughed only the
louder when nobody joined him ; helped himself, and
ate, and talked, all at the same time, with a zest, an
hilarity, and an honest frankness, that communicated
themselves to all about him, infecting them with a
contagious merriment. The birds chirped over their
heads, the flowers grew beneath their feet, the mild
summer breezes played upon their cheeks, hope
glowed in their hearts, and youth and health were
their handmaids ; why then should they not laugh
and be merry?
But a plague on Nature ! She is a female, after all,
and there is no trusting her. As thus they sat, un
heeding all but themselves and the present moment,
she had been at work unnoticed by the joyous crew,
gathering into one great mass a pack of dark rolling
clouds along the western horizon. The banks of the
islet were, as we said before, fringed with trees and
shrubbery and tangled vines, that quite hid the op
posite shores, making it a little world within itself.
The tempest gathering in the West had therefore
escaped the notice of the party, until the moment
when a burst of merriment was interrupted by a flash
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 49
of lightning, and a quick, sharp crash of thunder.
When the Creator speaks, all nature is silent ; and if,
as some suppose, the leaping lightning is the quick
glancing of his angry eye, the thunder the threatening
of his voice, no wonder if every sound is hushed when
they break forth from the pitchy darkness of the
heavens. The laugh ceased ; the birds became silent
in their leafy bowers ; the trees stilled their sweet whis
perings ; the insects chirped no longer, and the river
murmured no more. There was a dead pause in the
air, the earth, and the waters, save_when the Creator of
them all spoke from the depths of his vast obscurity.
The merrymakers glanced at each other in silence,
and in silence sat, until Ariel ventured to clear his
voice with an, " a-hem ! ", which, to say the truth,
lacked much of its wonted energy and clearness.
Sybrandt gained a position whence he could look
abroad, and came back, running, to announce that a
thunder-storm was coming on, rapidly so rapidly
that it would be impossible to cross the river and gain
the nearest house in time to escape its fury. The
damsels looked at the young men, and the young men
looked at the damsels. One had on her best hat,
another a new shawl, a third her holiday chintz gown,
and each and all wore some favourite piece of finery,
which, though peradventure Dolly the cook and Betty
the chambermaid would scorn to wear, even on week
days, in this age of unparalleled improvement, was
still dear to their unsophisticated hearts. The boys
too, as they were called, and still are called among
the old lords of the land, had on their Sunday gear,
which, as they never ran in debt to the tailor, it be
hooved them to nurse with special care. What was
4
50 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
to be done in this sore dilemma ? for now the quick,
keen flashes, the equally sharp crashes that came with
them, and the dead, dull calm that intervened, an
nounced that the rain and the tempest were nigh.
Ariel was as busy as an assistant-alderman at a
fire, and about as useful. Being a man who was
always in a hurry when there was no occasion for
haste, it may be naturally supposed that, when there
was occasion, he would be in such a great hurry that
his resolves would tread upon one another s heels,
or impede their operations by running athwart each
other and breaking their heads. And so, indeed, it
turned out ; he was ten times more busy than when
he had nothing to do ; swore at the lads for not doing
something ; suggested a hundred impracticable things ;
and concluded, good man ! , by wishing with all his
soul they were safely housed in the old mansion.
Catalina had been brought up at boarding-school
in the fear of thunder. The school-mistress, indeed,
always encouraged the young ladies, by precept, not
to be frightened ; but she never failed to disappear in
a thunder-storm, and was one time discovered between
two feather-beds, almost smothered to death. It is
to be regretted that this natural and proper feeling
of awe which accompanies the sublime phenomena
of nature should degenerate into fright or irrational
superstition. Divested of these, the approach of a
thunder-storm is calculated to waken the mind to the
most lofty associations with the great Being who
charges and discharges this grand artillery, and to exalt
the imagination into the regions of loftiest contempla
tion. But fear is a grovelling sentiment, which mo
nopolizes the mind, debases the physical man, and
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 51
shuts out every feeling allied to genuine piety and
Taith_._
Suddenly an idea struck Sybrandt, which was in
stantly adopted and put into execution. The boat, a
broad, flat skiff, was drawn up the bank, and placed
bottom upwards, with one side supported by sticks,
and the other reclining on the ground towards the
West, so that the rain might run off in that direction.
The few minutes which intervened between this opera
tion and the bursting of the torrent of rain were em
ployed by the young men in covering the open spaces
about the sides of the boat with grass and branches,
as well as the time would admit. There was only
space enough under this shelter for the young women,
though Ariel managed to find himself a place among
them. He was in the main a good-natured, kind-
hearted man, but he did not like being out in a storm,
any more than his neighbours. The young men
stood cowering under a canopy of thick vines, which
shaded the boat and a little space besides. It was
observed that Sybrandt placed himself nearest that
end of the boat under which Catalina was sheltered,
and that he was particular in the disposition of the
grass and branches in that quarter.
A few, a very few minutes of dead silence on the
part of our little group intervened before the tempest
sent forth its hoards of wind and rain, smiting the
groaning trees, and deluging the thirsty earth, till it
could drink no more, but voided the surplus into the
swelling stream, that began anon to rise and roar in
angry violence. This storm was for a long time
traditionary, for its terrible violence ; and for more
than half a century people talked of the incessant
52 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
flashes of the lightning, the stunning and harsh vio
lence of the thunder, the deluge of rain, the hurricane
which accompanied it, the lofty trees that were either
split with bolts or prostrated by the wind, and the
damage done by the sudden swelling of the river on
that memorable day.
Those under the boat fared indifferently well ; but
the others were in a few moments wet to the skin.
The flexible willows bent down, to let the storm pass
over them ; but the sturdy elms and sycamores stood
stiff to the blast, that wrung their arms from their
bodies, and scattered them in the air like straws and
feathers. The rushing winds and the roaring of the
troubled waters were mingled with incessant flashes
of lightning, accompanied by those quick, sharp ex
plosions of thunder that proclaim the near approach
of the electric power. At length the party was roused
by a peal that seemed to have rent the vault of heaven,
and beheld with terror a huge sycamore, not a hun
dred yards off, directly in front of them, shivered from
top to bottom like a reed. The explosion for a mo
ment stilled the tempest of rain, during which interval
the cloven trunk stood trembling and nodding, like
one suddenly struck by the hand of death. Another
moment, and the winds resumed their empire, the
stout monarch of the isle fell to the ground with a
crash, and the force of Omnipotence was demonstrated
in the instantaneous destruction of a work which long
ages had brought to maturity.
The young women screamed, and thejpuths shud
dered, as they beheld this giant of nature yielding in
an instant to Divinity. But soon they were drawn
off to the consideration of a new danger. It is well
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 53
known how sudden, nay, almost instantaneous, is the
swelling of our rivers, especially near their sources,
and where they traverse a hilly or mountainous region.
The little isle in which our scene is laid was but a
few feet above the ordinary level of the stream, which
now began to dash its waves beyond the usual barrier,
until at length the situation of the party became ex
tremely critical. The land had become less safe than
the water, and immediate measures were taken to
prepare for the inundation, by turning the boat upon
her bottom again. The party was arranged on the
benches to the best advantage, and the young men
prepared to ply the oars the moment the boat was
floated off. Soon the tremendous torrent rolled over
the surface of the whole island in one mighty and
turbid volume, speckled with white foam; and the
boat was borne off by the surge with the swiftness of
an arrow. The difficulty was to escape the trees and
bushes, which still reared their heads above the flood,
since it was obvious that nothing could preserve the
skiff but her being kept from the slightest interruption
in her course. The great object, therefore, was to
avoid every obstacle, and to keep her head directly
down the stream, till they met with some little nook
or cove, where the current was less violent.
In times of jeopardy the master-spirit instinctively
takes the lead, and the meaner ones instinctively yield
obedience. Ever since the coming of the storm, Sy-
brandt had seemed a new being, animated by a newly-
awakened soul. The excitement of the scene had by
degrees caused him to forget his shyness ; and now
the presence of danger and the necessity of exertion
roused into action those qualities which neither him-
54 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
self nor others had been aware that he possessed. He
who had trembled at the idea of being introduced
into a drawing-room, and shrunk from the encounter
of a woman s smiling eye, now stood erect in the
composure of unawed manhood, with a firm hand
and a steady eye, guiding the little skiff through con
flicting currents, almost as skilfully as a veteran Mis
sissippi boatman. The rest sat still in the numbness
of irrepressible apprehension. Even the busy Ariel
was motionless in his seat, and his active tongue silent
as the grave. But neither human skill nor human
courage could prevail for any length of time over the
fury of the waters, every moment aggravated by new
accessions. In turning a point, round which the
current whirled with increased impetuosity, the boat
struck the edge of an old stump of a tree just beneath
the surface, and was upset in an instant. Fortunately
for some, though, alas ! not for all, the stream made a
sudden inflexion immediately below the point, form
ing a cove, where it subsided into comparative repose.
It was in making for this harbour that the boat un
fortunately encountered the stump, which, as before
stated, was not visible above the water. The accident
was fatal to two of the innocent girls and one of the
young men, who sat in the bow of the boat, which,
unfortunately, as she overturned, sheered out into the
stream, and launched them into the main force of
the freshet. Their bodies were found a day or two
afterward, many miles below. The others, with the
exception of Catalina, were shot directly, and in an
instant, by the sudden eddy made by the current, into
the quiet cove, where they were all preserved. Catalina
fared worse, at first. Less strong, and less inured to
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 55
the sports and perils of rural life, she became insen
sible the moment the accident occurred, and would
have quickly perished, had not Sybrandt swum to the
edge of the turbulent whirlpool where she was float
ing, and brought her safely to the land.
Sadly the remnant of our little party returned to
their respective homes without their lost companions,
and sadly they contrasted the beauty of the quiet
genial morning, and the happy anticipations that
beckoned them forward to sportful revelry, with the
uproar of nature, and the gloomy shadows of the eve
ning, which closed in darkness, sorrow, and death.
The remembrance of this scene, and of the conduct
of Sybrandt, not only before but during the storm,
and in the hour of her extreme peril, was often after
ward called to mind by Catalina, and not unfrequently
checked her inclination, sometimes to laugh at, some
times to be downright angry with, her shamefaced,
awkward cousin.
I need not dwell upon the anxiety of the father and
mother of our heroine, nor on that of the good Dennis,
who, in the midst of his fears, could not help crying
out against and sparing not this newfangled custom
of making parties for the island, though both tradi
tion and history avouch that these sports were coeval
with the commencement of our happy era of honest
simplicity. Suffice it to say, that the good parents
received their only child as one a second time bestowed
upon them by the bounty of Heaven, and that they
were full of gratitude to Sybrandt, whose inspira
tion seemed now to have departed from him. Instead
of expressing his joy at having been instrumental in
preserving Catalina, and showing his sensibility to
56 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
the gratitude of her parents, he became disconcerted,
silent, stultified and finally vanished away, no one
knew whither. We must not .omit to record that
from this time forward the worthy Ariel attended the
Dominie s sermons regularly twice every Sunday,
which was a custom he had never followed before,
inasmuch as he had a most sovereign propensity to
falling asleep and disturbing the congregation by
snoring.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 57
CHAPTER V.
AN IRRUPTION OF BOILED LOBSTERS.
IT was many days before Catalina again saw Master
Sybrandt, who, sooth to say, shrunk from the usual
consequences of a good deed, as skittishly as some
worthies do from those of a bad one. Catalina said
to the woman within her, " He is giving himself airs
he thinks I will send for him again but he ll be very
much mistaken this time I hate such proud, stupid
people ! " And she looked in the glass, and was right
well-pleased at what she saw there. When Sybrandt
at last overcame his old enemy, and ventured into
what to him was worse than the jaws of a hungry
lion, Catalina, affronted at his long absence under
these particular circumstances, which seemed to indi
cate that he considered the saving of her life a matter
of no sort of consequence, treated him with consid
erable disdain. Sybrandt, (who could digest twenty
folios of metaphysics more readily than he could com-
prehend the mind of a woman^and who never dreamed
that his absence or presence was noticed by any hu
man being in the shape of a young lady, became only
the more shy and embarrassed at this reception. He
thought, to a certainty, his cousin despised him, and
he was one of those that never court favour where
they expect contempt. Thus they continued to mis
understand each other, and thus, it was probable,
would they continue to the end of their lives.
58 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Not long after the adventure of the island, an inci
dent occurred which occasioned a great sensation, not
only in the city of Albany, but for many miles around.
This was the arrival of a regiment of British troops
from New York, in consequence of expected hostilities
between France and England, whose wretched rivalry
generally involved the four quarters of the globe in
war and bloodshed. A large portion of the officers
of this regiment were gay young men without fami
lies, and the belles and mothers of the belles in and
about Albany saw, in the new-comers, subjects on
which to exercise the influence of the charms of the
one and the arts of the other. One of the most mor
tifying results of the colonial state is, that it invariably
generates on the part of the colonists a habit of giving
way, if not a feeling of inferiority, and on the part of
natives of the parent state an arrogant disregard of
propriety and decorum when among them. The men
of the United Colonies, with the exception, perhaps, of
those of Virginia and South Carolina, did not, in the
days of which we are speaking, assert that equality
which they are now authorized to maintain whereso
ever they go ; and the women, especially those who
aspired to the bon-ton with sorrow and mortification
we record it by the eagerness with which they sought,
and the unconcealed vanity with which they received,
the attentions of gentlemen from the old country,
contributed most materially to the depression of their
own countrymen as well as to the exaltation of foreign
adventurers. Nothing indeed so affects the relative
dignity and virtue of the two sexes, as the estimation
in which they hold each other. Where women are
neglected by their countrymen, or where men are neg-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 59
lected by their countrywomen, in their admiration for
strangers, the result will probably be the degradation
of both in the eyes of each other and in the estima
tion of those whose attentions they court. This silly
habit of admiring foreign fashions, foreign countries,
and foreigners, became so deeply implanted in the
minds of the good provincials of the " Old Thirteen,"
that it still retains its influence in some degree, as
may be perceived in the docility with which we are
accustomed to give the preference to moderate talent
in a stranger, over shining merit in a native; and to
bow to the decisions of ignorant pretenders, the sole
weight of whose opinions is derived from their pas
sage across the ocean. Like wine which has made a
voyage to China, opinions are held to be improved
by a similar adventure ; and folly becomes venerable,
when we can trace it to the reverend errors of de
clining age across the water. Hospitality ennobles a
nation, but only when it springs from higher motives
than the silly vanity of entertaining people of more
consequence than ourselves.
The colonel of the newly-arrived regiment had at
tained that period of life when vanity and ambition
take the place of love. He was gallant and well
born ; he tacked "honourable" to his name, and that
alone was sufficient to consecrate him in the eyes of
the provincial ladies. He belonged to that race of
beaux which has long been extinct as a species, al
though we now and then see some vestiges in the
wreck of an old soldier, whose wit and vivacity have
survived his very self, and still sparkle from the mere
force of long habit. His name was Sydenham; he
was somewhat of a coxcomb; and his exterior was
60
prepossessing, especially in a red coat and epaulettes.
His courage was undoubted ; his principles not at all
doubtful, for he held the point of honour to consist in
meeting the consequences of his actions, good or bad,
without flinching. He did not want for a reasonable
degree of scholarship, and was not ignorant of books ;
but his greatest acquisition consisted in a consummate
knowledge of the world, a manner which enabled him
to be particularly pleasing whenever he chose, and a
pliability of principles which made it singularly easy
for him to choose the path most agreeable for the time
being. The rest of the officers were nearly all alike,
as much so as so many boiled lobsters. They all
wore red coats, and all thought themselves of a
different species from the honest burghers, whose
wine they condescended to drink, and whose wives
and daughters they favoured with their attentions, in
proportion as the liquor was good and the ladies
handsome.
The mansion-house of the Vancours had ever been
open to the footsteps of all respectable strangers, and
especially to the military men, who frequently so
journed there on their passage from New York to the
frontier posts and back again. They came and went
as they pleased, and were received and entertained
with an easy liberality, of which we see some remains
still lingering in the Southern States, and making
head against the silent inroads of heartless and selfish
ostentation. Independently of the hospitality of the
house, the situation of the elder Vancour as a public
man, together with his extensive acquaintance with
the interests of the colony, and his singular influence
over the Indians, naturally made his house the resort
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 61
of the principal officers of the government, with whom
his opinions always had great weight.
Accordingly, we soon find the magnate and his satel
lites as it were domesticated at the* mansion-house,
riding the colonel s horses, feasting on his excellent
fare, drinking his old wine, pronouncing him a decent
sort of an old customer, and never quizzing the good
gentleman but at their messes. Colonel Sydenham
singled out Catalina, as the object of his devoirs ; and
the others found rural goddesses among the daugh
ters of the Van Amburghs, the Van Outerstoups, the
Volckmaars, and the Vervalens of the neighborhood,
who could talk English with their eyes, if not with
their tongues. It was not then the fashion to pay any
other than the most respectful attentions to married
women ; and, if it had been, there was something in
the appearance, manners, and character of the good
Madam Vancour, a staid and sober dignity and quiet
self-possession, that gained the respect even of folly
and impudence combined. One of the young officers
of the regiment was complaining one day that he
could not find any body to fall in love with. " Why
don t you make love to Madam Vancour ? " said an
other, jestingly. " Madam Vancour! " replied he ; "I
should as soon think of throwing a glass of wine in
the face of the king."
The arrival and sojourning of these gay sparks cre
ated a mighty stir in that part of the country, and
soon produced great innovations in the simple habits
of the people. Independently of the general laxity of
morals which is so often the consequence of the roving,
uncertain life of a soldier, and his freedom from the
restraints of home, there is always attached to every
62
considerable body of troops a train of vicious and
worthless people of both sexes. Corruption follows
in the path of Mars ; and it is pretty certain that noth
ing makes more fearful inroads upon the virtues of a
people than continued association with men whose
only business is fighting. One would suppose that the
proverbial uncertainty of a soldier s life would gen
erate habits of sobriety, reflection, and decorum ; but,
so far from this, it is sufficiently evident that it pro
duces a quite contrary effect. There is no occasion
on which we see such careless, high-wrought, and
high-seasoned conviviality, as in an army the night
preceding a battle, in which every man is to peril his
life to the uttermost.
The pastoral and sylvan deities of the shades, and
the lazy river-gods, who slept in quiet in their crystal
basins, save when the breaking up of the ice in spring
or the swelling of the river in the pelting storm dis
turbed their repose, were anon astounded at the frolic
some racket of these new-comers. Heretofore not a
dog dared bark after eight o clock in their quiet re
treats, except as a signal that the wild man or the
wild beast was coming. But now, " Preserve us ! "
as the good Dominie Stettinius exclaimed with lifted
hands, " half the night is spent yea, even to
nine and ten o clock in dancings and junketings."
The cows stood lowing in the sober twilight, in expec
tation of the dilatory milkmaid, who was peradven-
ture adorning herself, as the victim was erst dressed in
flowers to be sacrificed to some gross heathen divinity.
The sober Dutch lads, who whilom considered the
dissipation of a Christinas sleigh -ride the summit of
delight, now were wont to steal at midnight from the
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 63
dormitory where the watchful cares of the good father
had seen them " quietly inurned," to waste their time
and health, and spend their money, in revels that the
sun saw and blushed at when he rose above the gold
en tops of the eastern hills. The stout intrenchments
behind which our Dutch ancestors in other quarter^
so strongly and obstinately maintained their manners!
and habits, almost down to the present time, were
gradually sapped or stormed, and the good Dominie
Stettinius stood aghast to behold the backsliding pro
pensities of the youths and maidens of his hitherto
docile flock.
He forthwith took arms to oppose this disastrous
invasion of his hitherto peaceful domain I mean
such arms alone as comported with his age, his habits,
and his sacred function. Casting aside the chastened
zeal with which he had hitherto maintained and en
forced obedience among his tranquil rustic hearers, he
arrayed himself in the mighty words of reprehension,
threatening, and denunciation. Learned, eloquent,
and virtuous, he poured forth the stores of his intellect
and the enthusiasm of his soul in strains of rich and
affecting simplicity, that would have done honour to
the primitive reformers. But, alas! what can the
tongues of angels do, when example, temptation, and
opportunity, knock at the threshold of the human
heart, peep in at the windows, and whisper their se
ductions through the very key-holes ? Some, doubtless,
and especially the more aged people, whose pas
sions reposed upon the memory of the past, were
checked in their downhill career by the pious eloquence
of the good dominie ; but, for the young, the thought
less, and the madcap boys and girls many, very
64 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
many of them long lived to rue the day that saw the
regiment of redcoats pitch its white, innocent-looking
tents among the rich meadows of the matchless Hud
son.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 65
CHAPTER VI.
A BEAU OF THE OLD REGIME.
COLONEL SYDENHAM was a veteran beau of the old
school, which, after all, I think was not a little supe
rior to the present standard of dandyism. There was
a courtesy, a polish, a lofty deference to the ladies,
which, whether originating in vanity or a nobler feel
ing, was still the source of many attractive qualifica
tions, and formed a charming ingredient in social
intercourse. The little stiffnesses and formalities
which accompanied this style of manners were, cer
tainly, preferable to the careless and abrupt familiarity,
or boorish neglect, which a preposterous deference to
fashion has since consecrated as high-breeding and
gentlemanly ease. The colonel had served in India,
which was a fortunate circumstance, as it enabled
him to ascribe his gray hairs, and the evident debility
of his person, to the effects of a climate which, as
he frequently observed, seldom failed to produce an
appearance of premature old age. " I was gray at
twenty," said the colonel, who never would use spec
tacles or carry a walking stick on any occasion,
though never man stood in greater need of both these
useful auxiliaries. He was always deeply smitten
with some youthful belle or other, whose attentions
he delighted to monopolize, more from the gratifica
tion of an habitual vanity, than from a warmer or
nobler sentiment. On the whole, however, he was a
5
66 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
i
singularly agreeable man ; and, in spite of his age, al
ways made a figure, and was welcomed in the society
of both sexes. He was soon in special favour with
high and low, rich and poor, young and old, with the
single exception of the staid Dominie Stettinius, who
penetrated his easiness of principles, and was not
inclined to consider good manners an equivalent for
good morals.
/ The colonel early made choice of Catalina as the
i recipient of his attentions. She was the fairest lady
vpf the land in which he sojourned ; she was unques
tionably at the head of the beau-monde ; and she was,
prospectively, a great heiress, for she was the only
child of a man who owned land enough to entitle him
to vote at a German Diet. " If it should happen in
the chapter of accidents," thought the colonel, " that
this wood-dove were to be softened by my cooing,
she will be worth marrying if not, there will be no
harm done. I am too much of a traveller to pine at
the wilful vagaries of a woman s heart." Accordingly
he entered the field as Catalina s devoted servant;
and, as the strict rules of military etiquette forbade all
interference with the commanding officer, the dapper
majors, captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, always kept
aloof while the colonel was making the agreeable to
the young lady.
That she was not pleased and flattered with the
distinction of being the belle of the first military man
in the neighbourhood, who wore a red coat, and figured
on the roll of heraldry, is what we will not say, for
it might not be true. It would have been out of
nature to be insensible to such honours honours to
which the gentle sex are prone to bow down, because
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 67
they are restricted from gaining any other laurels than
those which they pluck from the brow of man. Their
vanity and ambition can only be gratified, by leading
in chains the conquerors of others; by associating
their name and their destinies with the master-spirits
who wield the powers of the earth, or with those who
inherit distinction, as a fox does instinct, from a long
line of ancestors. The colonel and Catalina were on
the best possible terms, and, in no long time, the good
people of the neighbourhood, who knew nothing of
the attentions and courtesies authorized in the in
tercourse of the world, all agreed that it would be a
match.
Among those who watched the progress of this
intimacy, and with bitterness of heart, was Sybrandt
Westbrook. The selfishness engendered by solitude
and abstraction inclined him naturally to jealousy of
a most perverse and ridiculous kind. He persuaded
himself that he neither had, nor could ever have, any
pretensions to Catalina ; nay, he would have shrunk
with shivering horror at the idea that she even sus
pected that his solitary hours and silent reveries were
full of her, and only her. Yet he could not endure the
remotest apprehension, much less the sight, of any, the
slightest marks of preference for another. When in
her society, he kept aloof, and left her entirely to the
attentions of other men ; yet her reception of these
very courtesies cut him to the soul, and the recollec
tion of them poisoned his solitary days and sleepless
nights.
I do not wonder, as some have done, that women
like your gay and enterprising admirers, who never
put their timid delicacy to the task of making ad-
68 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
vances, or offering undue encouragement to their
sheepishness. The province of the sex is to act al
ways on the defensive in the strife of love, and noth
ing, I should imagine, is more provoking to their pride,
or painful to their sensibility, than to be obliged to
open their gates unsummoned, or even to step out
of their intrenchments, in order to humour the coward
bashfulness, or stubborn pride, of one who displays
his affection by keeping at a distance, and makes him
self agreeable by utter neglect.
Catalina, notwithstanding the cross-grained behav
iour of Sybrandt, had a sort of intuitive perception,
which is common to women and stands them in
the stead of wisdom and philosophy, that he had a
curious sort of abstract preference for her. This
notion gave him an interest in her eyes, which caused
her to watch him narrowly, at those times when she
was receiving the gallant attentions of Colonel Sy den-
ham with encouraging smiles. On these occasions
she often fancied she could detect the boiling eddies
through the apparently unruffled surface of stupid
indifference. Sometimes her vanity, nay, her heart,
was pleased with the discovery, for she remembered
that she owed her life to him, and, with all his strange
and wayward neglect and awkwardness, there were
at long and rare intervals sparks of intellect and
spirit, which indicated the hidden treasures overlaid
by his rustic training. Sometimes, she resolved to
try and bring him forward in the society of the new
comers, by kindness and attention; and again, she
felt provoked to make him the subject of derision 5
while, more than once, without a thought of malignity
or ill-nature, she put him on the rack. O ridicule !
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 69
how often does it in its thoughtless gambols shed
drops of vitriol, that blister where they light ! There
are souls in this world, incrusted with an outward
shell of roughness or deformity, so keen, so sensitive,
that the pointing of the ringer is torture the touch
of scorn, madness. They sweat with inward agonies,
at the moment when pride and timidity so closely
veil their feelings, that, while their very hearts are
bursting, they exhibit to the careless eye nothing but
dull insensibility, or insufferable conceit. Such was
this unhappy young man at this period. It was
doubtful whether he would ever be known and prop
erly appreciated, even by the friend of his heart, or
the wife of his bosom ; for he seemed destined never
to be blessed with either.
Though he kept as much as possible away from the
mansion-house, there were times when his wayward
temper carried him there almost in spite of himself, or
when the blustering, peremptory gayety of Ariel would
force him from his moody solitudes into the pleasant
social circle that was almost always to be found at
Mr. Vancour s. One night a little gathering had met
there, consisting of the gallant Colonel Sydenham,
two or three of his officers, the noisy Ariel, and the
daughters of half a score of the most substantial
burghers of Albany. A furious thunder-storm had
come on in the early part of the evening, and it was
settled that the whole company should remain all
night where they were, to the great delight of Uncle
Ariel, whose soul expanded with indescribable satis
faction at the thought of a merry party and a social
supper. These, or something like them, were the
only stimulants that could keep the good soul awake
70
after the fowls had gone to roost. The colonel hap
pened to be describing a dish of boiled fowl and rice
common in the East Indies, which struck Ariel s fancy
wonderfully. He disappeared shortly afterward, and
continued to pass in and out of the room occasionally,
without being particularly noticed by any body, for he
never could be quiet when any thing was going for
ward about the house.
" Sybrandt," said Madam Vancour, with the good-
natured intention of rousing him from the chaos of
stupidity in which he had remained bewildered for a
longtime, "Sybrandt, pray come and assist us in
finding out what this means." They had gathered
about the table, on which lay sundry books, into
which some were looking, while others were talking
about various matters.
" Tis Greek," said one.
" Tis Hebrew," said another.
" Tis High-Dutch," said a third.
" Tis Mohawk," said a- fourth.
" Let me see," cried Ariel, who just at the moment
entered with a face as red as fire. He pulled out his
specs, rubbed them carefully, placed them across
his little snub of a nose, and, planting himself in his
usual determined position, with his short, sturdy
drumsticks extended almost at right angles, began to
pore over the mystery. He could make nothing
of it.
" Colonel," cried he to Sydenham, who had rather
affected to be deeply engaged with Catalina, -
" Colonel, here, damn it, you understand Hindoo, and
all that ; interpret for us."
The rest joined in the entreaty, and, the book being
71
handed to the colonel, he proceeded with great gravity
to study it, upsidedown.
" Why, damn it, Colonel," shouted Ariel, " you re
holding the book upsidedown. Here, take my spec
tacles ; I see your eyes begin to fail you, as well as
mine."
The colonel would rather have marched up to a
loaded cannon than have used spectacles in the pres
ence of any living soul but his valet, in whose dis
cretion he placed unbounded reliance. In his solici
tude to remedy the blunder so unceremoniously
proclaimed by Ariel, he unluckily placed the cover of
the book towards him, while he rejected the spectacles
with a smile and a bow, both indicating that he had
no occasion for them.
" Why, damn it. Colonel," shouted Ariel again,
while breaking into an explosion of laughter ; " why,
zounds, you ve got the book with the back side
towards you this time. I insist on your taking my
spectacles I m sure they will suit you exactly you
and I are just about of an age." And he continued
to press the colonel to accept of them, till the unlucky
gentleman could hardly command his faithful auxili
aries, the smile and the bow. It was, however, a
maxim with him, from which he had never swerved
for more than a score of years, never to show either
anger or mortification in company. He contented
himself with quietly handing the book to Sybrandt,
saying he must acknowledge his inability to explain
the passage which, by the way, he had not been
able to distinguish, from the failure of his eyes. But
this was a secret he kept to himself, preferring rather
to be thought ignorant than blind. All present gave
72
him credit for affecting to be unable to see, merely to
disguise his not being able to interpret the enigma,
which, as Sybrandt announced, was nothing more
than an English proverb, printed in Greek characters,
as we have seen practised, in the way of a grave quiz,
in some of the old specimens of printing. There
were few or no blue-stockings in the days we are now
dealing with ; but in no age of the world, and among
no class of mankind, was it ever the case that learn
ing and knowledge did not attract respect. They are
independent of the changing fashions of place and
time, so intrinsically useful and respectable as to
maintain their dignity at all periods, and with people
of every degree ; since it is impossible for the mind
not to feel the obligation of being made wiser than it
was before. This little incident raised Sybrandt in
the scale of comparison with the colonel, especially
in the estimation of Catalina, who inherited from her
mother that decent respect for useful acquirements
which is one of the best evidences of good-sense.
The colonel s spirits seemed to flag not a little after
the adventure of the book, while those of poor Sy
brandt gained a corresponding elevation ; for it is the
characteristic of such sensitive beings as he, to be
about as unreasonably inflated as they are unreason
ably mortified, by trifles which to others seem perfectly
insignificant. Nevertheless, there was rather a dull
ness coming over the party, which, however, was soon
diverted ; for a pause in the storm without and the
conversation within was interrupted by the loud sound
of voices in the direction of the kitchen, a detached
building about fifty yards in the rear of the house,
with which it was connected by a covered way. The
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 73
voices seemed to be engaged in hot contention ; and
presently Ariel came bouncing into the room his
face in a blaze exclaiming, " The old woolly-headed
fool ! she knows no more about cooking than a Mo
hawk Indian." The whole company expressed anxiety
to know the cause of this violent irruption ; and Ariel
accordingly proceeded to explain.
74 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER VH.
AN INVASION OF STATE EIGHTS.
THERE reigned in the kitchen of Mr. Vancour an
African queen, whose authority, by virtue of long and
vigorous assertion, was paramount to that of the mis
tress of the establishment and all other persons. Her
complexion was perfect, according to the standard of
Guinea ; for nothing in the apprehension of man, not
even the personification of Madam Night, was so irre
sistibly black as the skin of Aunt Nauntje, as she was
called by the family, young and old. She was the
mother of three generations of blacks I beg pardon
of people of colour who all appertained to the
establishment. The boys at the time of their birth
were given to some one of the young white members
of the family, to whom they continued especially
attached all their lives ; and the girls were in like man
ner considered the property of the young ladies, who
attended strictly to their conduct, and taught them to
be useful, as well as virtuous. They were all treated
kindly, and as a part of the family ; and there was
something in the connexion of mutual services, mutual
good-will, and mutual protection, thus established,
that made the relation of master and slave, in those
simple, honest times, one of the most endearing and
respectable of all those which subsist between man
and man. The slaves did not study metaphysics, nor
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 75
stultify themselves with dissertations on the relative
claims of the two rival colours of the present day;
but they were far more happy and moral, as well as
better members of society, than the wretched victims
of a rash and miscalculating philanthropy we see
every day at the Police- Court. Their labours were
not more heavy than those of the owners of them
selves and of the soil which they cultivated ; they
worked in the same fields, or at the same employ
ments ; and, when they had given to their master the
fruits of their youth and manhood, they found at his
kitchen fireside a refuge for the evening of their days.
They spent it neither in the poor-house nor the peni
tentiary.
It was gratifying in those days to see the interest
which these old and faithful retainers took in the
affairs of their master, and the manner in which they
as it were identified their own characters and conse
quence with his. The master and mistress were not
afraid to go a journey, and leave the house in charge
of one of these ; for they knew it would be even more
carefully attended to than if they were at home. As
for the poor people themselves, the idea of a separa
tion of interests between them and their owners never
entered their heads ; and if it had, their hearts would
have rejected the suggestion.
But to return to our narrative. Aunt Nauntje was
despotic in that region which among the enlightened
of the present day is considered as the terrestrial para
dise, seeing that it pours forth the choicest of the
blessings of this life. Need I say that I mean the
kitchen? Where she acquired her art I know not,
but tradition declares that the dishes she concocted
76 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
had a rich and triumphant relish, a rare/e ne sais quoi,
which tickled the palate mightily, and seduced the
worthy Ariel into occasional imprudent feats of the
trencher. Nay, we record on the same venerable
authority, that William Burnet, his Britannic majesty s
governor, captain-general, and locum tenens in the
province of New York, being on a visit to the man-
sioft-house, did incontinently luxuriate so lustily in the
delights of a certain nondescript dish, the art of mak
ing which is lost in these degenerate days, that he fell
asleep before the dessert.
The active Ariel, among his other accomplishments,
such as grafting apple-trees, bleeding horses, and
ringing pigs noses, was an amateur in the noble
art of cookery. He never could keep ouf of the
kitchen when there was a feast in preparation ; and
many is the time Aunt Nauntje did violently expel
him, by dint of flourishing the gridiron, the toasting-
fork, or some such formidable weapon. Indeed,
something like a feud raged between them, ever since
Ariel had denounced her publicly, as " a stupid old
fool of a Guinea nigger," for having committed
the enormity of roasting wild pigeons without any
stuffing.
When Ariel heard Colonel Sydenham describe the
famous East India dish of boiled chickens and rice,
which he did with a commendable minuteness, he
pricked up his ears, and thought to himself he would
go and make interest with Aunt Nauntje to surprise
all present with a fac-simile. Accordingly, as I have
before noted, he disappeared as soon as the colonel
had finished his detail, and sallied forth for the empire
of queen Nauntje, who was busily engaged in cook-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 77
ing a jolly, old-fashioned meal, for a company of
healthy, hearty folks, wtyo had dined at one o clock,
and could therefore afford to eat supper. The inroad
was by no means agreeable to her majesty, but re
spect for the brother of her master always kept her
within bounds, except on the spur of some immediate
cause of irritation.
" Aunt Nauntje, my good soul," said Ariel, " I want
you to try your hand at a famous dish I have just
heard of from Colonel Sydenham."
" Ah," said Nauntje, " Massa Auriel always some
crinkum-crankum in he head, bout new dishes. Well,
what is he ? "
" Why, a dish of boiled fowl and rice, dressed with
curry. You know the colonel gave you a bottle the
other day."
Nauntje began to spit. " Curry eh ! stuff just
fit for a hog or an Indian."
" Well, but you know, Nauntje," said Ariel, coax-
ingly " You know, damn it, you are not obliged to
eat it. Now do, my dear soul, try, for the sake of the
colonel, will you ? "
" Colonel, ah ! wish him a hundred miles off, wid
all he crew of redcoats ; eat massa out of house an
hum, bum-by."
" Well, but your mistress will be pleased with it
come now, you clever old soul, and, the next time I
go to Albany, I ll bring you a new pipe, a paper of
tobacco, and a row of pins."
To please her mistress, and get the reward promised
by Ariel, Aunt Nauntje at length consented to try her
skill at the outlandish dish, and Ariel was delighted
beyond measure. He was in and out of the kitchen
T8 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
every five minutes, giving directions and finding fault,
until it was with great difficulty she refrained from
having resort to violent measures. As it was, she
almost broiled with indignation at this attempt to
overrule and insult her in her own proper dominion.
At length the great attempt was nearly brought to a
crisis, and Ariel solicited and obtained permission to
taste the eminent concoction. But what pen can
depict his indignation when he discovered that, in
spite of all his cautions and injunctions, Aunt Nauntje,
who had a passion for onions, had poisoned the whole
affair by a predominating infusion of that ungenteel
vegetable ! Ariel was confounded, thunderstruck, and
indignant. He ejected the villainous compound into
the fire, exclaiming
" I ll be shot if the stupid old fool hasn t put onions
in it ! "
Whereupon Aunt Nauntje forgot the new pipe, the
paper of tobacco, and the row of pins. She seized
the mortal gridiron, pursued Ariel with a speed which
seemed almost supernatural when contrasted with her
appearance of extreme old age, and drove him, as we
have before related, triumphantly before her into the
parlour ; at the door of which she stopped for a
moment, brandishing her weapon, and then retired
grumbling to her stronghold again. It is due to the
reputation and the memory of Aunt Nauntje to state,
that the dish was brought up with the rest of the sup
per, and pronounced by the colonel to be equal to any
thing of the kind he had ever tasted in India; by
which righteous decision he for ever established him
self in the good graces of that high-seasoned and
high-seasoning divinity. The supper went off gayly,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 79
in spite of the discomfiture of uncle Ariel, who soon
recovered his good-humour; for he was not one of
those impracticable churls who quarrel with the good
things of this life and retain their anger at the same
time they are gratifying their appetites. He threw
out broad hints concerning the colonel and Catalina,
every now and then favouring that young lady with
a significant wink, or, " a-hem ! " worried poor Sy
brandt out of the little self-possession he had been
able to get together, by recollecting every thing the
youth wished to be forgotten ; shouted, laughed, and
finally talked himself fast asleep in the old high-backed,
well-stuffed chair, which had been an heirloom, with
its fellows, in the family for almost a century. The
worthy Dominie Stettinius was heart-struck the next
day, when he learned that the party had prolonged its
sober revels until the clock actually struck the half-,
hour between eleven and the very witching time of
midnight.
A little incident, apparently of no consequence,
which occurred this evening, had a material, nay, a
controlling, influence on the future life of Sybrandt
Westbrook. As the party separated for the night, the
gallant colonel besought Catalina to bestow on him a
little bunch of violets she wore in her bosom. In the
gayety of the moment, or perhaps influenced by that
mischievous imp who is for ever found nestling in
woman s heart, she bestowed the flowers on Syden-
ham, with a most gracious and seducing smile, wish
ing him at the same time " pleasant dreams." The
gift, the smile, and the wish, were each one a dagger
of ice planted in the bosom of Sybrandt, agonizing
80 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
his feelings and murdering his rest. The wakeful
tortures of that livelong night gave birth to a fixed
purpose, which he carried into execution without
delay.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER VIII.
OUR HERO, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE, COMES TO A DETERMINA
TION.
THE life of jealousy and mortification he had led
almost ever since the return of Catalina from the board
ing-school gradually undermined the natural strength
of Sybrandt s intellect, and produced that alternation
of pride, anger, and self-reproach, which is the parent of
a thousand inconsistencies. No permanent resolve
can ever result from such a condition of mind. Tossed
about in the tempest of conflicting passions, the un
happy man resembles a vessel without rudder or pilot,
until finally some one acquires the mastery, and a de
cision is indicated by a sudden air of quiet and repose.
It was thus with Sybrandt. The bestowal of the
violets put an end to the struggle which he had sus
tained for some months past, and his resolution was
irrevocably taken. In the days of which we are speak
ing, the young men bordering on the frontiers were
accustomed, almost universally, to commence the
business of this world with a trading voyage among
the savages of the borders. Previous to assuming the
port and character of manhood, it was considered
an almost indispensable obligation to undertake and
complete some enterprise of this kind, full of privation
and danger. The youth went out a boy, and returned
a man, qualified to take his place among men, and to
aspire to the possession of the object of his early
82 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
love. It was in this way that the character of the
patriarchs of this country was formed ; and in conse
quence of such training that it exhibited a union of
homely simplicity, manly frankness, and daring vigour,
which at length found their reward in the achievement
and possession of liberty.
Without consulting any human being, the morning
after the supper we have just recorded, he abruptly
requested of Mr. Dennis Vancour the permission and
the means to make an adventure among the Indians
of the north-west. Mr. Dennis was not astonished,
for he was a genuine Dutchman ; but he was much
surprised at this application.
" Why, hang it, boy," said the good man, " what
is the use of it? You know you will have enough
when I am gone and while I live you can want
nothing. You had better stay at home, and study with
the Dominie."
" But I cannot study now I" and here Sybrandt
faltered and was silent.
" What, you are tired boy, hey ? Well, I don t
much wonder at it. I always had a great respect for
learning, but, somehow, I could never get over the
awe with which it inspired me; I always kept at a
distance from it. But are you determined ? won t you
flinch, boy, when it comes to the point? "
" Never fear me, uncle," and he clenched his fin
gers involuntarily, " never fear me ! "
" Well, then, you shall have what you ask of me.
I like your spirit, boy. It was so I began life, and so
shall you. Forty years ago, I took a canoe and fifty
dollars worth of goods, and old Tjerck, then but a
lad ; and away I went right into the woods, where at
83
that time, I believe, no white man had ever been be
fore me, and returned alive. The Indians were not
such good hands at making bargains as they are now,
and I returned with five hundred dollars worth of
furs. I repeated the like every year, increasing my
capital each voyage, until I grew rich, for the time?.
I might have been happy, too, perhaps," continued
the old man, " but I must needs go to New York,
where I fell in company with the king s officers, and,
what was worse, fell in love with your mother spent
my fortune ruined my hopes was first fool and
then misanthrope returned to my father s house,
a disappointed prodigal inherited a portion of my
father s estate, and finally found in the son an object
for that love which the mother had rejected."
Mr. Dennis Vancour had never been equally com
municative with Sybrandt. Perhaps the idea of
parting with the boy of his adoption had opened his
heart, and for a moment overcome his long habit of
silence.
" But who shall go with you t " resumed the good
man, after a pause, which each had employed in call
ing up recollections of the same dear object. " I have
it old Tjerck is the very man."
" I am afraid he is too old, sir."
" Not he not he, boy he is as tough as hickory
he ll tire you out, and starve you out, any time, I
warrant you. Besides, he speaks the Mohawk lan
guage." So it was settled tkat old Tjerck should be
the squire of our new knight-errant of the woods and
wilds.
A few days sufficed to prepare for this toilsome
and perilous voyage and journey. As many Indian
84
goods as could be conveniently stowed in a light bark
canoe, a small quantity of provisions, two rifles, or
perhaps muskets, with the necessary ammunition, and
two stout hearts, constituted the outfit for this way
faring in the wilderness. My readers, if they belong
to the "better sort," will think this but a peddling
affair for the hero of a story ; but let them recollect
that it was a dangerous enterprise, and that courage
and daring ennoble every honest undertaking.
From the moment Sybrandt formed the resolution
and commenced the preparations aforesaid, he seemed
to be a new man. He had something to do, and some
thing to suffer, worthy of a man. He had action and
excitement, to call his attention from his own selfish
and petty vexations, and now he walked erect with
spirit in his step, determination in his eye. In short,
he presented an illustration of the intimate union be
tween the man and his purposes. The one is fashioned
by the other ; and nothing is more certain than the
enfeebling effect of eternal trifling. All this time he
went not near Catalina ; and it was only when think
ing of her which he did pretty often that he re
lapsed into his old habitual inconsistencies, and felt
himself, as it were, becalmed between two conflicting
objects. He certainly had a great curiosity to know
what she said or thought of his going away ; won
dered whether she would not regret his absence ;
and secretly tried to persuade himself that she would
understand (what he had taken all possible pains
to keep from her) his motives for acting as he did.
He thought to himself, that if she would only pine
away a little in his absence, he would forgive her on
his return. At one time he decided to depart without
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 85
seeing her ; at another, to take leave of her with the
most sovereign coolness ; and, finally, came to no
decision at all. In this state he was found by Ariel,
who was highly out of humour at having had nothing
to do in the equipment of Sybrandt. It was the first
pie that had been made in the neighbourhood for
many a year, in which he had not had a finger.
" Devil take it," quoth he, " why didn t you ask my
advice ? Why, I would have shown you how to paddle
your canoe to cook venison without salt sleep \
with your mouth shut, to keep out the gnats and *
mosquitoes and shoot an Indian. But it s too late \
now; I ve a great mind to go with you on purpose,
only I ve promised the officers to show them how to
ring pigs noses." So saying, he dragged him away,
half-willing, half- reluctant, to the mansion-house.
When Catalina heard of the contemplated adven
ture of our hero, she mused in silence on the subject
for hours, without being able to make up her mind
whether to be angry or sorry. She never dreamed
that her own conduct had influenced his course, and
therefore ascribed his omission to apprise her of what
was going forward to neglect and indifference. Under
this impression she determined to treat him accord
ingly, and to meet him, if he came at all, without any
appearance of surprise or regret at his sudden resolu
tion. She received him without expressing either, or
betraying a single spark of curiosity or solicitude about
the length of his stay or the course of his voyage.
She even jested on the subject, begging him to exer
cise his scholarship in teaching the Indians Greek and
Latin ; and stung him to the very soul, by observing,
with as pretty a sneer as ever enthroned itself on the
86
lip of beauty, that his sojourning among the savages
could not fail of having " the most favourable influence
on their manners."
The interview became exceedingly painful to Sy-
brandt. He would have given the world to be out of
the room, yet was riveted to the spot by that myste
rious fascination which awkwardness and sensibility
exercise over the power of motion. He sat chained
to his chair by mortified pride and despised affection.
At last, however, with a desperate effort, he arose and
muttered his farewell. At that moment Catalina re
membered that she owed her life to him, and that he
was going to a region whence he might never return.
" Sybrandt," said she, in a voice which these recol
lections had softened into kindness, "what shall I give
you to remember me by in the woods ? " After a
moment s pause, she drew from her pocket, we beg
your fashionable readers to bear in mind that this was
almost a hundred years ago, she drew from her
pocket a golden coin we believe it was a Dutch
.^clucat and continued, with a tone and look of sad-
i dened vivacity, " Take this : you can make a hole in
it, and tie it round your neck as a talisman against
Indian witchcraft. Good-by, cousin Sybrandt, and
remember that that Dominie Stettinius will regret
your absence." Sybrandt took the piece of gold, but
he could not say, " Good-by," for the soul of him. He
thanked her, however, with a look so full of meaning
and tenderness, that she remembered and wondered
at it a long time afterward. Sybrandt made a hole in
the ducat, and, tying it with a riband, wore it from
that moment next his heart.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 87
CHAPTER IX.
THE WILDERNESS.
EARLY next morning, ere the tints of the bright
morning reddened the eastern sky or the birds had
left their perches among the clustering foliage, all
things being ready, Sybrandt launched his light canoe
on the smooth mirror of the Hudson, and, assisted by
the dusky Charon, old Tjerck, paddled away upward,
towards the sources of that majestic river. The first
day, they occasionally saw, along its low, luxuriant
borders, some scattered indications of the footsteps
of the white man, and heard, amid the high, towering
forests at a distance in the uplands, the axe of the
first settler, the crash of the falling tree, the bark
ing of the deep-mouthed hound, and the report of a
solitary, distant gun, repeated over and over by the
echoes, never perhaps awakened thus before. A rude
hut, the first essay towards improvement upon the
Indian wigwam, appeared here and there at long in
tervals along the shores, the image of desertion and
desolation, but teeming with life. As they passed
along, the little, half-clothed, white-haired urchins
poured forth, gazing and shouting at the passing
strangers. Gradually these evidences of the progress
of that roving, adventurous race, which is sending
forth its travellers, its merchants, its scholars, its war
riors, and its missionaries, armed with the sword and
the Bible, into every region of the peopled earth,
88 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ceased altogether. Nature displayed herself naked
before them, and the innocent earth exhibited her
beauties in all the careless, unstudied simplicity 6f
our first parents, ere the sense of guilt taught them
to blush and be ashamed. There was silence on
the earth, on the waters, and in the air, saYErwhen the
Creator s voice spoke in the whirlwind, ,he thunder,
and the raging of the river when the full-charged
clouds poured their deluge into its placid bosom.
Night, which in the crowded haunts of men is the
season of silence and repose, was here far more noisy
than the day. It was then that the prowling free
booters of the woods issued from their recesses to
seek their prey and hymn their shrill or growling ves
pers to the changeful moon or the everlasting stars,
those silent witnesses of what mortals wish to hide.
As they toiled upward in the moonlight evenings
against the current, which every day became more
rapid in approaching towards the falls, they were
hailed from the shore at intervals by the howl of the
wolves, the growling of the bears, and the cold, cheer
less quaverings of the solitary screech-owl. When,
tired with the labours of the day, they drew their ca
noe to the shore and lay by for the night, their only
safety was in lighting a fire and keeping it burning
all the time. This simple expedient furnishes the sole
security against the ferocious hunger of these midnight
marauders, who stay their approach at a certain dis
tance, where they stand and utter their cry, and glare
with their eyes, a mark for the woodsman, who takes
his aim directly between these two balls of living fire.
But the labours of our hero s voyage were far
greater than the dangers. He and his trusty squire
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 89
had to breast the swift waters from morning until
night, and win every foot of their way by skill and
exertion combined. Sometimes the current swept
through a long, narrow reach, between ledges of rocks
that crowded it into increasing depth and velocity,
at others it wound its devious way by sudden, abrupt
turnings, bristling on every side with sharp projections
either just above or just below the surface ; and at
others they were obliged to unload their little bark,
and carry its freight round some impassable obstruc
tion. In this manner they proceeded, with an atten
tion, an anxiety, never to be relaxed for a moment
without the danger, nay, the certainty, of the ship
wreck of their frail canoe, the loss of their cargo, and
the disgrace of an unsuccessful voyage. This last was
what every young man feared beyond all the toils
and perils of his enterprise. It was a death-blow to
his reputation, as well as to his future prospects ; for
riot a rural damsel would condescend to waste a smile
upon a youthful admirer who had failed in his first
adventure. The two qualities most valued among
these good people were courage and prudence ; and
it argued a want of both of these, when one lost his
boat and his wares, or stopped short of a profitable
market among the men of the woods.
