CHAPTER XIX.
WHAT CAME OF A REVEREND GENTLEMAN'S VISIT TO CAPTAIN WHARTON.
But he was interrupted by the opening of the door by the corporal ofthe guard, who stated that the woman of the house desired admittance.
"Admit the woman," said Dunwoodie, sternly.
"Here is a reverend gentleman below, come to soothe the parting soul,in place of our own divine, who is engaged with an appointment thatcould not be put aside."
"Show him in," said Henry, with feverish impatience.
Dunwoodie spoke a few words with Henry in an undertone, and hastenedfrom the apartment, followed by Frances. The subject of theirconversation was a wish expressed by the prisoner for a clergyman ofhis own persuasion.
The person who was ushered into the apartment, preceded by Caesar, andfollowed by the matron, was a man beyond the middle age, or who mightrather be said to approach the down-hill of life.
In stature he was above the ordinary size of men, though his excessiveleanness might contribute in deceiving as to his height; hiscountenance was sharp and unbending, and every muscle seemed set inrigid compression. No joy or relaxation appeared ever to have dwelt onfeatures that frowned habitually, as if in detestation of the vices ofmankind. The brows were beetling, dark, and forbidding, giving thepromise of eyes of no less repelling expression; but the organs wereconcealed beneath a pair of enormous green goggles, through which heglared around with a fierceness that denounced the coming day ofwrath. All was fanaticism,[110] uncharitableness, and denunciation.Long, lank hair, a mixture of gray and black, fell down his neck, andin some degree obscured the sides of his face, and, parting on hisforehead, fell in either direction in straight and formal screens. Onthe top of this ungraceful exhibition was laid, impending forward, soas to overhang in some measure the whole fabric, a large hat of threeequal cocks. His coat was of a rusty black, and his breeches andstockings were of the same color; his shoes without lustre, and halfconcealed beneath huge plated buckles.
[Footnote 110: wild and extravagant notions.]
He stalked into the room, and giving a stiff nod with his head, tookthe chair offered him by the black, in dignified silence. For severalminutes no one broke this ominous pause in the conversation; Henryfeeling a repugnance[111] to his guest that he was endeavoring toconquer, and the stranger himself drawing forth occasional sighs andgroans that threatened a dissolution of the unequal connection betweenhis sublimated[112] soul and its ungainly tenement. During thisdeathlike preparation, Mr. Wharton, with a feeling nearly allied tothat of his son, led Sarah from the apartment. His retreat was noticedby the divine, in a kind of scornful disdain, who began to hum the airof a popular psalm tune, giving it the full richness of the twang thatdistinguished the Eastern psalmody.
[Footnote 111: aversion, dislike.]
[Footnote 112: refined--exalted.]
"My presence disturbs you," said Miss Peyton, rising; "I will leaveyou with my nephew, and offer those prayers in private that I did wishto mingle with his."
So saying, she withdrew, followed by the landlady.
The minister stood erect, with grave composure, following with his eyethe departure of the females. A third voice spoke.
"Who's that?" cried the prisoner, in amazement, gazing around the roomin quest of the speaker.
"It is I, Captain Wharton," said Harvey Birch, removing thespectacles, and exhibiting his piercing eyes shining under a pair offalse eyebrows.
"Good Heaven--Harvey!"
"Silence," said the peddler, solemnly; "'tis a name not to bementioned, and least of all here, within the heart of the Americanarmy." Birch paused and gazed around him for a moment, with an emotionexceeding the base passion of fear, and then continued in a gloomytone: "There are a thousand halters in that very name, and little hopewould there be left me of another escape, should I be again taken.This is a fearful venture that I am making; but I could not sleep inquiet, and know that an innocent man was about to die the death of adog, when I might save him."
"No," said Henry, with a glow of generous feeling on his cheek; "ifthe risk to yourself be so heavy, retire as you came, and leave me tomy fate. Dunwoodie is making, even now, powerful exertions in mybehalf; and if he meets with Mr. Harper in the course of the night, myliberation is certain."
"Harper!" echoed the peddler, remaining with his hands raised, in theact of replacing his spectacles; "what do you know of Harper, and whydo you think he will do you service?"
"I have his promise; you remember our recent meeting in my father'sdwelling, and he then gave me an unasked promise to assist me."
"Yes; but do you know him?--that is, why do you think he has thepower, or what reason have you for believing he will remember hisword?"