At length, after enduring what would demolish a
regiment of well-dressed dandies in these degenerate
times, on the fourth day, towards evening, they were
warned, by a distant, dull, monotonous, heavy sound,
of their approach to the falls of Fort Edward, as they
were then called at that time a frontier post.
" Hark! massa Sybrandt," said Tjerck, as he paused
from plying his paddle : " hark ! I hear him."
90 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Hear what? " replied the other.
" The falls, massa. Maybe we find some Indians
dare to trade wid."
Sybrandt listened, and could plainly distinguish the
leaden plunge of the river, gradually becoming more
noticeable as they worked their way up the stream,
which now began to eddy about in little whirlpools,
each with its handful of snow-white foam. Turning
a projecting point, they met the full force of the cur
rent; which, in spite of all their efforts, jerked the bow
of the light canoe completely round, and shot her, like
an arrow from a bow, out into the middle of the river.
Finding it impossible to proceed any farther in this
way, they landed, and commenced the laborious task
of unlading and carrying their merchandise and canoe
round the falls to meet the placid current above.
While thus occupied, they encountered a party of
Mohawks, who had come thither to fish, headed by a
chief called Paskingoe, or the one-eyed. He was an
athletic savage, six feet high, of a ferocious appearance
and an indifferent character. He had lost an eye in
some drunken brawl ; and, having mixed a good deal
with the white men, exhibited the usual effects of such
an intercourse, in a combination of the vices of both
races. Cunning, avaricious, and revengeful, he still
had sufficient mastery over his feelings to disguise
them when occasion required; unless indeed he was
under the horrid dominion of drink. Then his bad
passions became ungovernable, and his rage without
discrimination or control. It was said he had killed
his own son in one of these paroxysms, under pretence
that he was undermining his influence with the tribe.
He was sitting, with his party of four Indians, under
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 91
the shade of a clump of pines that nodded over the
foaming torrent, when Sybrandt and Tjerck, suddenly,
and unexpectedly to themselves, came full upon them.
The Indians had seen them coming up the river afar
off, with a keenness of vision which they possess per
haps beyond even the animals of the forest.
" Welcome, brother," said the chief to Sybrandt.
" Ah! Paskingoe, how you do ? " said Tjerck, who
had known him before. " I no tink to see you here.
And I no glad, nudder," added he to himself.
There was little ceremony practised in these inter
views between the traders and the Indians. Sybrandt
inquired for furs, and the chief asked what he had
to exchange for them. Finding that he had brought
with him two or three kegs of that poison which has
swept away the race of the red men, and seems al
most on the eve of doing the same by the whites,
Paskingoe became very earnest with him to go to the
junction of the Hudson with the Sacandaga, repre
senting that he had plenty of people there who would
barter commodities.
Tjerck shook his head, and Sybrandt paused.
" What, is my brother afraid ? " said Paskingoe.
" Is not the Mohawk the friend of the white man ?
Men that are afraid should stay at home with their
wives," added he contemptuously.
" I am not afraid ; but "
" Huh ! " said Paskingoe ; " when I go to the fort, I
will tell them I met a white man who dared not go to
the Sacandaga, because he heard an old owl screech ;"
alluding to the shrugs and motions of Tjerck. " My
brother will get no beavers, unless he ventures further. A /
He will go home as he came, and the young women
will laugh at him."
92 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Sybrandt thought of Catalina, and determined to
accompany the chief. The Indians assisted him at
the portages of Fort Edward and Glen s Falls ; and,
though they cast many a longing look at the kegs of
rum, throwing out sundry shrewd hints at the same
time, they took none of it, either by theft or by vio
lence. At length, after a toilsome stretch, they reached
the junction of the two rivers, where neither was a
hundred yards wide. The mighty Hudson was here
an unimportant stream, giving no promise of his
majestic after-course, or of the riches he was destined
to bear in future times upon his broad bosom. Near
the place of their union there were extensive tracts of
low and wild meadows without trees, coursed by the
meandering branches of the Sacandaga, which at that
time abounded with the finest trout. It was a soli
tary region, entirely out of the usual route of travel
lers, who either followed the course of the Mohawk
river, or left the Hudson at Fort Edward, and struck
across the high hills to the end of Lake George on
their way to Canada. The nearest settlement was at
Johnstown, to the South, where Sir William Johnson
resided, and whence he exercised that sway over the
tribes of Indians far and near, which still remains,
and will remain for ever, a subject of admiration and
wonder.
There were neither Indians nor beaver skins at the
station, as promised by Paskingoe, who, by closely
examining the grass, ascertained, as he said, that the
party had gone away a day or two before, towards
the fishing-house. This was a small lodge built on a
little rocky elevation, just on the edge of the meadows
and at the head of one of the branches of the Sacan-
93
daga, by Sir William Johnson, who sometimes came
there from Johnstown, to hunt and fish. Paskingoe
assured Sybrandt he would find them not far from
the lodge, in which, (being unoccupied for a great
part of the time), the Indians occasionally slept, when
the weather was bad. If any idea of danger crossed
the mind of Sybrandt, it was coupled with the con
viction that, if Paskingoe had any bad designs, they
could be executed just as well where he was as at the
place where the chief wished him to go. He there
fore consented to proceed, notwithstanding all the
eloquence of old Tjerck, who, by signs and looks, at
tempted to dissuade him. Accordingly, early the next
morning, they embarked on the sluggish Sacandaga,
the Indians in their canoe, and Sybrandt with his
trusty squire in his, and paddled their way along the
devious windings of the lazy, lonely stream, that
seemed an enormous serpent asleep in the high grass
that skirted its banks. After proceeding some miles
they became, as it were, lost in the pathless monotony
of the vast meadows, which presented in the hazy
obscurity of an overcast day no distinct outline or
boundary. The silence all around them was as the
silence of a winter s night, when the wind is hushed to
a freezing calm, save that the dipping of the paddles,
at measured intervals, was heard, and scarcely heard,
like the clicking of the death-watch when all else is
still. Sometimes, though but seldom, a solitary heron
would raise his long neck above the coarse growth by
the water, and make a strange discordant noise, which
was echoed by the Indians in mockery : but otherwise
it was a dead pause of nature ; the world of sound
was still, and the world of sight presented nothing
94 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
but a landscape of drear melancholy sameness, a sky
of one dim unvarying shade of motionless clouds.
Sybrandt felt his dismal situation, which became
gradually more disagreeable from his seeing, or imag
ining he saw, certain looks of equivocal meaning pass
between Paskingoe and his Indians. Once, turning
suddenly round, he observed the one-eyed chief shake
his head in answer to an inquiring look of one of his
companions, and point in the direction where, peering
above the dead level of the lowland, stood the rustic
fishing-house. Towards evening they approached the
head of navigation on the stream, close by which stood
the building. For some time before, the dull flashes of
the lightning, sluggishly followed at intervals by the
distant thunders, grumbling and muttering, had indi
cated the advance of a storm. Gradually the Indians
plied their paddles more and more rapidly, and so did
Sybrandt and the negro, in order to keep pace with
them. At length, just as they arrived at a rude landing-
place, where Sir William Johnson launched his canoe
when going on a fishing-match, the waving of the pine
woods, which here bordered in majestic gloom and
grandeur on the margin of the wide meadow, and the
pattering drops of rain, announced that the crisis was
approaching rapidly. There was only time for Sy
brandt to cover his merchandise carefully, ere it came
in torrents, on the wings of a wind that laid flat the
rank high grass, and made the forest groan. The en
tire party, Sybrandt, Tjerck, and the Indians, hurried
to the fishing-house, the door of which was opened
without ceremony, there being no one in it, and no
furniture requiring a guard.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 95
CHAPTER X.
A NIGHT-SCENE.
FOR some time there was a dead silence among the
group. Paskingoe was moody, and Sybrandt, seeing
no traces of the Indians he expected to meet at this
spot, from time to time eyed him with looks of sus
picion. He could not help believing his designs were
at least questionable, nor disguise from himself that
he was entirely at the mercy of the Indians.
" My brother thinks I have two tongues and two
faces," said the one-eyed chief at last, in a sarcastic
tone.
Sybrandt made no answer.
" The white man," continued Paskingoe, raising his
voice, " does not know what to say ; he is afraid to
speak out. If I tell him the Indians and the beavers
will come to-morrow, he will not believe me. Why
should I lie to him ? Is he not a musk-rat caught in
a trap ? "
Sybrandt felt it was true ; he was completely in the
power of the Indian. Hardly knowing what to say,
he continued silent. The evening was now setting in,
and the storm continued. The wind roared among
the pines, the lightning flashed almost incessantly
through the windows, accompanied by loud, angry
peals of thunder : and now and then the crash of a
falling tree gave token of a triumph of the angry ele
ments. The uproar without was strongly contrasted
96 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
with the stillness within. Paskingoe sat in grim si
lence, smoking his pipe ; Sybrandt was occupied in
no very pleasing reflections on his awkward situation;
and old Tjerck, from long experience of the Indian
character, saw that mischief was at work in the breast
of the chief.
" Is not the white man, and the black-white man,
hungry ? " at length he said. " Has he any thing good
in his canoe ? Let him send for it, and we will eat
together."
Sybrandt had no disinclination to this proposal, and
Tjerck was despatched, with one of the Indians, to
bring in some provisions from the canoe. While they
were gone, the one-eye ordered his people to kindle a
fire, which they did with some difficulty, and the room
at length became illuminated with the red glare of
the pine knots that hissed in the chimney. In a little
while Tjerck and the Indian returned, bringing the
provisions which our voyagers had laid in, together
with two guns which had been left in the canoe. The
eye of Paskingoe flashed.
" Is the white man afraid of the bears and wolves,
to-night?"
" I brought em for fear he get wet," said old Tjerck.
As the one-eye turned his blind side towards them,
Tjerck dexterously handed Sybrandt a knife which he
had concealed under his homespun linen frock, and
the young man as dexterously hid it in his bosom.
The meal being now prepared, they sat down to
partake of it. After finishing, the one-eye asked Sy
brandt
" Has the white man any fire-water in his canoe ? "
" I have," replied Sybrandt.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 97
After a pause of some minutes, the chief asked
" Is it good ? "
" It is."
Another pause ensued, which was again interrupted
by the chief.
" Has it never been to the spring ? Our people have
been poisoned by the white man mixing too much
cold water with the fire-water."
" It is very good," answered Sybrandt : and another
pause ensued.
" When the white man comes among us," said the
chief, " we offer the best we have. We don t hide
away our corn, and give him the husk. That is what
you white men call nigger."
" No more nigger dan yourself ! " muttered old
Tjerck.
" Some drink would be very good," said One-eye.
I am dry."
Tjerck politely handed him a horn-cup of water,
which he dashed on the floor, while his countenance
began to exhibit keen anger and impatience.
" If the white man won t give, will he sell ? The
Great Manitou has promised me some fire-water to
night. I dreamed so last night."
" You dream almost equal to Sir William John
son," replied Sybrandt, smiling. Paskingoe shook his
head.
" No, no," said he, " Sir William out-dreams me.
He dreamed away my best hunting-grounds; but I
only dreamed away his red coat. But, will the white
man trade for some fire-water ? "
Sybrandt felt the peculiar delicacy of his situation,
thus buried in the wild solitudes of the Sacandaga. He
7
98 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
knew the danger of declining, as well as of complying
with the wishes of Paskingoe. To refuse entirely
would be to provoke his violence ; to give him a
moderate portion of spirits would, probably, but ren
der him more eager for more ; and to afford the means
of intoxication would be only the prelude to violence
and murder. While he was considering, the displeasure
of the whole party became so evident, that he at length
determined, as the best course, to gratify them with a
small quantity, in the remote hope that they would
be satisfied. He accordingly sent Tjerck for a bottle
which he had laid aside to treat the old man from,
now and then. Tjerck shook his head, and obeyed
with manifest unwillingness.
" It is good," said One-eye, as he took a deep
draught, and handed it to the savage next him. " It
is good, but the water is very shallow; the Indian
sees the bottom too easily." And indeed, by the time
it had gone round the bottle was empty. Sufficient
had, however, been swallowed to waken the sleeping
demon that liquor invariably conjures up in the heart
of an Indian. As it mounted into their brains they
became clamorous for more, and Sybrandt saw that
his life would fall a sacrifice to refusing any longer.
Accordingly, a small keg was brought from the canoe,
and the Indians set in for a complete savage debauch.
In a little time their howlings and shoutings almost
overpowered the uproar of the elements, and their
uncontrolled and uncontrollable animal spirits found
vent in grimaces, boastings, and antics of mingled
ferocity and buffoonery. Their eyeballs glared, they
danced, and sung, and flourished their tomahawks
and scalping-knives over the head of Sybrandt, who
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 99
stood in a corner, his right hand in his bosom grasp
ing his knife, in momentary expectation that that deep
and never-dying hatred which the Indian cherishes for
the white man w r ould precipitate them into some act
of violence against him. He kept his eye steadily and
fearlessly upon Paskingoe, who was now half-mad,
enumerating, with violent gesticulations, and tones of
crack-brained, barbarous exultation, the white men he
had slain, whose wives and children he had scalped,
whose homes he had burned. He told how he had gone,
alone, to a town of the Hurons, which he entered at
midnight, and murdered every soul in one of the wig
wams, after which he retired, without leaving any
traces, into the woods, and secreted himself. The next
night he came again, and murdered the people of an
other wigwam, retiring, as before, into the woods with
out being seen. The third night he was watched, and
pursued before he could achieve his last piece of butch
ery. But he related, amid the triumphant yells of his
companions, how he escaped from his enemies, and
brought home with him twenty-seven of their scalps.
" What white man could do this ? " cried he, dart
ing a malignant glance upon Sybrandt ; " What white
man would dare do this, even if his limbs were not
like those of a woman ? The white man is a coward
and a liar ; he cheats us of our lands, and builds forts
upon them, from behind which he shoots us down
like dogs. He thinks he is our master, and that we
are his black niggers, who have nothing we can call
our own." Then, brandishing his tomahawk, and
dancing, and whirling himself round, yelling at the
same time in concert with his companions, he went
on : " The white man cannot stand before the In-
100
dian, unless two to one. I know it I, Paskingoe
I know it. At Cataraqui I buried this tomahawk in
the sculls of two of the cowards who were running
away like deer. At Hochelaga I drank the blood of
three bragging deer; it was pale and cold, like that
of a fish. At the great water of Ontario I tore out
their hearts, and every where I go, I drag their scalps,
dripping, from their skulls. They could never look
me in the face, and so the cowards tried to escape the
fire of my eyes by putting them out. But they shall
know me better with one eye than they did with two.
Ten scalps have paid for one of my eyes, and ten
more shall be paid before I sleep with my fathers."
Gradually, excited by the liquor and the stories of
these bloody exploits, the Indians and their chief be
came raving mad. They quarrelled and struck at
each other with their knives, and thirsted for blood
with the instinct of beasts of prey maddened by lust or
hunger. At length One-eye shouted
" Are we fools ? Blood must be shed to-night, but
not the blood of the Indian. The Great Spirit has
sent the white man here to atone for the wrongs of his
people. Let him die ! "
" Let us drink his blood ! " " Let us tear out his
heart!" echoed the rest, as they brandished their wea
pons and came furiously towards Sybrandt. At this
moment the soul of the young man bowed to the su
premacy of these accumulating horrors ; but it sunk
only for a moment, and then regained its level. There
was no chance of retreat, and the very hopelessness
of escape nerved him to a resolute exertion of his
means of defence. He grasped his secret knife, and
looked round for his trusty Tjerck, whose dusky form
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 101
he saw at the moment vanishing out of one of the
windows on the opposite side of the room. Thus
left alone, he braced himself for what might follow.
The Indians, with all their hardihood and daring, are \
chary of their lives ; although, when it comes to the
inevitable, no people of the earth die so coolly. But
the point of honour is to achieve their object with as
little loss as possible. They therefore advanced wa
rily upon Sybrandt, who stood as warily on the de
fence. They approached their hands were raised
to strike, and he was just about to spring upon the
one-eyed chief, when a loud, long war-whoop was
heard, apparently close under the window, quavering
amid the pauses of the storm.
"Hush! tis the war-cry of the Adirondacks," said
Paskingoe.
The Indians suspended their purpose, and listened
with breathless anxiety. Nothing was heard but the
falling rain, the roaring of the forest, and the rattling
thunder.
" The Adirondacks dare not come here ; they are
women," declared One-eye, contemptuously. They
resumed their bloody intent, and again the shrill war-
whoop sounded amid the din without, and checked
them for a moment. Sybrandt thought of retreating ;
but the single door was barred by the Indians, who
stood for a few minutes expecting an attack from
without.
" Let us die like warriors," said Paskingoe, and
took another drink. His example was followed by
the others, and the renewed draught added fury to
their passions.
" The white man is a traitor," they cried. " He has
102
brought the Adirondacks upon us ; " and then One-eye
aimed a blow with his tomahawk, that Sybrandt
could not parry. He warded it from his head, but it
fell on his left arm, and disabled it entirely. In deal
ing this blow, however, Paskingoe, being somewhat
unsteady with the liquor- he had drunk, stumbled
forward heavily, and full upon the knife of Sybrandt,
which entered his heart. He fell upon the floor, and
the rage of his party became still more intense. They
yelled, horribly ; and, notwithstanding the cool deter
mination of our hero, a few moments must have
decided his fate, when, just at the instant that death
hovered over him at the very crisis when their toma
hawks and knives were about to let out his life-blood
the door of the fishing-house was violently burst
open, and a tall, majestic white man in a hunting
dress rushed into the room, followed by half a dozen
people. The arms of the Indians, the moment they
saw him, were arrested, and their weapons remained
lifted above their heads.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 103
CHAPTER XI.
A WOODSMAN.
THE stranger addressed a few words in the Mo
hawk language to the statue-like warriors, with an air
of indescribable authority. They lowered their weap
ons, and retired to the other extremity of the room,
to which he had waved them with his hand. He then
advanced towards Sybrandt, now become weak with
the loss of blood, arid courteously asked an explana
tion of the scene, which the young man briefly gave.
The stranger shook his head, and exclaimed, in a de
sponding tone,
" Rum rum rum ! the shame of the white man ;
the ruin of the red. What can I do with these
wretched people, when my own do all they can to
undo what I have devoted my life to accomplish ! "
Then, observing that Sybrandt leaned wearily
against the wall, he asked, anxiously,
" Are you hurt, sir ? "
" I believe I am, sir. I feel no pain, but my left arm
seems useless ; " and, overcome by weakness, he sunk
upon the dead body of Paskingoe.
" Who is that ? " asked the stranger, pointing to
the corpse.
"Paskingoe," muttered one of his party; "the
chief who gave you his lands, and whom you called
brother. Revenge him."
The stranger made no answer, but proceeded to
104 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
examine into the situation of Sybrandt, who had
fainted, from loss of blood. He gave a key to one of
his attendants, who descended into the cellar, in the
wall of which was a secret recess where were kept a
variety of the articles most useful amid the privations
and accidents incident to travelling or sojourning far
from the haunts of men and the conveniences of civil
ized life. The stranger applied what was proper of
these to the case of Sybrandt, who in a short time
recovered from his swoon and was accommodated
with a sort of mattress from the receptacle above
mentioned. Having seen to all this, the stranger
turned to the Indians of Paskingoe s party, who were
standing in sullen silence, and demanded the occasion
of this fray.
" The white man can tell you. He will make a
good story out of it. Ask him," said one of them.
" Very well," replied the stranger : " Take the body
of your chief away to his people, that they may bury
him. The storm is over. Go ; and when you have
done this, come to me. I will see justice done. Go,
now, and take care what you do. Take care ! "
The Mohawks raised the body of their chief, and
departed with mournful steps, chanting the monoto
nous death-song, which gradually died away in the
distance till it was heard no more. The stranger
then, having ascertained that Sybrandt was in a deep,
exhausted sleep, directed all to be kept quiet, and,
carelessly throwing himself upon the floor, with his
cheek supported on his hand, soon fell into a quiet
repose, which was shared by all his companions, with
the exception of one, who was directed to watch the
slumbers of Sybrandt.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 105
The morning dawned bright, clear, and refreshing,
finding all safe and well but our hero, whose ailment,
however, was nothing but weakness. He would have
risen with the rest, but his head grew dizzy, and he
obeyed the injunctions of the stranger, to remain quiet
for that day at least.
" We will pursue the amusement of hunting, the
object which in fact brought us here so opportunely,
and it will go hard but you shall have some venison
for dinner. I would promise you trout, too, but the
streams are too much swelled for fishing. Remain
quiet with your old servant, whom I have instructed
what to do, and to-morrow my people shall carry you
to my home on a litter of green boughs, which is
better than all the sedan-chairs." So saying, he
shook hands with Sybrandt, and departed, observing,
" You have no fever, I see."
When they were left alone, Tjerck expressed an
honest, heartfelt pleasure at the miraculous escape
of his young master. " I did all I could for young
massa," said he.
" Yes, you ran away," said Sybrandt, who felt not
a little indignant at his desertion.
" Aha ! massa," said Tjerck, " who you tink make
dat great war-whoop dat stop de rascal One-eye, two,
tree minute, and save your life, hey ? "
" I don t know ; the Adirondacks, I suppose."
"Old nigger!" cried Tjerck, with immeasurable
self-complacency, and laughing with all his might;
" old nigger make it."
Sybrandt took in the whole plan, and thanked
Tjerck for the prompt diversion made in his favour,
which, by giving time for the coming of the stranger,
106 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
undoubtedly saved his life. He then gradually died
away into the slumber of weakness, while his black
guardian angel sat and watched him with the stillness
of a dead calm in the wilderness.
His repose was long and deep, and he awoke re
freshed and hungry. The stranger and his party
returned from their hunt, with plenty of game, and
Sybrandt was allowed to partake sparingly of the
meal which was prepared. He now had leisure to
contemplate the person to whom he owed his rescue
from the drunken ferocity of One-eye and his gang.
He was, to all appearance, about forty years of age,
with a form of the largest and most lofty proportions,
a deep ruddy, yet bronzed complexion, and a counte
nance of a singular combination of attributes. It
united those indescribable yet indelible traits which
seem inseparable from a cultivated intellect, with the
careless, fearless daring of one whose life had been
passed in the midst of dangers and in the enjoyment
of unlimited sway. His deportment, while it was
easy and courteous to all, betrayed a careless superi
ority, which both the Indians and white men seemed
tacitly to acknowledge, obeying implicitly every word
he uttered, every motion of his hand, and every glance
of his eye. His manner and mode of expressing him
self sufficiently indicated that he had sat at good
men s feasts and been where bells had tolled to church,
at the same time that they were totally distinct from
those of the gentlemen Sybrandt had seen at the
house of his uncle. His motions exhibited the ease,
facility, and unembarrassed vigour of an Indian, and
there was a peculiar force, brevity, and richness in his
phraseology that smacked of the Indian manner of
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 10T
expression. He wore a hunting dress equally partak
ing in the modes of savage and civilized man, and,
indeed, altogether, exhibited a strange confusion of the
characteristics of the two races. His deportment to
wards Sybrandt was kind, at the same time that his
attentions were rather indifferent than very particular.
He took upon himself the direction of our hero, his
merchandise, and his affairs, without consulting, or
seeming to think it worth while to consult, him.
" To-morrow, at sunrise," said he, " we shall set out
for home. My people will carry you and your bag
gage. The canoe must be left where it is." Then,
turning to his people, " Rest, and be ready by break
of day."
In a few minutes all was quiet, though, with the
exception of Sybrandt, the floor was their bed, and
their pillow a knapsack, a log, or perchance a stone.
In the dawn of the morning they set forth in a direc
tion nearly South- West, through an evergreen forest,
gigantic and grave, such as nature produces but
once on the same soil, by the exertion of her unim
paired youthful energies. The solemn pines, straight
as an arrow, and without a single limb below a height
of a hundred feet, seeming already shaped for the
masts of some mighty man-of-war, stood side by side,
at distances which left sufficient space unencumbered
by underwood for the travellers to pass without diffi
culty. But when, as it sometimes happened, their
course lay through a rich, juicy bottom-land, a new
creation sprung up before them, of beeches, maples,
and majestic sycamores, spreading and interlocking
their arms, and forming an impenetrable shade, only
to be visited by the bright rays of the winter sun
108
when the leaves fall and the branches are bare. In
the damp and gloom of their shelter flourished a lesser
race of nature s progeny, consisting of shrubs, and
vines, and plants of every various name, mingling
and matting together, and forming a succession of
obstacles which only the strength, skill, and persever
ance of a woodsman might overcome.
The litter of boughs in which Sybrandt was placed
was carried in turn by the followers of the stranger,
and certainly a more easy mode of conveyance was
never devised for an invalid. Rude, and silent, and
monotonous as was the forest through which their
journey lay, it was not devoid of gayety or incident.
Sometimes the keen eye of one of the party would
detect a black squirrel, looking down from the topmost
branches of one of these towering pines, and barking,
as it were in derision. The leader would then pro
pose some trifling prize for bringing it down with a
single bullet, and without drawing blood. A halt
would forthwith be made, for the competition. None
but a woodsman could even distinguish these little
animals among the dark foliage of the lofty pines,
clinging close to the limb, and almost incorporating
themselves with their asylum. Each took his turn,
and the object was to put a ball on the bark of the
tree directly where it came in contact with the body
of the squirrel, by which he would be stunned, and
fall to the ground without any external wound. Few
were capable of this feat on the first essay, and loud
were the shouts that echoed through the forest at the
abortive attempts. When each one had tried without
success, the leader would utter some epithet of con
tempt, bid them stand aside, and never fail to bring
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 109
the creature down without breaking his skin. So, if
they met with any difficulties in their march which
the strength, skill, or intrepidity of the others could
not surmount, he took the lead and labouring oar, and
conquered every obstacle of nature by superior force,
management, or daring. It was by frequent instances
of this sort that the mystery of his unbounded sway
over his people was explained to Sybrandt. The hu
man character can only be consummated and perfect
ed by the union of knowledge and strength, directed
and animated by a courage that dares all dangers,
defies all obstacles.
At mid-day they halted in an open space for the
purpose of rest and refreshment. " On this spot,"
said the stranger, carelessly, " on this spot, about
fifteen years ago, was fought a bloody battle between
the Hurons and the Mohawks. We were taken by
surprise, and suffered dreadfully; but " and his eye
kindled in triumph, " we, I and my Indians, made
the cowards flee at last, and shot them down like
deer. The name and the nation was extinguished on
this spot at a single blow. History says nothing of
this ; but, if a bedrid king or superannuated queen
had died that day, it would have been carefully re
corded. The causes which change the destinies of
men and the face of the earth lie unseen and unno
ticed, while little things and little men are carefully
handed down to future times, as mighty agents in the
vast business of the universe. Such is history, and,
in fact, tradition is no better. One conceals or over
looks the truth ; the other tattles falsehoods." And
he mused for a short while, as if applying these obser
vations to his own experience.
110
CHAPTER XH.
THE WOODSMAN S HOME.
ON the evening of the second day, they arrived at
the residence of the stranger, a few miles from the
banks of the Mohawk river. It was an embryo settle
ment, composed of log-cabins, the first remove from
the bark-huts of the Indians. " This is the capital of
my kingdom," said the stranger; "it is a wide do
main, not very populous; but, never mind, the time
will come." He welcomed Sybrandt to his house,
(which was a large square edifice of hewn pines, hav
ing the interstices filled with mortar), with that frank,
careless hospitality characteristic of every thing he
,said or did, and presented him to his wife and chil
dren the former an Indian woman, the latter an
evident mixture of wild and tame, and the perfect
patterns of Nature in their symmetry.
Sybrandt remained at the house of the stranger
some weeks, ere he entirely recovered from the effects
of his wound ; and, after his recovery, in truth, he was
in no haste to go away. It was evident, too, that the
stranger did not wish to part with him. " It is long,"
said he, " since I have had a companion who could
talk with me on subjects connected with rny early
habits and associations."
Our hero could not refrain from expressing his
surprise at seeing a person of his education and ac
complishments thus voluntarily become an exile from
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. Ill
civilized society, to mix with beings so different from
himself.
" Why, I don t know," replied he, smiling ; " I was
tired of the labour of doing nothing. In my own
country I was a gentleman, but a gentleman without
fortune ; and such a one, you know, cannot stoop to
be active and useful, except in certain professions. I
was physically incapacitated for any sedentary employ
ment, for there is about me an impatience of being
still, a sort of instinctive longing for exercise, fresh air,
and freedom of action, that makes me a fitter compan
ion for wild beasts and wild men than for lords and
ladies. They might have made a soldier of me ; but
my family was Jacobite, and neither would we ask,
nor the government grant me, a commission. I might
have gone into a foreign service ; but, the truth is, I
had some qualms about one day or other perhaps
being obliged, either to fight against my own country,
or desert the standard under which I had voluntarily
enlisted. It happened that an intimate friend of mine
was appointed governor of this province, and the
thought struck me that I should have plenty of elbow-
room in the new world, and plenty of exercise for my
ungovernable propensity to activity, in hunting deer,
wrestling with bears, skirmishing with the Indians,
and other rural amusements. I proposed to accom
pany him, and he accepted me as a companion, under
the character of his private secretary. On landing in
New York, he desired me to sit down and write to
the colonial secretary an account of our voyage and
safe arrival. Before I had got half through there was
an alarm in the house that a bear had made his ap
pearance in one of the markets, or, perhaps, as I be-
112 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
lieve was the fact, in the only market in the city,
which I suppose has grown very much since. I threw
down my pen, sallied forth in the crowd, and, after
a smart skirmish with Sir Bruin, actually killed him
with my own hand.
" I was excessively proud of this exploit. I sup
pose you expect to be knighted, said his Excellency,
smiling. Then, shaking his head, he added, I see
you won t do, my good friend. You are cut out for
a mighty hunter before the Lord, like honest Nimrod,
and not for a secretary. Have you an inclination to
go as resident-minister among the Mohawks, and be
come the bear-leader, or, in more classic phrase, the
Lycurgus of these wild Spartan warriors ?
" He then explained to me, that the government
had .directed him to establish, if possible, an agency
somewhere on the banks of the Mohawk, for the
purpose of acquiring an influence over these warlike
tribes, for whose good graces the governors of Canada
and New York had been for a long while contending.
" What say you, my friend ? said he : I think
you are the very man. You are about half Indian,
already ; and if you can only make them half white
men, you cannot but agree admirably.
" The idea caught my fancy, wonderfully ; and I
accepted the offer without hesitation. You, who have
lived so near the confines of the dominion of Nature,
and mixed with her sons, need not be told the particu
lars of my coming here, the privations and dangers I
encountered, and the obstacles I met and overcame.
We shall talk over these, some other day. I have
already sat still here longer, I believe, than I have done
at one time these ten years. So come, Westbrook,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 113
tis a fine day for a hunt ; and you are well enough to
join in it."
He then whistled his dogs, who came, wagging their
tails, as much delighted as their master furnished
Sybrandt with a gun, and his eldest son, a boy about
ten years old, with another, and, after making all
necessary preparations, called his wife, an agreeable-
looking Indian woman, with a voice as soft as a flute,
and an eye like that of an antelope.
"Sakia! (She is an Algonquin," said he to Sy
brandt, " and her name translated into English is
love. ) Sakia, we shall return before night. See
that you have something good ready for us." Sakia
went her way, smiling and good-humoured as a child.
" She is my wife my good and lawful wife and
the mother of my children. I never had any other,
and I never wish to have. You look as if you wanted
to express your wonder that I have not brought a
civilized European lady to share my solitude. But, in
truth, what would such a one have done here but fret
away her soul, and pine herself to death, and hang, a
dead weight, upon me and my purposes. Not one in
a million of the fine ladies I formerly associated with
would have consented to accompany me in the wil
derness ; and if one had, in all human probability
she would have made herself as wretched as she
would have made me. She could not join me in
hunting; and her lonely hours would have been imbit-
tered by perpetual ennui or perpetual fears. Still less
would an ignorant, vulgar white woman have suited
me as a companion. The ignorance of the Indian is
neither troublesome nor offensive, like that of civilized
life ; nor is it accompanied by the grossness of man-
8
114 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ner and clumsy carriage characteristic of hard labour.
An Indian woman is always graceful ; and the sweet
ness of her voice makes amends for all that is want
ing in sentiment and expression or, rather, it is
both sentiment and expression combined. No, no,
young man if you ever come to live in the woods,
marry a wood-nymph. You might as well bring a
dancing-master here as a fine lady. But come ; we
are wasting time. Take care you don t mistake me
for a wild animal, when we get into the woods, and
shoot me. Here, Will, do you go ahead, my boy ;
and, if old Snacks don t behave herself, take a whip to
her. I give my boys the lead," said he, addressing
Sybrandt, " whenever it can be done with safety. It
makes them brave and manly."
Our party soon plunged into the pathless woods,
and kept on till they struck the banks of a little lake,
whose waters were of crystal, and in whose bosom
the surrounding verdant banks were reflected with a
thousand new and nameless beauties, just as the ima
gination heightens and adorns the realities of nature.
" Let us sit down here, awhile," said the stranger.
" You seem tired. Or, if you like, you can stay here
and fish, w T hile Will and I skirt round the pond with
our guns. I have brought fishing-tackle with me."
Sybrandt chose this alternative, being somewhat
fatigued ; and the stranger and his boy departed with
the dogs, to make the tour of the lake, which seemed
some half a dozen miles in circumference. " Lay
your gun where you can reach it, in case a deer or a
bear comes by," hallooed he from a distance, just as
they vanished in the forest.
Influenced by the scene before him, which shed a
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 115
charming quiet and repose over his whole soul, Sy-
brandt, instead of engaging in the sport of fishing,
continued to contemplate the unadorned, unsullied
beauties of nature in this, her wild, secluded paradise.
The limpid waters lay sleeping within their curtained
banks, and not a sound, an echo, or a motion dis
turbed the death-like quiet of the landscape. The
world, as it presented itself at that moment to his eye,
was composed of the sky above, the lakelet and its
green border beneath ; all beyond was shut out from
his view. The axe had never opened a vein in the
primeval forest, that giant progeny which exhibited
the product of the first energies of mother earth ; nor
had her bosom ever, in this lonely region, been seared
by the hand of man. Life itself seemed extinct, ex
cept in the beating of Sybrandt s heart, and in the
myriads of little fish, that sported in the transparent
water, and turned their silvery sides ever and anon to
the bright beams of the god of day. Sybrandt little
dreamed, at that moment, that scarcely a single gener
ation would pass away, before this region of the dead,
or rather of those who never had an existence, would
spring, as if by magic, into life and animation ; that
its silence would pass away before the babbling
tongues of all ages, and almost all countries; that
languages and men that never met before in any spot
of all the earth would congregate within these now
melancholy woods ; and that the Promethean touch
of courage, enterprise, activity, energy, and persever
ance, would here perform, in almost less than no time,
the far-famed ancient miracle of animating the lifeless
clod into motion and intelligence.
So thought not Sybrandt. That selfish loneliness
116 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
which was the bane of his character here came over
him with renewed force. He thought of the past and
of the future, but only as they concerned himself and
his own affairs, recollections, anticipations, hopes,
fears, sufferings, and enjoyments. With these Cata-
lina was so intimately associated, that he never
thought of himself without thinking of her. The
scene and the silence developed a more than ordinary
depression and sadness ; for solitude is ever the nurse
of melancholy musings, imaginary woes, and fore
boding apprehensions. In connexion with Catalina,
he recollected little from which he could derive any
gratification, or on which memory could exercise its
powers of exaggeration to any other purpose than to
increase and give energy to his bitter impressions.
n the contrary, every smile of ridicule, every real or
fancied indication of her indifference, dislike, or con-
. tempt, arose one after another before him, like malig
nant spectres, grinning in supernatural scorn. His
face became flushed, his pulse varied, as he recurred to
the long list of imaginary neglects or insults he had
endured ; and again he voluntarily inflicted upon him
self the mortifications they occasioned.
As he sat thus, as it were devouring his own soul,
his fishing implements remained unnoticed at his side,
and he heard neither the loud music of the hounds,
nor the report of the answering gun, from time to time
echoing through the woods. His reveries were at
length interrupted by the voice of the stranger, sound
ing cheerfully in his ear, and awakening him to a
perception of reality. He came laden with a variety
of game, and exclaimed, as he advanced,
" Come, let us away home. I have plenty of game,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 117
and you, I dare say, plenty of fish. We shall have a
famous supper, and raging appetites. Let us see what
you have caught."
" Nothing," said Sybrandt, colouring a little.
" Nothing! O, thou idle or unskilful piscator, what
hast thou been doing?"
" Thinking," said the youth, with a sigh.
" Thinking! What has a man to do with thought
among the Indians and wild beasts ? Action, boy,
action is the word here in my empire of shade. Were
T to spend my time in thinking, I and my little ones
would starve. I have half a mind to give you no
supper to-day."
" I have thought away my appetite already," said
the other, somewhat sadly. The stranger eyed him
with a glance of keen inquiry.
" Young man," said he, seriously, " you are a scholar;
I have found out that, already. But your education, I
doubt, is not quite finished.. I shall put you through
an entire new course, arid make a man of you, as well
as a scholar. In a few weeks, there will be a meeting
of the Mohawks at my court. Until then you will
have no opportunity to dispose of your merchandise
to advantage ; and I know well that an unsuccessful
Indian trader can never rise among the frontier men,
because he is supposed to want courage, conduct, and
perseverance. You must therefore stay with me till
after my grand council, and I shall have time to turn
over a new leaf with you. You want action, and you
shall have it. What say you ? "
" My friends will be uneasy at my long absence."
" O, if that is all, I shall send a messenger to Albany
in a few days, and he will carry a letter for you. So
that objection is got over."
118
Nobody cares about seeing me, thought Sybrandt.
" What say you ; is it a bargain ? " said the stranger.
" It is," said the other ; and the matter was decided.
" And now for home. O how gloriously hungry I
am ! " And they hied them homeward with long and
hasty strides.
The day was far spent when they arrived at the door
of the stranger, and found every thing prepared for
them as he had directed. His Indian wife received
him with a smile of gladness, and the children nocked
round to welcome him, and admire his game. There
was little appearance of sentiment, but much good-
humoured frankness in the meeting.
" Will you have a book to occupy the evening ? "
said the stranger, when the night had set in. " I have
books, but, in truth, I seldom read them now. They
make one lazy, and unfitJbr-aetion". But I have no
objection to your reading."
" I had rather hear you talk," said Sybrandt. Look
ing round, and perceiving that the Indian wife was
absent on her domestic duties, he added, " May I in
quire if you don t find your time hang heavy on your
hands sometimes, for want of the society you have
been accustomed to ? "
" Why, no," replied the other; " I cannot say I do.
I am never idle in body or mind. As a matter both
of necessity and amusement, I hunt almost every day,
which gives me appetite, occupation, and rest when I
lie down at night. Besides this," added he, smiling,
" I exercise dominion over men ; I influence at least,
if not direct, the affairs of an invisible people, as it
were, hid in these woods; and this gives sufficient
employment to my mind. There is no study more
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 119
interesting than man, and, of all mankind, the savage
affords to me a subject of the greatest novelty and
interest. It is curious to see how different, yet how
much alike, are the civilized and savage types of men.T ;
One is a bear-skin in its rough natural state, the other
the same skin decked on the edges with red cloth and
porcupine quills. The animal it covered is still noth-j \
ing but a bear."
" You are no admirer of the animal, it seems, in
either of his forms," replied Sybrandt.
" You are mistaken ; I think him a decent sort of
biped enough, and have no quarrel with my fellow-
creatures, though I came hither to live in the woods
that I might enjoy perpetual exercise without actual
hard work, and never-ceasing excitement without
ruining myself at the gaming-table, or blasting others
for the purpose of keeping myself awake all day."
" Yet I should suppose you would sometimes feel
lost for want of the ordinary intercourse of social
life the interchange of thought ri&y, the conflict
of opinions and interests, which keeps the world from
stagnating."
" I am not always alone ; the Indians sometimes
visit me : but, to be sure, they are no great talkers,
except when they make a set speech, when, I assure
you, they cut a most respectable figure as orators. I
But there is never any want of conflicting opinions
and interests when the Indian and the white man
come in contact. I fear they never will agree. I some
times almost despair of being able to consummate the
plan which has gradually opened itself to my mind
during my residence here, and which is now become
the leading object of my life."
120
" May I ask what it is ? " said Sybrandt.
" To bring the Indians into the circle of civilized
life. I cannot but see, that, if they remain as they
are, always a source of disturbance in that great frame
of social life which is now enlarging itself in every
direction, and will one day, I believe, comprehend
the whole of this vast continent, they must perish.
Nothing can save them but conforming to the laws,
and customs, and occupations, of the whites. I have
endeavoured to prepare them gradually for this, and
for that purpose have endeavoured to gain their con
fidence and establish an influence over them. I have
succeeded to admiration, and beyond all other white
men, with the exception, perhaps, of some of the Cath
olic missionaries. Yet the truth forces itself on me
every moment of my life, and I cannot shut my eyes
to it this influence is founded not on my superiority
in the qualifications of a civilized man, but on my
capacity to excel even the Indians in war, in hunting,
in bearing fatigue and privations, and in endurance
of every kind. This is the secret of my power. In
proportion as I become a savage, the savages respect
me no more."
The stranger then proceeded to relate a variety of
anecdotes illustrative of Indian habits and modes
of thinking, all calculated to establish this opinion,
and indicating that instinctive, insurmountable wild-
ness of character which rendered, and yet renders, the
labour of winning this race into the fold of civiliza
tion an almost hopeless task, which even the ardour
of faith and the zeal of philanthropy are sometimes
tempted to abandon.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 121
CHAPTER XIII.
THE KINGS OF THE WOODS.
THE preceding conversation was interrupted by a
slight tap at the door, which was straightway opened,
and, to the no small dismay of Sybrandt, the party of
Indians whose chief had fallen on his knife and died
at the fishing-house, headed by a new chief, silently
entered the room in which they were sitting. The
stranger received them with courtesy, and motioned
them to sit down. They obeyed, and remained with
out speaking, while they eyed Sybrandt with glances
of malignant meaning.
" My children come as friends ? " said the stranger.
" The red children still love their father/ replied the
chief; "but they come to tell him he has a snake in
his wigwam, which they must kill, and take out his
teeth."
The stranger started, and turning aside to Sybrandt,
said in an undertone, " How unthinking I have been!
I should not have detained you a moment here, after
you were able to travel : but fear not ; I am your se
curity that not a hair of your head shall be touched
while I carry mine on my shoulders." Then, turning
to the chief, he replied to him as follows :
" I understand thy meaning."
" Tis well," said the other.
" To-morrow I shall inquire into this affair."
" The serpent must go with us to-night. I have
122
promised the wife and mother of Paskingoe that they
shall sing the song of joy to-morrow, at the rising of
the sun. The Indian does not lie."
" He is my friend ; he is under my protection."
" He cannot be the friend of our white father, and
the enemy of his red children."
" He killed Paskingoe in his own defence. Paskin
goe and his people were mad."
" Who made them so ? The young serpent and his
poison. He must go with us we want him."
" He shall not go. I cannot give him up."
" Then you are no longer our father," replied the
chief. " You have told us you were our friend, but it
is only the white man s talk. He is never the red
man s friend when the white man is a party."
" Stay till the morning," said the stranger, appar
ently greatly perplexed ; " stay till the morning, and
I promise that you shall go away satisfied."
"It is good," said the chief: "we will stay. But
will the young serpent stay, too ? "
" He will ; he will not run away like a deer."
" It is good," said the Indian ; and they lighted their
pipes and continued to smoke for some time in silence.
This colloquy was carried on in the Mohawk
tongue, but Sybrandt easily comprehended its object,
and, as may be supposed, his feelings were by no
means enviable. He remained perfectly passive, how
ever, justly conceiving that his interference would only
produce additional irritation in the minds of the In
dians.
At length they finished their pipes, and the chief
said to the stranger, " Can we remain in our father s
wigwam to-night?"
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 123
" Will the young white man be safe till to-mor
row?"
" He will, unless he tries to run away."
The stranger made no reply, but led the way to an
upper room, where the Indians laid themselves down
on the floor, and soon slumbered in that profound
quiet characteristic of their race.
An interesting discussion ensued between Sybrandt
and the stranger, in which the latter proposed to aid
his escape that night, by furnishing him with a guide
and a horse, and detaining the Indians in the room
where they were sleeping till he was far enough off
not to be overtaken.
"And what will be the consequence?" said Sy
brandt : " the savages will never forgive you. They
will become your enemies, and, if they do not murder
you, your wife, and children, you will lose your influ
ence over them from this time. No, sir: the great
plan you hope to accomplish shall not be ruined for
my sake. I am determined to remain and meet what
may come."
"Faith, you are a fine fellow something more
than a scholar, I see. Be it so. But, I here pledge
you my honour, no harm shall come to you but what
I will share. Let us to bed ; you are safe for to-night.
The Indians never violate hospitality."
It may be supposed Sybrandt did not sleep very
sweetly that night, though he apprehended no danger
to his slumbers. It was the morrow that he feared :
and, when the morrow came, he rose early, and de
scended into the room they had occupied the night
before. The stranger and the Indians were already
there, the former dressed in a superb suit of British
124
uniform, with glittering epaulettes on either shoulder.
Round the room were displayed various articles, the
most engaging to the Indian fancy, and which they
eyed with looks of eager longing, interrupted only for
a moment by a glance of far different character at
Sybrandt as he entered. After a pause of some min
utes, the chief addressed the stranger, as follows :
" My father, your son had a dream, last night."
" Ay ? " said the stranger smiling ; " what was it,
my son ? "
" Your son," replied the chief, with great gravity,
" your son dreamed that the Great Spirit appeared to
him, and told him his good father had made him a
present of his fine suit, and given each of his people
six new blankets. Did the Great Spirit speak the
truth ? or will my father make him a liar ? "
The stranger paused a moment. " The Great
Spirit said true ; the suit and the blankets shall be
given. But, my son, I also had a dream last night.
The Great White Spirit came to my bedside, and said
in a whisper, Thy son, the chief of the Beaver tribe,
has forgiven the young trader by whose hand Paskin-
goe fell. He has given him to thee to do with him
what thou wilt. Did the Great White Spirit speak
true ? "
The chief looked at his companions, and they at
him, in doubt and perplexity.
" I had forgotten," resumed the stranger ; " the
Great White Spirit said also, The mother of Paskin-
goe has dried up her tears, and his wife ceased her
groans, ever since you gave them the beautiful beads
and the necklaces of pinchbeck. Did he say true, or
did the Great White Spirit lie ? "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 125
Again the Indians exchanged significant glances,
and then uttered that guttural sound by which they
are accustomed to signify their approbation.
" My father," at length said the chief, " you dream
too hard for your son. But you have not made our
Great Spirit lie, neither will I make yours. The
young serpent is free ; but let him take care how he
comes among us again. Even my father shall not
dream him out of the fire."
The bargain was consummated ; the Indians de
parted with their finery, and Sybrandt was free. As
they disappeared in the forest, old Tjerck, who had
watched the result of the embassy with deep solici
tude, quavered the war-whoop of the Adirondacks in
triumph. An arrow from some unseen bow at the
instant whizzed past his ear, and put a stop to his
exultation. He, however, preserved the arrow all his
life afterward, making it the text of a most excellent
tale, which was as little like that we have just related
as the description of most landscapes is to the original.
The stranger explained to Sybrandt the preceding
colloquy, which had passed in the Mohawk language ;
and our hero insisted upon repaying him the price of
his liberty. But this he would by no means consent
to, saying the loss was not his, as the government
supplied the means of conciliating the Indians by
such presents as might be necessary.
126 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE STRANGER UNDERTAKES THE REFORMATION OF OUR HERO.
SYBRANDT remained with the stranger, whose char
acter and mode of life he admired more and more
every day. Of the thousand trammels of civilized
life, which, like the invisible ropes and pegs of the
Lilliputians, keep the mighty Gulliver, man, bound
to the earth, or, at least, chained within a certain pre
scriptive routine, none but the least irritating were
found in this unconventional establishment. There
was every thing necessary to the gratification of a
wholesome appetite, sound sleep, and rural exercise.
There were none of those fretting and factitious wants
which, under the disguise of domestic comforts or em
bellishments, make human beings, that call themselves
enlightened, the slaves of that wealth they acquire by
the sacrifice of health, pleasure, and liberty. An air
of happy freedom reigned every where around ; and,
though every thing seemed to arrange itself into an
easy regularity, it was without effort, without noise,
and without the slightest appearance of coercion or
authority. The Indian wife always had a smile on
her face ; the children, freed from eternal nursing and
surveillance, gambolled about, the happiest of all God s
creatures, and spent those days which Nature has al
lotted as the period when her offspring shall be free
from chains, in all the luxury of playful hilarity. In
short, Sybrandt could not help observing, that, while
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 127
there appeared to be no fastidiousness, there was, at
the same time, a perfect decorum and an unstudied
decency.
Every day when the weather permitted, and, indeed,
often when a dandy sportsman would have shrunk
from the war of the elements, they pursued the manly,
exciting sport of hunting. The image of war, espe
cially in this empire of savages and beasts of prey
this course of life gradually awakened the energies
of Sybrandt s nature, that had been so long dozing
under the influence of the good Dominie Stettinius.
He acquired an active vigour of body, together with
a quickness of perception and keen attention to what
was passing before him, that by degrees encroached
deeply on his habit of indolent abstraction. He
caught from the stranger something of his fearless, /
independent carriage, lofty bearing, and impatience of
idleness or inaction. In shortj he gained a confidence
in himself, a self-possession and self-respect, such as
he had never felt before, and which freed him from
that awkward restraint which had hitherto been the
bane of his life. Nevertheless, the cure was not com-j
plete; the disease had been deep-seated, and occasional
relapses indicated pretty clearly that a return to old
scenes and modes of life would assuredly produce a
return of the old infirmity.
One stormy day, when the wind blew such a gale
as made it dangerous to pursue their daily sport, the
stranger found Sybrandt buried in what is known
among the simple ones as a brown study, but which
among the better sort is dignified with the more lofty
title of, abstraction.
" Westbrook," said he, with his usual brief frank-
128 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ness, " the time we have spent together, and the cir
cumstances under which we met, ought to have made
us friends by this time. It seems to me that you are
getting homesick. If so, say so. You can leave me
here as factor for your merchandise, and I pledge my
self to render you a true account of the proceeds, the
first good opportunity that occurs. How say you, am
I right?"
Sybrandt was actually thinking of home, but not
with that strange, inexplicable feeling which sickens
us of a paradise, and makes us turn with tears of
bitter longing to the barren sands or arid mountains
consecrated to memory under that cherished name.
He had but few, very few pleasurable recollections
stored there, and these were buried under a thousand
self-inflicted pangs of mortification. He replied to
the stranger, in a tone of bitter depression :
" I was, indeed, thinking of home ; but I have no
wish to go there, just now."
" Were you not happy ? "
" Not very."
Whose fault was that ? "
Sybrandt paused, and a few moments of rapid
retrospection convinced him how difficult it was to
answer this simple question.
" I don t know," at length he said ; " sometimes I
think it was my own, sometimes that of others."
" Westbrook," said the stranger, kindly, " did you
ever hear the story of the king who was playing at
tennis in the midst of his courtiers ? "
" I don t recollect," replied he, somewhat surprised.
" Well, I will tell it you. A dispute arose about
some point of the game the king was playing, on
129
which a large stake depended. The king appealed
to his courtiers. They were silent. At length one of
his gray-headed ministers came into the tennis-court,
and, on hearing these doubts, * Sire, said he, you are
wrong. What !, said the king, do you pronounce
me in the wrong without knowing any thing of the
matter ? Pardon me, sire, said the other : if you
had been right, these gentlemen (turning to the cour
tiers) would riot have doubted. This story will apply
to all the actions of man. His self-love and his pas
sions are his courtiers, and whenever they are doubtful
or silent as to the question of who is to blame, you
may depend upon it he is."
Strange as it may appear, Sybrandt had never
viewed the matter in this light before, nor asked
himself the question of who was answerable for the
anguish of rnind which, in truth, he had wilfully in
flicted on himself. Dominie Stettinius was a good
and a learned man, but no philosopher. He had never
yet arrived at the conclusion, that learning and wis
dom, although actually man and wife, are a thorough
fashionable couple, and not always seen together.
" Come," said the stranger, after permitting him to
cogitate a reasonable time on his legend " Come, I
have a curiosity, no idle one, to know something more
of a young man who (I cannot but see) is capable of
acting, yet seems to be prone to think to no purpose.
I have long since told you my story, now tell me
yours. I see your mind is unhealthy. Let me know
the nature of the disease, and, my life on it, I cure
you."
" I believe I have nothing to tell. My narrative
would have no incident ; and without incident even
130 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
an epic poem is dull," replied the youth, forcing a
melancholy smile to his aid.
" Never mind ; I entreat you to tell it. I think I
comprehend the case from the very acknowledgment
you have just made. Your history, as I suspect,
wants action."
Thus solicited, Sybrandt at length overcame his
shyness, and gave the detail of his causeless miseries.
As he went on, the stranger sometimes smiled, and
then again, shook his head. " Strange," said he, at
length, when the young man had concluded his singu
lar confession, " strange that a man should pass his
whole life in coining distresses, which have no being
except in his wayward imagination ! Young man, I
feel an interest in you. There is that about you
which I love and respect, let me find it where I will.
I have seen you twice placed in circumstances to try
the nerves of the stoutest, looking at danger without
winking an eye, and suffering pain without changing
a muscle. Such men I acknowledge for my fellow-
creatures my equals. And yet," added he, smiling,
after a momentary pause, " and yet you, who stood
before a band of drunken savages, with their toma
hawks and scalping-knives raised to take your life,
you, who did not even so much as change counte
nance during a discussion which was to decide
whether you were to be given up to be tortured at the
stake ; why, you cannot face a woman with whom
you have associated, with little intermission, from
childhood ! You tremble at the idea of entering the
parlour of an honest country gentleman, and that gen
tleman your uncle! You can front death in all its
forms of horror, but you cannot stand up before a
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 131
laugh, or even endure the mere abstract idea of a
laugh conjured up by your own diseased fancy ! "
The face and forehead of Sybrandt gradually kin
dled with alternate flushes of pride and shame, as the
stranger proceeded. There was certainly more honey
than gall in his speech, but our youth had long been
in the habit of turning from the sweet to banquet on
the bitter ; and the old horror of being derided re
curring in full force, caused his heart to swell and
his temples to moisten with feeling. He remained
tongue-tied, and, if his life had depended upon it,
could not have uttered one word.
" Did you ever," continued the stranger, in a tone
of banter " did you ever, in all your classic study,
come across a hero, or even a person of tolerable rep
utation, ashamed or afraid to encounter his equals,
setting aside his superiors ? The modesty we read of
there, as an object of imitation to youth and age, is
nothing more than that dignified confidence of merit
which never claims honours or rewards, but leaves the
world to mete them out according to its own sense of
obligation. The antique poets never thought of prais
ing, or of holding up for imitation, that boyish and
unmanly infirmity miscalled modesty, which bespeaks
an internal sense of weakness or degradation, which
makes men for ever ridiculous in their own eyes even
when not so in the eyes of others, and which is the
eternal, insurmountable obstacle to great actions.
There is a glorious effrontery about genius, which
causes it to undertake enterprises and accomplish
results, that, to bashful cowards, appear beyond the
reach of human power."
The word " coward " grated harshly on Sybrandt
132 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ear, and was appropriated at once to himself by that
mental process through which he was accustomed to
distil every thing into gall. The stranger noted the
workings of his mind, and went on :
" Nor is the folly of such timid shrinking girlishness
in man less contemptible than its cowardice. It is
right, therefore, that he should be laughed at for the
one, and despised for the other."
Sybrandt could stand it no longer. He started
from his seat, without the slightest awkwardness or
diffidence.
" Is this language intended for me, sir ? Because, if
so, it cancels all obligation on my part. If I am not
a man with women, you will find me so with men.
No man shall say, or insinuate, that I am a fool or a
coward. Did you or did you not apply these epithets
tome?"
" As much as falls to your share in your own hon
est consciousness ; no more : " replied the other, with a
most provoking indifference. Sybrandt surveyed him
leisurely from top to toe, with an air of unflinching
defiance.
" Farewell, sir, for the present. I am your guest,
and you are my benefactor. I would have been
grateful to the end of my life for your hospitality, and
the favour of your example ; but you have left me
nothing now but regrets that I ever accepted the one,
or benefited by the other. Farewell, sir. Judge of
the extent of my gratitude by my forgiveness of the
insult you have just passed upon me. So far the debt
is cancelled. Take care, I entreat you, how you run
up a new score."
He was proceeding to quit the house immediately,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 133
when he was arrested by a hearty laugh from the
stranger.
" Bravo ! good ! I honour you, Mr. Westbrook.
You have spoken like a high-spirited, honourable
gentleman. From my soul I reverence a man of
pluck. It is not without reason that courage is held
the basis of all the virtues, since without it we may
be driven from our best resolves by apprehension of
the consequences. Without the courage to despise
threats, dangers, death, no man can depend on his
other virtues for a single moment. And yet it seems
to me that all education tends to pave the way for
making cowards of us. The nurse begins by fright
ening children with stories of ghosts and hobgoblins,
and making them afraid to stir in the dark ; and the
priest ends by frightening the man with horrible pic
tures of the agonies of death and the torments of
futurity. By heaven ! it is a matter of surprise to me
that all civilized men are not arrant poltroons ! But
why," added he, after a pause, " why not act and
speak at all times, and everywhere, with the same/
manly, free spirit you have just displayed ? With
such a face, such a figure, such a heart and mind,
who is it that breathes or ever breathed the breath of
life, whether man or woman, you need be afraid or
ashamed to look full in the eye? Forgive me for
thus trying you, or rather for affording you an oppor
tunity of proving to yourself what you really are. No
one that has seen you as I have, in situations to test
the resolution of any man, would ever drearn of your
being less than consummately brave ; and no one that
has conversed with you as I have done, and heard
you, day after day, uttering the language of learning
134
and good-sense, would suspect you of folly, except he
were himself a fool. On my soul, what I said was
but to aid you to know thyself the most useful
of all lessons to man. Hereafter, when you feel your
self shrinking from the encounter of a lady s eye, or
a puppy s glance of ridicule, recollect that you have
bearded the lion, called William Johnson, in his den,
and never fear the face of man or woman from hence
forward. Are we friends again?"
Sybrandt grasped the hand of Sir William in
silence, and the incidents of that day exercised an
influence over his future fortunes, greater, perhaps,
than all the precepts of the worthy Dominie Stettinius
or the illustrious examples of classic lore. The force
of habit being once mastered, his deportment became
every day more free and manly, his conversation more
frank and racy. In short, he seemed about to verify
the great truth, that, as by yielding to one temptation
we prepare the way for submission to another, so an
obstacle once surmounted is ever afterward more
easily overcome.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XV.
OUR HERO TAKES HIS DEPARTURE.
THERE was an openness about Sir William that
invited confidence and inspired imitation. Add to
this, he contrived every day to draw Sybrandt out, to
make him aware of his own resources of intellect and
knowledge, and to animate his consciousness by giv
ing him the post of honour, that is to say, fatigue and
danger, in all their forest adventures. He saw that
his future happiness, as well as future fortunes, de
pended on his mind being forced out of its perverted
course by excitement, action, and applause. He tried
hard to make a man of him, for he judged that
Sybrandt was likely to repay the trouble of the lessons
he received.
The time now arrived when the meeting of the
Mohawk chiefs, to hold long talks and receive pres
ents, was to take place. The relation in which Sir
William stood to the Indians was peculiar to these
early settlements ; when the savages, being numerous
and warlike, were able to turn the scale between the
mighty French governors of Canada and the puissant
governors of New York. It was therefore necessary
to conciliate them in the first place by presents, and to
fortify that influence by working indirectly on their
secret consciousness of the superior power or superior
wisdom of the white people. Perhaps the gentleman
136 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
of whom we are now speaking exercised, in his day,
over these wild and wayward sons of the forest a
greater personal influence than any other white man
that ever existed. It was not only as the representa
tive of the great king over the water that they re
spected and obeyed him : still more, his frankness,
integrity, and truth ; his courage, his vigour, and his
superiority in hunting, in war, in action and endu
rance, in every thing which constitutes the pride and
glory of savages ; made these people look up to him
with unqualified respect and admiration. He stood
alone among them, beyond the protection of the laws
of civilization and far from the reach of succour ; yet
he never suffered wrong or violence from these wild
warriors, who might enter his house at midnight,
without knocking, and without creating either fear or
suspicion. It has often occurred to me that such a
man, if any man or any means are adequate to the
purpose, might, by voluntarily settling among our
Indians, do much to wean them by degrees from their
present mode of life. I do not mean that he should
go there to receive the emoluments of office, or the
profits of trade, or, least of all, as a means of living
on the charitable contributions of others ; but that he
should identify himself with them become one of
their hunters, warriors, sages, and mingle by degrees
with their ancient modes of living those feelings and
habits of civilized life not incompatible with their
present situation. It might be a question, whether
the white man would become more of an Indian, or
the Indian more of a white man ; yet all history indi
cates to us, that the ancient world was retrieved from
barbarism by the agency of a few men of superior
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 137
genius, or who had enjoyed superior opportunities of
acquiring that knowledge and those habits necessary
to civilization. But, enough of this.
Sybrandt wondered to see the majestic grace and
self-possession, mingled with respectful courtesy, ex
hibited by these untutored savages. They presented
an example of manly independence in demeanour
and language, from which he derived a lesson for his
own future conduct. It was curious to see how near
they came to the standard of high-breeding, now es
tablished as the criterion of refinement. They neither
stared at objects to which they were unaccustomed,
nor did they for a moment betray either surprise,
curiosity, or inferiority. Careless in the glances they
cast around, easy in their carriage, unembarrassed
in their actions, there was about them an indifference
approaching almost to contempt, far more imposing
than that assumed to be the characteristic of superior
rank in the circles of the great.
Our hero learned some lessons in relation to man
ner and deportment from the Kings of the woods,
that he could hardly have acquired even from a first-
rate dancing-master.
It is not my purpose to record the acts and negotia
tions of Sir William and the council of chiefs. Still
less shall I attempt a sketch of their respective ora
tions, which, though they were not so lengthy as some
we have heard, were very much to the purpose.
The departure of the chiefs was speedily .followed
by that of Sybrandt, who accompanied a courier
despatched by Sir William to New York on the
breaking up of the great council.
" I am sorry to lose your society," said Sir William ;
138 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" I shall miss it much this winter. But action action
action, as the great orator said ; action is the life
of life the vivifying spirit of all nature. When I
find myself getting low I shall dash Into the woods,
and the sight of a deer shall console me for the loss
of my friend. Farewell. I hope we shall meet
again."
" Do not doubt it," said Sybrandt : " if you do not
come to me, I will one day, if I live, come to you.
But you will some time or other visit Albany, and
then you shall see "
" Catalina ? " said the other, archly. " Well, a fair
lady is worth a far visit, and I think I will come to
your wedding, if you will give me due notice; that
is to say, if you ever muster courage to look that
young lady in the face, who is, I dare say, ten times
more ugly I beg pardon more formidable, than
the one-eyed Paskingoe."
Sybrandt coloured, and felt some of his old feelings
crawling over him ; but he repressed them by a great
effort, and replied with assumed ease :
"I promise to ask you to my wedding, but my
funeral will probably come first, and I will bid you to
that."
" What ! a relapse ! I thought I had performed a
radical cure." Then, assuming an earnest solemnity,
he went on, " Westbrook, now that you are going
among old scenes and associations, guard against a
return of old feelings, weaknesses, and self-delusions.
When we are distant from each other, remember what
I now say ; and rely upon it, that, if Catalina is worth
the winning, you will win her if you dare. Deference
is what is due to every woman, and what every
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 189
woman likes ; but, if I know the sex, they are such
admirers of courage, that they can never be brought
to love a man that fears even them. Now God be
with you, Sybrandt, and so, farewell ! "
140
CHAPTER XVI.
SHOWING THAT OLD SCENES REVIVE OLD HABITS.
THEY parted, with mutual regret, and, as Sybrandt
proceeded on his journey, he tried to persuade himself
he was all, or might be all, Sir William wished him
to be. But certain misgivings and sinkings of the
soul, as he turned his thoughts towards home and
began to anticipate his reception from his friends,
warned him that he must look well to himself and
nerve his heart, or he might again sink into what
honest Bunyan calls the " slough of Despond," and
never rise again.
The little party, consisting of Sybrandt.old Tjerck
and the courier, proceeded to the banks of the Mo
hawk river, where they embarked in a canoe for Sche-
nectady, then the frontier town of all the western
settlements of this goodly State, of which it now
constitutes one of the antiquities. Not a house, not
a vestige of cultivated life, adorned the banks of the
^stream. Yet all was beautiful: for what is more
( lovely than the union of crystal waters, verdant mea-
\ dows, waving forests, and azure skies ? the combi-
\ nation and the master- work of the great Creator!
There were men alive, not many years ago, who still
rememberM what the whole country then was, and
whose eyes, though dimmed with age, yet saw what
it had since become. The land itself, and the owners
of the land, are changed ; every animate and inani-
141
mate object every thing living, and every thing
dead all changed ! The red man is gone, and the
white man is in his place. Such are the mutations of
the world ! Shall we lament them ? No. It is the
will and the work of Him that made all, governs all,
disposes all; and it is all for the best, or chance is
Providence, and Providence is chance.
They arrived without accident at Schenectady,
which, though partly rebuilt, still exhibited deep and
melancholy traces of the deplorable massacre and
conflagration of 1689, when the French and Indians
surprised the inhabitants in their beds, and set fire to
their dwellings.
As Sybrandt approached home, he began to feel
sundry decided symptoms of his old disease. He
caught himself studying how he should act, and what
he should say to his cousin, instead of relying on the
circumstances of the moment to direct his conduct.
He worked himself up into a worry of doubt, embar
rassment, and apprehension ; he again suffered the
tortures of the sly laughing eye of Catalina, and
actually shuddered at the thought of how awkwardly
he should behave himself. In short, by the time they
came to Albany he had forgot the manly remonstran
ces of Sir William, and, instead of the joys of a
speedy reunion with his friends, felt only the fears of
their anticipated ridicule.
He arrived at Albany to dinner, and lingered some
time afterward in that strange irresolution which is
characteristic of his state of mind. At length old
Tjerck got out of all patience, and by his ill-humour
brought his young master to a decision. As they
approached the sober and venerable mansion-house,
142 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
and saw at a distance its old gray walls, half-hid by
towering elms, with chimneys pointing to the skies,
Sybrandt actually trembled with conflicting emotions.
Had it been possible, he would have gone on to the
abode of his benefactor without stopping. But his
only road lay directly before the mansion-house, and
to pass it would be both absurd and disrespectful.
It was now just after sunset, and honest Ariel was
walking with his niece on the long piazza, which
looked towards the river. The scene was lovely and
quiet beyond description, and something had carried
the thoughts of Catalina to the absence of Sybrandt.
I think it happened to be the anniversary of the day
on which he had saved her life.
" I wonder," said she, at length, " what has become
of cousin Sybrandt? Is it not time that he should be
home ? and is it not strange no one has heard of him,
uncle?"
" Poor fellow ! " said the good-natured Ariel, " to be
sure it is. I don t wonder at not hearing from him,
for you know the mail don t travel in the wilderness.
But he ought to have been home, a long time ago.
I am sadly afraid something has happened to him.
He was such an awkward fellow : he never could do
any thing handy or clever. I never could teach him
to ring a pig s nose, for the life of me."
" Yet he was brave as a lion," said the other, mus
ing. " What day of the month is this, uncle ? "
The fifth of June."
" True, the very day." And again she mused.
" I should not be surprised," said Ariel, after a
pause, " if he was, either murdered, or a prisoner to
the Indians."
143
" God forbid ! " exclaimed Catalina, lifting up her
hands, and clasping them together; " God forbid my
dear cousin Sybrandt should come to any harm ! "
" Aha ! " quoth Ariel, " what would the colonel say
if he heard this ? dear cousin Sybrandt !
" He has no right to say any thing, and if he did I
would not care. But who is that coming yonder ? "
" Where ? " said little Ariel, standing on tiptoe.
" Yonder, on the Albany road two persons on
horseback."
" It must be the colonel and his man. He has been
to Albany to-day."
" No, it is not the colonel," said Catalina ; and she
looked still more intently on the travellers, whose
figures were rendered somewhat indistinct in the twi
light now gathering round. They approached the
gate which led into the shady avenue winding up to
the mansion, and one of them dismounted to open it.
" Who can it be ? " cried Catalina, while a gentle
heaving of her bosom and a little shortness of breath
marked a more than ordinary interest in the question.
In a few minutes, the persons on horseback emerged
from the wooded ravine which had originally deter
mined the course of the road, and, being now not far
off, came into clearer view.
" One of them seems to have a black face," observed
Ariel.
" If it should be old Tjerck ! " exclaimed the maiden,
eagerly.
" No, no," replied the other, despondingly ; " I fear
we shall never see either him or his young master
again;" and his good heart overflowed to his eyes.
By this time the horsemen had dismounted in the
dusky eventide.
144 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Who can it be ? " thought Catalina, while a pre
sentiment fluttered about her heart. Sybrandt had
distinguished a female figure as he neared the house,
and a thrill of mingled pleasure and apprehension
came over him. He had ridden at such a lingering
pace, that old Tjerck muttered to himself, " Icod, if
young massa been hunting a bear, he make more
hurry dan to see Miss Catalina!"
Ariel received the young man with shouts of joy
and innumerable honest shakes of the hand ; but Cata
lina, remembering with what leisure and deliberation
he had approached to receive her welcome, repressed
the warm, generous impulses of her heart, and gave
him a reception so affectedly flippant and careless
that he felt it in his innermost soul. His pride and
his feelings were equally wounded, and the moment
of meeting between these two young people was the
prelude to a thousand after mistakes and misappre
hensions. Sybrandt, after receiving, with all his old
awkwardness and constraint, the kind congratula
tions of the rest of the family, made some miserable
mumbling attempts at an excuse for going to see his
benefactor, and departed with a disappointed heart,
and a mind wounded by the consciousness of weak
ness and inconsistency.
" You don t seem glad to get home again," said the
good Dennis, observing that Sybrandt was silent and
abstracted ; " but I suppose you are tired and sleepy.
Well, repose to-night, and to-morrow you shall tell
your story."
Sybrandt retired to bed, but not to that balmy rest
which a tired body and a quiet mind bring with them
evermore. He lay awake, thinking over the past, and
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 145
blaming his own wayward follies. He recalled to
mind the lessons and the example of Sir William,
and, a little before daylight, solemnly resolved that he
would cast off the chains of the foul fiend that seemed
waiting to seize on him at the moment of his return,
and be what he was everywhere but in the presence
of the woman he most wished to please. Before he
was up in the morning, he heard the cheerful voice
of Ariel calling upon him to come forth and eat his
breakfast, and tell his story, and go over to the mansion-
house, and see him hive the bees, which he pronounced
to be on the eve of emigrating, from the commotion
he observed among them the day before.
Accordingly, after breakfast, they rode over to the
mansion-house, where Sybrandt behaved himself bet
ter, and was received more to his liking, than the night
before ; for Catalina had schooled herself, and softened
herself too, by recollecting that she had treated him
thus coldly on the anniversary of the day he had saved
her from drowning. She inquired the cause of his
long absence, and even condescended to say she felt
great uneasiness lest he should have been murdered,
or taken captive by the hostile Indians and carried
into Canada. This sentiment, kindly and unaffectedly
uttered, warmed the heart of Sybrandt into a degree
of confidence, and he related the history of his trading
voyage with a graphic simplicity which gave it ad
ditional interest. There is nothing throws greater
dignity about a man, and more contributes to make
him an object of interest, than encountering and over
coming dangers and sufferings. The tenderness, the
love of glory, and the admiration for courage, which
are inherent in the female heart, are ever excited and
10
146
called forth by the recital of perils or the narrative
of enterprising hardihood. Every woman is in this
respect a De^tteffltma, and Catalina was certainly a
woman, for she was now eighteen. The moment she
heard the history of the adventure of the fishing-house,
and the escape from the deputation of the Mohawk
chiefs, Sybrandt gained a new interest in her eyes, by
being thus associated with danger and death. Under
the influence of these feelings, she treated him with a
gentle and frank attention, which placed him on good
terms with himself, and gave an ease and freedom to
I his deportment that made Catalina one day observe,
I with a smile, that he had " certainly met with a dancing-
1 master in the woods."
" But what has become of your admirer, Colonel
Sydenham ? " asked Sybrandt, with no small trepida
tion, after finishing the detail of his adventures.
" O, he is gone," said she, slightly blushing. " His
regiment was ordered to Fort George, on the lake, not
long after you left us."
Sybrandt was pleased with the information, but did
not like the blush. His old enemies played about him
for a moment, but he whipped them away, and com
pelled himself to ask other questions, which by degrees
led to a relation of what had happened in his absence.
During this period, which was only a few months, a
great revolution had taken place, which I shall proceed
to record with all due fidelity.
147
CHAPTER XVH.
AN IRRUPTION OF WANDERING ARABS, AND A SWARMING OF BEES.
I HAVE before noticed the inroads made upon the
virtuous simplicity of the rural populace among whom
is laid the scene of this history. Not content with a
variety of innovations, the officers at length commit
ted the enormity of introducing rjrivate_ theatricals.
They corrupted an honest Dutchman of the neigh
bourhood to hire them his barn, and fitted it up as a
theatre, in which they performed plays three times
a week, to the utter dismay of the good Dominie
Stettinius, who justly saw in this pestilent novelty the
seeds of mischief to his hitherto simple and innocent
flock. The young people were attracted by these out
landish shows; and late hours, family feuds, nightly
elopements, and sometimes something w T orse, were the
consequences. The good and pious dominie sighed
and fretted at these melancholy symptoms of approach
ing depravation of manners, and raised his voice from
the pulpit every Sunday against the theatre and its
consequences to his beloved people, over whom he had
watched for almost half a century. But the torrent
was too strong for the good man to put back or turn
from its course ; for such is the sad weakness of hu
man nature, that the best security for its innocence
is to keep it ignorant of the very existence of guilt.
Both manners and morals seem everywhere at the
148 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
mercy of strangers and innovators of fashions rather
than opinions.
But, as if this were not enough, about the period
in which the_ seductions of the barn-theatre began to
infect the morals and habits of the young people, and
-, their consequences to appear in the indications I have
Hk /just recited, a famous new-light preacher made his
appearance among them, and roused the very echoes
with a strain of fervid and impassioned eloquence,
which made converts to a sect that seems destined
to extend itself to every climate and every country of
the habitable world. The sober, practical, and rational
doctrines and exhortations of the good dominie, though
j/ clothed in the language and embellished with the elo
quence and grace of a scholar, faded into nothing,
compared with the trumpet voice, violent gesture, and
furious declamation of the new apostle. His fold,
especially the precious young lambs that had grown
up under his eye, and whom he loved, began to stray
away ; his flock every Sunday showed the absence of
some one that was never absent before; and many
an empty seat gave token of the backsliding of some
inexperienced soul, lured away from the gentle lustre
of his pure lamp of truth by the flaring, fiery tail of
this erratic meteor.
And still another evil came to beset and confound
the good man. A member of the wandering tribe
of American Arabs came along, and seduced the
wayward affections of the daughter and heiress of
his ancient and nearest neighbour, honest Yof Van-
dervelden. After a while, the short and the long of
it was, that worthy Dutchman found himself under
the necessity of making a sacrifice of his dislike, to the
149
honour of the family. He soon afterwards died, and
Ananias Gookin, as the wandering Arab was called,
took possession of the estate in right of his wife. Then
were th$ honest Dutchmen astonished, confounded,
and dismayed at the innovations and improvements
of Ananias. He altered his house, he altered his barn,
he altered his fences, and he altered every thing. When
he had done altering, and exhausted all his ingenuity,
he began to pull down, and, finally, one day abducted
the old Dutch weathercock, which was brought from
Holland, and had pointed due North upon the top of
the mansion of the Vanderveldens as far back as the
memory of man could reach.
The dominie groaned in spirit, and his firmness for
sook him, especially when, a day or two afterward, a
whole wagon-load of Squire Gookin s cousins came
over to pass a week with him. Before that week
expired, they had so confounded the good man with
guessing and asking questions, that one night, after
being penned in a corner of one of his own fields for
upwards of three hours by a couple of these terrible
guessers, who pointed out a hundred improvements
in his modest, comfortable glebe, and expressed an
intention of opening a school to teach all the children
English, he left his flock to be devoured by the wolves,
and never returned. He had heard of the arrival of a
Dutch ship at New York, whither he wended his way,
sorrowing, and whence he embarked for his native
Holland, to return no more. He left a letter with his
blessing and advice to Sybrandt, accompanied by a
fine folio copy of the works of Hugo Grotius, in token
of his affectionate remembrance. Honest soul! the
simplicity of religion and manners which he taught
150 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
and exemplified during his whole life has, we doubt,
been un profitably exchanged for the cant of enthu
siasm in the one, and boasted refinements in the
other.
Catalina and Sybrandt became quite interested in
the discussion of some of these matters ; but were at
length interrupted by a confused and triumphant
medley of sounds and voices that startled them both.
They ran into the garden, whence the noise proceeded,
to see what was the matter, where they found Ariel
at the head of all the household troops, man, woman,
and child, black, white, and gray. He was furiously
pommeling a frying-pan, accompanied by all the
others, each of whom had contrived to reinforce his
music by some rare contrivance of his or her own.
Here stood aunt Nauntje, the cook, jingling a great
bunch of keys ; and there our old friend Tjerck, who
had been summoned by Ariel for the occasion, beat
ing a tin kettle with an old rusty ramrod, while the
little imps of the kitchen exaggerated the terrible con
cert by mustering a truly singular variety of incon
gruous discords. Over all was heard the eager voice
of Ariel, scolding, directing, restraining, and aggra
vating his familiars, as occasion seemed to require.
A little condensed black cloud appeared hovering
over their heads, and sailing about in different direc
tions, to which all their attention seemed to be de
voted. As it inclined to approach or recede, the
concert became weaker or louder, while keen anxiety
and expectation sat on the faces of all. More than
once Ariel denounced the imperial Nauntje as an " old
fool," for jingling her keys too loud ; and as often did
Nauntje retort, by declaring that " Massa Auriel "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 151
would scare the creatures into the woods, by the vehe
mence with which he cudgelled his instrument. At
length the wayward community, after enjoying a while
their emancipation from the authority of the mother-
hive, all at once darted down and settled themselves
upon the broad-brimmed hat of honest Ariel; being
thereunto incited either by one of the female whims of
the queen-bee, or by a fine carnation pink stuck in the
hat-band.
Consternation and dismay followed this unaccount
able manoeuvre ; the music ceased, and Ariel stood still
for once in his life, with a whole nation quartered on
his beaver. It was impossible to resist an inclination
to laugh at the oddity of the adventure, but in truth
it was no laughing matter. Of all the populace of
this world, the bees are the most capricious. There
are some people they will permit to handle them with
impunity, while they will dart at others with inde
scribable fury the moment they approach them. 1
have seen a swarm of young bees taken up by hand-
fuls and put into the hive, without any symptoms of
hostility, by a person who either possessed some se
cret power, or to whom they were attracted by some
unaccountable affinity. Such a man was old Tjerck,
who now came cautiously forward with a new straw
hive, which he held directly over the head of Ariel,
desiring him at the same time to stand still for his
life. Poor Ariel was the last man in the world to
stand still, or to hold his tongue ; but on this occasion
he played the statue to a miracle. There never was
a finer figure than Ariel with the great beehive for a
hat, except a fine lady of the year 1831 in a fashion
able Parisian bonnet. While the bees were consult-
152 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ing in mysterious hummings about the expediency of
removing, and some of them were reconnoitring about
his ears, apparently with an intent to make a lodge
ment there, the little man stood fidgetting, first lifting
one leg then the other, hitching his shoulders, and
making divers other gestures indicative of dire impa
tience. At length he could stand it no longer, and
roared out
" You bloody old fool, do you think I am going to
stand still here all day ? " And thereupon the whole
swarm took flight and disappeared across the river,
whether alarmed at the noise, or from some sudden
freak of her majesty, the queen-bee.
"Dere dere he go; now massa Auriel got him,"
exclaimed Tjerck, in the bitterness of his heart. " I
glad of it."
" And so am I," said Ariel ; " they may go to the
devil for me. I wouldn t have kept still three minutes
longer for as many beehives as could stand between
here and Jericho."
" No," grumbled Tjerck, in an undertone ; " massa
Auriel nebber tand till, sept when he sleeping in
church."
" Huh ! " said old Nauntje ; " massa Auriel don
know no more about bees dan a chipmonk."
Ariel swore there was not a man in the province
understood hiving bees better; but they all gave it
against him, and declared with one voice that the loss
of the young swarm was entirely owing to his not
standing still and holding his tongue. Upon this he
denounced them as " a pack of fools," and departed
in wrath, determined not to stay to dinner. In pass
ing the kitchen, however, his natural instinct prompted
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 153
him to look in, and the sight of a fine roasting pig,
with a skin as white as that of a fashionable belle
after a winter s campaign, disarmed him in a moment.
He hovered round the hallowed precincts of that hearth
until the return of queen Nauntje, to whom he gave
sundry directions about roasting the pig, concluding
with a solemn injunction to put plenty of summer
savoury in the stuffing.
Dinner passed off pleasantly, and Sybrandt was
delighted to find that he drank wine with Catalina
without its going down the wrong way; nay, that he
could actually cut up a pig when everybody was look
ing at him, without falling into an agony. In the
evening they strolled out upon the lawn, and stood on
the low green banks of the gliding river, watching the
passing vessels as they slipped along; listening to the
melodies of lowing herds, tinkling bells, loud rural
laughs, and all the combination of sweet peaceful
sounds, wafted across the water in the delicious quiet
of a long summer twilight. Sybrandt gradually be
came inspired by the scene and the occasion ; and,
warming as he spoke, delighted, instructed, and al
most astonished Catalina with the scintillations of his
newly-fired intellect.
While thus engaged, they saw one of the little
black boys come running towards them in great
haste, as if something was the matter at home. When
he came up, all he could say was to beg Sybrandt to
speed to the house, for Hans Pipe, the Indian, was
there, very drunk. Accordingly, Sybrandt hastened
away as fast as possible, leaving Catalina to return
at leisure.
154 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XVm.
A CIVILIZED SAVAGE.
HANS PIPE, as he was called by the country people
around, was an Indian of the Algonquin nation,
which had been almost exterminated by the Mohawks
in a war that happened many years before the period
at which we are now arrived. A large portion of
their warriors was cut off, and the remnant of the
nation obliged to emigrate into Canada, where they
were received and protected by the governor-general.
Hans, whose Indian name was Minikoue, or, I drink,
justified this appellation, for he even exceeded his
fellows in the Indian devotion to fire-water. He had
been taken prisoner by the Mohawks, and rescued
from torture by the influence of Colonel Vancour, who
endeavoured to teach him the habits and manners of
civilized life, and to attach him to his family by kind
ness and protection. But the usual melancholy con
sequences resulted from these kind and benevolent
intentions. The Indian, in proportion as he lost the
habits of the savage, acquired the vices of the civilized
man, intensified by the wild vigour of barbarism, and
mastering him the more readily from the early absence
of the habit of self-restraint. His natural cunning
was quickened by the acquirement of some of the
practices of the white man ; and his natural passions,
such as revenge, and the love of drinking, were
strengthened, the former by an infinite series of
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 155
mortifications, insults, perhaps injuries, received from
the white people among whom he sojourned, the latter
by facility in the means of gratification.
There are certain plants and fruits and flowers that
grow wild in the forest, which improve by being
transplanted to the garden and cultivated with care ;
there are others that shoot forth in the rank and worth
less luxuriance of weeds ; and there are others that
perish under the fostering hand of the most skilful
gardener. There are birds and quadrupeds that may
be tamed ; and others which retain deep traces of
their native wildness to the last. So does it seem to
be with the race of man. As the Indian orator once
said to President Monroe, " The white man is born
for the sunshine, the red man for the shade." The
white man, the black man, and the man of every
colour but the red, may be tamed, and improve by
taming. He alone seems, indeed, born for the woods ;
it is there only that the virtues he possesses can be
exercised to the benefit of himself and his tribe.
Place him in the sunshine, in the haunts of social and
civilized life, sad is the experience, and woful the
truth he becomes, ninety-nine times in a hundred,
the worst, the most mischievous of mongrels ; a com
pound of the ferocity of the savage, and the cunning,
deceit, and sensuality of the civilized scoundrel.
So it fell out with Hans Pipe. He became a
drunkard and a vagabond ; and was finally turned
away from Colonel Vancour s house, for having drawn
his knife upon one of the black children, who refused
to bring him another mug of cider. He was too lazy
to work, except at trifling jobs, for which he asked
nothing but liquor, and to which nothing else could
156 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
incite him. His days were spent in drunkenness, and
his nights consumed in prowling about, thieving, or
in barns or outhouses, sleeping away the effects of his
daily debauch. Sometimes, but very rarely, he would
come to the mansion-house, when he was sober, and
beg for food or clothing, which was never refused him.
Perhaps a more worthless, dangerous and revengeful
being never crawled upon the earth, than was this
wretched outcast of the savage and civilized world.
His appearance was horrible and appalling. His long,
lank, raven hair hung about his shoulders, and almost
covered his low forehead ; his high cheek-bones, flat
tened nose, wide nostrils, and still wider mouth, to
gether with his miserable garments and dirty habits,
made the heart shudder to look upon him. But it
was his eye his malignant, bloodshot eye, circled
with the flaming ring of habitual intemperance, that
gave the most unequivocal indications of the fiend
which kept the citadel of his heart. It discoursed of
murder, public or hidden, at midnight or mid-day;
of a vengeance which a moment might light up, and
which years would not extinguish; of secret plots,
and open daring.
It happened that there was no man about the
house, or within call, when Hans Pipe came into the
kitchen, brutally intoxicated, and, as usual in that
condition, insolent and ungovernable. Colonel Van-
cour had ridden out after dinner, on a visit of busi
ness; the labourers had not yet returned from the
fields ; and Ariel had sallied forth to expatiate on the
delights of the roasted pig to his neighbour, Mynheer
Frelinghuysen. Sybrandt found the miserable, de
graded being brandishing his club, and clamoring for
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 157
more liquor. He was enraged into that sort of half-
wilful madness which drunkenness often produces,
and which is not so much the absence of reason, as
of a disposition to obey its dictates. The little black
boys were cowering in corners, afraid to run away,
and even the redoubtable Aunt Nauntje shrunk from
asserting her authority in her own peculiar dominion.
Sybrandt at first tried to soothe Captain Pipe, as
he called himself, into something like good-humour,
in hopes he would go away peaceably. But the cap
tain had lost all control of himself, or did not choose
to exert it, and answered our hero with brutal threats
against the whole household unless his wishes were
complied with. As the discussion went on he grew
so indecently abusive, that Madam Vancour and
Catalina, whose apprehensions had called them to the
spot, were glad to retire out of hearing. Sybrandt
became angry, and, at length, as the captain was pro
ceeding to force open a cupboard where he expected
to find liquor, seized him by the shoulders and jerked
him back with such force as to send him reeling
to the other extremity of the kitchen. The fury of
the madman redoubled. He seemed all at once to
become steady, and, advancing quickly towards Sy
brandt, who had no weapon in his hand, dealt him a
blow with his heavy walking-stick, which, had it not
failed of full effect, would have incapacitated him for
further effort at once. Fortunately, Sybrandt, though
taken by surprise, preserved his head by a quick
motion on one side; but the stroke fell on his left
shoulder, with a force that made him reel. The little
black boys cried out with all their might ; old Nauntje
sallied forth as fast as her limbs could carry her, to
158 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
call for help, and Catalina, uttering a piercing shriek,
flew into the house for the colonel s sword, with
which she returned in a minute.
But the contest was over before she arrived. Cap
tain Pipe, seeing his antagonist partly disabled by the
blow he had given, and having become infuriated
with rage, was now a perfect savage, reckless of every
thing but vengeance, and panting for blood. He drew
the long knife which he always wore about him since
he was cast off by the colonel, and, flourishing it in
the air with a shrill demoniac shout, he made a mortal
lunge at the heart of our hero, whose only defence
was in his right arm and the keenness with which he
watched the motions of the enemy. The blow was
well aimed, but the activity and coolness of Sybrandt
enabled him to escape it by darting on one side. The
knife passed through his clothes, just under the left
arm, and at the instant the young man seized the
miscreant, holding him so tightly that he could not
readily extricate his weapon. A momentary yet des
perate struggle ensued, which ended in Sybrandt s
tripping up the heels of his adversary, and at the same
moment throwing him backwards with such force that
he fell upon one of the great andirons in the fireplace,
and lay senseless. The knife remained clenched in
his hand; but his eyes were closed, and the blood
flowed freely from the back of his head.
At this moment Catalina returned with the sword,
which she implored Sybrandt to accept. " The wretch
is not dead," said she ; " I see the motion of his breath
ing. He is only practising one of his savage arts upon
you. Dear Sybrandt, take the sword; and and
do not kill him, but stand on your defence." The
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 159
youth long remembered the, " dear Sybrandt," and so
did the Indian, who, as Catalina had shrewdly sus-
spected, was only playing possum, as the phrase is in
rare old Virginia ; that is, only making believe he was
insensible. He intended to watch his opportunity, the
moment he recovered a little, to jump up and accom
plish the destruction of his victim. But the gift of
the sword and the caution of Catalina defeated his
intention, and engendered in his heart a feeling of
determined vengeance, that afterward more than once
put the life of that young lady in imminent peril.
The adventure ended in the arrival of some of the
neighbours, whom the cries of Aunt Nauntje had
brought to her aid, and the depositing of Captain Pipe
in prison, where he expiated his violence by a confine
ment of several weeks. Here he had full leisure to
brood over his revenge, and lay his plans for its grati
fication. When the period of his imprisonment ex
pired, he adopted an entirely new mode of life. He
became perfectly temperate, docile, and industrious.
By degrees, he gained the pity and good-will of the
neighbourhood, got plenty of work, and saved every
penny of his wages. Colonel Vancour and his family
forgave, and encouraged him, not only by employment,
but by various little presents of money and clothes.
Among the rest, Catalina, although she always shud
dered at his approach, presented him with a Bible,
which he was constantly found poring over in his
hours of leisure ; for he had been taught to read while
under the patronage of Colonel Vancour. He con
stantly attended church, and became a communicant,
to the great delight of many pious, well-meaning peo
ple, who viewed him as a brand rescued from the fire.
160 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
But old Tjerck, who had been a prisoner in his youth
among the Indians, shook his wise gray head, and
often said, " He no good Christian not he. I see
de debbil Indian in he eye yet. When Indian most
good, den he going to be most worst. I know him ;
he like de painter he most quiet when he jist going
to jump." But a white prophet has little honour in
his own country, much less a black one.
161
CHAPTER XIX.
ADDITIONAL TRAITS OF THE CIVILIZED SAVAGE.
WHEN Captain Pipe had saved money enough for
the purpose, he one day went to Albany, and bought
him a handsome musket, to shoot ducks with, as he said.
From this date his industry flagged not a little, and
he passed much of his time in the woods along the
river ; and sometimes nobody knew where he was
gone or what was his object. His object, his sole
object, was revenge. He hated Colonel Vancour, be
cause his protection had been forfeited by base ingrat
itude ; he hated Sybrandt, for having wounded and
conquered him ; and, above all, he hated Catalina, for
having robbed him of one of the sweetest moments of
revenge, by cautioning Sybrandt against his wiles,
and furnishing him with a weapon to defeat them.
Finally, he knew that he could consummate his re
venge on all three, by taking the life of Catalina.
This he intended to do on the first safe opportunity,
and then flee into Canada to the remnant of his tribe.
With this intent, the moment he had got the musket,
which (by enabling him to commit the crime unseen)
was safer than his knife, he set about his design with
the patience, and cunning, and perseverance, which
savages are known to exercise in the prosecution of
their vindictive schemes. Still, whatever may be the
intensity of the Indian s desire for vengeance, it is in
some measure a point of honour to achieve it at the
11
162
least possible risk to himself. In all their undertakings,
the savages never wantonly or unnecessarily trifle with
their own safety. They die bravely, but they seldom
seek death.
Wherever Catalina went he kept her in his eye,
hovering and lounging at a distance, apparently taking
no notice of her, but intent on his game. In the day
time he was prowling about the deep glen we have
described as once a favourite resort of Sybrandt, in
hopes the young lady might chance to pay it a visit;
and at night he haunted the vicinity of the mansion-
house, like a hungry wolf thirsting for the blood of
his victim. The barking of the dogs often excited the
notice of the household, who believed it was occasioned
by the maraudings of wild beasts, which at that time
were no uncommon visitors. On one or two occasions
a watch was set ; but nothing was discovered, for the
enemy was too wary.
One dark, cloudy night, in the sultry month of
August, Catalina was sitting at her window, which
opened towards a copse of bushes and vines that had
been suffered to grow up in wild luxuriance, for the
purpose of sheltering a hundred little birds, that sung,
and built their nests, and reared their young in safety
among the tangled branches. It had rained early in
the evening, leaving a heavy sky, loaded with vapours,
and a sweltering heat in the air, that disposed both
mind and body to indolent relaxation. Swarms of
little fire-flies flitted gayly among the grass and foliage,
illuminating the obscurity; and, afar, the lazy light
nings flashed dimly at intervals upon the bosom of
the dun, motionless clouds. Finding that the light in
her room attracted a variety of the wandering insects
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 163
of the night, Catalina removed it into a little closet
adjoining, and, seating herself again at the window,
indulged a long glance at the past, a long and anxious
look into the future.
For some time now, the hearts of Sybrandt and
Catalina had been quietly and imperceptibly drawing
nearer to each other. As they were more together,
the former gradually overcame his shy awkwardness,
and that propensity to create mortifications to himself
which had been the curse of his early life. Having no
one to excite jealousy, and no fear of ridicule before
his eyes, his heart and his intellect gradually budded,
blossomed, and expanded into full maturity ; he gained
in polish from association with a sprightly, cultivated
woman ; and the good-humour and spirit which had
been repressed by his great talents for self-torment day
by day more fearlessly asserted themselves. He was
fast becoming what nature had intended, an object
of interest and consideration to all around him ; and
the star of woman was gradually leading him to the
haven of happiness as well as distinction.
" How much my cousin Sybrandt improves every
day," thought Catalina, as she sat at the open window,
and sighed to the silence of night and darkness. The
family, all but herself, had long retired to repose, when
suddenly a loud growling of the dogs awoke her from
her revery. At the same instant she thought she dis
tinguished something or somebody crouching about
the little copse-wood. In another instant she distinctly
heard something like the shutting of a penknife, and
saw a number of sparks of fire flash in the obscurity
whence the sound seemed to proceed. The young
lady started, and was reflecting for a moment upon
164
what this could mean, when the same clicking and
the same flashing of sparks of fire occurred, followed
by a sort of hissing, and a blue flame rising apparently
out of the earth. The dogs now began to bark most
furiously, and Catalina, shutting her window, went to
bed. She pondered for a while on the odd things she
had witnessed ; but soon the vision of a tall, dark-eyed
/ youth, with teeth whiter than her own fair bosom or
all Afric s ivory, flitted before her half-sleeping, half
waking fancy, and, closing her bright blue eye with
\ gentle pressure, prompted her innocent sleep with a
thousand glowing visions of future happiness.
Some little discussion took place at breakfast con
cerning the uproar among the dogs, and Catalina
mentioned what she had seen. The general opinion
was, that the noise was imaginary or accidental; the
sparks, nothing more than fire-flies; and the blue
flame, a will-o -the-wisp. In a little while the whole
was forgotten, nor would it ever have been recalled to
their recollection but for a circumstance which took
place not long afterward.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 165
CHAPTER XX.
A HIT AND A MISS.
CATALINA, a few days, or rather, as I believe, the
very next day after the appearance of the will-o -the-
wisp, went to Albany on a visit of a week to one of
her friends. It was customary at that time to make
little journeys as well as great ones on horseback, and
Catalina was fond of an exercise in which she ex
celled. In returning from this visit she was caught in
a heavy shower, which obliged her to change her
dress, and the rnaid had placed the wet garments on
an old-fashioned high-backed chair, just before her
chamber window, for the purpose of drying them.
" What, you here ! " cried Ariel, who had just en
tered through the garden, as usual, that he might
have a chance of reconnoitring the kitchen ; " you
here ! why, I ll swear I saw either you or your
ghost sitting at the window as I came in."
Catalina smiled, and explained the cause of his
mistake.
" By Jove ! " cried Ariel, " I must get your woman
to dress me up a scarecrow for my cornfield, for I
never saw any thing more natural.
About ten in the evening of that day, as the whole
family, together with Sybrandt and Ariel the latter,
as usual, fast asleep in his chair were sitting around
the supper-table, they were startled by the report of a
gun close to the rear of the house, as it seemed, fol-
166 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
lowed by a loud barking of the dogs. Sybrandt and
Ariel ran out of the back door to see what was the
matter, and found the whole population of the kitchen
in great commotion, talking all together, each one
telling what was known or imagined. One declared
that the gun was fired from the little copse-wood,
another from behind the raspberry bushes, a third
from behind the garden-gate ; and a fourth was sure
he saw a man jump over the fence immediately after
the report of the gun. As usual in such cases, it was
impossible to come at the truth, and, as no harm
seemed to have been done, most people came to the
conclusion that none was intended. On returning to
her room, Catalina found the chair on which her wet
garments had been placed to dry, lying on the floor.
It was one of those tall, top-heavy affairs common of
old, with a framed seat and back which respectively
included stuffed portions, in this case covered with
damask. It seemed to have been violently over
turned, but her maid solemnly declared that she had
not been in the room since her mistress left it, and the
whole household declared the same. The mystery,
therefore, remained unexplained.
The next morning, however, when the maid came
to fold up the dress, as she had been told to do, she
was astonished to find it perforated with round holes
in two places.
" Lord, young missee! " exclaimed she, " what have
you done to your riding-habit ? It s all full of holes, I
declare ! " Catalina was puzzled to death. She tried
to recollect where and how it was possible they could
have come there, but could think of nothing to ac
count for them. In examining the old chair to see if
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 167
there was any thing there that might throw light on
the matter, Catalina at length observed a small hole
in the damask, about the size of those in her riding-
habit, into which she ran her taper finger, and, feeling
something hard, with some little difficulty drew forth
a leaden bullet. The maid shrieked, and the young
lady turned pale at the association of circumstances
that instantly presented themselves to her mind, ac
companied by the recollection of the strange appear
ances she had witnessed a few nights before.
The girl was eagerly running to exhibit the bullet
to Madam Vancour and the colonel, when Catalina
interposed, and directed her to remain where she was.
The young lady then sat down and reflected on the
course it was proper to pursue. She knew the unea
siness, nay, misery, she would inflict, (on her mother
especially), by communicating circumstances which
seemed sufficiently to indicate that she had some
secret enemy who sought her life ; and she doubted
whether any measures that might be adopted to
secure the assassin or defend her in future from his
designs would be effectual. At length Sybrandt
occurred to her, as one who might most secretly in
vestigate this affair, and afford her in the mean time
protection as well as advice. Accordingly she re
solved to communicate the whole affair to him on the
earliest occasion. She then enjoined her attendant to
silence, under penalty of her highest displeasure. The
little maid was sadly mortified at losing the oppor
tunity of telling such a wonderful story, but, being
greatly attached to her young mistress, to whom she
had been given at the moment of her birth, she reluc
tantly obeyed.