"If there ever was the stamp of truth or simple honest benevolence inthe countenance of man, it shone in his," said Henry; "besides,Dunwoodie has powerful friends in the rebel army, and it would bebetter that I take the chance where I am, than thus to expose you tocertain death, if detected."
"Captain Wharton," said Birch, "if I fail, you all fail. No Harper norDunwoodie can save your life; unless you get out with me, and thatwithin the hour, you die to-morrow on the gallows of a murderer. Caesarmet me as he was going on his errand this morning, and with him Ilaid the plan which, if executed as I wish, will save you--otherwiseyou are lost; and again I tell you, that no power on earth, not evenWashington, can save you."
"I submit," said the prisoner, yielding to his earnest manner, andgoaded by his fears that were thus awakened anew.
The peddler beckoned him to be silent, and walking to the door, openedit, with the stiff, formal air with which he had entered theapartment.
"Friend, let no one enter," he said to the sentinel; "we are about togo to prayer, and would wish to be alone."
"I don't know that any will wish to interrupt you," returned thesoldier, with a waggish leer of the eye; "but, should they be sodisposed, I have no power to stop them, if they be of the prisoner'sfriends."
"Have you not the fear of God before your eyes?" said the pretendedpriest. "I tell you, as you will dread punishment at the last day, tolet none of the idolatrous communion enter, to mingle in the prayersof the righteous."
"If you want to be alone, have you no knife to stick over thedoor-latch, that you must have a troop of horse to guard yourmeeting-house?"
The peddler took the hint, and closed the door immediately, using theprecaution suggested by the dragoon.
"A faint heart, Captain Wharton, would do but little here. Come, hereis a black shroud for your good-looking countenance," taking, at thesame time, a parchment mask, and fitting it to the face of Henry. "Themaster and the man must change places for a season."
"I don't t'ink he look a bit like me," said Caesar, with disgust, as hesurveyed his young master with his new complexion.
"Stop a minute, Caesar," said the peddler, with a drollery that attimes formed part of his manner, "till we get on the wool."
"He worse than ebber now," cried the discontented African. "A t'inkcolored man like a sheep! I nevver see sich a lip, Harvey; he most asbig as a sausage!"
"There is but one man in the American army who could detect you,Captain Wharton," said the peddler.
"And who is he?"
"The man who made you prisoner. He would see your white skin through aplank. But strip, both of you; your clothes must be exchanged fromhead to foot."
Caesar, who had received minute instructions from the peddler in theirmorning interview, immediately commenced throwing aside his coarsegarments, which the youth took up and prepared to invest himself with.
In the manner of the peddler there was an odd mixture of care andhumor. "Here, captain," he said, taking up some loose wool, andbeginning to stuff the stockings of Caesar, which were already on thelegs of the prisoner; "some judgment is necessary in shaping thislimb. You will display it on horseback; and the southern dragoons areso used to the brittle-shins that, should they notice your well-turnedcalf, they'd know at once
it never belonged to a black."
"Golly!" said Caesar, with a chuckle that exhibited a mouth open fromear to ear, "Massa Harry breeches fit."
"Anything but your leg," said the peddler, coolly pursuing the toiletof Henry. "Slip on the coat, captain, over all. And here, Caesar, placethis powdered wig over your curls, and be careful and look out of thewindow whenever the door is open, and on no account speak, or you willbetray all."
"I s'pose Harvey t'ink a colored man has no tongue like oder folk,"grumbled the black, as he took the station assigned him.
Everything was now ready for action, and the peddler very deliberatelywent over the whole of his injunctions to the two actors in the scene.The captain he conjured to dispense with his erect military carriage,and for a season to adopt the humble paces of his father's negro; andCaesar he enjoined to silence and disguise, so long as he couldpossibly maintain them. Thus prepared, he opened the door and calledaloud to the sentinel, who had retired to the farthest end of thepassage.
"Let the woman of the house be called," said Harvey, in the solemn keyof the assumed character; "and let her come alone. The prisoner is ina happy train of meditation, and must not be led from his devotions."
Caesar sank his face between his hands; and when the soldier lookedinto the apartment, he thought he saw his charge in deep abstraction.Casting a glance of huge contempt at the divine, he called aloud forthe good woman of the house. She hastened at the summons, with earnestzeal, entertaining a secret hope that she was to be admitted to thegossip of a death-bed repentance.