168
Sybrandt came over soon after, to inquire if any
new discoveries had been made, for he could not help
cherishing certain vague suspicions that there must
be something more than chance or fancy in the dis
charge of the gun, and the phenomena heretofore de
scribed. Catalina invited him to walk in the garden,
and there disclosed all the particulars recorded in the
preceding pages, up to the discovery of the bullet,
which she exhibited. The young man shuddered,
while at the same time his eye flashed fire. He could
scarcely restrain himself from catching Catalina in his
arms, and pressing her to his bosom, as mothers em
brace their babes when they apprehend the approach
of danger. He gazed on her for some moments with
intense interest, and then exclaimed :
" Dear Catalina ! I will protect and defend you with
my life, and all my life ! "
" I know you will, Sybrandt," replied she, with a full
look of more than gratitude. " I know you will, for
you have risked it once already for me. But perhaps,
after all, it may be accident, the firing of this gun."
Sybrandt shook his head. " I would not needlessly
alarm you ; but it is plain to me that there was mur
der meant. The appearances you saw that night in
the copse- wood are now clearly explained to my mind.
The click you heard and described as resembling the
opening or shutting of a penknife was, I have no doubt,
the cocking of a gun ; the sparks were those of the
flint ; and the flame, the flashing of the pan. I recol
lect it was a damp, wet evening, which accounts for
the gun missing fire."
The explanation was clear ; Catalina felt a faintness
come over her, and leaned heavily on his arm.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 169
" Go on," said she, gasping for breath : " go on ; let
me know the worst I am to expect."
" I will ; for it is necessary to your future safety.
No doubt the villain, whoever he is, mistook the clothes
on the back of the chair, which you say was standing
directly before the window, for you, and and "
Here the increasing weight of Catalina arrested his
attention, and, looking in her face, he saw her pale as
death. In a moment after, her strength forsook her,
and she sank in his arms, overpowered by the sense
of past as well as future probable dangers. Sybrandt
placed her softly upon a little grass terrace, hid from
view by a wilderness of flowering shrubs, and, sup
porting her head on his bosom, in wild perturbation
awaited her recovery. In a little while she opened her
eyes, blushed, and raised herself from his arms.
At length she said, with a languid smile, " You must
forgive me, I am but a woman."
"^And I am but a man," said Sybrandt warmly;
" yet here I swear never to rest till I have dragged
this hidden wretch to light and punishment. And if
you, my dear cousin, will allow me, I here solemnly
devote myself to your safety from this time forward.
When I am not by your side, I will be hovering around
you unseen, watching every being that approaches
you, or searching every corner where an enemy might
conceal himself. Do you do you value me suffi
ciently to trust me with the precious charge ? "
The soft and swelling bosom of Catalina heaved,
as she looked in his face with glistening eyes and an
swered,
" I do value you sufficiently, and I will trust my
cousin. Whom else can I trust ? I dare not tell the
170 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
story of this bullet to my father and mother ; for it
would plant thorns in their pillow, and destroy their
happiness. I must trust you," added she ; " and if
I were not obliged to do it, still I believe I should trust
you."
" Dear Catalina ! But you know me that is
enough."
" Yes, we know each other," replied she, with a
look of unbounded reliance and affection. Sybrandt
did not take advantage of this moment to tell a tale
of love. There was something too awful and affect
ing in the circumstances that gave rise to this inter
view. The idea of the death that seemed hovering
over her; of the secret midnight murderer who was
besetting her steps wherever she went, and watching
her sleeping and waking, communicated to her an
air of sanctity, and gave to her glowing beauty, her
confiding words and loving looks, a holy innocence,
which, while it melted the soul in unutterable tender
ness, repressed every selfish wish and every sensual
desire. It was settled, ere they separated, that Cata
lina should refrain from going out in future, alone, or
in the dusk of the evening, and should never show
herself at the window, after dark, until Sybrandt had
taken every measure to investigate this mysterious
affair, and detect the would-be assassin. To this ob
ject he was now about to devote his exclusive atten
tion, animated by his love, as well as by the hope that,
guided as he should be by a latent suspicion which
had risen up in his mind, he might succeed in the
attempt.
" What the devil have you two been doing all this
while in the garden?" cried Ariel, who had arrived
171
during their absence. And he looked very knowing
as he asked the question.
" Picking flowers," answered Catalina, blushing,
and then turning pale.
" Picking a quarrel, I should rather suppose, by
your looks " ; and then he began to banter them a
little : but, seeing the pain it gave them both, he was
too good-natured to pursue the amusement. Honest
Ariel never uttered a maxim in his life, but he acted
upon a very good one, to wit, never to carry jesting
to the verge of malignity, as many people do. When
he saw he gave pain, he desisted in a moment. Per
haps he might have been a little influenced in his
self-denial on this occasion by a sly retort of Catalina,
who, in reply to an assertion that he overheard their
whisperings, observed, with some of her wonted arch
significance, that " it was only the humming of the
bees."
Sybrandt soon after took his leave, declining an in
vitation from Ariel to go and see the great ox, which
the gourmand visited every day, and on whose fat
sirloin he banqueted in delicious foretaste. The
young man pursued his way homeward in deep medi
tation, of a mingled tone of pleasure and pain. The
delight of having, as he could not but fancy, gained
an interest in the heart of Catalina thrilled through
his frame. Yet the cup was dashed with black and
bitter ingredients. The treasure which he longed one
day to make his own was in danger of being torn
from him by some unseen and unknown hand, against
which it behooved him to guard with sleepless vigil
ance. The dark idea of death mingled with bright
visions of future felicity. His anticipations seemed
Ill
172 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
like flowers blooming on the verge of the grave, and
the grim spectre of mortality stalked hand in hand
with the smiling cherubs, Love and Hope. Out of
these conflicting feelings arose, however, a fixed deter
mination to devote his time, his talents, and his life,
if necessary, to the great purpose which now took
possession of his whole soul.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 173
CHAPTER XXI.
A TRIAL OF SKILL.
IN casting about among the population of the
vicinage, there was but one person on whom Sybrandt
could fasten the slightest suspicion, and that was
Captain Pipe. He knew the persevering spirit of
revenge which animates the sons of the forest, and
the patience with which they watch and wait the
moment of attaining their object. He remembered
the bitter resentment he had expressed at being dis
carded by Colonel Vancour, and recalled to mind the
look of malignity he had cast on Catalina, as they
were carrying him to prison on the day of the quarrel
at the mansion-house. He knew that an Indian never
forgives. His sudden change after his release from
durance his apparent piety, industry, and sobriety,
and the circumstance of the purchase of the gun
all arose in succession to the recollection of Sybrandt,
and seemed to indicate some plan in the mind of the
Indian. There was no one else he could suspect ; for
the character of the neighbourhood was that of sober,
quiet simplicity, and no strangers had been known to
visit it for a long time past. The result of these
reflections was a determination to watch the motions
of Captain Pipe from that time forward, and, if pos
sible, to do so without exciting his mistrust.
His first step was to tempt him to remain under his
observation, by offering him high wages in the employ
174 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
of Mr. Dennis Vancour. Accordingly, he sought him
out for the purpose, and the Indian acceded to his
proposal without any apparent suspicion of his real
object. He came the next day ; and that day, and
every other day, Sybrandt, under various pretences,
took care to have him perpetually under his eye,
avoiding every appearance of design. The Indian
had his eye on him, also, and though he discovered no
indications of being aware of this perpetual super
vision, his own conscious heart whispered a criminal
ity that redoubled his watchful self-command.
" What have you done with your musket, captain ? "
said Sybrandt, one day, suddenly ; and he fancied he
could detect a slight start, as the Indian caught the
question. It was, however, so almost imperceptible
that it might have been mere fancy.
" I left it at home," said he.
" Why so ? There is plenty of game about this
house, as well as at Colonel Vancour s."
" I never heard there was much game about the
colonel s."
" O, plenty ! Fine shooting, especially in the night.
The birds sometimes sit in the windows to be
shot at."
The Indian, who was at that moment stooping,
turned an upward glance of scorn at Sybrandt.
" I am no fool the Indian s game does not sit in
the windows."
" Why not ? Suppose you were to see a beautiful
deer, standing looking out of a window at night,
would you not be tempted to shoot it?"
" Maybe I might," said the captain, gruffly.
" But if your gun were to miss fire on account of
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 175
the damp, or the deer was to turn out only a sham,
what would you do then, captain ? " said Sybrandt,
affect ing to be in jest.
" I d look sharper another time."
Sybrandt fancied he was probing the Indian with
out his perceiving it, but he understood the allegory
perfectly, and only wrapped himself up the more
closely in the impenetrable folds of savage hypocrisy.
He never went out of sight of the house during the
day, and, though Sybrandt took every means for the
purpose, he could never ascertain that he was absent
at night. On one occasion he rode out, taking care
to say, in the hearing of the captain, that he was
going to Albany, and should not return till the mor
row. He then actually went to the city, from whence
he returned after midnight, leaving his horse in a
field at a considerable distance. He found that the
captain had not left the house, nor did he leave it that
night.
By degrees he appeared to relax his watchfulness,
for the purpose of throwing the captain off his guard.
He left him frequently, but it was only to visit Cata-
lina, who always received him with a gentle melan
choly welcome, that moved him almost to tears. " You
come so seldom now; but I know the reason, and
thank you," would she say. It was evident that she
laboured under an unconquerable depression. There
was no longer any elasticity of spirits, and the roses
of her cheek gradually changed to lilies. Sybrandt s
heart would swell with sorrowful tenderness when he
saw how she suffered, under the consciousness that
the arrow of death was pointed at her bosom, she
knew not when or by whom, and that every moment
.-
176 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
might be her last. An inexpressible tenderness, a
solemn sympathy, a union of feelings partaking of
time and eternity, grew up between them ; and their
affections became almost as pure as those of the
fabled spirits with which imagination has peopled the
region of the skies.
But the caution of the savage never slept for a
moment ; and, so far as any one knew, he never
availed himself of the absence of Sybrandt to neglect
his employment, and leave the house, except for a few
moments at a time. Still, suspicion lingered in the
mind of Sybrandt, and when, finally, the captain had
finished his work, and there was no longer any pretext
for retaining him, he relaxed not his vigilance, but
, continued to keep a wary eye upon him wherever he
jwent. There are no people in the world, perhaps, so
cunning and distrustful, so expert in surprising and
so difficult to be surprised, as the sons of the forest.
Continually at war, either with their neighbours or
with the wild beasts, they are for ever under the
necessity of perpetual circumspection. A thousand
appearances and indications that escape the notice of
civilized men, convey lessons of caution and experi
ence to the savage : like the tracks in the forest, which
the white man cannot see, they are visible to the
Indian, and serve either as guides to pursue or warn
ings to avoid an enemy. Thus, notwithstanding
all the care Sybrandt took to disguise his system of
espionage, the instinct of Captain Pipe very soon
taught him that he was suspected and watched.
One day, not many days after the period of quit
ting his employment at Mr. Dennis Vancour s, he
came over to the mansion-house, and announced his
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 177
intention of quitting that part of the country, and
spending the rest of his days among the remnant of
his countrymen in Canada. " You prevented my
being burned by the Mohawks," said he to Colonel
Vancour ; " you saved my life, but you turned me out
of doors. The Indian never forgets." The colonel
gave him a variety of little presents that would be
useful among his countrymen, telling him, at the same
time, to remember what he owed to the white men,
and to be their friend whenever it was in his power.
" The Indian never forgets nor forgives," replied
the captain, pronouncing the latter part of the sen
tence to himself, and grating his teeth. Colonel Van
cour was not deceived. He said in his heart, " That
fellow is the enemy of me and mine ; thank Heaven,
he is going away for ever."
12
178 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XXII.
OUR HERO LOSES HIS CHARACTER FOR MORALS AND GALLANTRY.
NEXT day, the miserable cabin which the captain
had built for himself was found shut up and deserted.
The Indian had been seen at daylight, with his gun
and his pack, wending his course Northward, on his
way to Canada, as was supposed. His departure
freed Catalina from the load of cares, fears, and anx
ieties which had oppressed her for months past. This
dejection, and the total cessation of her rural rides
and rambles, had affected the health of that young
lady, and attracted the notice of her parents. They
frequently questioned her on the cause, but she either
denied the effect, or passed the subject off with eva
sions, which only excited increased anxiety as well as
curiosity. They had, in vain, urged her to resume
her usual amusements and exercises : but now, freed
in a great measure from her apprehensions of Captain
Pipe, she soon gathered courage and spirits to smile
and be happy again.
It was not so with Sybrandt. He could not con
quer his suspicions that the captain was lurking
somewhere in the woods, not far off. He had traced
him about three miles on the road towards the North,
and there lost sight of him ; nor could he find, by the
most minute inquiries, that he had been seen on any
other. But he thought it would be cruel to mention
these misgivings to Catalina. He contented hiroseM
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 179
with being with her wherever she went, and mount
ing guard about the mansion-house the better part of
every night. Honest Dennis took him to task, more
than once, for the nightly dissipations in which it was
suspected he now indulged, and Sybrandt had the
painful mortification of seeing that he was daily of
fending his benefactor almost past forgiveness. The
news of his having become such a rake soon spread
abroad ; for what secret was ever kept in a country
neighbourhood? It reached the mansion-house, with
divers handsome additions, such as that of gambling,
drinking, and seduction. The colonel and Madam
Vancour began to behave coolly towards him : Cata-
lina reproached him only with her looks and increas
ing paleness. She withdrew herself gradually from
his society, and seldom came into the room when he
happened to be on a visit.
Sybrandt was half-distracted with perplexing an
guish. He asked of himself whether he should poison
the happiness of Catalina and her parents, by telling
them the cause of his nocturnal rambles ; or leave the
poor girl in ignorance, and unprotected; or sacrifice
himself, his character, and his happiness. " It is better
that she should believe me a sot and a profligate,"
thought he, " than wither and fade, as she did before,
in the constant apprehension of being murdered. If
there must be a victim, it shall be myself." He con
tinued his course of watchfulness, and by degrees the
supposed irregularities of his conduct banished him
from the society of her he most loved on earth. Cata
lina refused any longer to see him, and now seldom
went abroad, except once in a great while to Albany
with her mother.
180
Observing the paleness and growing melancholy of
their daughter, the colonel and Madam Vancour, after
consulting together, and comparing various circum
stances, finally agreed in the supposition that Catalina
was attached to her cousin, whose ill-conduct had oc
casioned her unhappiness. In that case each agreed
it was best to separate the young people for some
time ; and accordingly it was resolved to accept an
invitation for Catalina, from a near relative, to come
and spend the winter with her in New York. " The
sooner the better," said the colonel : " it is now late
in autumn, and I will take her to town immediately."
The daughter offered no objections, and the prep
arations were soon made. It was not customary to
travel with so many trunks and bandboxes as young
ladies must carry along in these days. The next time
Sybrandt called at the mansion-house with a message
from his benefactor, Catalina said to herself she would
see him once, only once, before she went away for so
many months. " I owe him for a life which he has
rendered of little worth ; but I will see him once
more," said she to herself.
She went down stairs, where she found Sybrandt
alone. The old people had gone out to pay a morn
ing visit. Sybrandt started at the alteration a few
weeks had produced in the poor girl, and she shrunk
at his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. " It is remorse
and dissipation," thought she. Rallying the pride and
dignity of virtuous woman, she, however, addressed
him with an unreserved kindness that affected him
deeply.
" I am going," said she, " to spend the winter in
New York. We set out the day after to-morrow."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 181
Thank God ! thank God ! " cried Sybrandt, with
clasped hands.
Indignation swelled the heart of the young lady at
this ungallant, nay, insulting exclamation. A sudden
paleness was instantly succeeded by a flush of rosy
red, and a flash of her bright blue eye. This too
passed away, and a paleness still more deadly suc
ceeded.
At length she rallied. " So, you are glad I am go
ing," she said, with a languid smile.
" O, yes, rejoiced beyond measure."
" Indeed ! " said she, and tears gathered in her eyes.
"Indeed you you but I cannot help admiring
your frankness. I see you are no hypocrite, now at
least."
Sybrandt all at once recollected himself, and col
oured at the sudden perception of the apparent rude
ness of his conduct.
" Forgive me, dear Catalina. I did not know what
I was saying, or rather I was not conscious at the
moment of the strange appearance my words would
have. Forgive me."
"I do; but,"- added she, with a mingling of
wounded pride and affection " But, may I ask, cousin
Sybrandt, if you really meant what you said ? "
"I did; but"-
" Enough. Good-by. Since you are so happy, it
is needless for me to wish your happiness. But I do
wish it with all my soul. It will be long before we
meet again. Good-by."
" Stay, dear cousin, dear Catalina."
" Dear Catalina! ", repeated she, with bitter scorn.
" Do we thank God when we part with those who
182
are dear to us ? Spare your hypocrisy, sir, and take
my last farewell."
" Catalina, before you go, I will account for my
conduct. Permit me to see you to-morrow ; then all
shall be explained."
" All is explained, already. I am now satisfied,
quite satisfied ; " and she moved slowly towards the
door.
" You will one day be sorry for this. O, hear me,
I beseech you, now, since I am not to see you again;"
and he sought to intercept her.
" Let me pass, sir," cried she, passionately. " I say
again, I want no explanations. Your words and ac
tions have both been sufficiently expressive of late.
Let me pass."
He obeyed her, bowing lowly and sorrowfully. At
the door she turned full upon him, and, clasping her
hands, exclaimed with fervour, " Thank God, I am
going!"
183
CHAPTER XXm.
THE PIPE IS BROKEN AT LAST.
SYBRANDT went away in bitterness of heart, but
with a determination, if possible, to see Catalina once
again before she departed, and give her a full expla
nation of his late conduct. In the mean time he did
not, for a moment, relax in his vigilance. The night
turned out dark and blustering ; the frost-bitten leaves
fell thick before the damp, piercing, north-east wind,
whose shrill meanings mingled with the dashing of
the waves along the shores of the river. The young
man was on his watch, as usual when the night set
in, and, as usual, nothing occurred to excite suspicion,
until about ten o clock, when he saw the window of
Catalina s room raised, and the little black waiting-
maid standing with a light before it, calling to some
one in the kitchen. Immediately after, he fancied he
heard a more than usual stir in the copse-wood, close
by where he stood, and that he could distinguish in
the pauses of the wind the suppressed breathing of
some one near. The darkness was now intense, and
no object could be distinctly seen save those imme
diately in the range of the light from the window.
A shadow passing to and fro within the room showed
that some one beside the dusky attendant was there,
and his heart beat thick with agony while it whis
pered it must be Catalina. The low breathing still
continued, and became quicker and quicker. Shall I
184
call out to Catalina to beware ? thought he. No : that
would only bring her to the window to see what was
the matter. Shall I go and alarm the house ? No : in
the interim her life may be taken. Quick as thought
these ideas crossed his mind, and quick as thought he
darted into the thicket, as he beheld Catalina approach
the window to speak to some one below, and heard a
clicking sound like the cocking of a gun. As he did
so he distinguished a single low exclamation of sur
prise, and, immediately, some one seemed making his
way violently through the branches. Sybrandt fol
lowed the sound as fast as possible, and once or twice
fancied he saw something moving a little way before
him. But, whatever it was, it evaded all his exertions,
and, favoured by the darkness of the night, escaped
his pursuit. On his return, he found the shutters of
Catalina s room closed, and, believing her safe for the
night, determined not to alarm the family.
The next day, Catalina, unconscious of the danger
that hovered around her, took a fancy to stroll to the
little rocky dell we have heretofore described as a
favourite resort of Sybrandt, where he was once accus
tomed to retire to conjure up spectres of misery and
mortification. In happier times they had been used
to visit it together, and it was associated in the mind
of Catalina with many hours of innocent enjoyment.
She wished to see it once more before she left the
country ; led by that attractive sympathy which for
ever draws the heart towards scenes of past felicity.
The morning was one of the favourite progeny of
Autumn. The indications of the storm the night be
fore had passed away, and were succeeded by a still,
clear and yet hazy, sky, a pure elastic air, that never
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 185
fail to waken pleasant feelings in the heart where
they are not asleep for ever. As she passed onward,
the blue-bird chirped his plaintive notes of farewell
ere he went to seek the summer in some more genial
climate ; the grasshoppers, awakened from the torpor
of the chilly night, were sporting as gayly as ever, for
getful of the past, and happily careless of the future ;
the grass under her feet began to show a pale and
sickly yellowness ; and, every instant, some portion of
the party-coloured robes of the forest fell whispering
to the ground, again to mingle with the dust which
gave it life and supported it to maturity. All was
calm, and beautiful, and touching. It was beauty
smiling in the consciousness of being still lovely, yet
sighing in the certainty that youth is past, that she
has already gained the summit-hill of life, and is now
descending into the vale; and sensible that, though
her prospect is still fair to look upon, it is every day
contracting towards a single point, beyond which is
eternity. The white columns of smoke ascended
straight upwards, undisturbed by a breath of wind,
and presenting to the contemplative mind images,
and symbols, of rural happiness here, of pure and
spiritual bliss hereafter. But the feelings of Catalina
were not in a state to enjoy the charms of the scene,
or the associations it naturally inspired. She walked
along in painful musings until she carne to the quiet
nook she sought, and, seating herself, soon became
lost in the labyrinth of her own perplexities and sor
rows.
The residence of Mr. Dennis Vancour was on a
rising ground, which overlooked the extensive mead
ows spreading along the river, and commanded from
186 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
its porch a view of the mansion-house. Sybrandt saw
Catalina depart ; and the course she pursued, as well
as the sympathetic feeling of his own heart, told him
whither she was going. He turned pale and trem
bled, when he called to mind the circumstances of the
preceding night; and, taking an opposite direction,
hastened to the glen, determined to hide himself and
watch over her safety. He arrived at the spot before
her, and, concealing himself in the hollow of an im
mense oak that nodded on the brink of a precipice
over which the waters plunged, waited what might
follow. In a few moments Catalina made her appear
ance, and seated herself, as we have before described,
in a recess among the rocks and trees, just where the
bubbling basin at the foot of the cascade laved the
mossy stones at her feet. There was something touch
ing and sorrowful in her attitude and look, as she
leaned on her hand, and watched the foaming torrent
tumbling down the steep. Now is the time to tell
her all, thought Sybrandt, and he forgot for a moment
his great purpose in coming thither. Another moment
brought it back to his remembrance. Here he re
mained quiet for somewhat more than half an hour,
when he fancied he saw a pair of eyes glaring from
the evergreens that skirted the crest of the cliff. He
shrunk closer in his covert, and presently saw a head
cautiously protruded beyond the thicket. It was that
of Captain Pipe. He saw him look cautiously round
in every direction ; he saw" him lay himself down and
crawl on his belly, dragging his gun after him towards
the edge of the precipice, that he might gain a full
view of his victim below, and he followed him
noiselessly, creeping like a shadow rather than a sub-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 187
stance. At length the Indian raised himself on his
knee, cocked his unerring musket, and carried it to
his cheek. In an instant it was snatched from his
grasp, and in an instant more the Indian had grappled
it again. It went off in the struggle, and Catalina,
looking up, saw a sight that recalled all her tender
ness and all her fears.
Almost on the verge of the precipice stood Sybrandt
and the active, powerful, Indian, struggling for life,
each straining every sinew to force the other off.
Now one, now the other, seemed to have the advan
tage ; now the back of one and anon of the other was
towards her; and then both seemed to be quivering
on the brink of eternity. In vain she attempted to
cry out her voice was lost in the agony of her fears.
In vain she attempted to climb the steep her limbs
refused their office. Still, the deadly struggle con
tinued, and she saw their quick pantings from the
depth below. The gun had been thrown away in the
contest, and now they wrestled limb to limb, heart to
heart. More than once the Indian attempted to draw
his knife, but Sybrandt gave him such full employ
ment for both his hands, that he as often failed in
his purpose. But the vigour of the youth was now
waning fast, for he had of late become weakened by I
watching and anxiety. The Indian felt the trembling
of his limbs, and heard with savage delight the short
ness of his breathing. He redoubled his exertions;
he grasped him tight in his arms, lifted him off his
feet, and hurried him towards the verge of the cliff.
Sybrandt made a desperate effort ; he got one foot on
the rock, and with a quick motion of the other tripped
up the heels of the Indian. Both fell, with their
188 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
heads from the precipice, and their feet actually pro
jecting over its edge. Sybrandt was uppermost, but
this was rather a disadvantage, for the Indian, being
determined to perish with him rather than fail in his
purpose, was enabled by violent exertions to work
himself on by degrees, until both were poised on the
very brink. Another moment and all had been over,
when fortunately Sybrandt perceived a small ever
green growing out of the rock, within his reach. He
seized hold of it, and found it firmly rooted. With
one hand he held it fast, with the other he suddenly
pushed the Indian from under him, and he slipped
over the precipice, still grasping the legs of the young
man, who now clung to the shrub with both hands,
making efforts to shake the Indian from his hold.
But for some moments his exertions were vain, and
only served to exhaust his remaining strength. Feel
ing himself gradually relaxing his gripe, and every
instant growing fainter and fainter, he gathered him
self to a last effort. Extricating one leg from the
grasp of the Indian, he dashed his foot in his face with
such convulsive violence, that he loosed his clutch,
and fell among the pointed rocks which projected out
of the pool below. Catalina heard the splashing of
his body in the water, and not knowing who it was
that had fallen, became insensible. Sybrandt raised
himself slowly and with difficulty, and descended as
fast as possible towards her. She waked in his arms,
and by degrees came to a comprehension of all that
had passed.
" Again ! " at length said she, looking up tenderly,
"Again! Yet you thanked God I was going away."
" Cannot you comprehend the reason now, dearest
189
Catalina ? and will you not listen to what you refused
to hear, yesterday ? "
She glanced with horror at the pool : "I thought
I heard a groan. Perhaps the poor creature yet lives,
and may be saved."
" Let him perish ! " said the youth, indignantly.
" O, if you only knew the days and nights of anxious
misery he has occasioned me ! "
" And me : yet I pity him."
" And wish he were alive ? "
" If I were sure if I could be made quite sure
neither of us could possibly ever see him again. Go,
cousin, and see if he is yet alive ; but, take care ! "
Sybrandt went, and dragged the body from the
pool. It was dreadfully mangled, and apparently life
less. Catalina shuddered as she cast one look at it.
" Let us go home," said she.
" Will you not listen to my explanation, now ?
You are going away from me to-morrow, and we
may never meet again."
" No, dearest Sybrandt. I now see it all. You
knew this wretched being had not left the country."
" I did ; at least I suspected so from various cir
cumstances."
" And you were every night on the watch, guarding
me me who was accusing you of spending them
in gaming, riot, and seduction for such was the
story I heard. O, blessed Heaven ! what short-sighted
creatures we are ! " And she raised her tearful eye to
his, as if to ask forgiveness. " Was it not so ? "
" I confess it was."
" But why did you not tell me you feared the
Indian was still lurking about the neighbourhood ? "
190 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" What ! and poison all your moments of returning
ease and happiness ! No : I thought I could guard
you from the danger, without making you wretched
by knowing it."
" And you left me to endure suspicions a thousand
times more painful."
" Recollect, dear Catalina, I could not anticipate
your suspicions."
" True ; and your apprehensions for my safety
prompted that ungallant wish," said she, smiling lan
guidly, " Thank God, you are going. "
" What else could have prompted it, dear love ?
And yet, much as I feared for you, I did not know
half the danger." He then related to her the incidents
of the preceding night. She turned deadly pale, and
remained silent for a few moments.
" I recollect I stood at the window more than four
or five minutes, wondering what was the matter with
the dogs. Once twice thrice : it is a heavy debt,
and how can I repay it ? "
" By never doubting me again, till I deceive you."
" That can never be ! " exclaimed she, fervently.
" And will you, can you love me, and trust me with
your happiness, dearest Catalina ? "
" I can I will," said she, solemnly ; " and here,
before the body of that dead wretch, who has expiated
his intended crimes at your hands ; in the presence ol
that good Being who has preserved me from his ven
geance ; by the life and all the hopes here and here
after of the life you have three times, perhaps thrice
three times, preserved, I promise to be yours, and to
devote myself to your happiness whenever you shall
ask it of me. I give myself to you by this kiss, such
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 191
as no man ever before received from me, and no other
ever will again. I give myself away for ever ! " And
she kissed his forehead with her balmy lips.
" Blessed, for ever blessed, be this day and this
hour ! " cried Sybrandt, as he folded her in his arms.
" I cannot thank you, dearest, but I am happy ! " And
he leaned his head on her shoulder, overpowered by
the varying emotions and exertions of the past and
present.
" You are hurt ! " screamed Catalina.
"I am only faint with joy;" and his head de
clined on her throbbing bosom. A dreadful shriek
from Catalina roused him, and he saw the ghastly
Indian close upon him, covered with blood, with arm
raised, and knife in hand. Before he could move to
defend himself the stroke was made. The knife en
tered his breast, and he staggered backwards, but did
not fall. In a moment he rallied himself, and, evad
ing a second stab, closed with the now exhausted and
dying wretch, whom he dashed to the ground with
furious indignation. The agony of death came upon
the savage, but did not quench his ruling passion of
revenge. With convulsive fury he repeatedly buried
his knife up to the hilt in the earth, and his last breath
expired in a blow.
Poor Catalina, whose mind and body had given
way under the terrible vicissitudes of the day, during
this momentary struggle sat wringing her hands,
almost unconsciously repeating, " Once twice
thrice four times and theij his own! What a
dear, dear purchase for a poor girl ! "
Sybrandt went to her and said, " Fear nothing, he
is dead."
192 THE DUTCHMAN S FIEESIDE.
What ? Sybrandt ! Well, no matter. I shall be
dead too, soon. The Indian will kill me now my pre
server is gone."
" Revive, dear love ; it is the Indian that is dead :
he will never trouble you again."
" I cannot believe it," said she, recovering a little ;
" I saw the knife enter your bosom, yet you do not
bleed. I am sure you must be wounded. Is there no
blood ? "
Sybrandt opened his clothes to assure her, and then,
for the first time, comprehended the cause of his es
caping unhurt. The point of the Indian s knife had
left its print in the centre of the ducat which Catalina
had given him when he went on his trading voyage,
and a piece of it remained sticking there.
" See, Catalina," said he, " you have saved my life,
and we are now even. Do you take back the gift
you just now made me?"
" Twas Heaven s own doing," she replied; then,
casting her eyes on the body of the Indian, she asked,
with a shudder : " Is he dead ; are you certain he is
dead?"
Sybrandt answered in the affirmative, and Catalina
continued :
" Then, let us quit this miserable being, and, I was
going to say, miserable place, though I shall love it as
long as I live, and and you love me," whispered
she, soft as the zephyr among the leaves.
" That will be for ever ! " cried Sybrandt, and they
bent their way towards the mansion-house.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 193
CHAPTER XXIV.
A SEPARATION INSTEAD OF A UNION.
THE effect of the story which Catalina had to tell,
in explanation of her long absence, may easily be im
agined. Thanks and blessings were poured out from
the lips of the good parents. The old gentleman
called the daughter and the nephew into his presence,
and, placing her hand in his, solemnly and affection
ately blessed them both as his dear children. " You
have thrice saved her life ; may she prove a blessing
to yours."
" Damn it," said little Ariel " damn it, Sybrandt,
who would have thought it ! But come, I want you
to go look at old Frelinghuysen s ox. He is grown as
big as an elephant."
" It was not for nothing," thought the silent Dennis
" it was not for nothing he studied those old Greeks
and Romans. I wish Dominie Stettinius were here
to be told of this : " and the worthy man felt proud of
his adopted son.
And now it became necessary to settle the question
whether the visit to New York should be paid or not
paid. All things were prepared, the vessel was ready,
and the lady-cousin in the capital apprized of her
invitation having been accepted. The colonel thought
they had better send an apology, and get off as well
as they could. Catalina I confess it with the can
dour becoming my profession Catalina fluttered
13
194 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
between her love and her desire of novelty. What
woman could ever yet resist the temptations of travel
ling and seeing the world ? She, however, dutifully
left the decision to her parents. Madam Vancour was
a woman, a very excellent woman yet she was a
woman. She did not exactly oppose the union of the
cousins, but her heart was not in it. Ambition was
too strong for gratitude. Like almost all the Ameri
can women of that and indeed every succeeding age,
she had imbibed, from her earliest years, a silly ad
miration of every thing foreign foreign horses,
foreign dogs, foreign men, and, especially, foreign
officers. Every thing provincial, as it was called, she
considered as bearing the brand of inferiority in its
forehead. She had, moreover, long cherished a latent
ambition to see Catalina wedded to one of his majes
ty s little officials, who assumed vast consequence at
that time if possible, to somebody who tacked hon
ourable to his name, and bore the arms of some one
of the illustrious houses who figured in the court-
calendar, in the midst of griffins, sphinxes, lions, uni
corns, vultures, and naked savages with clubs fit
emblems of the rude plunderers who first adopted
these apt distinctions. The good lady, hardly uncon
scious of her motives, almost hoped that Catalina
would forget her rustic swain in the gay scenes and
various sights of the metropolis, and conquer and be
conquered by some brilliant aide-de-camp, perhaps a
baronet, with bloody hand for his crest. Accordingly,
it was settled the start should take place the next day,
as was originally contemplated.
Sybrandt yielded with an aching heart and a bad
grace to what he could not prevent. The busy fiends
195
and phantoms that beset his earlier days rose up to
his imagination, and flapped their wings, and whis
pered gloomy anticipations. She would have gay
admirers, for she was an heiress and a beauty. She
would be distant from her parents, her home, her fire
side, and from all those early associations with objects
of nature, which serve as anchors by which the heart
rides steadily in all the vicissitudes of wind and tide,
and calm and tempest. " And then, the cursed red
coats," whispered one malignant demon, with a dia
bolical grin; "if she resists them, and the fashion,
and the example of every female, young and old,
married and single, she must be more than woman."
Such gloomy, irritating, peevish thoughts crowded on
his heart the next day, as he accompanied Catalina to
the vessel which was to bear her away ; but his pride
buried them deep in his bosom.
" I shall return with the birds, in the Spring," said
she, observing his dead silence. " You must be happy,
but you must not forget me." And she placed her
snowy hand in his. Sybrandt could scarcely feel it,
twas so soft.
" Those who are left behind at home never forget,"
said the youth. " All that I see, and all that I hear,
is the same to-day, to-morrow, and the next, and the
next day. How can I change ? "
" You think, then, there is more danger that /should
change," said Catalina, with a tender smile.
" Such miracles have come to pass," replied he, an
swering her smile with one of melancholy.
" Sybrandt," said she, with solemn emphasis, "look :
the river out of which you dragged me when I was
drowning rolls by the city whither I am now going.
196 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
I shall see it every day from my window. The sun
shines there by day, that yesterday saw you preserve
me from the murderer ; and the stars that witnessed
your nightly watchings for my safety stand in the
firmament there as well as here. The same air, the
same light, the same nature, and the same God, the
same memory, the same heart, will be with me wher
ever I go. Be just to me, dear Sybrandt ; I cannot,
if I would, forget you ! "
Jealousy fled before this appeal, and Sybrandt
became re-assured. A silent pressure of hands con
veyed their last farewell tenderness, and in a few
minutes he was seen standing alone on a green pro
jecting point of the river, watching the vessel as it
glided swiftly out of sight. When it was no longer
visible, he turned himself towards home, and the
world seemed to him suddenly changed into a void.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
PART II.
ihrary.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER I.
A LONG VOYAGE!
MUCH has been sung and written of the charms of
the glorious Hudson its smiling villages, its noble
cities, its magnificent banks, and its majestic waters.
The inimitable Knrekerbooker, the graphic Cooper, l\
and a thousand less celebrated writers ancTTourists
have delighted to luxuriate in descriptions of its rich
fields, its flowery meadows, whispering groves, and
cloud-capped mountains, until its name is become
synonymous with all the beautiful and sublime of
nature. Associated as are these beauties with our
earliest recollections, and nearest, dearest friends
entwined as they inseparably are with memorials of
the past and anticipations of the future, we too would
offer our humble tribute. But the theme has been
exhausted by hands that snatched the pencil from
Nature herself, and nothing is left for us but to ex
pend our emotions in silent musings.
Catalina, accompanied by her father, embarked on
board of the good sloop Watervliet, whereof was
commander Captain Baltus Van Slingerland, a most
200 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
experienced, deliberative, and circumspective skipper.
This vessel was noted for making quick passages,
wherein she excelled the much-vaunted Liverpool
packets; seldom being more than three weeks in
going from Albany to New York, unless when she
chanced to run on the flats, for which, like her worthy
owners, she seemed to have an instinctive preference.
Captain Baltus was a navigator of great sagacity
and courage, having been the first man that ever
undertook the dangerous voyage between the two
cities without asking the prayers of the church and
making his will. Moreover, he was so cautious in all
his proceedings that he took nothing for granted, and
would never be convinced that his vessel was near
a shoal or a sand-bank until she was high and dry
aground. When properly certified by ocular demon
stration, he became perfectly satisfied, and set himself
to smoking till it pleased the waters to rise and float
him off again. His patience under an accident of
this kind was exemplary ; his pipe was his consolation
more effectual than all the precepts of philosophy.
It was a fine autumnal morning, calm, still, clear,
and beautiful. The forests, as they nodded or slept
quietly on the borders of the pure river, reflected
upon its bosom a varied carpet, adorned with every
shade of every colour. The bright yellow poplar, the
still brighter scarlet maple, the dark-brown oak, and
the yet more sombre evergreen pine and hemlock,
together with a thousand various trees and shrubs,
of a thousand varied tints, all mingled in one rich,
inexpressibly rich garment, with which nature seemed
desirous of hiding her faded beauties and approach
ing decay. The vessel glided slowly with the current,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 201
now and then assisted by a little breeze, that for
a moment rippled the surface and filled the sails,
and then died away again. In this manner they
approached the Overslaugh, a place infamous in all
past time for its narrow, crooked channel, and the
sand-banks with which it is infested. The vigilant
Van Slingerland, in view of possible contingencies,
replenished his pipe and inserted it in the button
holes of his Dutch pea-jacket, to be ready on an
emergency.
" Boss," said the ebony Palinurus, who presided over
the destinies of the good sloop Watervliet "boss,
don t you tink I d better put about ; I tink we re close
to the Overslaugh, now."
Captain Baltus very leisurely walked to the bow of
the vessel, and, after looking about a little, replied,
" A leetle furder, a leetle furder, Brom ; no occasion to
pe in zuch a hurry pefore you are zure of a ting."
Brom kept on his course, grumbling a little in an
undertone, until the sloop came to a sudden stop. The
captain then bestirred himself to let go the anchor.
" No fear, boss, she won t run away."
" Very well," quoth Captain Baltus, " I m zatisfied
now, berfectly zatisfied. We are certainly on de Over
slaugh."
" As clear as mud," answered Brom. The captain
then proceeded to light his pipe, and Brom followed
his example. Every quarter of an hour a sloop would
glide past in perfect safety, warned of the precise situ
ation of the bar by the position of the Watervliet, and
adding to the vexation of our travellers at being thus
left behind. But Captain Baltus smoked away, now
and then ejaculating, " Ay, ay, de more hashte de
lesch shpeed ; we shall see py and py."
202 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
As the tide ebbed, the vessel, which had grounded
on the extremity of the sand-bank, gradually heeled on
one side, until it was difficult to keep the deck, and
Colonel Vancour suggested the propriety of going on
shore until she righted again.
" Why, where s de uze, den," replied Captain Baltus,
" of daking all tis drouble, boss ? We shall pe off in
dwo or dree tays at most. It will pe vull-moon tay
after do-morrow."
" Two or three days ! " exclaimed the colonel. " If
I thought so, I would go home and wait for you."
" Why, where s de uze den of daking zo much
drouble, golonel? You d only have to gome pack
again."
. " But, why don t you lighten your vessel, or carry
out an anchor? She seems just on the edge of the
bank, almost ready to slide into the deep water."
" Why, where s de uze of daking zo much drouble,
den ? She ll get off herzelf one of deze days, golonel.
You are well off here ; notting to do, and de young
woman dare can knid you a bair of stogings to bass
de dime."
" But she can t knit stockings," said the colonel,
smiling.
"Not knid stogings! Py main zoul den what is
zhe goot vor ? Den zhe must zrnoke a bipe ; dat is de
next pest way of bassing de dime."
" But she don t smoke either, captain."
" Not zmoke, nor knid stogings? Christus! where
was zhe prought ub den ? I would n t have her vor
my wife iv zhe had a whole zloop vor her vortune.
I don t know what zhe gan do to bass de dime dill
next vull-moon, put go to zleep ; dat is de next pest
ding to knidding and zmoking."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 203
Catalina was highly amused at Captain Baltus s
enumeration of the sum-total of her resources for pass
ing the time. Fortunately, however, the next rising
of the tide floated them off, and the vessel proceeded
gallantly on her way, with a fine north-west breeze,
which carried her on with almost the speed of a
steam-boat. In the course of a few miles they overtook
and passed several sloops that had left the Watervliet
aground on the Overslaugh.
" You zee, golonel," said Captain Baltus, compla
cently " you zee where s de uze of peing in a
hurry, den ? Dey have peen at anghor, and we have
peen on a zand-pank. What s de difference, den,
golonel?"
" But it is easier to get up an anchor, captain, than
to get off a sand-bank."
" Well, zubbose it is ; if a man is not in a hurry,
what den ? " replied Captain Baltus.
At the period of which we are writing, a large por
tion of the banks of the river, now gemmed with white
villages and delightful retreats, was still in a state of
nature. The little settlements were " few and far be
tween," and some scattered Indians yet lingered in
those abodes which were soon to pass away from
them and their posterity for ever. The river alone
was in the entire occupation of the white man; the
shores were still, in many places, inhabited by rem
nants of the Indian tribes. But they were not the \
savages of the free wild woods; they had in some
degree lost their habits of war and hunting, and sel
dom committed hostilities upon the whites, from an
instinctive perception that they were now at their
mercy.
204 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Still, though the banks of the river were for the
most part wild, they were not the less grand and
beautiful ; and Catalina, as she sat on the deck in the
evening, when the landscape, bronzed with twilight,
presented one unvaried appearance of lonely pomp
and majestic repose, could not resist its holy influ
ence. On the evening of the sixth day the vessel was
becalmed in the heart of the Highlands, just opposite
where West Point now rears its gray stone seminaries,
/ consecrated to science, to patriotism, and glory. It
was then a solitary rock, where the eagle made his
abode, and from which a lonely Indian sometimes
looked down on the vessels gliding past far below,
and cursed them as the usurpers of his ancient do
main.
The tide ran neither up nor down the river, and
there was not a breath of air stirring. The dusky
pilot proposed to Captain Baltus to let go the anchor,
but the captain saw " no use in being in such a hurry."
So the vessel lay still as a sleeping halcyon upon the
unmoving mirror of the waters. Baltus drew forth
his trusty pipe, and the negro pilot selected a soft
plank on the forecastle, on which he, in a few minutes,
found that blessed repose which is the prize of labour,
and which a thousand times outweighs the suicide
luxuries of the lazy glutton, whose sleep is the strug
gle, not the relaxation, of nature.
As the golden_sun_ sunk behind the high mountains
of the west, that other lesser glory of the heavens
rose in full, round, silyez xadiance from out the fleecy
foliage of the forest which crowned them on the east
"TSank of the river. The vessel seemed embosomed in
a little world of its own, with nothing visible but the
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 205
shimmering water, the half-seen twofold range of un- \
dulating mountains, one side all gloom, the other \
shining bright, and the blue heavens sparkling with j
ten thousand ever-during glories over head. Catalina ;
wrapped herself in her cloak, and sat on the quarter- /
deck alone and abstracted, conscious of the scene and
its enchantments only as they awakened those mys
terious associations of thought and of feeling that
establish the indissoluble union between the Creator
and his works. Imagination, and memory, and hope,
mingled in her bosom, alternately the sphere of heav
enly aspirations and gentle worldly wishes, such as
pure virgins who have given away their hearts may
entertain without soiling the white ermine of their
innocent affections. Gradually her thoughts concen
trated themselves upon Sybrandt Westbrook ; she re
called to mind those past incidents of her life which
seemed intended by heaven to entwine their hearts in
one being, and gradually worked herself up to the
conviction, that they neither would nor could be sepa
rated. A flood of tenderness, hallowed by this infusion
of a holy and mysterious sanction, rushed into her
soul ; she wished he were present at this apotheosis
of all that was beautiful in nature, all that was sus
ceptible in a woman s heart, that she might recline in
his circling arms, lay her head on his bosom, murmur
her passionate affection in his ear, and exchange her
love for his, in one long kiss of melting rapture.
At this moment a wild shrill shriek or howl broke
from the shore, echoed among the silent recesses of
the mountains, and roused Catalina from her delicious
.reyery. In about a minute it was repeated and a
third time, after a similar interval.
206 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Dat is de olt woman," said Captain Baltus, who
was sitting on the hatchway smoking his pipe, some
thing between sleeping and waking.
" What old woman?" asked Catalina.
" Why, de olt Inchan woman, what keeps apout de
rock yust ashore dare don t you zee it glose under
dat bine dree, dare ? "
" What Indian woman? and what does she do there,
shrieking ? " said the young lady.
" What ! tid you never hear dat zdory ? and ton t you
know it s no olt woman after all put a ghost ? "
"A ghost!"
" Ay yes a spook. I saw it one night when 1
cot ashore on de vlats yust apove de rog; ant you
may tepent I was in a great hurry den for once in my
life, I gan dell you. It looked like de very old Tuyvel,
ztanting on de rog, and whetting a great jack-knife,
as dey zay."
" Who say ? " asked Catalina.
" Why, my fader ant grandfader who are bote
teat, for dat matter ; but dey tolt me de zdory pefore
dey tiet. We zhall have zixteen rainy Zuntays, one
after de oder, and den it will glear up wid a gread
znow-zdorm."
"Yes?"
" Yez ; as zure as you zid dare. It always habbens
after dat olt woman zhows herself, and sgreams zo,
like de very Tuyvel."
" Do you know the story? " asked Colonel Vancour,
whose attention had been arrested by the conversa
tion.
" Know it? Why, to be zure I to, golonel. I have
heart it a hundred dimes from my fader and grand-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 207
fader. He was de firzt man dat zailed in a zloop all
de way from Albany to New York."
" We can t have higher authority. Come, captain
I see your pipe is just filled tell us the story, and
then I will go to sleep."
The worthy skipper said he was no great hand
at telling a story; but he would try, if they would
promise not to hurry him ; and accordingly began :
" Onze tere was an olt woman Tuyvel! dare zhe
is again ! " exclaimed Baltus, as a long quaver echoed
from the shore.
" Well, well never mind her ; go on."
" Onze tere was an olt woman " Here another
quaver, apparently from the mast-head, stopped Baltus
again, and made Catalina start.
" Tuyvel ! " cried Baltus ; put if I ton t pelieve
zhe is goming apoard of us ! "
" Well never mind," said the colonel again ; " she
wants to hear whether you do her full justice, I sup
pose. Go on, captain."
"Onze tere was an olt woman," he began, almost in
a whisper; when he was again interrupted by the
black pilot, who came aft with the light, and asked
Baltus whether it would not be better to haul down
the sails, as he saw some appearance of wind towards
the north-east, where the clouds had now obscured the
moon entirely. " Ton t pe in zuch a hurry, Brom,"
quoth the skipper ; " dime enough when de wind
gomes."
" Onze tere was an olt woman " At that mo
ment Brom s light was suddenly extinguished, and
Baltus received a blow in the face that laid him
sprawling on the quarter-deck, at the same instant
208 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
that a tremendous scream broke forth from some
invisible being that seemed close at their ears. Bal-
tus roared manfully, and Catalina was not a little
frightened at these incomprehensible manoeuvres of
the old woman. The colonel, however, insisted that
he should go on bidding him get up and tell his
story.
" Onze tere was an olt woman " But the legend
of honest Baltus, like Corporal Trim s story of " a cer
tain king of Bohemia," seemed destined never to get
beyond the first sentence. He was again interrupted
by a strange mysterious scratching and fluttering,
accompanied by a mighty cackling and confusion, in
the chicken-coop, which the provident captain had
stored with poultry for the benefit of the colonel and
his daughter.
"Tuyvel! what s dat?" cried Captain Baltus, in
great consternation.
" O, it s only the old woman robbing your hen-roost,"
replied the colonel.
" Den I must loog to it," said Baltus, and, muster
ing the courage of desperation, went to see what was
the matter. In a few moments he returned, bringing
with him a large owl, which had, from some freak or
other, or perhaps attracted by the charms of Baltus s
poultry, first lighted on the mast, and then, either
seduced or confused by Brom s light, darted from
thence into the capacious platter-face of the worthy
skipper, as before stated.
" Here is de tuyvel ! " exclaimed Baltus.
" And the old woman," said the colonel, laughing ;
" But come, captain, I am more anxious than ever
to hear the rest of the story."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 209
" Onze tere was an olt woman " a hollow mur
mur among the mountains again suddenly interrupted
him. " There is the old woman again," said the colo
nel. " Tis de olt Tuyvel!" said Baltus, starting up
and calling all hands to let go the halyards. But, be
fore this could be accomplished, one of those sudden
squalls, so common in the highlands in autumn, struck
the vessel and threw her almost on her beam ends. The
violence of the motion carried Colonel Vancour and
Catalina with it, and had they not been arrested by
the railings of the quarter-deck, they must inevitably
have gone overboard. The Watervliet was, however,
an honest Dutch vessel, of a most convenient breadth
of beam, and it was no easy matter to capsize her
entirely. For a minute or two she lay quivering and
struggling with the fury of the squall that roared among
the mountains and whistled through the shrouds, until,
acquiring a little headway, she slowly luffed up in the
wind, righted, and flapped her sails in defiance. The
next minute all was calm again. The cloud passed
over, the moon shone bright, and the waters slept as
if they had never been disturbed. Whereupon Cap
tain Baltus, like a prudent skipper as he was, ordered
all sail to be lowered, and the anchor to be let go,
sagely observing, that it was " high time to look out
for squalls."
" Such an accident at sea would have been rather
serious," observed the colonel.
"I ton t know what you dink, golonel," said Baltus,
"put, in my obinion, id ton t make much odts wedder
a man is trownet in te zea or in a river." The colonel
could not well gainsay this, and soon after retired
with his daughter to the cabin.
14
210
Bright and early the next morning, Captain Baltus,
having looked round in every direction, east, west,
north, and south, to see if there were any squalls
brewing, and perceiving not a cloud in the sky, cau
tiously ordered half the jib and main-sail to be hoisted,
to catch the little land-breeze that just rippled the
surface of the river. In a few hours they emerged
from the pass at the foot of the great Donderberg, and
slowly opened upon that beautiful amphitheatre into
which nature has thrown all her treasures and all her
beauties. Nothing material occurred during the rest
of the passage. True it is that Skipper Baltus ran
the good sloop Watervliet two or three times upon
the oyster-banks of the since renowned Tappan Bay ;
but this was so common a circumstance, that it
scarcely deserved commemoration, nor would I have
recorded it here but for the apprehension that its
omission might at a future period, perad venture, se
duce some industrious scribe to write an entirely new
history of these adventures, solely to rescue such an
important matter from oblivion. Suffice it to say,
that at the expiration of ten days from the com
mencement of the voyage, the good sloop Watervliet
arrived safe at Coenties Slip, where all the Albany
sloops congregated at that time. This extraordinary
passage was much talked of in both cities, and finally
found its way into The Weekly News-Letter, then
the only paper published in the whole new world, as
may be seen by a copy now, or lately, in the posses
sion of the worthy Mr. Dustan, of the Narrows. It
is further recorded, that some- of the vessels which
passed the Watervliet as she lay aground on the
Overslaugh, did not arrive till nearly a fortnight after
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 211
her ; owing, as Captain Baltus observed, " to der
peing in zuch a hurry." After so famous an exploit
the Watervliet had always a full freight, and as many
passengers as she could accommodate; so that, in
good time, this adventurous navigator gave up fol
lowing the water, and built himself a fine brick house,
with the gable end to the street, and the edges of the
roof projecting like the teeth of a saw, where he sat
on his stoop and smoked his pipe, time out of mind.
212 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER II.
WHICH MAY BE SKIPPED OVER BY THE GENTLE READER, AS IT CON
TAINS NOT A SINGLE BLOODY ADVENTURE.
CATALINA was received with a welcome kindness
by Mrs. Aubineau, the lady with whom she had been
invited to spend the winter, and who appeared struck
with the improvement in her person since she left
boarding-school some eighteen months before. Our
heroine was glad to see Mrs. Aubineau again, having
a vivid recollection of her pleasing manners and mat
ronly kindness.
The husband of this lady was* a son of one of the
Huguenots driven by the bigotry or policy of Louis
the Fourteenth to this land of liberty liberty of ac
tion, of speech, and of conscience. These emigrants
constituted a portion of the best-educated, most en
lightened, polite, and wealthy of the early inhabitants
of New York. They laid the foundation of families
which still exist in good reputation, and from some of
them have descended men who are for ever associated
with the history of our country. The father of Mr.
Aubineau. had occupied a dignified situation under
the Dutch government while it held possession of
New York; but lost it when the province was as
signed to the Duke of York, whose hungry retainers
were portioned off in the new world, there not being
loaves and fishes enough in the old to satisfy them all.
Both father and son cherished some little resentment
213
on this score ; and, when a legislative body was es
tablished, one or other being generally a member,
they never failed to be found voting and acting with
the popular side, in opposition to the governor. They
joined the old Dutch party in all their measures,
which were generally favourable to the rights of the
colony, and attained to great consideration and re
spect among them.
Notwithstanding his politics, Mr. Aubineau the
younger married a handsome English woman ; not a
descendant merely of English parents, but a real na
tive, born and educated in London. Her father came
over with an appointment, being a younger brother,
with a younger brother s portion, which generally con
sists in the family influence employed on all occasions
in quartering the junior branches upon the public.
The great use of colonies is to provide for these cases.
What this appointment was I do not recollect ; but,
whatever it was, it enabled Mr. Majoribanks to live
in style, and carry his head high above the unlucky
beings who furnished the means, and .whose destiny
it had been to be born on the wrong side of the At
lantic Ocean, where it is well known that every thing,
from men down to dandies, degenerates. To be born
at home, as the phrase then was, operated as a sort of
patent of nobility, and desperate was the ambition of
the rich young citizens, and still more desperate that
of the city heiresses and their mothers, to unite their
fate and fortunes with a genuine exotic. Many a sol
dier of fortune, " who spent half a crown out of six
pence a day," was thus provided for ; and not a few
female adventurers gained excellent establishments,
over which they were noted for exercising absolute
214
dominion. For a provincial husband to contradict a
wife from the mother country was held equivalent to
the enormity of a provincial legislature s refusing its
assent to a rescript of his majesty s puissant governor.
It smacked of flat rebellion.
Mr. Aubineau was, however, tolerably fortunate in
his choice. His wife always contradicted him aside
when in public, and issued her commands in a whis
per. She never got angry with him, and only laughed
and took her own way whenever he found fault ; or,
what was still more discreet, took no notice of his ill-
humour, and did just as she pleased. She was fond
of gayety, dress, and equipage, and particularly fond
of flirting with the officers attached to the governor s
family and establishment. These gentlemen, having
nothing to do, and no inclination to marry, except
they were well paid for it, naturally selected the mar
ried ladies as objects for their devoirs ; very properly
concluding, that, whatever might be the case with
the ladies, there could be no breach of promise of
marriage on their part, and, consequently, no dishon
our being as particular as the lady pleased. As
to the provincial husbands, they were out of the ques
tion.
Among the most prominent of the foibles of Mrs.
Aubineau was an idea at that time very prevalent
among both English and American women. This
was an undisguised and confirmed conviction, that
the whole universe was a nest of barbarians, com
pared with Old England, and that there was as much
moral and physical difference between being born
there and here, as there was space between the two
countries. Though not much of the blue-stocking,
215
that sisterhood not having made its appearance as
a distinct class in those days, like all good English
folks she could ring the changes on Shakspeare and
Milton, and Bacon and Locke, those four great
names on which English poetry, philosophy, and met
aphysics, seem entirely to depend for their renown ;
and which form a standard to which every blockhead
more or less pretends to have assimilated his mind, as
if the reflected rays of their glory had illuminated in
some degree the midnight darkness of his own intel
lect. Thisjtruly John Bull notion she considered so
settled and established beyond all reasonable question,
that she always spoke of it with an amusing simpli
city, arising from a perfect confidence in an undisputed
point, upon which all mankind, except her husband,
agreed with as much unanimity as that the sun shone
in a clear day. In regard to the solitary exception
aforesaid, Mrs. Aubineau settled that in her mind, by
referring it to that indefinable matrimonial sympathy
which impels so many men to agree with every other
woman when she is wrong, and oppose their wives
whenever they are right. The connexion between
this lady and our heroine originated in a marriage
between the elder Aubineau and a sister of Colonel
Vancour. Into the hands of Mrs. Aubineau the
colonel consigned his daughter for the winter, at the
same time communicating her engagement with Sy-
braiidt Westbrook, at which she laughed not a little
in her sleeve. She had already a plan in her head for
establishing her rich and beautiful guest in a far more
splendid sphere, as she was pleased to imagine. At
the end of eight or ten days, Colonel Vancour took
his departure for home in the good sloop Watervliet,
216 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
which had made vast despatch in unlading and lad
ing, on account of the lateness of the season.
Catalina was connected in different ways with
almost all the really respectable and wealthy inhab
itants of New York and its vicinity; such as, the
Philipses, the Stuyvesants, the Van Cortlandts, the
Beekmans, Bayards, Delanceys, Gouverneurs, Van
Homes, Rapalyes, Rutgers, Waltons, and a score of
others. Of course she could be in no want of visitors
or invitations, and there was every prospect of a gay
winter. But all these good folks were only secondary
in the estimation of Mrs. Aubineau, when compared
with not his majesty s governor and his family, for
they were out of the range of mortal comparison
but with the families of his majesty s chief-justice, his
majesty s attorney-general and solicitor-general, his
majesty s collector of the customs, and, indeed, with
the families of any of his majesty s petty officers,
however insignificant. These formed the focus of
high life in the ancient city of New York, and noth
ing upon the face of the earth was more ridiculous in
the eyes of a discreet observer than the pretensions of
this little knot of dependants over the truly dignified
independence of the great body of the wealthy inhab
itants, except, perhaps, the docility with which these
latter submitted to the usurpation.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 217
CHAPTER HI.
A KNIGHT AND AN HONOURABLE. THE READER IS DESIRED TO MAKE
HIS BEST BOW.
THE morning after Catalina s arrival, she received
the visits of several officers, two of whom had the
honour of being aides to his Excellency the Governor
and Commander-in-chief. They therefore merit a
particular introduction. " Gentle Reader, this is Sir
Thicknesse Throgmorton ; and this is the Honourable
Barry Gilfillan, of an ancient and noble Irish family,
somewhat poor, but very honest, having suffered
divers forfeitures for its loyalty to the Stuarts, that
worthless race, whose persevering efforts to regain a
crown they had justly forfeited by their tyranny drew
after them the ruin of thousands of generous and
devoted victims. Sir Thicknesse and Colonel Gil
fillan, this is the Gentle Reader, a beautiful, accom
plished lady, of great taste, as all our female readers
are, thank Heaven ! "
Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton was what is now
generally styled a " real John Bull," a being combin
ing more of the elements of the ludicrous than
perhaps any other extant. Stiff as buckram, and
awkward as an ill-contrived automaton ; silent, stupid,
and ill-mannered, yet at the same time full of pre
tensions to a certain deference, due from others only
in exchange for courtesy and good-breeding. Igno
rant of his own country from incapacity to learn, and
218 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
of the rest of the world from a certain contemptuous
stolidity, he exalted the one and depreciated the other
without knowing exactly why, except that that it
certainly was so, and there was an end to the matter.
His bow was an outrage upon both nature and incli
nation, except when he bent to the lady of the gover
nor, or the governor himself; and his dancing, the
essence of solemn stupidity, aiming at a stately non
chalance. Nothing called forth his lofty indignation
more than being spoken to by an inferior in rank,
dress, or station. This indignation was manifested
by a most laughable jumble of insurmountable clum
siness with affected dignity and would-be aristocratic
breeding. There was nothing he so much valued
himself upon as the air noble. Independently of the
indifference to his personal, hereditary, and official
dignity, evinced in an abrupt address from an inferior,
Sir Thicknesse had another special cause for disliking
to be spoken to by strangers. The fact is, he was
so long in collecting the materials of an answer to
the most common observation, that he seldom forgave
a person for putting him to the trouble. He had a
most rare, and, at that time, original, style of making
the agreeable, which is now however pretty general
among high-bred persons. He placed himself directly
opposite the lady, straddling like a gigantic pair of
brass tongs, to collect his ideas into one great explo
sion such, for instance, as," Don t you find it rather
warm, Mawm ? " Perfectly satisfied with this mighty
effort, the knight would strut off in triumph, to repose
himself for the rest of the evening under the shade
of his laurels. Added to this, he was a grumbling,
ill-tempered, dissatisfied being, full of assumption on
219
the score of his personal accomplishments and the
interest of his connections. There is nothing in fact
so grand in the view of " a real John Bull " as possess
ing a family influence, whlclT fSTtders personal merit
and services quite superfluous.
With regard to the person of .Sir Thicknesse, it
was admirably contrived to set off his exemplary
awkwardness to the best advantage. It was a perfect
caricature of dignified clumsiness. His limbs struck
you as being too large for his body, until you studied
the latter, when it seemed perfectly clear that the body
was too large for the limbs. Taken by itself, every
feature of his face was unsymmetrical ; but examine
them in connexion as a whole, and there was an har
monious combination of unfinished magnitude, that
constituted a true and just proportion of dispropor
tions. His eyes sent forth a leaden lustre; his nose
was equally compounded of the pug and the bottle ;
his lips would have been too large for his mouth, had
not his mouth been large enough to harmonize with
them ; and his cheeks expanded into sufficient ampli
tude to accommodate the rest of his face without any
of the features being crowded two in a room, which
every body knows is the abomination of every " real
John Bull" in existence. Sir Thicknesse was of
ancient and honourable family, distinguished in the
annals of England. One of his ancestors had com
mitted an assassination in the very precincts of the
court, and, being obliged to fly in the disguise of a
peasant in order the more effectually to escape detec
tion, was overtaken by the king s poursuivant, while
sawing wood with one of his companions in a forest.
His attendant faltering on the appearance of the
220
officer, for a moment stopped sawing, when the other
exclaimed significantly, " Thorough" or, " Through"
tradition is doubtful which. The attendant took
the hint, continued his work, and the poursuivant
passed them without suspicion. In memory of this
great exploit, the illustrious fugitive from justice
adopted this phrase as the motto of his coat of arms ;
and it descended to his posterity. Another of his
illustrious ancestors was distinguished in the wars of
York and Lancaster for his inflexible loyalty, being
always a most stanch supporter of the king de facto^
and holding kings dejure in great contempt. A third,
and the greatest of all the family of Sir Thicknesse,
was an illegitimate descendant of a theatrical strum
pet and a scoundrel king, who demonstrated the force
of blood by afterward marrying an actress of precisely
the same stamp as her from whom he sprung. No
wonder Sir Thicknesse was proud of his family.
But, great as his progenitors were, they could not
hold a candle to those of Colonel Barry Fitzgerald
Macartney Gilfillan, a genuine Milesian, whose an
cestors had been kings of Connaught, princes of
Breffny, and lords of Ballyshannon, Ballynarnora,
Ballynahinch, Bailygruddrey, Ballyknockamora, and
several lordships besides. Gilfillan was an Irish Bull,
a perfect contrast to an English Bull. Pie was all
life, love, gallantry, whim, wit, humour, and hyperbole.
His animal spirits were to him as the wings of a bird,
on which he mounted into the regions of imagina
tion and folly. They flew away with him ten times
an hour. He learned every thing so fast that he knew
nothing perfectly ; and such was the impetuosity of
his conceptions, that half the time they came forth
221
wrong end foremost. His ignorance of a subject
never for a moment prevented him from dashing right
into it, or stopped the torrent of his words, which
resembled a stream swelled by the rains, being ex
cessively noisy and not very clear. His ideas, in truth,
seemed always turning somersets over the heads of
each other, and for the most part presented that pre
cise rhetorical arrangement which is indicated by the
phrase, " putting the cart before the horse." He
never pleaded guilty to ignorance of any thing, nor
was ever known to stop a moment to get hold
of the right end of an idea, maintaining with a
humorous obstinacy, that, as he always came to the
right end at last, it was of no consequence where he
began.
Nature had given to Colonel Gilfillan a more than
usual share of the truly Irish propensity to falling in
love extempore. His heart was quite as hot as his
head, and between the two there was a perfect volcano.
He was always under high steam pressure. He once
acknowledged, or rather boasted for he never con
fessed any thing that he had fallen in love at the
Curragh of Kildare with six ladies in one day, and
was refused by them all in less than twenty-four hours
afterward. " But, faith ! " added he, " I killed two
horses riding about the country after them ; and that
was some comfort." " Comfort ! " said a friend: " how
do you make that out, Gilfillan ? " " Why, wasn t it
a proof I didn t stand shilly-shally, waiting my own
consent any more than that of the ladies, my dear?"
It is scarcely necessary to add, that he was generous,
uncalculating, brave, and a man of his word, except
in love affairs, and sometimes in affairs of business,
222 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
when he occasionally lost at play the money he had
promised to a tradesman. His person exhibited a rich
redundance of manly beauty, glorious with youth,
health, and vigour ; he sang charmingly ; played the
fiddle so as to bring tears into your eyes; danced,
laughed, chatted, blundered, gallanted, flattered, and
made love, with a graceful confidence and fearless
audacity that caused him to be a great favourite with
and rather a dangerous companion for women of warm
imaginations and mere ordinary refinement of man
ners and feelings. Like most men of his profession,
his ideas on certain subjects were of the latitudinarian
order. Gilfillan swore he was a man of as much
honour as ever wore a uniform. He would not pick
a pocket; but, as for picking a lady s white bosom
of a sweet little heart let him alone for that. A fair
exchange was no robbery, all the world over ; and he
always left his own with them, if there were twenty.
When his brother officers laughed at him for having
so many hearts, " Och, my dears! "would he reply,
" do you talk about having but one heart ? A man with
only one heart in his body is like a poor divil with only
a shilling in his pocket he is afraid to part with it,
and so starves himself just for fear of starving."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 223
CHAPTER IV.
A REIGNING BELLE.
THIS combustible gentleman fell in love with Cata-
lina, instanter and never man had a better excuse;
for she was now in the prime of womanhood, and
lovely as the fairest creations of painting and poetry.
Her eyes, her lips, her cheeks, her nose, her forehead,
and her chin, were all cast in the happy mould of
symmetry ; and the combination produced an expres
sion of sensibility, intellect, and virtue, that struck
every one at first sight. Her fair white neck; her
harmonious, graceful shoulders; the confines of that
region on which the eye and the imagination delight
to linger as the chosen spot where grace and beauty
revel as on a bed of down ; the little, finished, tell
tale foot; and the graceful lines that gave the con
tour of her full, round figure; all and each of them
bore silent testimony to the perfection sacred to one
alone.
That Colonel Gilfillan should fall headlong in love
at the first sight of such an object, was just as natural,
not to say inevitable, as the explosion of a barrel of
gunpowder on the application of a firebrand. I will
not affirm that there was a spark of interest mingled
with his fires, but it may be safely laid down as a
maxim founded in human nature, that the most dis
interested lover has no very great objection to a com
petent estate in connexion with his mistress. Gilfillan
224 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
made downright love to Catalina the tenth time he
saw her ; and at the eleventh interview offered her his
hand and fortune, at the same time laying his sword
at her feet, in which he confessed the latter entirely
consisted. He did this, however, in a style so wild
and overstrained, and with so odd a mixture of pa
thos and levity, jest and earnest, that the young
lady laughed at it as rodomontade. She gradually
became accustomed to his extravagance, and amused
with his good-humoured eccentricities. In the mean
time she mixed continually in the winter gayeties, and
became the toast of the season.
f Now it was that the spirit moved Sir-TMaknesse
Throgmaitoi to gather himself together and honour
Catalina with his notice. It will ever be found that
the dullest fellows are seen hovering about the most
brilliant objects, just as the bugs and rnoths, and other
imps of the night, hie them to bask in the splendours
of the lighted candle. Besides this general propen
sity, Sir Thicknesse was impelled by another and more
particular incitement. He was especially envious of
Gilfillan, who was perpetually throwing his accom
plishments into the shade, and whose spirit, brilliancy,
and good-nature made the dullness and stultified pride
of the other appear still more ungracious.
The first demonstration of his devotion to our he
roine which Sir Thicknesse indulged in was one night
actually stooping to pick up her fan, at a party at
his puissant excellency the governor s. Whereupon
Madam Van Borsum, Madam Van Dam, Madam
Twentyman, and twenty other madams, who had
marriageable daughters, were thrown into a trepida
tion. What rendered this act of condescension the
225
more conspicuous, such was the rigidity of Sir Thick-
nesse s habits and costume, that he was obliged to go
down on one knee in order to its performance. The
young ladies tittered behind their fans, and Gilfillan
swore it put him in rnind of a wooden god offering
incense to a beautiful young priestess, which sounded
somewhat like a bull. When Sir Thicknesse had
performed this successful feat of gallantry, he strutted
away, and passed the rest of the evening in a corner,
in stately isolation, justly conceiving that he had done
enough for one night.
There was a certain feeling of self-complacency
which was vastly conciliated by having his name con
nected with that of the reigning belle of the day, in
the whispers of the young ladies and the tittle-tattle
of their mothers. With all his absurd affectation of
proud indifference, his vanity was highly excited by
the association. He was always pretending the most
sovereign contempt for the world and its opinions,
while at the same time his very soul smarted under
its censure or neglect. Of all the affectations of vanity,
that of insensibility to the opinions of the world is
the most irreconcilable with the feelings and actions
of men, and the most easily detected by its inconsist
encies. Sir Thicknesse followed up his first overt act
of picking up the fan by other movements still more
significant, until it came to pass that Madam Van
Borsum, Madam Van Dam, Madam Twentyman, and
the rest, came to a unanimous decision that it was all
over with their daughters, and that Catalina would
certainly, in good time, become Lady Throgmorton.
Not one of them conceived it possible she could be so
mad as to refuse a baronet, a governor s aide-de-camp,
15
226 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
and a man actually bom in Old England. It is un
necessary to say that these worthy madams from this
time took a decided distaste to our heroine, and treated
her with extraordinary marks of attention.
Mrs. Aubineau soon, with the quick instinct of a
chaperon having a young lady to establish, perceived
the important conquests Catalina had achieved in so
short a time. She accordingly forthwith fell to bal
ancing accounts between the two suitors, for, as to
poor Sybrandt, she looked upon that affair as a mere
country arrangement, made to be broken on the first
convenient opportunity. Engagements made in the
country are never considered binding in town, all the
world over. If Catalina, quoth Madam Aubineau
in her secret cogitations, marries Gilfillan, she will be
a countess in time, but then it s only an Irish title,
and there is no estate to it I know. If she marries
Sir Thicknesse, she will be a lady at once, wife to an
English baronet and lady is lady all the world over.
Besides, he has an estate, and, though it is out at the
elbows, a little of Catalina s fortune will make it whole
again. The inevitable conclusion of Madam Aubineau
was, to encourage Sir Thicknesse, and discountenance
his rival.
But Gilfillan was an Irishman, and, as he affirmed,
he could always tell the difference between the false and
true Milesian, by the latter never being discouraged.
" By my soul," would he say, " there s no such word
in the old Irish tongue its an English importation."
To check such a man was out of the question. If
Madam Aubineau looked coolly upon him, or failed
in any of the customary attentions, he rallied her with
such a triumphant good-humour, or received her slights
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 227
with such imperturbable negligence, that she found
herself obliged to laugh herself friends with him, or
to sit down in despair at the perfect impotence of her
scheme of repression.
228 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER V.
MANCEUVRING.
THE busiest and at the same time the most injudi
cious of all schemers is a good lady over-anxious to
make a match for a daughter, or a young spinster
under her protection. Madam Aubineau did nothing
but give parties at night, and her worthy husband had
no rest until he gave parties by day, at which Sir
Thicknesse was always seated next to Catalina at
dinner, where he never neglected to observe upon the
weather, and drink a glass of wine with her. There
is no telling what these seductive attentions might
have achieved in time, had not the genius of Gilfillan
crossed the path of Sir Thicknesse. That enterprising
Milesian, with singular skill and intrepidity, never
omitted to gain a seat on the other side of our hero
ine, where his humour, vivacity, and gallantry seldom
failed to obscure his rival, and throw him into utter
oblivion. It was observed at these merry-makings,
that Sir Thicknesse ate himself into still greater stu
pidity, while Gilfillan drank himself into such an ef
fervescence of spirits, that Catalina became actually
afraid of him. The prompt and sagacious matron
very soon came to the conclusion that dinner-parties
are the worst places in the world for match-making, at
least with Englishmen and Irishmen.
Madam Aubineau accordingly essayed to circum
vent Sir Thicknesse, by ensnaring him amid the allure-
229
ments of evening-parties. Catalina had a fine voice,
and all the skill which could be attained in those mis
erable days, when all or nearly all the music of our
western world was carolled in woods and fields, when
not a single lady in all the land had a harp whereon
to commit murder, and when there were but three old
phthisicky spinets within the bills of mortality. Un
fortunately for our heroine one of these appertained
to Madam Aubineau s mansion, and night after night
was poor Catalina condemned to torture this imprac
ticable machine into something like groans and shrieks
of harmony. Catalina was tired to death; and so
was all the company. But everybody said " charm
ing," and cried, " what a pretty tune," at the end of
every execution. Sir Thicknesse beat time out of
time, till he fell into a brown study or a nap, no one
could tell which. Still worse than this ; here too the
star of Sir Thicknesse paled before the star of Gilfil-
lan. The voice of the latter was so touching and pa
thetic, that it is said he could bring tears into your eyes
by merely whimpering an Irish howl ; and when he
threw his whole ardent soul into an old Irish melody,
such as Aileen Aroon, it is recorded that the hardest
hearts were softened, and even tea-parties became si
lent. He taught Catalina some of these fine old airs,
and, as they warbled them together, their very beings
seemed for the time blended in one rich harmony ;
and then did the fortunes of Sir Thicknesse kick the
beam higher than ever.
Madam Aubineau saw that the gods of eating and
of music were both equally adverse to her desires.
She therefore varied her plan once more, and intro
duced dancing at her parties. She summoned the
230 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Orpheus and Amphion of the day, to wit
Dick, and Will, alias Ticklepitcher ; than whom two
greater fiddlers never drew bow in this western hem
isphere. Not Billy, the fiddler of immortal memory,
nor Bennett, nor any of those who now preside over
the midnight, or rather morning, revels of the youthful
fair of our city, who so many of them thus dance
themselves into the other world not one of these,
nor all together, could match the matchless skill of
the two above-mentioned. They lived in harmony,
and died in harmony as I verily believe ; never hav
ing heard any thing to the contrary.
But alack and alas for Madam Aubineau! Here
too the fates were hostile, and the genius of Old Ire
land triumphed over that of Old England. Gilfillan
danced like the feathered Mercury, and Sir Thicknesse
like a bear. His face was of lead and his body of
something still heavier. As to his legs, no one could
ever invent a comparison, or suggest a material, ade
quate to giving a just idea of their specific gravity.
Gilfillan came the nearest, when he affirmed they put
him in mind, " of two old rusty twenty-four-pounders,
planted half-way in the ground at the opposite corners
of a street." Besides, Sir Thicknesse was so long in
gathering himself together and crossing the room to
ask Catalina to dance, that Gilfillan, who delighted
to thwart his rival, always was beforehand with him,
and danced with her twice as often, to the complete
discomfiture of Madam Aubineau.
The good lady then resorted to morning visits.
She invited Sir Thicknesse, under various pretences,
to call, and managed to leave Catalina alone with
him. This was worse than all. Sir Thicknesse was
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 281
too stupid for a tete-^-tete conversation. People as
cribed his silence to pride, but, take my word for it, it
was sheer dulness the want of something to say.
This is what makes so many people affect pride. He
would sit on the sofa, rapping his military boot with
a rattan, and looking Catalina full in the face, till
she was both annoyed and tired out of all patience.
Once, we must do him the justice to say once, he
asked the young lady if she had been at the review.
She answered in the negative, at which Sir Thicknesse,
who had figured on the occasion in a newly-imported
suit of regimentals, was so grievously affronted, that
he pouted all the rest of the morning, and would not
condescend to stare her out of countenance.
These gratifying visits were also frequently broken
in upon by Gilfillan, who did not mind any of the
usual polite denials which shrewdly indicate that one s
company is not quite welcome. The truth is, he sel
dom gave himself the trouble to inquire who was at
home, but whistled or hummed himself into the parlour
without ceremony. If he found any one there, it was
well; if not, he staid till- some one came, or, if he
grew tired, whistled himself out again. His company
was always a relief to our heroine from the deadly
monotony of Sir Thicknesse s silence, and of course
she received him with smiles, which almost went to
the imperturbable heart of his rival, who always
slapped his boot the harder, and looked, if possible,
still more grim on these occasions.
All this time Catalina had no idea of any serious
attentions on the part of the two gentlemen. She did
not feel sufficiently interested in either to make her
very clear-sighted on the occasion ; and, indeed, the
232 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
stupidity of the one, and the wild rodomontade of the
other, made their intentions very obscure as well as
questionable. But young ladies are sure to be let into
these secrets by the kind interest which every-body
takes in affairs with which they have no concern. I
will not deny that she flirted a little with one of her
admirers, and what was still more suspicious, laughed
at the other ; but, certain it is, she had not troubled
her head in the business until she began to be con
gratulated on all hands upon the important conquests
she had made. Nay, some of the old ladies affected
to ask her, very significantly, when it was to be
whether the old folks had given their consent, and,
especially, how master Sybrandt Westbrook was, and
whether he did not mean to spend part of the winter
in town.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
233
-
_, v
CHAPTER VI.
. fi-ft*
IN WHICH THE READER WILL, BE PUZZLED TO DISCOVER WHETHER THE
GRAY MARE IS THE BETTER HORSE OR NOT.
OUR heroine was somewhat startled at these inqui
ries. TJiojighb^utifoil -as, an angel, still she was
mortal. The dissipations of a city life, the novelty
of every thing around her, and more especially the"
incense every where administered to the sly lurking
vanity which nestles somewhere in every human heart,
had, by degrees, somewhat obscured the remembrance
of Sybrandt. She frequently thought of him with
affectionate gratitude, but this thought was so often
interrupted by visitors, entertainments, and all the
attractions of a life of pleasure, that by degrees it
ceased to be the governing principle of her actions ;
and various little coquetries marked the effect of
absence as well as the growth of worldly passions.
During the winter season there was little intercourse
between New York and Albany, and consequently
the letters that were interchanged between her and
Sybrandt were few and far between. It must be con
fessed too, that when opportunities did occur, Catalina
sometimes had so much on her hands that she did not
always avail herself of them.
" My dear," said Mr. Aubineau to his wife, one day
that he had been asked by Mrs. Twentyman when
Catalina was to be married, " my dear, have you
forgot that your friend Miss Vancour is engaged to be
married to her cousin ? "
234
" No, my dear," replied she ; " I ve not forgot it.
I ve not lost my memory yet, thank heaven."
" Well then, my dear, do you wish to make a fool
of Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton ? "
" No, my dear, I don t wish to make a fool of Sir
Thicknesse Throgmorton."
" Then, perhaps you wish to make a fool of Cata-
lina?"
" I don t understand you, my dear."
" Why, my dear, it seems to me that, knowing as
you do the engagement of this young lady, the en
couragement you give Sir Thicknesse in his attentions
to her, when it is obvious they must be vain, is very
well calculated to make a fool of him, in the common
acceptation of the term."
"Pooh, Mr. Aubineau; what is an engagement
between two people without experience in the world,
who fall in love in the country because they don t
know what to do with themselves ? "
" Why, Mrs. Aubineau, I should think an engage
ment made in the country exactly as binding as if it
were made in the city."
" Pshaw ! Mr. Aubineau, you talk nonsense. To
miss such an establishment, and a title to boot ! What
do you say to that ? "
" Why, I say that neither a title nor an establish
ment furnishes sufficient apology for acting dishon
ourably."
" Lord ! Mr. Aubineau, how you talk ! "
" This young lady is placed under our guardianship
by her parents, who have sanctioned her engagement
with her cousin ; and we are, in some measure, respon
sible for her conduct. What will her father say? "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 235
" Pooh ! what signifies what he says ! "
" And her mother ? "
" Why, she ll say we have done right to break off
this foolish country engagement, and thank us for
making her the mother of a lady."
" I doubt it."
" If she don t, she is a most unnatural mother.
Why, Madam Van Borsum, and Madam Van Dam,
and Madam Twentyman, and all the other madams
that have marriageable daughters, are ready to die of
envy."
Well, let them die, if they will."
" Let them die? why, you inhuman man, are you
not ashamed of yourself? the poor souls!"
" But this is nothing to the purpose. It is not what
others may think or say, but what we ought to do,
that I wish to consult you about."
" Well, my dear, I am willing to be consulted as
much as you please ; but, I tell you beforehand, all
you can say will not alter my opinions or my conduct,
my dear."
" Oh, if that is the case, madam, I shall take my
own course. I shall to-day write to invite Sybrandt
Westbrook to come down and spend the rest of the
winter with us. Let him take care of his own inter
ests, since you won t."
" If you do, I tell you once for all, my dear, I won t
be civil to him."
" Then I shall be particularly civil."
"You will?"
Yes."
A monosyllable is always significant of cool deter
mination ; and this made Mrs. Aubineau start.
236 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" There s no room for him in the house," said she,
after a pause of consideration as to whether it was
time to be angry.
" I shall have a bed made for him in my library."
" There s no room for a bed without removing the
bookcases."
" Then I shall remove the bookcases."
"You will?"
Yes."
Another diabolical monosyllable ! What woman in
the shape of a wife could bear it ?
" I ll tell you what, my dear "
" You need not tell me any thing, my dear. I recol
lect you were pleased to observe just now that nothing
I could say would alter your opinions or your conduct.
I am just in the same humour. There is a govern
ment-messenger going to Albany to-morrow ; I shall
write by him." So saying, Mr. Aubineau took his
hat, and walked very deliberately to the Perpetual
Club, an ancient and honourable institution which
flourished at that time in the good city of New York,
one of the fundamental principles of which was that
there should always be a quorum of members present,
day and night.
" What an obstinate mule ! " exclaimed Mrs. Aubi
neau, when he was out of hearing. " A man that
won t listen to reason is as bad as bad " as a
woman that won t listen to reason, whispered con
science. Mrs. Aubineau was, upon the whole, a rea
sonable woman, and listened to her monitor until she
thought better of the matter. She determined to be
uncommonly civil to Sybrandt if he came, and to
make herself amends by counteracting his interests
237
to the utmost of her power. That evening Mr. Au-
bineau informed Catalina he had written to invite
Sybrandt. The news caused a rush of blood from
her heart to her face; but whether it was a flush
of pleasure, surprise, or apprehension, I cannot say.
Whatever were her feelings, she uttered not a word,
and the secret remained buried in her bosom.
288 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER VH.
THE EAPE OF THE PICTURE.
IN due time Sybrandt received the letter of Mr.
Aubineau, and obtained from Mr. Dennis Vancour a
slow unwilling assent to his acceptance of the invi
tation. Colonel Vancour also gave his approbation,
and Madam did not oppose, though she had a great
inclination to do so. She was a wife of the old regime
that is to say, an antediluvian wife, for I have
heard of none since the flood who, like her, acted on
the principle that in matters where men s business
was particularly concerned men should be left to judge
for themselves. But she did not like the arrangement.
I don t much approve disclosing the secrets of ladies,
but, the truth was, there had been a sly correspond
ence going on for some time between her and Mrs.
Aubineau, in which the project of making Madam the
mother of a titled lady was communicated, and re
ceived with singular complacency. Probably there
was not a mother in the whole wide circumference of
this new world who could have resisted the tempta
tion. The apple of Eve was nothing to it. The good
Dame Vancour thought of little else by day and by
night, nay, she dreamed, three nights running, that
she saw Catalina with a coronet, instead of a night
cap. However, she made no opposition to the visit
of Sybrandt, trusting to the assurances contained in a
letter from Mrs. Aubineau, (which came by the rnes-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 239
senger who brought the invitation), that she would
take care nothing should grow out of Mr. Aubineau s
impertinent interference.
The worthy Dennis was resolved that his adopted
son should not disgrace him at the little court of the
little puissant governor of New York. He got him
two full suits, constructed by his own tailor, whom he
considered the greatest hand at inexpressibles in the
universe. Certain it is he took the greatest quantity
of broadcloth, though he was never in his life sus
pected of cabbaging. The favourite colours of Dennis
were snuff and drab, and accordingly these were
ordered. The tailor was enjoined to be very partic
ular in not making them too tight, as people were
very apt to grow fat as they grew old ; and Ariel had
a glorious time of it He went to Albany four times
a week, to superintend the construction of Sybrandt s
wardrobe, and hasten the completion of this arduous
business. Thus stimulated, the tailor, who was called
Master Goosee Ten Broeck, bestirred himself with
such consummate diligence, that at the end of three
weeks he triumphantly brought home the whole
twelfth labour of Hercules. Sybrandt was out of all
patience in the mean while ; but was amply rewarded
for the delay, by the perfection of Master Goosee s
work; which Uncle Dennis affirmed fitted just like
wax, though heaven knows why. It certainly did
not stick to him like wax, but hung around his body
and limbs at a most respectful distance. All things
being in readiness, Dennis gave Sybrandt his blessing,
together with abundance of advice, backed by a purse
of guineas, the music of which far transcended that
of the spheres, which the poets make such harangues
240 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
about. If they were a little accustomed to the chink
ing of guineas, they would find there was no com
parison between the two. " Damn it, Sybrandt,"
exclaimed little Ariel, " damn it, I should like to go
with you ; but, now I think of it, I can t, neither. I ve
promised old Ten Broeck to graft some pear-trees for
him, as soon as the spring comes on."
" Good-by, massa Sybrandt," said Tjerck, now al
most bent double with age and rheumatism " Good-
by, massa Sybrandt neber see ole nigger again."
Sybrandt was touched with this homely address, and
the tears came into his eyes. He shook hands with
the partner of his first adventures when he put on the
toga and commenced man, and parted from him with
sorrow. His speech to his young master was pro
phetic they never met again. The old man died of
a rheumatism, about a fortnight afterward. Peace to
his soul! I honour his memory, for he was one of
those faithful servants the race of which has long
become extinct, amid the pious endeavours of pains
taking folks who have nothing to do but better the
condition of mankind, and meddle with other people s
concerns.
While these things were going on in the country,
our heroine was in what is called in homely phrase
I like homely phrases in a sort of a quandary.
Sometimes she was glad that her cousin was coming,
and sometimes she was sorry. At one time she was
very angry he was so long in coming, and at another
she found it in her heart to wish he would not corne
at all; for mighty were her fears that the fashionable
people of New York, and more especially the aides-
de-camp, would laugh at his country manners and
rustic apparel.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 241
Sir Thicknesse and Gilfillan still continued their
attentions. The former gentleman gathered himself
together in consequence of being incited thereto by
Mrs. Aubineau, and achieved a most triumphant piece
of courtship. He actually spoke to our heroine three
times in one morning. As to the tinder I don t
mean tender hearted Milesian, he swore at least six
dozen times a day that she was an angel, and that he
was dying by barleycorns for the love of her sweet
soul. He certainly was deeply smitten, after the
fashion of a soldier and an Irishman, for, notwith
standing he was dying for love, he was the healthiest,
merriest fellow in the world, and laughed, sang,
danced, drank, gamed, and gallanted, just as if noth
ing was the matter with him.
Catalina had much ado to keep him in order and
subjection to the rules of feminine delicacy, for your
true Milesian is ever daringly enterprising. Even love
cannot make a coward of him. Our heroine was
always obliged to act on the defensive, when alone
with him, and more than once had occasion to be
seriously angry. One day he came in, humming his
favourite Aileen Aroon, and, finding a miniature of
Catalina which had just been taken by an eminent
hand, (and which is still extant in the Vancour
family), my gentleman was seized with the gallant
whim of possessing himself of it, at least pro tern.
Our heroine expostulated Gilfillan laughed; she
was angry Gilfillan laughed still louder; she stated
to him seriously the indelicacy of such a procedure,
and the consequences of the picture being seen in his
possession all would not do: he replied in ranting
and extravagant professions, swore he did not mean
16
242 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
to keep it, that he only wanted to worship her image
in secret for one night, when he would return it, pro
vided it was not demolished with kisses ; and, finally,
turned the whole into a joke, and set our heroine
laughing in spite of her vexation. In short, he carried
off the bawble, with a solemn lover s assurance of
returning it the next day. But, the next day, and
the next, he made some such odd, extravagant, or
humorous excuse for retaining it one day longer, that
Catalina yielded to his irresistible absurdity, and was
actually ashamed to be angry. In about a week, how
ever, he returned the picture, affirming at the same
time that nothing but its being the actual representa
tion of a divinity had miraculously preserved it from
destruction by the intensity of his devotion. In a
short time the whole affair was forgiven and forgotten
by Catalina.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 243
CHAPTER VIII.
A HERO IN SNUFF-COLOURED BREECHES.
A FEW days afterward, Sybrandt arrived in his snuff-
coloured suit, which of itself was enough to ruin the
brightest prospects of the most thriving wooer. Think
what a contrast to the glories of an aide-de-camp
the scarlet, gold-laced coat, the bright spurs, and the
gorgeous epaulettes! Poor Sybrandt! What supe
riority of the inside could weigh against this outside
gear? Catalina received him, I cannot tell exactly
how. She did not know, herself, and how should I ?
It was an odd, incomprehensible, indescribable com
pound of affected indifference and affected welcome,
due to fear of showing too little feeling, and horror of
exhibiting too much. In short, it was an awkward
business, and Sybrandt made it still more so, by being
suddenly seized with an acute fit of his old malady
of shyness and embarrassment. Such a meeting has
often been the prelude to an eternal separation.
The very next evening after his arrival, Sybrandt
made his debut in the snuff-coloured suit, at a grand
party given by his Excellency the Governor, in honour
of his Majesly s birthday. All the aristocracy of the
city were collected on this occasion, and, in order to
give additional dignity to the ceremony, several peo
ple of the first consequence delayed making their
appearance till almost seven o clock. The hoops and
heads were prodigious ; and it is recorded of more
244 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
than one lady, that she went to this celebrated enter
tainment with her head sticking out of one of the
coach windows, and her hoop out at the other. Their
sleeves it is true were not quite so exuberant as those
of the present graceful mode ; nor was it possible to
mistake a lady s arm for her body, as is sometimes
done in these degenerate days by near-sighted dan
dies, one of whom, I am credibly informed, actually
put his arm round the sleeve instead of the waist, in
dancing the waltz last winter with a young belle just
from Paris. Many a little sharp-toed, high-heeled
satin shoe, sparkling in diamond-paste buckles, did
execution that night ; and one old lady in particular
displayed, with all the pride of conscious superiority,
a pair of gloves her mother had worn at court in the
reign of the gallant Charles the Second, who came
very near asking her to dance, and publicly declared
her to be quite as elegant as Nell Gwyn, and almost
as beautiful as the Dutchess of Cleveland. These
consecrated relics descended in a direct line from gen
eration to generation in this illustrious family, being
considered the most valuable of its possessions, until
they were sacrilegiously purloined by a gentleman of
colour belonging to the house, and afterward exhib
ited during several seasons at the African balls. " To
what base uses we may return, Horatio ! "
All the dignitaries of the province were present at
this celebration, for absence would have been looked
upon as a proof of disloyalty. Here were the illus
trious members of the governor s council, who repre
sented his majesty in the second degree. Next came
the chief-justice, and the puisne justices, all in those
magnificent wigs which, as Captain Basil Hall as-
245
serfs, give such superiority to the decisions of the
judges of England, seeing that, when the man s
head is so full of law that it can hold no more, a vast
superfluity of knowledge may be accommodated in
the curls of the wig. Here too figured his majesty s
attorney-general and his majesty s solicitor-general,
who also wore wigs, but not so large as those of
the judges, for that would have been considered a
shrewd indication that they thought themselves
equally learned in the law with their betters. Next
came the rabble of little vermin that are quartered
upon colonies in all ages and nations, to fatten on the
spoils of industry, and tread upon the people who
give them bread. Custom and excise officers, com
missioners and paymasters, and every creeping thing
which had the honour of serving and cheating his
majesty in the most contemptible station, here took
precedence of the ancient and present lords of the
soil, and looked down upon them as inferior beings.
His Majesty was the fountain of honour and glory ;
and his Excellency the Governor being his direct and
immediate representative, all claims to distinction
were settled by propinquity to that exalted functionary.
Whoever was nearest to him in dignity of office was
the next greatest man ; and whatever lady could get
nearest the governor s lady at a party was indubitably
ennobled for that night, and became an object of envy
ever afterward. Previous to the late Revolution, more
than one of our aristocratic families derived their prin
cipal distinction from their grandmothers having once
dined with the governor, and sat at the right hand of
his lady at table.
If Sybrandt, the humble and obscure Sybrandt,
246
who had nothing to recommend him but talents,
learning, and intrepidity of soul if he was awed by
the majesty of this illustrious assemblage of mag
nates, almost all of whom were capped with some sort
of title, who can blame him? And if, as he con
trasted his snuff-coloured dress with the gorgeous
military costumes, he felt, in spite of himself, a con
sciousness of inferiority, who can wonder? And if,
as he gazed on the big wigs of the judges, and on the
vast circumference of those hoops in which the beau
ties of New York moved and revolved as in a uni
verse of their own, he trembled to his inmost heart,
who shall dare to question his courage?
To the weight of this feeling which pressed upon
the modesty of his nature, and, as it were, enveloped
his intellects in a fog, were added various other causes
of vexation. When it was whispered about that he
was the country beau, the accepted one of the belle
of New York, the scrutiny he underwent would have
shaken the heart of a roaring lion. The young ladies,
who envied Catalina the conquest of the two aides,
revenged themselves by tittering at her beau behind
their fans.
" Lord," whispered Miss Van Dam to Miss Twen-
tyman, " did you ever see such an old-fashioned crea
ture ? I declare, he looks frightened out of his wits."
" And then his snuff-coloured breeches ! " said the
other. " He is handsome, too : but what is a man
without a red coat and epaulettes ! "
My readers will excuse the insertion of a certain
obnoxious word in the reply of the young lady, when
they understand it was uttered in a whisper. I am
the last man in the world to commit an outrage upon
247
female decorum, and am not so ignorant of what is
due to the delicacy of the sex as not to know that
though it is considered allowable for young ladies
nowadays to expose their persons in the streets and
at parties in the most generous manner, as well as to
permit strangers to take them round the waist in a
waltz, it would be indelicate in the highest degree to
mention such matters in plain English. In fashion
able ethics, indelicacy consists not so much in the
thing itself as in the words used in describing it.
While the young ladies were criticising the merits
of our hero s costume, the mothers were discussing
his other attributes.
" They say he will be immensely rich," quoth Mrs.
Van Dam.
" You don t say so ! " cried Mrs. Van Borsum.
" Yes, he has two old bachelor uncles, as rich as
Crcesus."
" Crcesus ? who is he ? I don t know him."
" A rich merchant in London, I believe."
" Well, but is it certain he will have the fortunes
of both the old bachelors ? "
" O, certain. One of them has adopted him, and
the other made his will and left him all he has."
" What a pity he should marry such a flirt as that
Miss Vancour ! "
" O, a very great pity. Really, I am sorry for the
young fellow; he deserves a better wife." And she
thought of her daughter.
" Indeed he does," echoed the other lady; and she
thought of her daughter. They both began to despair
of the aides, and the military and the civil dignitaries ;
and the next object of their ambition was a rich pro
vincial.
248
It was not many hours after this conversation be
fore our friend Sybrandt was, at their particular in
stance, introduced to these good ladies, and by them
to their daughters.
" Is he rich enough to take me home ? " whispered
Miss Van Borsum to her mother home being the
phrase for Old England at that time, when it was
considered vulgar to belong to a colony. " Is he rich
enough to take me home ? "
" As rich as Croesus, the great London merchant."
" Then I am determined to set my cap at him in
spite of his snuff-col cured suit," thought Miss Van
Borsum. By one of those inexplicable manoeuvres
with which experienced dames contrive arrangements
of this sort, Sybrandt was actually forced into dancing
a minuet with Miss Van Borsum, although he would
almost have preferred dancing a jig upon nothing.
The young lady nearly equalled Catalina in this the
most graceful and ladylike of all dances ; and having
a beautiful little foot et ccetera, many were the keen
darts she launched from her pointed satin shoes and
diamond buckles at the hearts of the beholders. The
dancing of our hero was not altogether despicable ;
but the snuff-coloured breeches! they did his busi
ness for that night with all the young ladies and their
mothers who did not know he was the heir of two
rich old bachelors.
249
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE NOBLE REVENGE OF SIR THICKNESSE THROGMORTON.
THE AUTHOR LAUDS THE LADIES.
GILFILLAN, who was speedily advertised by several
communicative and amiable elderly ladies, who could
not bear to see him made a fool of, that Sybrandt
was the really formidable man after all eyed him
with an air of taunting ridicule. Sybrandt was on
the lookout too, and returned these demonstrations
with interest, But Gilfillan was a generous, good-
natured, fellow, and, ere long, that kind feeling with
which every genuine Irishman looks at a stranger
overcame the hostility of rivalship.
" By the galligaskins of my great ancestor, the Prince
of Breffny," quoth he, " there can be no danger in
such a pair as that " and he immediately introduced
himself to our hero, with a frank cordiality that was
irresistible. Sybrandt felt himself drawn towards him,
in spite of his being a rival. " But, how did he know
Gilfillan was his rival?" Pshaw! gentle reader, if
you can t comprehend that, you had better go and
study metaphysics. Do you suppose it possible for
him to converse with Madam Van Borsum and dance
with her daughter, without knowing all about it?
You must think women had no tongues in the days
of your great-grandmother.
The behaviour of Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton was
a perfect contrast to that of Colonel Gilfillan. He
250 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
affected to take not the least notice of Sybrandt, and
pouted majestically with Catalina. He pretended not
to hear when she addressed him neglected to ask
her to dance came very near flirting with Miss Van
Dam, only he did not know how retired into a corner,
where he stood two hours, sometimes resting on one
leg, then on the other, like unto a goose ; and finally
refused to cut up a boiled turkey at supper, when
requested by the Governor s lady : at which piece of
unheard-of audacity the entire company threw down
their knives and forks in astonishment. That very
night he consulted his pillow, and determined to jilt
Catalina, not having at that time the fear of the law
before him, which hath since remunerated so, many
broken-hearted young ladies for the loss of one hus
band by enabling them to purchase a second suitor
with the spoils of the first. He resolved, therefore, to
desert our heroine, and break her heart. It never en
tered the head of this solid gentleman that she was
very happy to be rid of him. But, to mortify her still
more, he determined to pay his devoirs to another.
For this purpose he selected the spouse of an honest
burgher residing in Broad street, to whom he addressed
a flaming love-letter in English. The good woman
not being able to read it, one language being at that
time considered quite enough for an honest woman,
like a dutiful wife carried it to her husband to inter
pret for her. The worthy burgher was in the same
predicament with his wife, and put it into the hands
of Gilfillan, (who happened to be an old customer),
for translation. After this he went forthwith to Sir
Thicknesse to expostulate with him, and know what
" de duyvel " he meant. " You can t marry mine
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 251
j cause she s cot one huspand alreaty ; " said he,
with great appearance of reason. Gilfillan made a
capital story out of this, and the dignified baronet
was so quizzed wherever he went, that he soon asked
leave of absence, and returned to England, where it
is said he found plenty of proud blockheads who mis
took awkwardness for dignity, and clumsiness for the
air noble, to keep him in countenance. The reader
will be pleased to recollect that I am speaking of days
of yore, and that the English beaux have since been
greatly improved in grace and politeness by frequent
association with our sprightly belles. But I am an
ticipating my story.
Be this as it may, it is with pain I confess that the
snuff-coloured garments heretofore commemorated,
the tittering of the young ladies, the criticisms of their
mothers, the ill-natured side-speeches of Mrs. Aubi-
neau, and, above all, the sly remarks of the officers,
together with a certain secret consciousness on the
part of our heroine that our hero made but an indiffer
ent figure at this illustrious gala, operated somewhat
unfavourably to the interests of Sybrandt. Women
in general, (I mean before they are married), can
scarcely be said to have any opinions of their own.