"Sister," said the minister in the authoritative tones of a master,"have you in the house 'The Christian Criminal's Last Moments, orThoughts on Eternity, for them who die a violent death'?"
"I never heard of the book!" said the matron in astonishment.
"'Tis not unlikely; there are many books you have never heard of; itis impossible for this poor penitent to pass in peace, without theconsolation of that volume. One hour's reading in it is worth an ageof man's preaching."
"Bless me, what a treasure to possess!--when was it put out?"
"It was first put out at Geneva[113] in the Greek language, and thentranslated at Boston. It is a book, woman, that should be in the handsof every Christian, especially such as die upon the gallows. Have ahorse prepared instantly for this black, who shall accompany me to mybrother, and I will send down the volume yet in season; brother,compose thy mind, you are now in the narrow path to glory."
[Footnote 113: a city of Switzerland.]
Caesar wriggled a little in his chair, but he had sufficientrecollection to conceal his face with hands that were, in their turn,concealed by gloves. The landlady departed, to comply with this veryreasonable request, and the group of conspirators were again left tothemselves.
"This is well," said the peddler; "but the difficult task is todeceive the officer who commands the guard--he is lieutenant toLawton, and has learned some of the captain's own cunning in thesethings. Remember, Captain Wharton," continued he with an air of pride,"that now is the moment when everything depends on our coolness."
"My fate can be made but little worse than it is at present, my worthyfellow," said Henry; "but for your sake I will do all that in melies."
The man soon returned, and announced that the horses were at the door.Harvey gave the captain a glance, and led the way down the stairs,first desiring the women to leave the prisoner to himself, in orderthat he might digest the wholesome mental food that he had so latelyreceived.
A rumor of the odd character of the priest had spread from thesentinel at the door to his comrades; so that when Harvey and Whartonreached the open space before the building, they found a dozen idledragoons loitering about with waggish intention of quizzing thefanatic and employed in affected admiration of the steeds.
"A fine horse!" said the leader in this plan of mischief; "but alittle low in flesh; I suppose from hard labor in your calling."
"What are you at there, scoundrels?" cried Lieutenant Mason, as hecame in sight from a walk he had taken to sneer at the evening paradeof the regiment of militia. "Away with every man of you to yourquarters, and let me find that each horse is cleaned and littered whenI come round." The sound of the officer's voice operated like a charm,and no priest could desire a more silent congregation, although hemight possibly have wished for one that was more numerous. Mason hadnot done speaking, when it was reduced to the image of Caesar only.The peddler took the opportunity to mount, but he had to preserve thegravity of his movements, for the remark of the troopers upon thecondition of their beasts was but too just, and a dozen dragoon horsesstood saddled and bridled at hand to receive their riders at amoment's warning.
"Well, have you bitted the poor fellow within," said Mason, "that hecan take his last ride under the curb of divinity, old gentleman?"
"There is evil in thy conversation, profane man," cried the priest,raising his hands and casting his eyes upwards in holy horror; "so Iwill depart from thee unhurt, as Daniel[114] was liberated from thelions' den."
[Footnote 114: read account in the book of Daniel (Bible).]
"Off with you, for a hypocritical,[115] psalm-singing, canting roguein disguise," said Mason scornfully. "By the life of Washington! itworries an honest fellow to see such voracious[116] beasts of preyravaging a country for which he sheds his blood. If I had you on aVirginian plantation for a quarter of an hour, I'd teach you to wormthe tobacco with the turkeys."
[Footnote 115: not sincere.]
[Footnote 116: very hungry.]
"I leave you, and shake the dust off my shoes, that no remnant of thiswicked hole may tarnish the vestments of the godly!"
"Start, or I will shake the dust from your jacket, designing knave!But hold! whither do you travel, master blackey, in such godlycompany?"
"He goes," said the minister, "to return with a book of muchcondolence to the sinful youth above. Would you deprive a dying man ofthe consolation of religion?"
"No, no; poor fellow, his fate is bad enough. But harkee, Mr.Revelations, my advice is that you never trust that skeleton of yoursamong us again, or I will take the skin off and leave you naked."
"Out upon thee for a reviler and scoffer of goodness!" said Birch,moving slowly, and with a due observance of clerical dignity, down theroad, followed by the imaginary Caesar.