They are entirely under the dominion of fashion. They
will not do a thing which is perfectly innocent, be
cause it is not the fashion ; and they will frequently
do things unbecoming the delicacy of the sex, because
it is the fashion. Nay, their very virtues occasionally
appear to be the sport of this power, which is nothing
but the result of the whims and caprices of nobody
knows whom an emanation from nobody knows
where sometimes the eccentricity of a lady of ton
252 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
sometimes the offspring of the vanity of an opera
dancer and often the invention of a fantastic mil
liner. A dress may be elegant and becoming, yet if
it is no longer of the mode a lady who aspires to the
least consideration will scarcely dare to be seen in
it. Her very manners and morals, too, are more or
less under the sway of this invisible despot ; and ladies
who resist every other species of tyranny submit to
this with the resignation of martyrs. An unfashion
able dress is death to a fashionable young lady, and
an unfashionable lover, purgatory. When a man once
comes to be laughed at in this world of butterflies his
time is come; whatever may be his merits, it is all
over with him. Yet, notwithstanding these little foibles
of women, none but a morose disappointed old bach
elor will deny that they are delightful ingredients in
the sour cup of life. In infancy, in manhood, and
in old age in our sports, enjoyments, and relaxa
tions they are our choicest companions ; in the cares,
troubles, and disappointments of this world, they are
our best solace, our most faithful friends ; and in the
last hours of weakness, yea, on the bed of death, they
are the ministering spirits to smooth our pillow, alle
viate our sufferings, and finally close our eyes and
wrap us in the winding-sheet, the last clothing of hu
manity.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Library*
CHAPTER X.
How oft from colour of men s clothes
Is born a frightful train of woes !
OUR heroine was a delightful specimen of the sex ;
born, too, before the commencement of the brilliant
era of public improvement and the progress of mind.
I could nev&r learn that she spoke either French or
Italian, though she certainly did English and Dutch,
and that with a voice of such persuasive music, such
low, irresistible pathos, that Gilfillan often declared
there was no occasion to understand what she said to
be drawn into any thing. But in truth she was mar
vellously behind the present age of development. She
had never in her life attended a lecture on chemistry
though she certainly understood the ingredients of
a pudding; and was entirely ignorant of the happy
art of murdering time in strolling up and down
Broadway all the morning, brought to such exquisite
perfection by the ladies of this precocious generation.
Indeed, she was too kind-hearted to murder any thing
but beaux, and that she did unwittingly. Still, she
was a woman, and could not altogether resist the
contagion of the ridicule lavished on poor Sybrandt s
snuff-coloured inexpressibles. Little did she expect
the time would one day come when this would be the
fashionable colour for pantaloons, in which modern
Corinthians would figure at balls and assemblies, to
the delight of all beholders.
254 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESI:
Being a woman, then, she did not pause to inquire
whether snuff-colour was not in the abstract ju- -
respectable as blue or red, or even imperial purple.
She tried it by the laws of fashion, and it was found
wanting. Now, there is an inherent relation between
a man and his apparel. As dress receives a grace
sometimes from the person that wears it, so does it
confer a similar benefit. They cannot be separated
they constitute one being : and hence some modern
metaphysicians have been exceedingly puzzled to de
fine the precise line of distinction between a dandy
and his costume. It was through this mysterious
blending of ideas that the fortunes of our hero came
nigh to being utterly shipwrecked. Catalina con
founded the obnoxious habiliments with the wearer
thereof; and he too, for the few hours that the party
lasted and the young lady remained under the in
fluence of fashion, became ridiculous by the associa
tion.
By degrees she found herself growing ashamed of
her old admirer, whose attentions she received with a
certain embarrassment and disdain, which he saw and
felt immediately : for Sybrandt was no fool, although
he did wear a suit made by a Dutch tailor. Neither
did he lack one spark of the spirit becoming a man
conscious of his innate superiority over the gilded
swarm around him. The moment he saw the -
of Catalina s feelings, he met her more than half--,
and intrenched himself behind his old defences of
silent neglect and proud humility. He spoke to her
no more that evening. Though Catalina was con
scious in her heart that she merited this treatment,
this was a very different thing from being satisfied
THE DUTCHMAN S FIIM-SFDE.
with it. Gilfillan would not have behaved so, thought
she, while she remembered how the worse she used
him the more lowly and attentive he became. Sin-
mistook this submission to her whims or indifference
for a proof of superior love, and therein fell into an
error whieh has been fatal to the happiness of many
a woman, and will be fatal to that of many more, in
spile of ;ill I can say on the subject. The error I
would warn them against is that of confounding sub- I
serviency with affection. They know little of the ;
hearts of men, if they are ignorant that the man who
loves as he ought, and whose; views are disinterested,
will no more forget, what is due to himself than what
is due to his mistress. He will sink into the slave of
no woman, whom he does not intend to make a slave
in return. It is only your fortune-hunters that be
come the willing victims of caprice, and submit to
every species of mortification the ingenuity of way
ward vanity can invent, in the hope that this degrad
ing vassalage may be at length repaid, not by the pos
session of the lady, but by her money. It must be
confessed, that the event too often justifies the expec
tation. Be this as it may, before the conclusion of
this important evening the company perceived evident
signs of a coolness between the lovers; and Gilfillan,
who watched them with the keen sagacity of a man
of the world, redoubled his attentions. It is hardly
ncees.-ary to say that our heroine received them with
corresponding complacency for, as I observed be
fore, she was a woman ; and what woman ever failed
to repay the neglect of her lover, even though occa
sioned by a fault of her own, with ample interest ?
u If she thinks to make me jealous, she is very much
256 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
mistaken," thought Sybrandt, while he fretted in an
agony of vexation.
The next morning Sybrandt breakfasted at home,
saying little, and thinking a great deal the true
secret of being stupid. Mrs. Aubineau asked him
fifty questions about the ball, and especially about
Miss Van Borsum. But she could get nothing out
of him, except that he admired that young lady ex
ceedingly. This was a bouncer, but, " at lovers
perjuries " the quotation is somewhat musty. Ca-
talina immediately launched out in praise of Gilfil-
lan, and made the same declaration in reference to
him. This was another bouncer. He amused her
and administered to her vanity; but, the truth is, she
neither admired nor respected him. Still, the atten
tions of an aide-de-camp were what no mortal young
lady of that age could bring herself voluntarily to
relinquish, at least in New York. Our hero, though
he had his mouth full of muffin at the moment Cata-
lina expressed her approbation of Gilfillan, rose from
the table abruptly, and, seizing his hat, sallied forth
into the street, though Mrs. Aubineau called after to
say she had made an engagement for him that morn
ing.
" Catalina," said Mrs. Aubineau, " do you mean to
marry that stupid man in the snuff-coloured clothes?"
" He has a great many good qualities."
" But he wears snuff-coloured breeches."
" He is brave, kind-hearted, generous, and possesses
knowledge and talents."
" Well, but then he wears snuff-coloured breeches."
" He has rny father s approbation, and "
" And yours ? "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 257
" He had, when I gave it."
" But you repent it, now ? " said Mrs. Aubineau,
looking inquiringly into her face.
" He saved my life," replied Catalina.
" Well, that calls for gratitude, not love."
" He saved it twice."
" Well, then, you can be twice as grateful ; that
will balance the account."
" But he saved it four times."
" Well, double and quits again."
"But, rny dear madam, I I believe nay, I am
sure that I love my cousin in my heart."
" What! in his snuff-coloured suit?"
" Why, I am not quite sure of that, at least here in
New York among the fine red coats and bright epau
lettes ; but I am quite sure I could love him in the
country."
" In his snuff-colours ? "
" In any colours, I believe. To tell you the truth,
cousin, I am ashamed of the manner in which I re
ceived him after an absence of months, and of my
treatment at the ball last night. I believe the evil
spirit beset me."
" It was only the spirit of woman, my dear, whis
pering you to woo the bright prospect that beckons
you. Do you know you can be a countess in pro
spective whenever you please ? "
" Perhaps I might ; but I d rather be a happy wife
than a titled lady."
" You would ! " exclaimed her cousin, lifting up her
eyes and hands in astonishment.
" Indeed I would."
17
258
" Then you must be more or less than woman,"
cried the other, panting for breath.
" Listen to me, my dear cousin. I know you meant
it all for my happiness in giving encouragement to
Sir Thicknesse and Colonel Gilfillan. But the truth
is, I don t like either of them, and I do like my cou
sin Sybrandt. Sir Thicknesse is a proud, stupid dolt,
without heart or understanding ; and Colonel Gilfil
lan, with a thousand good qualities, or rather im
pulses for he is governed by them entirely is not,
I fear, nay, I know, a man of integrity or honour."
" Not a man of honour ! " exclaimed Mrs. Aubineau
again, with uplifted eyes and hands, " Why, he has
fought six duels ! "
" But he neither pays his debts nor keeps his prom
ises."
" He d fight a fiery dragon."
" Yes, but there are men, and very peaceable men,
too, whom he is rather afraid of," said Catalina, smil
ing " his tradesmen. The other day I was walking
with him, and was very much surprised at his insisting
we should turn down a dirty, narrow lane. Just as
he had done so he changed his mind, and was equally
importunate with me to turn into another. I did not
think it necessary to comply with his wishes, and we
soon met a tradesman who respectfully requested to
speak with my colonel. Go to the devil, for an im
pudent scoundrel ! cried he, in a great passion, and
lugged me almost rudely along, muttering, an impu
dent rascal, to be dunning a gentleman in the street!
" Well ? "
" Well I know enough of these tradesmen to be
satisfied that they would not venture to dun an officer
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 259
in the street, if they could meet with him elsewhere.
The example of my dear father has taught me that
one of the first of our duties is a compliance with the
obligations of justice."
" Well, Catalina, I must say people get very odd
notions in the country. What do you mean to do
with your admirers ? "
" Why, from the behaviour of Sir Thicknesse last
night, I hope I shall be troubled with him no more.
If Colonel Gilfillan calls this morning, I shall take
the opportunity of explaining to him frankly and ex
plicitly the state of my obligations and affections. I
will appeal to his sense of decorum and propriety for
the discontinuance of his attentions ; and, if he still
persists, take special care to keep out of his way,
until the state of the river will admit of my going
home."
" And I," thought Mrs. Aubineau, " shall take
special care to prevent all this." " But what do you
mean to do with the man in the snuff-coloured suit?"
" Treat him as he merits. I have been much more
to blame than he it is but just, therefore, that I
should make the first advances to a reconciliation.
I shall seize the earliest occasion of doing so, for his
sake as well as my own ; for my feelings since our
first meeting here convince me I cannot treat him
with neglect or indifference without sharing in the
consequences."
"Well, you are above my comprehension, Catalina;
but I can t help loving you. I can have no wish but
for your happiness."
" Of that," said Catalina, good-humouredly, " I am
perhaps old enough to judge for myself."
260 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" I don t know that, my dear. Women can hardly
tell what is for their happiness, until they have been
married a twelvemonth. But what do you mean to
do with yourself to-day ? "
" I mean to stay at home and wait the return of my
cousin. The sooner we come to an understanding
the better."
" And I shall go visiting, as I have no misappre
hensions to settle with Mr. Aubineau. Good morn
ing by the time I come back I suppose it will be
all arranged. But, my dear Catalina," added she,
suddenly turning back, and addressing her with great
earnestness " my dear friend, do try and persuade
him to discard his snuff-coloured suit, will you ? "
" I shall leave that to you, cousin ; for my part, I
mean to endure it as a punishment for my bad beha
viour to the owner." But Catalina never had an
opportunity of acting up to her heroic determination.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 261
CHAPTER XI.
A GOOD RESOLUTION SOMETIMES COMES A DAY AFTER THE FAIR.
SYBRANDT had proceeded directly from Mr. Aubi-
neau s to the quarters of Colonel Gilfillan, with a design
of explaining his own claims on Catalina, and de
manding a cessation of his attentions. He was told
the colonel had stepped out for a few minutes, and
requested to wait his return. During the interval, he
happened to take up a music-book which lay on the
table. It opened of itself, and a miniature fell from
it on the floor. Sybrandt took this up with the in
tention of replacing it, when, to his dismay and
horror, he discovered a likeness of Catalina, which
Gilfillan, with an inexcusable want of delicacy and
propriety, had procured to be copied from the original
painting while in his possession. The blood of Sy
brandt rushed to his heart, and thence to his face and
fingers ends, where it tingled and burnt like liquid
fire. He stood pierced with rage and anguish, the
picture in his hand, when Gilfillan entered, and was
beginning in his gayest tones, with
" My dear Mr. Westbrook, by my soul you re wel
come " when Sybrandt interrupted him without
ceremony " Colonel Gilfillan, when I inform you I
have a deep interest in the question, I hope you will
answer it frankly May I ask where you got this
picture ? "
262 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Gilfillan felt himself in the predicament of one who
has been detected in doing what he cannot justify ;
he therefore sheltered himself under an air of haughty
indifference : added to this, our hero s snuff-coloured
garb did him another ill-turn here. It impressed upon
the mind of Gilfillan that he had to do with a clod
hopper of the first magnitude, whom he might banter,
or bully, or quiz, at pleasure. Never man was more
mistaken than Colonel Gilfillan. He little suspected
this homely suit covered a man that would not turn
out of the path he had chosen for any thing in human
shape. He accordingly replied, with a careless if not
contemptuous hauteur,
" Certainly, Mister a a Mister Westbrook,
you are at perfect liberty to ask any question of me
- but, allow me to observe, it depends upon myself
whether I choose to answer."
" But, sir, you will permit me to say you must do
me the favour to answer this question."
" Must! You don t say so, sir! "
" Look ye, Colonel Gilfillan, this is no time for
trifling ; nor will I permit it. Is it known to you that
an engagement, sanctioned by her parents, subsists
between the original of this picture and myself?"
" By my soul, Mr. Westbrook, it is a matter of
perfect indifference to me whether there does or not.
If a lady makes an engagement, I suppose she has a
right to break an engagement when she is tired of
it ; and, by the glory of the stars !, I am the man that
will assist her any time in such a praiseworthy under
taking."
" Very well then, I am to presume you were ac
quainted with the circumstance."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 263
" You may presume what you please, Mr. West-
brook it s all one to me."
" You will not gratify my inquiries, then, though I
have, I trust, justified the interest I take in the affairs
of this young lady ? "
" Faith, will not I," replied the colonel, negligently.
"Then let me tell you, sir " Sybrandt s voice
rung, his colour heightened, and his eye flashed.
" Hold there, young gentleman," interrupted the
colonel. " From your look and so forth, I gather you
are going to say something disagreeable; take care
what you do say."
" I say to your caution what you were pleased to
say to my information that it is a matter of per
fect indifference to me. And I say besides, Colonel
Gilfillan, that I do not recognise in your preceding or
your present conduct any thing that entitles you to
particular respect."
" Before you go any further, my friend, let me ask
you a civil question, will you fight ? For it must
come to that if you say the thousandth part of such
another word."
Sybrandt went to the table, and in an instant pre
sented a paper to the colonel, on which were the fol
lowing words :
" Meet me at six to-morrow morning, at Hoboken,
and I ll answer your question."
The colonel was somewhat startled at this prompt
dealing. He was not frightened nothing on earth
could frighten him, except a dun, but he was seized
with an involuntary respect for the snuff-coloured gen
tleman, that made him almost regret having treated
him so cavalierly. He changed his tone, instantly.
Keeping his eye on the paper, he asked :
264
" At six, to-morrow ? "
" At six. 1
" With pistols, did you say ? "
" With pistols, if you please, or "
" O, it s all the same to me. Mr. Westbrook, let
me ask you one more question do you mean to
make your will beforehand ? because, if you do, I
wish you d leave me that picture after your death, as
you don t seem inclined to give it me, while alive."
Sybrandt had all this while held the miniature in
his clenched hand, almost unconsciously. But now,
on being thus reminded of it, he threw it contemptu
ously on the table.
" That is treating the original discourteously," said
the colonel, taking it up ; " and, upon my soul, if you
had not been beforehand with me I should have picked
a quarrel with you for it. Faith, a charming lady,
and I ll wear her image next my heart, to-morrow."
So saying, he coolly deposited the picture in his
bosom, and Sybrandt inwardly vowed to himself that
he would aim right at the resemblance of the faithless
one.
" We understand each other now, Colonel Gilfil-
lan?"
" O, faith, there can be no misunderstanding in such
plain English."
" Good morning then, colonel."
" Good morning, Mr. Westbrook," answered the
other. " Now, who the devil would have taken
that fellow for a lad of such mettle ? I am deter
mined to be friends with him the very next minute
after I ve blown his brains out."
The colonel was here suddenly interrupted by a
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 265
message from his excellency, requiring his immediate
attendance. He accordingly hurried off to the gov
ernment-house, while Sybrandt slowly turned towards
the mansion of Mr. Aubineau, where Catalina was
anxiously waiting to put her good resolutions in prac
tice. A storm of contending passions agitated his
mind, and when he came in sight of the house he
turned away, heart-sick, and wandered for hours in the
fields that skirted the city. Sometimes he determined
to depart without seeing Catalina, and at other times
resolved to see her once more, to reproach her with
having trifled with his happiness, and then to bid fare
well for ever.
266 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XII.
GILFILLAN AND SYBKANDT SET OUT ON A LONG JOURNEY.
GILFILLAN, in the mean time, had an interview with
the governor, who informed him that a packet had
just arrived from England, with despatches apprising
him that war had been declared between Great Brit
ain and France, and directing him to make immediate
preparations to defend the frontier against the inroads
of the French and Indians.
" It is necessary to notify the commanding officer
at Ticonderoga with the least possible delay, and that
the bearer of the message be acquainted with my views
on the subject. I have selected you for that purpose.
When can you be ready, colonel ? "
" To-morrow morning, at eight o clock."
" That won t do ; you must be ready to-day ; a ves
sel is waiting for you."
" Impossible, sir," exclaimed Gilfillan, abruptly, re
membering his engagement with Sybrandt.
" How ? impossible ! why, what can prevent you ?
You are a single man, and a soldier should be ready
at a moment s warning."
" But, your excellency, I have an engagement which
I cannot violate."
"With a lady?"
" No, with a gentleman."
" Well, I will make your excuses ; so, be ready in
three hours."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 267
" Impossible," cried Gilfillan again.
His excellency looked offended.
" Colonel Gilfillan," said he, " I cannot conceive any
engagement which can excuse a soldier from the per
formance of his duty to his country."
" An affair of honour, sir ? "
" No, not even an affair of honour, colonel. Your
first duty is to your country; she has bought your
services by bestowing honours on you, and you have
no right to throw away a life which belongs to her.
To whom are you pledged ? "
" To Mr. Westbrook, sir."
" Whew!" ejaculated his excellency; " I understand
the business, now. But you shall place your honour
in my hands, and I pledge you mine to make such
explanations as shall save you harmless. Go, and be
ready."
Gilfillan still lingered. Colonel Gilfillan," said the
governor, " either obey my orders or deliver me your
sword. My business is pressing; yours may be de
ferred to another day ; and I again pledge myself that
your honour shall suffer no stain."
Gilfillan reflected a moment, and coldly replied, " I
will be ready in two hours."
" Go, then, and make what preparations you can,
and be here within that time. I will finish your de
spatches."
Gilfillan returned to his lodgings, and the first thing
he did was to send the following note.
TO SYBRANDT WESTBROOK, ESQ.
SIR, You will soon hear that war is declared be
tween the cock and the lion ; and this is to inform you,
268 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
that his excellency has ordered me with despatches to
the frontier. I must depart on the spur, consequently
the settlement of our little private affair must lie over
for the present. But there is a time for all things,
and we must wait with patience. When you can
wait no longer, you will find me, probably, somewhere
about Lake George or Ticonderoga. You know the
motto of my family is, " Ready, aye ready." Adieu,
for the present.
B. F. M. GlLFILLAN.
His next step was to stride away to the mansion
of Mr. Aubineau, for the purpose of taking leave of
Catalina, whom he surprised in a deep revery, await
ing the return of Sybrandt.
" Colonel Gilfillan," said she, haughtily, and in dis
pleasure at being thus disturbed, " I neither wished
nor expected this visit."
" Do not be angry, madam ; I come to say good-
by. The calumet is buried, the tomahawk is dug up,
and the two old bruisers are going to have another
set-to."
" Explain yourself, colonel."
" War, bloody war, madam. I set out in one hour
for the frontier, and Heaven only knows whether you
will see poor Gilfillan again. Give him some hope ;
something to live upon when he is starving in the
wilderness ; some little remembrance to cheer him if
he lives, or to hug to his heart when dying."
" I cannot hear such language, Colonel Gilfillan.
Listen to me seriously, for I am going to speak seri
ously. I have been vain, silly, and unreflecting, in
suffering, as I have done, your attentions, flighty and
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 269
half-jesting as they seemed. I never thought you in
earnest."
" Not in earnest ? Heavenly Powers ! Have riot
my eyes, my tongue, my actions, a thousand times
proved the sincerity of my passion ? I loved you the
first minute I saw you, and I shall love you the last
moment I see the light of day."
" I am sorry for it."
" Sorry for it ! sorry that a warm-hearted, and,
I will add, a generous, honourable soldier, casts his
heart at your feet, lives in your smiles, and holds his
life at a pin s fee, when he dreams he can lay it down
in your service ? I can t, for the soul of me, madam,
see any ground for sorrow in that."
" I would not be the cause of misery to any human
being."
" Ah ! that s just what I love to hear you say.
Then you will you will be the cause of happiness
to your poor servant ? "
" I cannot, in the way you wish."
" No ! and why not, jewel of the world ? "
" I cannot return your affections."
" Faith, madam, and that is the last thing I wish.
I don t want you to return my affections, only just to
give me your own in exchange."
" My affections are not in my power."
" You puzzle me, angel of obscurity. Upon my
soul, if we haven t power over our affections, I don t
know what else we can command. I should as soon
doubt my power to command a corporal s guard as
my own heart."
" In one word, Colonel Gilfillan, I am engaged to
another."
270
" O, that s only your hand."
" My heart went with it, sir."
"Yes, but you took it back again?"
" No, sir, I gave it to Mr. Westbrook, and for ever."
" The man with the snu Jesus, what is this
world coming to!" thought Colonel Gilfillan. Then,
overpowered by the genuine ardour of a brave and
enterprising Milesian, he poured forth a flood of pas
sionate eloquence. He besought her to love him, to
marry him, to run away with him, to pity him, and,
finally, to kill him on the spot. He fell on his knees,
and there remained in spite of all her entreaties and
commands. She was offended what woman would
not have been? She pitied him what woman
would not have done so ? He seized her hands, and
kissed them from right to left in a transport of im
petuosity, and was gradually working himself up
into a forgetfulness of all created things,except himself
and his mistress, when he was awakened by the ap
pearance of a figure just within the door. He started
on his feet, choke-full of murder and love.
"I beg pardon," exclaimed the snuff-coloured ap
parition. " I beg pardon for my accidental intrusion.
Don t let me interrupt you, colonel," and straight
way it disappeared.
Catalina started to her feet. " Leave me, sir", cried
she, with angry vehemence. " Leave me this very
instant, sir. You have destroyed my happiness for
ever ; " and she burst into a passion of tears.
The susceptible heart of Gilfillan was moved with
this appearance of agony. " If," thought he, " she
really loves this rustic, I am the last person to disturb
a mutual affection. Faith, I see it s all over with me ;
271
and now for the tomahawk and scalping knife. By
my soul, I feel just at present as if I could drink the
blood of a Christian ; as to your copper-coloured Pa
gans, by the glory of my ancestors, I ll pepper them."
On conclusion of these wise reflections, he ad
vanced towards Catalina, who retired with evident
symptoms of fear and aversion.
" Miss Vancour," said Gilfillan, with solemnity, " do
you really love this gentleman ? "
"I do I have reason to love him ; he twice saved
my life."
" Then, madam, I am sorry for what I have done,
and ask your pardon."
He was proceeding to repeat the petition on his
knees, when Catalina exclaimed with precipitation,
"O! for Heaven s sake, no more of that!"
" Well then, madam, be assured that all that man
can do to undo the harm I have done I will do and
so, farewell may you be ten thousand times happier
than I should have been had you preferred me, and
that s altogether impossible." So saying, he bowed
himself out, leaving Catalina in that state of misery
which combines the pangs of the heart with the feeling
of self-condemnation. " Had not my vanity tempted
me to encourage this man," thought she, " I should
have been spared the mortification of this present mo
ment, the wretchedness I see in the future. The fault
is all my own would that the punishment might be
so, too ; but I have wounded two generous, noble
hearts."
On the departure of Gilfillan, Sybrandt in a mood
of desperation forced himself into the presence of our
heroine, with a magnanimous resolution of relinquish-
272 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ing his claims, and declaring her free to marry whom
she pleased. She received him with an humbled spirit
whence all the pride of woman was banished. She
attempted a faltering explanation.
" Sybrandt " said she " Sybrandt I I have
something to say to you I "
" It is unnecessary : I know all," replied he, inter
rupting her. " Farewell, Catalina you are free."
A few hours after, he was on his way up the river.
Gilfillan s note had apprised him of the necessary
postponement of their meeting, and he hoped to over
take him at Albany, and there frankly renounce all
pretension to Catalina. It was a hard struggle be
tween revenge and a nobler feeling. Colonel Gilfil-
lan, however, kept the start of him, and some time
elapsed before they met again. Sybrandt returned
home, and buried his secret in his own bosom. When
questioned by Colonel or Madam Vancour on the
subject of Catalina, he answered, sometimes with
embarrassment, sometimes with negligence. They
suspected something disagreeable had occurred, yet
could not tell what. But public events soon came
about which occupied, almost exclusively, the atten
tion of Colonel Vancour and his family. Rumours
of wars, of burnings and massacres on the frontier,
coming nearer and nearer every day, brought the sense
of danger home to the very bosoms of the people ~f
Albany and of the Flats. Rural quiet was banished
from the firesides of the peaceful Dutchmen ; rural
labour ceased in the fields ; and Ceres and Cupid, and
all their train of harvests, flowers, fruits, sighs, smiles,
hopes, wishes, promises, and deceits, gave place to
images of fire and blood. Even little Ariel lost his
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 273
vivacity at times, and no longer talked of ringing the
pigs noses. He took down his rusty musket, and
polished it as bright as silver. He employed himself
in running bullets, and in other warlike preparations,
and even meditated joining the army at Ticonderoga.
" Damn it, Sybrandt," would he say, " suppose you
and I make a campaign, hey ? "
18
274
CHAPTER XIII.
ADIEU FOE A WHILE TO THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
SYBRANDT not only meditated, but had determined
on, such a course. About this time his old friend and
host, Sir William Johnson, paid a visit to Colonel
Vancour, to arrange with him a plan for subsisting
the army in the uncultivated regions about Lake
George and Lake Champlain. Sybrandt took the
opportunity to offer his services, and Sir William
gladly accepted them. " I want a volunteer aide,"
said he, " and you are the very man. When can you
be ready?"
" In five minutes."
" Good ; I like short answers : they are the signs of
prompt actions. I will give you till the day after to
morrow."
Sybrandt went immediately to the good Dennis to
announce his intention, and ask his consent to be
a soldier. There was at that time a latent spark of
warlike spirit alive in the bosom of the peaceful cul
tivators of the field. Every where the proximity of
the Indians made a residence near the frontier, or
indeed far from the cities and military stations, one
of danger and alarm, and kept up a feeling of manly
preparation.
" Right, my boy. I am too old now to go myself,
and thou shalt be my substitute. Thou shalt take
the best horse from my stable, the truest servant of
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 2< D
my household, and the warmest blessing of my heart,
and go forth."
Sybrandt set about his preparations, and tried to
banish every thing else from his recollection. The
morning after his conversation with Sir William, he
went over to Colonel Vancour s to tell him he was
ready. The colonel and Madam looked inquisitively
in his face, and wondered if he would leave any mes
sage or letter for Catalina. But he never mentioned
her name. " I must have my daughter home," thought
the good colonel. " I am glad this foolish engage
ment is broken off," thought his good wife ; and her
silk gown rustled with sympathetic pride as she
dreamed of still living to be the mother of a real
titled lady. That evening Sybrandt visited some of
his old haunts. " I will see them before I go ; per
haps I may never see them again." So he rambled
out alone, in the mild twilight of an early spring day.
The sacred calm of the country, so different from
the racket of the town, disposed his soul to the ten-
derest melancholy. Past scenes and early recollections
thronged on his memory, while he wandered along
his accustomed paths, where every object reminded
him of the woman who had trifled with his affections.
By degrees, the thought of her ill-treatment roused a
salutary feeling of indignation, and outraged pride
came to the relief of his morbid sensibility. He
shook the incumbent weight of sickly lassitude from
his spirit, wiped the starting tear from his eye, and
returned home with a manly resolution to meet his
future fortunes, whatever these might be, with forti
tude and resignation.
" Sybrandt," said Colonel Vancour, on taking leave
276 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
after supper, " Sybrandt, have you written to Cata-
lina?"
" No, sir."
"Have you received any letters from her, since
your return?"
" None, sir."
" And what does all this mean, young man?"
" It means, sir," replied Sybrandt, almost choking,
"it means that she will one day tell you what it
means I cannot."
The next day, Colonel Vancour wrote to his daugh
ter, to return home, under the protection of the wife
of an officer he knew was on the eve of joining the
army on the frontier.
By daylight Sir William and his aide joined a
detachment on its march to Ticonderoga under the
temporary command of the former. They rode for
some distance, now and then encountering a solitary
habitation ; but on leaving Glen s Falls all traces of
civilized man were lost in the vast uncultivated em
pire of nature. The troops which our hero accom
panied formed part of a crack regiment, distinguished
for its technical discipline, exquisite neatness, and
veteran service in the wars of Europe. The soldiers
were proud of their perfect equipment, and the officers
valued themselves on the splendour of their embroi
dery and epaulettes, which only furnished a mark for
the savages, and cost many a gallant warrior his life.
The first thing Sir William did was to attempt initi
ating them into some of the modes of Indian war
fare. He set the officers the example of doffing their
rich accoutrements, and substituting a common sol
dier s coat, with the skirts cut off. He denounced all
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 277
displays of glittering finery, which answered no other
purpose here than enabling the savages to descry the
march of an enemy at a distance. The gun-barrels
were blackened for the same reason ; and for boots
and spatterdashes he substituted Indian leggins of
strong coarse cloth. But what mortified the vanity
of these military heroes more than all was his
peremptory order to crop their powdered hair, which
at that time was looked upon as the most valued
ornament of a soldier. The detachment had more
over been provided with a mighty kitchen apparatus
of chairs, tables, cooking utensils, and other luggage,
which, however convenient in European wars, was
here in the wilderness a useless, nay, a dangerous en
cumbrance. It rendered their march through the
tangled woods and untrodden paths more slow and
difficult, and embarrassed them in the day of battle.
Sir William, on the first halt they made for refresh
ment, invited the officers to dine with him in his tent.
Instead of chairs and tables, they found only bear
skins spread on the ground, and their host seated on
a log of wood, ready to receive them. When the
dinner was brought in, which consisted of a large
dish of pork and pease, Sir William coolly took out
of his pocket a leathern case, and, drawing forth a
knife and fork, deliberately and with great gravity
divided the meat, helping each to a portion. The
gentlemen looked round for implements with which
to eat their allowance, but, finding none, remained in
indignant embarrassment.
" Gentlemen," said he, at length, "is it possible that
soldiers destined for a service like ours have come
without the necessary instruments of this kind ? Did
278
you expect to find in the wilderness of America the
means or the opportunity of enjoying the luxuries
and conveniences afforded in the heart of Europe ?
But you must not lose your dinner," added he, smiling,
and directing the servant to furnish each of the guests
with a knife and fork similar to his own, which he
desired them to preserve with care. " It will be diffi
cult, where we are going, to supply their loss," said he.
The officers, who were proud of their experience in
the splendid wars of Europe, where the theatre was
a continent, and the spectators the people of a con
tinent, received these lessons of practical wisdom
as little less than insults. To be lectured by a PRO
VINCIAL OFFICER! it was not to be borne! What
could he know about the science of war, or the disci
pline of great armies, who never saw ten thousand
regular troops together in his life ? They grumbled,
and put on the air of enforced submission. But Sir
William Johnson was not a man to be turned from
his purpose by murmurs or opposition. He had been
accustomed to be his own master and the master of
others in the wilderness. He had, by the exercise of
courage, talents, energy, and perseverance, conquered
the stubborn minds of the proudest, the most daring
and impracticable race that ever trod the earth, either
in the Old or the New World. In short, among
savage and civilized men he exercised the only divine
right ever conferred on man the right of command
ing, on the ground of superior physical and mental
energies.
Sybrandt admired and studied the character of this
singular personage, who combined as much power of
mind and body as was ever, perhaps, concentrated in
279
one individual. But our hero continued, notwith
standing his resolution to shake off the depression of
his spirits, to labour under the nightmare of indolent,
gloomy lassitude. He spoke only when spoken to,
and displayed little alacrity in performing those mili
tary duties which Sir William committed to him,
principally with a view to rouse his dormant energies
into action. One day, as they were slowly ascending
the mountain which bounds the southern extremity
of Lake George, Sybrandt was more silent and ab
stracted than usual.
" Young man," abruptly exclaimed Sir William,
" young man, are you in love, yet ? "
Sybrandt was startled ; and the red consciousness
shone in his face.
" I am answered," said Sir William. " But look !
we are at the summit of the mountain. The water you
see, studded with green islands, and bounded by those
mountains tipped with gold, is Lake George. At the
extremity of Lake George is Ticonderoga ; at Ticon-
deroga is glory, and danger. Resolve this instant to
be a man ; to devote yourself to the present and the
future ; to forget the past, at least so far as it inter
feres with the great duties a soldier owes to his coun
try ; or return home this instant. Young man, I did
not bring you here to ruminate, but to act."
Sybrandt rode close up to him, and exclaimed, in a
low, suppressed tone
" Sir William Johnson, show me an enemy, and I
will show myself a man."
" Good ! " cried Sir William, slapping him on the
shoulder, " good ! I see you only want action ; and I
will take care you shall have enough of it." They
280 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
descended the mountain, and were accommodated
that night in Fort George, close on the margin of the
lake, that beautiful lake, to which neither poetry
nor painting can do justice, and which unites within
itself every element of loveliness and of majesty. It
was then the mirror of a wilderness ; now it reflects
in its bosom all the charms of cultivation. Hither, in
the summer season, when tired of the desperate mo
notony of Ballston and Saratoga, the wandering devo
tees of fashion, who seek pleasure everywhere except
where it is to be found, resort, to become wearied with
the beauties of nature, as they have been with the
allurements of art. It is indeed a delightsome nest for
love, music, poetry, and inspiration ; in which to in
dulge luxurious reveries, to recall past times, medi
tate on future prospects, or gaze enraptured on the
sublime and beautiful scene, and perchance recall
" Some ditty of the ancient day,
When the heart was in the lay."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 281
CHAPTER XIV.
A WHITE SAVAGE.
AFTER resting one night at Fort George, they pro
ceeded down the lake in boats which were waiting
for them, and in good time arrived at Ticonderoga.
Here Sir William turned over the reinforcement he
had brought with him to its proper division, and
himself took command of the provincials and Indian
allies the latter consisting of the warriors of the
Five Nations. The position of Ticonderoga, or Old
Ti, as it is familiarly called, commands the best route
between Canada and New York, and, consequently, it
had always been a bone of contention between the
French and English, while the former possessed
the Canadas and the latter the United States. At the
period of which I am now speaking, here was assem
bled the finest army, as to numbers, discipline, and
appointments, that had hitherto been collected in one
body in the New World.
The commander was a brave, experienced, and ca
pable officer ; but he knew little of the nature of an
irregular warfare in the wilderness against savages
and woodsmen, and, what was far worse, was too
proud to learn. He might have found, in Colonel
Vancour and Sir William Johnson, most able and
efficient instructors ; but he could not brook the idea
of being schooled by provincials, and gloomy were the
forebodings of these two experienced gentlemen, dur-
282 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ing their last conference, that the obstinacy of the
commanding general, in applying the tactics of Europe
to this campaign of the woods, would be fatal to the
expedition, and occasion the defeat, if not the destruc
tion, of this fine army.
Sir William was not a man to be inactive in such
stirring times, or, indeed, at any time ; and he deter
mined that Sybrandt should have little leisure for
devouring his own heart in idleness and disappoint
ment. He accordingly detached him on various du
ty; sometimes to gain information of the motions
of the enemy, who were said to be advancing in
force; sometimes with parties up Lake George to
the fort of that name, which was a principal depQt
of supplies from Albany ; and sometimes to scour
the woods in search of vagrant parties of hostile
Indians, of whom large numbers were attached to the
army of the enemy. In all these services Sybrandt
acquitted himself with courage and discretion.
" Bravo," would Sir William exclaim ; " you were
made for a soldier to command, not to obey to
lead men, not to be led by a woman. I see I shall
make something of you. To-night I shall put you to
the knife, and try your metal to the utmost."
" I am ready," answered Sybrandt.
" Listen, then," replied Sir William. " Our general
is a good soldier and an able officer, so far as mere
bravery and an acquaintance with European tactics
go. But he is not fit to command here ; he is not the
Moses to lead armies through the wilderness. He is
ignorant of his enemy, and undervalues him : bad,
both bad. He has not the least conception that a
host of savages may be within twenty feet of him
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 283
and he neither see nor hear them. He cannot divest
himself of the absurd notion, that they must have
baggage-wagons, and horses for their artillery, and
depots of provisions, and all the paraphernalia of a
regular army on the plains of Flanders. He does not
know that they are neither heard nor seen till they aiv
felt, that they travel like the wind, and with as litth-
encumbrance as the wind. He will consequently bo
taken by surprise and cut to pieces, unless I and my
provincials and red-skins make up for his careless folly
by our wise vigilance. Now to the point.
" From various indications, I am fully satisfied that
the enemy is in much greater force than he chooses to
have us believe ; and this is what I want to be cer
tain of before to-morrow morning, because I have
been apprised by the general that he considers it dis
graceful to his majesty s arms to be cooped up in a
fort by an inferior enemy. He means to march out
in battle-array to-morrow, with drums beating, colours
flying, and every other device to certify the enemy
of his motions. If he does, it requires not the spirit
of prophecy to predict that he will sacrifice, not only
the interests of his country, but the lives of hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of brave men. The service is
perilous : why should I disguise it ? it is almost cer
tain death. But you are no common man; nay, I
don t flatter you. I would guarantee your marching
up to the cannon s mouth without winking an eye, if
it were necessary. I would go myself on this service,
but my rank and the command I hold make it impos
sible."
" Name the service, Sir William. Life is of little
value to me, and if
284 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
"Pish!" exclaimed the knight, impatiently. "Dis
gust for life is an ignoble impulse to heroic actions. I
wish you to be animated by the love of your country
and the desire of glory. Such motives only are
worthy of the man who risks his life in undertakings
of extreme peril."
" Sir William Johnson," replied Sybrandt, " you are
my superior in rank, and in merit if you please, but
this gives you no right to insult my feelings, nor am I
inclined to submit to it. As a soldier, do with me as
you please."
" You are right, young man, and I beg your par
don. Well then, let your motive be what it may ; if
not ambition, love : they are equally powerful, if not
equally noble. If your mistress is true, she will re
joice in your success ; if she is false, the most noble
revenge you can take will be to make her regret hav
ing lost the opportunity of participating in your fame.
Give me your hand ; are we friends again ? "
Sybrandt received the proffered courtesy with
grateful and affectionate respect.
" What escort am I to have ? " asked he.
" None ; an escort could not fail to betray you. A
single man is all I can allow."
" As you please ; I am satisfied."
Sir William then proceeded to instruct him in the
course he was to pursue. To go on this expedition
by land would subject him to inevitable discovery.
He was therefore to be furnished with an Indian
canoe and a man to paddle it ; and, under cover of
the night, which promised to be sufficiently dark, to
proceed silently down the strait at the upper end of
Lake Champlain, but only so far that he could as-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 285
suredly return before daylight. He was enjoined not
to neglect this, for the narrowness of this portion of
the lake, lined as it was without doubt by parties
of skulking Indians, would expose him to certain
death, if once seen.
" Should you discover the position of the enemy,"
continued Sir William, " you must depend upon your
own sagacity, and that of Timothy Weasel, for the
direction of your subsequent conduct."
" Timothy Weasel ! Who is he ? "
" What ! have you never heard of Timothy Weasel,
the Varmounter, as he calls himself?"
" Never."
" Well then, I must give you a sketch of his story
before I introduce him. He was born in New Hamp
shire, as he says, and, in due time, as is customary in
those parts, married, and took possession, by right
of discovery I suppose, of a tract of land in what
was at that time called the New Hampshire grants.
Others followed him, and in the course of a few years
a little settlement was formed of real cute Yankees,
as Timothy calls them, to the aggregate of sixty or
seventy, men, women, and children. They were gradu
ally growing in wealth and numbers, when, one night,
in the dead of winter, they were set upon by a party
of Indians from Canada, and every soul of them, ex
cept Timothy, was either consumed in the burning
houses or massacred in the attempt to escape. I have
witnessed in the course of my life many scenes of
horror, but nothing like that which he describes, in
which his wife and eight children perished. Timothy
was left for dead by the savages, who, as is their cus
tom, departed at the dawn, for fear the news of this
286 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
inroad might rouse the people of some of the neigh
bouring settlements, in time to overtake them before
they reached home. When all was silent, Timothy,
who, though severely wounded in a dozen places, had,
as he says, only been praying possum, raised him
self up and looked around him. The smoking ruins,
mangled limbs, blood-stained snow, and the whole
scene, as he describes it with odd pathos, is enough
to make one s blood run cold. He managed, by dint
of incredible exertions, to reach the nearest settlement,
distant about forty miles. Here he told his story, and
then was put to bed, where he lay some weeks. In
the mean time the people of the settlement had gone
and buried the remains of his unfortunate family and
neighbours. When Timothy got well, he visited the
spot, and, while viewing the ruins of the houses and
musing over the graves of all that were dear to him,
solemnly devoted the remainder of his life to revenge.
He accordingly buried himself in the woods, and built
a cabin about twelve miles hence, in a situation the
most favourable to killing the critters, as he calls
the savages. From that time until now he has waged a
perpetual war against them, and, according to his own
account, sacrificed almost a hecatomb to the manes
of his wife and children. His intrepidity is wonder
ful, and his sagacity in the pursuit of this grand object
of his existence beyond all belief. I am half a savage
myself, but I have heard this man relate stories of his
adventures and escapes which make me feel myself,
in the language of the red-skins, a woman in com
parison with this strange compound of cunning and
simplicity. It is inconceivable with what avidity he
will hunt an Indian ; and the keenest sportsman does
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 237
not feel a hundredth part of the delight in bringing
down his game, that Timothy does in witnessing the
mortal pangs of one of these critters. It is a hor
rible propensity : but, to lose all in one night, and to
wake the next morning and see nothing but the man
gled remains of wife, children, all that man holds most
dear to his inmost heart, is no trifle. If ever man had
motive for revenge, it is Timothy. Such as he is, I
employ him, and find his services highly useful. He
is a compound of the two races, and combines all the
qualities essential to the species of warfare in which
we are now engaged. I have sent for him, and expect
him here, every moment."
As Sir William concluded, Sybrandt heard a long
dry sort of " H-e-e-m-m," ejaculated just outside of
the door. " That s he," exclaimed Sir William ; " I
know the sound. It is his usual expression of satis
faction at the prospect of being employed against his
old enemies, the Indians. Come in, Timothy."
Timothy accordingly made his appearance, forgot
his bow, and said nothing. Sybrandt eyed his asso
ciate with close attention. He was a tall, wind-dried
man, with extremely sharp, angular features, and a
complexion deeply bronzed by the exposures to which
he had been subjected for so many years. His scanty
head of hair was of a sort of sunburnt colour; his
beard, of a month s growth at least ; and his eye of
sprightly blue never rested a moment in its socket.
It glanced from side to side, and up and down,
and here and there, with indescribable rapidity, as
though in search of some object of interest, or appre
hensive of sudden danger. It was a perpe.tual silent
alarum.
288 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Timothy," said Sir William, " I want to employ
you to-night."
" H-e-m-m," answered Timothy
" Are you prepared to depart immediately ? "
"What, right off?"
" Ay, in less than no time."
" I guess I am."
" Very well that means you are certain."
" I m always sartin of my mark."
" Have you your gun with you ? "
" The critter is just outside the door."
" And plenty of ammunition ? "
" Why, what under the sun should I do with a gun
and no ammunition ? "
" Can you paddle a canoe so that nobody can hear
you ? "
"Can t I? h-e-e-m-m!"
" And you are all ready ? "
" I spect so. I knew you didn t want me for noth
ing, and so got every thing to hand."
" Have you any thing to eat by the way ? "
" No ; if I only stay out two or three days I sha n t
want any thing."
" But, you are to have a companion."
Timothy here manufactured a sort of linsey-woolsey
grunt, betokening disapprobation.
" I d rather go alone. 7
" It is necessary that you should have an associate.
This young gentleman will go with you."
Timothy hereupon subjected Sybrandt to a rigid
scrutiny of those busy eyes of his, which seemed to
run over him as quick as lightning.
" I d rather go by myself," said he, again.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 289
" That is out of the question ; so, say no more about
it. Are you ready to go now this minute ? "
"Yes."
Sir William then explained the object of the expe
dition to Timothy, much in the same manner as pre
viously to Sybrandt.
" But mayn t I shoot one of these tarnil critters if he
comes in my way ? " said Timothy, in a tone of great
interest.
" No ; you are not to fire a gun, nor attempt any
hostility whatever, unless it is neck or nothing with
you."
" Well, that s what I call hard; but, maybe it will
please God to put our lives in danger that s some
comfort."
The knight now produced two Indian dresses, which
he directed them to put on, somewhat against the
inclinations of friend Timothy, who observed, that if
he happened to see his shadow in the water he should
certainly mistake it for one of the tarnil critters, and
shoot himself. Sir William then with his own hand
painted the face of Sybrandt so as to resemble that
of an Indian an operation not at all necessary in
the case of Timothy. His toilet was already made ;
his complexion required no embellishment. This done,
the night having now set in, Sir William, motioning
silence, led the way cautiously to one of the gates of
Ticonderoga, which was opened by the sentinel, and
they proceeded swiftly and silently to the high bank
which hung over the strait in front of the fort. A
little bark canoe lay moored at the foot, in which
Sybrandt and Timothy placed themselves, flat on the
19
290 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
bottom, each with his musket and accoutrements at
his side, and a paddle in his hand.
" Now," said Sir William, almost in a whisper,
" now, luck be with you, boys ; remember, you are to
return before daylight, without fail."
" But, Sir William," said Timothy, coaxingly, " now,
mayn t I take a pop at one of the tarnil critters, if I
meet em ? "
" I tell you, No!" replied the other; "unless you
wish to be popped out of the world when you come
back. Away with you, my boys."
Each plied his paddle ; and the light feather of a
boat darted away with the swiftness of a bubble in
a whirlpool.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 291
CHAPTER XV.
A NIGHT ADVENTURE.
" IT S plaguy hard," grumbled Timothy to himself.
" What ? " quoth Sybrandt.
" Why, not to have the privilege of shooting one of
these varmints."
" Not another word," whispered Sybrandt ; " we
may be overheard from the shore."
" Does he think I don t know what s what ? " again
muttered Timothy, plying his paddle with a celerity
and silence that Sybrandt vainly tried to equal.
The night gradually grew dark as pitch. Earth
and air were confounded together in utter obscurity
as far as Sybrandt Westbrook was concerned at all
events. Not a breath of wind disturbed the foliage
of the trees, that hung invisible to all eyes but those
of Timothy, who seemed to see best in the deepest
gloom ; not an echo, not a whisper disturbed the dead
silence of nature, as" they darted along unseen and
unseeing, at least our hero was sensible of nothing
but darkness.
" Whisht ! " aspirated Timothy, at length, so low
that he could scarcely hear himself; and, after making
a few strokes with his paddle so as to shoot the canoe
out of her course, cowered to the bottom. Sybrandt
did the same, peering just over the side of the boat,
to discover if possible the reason of Timothy s man-
oauvres. Suddenly he heard, or thought he heard, the
292 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
measured sound of paddles dipping lightly into the
water, A few minutes more, and he saw five or six
little lights glimmering indistinctly through the obscu
rity, apparently at a great distance. Timothy raised
himself up suddenly, seized his gun, and pointed it
for a moment at one of the lights ; but, recollecting
the injunction of Sir William, immediately resumed
his former position. In a few minutes the sound of
the paddles died away, and the lights disappeared.
" What was that ? " whispered Sybrandt.
" The Frenchmen are turning the tables on us, I
guess," replied the other. " If that canoe isn t going
a-spying jist like ourselves, I m quite out in my cal
culation."
" What ! with lights ? They must be great fools."
" It was only the fire of their pipes, which the dark
ness made look like so many candles. I m thinking
what a fine mark those lights would have bin ; and
how I could have peppered two or three of them, if
Sir William had not bin so plaguy obstinate."
"Peppered them! Why, they were half-a-dozen
miles off."
" They were within fifty yards the critters ; I
could have broken all their pipes as easy as kiss
my hand."
" How do you know they were critters, as you call
the Indians?"
" Why, did you ever hear so many Frenchmen
make so little noise?"
This reply was perfectly convincing ; and, Sybrandt
again enjoining silence, they proceeded with the same
celerity, and in the same intensity of darkness as
before, for more than an hour. This brought them,
293
at the swift rate they were going, a distance of fifteen
miles or more from the place of their departure.
Turning a sharp angle, at the expiration of the
time just specified, Timothy suddenly stopped his
paddle as before, and crouched again. Sybrandt had
no occasion to inquire the reason of this action ; for,
happening to look towards the shore, he could dis
cover at a distance innumerable lights glimmering
and flashing amid the obscurity, and rendering the
darkness beyond the sphere of their influence still
more profound. These lights appeared to extend
several miles along what he supposed to be the strait
or lake, which here and there reflected their glancing
rays upon its quiet bosom.
" There they are, the critters," whispered Timothy,
exultingly ; " we ve treed em at last, I swow. Now,
mister, let me ask you one question will you obey
my orders ? "
" If I like them," said Sybrandt.
" Ay, like or no like. I must be captain, for a little
time at least."
" 1 have no objection to benefit by your experi
ence."
" Can you play Ingen when you are put to it? "
" I have been among them, and know something of
their character and manners."
" Can you talk Ingen ? "
No."
" Ah ! Your education has been sadly neglected.
But come, there s no time to waste in talking Ingen
or English. We must get right in the middle of
these critters. Can you creep on all-fours without
waking up a cricket?"
294
" No."
" Plague on it ! I wonder what Sir William meant
by sending you with me. I could have done better
by myself. Are you afeard ? "
" Try me."
" Well, then, I must make the best of the matter.
The critters are camped out I see by their fires
by themselves. I can t stop to tell you every thing ;
but you must keep close to me, do jist as I do, and
say nothing; that s all."
" I am likely to play a pretty part, I see."
"Play! You ll find no play here, I guess, mister.
Set down close; make no noise; and if you go to
sneeze or cough, take right hold of your throat, and
let it go downwards."
Sybrandt obeyed his injunctions; and Timothy
proceeded towards the lights, which appeared much
farther off in the darkness than they really were,
handling his paddle with such lightness and dexterity
that Sybrandt could not hear the strokes. In this
manner they swiftly approached the encampment,
until they could distinguish a confused noise of shout
ings and hallooings, which gradually broke on their
ears in discordant violence. Timothy ceased paddling,
and listened.
" It is the song of those tarnil critters, the Outa-
was. They re in a drunken frolic, as they always are,
the night before going to battle. I know the critters,
for I ve popped off a few, and can talk and sing their
songs pretty considerably, I guess. So, we ll be
among em right off. Don t forget what I told you,
about doing as I do and holding your tongue."
Cautiously plying his paddle, he now shot in close
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 295
to the shore whence the sounds of revelry proceeded,
and made the land at some little distance. They then
drew up the light canoe into the bushes, which here
closely skirted the waters. " Now leave all behind
but yourself, and follow me," whispered Timothy, as
he carefully felt whether the muskets were well cov
ered from the damps of the night ; and then laid him
self down on his face, and crawled along under the
bushes with the quiet celerity of a snake in the grass.
" Must we leave our guns behind ? " whispered
Sybrandt.
" Yes, according to orders ; but it s a plaguy hard
case. Yet, upon the whole, it s best ; for if I was to
get a fair chance at one of these critters, I believe in
my heart my gun would go off clean of itself. But,
hush ! Shut your mouth as close as a powder-horn."
After proceeding some distance, Sybrandt getting
well-scratched by the briers, and finding infinite diffi
culty in keeping up with Timothy, the latter stopped
short.
" Here the critters are," said he, in the lowest whis
per.
" Where ? " replied the other, in the same tone.
" Look right before you."
Sybrandt followed the direction, and beheld a
group of five or six Indians seated round a fire, the
waning lustre of which cast a fitful light upon their
dark countenances, whose savage expression was
heightened to ferocity by the stimulant of the de
bauch in which they were engaged. They sat on the
ground, swaying backward and forward, and from
side to side, ever and anon passing the canteen from
one to the other, and sometimes rudely snatching it
296
away, when they thought either was drinking more
than his share. At intervals they broke out into yell
ing and distuneful songs, filled with extravagant
boastings of murders, massacres, burnings, and plun-
derings, mixed up with threatening* of what they
would do to the redcoat Long Knives on the morrow.
One of these songs recited the destruction of a vil
lage, and bore a striking resemblance to the bloody
catastrophe of poor Timothy s wife and children.
Sybrandt could not understand it, but he could hear
the quick suppressed breathings of his companion,
who, when it was done, muttered under his breath
and in a tone of smothered vengeance, "If I only
had my gun!"
" Stay here a moment," whispered he, as he crept
cautiously towards the noisy group, which all at once
became perfectly quiet, and remained in the attitude
of listening.
" Huh ! " growled one, who appeared by his dress
to be the principal.
Timothy responded, in a few Indian words which
Sybrandt did not comprehend; and, raising himself
from the ground, suddenly appeared in the midst of
them. A few words were rapidly interchanged ; and
Timothy then brought forward his companion, whom
he presented to the Outawa, who greeted him, and
handed him the canteen, now almost empty.
" My brother does not talk," said Timothy.
" Is he dumb ? " asked the chief of the Outawas.
" No ; but he has sworn not to open his mouth till
he has struck the body of a Long Knife."
" Good," said the other ; " he is welcome."
After a pause he went on, at the same time eying
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 297
Sybrandt with suspicion ; though his faculties were
obscured by the fumes of the liquor, which he still
continued to drink and hand round at short intervals.
" I don t remember the young warrior. Is he of
our tribe ? "
" He is ; but he was stolen by the Mohawks many
years ago, and only returned lately."
" How did he escape ? "
" He killed two chiefs while they were asleep by the
fire, and ran away."
" Good," said the Outawa, and for a few moments
sunk into a kind of stupor. From this he suddenly
roused himself, grasped his tomahawk, started up,
rushed towards Sybrandt, and, raising his deadly
weapon, stood over him in the attitude of striking.
Sybrandt remained perfectly unmoved, waiting the
stroke.
" Good," said the Outawa again ; " I am satisfied ;
the Outawa never shuts his eyes at death. He is
worthy to be our brother. He shall go with us to
battle to-morrow."
" We have come just in time," said Timothy.
" Does the white chief march against the redcoats to
morrow ? "
" He does."
" Has he men enough to fight them ? "
" They are like the leaves on the trees," said the
other.
By degrees, Timothy drew from the Outawa chief
the number of Frenchmen, Indians, and coureurs des
bois, who composed the army ; the time when they
were to commence their march ; the course they were
to take, and the outlines of the plan of attack, in case
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
the British either waited for them in the fort or met
them in the field. By the time he had finished his
examination, the whole party, with the exception of
Timothy, Sybrandt, and the chief, were fast asleep.
In a few minutes after, the two former affected to be
in the same state, arid began to breathe heavily. The
Outawa chief nodded to and fro ; then sunk down
like a log, and remained insensible to every thing
around him, in the sleep of drunkenness.
Timothy lay without motion for a while, then
turned himself over, and rolled about from side to
side, managing to strike against each of the party,
successively. They remained fast asleep. He then
cautiously raised himself, and Sybrandt did the same.
In a moment Timothy was down again, and Sybrandt
followed his example without knowing why, until he
heard some one approach, and distinguished, as they
came nigh, two officers, apparently of rank. They
halted near the waning fire, and one said to the other
in French, in a low tone :
" The beasts are all asleep; it is time to wake them.
Our spies are come back, and we must march."
" Not yet," replied the other ; " let them sleep an
hour longer, and they will wake sober." They then
passed on, and, when their footsteps were no longer
heard, Timothy again raised himself, signing to our
hero to lie still. After ascertaining, by certain tests
which experience had taught him, that the Indians
still continued in a profound sleep, he proceeded with
wonderful dexterity and silence to shake the priming
from each of the guns in turn. After this, he took
their powder-horns and emptied them; then, seizing
the tomahawk of the Outawa chief which had dropped
299
from his hand, he stood over the Indian for a moment,
with an expression of deadly hatred which Sybrandt
had never before seen in his or in any other counte
nance. The intense desire of killing struggled a few
moments with his obligations to obey the orders of
Sir William : the latter at length triumphed, and, mo
tioning Sybrandt, they crawled away with the silence
and celerity with which they came ; launched their
light canoe, and plied their paddles with might and
main. "The morning breeze is springing up," said
Timothy, " and it will soon be daylight. We must
be tarnil busy."
And busy they were, and swiftly did the flimsy bark
slide over the wave, leaving scarce a wake behind her.
As they turned the angle which hid the encampment
from their view, Timothy ventured to speak a little
above his breath.
" It s lucky for us that the boat we passed coming
down has returned, for it s growing light apace. I m
only sorry for one thing."
" What s that?" asked Sybrandt.
That I let that drunken Outawa alone. If I had
only bin out on my own bottom, he d have bin stun
dead in a twinkling, I guess."
" And you too, I guess" said Sybrandt, adopting
his peculiar phraseology ; " you would have been over
taken and killed."
" Who, I ? I must be a poor critter if I can t dodge
half a dozen of these drunken varmints."
A few hours of sturdy exertion brought them within
sight of Ticonderoga, just as the red harbingers oi
morning striped the pale green of the skies. Star after
star disappeared, as Timothy observed, like candles
300 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
that had been burning all night and gone out of them
selves ; and, as they struck the foot of the high bluff
whence they had departed, the rays of the sun just
tipped the peaks of the high mountains toward the
west. Timothy then shook hands with our hero.
" You re a hearty critter," said he, and I ll tell Sir
William how you looked at that tarnil tomahawk as
if it had bin an old pipe-stem."
Without losing a moment, they proceeded to the
quarters of Sir William, whom they found waiting for
them with extreme anxiety. He extended both hands
towards our hero, and eagerly exclaimed
" What luck, my lads ? I have been up all night,
waiting your return."
" Then you will be quite likely to sleep sound to
night," quoth master Timothy, unbending the rigidity
of his leathern countenance. " I am of opinion if a
man wants to have a real good night s rest, he s only
to set up the night before, and he may calculate upon
it with sartinty."
" Hold your tongue, Timothy," said Sir William,
good - humouredly, " or else speak to the purpose.
Have you been at the enemy s camp ? "
" Right in their very bowels," said Timothy.
Sir William proceeded to question, and Sybrandt
and Timothy to answer, until he drew from them all
the important information of which they had possessed
themselves. He then dismissed Timothy with cordial
thanks and a purse of yellow boys, which he received
with much satisfaction.
" It s not of any great use to me, to be sure," said
he as he departed ; " but, somehow or other, I love to
look at the critters."
301
" As to you, Sybrandt Westbrook, you have fulfilled
the expectations I formed of you on our first acquaint
ance. You claim a higher reward; for you have
acted from higher motives, and with at least equal
courage and resolution. His majesty shall hear of
this; and, in the mean time, call yourself Major West-
brook, for such you are from this moment. Now go
with me to the Commander-in-chief, who must know
of what you heard and saw."
302 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XVI.
A BUSH-FIGHT.
SYBRANDT bowed his thanks. The idea of being
named with commendation to the king was sufficient
stimulus to a modest provincial volunteer. But a
greater pleasure lurked in the thought, that Catalina
would hear of his honours, and perhaps regret, as Sir
William had hinted, that she could no longer hope
to share them. With these inspiring anticipations he
accompanied Sir William to the presence of the Com
mander-in-chief. They found him surrounded by a
number of officers, among whom our hero was startled
to see Colonel Gilfillan, who had just returned from
a mission to New York, whither he had been de
spatched by the general, the very day Sybrandt joined
the army at Ticonderoga. They recognized each
other with a stately bow and a flush of the cheek.
When his Excellency had heard the report of Sy
brandt, and commended his intrepidity, he announced
his intention to sally forth and surprise the enemy,
instead of keeping his troops cooped up in their de
fences like cowards.
" Caution is not cowardice," observed Sir William.
" It is certain that the enemy exceeds us in numbers.
As to surprising them, it is sufficient to say they have
two thousand Indians with them. Might I advise,
sir, I would respectfully suggest that we remain here
and receive the enemy in our intrenchments, where
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 303
we can keep them at bay until their Indian allies de
sert them, as they certainly will after being beaten
back a few times. In addition to being thus weak
ened, the want of necessary supplies will soon oblige
them to abandon the siege. When they retire, then
will be the time to come out upon them : a retreating
enemy is half conquered."
His Excellency, the commanding general, did not
relish this wise counsel, for at least two very substantial
reasons. He disdained to be governed by the advice of
a provincial officer, and he had been brought up in the
solemn conviction that one Englishman was a match
for two Frenchmen by land or by water. The young
officers of the line, in scarlet coats and gorgeous epau
lettes, were all of the same opinion, with the exception
of one, who, had he lived in happier times, and served
in a sphere less obscure, would have left behind him a
name equally illustrious with those of Wolfe, Mont
gomery, and Montcalm that admirable soldier,
whose glory even defeat could hardly obscure. It was
therefore determined that the army should march
out against the enemy, and orders were immediately
given for that purpose. As the officers separated to
their respective destinations, Sybrandt sought a meet
ing with Gilfillan, who favoured his wishes exceed
ingly.
" Colonel Gilfillan," said he, " permit me to remind
you of a certain affair which still remains unsettled."
The sight of Gilfillan had banished all his former
pacific resolutions.
" Major Westbrook," said the other, " to-day for our
country, to-morrow for Catalina."
" You remind me of a higher duty ; to-morrow be
30-i THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
it : " and he touched his hat, and bowed with a sol
dier-like courtesy.
" To-morrow," replied Gilfillan, touching his hat
likewise, and bowing still lower. And thus they
parted for the present.
" Come, Westbrook," said Sir William, " let us go
and make our wills. To-morrow, if I am not mis
taken, many a poor fellow of us will have a lock of
hair the less upon his head. But, never mind, death
is certain, and duty imperative. I cannot approve,
but to-morrow you shall see Sir William Johnson
what he always has been and always will be faith
ful to his country, whether his judgment go with her
or no."
The whole of this busy day was spent in preparing
for the departure of the army, which took place early
the next morning. The shores of Lake Champlain
had never before witnessed so gallant an array of
martial splendours, nor the solitudes of her hills ever
resounded to such a blast of rousing music as now
echoed in their deepest recesses, scaring the eagles
from their inaccessible eyries, and the wild deer from
their impenetrable retreats. The officers of the regu
lar army, as the native British troops were called,
were all in the highest spirits, anticipating victory
and promotion. But the old gray-headed provincials,
who were better versed in border warfare, shook their
heads and marched forth in gloomy resignation, fore
seeing in this careless confidence of the general the
certainty of disaster and defeat. The hot-headed
redcoats tauntingly ascribed their deportment to cow
ardice or disaffection ; but it was nothing more
than the fearful augury of experience a prophetic
305
insight into the future, founded on a knowledge of
the past.
The march was necessarily fatiguing, owing to the
obstructions every where opposed to them by the
rough inequalities of a country as yet almost in a
state of nature. Add to this, they were encumbered
with an inconvenient and unnecessary quantity of
baggage, which rendered their progress more slow
and laborious. In vain did Sir William and some of
the elder provincial officers endeavour to impress on
the general the necessity of sending out experienced
spies in advance, to scour the thick woods into which
they were now penetrating; in vain did they urge the
halting of the army for repose and refreshment. He
was inflated with a stupid and obstinate idea that he
was going to take the enemy by surprise, and, as is
not uncommon in such cases, in his eagerness to gain
his object, neglected the means necessary to guard
against a similar disaster.
It was about the middle of a long sultry afternoon
in the beginning of Summer that the army became
embarrassed in passing through a tract of wet ground,
covered with a forest of those majestic trees which
give such sublimity to our primeval woods. The heat
was intense, although they were in the midst of im
pervious shades ; for the air was dense and stagnant,
and the want of a free circulation was more than
equivalent to the absence of the sun. The road, if
road it might be called, which was little more than a
space about thirty yards wide cleared of wood, be
came deeper and more difficult as they advanced, and
soldiers and horses began to pant, and falter, and
stick fast in the mud. At the moment when the
20
306 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
whole army was thus entangled, and suffering under
fatigue, heat, and hunger, a horrible shout, followed
by a discharge of guns in front and rear and all
around them, rung in their ears, and struck a chill
into the stoutest heart. White-skins and red-skins
seemed, like the fabled armies we read of, to spring
out of the ground ; every trunk of a tree sent forth
death and destruction into the beleaguered host, and
unseen hands pointed in security their fatal guns.
Here was no wheeling to the right or to the left, or
forming of columns, or concentrating of battalions, or
any of the practised evolutions of European warfare.
Each man had his individual foe, and each man
fought his own mortal fight.
The moment the yell echoed through the forest, Sir
William exclaimed to Sybrandt, who was marching
at his side, weary and disheartened,
" There they are ! I thought as much. The head
long blockhead ! "
" Your commands, Sir William ! " eagerly returned
the other.
" Commands ! Nobody commands now, but the
great Leader of the hosts of heaven. The law of
nature is come again, and all are equal here. Every
man for himself, and God for us all ! " shouted he, in
a voice that echoed through the forest, as he drew a
pistol and dashed, as fast as the woods and marshes
would permit, in the direction of the wildest turmoil.
Sybrandt followed, or rather kept at his side. But
there was no enemy to be seen, though every instant
the officers, in their red coats and splendid embroid
ery, fell dead by invisible hands.
" We are fighting with shadows," said Sir William,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 307
as the balls and tomahawks flew about, barking the
trees or entering the flesh of the devoted men falling
victims to the folly of their commander.
By degrees, parties of the Five Nations rallied
round their old leader, and Sir William soon saw
himself at the head of a considerable number. With
these he commenced operations in the regular style of
bush-fighting, to which all other modes of warfare are
mere children s play. Each man then depends on his
own skill, sagacity, and daring; each man concen
trates his soul and body in efforts for self-preservation
alone, and the impulse of glory is changed to the
instinct of love for life. The fight soon became equal
between the assailing Indians and Sir William and
his valiant Mohawks, who still continued the objects
of terror to all the savages from the Atlantic to the
shores of Lake Superior. Old King Hendrick, who
was with them, retained his courage and vigour, and
seconded his friend Sir William with all his might
and cunning. Nor was Sybrandt idle. He fought
on foot, as all the rest now fought, either from choice
or necessity ; and, as the obstructions of the ground
prevented acting in concert, he w T as frequently en
gaged in personal contests with the enemy. But
the Indians never, if they can help it, or unless under
circumstances of particular advantage, like to match
their physical powers with the white man, either be
cause they know their own advantage in the man
oeuvres of bush-fighting, or the superiority of the other
in vigour and perseverance.
It so happened, however, that Sybrandt, who had
now received two or three flesh-wounds which had
somewhat weakened him, in the devious vicissitudes
308 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
of the fight encountered an Indian, who seemed the
chief, or one of the principal leaders, of the hostile
band. He wore a suit of buckskin fitting close to his
body, and a military cap with feathers. He had a
tomahawk in his hand, which seemed to be his only
weapon. The sole defence of Sybrandt was a loaded
pistol, with (what was very rare at that time) a
double barrel. It was one of a pair which constituted
the only inheritance he received from his father.
With guarded malice the Indian and the white man
eyed each other; the former keenly scrutinizing the
latter to ascertain his means of defence, and Sybrandt
evincing equal curiosity. The chief was at length
satisfied that Sybrandt was unarmed, he having, at
first sight of the savage, concealed the pistol for the
purpose of disarming his vigilance. He accordingly
approached our hero with tomahawk raised, still
however with the characteristic caution of his race,
until Sybrandt thought him sufficiently near, when he
discharged one barrel, but not with a true aim. The
ball just grazed his adversary s shoulder. The chief,
supposing him now at his mercy, rushed forward, but
was received with a shot from the other barrel. It
entered his heart, and he fell dead.
" Bravo ! " exclaimed Sir William, who just at that
moment made his appearance, covered with blood
and dirt. " Bravo, major, you have done good service.
That is the very head and soul of the hostile Indians.
The moment they miss him they will disperse. The
feat shall make you a colonel, if we survive this day."
And it happened as he had predicted. By degrees
the Indians remitted their attacks, and, as the news of
the death of their great chief was gravely whispered
309
about, discontinued them entirely, and gradually dis
appeared.
" The battle is over in this quarter," said the knight,
and called his Mohawks to follow him towards where
the firing still continued. Here they found a scene of
confusion and carnage, principally on one side. The
British army had been taken at such disadvantage,
and knew so little of this mode of warfare, that their
efforts were entirely inefficient. The provincials, how
ever, made some effectual resistance, and, when re
inforced by Sir William and his Mohawks, were at
length able to repulse the enemy, who retired in per
fect order, and with scarcely any loss. In passing
thus from one extremity of the fight to the other,
Sybrandt, by reason of the obscurity of the wood,
became separated from his companions. While seek
ing the direction for joining them again, he heard
something like a faint halloo at a little distance.
After a moment s reflection he made his way towards
the sound with the wariness becoming his situation,
until, at length, peering about beneath the branches,
he discovered an officer lying at the foot of a tree,
with his body partly raised and resting against it.
At a little distance was an Indian grasping a knife,
cautiously advancing, with an evident intention to
practise upon him the bloody rite of savage barbarity.
The face of the officer was turned towards Sybrandt,
and, pale as it was, he at once recognised Gilfillan.
In an instant the history of the past rushed upon his
mind, and in an instant he lived over his former
anger, regrets, and disappointments. All these were
merged the next moment in one generous feeling.
He determined to rescue his rival at every risk. Lev-
810 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
elling his pistol with a steady aim, he waited the
approach of the savage, who was so intent upon his
bloody purpose that he did not perceive him. When
about half a dozen paces from his intended victim,
Sybrandt fired, and the Indian dropped. In another
second he was at the side of Gilfillan, who held out
his hand to him, and said, faintly,
" Major Westbrook, I thank you; not for my life,
for that is gone past all recovery, I think ; but you
have saved my skin from being ripped from my head ;
and, by my soul, I am grateful. I have something to
say to you ; and the sooner I can say it the better."
At this moment Sybrandt perceived a second Indian
approaching with uplifted tomahawk. He attempted
to rise and meet him, but he had been bleeding im
perceptibly for several hours, and his strength was
now quite gone. He sunk down again, insensible, at
the instant that he heard the report of a gun, and the
exclamation, " Take that, you tarnil critter."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XVII.
AN EXPLANATION.
THIS was a bloody day for England and her colo
nies, and its consequences fatal to the success of their
combined arms during the remainder of the war.
The shattered remnant of the army found its way
back to Ticonderoga, weaker by two thousand men
than it went out. But, fortunately, the French did
not pursue, owing to the defection of their Indian
allies ; they being, as usual, discouraged by their losses,
which had been great, owing to the bravery and con
duct of Sir William Johnson and his Mohawks.
They employed themselves in running about the wood
where the battle was fought, plundering the slain, and
inflicting the last act of barbarity upon those in whom
life remained. Many a gallant soldier fell in this
forest-fight, who deserved a more illustrious field and
a more worthy commemoration than mine. Among
these was Lord Howe, of whom the records of the
time speak as of one whose high honour, signal
courage, and martial qualities gave promise of a life
of glory and success. But what are the auguries of
hope, even when drawn from such appearances as
these, but the heralds of disappointment ?
For some hours there was a blank in the life of our
hero; and that the blank did not last for ever was
owing to his trusty companion of the night but one
before. Timothy Weasel had joined the army that
312 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
day as a volunteer, or rather amateur, and long after
ward boasted that he had sacrificed one of the critters
to the shade of each of his murdered family. After
rescuing Sybrandt and Gilfillan from the savage,
in the manner just related, he came up to the young
men, the former of whom he found insensible. He
examined his wounds, of which his long experience
in the trade of vengeance had made him no indiffer
ent judge.
"Is he dead?" asked Gilfillan, faintly.
"Only in a swound," replied Timothy; "the blood
is almost out of his body, and that s mostly what s
the matter with him. It s a pity he should die of
nothing, as I may say; for I can tell you he s a
decent sort of a critter he isn t afeard of nothin."
"I know that I owe him my rescue from the
scalping-knife, and I would give what remains of life,
if it were a thousand times as much, to save him.
Can t it be done?"
Timothy considered a moment, " It s likely it may.
Stay here till I come back, and, mind, don t neither of
you stir a peg from the place."
" There s no danger of that," answered Gilfillan,
with a melancholy smile, glancing his languid eye
from his broken leg to the inanimate body of Sy
brandt.
Timothy hurried away, leaving the two young men
to await his return. He staid till the shadows of
evening began to fall, and Gilfillan, worn out with
pain, anxiety, and weakness, had sunk down by the
side of our hero. In this situation they were found
by Sir William, who had been apprized by Timothy
of their melancholy state. He lost not a moment.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 313
but came, under the guidance of the Vermonter, with
a body of his Mohawks to their relief. In a few
minutes they made a litter of boughs, on which they
placed the two wounded soldiers, and forthwith bent
their way as fast as possible towards Ticonderoga.
The motion of the litter put into circulation the little
blood that yet lingered in Sybrandt s veins, and
brought him by degrees to a consciousness of his situ
ation. Gilfillan also came to himself betimes. It was
morning before the party arrived at the intrenched
camp : the cold dews of the night had operated on
the exhausted frames of the young soldiers, and
chilled them almost into ice; so that when they
arrived it was a moot point whether they were dead
or alive. Immediate care was taken to dispose of
them as comfortably as possible, and the assistance
of surgeons obtained.
The wounds of Sybrandt were found in no way
dangerous of themselves ; but it was feared that loss
of blood, and exposure to the night air, might be fol
lowed by consequences that would endanger his life.
The situation of Gilfillan was still more critical. A
ball had struck his knee, and shattered it in a terrible
manner. The surgeons at once pronounced the neces
sity of amputation the next day, when his strength
was a little restored. A groan, such as his previous
sufferings had never forced from him, marked the feel
ing with which the handsome Gilfillan received this
judgment ; but he uttered not a word. They were
in the same room together, at the request of Gilfillan,
who lay awake that night, restless and feverish. Sy
brandt was also so much exhausted that he could
scarcely sleep ; and ever and anon he could hear Gil-
314 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
fillan mumbling to himself in tones of feverish indis
tinctness, "They sha n t make a sight of me."
"What s the use of paying such a price for life?"
" What will the girls say to my wooden leg? "
and such like exclamations.
About daylight in the morning, he asked Sybrandt
if he was awake, and, finding that he was, spoke to
him as follows :
" Westbrook, I have something to say to you ; and
perhaps I d better say it now, for, upon my soul, I
think, nay, I m sure, it s all over with me."
" Be of good cheer, Colonel Gilfillan," replied the
other ; " after the operation you ll be better."
" And, by the glory of my ancestors, Westbrook, if
I m not better before that happens, I shall never be
better. I mean to die with both my legs on."
" Surely, you are not afraid of an amputation ? "
" Afraid ! " cried Gilfillan, raising himself in his bed
"Look you, Major Westbrook, if I had a pair of
pistols here just now but what am I talking about?
don t I owe my life, at least what s left of it, to you?
Now, listen to me, and mind what I say." He then
disclosed to him the true history of the picture, and
his rejection by Catalina the day he was seen by
Sybrandt at the feet of that young lady, kissing her
hands. " She loves you," said he, faintly, " and none
other. She told me so with her own sweet lips, and
the tears in her truth-telling eyes."
" Is this true, on your soul, Colonel Gilfillan ? "
" True, on the word of a dying man. Now let us
be friends while I live ; and, faith, there will be little
time for our friendship to wear out."
When the surgeons visited the young men in the
315
morning, they found Sybrandt somewhat better,
though feverish : but they shook their heads when
they examined the wound and felt the pulse of Gil-
fillan, declaring that nothing but an immediate ampu
tation could save him.
" Then I am a dead man," said he ; " for my leg
shall go with me to the grave. We have kept com
pany all our lives, and I won t part with my old friend
now, at the last pinch. Any thing else, doctor? "
" Any thing else will be nothing you will be dead
in less than four-and-twenty hours ; and, indeed, it is
extremely doubtful whether even that will save you."
" Then the matter is settled," said Gilfillan.
" Then you are a dead man," replied the surgeon,
bluntly.
" Be it so," was Gilfillan s reply.
16 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BURIAL, OF A GALLANT SOLDIER.
ALL that day, and until the next morning, Gilfillan
was at times delirious with pain and fever; but to
wards the evening he came to himself, was entirely
free from pain, and addressed Sybrandt coherently.
" You feel better? " said Sybrandt, hopefully.
" I feel no pain now."
" Then you must be better."
" I am better my sufferings are past by sunset
I shall be well."
Sybrandt understood him, and did not reply. After
a silence of a few minutes, Gilfillan spoke again.
" Westbrook," said he, faintly, " can you lift me that
little trunk on the table ? "
" I cannot stand," said the other.
" Perhaps / can get it ; " and with an effort he raised
himself, and managed to reach it, unaided, though he
almost sunk under the exertion. The attendant came
in at that moment, to expostulate against his talking.
"Pooh!" said Gilfillan; "go about your business,
will you ? But stay ; I want you to bear witness that
I charge Major Westbrook with this trunk. As to
the rest, I don t care who has it. Now go away."
The attendant retired.
" Westbrook," continued he, after a pause, " there
is a picture in this trunk which belongs to you. I
procured it like a rogue, and I restore it like an hon-
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 317
est man, now that it can be of no further use to me.
There are some little keepsakes of my sister, who
married and died in France. Give them to Catalina ;
she need not be afraid of my claiming them when I
am dead. My watch you will take the first opportu
nity of sending home to my father. I can t write to
him but you will do it. Say to him that I blessed
his old gray head, and died a true son of my father
and of old Ireland. There is a seal attached to it,
with my crest the crest of the ancient Conn aught
kings ; wear that for my sake, and
Here his ideas seemed to become indistinct ; at least
Sybrandt could not understand what he said, for a
minute or two.
" Westbrook," whispered he, " I am going."
" Shall I call assistance ? "
" No ; but I wish I could reach your hand, to give
it one shake. No matter we are friends. God bless
you my father Catalina Old Ireland ! "
The last words were almost unheard by Sybrandt,
and in a little while another soul was on its way to
that country which all visit in turn ; of which none
know any thing, but the dead, who " tell no tales."
Gilfillan was buried with the honours of war, one
of the most solemn and affecting ceremonies that can
be offered to our contemplation. The scene and the
occasion combined to render it peculiarly striking and
magnificent. The remnant of the army followed his
remains to the grave with arms reversed and muffled
drums, while the concentrated bands poured forth the
rich and tender music of " Aileen Aroon," the favour
ite air of the dead soldier. The minute-guns roared
among the recesses of the mountains, and echoed
318 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
along the lake, as the ceremony proceeded ; and three
rounds of musketry announced that the body of the
gallant Gilfillan was deposited in the bosom of its
mother earth.
"It is over!" exclaimed Sybrandt, who had lain
stretched on his bed, listening to the strain of music
and the roaring artillery. " He is gone, poor fellow !
Perhaps I shall soon follow." The thought was not
pleasant ; for he felt now that he had something to
live for.
The French army had been prevented from imme
diately following up its victory for such it was, in
fact by the disaffection and insubordination of the
Indians, who formed an indispensable ingredient in
these border wars. They had suffered severely, gained
little plunder, and become tired of the service ; for per
severance in war forms no part of their character. It
was with difficulty they could be kept together ; and
this circumstance afforded a respite to the English
force, which, reduced as it now was, took the opportu
nity to retreat to the head of Lake George.
During this period, the situation of Sybrandt con
tinued very critical. His wounds were of little conse
quence ; but the circumstances attending his removal
from the field, together with the subsequent agitation
of his mind occasioned by the explanation with Gil
fillan, brought on a slow fever, which threatened fatal
consequences. Such was his weakness, that, though
his friend Sir William paid the kindest attention to
his ease and comfort, he scarcely survived his removal
by water to Fort George, and was brought there in a
state that rendered recovery almost hopeless.
In the mean time Catalina had returned to the
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 319
house of her father ; but not the Catalina who had
left it the autumn before. After the departure of Sy-
brandt, Gilfillan, and Sir Thicknesse Throgmorton,
she had nothing to gratify either her affection or her
vanity. The resources of dissipation and flirtation, so
frequently successful in curing the wounds of the
heart, all failed her. Nothing was talked of or thought
of but the war ; business and gayety were at a stand ;
and the officers, whose presence had given a zest to
balls, parties, and general society, were gone to the
frontier. She had, therefore, ample leisure for reflec
tion and regret. Though she blamed Sybrandt for not
entering into the very recesses of her heart, and seeing
himself there struggling for mastery with a little troop
of vanities and caprices, still she could not in con
science deny that he had at least sufficient apparent
cause for his desertion ; and thus to the disappoint
ment of her hopes was added the sting of self-reproach.
Her vivacity departed ; her colour faded ; and the rich
fulness of her form, where youth and health had united
with a happy consciousness of the present, a san
guine anticipation of the future to consummate the
face and figure of a Hebe, gave place to lassitude
and indifference. To this succeeded a fretful impa
tience to go home, which was met by an equal though
secret desire on the part of Mrs. Aubineau to be rid of
her. That good lady never, to the last day of her life,
forgave Catalina her folly in not jumping at the op
portunity of becoming a titled lady.
In this state of things the summons of Colonel
Vancour for his daughter to return home was a relief
equally welcome to Catalina and her lady entertainer.
The guest who is tired of the hostess and the hostess
320 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
tired of her guest are remarkably civil at parting.
Nothing could surpass the affectionate farewell of
Mrs. Aubineau, except the grateful acknowledgments
of Catalina. Let not our stern moral readers (for
the sternest moralists now regularly put on their spec
tacles to read a new novel) let them not cast the
bitterness of their censures upon this elegant simula
tion. What would this world be, and who would or
could live in it, if every-body blurted out the secret
feelings of their hearts in each other s faces ? Neither
friendship, nor love, nor the ties of kindred, let them
be ever so strongly knit, could stand such a test. They
would perish and be rent in twain by the rough appli
cation of such a touchstone. Civility to those who
have not degraded themselves by base and dishonour
able conduct, but whom still we neither respect nor
love, when it proceeds from no motive of interest or
purpose of deception, is not so much actual hypocrisy
as the triumph of reflection and propriety over the
impulses of prejudice and ill-nature.
THE DUTCHMANS FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XIX.
CATALINA RETURNS HOME.
CATALINA embarked in one of those Albany packets
which then constituted the only vehicles of transpor
tation on the noble Hudson, under the protection of
the wife of an officer occupying a high station on the
frontier. The scene and the season were scarcely
more different from those which presented themselves
on her journey down the river, than were her feelings
and anticipations at the two periods. But the changes,
though great, bore no resemblance to each other.
They formed a perfect contrast. Then the hopes of
Catalina were blossoming in full luxuriance, while the
beauties and the flowers of nature were passing into
the gay yet melancholy hues of the departing year.
Now the young and fresh products of the genial
spring, the air, the woods, the birds, the insects, the
voices and the face of earth, all breathed, and whis
pered, and sung, of joyful, renovated animation. Not
so with Catalina. She represented not the smiling,
blushing, full luxuriance of spring s rosy-lipped god
dess, but the faded, and still fading charms of au
tumn s melancholy, musing, silent representative.
The vessel sped prosperously before the sweet
south winds, but, sad to say, was four days on her
passage. What a loss of time! especially for peo
ple that have nothing to do. Had our heroine fortu
nately been bom in this age of development even
21
322 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
in this behindhand hemisphere she might have been
home in twelve hours ! But if she had been still more
distinguished by Providence, and had been born, not
only in this happy age, but in such a happy country
as Old England, she might peradventure have travelled
to Albany on a railroad, at the rate of sixty miles an
hour ! What a prodigious saving of time ! And, if
the business of young ladies consisted in saving time,
what a prodigious advantage in this rapid travelling !
I beg pardon, the march of improvement has or
dained I should say locomotion she actually might
have arrived at home in less than three hours !
" Well, sir, and what if she had ? "
Why, sir, she would have saved such an amazing
deal of time! She would have got home three days
sooner to her friends.
" And missed the anticipation of seeing them, all
that time."
Pooh ! what is anticipation compared to the reality ?
" Ask any old lady or gentleman you meet, and
they will tell you."
My dear sir, then the short and the long of the
matter is, you don t think fast travelling an improve
ment.
" Faith, not I. I believe, if the happiness, or the
interests, or the superiority of man, had in any way
depended on fast travelling, Providence would have
made a race-horse of him, or furnished his honour
with a pair of eagle s wings."
My good sir, you are a century behind the spirit of
the age.
" Never mind ; one of these days I shall get into a
locomotive engine, and overtake it."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 323
So Catalina, poor girl, was upwards of four days
in sailing to Albany. Does not the fair reader, who,
possibly, at the moment of reading this, sits at a win
dow with our book in her hand, looking at the whis
kered beaux as they pass up and down Broadway
does she not shudder at this dead loss of time ? P< r-
haps she is anticipating a visit to the Springs, to Lot;;.-
Branch, or Nahant, and grows pale at the very antici
pation of a four days passage, involving four days of
absence from these happy retreats of people whose
time is so precious. Let us see what privations this de
lay involves. The loss of at least forty-eight tumblers
of Congress water ; of four execrable dinners ; of four
restless, uncomfortable nights ; a subscription ball ;
three dozen changes of dress ; and three hundred and
seventy-five desperate yawns ; at the Springs: of
four or five bathings on the beach, followed by four
or five shiverings when the sea-breeze comes in ; of
the pleasure of seeing the ladies make their transits
to and fro from the waves, looking, not like the fabled
goddess rising from the ocean, but, with reverence be
it spoken, like old-clothes-women when they go in
and drowned rats when they come out ; of spending
day after day in a delightful variety of eating, drink
ing, and sleeping sleeping, eating, and drinking
and drinking, eating, and sleeping; of being obliged
to devour your dinners quicker than they do in a
manufactory or a steam-boat, and discuss crabs and
tough mutton against time to sleep before dinner,
and after dinner, and between dinner and tea and,
finally, to endure the exemplary tyranny of Mrs. Sears,
and suffer under the worst of all despotisms, that of a
petticoat government; at Long Branch: or, of
324
the gratification of passing all day watching for the
sea-serpent; of magnifying every porpoise into his
likeness ; of seeing the ripplings of the waves assume
the likeness of his joints; and of exercising the last
degree of human credulity in believing in the exist
ence of that fabled monster, under the penalty of
being frowned on by the young ladies, and denounced
by their honoured fathers as freemasons, Jackson
men, and unbelievers; at Nahant. To think that a
young lady or gentleman of enlightened views and
cultivated intellect should lose four days of all or any
of these delights for lack of a. steam-boat or locomo
tive is enough to discompose the machinery of a one-
hundred-and-twenty-horse-power engine. Yet to all
this was Catalina subjected, without being a whit the
wiser or more miserable on that account.
However, in spite of the backwardness of the age,
she got home at last. Festina lente, said Augustus
Caesar, and so say I. Nobody ever did any thing
well in a hurry, except running away. She was
greeted by her honoured parents with tender welcome,
and she received that welcome with tears flowing
from a hundred recollections of the past. The first
caresses being over, they had leisure to observe her
altered appearance, which they did with a silent inter
change of anxious looks. They however said noth
ing ; they suspected its cause, and this was not the
time or the occasion to allude to the subject. But
honest Ariel, who was on the high ropes with joy at
her return, and never wandered out of the little circle
of the present moment, being suddenly struck with
her paleness, as suddenly exclaimed,
"Why, Catalina why, damn it, what s the mat
ter ? You look like a ghost ! "
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 325
" Nothing, uncle," answered she, and burst into
tears.
" Why, damn it now, why, don t cry ; I didn t mean
to to " and honest Ariel, whose heart melted like
a dish of butter in the sun, fairly wept, to keep her
company.
" She is fatigued with her voyage," said the consid
erate mother, " and had better lie down a little while
before dinner. Come, my dear : " and Catalina followed
her mother to her chamber.
" I ll be shot if I know what to make of all this,"
exclaimed Ariel, wiping his eyes.
" Nor I," thought the colonel ; " but we shall kn^ow
in good time. Her mother will get it all out of her
before to-morrow."
And so she did. The fact is, she knew it all before,
from her friend, Mrs. Aubineau. But she had no ob
jection to hear it again ; for, thought she, a good story
never loses by telling.
" Ah ! Catalina," exclaimed she, shaking her head,
" you ll never live to be a titled lady, I m afraid."
" I shall never live to be any thing, I believe," re
plied Catalina, and her tears flowed apace.
" The Honourable Colonel Gilfillan," said Madam,
" is, I believe, on the frontier."
" I wish," thought Catalina, " he were anywhere, so
I might never see his face again."
" And Sybrandt Westbrook is there, too."
Catalina did not wish he was where she might never
see him again, though the old lady, I believe, did.
" He is a jealous-pated fool," said Madam.
" Who, dear mother ? "
" Sybrandt."
326
" Indeed, mother, you are mistaken," said she, firmly.
" Then you gave him cause," said Madam, in a tone
rather of exultation.
" Indeed, I did not that is, if he had known my
real feelings he would have been satisfied."
"Ah!" thought the mother, "it s an old story for
girls to behave like little wild-cats to their lovers, and
then blame them because they cannot see into their
hearts. They might as well try to see into the inside
of" she could not find a comparison to suit her,
exactly, but I believe a pumpkin came into her head.
Madam told the old gentleman all about it, and
immediately after went to Albany, for a purpose that
nobody about her could fathom, though I have a
shrewd guess. But I will not betray the secrets of
the old lady, though, rest her soul, she is dead long
ago, and I am not afraid of ghosts. All I can disclose
is, that, some days after this mysterious journey, the
affair of Catalina was talked of at several tea-parties,
though nobody could ever discover how it leaked
out.
" I shall write to Sybrandt, and set matters right,"
quoth the straightforward old gentleman, Colonel Van-
cour.
" What ! " screamed Madam " What ! " cried Cat
alina ; < ( and tell I am dying for him ! O, father, I d
rather be dead ! "
"I d rather see her married to the Honourable
Colonel Gilfillan," thought the old lady.
" It can be no reproach to the delicacy of a young
lady, to relieve her lover from any erroneous impres
sions of her conduct. You know he loved you, and
that is sufficient."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 327
" But, father, he may have fallen in love with some
body else, since."
" O, certainly," exclaimed the colonel, smiling,
"with some beautiful squaw."
" Alas! men have no sensibility," thought Catalina,
with a sjgh, " when my father makes a jest of the soul-
subduing passion ! "
People grow wiser as they grow older, my dear little
heroine, or at any rate they grow more selfish, and
that is often mistaken for wisdom. Times change,
and men change with them ; but this does not prove
that either change for the better.
Catalina opposed writing to Sybrandt, and so did her
mother, although she could not help feeling anxious
about the depressed health and spirits of her daughter.
"Nobody ever died of love, though," thought she; and
she thought right. It is not a disease in itself, but it
often produces complaints that sap the sources of life,
and bring on a premature decay. The process is slow,
but sure. Be this as it may, the colonel had two to
one against him, and they were women. The colonel
was but a man so he grumbled, and submitted.
What could man do more?
328 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XX.
AN ANTI-CHARITABLE CHAPTER.
I COULD never yet, to this blessed hour, satisfy my
self whether Catalina was more glad or more sorry at
thus carrying her point. At any rate it was one of
Pyrrhus s victories, and she never wished to gain such
another. She was now free to indulge the luxury of
grief; but grief, like other passions, when immoder
ately gratified, soon loses zest. It is one of the most
tiresome- things in the world, for a constancy. It does
very well for a burst or a paroxysm ; but for every day,
and all day long for every night, and all the live
long night human nature cannot stand it, and seeks
refuge from the carking, gnawing fiend, in the per
formance of its duties to itself and to others. Blessed
necessity !
Catalina forced herself to enter upon_Uie_cares of
domestic life ; and those who seek employment will
soon take an interest in what they are doing. There
are a thousand little acts of obligation, or kindness, or
attention, which woman, and only woman, can per
form, and which interfere neither with the delicacy of
a lady nor the acquirement and practice of elegant
accomplishments. The union, I confess, is not com
mon ; but I have seen women, and thank heaven for
it, who united both the will and the power to be useful
with the utmost polish of mind and manners and the
highest intellectual attainments becoming the sex. I
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 329
wish I could meet a few more of them. But, if they
were common, they would no longer be a rarity ; and,
if they were no longer a rarity, nobody would prize
them. Doubtless it is best as it is. Let us bow with
humble resignation, and thank our stars, as men, that
there are so many of the sex who are not all angel;
for, if there were more of them quite faultless, where
under the sun should we find partners worthy of
them?
Catalina was calculated to be both a blessing and
an ornament to her home, a jewel in the bosom of
a husband, or she would never have been chosen as
our heroine from all the rest of her sex. Though not
peffect, she was a perfect woman ; and whoever is
v not satisfied with that, let him die the death of a
bachelor. There was a library too in the mansion
of Colonel Vancour, which, though principally com
posed of majestic Latin tomes of the Dutch school,
was here and there relieved by works of a lighter
nature. There were few novels, but, being scarce,
they were the more seducing, and, being right excel-
In^, they would bear to be read frequently. They
did not depend altogether on the momentary excite
ment of the story, but possessed latent beauties which
gradually opened themselves, like flowers to the morn
ing sun, at every new perusal. Besides these, Catalina
had music and friends, and the liberality of her father
allowed her the means of procuring every rational en
joyment.
What a shame to be unhappy with so many sources
of happiness! Yet our heroine was not happy. There
was one thing wanting, and that was a want of the
heart. It was the companion of her childhood ; the
330
choice of her youth ; the preserver of her life. She
often visited the spot where the terrible conflict with
Captain Pipe took place, and always returned with
renewed regrets ; she could not sit at her window and
look into the garden without recalling to mind the
perils she had encountered, and the life she owed to
the watchful tenderness of her lover; nor could she
walk in any direction without something or other pre
senting itself which brought him to her remembrance
clothed with every claim to her tenderness and grat
itude. But she had lost him, and that by her own
paltry vanity.
Yet she did not yield to the infirmity of her heart.
She tried every resource, and finally that of teaching
children to read and write. During her absence in
New York, Madam Vancour had been seized with a
passion for doing good on a great scale a dangerous
propensity in woman, because it is apt to degenerate
into the weakness of indiscriminate charity. To re
lieve the distresses of mankind without encouraging
their vices, their laziness, their extravagance, is a nice
and delicate task ; it requires a knowledge of the dark
side of the world and a self-denial which women hap
pily seldom attain ; and hence it is that the large
share they have taken of late in the distribution of
public and private charities has without doubt been
one of the main causes of that vast increase of idle
ness and poverty, and their consequent vices, which
cannot but be evident to every observer.
With the best intentions in the world, mingled, as
such so often are, with a little alloy of vanity and
self-applause, Madam Vancour resolved to institute
a school for the gratuitous education of the children
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 331
of the neighbouring poor. Not that there were any
people in the neighbourhood that really required her
assistance in this respect ; for riches and poverty were
not at that early period so disproportionately distrib
uted as they are at present. Though all were able
by industry and economy to afford their children such
instruction as was necessary to their modes of life,
(and all beyond is not only superfluous, but per
nicious), still this new-born desire to do good whis
pered Madam Vancour that it would be very humane
to relieve these people from the burden of educating
their own offspring. Accordingly she set about it with
enthusiasm ; and her first step was to convince these
worthy folks, who had hitherto managed to get on
very well, that it was a great hardship for them to be
obliged to deprive themselves of certain of the little
luxuries of life, to pay for the schooling of their chil
dren.
"Vat! mine own lawfully-pegotten shildren?" ex
claimed old Van Bornbeler, who got his living by
making flag-bottomed chairs; "why, who den should
pay for dare shchooling, if not me? Ain t I dare
fader?"
But Madam Vancour soon brought him to reason,
fry showing how he could buy six quarts of pure
Jamaica rum, and as many pounds of sugar, besides
a new gown for the yffrouw, with the money it cost
him for the schooling of his three children. " Duy vol ! "
quoth Van Bombeler ; " why, I never tought of dat
before!" So he consented to Madam s desirable pro
posal. In this manner the good lady for good she
certainly was in the abstract, though I fear not prac
tically so in this instance in this rnanner did she
332 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
persuade her neighbours to relinquish the honest, nay,
proud gratification of educating their own children by
the sweat of their own brows. There was one, and
only one, sturdy Dutchman, who rejected her benevo
lence, and insisted, nay, swore, that nobody should
put their charity upon him. " I ll work my fingers to
de bone ; and den, if I can t send dem to shchool,
what s de reason, I should like to know, if dey can t
pay for dare own shchooling when dey grow pig
enough?" But Madam had her revenge she took
away his trade of whisk-brooms, by setting up another
man in the business ; who, as he lived in one of Col
onel Vancour s small houses and paid no rent, ruined
the other by underselling him. By this means the
obstinate fool was brought to reason ; and, finally, his
poverty if not his will consented to have his children
educated upon charity.
But these difficulties in procuring objects for the
exercise of her new-born virtue soon vanished. Cus
tom by degrees reconciled the people to the degrada
tion of depending on alms for what they could procure
by their own labour. The numerous examples which
in good time presented themselves ; the countenance
of Madam, to whom they all looked up with respect
ful deference ; and, above all, the means of self-grati*
fication which this diversion of the fruits of their
labour produced ; all tended to consummate this salu
tary revolution of opinion. It was surprising to see,
in the course of a little while, how anxious the poor
were to get rid of the burden of educating their
children ; and with what singular satisfaction Master
Van Bombeler boasted that he could now afford to
drink twice as much as he did before this blessed
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 333
invention of charity. In a little time a great improve
ment was observed at the Flats : the children all
looked up to Madam Vancour instead of their ignorant
parents, who, for their part, began to wear clothes of
a better fashion ; to spend a little more time abroad
and a little less at home; to take a great interest
in all matters that did not concern them ; and to
elevate their noses much higher in the scale of crea
tion now that they began to see into the natural
and indefeasible claim which every-body s children
had to be educated by any body, just as it pleased
God. But the most salutary consequence was, that
the fathers and mothers began gradually to take less
interest in their offspring, conceiving them to belong
altogether to society ; and, by leaving them in a great
degree to the care of others, happily relieved them
from the contagion of their bad example.
334 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
CHAPTER XXI.
PLINY THE YOUNGER.
MADAM VANCOUR was extremely fortunate in pro
curing a most efficient auxiliary in the engineering of
this her good work, in the person of Master Pliny
Coffin (the sixteenth), whilom of Nantucket island.
Pliny was the youngest of nine sons and an unac
countable number of daughters, born unto Captain
Pliny Coffin (the fifteenth). Being called after his
uncle, Deacon Pliny Mayhew (the tenth), he was
patronised by that worthy " Spermaceti candle of the
church," as he was called, and sent to school at an
early age, with a view to following in the footsteps
of the famous divine. But Pliny the younger had a
natural and irresistible vocation to salt water, inso
much that, at the age of eighteen months or there
abouts, being left to amuse himself under the only
tree in Nantucket, which grew in front of Captain
Coffin s (the fifteenth) house, he crawled incontinently
down to the sea-side, and was found disporting him
self in the surf like unto a young gosling. In like
manner did Pliny the younger, at a very early age,
display a vehement predilection for great whales, to
the which he was most probably incited by the stories
of his father, Pliny the elder, who had been a mighty
harpoon er in his day. When about three years old,
one of these monsters of the deep was driven ashore
in a storm, at Nantucket, where he perished, to the
335
great joy of the inhabitants, who flocked from all
parts to claim a share of his spoil. On the morning
of that memorable day, which is still recorded in the
annals of Nantucket, Pliny the younger was missing,
and, diligent search being made for him, he was not
to be found in the whole island ; to the grief of his
mother, who was a very stout woman, and had killed
three Indians with her own fair hand. But, look ye,
while the people were gathered about the body of
the whale, discussing the mysterious disappearance
of the child, what was their astonishment to behold
him coming forth from the stomach of the huge fish,
laughing right merrily at the prank he had played !
But the truth must be confessed ; he took his
learning after the manner that people, more especially
doctors, take physic, with many wry faces and
much tribulation of spirit. In fact he never learned
a lesson in his whole life, until, on arriving at his fifth
year, by good fortune a primer was put into his hand
wherein was the picture of a whale, with the which
he was so utterly delighted that he mastered the
whole distich under it in the course of the day. The
teacher aptly took the hint, and, by means of pasting
the likeness of a whale at the head of his lessons,
carried him famously along in the career of knowl
edge. In process of time he came to be of the order
of deacons, and was appointed to preach his first
sermon, whereby a great calamity befell him, which \
drove him forth a wanderer on the face of the earth.
Unfortunately, the meeting-house where he was to
make his first essay stood in full view of the sea,
which was distinctly visible from the pulpit; and,
just as Pliny the younger had divided his text into
336
sixteen parts, behold ! a mighty ship appeared, with a
bone in her teeth, ploughing her way towards the
island with clouds of canvas swelling in the wind.
Whereupon the conviction came across his mind that
this must be the Albatross, returning from a whaling
voyage in the great South Sea ; and, sad to relate,
his boyish instincts got the better of his better self.
Delirious with eager curiosity, he rushed from the
pulpit, and ran violently down to the sea-side like
one possessed, leaving deacon Mayhew and the rest
of the expectant congregation astonied nigh on to
dismay. The deacon was wroth, and forthwith dis
inherited him. The people said he was possessed of
a devil, and talked of putting him to the ordeal;
whereupon the unfortunate youth exiled himself from
the land of his nativity, and went to seek his fortune
among the heathen, who had steeples to their churches,
and dealt in the abomination of white sleeves. Of
his wanderings, and of the accidents of his pilgrim
age, I know nothing, until his stars directed him to
the Flats, where there were no salt-water temptations
to mislead him.
As one of the contemplated improvements of Ma
dam Vancour was the introduction of the English
language among her pupils, instead of the barbarous
Dutch dialect, she eagerly caught at the first offer of
Pliny, and engaged him forthwith to take charge of
her seminary. In this situation he was found by
Catalina, who, as we have before stated, in the deso
lation of her spirit, resolved to attempt the relief of
her depression by entering upon the difficult task of
being useful to others. She accordingly occasionally
associated herself with Master Pliny in the labours of
337
his mission, greatly to the consolation of his inward
man. He took great pains to initiate her into the
mysteries of his new philosophical, practical, elemen
tary, and scientific system of education, on which he
prided himself exceedingly, and with justice, for it
hath been lately revised and administered among us
with singular success, by divers ungenerous peda
gogues, who have not had the conscience to acknowl
edge whence it was derived.
As Newton took the hint of the theory of gravi
tation from seeing an apple fall to the ground, and
as the illustrious Marquis of Worcester deduced the
first idea of the application of steam from the risings
and sinkings of a pot-lid, so did Master Pliny model
and graduate his whole system of education from the
incident of the whale in the primer. Remembering
wuTPwhat eagerness he had himself been attracted
towards learning by a picture, he resolved to make
similar illustrations the great means of drawing forth
what he called the " latent energies of the infant
genius, spurring on the march of intellect, and acceler
ating the development of mind." But, as woodcuts
were scarce articles in those times, he devoted one
day in the week to sallying forth with all his scholars,
in order to collect materials for their studies ; that is,
to gather acorns, pebbles, leaves, briers, bugs, ants,
caterpillars, and what not. When he wanted an
urchin to spell " Bug," he placed one of these speci
mens directly above the word, and great was his
exultation at seeing how the child was assisted in
cementing B-U-G together, by the presence of the
creature itself. In this way he taught every thing by
sensible objects, boasting at the same time of the
22
338 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
originality of his method, little suspecting that he had
only got hold of the fag end of Chinese emblems and
Egyptian hieroglyphics. But, pride will have a fall.
One day, at Catalina s suggestion, master Pliny put
his scholars to the test, by setting them to spell with
out the aid of sensible objects, and by the mere instru
mentality of the letters. They made sad work of it ;
hardly one could spell V ant " without the presence of
the insect to act as a prompter. They had become so
accustomed to the assistance of the thing, that they
paid little or no attention to the letters which repre
sented it; and Catalina ventured to hint to master
Pliny, that the children had learned little or nothing.
They knew what an ant was, before, and that seemed
to be the extent of their knowledge, now. " Yea,"
answered he, " but it makes the acquisition of learn
ing so easy."
" To the teacher, certainly," replied the young lady.
In fact, when she came to analyze the improvements
in master Pliny s system, she found that they all
tended to one point, namely, diminishing, not the
labour of the scholar in learning, but that of the mas
ter in teaching.
I forbear to touch on all the other various plans of
master Pliny for accelerating the march of mind.
Suffice it to say, they were all, one after another,
abandoned, being found desperately out at the elbows
when subjected to the test of wear and tear. Yet
have they been revived with wonderful success by
divers illustrious and philosophical pedagogues abroad
and at home, who have brought the system to such
perfection, that they have not the least trouble in
teaching, nor the children any thing but downright
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 339
pleasure in learning. Happy age !, and happy Pliny,
had he lived to this day to behold the lamp which he
lighted shining over the whole universe. He, how
ever, abandoned his system at the instance of a silly
girl, and soon after deserted the Flats ; the same cause
being at the bottom of both issues a woman.
The evil spirit which influenced master Pliny to run"
out of the pulpit now prompted him to run his head
into the fire. Pliny was a rosy-cheeked, curly-headed,
fresh-looking man, exceedingly admired by the Dutch
damsels thereabout, and still more by a certain per
son who shall be nameless. He thought himself an
Adonis ; and argued inwardly that no young lady in
her senses would turn schoolmistress without some
powerful incitement. The said demon whispered that
this could be nothing but admiration for his person,
and love of his company. Upon this hint he began,
first, to ogle the young lady, then to take every oppor
tunity to touch her hand or press against her elbow,
until she could not but notice the peculiarity of his
conduct. Finally, he wrote her a love-epistle, of such
transcendent phraseology that it frightened Catalina
out of school for ever. She did not wish to injure the
simple fellow, and took this method of letting him
know his fate. Poor PHny the younger pined in
thought, and soon after took his departure for the land
of his nativity, where, on arrival, he was kindly for
given by his uncle, the deacon, and received into the
bosom of the meeting-house. Here he preached pow
erfully many years, never ran after whale ships more,
and, in good time, by the death of his father, came to
be called Pliny the elder.
340
CHAPTER XXII.
LETTERS WITHOUT ANSWERS.
THUS our unfortunate heroine was destined to lose,
one by one, all her admirers. While these matters
were passing, a correspondence on public affairs had
been carried on between Sir William Johnson and
Colonel Vancour, in which the former had taken
occasion to mention the conduct of Sybrandt in terms
of high approbation. He spoke of him as a youth of
uncommon talents and intrepidity, in whose future
welfare he took the deepest interest. The officers, too,
who occasionally stopped at the mansion-house in
their journeys from the frontier to New York, united
in bearing testimony to his gallantry and enterprise ;
and, to crown all, the despatches of the general to his
government at home made honourable mention of our
hero. Catalina was not ignorant of these things, nor
could she help feeling a proud gratification, that the
man to whom she had given her heart was worthy of
the gift. "But he is lost to me he is wounded
perhaps dying ; and he does not think it worth while
to write or send to us."
But in this she did our hero injustice. He lay a
long time fluctuating between life and death ; but at
length the vigour of youth, strengthened by his hopes
of the future, got the better of the low fever which
had succeeded his wounds and exposures, and he
began gradually, but slowly, to recover. As soon as
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 341
his strength would permit, he wrote to Catalina, in
forming her of his explanation with Gilfillan ; apolo
gizing for his unfounded jealousy and rash departure
from New York; and throwing himself on her gener
osity for pardon. It happened at this time there was
no opportunity to send the letter by a public express,
nor had Sybrandt patience to wait for one. In cast
ing about for a messenger, he recollected a half-breed,
a sort of lounger and hanger-on about the fort, who
performed all sorts of menial offices for rum, and was,
in the most comprehensive sense of the word, a
vagabond. Still, he had the reputation of courage,
sagacity, and fidelity in the performance of his en-
gagements ; and our hero determined to employ him
as the herald of Dan Cupid, who most probably was
never served by such a varlet before. He had in
times past been accustomed to forage about the Flats,
where he was well known, and where Sybrandt be
came acquainted with him.
He accordingly intrusted him with his letter, to
gether with two others, one for the good Dennis, the
other for Colonel Vancour, the contents of which the
reader may imagine for himself if he pleases. He
was also imprudent enough to furnish the fellow with
money to bear his expenses, instead of giving him a
knapsack and provisions ; and thus he despatched
him, with many injunctions to proceed without delay,
deliver his letters, wait an answer, and then return as
soon as possible. This trusty blade, instead of follow
ing these directions, took the first opportunity, on his
arrival at Albany, to get exceedingly drunk. More
over, in that state he continued until all his money
was spent. As a matter of necessity, he then became
342 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
sober ; but his letters were gone he had lost or de
stroyed them, or they had been taken from him ; he
could not tell how or when.
The worthy courier then deliberated what was
proper and safe to be done. To go to the Flats with
out his credentials was out of the question ; and to
return to Fort George for a new set of instructions
would be a vast accession of trouble, without any of
pay. Nay, he might possibly get a broken head for
his pains. This compendium of the virtues of the
red and the white rose had an equal antipathy to
having his head broken and to the volunteering of
another journey. The result of his cogitations was a
resolution to put the best face on the matter, make up
a good story, and return forthwith to his employer.
He accordingly presented himself before Sybrandt
with an intrepidity of face and manner that would
have done honour to the most practised diplomatist.
" Have you brought any letters ? " asked our hero,
eagerly, as he raised himself from the bed, where he
still spent some hours of every day.
" No, sir ; I no bring any ting."
" Did you see the young lady ? " said our hero,
faintly.
" Yes, sir ; I see her, and give her the letter."
" And did she read it ? "
" O, yes; she read it, and say, very nice letter
and then she laugh."
" Laugh ! " thought poor Sybrandt ; and his heart
sank within him ; " but she gave you something in
return ? "
" Yes, sir ; she gib me a guinea, and tell me go back
agin as fast as I came de letter no want answer."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 343
"Did she look pale? was she thin?" asked he,
after a dead pause of agonized feeling.
" O no, sir ! Her cheeks red as berries, and she
merry as a cricket : she laugh very much when I tell
her you sick abed."
Sybrandt groaned an echo to the laugh of his un
feeling mistress. It was some minutes before he
could rally his spirits to ask any more questions.
"Did you see the colonel, and Madam Vancour?"
" O yes, sir ; colonel very good give me a dram,
and say he spose Major Sybran dead by dis time."
" And he, too, laughed, I suppose ? " said Sybrandt,
in bitterness of soul.
" No, he no laugh out loud like young madam
he only smile a leetle so" and the rascal just
showed his ivory teeth.
Sybrandt found himself sicker and sicker at the
heart, with every word he heard.
" And what did Madam Vancour say, when you
told her my situation?" resumed he, at length.
" She tell me no more than Master Sybran de-
sarve."
"Worse and worse!" thought poor Master Sy
brandt " the draught becomes sharper : well, let me
drink it to the dregs" and he called anger and
indignation to be his supporters.
" And what said my other uncle, Mr. Dennis Van
cour?"
"What old gentleman live on the hill? O, he
say he spose Master Sybran be dead fore he letter
get at him, and tell me no occasion to write."
Sybrandt (as soon as he could muster strength and
heart to do it) proceeded to question the mischievous
344 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
mongrel closely and strictly as to the truth of his tale,
which seemed to be at war with all he knew of his
mistress and his uncles. But the fellow was armed
at all points, and answered with such consummate
cunning, that at length our hero was compelled to be
lieve that Catalina had on her return made to the
family such a representation of his conduct as had
for ever alienated him from their confidence and affec
tion.
" Very well," said he, after going rapidly through
these reflections, and arriving at this consoling result
" very well there now go " and he gave the
rascal money for having performed his duty so speed
ily and well.
" I will trouble her no more ; I will trouble them no
more," said he, as he laid himself down on his bed,
with a hope that he might never rise from it. There
was every appearance that this hope would soon be
realized ; for the result of this affair, cooperating with
his weak and nervous state of mind and body, seemed
now on the point of extinguishing in a few days,
perhaps a few hours, the deadened spark of life in
his aching heart.
345
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE LAST SLEEP OF A GOOD MAN.
NOT many days after the events just recorded, a
young officer stopped at the hospitable mansion of
Colonel Vancour, on his way from Fort George to
New York. It was in the dusk of the evening, and
he was of course invited to stay all night. The con
versation naturally turned on the events of the war,
the prospect of peace, and the situation of matters on
the frontier. Catalina was sitting at an open window,
leaning her white cheek on her still whiter hand, lis
tening in breathless silence, to hear perhaps the name
of him who occupied so large a portion of her
thoughts.
" Has any thing particular occurred at Fort George ? "
asked the colonel.
"Nothing that I heard of," replied the officer:
" I however only stopped there a few minutes, on my
way from the foot of the lake, where I had been sta
tioned for some time."
" Did you happen to hear any thing of Colonel
Westbrook ? " asked the other, in a low tone ; but his
daughter overheard him, and her heart beat quicker
in her bosom.
"Westbrook? Westbrook ? Why, now I think
of it I did hear something of that gallant and la
mented officer. He died, the day "
" Hush ! for heaven s sake ! " whispered the colonel.
346 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
Bat the caution came too late. The words had met
the ear of Catalina. She did not faint she did not
shriek, or scream, or wring her hands but she sat
like a statue of pure white marble carved by some
famous artist to represent the silence of unutterable
grief. Her mother was watching, and came and sat
beside her daughter, who leaned on her bosom, and
said not one word. In the course of a quarter of an
hour she recovered sufficiently to beg Madam Vancour
to go up stairs with her, and they left the room to
gether.
After her departure the colonel proceeded with his
inquiries.
" You were saying, sir, that you understood Colonel
Westbrook was dead. When I inform you that he is
a near relation, and an object of great interest to my
family, I hope you will excuse me for requesting you
to be particular in relating the circumstances of his
death."
" I am sorry," replied the young man, " that I can
not comply with your wishes. As I mentioned before,
I stopped but a few minutes at the Fort, to pick up
despatches, and, while sitting with the general, who
was preparing them, the servant of Colonel Westbrook
came running in to say his master had just expired.
The general expressed great regret, and I, having
received the papers, came away without hearing any
thing further on the subject."
Catalina did not rise with the sun as usual the next
day, though it was one of the loveliest of all the lovely
progeny of Summer. She attempted it, for she was
not one of those who yield the victory to grief or sick
ness without a sore struggle. When she saw the
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 847
beams of the morning sun shining against the wall,
and heard the birds calling her at the window, she
attempted to get up, but her head became so dizzy
she was obliged to let it fall again quietly upon the
pillow. The old lady became alarmed ; and all
thoughts of being mother to a real titled lady van
ished before the fears of maternal tenderness.
She therefore determined, as people frequently do
when it is rather too late, to perform an act of un
paralleled magnanimity ; an act which merits being
commemorated in brass and marble : in short, she
resolved to desert the opposition, and go over to her
husband. Accordingly, she went to the colonel, and
frankly proposed to write to Sybrandt a full explana
tion of Catalina s conduct and present feelings, and
invite him home.
" What ! now that he is dead ! " exclaimed the good
man, with tears in his eyes.
" That s true ; I declare I forgot it," replied the
dame ; " what shall we do ? "
" Submit to the will of Heaven."
" Well, but it s very provoking, though."
" What!, to submit to the will of Heaven ? "
"No, my dear; that he should die just at this
time."
" Such untoward accidents often happen in this
world. You and I have lived long enough to see the
hopes of youth withered in the blossom, the fruits of
manhood s toils and cares mildewed before they were
ripe. There is nothing certain in this world but
death : why, then, should we be surprised that he died
in the prime of his days ? It is not half so strange as
that you and I have lived to be old."
348
This was rather an ungallant speech, since age has
ever been considered in polite society a reproach to a
lady, and any allusion to it an offence to good-breed
ing. But Madam Vancour forgave, or did not notice,
it. She was thinking of something nearer her heart
than compliments. Was she not a remarkable wo
man?
" But perhaps, after all," said Madam, " the report
of his death may be a mistake of the servant."
" Such reports generally turn out to be true. But
I will see if I can gather any further information on
the subject."
He ordered his horse, and rode to Albany, for the
purpose of making inquiries. The commanding officer
there had received letters by the hands of the young
gentleman who had brought the news of Sybrandt s
death, at the foot of one of which was this short post
script :
" Colonel Westbrook is just dead."
The old gentleman returned, with a heavy heart, to
the mansion of his fathers, and imparted this corrobo-
ration to his wife. They debated whether to disclose
the whole at once to their daughter.
" It is best she should know it all, since she must
know it soon," said the colonel; " go thou and tell her
I cannot." He walked forth into the fields, still
glorious in the apparel of summer. But he viewed
them through the spectacles of sorrow, and the sunny
landscape seemed all bathed in tears.
It was now Catalina s turn to be sick. She heard
the confirmation of the death of poor Sybrandt; and
the loss of her lover was embittered by the conscious
ness that she was not free from guilt in the matter.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 349
She it was that had driven him from his home, to the
wars in which he had perished. But for her foolish
vanity, her capricious inconsistencies, he might have
been still living and living for her. The thought
was bitterness itself. But she rallied her pride, her
piety, her strength of mind, her duty to her parents,
and they conquered at last. Yet the victory was
hardly won. Though the mind sustained itself nobly,
its associate and fellow-labourer, the body, sunk under
the conflict. Months passed away before she could
sit up and contemplate the calm and tender aspect of
nature, now fast putting on the many-coloured vesture
of the waning year.
Nor was she the only sufferer. The good Dennis
the early friend, the father of our hero in all acts of
fatherly affection who had smoked his pipe almost
threescore years in quiet in the same old arm-chair
heard the news of Sybrandt s death without any out
ward symptoms of sorrow or despair. He possessed
no great store of sensibility, but a slight shock will
shake down an old building. He knocked the ashes
out of his pipe deliberately against his thumb-nail,
and that evening, and the next, and the next morning,
noon, and night, when it was brought to him he put
it aside without uttering a word.
" Massa in a terrible bad way," said his old dusky
valet, who had been his playmate in youth, his faith
ful, humble friend through life ; " massa in a terrible
bad way when he no smoke he pipe."
He was right. There is no surer indication of a
wounded spirit or diseased body than the disrelish of a
long-cherished habit. It smells of mortality. The quiet
resignation with which the old gentleman received the
350
first shock gave place in a day or two to a degree
of restlessness and impatience entirely at war with
his usual deportment. It seemed as if his mind was
disturbed by conflicting feelings of some kind or other,
for he frequently shut himself up in his little private
room, where he kept his papers, and where he was
sometimes found when called to his meals, with elbows
leaning on a table, and documents before him. When
thus disturbed, he would appear rather pleased than
otherwise, as though he had been relieved from some
unpleasant struggle or uncertainty. On the fourth
day after receiving the news of Sybrandt s death,
he was found sitting in his arm-chair, dead. He
had died without pain, for his face had all the placid
quiet of a sweet sleep, and he sat upright as when
alive.
" Ah ! poor massa ! " exclaimed the old negro ; " he
smoke him last pipe now!" And nature squeezed
some honest tears from his dry and withered sym
pathies.
Dennis Vancour was a just man. He never for
it was not the fashion at that time he never was
secretary, or, what is still better, treasurer to a society
for expending the hard gains of honest industry in
the encouragement of idleness and unthrift. He never
went about begging of others what he was able to
bestow, himself; nor did he spend his time in the
mischievous occupation of doing good to his fellow-
creatures, the poor, by teaching them, as the wise and
benevolent Franklin has it, " that there are other means
of support besides industry and economy."
But these sins of omission were more than balanced
by rare and valuable virtues. He never belied, or
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 351
cheated, or overreached a human being ; he never de
nied his kind offices or fair report to the deserving,
nor inquired, before he bestowed them, whether they
were given to a member of his chosen society or his
favourite religion. He walked quietly on his way
without jostling a living soul with his elbow, or inter
fering with his concerns unless desired to do so ; and
within the circle where alone ordinary men can be
useful in their exertions or thei,r beneficence the
circle of his friends and neighbours he diffused all
his life a benign yet temperate influence, which caused
every one that knew him to love him while living, and
cherish his memory after he was gone. When he
died, he left what he had received from his father to
his nearest natural heirs, nor did he insult Heaven
by robbing his kindred to commute for his own trans
gressions.
The day but one after the decease of this righteous
man, on whose memory I confess I delight to dwell,
the bell of the little octagon stone church at the Flats
gave melancholy warning that the body of some heir
of immortality was about to be consigned to that
narrow house wherein no air can blow. There is
to my mind and to my early recollections something
exquisitely touching in the tolling of a church-bell
amid the silence of the country. It communicates for
miles around the message of death. The ploughman
stops his horses to listen to the solemn tidings; the
housewife remits her domestic occupations, and sits
with needle idle in her fingers, to ponder who it is
that is going to the long home; and even the little
thoughtless children, playing and laughing their way
from school, are arrested for a moment in their even-
852 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ing gambols by these sounds of awful import, and
cover their heads when they go to rest.
In a little while was seen a long procession of vari
ous rustic carriages, followed by people on foot and
on horseback, of both sexes, and of all ages, slowly
emerging from the court of the house whence the soul
of the upright man had ascended to its reward, and
passing onward to the place appointed for all living.
The simple ceremony was soon over. A prayer was
uttered, a hymn w T as sung ; many an honest tear mixed
with the earth thrown into the grave, as the nearest
and dearest hung mournfully over it ; and the remains
of Dennis Vancour reposed in peace between the head
stones of his honoured parents.
" HE WAS A GOOD MAN," said an old patriarch of al
most a hundred years, and the testimony was vouched
by the hearts of all present. Does any one wish a
nobler epitaph ? If he does, let him go and take his
choice of the legends engraven on the mouldering
monuments of human vanity, no part of which is
true, perchance, but the veritable Hie jacet.
Had he lived a little while longer, he would not
perhaps have been wiser, but he would have learned
something, as the advertisements in the newspapers
say, " greatly to his advantage." But who would wish
to rob him of an end so quiet, so resigned, so blessed,
that he might learn the truth, and endure possibly a
few years of infirmity and suffering; live, as some
men live, to nurse the waning lamp of life by day and
night, anxious and shivering lest every breath of air
should blow it out ; live in the perpetual fear of what
must soon inevitably come, die without hope, and rot
in the polluted atmosphere of a dishonoured name ?
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 3o3
Who would wish so unkind a wish ? Not I ; for to
my mind that man is most to be envied who is beyond
the reach of calumny, and debarred by death from
perhaps committing suicide on his own fame.
23
554
CHAPTER XXTV.
A GHOST!
HOWEVER people may grieve for the decease of a
relative, they seldom neglect opening his will, the first
decent opportunity. Such is the curiosity of mankind !
This ceremony accordingly took place the day after
the funeral of Mr. Dennis Vancour. That worthy
gentleman, it would seem, on hearing of the death of
his adopted son, had altered the disposition of his
property, and substituted Catalina as his sole heiress,
in the room of Sybrandt Westbrook. The change
occasioned no surprise to the elders of the family, and
certainly no pleasure to the young lady. She would
have restored it to her cousin with her whole heart,
and something else besides, had he not been beyond
the reach of her generosity. As it was, the bequest
was rather painful than otherwise, for it seemed almost
like a robbery of the dead.
The colonel one day thought he would write to the
commanding officer at Fort George, to get from him
the particulars of his nephew s death, as well as to
inquire into the disposition of his effects. He did so;
but it was a considerable time before an opportunity
occurred of sending the letter through the wilderness.
In the mean time nothing particularly worthy of note
took place in the family. Catalina gradually recov
ered a degree of composure becoming the dignity and
strength of her character, and returned to her usual
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 355
occupations and amusements. But the worm was in
the bud, and the expression of her countenance was
neither that of health nor of hilarity. Time passed
on slowly and heavily, without bringing with it either
present pleasure or inspiring anticipations.
It was now about the close of the brown and
gloomy month of November, when neither is verdure
seen in the forest nor music heard in the fields, except
that of the howling winds. A man on horseback,
followed by a servant with a portmanteau, was seen
to ride up to the door of the habitation once tenanted
by Dennis Vancour, but since his death intrusted to
the care of his servants, consisting of the venerable
old negro heretofore noticed, and his wife, equally
aged, with some half a dozen of their ebony grand
children. It was the dusk of the evening, and they
were all gathered round a rousing fire in the kitchen;
for, be it known to all who know it not already, that
the two animals in the world most devoted to heat
and sunshine are the black snake and the gentleman
of colour by the which association I mean no sort
of disrespect to the latter.
The horseman dismounted ; so did his servant : and
both conducted themselves with as little ceremony as
if they were at home, or, at least, in some place
where they might expect an equal welcome. Not
one of the trusty guardians of the house heard or saw
these intruders ; for, as soon as the African race get
thoroughly warmed through, the next thing is to fall
fast asleep, as a matter of course. The stranger
knocked with the but-end of his whip : no one came.
He then proceeded to manoeuvre the great gaping
brazen lion that guarded this enchanted castle in
356 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
plain English, the knocker which, I am bound to
say, had lost none of its brightness. The sound was
heard across the river, but it awaked not the family ;
they belonged to the lineage of the seven sleepers.
The stranger became impatient, nay, anxious, at the
air of silence and desertion about the house. He
paced the piazza, back and forth some half a dozen
times, and then went round the end of the house to
the kitchen in the rear, and looked through the win
dows, where he saw the slumbering beauties.
The sight seemed to animate him, for he briskly
lifted the latch, and invaded the region sacred to the
stomach. No one stirred, and no sound was heard
save a sonorous concord of harmony, in which each
of the company bore a part. The stranger advanced,
and shook the shoulder of the patriarch of the tune
ful tribe. He might as well have shaken the body of
the good man of the house, who died some months
before. The stranger then hallooed in his ear, but
that was asleep too. "Blockhead!" quoth the
stranger, muttering to himself; and, seizing a bowl
of water that stood at hand, he very unceremoniously
dashed it into the face of the exemplary sleeper, and
spoiled one of the finest naps on record.
" Bo-o-o-o ! " exclaimed old ebony, as he started up,
amazed and indignant at this inundation. He wiped
his eyes, probably for the purpose of seeing the
clearer, and took a look at the stranger, which look
was followed by immediate prostration, accompanied
by a yell of such singular originality that I shall not
attempt to describe it. The reader may, however,
form some judgment of its powers, when I inform him
that it actually awakened the rest of the sleepers.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 357
The moment they laid their eyes upon the stranger,
the cry of, " a spook ! a spook ! " was repeated with
extraordinary energy, and followed by the flight of
the whole tribe, with the exception of the patriarch,
who still lay on his face, kicking and roaring man
fully.
Return we now to the mansion-house of Colonel
Vancour, in the well-warmed parlour of which was
collected the usual family-party. The colonel was
reading ; Madam would I could disguise the fact,
but a scrupulous regard to accuracy forbids Madam
was knitting a pair of stockings for a poor woman
who at that precise moment was frolicking at a
neighbouring tavern ; Ariel was, as usual at this hour
of the evening, fast asleep, and musical as ever. He
did not, like Rachel Baker, preach in his naps, but
he could drown the voice of a preacher any day.
Poor Catalina was at the window ; whence, by the
waning light, she could see and sympathize with the
desolation of nature.
At this moment one of the dark ministering spirits
of the neighbouring mansion rushed into the room,
unannounced, and saluted the good company with
the cry of
" A spook ! a spook ! Massa Sybrandt s spook ! "
" Hey ! What s that you say about Sybrandt, you
little black sinner ? " exclaimed Ariel, waking up,
which he did always exactly as he went to sleep, ex
tempore.
" O, massa Sybrandt s spook come home agin "
" I ll spook you, you little black imp of mischief,"
quoth Ariel, seizing the cushion from his chair, and
launching it at his woolly head : " Come here with
358 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
such a cock-and-bull story as that! Get out, you
caterpillar."
But the herald of darkness maintained his station
and his story, until the old people did not know what
to make of it, and the young lady was in a tumult of
conflicting emotions. It was impossible to get any
thing more out of the creature than that the spook
had appeared in a great shower of rain, and knocked
granddaddy flat on his face upon the floor.
" Let us walk over, and inquire into the business,"
said the colonel, helping himself to his hat and stick ;
" perhaps something is really the matter with the old
man."
" Come on," quoth Ariel, seizing a gun which hung
in the hall upon the stately antlers of a deer ; " per
haps damn it I don t know what to think of the
matter."
" PERHAPS IT is HE ! " exclaimed Catalina, as a hope
darted across her rnind like the flash of a newly-
lighted taper.
The two gentlemen seemed to share in her hopes,
and departed in great haste.
While this was passing, the stranger had, by dint
of shaking and reasoning with and reproaching the
old negro, at length brought him to a perception of
the reality before him.
" And young massa no dead, after all no spook
hey ! " And the good soul almost wept for joy
of his young master s return, as well as sorrow for
his old master s departure. By degrees he became
sufficiently collected to give Sybrandt an account of
the events we have heretofore recorded. The death
of his kind uncle affected him deeply; far more
359
deeply than the loss of his estate. He had disin
herited him, it was true ; but no doubt he had been
convinced of his unworthiness by the representations
of Catalina. There was wormwood in this thought ;
and, while he was chewing the bitter morsel, the
colonel and Ariel entered without ceremony. The
reception of Sybrandt, on the colonel s part, was
somewhat cool and stately his deportment, when
the really joyful surprise of the moment was past,
savouring of the recollection of his nephew s neglect
of his daughter, of himself, and indeed all his nearest,
dearest friends. Ariel on the other hand was all joy,
noise, and forgiveness.
" But, why the plague did you not let us know you
were alive ? " said he, at length.
" I did not know you thought me dead," replied the
youth.
" Thought? we were sure of it. Do you suppose
that Dennis would have dis hem! if he had not
been certain of your death ? "
" True," said the colonel ; " the bequest was cer
tainly made under that impression alone. It remains
for me to remedy the consequences of this mistake."
" He did right," said Sybrandt ; " he has left his
fortune to her who best deserved it."
" Damn it, boy, you talk like a fool. To leave you
a beggar no not a beggar I can prevent that;"
quoth Ariel.
" My dear uncle, I am no beggar ; I have a sword
and a commission, a heart and a hand."
" Spoken like a brave fellow. But I am very much
mistaken if you don t have something besides a sword
and a commission."
860 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" I am content."
" But I am not," said the colonel ; " there cannot be
a doubt that my brother Dennis altered his will un
der the full conviction (which indeed was common to
us all) that you were no more."
" I cannot conceive how such a report could have
originated, or be believed, sir."
" I saw it in a postscript to a letter of the com-
mander-in-chief."
" Indeed! Then I do not wonder, sir, that you put
faith in it."
" But, to the point," resumed the colonel : " Cata-
lina is of age; and she is no daughter of mine if she
holds this bequest a moment longer than is necessary
to divest herself of it. I pledge you my honour she
will."
" And I pledge you mine, sir," said Sybrandt, some
what bitterly, "that I would rather starve than ac
cept one single atom of the land, or one penny of the
gold."
" It is justly yours."
" It never shall be mine."
"Indeed!" replied the colonel, rather offended;
" may I ask, why ? Perhaps the donor is not suffi
ciently valued to make the donation welcome ? "
" Spare me on this subject, sir. I had rather not
talk of it; nor is it necessary. To-morrow I shall
return to the army. To-night for one night I
will trespass on the hospitality of my cousin, and
remain here, with her permission."
" You shall go home with me," said the colonel,
with honest warmth, notwithstanding he felt that the
language and conduct of our hero was somewhat on
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 361
the cavalier order ; " you shall go home with me : my
daugh my wife, your aunt, will be glad to see
you."
" You shall go home with me," cried Ariel ; " but,
now I think of it, I am going to sleep at the colonel s
to-night, because I have got to superintend a hundred
and fifty things there early in the morning."
Sybrandt declared his determination to remain
where he was.
" Well, then," said the colonel, advancing, and tak
ing his hand, " promise me, on your honour, you will
visit your aunt before you go away."
"Of course, sir certainly it was my intention.
I owe too much to her kindness, to forget both my
respect and my duty. I hope she is well ? "
" Quite well."
" And my cousin ? " Sybrandt forced himself to ask.
" Why, well at least better than she has been."
"What! Has she been ill?"
"Very ill just after we received the news I
mean about two months ago. Indeed, she is hardly
recovered ; you will be surprised to see her look so
pale almost as pale as you are. Bat, good-night
I can no longer delay making both mother and
daughter happy, with the news that one has recovered
a nephew, the other an old friend. You will keep
your word, and come to-morrow ? "
"Assuredly, sir." Make them happy ! thought
he, repeating the words of the colonel; make them
happy , with the news that I am alive! Pshaw!, they
care not for me, none of them, or they would have
answered my letters. But" and a sudden idea
crossed him " but perhaps, as Sir William suggest-
362 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
ed, they never received them. It is possible; and
to-morrow I will so far lower my pride as to put the
question. It is but justice to old friends to give them
an opportunity of disclaiming neglect or unkindness."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 363
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BIRTH AND PARENTAGE OF A RUMOUR.
IN order to account for some portion of the preced
ing details, it will be necessary to go back to the
period when the faithful half-breed did not carry the
letters of our hero to the Flats, and of course re
turned without answers. This disappointment, acting
on the low state of our hero s spirits and exhausted
frame, produced an almost infantine weakness, and
rendered him incapable of any kind of exertion for
some time. Having one day, however, made more
than ordinary efforts, and fatigued himself greatly, he
fell into a fainting fit, which his servant mistook for
death, and in his fright announced it as such to the
general, in the presence of the young officer, as before
related. The general was at that moment closing a
letter to the commanding officer at Albany, and wrote
the hasty postscript which Colonel Vancour saw.
That Sybrandt ever awakened from his swoon was,
in a great measure, owing to the persevering efforts
of his friend Sir William, who happened to be com
ing to see him just at the moment, and whose long
experience in administering to his subjects, the In
dians, had made him no indifferent practitioner. He
succeeded in restoring him at last, and the youth
again opened his eyes to that world which at the
moment he wished to shut out for ever.
364 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
The campaign henceforth lagged ; and, one day, Sir
William said to Sybrandt :
" You must go with me to Johnstown to recruit,
before you return home, which I suppose you mean to
do, as soon as you are able. There will be nothing
done here till the spring."
" I feel no wish to leave this place. I may as well
die here as anywhere."
" If you stay here you will certainly die of con
sumption. I don t like that hollow cough. Come, I
will procure you sick-leave, a comfortable conveyance,
and an excellent nurse, that is, myself. Nay, no scru
ples of love or honour. I say you shall go, or I will
put you under arrest, and carry you in fetters. You
would cut a pretty figure, going home now to your
mistress. She might lawfully break her faith, on the
score of your not being the same man."
" I have neither mistress nor home, now," said the
youth, in a voice of the deepest depression.
" What, again ! at your old tricks again ? " cried
Sir William, holding up his finger in a threatening
manner. " Are you making mince-meat of your own
hopes and happiness, as usual?"
" No, Sir William ; the fault is not mine now at
least, whatever it might have been formerly. I am an
alien from my home, and an offcast of my mistress."
" Indeed! And by your own fault?"
" No, on my soul. I was deceived, and, the mo
ment I discovered my error, hastened to acknowledge
and atone for it. But my letters were read with scorn
on one hand, and unfeeling apathy on the other. I
shall never return home : at all events, not till I have
learned to forget and forgive."
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 365
" Tell me the particulars ; remember you are talk
ing to a friend, and that with me that name signifies
the service of heart and hand."
Sybrandt then proceeded to relate what the reader
already knows the conduct of Catalina in New
York, his anger and jealousy, the story of the picture,
the explanation of Gilfillan, and, finally, the mission
of the half-breed to the Flats.
Sir William listened with kind attention, and at the
conclusion mused for some time.
" Strange ! " said he, at length. The conduct of
your mistress is unaccountable enough, to begin with.
But that Colonel Vancour, a man so kind-hearted
and so just as I know him to be ; and, above all, that
your good father, Dennis, who, you say, had treated
you with such unvaried kindness from your youth up
wards that he should have made such an unfeeling
speech is out of all reasonable calculation. I cannot
make it out; unless, indeed, some one has belied you:
and who could it be, except . But that is out of
the question. You are grossly deceived, and have
deceived me, in ^he character of Miss Vancour, or it
cannot possibly be she."
" I think it alrnosi impossible. But she may have
viewed my conduct in a different light from that in
which I have represented it to you. The pride of the
father may have been wounded, and his feelings may
have reached my benefactor, over whom he has great
influence."
Sir William mused again, then suddenly exclaimed,
" I have it ! I have it. My life on it, that scoun
drel half-breed played you a trick. He never delivered
your letters. Where is he ? Let him be brought be-
366 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
fore me. I warrant I trip him in crossing his track,
as these fellows say."
" I know not. He wandered away somewhere, not
long after I employed him in this business."
" I dare say, no doubt no doubt the rascal
was fearful of being detected. But we shall find out
the truth before long. Have you not written, since ? "
"Why should I?"
" True : but you shall write instantly ; at least, on
the very first opportunity. I am almost sure you have
been cheated by that mongrel."
" I had rather not write again. To Catalina I cer
tainly shall not, nor to her father. Were my benefac
tor really my parent, I would beg his forgiveness, if I
had offended him, until he granted it, or turned me for
ever from his door. But it seems to me it would be
meanness to crawl on my knees to solicit what?
his charity. I cannot do it."
" You are a proud genius," said Sir William, shak
ing his head ; " but I like a little pride ; it often saves
man, and woman too, from falling. I shall write my
self then, when I get home, and an occasion offers.
In the mean time, without an if or an and, you are
my prisoner. Be ready to accompany me to-morrow."
" I obey," said the other. " But nothing about pris
oners I go as a volunteer."
The next morning they were ready to depart, un
der the protection of an escort of Sir William s Mo
hawks, some of whom by turns carried Sybrandt in
a rude litter of boughs. There were no carriage-roads
through the wilderness between Fort George and the
capital of the knight s dominions, and Sybrandt was
still too weak to walk, or ride on horseback any great
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 367
distance. The Grand Canal was not yet dreamed
of; and, as for railroads, if the people of that age of
non-improvement had heard that the people of this
would risk their necks in riding at the rate of sixty
miles an hour, they would have taken it for granted
they were riding to whew !
The exercise of travelling, cooperating with the
new-born hope which the suggestion of his friend Sir
William had awakened, proved of great service to our
hero, who arrived at the residence of that worthy gen
tleman far better than when he set out. He remained
with him> occasionally hunting, and invigorating thus
both mind and body, until both had in some degree
recovered a healthful tone.
" As you seemed disinclined to write," said Sir
William, one day, " I have done it for you. I shall
send a person to Albany to-morrow. Here is the let
ter read, and tell me how you like it. This is the
next best thing I can think of, though my own opin
ion is, you had much better go yourself, and see and
hear with your own eyes and ears. This is the way
I always do, whenever it is practicable. Half the
blunders and miseries of this world arise from sending
instead of going."
Sybrandt had been gradually coming to the same
conclusion, and frankly answered,
" Well, Sir William, since you will turn me out of
doors, there is no help for it. I will go with your
messenger to-morrow; though, on my soul, I had
rather encounter another bush-fight."
" You are an odd fellow," said the other, smiling,
" and seem afraid of nothing but a woman." Ac
cordingly all things were made ready for the morrow.
368 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Westbrook," said the knight, as they were taking
leave, " I am no true prophet if you are a bachelor this
day twelvemonth. Farewell. I would thou hadst been
my son."
" Farewell. Would to heaven I had such a father!"
Our hero proceeded slowly on his journey, passing
the first night at Schenectady, the next at Albany, for
he was in no haste to get to the end of his journey,
where he anticipated but a renewal of his disappoint
ments, regrets, and mortifications. He staid all day in.
his room at Albany, and was congratulated on being
alive, by the few people that saw him. " Some scurvy
jest," thought he, and never asked for an explanation.
In the evening he left Albany, and arrived at the man
sion of his deceased benefactor in the manner we have
before described.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 869
CHAPTER XXVI.
OUR HERO RECEIVES BACK HIS UNCLE S ESTATE WITH A.N ENCUMBRANCE.
WHILE the reader has been travelling backwards,
the pale and gentle Catalina had been let into the
secret of the ghost story by her mother. At first
she became paler than ever, and could hardly support
herself on her chair. Then she turned red, and a rosy
blush of hope and love beamed on her cheek, where,
for many a day, it had not beamed before. " I will
bestow it all on him again," thought she, and her full
heart relieved itself in a shower of silent tears.
That night a thousand floating dreams of the past
and the future flitted before her troubled mind, and,
as they reigned in turn, gave birth to different pur
poses and determinations. But the prevailing thought
was, that her cousin had treated her unjustly and
unkindly, and that it became the dignity of her sex to
maintain a defensive stateliness, a cold civility, until
he had acknowledged his errors and begged forgive
ness. She settled the matter by deciding, that, when
Sybrandt came the next day to take his leave, she
would deliver him a deed for the estate of his uncle,
which her father was to have prepared for her, insist
on his acceptance, and then bid him adieu for ever
without a sigh or a tear. In the morning she begged,
that, when Sybrandt came to call on her mother, she
might be permitted to see him alone. Her request
was acquiesced in, and she waited in trembling anxiety
24
370 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
his promised visit. He came soon after breakfast, and
Madam Vancour was struck with the improvement
which a military uniform, in place of a suit of master
Ten Broeck s snuff-coloured cloth, produced. After a
somewhat painful and awkward interview, Sybrandt
forced himself to inquire after Catalina.
" She has had a long illness," said the mother, " and
you will scarcely know her. But she wishes to see
you."
" To see me ? " cried Sybrandt, almost starting out
of his skin.
"Ay you her old playmate, and cousin. Is
that so very extraordinary ? " replied Madam, smiling.
" She is in the next room : go to her."
" Go go to her," stammered our hero ; " surely,
you cannot mean "
" I mean just what I say. She is waiting to see
you in the next room. I hope you don t mean to
keep her waiting much longer." And Madam again
smiled.
" What can this mean ? " thought Sybrandt, while
he crept towards the door with about the eager
ness that a man feels who is on the point of being
hanged.
" I shall tell Catalina how anxious you were to see
her."
" They must think I have no feeling or they have
none themselves ; " and the thought roused his native
energies. He strutted into the next room as if he was
leading his regiment to battle.
" Don t look so fierce, or you will frighten my daugh
ter," said Madam.
But Catalina was frightened almost out of her wits,
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 371
already. She was too much taken up in rallying her
own self-possession to observe how Sybrandt looked
when he walked. He had indeed been some moments
in the room before either could utter a single word.
At length their eyes met, and the excessive paleness
each observed in the countenance of the other went
straight to the hearts of both.
" Dear cousin," said Sybrandt, " how ill you look."
This was rather what is called a left-handed compli
ment. But Catalina was even with him, for she an
swered in his very words :
" Dear cousin, how ill you look."
Pride and affection were now struggling in the
bosoms of the two young people. Sybrandt found
his courage, like that of Bob Acres, " oozing out at
the palms of his hands," in the shape of a cold per
spiration ; but the pride of woman supported Catalina,
who rallied first, and spoke as follows, at first in a
faltering tone, but by degrees with modest firmness :
" Colonel Westbrook," said she, " I wished to see
you on a subject which has occasioned me much
pain the bequest of my uncle. I cannot accept it.
It was made when we all thought you were no more."
She uttered this last part of the sentence with a plain-
tiveness that affected him deeply. " She feels for me,"
thought he ; " but then she would not answer iuy
letter." Catalina proceeded :
" I should hate myself, could I think for a moment
of robbing you of what is yours what I am sure
my uncle intended should be yours, until he thought
you dead." And the same plaintive tones again
thrilled through Sybrandt. " But she would not an
swer my letter," thought he, again.
372 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" Sybrandt," continued she, " I sent for you, with
the full approbation of rny father and mother, to make
over this property to you, to whom it belongs. I am
of age ; and here is the conveyance. I beseech you,
as you value my peace of mind, to accept it with the
frankness with which it is offered."
" What, rob my cousin ? No, Catalina : never."
" I feared it," said Catalina, with a sigh ; " you do
not respect me enough to accept even of justice at
my hands."
" It would be meanness it would be degradation ;
and, since you charge me with a want of respect to
you, I must be allowed to say that I am too proud to
accept any thing, much less so great a gift as this,
from one who did not think the almost death-bed
contrition of a man who had discovered his error,
and was anxious to atone for it, worthy of her
notice."
"What what do you mean?" exclaimed Cata
lina.
" The letter I sent you," replied he, proudly. " I
never meant to complain or remonstrate; but you
have forced me to justify myself."
" In the name of Heaven, what letter?"
" That which I wrote you the moment I was suf
ficiently recovered of my wounds to say that I had
had a full explanation with Colonel Gilfillan ; to say
that I had done you injustice ; to confess my folly ; to
ask forgiveness; and and to offer you every atone
ment which love or honour could require."
" And you wrote me such an one ? " asked Catalina,
gasping for breath.
" I did the messenger returned he had seen
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 373
you gay and happy ; and he brought a verbal message
that my letter required no answer."
" And is this is this the sole the single cause
of your subsequent conduct ? Answer me, Sybrandt,
as you are a man of honour is it ? "
"It is. I cannot you know I never could bear
contempt or scorn from man or woman."
" What would you say, what would you do, if
I assured you solemnly I never saw that letter, or
dreamed it was ever written ? "
" I would say, that I believed you as I would the
white-robed truth herself; and I would on my knees
beg your forgiveness for twice doubting you."
" Then I do assure you, in the singleness of my
heart, that I never saw or knew aught of it."
" And did did Gilfillan speak the truth?" panted
our hero.
She turned her inspiring eye full upon the youth,
and sighed forth in a whisper, " He did," while the
crimson current revisited her pale cheek, and made
her snow-white bosom blush rosy red.
" You are mine then, Catalina, at last," faltered
Sybrandt, as he released her yielding form from his
arms.
" You will accept my uncle s bequest ? " asked she,
with one of her long-absent smiles.
" Provided you add yourself, dearest girl."
" You must take it with that encumbrance," said
she, and he sealed the instrument of conveyance
upon her warm, willing lips.
" What can they have to talk about, all this time,
I wonder ? " cogitated the old lady, while she fidgeted
374 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
about from her chair towards the door, and from the
door to her chair. As she could distinguish the in
creasing animation of their voices she fidgeted still
more ; and there is no knowing what might have
been the consequence, if the lovers had not entered
the room looking so happy that the old lady thought
the very elixir of life was in them both. The mo
ment Sybrandt departed, Catalina explained all to her
mother. " Alas ! " thought the good woman ; " she
will never be a titled lady : yet, who knows but Sy
brandt may one day go to England and be knighted ? "
This happy thought reconciled her at once to the
whole catastrophe, and she embraced her daughter,
sincerely wishing her joy at the removal of all her
perplexities.
" Damn it," said Ariel, " if I ever saw a more glori
ous wedding-supper in my life!"
" Do you recollect my last words when we parted,
Colonel Westbrook?" said Sir William Johnson, their
most honoured guest.
" I do, Sir William. You are a prophet, as well as
a warrior and legislator."
" What did he say ?," whispered a blushing damsel,
dressed all in white, and beautiful as the most beauti
ful morning in June, who sat by the side of our hero,
"What did he say?"
" He said, in less than a twelvemonth I should be
married to an angel."
" Take care it does not turn out like dreams, which,
you knew, go by contraries," said the aforementioned
blushing damsel, whose eye looked exactly like love s
firmament.
THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE. 375
But the knight turned out a true prophet, even ac
cording to the gallant turn given to his prediction by
our hero
Catalina approved herself an excellent wife,
and a pattern of a mother; for she never let her hus-//
band find out she was not an angel, nor her children \,
that she could be conquered by importunity. I grieve,!.! j
however, to say, that the good Madam Vancour never
had the happiness to be mother to a real titled lady.
One of Sybrandt s cousins however, came over in
process of time, a baronet, with bloody hand, and the
old lady consoled herself, that, if not the mother, she
was a near connexion of a near relation of a man
who could make his wife a lady. What was better
than all this, the cousin was in a fair way of becom
ing an old bachelor, and Sybrandt was his heir-at-law.
" Who knows," thought Madam Vancour, "who
knows but he may die single, and I live to see Cata
lina a lady at last." People who have any thing to
expect from the death of others always calculate to
outlive them. Madam had ten good years the start
of the man on whose demise she was speculating.
But we have been getting on altogether too fast.
To return to the marriage-eve :
" Sybrandt," said Sir William, I shall be obliged
to depart to-morrow before you are up. Farewell!,
and happiness attend you this night, and always. I
have but one word to add action, remember, action
alone can secure the happiness of your future life, by
making you useful and distinguished."
376 THE DUTCHMAN S FIRESIDE.
" But where is your moral, my good friend ? "
quoth one of my most devoted readers, an elderly
lady, secretary, treasurer, directress, &c. &c., of fifty
societies. "I can t find out your moral," wiping
her specs.
" My dear madam, can t you see it through one of
the glasses of your spectacles? The moral of my
story is found in the last words ; just as all the moral
of the life of a rogue is gathered from his dying
speech."
" Action pshaw ! Remember, action ! I wouldn t
give a fig for such a moral not I."
" Well then, my dear madam, if you don t like that,
I will give you another. The moral of my story is, a
warning to all young and desperate lovers, never to
go courting in a pair of snuff-coloured smallclothes,
perpetrated by Master Goosee Ten Broeck."
" Pshaw ! I ll never read another book of yours
that I am determined on."
" Then, madam, you ll never be as wjse as your
grandmother."
THE END.
Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Sen.
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(510)642-6753
1-year loans may be recharged by bringing
books to NRLF
Renewals and recharges may be made 4
days prior to due date.
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
&pp i k 1998
JUNO 91998
12,000(11/95)
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
CDOSEBlfilb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
TVNews
OpenLibrary